@funkylab @raymaccarthy @djlink I mostly use server SSDs, but my understanding is most SATA SSDs from the vendors which make their own flash have had some level of patrol scrub for years (at least since the introduction of QLC). After all, on SATA, the host-to-drive link is the tightest bottleneck by far. SSD-controller-to-flash timeslots are basically free.

@funkylab @raymaccarthy @djlink Reports of tape or conventional hard drives lasting decades are largely survivorship bias. Nobody talks about the tapes which decayed from poor storage or the disks with phenolic boards which crumble when you look at them. They *are likely* to retain usable data for longer than SSDs *are likely* to retain usable data, but there’s huge overlap between those curves.

The only real way to store data long-term and ensure it remains readable is to test it periodically (e.g, a ZFS scrub). Media failures are inevitable. The best approach is designing for this and testing to catch the faults before they overcome the fault tolerance of the system.

@funkylab @raymaccarthy @djlink Nice SSDs do have a sort of patrol scrub. They read the pages and measure how much of the error correction capacity is used to get useful data out. If it passes a certain threshold, the data is rewritten. It’s a relatively slow process, since the vendors don’t want it stealing IOPS from the workload. The ones I’ve seen take a few days to check everything.

That’s the only real way applied power affects the data retention of an SSD.

@futurebird Fidlock’s SNAP 25 Electrified is *serious* overkill for keeping gloves together, but it’s a magneto-mechanical fastener with an integrated switch. They offer closed-when-fastened or open-when-fastened models, but the signal is only available on one side. Wouldn’t work for this directly, but could be a starting point for research. Here’s a datasheet for one line:

https://www.fidlock.com/components/sites/default/files/Infosheet-F8043-SNAP-buckle-25-electrified.pdf

@mrhamel Okay, fine, I left the word “usable” out. Linux lacks *usable* ZFS. Which, to me, is *lacking ZFS*.

I don’t have the patience for the traditional Linux “Tamagotchi mode”.

@mrhamel @mwl I don’t do Linux on metal because it lacks ZFS (also for other reasons), so the only containers in which I run things are FreeBSD jails and illumos zones. Why would I build or deploy anything which depends on Linux syscall translation or userspace in either of those?

@mwl Or root-on-btrfs so you at least get CoW everywhere, even if they are managed in radically different ways.

But yes, root-on-ZFS on Linux is absolutely a mess. It’s the biggest reason I don’t consider Linux for anything I build and have to maintain.

@chewie @danirabbit Learning how to use spices also helps tremendously. I recently discovered lemon ginger rice. Chickpeas take spices a lot like chicken. Curries, tikka masala, vindaloo, North African tagines, and more generally do really well with chickpeas instead of meat.

@thomholwerda @danirabbit Longer lives and more space to roam actually makes meat *more* tasty, since the muscles get a chance to actually develop. It costs more because the livestock-feed-to-saleable-meat throughput of any given piece of land is much lower. One of the butchers I buy from (Porter Road) specifically pitches this as the reason higher prices are worth paying.

@oschonrock @PeterSommerlad @cstross This gets at a particularly dumb part of “banning VPNs”: the VPN is just the transport mechanism the proxy service uses.

No, we’re not a VPN, we’re a SOCKS proxy.

No, SOCKS is banned now, so we shut that down. We do offer a QUIC proxy, though.

And so on.

@gb0n @alice Well, you see, when two padlocks love each other very much, they use their shackles to give each other a special kind of hug …

@SecurityWriter A while ago, some authentication token application asked me if I was enjoying it.

Nobody would use this application of their own free will. It’s only ever used because your workplace or bank or whatever puts it in the way of doing what you actually want to do. The best rating they can ever hope for is “inoffensive”. And interrupting me further to ask for a rating *makes it offensive*!