macleod's recent activity
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Comment on Theme reset? in ~tildes
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Comment on Theme reset? in ~tildes
macleod LinkStayed constant here. It's all based on browser-based localstorage iirc, so could have just been a browser cache release, they happen.Stayed constant here. It's all based on browser-based localstorage iirc, so could have just been a browser cache release, they happen.
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San Francisco coyote swims to Alcatraz for first time ever
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Comment on Skrillex - Kora EP (2026) in ~music
macleod (edited )LinkThis is the second EP released since last month following "hit me where it hurts x ", which had a much heavier more classical "Skrillex" sound to it (albeit, not nearly as good in my opinion). To...This is the second EP released since last month following "hit me where it hurts x ", which had a much heavier more classical "Skrillex" sound to it (albeit, not nearly as good in my opinion).
To quote someone I saw somewhere online about this surprise release "the first dubstep EP without any drums".
While I wouldn't call this dubstep, it certainly has a more ambient, more relaxed, downbeat distilled dubstep kind of sound to it. Is he trying to craft a new style now that he is free from his label? If so, this one is immensely better than practically anything post 2015. Has a lot of similarities to his "Sonny Moore" era with gypsyhook, etc before he become known as Skrillex.
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Skrillex - Kora EP (2026)
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REPLACED | Release date trailer
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Comment on What's the benefit of avoiding the debugger? in ~comp
macleod Link ParentYes, this is where my increased need for looking into debugging has come into play, as the days go on, more and more people are modifying and working on my code after me. Going into larger...I feel like this is very similar to your mental debugging, but the nice thing about it is since it's part of the code I can hand the base off to someone else and they get the same insights/power without having to have a similar thought process.
Yes, this is where my increased need for looking into debugging has come into play, as the days go on, more and more people are modifying and working on my code after me. Going into larger projects has been beneficial w/ a debugger - I just never really had a need once I am in the codebase, and so never learned deeper integration of a 'debugger' mindset.
[..] For all business logic, you should ideally have a "if it compiles, it runs" style of coding.
This is exactly how I code, I write in a rather functional way, and have never been particularly a fan of OOP in the slightest. I have always conformed even my OOP-required projects into a more modular or procedural method. I spent a lot of time in Erlang/Elixir, Haskell, Fortran, and without realizing it always forced my C-code (my first love) to always be modular and more functional. Briefly had a fling with F#, but that was before the open sourcing of the .net ecosystem, so it has been a few years.
I have a strict tolerance of "if it compiles, it should always run", in my industry a failure could mean catastrophic physical failure, and ensuring that it's as safe as you possible can make it - proper allocations, minimal upfront designations, strict performance testing and regulation (This is one of the many reasons I really dislike GCs.), and ensuring each piece in play is as small and singular in focus as possible.
I currently write nearly all my new projects (especially, as I run a robotics and security company), in Odin, which while a newer systems language, is procedural. Very similar in many ways to functional programming, but not exactly. Before settling on Odin, I spent a great deal of time as an Ada developer, safe-languages that can drop down to the system that are more functional.
Print statements are a quick and dirty way
My quip about print statements, was mostly a joke, while useful, it's incredibly annoying. Certainly useful at the start, horrific once anything is in production and ongoing development - creates more problems than it solves. Do you know how many buffer IOs I have seen/made to be blocked? Even if you disable it? Some of these boards I work on can't even handle writing anything (even if its non-existent! or blocked!) to any sort of interface without cascading failures.
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Anyone here a LISP/schemer?
LISP and schemes have always, from a distance appeared to be the best way to write code. I even started my own language that has languished for the past couple years, and it's taken on a...
LISP and schemes have always, from a distance appeared to be the best way to write code. I even started my own language that has languished for the past couple years, and it's taken on a pseudo-likeness to (scheme)-like languages by accident.
This brings me to my questions -
- How did you start?
- Does anyone here do systems-level scheme/lisp? what do you program in for that?
My why on learning lisp/scheme-like languages, and if anyone knows Chez.
