Eskating cyclist, gamer and enjoyer of anime. Probably an artist. Also I code sometimes, pretty much just to mod titanfall 2 tho.

Introverted, yet I enjoy discussion to a fault.

  • 54 Posts
  • 2.07K Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: June 13th, 2023

help-circle



  • Yes. But you didn’t.

    Knowing what something does is important.

    If you install a piece of software expecting it to do something it actually doesn’t, that can leave a security gap.

    I wasn’t just correcting you. I was making sure you knew that if you install a “firewall” it won’t do the thing you’re looking for.

    As for an actual answer, most distros will already ask you to confirm if you try to run a random appimage you downloaded.

    But you shouldn’t need to do that in the first place. On linux, there’s not really any need to go running random programs downloaded using your web browser, since you can just download software from trusted reposotories that aren’t going to host malware to begin with.

    Unlike on windows… You don’t need to risk it in the first place.






  • Almost everything you do on desktop linux is already “outside the core os”.

    This is mostly relevant for server software configuration, where you should run services with as few system privileges as possible. Preferably you isolate them entirely with a separate user with access to only the bare minimum it needs.

    This way, if a service is compromised, it can’t be used to access the core system, because it never had such access in the first place. Only what it needed to do its own thing.

    By default, nothing you run (web browser, steam, spotify, whatever) should be “running as admin”.

    The only time you’ll do that on desktop linux, is when doing stuff that requires it. Such as installing a new app, or updating the system. Stuff that modifies the core os and hence needs access.

    Basically, unless you needed to enter you password to run something, then it’s already “outside” the core os.







  • What do you mean?

    Any post, on any service, is technically accessible on any other instance, running any service. Actual implementation, varies.

    Unless you run into it in the feed, the way to find a given post is to enter the original instance url for it into search on the instance from which you want to interact with it.

    To upvote this post, for example, even from an instance that it hasn’t federated to, I can enter the url to this post on its host instance into search, and the other instance will fetch the post, allowing me to vote and/or comment.

    Same goes for mastodon toots. Get the url, put into search, upvote, comment, whatever.


  • Depends.

    Items get sent around all the time. In-network, copies are interchangeable, and the system balances them out among the libraries. AFAIK there’s no particular need for a copy to go back to the same shelf, so it doesn’t happen.

    If no-one is looking for a certain item, it wont move again unless someone asks, or if the library needs space for something else.

    It’s kinda nice. Every time I visit a library it can have an entirely new selection. With recent requests to that location which have been returned again, or just returns, appearing on the shelves.



  • Sure.

    Items are grouped by type (games, video, music, tools, devices, fact, fiction, for adults, for kids, comics, audiobooks) etc. Each library may subdivide things in slightly different ways, due to the fact that they vary massively in size. I think some do use DDC for some subset of their inventory. But HelMet has a lot of media and items that do no fit into the DDC system.

    You can certainly find something based on how things are sorted, and if you know its there.

    But since the collection is region-wide, you don’t necessarily know that. Step one to finding a copy of something is to look up what libraries currently have any. When you look that up, the shelf location is right there as well.

    Many locations simply number their shelves, and then further subdivide them by a point value, and then sort alphabetically.

    A Harry Potter book for example, could be on shelf 86, section 11063, by “HAR”.

    Each entire shelf is usually in alphabetical order overall, too, but the numbers make it really easy to zero in on exactly where a given item can be found.

    But since any book might move to any other library, at any time (due to requests or due to borrowers returning books to a different library to where they picked them up), there is the simple problem that a location can run out of space in a given section. Hence they need to be able to put items on any shelf, and still have it trackable by the system.

    Otherwise they can end up having to shift hundreds of books over to make space for just a couple more items to go in the right spot in the order.


  • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyztoLemmy Shitpost@lemmy.worldLibraries are cool
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    24
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    9 days ago

    I suspect that depends.

    At least at finnish HelMet libraries, you can just walk in and take any book out of any shelf, and sit down to read it. Once you’re done, you put it back in the exact same spot.

    If you don’t remember where that was, then you can hand it to a librarian to re-shelve. They will check the inventory to see where it should go.

    You can actually also do that yourself, since the same system is available for finding any given book currently in the library, but it works just as well for putting something back.

    All of the above is allowed without signing up for a library card.

    If you want to bring a book home, that’s when you go to the checkout, scan your library card, and the barcode on the book. This removes it from current inventory and logs you as the current borrower.

    When you bring it back, you scan the book again and leave it on the shelf by the returns scanner. Because the book was removed from the inventory, it wont have a place on a shelf yet. Also, because the inventory of any one library here is everchanging, things may have moved around.

    This system also allows you return books to a different library from where you borrowed them. Since the HelMet libraries in the capital city region all interoperate, they share collections, and the location and lending of every individual item is tracked across them all. Across four cities and 66 libraries, and even a couple library buses that visit schools and more remote spots on a schedule.

    You can even browse the inventory online. See where copies of what are available, what’s available but currently lent out, request something be moved to a library close to you so you can read it, or reserve a spot in line to borrow something popular.

    Kinda just gushing about our libraries. If they don’t have something, HelMet does intralibrary lending. They will get a certain book or item for you from another library network entirely (even from abroad), lend it out to you, and once you’re done, return it back to the providing network.

    They do their darndest to make physical media as accessible as the internet, and it’s freaking free (for the most part, some things have a fee).

    That’s how it should work everywhere.