Just a basic programmer living in California

  • 1 Post
  • 93 Comments
Joined 1 年前
Cake day: 2024年2月23日
  • hallettj@leminal.spacetoLinux@lemmy.ml•Okay why is your distro the best?English
    51·
    5 天前

    Some more points about Nix:

    • It’s a fast way to get to a specific setup, like a particular DE or Vulkan gaming support, thanks to abstraction that NixOS modules provide
    • There are tons of packages
    • Because packages are installed by adding a config entry you don’t accumulate random software you forgot you installed
    • Immutable updates and rollbacks - this is similar to benefits of atomic ostree distros, but the nix solutions are more general, so you have one system that does more things with a consistent interface
      • in addition to updating the base system, rollbacks also roll back user-installed packages, and configurations if those are managed via Nix
      • devshells provide per-directory packages and configuration using the same package repos as the host system, without needing to manage docker images
    • Nix is portable - much of what it does on NixOS can also be used in other distros, or even on Macos or Windows with the Linux subsystem
      • Configurations often combine NixOS and Home Manager parts. The Home Manager part can be used à la carte on other OSes is a way that is fully isolated from the host OS package management. For example on Macos this is a much nicer alternative to Homebrew.
      • devshells also work on other OSes
    • similar to Guix - but NixOS uses systemd, and is (from what I understand) more tolerant of non-free software (whether these are pros or cons is up to individual interpretation)
  • hallettj@leminal.spacetoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml•How do you treat cancer in the US? Asking out of curiosity but I want serious answers.English
    9·
    18 天前

    Hospitals are required to provide emergency treatment - what we call ED or ER visits - regardless of ability to pay. Patients are expected to pay for that treatment. It’s just that the hospital isn’t supposed to deny treatment based on whether they think patients will or won’t pay the bill. This is getting-stabilized treatment.

    This is an important point in arguing for universal healthcare: if people can’t afford treatment, they’re more likely to go to the ED where they won’t be turned away. ED visits tend to cost more than non-emergency, so that drives costs up.

  • hallettj@leminal.spacetoLinux@lemmy.ml•Share a script/alias you use a lotEnglish
    3·
    21 天前

    That’s a helpful one! I also add a function that creates a tmp directory, and cds to it which I frequently use to open a scratch space. I use it a lot for unpacking tar files, but for other stuff too.

    (These are nushell functions)

    # Create a directory, and immediately cd into it.
# The --env flag propagates the PWD environment variable to the caller, which is
# necessary to make the directory change stick.
def --env dir [dirname: string] {
  mkdir $dirname
  cd $dirname
}

# Create a temporary directory, and cd into it.
def --env tmp [
  dirname?: string # the name of the directory - if omitted the directory is named randomly
] {
  if ($dirname != null) {
    dir $"/tmp/($dirname)"
  } else {
    cd (mktemp -d)
  }
}
  • hallettj@leminal.spacetoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml•What hills are you dying on?English
    8·
    2 个月前

    Don’t say “acronym” when you mean “abbreviation”!

    “Acronym” specifically refers to an initialism that forms a new word. For example,

    • scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus)
    • NASA (pronounced like a word - you don’t say “ehn eh ess eh”).

    It’s acro- (height) -nym (word) - a word that exists on top of / above other words.

    In contrast “NIH” is not an acronym because it isn’t pronounced or read as a word. It’s appropriate to say, “‘NIH’ is an abbreviation” or “‘NIH’ is an initialism”. But saying “‘NIH’ is an acronym” is wrong!

  • hallettj@leminal.spacetoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml•Celsius and Metric users of Lemmy, is there any cute tips or sayings that help generalize a measurement?English
    16·
    2 个月前

    1 cm is about the width of the tip of your pinky finger.

    1 m is about the distance from your nose to your fingertips if you hold your arm out, and extend your fingers.

    100 m is the length of the straight section of an athletic track, which is about the same length as a football field.

    1 mL is about the volume of the tip of your pinky finger.

    1 L is about 1 quart, which is half a carton of milk (unless you get milk in the smaller 1 quart size).

    The mile-to-km conversion is pretty close to 1½.

    The kg-to-pound conversion is two-and-a-bit.

    A difference of 1°C is close to a difference of 2°F.

    Edit: My milk comparison was wrong - I’ve corrected it.

    Edit: Of course by “m” I meant “mile”