John BS @johnabs@qoto.org

Grading is done, finally time for a break 😩

You know, if you think about it, we're all (locally) flat earthers. The only difference is how you define local...

Merry early Christmas everyone, here's my favorite bass singer doing what he does best!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8Sxh5E2u_g

For those of you with ADHD or difficulty focusing in noisy/distracting environments, a pair of noise cancelling headphones, along with mynoise.net is an absolute blessing (it's free btw).

I really like the distant thunder paired with music, or the "medieval library" sounds as well.

Finally, cleaning up my desk seems to help a lot too, so don't overestimate how a change in your environment (even small ones) can impact your productivity and creativity!

Looking into developing a pretty involved website with Clojurescript. Does anyone have any experience in this domain, or suggestions they can throw my way?

P.S. HAPPY END OF THE SEMESTER EVERYBODY!

I hope everyone has a wonderful time spending the holidays with people they care about ❤️

Just got a new keyboard. Old one had buckling spring switches, this one has Gateron blues. I'm considering the Kailh box jades for the extra stability and maybe fliming them to reduce flex. Anyone here have other clicky switch suggestions?

Currently carrying 2 more group projects in an attempt to save my grades from my teammates.

No progress from them on the code at all, and none on the report yet either. I could at least accept that if I'm going to do most (see: nearly all) the code, that they would write the report. Looks like that's not happening either, unless they churn it all out at the last minute as usual.

I'm honestly not sure how well we're going to do, and I'm getting really sick of this nonsense. Hopefully I can speak with the professor tomorrow, but it's immensely frustrating that I have to consistently resort to this strategy.

Even worse, in this case they basically told me "You did enough, we'll take it from here", and proceeded to make 0 progress for over a month. I actually thought I finally got a decent group; oh well 😩

I found an awesome new browser add-on on hacker news that brings HUGE quality of life improvements to Wikipedia.

I love the themes, and customizable text fonts/spacing along with the little touches like moving the "related/navigation" section to a minimizable sidebar. I may ask the author to add support for dyslexic friendly fonts too, but if you use Wikipedia for your job or for fun, you should check this out!

https://www.modernwiki.app/

Installing Guix on a test laptop until I get things operational to migrate. I've not been this excited to configure a system in a long time :D

So, apparently the plastic recycling symbol isn't actually a recycling symbol. It's a "resin identifier symbol" (designed to look like the recycling symbol though, to confuse the public) and doesn't actually mean the material you put in the recycling bin is recyclable...which basically means all the due diligence we do to try to prevent environmental damage and personal bodily harm via micro plastic exposure is literally for nothing... Mircoplastics are in bloody fruits and veggies now somehow; we can't get rid of them, so clean eating is basically impossible.

When do we finally collectively pull our heads out of our butts and realize the lobbyists are nearly always the bad guys who sell the health of entire generations just to make a buck? I'm so done with this.

Please discuss. Trying to figure out what to use next; currently using Arch.

I heavily suggest checking out Jake Tran's channel.

I used to work in drug-development during my first doctorate program, and I think this is a pretty good "exposé" of the scummy insurance practices we see in the U.S. which substantially inflates our drug prices.

Thoughts?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiOAPu-sfOI

I went on a lovely, hour-long bike-ride with my wife today. Despite being largely sedentary for most of the pandemic (and gaining some weight in the process), and I can gladly say it was totally worth it, and I'm hoping to try to actually commute more this way in the future.

The only problem is all the cars which could mangle my flesh into a gooey pile without a second thought...Ah Holland, how I long for thy safer cycling infrastructure 😩 😂

Well it's official, today I delete my Facebook account. Bloody finally lmao

For anyone interested in a super awesome emacs config, I have a channel you may be interested in. I heavily suggest checking out some of these utilities like email, org-mode, the editor, etc. They're seriously excellent, especially with "evil" mode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aml36yZ-ANc

I am a new, proud owner of an xmonad configuration that behaves like dwm but isn't buggy and regularly forgets to update my clock and other bar related stuff (yay Haskell!).

I tried to include screenshots but it didn't let me 😂.

I'm glad my brain finally kicked in to high gear to understand the world's coolest (and likely toughest) programming language so I could get this wrapped up xD

Nevermind, I'm a dang genius.

Be amazed at my IQ.

My goals are beyond your comprehension now mortals.

Just kidding, I found a line I forgot to uncomment and for some weird reason it was only effecting 1 of my 2 monitors.

Hey all,

Anybody an xmonad aficionado? I could use some help fixing a few very minor issues, and I think I've reached the limit of the amount of random Haskell I can digest for a while lmao

I used to be a hardcore vim user. I recently discovered emacs (tonight, in fact), and I'm blown away.

Once I migrate, I'm probably not going back. If you guys want to know why, I'll be glad to write up a quick post on it.

P.S. If you're a vim user, you can keep the awesome keybinds, I heavily suggest you give it a shot.

Hot take (would appreciate discussion on this point if anyone (dis)agrees): individualism and collectivism are both good and necessary, but it depends on their direction. Top-down individualism, I would say, is necessary for a government that respects the rights of its citizens. If the highest ideal of the highest governmental authority is fundamentally collective, then the government can justify ignoring the rights of the individuals by using the "greater good" as a scapegoat.

Bottom-up individualism fundamentally becomes toxic. But bottom-up collectivism helps me maintain my relationship with my neighbors, my community, and my country. In a world where each of these philosophies is in balance, and coming from the appropriate place, I think we can produce a more civil, polite, and effective society. However, when either force overwhelms the other, or is applied from the incorrect direction, I think it leads to great injustice and lack of consideration for either the non-politicians, or those in our communities.