ceoln @ceoln@qoto.org
A consciousness somehow associated with matter.
Posting about culture, philosophy, politics, AI Art Tools, NaNoWriMo, Software Development occasionally, the relationship of consciousness to matter.
Degrees in Philosophy and Computer Science, once had a US TS/SCI(redacted) clearance, radical-for-the-US politics, ex-Libertarian, zen-buddhist-pantheist-atheist.
Google employee, but I do not speak for Google in any way.
If your profile tells me nothing about you, it's less likely I'll follow you (back).
Header: abstract smoky patterns
pfp: Adorable weird piglet / delirium cultist... thing. In a hoodie.
Joined Nov 2022
ceoln
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Just a heads-up: you can read any post on #Twitter without giving #Musk any revenue--no ads, no Javascript analytics, no IP-based tracking--by opening the post directly on #Nitter.
It's as easy as replacing the Twitter domain name in the URL with the domain of your favorite Nitter instance.
Even easier: there's also a Chrome extension called "Nitter Redirect" that will automatically redirect any Twitter links that you click to the same post on a Nitter instance.
ceoln
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re: proof that prime factorization is hard
@futurebird short answer: not really. a lot of people strongly suspect this, alongside a load of other things, but we have yet to make an actual proof.
long answer: in general, we don't know if P=NP. if we measure a problem "size" in terms of N (for factoring, N would just be the size of the number), then the problem is in P if the time it takes to solve the problem is proportional to some polynomial (hence P) in terms of N. more specifically, it can be solved on a deterministic Turing machine, which is how we model computation.
NP means that it can be solved on a non-deterministic Turing machine, which is theorised to be more powerful than a regular Turing machine, hence the assumption that P≠NP. the idea here is that it's non-deterministic because it can simulate multiple paths of computation at once, and those paths themselves can branch into multiple paths, which ends up with exponentially many possible paths. the problem gets solved once one path solves it. this screams "more powerful" but no one has proven it. an alternative way of looking at this is a "lucky guess"; you can solve the problem in the time it would take if you guessed correctly at every opportunity. (also, unlike regular computers, quantum computers can be modelled like these machines, which is why we also assume they are more powerful.)
people often say that things are in NP if we can verify them in P time, which goes along with the lucky guess idea.
now, if we exclude the whole, not proving if P≠NP thing, we usually prove that things are "NP-complete" by saying that there's a polynomial time algorithm to convert them into an NP-hard problem. the classic one for this is boolean satisfiability, which basically is this:
given a logical statement with a bunch of variables separated by and, or, not; figure out what set of values (true or false) those variables have to have in order to make the overall statement true, or if that just isn't possible.
for that problem, we basically don't know a good algorithm besides manually trying all options, and there are 2N of them (more than a polynomial)
prime factorization is even beyond this where we don't know if we can convert it into a problem like that. it's an open question.
we know that verifying prime factors is easy, so, it's definitely NP. but all P problems are NP, by how we define P and NP, so, that's not enough. since we can't even connect it to a problem we know would definitely be NP-hard, like boolean satisfiability, it's all unknown
some extra reading:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integer_factorization
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_satisfiability_problem
ceoln
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Einstein on grief, time, eternity, and the privilege of old age – his moving letter of consolation to his bereaved friend, the Queen of Belgium https://www.themarginalian.org/2016/01/22/einstein-letter-queen-of-belgium/
ceoln
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The North Carolina Supreme Court struck down the state’s photo voter identification law and the election map used for state Senate races.
These are two big wins in our state!
In Holmes v. Moore, the court threw out North Carolina’s 2018 voter ID law.
In Harper v. Hall, the court tossed out North Carolina’s state Senate election map.
Both of these cases come down to voter disenfranchisement in our state. We must keep fighting because this is far from over.
ceoln
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@jonsab welcome! A few tips to get you started:
1. Pick a good app. Tusky is great for Android, not sure what is good for iphone but I'm sure someone will pipe up with a suggestion.
