Posts by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
 (DIR) Post #AzJgj6U8bUM11jKSY4 by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2025-10-18T00:19:07Z
       
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       @futurebird they revived the DataHand https://svalboard.com/
       
 (DIR) Post #AzT6aYJI7ygFwvThk8 by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2025-10-22T13:21:14Z
       
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       @futurebird Tesla is a meme stock with a market price artificially inflated by Elon Musk's irrational fan base. He can wreck the company all he wants, but if he goes away, his fans sell and the stock reverts to something more like its fundamental value, which would be a fraction of its valuation even if it were doing well. I think that's it.
       
 (DIR) Post #AzZ9DOv2LLhayQXqZU by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2025-10-25T11:18:59Z
       
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       @futurebird Our designated trick-or-treat time is TODAY  (the last Saturday on or before Halloween) so I have to get ready. I'm not ready.
       
 (DIR) Post #AzZXOqDVaXebipAmdk by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2025-10-25T15:49:59Z
       
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       @futurebird @Jirikiha @sinituulia Jesus didn't seem to think he needed to explain the "no advertising in church" thing
       
 (DIR) Post #AzZbUoOxeMoRe7dGaG by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2025-10-25T16:31:48Z
       
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       @Extra_Special_Carbon @futurebird It is, and it means that trick or treat is a GIGANTIC deal here, over 100 kids consistently show up. It's one of the most fun things we do as a town.But it does feel super early this year because of how the calendar falls. I understand the desire not to have it happen *after* October 31: keep it in October for tradition's sake, and also keep it from pushing too far into election season. I also think they want to keep it just before the end of Daylight Saving Time so the littlest kids can come around while it's still light.
       
 (DIR) Post #AzZbhbf0KhpftWEmBc by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2025-10-25T16:38:11Z
       
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       @futurebird @Extra_Special_Carbon Because many of the adjoining towns don't do it this way, there's an opportunity to double-dip. Kids get driven in from some distance away, trick-or-treat here and then do it again in their towns or elsewhere on the 31st. For years my daughter would trick or treat here and then get another shot with extended family over in Hampstead, NH on Halloween.
       
 (DIR) Post #AzhvZ4PJjSEFvJwM2i by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2025-10-29T13:47:45Z
       
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       @mightybigcar @petealexharris @futurebird IEEE floats have positive and negative zero. The standard specifies, however, that they should compare as equal.
       
 (DIR) Post #Azi3xKJb2RbTqNLFNg by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2025-10-29T18:32:28Z
       
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       @futurebird @mightybigcar @petealexharris I think it's a requirement for languages/ hardware that claims to implement the standard.
       
 (DIR) Post #AzvGGl11iQRQf2AOGG by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2025-11-05T03:21:39Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       @futurebird the sequel to Godzilla Minus One is apparently going to be titled Godzilla Minus Zero, so I suppose Godzilla has weighed in.
       
 (DIR) Post #B0XOQOWFB6gE5Z5SJE by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2025-11-23T12:52:04Z
       
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       @futurebird My experience as a tutor and a teaching assistant in math-heavy subjects was that, while it's not everyone, there are a lot of kids who basically get the material but who need someone to occasionally encourage them that they're on the right track when they seize up and second-guess themselves.The second-guessing can be useful in more advanced study if it's targeted appropriately. If I didn't know for sure that that diagram was supposed to represent Euclidean geometry, I *couldn't* actually say that the congruent angles followed from the symmetry of the triangle without further assumptions. (Maybe the metric space it's in doesn't share that symmetry!) Then, that student's suspicion of intuition would be warranted. It's just misfiring in situations where it's not.
       
 (DIR) Post #B0cmOQnEPVWNLNJ5zk by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2025-11-26T03:14:11Z
       
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       @futurebird I love and need to go on vacation but somewhere in the back of my mind, I know that all of those things I have to do are not going away, and it can be a source of angst.
       
 (DIR) Post #B0cvOZ56UguOdXnz5k by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2025-11-26T04:55:04Z
       
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       @futurebird I associate them with AirBnBs.
       
 (DIR) Post #B0iPLZdfvuo1ueGVgO by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2025-11-28T20:24:11Z
       
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       @futurebird Pronouns in bio are a good way of accomplishing something similar online, and anyone can do it. When people give you shit for it, you can block/ignore them.
       
 (DIR) Post #B1Rnip4I8rgNuKHkBc by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2025-12-20T17:59:21Z
       
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       @futurebird I like hard peppermint candy. Not as much as chocolate but for variety on occasion. Candy canes are kind of an inconvenient shape for it though.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2IMaWOnwpyrMFtCXQ by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2026-01-15T02:35:00Z
       
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       @futurebird It seems to me that's more specific, it's *poetic* slopo.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2MW59Y2dMMrgRjM5g by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2026-01-17T02:40:15Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @futurebird Individual who lived between 1945 and about now have greater carbon-14 levels in their bodies (from the atmospheric nuclear detonations from 1945 to 1963) than anyone who lived before.But unless more nuclear bombs get detonated, new babies born will soon have no more in them than people who died before 1945.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2fBZnw44ThreM4nkO by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2026-01-26T02:49:59Z
       
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       @futurebird She has such a nice little face. Surely a cat like that could commit no crimes ever.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2jOApzlLufMpo4TKK by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2026-01-28T03:29:58Z
       
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       @futurebird I voted for all but the last one because it seems to be a taxonomic controversy I'm not qualified to adjudicate.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2mHDLxhM6QSLsEney by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2026-01-29T12:56:10Z
       
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       @futurebird Prefix notation, where everything is a function with arguments following the operator, is regular Polish. I think it got the name "Polish" just because English speakers didn't know how to spell or pronounce "Łukasiewicz".Lisp is Polish notation with parentheses, but I think the original idea was that if you always knew the number of arguments, in principle you didn't need parentheses. Same with postfix (RPN).
       
 (DIR) Post #B2mHesn5PHCrzHOvbs by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
       2026-01-29T13:01:09Z
       
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       @futurebird @ligasser "Enter" on RPN calculators puts a number on the stack without doing an operation. So you'd go "10 ENTER 10 + +", or "10 ENTER 10 + 10 +" would also work.