jonluca's recent activity
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Comment on Beto O'Rourke raises $6.1 million on first day, topping Sanders and all other rivals in ~news
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Comment on Is it a good idea to use an AWS server as a vpn? in ~tech
jonluca Link I use algo to quickly spin up and tear down personal VPNs. You can use the free tier on AWS for this as well, and don't need to pollute your main servers IP (if you're doing anything shady with...I use algo to quickly spin up and tear down personal VPNs. You can use the free tier on AWS for this as well, and don't need to pollute your main servers IP (if you're doing anything shady with the VPN).
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Comment on Gov. Gavin Newsom Will Halt Executions in California in ~news
jonluca Link Parent I think there has to be a bit more nuance to it though. For instance, take the following example. Assume there is an individual named John Smith. For all intents and purposes, the man is...- Exemplary
I think there has to be a bit more nuance to it though. For instance, take the following example.
Assume there is an individual named John Smith. For all intents and purposes, the man is brilliant, charismatic, and has historically been a productive member of society. He also believes that, fundamentally, humanity is a scourge, and that he would like nothing better than see it completely eradicated. He begins a cult, in which he convinces a non negligible amount of people of his beliefs. They cause mayhem and human travesty all around the globe - he commits unspeakable human rights violations.
He also has started working on a disease that would destroy all humans if introduced. He completes it, but fortunately the authorities manage to capture him before he can tell his disciples how to make it.
He's sitting in prison, but he has an ardent set of followers that will do anything to get that information from him. You can assume that they are resourceful enough that they will eventually be able to get in - sneak in, break him out, assume positions of power and just have a conversation with him, etc. If they do, it will guarantee the destruction of humanity.
This situation is, obviously, extreme, but it can provide counter points to the ones you made above.
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It might be wrong to kill people, but there have to be situations in which it is more prudent to kill someone than to risk having them stay in society.
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The criminal's feeling shouldn't come into play here. This is about the danger they present to the rest of society. It doesn't matter whether they've committed thousands of crimes or just one.
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His followers will react as if a God is being killed, causing them immeasurable harm. Some of them are innocent - it's a cult, afterall, so there are kids and others that have not yet committed any crimes.
I don't necessarily mean this to be an argument for capital punishment - I just want to show that it's more nuanced. One case that contradicts a part of an argument necessarily shows that the conclusions of that argument can't be trusted.
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Comment on Gov. Gavin Newsom Will Halt Executions in California in ~news
jonluca Link Parent And, even if true, is still negated by a more fundamental view point. Do we put a price on justice? If we determine that to be the accepted and fair punishment, would we really be willing to...And, even if true, is still negated by a more fundamental view point. Do we put a price on justice? If we determine that to be the accepted and fair punishment, would we really be willing to acquiesce our morality because it's deemed too expensive?
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Comment on The Oppression of the Supermajority in ~talk
jonluca Link Parent Oh man I'm going to order those right now. Thanks! I got really into information theory this past summer. One that's more AI focused but (IMO) fairly groundbreaking is The Book of Why, written by...Oh man I'm going to order those right now. Thanks!
I got really into information theory this past summer. One that's more AI focused but (IMO) fairly groundbreaking is The Book of Why, written by the guy that popularized Bayesian networks.
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Comment on The Oppression of the Supermajority in ~talk
jonluca Link Tim Wu, the author of this article, also wrote The Master Switch. This book touches on information theory + purveyors of control. It seems quite in line with a lot of the thought processes and...Tim Wu, the author of this article, also wrote The Master Switch. This book touches on information theory + purveyors of control. It seems quite in line with a lot of the thought processes and ideologies of people on Tildes, and I highly recommend people check it out.
If you like that book I also recommend The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood, which is a bit more information theory-centric, but well worth the read as well.
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Comment on Experiments, growth engineering, and the perils of not disguising your API routes: Part 1 in ~comp
jonluca Link Parent As a security researcher I've loved the recent trend of hiding everything behind a REST API. So many companies have extremely weak rate limiting in place, as well. Take a look at this tool -...As a security researcher I've loved the recent trend of hiding everything behind a REST API. So many companies have extremely weak rate limiting in place, as well.
Take a look at this tool - curl.trillworks.com.
I can go from a network request in Chrome -> Right click, copy as Curl -> to straight python code in less than 5 seconds. From here you can play around with whatever you want, or iterate over large amounts of data really quickly.
It's trivialized web scraping - you no longer need to write complicated CSS queries or parse HTML on a lot of modern websites; it's in an easy to use, JSON format already!
