squibbles

It is unfortunate we do not strive to make "work" as enjoyable and as addictive as some games, while also allowing employees to share significantly in the wealth they help generate. It feels like many video games show us how much potential is hidden away inside people.

I have seen many people fail to realize (and sometimes to understand at all) that taking measurements of large numbers of people is always fraught with errors of all sorts. No matter how hard you try, it is like the universe always pushes back to make sure the data are imperfect. Sometimes those imperfections are acceptably small, and other times the imperfections are uncomfortably large.

In my opinion, anyone involved in such large-scale data collection and analysis should acknowledge the inevitability of error and provide disclaimers about potential sources of error.

Apple has kind of herded me into zsh for work in the terminal. So far it has been pleasant, with interesting plugins, but it's periodic updates are a little annoying. Despite remaining in zsh while in a terminal, I still find myself writing only bash scripts when a script it needed.

In the US, the judicial branch is the arbiter of truth. And yet, even judges write opinions.

The world is a messy place and it is only hubris that makes us think we can organize it neatly.

For me, personally -- I cannot think of a sufficient justification to put a production database in a container. A good database server is designed for performance, reliability, scalability, security, etc., without containers. Putting a production database inside a container introduces a world of unnecessary edge cases and complexity.

Definitely a good one: "Experiences with running PostgreSQL on Kubernetes - Gravitational - blog post 2018"

For anyone who thinks running a database in a container environment is a neat idea, think again. I am guilty of using containers for temporary test databases, but the thought of running production databases in containers sends shivers down my spine.

I mostly want to point out that, when discussing ancient history, objective data are only one facet contributing to the interpretation of past events. Most people prefer simple, straightforward answers or interpretations (i.e., the "correct" answer), but the world and greater universe is filled with complexities and subtleties that should not necessarily be overlooked when seeking understanding.

I still cringe when I think back to some C projects from long ago, where the dependency chains of headers and libraries where unfathomably byzantine.

On a related note, lately I have been looking into some biochemistry topics and their relation to computer science. It seems that cyclic dependencies are possibly a requirement for life, which makes faithful simulations of biochemical processes an interesting challenge.

> There was a brilliant programmer at Digitek who had completely novel and now unknown ideas for software development; he never published anything, but you could read and analyze his source code.

Does anyone know about whom Knuth was referring? Did this have anything to do with the work on the PL/I compiler?

> The pending disruption for DDoS-Guard and Parler comes compliments of Ron Guilmette, a researcher who has made it something of a personal mission to de-platform conspiracy theorist and far-right groups.

While this may solve immediate problems (such as the planning of unlawful or otherwise socially harmful events), we should consider the long-term impacts of de-platforming. Does censorship, even if justified, fuel anger and distrust, potentially increasing social conflict in the long-term?

Is it possible to bring fringe groups back into the fold of peaceful civil discourse, or are we simply throwing up our hands and declaring that some percentage of the population must always have their speech regulated? (I suppose this question applies for both social groups and for individuals.)