One problem of doing any #retrocomputing is I get used to bytes and kilobytes again, and then when I see modern junk need megabytes or gigabytes, I flip my shit and scream "what the fuck do you need 325,000 Atari 800s for just to draw a screen?!"
Saw the news that Tesla is now accepting Bitcoin payments for cars, so I looked up some figures and did some math.
According to Tesla's own figures, a Model 3 saves 30 tons of CO2 emissions over its lifetime compared to a traditional car. A Model 3 costs 0.69-1.21 BTC. Mining one BTC results in 257 tons of CO2 emissions.
For the next time someone tells you Elon Musk is saving the planet.
Some hard-hitting reporting from the New York Times on the inequality of vaccine distribution. Such is the world we live in. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/03/19/world/covid-vaccine-inequality.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
“Closing web browser windows doesn't close connections”
https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/closing.html
Huh.
I’ve just spent 2 hours debugging an issue which turns out to be because JavaScript was silently converting my integer to a string… Not even quotes around it when printing out… just great.
The fact that we as an industry decided to take a programming language designed for normal folk to add a little bit of interactivity to the personal websites and use it to build commercial grade applications is honestly one of the worst decisions of the 21st century. Pure stupidity.
“Several years ago, I was chatting with another engineer from a close competitor. He told me about how they'd set up a system to run hundreds of data processing jobs a day over a dozen machines, using docker, load balancing, a bunch of AWS stuff. I knew these jobs very well, they were basically identical for any company in the space.
He then mentioned that he'd noticed that somehow my employer had been processing thousands of jobs, much faster than his, and asked how many machines we were using.
I didn't have the heart to tell him we were running everything manually on my two-year-old macbook air.” — just amazing! 😂https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26473388
I just don’t understand what can drive someone to such monstrous behaviour. Calling them “dogs” just doesn’t do it justice https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/15/the-death-of-zaw-myat-lynn-allegations-torture-used-on-opposition-activist-in-myanmar
“Debugging is the subtle art of reconciling what you think you asked a computer to do with what you actually asked a computer to do.”
— @aral
There cannot BE a better definition.
</fake-chandler-accent>
Ok, Planet Money has convinced me NFTs are maybe not entirely crazy. I guess the real crazy thing is the art market in general. My ultimate opinion will probably fall on who ultimately benefits. If digital artists end up making their worth compared with more traditional art forms then good. But if big business and rich investors end up making the most then what have we really gained (other than a whole bunch more carbon emissions). https://pca.st/episode/9798a8d4-d004-4252-be89-e8e3d1a0d685
Why does there even need to be separate music awards for different genders? I get there’s a biological difference in most sports, but music? Seems needlessly divisive. The Nobel prizes aren’t gendered, why is music?
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/mar/12/sam-smith-gender-2021-brit-awards
Software engineer by trade. Programmer by hobby too (in addition to basketry and spoon carving). Personal website: https://rlamacraft.uk/. Gemini capsule: gemini://gemini.rlamacraft.uk