158 karma · joined April 28, 2020
a) where does it say this? it says the machine will have 16 GB of ram, nothing about possible bonus upgrades one might be able to get (though maybe you followed some links in the article)
b) even if 16 GB is max: whoever it is that "needs" more than 16 GB probably won't go for an ultra light weight (< 1 kg = < 2.2 pounds) 13 inch machine for their use case. Seems like "mobility" is priority number one, not having some multi-tasking maverick
My opinion about that is deeply influenced by a professor I used to have. Once he spent one lecture just reading a brilliant essay by a British judge. He did not read it, he performed it, slowly, carefully, and it was the best lecture I ever had. And his advice was: "read slowly, or you might as well not read at all, forget the 'hacks', the speed-reading techniques, reading is enjoyment, if you have the right material, be thankful for every second, savor it", and if only I could have taken his advice more seriously at the time. I do now though.
The only thing I can tell you from experience: Have the self confidence to drop a book, read what interests you, not what is on some "list of books" you have to work through. And take your time reading. I learned it the hard way, but I'd rather drop 10 books, find one extremely insightful, and read it slowly and carefully and twice if I have to than speed read 20 books and remember nothing.
I am extremely doubtful about "hacks" like this ; glad if it works for him, my experience is nothing of the sorts will ever work for me.
I do not want to denounce the efforts made though. Anything which makes these works more accessible is welcome. The Goldberg Variations are beautiful. Most famous recordings probably the two by Glenn Gould. There is even an interview in which they explore the differences between the two, and Gould opens up about some decisions he has made and why.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaLoegXPpyk
It's worth listening to, also to explore the Goldberg Variations a little bit in general. It also gives you a sense of Gould's "quirky wit". It's likely it was completely scripted by Gould in advance. There are of course many recordings of the Goldberg Variations, partial list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldberg_Variations_discograph...
Both of Gould's interpretations aren't in any way "standard interpretations". Fun fact: I was so used to listening to Gould's Bach interpretations back then, I immediately emulated his style when playing Bach, which my piano teacher found really annoying.
What do you mean by 'maintain' here? Because Arch is trying to stay on the bleeding edge side of things in a reasonable manner and is rolling release, they almost stay 1:1 with upstream, "maintains its own kernel" makes it sound like they would do some heavy patching and do active maintenance with certain kernel versions, et cetera. You can have a look yourself if you want to https://git.archlinux.org/linux.git/commit/?h=v5.7.5-arch1&i...
'current LTS kernels are not used in older Linux distros' - not sure what your point is with this. They absolutely could have used / can use LTS kernels if they wanted to or they could merge LTS-kernel changes which they apparently don't.
That's pretty much all there is to the article.
The algorithm described is 'the most generic way' I can think of and how pretty much everything starts trending or disappears in the void that is the internet. Content shown to some, it's liked, gets shown to more people, positive feedback loop, that's it. If you found this article interesting: honest(!) question: what is it about it I am not getting?
There is no way to know how it works exactly, it's just PR from TikTok, saying "nothing fishy going on, don't worry"
btw: the cover picture is haunting me; good pick with regards to it being about TikTok
Original discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23578920
'if they don't make it easy to cancel the service, just stop the payment, wait for the debt collectors, reason with them instead of your provider, they treat you better'
(I am not necessarily recommending that, but ... this speaks volumes)
As far as I know you can create virtual credit cards on the fly and use them to pay. So you could have one with which you pay your Streaming Subscription, one with which you pay for Cable, et cetera and their pitch was exactly this: You can destroy the virtual credit card and there is no fear of any fees whatsoever, so when you cancel some subscription or something...
I didn't follow up at that time, but made a mental note. Has anyone any experience with such services? It's funny that the 'fear' of cancellations not working and being charged 'unlawfully' was the main pitch in the commercial I've seen. Also funny: Cable and Mobile Phone providers are the same devils in the US than in Europe it seems ...
And with regards to your fear from Google: Short from full-on identify theft I have a controversial solution: E-Mail is something one should pay for.
E-Mail is essential ; the one thing you can use to pretty much sign up for everything, the one thing to use to reset passwords ; the one form of communication which is open, readily accessible to almost everyone, crosses borders, doesn't ask for fees, doesn't need a specific app, et cetera
I once lost my complete password database (if you sense irony here, it was a long time ago, and I was being stupid), including my E-Mail password, no 2FA set up, nothing. I was completely locked out, but: since I paid for the service: I could open a ticket, I could get a human(!) within a short time frame who actively assisted and I could proof my identify via easy means.
I was greeted with empathy, we could work with whatever I knew about the account and related information. There was no ridiculous meaningless questionnaire, no support ticket answered by some volunteer moderators. I was dealing with someone from staff who knew what they were doing, and we worked it out quickly.