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Comment on Does anyone here work in infosec? If so, which laptops are you allowed to use? in ~comp
jonluca Link A little biased because I was infosec at Apple, but we all used MacBook Pros. At Google it's a lot of Pixelbooks now a days, while the desktops are running our custom flavor of Linux.A little biased because I was infosec at Apple, but we all used MacBook Pros. At Google it's a lot of Pixelbooks now a days, while the desktops are running our custom flavor of Linux.
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Comment on Ode to the 767 in ~tech
jonluca Link This was a great read, thanks for posting! There's something about aviation stories and the way pilots write that always sucks me in. It's become a quasi-copy pasta but the SR71 stories from the...This was a great read, thanks for posting! There's something about aviation stories and the way pilots write that always sucks me in.
It's become a quasi-copy pasta but the SR71 stories from the "Sled Driver" are absolutely incredible. They're written so well and in such an awe inspiring way that just makes you keep reading. I'll post one of my favorites that isn't the most posted one below.
About 5 years ago I posted a few of these on a subreddit I was trying to get off the ground, here, if you're looking for more. The whole book is worth a buy if you enjoy these stories.
As a former SR-71 pilot, and a professional keynote speaker, the question I'm most often asked is "How fast would that SR-71 fly?" I can be assured of hearing that question several times at any event I attend. It's an interesting question, given the aircraft's proclivity for speed, but there really isn't one number to give, as the jet would always give you a little more speed if you wanted it to. It was common to see 35 miles a minute. Because we flew a programmed Mach number on most missions, and never wanted to harm the plane in any way, we never let it run out to any limits of temperature or speed. Thus, each SR-71 pilot had his own individual “high” speed that he saw at some point on some mission. I saw mine over Libya when Khadafy fired two missiles my way, and max power was in order. Let’s just say that the plane truly loved speed and effortlessly took us to Mach numbers we hadn’t previously seen.
So it was with great surprise, when at the end of one of my presentations, someone asked, “what was the slowest you ever flew the Blackbird?” This was a first. After giving it some thought, I was reminded of a story that I had never shared before, and relayed the following.
I was flying the SR-71 out of RAF Mildenhall, England , with my back-seater, Walt Watson; we were returning from a mission over Europe and the Iron Curtain when we received a radio transmission from home base. As we scooted across Denmark in three minutes, we learned that a small RAF base in the English countryside had requested an SR-71 fly-past. The air cadet commander there was a former Blackbird pilot, and thought it would be a motivating moment for the young lads to see the mighty SR-71 perform a low approach. No problem, we were happy to do it. After a quick aerial refueling over the North Sea , we proceeded to find the small airfield.
Walter had a myriad of sophisticated navigation equipment in the back seat, and began to vector me toward the field. Descending to subsonic speeds, we found ourselves over a densely wooded area in a slight haze. Like most former WWII British airfields, the one we were looking for had a small tower and little surrounding infrastructure. Walter told me we were close and that I should be able to see the field, but I saw nothing.
Nothing but trees as far as I could see in the haze. We got a little lower, and I pulled the throttles back from 325 knots we were at. With the gear up, anything under 275 was just uncomfortable. Walt said we were practically over the field—yet; there was nothing in my windscreen. I banked the jet and started a gentle circling maneuver in hopes of picking up anything that looked like a field. Meanwhile, below, the cadet commander had taken the cadets up on the catwalk of the tower in order to get a prime view of the fly-past. It was a quiet, still day with no wind and partial gray overcast.
Walter continued to give me indications that the field should be below us but in the overcast and haze, I couldn't see it.. The longer we continued to peer out the window and circle, the slower we got. With our power back, the awaiting cadets heard nothing. I must have had good instructors in my flying career, as something told me I better cross-check the gauges. As I noticed the airspeed indicator slide below 160 knots, my heart stopped and my adrenalin-filled left hand pushed two throttles full forward. At this point we weren't really flying, but were falling in a slight bank. Just at the moment that both afterburners lit with a thunderous roar of flame (and what a joyous feeling that was) the aircraft fell into full view of the shocked observers on the tower.
Shattering the still quiet of that morning, they now had 107 feet of fire-breathing titanium in their face as the plane leveled and accelerated, in full burner, on the tower side of the infield, closer than expected, maintaining what could only be described as some sort of ultimate knife-edge pass. Quickly reaching the field boundary, we proceeded back to Mildenhall without incident. We didn't say a word for those next 14 minutes.
After landing, our commander greeted us, and we were both certain he was reaching for our wings. Instead, he heartily shook our hands and said the commander had told him it was the greatest SR-71 fly-past he had ever seen, especially how we had surprised them with such a precise maneuver that could only be described as breathtaking. He said that some of the cadet’s hats were blown off and the sight of the plan form of the plane in full afterburner dropping right in front of them was unbelievable. Walt and I both understood the concept of “breathtaking” very well that morning, and sheepishly replied that they were just excited to see our low approach.