2. Follow lots of folks. And follow hashtags. On Mastodon, the only stuff on your feed is stuff you've specifically asked to see, via following. No algorithm to randomly put things in your face.
3. Follow these accounts: @feditips
@FediFollows
#feditips #TwitterExodus
ceoln
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If you use Zapier this is a helpful guide for getting your RSS driven zaps to post to Mastodon: https://lukas.io/autoposting-rss-to-mastodon
ceoln
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Let me say this as somebody who consumes news and scholarship for a living, and a lot of it (as Hopkins prof): the notion that journalism—investigative reporting and professional fact-checking—could or should be replaced by some technology is simply dumb. Stupid. Makes no sense.
ceoln
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Welcome! Write an #introduction post! Pin it! Let us know what content you post, the things you like, hobbies, interests!
ceoln
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Welcome new friends to #mastodon!
Tip: Less broadcast, more conversations.
I see some people using Mastodon to just broadcast links to their sites or posting and not engaging. This is not that other place, it’s not about followers, it is about interactions.
I have the best time following hashtags for things I love (#movies, #tv, #running, #startrek, #starwars ) and interacting with people I don’t even know on these topics. Everyone is so friendly.
ceoln
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#introduction- hello from someone equal parts enthusiast and skeptic when it comes to technology. Been in software 20+ years and glad I didn't have to grow up in the digital age. A cabin in the woods with no cell service gets more tempting by the day.
ceoln
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hey my studio is hiring for a really cool project and it's a really great place to work imo. Open roles:
Senior Programmer
Network Programmer
DevOps Engineer
UI/UX Designer
ceoln
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Hi everyone! I guess we're doing this social media thing from scratch? OK, here it goes:
I'm a reporter @ProPublica writing about worker safety & migration. Sometimes I'll dabble outside this universe. I'm looking forward to figuring out how this platform works. If you have any pointers, I'm all ears.
Here's my first story at ProPublica published in mid-November about how the U.S. refugee resettlement system failed an Afghan family in rural Missouri:
https://www.propublica.org/article/missouri-afghan-refugees-rezwan-kohistani-oronogo
ceoln
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Hey Mastodon! I'm Holly, I paint spooky crow people in countryside scenes.
ceoln
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@bookstodon did you all know that Harpo Marx and Salvador Dali we’re friends, and that Dali wrote a script for a Marx Brothers movie? Well now you do, because someone made a graphic novel out of it. Classic work of genius! #art #film #surrealism #marxbrothers #graphicnovel #comedy
ceoln
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ceoln
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Freedom of reach IS freedom of speech
(10 Dec 22) by Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic)
‘there's another side to this playlistification of #feeds: playlists and other recommendation #algorithms are #chokepoints: they are a way to durably interpose a company between a creator and their audience. Where you have chokepoints, you get #chokepointcapitalism’
Read it. It’s informative, full of niftyficated neologisms, well-crafted
ceoln
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Thanks to everyone that's followed us over the past two days - we're already up to 20K!
Can say that the level of engagement and interaction on here is way greater than Twitter, and we look forward to seeing this space grow!
Check out our site at: https://itsgoingdown.org/
Our podcast hub: https://itsgoingdown.org/category/podcast/
And if you're just joining us, here's a good place to start: https://itsgoingdown.org/what-anarchists-have-been-saying-for-years-and-what-liberals-should-start-hearing/
ceoln
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A consciousness somehow associated with matter.
Posting about culture, philosophy, politics, AI Art Tools, NaNoWriMo, Software Development occasionally, the relationship of consciousness to matter.
Degrees in Philosophy and Computer Science, once had a US TS/SCI(redacted) clearance, radical-for-the-US politics, ex-Libertarian, zen-buddhist-pantheist-atheist.
Google employee, but I do not speak for Google in any way.
If your profile tells me nothing about you, it's less likely I'll follow you (back).
Header: abstract smoky patterns
pfp: Adorable weird piglet / delirium cultist... thing. In a hoodie.
Joined Nov 2022
