Notices by Don Romano 🍹 (thj@mastodon.cloud), page 12

I wonder if there is some kind of international STEM degree I could get online, and later seek formal recognition for in Norway. I can't really afford to quit my job, but I can definitely afford to take one online courses.

I have this knowledge of applied mathematics and engineering and I spent many years acquiring it outside of the education system. Going to classes and advancing through the system seems like a very inefficient and redundant way of getting a diploma. It would be much better if they just handed me the full curriculum so I could skip all of that, fill the knowledge gaps, and simply show up for the exam.

My interest in getting a degree in applied mathematics, computational mechanics or engineering is growing.

Unfortunately, having a working knowledge of differential calculus, set theory, vector spaces, classical mechanics, computer science and electrical engineering does not qualify you for admission to a university. In Norway, the minimum requirement for that is an upper secondary school (gymnasium, high school) diploma, and I dropped out due to my undiagnosed and untreated ADHD.

@technolapin If I wasn't showing my notebooks to other people, that would be fine, but I want to share them with people who may not even have used such interfaces before. Pasting an URL is ideal for that.

I also like that Observable allows me to create content using modern web technologies such as ES6 and <canvas> elements.

I'll have to watch out for these glitches. The software otherwise looked very competently designed, so I was caught off guard by this gaping hole in the data integrity.

Why the hell would you make a single-page application that

1. Expires the session cookie even if a document is open?

2. Discards all application state except the URL when you then attempt to log in?

3. Doesn't go out of its way to preserve your code, which you will obviously have spent a great deal of time and effort on?

Notebook interfaces are not for quick little write-ups. You tend to spend many hours in them, and data integrity is extremely important.

Okay, I'm fairly annoyed.

I wrote up a very funny notebook document with beautiful TeX equations that outlined how to heat food in a microwave if your unit doesn't deliver the power stated in the cooking instructions, and while I was doing it, ObservableHQ logged me out.

It gave a warning about it, so I signed in again, and...

Boom.

Hours of work was reverted to the last save state on my account.

What an extraordinarily stupid way of designing software!

When I'm alone in the kitchen and I cook, I basically turn into a parrot.

*elongated chirp* Hey! *clicks cheeks 3 times*

(Droopy's voice) Hoooly FUCK it's cold this morning...

(Cat meows at me. I meow back in its own voice.)

(Someone who sounds like Frank Sinatra can be heard singing in the kitchen.)

(Frank Sinatra drops the butter knife. A Peter Griffin sound-alike picks it up) Here ya go, Frank!

(A British movie villain gets more ingredients from the fridge and complains about it.)

Spoiler: That political issue you care so much will probably be settled by power play, not rational argument.

Contrary to popular belief, the most common car in Sweden is not made by Volvo, but instead by the relative unknown Ahlgrens. The model is called the Bilar, is extremely compact, smaller than the Morris Mini, and comes in soft pastel colours.

I'm doing interactive 3D infographics for work, and I'm now sorely tempted to go vapourwave on it and make it look like something out of Tron.

@byllgrim If you made a vector for that, you might start off by mapping [0%, 100%] to [0, sqrt(2/5)]. Since the average is going to be sqrt(1/5) per scalar (with a max of sqrt(2/5)) and the norm (magnitude) of a vector is the square root of the sum of the squares of the scalars (Pythagoras' theorem), that should give you a set of vectors that averages to a magnitude of 1, I think.

@byllgrim There exists a set for personality traits, called Big Five or OCEAN (Open-minded, Conscientious, Extroverted, Agreeable, Neurotic).

These traits have been found to remain fairly constant for a given individual. The scale is percentiles, so if you're at 98% on Neuroticism, only 2% of the population are more neurotic than you.

I think they're meant to be orhogonal. They're not the right traits for what I have in mind, but they do serve as a proof of concept.

More importantly, if you scatter plot a sample of such vectors, you will find that they will converge on an arc or circle around the origin. That is to say: On average, a person will have a general ability of 1, and the main source of individual variation is how their abilities are distributed along the scalars, i.e. where the vector points.

I wonder if anyone in psychiatry tried to define such a thing as a general ability vector.

Suppose you find a set of orthogonal (uncorrelated) basic abilities that can be quantified in all humans (general intelligence, executive function, ...), and you assign each as a scalar in a vector.

You then use statistical methods to weight each scalar in such a way that the mean norm is 1 for the entire population.

I suspect that if you do it right, the magnitude will have a Gaussian distribution.

If...

impossible = non-possible
impractical = non-practical
insane = non-sane

...then...

immigration = non-migration
inflammable = non-flammable

...but nope.

It's starting to get cold in the mornings. I have to remember to bring my coat out.

@byllgrim What do you mean?

@Algot He was a higher-up but you wouldn't know it from talking to him. Unlike my boss, he doesn't have any natural authority. He's unable to cut through a discussion to end it, which is isn't great when you're supposed to be in charge of the project. He was hesitant when I asked him who's in charge, but did acknowledge that it was him. He's far too insecure and indecisive. I don't hold any of this against him as a person. It just makes things more difficult for me.

@Algot In this case, it's more that he was the head of software development back in 2000, and is a major shareholder in the company, but now works as an independent contractor instead, and is brought on board for various projects.

My boss cares about results, not craft: "Fix it the easy way, not for the ages."

Meanwhile, he says there are many loose ends to tie up when it comes to how professionally company is run. I feel that this contradicts his attitude toward quality of work.

@Algot I think the main problem here is that other people can notice it if you have to make a conscious effort to be patient and explain things clearly, and that's what makes him feel insecure.

He also wants a solution that doesn't require any new insight his part, even when gaining a modest amount of it would make his job much easier. I think it's his insecurities again.