I find the idea of CLI-inspired languages as one of the best possible ways of writing a language, and lisp is very nearly exactly that, it's just how my mind thinks about code, in a procedural/functional/modular way. This is one of the reasons I adore programming in Odin, as it's a modern systems-level procedural language, but it is not a scheme/lisp-like language. I should note, I abhor working with REPLs, but I can learn to live with it.
Corollary, as I am sure the audience for this is even smaller, ignore if you haven't a clue - but I am incredibly interested in Chez, for the performance metrics, the systems design, and the whole lot - yet there aren't any real resources other than the manual to learn. As I am not a native schemer, it's almost alien, and a bit hard to get right into and make something useful. Does anyone know of any good resources for this?
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Comment on What's the benefit of avoiding the debugger? in ~comp
macleod LinkI've included the entire answer below as I've noticed that stackexchange and stackoverflow responses (and links to them) have been breaking as of late, especially when you link to a specific...I've included the entire answer below as I've noticed that stackexchange and stackoverflow responses (and links to them) have been breaking as of late, especially when you link to a specific answer.
What looks like guessing from the outside often turns out to be what I call "debugging in your mind". In a way, this is similar to grandmasters' ability to play chess without looking at a chess board.
It is by far the most efficient debugging technique I know, because it does not require a debugger at all. Your brain explores multiple code paths at the same time, yielding better turnaround than you could possibly get with a debugger.
I was not conscious about this technique before briefly entering the world of competitive programming, where using a debugger meant losing precious seconds. After about a year of competing, I started using this technique almost exclusively as my initial line of defense, followed by debug logging, with using an actual debugger sitting at the distant third place. One useful side effect of this practice was that I started adding new bugs at a slower pace, because "debugging in my mind" did not stop as I wrote new code.
Of course this method has its limitations, due mostly to the limitations of one's mind at visualizing multiple paths through the code. I learned to respect these limitations of my mind, turning to a debugger for fixing bugs in more advanced algorithms.
I am one of those who is rather decent at programming, mind you I started programming at six, but I have never really, earnestly, used a debugger. I have had many senior level old-hat devs harp on me for never using the debugger, and some who are astonished at the speed of development and problem solving without them (logs! println! tests... although still not good at writing them....) and their incredibly irritation when a solution would be patently obvious w/ a debugger but I've decided to go down a far different mario-pipe to discover a solution.
Recently (today), I decided to finally look into them after two decades of programming, and found this response that just nailed why I have always tried them for a short time, given up, went back to my style of 'debugging in the mind'. Figured others would enjoy this answer.
Still going to try to use them, just because they would be beneficial to at-least know how to properly use in a codebase I am a stranger to.
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What's the benefit of avoiding the debugger?
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Comment on George Carlin - We Like War! (1992) in ~society
macleod LinkPosting for no specific reason whatsoever given the current state of the American Empire.We like war because we’re good at it! You know why we’re good at it? Cause we get a lot of practice. This country’s only 200 years old and already, we’ve had 10 major wars. We average a major war every 20 years in this country so we’re good at it!
And it’s a good thing we are; we’re not very good at anything else anymore! Huh? Can’t build a decent car, can’t make a TV set or a VCR worth a fuck, got no steel industry left, can’t educate our young people, can’t get healthcare to our old people, but we can bomb the shit out of your country all right!
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Department of Defence, and who most of the time, most of the time functioned as kind of an unofficial public relations agency for the United States government. So I don’t listen to them.
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That’s why in the Persian Gulf, George Bush had to say “this will not be another Vietnam!” He actually used these words, he said: “This time, we’re going all the way!” Imagine, an American president using the sexual slang of a 13 year-old to describe his foreign policy.Posting for no specific reason whatsoever given the current state of the American Empire.
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George Carlin - We Like War! (1992)
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Comment on Revisiting Instagram, and promptly leaving it again in ~tech
macleod Link ParentAdditionally, FB makes enough money that your individual value is rather minimal, and they can extrapolate all of your beliefs and interests to a 99% certainty just from the people you see (or the...Additionally, FB makes enough money that your individual value is rather minimal, and they can extrapolate all of your beliefs and interests to a 99% certainty just from the people you see (or the people around you using it....) and follow within the first twenty minutes.
