Not that I actually have a job that contributes but 15 years ago when I went to grad school for air quality science, everyone close to me grumbled how that’s too fringe with no job prospects. Yeah, I never did get a job but I don’t regret studying that for one bit, specially when current administration is trying to gaslight people about environmental issues.
It hurts my heart to see every summer, I get proven right
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So, I think I might be a nerd.
@SDF.ORG is running a BBS called bitzone. On this BBS they have a door game called LORD (League of the Rare Dragoon (not to be confused with Legend of the Red Dragon, of which it is clearly a knock-off)).
The fact that I'm playing this game in the first place is kind of nerdy, but wait, there's more.
In said game you have a character with various stats. One of these stats is "charm", which seems to get you discounts in the shops. Unfortunately, there's nothing to say exactly how this relationship works. So I've decided to try to reverse-engineer it with #emacs #org-mode.
I've created a table to track my purchases. It tracks my charm at the time of purchase, the list price for the item, and the price I actually paid. There's also an additional colum that calculates the actual discount, but that's trivial.
Anyhoot, I'm adding some code to this file that reads the values in the table and computes the simplest polynomial function that satisfies the equation:
$$price_{actual}=f(charm,price_{list})$$
This is done with the aim of predicting how much I'd actually spend on an item before actually buying it. It of course assumes that the equation being used is a polynomial equation, but I'm hoping it'll at least be able to approximate with a large enough set of data points.
Am I doing this because it's reasonable?
No.
I'm doing it because it's an interesting challenge... and I'm a nerd.
CC: @tob
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It's also a good option to use C-c ' , that will open up a buffer with the source block contents. This is neat because the major mode and all related setup for that mode is loaded as well, no matter which language you're editing.
So no need to yank from the scratch buffer.
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I was a 911 dispatcher for a decade.
To really understand how absolutely terrible an idea it is to have AI answer 911 calls, I'll present you with a single real-life call:
Upon answer, the caller calmly began ordering a pizza. Large, pepperoni. Side order of chicken wings. To be delivered promptly.
The only sign the caller gave that things were amiss? She rather ignored the first few questions from the calltaker.
Because she was being physically abused, had already been beaten, and her abuser was *IN THE ROOM* listening to her order pizza.
Tell me how your AI is going to read between those lines.
AI has no place in 911 calls. From Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000’s latest episode “State of Emergency”.(with @emilymbender)
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Would you like to review the instructions for operating a pod, Dave?
Or would you like a list of additional doors that I can help you open?
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If I had a dollar for every time I tried to erase something in #krita that turned out to me a smudge on my screen... I would have a few bucks.
Also, I should probably clean my screen.
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Pluralistic: Trump's America can't even win a rigged game (22 Jul 2026)Cory Doctorow (Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow)
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Gave myself a bit of a scare. My aNONradio stream cut out on me and when I went to investigate, I found the router dead. No lights. Nothing. Disconnectd the power cable from the back and re-attached.
Still nothing.
When I followed the power cord, I found that the wall wart seemed to have come mostly unplugged from the power bar. I have no idea what caused it to spontaneously disconnect, but I'm back now.
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This question doesn't lend itself well to plain text, so I LaTeX'd and screenshotted it. I'll do my best with the alt text.![Is there a way of writing the expression<br>\[ \sum_{n=1}^m f(n) \]<br>in a way that omits the term where $n=a$?</p><p>I know it could be written as<br>\[ \left( \sum_{n=1}^m f(n) \right) - f(a) \]<br>but this doesn't work when $f(a)$ is undefined.](https://social.jlamothe.net/photo/13528377976a61653463c9a386467268-1.png "Is there a way of writing the expression<br>\[ \sum_{n=1}^m f(n) \]<br>in a way that omits the term where $n=a$?</p><p>I know it could be written as<br>\[ \left( \sum_{n=1}^m f(n) \right) - f(a) \]<br>but this doesn't work when $f(a)$ is undefined.")
#math #maths #mathstodon #AskFedi
Edit: It turns out that Friendica has a MathJax addon. Who knew?
