Reach for the Stars 
@antares@qoto.org
- Pronouns
- It's complicated. IDK. Maybe ze/zim/zir https://pronouns.org/ze-hir
- Degree
- Physics, Cal Poly SLO
- Work
- I fix broken stuff
#Technology, #baseball (Dodgers), #politics, #religion (#Christian)
Joined Apr 2022
I know there are ways to set up college savings account for children, but is there a way to set up a therapy fund. I feel like my nephew will need years and years of therapy to work through the issues his dad, my brother, is creating for him this weekend.
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Dear Microsoft. Here is a list of things I want the Start Menu to do:
* Show my installed programs
* Search my local files
* Provide access to system settings
Here is a list of things I do *not* want the Start Menu to do:
* Show the weather for a randomly-selected town near my network's public IP infrastructure
* Show tabloid headlines
* Show programs I *don't* have installed
* Search the web via Bing
* Show adverts(!)
* Attempt to engage me in conversation with a hallucinating LLM
Thanks.
According to the social security administration there is a **7.2%** chance that an 81 year old man living in the US will die in the next 12 months. I share this for no reason what so ever.
I have no why I felt like sharing this today, but the thought occurs to me that if I had a 7.2% chance of dying on my way to thanksgiving dinner I probably would not go, and might look for a safer *alternative*.
I'm so frustrated with old, out-of-touch politicians who cannot see past their own party politics of longer than the next election cycle. It seems more and more like even a year out form the election it is already too late to get younger more broad minded candidates on the ballot.
I think I want to start a movement right now to support candidates in the 2028 election who were born after 1978. I feel like it will take 5 years of hard work to wrench control away from those who will not live to suffer the worst effects of the climate crisis.
Just as AL Gore narrowly lost Florida when a small but ultimately pivotal number of Cuban Americans defected after Pres. Clinton had a SWAT team take a young child from his family to return him to Cuba, Joe #Biden will lose #Michigan and the election when a small but ultimately pivotal fraction of Arab Americans defect over his unconditional support of #Netanyahu and the suffering of innocent #Palestinians.
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How Canadians confuse the world ¯\_(ツ)_/¯:
We measure outside temp in Celsius & oven temp in Fahrenheit
Length in meters & our height in feet
Produce is weighed in kilograms, but people are in pounds
We speak like Americans, spell like Brits & randomly throw in French words
We measure driving distance in hours instead of kms.
Liquids are in litres, unless it's for a recipe - then it's in cups.
Property is measured in hectares, but house size is by square footage
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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https://reclaimthenet.org/nikki-haley-demands-an-end-to-online-anonymity
This would be a clear violation of the First Amendment. The First Amendment protects anonymous speech (and rightly so).
Anonymity is important for free expression, and activism.
https://qoto.org/@olives/111407938871651520
I've covered why "age verification" (which is similar to this) is problematic here. The arguments there also apply here. As I've mentioned elsewhere, scammers are also known to impersonate "age verification" providers.
"The First Amendment of the US Constitution protects freedom of speech and expression. Mandatory ID verification on social media could be seen as a form of censorship, limiting individuals’ ability to speak freely online. Historically, the Supreme Court has been protective of anonymous speech as a vital part of the freedom of expression, as seen in cases like Talley v. California (1960) and McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission (1995). These cases underscore the right to distribute anonymous literature and the protection of anonymous speech, respectively."
"Related to the First Amendment, there’s a historical precedent for the right to anonymity in political speech. In the Federalist Papers, for example, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay wrote under the pseudonym “Publius” to argue for the ratification of the Constitution itself. Without the right to anonymity, there would be no America as we know it."
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@drmaddkap
I reconcile it thus:
Its creator who created spec 87a was allowed to be a doofus and decree that it be pronounced like peanut butter, because he created it.
But then CompuServ came out with 89a.
By all the nonexistent authority vested in me, "GIF" (with a soft G) refers explicitly to 87a, and "GIF" (with a hard G) refers to all versions of the format including and subsequent to 89a.
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Israeli government minister admits that the goal of the #Gaza war is ethnic cleansing (#Nakba) of the region. #ceasefire
https://www.newsweek.com/israeli-official-says-gaza-nakba-underway-palestinians-displaced-1842950
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What should I work on?
Ordinary Guy: So you created a number that is the square root of negative one?
Mathematician: It was very useful.
OG: But it doesn't exist.
M: That's why we call it imaginary!
OG: Then you used it to do rotation?
M: Trig was too messy. Besides e^(iπ)-1 = 0 is just too awesome! All the greatest constants in one equation.
OG: But that wasn't good enough.
M: Nope. Now we have three different things that are all the square root of -1.
OG: And you call these totally tripping balls numbers?
M: Quaternions - it sound more professional at conferences.
OG: And what do you use them for?
M: Spherical rotation without gimble lock.
OG: 🤯
The most fun thing about spherical coordinates is how there are sooo many different conventions… I think I saw theta and phi serving opposite purpo...
While we're on the subject, there is not reason, in the year of our Lord 2023, that any programming language should not have #TailCall #optimization.
