Ten meetings in one day (to the tune of Four Seasons in One Day by Crowded House) on Tuesday marked what must be the fullest extent of meeting culture. I’ve started working out which events I can get out of by identifying the ones to which I’m invited as “optional” (although finding out is a multi-step process) and adding a label that lets me filter them out. Perhaps that will improve things.

I spent the weekend in Brussels for FOSDEM. When I don’t go to FOSDEM, I feel like I’m missing out. When I do go to FOSDEM, I still feel like I’m missing out because it’s so hard to see more than a fraction of what’s on. It takes ten minutes to get between some lecture theatres, and even then they might be too busy to get in.

My favourite talk was the “lightning lightning talks”, a quick-fire series of people talking for five minutes before yielding to the next presenter. It’s not enough time to bore the audience, there was a huge variety, and I learned several new things, some of which might even be useful.

As I sat on the kerb by the H block eating an apple, I heard a familiar distorted melody, which I realised was the jingle of the Lincolnshire poacher numbers station. I think it was part of a treasure hunt.

I tried some 3D goggles at FOSDEM. A team were demonstrating some Samsung goggles, rendered potential e-waste by the fact that they won’t work with Windows 11, for which they had written a Linux driver. The 3D world looked bright and clear and I felt like I really was on a sunny beach and not the twilight of early evening in February.

Unfortunately, they make me just as motion sick as previous generations did, and after a couple of minutes I had to take them off before my queasiness became something worse. I suspect that 3D headsets will never be for me.

On the way to St Pancras I saw an ad on the tube station wall for a job search site called Welcome to the Jungle and I just have to ask: have they actually listened to the lyrics of that song?

—So you say you can find me a job?

We are the people that can find whatever you may need

—Excellent! What’s your position on mental health?

It’s going to bring you down

—Oh no. Do you have a strong policy on sexual harassment at work?

you’re a very sexy girl, who’s very hard to please

—I beg your pardon?

Feel my, my, my, my serpentine
Oh, ah, I wanna hear you scream

—What the f—? Do you at least take physical safety seriously?

I’m gonna watch you bleed

—I?

You know where you are?
You’re in the jungle, baby
You’re gonna die

—I’m out of here.

My experience of the London Eurostar terminal was marginally better than last time. On the French side, they’ve added some automatic passport gates that seem to have improved throughput and there weren’t any queues to get through to the lounge.

Unfortunately the lounge is as tiny as ever and more like a zoo. I had to sit on the floor until the preceding Paris train boarded and I could upgrade to a seat.

I still mourn the loss of the café at the Brussels end, replaced with a duty free shop and a Costa coffee machine (undrinkable, don’t waste your money, I learned my lesson in 2024).

Many links this week thanks in large part to talks at FOSDEM:

  • usbec: The USB Equipment Commander is a lightweight daemon that is able to run commands based on the USB equipment connected to a computer. It makes it easily possible to run scripts and programs when specific USB devices are being connected or disconnected.
  • aerc is a modern terminal email client with support for JMAP.
  • LosslessCut “aims to be the ultimate cross platform FFmpeg GUI for extremely fast and lossless operations on video, audio, subtitle and other related media files.”
  • Tahoe-LAFS is a Free and Open decentralized cloud storage system that distributes data redundantly across multiple servers using encryption and forward error correction.
  • QuickJS, the Next Generation is a small and embeddable JavaScript engine that aims to support the latest ECMAScript specification. It was forked from the dormant original QuickJS project.
  • CRUNCH is a compiler for a statically typed subset of R7RS Scheme based on Chicken Scheme. Requires a minimal runtime and has no garbage collection beyond simple reference counting.
  • twin is a text-based windowing environment with mouse support. Users of 90s Borland DOS tools will recognise the aesthetic.
  • Zig Programming Language: A new(ish) language that aims to help writing “robust, optimal and reusable code”. Features compile-time metaprogramming. Also compiles C and C++ to provide an incremental upgrade path for existing codebases.
  • Sparse file: Working with sparse files in Linux.
  • C++ Core Guidelines aim to help C++ programmers to write simpler, more efficient, more maintainable code.
  • Pre-Scheme is a statically typed dialect of the Scheme programming language.
  • toolbx allows the use of interactive command line environments for software development and troubleshooting the host operating system, without having to install software on the host. Built on podman.
  • bmaptool Creates a block map (bmap) for a file or copies a file using bmap. Faster than a native bitwise copy when working with sparse files.
  • In meat- and fish-loving Japan, veganism is making a comeback.