Stack Exchange concerns

Edit I have decided to step back from Stack Exchange for a while — https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/390785/letting-go-of-so

The Stack Exchange network is currently embroiled in controversy regarding:

1. relicensing existing questions and answers to CC-BY-SA 4.0, and
2. upcoming (not yet public!) changes to the code of conduct apparently relating to trans inclusivity, together with removal of moderator status from an apparently well-respected moderator.

Links for both are below, in case you haven’t seen them yet.  I find both situations concerning.

I am also worried by the apparent removal by Stack Exchange of pertinent information from the Internet Archive!  See this comment and replies.  If you do investigate these matters, please save copies of the pages you visit to your local machine.  I have done so, and have some PDFs if you need copies.

• Regarding the relicensing: https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/333615/274096
• Regarding the code-of-conduct changes and removal of a moderator’s status: https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/333965/274096

If you are able, please encourage Stack Exchange to release documents related to both of these situations.  Thank you!

The new Mozilla logo, almost two years later

In January 2017, Mozilla released its new logo:

One review of the logo opined that:

Unless a viewer has a complete lack of imagination or willingness to adapt, readability of the new logo is not an issue, “moz://a” reads just fine as “mozilla”.

Well, call me dull.  Almost two years later, I just can’t stop my brain from tokenizing that as URL scheme “moz”, host “a”.

It’s not easy being a geek. 😀

The Mozilla logo is a trademark of the Mozilla Foundation in the U.S. and other countries.

What are the Most Disliked Programming Languages? – Stack Overflow Blog

Should I be worried?  The three most-disliked programming languages in  Stack Overflow’s latest blog post are Perl, Delphi, and VBA.  And those three languages all have a special place in my heart.  Oops…

Perl I have been enjoying recently and VBA is most of my day-to-day coding (since what they actually pay me for is driving MS Office).  Delphi remains the only piece of software I have ever bought based on one marketing presentation.  After QBASIC, I moved up to Turbo Pascal 6.  When Delphi came out, I only had to see it on screen to be hooked.

Delphi is also what taught me that the magic in a toolchain is really the linker.  As I was learning C, I was able to write Windows programs using my DOS version of Turbo C++, linked with the Delphi linker.

Excerpts from Stack Overflow’s analysis follow.

Literary adventures in vim

Vim Creep by Rudis Muiznieks.  How did I miss this when it came out?

My story is a bit different.  I switched to vi (not vim!) on an HP-UX box that didn’t have enough hard drive space for both X and Emacs (really! and this was at work!).  I needed multiple terminals more than I needed to wear the ink off my Control key, so…

Read and enjoy!

365 days of Christmas

I heard on the radio the other day that the Costco in Windsor, Ontario put up their Christmas tree August 6.  That’s 141 days before Christmas.

Does anyone know a word for a mix of amusment, fatalism, and Christmas spirit?

A dose of honesty

When a software developer says something is impossible, they are almost certainly lying.

Tom Fine

Recently discovered Tom’s excellent post about the psychology of programming.  Don’t be distracted by the IMAP-specific context — he’s hit every nail for miles around squarely on the head.