Posts by rk@mastodon.well.com
(DIR) Post #B1DFpqvNFr0UZK6JMm by rk@mastodon.well.com
2025-12-13T17:33:44Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird @louis #microprophecy
(DIR) Post #B1DLHOpzm1kvL2XWW8 by rk@mastodon.well.com
2025-12-13T18:34:44Z
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@futurebird I had an algorithms professor give a handout with the Greek alphabet on it along with their names in English as part of the first-day materials.It’s such a simple thing but it really helped. (This was like…last millennium so. You know. Times were different.)
(DIR) Post #B1JnYd1AGiI3uBWkaW by rk@mastodon.well.com
2025-12-16T21:19:51Z
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@futurebird Apropos of nothing there’s an old sci-fi story from the USSR called (in English) “Roadside Picnic” that really leans into “we’re the ants to the aliens” trope in an interesting way. Been decades since I’ve read it so don’t quote me on it but I remember liking it a lot.
(DIR) Post #B1PtR9wliir4OE3JMO by rk@mastodon.well.com
2025-12-19T19:54:00Z
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@futurebird Do neck problems count? How high up does “back” go?
(DIR) Post #B1Rsob9XI8maG3JNT6 by rk@mastodon.well.com
2025-12-20T18:56:28Z
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@futurebird @pteryx @funnymonkey There are some political questions that, while controversial, have no inherent ethical position. “I don’t think hungry children should be fed in a place where they have no choice but to be” is not one of them. At some point you have to ask if you’re the baddie…
(DIR) Post #B1SXyFhE1AagjBn7vE by rk@mastodon.well.com
2025-12-21T02:36:36Z
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Dual tone *and* multi-frequency? In *this* economy?
(DIR) Post #B1TuLKE7jPjxabXww4 by rk@mastodon.well.com
2025-12-21T18:23:00Z
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@futurebird “People get mad if you call their dad a criminal but will brag if their ancestor was a pirate.”
(DIR) Post #B1a3dZrAQMI9oRLXlI by rk@mastodon.well.com
2025-12-24T17:35:23Z
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@futurebird I remember sometime in the 90’s, some application referred to itself in the first person. I mean it was just a dialog box but it was like “I’m sorry, it looks like an error occurred.”Anyway I was like “fuck you, computer, never refer to yourself in the first person again.”…that being said, I’m not a biological chauvinist. In principle I believe consciousness can be embodied in algorithms and, if we manage to birth humanity’s children, I will fight for their personhood…
(DIR) Post #B1gizzIDnLkm8rZ6Vk by rk@mastodon.well.com
2025-12-27T22:47:07Z
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@futurebird Having lived in Waltham, I’ve seen some Bostonians that I’d classify as cryptids, at least when they’re doing what they charitably call “driving”
(DIR) Post #B1gnUbvr6DMiU2xfWK by rk@mastodon.well.com
2025-12-27T23:37:29Z
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@futurebird @RanaldClouston @bookstodon His writing of heterosexual men definitely fell into the “how do you do fellow straight manly men?” territory, like Holt on Brooklyn 99. But yes, when will we get a true Rendezvous With Rama movie? One that isn’t somehow turned into a action-packed romp?
(DIR) Post #B1gwpGW8oTHXjfrDuq by rk@mastodon.well.com
2025-12-27T23:35:30Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
We hosted Christmas. My wife has a special soda she likes to take to work. She’s working today. This morning at 5:30 AM.Wife: Ugh, everyone drank my sodas!Me (bleary eyed): I worried that would happen so I got a secret stash of them and hid them in the garage. I put one in the freezer 30 minutes ago so it should be cold for you now. Wife: Sometimes you’re all right, I guess.I am a good husband probably the best.
(DIR) Post #B1qfij7mIamYn9MDpo by rk@mastodon.well.com
2026-01-01T17:52:02Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Happy new buttholes day to all my Spanish-speaking friends with well-meaning acquaintances!
(DIR) Post #B1xcEKChRtrV3gBsnY by rk@mastodon.well.com
2026-01-05T02:21:23Z
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@futurebird I don’t have a Reddit account anymore (it’s a fucking dumpster fire over there) but I would occasionally go anonymously read the ghost/paranormal/ufo/cryptid threads linked on r/CreepyAskReddit but now it’s all obvious low-effort AI stuff. I mean, I realize 99% of it was fake before (and 99% of the remaining 1% was just mistaken, overly credulous folks, God bless ‘em), but now it’s not even high-effort fakes…
(DIR) Post #B20utgVZo86Okxlt6u by rk@mastodon.well.com
2026-01-06T16:34:41Z
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@futurebird …are we talking about that Spider-Man menace??
(DIR) Post #B29k9O7LHQYSKbg1AG by rk@mastodon.well.com
2026-01-10T18:31:32Z
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@IngaLovinde I lived in Luxembourg for a while and would hop over to Germany a lot. I was a vegetarian at the time, 25 years ago. Being a vegetarian in Germany 25 years ago meant a *lot* of potatoes. Not that I’m complaining, potatoes are delicious. It is also worth noting that beer is vegetarian.
(DIR) Post #B2IBFB0xA5NxSQLugy by rk@mastodon.well.com
2026-01-15T00:27:53Z
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@futurebird @dancingtreefrog I still remember calling something the Fth item the list semiseriously and a coworker about slapped me.
(DIR) Post #B2IBzgXaHPW0YUnBJY by rk@mastodon.well.com
2026-01-15T00:36:21Z
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@futurebird @dancingtreefrog In all seriousness maybe different written random symbols like Zener cards?Be like “oh look, add one to star and you get wavy lines but oh shit you add one to wavy lines and you gotta bring another card in” and later “but what if we wrote the star as (dramatic pause) 1”(This may be the card sorting exercise you referred to earlier, in that case ignore me.)But the distinction between sign-and-signified is the single biggest aha moment you can get in CS, IMHO.
(DIR) Post #B2SOcfyt9spgse4WzQ by rk@mastodon.well.com
2026-01-19T22:44:57Z
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@futurebird @kludgekml Holy shit.
(DIR) Post #B2WXeTDzEZVg7Eu7RQ by rk@mastodon.well.com
2026-01-21T22:44:58Z
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@futurebird I was the kid they called out of class to go to the office to help the staff/teachers with computers. I was nerd famous. Also, I realize it’s probably nostalgia talking, but those old Macs/Windows 3.1 boxes were at least *honest*. (And obviously inferior to my lovely Amiga at home…)
(DIR) Post #B2arzMgrUz8HeAUUEq by rk@mastodon.well.com
2026-01-24T00:51:41Z
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@futurebird I’m always given a sense of…almost supernatural awe at instinctual behavior. Our genes don’t encode all *that* much information. It’s a miracle we can build brains that are this complex with such simple repeated rules. How are instincts encoded into the genes that then encode into the structure of the brain?I’m gonna be clear that I don’t know shit about biology but just from an information-theoretic perspective it’s mind-boggling. I’m not religious but damn sometimes I wonder.