Posts by mathew@universeodon.com
(DIR) Post #AWzYTwMfrbdCVEk13o by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-06-23T15:51:22Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
2010: Reddit is the new Digg.2023: Reddit is the new Digg.
(DIR) Post #AX65uUm5UyP8FSKeRM by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-06-26T22:15:10Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@xerz There's also a world where IBM started working on low power CPU designs about 5 years earlier than in our reality, so Apple didn't have to switch to Intel, and OpenPOWER is now taking over the world.
(DIR) Post #AXlZ5gaJRj0poRx4dc by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-07-16T22:46:41Z
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@fcktheworld587 @Benfell @kkarhan @Manigarm If voting wasn't going to change shit, the Tories wouldn't have spent so much effort introducing voter ID rules to discourage people from voting.
(DIR) Post #AYXUiJWFDQJcgtbHZw by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-08-09T01:43:48Z
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@vik @BrentToderian If it was about safety a lot more people would be driving Smart cars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEQosZzXtZg
(DIR) Post #AZ8go5i4YzzH2THuHw by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-08-26T23:54:16Z
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@clive I recently got rid of my two drawer filing cabinet. I discovered that once I threw out things like manuals for toasters I no longer have, there was so little important paper left that it would all fit into a document box with room to spare.It helps that a few years back I bought a good document scanner. When I get some paper, I generally scan it to OCRed PDF, drop the file into a searchable database, and shred the paper.For last year's taxes, I found two paper documents I had been mailed (For taxes I keep originals for a few years after scanning). Everything else was PDF to start with.Long books were the first thing I abandoned paper for. I'd much rather read on an e-ink screen of a waterproof reader than have to deal with an 1,100 page paperback.
(DIR) Post #AZmZ9PgxrUhH64KRay by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-06-21T16:34:06Z
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The phenomenon described in this article applies to programming languages too, yet vanishingly few language communities make any attempt to control complexity. Go, Scheme and Lua are three I can think of that do. While I don't always agree with the decisions made to turn things down, I appreciate the necessity of making those decisions.If you just add every feature that's requested and seems reasonable, you end up with C++, JavaScript or Scala.http://ignorethecode.net/blog/2010/02/02/removing-features/ #golang #scheme #lua
(DIR) Post #AaYSNwvFvtyjlUgi1Y by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-10-07T14:37:11Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@MagentaRocks @holyramenempire @rvawonk South Africa tried race-targeted bioweapons development for decades without much success. The problem is that racial genome differences are tiny compared to the natural variation in a population of a given race. (Which in turn is because race is an invented category based on perceptions, with no scientific validity.)https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12019240/
(DIR) Post #AaYSNytYbBo9snuNea by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-10-07T14:39:41Z
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@rvawonk @holyramenempire @MagentaRocks That said, the technology is so much more advanced now, what with CRISPR and the like, so there’s a definite non-zero risk.
(DIR) Post #AawICk2c86PyOlIysS by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-10-19T20:35:30Z
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@wjmaggos @johnshirley2024 The reporter for that story is on Mastodon as @drewharwell and the Washington Post links from his profile to his Mastodon account (and not to any Xitter account he may still have).
(DIR) Post #AbF1ewuIkBZCFVHNVQ by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-10-28T20:24:12Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@cstross @angusm Those new Minis are weird to me, because they imply that at some point someone at BMW said "Hear me out: what if we made a Mini, but made it huge?" and everyone thought it sounded like a reasonable idea. It's like if they decided to make a Range Rover low rider, or an affordable Ferrari with a 2CV engine, or an Electric Hummer. Oh, wait...
(DIR) Post #AbFr82zQIrU1ArJ7g0 by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-10-28T20:15:37Z
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@escarpment @RD4Anarchy @HeavenlyPossum @3x10to8mps @aral "States, though artificial, are more like natural phenomena than you allow."Serious question: Are there any examples of states existing in the natural world, other than among humans?I ask because when people talk about (say) homosexuality as being unnatural, the evidence is available that it's a natural phenomenon, in that it occurs across many species; whereas I'm not aware of any other species having anything like nation states. I can imagine they might exist in social creatures like parrots or other primates, but a quick web search doesn't seem to turn up any research saying so, and I don't recall hearing about any.If something literally only exists as an invention of humans, I have a hard time seeing it as a natural phenomenon, or anything like one. But maybe there's some research you're aware of that I'm not?
