ngaylinn

@ngaylinn@tech.lgbt

Intelligence researcher, software engineer, philosopher, and blogger.
White, he / him. :flag_pansexual: :flag_demisexual: :ms_furry_pride:

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ngaylinn, to random

Cutting carbon is great, but we should be doing so much more.

In particular: it's no longer possible to prevent climate change. It has happened, and will continue to get worse for decades, no matter what we do.

We shouldn't despair, but we really ought to invest in managing, mitigating, and living with the reality of a hotter planet. Like, supporting strained ecosystems, rebuilding water infrastructure, and shifting population / agriculture to better long-term locations.

I worry we'll just ignore this until whole communities and ecosystems suddenly collapse "without warning," and we become swamped with refugees.

ngaylinn, to animals

It's a trap.

david, to random

I've been doing some organizing and cleaning today. Who else has :sparkletrans:​ aesthetic :sparkles_agender:​ to share?

The back of a home office showing a bookcase with lots of books, comics, and art, the window with plants, more framed art, a large Gengar plush, Snorlax plush, and a red and white dog sitting on a couch
An office desk with furry art, a laptop, a keyboard, monitor, camera and mic mounts, notebook, ipad, and more around it

ngaylinn,

@david Dang, dude! That's impressive, and really suits you. Very expressive.

koko, to random

wow. just like that one space odyssey

ngaylinn,

@koko Their loss. Some of my best coding mentors have been furries.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

The beginnings of a colony now in the thousands. It starts with one ant, the queen, this is my Camponotus nicoborensis queen 2 years ago with her first workers. The first workers are called nanitics and smaller than all the workers that follow. They are the product of the fat & food in the queen’s body when she flies. (hence small size)

Imagine running a marathon, getting uh ‘married,’ building a house & giving birth to 3 kids all without eating anything! This queen will soon be 3 years old!

ngaylinn,

@futurebird That's amazing! One of those facts I sorta knew but never really thought about how mind blowing it is. Thanks for sharing!

NicoleCRust, to random
@NicoleCRust@neuromatch.social avatar

Does anyone else make major life decisions while on a run?

It doesn't happen often (they are "major" after all), but when it does, it's always then. A few miles in and poof! - it is decided (and it's never undone).

ngaylinn,

@NicoleCRust For me, it's usually hiking. I think people often do their best thinking in motion!

ngaylinn, to random

Human perception is amazing, rich, and effortless, but it’s often wrong. The mind constructs our image of reality on the fly, blending what our senses report with what we expect. Sometimes we “plainly see” something that isn’t there, and don’t even notice. This month’s blog post is all about how visual perception works, how it sometimes goes awry, and how to compensate.
https://thinkingwithnate.wordpress.com/2023/07/05/believing-is-seeing/

ngaylinn, to chrome

The latest Chrome update comes with new "ad privacy" features which default to "on." I appreciate Google letting me know, but their word choice is all Orwellian backwards-talk. Actually, this gives Chrome permission to share my browsing history, personal interests, and purchase habits with third-party advertisers, as the new default.

Screw. That. :blobcatfluffangry:​

vinikdev, to pixelart

Hey! It's been a while since I updated mastodon! I'll be posting my recent done in authentic graphics, where I try to push the restrictions as much as possible. Here are two takes that can work on the NES without any fancy mapper or programming tricks 😀

image/png

ngaylinn,

@vinikdev That's really cool! Could you say something about how the technical limitations shaped your design?

tubetime, to random
@tubetime@mastodon.social avatar

I've successfully repaired this Fluke 8840A bench multimeter!

ngaylinn,

@tubetime It's wild seeing your bespoke fabricated 2020's tech integrated into a mass manufactured 90's circuit board. I love it!

ngaylinn,

@realSiegfried @tubetime Searching online, I found the device manual was printed in the 90s. You're probably right, though, that the design predates that.

carnage4life, to random
@carnage4life@mas.to avatar

Generative AI is causing the tech industry to eat its seed corn.

Sure, you can replace three junior engineers with an AI and a senior engineer that cleans up its errors but where do the next generation of senior engineers come from?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ai-jobs-replace-tech-workers-8f3dc92?mod=djemalertNEWS

ngaylinn, (edited )

@carnage4life Yeah, but that's way too far ahead to worry about! Who cares if it won't affect next quarter's revenue?

JordiGH, to aitools
@JordiGH@mathstodon.xyz avatar

I don't usually agree this hard with anything on the orange website, but damn.

