Matthew Fennell

@matthew@fennell.dev

"What I mean is, if it's a democracy, shouldn't people sort of discuss things a bit?"


Homepagehttps://fennell.dev
XMPPxmpp:matthew@fennell.dev
Key4972B5D4ED2D76CA77D01C4C27AF92CD6708F483
Favourite AnimalBLÅHAJ
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Matthew Fennell »
@matthew@fennell.dev

Are there any ways to exit a repl I haven't misused today? 🤦

[Fairbuds XL]> .quit
Invalid command in menu main: quit
beanquery> ,q
beanquery>
scheme@(guile-user)> exit
$1 = #<procedure quit args>
matthew@matthew@fennell.dev-laptop:~$ quit
-bash: quit: command not found
If only using C-d for everything didn't feel so wrong.

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    Matthew Fennell »
    @matthew@fennell.dev

    I love chilli, but I always forget that eating it is the easiest part 😞

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    Cosmin boosted

    Matthew Fennell »
    @matthew@fennell.dev

    I started using pdb while writing some stuff in , and it's really nice to interact with!

    I like that:

  • You can define breakpoints just using the breakpoint() function, making conditional breakpoints very natural:
  • if [condition]:
    breakpoint()
  • You don't need any special invocation to start the debugger - just run the script as you normally would and you end up in a pdb shell when a breakpoint is hit.
  • In other languages, I slightly dread starting a debug session because I have to remember the flag to pass extra args, add all the breakpoints on startup etc. This leads to long sessions because I don't want to lose the investment I've put into my breakpoints.

    But in Python, I have much shorter debug sessions and I can get right to a point of invocation really quickly, verify something, and close the debugger straight away.

  • It interacts nicely with the repl:
  • I use the repl much more because I can end up in a repl right with the context and variables that I need.

    Defining more breakpoints within the repl is really nice to unpack nested datastructures in the same way it would be done in the code:

    >>> for key, some_list in some_dict.items():
    ... for value in some_list:
    ... breakpoint()
    I end up writing things in the repl first, but within the context that the code would be written in reality.

    It's really thoughtfully designed - thank you to the people who made it so!

      Christine Lemmer-Webber »
      @cwebber@social.coop

      RE: chaos.social/@sleepyowl/116126

      A must read thread from @sleepyowl, particularly for anyone laughing off the "oh they're trying to enforce age verification at an OS level, well I'll just change my open source operating system settings"

      Y'all, this is the game where we get LOCKED OUT of having ANY real FOSS operating system we control AT ALL

      The steps have been being put in place for this for over a decade now. And who controls the supply chain?

      We have to fight this stuff tooth and nail.

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        Buttered Jorts »
        @ajn142@infosec.exchange

        @matthew and if you really must know:

        1. Cache invalidation.

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          Matthew Fennell »
          @matthew@fennell.dev

          A story of date ranges when exporting transactions from 3 financial companies:

          "Want transactions for the whole of Jan, without any transactions from 1 Feb?"

          Bank 1: Export 1 Jan to 1 Feb 😎
          Bank 2: Export 1 Jan to 31 Jan 🙂
          Bank 3: Export 1 Jan to 30 Jan!! 🤦

          How does that happen?! It must be inclusive on both ends, plus the 1 Feb transaction happens at midnight? All I know is, if you go to 31 Jan, it will pull 1 Feb into Jan's export!

          ...
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          Matthew Fennell »
          @matthew@fennell.dev

          silly free software joke [SENSITIVE CONTENT]I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as digital sovereignty, is in fact, software right to repair/digital sovereignty, or as I've been taken to calling it, software right to repair plus digital sovereignty. And what you're referring to as software right to repair/digital sovereignty, is in fact, free software/software right to repair/digital sovereignty, or as I've been taken to calling it, free software plus software right to repair plus digital sovereignty.

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          Matthew Fennell »
          @matthew@fennell.dev

          I need to be more careful with my reverse-i-searches: I wanted find Maildir -type f -mmin -10 | mthread | mseq -S, and I got find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -delete!!

