skeletorfw's recent activity
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Comment on Night-shifters of Tildes, what tips do you have? in ~life
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Comment on A "low-risk" AMA thread for everyone in ~talk
skeletorfw Link ParentHaha don't worry, I just got back to tildes too. I'm glad you enjoy it! Frankly a lot of biological research places seem to be wonderful strange cults full of interesting people :)Haha don't worry, I just got back to tildes too. I'm glad you enjoy it! Frankly a lot of biological research places seem to be wonderful strange cults full of interesting people :)
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~talk
skeletorfw Link ParentOhhhh yeah we're definitely talking at cross-purposes. Those just look like motorcycles or mopeds and definitely should be treated as such, I 100% agree! That last image looks much more like what...Ohhhh yeah we're definitely talking at cross-purposes. Those just look like motorcycles or mopeds and definitely should be treated as such, I 100% agree!
That last image looks much more like what I would think of when hearing the term "e-bike".
Didn't realise that wasn't a universal term, my bad! :)
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~talk
skeletorfw (edited )Link ParentI have to somewhat disagree as someone who rode an earlier model e-bike to work every day for a good few years. That said, I am in Europe and so this truly might be a transport culture thing. A...I have to somewhat disagree as someone who rode an earlier model e-bike to work every day for a good few years. That said, I am in Europe and so this truly might be a transport culture thing.
A cleverly made e-bike could functionally be a decent ATB, but plus. It's not intending to be a moped, and it's not intending to be an enthusiast bike. In anywhere with functional biking infrastructure they are not much more dangerous than a bike in general. Added to that, a lot of them (depending on country) are limited in their speeds. My own gave assist up to maybe 15 or 20 mph, then tailed off. That meant that realistically with a good road bike you could definitely go faster under flat conditions than you ever could on the e-bike.
Functionally a lot of your points apply just as much to anyone riding a non-electric bike. If you accelerate through a muddy bit on a mountain bike, you're gonna suffer the same loss of traction as if you did that with an e-bike. If you don't know how to switch gears and place yourself in a nice gear band when coming up to something like a junction, you'll be screwed on a road bike. If your back brake bowden cable goes on a push bike when you're going down a steep hill, you'd better hope you remember how to cadence brake because otherwise you will end up slowing down with body friction instead.
Additionally, certainly in the UK, I am the only person I know with instant torque at their disposal as an e-bike rider. Mine was created before the legislation that functionally banned thumb throttles, meaning that you can't get them easily in the UK. Mine is allowed however due to a "grandfathering" clause present in the original EU legislation from which the UK legislation was derived and refers. Bikes here are pretty much always pedal assist, and that tends to come with a sensible curve to the motor power. You absolutely will slip if you max the throttle on my bike, but you very quickly learn that it is a terrible idea in slippy conditions.
And that scenario brings me to my final point: e-bikes can go on e-bike tracks. If you are in a country that has good bike trails and routes, it is safer to be on an e-bike than on something like a motorcycle. If I came off due to black ice on a main road, I might become a very poor speedbump for a bus. If I came off on a cycle track (as I have, because again...black ice) I might end up a bit cut up and bruised, worst case would usually be a broken wrist and a bust bike. The level of safety afforded by just not being anywhere near cars is truly outstanding. Making that more accessible to more people, and being significantly better for the environment makes e-bikes an absolute no-brainer to me.
Now yes absolutely, morons can be morons in or on any mode of transport. But just like I sometimes see wanker cyclists, I only today saw 2 lads on motorcycles doing 60 in a 40 riding with no protection aside from a visibly dinged helmet each. We can't pretend that any road user class is immune from some dangerous and naïve drivers, and e-bikes are no exception, but to me that's not an argument for them not to be around.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
skeletorfw Link ParentDon't worry! I've also been going all over trying to buy a house so I can't really judge. We're spending a lot of thought right now (as a collective teacher class) to try and work out the best...Don't worry! I've also been going all over trying to buy a house so I can't really judge.
We're spending a lot of thought right now (as a collective teacher class) to try and work out the best ways to teach in the era of shitty LLMs. Right now the most coherent strategy seems to be to use other strategies of assessment to mitigate, alongside running essay questions through ChatGPT yourself to have a look at the type of thing it tends to generate.
Also honestly, a lot of the time you know what your students are capable of, and thus if you see something wayyy out of their usually attained level, you take a look with more detail.
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Comment on What is your least used piece of kitchen equipment / what do you "regret" buying? in ~food
skeletorfw Link ParentWeirdly I had a whole argument with an ex partner's mother about the use of the word moot. She was contending that it only meant "irrelevant" and I was of the position that it can also mean to...Weirdly I had a whole argument with an ex partner's mother about the use of the word moot. She was contending that it only meant "irrelevant" and I was of the position that it can also mean to "bring up a point" or "discuss with no consequence (or with consequence on occasion)". Turns out these are all true via UK legalese (probably from old English). A moot or mooting competition is where you're having a discussion that is sorta practice trials for the real thing.
