alexl

@alexl@pkm.social

Information Engineer¹. My favourite tools are #Logseq (PKM) and #KDE #Plasma (Desktop Environment for #Linux).

[1]: kinda Computer Engineer, from #Electronics to #Cybernetics and #Informatics.

#FreeSoftware and #DigitalSovereignty advocate. Interested in heterodox #Macroeconomics.

searchable

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johncarlosbaez, (edited ) to random
@johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz avatar

People already knew that a changing magnetic field makes the electric field curl around. But in 1861, Maxwell proposed that also a changing electric field makes the magnetic field curl around. This means that electric and magnetic fields can form waves, with each one changing the other. Maxwell computed the speed of these waves and got an answer close to the speed of light! The rest is history...

... in a way. Maxwell reached his conclusions using a strange mechanical model involving "molecular vortices". In this model magnetic fields are spinning vortices - the black hexagons here - while electric fields are the displacement of little particles between these vortices - the green circles.

It took him a few years to drop this model and simply write equations governing fields. And it took longer for Heaviside and others to take Maxwell's 20 equations, throw some out, and boil the rest down to 4 vector equations - the ones we now learn in school.

I want to understand Maxwell's molecular vortices because they're the key to how he guessed that a changing electric field makes the magnetic field curl. People already knew a lot about the electric and magnetic fields from experiments. But Maxwell's extra effect completed our theory of electromagnetism!

There are modern ways to see that this extra effect is necessary. Few people go back and try to understand Maxwell's original thinking. Here's one great exception:

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2014.0473#d3e647

I also want to read Daniel M. Siegel's book "Innovation in Maxwell’s Electromagnetic Theory: Molecular Vortices, Displacement Current, and Light."

By the way, Maxwell's model correctly says E is a vector field while B is a pseudovector field!

alexl,

@johncarlosbaez

When he measured it the concept of speed of light was not a thing yet, right?

dansup, to random
@dansup@mastodon.social avatar

Nostr is nice, but total decentralization isn’t user friendly.

Federation allows some centralization, and that’s crucial, not only for UX but also scalability and more.

Big instances are not ideal, but are better than a near empty ecosystem.

Why is Threads adopting ActivityPub and not Nostr? 😉

alexl,

@dansup

On the Fediverse the admins have too much power to censor by banning users or defederating instances that don't ban them.

Nostr at least has not this disadvantage.

Mastodon could alleviate it by letting users revoke blocks for themselves:

https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/3890

rysiek, to random
@rysiek@mstdn.social avatar

Climate catastrophe is now, just not evenly distributed.

alexl,

@rysiek

The most effective thing one can do is adopt a / diet and get others to do the same.

The livestock industry produces more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire transport sector.

It's obvious if you think that 10 000 000 000 land animals are killed every year for human food, animals that have to be fed for several years before they are killed.

But only 3% (at best) of people are vegans in Western countries.
So please promote it too, not only the problem.

alexl,

@rysiek

Going is the single most important thing to do.

I won't tollerate any more post on climate catastrophe from non-vegans not mentioning veganism.

You climate-catastrophists have gone too far with hypocrisy, I have a timeline full of these posts because it's summer, it's hot and people remember this theme. None of these posts mention veganism, most people don't know how effective it is and some even deny it.

And you annoyed by my answer? Fuck you.

breadandcircuses, (edited ) to environment

⬇️ This is a fact. ⬇️

It’s not a meme. It’s not an opinion. It’s a fact — a fact I wish everyone could accept, take to heart, and use to motivate action!!

alexl,

@breadandcircuses

No, these are facts:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-023-00795-w

davidho, to random
@davidho@mastodon.world avatar

When those of us who work on CO₂ removal (CDR) meet, it’s apparent that no one wants to do this and no one thinks it’s easy.

It’s far easier and cheaper to stop emitting CO₂.

The fact that some of the smartest people I know decide to work on CDR signals our desperation.

alexl,

@davidho

So you followed a lifestyle for many years I guess?

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-023-00795-w

If yes, when you talk about as a problem, can you please promote as an important thing to do and in your bio? Thanks.

alexl,

@brawaru

The livestock industry pollutes more than the entire transport sector. It's 10 000 000 000 individuals killed every year that need to be fed for years.

The oil industry exists because people consume energy for everything.

There is no way to produce energy without emissions and there probably isn't enough rare earths for batteries.