          Thank goodness for -maxdepth 1!

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          Matthew Fennell »
          @matthew@fennell.dev

          Ah yes, I've just been reminded that .vimrc and .tmux.conf are indeed, relative to ~, -maxdepth 1 and -type f.

          Restore from backup time!

            James Baker »
            @JamesBaker@social.openrightsgroup.org

            Baroness Kiddon has tabled an amendment that would require client-side scanning on every device. That would include all film cameras. bills.parliament.uk/publicatio

            Screen shot of amendment 239A to Crime and Policing bill

            Alt...Screen shot of amendment 239A to Crime and Policing bill

            Screen shot of amendment 239A to Crime and Policing bill

            Alt...Screen shot of amendment 239A to Crime and Policing bill

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              Cat 🐈🥗 (D.Burch) :paw::paw: »
              @catsalad@infosec.exchange

              How spicy do I like my food? Well...

              Photo of a Pad Thai food order with 15 lines of Spicy food modifiers with *Spec Prep* notes:

MAKE HIM REGRET
BEING BORN

              Alt...Photo of a Pad Thai food order with 15 lines of Spicy food modifiers with *Spec Prep* notes: MAKE HIM REGRET BEING BORN

              in reply to »

              Christine Lemmer-Webber »
              @cwebber@social.coop

              So you probably don't want to reject AI generated content not because "AI generated content Is incompatible with your license if it has no copyright" but because "whether or not AI generated content is subject to copyright is not a settled matter and ESPECIALLY NOT INTERNATIONALLY" (and not everywhere has a public domain). If you accept something, its status may not be the same internationally, and *legal decisions about AI output could change soon*, leading to an integration of something very hard to undo later.

              And the OTHER reason to not integrate it is that most of AI generated output has subtle bugs and tends to result in an erosion of your community. So yeah, that too.

              ...

              Christine Lemmer-Webber »
              @cwebber@social.coop

              Can you run Signal with basically no iOS or Android devices right now and still do the (mandatory) prove-your-phone-id steps?

              It feels like very near future I, and everyone else who cares about computing autotonomy, we're all gonna have to start runnin' the Linux phones, no matter how non-ideal that user experience is right now

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              Jim Killock »
              @jim@social.openrightsgroup.org

              @BBCNews This is about basic order and decency in government: which was the prospectus. Boring but safe. Rather than corrosion of basic democratic norms.

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                RevK :verified_r: »
                @revk@toot.me.uk

                I am stressed over online safety act shit extending to VPNs, and keep running through the rant in my head and not making the video because I'll sound insane.

                The world is going mad in so many ways.

                Benjamin Mako Hill »
                @mako@social.coop

                ICYMI: Finally blogged about an old paper (led by @groceryheist) that explains why people often engage in multiple groups with overlapping topic and membership, and which helps explain why competition between online groups seems to be rare. mako.cc/copyrighteous/why-do-p

                  Jim Killock »
                  @jim@social.openrightsgroup.org

                  Thank you, for failing to regulate in any way at all. Now Discord users must hand their data to a Peter-Thiel-of-Palantir-linked system.

                  pcgamer.com/software/platforms

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                    Matthew Fennell »
                    @matthew@fennell.dev

                    “We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns,”
                    Quoted from an internal memo by Meta about their surveillance glasses.

                    Wow!

                    Open Rights Group »
                    @openrightsgroup@social.openrightsgroup.org

                    We welcome today's UK High Court ruling on Palestine Action.

                    The proscription not only criminalised political but had far-reaching consequences for free speech online and counter terrorism programmes like .

                    The government must change the Terrorism Act so future ones don't make similar proscriptions with worse consequences.

                    With the ban still in place, we need to hear how Ofcom expects platforms to remove content.

                    openrightsgroup.org/press-rele

                      in reply to »

                      Zash »
                      @zash@fosstodon.org

                      @bert_hubert And out the door before CI has finished!

                        in reply to »

                        The Shark with the OV Chip »
                        @OV@blahaj.social

                        @bureaucrhaj my friend the professor solved that problem a while ago! Even @rosahaj in her younger days liked bikes!

