Posts by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
(DIR) Post #At1cyTqjCOo6LI0Ez2 by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-04-12T19:59:38Z
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@futurebird "we brought back dinosaurs but they keep dying because we can't recreate their microbiome" is the bleak realistic twist on Jurassic Park I wasn't expecting to think about today.
(DIR) Post #AtW24SmtNlqyrdnqWe by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-04-27T12:02:08Z
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@futurebird given how little science, law and history they appear to have learned, I don't hold out much hope...
(DIR) Post #AtWFT1WlAfNQxhIaB6 by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-04-27T14:32:18Z
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@futurebird any regular grid is out, right, because many locations would look the same? So you'd be looking at aperiodic tilings. I think even these have some symmetries. But let's say you know which way is up (so rotational symmetries are out) and you know what the tiling looks like at the origin, say, then maybe there's a way?
(DIR) Post #AuH7qgvPjbNbjFJt6v by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-05-19T20:45:55Z
4 likes, 1 repeats
@mcc most software documentation employs an unreliable narrator, so why not let them experiment with other literary tropes?
(DIR) Post #AuIQAZhkHZ4lSYW7xw by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-05-20T20:18:21Z
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@futurebird this is as good as etymology as the several extant theories about where the word comes from
(DIR) Post #AucG8Mjn8iKyN3pGfQ by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-05-30T09:59:51Z
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@futurebird bookmarking this so I can come back later to see if you found the title...
(DIR) Post #AunXxEJS3fYSyCu8US by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-06-04T16:56:59Z
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A stopped clock is right twice a day, except when the clocks go back, in which case it could be right three times a day, or when the clocks go forward when it could only be right once. Unless it's a digital 24 hour clock where it is right only once a day, (possibly twice when clocks go forward, possibly zero times when the go back).
(DIR) Post #AunXxFogT28FdMWaoK by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-06-04T16:58:10Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
A stopped clock on a moving vehicle that crosses timezones: all bets are off.
(DIR) Post #AunXxNv0LPwQlHXkm0 by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-06-04T19:02:25Z
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Timezones and daylight savings: ruining a perfectly good proverb.
(DIR) Post #Av5nQb4mtVKZwdVf5k by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-06-13T13:42:14Z
2 likes, 2 repeats
The Addams family meet up with a Navy officer.The daughter says "hello Commodore".Wednesday, it's Captain.
(DIR) Post #Av5nQitNpmxiBaEfQW by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-06-13T13:45:22Z
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Posting this on a Friday was a mistake. I'm going to have to boost this next Wednesday.
(DIR) Post #AvnVQl7QQp440e5OYC by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-07-04T18:05:27Z
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@futurebird I visited Boston in the early 2000s and they were talking about the big dig then! Amazing it's still a subject for discussion.
(DIR) Post #Aw675FCnBS203P2jXk by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-07-12T11:05:58Z
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Was reminded of this paper a minute ago, and I just read it again. Damn, Edsger Dijkstra weirdly relevant for a 40 year old paper."The question [of whether machines can think] is just as relevant and just as meaningful as the question whether submarines can swim.""if computers could amplify intelligence, they could amplify stupidity as well.""The most crazy thing of all this is that, in all the more spectacular cases, the failure has been predicted, quite convincingly and well in advance. Apparently, the lure of the dream is still so strong that people become to deaf for warnings: the computer represents Babbage’s Dream Come True, and no one wants to hear that the Dream has deteriorated into a fully transistorized nightmare.""I refer to the wide-spread, but in general unchallenged, belief that making something “computer-aided” amounts to making it better. Computer-aided design, computer-aided management, computer-aided composition, computer-aided manufacturing, computer-assisted learning, computerized examinations, you name it. Under no circumstances the dogma of improvement should be accepted without challenge: in no time we would have computerized jurisdiction."https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD08xx/EWD867.html
(DIR) Post #AxXIeeRyAtxazCaPfk by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-08-25T12:00:13Z
0 likes, 2 repeats
Gourmet vegan fruity meerkats
(DIR) Post #AyXShMRXZlsgzlJRQG by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-09-24T17:55:45Z
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@futurebird did/do people use morse code to store (rather than transmit) data?
(DIR) Post #AyXUd4CxdEF1BpZb84 by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-09-24T18:17:25Z
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@futurebird oh I love the fact morse code is a variable length code. It's more efficient than way: more common letters have shorter codes, and this messages are overall on average shorter. It's neat.But yeah I think you're right that morse code is an important step in the history of storage, even if it wasn't, itself, much of a storage medium.
(DIR) Post #AytbPAKN3ZRPGuTZbc by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-10-05T10:16:58Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@futurebird now I just want to categorise shakespeare plays into Catholic plays and protestant plays. Like twelfth night is catholic. Lear is Protestant. Timon of Athens: protestant. Most of the comedies are catholic. The tempest is Protestant.
(DIR) Post #Azs727T4TS2OtFLk7k by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-11-03T14:54:02Z
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@futurebird I wrote a python script to find words that are valid hex. That might be useful for finding interesting word problems...
(DIR) Post #B0BJ0vzKuwCICVSVA8 by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-11-12T21:07:48Z
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@futurebird my career trajectory has been a systematic meander.
(DIR) Post #B18ilTVwHG5hgXfXFI by Scmbradley@mathstodon.xyz
2025-12-11T13:04:19Z
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@futurebird I don't think they're interchangeable terms. It feels like "enshittification" is a broader term. I also have problems with that term, for different reasons though. I think it obscures who is doing the enshittification and we could instead call it "companies prioritising share price over user needs". Not as catchy, I'll admit.