take on hard projects

Permalink: https://wizardzines.com/comics/take-on-hard-projects/

@Soblow ugh yes. they’re annoying and kind of concerning tbh but they do go away eventually

“the #singularity is scifi nonsense that will never happen”

“anyway we have a slur for artificial intelligence now”

@kaylee that’s definitely fair lol. I think if I were in a different mindset I might be able to appreciate those two things a lot more. like trying to get NGINX and systemd to work for me on a pretty complex project, when I’m not really interested in the details of how it runs on my VPS at all, is probably a very bad way to approach them

gatekeeper! let me through! I have bested your trials and my webapp is ready!

“ahh, you have indeed defeated the mighty HTML and the dreaded CSS. you have slain the beast of JS and its many footguns. but there lies one more trial before ye. before your webapp may know the touch of a user, you must face… the Dread Penguin Linux!”

*a distant lightning flash briefly illuminates a massive black figure on the horizon with a bright yellow beak*

my actual least favorite Linux Experience is going through this process for something extremely basic that my computer needs in order to function like a desktop environment or the ability to hear sound

my second least favorite Linux Experience is reading the docs for some tool I don’t care about, trying to configure it, and then having it Not Work in an extremely hard-to-diagnose fashion. because then I get to go on a Multiple Choice Adventure:

• reread the docs and try to figure out if I just misunderstood something somewhere
• try to figure out if there’s a logfile hidden somewhere in Linux’s labyrinthine directory structure that has the actual error message
• try to google for my very nondescript problem and get a bunch of results that don’t help

5% of the effort: writing the code that Does Things (fun)

70% of the effort: writing the UI code that makes the HTML and CSS (not fun)

25%(?) of the effort: configuring Linux services that require Linux services that require Linux services, and then trying to figure out why they won’t work (extremely not fun)

things that I have been forced to learn despite not giving a shit and just wanting other people to be able to use my cool webapp:

• authbind
• gunicorn
• NGINX which apparently has its own declarative programming language thing?? I’m still learning this one. it’s a lot. I hate that gunicorn is making me learn this one

also later I’m going to have to learn about systemd services and probably even more

I have learned that 95% of the effort of making a webapp is not fun, and consists of reading the docs for things that you don’t care about and then groaning as you learn that those docs require you to read more docs for more things that you don’t care about

Fun fact: one can get an Anne to hydrate by turning the water bottle into a stim toy. The valve produces a satisfying click when opening, and filling the included cup has such good waterfall noises. :neocatfloof__w:

half of fedi

consider a rowan

• fox cryptid gf
• supernatural kitsune powers (will use then on you)
• loud
• bad at video games (you can always win vs her at Mario kart)
• will get overstimulated and bite you
• constantly needy and affectionate
• not smart and wants you to explain everything slowly
• will hide your things in the void for fun
• horny switch
• cooks for you (you Will enjoy spicy food)
• bad jokes that only it understands
• emotionally dysregulated
• looking at it for too long means it will claim you for its own

@rowan omgg they are perfect 💙

@rowan ah this must be one of those mythical creatures that’s too perfect to exist. like a unicorn, except hot

oh they’re real? how do I get one? actually, how many are there? I want them all

I ran into a fucking HDG post on reddit

I wish I could blacklist it there but it was an image so blacklisting wouldn’t have even worked (that’s another advantage of alt text, I guess)

here’s my impression of what an ancient babylonian clickbait thumbnail about agriculture would look like

MORSE looks like it’s going to be really good when it comes out. I fucking love games where you have to learn something new in order to play

I would probably play the demo endlessly until it comes out if it weren’t for the fact that it doesn’t save my settings so I have to go into the options menu every time and change all of the morse timings

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1976860/MORSE/

@rowan fuck yes - I’m glad to hear it 💙

@shijikori thank you! that’s exactly why I’m setting up NGINX actually. I guess the main purpose that NGINX serves is to protect gunicorn from slow loris attacks, and maybe other kinds of attacks too. but yeah apparently gunicorn needs NGINX between it and the open internet for various reasons