A long lost host (a machine that’s been offline or in a closed off network etc.) can find its master (puppetserver) when it sees the daylight again with the regularily polling puppet agent service. This is not as straightforward with ansible’s push model.

No, they’re apps.

I get it. That’s why I included the part about “the family tech guy”. And I think some sparkle of interest must be had in order to learn about that stuff. Or any stuff, like learning Ancient Greek. One has to be able to use a web search (or write a prompt to an LLM) for “beginner install linux” or some such. If the spark isn’t there, maybe buying a new Windows/Mac is the correct way to go.

Life is a long learning experience. Installing (or asking that nerdy relative to install) a Linux distro is no biggie anymore and when picking a good all-around distro like Mint, for example, pretty much anyone who has some basic experience on computers can do it.

Became a recluse And bought a computer Set it up in the home Elusive big one On the screen Saw the Holy Ghost, I swear On the screen

Where’s the cursor? Where’s the eraser? Where’s the cursor? Where’s the eraser? G-O-H-O-H-O-9-O G-O-H-O-H-O-9-O G-O-H-O-H-O-9-O H-O-9-O-G-O-H-O

What’s a computer? Eat y’self fitter What’s a computer? Eat y’self fitter

I swear, Mark E. Smith was sometimes decades ahead of his time.

Well, usually dd is not used as often as cp, so there’s a bigger chance of messing up the parameters, unless you’re careful and rtfm first.

No, but you’re just typing if and of, not infile and outfile, and the letters are right next to each other on a qwerty kbd. One can haphazardly misuse a lot of commands, it’s just that some commands may lead to nastier outcomes than others.

Unless you forget what if and of mean. With cp it’s simply “cp what where”. Never had problems remembering that.

Commands like dd are the best. Good ole greybeard-era spells with arcane syntax and the power to casually wipe out the whole universe (from their perspective ofc) if used haphazardly or not in respectful manner.

Couldn’t have expressed it any clearer!

To generalise is easy. To spot colour in a black and white world is a bit harder but in the end well worth it.

And now the incident’s “debate” is here.

Needing to use command line for some things that should be a right click

Right click where? All major DE’s/WM’s implement stuff in their own way. The problem here is we don’t (and won’t) have a unified GUI that everyone uses, unlike the other two main OS’s. (Note: I don’t see this as a problem, more as a result of the FLOSS ecosystem being such a rich soil to build stuff on.)

I think Neal Stephenson’s In the Beginning was the Command Line has some valid points even today.

Many parts of FW work a bit like an abstract painting where each viewer finds their own interpretation, each of those equally valid and independent of what the author possibly intended. An AI dumbed down version would just show one path through the work, the one it thinks is the main road. But yes, at best, such version could sparkle an interest and function as a gateway to the work. Or extinguish all interest for good.

Interesting. I’d definitely skim through such a version, albeit it totally abolishes the intricacies of FW.

That’s actually not that bad. Of course missing all the smells and taste of the text, allusions and double meanings, but as a very coarse synopsis it’ll do.

It’s Finnegans Wake, without the apostrophe. Obviously a book full of puns and riddles must have them in its title as well.

Pretty much, yes. In fact this bit is on the clearer side compared to most of the text. It’s very challenging and one should probably not dive into it unprepared (there are a lot of side literature and guides to accompany it). However it’s well worth the effort once you learn how to read it (e.g. the words draw their meanings via how they’re sounding in addition to how they’re written).

Tbf, there would be no point in dumbing down (or simplifying) something like Ulysses which is a prime example of a literary work where the form and content are inseparable.

Now do Finnegans Wake.

Hard: And an odd time she’d cook him up blooms of fisk and lay to his heartsfoot her meddery eygs, yayis, and staynish beacons on toasc and a cupenhave so weeshywashy of Greenland’s tay or a dzoupgan of Kaffue mokau an sable or Sikiang sukry or his ale of ferns in trueart pewter and a shinkobread (hamjambo, bana?) for to plaise that man hog stay his stomicker till her pyrraknees shrunk to nutmeg graters while her togglejoints shuck with goyt and as rash as she’d russ with her peakload of vivers up on her sieve (metauwero rage it swales and rieses) my hardey Hek he’d kast them frome him, with a stour of scorn, as much as to say you sow and you sozh, and if he didn’t peg the platteau on her tawe, believe you me, she was safe enough.

Easy: Something something… crash