The real reason, and an argument that was a core part of the adblock conversation back 15 years ago, was not to limit the money that any platform makes, because one of the core ideological tenets on why people use adblock is to not be controlled, subjugated, inspired, coerced, or influenced by advertisements, to not be subliminally inspired to think about them, act on them, feel left out, feel ostracized, to even have a minute amount of your psyche be influenced by a damn marketing agency at the lamest level, and counter-forces (such as governments, politics, etc) affect your thinking even in the slightest at the highest level.
If you use FB, or Instagram, or any platform, you shouldn't think of using adblock as stopping the profit generation, because they aren't in the business of making money, they are in the business of influence of the masses, and since we have to use them in many cases, may as well limit their influence as much as possible - and a primary part of that is by blocking their sponsored posts and advertisements.
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Comment on US President Donald Trump isn't building a ballroom in ~society
macleod (edited )Link ParentAnd, as mentioned briefly in the article, its development and installation closest to the seat of government is specifically so that if the US was under attack, if DC was taken siege, or a civil...And, as mentioned briefly in the article, its development and installation closest to the seat of government is specifically so that if the US was under attack, if DC was taken siege, or a civil war is being undertaken, you would have direct access to an airgapped, state of the art, AI control center, with the ability to make decisions autonomously, quickly, and efficiently for the protection of the country (or, the current government - two different things!) and the seat of power. In the case of war, and your capital is under risk of attack, do you want to be separated from your intelligence and AI capabilities - especially if your enemy has one?
I am surprised the article didn't quite bring it up - but during WW2 they built the bunkers, called the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, secretly, using private funding (to skirt budgetary knowledge) underneath the east wing, in case of an attack on the US.
This is quite literally a retrofit job, they are modernizing, enhancing, and extending the Presidential Emergency Operations Center. it's already there, they are just making it vastly more future-forward. When they started destroying the East Wing, this is precisely what I thought was the real reasoning, and I am more than happy to have some form of unauthorized validaiton of that.
This additionally makes the case that he abruptly stood up and stared out the meeting with his oil execs this week and remarked how beautiful all the work has been on the property - even though they haven't made any (visible) changes since the destruction of the east wing last month, make a lot of sense, even in his drug and dementia-riddled mind.
Edit: links and words.
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Comment on US President Donald Trump isn't building a ballroom in ~society
macleod (edited )Link Parent.... and the 9/11 truth stuff is more and more believable everyday and likely a rather common belief now among the people. Even 20 years Trevor Moore (RIP) was playing on both the inherit....... and the 9/11 truth stuff is more and more believable everyday and likely a rather common belief now among the people.
Even 20 years Trevor Moore (RIP) was playing on both the inherit understanding and acceptance of the event in a conspiratorial view, and the fact you absolutely couldn't talk about that publicly without being ostracized. Video - always a rewatch when it comes up.
I am one of those that believes that humans inherently need a few good conspiracy theories in their repertoire to have a more complete and grounded understanding of the world, it is a healthy coping method that teaches one to better question the world and learn more, better to be a skeptic than not. If you don't, you end up being enraptured by much worse conspiracies later as your default becomes to believe anything and take everything overly seriously. You need to have a little conspiracy, as a treat.
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US President Donald Trump isn't building a ballroom
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Comment on Hytale surges to the most-watched game on Twitch, attracting over 420,000 viewers with its long-awaited launch in ~games
macleod Link ParentHytale is a Minecraft version of Runescape, or a Minecraft for DnD, a Minecraft for fantasy roleplaying, for fantasy questing. Kind of brilliant, since the core of the graphics means it should be...Hytale is a Minecraft version of Runescape, or a Minecraft for DnD, a Minecraft for fantasy roleplaying, for fantasy questing. Kind of brilliant, since the core of the graphics means it should be able to be ran anywhere (like Minecraft), and easily updated, and timeless in design, means it could have real staying power for years to come.
IIRC Hytale was a Minecraft mod, that eventually rebuilt itself from scratch to break free of Microsoft & Mojang and turn it into its own thing with more capabilities and planning.
They aren't competitive, one is just derived, or inspired by, Minecraft - the entire point of Hytale is that its trying to rekindle the magic of Runescape of the early 2000s as an outgrowth of the largest, most successful, game in the world.
