Ross A. Baker
banner
rossabaker.com
Ross A. Baker
@rossabaker.com
Never daunted.

#Rustlang #Python #Typelevel #Emacs #Nix #Indieweb

Languages: en,de,es

🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://social.rossabaker.com/@ross, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact
When I was new to jazz, I started with Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue." I knew of Coltrane – I played the sax in school – but I learned the names Cannonball Adderley and Bill Evans. I found their albums, explored their side players, and immersed myself. Decades later, that journey continues.

This […]
Original post on social.rossabaker.com
social.rossabaker.com
November 13, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Watching AI sloppeteers chase newer sloppeteers off their unwanted GitHub issues, like squirrels protecting their favorite walnut tree at the park. In neither case is working software being produced, but nature always entertains.

#github
November 10, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Reposted by Ross A. Baker
Met some new coworkers on my last office trip.

#Puppies
November 9, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Reposted by Ross A. Baker
November 9, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Reposted by Ross A. Baker
[uspol]

This weight presses upon me every day. I am flooded with stories. There are so many I cannot remember them all; cannot keep straight who was gassed, beaten, abducted, or shot. I write to leave a record, to stare at the track of the tornado which tears through our city. I write to leave […]
Original post on woof.group
woof.group
November 8, 2025 at 7:26 PM
140 minutes of soccer yesterday. We needed just one goal that would not come – or was called offside when it it did.

Freed up my afternoon for the baroque performance by the ISO I thought I'd miss. The nice thing about being oversubscribed is having a fallback plan.

#youthsoccer #indysymphony
November 2, 2025 at 9:05 PM
When all hope seems lost, never forget: uBlockOrigin supports XPath.

```
github.com##:xpath(//div[contains(text(), "Mention @copilot")]/..)
```

#ublockorigin #xpath #copilot
October 29, 2025 at 2:35 AM
I joined the Python Software Foundation today. In a tech world of donors to vainglorious ballrooms, the PSF continues to stand for people. Let's show them our appreciation.

https://pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-funding-statement.html

#python
The PSF has withdrawn $1.5 million proposal to US government grant program
In January 2025, the PSF submitted a proposal to the US government National Science Foundation under the Safety, Security, and Privacy of Open Source Ecosystems program to address structural vulnerabilities in Python and PyPI. It was the PSF’s first time applying for government funding, and navigating the intensive process was a steep learning curve for our small team to climb. Seth Larson, PSF Security Developer in Residence, serving as Principal Investigator (PI) with Loren Crary, PSF Deputy Executive Director, as co-PI, led the multi-round proposal writing process as well as the months-long vetting process. We invested our time and effort because we felt the PSF’s work is a strong fit for the program and that the benefit to the community if our proposal were accepted was considerable. We were honored when, after many months of work, our proposal was recommended for funding, particularly as only 36% of new NSF grant applicants are successful on their first attempt. We became concerned, however, when we were presented with the terms and conditions we would be required to agree to if we accepted the grant. These terms included affirming the statement that we “do not, and will not during the term of this financial assistance award, operate any programs that advance or promote DEI, or discriminatory equity ideology in violation of Federal anti-discrimination laws.” This restriction would apply not only to the security work directly funded by the grant, **but to any and all activity of the PSF as a whole**. Further, violation of this term gave the NSF the right to “claw back” previously approved and transferred funds. This would create a situation where money we’d already spent could be taken back, which would be an enormous, open-ended financial risk. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are core to the PSF’s values, as committed to in our mission statement: > _The mission of the Python Software Foundation is to promote, protect, and advance the Python programming language, and to support and facilitate the growth of**a diverse and international community** of Python programmers._ Given the value of the grant to the community and the PSF, we did our utmost to get clarity on the terms and to find a way to move forward in concert with our values. We consulted our NSF contacts and reviewed decisions made by other organizations in similar circumstances, particularly The Carpentries. In the end, however, the PSF simply can’t agree to a statement that we won’t operate any programs that “advance or promote” diversity, equity, and inclusion, as it would be a betrayal of our mission and our community. We’re disappointed to have been put in the position where we had to make this decision, because we believe our proposed project would offer invaluable advances to the Python and greater open source community, protecting millions of PyPI users from attempted supply-chain attacks. The proposed project would create new tools for automated proactive review of all packages uploaded to PyPI, rather than the current process of reactive-only review. These novel tools would rely on capability analysis, designed based on a dataset of known malware. Beyond just protecting PyPI users, the outputs of this work could be transferable for all open source software package registries, such as NPM and Crates.io, improving security across multiple open source ecosystems. In addition to the security benefits, the grant funds would have made a big difference to the PSF’s budget. The PSF is a relatively small organization, operating with an annual budget of around $5 million per year, with a staff of just 14. $1.5 million over two years would have been quite a lot of money for us, and easily the largest grant we’d ever received. Ultimately, however, the value of the work and the size of the grant were not more important than practicing our values and retaining the freedom to support every part of our community. The PSF Board voted unanimously to withdraw our application. Giving up the NSF grant opportunity—along with inflation, lower sponsorship, economic pressure in the tech sector, and global/local uncertainty and conflict—means the PSF needs financial support now more than ever. We are incredibly grateful for any help you can offer. If you're already a PSF member or regular donor, you have our deep appreciation, and we urge you to share your story about why you support the PSF. Your stories make all the difference in spreading awareness about the mission and work of the PSF. How to support the PSF: * Become a Member: When you sign up as a Supporting Member of the PSF, you become a part of the PSF. You’re eligible to vote in PSF elections, using your voice to guide our future direction, and you help us sustain what we do with your annual support. * Donate: Your donation makes it possible to continue our work supporting Python and its community, year after year. * Sponsor: If your company uses Python and isn’t yet a sponsor, send them our sponsorship page or reach out to sponsors@python.org today. The PSF is ever grateful for our sponsors, past and current, and we do everything we can to make their sponsorships beneficial and rewarding.
pyfound.blogspot.com
October 27, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Watching people hang holiday lights among the fall colors, and thinking how much more I enjoy the latter and what that predicts about my other preferences.
October 26, 2025 at 6:02 PM
This morning, I am announcing the RIIP (Rewrite It In Piet) Initiative. Has the old stack you trained on, hired for, and know how to operate gone stale? Have you been through the TIOBE Top 100 looking for something nicer and found a blemish in each? RIIP!