Also, it seems like there are a number of options. The one I like best is:
$$\sum_{\begin{matrix}1 \le n \le m\\n \ne a\end{matrix}} f(n)$$
Edit 2: It looks like this doesn't render properly when federated to a server without MathJax support. I suppose I should've seen that coming.
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I just got the following ad:
For questions you wouldn't want to ask anyone else, there's ChatGPT
I don't even have words.
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Here's a big part of the reason* I don't use so-called #AI to write code for me: I actually enjoy writing code. I wouldn't offload this task to AI for the same reason I wouldn't use it to go for a walk in the woods, or eat a delicious meal for me. Why would any sane** person do this?
* It's not the only reason, but this is a fedi post, not an essay.
** This post should in no way be considered as me claiming to be sane. 🙃
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Had the weirdest dream last hight. I dreamed I'd gone back to the Mormon church. It was very strange. I was happy to see many of the people I considered friends, but the whole thing felt dishonest because I was still an unbeliever. For all of its culty aspects, it does impose a lot of structure, and structure is a thing my brain very much likes.
For many reasons, this is not a thing I'd actually consider in reality.
I had a similar dream four years ago.
Went back to my old church, was glad to see a few people I really loved again.
Stayed for a couple months, but it had really devolved into a cult.
Noped out of there when the pastor invited people to come up to the front to receive healing and repent for taking the COVID vaccine.
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I've suspected for a while that I'm probably on the spectrum. It seems to fluctuate, but for the past few days I've been experiencing something that sounds very much like what I understand autistic burnout to be like.
Tasks which should be simple (e.g.: feeding myself) become insurmountable obstacles. I'm exhausted all the time, and when it's at its most acute, communicating what I'm experiencing becomes impossible. I literally lose the ability to form coherent sentences.
Is that what this is? Do others experience this? And more importantly, has anyone found any kind of strategies to help manage/minimize it?
The best way I've found to deal with it is to simply disengage from everything until I manage to build up a spoon reserve again. Unfortunately, this does not exactly seem compatible with the responsibilities of adulthood.
Edit: I realize that I may have given an incorrect impression in this post. I have experienced this before. It's just been particularly bad the past few days. It seems to ebb and flow.
In fact, I've had a term to describe this since high school. At the time, I had dubbed it a "neural meltdown".
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Could be autistic burnout, could be extreme fatigue for other reasons, could be a major depressive episode, could be dehydration as others have said. Could be a combination. (I speak from experience of all four)
Look after yourself. Hydrate and rest and try not to be angry or frustrated at yourself for going through this. It's not disrupting your life; it's an episode _in_ your life. It will pass.
@Drew is still tired 🇵🇭 I guess the best thing I can do is focus on the knowledge that it always passes (at least mostly). Hopefully the things currently on fire won't get too out of control while I do so.
I am fortunate to have a partner I can lean on when I need help, but I don't want to lean too hard. She has her own struggles to deal with.
Autistic burnout is the deep exhaustion that follows years of masking and overload. Here is what it feels like, the stages, and how recovery actually begins.HeyASD.com Team (HeyASD)
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be kind to yourself. Accept that there are limits to what you can do, and start saying no to things that would push you past those limits.
Also make sure your closest understands what you can and cannot do, so their expectations doesn’t wear you down.
But mostly, be kind to yourself.
hi! i really need help, could you spare some?
i'm an unemployed and disabled student who has struggled A LOT for the past three years. i currently live in a neglectful household that often lets me go without or shames me for basic needs.
recently things have deteriorated to the point i pretty much cannot count with help from anyone at home for stuff like my psych meds and food for my cats.
i’m currently looking for a job but didn’t get anything yet, so i really need help to buy food, cat food, medicine, toiletries and for some medical expenses.
if you're able to help me with a donation or simply a boost to this post, i am eternally grateful, it really means the world to me and makes all the difference in my life. thank you very, very much for reading and have a lovely day. 
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Not just YouTube either. Those ads are on billboards, podcasts, FM radio.
Doug Ford really loves spending money on ads about how great his government is (if you agree this is great, which I like you do not) instead of actually fixing problems.
