Alan Avram Shteynberg ☑️ @absolutus@qoto.org

I've recently been reading "The Gay Science" (perhaps a misleadng translation) by Nietsche and I came accross a quote that's a perfect summary for why I made this Mastodon.

Nietsche despite his talent for writing was profoundly embarrassed by it, to quote him "even a parable [of my writing] disgusts me" and he goes on to say

"B: But why, then, do you write? A: Well, my friend, to be quite frank: so far, I have not discovered any other way of getting rid of my thoughts."

Any horticulturals/botanists on here? I have a sociological idea to explore

#introduction

Hi!

I'm currently enrolled in the Physics Bachelor. I'm very curious about new discoveries and new technologies, hence my presence here on Mastodon (and @QOTO)

I am also an avid reader and I would love to get some recommendations from you all.

Nice to be here.
TOOT!

Hello #QOTO! Hope you're all having a fantastic day so far. A bit warmer than I prefer today, but it be a perfect day for the beach here in Tel Aviv.

Today's #RandomQuestion is as follows:

You've discovered a machine that will allow you to add or remove one evolved aspect of modern humanity. It would change everyone instantly, and no one but you would know that anything has changed.

As with yesterday's question this machine can only be used one time, afterwards it is broken and can never be repaired.

What do you change?

I would change the evolution of the eye to have more color receptors. I don't have any good reason why. I just think it be neat to see colors I've never imagined before.

#introduction

Hi!

I study photonic engineering. My current main interest is in physical phenomena, including Fourier optics, holography, light sources (e.g. lasers) and optical components (e.g. LCDs).

What do you think of a non-invasive brain interface?
https://www.ted.com/talks/mary_lou_jepsen_how_we_can_use_light_to_see_deep_inside_our_bodies_and_brains?rss

Preferred programming language: C/C++
- Once I learned something about OpenCL, OpenMP, Qt,.....
Favorit operating system: Xubuntu/Win/Mac -> Cross-platform

Favourite musical instrument: Didgeridoo

Nice to be here.

As it turns out I can post more than one of these at a time

https://qoto.org/media/MemDyzKecx0giB0iA-0

https://qoto.org/media/Jh8qErLWD2A4S-3OWlo

https://qoto.org/media/SxhzWKEuP29qOkVH0ZY

Since we announced #QOTO hitting 1,000 users at the end of last week we are only half way through this week and already hit 1,300 users. It seems each week we gain new users faster than the last. It took us a while to get to 1,000 users but now we seem to be averaging about 600 new users a week, thats crazy. I hope we can keep up this pace.

Thanks for being such an amazing, loving, and accepting community. This is only possible because of all of you and the way you've welcomed people with open-arms. Keep it up!

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

So, before I go to bed, I thought I'd tell another story.

The story of the first time I went to the Israeli Holocaust Museum.

This was in 2006, January. I was on Taglit, or Birthright- a trip for 10 days that's subsidized to bring young Jewish people to Israel to visit.

The tone of the trip is, without a doubt, one of Zionism.

During the trip it is standard for a group of soldiers to join with you. It is also standard to visit Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust Museum.

Now, if you haven't been to this particular museum, I do recommend it, but it is *brutal*. Like terrifically, fantastically brutal. No punches are held, it's put together in a way to really draw out the emotion and everything is laid bare. Everything.

On my trip I'd made good friends with Ben, a religious paratrooper who was one of the soldiers we had with us. Really good guy- we share a love of dark humor. We made a bunch of your standard dark style jokes and bonded over it.

But, by the time we'd reached most of the way through the museum I'm brutalized. He sees it. I know it.

We reach a model of people scrambling to get out of a gas chamber. There are old, faded shoes under us with a glass floor between us. I've got tears in my eyes, on the edge of losing it.

That's when Ben looks at me. Kippah on his head. Tzsit at his sides and he leans in to whisper to me: "How many Jews can you fit in a Volkswagon?"

He never finished the joke. He didn't have to- it was enough to push me out of the despair. I laughed. I laughed in the most inappropriate place- he laughed.

We laughed together so we wouldn't cry.

Magic Leap One now available for $2295
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17859230
#hackernews #tech

DuckDuckGo Raises $10M
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17861078
#hackernews #tech

Back in Tel Aviv! #QOTO upgraded!

Does anybody have any idea about how many users this social media platform has? I'm enlisted with QOTO.org but I keep seeing folks with other domain names on this too. Still trying to figure this platform out.

#Help

In this two min YouTube video I’m #blacksmithing a monogrammed bottle opener for Warren Sack for a guest lecture I did in his digital media class as UCSC : https://youtu.be/B0QAys7Gyg0

Hi, Folks!

I am a tenured Associate Professor at La Salle University in Philadelphia, PA, USA. I have my B.S. Degree with a Double Major in Chemistry and Physics and my Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry with specialties in Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopy, Instrument Design, and Automation Software Development. I teach in an interdisciplinary undergraduate program called Integrated Science, Business, and Technology in which our students study the process of developing scientific discoveries into new products and services using collaborative business practices. I develop and teach courses in Energy, Materials, and Informatics, and have personal research interests in Robotics and Machine Intelligence.

After joining Facebook as soon as La Salle was added to the Facebook servers in 2005 and Joining Twitter in 2007, I created the Facebook and Twitter accounts for the University as I was unable to convince our IT department that it was important for the University to have a presence on social media.

After openly sharing my personal Political positions as a Constitutional Conservative and my support of Donald Trump, the backlash on Facebook and Twitter was so severe that I no longer use those networks.

As a Conservative Academic, I understand and deeply experience what it means to be a minority. I'm giving Mastadon a spin in search of respectful conversation. #introduction

Exploring Mastodon, feels a bit like the pre-MySpace/Facebook/Twitter online world before the largest corporations took control and monetized us all, when we had our local #BBS or even online days with WBS chat and the like.

Liking it so far, appreciate the rules of the qoto.org instance

When reading Ready Player One I realized that my first programming was as a kid editing programs on a TRS-80 (or something similar). First among our friends to have a desktop at home where we'd dial into our local #BBS to play games, chat, and message with people from around the world, back when it didn't seem so creepy when you'd be asked "a/s/l" regularly.

Later with the Internet I wondered why companies were buying up and shutting down services like WBS and Geocities, and was sad that what we had left was corporately driven social media mega sites.

I've been doing software development for decades, professionally since my first year of undergrad where I studied #linguistics; but I think my real work is problem solving to make people's lives easier/better, software is just the tool I'm skilled with to do that.

I chose the QOTO instance because the rules seem open and free and friendly, the way the web should be... and because of the idea of helping bridge the gap and bring people of supposed opposite sides together to connect rather than be polarizing.

I had an idea for a new hash tag that would go beautifully with the QOTO mentality of bringing people with opposing views together. We can call it #OpposingSidePride or #OSP for short.

It will be a day where you show the things you appreciate about the other side of the spectrum.

For example if your liberal then you post something you respect about conservatives, if your conservative you post something you respect about liberals.

Each person who wants to participate should try to post one or more a day and when you see someone post something complimenting a group you are in try to respond with a similar #OSP back at them!

I'd love to hear everyones thoughts, if you all like it I can try to kick it off.

I have been a member here now for a whole day, first impressions..... I like it. I am a member of other forums and I have to say, I don't remember the response I have had in here on any other forum in such a short time, thank you all for the warm welcome.
I am still in learning mode but I am learning fast. I am looking forword becoming a fully fledged TOOTer.