I'm a big fan of HackerNews for startup/programming/general science articles (not just news). If I post something here on Hubski, there are good odds I saw it there first.
Did you get a haircut? No, I got them all cut
I always get uncomfortable whenever the internet hate machine gets revved up. Even when someone says something truly abhorrent, the response always feels so disproportionate. It's like as soon as someone reveals that they aren't perfect, that they have some moral failing, they deserve to be have all sorts of abuse thrown at them. When I was younger, I made some homophobic jokes at work, possibly in front of a coworker who was, I found out years later, gay. I was trying to be funny, and if anyone had told me that, no, they were hurtful, I would have been horrified. All I wanted to do was make people laugh, and I didn't have the perspective to realize that it wouldn't necessarily be interpreted the way I'd intended it. If someone had called me out on it then and there, would I have apologized? I don't know. I hope so. But if everyone piled on me, called me an awful person, got me fired, and generally tried to hurt me in whatever legal way they could, I don't know that I'd have learned anything. I'd be out of a job and miserable - who would I blame, myself, or them? I've grown up since then, and I've learned. When I see an internet mob going after a person for holding an unpopular opinion, or making an ignorant comment for the sake of humour, I often end up with more sympathy for the target of their anger. They're still people, no matter what things they've said or what they say they believe. We've all been ignorant, and we've all learned. That's not to say we shouldn't call out people for saying things they shouldn't, but rage won't make them want to change.
I started playing guitar when I was 15.
It was funny. I didn't listen to much other than movie soundtracks when I was a kid. I caught Wayne's World on TV one night, and suddenly I was hugely into classic rock. Me and my dad had tickets to go to SARSstock in 2003, but he hurt his leg and didn't want to stand around in the crowds all day. I ended up watching the concert on TV (which probably resulted in better sound quality and, you know, being able to see the performers). AC/DC came on, and Angus Young blew me away. I don't mean that I thought his playing was amazing. He just looked like he was having so much fun. It's kind of funny. AC/DC could be the biggest reason I play guitar, but I don't enjoy their music much at all.
It also helped that my parents wanted me to take piano lessons at about the same time. I had no interest in the piano (at the time), which probably pushed me even further towards the guitar. Eventually I got into modern fingerstyle stuff (Andy McKee, Antoine Dufour, and more "traditional" stuff like Tommy Emmanuel (and holy shit, check out Tommy if you don't know him) ) and convinced people I was a lot better than I felt. That plus university caused a bit of burnout that I'm still recovering from, and now I play mostly electric. I'm a pedal addict too, and I'm trying to figure out how to write music for the looper that I don't think is boring. I started listening to Rush pretty heavily as a teenager (and as an adult, :D ), which made me want to learn the bass guitar. And the drums (I have a basic electronic kit from Roland, and a Neil Peart drum book. Guess how well that's working for me). I went back to trying to learn the piano at some point and bought a nice Yamaha digital piano a few years ago. I have a mandolin and a violin that I can't play (but I can play the mandolin significantly better than the violin... I wonder why?), and a synth that I can almost program. And here's some more Tommy Emmanuel because he isn't nearly as well known as he should be.
> Like therapy, Yes. No help. > drugs (the good kind!), Yes. On my todo list. Currently between doctors. > meditation, etc. Yes. No luck. > I don't know how old you are but I'm going to guess you're probably still young. Still young is relative. Is 27 around the age range you were thinking? > What I'm wondering is, is this something you want to do for the rest of your life? I appreciate that you're trying to help me, but this feels a little bit condescending from my perspective. You knew nothing about my situation beyond what I posted in this thread, but the wording of your post implies
(to me) that you think that whatever I'm doing, I've been doing it wrong. My options for medication are basically antidepressants and anxiolytics. The most popular anxiolytics aren't any better than alcohol in terms of effects and consequences, and in my mind are somewhat worse.
Antidepressants have low success rates (especially in my situation), unpleasant side effects, and take months to start working. There's no free ride out of my situation. Thank you for your concern though.
Oh wow. So, my last job was at a software startup. Me and a coworker (who worked at the other end of the office, out of sight & hearing range of me) were constantly "harassing" each other. One day, I took all the wheels off his chair. He makes a point of limping by my desk, and tells me he hurt his leg falling out of the chair. 10 minutes later, my boss comes out and asks who hurt my coworker "because we don't have health insurance, also he's old and doesn't heal very quickly". I spent the afternoon feeling awful. Fucker faked the whole thing & got our boss in on it. This same guy also snapped out two of the pieces of my Rubik's cube and exchanged them with each other. I couldn't solve it for a month until I realized what had been done. He had a habit of stealing my Rubik's cube and hiding it around the office. I come in to work one morning, and he's up on a stepladder in the kitchen, at one of the ceiling tiles. Weird, but I don't think to ask what he's doing. An hour later I notice my cube is gone. I start hunting around the office, and he says something along the lines of "You should try praying to your god above". I notice the ceiling tile that's propped up, clue in and get the stepladder. By this point, all my coworkers are watching me. I climb up to get my Rubik's cube back, and... nothing. He played me completely. It was in a potted plant near my desk or something. I still work with the guy, but he's off on paternity leave right now. That kid's going to have an interesting life... Another coworker is an amateur runner. A few years ago, he had a really bad day and ran a ridiculously high time on the track (for him)... let's say 10:15 (it's lower, but I don't want any googling to come here :-) ). His friend, another coworker, won't let him forget it. He just ordered the guy a book with the title "10:15". He texts him at 10:15 in the morning. And sometime? He'll wear a shirt with a clock showing "10:15". It's hilarious.