The variant that enrages me the most is how "safer" means less encampments. Spending all that money telling us to be afraid of homeless people instead of spending it to house them.
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The funny* thing is that for the rest of us, it's a pretty comprehensive list of reasons not to vote for him.
* not funny
I think the biggest thing that the I've learned working for an org-metrics-visibility tooling company, and the AI "revolution" starting soon after that, is how many people at the seniormost levels of the world's largest software companies fundamentally do not understand what software is or does or how it works or where it comes from or even how their companies really operate.
linkedin.com/pulse/ai-layoffs-…
Everyone assumed AI would be cheaper than employees. The numbers just proved otherwise, and it's changing how smart leaders think about their people.Karin Volo (www.linkedin.com)
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Got an air quality alert due to wildfire smoke.
My dude, I know. The sky is yellow.
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I woke up this morning and thought to myself, "what's burning?"
It's only everything. No biggie.
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I’m sorry, but I see the BSD license as misguided.
The argument for it is sound, but it doesn’t protect the commons, and what we need now more than ever is a thriving and protected commons.
“High quality software should be universally available” is noble. “Software we depend on shouldn’t be vulnerable to theft” is pragmatic.
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There is no "theft" if the original is still there.
Your license *cannot* protect your software from a corpo taking it. You can't afford to sue, even if you find out. Roku proved GPL is meaningless.
What you can do is keep your software free for real people (not corpos) to use. BSD does that better than GPL, which can only be used in GPL-specific projects.
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@mdhughes That doesn’t make it meaningless. Blender, Krita and other projects endure only because of the GPL.
Code only being usable in GPL projects is the entry price of a better model.
If a corpo can effectively destroy the open development of a specific software, they’ve stolen it. Changing the license on blender and using coercive tactics against the original, if those tactics are successful, would be effectively stealing it from the commons.
BSD doesn’t survive that threat.
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Blender & Krita would be just as free under BSD. There might be "pro" closed-source versions, but the originals would still be there.
How can a corpo destroy a project? MS wants a paint program, they'll steal whatever they want GPL or BSD, or generate slop copied from them. The original is STILL THERE. Where do you think BSD projects go when someone copies them?
"OH guess they own us now!" is not how anyone reacts when corpo copies their code. More like "Good luck with that!"
@mdhughes BSD has though. macOS uses FreeBSD code extensively.
SPICE is still around even if there’s a huge number of forks.
The thing about GPL is… well, it is supposed to force companies to give back
It doesn’t say that what they give back is useful
Example: a TON of “open-source” corporate Linux kernel code is slop that is essentially useless, they do the dumbest thing that works
@Elizafox And, Apple doesn't do too badly at keeping their BSD stuff open source:
opensource.apple.com
Does have most of their tools, and updates where possible/relevant. You can build opendarwin, tho it's not super useful when FreeBSD, etc. exist.
I’m not really interested in debating which software is more “free” but is more resilient to modern tactics.
A BSD-licensed or MIT-licensed project is vulnerable to a CLA being instituted assigning copyright, and an eventual rug-pull in which multiple years of development is retroactively not BSD licensed.
It’s not trivial to pull this off, but GPL licensed code just doesn’t have this weakness.
I just saw a video of an AI executive saying that people will connect their brains to the cloud so they can have 1,000 times more thoughts.
Neurotypical people. Please listen to me. I promise you, with all the ADHD in my body-
You really do not want 1,000 more thoughts.
You may think you do, but you extremely do not.
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Dear @Nextcloud 📱☁️💻,
If the official solution to a file getting randomly locked is to shut the whole server down and then manually edit the database, something's been done wrong. If this were to happen to a random non-admin user, they'd have no solution (other than pinging their sysadmin). The owner of a file should be able to manually clear its lock if necessary.
I've been thinking about #bicycling in the oppressive heat we've had lately. I wondered if there was a way to rig up some kind of fan that would be powered by the pedals to create a nice airflow as I rode.
...
Then I realized what a ridiculous idea this was.
Some of the world's brightest minds have the knowledge and skills to heal our #planet yet many spend their talents creating technologies for conflicts instead of solutions for humanity.