Not saying it would have been impossible to restore access to a Gmail Account, but at the very least it would have been incredibly more painful, I am sure of that much.
I am sure it has been mentioned before on HN, but seems like a good place to share https://github.com/tuvtran/project-based-learning#python
Not so much about practicality, but I've been getting into puzzles and mazes lately https://www.jamisbuck.org/mazes/ (not yet bought his book, but will)
Happy coding to all :)
'GNU Guix is a transactional package manager and an advanced distribution of the GNU system that respects user freedom.'[0]
NixOS is developed using the MIT license and does seem to just want things to work.
I am bringing this up purely as a question, is that fear justified or am I missing something? Would be glad for a take on this from someone who knows more.
And I am unsure how 'active' development is, I have no insight, but it has been in existence for so long and still no one I know has ever used it. On the other hand NixOS[2] (or Nix as a package manager in similar vein) seems to be used heavily by some Power Users.
[0] http://www.gnu.org/software/software.html
- It's about where the goal post is. Let's not forget what the original discussion is about. You invoke a lot of 'emotional imagery' ('why not be kind'), we are talking about long standing naming conventions that can be thought of as being non-racial and no one had a problem with 2 months or 2 years ago, now becoming a problem because people think they are doing something positive here, while it's not addressing ANY problem regarding racism at all ...
- software is both, living and artifact - we are not talking about a new program written in 2020 using some weirdly offensive and arcane naming conventions, we are talking about retroactively updating naming conventions in programs. Regarding societal norms we always play catch up, should I vet my code once a week to check if it is still conforming to PC-culture?
- software is a technical thing, we programmers like to think of it as non-political ; like I've said multiple times I think already: when I read source code thinking about racism is so far off my radar, that it's insane to see 'master' and 'slave' and think of it (for me, at least). Which also ties in with the point I tried to make, that some people are so ingrained in their social justice war, that I think they just see 'racism' and 'bias' EVERYWHERE.
- a lot of people feel 'pressured' into complying with what they regard to be ridiculous changes (when it comes to technical merit) because there is a certain amount of people who view non-compliance with whatever their current crusade is about as 'unkind' - if you think me using master/slave terminology has something to do with the topic of racism in the United States, I refuse to make that connection I guess.
- ultimately: it's probably more about people patting themselves on the back, for having done something, and for having changed nothing - and I deeply resent that. In other words: blind activism at its best.
That's partly my point though. That if you are bombarded with 'racism' as a topic daily, and want to do something about it, you are tempted to do something, at least something, and once you are actively looking for problems, you will find them. Once you are convinced that it's everywhere and has to go, there is next to no limit where your quest might lead you. It having lead to this right here is the perfect example.
'Master/Slave is in fact a pretty terrible description'
'primary/secondary' is nice, master/slave is just extremely ingrained, let's agree on that, so you know what is meant by it. I deeply hope we won't have 500 various naming conventions for what used to be called master/slave.
"But who would see black and white as a description of skin color? Pretty much every American."
Then let's discuss THE CAUSE FOR THIS. Because it's wrong, it's wrong to invoke race everywhere those two colors are mentioned in some specific context. Is renaming everything maybe just putting a shade over something that Americans should confront themselves with more honestly, more deeply, because I know via my upbringing, that I never would have thought about whitelist/blacklist as skin color, it would have been so far away from my radar... maybe you think renaming master/slave here will somehow have a ripple effect, or is part of something bigger and a warranted change. I think it will do exactly nothing, and is just blind activism that breaks decades of convention.
'That is a pretty poor explanation of the phenomena at hand.'
I was over simplifying on purpose, because what I wanted to portray was 'someone outside of it' I guess.
'software is probably the absolutely smallest portion of a massive change.'
I think it's just something to make people feel better, 'we've done something about it now', it's the 'smallest portion' of massive change, it's also the most non-impactful, which is why I find the case for it to be weak.
I don't think there is a racial bias in associating blackness w/ evil or 'whiteness' with good, I rather think it has to do with night/darkness vs day/light. Do you think 'red' as a widely used 'warning light' somehow relates to 'native Americans'?
Like I've said, I never thought of it in terms of race ; once you start actively believing that biases are EVERYWHERE, you will see them everywhere, automatically. And I think for one, that this is an extremely obsessive way to live, and also a battle one can never ever win, and the question 'where does your quest for justice stop', is warranted.
I always thought there was a 'common sense' approach, pruning any mention of 'slave' as terminology in programming / system administration after decades of use for me seems to be extremely far away from it.
Whatever happens w/ naming conventions here, I will eventually adapt. But I seriously fear that this quest for justice, especially in 'language' goes far beyond common sense and is about actively looking for problems, that are none until identified.
