There’s some magpies near me, but I don’t have a predictable enough routine to befriend them. I had some crow friends once and they would knock on my window when I was late coming out to them.

It does if I kill loads of stuff

I’ve not heard that quote, who said it?

I have learned linear algebra in a few different contexts now, and each one I learned made it easier. When I first learned it, it was in a pure maths context and I found it tricky. It began to make more sense in university, when I learned it in the context of x-ray crystallography. I think more so than most topics, linear algebra really needs the context of it’s usefulness for it to really make sense, but also, I think I’d have struggled with the x-ray crystallography if I hadn’t already got a grounding in linear algebra from a pure maths angle.

“vendored my library”

I’m unfamiliar with this phrase, are you able to explain what it means (or point me towards an explanation)? Is it relating to forking?

I agree, you’ve captured much of why I came away from the article feeling a bit ‘hmmm’.

Something I read somewhere that I found super interesting is that on Windows, when a process completes, the user often gets a notification or popup alerting them to this, whereas on Linux, it’s more normal for there to not be any confirmation messages when a process is finished. I hadn’t consciously realised this difference until I read this and reflected on how many times I’d have to double check things when I first started using Linux.

I was talking to a friend recently who was frustrated because they felt like tech support had been treating them like an idiot. They’re a reasonably techy person and had gone through all the troubleshooting steps in the documentation, but the person on the phone had them do it all again. I tried to explain the perspective of the tech support guy — the fact that people often refuse to restart their PC because it feels like too simple of a step and they feel patronised by the suggestion, to the extent that people lie about whether they’ve done a particular troubleshooting step.

I told them that it was valid to feel frustrated with how long the call took when it could’ve been much quicker and simpler, but that they should attribute their frustration at people who repeatedly refuse to read the docs, rather than the tech support guy. My friend wasn’t an idiot, but they were tarred with the same brush because of how many people seeking tech support are belligerent idiots.

I wonder what would facilitate people to make their own solutions in this way. Like, I have made a few apps or automation things myself, but if I look at my “normie” friends who don’t have the level of tech familiarity that I do, they struggle with whatever out of the box solutions they can find. Poor IT education is a big part of this, and I’ve been wondering a lot about what would need to change for the average “normie” to be empowered to tinker

When I was at university, the student union had a small fund for creative projects that weren’t related to your degree. Many of the people who applied for cameras also included Adobe licenses on their funding application, because many of them were new to film or photography so they defaulted to what is “industry standard”, because that’s what the majority of online tutorials are available for.

Zero consideration given to the possibility that Konsi realized this herself and said it deliberately.

Konsi is so sweet that people underestimate her, but not so sweet that she doesn’t realise how people under-estimating you can be used to your advantage. Like, a few comics ago, when Konsi revealed that she was only wearing a robe while playing poker with Razira - revealing this detail meant Razira got played long before any hands were even dealt.

Big respect to the McBriens of the world, your lit reviews make a lot of things easier

Even if the Seine isn’t ready in time for the games, the progress made has been incredible. I’ve found the infrastructure aspects especially interesting, given that the UK’s rivers have been struggling under privatised underinvestment.

This article has some photos and more details of the overflow tank mentioned briefly in the OP.

Good luck on this final push; take care of yourself where possible and stay angry at the things that deserve it

Oh man, I loved Dusa’s interactions. It was nice that being close to Dusa wasn’t framed as being “just” friends, because that would implicitly put friendship as less important than romantic and/or sexual relationships. Like, friendship isn’t a consolation prize, nor is it “rolling to seduce” and failing, but so many games and other media depict it that way

2. She’s trying to practice keeping her cool under pressure, and that’s not effective if you have a lot of safety.

Konsi is precious and I love her.

I was learning python as a wee scientist in training, and my variables were beyond dreadful. I tried naming a list “list” and the interpreter told me I couldn’t, so I opted for “listy”. When I needed to name a new list but listy was taken, I’d often resort to “listyy”.

Scientists who work with computers without having much (if any) targeted training on how to code can write the most horrendous programs.

One of my favourite Yorkshire dialect jokes is how “tin tin tin” can mean the complete sentence “It isn’t in the tin”

I have a friend whose research requires a thorough understanding of quantum mechanics. She told me that she feels like she understands quantum mechanics, until she stops and thinks about it in a way that isn’t limited to the equations and data that she’s used to manipulating. Then, it blows her mind so much that she feels like she has to sort of “reboot” her brain and tell herself “it’s okay, just don’t think about it too much bro”. I find this hilarious, and quite relatable (even though I know relatively little of quantum mechanics)

Beautiful photo, the colors are great

As a biochemist who is better at stats than the average biochemist (which is concerning, because I’m not that great), I greatly appreciate statisticians telling us off when we’re fools.