Imagine if that same innovation was used to restore nature, fight hunger, and build peace.🤔
The world needs wisdom that serves life, not destruction.
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Check out Red Racoon. They do that regularly. 😀🚴♀️❤️
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@🅰🅻🅸🅲🅴 (🌈🦄) I came across my first love lock a few days ago. I'd seen it a few times, but wasn't carrying my tools. I finally remembered to bring them with me today only to find that the keyway seemed to be filled with some sort of glue?
Have you encountered this before? Is there any hope of non-destructive opening left? I imagine probably not (especially at my current skill level).
I'm clearly not the first person who's tried to open it. It's in pretty rough shape.
@Organic Maps I've added some local businesses to the app on one of my devices, and that information can now be found on OSM proper, but those changes don't appear to have propagated to my other devices. Is there a way I can force a map update?
Edit: I have tried deleting and re-downloading the map.
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I just caught that Libera.Chat uses the phrase "insufficient human involvement" and I love that specific phrasing for flagging LLM-generated pull requests.
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According to the U.S. Copyright Office "insufficient human involvement" means the output doesn't get (new) copyright protections.
(The output could still violate the copyrights of the authors of the training data for the model.)
Got an odd email to my old Gmail address that I only keep around for legacy reasons, asking about an Emacs package I wrote. I'm not sure where they even got that address. It can't be found anywhere in the repository, and my current address is clearly in the README and on every single commit.
Anyhow, I don't even understand what they're asking, but I think they think I've used an AI agent to write the code and are asking about its configuration? I want to reply that I have no need of such things because I'm an actual programmer with an actual brain, but that would probably come off kind of asshole-ish, and I could be wrong about what they're asking.
Then again, this whole email could have been written by a hallucinating AI. Who knows?
"Ledge, if we can get out far enough on it, the spider can't follow us."
Riiiiiight. I've never seen a spider just scale a wall.
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Sometimes I wish I were less of a perfectionist. I was baking cookies for a potluck tomorrow. The recipe called for the dough to be rolled out into one inch balls. There may or may not have been a caliper involved.
In my defense though, they turned out amazingly. Now I just have to not eat them before they get to where they're going. I did have to eat some though, but strictly for QA purposes.
Sometimes I like researching obscure mathematical topics just for fun. The frustrating thing I occasionally run into is notation that I don't know how to interpret. This turns out to be rather difficult to search for online.
For example: I'm doing some research into finite fields, and I have encountered something that looks like ℤ/pℤ.
I know that ℤ typically represents the set of integers. I'm also given that p, in this case, represents an arbitrary prime number. From context, I think it's meant to represent the set {0, 1, 2,... p-1}, but I could be wrong, and, if so, I don't follow the logic.
I'm trying to brush up on my set theory, but nothing I've seen thus far explains it.
Edit for additional context: The document I'm reading is at:
people.math.harvard.edu/~lande…
Page 3
@uxMark is this a reference to my favorite research paper?
link.springer.com/content/pdf/…
I bring up this paper at parties and ask people to draw bicycles.
@shapr Just had a quick search and it was probably this!
booooooom.com/2016/05/09/bicyc…
In 2009 designer Gianluca Gimini started asking friends and strangers to draw a men's bicycle from memory. While some got …Staff (BOOOOOOOM!)
I feel like the way some folks are expressing annoyance with the goose discourse, that they're not viscerally connecting with the symbolism the way most of us are.
🤔
Like, I *feel* this meme. It's representative of my whole life, of having my lifeforce sucked out of me by parasites until I'm ill at age 50 and have nothing to show for it. It's a rare but accidental honesty from the clueless fucks who rule this world. It's the entire story of each of us and the whole world told in a handful of phrases and images.
"Goose is not valued" feels like a rallying cry for valuable people who are only just now starting to realize...
...that we do have value.
And that the only way they're going to understand our value is if we make them.
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Overheard today: "The best thing we can do for all these drug addicts is to throw them in jail. It's not nice but it'll get 'em clean."
Why is it that the people with the most uninformed opinions always seem to also have the loudest ones?
Edit: deleted and reposted because I realized it should've been CW'd.
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