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foofoo12

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"voluntary" can also be pretty meaningless depending on the context. In the UK, if the police suspects you of shenanigans, they'll politely invite you for an "voluntary interview".

Of course you can decide to not go, it's voluntary, right? Yes, you can. Your choice. And when you reject their kind offer they'll come and arrest you so you can attend the interview.

Brings back memories but I can't say they are good. It was so limited that it was mostly frustration.

What Killed Perl? 8 months ago

Before JS had promises, JS code was plagued with the callback pyramid of doom. You needed an advanced masters degree in masochism to endure that. I don't think Python devs would have liked that.

What Killed Perl? 8 months ago

I really don't think Python was close to dying

It absolutely was. What saved it was:

1. The data science / AI crowd that was gathering momentum any many only used Python 3.

2. No popular alternative. Perl got python as an alternative.

Python was also a good, simple language and had a good healthy culture. But it's nothing sort of a miracle that it survived that biblical software calamity.

What Killed Perl? 8 months ago

I learned Perl back in the day. It was fun and powerful.

But I think the package management and culture killed it for me. People took pride is writing obnoxiously messy code. Package dependency hell. Gung ho borderline toxic RTFM culture.

Google Antigravity 8 months ago

I worked in a factory one summer when I was a teenager. It was a totally brain dead work, but the morale was good. The workers weren't unhappy.

I'm concerned that the new role of "manager of agents" (as google puts it) will be a soul destroying brain dead work and the morale won't be good.

Worst thing that happened to programming, eh? Have you tried running a 2 year old javascript/node project that transpiles and gulps it's three billion dependencies into something alien - if it works. Which it won't because it hasn't been updated for 2 years.

Webapp doesn't work for me (current version Firefox):

  Uncaught TypeError: loading.showModal is not a function
    <anonymous> https://2earth.pyscriptapps.com/celtic-knot/  latest/:20
  latest:20:17
    <anonymous> https://2earth.pyscriptapps.com/celtic-knot/    latest/:20
and
  Uncaught (in promise) DOMException: IDBFactory.open: The operation is insecure
    <anonymous> index.js:65
    Xe index.js:63
    Ye sync.js:8
    engine pyodide.js:95
    get interpreters.js:36
    promise callback*get/< interpreters.js:34
    xn loader.js:66
    promise callback*xn loader.js:66
    Kn script-handler.js:91
    or custom.js:99
    define custom.js:266
    <anonymous> core.js:307
    promise callback\* core.js:182
core-Dwn9Kajy.js:1

when our main or only way of detecting whether communication succeeded is through understanding or lack thereof

That's not even a good test, due to miscommunication. Both parties might think it succeeded, but then much later on you find out the truth (maybe).

but tonal information can be parsed without lexical understanding

Parsed perhaps, but it's so context sensitive that it's not useful, save for extremities. The same tone of voice can have so many meanings based on what's actually being said and yet another if you add context.

That's very easy and very wrong. Let's say you have a 100 page book. Page 1 contains fundamental knowledge that allows you to understand the rest of it. If you skip page 1 then you won't understand the other 99.

How much of the book will you understand if you only read page 1?

Very interesting idea. I remember reading that in visual spoken communications, only 20% is the actual words. The rest is tone of voice, body language, context, emphasis, expressions, ... all that stuff.

I don't know if 20% is correct, but I feel it's very close to it. I also think a lot of internet arguments happen as a direct result of miscommunication. Emojis are great, but they get abused to the point that HN filters them out. Perhaps allow readers to toggle if they want to see emojis or not?

Back in the day, SSL didn't exists. When it came into existence, it was quite an expensive novelty.

It became a generic name that everyone knew for encrypted HTTP connections. It still is a generic name for that, even though the underlying protocol changed name to TLS.

My friend went to see the doctor. A very attractive nurse took his blood pressure, which turned out to be off the charts. She goes out, comes back 5 minutes later and repeats, same results. Goes out and 10 minutes later and old bearded doctor comes in and repeats the tests.

Doctor ends up telling him that he was hoping it was just the attractive nurse, but no. He'd be starting medication today.