2021-05-28 Nerd Roundup
Everybody's going Rust, Physics Policemen, problems in Type Theory, the hole at the bottom of math, and how your love of cheese can get you arrested.
| STORY | BUT WHY? |
| Longitudinal analysis of blood markers reveals theoretical maximum human lifespan | Something interesting and big is coming in this area of research over the next decade or so, but I have no idea what it will be |
| Online DRM troll sends ISPs notices of sharing copyrighted files ... the ISO file for Ubuntu | If a robot tells you that you broke the law, did you break the law? |
| Florida’s New Pro-Disney, Anti-Facebook and Twitter Law | Can't change reality by legislation |
| LHAASO discovers a dozen PeVatrons and photons exceeding 1 PeV and launches ultra-high-energy gamma | Best job in the universe: policeman for the Laws Of Physics. Those things are always gettintg violated |
| Why some old computers are interesting | There was this point in time where we had eyes on and control of the entire system. Interesting to see how we decided to complexify into what we have now. |
| DOOM Engine Code Review (2010) | Just scanned. I want to do a deep dive one day on this |
| Eternally five years away. Batteries are actually making a lot of prgress | Complex things are very difficult to track using simple adjectives |
| The Expanse UI Design | Another in a venerable series of blog essays taking apart UI/UX we see in film and television. Always enjoyable if limited in practical value |
| Typography in 2001 | related |
| UX in the latest Star Trek movies | related - we judge these things on how cool they look but actual usage data exists in its own world where it can't be reasoned about abstractly |
| Rust is in our future | People love Rust because people love Rust |
| The media's lab leak fiasco | Prominent (?) opinion columnist for US left talks about how our system of understanding even simple things like the probably of a Wuhan lab leak are subject to popularity contests |
| There's a hole in the bottom of math | Great and accessible overview of important topic. Pure math is not the answer to anything, but computer programs take care of at least one, perhaps two of the three issues brought up here. Language Games takes the third |
| Counter-examples in type systems | Great reference for a deep dive one day |
| Thousands of Chrome extensions are tampering with security headers | This is by design and arguably extremely necessary for an open and free net. These German researchers are aguing that it's a bad thing, but that's only true in an extremely-narrow-focused look at the world. Bad thing. |
| A New Replication Crisis: Research that is Less Likely to be True is Cited More | Science is great. The system we have for funding and spreading science is horribly broken and not getting better, mostly due to mixed incentives. Some sad stories from postdocs on HN |
| Cheese photo leads to Liverpool drug dealer's downfall | Say cheese! |
| How product placements may soon be added to classic films | Product placements now, entire scene removal/replacement soon-to-come. The only short-term option I see is downloading and saving any content you like and would like to share or enjoy again. Funny how that when these things are posted online people are invited to comment on how moral or disgusting these things are, but very few people comment on the fact that it's taking more and more effort to find any kind of reality |
| Are US officials under silent attack | for reference only, a deeper look at Havannah Syndrome, including speculation about what's actually happening |
| also for reference only, book excerpt talking about the evolution of robot marines in real-world combat situations | |
| We need to put science at the center of the UFO investigation | reference. This story keeps cooking along. |
| Collusion rings threaten the integrity of computer science research | How to fund and manage pure research without it eventually turning into a cesspool of human corruption? |
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