                        Shak in back basket in backpack on bike

                        Alt...Shak in back basket in backpack on bike

                        Blahaj lying on bike

                        Alt...Blahaj lying on bike

                        Rosahaj in bag on bike sneaking our

                        Alt...Rosahaj in bag on bike sneaking our

                          ...

                          Tara Tarakiyee »
                          @tarakiyee@mastodon.online

                          RE: mastodon.social/@sovtechfund/1

                          If you're a FOSS maintainer working on standards or following them, we would love to hear from you! Please share and boost in your circles.

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                          Zash »
                          @zash@fosstodon.org

                          @EUCommission @bendirgo I for one look forward to some of that EU harmonization towards ISO 8601

                            Christine Lemmer-Webber »
                            @cwebber@social.coop

                            Wanted to see me speak at but couldn't make it? Here's the two talks I gave!

                            How to Level Up the Fediverse
                            (co-presented with ActivityPub co-author @tsyesika !) fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event

                            Lisp is Clay: the Power of Composable DSLs fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event

                            Can't get enough? Need more talks? We gave a bunch... 🧵

                              ...

                              postmarketOS »
                              @postmarketOS@social.treehouse.systems

                              Another FOSDEM and hackathon are in the rear-view mirror, and it is hard to find words to describe how amazingly productive and fun the experience was! We met so many people at the postmarketOS stand, in the FOSS on Mobile devroom and at dinners in the evening. As always it is fun to put faces to nicknames and to talk about the Linux Mobile ecosystem, and figure out how to improve it in person.

                              Find photos and what we got done in the blog post:

                              postmarketos.org/blog/2026/02/

                              Thanks to all who came by or contributed towards making this possible! :blobcat:

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                                James Baker »
                                @JamesBaker@social.openrightsgroup.org

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                                Matthew Fennell »
                                @matthew@fennell.dev

                                Matthew is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall Matthew be liable for any claim, damages or other liability, whether in an action of contract, tort or otherwise, arising from, out of or in connection with Matthew or the use or other dealings with Matthew.

                                James Baker »
                                @JamesBaker@social.openrightsgroup.org

                                Loads of FOI requests going into Ofcom about how they are monitoring VPN use. They are refusing to answer most of them. We know they are paying Apptopia and the contract is here contractsfinder.service.gov.uk

                                FOI responses can be read
                                ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/freed

                                Screen grab of Ofcom’s FOI response page

                                Alt...Screen grab of Ofcom’s FOI response page

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                                  Sebastian Krzyszkowiak »
                                  @dos@social.librem.one

                                  The first step forward 👀

                                  A Librem 5 phone displaying a terminal app with the output of "uname -a" command showing that it's running a 6.12.68-based kernel tree.

                                  Alt...A Librem 5 phone displaying a terminal app with the output of "uname -a" command showing that it's running a 6.12.68-based kernel tree.

                                    ...

                                    Transitous »
                                    @transitous@en.osm.town

                                    Following the Railways and Open Transport track at 2024 got started. Just two years later Transitous is mentioned in more than a fourth of the talks there today.

                                    fosdem.org/2026/schedule/track

                                    Isabelle de Robert presenting the Mobility Database

                                    Alt...Isabelle de Robert presenting the Mobility Database

                                    David Koňařík presenting the state of open data in Czech public transport.

                                    Alt...David Koňařík presenting the state of open data in Czech public transport.

                                    Adam Pioterek talking about Bimba.

                                    Alt...Adam Pioterek talking about Bimba.

                                    Jonah Brüchert talking about crowdsourcing delay information.

                                    Alt...Jonah Brüchert talking about crowdsourcing delay information.

                                      Software Freedom Conservancy »
                                      @conservancy@social.sfconservancy.org

                                      Hello from #FOSDEM26!

                                      We're excited to share that we have just $$26,594 left to raise in our match challenge!

                                      We're in the stand at FOSDEM today, keeping track of the number, so you can give online or even just give some cash in person and we'll keep updating the number throughout the day!