https://esolangs.org/wiki/Piet

Are you […]
Original post on social.rossabaker.com
social.rossabaker.com
October 22, 2025 at 12:48 PM
President Bartlet tires of discussing which language to use on the next microservice.
October 21, 2025 at 8:54 PM
When some of your meetings are every x Tuesdays and others are every y and others are the nth Tuesday of the month, eventually they align like planets. This is why ancient astronomers invented caffeine.
October 21, 2025 at 1:34 PM
I like my disks like I like my dog's ears: floppy.
October 21, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Reposted by Ross A. Baker
I like the days leading up to peak fall colors. Reds and yellows are lovely, but green is still beautiful, too.

#Autumn #FallColors
October 19, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Reposted by Ross A. Baker
The family can't agree on salsa heat, color, or cilantro, so I make lots.

#Salsa
October 19, 2025 at 2:23 AM
If we're having a conversation and you respond with AI, you may still be in a conversation, but it is no longer with me.
October 18, 2025 at 1:06 AM
Reposted by Ross A. Baker
October 15, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Reposted by Ross A. Baker
[Barbecued meats]

Brisket is coming along slowly, but here's the appetizer platter.

#BBQ #PorkRibs #BeefRibs #RibTips #ChickenDrumstick
October 15, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Two couples got into an aggressive shooshing fight at the symphony last night. One man got up and looked like he was going to throw hands, then seemed to forget why he stood up. It was like an awful Slapshot sequel.
October 12, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by Ross A. Baker
Red-spotted admiral

#Butterfly
October 9, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Reposted by Ross A. Baker
October 9, 2025 at 1:34 AM
New project to share and compose Nix devshells:

https://codeberg.org/rossabaker/shell-game/

I'm a fan of Numtide's devshells, but have struggled to fold my ad hoc definitions for unflaked projects into published devshells for my projects with flakes. This fixes it for me.

#nix #devshells […]
Original post on social.rossabaker.com
social.rossabaker.com
October 8, 2025 at 3:46 PM
[Microsoft GitHub dark patterns]

Getting notifications in multiple organizations for "Member requests for GitHub Add-Ons", referring to Copilot Business. No member is identified, because no member is requesting it. The choices are:

- Buy Copilot Business
- See how it works

There is no way to […]
Original post on social.rossabaker.com
social.rossabaker.com
October 2, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Someone sassed me today, so I have sassed back with an 88x31.

#indianapolis
October 1, 2025 at 1:44 AM
The CEO of Anthropic casually estimates a 25% chance of doom from his product, and we're supposed to use it? What the fuck?

#anthropic
September 29, 2025 at 6:55 PM