Thing is, we're betting multiple Terabytes of data on rsync working reliably. I'm paranoid enough to regularly run checksums on a few hundred Gigabytes to make sure rsync did its job right. This is the first time *ever* that rsync has just flat out failed to do its job. I'm not impressed.
Yay. I just got hit on the nose by rsync sloprot. Somehow I had avoided it so far. The "don't worry, it's fixed in the next version. Just upgrade" response doesn't fill me with warm fuzzy feelings. I'm now pondering my options. I haven't found a clear obvious safe choice for a slop free fork yet, and switching to another implementation will involve a verification process, and possibly porting of tooling.
Can we please just keep our software working reliably?
Maths primer:
Start with nothing: 0
Next: 1 2 3 4 ...
Repeated Next is Addition: 2+2=4
Inverse Addition is Subtraction: 4-2=2
Repeated Addition is Multiplication: 2x2=4
Inverse Multiplication is Division: 4/2=2
Repeated Multiplication is Exponentiation: 2^2=4
Inverse Exponentiation is Root: 4^(1/2)=2
Inverse Exponentiation is Logarithm: base 2 log of 4=2
Repeated Exponentiation is Tetration: 2^^2=4
Etc.
It's simple, really.
There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies.
The first method is far more difficult.
-- C.A.R. Hoare
The latter method has been automated by AI (LLMs).
Explaining the English language to Brits: you say either, I say tomato
https://youtu.be/753xlF0EWsI
Why China built the most unprofitable rail network
High speed rail as a Service
vs
High speed rail as a Business
On the value of externalities.
I received a box, which contains a box, which contains bags, which contain bags.
I now have a supply of garbage bin bags.
We had a brief house visit from Thor. He took a few pictures and then he was on his way again.
He's a nice guy, but a bit loud, and the flash on his camera is annoying.
Today we enjoyed some non-Starlink precipitation.
Hermione Replacement Therapy
Hmm, darn. Now that I'm in this blogosphere whatsit I should probably give some thought to what to blog about. Effort. Dammit.
Fixing old hardware? Software design? Microcontrollers/SBCs? SRE/DevOps? Model railroad? Distributed systems? Photography? Security?
Oops, I did it again. I accidentally made a thing, and I seem to have now joined the blogosphere.
Evidence has been collected at https://17c.eu/
I had a somewhat different expectation of those famous tall ships.
We accidentally found ourselves at Sail Bremerhaven 2025.
Restaurant: I'm sorry, the kitchen is closed. But if you want, we can probably do something simple for you.
Us: ok, what can you do?
Restaurant: well, we can do a simple steak in red wine sauce, or maybe an ossobuco?
Us: sold. One of each please.
