@TerryHancock@realsocial.life cover
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TerryHancock

@TerryHancock@realsocial.life

Fan of space, film, free/open-source software and free culture. Former pro astronomer. Writer, blogger, editor, visual artist. Occasional free-software developer. (Personal Account)

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

After some conversations with friends NOT on the fediverse I've arrived at calling it "independent social media."

This is better than "open source" or other titles, it better conveys the central difference.

TerryHancock ,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@futurebird

"independent social media"

I like it. It's not only accurate, but also evokes relevant connections (like to "independent media" generally).

It does submerge the defining characteristic of these platforms interacting with each other. But then, in the paper publishing world, interoperability is assumed:

One is free to read any paper, regardless of who publishes it. Open federation protocols are a return to this norm.

dansup , to random
@dansup@mastodon.social avatar

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TerryHancock ,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@dansup
Very good use of this marketing opportunity!

ben , to random
@ben@m.benui.ca avatar

What's the group noun for British people?

TerryHancock ,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@ben
You mean "Britons"?

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I've largely dismissed the strain of AI alarmism based on the notion the a computer will be so smart that the danger it poses to humanity is outsmarting us.

There are real dangers in AI, most of them relate to people using these technologies in improper ways due to having a poor understanding of what they really are... and most important the exploitation & degradation of the human body of knowledge creativity represented by publicly available digital information. 1/

TerryHancock ,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@futurebird
Of course, the AI has been outsmarting people when we are at our dumbest (i.e. people believing really bad advice from LLMs).

So I guess there is some overlap -- kind of like that overlap park rangers talk about "between the smartest bears and the dumbest humans" (as an obstacle to bear-proof trash bins).

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

This timelapse of a fungus kept by leafcutter ants is remarkable. Thousands of ants monitoring humidity, the nutrition needs of the fungus, removing unwanted growths, keeping their brood and harvesting food. Inside: the queen. Totally inclosed in a living home. The walls are food, a place for her eggs, they slowly renew, tended by her daughters.

As every living organism maintains itself, but on a strange macro-scale. These are your cells shedding and being replaced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3AZffDtOlw

TerryHancock ,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@futurebird
🤔
"Fungus farmed by ants farmed by human."

That is fascinating. I suppose there is probably considerable co-evolution between this species of fungus and this species of ant.

futurebird , (edited ) to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I don't know, pick one:

A. You have an excellent education, the means to answer questions: building a consistent understanding of the world. You are hard to trick. That said, you live in a society where the powerful can't be criticized. Many things you know cannot be said.

B. You freely and loudly express your ideas. But, you have very little education, formal or otherwise. You have been tricked before & know you could be again. You just don't have the best tools to prevent this.

TerryHancock ,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@futurebird @llewelly

IMHO, the problem is absolutism.

People want there to be absolute truths and falsehoods.

But in reality, science offers only probabilities, theories, and evidence. Some are very solid. Some less so. Some are pretty much bunk -- but some oddball theories then turn out to be true (I'm still reeling from "the Moon is a bashed-off piece of the proto-Earth", myself).

You have to learn to accept uncertainty as fundamental, but not as a roadblock.

TerryHancock , to random
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

Maybe it's going to work out. Maybe not.

But today, Nextcloud is really pissing me off. :dumpsterfire:

Slow.
Latency from hell.
Insane symlink behavior.

Honestly, if you can't beat rsync with your snazzy new code, you should just write a web front-end for rsync and be done with it.

Hmmm.... :leftsharkdance:

TerryHancock OP ,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

Now I'm wondering if I could just do that...

A little Flask app that just sets up the parameters right and calls rsync?

Could that work..? :raccoon_cool:

Probably not for everything, but maybe for those damned EXR-stream Render folders.

TerryHancock OP ,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

I think people have tendency to underestimate how much thought went into utilities like rsync.

Those UNIX utilities are bomb-proof, man. They've Seen Things.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

“regular people” whoever that is… will never use the crunchy homemade internet if they have the option of slick apps instead. You can’t hire designers, you don’t have an advertising budget, your project with its dreamy cooperative ethos is an anathema to tech media who don’t see the point in mentioning it exists.

“regular people” like pop-ups, and bots, and having their data sold to the highest bidder, they like porn spam, and scammers and discourse so broken it causes mental harm. Right?