The MC graphics are perfect for this, because it means they don't need to ever have awe-inspiring graphics, and they inspire more imagination than being told what to see. Timeless as it will certainly not age as quickly as Runescape (or WoW) did or do. I imagine ongoing developer work will be nimble and efficient as well because of the core being so similar to Minecraft in its systems design.
Hugs fan of Hytale, will likely never play it outside of a few exploratory hours (not my thing), but very happy to see something that could rekindle that early Runescape magic, especially for kids or teenagers, they need something that isn't 'antiquated' in design, childlike (Roblox), or Fortnite, and all the other story-less, imagination-free, repetitive, purpose-less, competitive, FPS games.
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Comment on US households using Ozempic spend less on groceries in ~health
macleod Link ParentIt wasn't that article, it was talking about a specific set of chemical additives, or modifications of additives, to induce cravings. The research angle is quite interesting from a scientific...It wasn't that article, it was talking about a specific set of chemical additives, or modifications of additives, to induce cravings. The research angle is quite interesting from a scientific perspective, but the usage of it is certainly something a 'moustache twirling villain' (cough $ociopathic finance bro$) would certainly incentivize and work to use.
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Comment on Revisiting Instagram, and promptly leaving it again in ~tech
macleod (edited )Link ParentNever said one way or another was superior, it was just how those who defined themselves as more conservative or liberal have a differing ranking sets of informational trust. I will say that...Never said one way or another was superior, it was just how those who defined themselves as more conservative or liberal have a differing ranking sets of informational trust.
I will say that personal truths are certainly not a more liberal construct, personal truths have a basis in personal experiences and belief that is more traditionally a conservative (by definition) effect of the ideology paradigm. To have faith, to believe in, to focus on oneself (or spiritually beyond oneself) and pull yourself up, to believe in the ideals of your family over those of society or those that view truth as data to be filtered and sorted through.
In some cases they work both ways, but in a more traditional practice, a 'personal truth' or 'the way I see it' is nominally a value that is placed higher over abstract research over larger sets of experiences than your own, tends to be a more conservative outlook.
I can see how a statement like 'personal truth' could be misconstrued as a core liberal paradigm, but that would be an alternative reading of the statement. Yes, personal truth could be defined as 'being true to oneself, being open about yourself, being open to change, and the internal truth of that', but in this case 'personal truth' is an ideal that I would define as being a 'individualistic truth that is perceived as universal, as it makes sense in my personal view of reality' and when placed into my above comment, would mean 'individualistic truth', or personal experiences, is ranked higher and more trusted than 'statistically-likely truths' for conservative-minded individuals. Personal experience is important on both sides, and when placed in ranking terms of personal preference in belief, conservatives are more likely to prefer a single testimony or a variety of testimonies served individually, than a grouped statistically-likely and research (generalized) scientific research on the same subject.
I am a proud progressive, so you can read that I am talking against conservatism as a block group. But if I were to place emphasis on describing 'personal truth' as a positive, and still agree with it, its that the 'personal truth' of the more traditionally conservative outlook, is a question of how much power 'believing the people' should rank over the power of 'believing in the research'. Believing in the people is powerful as it takes into emotional values and how an individual perceives them (so one can relate and understand it on a deeper more emotional level) whereas placing 'believing in the research' higher on the totem ranking requires a more nuanced understanding of statistical analysis (min/max/averages/means/study sizes/ biases/etc), and removing the emotional, more 'personal' attachment to the people involved.
Edit: Added a lot more thoughts.
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Comment on Amazon Pharmacy starts offering Novo Nordisk's Wegovy weight-loss pill in ~health
macleod Link Parent$150 breaks down to roughly the possible savings from eating and snacking you would have while using it.$150 breaks down to roughly the possible savings from eating and snacking you would have while using it.
Yes, but iirc from when I was developing on the tildes core a few years back, tildes is using the localstorage API to store session based themes. Browsers have multiple ways of storing data, cookies, indexdb (a simple key-value database), and localstorage. All three of those can be wiped at anytime by the browser, but cookies tend to be the first to be removed. Cookies these days tend to just be used for authentication storage and tracking.