Tootfinder

For today's #FreeSoftwareAdvent here's a tiny tool we have used in our pipeline: pyRenamer is a simple app to rename/renumber a bunch of files.
Unfortunately it's pretty much an abandoned fork of a Python 2 app that has been abandoned for even longer ago. It still works and for renumbering there's no easier solution at hand. But for file name search & replace …

For a project to be truly #OpenSource (not to mention #FreeSoftware), it really needs to:
1. Have a *public* issue tracker that enables you to browse and search through issue reports *without* having to create an account.
2. Accept issue reports, with no strings attached. Yes, expecting registration is fine. Yes, expecting some effort to file a good bug report is fine. No, expecting people to ask permission, donate or otherwise put a lot of extra work to report a problem is not.
3. Do not close issue reports as "stale". Yes, it's fine to close a report if you really believe it was fixed, or if you asked for something and the user didn't reply for a long time. It's not fine to run a bot expecting users to jump every month so that the issue report that *you are ignoring* doesn't get closed.
If a project doesn't meet these, it's just a glorified throwaway code.

IN 2026, The leaders of America’s (former) trading partners are going to have to grapple with the political consequences of tit-for-tat tariffs.
A tariff is a tax paid by consumers, and if there’s one thing the past four years have taught us, it’s that the public will not forgive a politician who presides over a period of rising prices, no matter what the cause.
US Trade Dominance Will Soon Begin to Crack
Savvy countries will discover there’s a way to mitigate the harm inc…

In this episode, we speak with Mary C. Turner, a registered nurse and a member of the Council of Presidents of National Nurses United,
the largest nurse’s union in the US,
which is forcefully calling for the abolition of ICE.
https://therealnews.com/nurses-union-a

Largest nurses union calls to abolish ICE after Alex Pretti killing: ‘They messed with the wrong profession’
“What Alex did that day was pure instinct, pure professional behavior,” NNU President Mary C. Turner tells us. “That’s just what you do when you're a nurse.“

Sticking with Sequoia for the foreseeable future.
#IWeep6Colors @… https://ma…

For #FreeSoftwareAdvent I'd like to post about open source tools that we're using in our #VFXPipeline.
On Dec. 5th let's start with #OpenImageIO (

I think the most neglected thing about helping others is that you should actually ask what kind of help they need. "Helping" without actually understanding their needs is inefficient at best, and outward harmful at worse.
While this is an important thought in general, it also applies to creating patches for #FreeSoftware.

Federal immigration officers are asserting sweeping power to ❌forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant,
according to an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press,
⚠️ marking a sharp reversal of longstanding guidance meant to respect constitutional limits on government searches.
The memo authorizes ICE officers to use force to enter a residence based solely on a narrow administrative warrant to arrest someone
with…

Memo tells ICE officers they can enter homes without a warrant
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press reveals that the agency allows immigration officers to forcibly enter homes to make arrests without a judicial warrant. This change reverses previous guidance and raises concerns about constitutional protections against illegal searches. The memo, signed by ICE’s acting director, states that administrative warrants are sufficient for forced entry if there’s a final order of removal. This policy could face legal cha…

#FreeSoftwareAdvent for today: #Ansible
It's what I'm using to provision and update our renderfarm, workstations and servers. Instead of hacking shell scripts to install apps and edit config files on every new workstation you write yaml files ("playbooks") that get e…

Let's get this straight: it is entirely normal for a #OpenSource project to accumulate bug reports over time. They're not a thing to be ashamed of.
On the contrary, if you see a nontrivial project with a very small number of bug reports, it usually means one of the following:
a. you've hit a malicious fake,
b. the project is very young and it doesn't have many users (so it's likely buggy),
c. the project is actively shoving issues under the carpet.
None of that is a good sign. You don't want to use that (except for b., if you're ready to be the beta tester).
#FreeSoftware #Gentoo #GitHub #Python