I used to joke that the day setting up a cross-compilation environment was easy we'd be one short step away from having true artificial general intelligence. For the most part neither has happened yet. However, I must admit that Go has come pretty close to making it easy, but it's also kind of opaque unless you go all-in on Go to the exclusion of all other languages. It's not really a language that you can just toy around with, kind of like FORTH.

Long-time readers know that I'm all about XMPP as a command and control channel for my exocortex …

Now we need an operating system for the trusted, open source computer. As previously mentioned, Windows and MacOSX are out because we can't audit the code, and it is known that weaponized 0-days are stockpiled by some agencies for the purpose of exploitation and remote manipulation of systems, and are also sold on the black and grey markets for varying amounts of money (hundreds to multiple thousands of dollars). It has been observed by experts many a time that software being open source is not a panacea for security. It does, however, mean that the code can be audited for …

Now that I've metabolized the caffeine from the two-and-an-unknown-fraction pots of coffee I've drunk today (don't ask), I have it together enough to write about an unusually annoying glitch that plagues Linux users from time to time: Automatic mounting of USB storage devices stops working after you tinker with the systemware, usually after recompiling something or upgrading a package. I ran into this a few days ago but didn't think much of it because I've mostly been using Windows XP for work (yes, yes, you may now all laugh) but I decided to sit down and figure out what happened …

Coding with a teddy bear in your lap helps immensely.