smores's recent activity
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Comment on I built my own phone... because innovation is sad rn in ~tech
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Comment on What are your favorite ways to measure your own health? in ~health
smores LinkHm. I think I don’t like measuring my own health? I do like measuring fitness, which, agreeing with @Akir, feels pretty different to me. Well, I did like measuring fitness? I actually have found...Hm. I think I don’t like measuring my own health? I do like measuring fitness, which, agreeing with @Akir, feels pretty different to me. Well, I did like measuring fitness? I actually have found that I care less and less about measuring fitness, and more about doing things that I enjoy and feel good. I stopped pacing my runs and started paying less attention to my climbing grades and lifting weights, and overall I feel energized to do all of those things more than when I was intently measuring them.
It feels reassuring to hear that I have a good blood pressure at my annual checkup. Other than that, I don't really think too much about my health unless I don't feel well!
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Comment on The ancient Roman alternative to daylight saving time; An hour was not a consistent unit of time. In the summer it could be as long as 75 minutes and in the winter it sometimes lasted just 45 minutes. in ~humanities.history
smores Link ParentRight, the actual insight (in my opinion, not an expert) here is how susceptible we all are to attribution errors. When we stopped changing the times, there was not necessarily any change in...Right, the actual insight (in my opinion, not an expert) here is how susceptible we all are to attribution errors. When we stopped changing the times, there was not necessarily any change in fatalities[1], but people (not experts, but the people experiencing the tragedies directly) attributed all of those fatalities to the change, because the change happened, and then the fatalities happened. Reasoning about counterfactuals is very hard and people are collectively pretty bad at it.
[1] Pre-sunrise fatalities increased very slightly, but also pre-sunrise now represented more waking time per day
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
smores LinkStoryteller has had 107 pre-releases for v2 😩. We're getting there! Very, very hopeful that I'll have a real pubic beta release next week.Storyteller has had 107 pre-releases for v2 😩. We're getting there! Very, very hopeful that I'll have a real pubic beta release next week.
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Comment on ‘Sex reversal’ is surprisingly common in birds, new study suggests in ~science
smores Link ParentHa! That's fair I suppose. Maybe you're already familiar with this, but does it help at all to know that songbird auditory cortices seem to categorize sound differently than humans'? Specifically,...Ha! That's fair I suppose. Maybe you're already familiar with this, but does it help at all to know that songbird auditory cortices seem to categorize sound differently than humans'? Specifically, they seem to recognize spectral envelopes, rather than pitch or melodic contour. There are plenty of mundane, human auditory tasks (e.g. recognizing"Happy Birthday" in any key) that songbirds can't accomplish at all!
As for movement, I think maybe it's all the feathers that make their movements feel so alien. They appear much larger and more massive than they really are, but birds are largely teeny tiny critters that weigh practically nothing, so it's very easy for them to move very quickly. Like, it probably seems less alarming to see a field mouse twitch its head back and forth, because it seems more proportional?
It's still mindblowing to see, like, a grackle perfectly replicate the sound of a crosswalk alert, though.
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Comment on ‘Sex reversal’ is surprisingly common in birds, new study suggests in ~science
smores Link ParentWhen I was in college (like a decade ago, so I'm sure we know more now), one of the open questions was "How do singing birds improve their song?" The songs are super precise, but as you say,...When I was in college (like a decade ago, so I'm sure we know more now), one of the open questions was "How do singing birds improve their song?" The songs are super precise, but as you say, they're certainly not known from birth. One of the interesting things that had been studied was that male songbirds (it was a specific species but I forget which) could improve their song to the point of wooing a mate even if they'd never heard the "correct" song before — as long as they were around female songbirds of the same species. The females were giving feedback cues in the form of wing twitches!
This of course just flips the question: how are the females developing their song preferences??
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Comment on ‘Sex reversal’ is surprisingly common in birds, new study suggests in ~science
smores LinkOh that's a pretty fun question. As I understand it, the mechanisms for birdsong acquisition aren't entirely understood (at least across species of songbirds). It could be really interesting to...Potvin’s work primarily focuses on birdsong, so she wonders how sex reversal might impact vocalization—especially in species where only the males can carry a tune
Oh that's a pretty fun question. As I understand it, the mechanisms for birdsong acquisition aren't entirely understood (at least across species of songbirds). It could be really interesting to investigate how sex reversal (kind of a funny term) affects song acquisition — is it tied to the genetic expression, the gonadic morphology, or something else??
