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  The last version of #Windows I personally used regularly was version 3.1. After that, it was OS/2, FreeBSD, and then #Debian, which I have stuck with since 1996. So when I was installing Windows 98 on my old K6-3/400 machine last night, it was probably the first time I had ever installed Windows 98. Much to my surprise and amusement, one of the installer's splash screens touted built-in support for Usenet newsgroups. Probably for both the first and the last time. 1/

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  I was down to 10MB free on the 130MB drive in my 486SX/25 (I'm the original owner of it!). I had a nice 8GB drive sitting around. Oh the horrors of getting DOS to see more than 500MB, sigh. It's fun to play with things I haven't used in decades. But it's also a reminder of some of the reasons I switched to Linux, and how much better hardware and software is now. Spent a few hours deconflicting IRQs and DMAs for my SoundBlaster 16 earlier in the week, too.

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  In which I attempt to have a nuanced discussion about #AI and #LLM, which I will probably regret. But whatever, I don't think that black-and-white thinking tends to be useful. So grab a cup of your beverage of choice and settle in for a reasoned conversation. https://changelog.complete.org/archives/44740-ai-in-debian-the-vote-proposals-and-nuance

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  Yes, the guy that resurrected UMN #gopher is at it again. This time, I've made the first new #Kermit release in 15 years! https://changelog.complete.org/archives/44456-celebrating-45-years-of-kermit-with-the-first-new-c-kermit-release-in-15-years-and-working-with-a-decades-old-c-codebase This protocol, originally for serial lines, lives on and I use it as a powerful ssh wrapper daily. I added a modern test suite, fixed a ton of bugs, added IPv6 support. And, rather to my surprise, ENJOY...

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  @EricAlper@mastodon.social The ignorance and lack of thought on this is so astounding. Even if you don't remember how old England is, if you remember the USA gained independence from someone, surely it stands to reason that country is older?

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  Long before #LLMs, two of the biggest uses for #AI were (and still are): To show us ads we don't want to see (on the web) To block ads we don't want to see (in email) Funny how so many uses of AI are to make things we don't want. Maybe in the future we'll burn a bunch of gigawatts with the ad-blocking AIs fighting the ad-injecting AIs, all to capture the attention of humans. Or, who am I kidding, they'll probably be fighting to capture the attention o...

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  In which I try to look at #AI with a balanced frame of mind: https://changelog.complete.org/archives/42503-artificial-intelligence-shades-of-gray I also discuss building a LLM email classifier using solar-powered local models, which a useful degree of success. I'm neither a cheerleader nor a doomsayer. More a tinkerer.