Alan Avram Shteynberg ☑️ @absolutus@qoto.org

As a programmer, never underestimate your ability to come up with ridiculously complex solutions for simple problems.

#programming #softwaredevelopment

Today I'm attending a formal all you can eat event. \o/

However, my family-in-law insisted, I should refer to it as “wedding“. 🤷

Go tell the Spartans... “The 19th AU and 6th NZ were to hold the [Thermopylae] passes as long as possible, allowing the other units to withdraw. The Germans... met fierce resistance...& sustained considerable casualties. The Allies held out the entire day;”https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Greece#Hitler's_decision_to_attack_and_British_aid_to_Greece

I‘d like to support MASTODON. Is there any crowdfunding and if, where?

U.S. government seeks Facebook help to wiretap Messenger
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17785616
#hackernews #tech

Fun with spoons

How do you find the center of mass for any given geometry even if you have no idea on how to solve this analytically?

a) You can try some numerics.
b) You build a 3D replica and try to balance it on your fingertip. Works pretty well for spoons. Take a spoon, try to balance it -> yep, you found the COM.

Some more physics. You balance that spoon and add some small perturbations. Does the spoon hold? Congratulations, you just found a stable minimum.

How to describe this mathematically? -> Taylor series.
Dirty way - do a Taylor series expansion of the equation of motion around your extremum. Try to solve the differential equation with an ansatz combining two exponentials, one with a negative sign in the exponent, one with a positive one and both with different coefficients. The coefficients depend on the initial conditions but the exponents come from the solution of the differential equation.
If the exponent is imaginary you get a linear combination of cosine and sine functions. Congrats! For small perturbations your system will oscillate around the minimum but not leave it. You found a stable (maybe local) minimum.
Your exponent is real. Damn you found an unstable maximum. Try again.

Long, interesting report about the evolution of theory, from one side of the (venemous) dispute over the Cretaceous “asteroid impact” and alternative extinctions:: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/dinosaur-extinction-debate/565769/

Oh, I haven't posted to this instance yet!

So I'm an audio engineer / musician / tech nerd type. I write a lot and try to do something creative every single day.

Hello! I am new.

Bye bye birdie

Only thing I'm missing here on #Mastodon is the #quantum #information #community which is quite active on #Twitter and #Facebook.

This was the song my grandfather used to sing to me as kid. He used to sing it with his army buddies during World War II.

A Warrior Bold

In days of old, when knights were bold,
And barons held their sway,
A warrior bold, with spurs of gold,
Sang merrily his lay;
Sang merrily his lay:
"My love is young and fair,
My love hath golden hair,
And eyes so blue, and heart so true,
That none with her compare.
So what care I tho' death be nigh,
I'll live for love or die.
So what care I, tho' death be nigh,
I'll live for love or die."

So this brave knight, in armor bright,
Went gayly to the fray;
He fought the fight, but ere the night,
His soul had pass'd away,
His soul had pass'd away.
The plighted ring he wore
Was crush'd and wet with gore,
Yet ere he died, he bravely cried,
"I've kept the vow I swore.
So what care I tho' death be nigh,
I've fought for love and die,
So what care I, tho' death be nigh,
I've fought for love, for love I die
I've fought for love,
For love, for love I die."

--Edwin Thomas & Steven Adams, Published 1912

Crypto Writer and Tech enthusiast. Former Tech Librarian.

Trying to jumpstart the West Michigan Blockchain Association.

see wmblockchain.org
also blog.xtrabytes.global #introductions

Is there a suggestions account for #mastodon? Might be helpful to have white as default background - as its easier on the eyes. And the unpin is hard to find for beginners. So they believe they are stuck with four columns. #mytwocents

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

-- The Hollow Men, T.S. Elliot

These are the last few stanza's of the poem from which the famous phrase comes. I love these stanzas! Good poem overall, worth a full read: http://www.shmoop.com/hollow-men/poem-text.html

#poem #poetry

The following is a #poem / #poetry I wrote 6 years ago. I have never been all that great at poetry but I wanted to share all the same.

==The Mage's Tavern==

In misty lands that the pale moonlight brings,
There stands a tavern where it shines and it sings.
In this warm place eternal laughter does flow;
with a smile for each of the winds that will blow.

To seek this land out less must be so much more,
then set yourself free to drift to night's shore.
The familiar road finds unfamiliar friends door,
filled with mirth, merriment, magick, and lore.

When ready to pass open wide wooden gate,
a cool wind then blows that shows one their fate.
The room there well lit by passion's great fire,
it's smoke will hang thick from our love's own desire.

There in the sky dances god borealis,
and there on the bar sits the bust of the Pallas.
But never there seen is the raven of yore,
for only the wise can be king evermore.

There in the corner stands a gargoyle's head,
where out of it's mouth flows hot earthen lead.
Into a dirt cup it's flow does seek end,
but as shining gold it does then transcend.

The food and the drink shared to all those around,
Not one to the other was any one bound.
With plates of clear manna that did sparkle white,
and cups of ambrosia kept full through the night.

Here pixie's dust used in shakers to fill,
and surely dragon tails do remain in there still.
For what fool would eat from a dragon's great tail,
only to have all of their passions fail.

Moon's magick glow fills the room well dispersed,
While time's wanting path remains untraversed.
The moments found here are well unrehearsed;
The truth is abound, not found interspersed.

In this place here exists just the one,
Embrace silver moon, to become golden sun.
Odal reunites ancient gods of the night,
to let us be one, so we shine with their light.

LOVING MASTODON! SHOOT TOOTS NOT BULLETS

@mastohost how do you add a flag to your name? i see some users w/ their name + a flag. like 🇺🇸 but when i try that in the name box it doesn't do the emoji.

As more exiles flock here let us remember that the revolution is in our hearts or it is nowhere- we shall not grow fat on influence like the tootlords of old, but welcome and help our comrades achieve ever greater heights