Seriously, if there is a function call whose result is immediately passed back to the previous calling site then when you create you new stack frame (or whatever other magical BS your language does to make a function calls) substitute the calling return site for your own. I'm not asking for intensive code analysis to find hidden tail calls, but with `return foo(bar)` foo should not have to come back to your stack frame before moving down the stack.
While there are general standards, every programming language has a slightly different way of doing common things. I really wish someone would make a list of 100 common basic operations (e.g. get the length of a list, modulo operator, inject variables into a format string) and put them on a poster -- one per language.
After my 10th new language, I really don't need the basics of "this is what a function is, this is what loops do" that beginning guides all focus on, but I need to know how your particular language does these common operations.
Lastly, the top result on Google for "Python Modulo operator" should not be a payware intro to Python tutorial, it should be the official API documentation, darn it! #rant
(Today's lucky contestant is still #python, but the same could be said for #go #rust #javascript or #ruby) #programminglanguages
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Fans of Connections, rejoice! Rebooted classic sci-doc series returns with original host
Ars chats with host James Burke about his "connective" approach to science history.
#Biden is already too old to be president, and he should not have run for a second term. I don't think enough Democrats have really thought through what it will be like when he dies or becomes seriously ill in office. At the very least, I wish that some reasonable alternative would place themselves on the primary ballot even if they didn't actively campaign just in case the worst should happen before the convention. #uspol
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I so, so, so don't want to drive any new car that can do this:
A federal appeals court refused to bring back a class action lawsuit alleging four auto manufacturers had violated Washington state’s privacy laws by using vehicles’ on-board infotainment systems to record and intercept customers’ private text messages and mobile phone call logs.
The court ruled that the practice does not meet the threshold for an illegal privacy violation under state law, handing a big win to automakers Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen and General Motors, which are defendants in five related class action suits focused on the issue.
The plaintiffs had appealed a prior judge’s dismissal. But the appeals court ruled Tuesday that the interception and recording of mobile phone activity did not meet the Washington Privacy Act’s standard that a plaintiff must prove that “his or her business, his or her person, or his or her reputation” has been threatened.
A suit filed against Honda in 2021, argu[ed] that beginning in at least 2014 infotainment systems in the company’s vehicles began downloading and storing a copy of all text messages on smartphones when they were connected to the system.
An Annapolis, Maryland-based company, Berla Corporation, provides the technology to some car manufacturers but does not offer it to the general public, the lawsuit said. Once messages are downloaded, Berla’s software makes it impossible for vehicle owners to access their communications and call logs but does provide law enforcement with access, the lawsuit said.
Many car manufacturers are selling car owners’ data to advertisers as a revenue boosting tactic, according to earlier reporting by Recorded Future News. Automakers are exponentially increasing the number of sensors they place in their cars every year with little regulation of the practice.
https://therecord.media/class-action-lawsuit-cars-text-messages-privacy
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In case you have the appetite for really depressing pearls of wisdom from Netanyahu and Begin's ideological master Jabotinsky... in the 1920's Revisionist Zionism pronounced what #Zionism didn't dare to speak (in public). It also set the foundations for Israeli security doctrine.
"There can be no voluntary agreement between ourselves and the Palestine Arabs. Not now, nor in the prospective future. I say this with such conviction, not because I want to hurt the moderate Zionists. I do not believe that they will be hurt. Except for those who were born blind, they realized long ago that it is utterly impossible to obtain the voluntary consent of the Palestine Arabs for converting "Palestine" from an Arab country into a country with a Jewish majority."
"[...] But the only way to obtain such an agreement, is the Iron Wall, which is to say a strong power in #Palestine that is not amenable to any Arab pressure. In other words, the only way to reach an agreement in the future is to abandon all idea of seeking an agreement at present."
--- The Iron Wall... translate to English from the original Russian, Razsviet, 4.11.1923.
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🏳️🌈🖖🏽
The GOP has introduced a bill to EXPEL Palestinians from the United States. I cannot read such things without remembering what happened to my own family after Pearl Harbor. After we and 120,000 other Japanese Americans were incarcerated in prison camps for years, without charge or trial, my own mother was very nearly expelled to Japan because of racial prejudice and hatred. Only the brave actions of a civil rights attorney saved her from being sent away. #NeverAgain
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Why do I believe #Biden will lose in 2024?
1. Most people voted for him because they hated Trump.
2. The lack of voter enthusiasm sealed Hillary's fate in 2016. Trump has many die-hard fans; Biden doesn't.
3. His blind support of Israel will not give him more votes from conservative Jews and will give him fewer from Liberal #Jews. He will lose many votes from #Muslims.
4. Most Gen Y and Z believe he is too old.
- Pronouns
- It's complicated. IDK. Maybe ze/zim/zir https://pronouns.org/ze-hir
- Degree
- Physics, Cal Poly SLO
- Work
- I fix broken stuff
#Technology, #baseball (Dodgers), #politics, #religion (#Christian)
Joined Apr 2022
