a4isms

7 ms·

31.
by a4isms 5mo ago
A very long time ago, I found myself commuting to work alongside a centi-millionaire who happened to only own one car, a Volvo 740 Estate. His wife drove him to the commuter train station, and he shlepped to work like everyone else. I was r
32.
by a4isms 5mo ago
This is something you say aloud, while muttering "useful idiot" under your breath.
33.
by a4isms 5mo ago
Good comment! When there is a boardroom battle over control, I think almost any take is fair. Sculley kicked him off Macintosh. Steve then tried to oust Sculley, who gave him a "window seat." Sculley had the Board's support,
34.
by a4isms 5mo ago
> they benefit from being familiar . “Intuitive Equals Familiar,” a classic from Jef Raskin, the man who started the Macintosh¹ project at Apple: https://www.asktog.com/papers/raskinintuit.html ——— ¹ Only to have S
35.
by a4isms 6mo ago
Between rebuilding an engine and disassembling a bumper to replace a lightbulb most mechanics would genuinely rather be doing the lengthy but interesting work of rebuilding an engine than the lengthy and fucking boring task of disassemblin
36.
by a4isms 6mo ago
Why is it that the only people willing to testify against the cartel are murderers, drug dealers, and bank robbers? These are not trustworthy witnesses. Same problem.
37.
by a4isms 6mo ago
My dude(ette): This place discusses SpaceX technical things all the time . But SpaceX is not a research lab. It's a company. That does business. And is going public. Taking a little time off from arguing about thrust and payload to ta
38.
by a4isms 6mo ago
Hiring can remain irrational longer than you can remain unemployed. One manager no-hires you because you don't post enough. Another doesn't like what you post. A third thinks you post too much. A fourth is pleased you seem to pa
39.
by a4isms 6mo ago
> Django in particular is optimized for LLMs Meanwhile, a different take: Now, what we’ve been told about models is that they’re only as good as their training data. And so languages with gargantuan amounts of training data ought to far
40.
by a4isms 7mo ago
There is a quantum of earned generosity. Someone saying, "This doesn't seem right" has jumped to a conclusion, but they aren't getting personal about the author or the work. Whether it's testes or testy language, ge
41.
by a4isms 7mo ago
Generous of you to assume that someone who walks in, sees something somebody else has written and immediately calls it shit... Has something of value to say. If they did, why did they hold it back just to speak so contemptuously of a subjec
42.
by a4isms 7mo ago
Steve Hackett takes advantage of guitar harmonics in a piece inspired by Bach's prelude to the first suite for solo violincello: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubadQ1jcWOM And the late Jaco Pastorius with the bass har
43.
by a4isms 7mo ago
To give you the inverse perspective, an OG blogger named Steve Yegge made a list of five essential phone screen questions: https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/five-essential-pho... Question three is this: L
44.
by a4isms 7mo ago
A few of the remaining newspapers I'm aware of run business awards (Best restaurant, etc), and the way to win is via wining and dining them, even though the paper claims it's based on people's votes. Is that how it works wh
45.
by a4isms 7mo ago
I have nothing to say about Quadratic Programming, so you tell me. What I can say is that every reference I've found to Bill Gosper's algorithm describes the data structure as an immutable quadtree with canonicalized nodes, id es
46.
by a4isms 7mo ago
A very famous application of QuadTrees was Bill Gosper's HashLife algorithm for computing Conway's Game of Life. The Life universe is implemented as a quadtree, taking advantage of precomputed smaller squares to compute larger squ
47.
by a4isms 7mo ago
I worked for GitHub for a time. There was a cultural abhorrence of the diaeresis, it was considered reader-hostile and elitist. I refused to coöperate with that edict internally, although I grant that every company has the right to micro-ma
48.
by a4isms 7mo ago
I encourage people to discriminate against me because I write like an educated African who works annotating AI training material. Why not? I am a descendant of Africans. I am a mildly successful author by tech nerd standards. I was educated
49.
by a4isms 7mo ago
Or production for the bank with my savings.
50.
by a4isms 7mo ago
> "Starring in a very funny template joke." Alice joins a group ride. Poseur Patty greets her: "Check out my new top-of-the-line bike! It costs more than my car!!" Alice nods: "Yeah, I have a similar car."
51.
by a4isms 7mo ago
Doesn't disclosing this to the world at the same time as you disclose it to the company immediately send hundreds of black hats to their terminals to see how much chaos they can create before the company implements a fix? Perhaps the a
52.
by a4isms 8mo ago
The term of art for this is becoming a "Reverse Centaur:" A “centaur” is a human being who is assisted by a machine (a human head on a strong and tireless body). A reverse centaur is a machine that uses a human being as its assis
53.
by a4isms 8mo ago
> Theoretically Apple can spend just as much. What are the outcomes though? All those giants have their own business that are established and profitable. Ah! Well, if we put aside "The Innovator's Dilemma" and pick up Re
54.
by a4isms 8mo ago
> Some of it is pure nostalgia, though, I’ll admit. It a way to honor how people solved similar problems in the past. In the 18th century a sextant plus accurate chronometer or lunar distance table was one of the pivotal technologies of
55.
by a4isms 8mo ago
I did a little nostalgia threat on Mastodon recently. The sixth picture is of the slide rule I took to High School in 1973. https://social.bau-ha.us/@raganwald/115979168665997624 Although slide rules are a "dead s
56.
by a4isms 8mo ago
There's a complete discussion of the evolution of ideas and the fact that the distinction between "androids" or "synthetic life" versus "robots" or "humanoids machines" arose after R.U.R. But wha
57.
by a4isms 8mo ago
1988‽ How about 1920: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R .
58.
by a4isms 8mo ago
The Subaru Brat was not a large and heavy vehicle, and the Santa Cruz is basically an SUV with a bed instead of a third row. Niche vehicles do not have to be Hummers.
59.
by a4isms 8mo ago
I'm a wagon-person. I picked up four new toilets when I moved into my home, take as many as four bikes to the trailhead, and our full-sized Chesapeake Bay Retriever likes having the entire "trunk" area to himself. I also do n
60.
by a4isms 9mo ago
Lifestyle sells. I drive a wagon. Of course wagon owners talk about the utility. And yet, you can buy a wagon with a twin-turbo V8 engine. What's the "sportwagon" segment all about? Certainly not going to Home Depot to buy fo

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