To ever see it brought up in online discourse is pretty fun! :)
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Comment on Which theme are you defaulting to? I'm loving Atom One Dark. in ~tildes
skeletorfw LinkCompletely honestly I've been using the default white theme. I guess as a hangover from old forums and old reddit. I use Merbivore/Darcula in Rstudio and Pycharm for work, but code vs long-form...Completely honestly I've been using the default white theme. I guess as a hangover from old forums and old reddit. I use Merbivore/Darcula in Rstudio and Pycharm for work, but code vs long-form text is a completely different ballgame. I might look at building some themes for tildes when I have some time.
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Comment on Do any Tildes artists work in an unusual medium? If so what's your medium / process? in ~creative
skeletorfw Link ParentApologies I only just got back to this. Seems like the code is mostly on my work computer which is currently not here. I'll see if I can get to it later today and give some examples! This is...Apologies I only just got back to this. Seems like the code is mostly on my work computer which is currently not here. I'll see if I can get to it later today and give some examples!
This is mostly to let you know I haven't forgotten about your response :)
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
skeletorfw Link ParentYuuuuuup! People see it like magic rather than like a tool that you need to understand in order to effectively use. The thing that scares me is that ChatGPT is exceptionally coherent and...Yuuuuuup! People see it like magic rather than like a tool that you need to understand in order to effectively use. The thing that scares me is that ChatGPT is exceptionally coherent and convincing. But like... Doesn't know things.
Thank you! And if you do find I'd love to take a look!
And yeah, this is definitely the joy of a tiny platform
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
skeletorfw Link ParentYeah precisely, in the end it does pattern matching exceptionally well, but we have to be super careful when interpreting the results to make sure we do not overstate the generality. That paper...Yeah precisely, in the end it does pattern matching exceptionally well, but we have to be super careful when interpreting the results to make sure we do not overstate the generality.
That paper sounds absolutely fascinating even given the nuance. Do you happen to have a link to it?
Also an aside: I haven't had a conversation this long and interesting ever in over 10 years on reddit. Reminds me so much of my old forum days!
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Comment on I want to learn more about linux in ~comp
skeletorfw Link ParentOoooh that's super cool, I had no idea that was a thing! Thanks a lot for the new info :)Ooooh that's super cool, I had no idea that was a thing! Thanks a lot for the new info :)
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
skeletorfw Link ParentYeah that was sort of the vibe I got from that! Also (amusingly) my grandfather was a radar technician and early computing guy, and used to go over to talk to Yates (as in "Yates' correction to...Yeah that was sort of the vibe I got from that!
Also (amusingly) my grandfather was a radar technician and early computing guy, and used to go over to talk to Yates (as in "Yates' correction to the t-test") at Rothamstead to talk about weird statistics he could take back to radar from biology. And good on you for getting out, I personally came back in from industry so we sort of switched over I guess.
I'm a computational biologist and imaging specialist really. I am usually focused on heuristic and mechanistic analysis of signals rather than ML and phenomenological modelling (I like knowing what all the knobs and dials in a model actually mean). Currently I predominantly work on spider webs and automating data collection from them.
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Comment on Why not tell people to "simply" use pyenv, poetry or anaconda in ~tech
skeletorfw LinkI think this really crystallised for me why I avoid conda whenever I can. In trying to solve everyone's problems it became a system where if you want to do things outside of conda's wheelhouse...I think this really crystallised for me why I avoid conda whenever I can. In trying to solve everyone's problems it became a system where if you want to do things outside of conda's wheelhouse (hidden python packaging joke there?) you run the risk of disturbing the system.
Conda envs just feel fickle whenever I use them, though I do definitely admit that sometimes they simplify the installation for packages with lots of external dependencies.
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Comment on I want to learn more about linux in ~comp
skeletorfw LinkAt least for me, the best way to learn was to have a reason to learn more Linux! I picked up so much more when I started daily driving ubuntu on my work laptop than I ever did when I was fiddling...At least for me, the best way to learn was to have a reason to learn more Linux! I picked up so much more when I started daily driving ubuntu on my work laptop than I ever did when I was fiddling around with a little kali VM. Use it and fix the problems or frustrations that you come across when they happen, that will give you an amazing grounding in *nix systems!
Linux is dense and impenetrable, and it truly is easy to feel the way you are with it right now, like staring into the void but knowing plenty enough to handle most things it could actually throw at you if only you knew what they would be.
One tip that helped me over time was to download/bookmark the following things:
Whenever I encounter a command from some tutorial or other, I'll often use tldr to give a much simplified view of how the command works and general use cases. If that doesn't contain enough then at least I now have a framework to build upon when reading the man page.
Shell explainer is even better at this but also is definitely less convenient.