TerryHancock ,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@dalias @futurebird @mattmcirvin

I'm not convinced this will ever really be possible. There's always perverse incentives for someone to betray that kind of trust.

And not much remuneration for those who want to provide a service -- which puts real pressure behind buying into those incentives.

Independent artists (a.k.a. "the good guys") struggle with this all the time -- Do I charge a subscription fee? Do I have ads on my site? Use a creepy corporate platform? Or do I just starve?

TerryHancock ,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@dalias
Yes. But those design principles invariably do introduce complexity.

For example, the Fediverse is a really well done application of these principles, and yet we still hear complaints that it is "too complicated".

I ran into similar objections to using, say, Debian Linux, which has an excellent packaging system. But it's hard to beat "pre-installed"!

I think there are certain inescable tradeoffs, and the best we can do is to be clear what the trade is.
@futurebird @mattmcirvin

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

The fediverse is bigger than Truth Social and most of it isn't even a company... just a bunch of nerds running their own social network on pocket change (as it should be) and the content here is chefs kiss so much nicer.

Maybe we should "go public" too LMAO.

TerryHancock ,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@futurebird

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

My husband is mad that I put a teaspoon of icecream in my oatmeal.

But OMG I'm RIGHT! This is it! This is the ultimate soothing food.

TerryHancock ,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@futurebird
Huh. Seems like that would work pretty well. Like adding milk, sweetener, and flavoring all at once. 🤔

Of course, I put soy "bacon" bits and pancake syrup in mine, so I don't know if my endorsement ahould be relied on. 😅

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

There was a fern, on an island, deep in the Tethys Sea. The fern lived only on that one small island... and the whole landmass now, every scrap of evidence is beneath the Himalayas, cooking into unrecognizable granite.

TerryHancock ,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@futurebird

Though at least we do have some cool images of new star systems forming nowadays.

TerryHancock ,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@futurebird @annaymone

This is basically why apetures have to be big for diffraction-limited telescopes (in practical terms, for space telescopes).

At this point, it's really interferometer arrays, rather than single telescopes. There WAS a JPL proposal for the "Terrestrial Planet Finder", which was going to be a free-flying array of optically-aligned space telescopes.

Don't know what became of that (I lost touch around 2003).

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Bolo ties are so cute. But also very masculine. But also adorable.

So they are on the list now too.

What other items have this quality?

TerryHancock ,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@futurebird
Belt buckles?

TerryHancock , to random
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

Honestly, though, "Catling Gun" was right there...

[I used to have this as desktop wallpaper, but I didn't know where it came from then]

https://www.deviantart.com/glooh/art/Catgun-345258360

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Someone on tumblr posted this survey to get the math people all riled up and I think it's working.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdMDLd0lCFZtwIDPU9VDRxQ0FCVAlpCML3j-Cfbfsf2S0S1hg/viewform

TerryHancock ,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@futurebird

What exactly does "domain of definition" mean?

Could that be "where x > 0 or x < 0" (I.e. excluding x=0, where x is undefined)?

As opposed to, say, a step-function, where it has discontinuities at every integer, but is defined everywhere?

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I was telling my students about cuneiform and one asked if it would be on the exam.

So I told them the exam would be in cuneiform and they need to bring clay and little triangle styluses.😡

They still have not realized that anytime anyone asks "will this be on the test?" I always say "Yes."

TerryHancock ,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@futurebird

That would actually be pretty cool, though! I've never done it.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

...

My husband has these horrible bets with the people at his office This month it's "who can lower their cholesterol the most?"

They all run out & get tested on the 1st then do it again at the end of the month and the person with the biggest drop wins the betting pool.

I keep telling him that's not how "health" works, but he's not listening and watched some video about eating a "shot" of garlic juice, lemon and hot peppers. He says he can "feel it working"🙄

Are there any real tips?

TerryHancock ,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@futurebird

They used to think that cholesterol in diet translated to body cholesterol, but the evidence didn't pan out.

It seems that we regulate cholesterol in our bodies (make most of it). So the amount in diet isn't very important to directly affecting cholesterol levels.

However, overall fat consumption is an issue.

There are natural statins, like "red rice" that will reduce cholesterol the same way the medications do (by affecting liver function).

(Per my GP)

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