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Comment on Tildes Book Club - Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut - How is it going? in ~books
smores Link ParentHahahahaha well thanks. It was our first flight with our baby and she actually did great. Definitely a lot of active work to keep her comfortable/happy, but she wasn't bothered by the altitude...Hahahahaha well thanks. It was our first flight with our baby and she actually did great. Definitely a lot of active work to keep her comfortable/happy, but she wasn't bothered by the altitude change and managed to take three 45-60min naps over the 6 hours flight. Overally pretty seamless, which is great because it really felt like a huge gamble haha.
Also, this book in particular is a pretty quick read and pretty short, so I think that helped quite a bit with the progress haha
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Comment on How do you manage separate development environments on your computer? in ~tech
smores Link ParentAgreed, but I'll extend this and say devenv specifically takes the really great parts of Nix and makes them much more accessible. It also makes use of flakes and direnv to get really dead-simple...Agreed, but I'll extend this and say devenv specifically takes the really great parts of Nix and makes them much more accessible. It also makes use of flakes and direnv to get really dead-simple per-directory development environments. I think I've tried every other suggestion in this thread (extensively!), and devenv meets my needs working across different codebases every day the best by a significant margin
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Comment on Tildes Book Club - Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut - How is it going? in ~books
smores Link ParentOh, I just bought it on Libro.fm last night! I'm having the same thoughts about needing to sit with it and digest once I'm done. It feels quite dense, thematically and metaphoricallyOh, I just bought it on Libro.fm last night!
I'm having the same thoughts about needing to sit with it and digest once I'm done. It feels quite dense, thematically and metaphorically
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Comment on Tildes Book Club - Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut - How is it going? in ~books
smores LinkI totally forgot about this and luckily saw this post last night in time to buy the book before my flight this morning. Manage to read about 60% of it while the baby was napping on me on the...I totally forgot about this and luckily saw this post last night in time to buy the book before my flight this morning. Manage to read about 60% of it while the baby was napping on me on the plane.
I've read this before (like 12 years ago) and I remembered liking it, but I'm definitely getting way more out of it this time through. Excited to talk about it with you all!
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Comment on People who contribute to libre projects - how do you find time for this? in ~hobbies
smores Link ParentOh very cool! All sorts of things. We're currently working with dskrpt, Moment, and Gamma. How important is the markdown aspect of the Homebrewery? You could probably get a much nicer editing...Oh very cool! All sorts of things. We're currently working with dskrpt, Moment, and Gamma.
How important is the markdown aspect of the Homebrewery? You could probably get a much nicer editing experience with WYSIWYG rich text editing (with ProseMirror) — if you need to export as markdown, you could use that remark-prosemirror library to transform the ProseMirror document to markdown at save.
It is also possible to do WYSISYG-ish with CodeMirror, if you wanted to stick with that. Our react-prosemirror library is considerably more battle-tested than our react-codemirror library, but unless you need collab editing, react-codemirror will probably do just fine!
It might be nice to have some inline UI affordances for embedded media, etc, which I think would be more natural in ProseMirror.
If you want to chat more in depth, I'd be down to hop on a call some time or join a Discord or whatever! I do love homebrew tools.
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Comment on People who contribute to libre projects - how do you find time for this? in ~hobbies
smores LinkYeah this is a good question. I have two very different kinds of open source projects that I maintain: Projects that I maintain as part of my contracting work, mostly a suite of small to medium...Yeah this is a good question. I have two very different kinds of open source projects that I maintain:
- Projects that I maintain as part of my contracting work, mostly a suite of small to medium sized ProseMirror libraries
- Storyteller, a large full-stack self-hosted system with mobile apps
The first group I mostly end up being paid to maintain by clients. For each library, I usually end up writing them for a client, and try to spend time up front writing them with good docs and test suites. This lets me get them into "maintenance mode", where they can just be responsive to user needs and user reported bugs, but don't require a lot of proactive work.
