Posts by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
(DIR) Post #AUCxnZsd1ErLg05N9U by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2023-04-01T10:39:31Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@jwz @winson @stevelord @cstross People have been flogging the secrets to riches since forever, and there are always fools who don't ask the obvious question. https://xkcd.com/1827/Are we reading the same HN? Just took a look. Mostly cool tech stuff. A guy showing off a site he built. CDC people getting sick at the toxic train crash. Big companies behaving badly. Comments frequently thoughtful and evidence-based.I dipped a toe in the toxic waters of 4 Chan once. There is no comparison.
(DIR) Post #AUcc3zAHxj5NqmP4zo by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2023-04-13T07:14:45Z
1 likes, 3 repeats
Inuit children invented their own system for writing numbers which makes arithmetic easier. Now its in Unicode.https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-number-system-invented-by-inuit-schoolchildren-will-make-its-silicon-valley-debut/
(DIR) Post #AVD0zkkOmG3SYleNmK by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2023-05-01T10:59:38Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@rato @esther So why don't you go independent?
(DIR) Post #AVSMWCjZGuZz29yZPs by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2023-05-08T19:24:53Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@dctrud Mornington Crescent!
(DIR) Post #AWJxQBfsBHg9OQlOLY by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2023-06-03T14:46:11Z
1 likes, 3 repeats
For #Pride Month, I'd like to mention #Babylon5. The show ran from 1993 to 1998, and made a point of *not* making a point of gay relationships. Susan Ivanova (serving military officer) had a lesbian affair with Talia Winters, and no other character even blinked.Later on two straight men on a secret mission found themselves using "newlyweds" as a cover story, because two men on their honeymoon would fit right in.The message was clear: in the future being gay is 100% unremarkable. In the 90s!
(DIR) Post #AZ8SmCVWv6uSBTcqSe by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2023-08-26T21:45:28Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@clive The next generation is going to regard the skill of handwriting in much the same way that we regard the skill of long division.
(DIR) Post #Aa9OBo0xbwa7X0Bk48 by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2023-09-26T06:19:46Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@clive Indeed. Check out Stack Exchange, https://stackexchange.com/ . It's a collection of sub sites that do this for different topics. The original one was Stack Overflow, which was for coding. It worked so well that its creators decided to expand to lots of other topics.
(DIR) Post #AaGzWH00c4W3cz5Mzw by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2023-09-29T22:23:01Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@xkcd New exercise for Programming 101. Write a function to display an integer in factoradic notation.
(DIR) Post #Ac63KUWojZzya5MQCG by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2023-11-23T10:56:34Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@archaeohistories At what point was a penis considered indecent, but a scrotum wasn't?
(DIR) Post #Ad98CXa2OMZ5ppkjLM by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2023-12-24T17:50:04Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@QasimRashid This is a t-shirt I have, based on Maslow's Hierarch of Needs. For most of us this is a joke, but for a refugee it is the plain everyday truth, because your cellphone and bandwidth are the only way to get literally everything else above. With a cellphone you can find out where to go and what to do. Without it your only option is to wander around a city center asking random people for help.
(DIR) Post #AhQE9TsZI0L9gUm44O by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2024-04-30T18:23:38Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral The fundamental problem here is that both these statements are true.
(DIR) Post #AhRKyeQrWgr0PURczw by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2024-05-01T07:14:52Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral /1I assume you're asking for a cite on "no alternative to capitalism" one.I don't have a single cite, but I'll try to lay out my thinking in brief.If we want running water, sewage disposal, electricity, modern medicine, mechanised farming, transport faster than a horse etc then we need a high-tech civilisation. Going back to 1700 is not an option.
(DIR) Post #Ajgmh2QtkHE6kzcS4u by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2024-07-07T13:50:17Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral That used to work, but global warming means none of us have any privilege any more.
(DIR) Post #AlelXCR4IuVGqOnm9Q by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2024-09-04T09:38:44Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@kravietz This predates Putin. In "Next Stop Execution", Oleg Gordievsky describes how Moscow was demanding details of the NATO plan for a first nuclear strike followed by invasion of Russia, which the Politburo knew had to exist because history and Marxist theory agreed that it must.Gordievsky and his colleagues would make up reports about this plan because it was the only way to survive. The KGB was Dilbert with the Death Penalty, and I doubt the FSB is different.
(DIR) Post #Alhi6VfKywPiHJwBjk by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2024-09-05T14:43:58Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
#Georgia #gun #censorship #republicans I wish I could retire this.Please feel free to post it on any other social media, stick printed copies on lamp-posts etc.
(DIR) Post #AnP8O3EbxmJhB9ys2S by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2024-10-26T15:58:00Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ChrisMayLA6 I'm a developer, so I want to comment on the IT side of things.Big IT projects *never* deliver a good system on time and on budget. Not just rarely, *never*. At best they make something mostly-functional, but *2 late and over-budget. Reason: its not just the IT you are designing, its the people who use it and the processes they follow. But if you talk to those users they are too busy to give you more than the barest outline of what they do and how. /1
(DIR) Post #AnP8O42axwIbgBMmwq by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2024-10-26T16:01:10Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ChrisMayLA6 Still less are they able to work with you to re-envisage how they are going to work with all the other people in the system, about who's work they know little.Big systems are supposed to be developed from requirements, but those reqs can't be written without understand what everyone does and how, including Jane In The Office who has a big tottering collection of spreadsheets that only she understands. /2
(DIR) Post #AnP8O4shqBz0HnkPAm by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2024-10-26T16:05:19Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ChrisMayLA6 Meanwhile government has a system for big projects: put it out to tender. Trouble is, there are few orgs big enough to tackle such a project, and merely bidding is a big project in itself (I once saw 20 people work for 2 years on a bid, with no guarantee of any contract at the end). Getting The Contract is a "Core Competence". That's why its always one of the Usual Suspects who wins. Ability to do the job is secondary to ability to bid./3
(DIR) Post #AnP8O7MuarKi03tYX2 by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2024-10-26T16:08:16Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ChrisMayLA6 Merely bringing the whole thing in-house doesn't fix the problem either. You just wind up with a huge department soaking up money and not producing any visible value while being hated by everyone else. Have you ever seen a corp IT dept praised by its end users? I haven't./4
(DIR) Post #AnP8O9ADv0N7ZHyS24 by tokensane@mastodon.me.uk
2024-10-26T16:10:46Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ChrisMayLA6 If I had to make one suggestion, it would be for the NHS to focus on defining interoperable standards for health care information, and then let different parts of the NHS get their products from wherever. That way you could have niche products for different departments or specialisms from different vendors, but be confident that they can all talk to one another. If one product doesn't work it can be swapped out. Interface definitions are firewalls for change./end