We all know that the first text-based computer Shell dates back to the early 1960s (RUNCOM written for the Compatible Time Sharing System… followed by a new Shell, designed by the same man, for Multics).
But… what then?
Let’s continue our journey of the history of Shells… with the very first shell on UNIX: the Thompson Shell.
Microsoft is adding Artificial Intelligence to Notepad and Paint. Because they hate you.
20 years after the release of GIMP 2.0, version 3 has a "Release Candidate" available!
Ads are filling the entirety of the Web -- websites, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc. -- at an increasing rate. Prices for those ad placements are plummeting. Consumers are desperate to use ad-blockers to make the web palatable. Google (and others) are desperate to break and block ad-blockers. All of which results in... more ads and lower pay for creators.
It's a fascinatingly annoying cycle. And there's only one viable way out of it.
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Those in power with openSUSE make it clear they will not allow me anywhere near anything related to the openSUSE project. Ever. For any reason.
Well, that settles that, then! Guess I won't be contributing to openSUSE! 🤣
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https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4619051/lunduke-journal-link-central-tm
Give the gift of The Lunduke Journal:
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You know the drill. Ask me a question. Any question at all. Just make sure it’s good and nerdy.
(Retro computers, programming, modern computing, tech news, advice, hypothetical, you name it.)
Post that question in the comments of this post on Locals.
Then give the thumbs up to your favorite questions.
I’ll sort by “most liked” and answer as many as I can.
Aaaand… GO.
Okay, so I'm still very much in the great country, behind the great wall, but there is so much tech to talk about!
Of course that is not why I am in the country, but since the other part is my wife's private matters I'll just report on the tech :)
First of all, the Chinese cars are amayzing. We take Didi (chinese Uber) everywhere, and for under 10 yuan (€1.25) you have a 1 mile ride in the inner city.
The cars themselves all look like fancy minimalist teslas on the inside, with huge dashboard computers and often neon lighting.
The e-hailing system reports on the arrival time of your ride, but also shows where it is, and the amount of seconds it is stuck behind a red light (live countdown). My wife loves it. During the ride you can check your app if the driver is following the agreed route as well.
Authentication of the ride is by license plate, authentication of yourself is by communicating the last four digits of your phone number. This functions as a password for the didi mini-app to confirm ...
Just sitting in the car on a pseudo smoke break (I don't smoke) and working on a personal project using the Mattbook. I just love this thing. It is partially because we made it ourselves but also because it is just such a good little computer. I mean it is really not that LITTLE but I think this is a good point. I mean UMPCs of the past have been glorious but really it was a novelty factor that was the main pull. Trying to do real work using them was an exercise in stress that was also (if I am being completely honest) kind of fun. Still I think the Mattbook size is near perfect. The chonk is unfortunately not that perfect. BUT this is what is required to make it repairable and upgradable and for me this is a worthwhile compromise.
I don't squint to see the screen. I don't get finger cramps to type on the keyboard. I have a full up 13th gen i7 with 64gb of RAM in here. I can do everything on this computer. It could be my only computer. To me this just feels like success.
With Intel ...
Ok, first off: I totally forgot to publish a "week in review" article last week. Woops. My bad. So this article covers the last two weeks.
Second: Over the last 14 days, apparently there's been 16 shows. Hot dang.
And the news has been all over the map! The big story, obviously, was the "Linux v. Russia" craziness. The really wild part of that story is that it's still ramping up. The next month is going to see some wild stories relating to open source software and sanctions compliance.
Oh! Oh! And the Internet Archive stuff! Insane!
But, you know what my absolute favorite news story was for the last two weeks? The one about RISC OS having WiFi and a modern web browser now. That story just made me happy. It's nice to know that, even when various software companies and organizations are losing their darned minds... there's still bright spots of nerdy joy out there.
The Shows
The Articles
Previous Few Months
Reminder: Check out Lunduke.com for all the handy URLS. Podcast RSS feeds, contact info, direct links to some of the big shows and articles and a bunch of other goodies. And be sure to subscribe to The Lunduke Journal to help support the work... and make sure you don't miss out on anything.
On Monday, October 28th, Apple released the macOS 15.1 update. And, with that update, Apple has ratcheted up their war on "sideloading" by completely disabling the ability to run unsigned macOS software.
And signing software, of course, requires an Apple Developer Connection subscription. Which, for most people, is a costly thing.
Just a little over one month ago (September of 2024), the initial release of macOS 15.0 brought with it a new round of restrictions on running non-signed (also called "non-notarized") applications. With 15.0, users could still run non-signed software... but they needed to jump through a few extra hoops by openning the System Settings and manually enabling each application they wanted to run.
This change made running unsigned software on macOS a bit more annoying -- additional steps to do something that used to be a simple "double click on the darned icon" process. Annoying, to be sure. But, luckily, all software could still be run.
That all changed -- less than 45 days later -- as Apple released the 15.1 update to macOS, which included the removal of the "Click around in System Settings" option to allow unsigned apps to run.
Now, in 15.1, when you attempt to run a non-notarized piece of Mac software, you will be greeted by a simple error message: "The application 'Finder' does not have permission to open '(null)'."
No option to run the software whatsoever. Effectively banning all non-signed software (such as those developed by a hobbyist).
This isn't exactly a surprising move by Apple. Over the last few years, all of the Big Tech operating system companies (Microsoft, Apple, and Google) have pushed -- with increasing intensity -- to lock down what software users are allowed to run on their computers.
Increasingly restrictive "application signing" systems, and the removal of "features" which allowed non-signed applications to run, have been a stated goal of all three corporations.
All in the name of a war on, what Big Tech has termed, "Sideloading".
What is "Sideloading", you ask?
"Sideloading" is most simply defined as "The act of installing software on a real computer." And Apple, Google, & Microsoft are determined to stop people from doing that.
These companies haven't exactly been quiet about their goal to stop people from installing software on their computers (outside of approved, heavily restrictive mechanisms). Back in 2021, Apple published a whitepaper entitled "Building a Trusted Ecosystem for Millions of Apps - A threat analysis of sideloading".
That's right. Apple considers you having the freedom to install whatever software you want on the computer you own -- something every real computer (including those made by Apple) have done since the dawn of Personal Computing -- to be a "threat".
With macOS 15.1, Apple is taking significant steps to neutralize that "threat".
No software freedom for you.
As of now -- with macOS 15.1 -- there remains one final way to work around these draconian and artificial restrictions.
To do so requires the complete disabling of "Gatekeeper", the system which verifies downloads and restricts the running of non-signed applications.
This can be done via a fairly simple terminal command run as root:
sudo spctl --master-disable
However, it should be noted that with Apple's ever increasing requirements of application "notarization" -- and increasing reliance on the Mac App Store for software distribution (which ties into Gatekeeper) -- the full disabling of "Gatekeeper" seems likely to cause issues going forward with "Apple approved" methods of installing software.
Likewise, at Apple's current rate of attacks against "sideloading", the ability to turn off Gatekeeper may not be long for this world at all.
While the news, today, is focused on Apple (their fight against the most basic freedoms of computing -- the ability to run software)... both Microsoft and Google have made it clear that they are all in on the war against sideloading.
Case in point: Google is migrating Android software away from "APK" application packages... to the far more restrictive "AAB" application bundles. Microsoft, likewise, is pushing for a reliance on their online store.
So users of Android, ChromeOS, & Windows shouldn't laugh. You're next.
Users of a variety of open source, alternative operating systems (such as Linux, BSDs, and many others), however, can laugh all they want.
