At some point it because a binary thing.

You don’t need to just be good at something.

You need to be good at something AND do something else. AND be likeable. AND be pretty. AND have good contacts. AND …

And if any of those other things aren’t the case, you don’t become the super star.

Sometimes, it’s being at the right place at the right time. Some things can be solved with money, or being the friend or child of a celebrity, and others can’t.

If not, how do you find stuff you care about?

You go to explore, or your home instance feed and follow people and hashtags.

If you have interests, definitely try finding them in the hashtags.

And is reblogging the equivalent to upvoting?

There are no “upvotes”. The idea is that you’re in your little bubble with a handful of followers, and so is basically everyone else. When you find something neat, you boost it, to share it with your followers. If your followers also like, they can boost it as well, and that way, it can spread in a viral way and reach everyone. Or not, if it’s not that interesting and fizzles out.

There are no upvotes because there is no home page. It’s entirely right now. You pick it up, you scroll for a bit, you do something and then you put it down.

I recommend the “federated” feed, to see what I mean. Normally, your home feed is filtered to what you have followed. “Federated” is everything you device can see. All of it. Right now. Slowed down a bit so you can read something, but it’s a cool “stream of consciousness” thing.

Do they have memes there or what’s the range of content?

Everything you want. It really depends on what you filter for.

How does it compare to bluesky?

I don’t know in terms of tone, but the technical difference is that bluesky is only theoretically “independent”, with mastodon, you can have people in basements hosting servers and running communities.

Something you didn’t ask, but that I think is a major feature is filters. You can filter groups of keywords from your feed. So if you want to be informed, but you don’t really care about the specifics of [Team Rockets] Deeds, because they do something every day, you can set a filter for “Team Rocket”, “Jessie”, “James” and it will be hidden, but not completely, you can set it to appear as “team rocket did something again”. You can then still click on it, if you want, but it’s less in your face, if you don’t want to.

Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness

Is actually every easy to understand. NS is the basic fluid dynamics equation, it describes how fluids move.

Never mind the actual equation, you can think of it as “speed” depending on “pressure” and “inertia”. We can use it in parts, in CFD, which is splitting the problem into very small pieces and calculating the pieces and then adding them up bit by bit. But that is super expensive to calculate, not as precise as we would like and difficult to understand.

We would really prefer an “analytical” equation like position = speed * time. The process to get there is usually the integral operation. That’s what the problem is all about.

The problem with the equation we have, is that “pressure” and “inertia” variables are so mixed up in the equation, that we can’t do that integral operation on the equation we have. You end up with something that’s like

y/x = (y/(x-y)) + x

and

x/y = (x/(y-x)) + y

Idk if that explains anything if I put it like that… You can just look at the whole thing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Prize_Problems#Navier–Stokes_existence_and_smoothness

Both sides of that equation describe the same thing, one with forces and pressures, one with measures of speed and time. But BOTH sides contain both space and time parts.

The pieces are interlocked in a way, where we can’t isolate variables, can’t get an integral.

Understanding NS itself isn’t that hard either, but I couldn’t do it just from wikipedia, if you have a bit of help guiding you through it, it’s not that complicated.

The problem is finding / proving that an integral exists and is smooth.

As for how hard it is and how useful it would be, the 1$ million are a joke. The solution is worth billions and billions.

And the problem is old.

The equations were developed over several decades of progressively building the theories, from 1822 (Navier) to 1842–1850 (Stokes).

What then?

Yeah it’ll just be over.

Meaning, people would try to barter, which is really bad because it forces extremely bad trades, because it’s so hard to establish a good value for things.

We 100% rely on consistently working electricity and network connectivity for digital currency to work.

Which is why we should never get 100% rid of cash, even if we transition to mostly cashless, people should keep an emergency stash of hard currency. The same way people should keep an emergency food and water supply, in case of power outages like the one in spain. We can secure our infrastructure against many things, but not 100% secure against everything. Keeping a few bottles of clean water, a little bit of essentially never perishing food and a little cash and a few candles really isn’t too much to ask.

1. just pick any of the common recommendations. Mint. Ubuntu, Kubuntu… Just search for “which linux distro is right for me” and look at a few answers and pick one. Most of them work the same way.

2. you probably can’t use autocad or adobe products. kernel level anticheat is a problem, so games that need that are out.

3. Yes. …ish.

There are basically three levels, one where you only click everything and it’s basically an app / wizard as you know them.

The next level would be that it’s possible that you have manually edit a few text or config files to make things work the way you want to, or the best solution to your problem can be a command line thing. That’s very mostly “not programming”, the command line and manually editing config files can look scary, but most of the time it’s completely harmless. This happens, but it’s rare and it’s mostly simple stuff. The bigger and more used the distro is that you pick, the less you will run into this.

