Color fringing with fonts in Fedora 29

So Microsoft joined the OIN, which has had knockdown effects on the Linux community, including using FreeType's ClearType subpixel font rendering by default in Fedora. For some reason, they chose not to enable any kind of LCD filter at the same time, which can lead to rainbow color fringing around text. Fortunately enabling an LCD filter in FreeType is easy:

$ ln -s /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/11-lcdfilter-default.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/

aniso8601 and sub-microsecond precision

After more false starts than I can count, aniso8601 is finally ready to handle sub-microsecond precision. Anyone following the (now approaching 3 year old) issue #10 will know that a solution wasn't immediately obvious. However, after fairly constant requests for "I want to parse an ISO 8601 timestamp and receive an X" and "why do you only support parsing to X and Y, I need to the parse result to be a Z" I came to the realization what people really wanted was a parser that just parses and to be able to build those parse results into whatever fits their use case best. Enter the 'builder' kwarg.

TLDR: New optional 'builder' keyword argument for all parse methods, 'relative' keyword argument going away. Default behavior is the same as always.

Blog maintenance

Yes, I know that the highlighted code listings have a tendency to disappear. My response has usually been "Leave me alone, I know what I'm doing." Anyway, I've changed to using hilite.me (default style, line numbers where appropriate, "borland" coloring). The downside is you can't just copy and paste code easily from the page source anymore. The upside is there is no longer any reliance on third party Javascript which may or may not work depending on whether Venus is in retrograde, ritual animal sacrifices, and whether or not you're holding your tongue the right way.

I've mostly been putting it off because I intended to have the blog moved to a new platform by now, just hasn't happened.

No more ExactImage

I've grown tired of trying to package ExactImage for Fedora as the Enlightenment bindings it uses seem to no longer be packaged. As of 0.30.0, pdfocr uses the easier-to-package hocr-tools library for wrangling hocr files. The copr repository has been updated accordingly.

A timely response

And just like that, a response from senator Ron Johson's office:

Dear Brandon,

Thank you for contacting me regarding net neutrality. 

Since the Clinton administration, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had regulated the broadband industry with a light touch, allowing the Internet to flourish. Unfortunately, the Obama administration’s decision to reclassify broadband service under Title II — its misnamed “Open Internet Order” — broke with bipartisan tradition. This reclassification imposed heavy-handed utility-style regulations on internet services and led to greater government control of the Internet.  

This heavy-handed regulation has caused investment in Internet infrastructure to decline.  According to the FCC, among the nation’s 12 largest internet service providers, domestic broadband capital expenditures decreased by 5.6 percent, or $3.6 billion, between 2014 and 2016. As the new chairman of the FCC recently explained, “regulations designed for monopoly will push the market further toward monopoly.” This is not what is best for citizens of Wisconsin or the rest of the country.  

One of my top priorities is to ensure the expansion of high-speed broadband throughout Wisconsin. On May 18, 2017, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for broadband services that was a welcome development. This action restores the light-touch regulation that allowed for a free and open Internet for nearly 20 years.

Thank you again for contacting my office. It is very helpful to hear the views of the constituents I serve. Please see my website at www.ronjohnson.senate.gov for additional information. It is an honor representing you and all the people of Wisconsin.

Sincerely,

Ron Johnson
United States Senator

I used this "free and open" internet that supposedly existed for nearly 20 years. I remember Netflix performing extremely poorly on my Time Warner Cable connection due to TWC refusing to enter into any kind of peering agreement. Netflix eventually had to pay to make it happen. This effectively resulted in TWC double dipping, they charged me over $50 / mo. for a connection that was more than capable of handling an HD Netflix stream, and they charged Netflix for being able to more efficiently deliver content to TWC customers. Basically overnight my connection was "capable" of Netflix. I certainly don't see how small competitors to Netflix could ever afford to enter such an agreement, and without financial incentive, I certainly don't see TWC helping them out or otherwise improving their infrastructure to better handle the load.

During the same "free and open" period, I spent plenty of time on the phone with various ISPs arguing that I was not getting the speed I paid so exorbitantly for. The response was always the same, rated speeds are 'up to', and you are not guaranteed to ever actually receive the rated speed. Interestingly, they would always "look into it" once I complained that I'm only getting speeds that don't exceed the lower speed tiers and suggested I would like to change to a cheaper plan. Every time, speeds would return (for a while). What motivation did they have to solve my problem anyway? They knew I maybe had one other option to buy my internet access from, in some cases I had none. I fail to see how the market could be pushed "further toward monopoly". And that decrease in capital investment? The ISPs themselves don't blame net neutrality, and in many cases investment has increased.

Much like the current debate around "healthcare" has little to with healthcare and has everything to do with insurance (just because I can afford insurance does not mean I can afford healthcare, and if I can't afford healthcare, do I really have access to healthcare?), the debate around net neutrality conflates "the internet" with "internet access". I pay my ISP for the latter: a (constantly increasing) $70 / mo. for 60 Mbps for access to "the internet". That's the entire internet. Not 60 Mbps to some things, 6 Mbps to Netflix, and 1 Mbps to Facebook. And bless them, since Title II classification, I get my 60 Mbps to the entire internet almost all the time.

And what about that doctor from yesterday's rant? In the spirit of that "personal responsibility" Republicans are always prattling on about, maybe if the telemedicine isn't working I'll turn off Netflix. And if it still isn't working, maybe someone should build a better bridge.

The internet is like a bridge that you paid for

Since today is the internet-wide day of action to save net neutrality and one of my senators has ignored my concerns, I figured I would take a moment to write a few words here.

Setting a GuruPlug Server Plus up as a WiFi client

Recently I wanted to again stream audio to my GuruPlug Server Plus, only to discover this house has no good way to get a network cable close enough to my stereo to make it work. I figured this wouldn't be a problem, after all, the GuruPlug Server Plus has WiFi. However, the guide to setting up the GuruPlug as a WiFi client is gone, as is the Wisdom of the Ancients of those who got it to work before me. What follows is a guide on getting WiFi client mode working on a GuruPlug Server Plus running Debian Wheezy with a 3.2.68-1 kernel.