I was at a party, sitting on a couch. A girl I know comes over, sits down and cuddles up to me. After about ten seconds like this, she says "I wish 'Robert' were here". I'm confused, because it's "Robert"'s party. I go "Huh?" and she replies "I wish 'Robert' were right here" and points at me. "Robert" is my brother. I wasn't upset, though I think I said something like "that hurts". I've actually been laughing about it ever since, it's too much like a scene out of a bad sitcom. EDIT: If the quotes don't make it clear, "Robert" is not actually my brother's name.
Gunnerkrigg Court: http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/ Paranatural: http://www.paranatural.net/ Scary-Go-Round: http://www.scarygoround.com/
Luther, from the BBC. It's got Idris Elba in it. I didn't really know him before I saw Luther, but now when I see that he's in something, I'm like "Fuck yeah, Idris Elba!" (fingers crossed he gets Bond, but I doubt it'll happen). Anyways, you've heard the premise a million times. A cop who's better at his job than everyone else investigates serial murders. Same old story. Luther doesn't really do something new, it just does the old stuff really, really well. He's a better cop than everyone else, but he's not unbelievably better. He screws up. He thinks of things other people don't... but it's too late. People get hurt because he makes the wrong call. It's an incredibly intense show with some rock-solid acting from the entire cast. It's short, too. Only 14 episodes across 3 seasons. Make sure you have time to watch episodes 5 and 6 together, because you won't want to stop when you get there. Also, the cinematography is fantastic. The whole thing is beautifully shot.
If you can't get enough of this stuff, here's another post on the same subject with some different links:
To each their own. For some people, the effects are fun. In my case, it brings me a great deal of relief from my problems. I've got pure-o ocd, and it definitely helps me to calm down and basically feel how I think a 'normal' person should. All I can really say is, anxiety, depression and life problems all belong only to the person experiencing them. Everybody copes differently, and what helps or appeals to some will do nothing for others.
I was effectively "unschooled" from grade 3 until university. Apart from some effort being made to have me go through math workbooks, and a couple of distance-ed high-school courses, I was pretty well in charge of my own time. Bad things: Less friends, less socialization (not for lack of trying from my parents - there were enough other homeschooled kids around that we did group activities with, but I didn't like most of them very much). I didn't date, and that was very frustrating for me. Good things: You learn how to look stuff up for yourself instead of relying on someone to tell you. This is around 8 years behind me now, so it's hard to judge whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. I think I've done okay since... First, figure out a vague plan for what you want to do with your life. I don't mean you need to know right away, but you should have some idea of a direction (do you need a degree? apprenticeship? free-agent?). If you want, say, a degree, figure out which universities you want to go to. Find out what their policies are for special circumstances, and work towards fulfilling their requirements. I had to write the SATs to get into university, since I didn't have a highschool diploma. It's a normal thing to do in the US, but it's fairly unusual here in Canada. The good news is that, outside of your career goals, you're free to study anything you like. Do you want to read about electronics & dream about building a Tesla coil[1]? Now you can! Physics beyond Newton & dynamics? You can do that too. Don't care much for history? Screw it[2]. If it doesn't relate to your goals, you can forget about it. The important thing is to keep those goals in mind, and to stay positive about your abilities. For years I told myself I was bad at math, so I didn't go to school for physics like I'd always dreamed of. Eventually I discovered that I was actually quite capable of understanding it, and the math I was bad at was better suited for a calculator anyways[3]. So I guess to summarize: Have some idea of your life goals and what you need to do to achieve them. Focus on those goals & the steps you need to take for them. Believe in yourself. [1] I never did build one. At this point I'm wise enough to think that with my skill set, it's probably a bad idea. Plus, I have way too many computers & electronics around that I'd probably fry. [2] Not that it's necessarily a good idea to do this, knowledge is always worthwhile, but it's not like you'll need it to get a job/be successful in life. [3] I can only find basic derivatives/can't remember most strategies for finding an integral, but I know what these things are and why I'd want to do them, and since I don't need to do it on a regular basis, knowing about them is almost as valuable.
“I'm selfish, impatient and napping. I take naps, I am out of control and at times like to nap. But if you can't nap with me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my nap.”
To be fair, that wasn't really his doing - he was helping out a class at an art school. He didn't write the "Do it" part, that was a student. I think it was the school that put it online. AND I'M SO GLAD THEY DID!He also just made a weird video yelling 'Do it!' at people in front of a green screen and posted it on YouTube.
I really appreciate the #amiserablelittlepileofsecrets tag on this. For a different, utterly hyperbolic, and hilarious take on what it's like to be a working programmer, there's Programming Sucks.