If you already get command substitution and piping you're also well on your way to writing super complex shell scripts. A good project is to keep an eye out for any frustrating thing you end up doing all the time on your Linux box and automating it using shell scripting. For example I have a few shell scripts that boot up jupyter notebook in a particular directory with a particular python environment, but they do it behind the scenes so it's all just in a tmux window ready for me to connect to if I need to.
Keeping your passion and nerding out about getting this that bit more elegant or useful or fast really helps it getting into the real details of Linux.
Also writing your own bash aliases to save you time is so bloody satisfying!
I hope that's of some use, it sort of became a bit of a ramble because I have not yet had coffee.
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Comment on Do any Tildes artists work in an unusual medium? If so what's your medium / process? in ~creative
skeletorfw LinkSomething entirely different, but a lot of the way I have historically worked is with algorithmic art. This is not AI art in anything like the way that is so common recently. I instead go through...Something entirely different, but a lot of the way I have historically worked is with algorithmic art. This is not AI art in anything like the way that is so common recently. I instead go through from an initial concept to define rules or constraints or processes that will manipulate an image or a system in predictable or unpredictable ways. Then once I've set up my little virtual workshop, I play with all the dials and the input to see what crazy things I can get out of it.
A lot of this stuff crosses over with my work as a data scientist, and recently I repurposed a project I originally made to convert famous paintings into their best emoji representations for use inside one of my research tools. It allows easy copyable plotting without having to send images, great if you're communicating with someone via a GPS.
If anyone is interested in this sort of thing, I'd definitely recommend either learning Python or looking into Processing. There's also a book called (I think) "The Nature of Code" which gives a lot of fun tutorials and examples of coding natural systems in Processing, and shows what wonderful emergent behaviours you can get out of very simple rulesets.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
skeletorfw Link ParentIt's definitely come together at this point, you've been invaluable. Ahh that's honestly what most people who do imaging in biology specialise in, I've found. And wow, a bit of a transition there,...It's definitely come together at this point, you've been invaluable.
Ahh that's honestly what most people who do imaging in biology specialise in, I've found.
And wow, a bit of a transition there, but at least one with a lot of interesting problems to put one's brain towards!
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
skeletorfw Link ParentThank you this is amazing help, seriously! I've since added some extra logic to the slicer so you can either suggest a number of samples to try and take from an image (it usually takes a couple...Thank you this is amazing help, seriously!
I've since added some extra logic to the slicer so you can either suggest a number of samples to try and take from an image (it usually takes a couple fewer because of...many reasons) or specify the number of samples you want to take on both dimensions (such that the total slices is n^2). Either way there's now loads of ways to slice up an image so I should have better tools to dial in slicing settings later if I end up getting dire fits.
And that's a good idea, though this does have a fairly restricted luminance distribution shape (as the fieldwork methodology specifically attempts to maximise Weber contrast), so I'll need to be careful not to blow that out with too much variation in RMS contrast.
Out of interest, are you a computational biologist?
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
skeletorfw (edited )Link ParentOoo that's a good point about convolution adding edge effects! I literally just finished working on a tiler/slicer/augmenter for preprocessing, but I should probably give an option to tile with...Ooo that's a good point about convolution adding edge effects! I literally just finished working on a tiler/slicer/augmenter for preprocessing, but I should probably give an option to tile with major overlap.
Also had the wonderful realisation today that you can easily apply affine transforms to 4D matrices, so I can just stack all the tiles together and rotate them with a single matrix multiplication. That was exceptionally satisfying!
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Comment on How to get back into recording music? in ~creative
skeletorfw Link ParentYeah that was my suspicion too! Now I think about it, coming originally from FL studio back in 2008 I actually got into ableton through that view.Yeah that was my suspicion too! Now I think about it, coming originally from FL studio back in 2008 I actually got into ableton through that view.
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Comment on How to get back into recording music? in ~creative
skeletorfw LinkSeriously seriously, ableton is by far my favourite for doing this. I know you said it didn't feel like it clicked, and that's eminently reasonable, but it really is good for recording and...Seriously seriously, ableton is by far my favourite for doing this. I know you said it didn't feel like it clicked, and that's eminently reasonable, but it really is good for recording and multitracking. Especially with the new comping features in Live 11 the piano roll view is really quick to get working in (press tab to switch between the loop view and this one).
I now just permanently have my pedal board connected to a line in on my audio interface, and have moved from writing maybe a few times a year to getting tracks started a few times a week when I feel like it (and sometimes even finished!)
In the end just picking one and sticking with it is the best idea, and making sure that going from idea to recording is as frictionless as possible will also help with getting creative quick!
So my best advice from a few years of 4-on 4-off 7-7 shifts was for when switching off night shifts: When you get home post-shift set, go straight to bed and sleep 'til about 1PM, then wake up and do some relaxing things, maybe get a bit of light and do some shopping etc. Then go to bed a little early, maybe 10 PM. This gives you a really good chance of quickly getting back onto a normal schedule!
Also just remember that a lot of your time will be spent with little to do, so make sure you use that time to chill and relax.