And then the third level would be “real programming” and basically nobody does that and nobody expects that.

4. yes, you can dual boot.

5. Just do it. If you’ve “built” a pc before, it’s the same deal. If you read the manual a tiny bit, it’s like lego. It looks way scarier than it is. And if you look up solutions it is extremely likely that you will find a well researched answer that does solve your problem.

How do I make sure not to become this kind of person?

Just focus on that and you’re good.

There are two ways to do “bad things” 1. you’re not aware of them being bad (because you never question yourself), 2. you are aware, but you excuse them somehow.

You have already cleared 1., all you need to do now, is to remain strict with yourself to never do excuse your own bad behavior.

And to be clear, I don’t mean to constantly blame yourself, I mean “finding excuses to do the bad thing anyway, because this time is an exception”. And it’s also fine to give up on this later if you find you can’t keep it up. It would be disappointing, but any effort in this direction is good, don’t let it dominate you.

Also, practice harmless small talk. If your colleague is talking drama, try to shift the discussion and bring up their pet or hobby or something.

then they pretend to be your friend and ask questions about your personal life which I deflect as good as I can.

I’m sure you can find some old boring topic that you find moderately interesting but can talk for hours on? Just use that. Comic book art, a particular species of flower you keep in a pot, 14th century mongolian music, idk.

I don’t think there is a huge need at the moment. Things will probably develop naturally. E.g. if some communities find they would like one, they would start one, with rules, blocks, membership, financing that fits their needs.

I think last time I tried it, the whole build process for android didn’t work. Which defeats the purpose, because linux is default, building for windows isn’t that hard.

They seem to be still working on it and I couldn’t tell you where I failed and if they have fixed it. But it still seems to be not exactly

[make app]
python -m build target=android

So ultimately it’s not actually cross platform.

Alright. I hope that I’m wrong too, after all.

The problem is that of those 20/30% only 10% will actually get out on the streets so you are left with around 2% of the general population. And that ain’t much

So you do agree?

Getting mass protests organized is a tremendous effort. If you have 80-90% support for something, getting 30-40% on the street is a huge accomplishment. If only 30% support the idea in the first place, there is no chance.

The “mass protest” has to be at a scale, where it’s basically a general strike where society shuts down because people are protesting.

That it doesn’t work right now doesn’t mean they should stop trying.

but a very loud and significant minority

This is meaningless in a country that chooses to ignore public voices. Authoritarian regimes can stay stable with 10-15% support of the population, ignoring protests and complaints.

There are protests, they are just way too small.

Trump hast at least 40% of the population behind him, and a good 20-30% don’t care. Still.

You can’t organize “mass protests” with 20-30% of the population.

I mean, you can, but they are literally a loud minority.

Hm. I think we can agree that “flexing” and “ooooh, we told you so” and “look at our superior moral high ground, isn’t it moral and amazing” isn’t exactly material to make friends in a political debate.

The problem is to formulate a political common ground position that so many people can agree on, that it’s trivial to support it. And it should be very clear that “they nazi, don’t pay attention to our goals btw” isn’t good enough. Even if it’s bernie saying it.

The problem with formulating that position is also, that it’s hard to even bring the attention and time investment that is required for listening to people or to read an argument, if you don’t trust the person making the argument. So a “hold on, we’re going to get to the good point in 20 minutes” isn’t good enough either.

Starting with something is obviously wrong like “we have always been the good guys” will destroy what little benefit of the doubt people may bring to the table. And it’s not material to build that common ground.

So, try to read the “we told you so” not as a petty attempt to rub something in, but as a “this situation being wrong has been our position from the start, let’s get to the real argument, please”.

And that actual real argument can’t be an appeal to the long, honorable, just and democratic history and patriotism, because that kind of rhetoric is what got us into this mess in the first place.

There is this mental pattern, that people look for the weakest argument and “destroy” their opponent and “win”. We’re not interested in the destruction, but we’re also not going to support bad arguments. It takes effort to overcome, because doing that is fun.

tl;dr Bernie made a bad point here. Let’s acknowledge that it was bad and move on.

I recommend these two books:

PR! - A Social History of Spin

manufacturing consent

They’re older, but I don’t think you need “modern examples”, once you understand how it works, the techniques immediately and obviously apply to social media.

my take on this whole thing is:

… and there it is! A tool to fix the fallout of the practice of always using venvs and always version pinning.

Nice.

I have no need for this kind of tool, because I don’t have version conflicts. Does this manage my dependencies in other ways?

No idea what .in is.

