Septimaeus

@Septimaeus@infosec.pub

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm too stupid for this⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  ![Cropped image of a textbook page with an anecdote which reads “One day Shizuo Kakutani (1911- ) was teaching a class at Yale. He wrote down a lemma on the blackboard and announced that the proof was obvi-ous. One student timidly raised his hand and said that it wasn’t obvious to him. Could Kakutani explain? After several moments’ thought, Kakutani realized that he could not himself prove the lemma. He apologized, and said that he would report back at their next class meeting.

  After class, Kakutani went straight to his office. He labored for quite a time and found that he could not prove the pesky lemma. He skipped lunch and went to the library to track down the lemma. After much work, he finally found the original paper. The lemma was stated clearly and suc-cinctly. For the proof, the author had written, ‘Exercise for the reader.’ The author of this 1941 paper was Kakutani.”](infosec.pub/…/002ff7df-2a30-4b8c-9a2d-7fd2206a442…)

  Classic anecdote of the missing proof for Shizuo Kakutani’s lemma.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do so many boomers and even some gen x believe so peristently that if you dressup and show up in person anywhere you will get whatever you went there for?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  “Naughty corporations” made me chuckle, but “I don’t know what the solution is” definitely rang true.

  Most boomers actually don’t know where to begin, even though many of the solutions would be a 6-year-old’s first guess, and are actually proven to work, simply because they grew up being told that every single one of those obvious, proven solutions were “socialist” and that socialism was anti-American.

  That indoctrination was so thorough that these solutions can be put right in front of them, gift-wrapped, with a neon arrow pointing at an easy button labeled “fix that shit,” and they’ll still shrug and say “we’re all out of ideas, maybe ask a billionaire what to do, surely they know how to fix the system.”

  And the sad part is that they do and, in fact, already did.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨tiny tot engineering⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Well yeah, and winning’s great if it’s theirs. Sorry I’m bad at explaining. It was my first attempt.

  I meant that, given my disposition (competitive bitch, often lucky, won more than my share) I would’ve fought the kid’s battles too often, compounded my winnings into theirs, and failed to let them learn to fight for themselves, for others. I’d have created the privileged rivals of my youth instead of helping other’s children succeed. I think.

  They’d be no more than primary school age today, so maybe I’d have gotten my shit together in time to fix my mistakes. So, “probably” for the best lol

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨tiny tot engineering⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Haha exactly! That would’ve been my mistake. Helping them trounce other kids would’ve felt natural, much easier than helping them become a better person.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨tiny tot engineering⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah you’re right. I’m too used to worst-possible-case being min req but you’re right.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨tiny tot engineering⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Lol nice. I wonder if he used tungsten carbide blanks. Probably densest cheap metal if lead isn’t an option. Would need diamond cutting discs/bits to fit it tho.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cuddly gerbils⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Welcome to Gerbil Orgy. We just begin cuddle puddle. You will join?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do boycotts work?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Maybe yeah, I’m just talking about poor folks in rural areas who can’t boycott the only walmart or whatever.

  Maybe a better example is Amazon. I have a rough idea how much it costs me to avoid that company and I know it might not be an easy option for someone on tighter margins.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do boycotts work?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It works, albeit imperfectly. In particular, it’s sometimes a difficult prospect for would-be participants who don’t have the luxury of choice. Also attention/bandwidth can limit participation since no one can sustain an endless game of whack-a-mole. Ultimately, it’s just one of many tools, but it has often been effective.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I was right, it is⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Gradient descent?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Know your place⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s the only reason I opened this post; i.e., it may be “engagement bait,” a recent online trend.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Common opinion among millennial graduates with ed debt whose careers were thwarted by various recessions.

  The more nuanced perspective is that not everyone’s long term goals will be greatly furthered by higher education. It does have value on its own, and to some extent broadens the outer limits of the perspectives you might achieve in life, but it doesn’t teach you anything you can’t teach yourself with a library card. The argument for going into trades instead is a strong one, especially from a financial angle, but also job stability, work-life balance, mental health, etc.

  All the same, I not-for-profit higher ed generally offers too much good in an individual to discount it as a scam. For many, it’s where the curtains are thrown open on their world. It just shouldn’t be considered the only viable path as perhaps it once was.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do you recognize this PC case?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I love how loudly media-centric those keyboards were, even the silver domed buttons center top the size a hood ornament lol, that 00s media PC era definitely had a vibe.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do you recognize this PC case?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  It looks a lot like the eMachine cases you’d find all over cyber cafes and business centers in Europe in that era.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨embrace ediacaran extinguish⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The water level from the original mario bros?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Use this science wisely.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  But not too much. It can get overstimulated if you lift the hood and lick directly. When in doubt, you can hand her the reigns so she can find the sweet spot. For example, if you apply a wide and flat tongue and reduce movement, she can work her hips until she finds the angles she needs.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who is the enemy?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  especially other web devs

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Eye Bleach⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Damn, big raspberry too lol

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If there's a sort of "apocalyptic" event but there are still surviving communities, will people be able to make eyeglasses again, or are people with vision issues gonna be fucked?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I dunno, reading through common ADHD traits sometimes sounds like a description of the perfect post-apoc survivor lol

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨So Long to Tech's Dream Job: It’s the shut up and grind era, tech workers said, as Apple, Google, Meta and other giants age into large bureaucracies.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Eventually few if any good engineers will be willing to work for these companies because of the black mark it places on their resume and their name.

