It is time for me to re-do my old thread about the origins of "80 columns" and how it can very well be related to pretty ancient stuff, not dissimilar to "space shuttle and horse's rear end".

As you know, the default mode on IBM PCs is text 80x25. The limitation of 80 columns per line, also known as "80 column rule" is still widespread; for example, that's the rule for Linux kernel. But why 80? Why not 70 or 90?

The answer to that is usually "IBM punch cards are 80 characters wide", but things are more interesting than that!

First, the commonly accepted column width was supposed to be 72. American typewriters used to have just 72 columns, earlier DEC terminals supported only 72 columns, and even IBM punch cards had only 72 columns for text.

Second, yes, IBM punch cards were 80 characters wide, but why?

Fasd (pronounced similar to "fast") is a command-line productivity booster. Fasd offers quick access to files and directories for POSIX shells. It is inspired by tools like autojump, z and v. Fasd keeps track of files and directories you have accessed, so that you can quickly reference them in the command line.

The name fasd comes from the default suggested aliases f(files), a(files/directories), s(show/search/select), d(directories).

Fasd ranks files and directories by "frecency," that is, by both "frequency" and "recency." The term "frecency" was first coined by Mozilla and used in Firefox (link).

GNU Stow is a symlink farm manager which takes distinct packages of software and/or data located in separate directories on the filesystem, and makes them appear to be installed in the same place. For example, /usr/local/bin could contain symlinks to files within /usr/local/stow/emacs/bin, /usr/local/stow/perl/bin etc., and likewise recursively for any other subdirectories such as .../share, .../man, and so on.

This is particularly useful for keeping track of system-wide and per-user installations of software built from source, but can also facilitate a more controlled approach to management of configuration files in the user's home directory, especially when coupled with version control systems.

Stow is implemented as a combination of a Perl script providing a CLI interface, and a backend Perl module which does most of the work. Stow is Free Software, licensed under the GNU General Public License.

zoxide is a smarter cd command, inspired by z and autojump.

It remembers which directories you use most frequently, so you can "jump" to them in just a few keystrokes.
zoxide works on all major shells.

Die NZZ wurde im vergangenen Frühjahr Opfer eines solchen Angriffs und hat sich dazu entschieden, die Hintergründe publik zu machen. Dass die meisten angegriffenen Unternehmen schweigen, spielt den Erpressern in die Hände. Ein Angriff gilt als Versagen. Dabei kann es jeden treffen. Die NZZ ist überzeugt, dass die Lehren aus dem eigenen Cyberangriff anderen Firmen helfen können, sich vor Ransomware-Banden zu schützen.

... he asked for a ladder, climbed up the generator and made a chalk mark on its side. Then he told Ford’s skeptical engineers to remove a plate at the mark and replace sixteen windings from the field coil. They did, and the generator performed to perfection.

Henry Ford was thrilled until he got an invoice from General Electric in the amount of $10,000. Ford acknowledged Steinmetz’s success but balked at the figure. He asked for an itemized bill.

Steinmetz, Scott wrote, responded personally to Ford’s request with the following:

• Making chalk mark on generator $1.
• Knowing where to make mark $9,999.

Ford paid the bill.

For decades, robots.txt governed the behavior of web crawlers. But as unscrupulous AI companies seek out more and more data, the basic social contract of the web is falling apart.

In what follows, I try to make the same case nearly 30 years later, updated for today’s computing horrors. A version of this post was originally published on my personal blog, Berthub.eu.

Der VwGH hielt fest, dass unzweifelhaft ist, dass es sich bei Errechnung der Arbeitsmarktchancen durch das AMAS um "Profiling" handelt. Damit kann diese Art der Datenverarbeitung eine automatisierte Einzelfallentscheidungen im Sinne des Art. 22 DSGVO darstellen, die ohne eine gesetzliche Grundlage verboten wären. Dabei kommt es entscheidend darauf an, ob die Entscheidung der MitarbeiterInnen des AMS über die Zuordnung der arbeitssuchenden Personen maßgeblich von den automatisiert errechneten Arbeitsmarktchancen bestimmt wird.

Die Frage der Maßgeblichkeit der automatisch errechneten Arbeitsmarktchancen auf das Vorgehen der MitarbeiterInnen hatte das BVwG jedoch nicht geprüft. Wäre das Vorliegen einer automatisierten Einzelfallentscheidung zu bejahen, sei ferner die Frage zu stellen, ob eine gesetzliche Rechtfertigung für die Anwendung der automatisierten Entscheidungsfindung besteht, was ebenfalls nicht geprüft wurde.

Im Mai des Vorjahres erklärte Kocher, dass sein Haus eine "kleine Datenbank der wichtigsten Lebensmittel des täglichen Bedarfs" andenke. Weiterreichende Ideen wie eine Preiskommission kamen für Türkis-Grün zwar nicht infrage, aber eine Art staatliche Preis-App am Handy solle immerhin für eine "bessere Vergleichbarkeit" sorgen, so Kocher. Überdies war die Rede von besseren Rahmenbedingungen für private Programmiererinnen und Programmierer, damit diese ähnliche Datenbanken anbieten können. Es geht dabei vor allem darum, dass die Privaten an die Preisinformationen der Supermärkte kommen.

All dies solle "so rasch wie möglich" kommen, so Kocher im Mai 2023. Konkret: noch im Herbst desselben Jahres. Die Preis-App oder ähnliche Maßnahmen sollten also bereits seit Monaten umgesetzt sein – tatsächlich gibt es bisher keine Spur davon.

Zur Pressemitteilung: bsi.bund.de/dok/1106222

Cyberkriminelle haben offenbar schon rund 3 Millionen smarte Zahnbürsten mit einer Schadsoftware infiziert, um die vernetzten Geräte in Botnetze einzugliedern und damit DDoS-Angriffe auf verschiedene Onlinedienste auszuführen.

It is unfortunate that people dealing with computers often have little interest in the
history of their subject. As a result, many concepts and ideas are propagated and
advertised as being new, which existed decades ago, perhaps under a different
terminology. I believe it worth while to occasionally spend some time to consider the
past and to investigate how terms and concepts originated.

Do you run a mail server, or own a domain example.com that you send mail from?

PSA about the Coming DKIMpocalypse on Thursday when Google and Yahoo tighten mail rules:

Update für die digitale Verwaltung: Nebenwohnsitze können gemeldet werden, die Zehn-Euro-Gebühr für digitale Urkunden fällt, und endlich gibt es Push-Benachrichtigungen

We had four lawyers, three privacy experts, and two campaigners look at Microsoft's new Service Agreement, and none of our experts could tell if Microsoft plans on using your personal data – including audio, video, chat, and attachments from 130 products, including Office, Skype, Teams, and Xbox – to train its AI models.

If nine experts in privacy can't understand what Microsoft does with your data, what chance does the average person have? That's why we're asking Microsoft to say if they're going to use our personal data to train its AI.

Microsoft is using this announcement as an opportunity to upsell customers on their security products, which are apparently necessary to run their identity and collaboration products safely!

This is morally indefensible, just as it would be for car companies to charge for seat belts or airplane manufacturers to charge for properly tightened bolts. It has become clear over the past few years that Microsoft’s addiction to security product revenue has seriously warped their product design decisions, where they hold back completely necessary functionality for the most expensive license packs or as add-on purchases

Microsoft is trying to get all email users, including governments, to migrate to their cloud-based solutions. This makes their email cloud THE prime target for nation-state/state sponsored hackers. Yet Microsoft appears to be leaving gaping security holes in th