As we retired to the equipment room to change from space suits to flight suits, we just sat there-we hadn't spoken a word since “the pass.” Finally, Walter looked at me and said, “One hundred fifty-six knots.
What did you see?” Trying to find my voice, I stammered, “One hundred fifty-two.” We sat in silence for a moment. Then Walt said, “Don’t ever do that to me again!” And I never did.A year later, Walter and I were having lunch in the Mildenhall Officer’s club, and overheard an officer talking to some cadets about an SR-71 fly-past that he had seen one day. Of course, by now the story included kids falling off the tower and screaming as the heat of the jet singed their eyebrows. Noticing our HABU patches, as we stood there with lunch trays in our hands, he asked us to verify to the cadets that such a thing had occurred. Walt just shook his head and said, “It was probably just a routine low approach; they're pretty impressive in that plane.” Impressive indeed.
Little did I realize after relaying this experience to my audience that day that it would become one of the most popular and most requested stories. It’s ironic that people are interested in how slow the world’s fastest jet can fly. Regardless of your speed, however, it’s always a good idea to keep that cross-check up…and keep your Mach up, too.
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Comment on America's Professional Elite: Wealthy, Successful and Miserable in ~life
jonluca Link This is a very interesting article. I've seen a lot of criticism and almost outright hatred for the subjects of the piece, which seems a bit reactionary. The parallel I'd like to draw is the old...- Exemplary
This is a very interesting article. I've seen a lot of criticism and almost outright hatred for the subjects of the piece, which seems a bit reactionary.
The parallel I'd like to draw is the old argument of middle class American problems compared to the (usually stereotyped) 3rd world problems. This is something like the problem of getting assigned a wonky schedule at work - maybe you have to work from 2pm to 10pm instead of 9am to 5pm. It's a real problem that can have serious repercussions in your life, but "compared to" 3rd world problems it seems almost laughable.
The fact that people have it much worse doesn't invalidate your feelings and discontent about your situation. People are ridiculing the subjects of the article, but that doesn't detract from their depression or lack of satisfaction. I'm simply making the argument that there's probably an underlying cause that this feeling is so widespread - the article touches on it briefly with the "always on" culture, but it's interesting to me that people are so quick to dismiss this and label the people as horrible capitalists.
Take this tweet. They are completely disregarding the content of the article simply because these people are affluent. It's easy to make these people out to be caricatures of fat cats or imbeciles that fell into their riches, but the reality is that they're probably fairly competent people that are trapped by their circumstances.
Would love to hear other people's thoughts on this. Does the "sliding scale" of relative problems end at some point? I think it's trivial to draw the comparisons between someone that makes ~60k a year and someone that makes ~200k a year, but do the "relative" problems stop making sense at some point?
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Comment on Complete consumption of content on various online forums in ~talk
jonluca Link Apologies if this sounds ramble-y - if anything is unclear or ambiguous I'll gladly clear it up. I just feel like I've been through this same phase on so many online forums that it's almost become...Apologies if this sounds ramble-y - if anything is unclear or ambiguous I'll gladly clear it up.
I just feel like I've been through this same phase on so many online forums that it's almost become formulaic. Reddit as a whole, then subsequently smaller subreddits. Digg. 4chan. Slashdot. I've personally felt this rollercoaster at least 4 times amongst the "big" sites, and a few more times on smaller sites that are now dead.
Based on what I've read of the community here a lot of people have felt the same way, and I'd love to hear people's thoughts on why this is, or some analysis of the context in which it happens.
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A common topic I've seen so far on Tildes is what exactly differentiates it from other online communities. This doesn't just encompass vision and meta-rules, but also the current state of the...
A common topic I've seen so far on Tildes is what exactly differentiates it from other online communities. This doesn't just encompass vision and meta-rules, but also the current state of the forum, and it's userbase. I wanted to propose a possible metric for gauging the quality of a forum, and would love to hear feedback on it. The metric is as follows: when all the content on the platform is no longer realistically consumable by any given member of the community.
I feel like Tildes is still currently at this state, but is somewhat quickly getting to the point where it's unrealistic for any one user to absorb all the content on the site. Once this tipping point arrives, the community has to change. The choice will be between whether one should start consuming all the content on specific sub-forums, like ~talk or ~comp, and ignoring the discussions and other subforums one cares less about, or accept that one will only ever see what is popular overall within the site.
I feel like this falls into 3 main categories: Community, growth, and that "magic" feeling of nascent internet communities.
