Martin Jambon 🌍🌎🌏 @mjambon@qoto.org

@koblas I think it's more about awareness... of when is a good time to stop duplicating the same thing over and over.

I'm compiling a collection of software engineering principles. The idea is to have them in a document with longer explanations and examples. Other than that, they're meant to be cited as justifications for this or that choice we make and left as comments in code or in conversations. Some are special cases or consequences of more generic principles. Here's what I have so far:
- simplicity
- least surprise
- separation of concerns
- design for the worst-case scenario
- explain the intentions behind any piece of code
- minimize future maintenance efforts
- minimize time to fix future problems
- no code duplication
- fail early

Note that this list is limited to "technical" principles in the sense that they're valid even for a team of one. There are more principles and guidelines for the interactions between team members but here I'm limiting myself to what could be or should be written down as part of a code base.

#programming #engineering #ocaml #bestpractices #work

*my interpretation assumes a continuously ascending path from the imaginary sea level to the mountain top. I believe it's almost always the case in practice.

A counterexample is a peak within a crater.

I find the definition of the prominence of a mountain peak very interesting:

"The prominence of a peak is the minimum height of climb to the summit on any route from a higher peak, or from sea level if there is no higher peak. The lowest point on that route is the col."

It's the peak's height minus how much the sea level would have to rise to make this peak the highest on its island.

For intuition, see the examples at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mountain_peaks_by_prominence

#mountains #geography #topography #math

Does anyone understand what Elton John says in the song Sacrifice? It sounds like a made-up tongue to me except for a few phrases here and there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrLkTZrPZA4
#music #songs #english #british #sounds

@johncarlosbaez @dpiponi like animals in zoos, I find that jokes are best enjoyed in the wild.

@LouisIngenthron @freemo I also find it best to retreat and fall back to using technical terms that the crowds aren't using yet. For AI, it can be as simple as calling it "artificial intelligence". For the particular stuff I'm interested in, I use "artificial cognition".

Years ago, I was in a web company whose business was people search. The biggest takeaway from this particular industry is that people love to find details about others but hate to have their details available to others.
#privacy

@furqanshah compare with Flammulina velutipes (enoki).

@Freyja I would be supportive if the situation was what you're describing, but it clearly states that it only concerns people who were already famous before their transition.

@jarich @Freyja I'm learning that the poll was about "personne transgenre qui a acquis sous cette ancienne identité une notoriété suffisante [...]" (transgender person who, under this former identity, acquired sufficient notoriety [...]). This is not for people who were not famous before their transition. 🤔

@freemo it's always fun to think about it. I deeply enjoyed the 4 seasons of 12 Monkeys. Many other people did. I don't want you to miss out!

@freemo please don't answer. But I recommend the tv series "12 Monkeys".

@freemo what definition of "time travel" would not be self-contradicting?

@jarich @Freyja I have the impression that it's a situation that looks benign until it happens to you. I expect celebrities* to be more sensitive to these issues than unknowns like me.
*big celebrities with paparazzi and all

@jarich @Freyja thank you, makes sense. I was more wondering about the publication of the deadname assuming we already know they're trans.

Xu Hongming exhibit at Qualia in Palo Alto. I recommend seeing this in person if you have a chance. It's huge.
#art #maximalism

@UP8 cool but not cool

@j_bertolotti I'm confused because of the assumption that it's a 1D problem but it's shown in 2D. In 2D, I would expect the classical (average) position to not lie on the trajectory of the quantum positions. Essentially, I'm trying to figure out what's realistic about it and what isn't (like, is there any quantum mechanics in 1D anyway?)