AnAmericanPotato

joined 11 months ago

Buy a dozen and you could fit a good chunk of LibGen.

Is it more for situations that need to be compatible with most *nix systems and you might not necessarily have access to a higher level scripting language?

Yes, and also because integrating Python one-liners into shell pipelines is awkward in general. I'm more likely to write my entire script in Python than to use it just for text processing, and a lot of the time that's just a pain. Python isn't really designed for one-liners or for use as a shell. You can twist it into working in those use cases, but then I'd ask the reverse question: why would you do that when you could "just" use awk?

On macOS, Python is not installed by default. So if you are writing scripts that you want to be portable across platforms, or for general Mac administration, using Python is a burden.

This is also true when working with some embedded devices. IIRC I can ssh into my router and use awk (thanks to it being included in Busybox), but I'm definitely not going to install an entire Python environment there. I'm not sure there'd even be enough storage space for that.

Thanks for the link. I'm not up on the latest in anarchist philosophy. The last meaningful work I read on the topic was probably In Defense of Anarchism by Robert Paul Wolff.

[–] AnAmericanPotato@programming.dev 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

After working for many years in a “fast pace environment” I can’t help but notice that I have increasing difficulties to do simple tasks.

How many years are we talking?

A lot of what you describe sounds like you're starting to have "senior moments". If you're past 50, that's pretty normal. Which is not to say it's good. "Normal" does not mean good. It just means common. I don't think you should look for anything exotic if the mundane explanation fits your observations.

Low-tech suggestion: Keep a notepad in your pocket. Make to-do lists. Cross items off it when you're done. Maybe put the time in when you cross it off.

  • ~~Put water on stove~~
  • ~~Turn off stove~~
  • ~~Make tea~~
  • Drink tea

The perverse ideas that money is speech and corporations are people can make a lot of simple common-sense statements suddenly completely insane.

I support free speech. Money is not speech.

I support personal freedom. Corporations are not people.

[–] AnAmericanPotato@programming.dev 56 points 3 weeks ago (22 children)

he viewed other libertarians as having the same level of honest compassion as he does but over time it’s become more and more clear that libertarians are overwhelmingly selfish rich white guys who don’t want to be called Repuiblicans

I had a similar progression myself when I was in my teens, maybe even early 20s.

The basic principle of libertarianism is appealing: mind your own damn business and I'll mind mine. And I still agree with that in general — it's just that a single generality does not make a complete worldview. It took me a while to realize how common it is for self-identifying libertarians to lack any capacity for nuance. The natural extreme of "libertarianism" is just anarchy and feudalism.

In a sane world, I might still call myself a libertarian. In a sane world, that might mean letting people live their own damn lives, not throwing them to the wolves (or more literally, bears ) and dismantling the government entirely.

I'm all for minding my own business, but I also acknowledge that maintaining a functional society is everybody's business (as much as I occasionally wish I could opt out and go live in a cave).

[–] AnAmericanPotato@programming.dev 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

The Hyperlegible web site makes no mention of dyslexia, only visual impairment. Those are two totally different issues.

I've never replaced a watch (smart or otherwise) in less than 5 years.

Wat.

[–] AnAmericanPotato@programming.dev 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

How's navigation with Pebbles? If I start bike navigation in Google Maps on my phone, can I get turn-by-turn directions on the watch, and does it not suck?

[–] AnAmericanPotato@programming.dev 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

According to the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, 2013, the median score for the US was "level 2". 3.9% scored below level 1, and 4.2% were "non-starters", unable to complete the questionnaire.

For context, here is the difference between level 2 and level 3, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_the_International_Assessment_of_Adult_Competencies#Competence_groups :

  • Level 2: (226 points) can integrate two or more pieces of information based on criteria, compare and contrast or reason about information and make low-level inferences
  • Level 3: (276 points) can understand and respond appropriately to dense or lengthy texts, including continuous, non-continuous, mixed, or multiple pages.

I think they reached a point where their user base was predominantly mainstream, not tech-savvy enough to know the difference.

I mean, how else can any site survive on advertising when the ads are so obnoxious and it's so easy to block them? Either the site is great and the ads are non-intrusive enough that I'll make an exception in uBlock, or I'm never seeing the ads in the first place.

[–] AnAmericanPotato@programming.dev 111 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Gemini might be good at something, but I'll never know because it is bad at all the things I have ever used the assistant for. If it's good at anything at all, it's something I don't need or want.

Looking forward to 2027 when Google Gemini is replaced by Google Assistant (not to be confused with today's Google Assistant, totally different product).

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