(DIR) Post #AbvwRCGcNwggiCR0jo by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-11-18T14:23:13Z
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@eff @aral @Framasoft @forteller @mmu_man @lightweight Plus they have literally thousands of supporters who would gladly build them a quick single file HTML CGI form that stored the responses in a CSV file for them and could be hosted on any cheap web host. It’d be, what, half an hour’s work tops?
(DIR) Post #AbzQdeRJ2y3Lf3AVfM by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-11-18T03:06:22Z
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@ljrk @catsalad @mozilla @torproject @eff "They're okay with not blocking everything (like YT)"The problem with that theory is that AdGuard blocks YouTube ads. It also uses EasyList-syntax blocklists just like uBlock Origin does. In fact, uBlock Origin's wiki points to AdGuard's documentation as a source of information on writing blocking rules.The only thing I've found that AdBlock don't want to block is paywalls (presumably because of the DMCA), so I just subscribe to a set of community-maintained paywall removal rules in standard format.People should definitely switch from Chrome to Firefox, though. Google's sleazy attempt to sell user tracking in the browser as "ad privacy" is enough reason for that.https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/googles-widely-opposed-ad-platform-the-privacy-sandbox-launches-in-chrome/
(DIR) Post #AcU5vF2GA6cawnl16m by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-12-04T01:55:51Z
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Wondering when Kier Starmer will praise Margaret Thatcher for her environmental leadership. After all, she shut down all those coal mines.
(DIR) Post #AcobWy9PGRGXvO0fBI by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-12-14T23:12:25Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Anyone have a recommendation for a GUI YAML editor? Mac or web, Linux at a pinch. Doesn't have to be free software.Key requirement: Load any existing YAML file, edit it using graphical controls, and write it back out to a (correct) YAML file that avoids all the pitfalls.YAML is so awful but inexplicably popular that it seems like there ought to be a bunch of graphical editors for it, but I'm not finding a good one.
(DIR) Post #Act9jXSH7JRnSO9mz2 by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-12-17T02:45:27Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
I hate threads of posts on sites like this and generally don't indulge in them, but there are apparently people who think Facebook deserves a chance to federate, moderate and be trusted with our data, so here we go.To avoid spamming people's timelines I plan to use the "unlisted" option after the next post, so that posts only show up for people who click into the thread.(...and then I made the first post unlisted by mistake. Power user move right there. Well, I'm not going to delete and repost it all now. Click into this post to see the thread.)Also, I'm highly likely to mute notifications for the entire thread, and if you start sealioning or nit-picking details about individual events then get ready to be blocked, because it's not about individual events, it's about the pattern of behavior.(Oh, and of course this isn't a definitive list of bad behavior by Facebook; it isn't even all the stuff I've personally heard about.)
(DIR) Post #AdHoECiKh3at2QmuQq by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-12-29T00:51:27Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
(DIR) Post #AdKcZ7M3jMDOeeguMS by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-12-29T23:31:30Z
0 likes, 6 repeats
Here we see an example of the perfect application of stick-on googly eyes.
(DIR) Post #AdQDnNdeeWZTJ4NvoO by mathew@universeodon.com
2023-12-30T01:48:49Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
Spot-on timing with this article on December 18th:https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mental-health-matters/202312/the-dark-days-of-the-pandemic-are-behind-usMeanwhile, hospitals are seeing so many patients with flu and COVID symptoms that they're running out of nasal swab tests:https://news.yahoo.com/many-covid-19-flu-patients-163008321.htmlAnd in Massachusetts, they're bringing back mask requirements in hospitals:https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/12/28/mass-general-brigham-bringing-back-mask-mandate-as-boston-area-covid-wastewater-surges-and-infections-rise/Here, have some data:https://www.pmc19.com/data/index.phpNote the table of risk of exposure given how many people you are in contact with.Happy New Year! #COVID #COVIDIsNotOver
(DIR) Post #AdXahCoXdtrP3ADnJA by mathew@universeodon.com
2024-01-05T01:09:39Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
I can see why people like ChatGPT. I asked it “What would happen if I stuck my dick in the Large Hadron Collider?” and it gave me a very detailed and plausible sounding answer, whereas CERN didn’t even reply to my email.