Obviously you don't name something in programming 'pimp' / 'bitch', or even more extreme I suppose: 'white_guard' / 'n_____', that's obviously childish, unwarranted, and just for the sake of provocation. Like I've said though I think of 'master/slave' as perfectly fine descriptions regarding their function and I have always thought of them as racially neutral terms, and if you want to change long-standing naming convention there should be a case for it. And I just think it isn't there.
By the way: For the very first time in my life, a few days ago, have I ever thought of 'whitelist'/'blacklist' in terms of skin color.
white vs black, bright vs dark, , "shining bright light" vs "tempted by darkness", etc, it was almost a Eureka moment: "How can people think of skin color there?"
That makes me think that people are spurted into activism, blindly 'looking for problems', and once you start looking it's easy to see it everywhere. We are pattern seeking animals - if I believe in conspiracy theories, I will over evaluate whatever confirms my beliefs - and I honestly think the same happens in cases of people who take social justice too far (thinking of 'master/slave' as inappropriate naming conventions in programming after decades of use) ; (and I hope it's unnecessary to add: I am not denying the reality of racism ; just trying to doubt the usefulness and legitimacy of taking the sensitivity into far off areas and to a degree that is unwarranted)
I guess I am just emotionally detached from this as can be, as someone who doesn't follow daily news, and is not an American. It's weird for me to accept:
'why can't I use master/slave anymore?'
'because a black man was murdered by police in a country across the Atlantic, and now they are looking to prune any mention of slavery from everywhere they can find it'
'what?'
You can't clean up the language to a point of where 'no one' is offended. Master/Slave seems like such a low level of 'potential for controversy' to me, that I am really worried about 'if that one isn't acceptable after decades of use anymore, what next'
Maybe I am not fine-tuned into 'spotting' such things, which is the argument I would expect; but maybe some just have developed a sensitivity far beyond any reasonable amount in taking offense, which is my suspicion. How about we talk about meaningful ways to stop racism, which we can all agree is bad and unwarranted, jumping into action blindly might feel like you are doing something, but what exactly is this doing?
I am very annoyed by such blindly executed and in my opinion unwarranted activism, and as soon as one speaks out against, one has to hide from the incoming attacks. So I guess HR departments have to check naming conventions in programs now for misogyny / politically non-correct / possibly racist terminology before release?
By the way: I actually always thought of master / slave as completely racially independent terminology in general? If in a book a white man were enslaved by some Asian tribe, how would master/slave terminology be non-correct in describing the participants?
But what what I wanted to say: I changed my i3 colors to solarized light (vim status bar as well), can have a look here: https://i.imgur.com/B4EaE4l.png
solarized light, redshift and just turn screen brightness down and it actually still looks ugly to me, but regarding eye strain, having proper syntax highlighting, and being less annoyed about the things mentioned above, it is fine and I might stick to this setup; once you are focusing you don't notice the ugliness.
https://i.imgur.com/xakys4y.png
reminded me of ACME, so I guess rob was just spot on way back https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Acme.png
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGCTLJDoMGw
This isn't my favorite, but the 'futuristic theme' makes it maybe more obvious why I immediately thought of it. I think I've seen all their stuff, and Tesla Coils creating music would have been right up their alley.
These two are some of the best for sure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlyCLbt3Thk
Whenever I have a hard time finding something I am tempted to try Google. The thought of "Google is THE search engine" is still ingrained somewhere in my brain. For quite some time now, if I can't find it using DDG, Google turns out not any better (not using Cookies, not using an account that is - so no extreme search personalization) - some maybe not so obvious things I like about DDG
- it doesn't force localization as hard upon you, if you set DuckDuckGo to country xyz it seems you 'literally' get the results you would get as if you were in this country, as someone who travels frequently, or is a foreigner in a country, that is extremely nice. Besides just being insightful when doing research of course
- fewer sites are removed drom DDG's search results (we all know about takedown notices). For example in Germany there is a 'right to be forgotten', individuals can have links removed from Google if it is about them personally (unless they are a public person of interest and some other restrictions), and of course sites with copyright infringements (and yes, sometimes I am looking for some site to stream something, while I often even use yandex for that, I find sites quickly with DDG. With Google you see the notice 'sites have been removed due to copyright violations', then you can go to the lumendatabase, but there scam sites and 'legitimate' streaming sites are mixed together, so you hunt through there, it's a nightmare)
honestly don't miss Google anymore and use DDG on all my devices, but I don't want to pitch too hard. Use whatever works for you
Industry wants Long Term Support, but rolling release (or for increased stability 'short' (< 1 year) release cycles) are the way to go when it comes to security.