Storyteller is totally different. I spend a huge amount of time working on it, usually on off days, evenings, and weekends. It tends to come in waves, though I've been working on v2 for like one big continuous 5-month wave (finally in alpha testing!). It helps that my "full-time" is four days a week, and since coming back from paternity leave, I only work three. It's my primary hobby, essentially, and usually I try to balance work on it with everything else I do.
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Comment on US President Donald Trump orders federal takeover of DC police, deploys National Guard in ~society
smores LinkThis is pretty horrifying. Congress should have taken DC seriously when they were protesting over how much power the federal government has over DC's day-to-day governance. It's hard to even order...This is pretty horrifying. Congress should have taken DC seriously when they were protesting over how much power the federal government has over DC's day-to-day governance.
It's hard to even order my thoughts, because there's so much bad in here, but I think my stomach sank the most at the mention that Trump intends to lower the age to prosecute minors as adults. I still feel physically ill about it. Bryan Stephenson's Just Mercy really opened my eyes to the deep, deep horrors that our prison system puts children through, especially children of color.
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Comment on The future is NOT self-hosted in ~tech
smores Link ParentOh, hi! Yeah, Storyteller is available on both PikaPods and Elfhosted. They're both cool services — Elfhosted seems much more actively maintained and has a much more active community and support....Oh, hi! Yeah, Storyteller is available on both PikaPods and Elfhosted. They're both cool services — Elfhosted seems much more actively maintained and has a much more active community and support. PikaPods was very responsive when I first reached out about getting Storyteller on the platform, but has been slow to incorporate updates (they promise weekly updates, but that hasn't always been the case) and I think they still haven't updated the docs link? Maybe they have now, I haven't checked recently.
Anyway, I don't use either service aside from testing Storyteller on them occasionally, but happy to answer questions about them if I can!
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Comment on The vast majority ~90% of us only consume, never post and never comment. So come on in, leave a tildes-worthy comment, and join the 10% my dear lurker in ~talk
smores Link ParentI (a Tech Man) was just having this exact conversation with a friend, as part of explaining why "computer people" are probably the very last people you should listen to on topics like philosophy...I (a Tech Man) was just having this exact conversation with a friend, as part of explaining why "computer people" are probably the very last people you should listen to on topics like philosophy and ethics.
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Comment on Curate your own newspaper with RSS in ~tech
smores Link ParentHave you tried miniflux? I like it in part because it is not based on some 20 year old php codebase. I've been using it for years and I quite like itHave you tried miniflux? I like it in part because it is not based on some 20 year old php codebase. I've been using it for years and I quite like it
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Comment on The web could be so much more beautiful in ~tech
smores Link ParentAh, well there you go! That's good to know, and it does make sense — I can definitely feel additional cognitive load when trying to read, e.g., Tildes with the styles mentioned in this post.Ah, well there you go! That's good to know, and it does make sense — I can definitely feel additional cognitive load when trying to read, e.g., Tildes with the styles mentioned in this post.
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Comment on The web could be so much more beautiful in ~tech
smores Link ParentThat's a good point! I was being overly narrow in my response — web accessibility is multi-facetedThat's a good point! I was being overly narrow in my response — web accessibility is multi-faceted
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Comment on The web could be so much more beautiful in ~tech
smores Link ParentNo, there shouldn't be — the NYT site almost certainly doesn't use it because it's not widely supported enough, yet (someone using a 3-year-old browser still needs to be able to access...No, there shouldn't be — the NYT site almost certainly doesn't use it because it's not widely supported enough, yet (someone using a 3-year-old browser still needs to be able to access nytimes.com), and/or because the very, very picky designers that make decisions about how news stories render have decided that the automated hyphenation isn't good enough. In the print paper, hyphenation decisions are reviewed/implemented by humans (!!), and I wouldn't be surprised if they just don't think it's good enough.
Screen readers simply won't "see" the hyphens, though, so that shouldn't be an issue. They get the underlying markup directly (they don't see any of the automatic line wraps, either), and the hyphenation is something that the browser makes decisions about when it's time to render the text, so it doesn't modify the underlying markup!
I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed watching this video. It was very entertaining, and also I am blown away by how many separate domains you needed to be familiar with in order to complete this project. Also I was devastated when the keyboard cable was a little too short.