So sorry, going is the only thing you can do and it is the most effective one, way more than anything else.

alexl,

@brawaru

Anything else is almost useless when it comes to emissions, going vegan and making other people go vegan is way more effective, it saves other animal from a life of torture and it helps against desertifications and pollution.

So, sorry, I won't tollerate any dilution of this concept.

alexl, to Logseq Italian

The main reason is still my favourite app despite very good alternatives like , and is queries.

I think one can't really appreciate Logseq until they integrate queries in their workflow.

But I hate that Simple Queries syntax is too limited and I need Advanced Queries syntax (i.e. ) too often.

dansup, to random
@dansup@mastodon.social avatar

When I first announced @pixelfed, I had to deal with a lot of criticism

We became a joke of the fediverse, we were the underdog, few people believed in me back then

I used all the criticism and hate as motivation to strive for perfection

✨ Just look at us now, the person who said these things is now a good friend

Never give up!

alexl,

@dansup @pixelfed

Didn't these people realize that Mastodon copied Twitter format but with more user-centric features, no ads and better content? And they couldn't imagine the same was possible with Instagram and PixelFed? I am baffled by the lack of imagination of some people.

gamingonlinux, to random
@gamingonlinux@mastodon.social avatar

What is an actually controversial Linux opinion you hold?

alexl,

@gamingonlinux

Code of Conducts shouldn't exist, and Linux enthusiasts in general don't understand anything about the juridical principles we've come to as a society over the centuries: it's like seeing kindergarten children rediscovering civil coexistence one step at a time.

akademy, to random
@akademy@floss.social avatar

Good morning from ! BoFs begin today For more information about the program visit https://akademy.kde.org/2023/program/

alexl,

@akademy

With masks in July 2023 🤷🏻‍♂

hywan, to Pixelfed
@hywan@fosstodon.org avatar

A question for @pixelfed. Why does Pixelfed use a different fediverse than Mastodon? Is it using some particular extensions? Can I use a Mastodon app to connect to Pixelfed and to browse it? Why can’t I use my Mastodon account to use Pixelfed?

alexl,

@hywan @pixelfed

Mastodon and Pixelfed are compatible to some degree when it comes to communications between servers:

Mastodon instance <-> Pixelfed instance

because they both talk the so called ActivityPub server-server protocol

But everything between the user (so a client, a UI, something...) and the server is specific to Mastodon or Pixelfed

AP client-server protocol exists but it is not implemented and in general it doesn't fit much this use case. We would need another better protocol

alexl,

@hywan @pixelfed

I have suggested Matrix as a better protocol for the Fediverse for years 😆, just not for this particular issue.

They say it's bloated. But to solve issues AP has we would end up with something like Matrix anyway.

I am not 100% sure but when it comes to using the same account with different "applications" (other than instant messaging) Matrix already comes with that in mind.

alexl,

@hywan

It would be very cool! But I guess we need a standard way to represent social media entities like posts, upvotes, reshare etc in Matrix. I used to check if something is proposed as MSC but I didn't find anything

alexl,

@hywan

It seems it makes use of existing MSCs to implement the "follow a user"? I guess we still need new MSCs for likes, reshares etc

alexl,

@hywan

And what about notifications like "someone liked/reshared" your post? Aren't things like this worth a document for standardization?

josh, to random
@josh@josh.tel avatar

Celebrating @outreachy this morning for having now provided more than 1,000 paid open source internships for underrepresented people 🥳

Grateful to @gnome and @conservancy for their role in backing this important program, and to @sphakos, @karen, and @anna for their work driving it, and to Marina Zhurakhinskaya for the legacy she has left by founding it ❤️

alexl,

@josh @outreachy

Remember that Google helped the NSA in mass espionage and never stopped.

Notice that is considered a human right (Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights).

You are supporting a company that has a key role in mass violation of human rights.