  Already, many hiring managers outside a few giant corps will never be willing to hire an engineer who worked at Facebook for any length of time after 2016, for instance, simply because it’s irrefutably strong evidence against either their character or the trustworthiness of their judgement.

  I expect that trend will deepen as society becomes more aware of the countless ways these engineers betrayed them just for a few more dollars and an on-campus chef.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How abnormal is it for a mother to be her son a fleshlight for his 18th birthday?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They’re $150??

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I get scared of a girl who approached me⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  First off, it’s OK. We all make mistakes and misrepresent our feelings sometimes, which can affect others in ways we don’t intend. The particular social accident you describe is also quite common. I promise she will quickly recover from the inadvertent rejection.

  My answer is: practice. 8-9 years is a long time to be out of practice at anything of this sort.

  There are a variety of ways to actively pursue that practice, some more creative than others, but the most natural way is simply to invite interaction with others in general such as, apparently, drawing on a bench at the park :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh, and in case you’re looking for recommendations, my current daily driver is Blair’s “Ultra Death.”

  To set expectations, Tobasco (a common North American vinegar-based chili sauce) has a heat rating of 7,000 scovilles, whereas Ultra Death generally measures over 1 million.

  If you like heat, extracts are a cost-effective step up, since each bottle lasts longer. At first anyway.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Most of the gastrointestinal distress from capsaicin is the result of poison countermeasures triggered by contact pain signals.

  But capsaicin is telling your cells a lie which fewer believe each re-telling, so it requires increasingly ridiculous doses to trigger those internal signals.

  If you eat spicy food regularly, you likely won’t get any internal signals again until you graduate to a different category of spiciness, such as extracts.

  Hot sauce nerds consider extracts cheating, since you can achieve heat that’s many orders of magnitude above what the hottest pepper hybrids can produce, but do what you must to feel alive.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it normal that I have this inner conflict of not knowing where I belong?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I would say it’s absolutely normal and quite common to feel out of place, or like you don’t belong, and what fills in the blank of what’s on the other side is mostly arbitrary.

  What’s more, having grown up in many countries and hearing something like this from other young people, I would say it’s not just normal in Germany, or even the West. It’s normal everywhere.

  I think the easiest way to gain a fuller perspective of cultures you’re curious about is to live among them, and while now might not be the best time to visit the US, I think you can gain exposure to lots of new global cultures just by spending time in one of the many world cities, the closest of which is Berlin. From there, many others are just a train away.

  Long short, it’s normal to wonder where you fit, and it’s a question you must answer yourself, but the tried-and-true method to figuring it out is to go and find new parts of yourself in these places. You just might find that, by the end, not only can you belong anywhere you choose, but those places also belong to you.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨There's a noticable influx of trans kids in my job. Are there any topics I should avoid or considerations I should take into account when training them?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Ah understood. From the conscientious wording, I would guess that’s the sort of stuff they worked on quite a few years ago. But I’m wrong often enough, good looking out.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨There's a noticable influx of trans kids in my job. Are there any topics I should avoid or considerations I should take into account when training them?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I get where you’re coming from, and we’ve all seen bad faith “advice” seeking (sea lioning), but also most of us have interacted with people who are well-meaning yet know they have tons of learned behaviors they’ve never needed to question.

  For example, a friend had a boss in a male-dominated industry (construction) who, at the end of a client lunch with several cis men, bid them farewell with “bye ladies.” When they were back in the car she called him out on it “is ‘ladies’ supposed to imply something?” and he immediately admitted “dammit I know. I’m sorry.”

  She knew he knew as he said it that it wasn’t the right thing and just hadn’t considered it before, but it took situations like that to make him consider it in advance. And it sounds like he did. She said he began to make eye contact to check his wording in meetings, which she took to indicate it being present in his mind, that he was actually trying.

  I’m just saying asking and trying to consider little things in advance is ally behavior and should be encouraged unless it’s obviously in bad faith.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Partner has ADD, do I have misophonia?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The relationship advice special is “leave him.” Without additional information I don’t think it’s responsible for anyone here to say that, but what you’ve described is clearly an untenable situation and relationship dynamic.

  I think you owe it to yourself and your partner to sit them down, describe this situation as you see it, and how their behavior makes you feel, perhaps the way you have here. Their response to your feelings should, I think, tell you the next steps.

  Whether that response is workable should, I think, be determined by its impact on trust in the relationship, because trust is ultimately the only fungible currency that differentiates a good relationship from a bad one.

  Concretely:

  1. If they disregard your emotions, disbelieve your experience, or disrespect your right to peace in your own home, this describes a dynamic in which there is no chance for compromise, and you have your answer.
  2. If they still care about your comfort, realize something must change, and are willing to modify their behavior for your benefit, there remains hope to rebuild the trust that’s been lost.

  In either case, what happens next is not something anyone here is equipped to prescribe, but I do hope you’re able to find a better relationship, with or without your current partner.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Pictures of Animals Getting CT Scans Against their Will: A Thread⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It adds cheek. Sans’ use was revived to alter one’s tone to sound stuffier. A visual equivalent might be putting on a top-hat and monocle.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨You cannot learn without failing.⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Slammed! Also cool metaphor.