Mike Gerwitz @mikegerwitz@mastodon.mikegerwitz.com

Over the 15+ years I've been using GNU/Linux, there are many programs that have become second nature to me. As a hacker, I enjoy tinkering with my system---why use a desktop environment when I could do the same thing with 100s of programs and hand-written scripts...!?

Each day I feel up to it, I'll give thanks to a free/libre program that has made a positive impact on my life, from every corner of my operating system, with the hope that others will find them interesting too.

#thanksfreesw

TLA+ Tools patch series submitted after ~17 hours of work:

https://issues.guix.gnu.org/47789

I'll consider tackling TLAPS (the proof system) in the near future, if I have the energy and it's not too involved.

I'm pretty excited that I have a working #TLA+ Tools package for #guix working now (tla2tools.jar). But I have a lot of cleanup (for it and new dependencies) to do before offering a patch, and some more wrapper scripts to write. Also need to figure out why some pcal tests are failing.

This allows for model checking, simulation, and LaTeX output generation, among some other things as well.

Working on a TLC2 (TLA+ model checker) package for Guix, until I found that one of its dependencies is lsp4j (not yet packaged), which is built with Gradle, which is not currently packaged in Guix.

This escalated quickly. I should probably try to build without Gradle. My Java skills are weak, so I guess we'll see how this goes...

Just got my COVID-19 vaccine. This is not just important for myself and my family, but also to reduce the risk of spread to others.

My kids had a lot of fun playing on the #LibrePlanet2021 Minetest instance, and plan to hop back on tomorrow. Everyone was really kind, and it's been a great way for them to be involved in the conference.

I also like that they got to interact with others that have a passion for software freedom, since it shows that it's not just Dad that thinks about free software.

We have over 1000 registered #LibrePlanet2021 attendees this year from all around the world! As an activist, it's inspiring to see!

https://libreplanet.org/2021

Still changing my talk in fairly substantial ways ~17h before I give it? Sounds about right.

I hope you'll join us at #LibrePlanet2021 tomorrow, regardless of whether you're interested in hearing me speak!

https://libreplanet.org/2021

Why do I always give talks on such broad topics that I have to spend a bunch of time removing things because I have 45m, not hours?

Though, I think I could take virtually any topic I know a little bit about and find enough depth to talk for hours. So maybe there's no hope for me.

But, as usual, I find myself still working on core parts of my talk days before I'm due to give it. Something I vow not to do, every year.

#LibrePlanet2021

Trying to carefully stitch relevant portions of mostly shower-thought rants into a carefully crafted talk with decent segues.

You can judge for yourself whether I succeeded in doing that on March 20th at #LibrePlanet2021.

https://libreplanet.org/2021/speakers/#4415

(Yes, this post is me procrastinating. My head is spinning. I should probably go to bed.)

Oh man, this year I'm switching my slides to 16:9 for LibrePlanet. The future is here!

I think the projectors at LP were 4:3, and that's why my slides were? Anyone recall? Am I making stuff up? Or was it because of Beamer support?

My X200 is even 16:9 (well, roughly).

LibrePlanet 2021: Adopting Free Software Ideals

https://mikegerwitz.com/2021/02/libreplanet-2021

I will be speaking again at this year's LibrePlanet on March 20th, which will be online. This year, I’ll be talking about challenges with adopting free software ideals and the impact that it can have not only on individuals, but also on our community as a whole. This talk will be personal, drawing upon my evolution over the past fifteen or so years.

Speaking of speaking, I still need to catch up on the FOSDEM talks. I'm sorry to those of you who spoke and are reading this that I haven't taken the time yet! Soon!

I will be speaking at #LibrePlanet2021 on March 20th. More information to come.

Representing ancient Greek numerals in LaTeX turns out to be a bit more difficult than anticipated.

With regards to the history, I found this to be valuable and interesting:

https://web.archive.org/web/20151030220136/http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/unicode/numerals.html

For the digamma at 6, \varsigma is often abused. But \varsigma does not have a distinct character in the Euler font (it renders as \sigma); fortunately that can be rectified in text mode using \fontencoding{LGR}{\char99}.

The archaic koppa ("qoppa") is \char19 in LGR.

Looks like I missed a lot of really interesting #FOSDEM talks this weekend. I'm excited for the recordings!

I should have just planned ahead and recorded the streams, but I didn't even have the time to do that.