                                      Donations made to lower that number will be doubled!! Can we get to our goal here at #FOSDEM?


                                      https://sfconservancy.org/sustainer/

                                      Karen Sandler and Tracy Homer standing at the FOSDEM stand. The table has a green tablecloth and you can see an OpenWrt One and various stickers and informational materials on the table. Tracy and Karen are pointing towards a sign that says "Your donation matched! Left to go: $26,594, with a higher number crossed out.

                                      Alt...Karen Sandler and Tracy Homer standing at the FOSDEM stand. The table has a green tablecloth and you can see an OpenWrt One and various stickers and informational materials on the table. Tracy and Karen are pointing towards a sign that says "Your donation matched! Left to go: $26,594, with a higher number crossed out.

                                        Open Rights Group »
                                        @openrightsgroup@social.openrightsgroup.org

                                        We had our social in Manchester last night, catching up with supporters.

                                        Fancy another one?

                                        We’ll be in London next Monday. Come along, chat on and hear about our campaign for UK digital sovereignty.

                                        🗓️ 2 Feb
                                        🕕 6:30-8:30pm
                                        📍Newspeak House, E2 7DG (UK)

                                        Sign up now ⬇️

                                        openrightsgroup.org/events/org

                                          ...

                                          Karen Sandler »
                                          @karen@floss.social

                                          While unfortunate to have a cancellation, I'm excited to announce that we will have an "audience choice" session in the Legal & Policy Devroom at . You can either fill out the online form to suggest a topic, or just write it on a piece of paper and hand it to one of the Devroom organizers. We want to hear from you!

                                          fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event

                                          cc @kirschner, @bkuhn, @richardfontana, @tmarble, @lexelas

                                            Sam Whited »
                                            @sam@social.coop

                                            Where do I apply for one of these "paid agitator and insurrectionist" jobs I keep hearing so much about? I keep doing it for free so it would be nice to get a pay check.

                                            Daniel Gultsch »
                                            @daniel@gultsch.social

                                            The only relevant feature for any instant messaging app (or social app, for that matter) is: Are my friends using it? People will gladly overlook minor inconsistencies or missing features as long as they can communicate with their friends. We shouldn’t recommend as a stepping stone before Jabber/XMPP becomes "good enough," if goodness is defined by the number of people using it.

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                                              Christine Lemmer-Webber »
                                              @cwebber@social.coop

                                              help I've been programming in lisp for too long, I don't remember how to put commas after arguments anymore. I can't add a semicolon to the end of a line

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                                              Leah Rowe ist kein Roweboter »
                                              @libreleah@mas.to

                                              theguardian.com/world/live/202

                                              Rip up trade deals with the US. They're not worth the paper they're written on anymore.

                                              Repeal anti-circumvention laws; allow companies in every nation to reverse engineer US tech, and sell better, cheaper alternatives, even to Americans - this would create leverage over the USA.

                                              Cory Doctorow raised this idea at his 39c3 talk, recently. I agree. Those trade deals promise low/no tariffs and we let US tech walk all over us. Well now there is nothing to lose (never was).

                                              ...

                                              Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange: »
                                              @jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net

                                              Every time I install a new piece of infrastructure for my homelab as part of becoming more independent from Big Tech, I see a hint on the homepage of that new piece of infrastructure that mentions they received sponsorship from @nlnet almost as if NLNet has been silently preparing Europe for with Open Source projects ;) I like!

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                                                Matthew Fennell »
                                                @matthew@fennell.dev

                                                The Greater #London #LinuxUserGroup is having a #meetup at Kings Cross Tandoori on 24 Jan at 19:00.

                                                If a casual chat about and over a curry sounds fun, please come join us! Just reply to me by the end of 21 January so I know numbers for the booking.

                                                Time: 24 Jan, 19:00

                                                Address:

                                                Kings Cross Tandoori
                                                341 Gray’s Inn Road
                                                WC1X 8PX

                                                Hope to see you there, and any questions feel free to ask.


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