I actually know a guy with a masters degree in math who did a lot of work with fractional derivatives. I don't know how he used them, but if I'm remembering correctly his research was on finding the right place to install a shunt into the heads of hydrocephalic babies - as the fluid is drained, the cavity changes size, so finding the optimal place is tricky. Apparently fractional derivatives help, although I have no idea how.
People pay $450 a bottle. For something backed up by a study of 30 people. Which only worked for about half of them. About half of the people it worked for relapsed. What a world... Thanks for reminding me to do my research before jumping at whatever I might be prescribed.
So.... Wu-Tang is something to fuck with?
I'm so sorry
On the weekends, I tend to play too many video games. I get up in the morning, and don't feel like doing anything productive, so I make myself some coffee and settle in for whatever I've picked up. I realized that I can set a timer while I'm playing, so I'll play for ten minutes, then practice guitar/read/clean for ten minutes. I can do this all day, and even if I'm feeling like crap, it seems to work.
I haven't read many books that are truly bad. Once I stop enjoying it, I stop reading it and forget what I've read. That's worked out to be an effective filter so far. Someone's probably going to be upset about this, but I read Haruki Murakami's Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and I just don't get it. I can't understand how so much stuff happened in it, and yet by the end it felt like absolutely nothing had occurred. The prose was nice enough, and I kept reading to see what would happen next, but I honestly couldn't understand the point of the novel. I don't think I'd call it bad, exactly, but I wouldn't recommend it either.
So I guess the takeaway from this is "Don't be too picky, you'll enjoy being with more people than you actually think". As an experiment, I updated my OKCupid profile a bit, then ran through my matches and clicked a huge number of them so I would show up as a visitor. I didn't look at profiles, just clicked and closed. 90 minutes later, and I have six views on my profile and one message (EDIT: It was "Your comment made me laugh". It's a start!). I guess the article's author is on to something. I've been on OKC for years, and being too picky is exactly my problem. Finding matches I'm physically attracted to is easy. Everything else? That's harder. Are they educated enough? Do they have the same interests? The same sense of humor? Too religious? Too anti-religious? Strong political opinions? Do they like to travel? Do they like to cook? Do they have pets? (these last three actually make me less interested in them, believe it or not. I'm weird.) But the chances of me meeting someone that actually meets all my 'requirements' is slim. I don't think any one thing I'm looking for in a partner is unreasonable, but finding someone with all of them (well, I thought I did last month, but our interest in each other was asymmetrical...)? That's hard. I don't know where I'm going with this, sorry.
I'm with thenewgreen on this, unless we have a specific definition of noble to work with. Is it somebody who helps others? Somebody who helps society (a superset of others)? Somebody who suffers gladly, and/or performs the work no one else wants to do? The first answer that comes to my mind is doctor, but are all doctors created equal? A plastic surgeon who does celebrity nose-jobs isn't the same as a plastic surgeon who helps burn victims.
What about disease research? Is the doctor who dedicates their life to trying to cure a disease that affects 1/10 000 000 more noble than someone who does the same for a disease that affects 1/100?
Better yet, make the engine noise an app. I'd like a soundscape variant that indicates all of my car's activities - acceleration, deceleration, gears, turn signals, headlights, wiper fluid, battery level, gas level, police radar, etc. Sort of like an automotive version of choir.io (warning: autoplaying sound).
I think Musk's tweet after this bears posting: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/556105370054053889
>He's saying, in his theoretical situation "I just got fired for saying x in a context where i hoped to please people. This confused me, and as a result instead of having the desired reaction of regret and positive change, I would be radicalized into becoming angry and whatever subconscious bigotry i did have would become conscious and more fervent as I blamed x minority for my problems." Thank you. That's exactly what I was trying to say. No one has an obligation to educate anyone else, and anger is absolutely a justifiable response, but I think one of those is going to be more effective at changing attitudes (of course, they both work).
Staring down into a heartless sea Can't face life on a razor's edge Nothing's what you thought it would be
All of us get lost in the darkness Dreamers learn to steer by the stars All of us do time in the gutter Dreamers turn to look at the cars - Rush (The Pass) And now you're trembling on a rocky ledge
Yeah, I had no idea about the total amount of money raised, and had absolutely no faith in it having a notable effect. I'm pretty happy to be wrong.
Playing devils advocate, Google is the search engine. Yahoo, Bing, and DuckDuckGo together don't have the market share to pull this off. Baidu is the only other provider I can think of that could do something like this, but I don't think they have the same global reach that Google does. If you think someone can do something this important, it makes sense to me to name them. That said, from your other post, it sure sounds like the author has an axe to grind.
A Markov chain is a set of states. You can move from some of the states to other states, and there's a certain probability of the direction you will take. For example, you might go for a walk regularly. After you're done walking, you either go home (75% chance) or go out for ice cream (25% chance). There are three states here - walking, home and ice cream. If I wanted to model your behavior, I could say "Okay, now they're walking. What do they do next?", roll some dice, and then decide if you went out for ice cream or went home after your walk. With Markov chain text generators, the states are just individual words, and you transition from one word to another based on the probability that those two words appear together.