andrewla

39 ms·

541.
by andrewla 2y ago
Being the hero once is fine -- but if the only reason we don't have outages on every update is because of an SRE who takes it upon themselves to babysit the update, then the system is super broken and there will come a time when that b
542.
by andrewla 2y ago
Did any of the commenters read the slideshow? Heroism is bad when it covers systemic problems. Heroes are great -- SREs who rise to the occasion to prevent horrors are appropriately rewarded and congratulated for their work. But when a prod
543.
by andrewla 2y ago
There is a categorical difference between the two. While dachsunds may have a propensity for violence, it is verging on comical to compare them to a German Shepherd, just because of the comparative physical capability of the dogs. A dachsun
544.
by andrewla 2y ago
I don't think this interpretation is correct -- at least on Earth, there are no fundamental geophysical processes which can sustain oxygen in the atmosphere at anything but trace levels. Producing oxygen is not energetically favorable
545.
by andrewla 2y ago
Sort of. I think the high-order bit here is whether the dog is capable of causing grievous harm. Chihuahuas can be aggressive and can attack without warning, but they will rarely require more than basic first aid to treat, and the possibili
546.
by andrewla 2y ago
This is a common refrain from fans of all breeds. I’m not sure that I buy it. The null hypothesis is that the “proper stimulation” correlation with “propensity to attack” is a function of population prevalence. There are simply more dogs th
547.
by andrewla 2y ago
The attack specifically mentioned in the article was an Alsation (in the US called a German Shepherd). Though not typically included in breed-specific legislation I think there is good data to suggest that they are in the top five for dog a
548.
by andrewla 2y ago
Well, we (broadly speaking) did not create the concept of a plasma phase of matter, but fire as we know it is only possible because of free oxygen. Fire, for the most part, is just another name for rapid oxidation. Even some things that can
549.
by andrewla 2y ago
It's a remarkable thing to step back for a second and realize that while we try to figure out the exact impact of a parts-per-million change in CO2 concentration, that it's astonishing that CO2 is not 20% of the atmosphere, that t
550.
by andrewla 2y ago
My experience with my two kids and observing other children tends to lean this way, though I'm leery of accepting social science results that confirm my biases [1]. That sugar rushes exist is very much conventional wisdom, but I'v
551.
by andrewla 2y ago
Disabling the "accept" button and having that message seems far superior. With this, when you are trying to unselect something you don't want, you get an annoying popup that you may or may not read. It's such a minority
552.
by andrewla 2y ago
It depends on the interaction type -- if this is a customer signup page or something, that is a very frustrating interaction. "But I don't want English, why can't I unclick it" is very annoying. For persistent interactio
553.
by andrewla 2y ago
It's more verbose, and the semantics are slightly different, but to capture this pattern you could have one radio selector for "primary language" and then checkboxes for "additional languages". Often I see this as a
554.
by andrewla 2y ago
More trivially, there are an infinite number of even numbers, and they do not repeat, yet they do not contain a single odd number.
555.
by andrewla 2y ago
FBI statement without blogspam is at [1] [1] https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/update-on-the-fbi-in...
556.
by andrewla 2y ago
I'm doubtful -- this is like saying you can sidestep the law against murder by not getting caught. Obviously some of this will depend on how the legislation is drafted, but there's a difference between whether those actions shield
557.
by andrewla 2y ago
The SEC can pursue civil action for insider trading, but insider trading is also a criminal offense prosecuted by the various Attorneys General and investigate by law enforcement. I'm not aware of any successful prosecutions for inside
558.
by andrewla 2y ago
Anyone who uses material non-public information to trade stocks is guilty of insider trading under current interpretations. If a member of Congress does so then they are also guilty. The question becomes whether you can prove this and wheth
559.
by andrewla 2y ago
> For example, Garden of Eden patterns are excluded from this category. That seems to be naturally true, since they by definition cannot be constructed. Are there other patterns that cannot be constructed by a universal constructor, or a
560.
by andrewla 2y ago
The article says it better than me: > [Banach-Tarski] means there can be no measure satisfying the requirements even when weakened from countable additivity to finite additivity. Measure theory was an attempt to rescue us from the breakd
561.
by andrewla 2y ago
Fractal is understating it. It requires non-constructive cuts -- if you limit yourself to cuts that can be constructed through any finitely-expressed process then the theorem does not hold.
562.
by andrewla 2y ago
The disconnect between reality and Banach-Tarski is deep. Important to the paradox is that it does not present a construction of the division. And more importantly, it relies on the fact that it is not possible to construct such a division.
563.
by andrewla 2y ago
The Banach-Tarski paradox is really a deep critique of measure theory and specifically the axiom of choice. This is fun to study to get a feel for the places where formalism without connection to feasibility gets you. In an intuitionist fra
564.
by andrewla 2y ago
Few working mathematicians, yes, but a growing number. Especially with computer proof systems growing in popularity there's an increase in the interest in constructive methods. Yes, it's true that many classical proofs are shorter
565.
by andrewla 2y ago
Generally unless you can construct an item, it is not really that relevant. Cantor's argument about the sizes of infinities is only interesting if you accept that the definitions make sense -- i.e. that "cardinality" represen
566.
by andrewla 2y ago
> change the basis of logic to get rid of the strangeness Short answer is yes. Long answer is that the accepted framework of the "basis of logic", i.e. ZF set theory, is a direct result of Cantor's program -- Cantor was no
567.
by andrewla 2y ago
I would argue that all the success of mathematics in modern times has been the result of constructive branches of mathematics. Where has anything useful been achieved from a non-constructive premise? Physicists and engineers are notoriously
568.
by andrewla 2y ago
For what it's worth, this is only true in Cantor's horrifying paradise. In the world of the intuitionists, none of this is true. Reject Cantor and embrace Brouwer and you can once again live in a world without these horrors, and a
569.
by andrewla 2y ago
I'm with Dedekind on this one -- Cantor's work, by and large, was hot garbage and led and continues to power some of the most naval-gazing mathematics ever invented. Dedekind had a great idea that at its heart was a constructive n
570.
by andrewla 2y ago
I appreciate that there is a body of research discussing possible implications of large-scale phone connectivity, but this does not meet the bar of "objectively harmful externalities". I'm not even talking about methodologies

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