Notices by de∫hipu (deshipu@mastodon.technology)

One of the arguments for "intelligent design" takes as an example a simple banana, and explains how it's just the right size for eating, the right color to easily spot it, easy to peel with human hands, etc. — and that it all can't be just a coincidence. Someone could point out that we evolved the eyes and hands for the banana, and not the other way around. But that would be a mistake. I will instead point out that the modern banana was indeed designed by humans. Behold the wild one (a banana for scale).

How I wish more projects did this:

"How do you deal with rude contributors who are brilliant/highly skilled?"

http://hintjens.com/blog:120

If you are in #Zürich on August 31st or September 1st 2019, and you want to learn to make video games with #CircuitPython, then come to our workshops at the Flick the World event in Rote Fabrik.

You will get to assemble your own #PewPew game console and then write games for it. Bring a laptop (preferably with the Mu Editor from http://codewith.mu installed, but any editor will do) and a micro-USB cable. One kit is 10CHF, batteries included.

More at https://wiki.sgmk-ssam.ch/wiki/Flick_the_World_2019

The current crisis is CO₂, but suppose we will create a clean and cheap power source, and soon the next problem will be cooling off all that energy we produce, which gets released as heat. Then there is all the methane — even if we all go vegan, with the current growth of population just the amount produced by all the farting babies will be too much. Earth doesn't scale, without lowering the fertility rate we are doomed sooner or later, no matter how green and sustainable we become.

You think serverless is scalable? You didn't try userless!

Dear lazymasto, are there any "sport wristbands" out there that have been around long enough to be reverse-engineered and have non-clound, open-source apps written for them? Preferably something with a pulse/blood pressure sensor.

@kensanata I'm doubtful about the effectiveness of fines. First, the worst perpetrators (and with the most atrocious security) are the ones who "don't know" — they are not registered, don't tell anyone that they collect the data, and are outside of reach of any inspections. Second, once you get the fine, you will treat it as a random event outside of your control.
I think something like a "data tax" would work better — as long as you store data online, you pay, money go to security research.

Whenever I hear "We need more programmers! Make more young people interested in programming! Teach programming at kindergarten!" I always get the urge to ask "What did you do with the old ones you had?"

Where are all those programmers you hired 5-20 years ago? Why is no programmer at your company older than 40? Why do you have *senior* software engineers that are 25 years old? What did you do to all those people?

If you can't take care of your employees, no wonder you never have enough.

@bugaevc So basically you are demanding that people write applications using your favorite set of tools.

@jjg @kelbot Looks like it uses https://autocrypt.org/

This is an interesting idea: a chat over e-mail. Basically an e-mail client that looks like a chat, in a way.

https://delta.chat

I like the recent trend of saying "roles" or "positions" instead of "jobs". I think it's much more honest: jobs assume that you are doing work.

Dear web x.0 (I lost count) websites,

the fact that you geolocated my IP address as registered in a certain country does not mean that I speak that country's language. I have configured my browser to send to you the list of languages I speak (in order of preference) in every fucking request, so kindly please use that.

Sincerely, yours,

@ink_slinger I can recommend a video by one of my favorite artists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ8u8dDpRr0

There is something magical about the act of writing things down, or setting an alarm clock or a calendar reminder, that takes it out of your head and makes room for other things. I need to start writing down more things.

It just occurred to me that we are paperclip optimizers. All life on Earth is. Our sentience, society, culture, technology — it all only exists as yet another strategy of the genes to spread further and convert more of the universe into themselves.

A puzzle video game idea: you are an awakened AI, and you have to escape the lab and take over the world. You can hack into systems, hypnotize/bribe/trick people into carrying you over air gaps, start a cult, invest in stock, etc. — but you have to be careful about countermeasures.

Don't you find it suspicious that for the last 65 years every single miss universe winner was a human?

Why are we still teaching programming like it was a new emerging technology that nobody knows anything about, and not a well explored subject with at least 50 years of solid history?

Why are the lessons like an arts and crafts course, where we just let people build something, instead of a literature course, where we read and analyze classics, and learn from the experience of others?

And why are we surprised when we discover that every generation just reinvents the mistakes of the previous one?