robryk @robryk@qoto.org
I enjoy things around information theory (and data compression), complexity theory (and cryptography), read hard scifi, currently work on weird ML (we'll see how it goes), am somewhat literal minded and have approximate knowledge of random things. I like when statements have truth values, and when things can be described simply (which is not exactly the same as shortly) and yet have interesting properties.
I live in the largest city of Switzerland (and yet have cow and sheep pastures and a swimmable lake within a few hundred meters of my place :)). I speak Polish, English, German, and can understand simple Swiss German and French.
If in doubt, please err on the side of being direct with me. I very much appreciate when people tell me that I'm being inaccurate. I think that satisfying people's curiosity is the most important thing I could be doing (and usually enjoy doing it). I am normally terse in my writing and would appreciate requests to verbosify.
I appreciate it if my grammar or style is corrected (in any of the languages I use here).
Joined Nov 2020
robryk
boosted
@mark @SmallOther@techhub.social @mcc
It's not only that machines are nondeterministic (after all, positions of all electrons in a relay circuit are not really deterministic in any way, shape, or form), but that the abstractions they present aren't (or are leaky-thus-wrong in a way that exposes the nondeterminism).
The whole area of concurrent data structures is IMO (but I'm biased) a very nice example of eking out as much determinism as you can out of a system that's nondeterministic at the next lower abstraction level. Another similar area are distributed protocols, in particular ones that admit adversaries.
It also struck me at some point that we don't really have reasonable fault-tolerant computing models: we have lots of ways of handling faulty storage, but very little for handling faulty logic. The ones I know of either replicate all of it, or are reifications of some byzantine-tolerant distributed protocol. I know of ~none that are aimed at handling cases of stochastic breakdown as cheaply as possible that are not just heuristics.
Do people drink coffee with lemon juice? If not, why not? Is the combination of the tastes terrible, or does something happen chemically when one adds it?
robryk
boosted
Das erinnert mich daran, dass mein Bruder in den 90ern mit seinen Freunden eine LAN-Party organisiert hat.
Meine Eltern und ich sind hingefahren, um uns das Spektakel anzusehen - und haben Oma mitgenommen.
Sie war ganz beeindruckt, wie sehr sich die jungen Leute für sowas begeistern können, und wieviel Arbeit die da reinstecken, und wie höflich die alle sind :-)
Danach war Oma in jeder unsinnigen Killerspiel-Debatte auf der Seite der Gamer <3
https://social.tchncs.de/@Erdrandbewohner/112190165994603403
robryk
boosted
@brie @pluszysta no więc ja sobie czasem żegluję, i kiedyś obserwowałem śląską załogę pokazowo robiącą manewry na kotwicy.
Zwykły zestaw komend na rzucenie kotwicy to:
- Przygotować kotwicę do rzucenia!
- Kotwica do rzucenia klar!
- Kotwicę rzuć!
Ślązacy zapodali:
- Ankiel do ciepania rychtuj!
- Ankiel do ciepania klar!
- Ankiel ciep!
Zrobili mi wtedy dzień. Mi i reszcie portu. Szacun.
robryk
boosted
@rust I plan to start prepending "Being fully aware that we have no control over how the Universe works or what the future holds," to all my emails.
robryk
boosted
The fact that the opposite to “steerswoman“ is “figurehead man” is absolutely perfect, you definitely cannot expect a truthful answer from one of these.
robryk
boosted
Wir tauchen ab ins Reduit, folgen den Irrwegen von Überwachern und gespeicherten Daten, die fast vollständige Abziehbilder unseres Lebens formen.
❗Heute Abend❗ im Theater Neumarkt – mit @adfichter, @sylkegruhnwald, @karpi, Kristina Malyseva u. a.
https://www.republik.ch/veranstaltungen/wir-haben-nichts-zu-verbergen
Stories by Naomi Kritzer are optimistic (sometimes unrealistically so) and very charming. (This is based on a sample of size 2 for now.)
