hereticalgorithm's recent activity

  1. Comment on Twitter announces "bluesky", an investigation of decentralization standards for social media, with the goal of converting Twitter into a client in ~tech

    hereticalgorithm
    Link Parent
    Right, but why not join forces with a project that's already been putting in work into this problem?

    Right, but why not join forces with a project that's already been putting in work into this problem?

    3 votes

  2. Comment on CSS Only Chat - An asynchronous chat client built with no JS in ~comp

    hereticalgorithm
    Link
    The linked tweet series that inspired this is concerning, tho I can't think of too many practical attacks past behavioral fingerprinting (someone later in the thread discusses this).

    The linked tweet series that inspired this is concerning, tho I can't think of too many practical attacks past behavioral fingerprinting (someone later in the thread discusses this).

    4 votes

  3. Comment on Shipping a Linux Kernel with Windows in ~comp

    hereticalgorithm
    Link
    The 20x improvement in file I/O is huge. I wonder how they got the kernel to talk to the filesystem, can't wait to hear more.

    The 20x improvement in file I/O is huge. I wonder how they got the kernel to talk to the filesystem, can't wait to hear more.

    6 votes

  4. Comment on What is your note taking workflow? in ~talk

    hereticalgorithm
    Link Parent
    Wow, thanks for showing me Indigrid, I've been trying out tons of different notetaking apps and this one feels perfect! (org mode and notion are the only ones that got close - the former had too...

    Wow, thanks for showing me Indigrid, I've been trying out tons of different notetaking apps and this one feels perfect!

    (org mode and notion are the only ones that got close - the former had too much of a learning curve for now, the latter has some performance issues on mobile)

    1 vote

  5. Comment on Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, JavaScript Adaptation in ~comp

    hereticalgorithm
    (edited )
    Link
    I've been meaning to work thru SICP and learn some JavaScript and this looked like a really cool way to kill two birds with one stone. I suspect the JS in use on the web will be a ton less elegant...

    I've been meaning to work thru SICP and learn some JavaScript and this looked like a really cool way to kill two birds with one stone.

    I suspect the JS in use on the web will be a ton less elegant than what's being taught here (don't worry, I'll read up on that end as well).

    Or would it be better to study it in native lisp (which I don't know much about)? The other companion I've got for SICP is this one for Guile and Elisp

  7. Comment on An Alabama “ISIS bride” wants to come home. Can we forgive her horrifying social media posts? in ~life

    hereticalgorithm
    (edited )
    Link
    This process of radicalization reminds me a ton of the stuff we'd see on the chans: Appeal to existing religious beliefs (QAnon's use of Christological imagry) Egging on real-life action (/pol/...

    This process of radicalization reminds me a ton of the stuff we'd see on the chans:

    Appeal to existing religious beliefs (QAnon's use of Christological imagry)

    Egging on real-life action (/pol/ celebrating their two recent mass shooters)

    Calculated use of escalation, using more respectable (alt-lite) figures as an intro to more serious shit:

    What I found was that Muthana had removed herself from her IRL community and had been pulled into her online community — at first the Muslim "Twittersphere," as she called it, and then, slowly, the networks of women ISIS members. On the ground in Alabama, I was following a ghost. She told me that she purposefully removed herself from her community once she had the clandestine agency to establish a social media presence. At first, it was one that included her siblings, her acquaintances from the mosque, her school friends — and those who knew her in real life and on social media told me that she purposefully created a “better” version of herself for Twitter, one that gained thousands of followers. Then that version of herself connected with radicals — and slowly began to share their way of thinking.

    8 votes

  8. Comment on A technical and cultural assessment of the Mueller Report PDF in ~tech

    hereticalgorithm
    Link Parent
    To be honest, I think 2 (promoting the PDF format) is the main purpose - the takedown of the Mueller report reads to me more as "hey PDFs do support better usage than this, don't blame the file...

    To be honest, I think 2 (promoting the PDF format) is the main purpose - the takedown of the Mueller report reads to me more as "hey PDFs do support better usage than this, don't blame the file format for searching/etc not working".

    They might even just be including that takedown to hop on the attention train.

    1 vote

  9. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~comp

    hereticalgorithm
    Link
    Good article. My favorite part (emph. mine):

    Good article. My favorite part (emph. mine):

    Paul Graham calls Lisp a “secret weapon.” I would clarify: Lisp itself isn’t the secret weapon. Rather, you are—because a Lisp language offers you the chance to discover your potential as a programmer and a thinker, and thereby raise your expectations for what you can accomplish.

    2 votes

  12. Comment on My first time using LInux as someone who's not a computer aficionado - It's perfect in ~comp

    hereticalgorithm
    Link Parent
    I know I'm reviving basically a dead thread, but this is perhaps one of the worst technical arguments I've seen in a while... Time spent in code is a good metric for finding bottlenecks, exactly...

    However, I submit to you that raw LOC numbers do not directly correlate with importance. I would suggest that clock cycles spent on code is a better metric. For example, if my system spends 90% of its time executing XFree86 code, XFree86 is probably the single most important collection of code on my system.

    I know I'm reviving basically a dead thread, but this is perhaps one of the worst technical arguments I've seen in a while... Time spent in code is a good metric for finding bottlenecks, exactly the sort of thing coders of critical system components called by tons of code (like glibc) try to prevent.

