John BS @johnabs@qoto.org

@freemo I’ve been watching a new channel on how awesome the Netherlands is, called “Not Just Bikes”.

Is it really such a “modern utopia”? What’s your take on it? Things you love vs hate, that sort of stuff.

Also if it is truly that great, how would you suggest getting your foot in the door for academic/research/programming work? I know I’ve got a while to go on my PhD, but I’m thinking this may be a place to consider in the next few years.

Thanks for input you have! :)

I am so sick of ending up in group projects that I end up leading because nobody has any drive. It's exhausting, and I just wish people would carry their weight.

It's happened on some actual research projects, and in my courses; it's just too much of this crap.

Here's the finished board (with lunch in the frame lmao)

I made this end grain cutting board and I'm quite proud of it

Bandsaw is coming in soon, and I got my reverse osmosis system installed finally! This week has been pretty decent :D

Rant time. Today's topic: pineapple on pizza.

I've never felt more at risk of being doxxed for posting something 😂

<rant>

I'm convinced people who HATE pineapple on pizza have never tried it (or tried one where the pineapple wasn't roasted enough). In other words, I think most people just hate the concept like pedants who hate new slang developing in a language: they just hate it on principle.

Not to say these "pineapple inquisitors" would like it, but I think they're imagining something much worse than it actually is. It's not a watery, sour mess, but a roasted fruit with a very different experience to canned or fresh pineapple.

I quite enjoy it with a combination ingredients (chicken, bacon, mushroom, olive, extra red sauce), which are all very umami and can taste "heavy".

The light acidity, gentle caramelized sweetness, and hint of remaining moisture from a pineapple roasted in high-temp oven is great by itself. On top a pizza, it helps smooth over rough edges by taking what may be an otherwise dry pie with too rich a flavor, and balances the texture and helps cut that overwhelming richness.

Michelin star chefs are starting to use bloody Cheetos in their cooking and nobody bats an eye. Why is this one innocuous, quite reasonable combination seen as the most unforgivable food sin?

I think everyone needs to collectively release their grips on their pearls, and maybe try something new occasionally. Variety is the spice of life after all. If you don't like it, that's okay, just don't treat people who do like heretics.

</rant>

Does anyone here want to listen to a very talented korean man play the sax so smoothly you slide out of your chair?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avzaRIJDVlI

Test: does LaTeX work in the markdown here?

So light roast, cold-brewed, filtered coffee tastes more like "coffee tea" and dark chocolate than the typical drek my family drinks. If you can't tell, I've never been a fan of coffee until now.

I have an extraction method, amber storage glassware, and an incredible cup of joe... Now all I need is a vacuum flask, a Buchner funnel and lab grade filter papers and this process will take a lot less time (2 hours to filter a half gallon today).

I guess 8 years of training in chemistry and chromatography is finally paying off

The new tarantula babies came in today!

I'm worried two of them are psychos but the others behaved nicely during their transfer into their new homes.

My H Pulchripes bolted for like 30 continuous seconds, which is some **serious** stamina for a tarantula. The M Balfouri decided to do a Cirque du Soleil and jumped off the inside of the catch cup, which could have been fatal for the poor girl. Fortunately, it seems fine nearly 14 hours later, so I'm hoping all is good. My P. metallica, known to be "teleporters", was a sweetheart and super easy to get into its enclosure.

Here are some pictures, one of them is absolutely tiny.

I’ve got some striking blue tarantulas coming in the mail this week, and I’m quite excited to get them set up in their new enclosures. All their names are derived from Quenya from LOTR. Links to pictures of full grown specimens are below for anyone interested.

(Also, I picked up a sweetheart that’s very gentle and handle-able! She’s not blue, but she gets extra points for her personality 😍 I caught her drinking today, and she’s such a cutie!)

I’ll post pictures of my spiderlings when they come in if anyone is interested.

M. balfouri
H. pulchripes
P. metallica
P. sazimai
Bonus A. chalcodes

Pro tip: Julia is an amazing language, use it.

Reasoning: I got a 25x performance increase for multiple functions by converting from R code to Julia, even with the same or very similar syntax.

They have great implementation of higher order functions like map,reduce, zip, etc. with loads of LLVM optimizations to make declarative syntax as performant as imperative. Multiple dispatch lets you write overloaded code easier, and the type system is really nice imo.

Package management is great like R, it’s a pleasure to install new stuff and it doesn’t screw up your system or write in the wrong places (COUGH PIP COUGH).

They also have a CAS system, which integrates beautifully with a simulation framework, which is known in the industry as HECKIN’ SICK.

(See this [article] (https://notamonadtutorial.com/modeling-complexity-with-symbolics-jl-and-modelingtoolkit-jl-df923129996b) )

Their YT channel is full of awesome innovation by people in loads of different fields from Quant Finance to ML/AI and more.

Finally, it integrates well with python and R, so if there’s some library you REALLY want, without needing to re-write the code into Julia, you can still use it (though your performance may not be as good).

Let me know what y’all think. I’m trying to get people onboard; it seriously deserves way more love than it’s currently getting, even though MIT is developing it, and doing an amazing job with it.

I finally installed Graphene OS on a new phone. It is absolutely amazing, and I love it. It ships with 6 apps, and I can verify anything I install from FDroid is free of trackers/malware, and same thing with anonymous APKs from the Aurora Store (anonymized Play Store).

100% recommend if you have a Pixel phone with an unlockable boot-loader.

John's spicy take of the day:

The words "educate yourself" do not constitute an argument, and claiming that "it's not your responsibility" to teach someone only further perpetuates their ignorance from your perspective.

If it's nobody's responsibility to teach this person what you think they should know, they will never learn it, especially if they disagree with the arguments being made for reasons beyond the surface. Addressing axioms is key for finding common ground, and this tactic shuts down the conversation well before this can occur.

It seems like it is only used by people who are incapable of adequately articulating their own views; specifically with the intention of rejecting other viewpoints with the presupposition that they are correct and the other person is ignorant. This precludes actual discussion and the possibility that you hear new perspectives and potentially consider your opposition as rational actors, rather than fools.

(Haven't seen this on qoto, but my sister started using this rhetoric so I thought I'd talk about it)

I know I'm probably weird, but does anybody else love the look of "retro" PCBs? I know things have gotten more efficient and modular and just better over time, but the aesthetic of late 80s/early 90s (particularly Nintendo) PCBs just seems so *comfy*.

For context, I've fallen down the rabbit hole of console modding, and it just hits different compared to the more modern stuff IMO.