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
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The physics of why the first clock in America failed
The first clock in the Americas was an abject failure.
Little did everyone know that gravitation was to blame.
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/physics-first-clock-america-failed/
Serwujecie na pol.social media z niewłaściwym Content-Type. Np takie https://pol.social/system/media_attachments/files/110/935/884/311/554/703/original/be66df9224d6be69.webp ma `Content-Type: text/plain`, a jest obrazkiem. To powoduje, że linki do nich (np. te w klientach innych instancji) otwierają stronę robaczków miast obrazek.
robryk
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@msuriar tbf HAVING and WHERE being two different language elements is absurd.
Consider trying out https://prql-lang.org/ which compiles to readable standard SQL and doesn't have such issues :)
robryk
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We have a wonderful Slack channel called #why which is filled with questions like "why do we do <thing>" or "does anyone remember why we do <thing>"
1. It's kinda helpful when you scale up staff by 100% in approximately one year
2. Even the CEO asks why questions!
3. At year 6 or so of a startup there are lots of decisions to be reconsidered
robryk
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Some people, when confronted with a key management problem, think “I know, I'll use a Public Key Infrastructure.” Now they have a Problem Authority.
robryk
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🇭🇰🇯🇵🇵🇱🇪🇺
In what world is walking on a bike lane (instead of a pedestrian lane immediately to its side) a reasonable way to minimize the chance of collision with a bicycle?
robryk
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speaking of πλανητες watch the anime planetes now if you haven't already
robryk
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@harcesz "The name and logo of "NERV" are used with the explicit permission of khara Inc., the copyright holder of the "Evangelion" series, and Groundworks Corporation, which manages the rights to the series." (https://nerv.app/en/support.html). Dodatkowo w jednym z nagrań głos podkłada aktor, który w anime wcielał się w kolegę Shinjiego :)
Why can stinging nettle sting through clothes, but only if they're wet?
robryk
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Przez chwilę myślałem, że to jakiś nieoficjalny dostęp do danych z aplikacji NERV (heh*), ale wygląda na to, że to jednak zupełnie oficjalne działanie agencji odpowiedzialnej za tą usługę;
www.itmedia.co.jp/news/articles/…/news134.html
note.com/xanac13/n/nbf49cf724c19
Wygląda na to, że w sumie prowadzą ponad 230 kont na mastodonie, tak że można precyzyjnie dobrać preferowany typ ostrzeżeń a dodatkowo najważniejsze są podbijane przez wszystkie konta regionalne w zasięgu - sprytne rozwiązanie. Usługę uruchomili w 2017.
*Czy jakaś bardziej japoniofilna osoba może mi wytłumaczyć - czy Japończycy faktycznie nazwali agencję ostrzegającą przed katastrofami za, oraz skopiowali logo/motto agencji konstruującej roboty do obrony ziemi z popularnego anime?
robryk
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I know corporations are evil but I'm still quietly impressed at the LEGO group's tax policy (namely - to pay them, make sure to pay them and to acknowledge that taxes are a core part of giving back to society and corporate responsibility). The corporate income tax rate in Denmark is 22%, and 22% is what they pay on their gross profit. The tax policy document is a short but informative read (see link).
Compare this with Google, Amazon and friends, who constantly trumpet their social responsibility but who are somehow only paying a few percentage points of US federal income tax on their own profits.
And yet Lego continues to make generous net profits and has not been taxed into oblivion as conventional thinking in the US would consider inevitable.
https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/aboutus/assets/bltfc621352618d8b90/Tax_Strategy_2023_Final.pdf
Why would one ever want to use `nix-env` on NixOS? It causes a lot of confusion for new people when they realize that what needs updating is not only channels of their user, and channels of root, but also nix-env-installed packages. Even once you resolve that confusion, you are still stuck with one more independently updated thing that you need to update in sync (due to graphics drivers), so the promise of easy rollbacks is a bit further away (because one needs to roll back one more thing and remember to do that).
robryk
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Mourning Bram Moolenaar https://lwn.net/Articles/940551/ #LWN
robryk
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robryk
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#2810 How to Coil a Cable
The ideal mix for maximum competitive cable-coiling energy is one A/V tech, one rock climber, one sailor, and one topologist.
https://xkcd.com/2810/
So, Swiss Post offers a "print and send a postcard with a photo of my choosing" service and gives everyone one such postcard free[1] per day. The canton of Zürich has an opt-out publicly readable mapping from license plate numbers to owners' names and addresses.
So, does anyone have some nice artwork for "please check your headlights", "thank you for being considerate", "please remember to use your turn signal", "please don't use a cell phone while driving", ...? :)
[1] well, ad-supported: they put an ad on the back next to the text
Weird request: if you have any ZVV paper tickets handy, could you say what "Art-Nr" is on them and what kind of ticket was it?
Amusing German word: https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/kurzweilig
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
