Alex Willmer

Alex Willmer

@alex.moreati.org.uk

Python and Ansible developer. Recovering Sherlock. Armchair supervillain. Pun usually intended. He/they. https://moreati.org.uk 🐘 https://social.moreati.org.uk/@alex

63 followers85 following306 posts

Alex Willmer
@alex.moreati.org.uk

CVE-2003-0528: Defence Grid XP: weak default PIN grants full access Defence Grid XP radars contain a default PIN, allowing attackers to invade and enslave the entire population or kidnap any popular music act.

Alex Willmer reposted

Matthew Martin
@mistersql.bsky.social

Replying to @alex.moreati.org.uk

Pi's system is a maintainer replies lgtm to a issue requesting permission to Vouch is a maintainer-controlled allowlist with community nomination stored in vouch\.td github.com/mitchellh/vo... human.json is some sort of Indieweb thing for granting by trust files on websites & the graph shape

github.comGitHub - mitchellh/vouch: A community trust management system based on explicit vouches to participate.A community trust management system based on explicit vouches to participate. - mitchellh/vouch
Alex Willmer
@alex.moreati.org.uk

>>> strtoolz.replace_exactly('A man, a plan, a canal, Panama', 'an', 'AN', count=5) ... ValueError: Only 4 occurrences could be replaced, required 5 >>> strtoolz.replace_nth('A man, a plan, a canal, Panama', 'an', 'AN', n=1) 'A man, a plAN, a canal, Panama'

Alex Willmer
@alex.moreati.org.uk

Python's `slice()` built-in can do those fiddly `seq[start:]`, `seq[:stop:step]` calculations >>> slice(None, 30004).indices(len('abc')) (0, 3, 1)

Alex Willmer
@alex.moreati.org.uk

I went down a rabbit hole & now find myself adding `str.replacen()` to CPython - like `str.replace()` but it also returns the number of replacements, ala `re.subn()` >>> 'abc'.replacen('', 'X') ('XaXbXcX', 4)

Alex Willmer
@alex.moreati.org.uk

I'm finding polls in group chat a good way to organise a group meeting, particularly when participants can see votes and recast/edit their votes. For a fixed date, options : I'm going; I might go; I can't/won't go; Unsure. For choosing dates/times, multiple choice with an option for each slot.

Alex Willmer
@alex.moreati.org.uk

This difference between str.find() and regex search surprised me >>> ''.find('', 1, 0) # No matches -1 >>> re.compile('').search('', pos=1, endpos=0) # Surprising match <re.Match object; span=(0, 0), match=''> #Python

Alex Willmer
@alex.moreati.org.uk

Today I received `<small spreadsheet saved by Excel>.xlsx`, it's 9.2 MB. An unedited copy `<small spreadsheet saved by LibreOffice Calc>.xlsx` is 28 KB. There's approx 120 rows. I'm equal parts impressed and horrified by Excel's feat.

Alex Willmer
@alex.moreati.org.uk

Ansible tip: Gathering facts can take 70+ seconds on macOS 15+ targets. Gathering `ansible_facts.fqdn` triggers local network privacy protections. Gather a subset of facts to avoid this delay, e.g. - hosts: all gather_facts: true gather_subset: ["!all", "!min", "distribution"] #Ansible

Alex Willmer
@alex.moreati.org.uk

`ansible_facts.fqdn` is in the facts category `platform`. Other categories (e.g. `service_mgr`) depend on `platform`, so will indirectly trigger gathering `ansible_facts.fqdn`. I encountered this while optimising the test suite for Mitogen github.com/mitogen-hq/m... #Mitogen

github.comCI: Speedup macOS Ansible tests 6× by skipping ansible_facts.fqdn by moreati · Pull Request #1551 · mitogen-hq/mitogenFor ansible_facts.fqdn ansible.module_utils.facts.system.platform calls socket.getfqdn() which calls socket.gethostbyaddr(). On macOS &gt;= 15 this call can take 70 seconds to return, if the binary...
Alex Willmer
@alex.moreati.org.uk

My Android phone has been running hot and with higher battery consumption the last week or so. One suspect is scheduled WhatsApp backups continuously failing/retrying, following an update to Samsung One UI 8.5. I've disabled the backup for now.

Alex Willmer reposted

Trey Hunner
@trey.io

Did you know that map()/filter() were added to Python 6 years before comprehensions? For years I've wanted an easier way to look up facts like that. Now I have a way! pym.dev/since It's also available as a CLI tool via PyPI uvx sincewhen 'sum()'

pym.devSince When? Which Python Version Added ThatPaste Python and see which version added each feature it uses, or look up a single built-in, module, or piece of syntax. Dated from archived documentation, not from memory.
Alex Willmer
@alex.moreati.org.uk

#TIL In a systemd foo.service file that uses EnvironmentFile=/some/file the key=val lines of /some/file are expanded, but they aren't *recursively* expanded. So ``` foo=42 ``` works fine, but ``` foo=42 bar=$foo ``` results in bar having the literal value "$foo", not "42".

Alex Willmer
@alex.moreati.org.uk

I recently switched to FUTO keyboard and I like it, but I just discovered First Direct doesn't. Their app refuses to start if FUTO is the default keyboard, with an explicit access denied screen that lists FUTO. My bank choice and/or my Android install may not survive this encounter.

Alex Willmer reposted

Whoa 🤯 in Slow-Mo
@0lsi.bsky.social

@carbonbrief.org A new analysis found that, for the first time ever, more new #ElectricVehicles have been sold over a 12-month period than gas cars in the 🇬🇧 UK. In the year leading up to May 2026, consumers purchased 516,490 new battery-electric vehicles, compared to 504,010 new gas cars.🚘

carbonbrief.orgAnalysis: UK sales of electric vehicles just overtook petrol cars for the first time - Carbon BriefFor the first time in the UK, more new electric vehicles (EVs) have been sold over a 12-month period than petrol cars, according to Carbon Brief analysis.
Alex Willmer
@alex.moreati.org.uk

Life advice: I find it's easier and safer to get parcels delivered to a locker or a click-and-collect location, instead of my (urban) home address. This is easiest for Amazon, eBay, and high street chains - but you can often also redirect a parcel using the tracking link from the delivery company.

Alex Willmer reposted

Veni Kunche
@veni.dev

I graduated in 2003. I didn't realize the percentage of women in CS declined so much right after

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science

sometimes I wonder if people in other fields have any clue what we go through as women in computational fields... (graph from: www.npr.org/sections/mon...)