Martin (Chaim) Berlove @MB@noc.social
An issue I had early on in math, and which I've seen others struggle against, is getting unnerved by the natural abstruseness of symbology. All the δs and ∀s and whatnot make math seem much, much more complex than it often is.
It's true - the nitty gritty of calculations and derivations can get intense, especially for people (like me) who
started out behind.
But 9/10 times in the world of math, all you need is to get what all those symbols are trying to say -- which is usually much simpler.
Even the introduction to the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius makes for powerful reading, it stands on its own and makes a useful reference in times of confusion or attritional deviation (that being personal experience).
The alzheimers research scandal indicates most or all alzheimers-targeting drugs are at best ineffective, at worst harmful.
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/faked-beta-amyloid-data-what-does-it-mean
Why does it seem that, anecdotally, many of the drugs work just fine?
I have personally heard *many* reports that the advance of alzheimers slowed with the use of meds.
Are these one and all placebo effect?
Or potentially, there is another factor at play here?
The research, while largely invalidated, may still lie along roughly the right lines.
A lot of back and forth here re DDG: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31490515
The unfortunate but practical truth is that the combination of people who care about privacy AND are invested in technology is relatively small.
For a given individual who fits these above categories, getting heated over privacy companies being imperfect is, imo, not beneficial. It's understandable to feel "betrayed" but there are more practical ways to defend your privacy, and that bottom line is what deserves the focus.
Great example of well-intentioned technology oversight liable to go awry:
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/lawmakers-continue-to-scrutinize-6775212/
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/bill.php?b=House&f=HF3724&ssn=0&y=2021
But it does look like it's receiving a) attention and b) debate, which is the expected and healthy process for bills of this nature.
There are two sides to remote work, and anecdotally I've seen deviations to either one. Nonetheless, interesting article https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/employees-say-remote-work-improved-mental-health/
https://nitter.net/nightgolfer/status/1509116982611759107
This sort of outcome is unfortunate but predictable ---any tech organization has administrative decisions to make, and while there are better and worse ways to handle such situations, and we can critique those approaches, criticizing the outcome itself is questionable, in that the choice is intended to prioritize the organization's own interests.
This is where self-ownership technologies become more relevant.
Life parodies itself...at least the ride has nice views. buyblockpaper.com
I never noticed this, but if I'm reading the Anaconda license right, you can modify and redistribute it any way you want as long as you don't call it Anaconda or sell it for money.
Nice, now people can have a surveillance SCREEN in the corner of the room that they bought on a whim and never use...
...that's progress baby!
Interesting take on Google's restrictions on misleading content https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27859194 #technology #censorship
https://tinfoilmylife.com/articles/protect-yourself-better-when-using-social-networks protecting your privacy on social media.
App telemetry is not always bad; but it is always a loss of control. Like a secret, once told, it is unbound. Thinking about things like the debate around https://librearts.org/2021/07/audacity-privacy/ and many related items. #technology #software #privacy
