December Adventure 2024
So apparently this is a thing and I don't check Discord log that often so I completely misses the thing. I suppose I shall start now.
I have a few ideas lined up and I shall put them here one by one as I go through them.
Table of Contents
- Conclusion
- 2024.12.27 ~ 2024.12.29
- 2024.12.20 ~ 2024.12.26
- 2024.12.18 ~ 2024.12.19
- 2024.12.17
- 2024.12.12 ~ 2024.12.16
- 2024.12.11
- 2024.12.9 ~ 2024.12.10
- 2024.12.7 ~ 2024.12.8
- 2024.12.6
- 2024.12.5
- 2024.12.4
- 2024.12.1 ~ 2024.12.3
Conclusion
I suppose that's it! That's the end of December and the end of the year.
A summary:
- Made a Finger protocol server/client.
- Learned how to do one image processing algorithm that's on my TODO list for way too long.
- Learned how to do basic macros in Nim
Next year would be hell. I hope I'll have enough breathing space for next year...
2024.12.27 ~ 2024.12.29
And from the work I've done earlier a new library is born! I named it "Tejina"; it's a reference to this song that was recommended to my YouTube feed a few days ago:
The code for the library can be found here:
https://github.com/bctnry/tejina
2024.12.20 ~ 2024.12.26
Possibly the last update of December.
A list of things I've done during this period:
A few things that I would not mention here.
Attempted to make a template engine for Nim to make my life easier and this is the result. Good thing that it's usable enough to justify the amount of effor that I put in.
Also tried to simplify for URL dispatch by using macros with much lesser success. The current code is here.
2024.12.18 ~ 2024.12.19
Hiatus due to personal reasons.
2024.12.17
Figured out how to make template engine (i.e. things like Jinja) run at compile time in Nim. I'm still contemplating whether to put it at compile time is a good choice, but at least I know I can do it in Nim now.
2024.12.12 ~ 2024.12.16
Hiatus due to personal reasons.
2024.12.11
The Lenna image, squished from 512px to 256px. I have no idea why the algorithm decided that out of everything her nose is the most important part of the whole image.
Implemented a very basic version of seam-carving, a technique used to make those "content aware scale meme". Used the Sobel operator and the dynamic programming method described in Wikipedia.
Code: https://codeberg.org/bctnry/Pieces/src/branch/main/seam_carving_20241211.py
Tomorrow (12 Dec) is one of the exam days. Good thing I've get enough score for passing through continuous assessment already so I'm not particularly worried.
2024.12.9 ~ 2024.12.10
Finally, the absolute minimal viable product of Zenfinger is here:
https://codeberg.org/bctnry/zenfinger
Stupid little fucking thing blown out of proportion... Doing everything from scratch in this day and age, not necessarily a good choice.
Was re-watching Sword Art Online while working on it.
2024.12.7 ~ 2024.12.8
Exam week is here. Might have to pause doing this at some point...
- Worked on Zenfinger.
3rd attempt at home-made dumplings from scratch. I deliberately put as little water as possible in the dough and the dumpling skins of the first batch still stuck together; I suppose you do have to keep them separated until they're frozen solid. I later cut out pieces of baking papers to separate them when freezing them in a ziplock bag and that seems to do the trick. Also I found out that steaming is a much convenient choice than boiling for me. It's nice not having to worry about the skin becoming undone...
2024.12.6
Did not do much yesterday. This needs to change...
(Update 2024.12.8: Worked on Zenfinger.)
2024.12.5
Accidentally pulled an all-nighter. Went to sleep at 8 in the morning, woke up at 3 in the afternoon.
There must be some data analysis work that can be done about how the tones of the words in the lyrics of Cantonese songs matches with the intervals of their vocal part. I can say this because I'm a native speaker.
I woke up to find my dumplings frozen with their skins fused together. Good thing I'll be boiling them anyway. I might need to use a lot more flour next time.
2024.12.4
Did not do much stuff; I shall list them here.
Read a lot of articles about singing synthesis. Would like to try to make a synthesizer one day.
Made dumplings from scratch, skins and filling and all. This is my 2nd attempt. I think I've become better at making dumpling skin and forming dumplings, but my filling recipe remains much to be desired. The amount they charge you for a pack of frozen dumplings here is absolutely ridiculous, gotta learn how to make my own.
Thinking about making a server software for Finger and Gopher. I did publicly denounce the use of Gemini, but these ones are fine since I suppose (and I really hope that this would be true) there won't be any people who quote-unquote "kindly" ask me to either update or take it down when it comes to protocols that are arguably even more obscure.
To think about the fact that God has decided that these kind of people deserve more content is enough to make me feel violated. Never could figure out why some people somehow fully expect whatever they've said and/or done will never bring contempt or at least disregard while I'm here being expected to accept shits from people as facts of life...
2024.12.1 ~ 2024.12.3
Did a few random things that together did not form anything coherent. I shall list them here:
-
Working on the language report for a new version of Flowmark. The old one is much more broken than I thought; expect this to be done next year.
Finished following through the second tutorial of Genode's Genode Applications book. Encountered one (1) small problem: the newest Sculpt OS, for whatever reasons, sometimes actually looks for an xz-ed version of the index. I can't say I'm not surprised.
I had this idea of having a web-based interface for depot management, but I'm not liking this idea that much because having a web app is security-compromising and because I have concerns about ecosystem straightjacket...
While trying to fix the problem mentioned above I went through the logs and I found out there were actually quite a lot of bots trying to find vulnerabilities of my website (you can see the paths they tried and there are surprisingly a lot of different paths that must have worked for some other websites before. Too bad they ain't gonna find any vulnerabilities because my website is just a bunch of HTML pages behind NGINX.)
Most of the bots are quote-unquote "okay" bots like the ones from Google and Mastodon & other Fediverse websites; some of them are actually malicious. I found two of such sources among the logs:
What's even more ridiculous is that one of the courses I have to retake this year has an assignment where you are required to write an analysis essay on one cyberethic case of your choice and I've chosen to write about PunkSpider, which is exactly what these two motherfuckers are doing; all talking points against PunkSpider in particular immediately went moot because these little cunts went and did the thing anyway. I definitely did not expect that I, too, was one of the website owners that's being subjected to these kinds of abuse when writing that essay.
I found this thing and set up a few countermeasures, including redirecting some of the paths to the face of Xi Jinping. We shall give it a few hours and see how things go.