Sorry, nothing against you, but 10 years after 's revelations, it's time to do something about that, don't you think?

darnell, to fediverse
@darnell@one.darnell.one avatar

@alexl @Brendanjones @6beer @aggeka @alexeheath If I am at risk from being fined for connecting to accounts in due to the rules, then I will move my servers elsewhere. I am already looking at alternatives right now as a backup.

alexl,

@darnell

The point is how you manage EU citizens' data so what you are looking for is not providing services to them anymore

ednico, to random
@ednico@pkm.social avatar

Can the team get any better?

https://github.com/siyuan-note/siyuan/issues/8757 This just in as to do :

Add date type column to Attribute
Count all
Count values
Count unique values
Count empty
Count not empty
Percent empty
Percent not empty
Earliest
Latest
Range

alexl,

@ednico

It's literally 2 devs doing the work of 10: in years of experience in the software industry I have never seen something like this.

ednico, to random
@ednico@pkm.social avatar

Another update from the team on twitter:

"SiYuan Database filter on a multi-select column, table view"
https://twitter.com/b3logos/status/1679522810618867712

Getting better and better.

alexl,

@spinningthoughts @ednico

Me too, I wonder if a block in that Attribute View can be everything including headings and list elements... in that case it would be nearer to than is at the moment (outliner + attributes + live editing).

alexl,

@spinningthoughts @ednico

...plus of course the freeform document style (not strictly an outliner) and custom blocks layouts. Definitively unique tool and hard to beat.

zachleat, to random
@zachleat@zachleat.com avatar

I have four invites to make your own web site, if anyone wants one.

alexl,

@zachleat

🚨 I'm opening to the public the beta testing of this new technology called RSS to stay up to date without being tracked 😱😎 👉🏻subscribe

hl, to emacs
@hl@social.lol avatar

A colleague saw me using and for my notes, to-dos etc. and said "If you like that, you should try Obsidian". I asked if that has a built-in file browser, shell or can be used as an IDE, and he gave me a confused look that said "Why should it?". One of us is beyond help, I just don't know which one.

alexl,

@hl

If you ask me, the top approach was 's with and : reusable components like text editor, shell, document viewer and web browser that could be re-mixed in different apps including an all-in-one like Konqueror

post, to Logseq

honest review

🟢 with AGPL license (in theory)
🔴 In reality it depends on a closed source module responsible for sync, dubious legality and misleading
🟡 Developed almost privately by a Venture Capitals funded company but accepting small contributions on GitHub and donations on OpenCollective
🟢 Store notes in (or in less supported ) locally
🟡 Forces indented lists in .md files and it doesn’t support normal paragraphs at all
🟡 Introduces syntax that breaks Markdown in a very bad way instead of using code blocks where possible (in Advanced Queries?)
🟡 Based on Electron, NodeJS and NPM
🟡 UI and business logic mixed together, it forces you to always run the whole UI, including for sync
🟢 Available for Linux on FlatHub (unofficially)
🔴 AppImage is the only officially supported way to install on Linux
🟡 No official reproducible builds but unofficial Flatpak ones are reproducible
🟡 Not in F-droid (and the closed source sync feature wouldn’t be allowed there anyway), you have to grab their APK manually or automatically
🟢 Supports Wayland but not by default
🟢 Custom CSS
🟡 Fixed UI, no tabs, no split view
🟡 Multi-window means multiple conflicting whole instances
🟢 Plugins platform
🔴 Plugins marketplace based on GitHub
🟡 Poor integration of plugins especially from UI/UX PoV
🟢 Very interesting concept of PDF annotations
🟡 PDF annotations not stored in the .pdf as standard annotations
🟡 PDF annotations stored in their own .md files with odd names
🟢 LaTeX formulas support
🟡 No native PDF export and in general problematic
🟡 Too many menus, command palettes and other redundant UI elements
🟢 Queries with simple syntax and UI
🟡 Advanced Queries are too often needed
🟢 Datalog query language in Advanced Queries
🟡 Very broken aliases feature
🟡 Inconsistent requirements of capitalize, lowercase etc in query syntax and elsewhere that even break some functionalities
🟢 Macros
🟡 Macros don’t work with most syntax, including Advanced Queries
🟢 Supports HTML and Hiccup syntax
🟢 Supports embedding Web pages using iframes
🟢 Sync is e2e encrypted
🔴 The code for e2e encryption can’t be audited because it is closed source
🟡 Tons of functionalities must be configured by editing a EDN file that it is very easy to break
🟢 Forum based on Discourse
🔴 Use (and abuse) of Discord, even release announcements are made there
🟡 Some Matrix bridges

Concept: 8/10
Execution: 5/10

CC @logseq

alexl,

@frebtherat @ednico @post @logseq

FYI I have described my idea in details here:

https://discuss.logseq.com/t/an-idea-for-a-more-standard-markdown-property-syntax/20073

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