🎓 Doc Freemo 🇳🇱 @freemo@qoto.org

@mngrif is officially a new moderator on #QOTO. Everyone welcome him to the team!

#mastoadmin

Considering the name of this instance, this seems like the right place to ask. Is anyone here into street epistemology?

For anyone who hasn't heard of it, it's a conversational technique used to examine beliefs that is similar to socratic questioning, but you focus *just* on the method(s) used to reach a particular belief. An outline for how it goes: https://streetepistemology.com/publications/street_epistemology_the_basics You essentially act as a sounding board for someone else to reflect on how they reached a particular belief, and you keep your own beliefs out of it to avoid turning it into a debate. Hopefully useful for the person reflecting on their belief, but also good for the SE practitioner to get to know the other person's thinking better (and maybe shed themselves of straw men in the process?).

People primarily seem to be using it for supernatural/religious claims at the moment, but it seems like a useful tool for constructive conversations in all kinds of contexts. There are tons of videos on youtube of SE-based conversations.

#SE #StreetEpistemology #Philosophy

Achondroplasia

An autosomal dominant pattern which causes a form of short limbed dwarfism, literal meaning "without cartilage formation".

People with achondroplasia have inherited an altered FGFR3 gene from at least one of their parents. 50% of their children will carry the allele responsible for the disease.

https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/achondroplasia

#genetics

Visited Jeff's blog earlier this morning, to see a poem he linked to, a nice one.

Noticed a link to other post, and it's a lovely article - about operating a crypto mining at home, with off the shelf components. Which paid for itself nicely, despite what we hear about server farms being unbeatable (which is true for Bit Coin, BTC)

His setup was specifically for mining Ether, and by nature that process benefit systems using Graphics cards for the processing.

Very cool project! Glad it worked out, the hardware is exquisite. He explains it well too. 🎅

http://jeffreyfreeman.me/a-badass-ethereum-mining-rig/

"If we stop believing that boys and men are emotional cripples and fly-by-night Casanovas who just want sex, and start believing that they're full, complete human beings who have emotional and relational needs, imagine what might happen!" --Andrew Smiler

#toyprogrammingchallenge

Okay, here is a fun one. We've all seen Fibonacci sequences. But they are all played out. Let's look at a different sequence. They are called Hamming Numbers after Richard Hamming, who proposed the problem of finding computer algorithms for generating these numbers in ascending order.

For number H is equal to 2**i * 3**j * 2**k where i,k,k are all non negative.

For example
2**0 * 3**0 * 5**0 = 1
2**1 * 3**0 * 5**0 = 2
2**0 * 3**1 * 5**0 = 3
2**2 * 3**0 * 5**0 = 4
2**0 * 3**0 * 5**1 = 5
2**2 * 3**1 * 5**0 = 6
2**3 * 3**0 * 5**0 = 8

So hopefully that explains what the sequence looks like. Your challenge, if you choose to accept it is to generate the first 25 of them. An arbitrary nth one such as 1700th. And given a number X determine if it is or is not a valid hamming number.

Here is the wiki article on them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_number

QOTO + PEER REVIEW = MODERATOR/GATEKEEPERS?
.
Peer review is at the heart of the processes of scientific journals and all of science.
.
Do we not all understand that peer review is the method by which grants are allocated, papers published, academics promoted, and Nobel prizes won?
.
The peer review process has gatekeepers, not unlike our QOTO moderators -- an online fact-of-life full of problems but the least worst option we have.
.
The most important question with QOTO moderator review is not whether to abandon it, but how to improve it when stumbling blocks arise.
.
A. A specific QOTO issue or
problem has been clearly
identified: Moderators can't
currently read or prevent
advertisements in foreign
languages.
.
B. A QOTO community vote
rejected a rule proposed to
address the problem.
.
C. What next? What can
QOTO do -- what are we
willing and able to do -- to
mitigate harm caused by
doing nothing in response
to a clearly identified
problem?
.
Moderator/gatekeeper review is a flawed process; but it is likely to remain central to QOTO because there is no obvious alternative,
.
Going forward, QOTO will grow by learning lessons the hard way, right? And QOTO needs to figure out to do better, right?
.
NOTE: This post paraphrases Smith R. Peer review: a flawed process at the heart of science and journals. J R Soc Med. 2006 Apr;99(4):178-82. doi: 10.1258/jrsm.99.4.178. PMID: 16574968; PMCID: PMC1420798; see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1420798/

.
QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?

@freemo I remember those days well. My first PC was an IBM clone, 286 a6 MHz, the processor was fast for the time. Not an Intel part, they had moved on to promoting the newer and higher profit 386 gen processors.

I also bought and installed the math coprocessor for my machine. Needed since I wanted to use AutoCAD, and it required it.

So I ordered a 287 Intel coprocessor. It was about $300 CAD at the time, early 1991 probably. Would be a lot more today with inflation accounted for, and I was worried of damaging it during installation.

Turns out it did not work. I don't remember exactly what the symptom was, but not good. I had a $300 part, bought mail order, and might be stuck with it. 😟

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/80287/index.html

Hi, I just registered and look forward to participating in the QOTO community. I am a beginner biology student and experienced computer programmer. Glad I registered, it looks comfy here. #new