I think it's important to define what I mean by "information" or "content". Information is meant in the more information theoretic context - it's a more abstract representation of content. It's context specific information that can be manifested as an image, a post, a comment, or even a set of rules. Information is, broadly, what makes up the discussion. If anyone has read Information: A history, a theory, a flood, I mean information in the same way it is defined and used in that book.
- Community:
When every user is able to see what every other use posts, everyone involved has a singular point of view into the content of that community. It's never sharded or split - the information is distributed evenly, and everyone has close to 100% of it. Everyone might not agree or interpret content in the same way, but the very fact that everyone is seeing the same content, and the information is presented identically, makes it so that there is a very dense set of common ground. It's nearly impossible to "miss" big events - these being singular, really well written comment chains, unique posts, or thought provoking ideas. The sense of community is there because no one is excluded due to sheer amount of information - if someone puts in the effort to see everything, and it's still possible to see everything, they're almost automatically a part of that community.
Once a forum becomes so large that any one person can no longer realistically consume all the content it starts straying towards the lowest common denominator. These are posts that share common ground with everyone, which unfortunately means that you lose that unique community. Most people one site will no longer have seen every single post. You no longer run into posts or comments that are as thought provoking, simply because there is so much content only that which appeals to everyone will make it to the top.
- Growth:
This ties in closely with what I mentioned above - the growth is what spurs those changes. Once you no longer have that feeling of community, you interact with it differently. You no longer can rely on the same people seeing your content, and the content itself starts decreasing in quality. This isn't due to "dumb" people joining - it's due to the sheer amount of "Information" being generated. The idea of Eternal September is tangential to this - you're not just losing out on community due to a lot of new users, it's also a loss of community due to sheer amount of information.
- Magic internet moments:
I don't have a good definition of this but I think most people will know what I mean. Every popular online community has these moments - they're the random acts of pizza, randomly encountering someone else from the same site in real life, crazy coincidences, etc. These are often what kick start the crazy growth in the previous post - they're just really cool events that happen because of the internet, and specifically happen on that site. The new reddit book We are the nerds goes over a ton of these in the early days of reddit, and how they propelled it to what it is today.
I wanted to ask the current Tildes community what they thought about this, whether they had any major disagreements, and if anything can be done to remedy this./
This is something I've been grappling with for a while. For context I'm a long time mod on reddit, primarily of r/IAmA, r/damnthatsinteresting, and r/churning. I've helped grow and curate these communities over time, and each is drastically different. The most relevant here is probably r/churning, though.
It used to be that there was a core set of users that contributed all the content. They were known by name, everyone that visited knew who they were, and they built up the hobby to what it is today. All the things that I mentioned above started happening there - the content started skewing towards the trivial questions, new members weren't properly acclimated, and the sheer amount of information caused the mods at the time to implement fairly drastic rules to combat these issues. Once you could no longer realistically consume all the content the community aspect sort of fell apart, and it became more akin to a Q&A subreddit, with new users asking the same questions.
Do you believe there is something unique/special about those "early" users, and what changes have you noticed historically once that "content" tipping point arrives?
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Comment on What is your first-hand experience with the "Dunning–Kruger effect"? in ~talk
jonluca Link Parent I'm not sure I understand how the example you linked is Dunning-Kruger. It just seems like a privacy conscious individual being angry about a forced choice by Google?I'm not sure I understand how the example you linked is Dunning-Kruger. It just seems like a privacy conscious individual being angry about a forced choice by Google?
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Comment on Google Hangouts for consumers will shut down in 2020 in ~tech
jonluca Link This isn't actually Google's video service shutting down. They're sunsetting Hangouts in favor of Meet and Chat, which will be opened up to consumers. It's effectively a name change (and a changed...This isn't actually Google's video service shutting down.
They're sunsetting Hangouts in favor of Meet and Chat, which will be opened up to consumers.
It's effectively a name change (and a changed app and backend). People shouldn't be freaked out.
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Comment on Ryanair, Berlin, and Hamiltonian cycles - finding a travel route using graph theory in ~comp
jonluca Link Parent Thanks! Yeah if you're traveling I don't think you really want to go through the same city twice, though, which is why I was looking specifically for hamiltonian cycles. Really there's no way I'm...Thanks! Yeah if you're traveling I don't think you really want to go through the same city twice, though, which is why I was looking specifically for hamiltonian cycles. Really there's no way I'm going to do a 24 city tour in 7 days, though, so it was more of a fun example.
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That's a bit of an unfair assessment. He was part of it in 1988, whereas the others you mentioned were a part of it much later. Applebaum joined in 2008, 20 years later. It's like if Tildes becomes a neo-nazi forum in 20 years and they associate you with their ideologies.