.txt is split out into .lock and .unlock.

Are they still .txt or is there a new file standard for .lock and .unlock?

pyproject.toml

.toml,

The only thing you have to unlearn is being so timid.

No, that’s… against community rules :) I don’t like the common use of venvs or .toml very much and I don’t like their use by other people and “timid” is also diplomatic. So you’re getting timid, and we get to get along and we can agree to disagree on the use of .venvs and we can wish each other a pleasant day.

I would say, the “real” “actually” is more of that.

The “ackshually” is more knowning that people can be like that and being a bit sarcastic about it.

As in “actually, X, but only someone really sweaty and pedantic would make that point earnestly, which I’m not”.

I think fundamentally, it’s about what kind of person you want to be, psychologically.

There is no problem with a self image that’s not “puritan” and then the actions that reflect that. If you think of yourself as having a style and attitude and projecting and communicating that, aggressively, it’s fine to be who you want to be. E.g. punks dressing as punks, “expensive brand stuff”, or tattoos or plastic surgery.

Being about your attitude towards other people can also just be “you”. So I wouldn’t worry about doing it for yourself or doing it for “other people”.

I would make 100% sure to talk about it with your husband, this is a thing you definitely don’t want to backfire. Maybe be dislikes the idea of plastic surgery more than he would like the new shape.

By contrast, if you work in a public service job, or in a big office and there is competition and how you dress is part of office politics and competition and the difference between getting clients to sign or not, that is where I would say you’re dressing for other people. Same if you’re in a punk band and worried about not being “punk enough” and getting piercings or whatever because of that, to fit in and not necessarily because you like the idea of piercings.

I generally don’t think modifying your own body is a good idea, and it’s unnecessary. The whole “if someone demands to be impressed, they are not worth impressing” thing.

But it is your body, do what you want.

Also inform yourself about the medical side of things, as mentioned by others.

I wish you happiness with your decision either way.

The same way you take an interest in any other person.

Ask them what they like and why they like it. Make it clear that you would like to understand.

And absolutely do NOT react in any way negatively. No “that’s it”, no nothing, no “ew”, no disappointment, nothing. If he tells you he watches paint dry in his free time, ask him what color and if you can join him some time. And be persistent and try make specific plans, I have relatives I like with shared hobbies and we barely manage to schedule something.

If your son already has a hobby it’s kind of easier because you can ask him about things he did and things he finds inspiring. If he’s doing performance or sports, you can watch and support him doing that? Shop for equipment together, etc… If he has a competitive, creative problem don’t pressure him and reassure him.

If he likes media, try to lend some of his and try to enjoy it. Usually, even with hobbies you dislike, there is a point where it’s somewhat interesting if you are motivated to learn about it. That does take some time though and you will need to invest that time. You can just weave in a quick “… and how is your [x] going”. That’s reserved for more distant relatives.

But also he’s 15 so none of that may work for biological reasons.

And also, it takes two. If you want to bond, but he does not, period, there isn’t really much you can do, except persistently offer it.

In a sense yes. Once a company has captured the entire (global) economy, including banking, it would control who to give credit to, who to employ, what to pay them, what their own products are priced.

They could at most reap as “profit” what they give out in credit and payment.

There may be sub-limits for capturing entire industries.

We don’t know what an eventual outcome will be right now and it would be… weird to talk about help financing “defense” for years and then actually negotiate for concessions.

It’s an open secret that if all Russian nukes would disappear over night, the other members of the UN security council would probably party for a week. The US (and the EU) is supporting Ukraine because that’s the right thing to do AND it is in their interest because who knows what a bigger Russia will do next. But they’re also doing it because it’s weakening Russia and that’s also in their interest, even though they would never publicly say it or not with the intensity that they actually think that way.

Long story short, if the absolute optimal (for Ukraine and “the west”) thing happens:

• the war exhausts Russia more than Ukraine + supporters
• the timing for negotiations is chosen in a way that is extremely bad for Russia, to the effect that Russia doesn’t have to just apologize, return territory, pay reparations, and all that, but ALSO give up other things.
• like UN observers and limits to their military.
• nuclear disarmament
• ???

It would look extremely badly if politicians, actual leaders of nations, were to talk about “defense” for years and then actually ask those things in the end. Which they want to.

So (imo, it’s all speculation) it’s preemptive PR management that leaves room for that asking for more things than would be justifiable with “defense”.

To address this concern, CISA recommends that developers transition to memory-safe programming languages such as Rust, Java, C#, Go, Python, and Swift.

If only it were that easy to snap your fingers and magically transform your code base from C to Rust.

guy_butterfly_meme.jpg is this unbiased journalism?