    1 vote

  13. Comment on Security alert: pipdig [popular WordPress theme provider] insecure, DDoSing competitors in ~tech

    hereticalgorithm
    Link
    A dryer analysis from Wordfence. Pipdig's response is that these are actually features (which just happen to be obfuscated in the code and are able to nuke your database), a claim which makes them...

    A dryer analysis from Wordfence.

    Pipdig's response is that these are actually features (which just happen to be obfuscated in the code and are able to nuke your database), a claim which makes them either terrible liars or terrible developers. They also erased the history of some of their repos.

    I've heard that cranking out sites with WordPress is easy money, but the state of WordPress plugins is a headache that I'd like to preserve my sanity by avoiding.

    1 vote

  15. Comment on The Universal Design Pattern: "The most specific event can serve as a general example of a class of events." in ~comp

    hereticalgorithm
    (edited )
    Link
    Here's a PDF copy of GEB, the relevant section starts on page 357 (tho I advise getting your own copy and reading the entire thing). This concept struck me as an example of what a dialectical...

    Here's a PDF copy of GEB, the relevant section starts on page 357 (tho I advise getting your own copy and reading the entire thing).

    This concept struck me as an example of what a dialectical materialist framework would call the unity & struggle of opposites - between particularity (ex: instances, events, rows) & generality (ex: classes, types, schema). The two components of this contradiction can (and should) be identified, but cannot be absolutely separated- a class without instances is empty (and how would you design a class without implemention in mind?), an instance without a class is chaos. Furthermore, a class can be a particular implementation of another class, yet serve as a general class for many others.

    I'm also not sure if my tags are right, and would appreciate feedback cuz this post blends a bit between categories. I also included that beginning quote in the title b/c it seemed to be more descriptive than just "Universal Design Pattern".

    More practically, Steve's identification of JavaScript as an implementation of this reminded me of his prediction back in 2007 that it would take off. Obviously this post came after, but I wonder how much JavaScript's property modeling strengths played into that success (vs it's success just being historical accident).

    1 vote

  17. Comment on Coworker quit Amazon because they are accepting EBT Cards and offer 50% off Prime in ~talk

    hereticalgorithm
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    That like, doesn't even directly affect his family, what the fuck? It's not like Amazon hiked up his prime rates over this. Quite frankly, Amazon is likely making bank with this b/c they'll be the...

    That like, doesn't even directly affect his family, what the fuck?

    It's not like Amazon hiked up his prime rates over this. Quite frankly, Amazon is likely making bank with this b/c they'll be the only source for many items in food deserts (which often also affect the ability to obtain other necessities).

    Is the existence of poor people somehow a threat to them?

    Tell him that if they hate subsidizing poor people so much, they should try living without all the ways working people subsidize their lifestyle! No more eating out, consumer electronics, cheap clothes, etc.

    12 votes

  18. Comment on Megathread: April Fools' Day 2019 on the internet in ~talk

    hereticalgorithm
    Link Parent
    Yeah, I'm photosensitive and light themes give me headaches.

    Yeah, I'm photosensitive and light themes give me headaches.

    3 votes

  19. Comment on Megathread: April Fools' Day 2019 on the internet in ~talk

  20. Comment on Grassland: Inverse surveillance via a P2P network of camera + computer vision nodes, serving as a public record of the movments of people and objects. in ~tech

    hereticalgorithm
    (edited )
    Link
    This is a novel response to surveillance - stop fighting "information wants to be free" and push it to it's absolute limit. Can't really follow the proof of work too well right now, but it's...

    This is a novel response to surveillance - stop fighting "information wants to be free" and push it to it's absolute limit. Can't really follow the proof of work too well right now, but it's pretty cool that it's tied into actual work (computer vision) and not heat-generating BS. Skeptical that it'll go anywhere), but it's an interesting implementation.

    HackerNews discussion.

    edit: ok, just noticed that it has a rather... unique software license

    Unless otherwise specified, this software and algorithm(s) are released under the terms of the Grassland License. It's identical to the Mozilla Public License 2.0 with the added restrictions that the use of this Work (which refers to both the software and algorithm(s)), or its Derivatives constitutes an Agreement that its use to gather data that comes from locations in which any uninformed third party would have no reasonable expectation of privacy is governed by an 'open data policy' wherein all data gathered from such locations shall be made freely available to anyone with the same frequency, format and specifications to that of approved Grassland Node implementations. Approved Grassland Node implementations can be found on our Github page located here -> https://github.com/grasslandnetwork/. In addition, you are also restricted from distributing any versions of this Work that have been modified or merged with any type of commenting, blogging, microblogging or 'social media' software or system. Any abuse of this software and/or algorithm(s) evinced by parties engaged in violation of this Agreement, if discovered will be taken as aknowledgement, consent and agreement by those parties to allow any member of the Grassland community to attempt to seek out and identify such parties in order to target and generate any digital news, social media content or other types of information that the household and/or family of the members of such parties may consume using the 'Deep Schizophrenia' narrative and text generation software and/or algorithm(s) in keeping with Grassland's ideals of GLn(F), 'Winning by Culture Points' and striving to ensure the factual and non-biased integrity of the Grassland database. If any part of this Agreement remains unenforceable, the remainder of this Agreement shall continue in full force and effect. If you don't agree with any of this, then do not use or modify for use the Grassland software or algorithm(s) or its Derivatives.

    I have no idea what's with the group theory reference, deep schizophrenia or winning by culture points.

    And at a more conceptual level, Bruce Schneier has a criticism of inverse surveilance - namely that observation doesnt level out an already uneven playing field.

    4 votes