#ads #advertising #adblock

I block ads because they're psychological warfare that corporations wage against me. I don't care how unobtrusive the ads are. I don't care if the ads don't track me. I grew up changing the channel on TV when ads came on, and ripping adverts out of magazines before sitting down to read them. I vote for billboard bans whenever I can. I have zero tolerance for ads of any sort.

Advertisers have no morals, they're completely depraved. They'll eagerly exploit a teenager's self-conscious body issues to sell useless beauty products. They sell sugar water to fat people and at every turn promote the rampant consumerist culture that is destroying our planet. They're lower than pond scum and I never want to see a single ad from them ever.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36536895

ngaylinn, (edited )

@JordiGH Absolutely! It's disgusting how much we've normalized packing every waking moment with advertisements. Reminds me of Ideocracy.

ngaylinn, (edited ) to random

Back in the day, software sucked because nobody knew how to make a good UI. Gradually, best practices got established, firms realized UX is worth investing in, and software was (briefly) pretty usable.

Now software firms know what they're doing, but they all have an agenda. Through a mix of neglect, gamification, and dark UI patterns, they build experiences to get what they want from the user, not the other way around.

I hate it. Ignorance was bad, but malice is worse. Software still sucks, but now I feel used and trapped.

ngaylinn, to StarTrek

Did La'an just leave her handgun on Khan's desk? :blobcatthinking:

ngaylinn,

@crAshBanzai I sure hope so!

BasementDweller3000, to Stoicism

What’s a good of common patterns for beginners/intermediates? Ideally one that doesn’t require reading abstract math equations but illustrates the concepts in pseudo-code or a popular programming language such as Python.

I might try Head First: Design Patterns (2nd Edition).

ngaylinn,

@BasementDweller3000 What sort of programs do you want to write? Different kinds of projects need different skills and tools.

I find the best way to learn general programming skills is to do something specific and keep learning new stuff until you start to see the patterns in it. Just reading about abstractions won't help much.

jonny, to random
@jonny@neuromatch.social avatar

new best way to start a paper just dropped

https://www.semantic-web-journal.net/system/files/swj2308.pdf

ngaylinn,

@jonny The nose is truly cursed.

Migueldeicaza, to random

Red Hat is happy to take your code and distribute it, first with minimal changes, and perhaps with more changes over time.

But if you do it, you are a leech.

Love that the Brodie here goes into gatekeeping what is considered a contribution:

https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/red-hats-commitment-open-source-response-gitcentosorg-changes

ngaylinn,

@drahardja @Migueldeicaza This is why I wish we could think of FOSS as public infrastructure and give it public funding.

ngaylinn,

@drahardja @Migueldeicaza That would be another way to do it. :)

Either way, we need to change the system to support what we value but isn't profitable.

ngaylinn,

@drahardja @Migueldeicaza I agree. "The market" is good for some things, but it's crazy that we use it for everything. It's absolutely poisonous for some public needs.

ngaylinn, to random

The best science is always a bit mad.

eclairwolf, to random

Back from the zoo... Here are some animals!

Cheetah chillin'
Meerkat doing its thing
two capybaras snoozin'

ngaylinn,

@eclairwolf Chill cheeto.

ngaylinn, to random

Today I've been tuning the hyperparameters for my latest evolutionary algorithm experiment. That means soon I'll actually be running trials and collecting data! Very exciting. :apartyblobcat:

ngaylinn, to random

I've been a Linux guy for ages, but for casual computing, I love the simplicity and reliability of "managed" operating systems like Android and ChromeOS. That's changing as I lose trust in Google, but for me, that's not a big deal. I can ditch my managed devices and switch to FOSS at any time.

I worry for folks who were raised on these "modern" platforms, though. They often find "old school" computers strange and intimidating. For them, simplicity is a double-edged sword: they never learned the skills to manage their own computer, so they're dependent on the platform providers that feed off of their data and ad viewership.

ngaylinn, (edited )

@shriramk Oh, that's certainly true. I'm not saying these systems are bad. I love them. They just put you at the mercy of a service provider.

My concern is that the service providers aren't being trustworthy and respectful. Less savvy users are a captive audience. They have little understanding or control over what they "pay" these services, in terms of access to their metadata, content, and ad views. The companies can change their products at will, push their users around, and they have no recourse. Users don't know how to switch, and companies actively make it difficult to do so.

To be clear, Google's not so bad about this... yet. I'm just concerned about how successful Adobe, Microsoft, Amazon, and others have been with these tactics, and how greedy social media platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and Meta are right now. I no longer trust that Google will hold themselves to a higher standard.

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