@freemo Since the update I get multiple end of voting notifications for each poll I have voted in (e.g. just got 10 notifications in a row for https://mastodon.nz/@pezmico/112028203100230568). It doesn't bother me so far, but I figure it might be a symptom of something with other annoying consequences.
Random thought: is there any fantasy novel that includes a strike (in the labor sense) of magical weapons?
@ftdl Wasze obrazki są serwowane z niewłaściwym content type:
```
[robryk@howl:~]$ curl -s --head https://pol.social/system/media_attachments/files/111/997/477/376/191/561/original/c95ac2fa43c76db5.jfif | grep content-type
content-type: text/plain
x-content-type-options: nosniff
[robryk@howl:~]$ curl -s https://pol.social/system/media_attachments/files/111/997/477/376/191/561/original/c95ac2fa43c76db5.jfif | file -
/dev/stdin: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.01, aspect ratio, density 1x1, segment length 16, baseline, precision 8, 1080x1080, components 3
```
robryk
boosted
incidentally, the two are related; back in late 1800s, when people wanted to manufacture things like typewriters and sewing machines, they didn't have an entire industrial base that would do precision things out of metal on contract available for them
they could, however, hire a gun manufacturer, which is someone who makes precision things out of metal on contract
In what languages, apart from Polish, one "burns" a cigarette (as opposed to "smoking" it)?
robryk
boosted
TIL: Kanton Zürich apparently has detectors near a few #hiking trails to measure how dry/wet the ground is, so you can plan ahead of time for the right shoes and equipment!
https://www.zh.ch/de/umwelt-tiere/boden/messnetz-bodenfeuchte.html
robryk
boosted
I'm looking for a new job! 
👷♀️ I can build software for your business (mainly in Rust, but I pick up new things quickly), or help you make sense of your existing software. I’m familiar with networking (I run AS213185 to experiment with BGP, OSPF and such), railway open data, and a bit of embedded stuff too (schematic/PCB design in KiCad, embedded Rust).
✨ Recently, I've tracked London Underground trains (and given a talk about it), reverse-engineered UK rail tickets, and built some hardware to make LED panels work. I have a website at eta.st with more stuff, too!
🌐 I'm looking for hybrid jobs (not fully remote) in the UK, but I could be tempted away to the Netherlands or Germany for the right role. I'm also open to contracting and part-time projects!
✉️ Send me an email at job@eta.st if you're interested (or want my CV)
Boosts appreciated! ❤️ #getfedihired
Yearly reminder: today's the day when the Swiss authorities break the noon quiet period.
I realized today that this is a good alternate way of looking at what voltage dividers hanging off a power rail do: they are like a voltage source of the expected voltage with an internal resistance equivalent to a parallel connection of the divider's resistors.
I wonder how much time will pass until I get the rest of the setup for problem 17 from https://www.iypt.org/problems/problems-iypt-2024/
Why do x-ray emitters present typical lamp current as an important metric? (E.g. on faceplate) Its relation to luminosity depends greatly on emitter geometry, so is emitter-specific.
I enjoy things around information theory (and data compression), complexity theory (and cryptography), read hard scifi, currently work on weird ML (we'll see how it goes), am somewhat literal minded and have approximate knowledge of random things. I like when statements have truth values, and when things can be described simply (which is not exactly the same as shortly) and yet have interesting properties.
I live in the largest city of Switzerland (and yet have cow and sheep pastures and a swimmable lake within a few hundred meters of my place :)). I speak Polish, English, German, and can understand simple Swiss German and French.
If in doubt, please err on the side of being direct with me. I very much appreciate when people tell me that I'm being inaccurate. I think that satisfying people's curiosity is the most important thing I could be doing (and usually enjoy doing it). I am normally terse in my writing and would appreciate requests to verbosify.
I appreciate it if my grammar or style is corrected (in any of the languages I use here).
Joined Nov 2020
