Ed Summers @edsu@social.coop

@selfcare ✅

I'm excited to be starting a new gig in the new year where I will be using Ruby again after a ten year hiatus. So to try to revive some of my Ruby colored brain cells I'm going to try to keep up with the Advent of Code:

https://github.com/edsu/aoc2021

Tips on how to do things better or more idiomatically would be most welcome!

@nev i'd be curious/interested to hear what you get in your export.

@mjgiarlo I'm about 1/2 way through -- did you find the time to indulge as well?

🔖 Robert Gehl and Sean Lawson - Social Engineering https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/robert-gehl-and-sean-lawson-book-talk-social-engineering-tickets-169161240825?aff=ebdsoporgprofile The United States is awash in manipulated information about everything from election results to the effectiveness of medical treatments. Corporate social media is an especially good channel for manipulative communication, with Facebook a particularly willing vehicle for it. In Social Engineering, Robert Gehl and Sean La

Visualizing Citation Networks https://inkdroid.org/2021/11/29/etudier/ Back in 2018 I wrote a small Python program called étudier which scrapes citation data out of Google Scholar and presented the network as a GEXF file for use in Gephi. It also wrote the network data out as an HTML file that included a very rudimentary D3 visualization.
At the time I left a note in the README saying that I was looking for ideas on how to improve the D3 visualization. A year later I actually got a pull request

🔖 42 things I learned from building a production database https://maheshba.bitbucket.io/blog/2021/10/19/42Things.html Some super insights and conversation starters for how to build, manage & support technical infrastructure.

🔖 Computer Science was always supposed to be taught to everyone, and it wasn’t about getting a job: A historical perspective https://computinged.wordpress.com/2021/11/26/computer-science-was-always-supposed-to-be-taught-to-everyone-but-not-about-getting-a-job-a-historical-perspective/

What I've been listening to this week: The Beatles (12), Julia Jacklin (8), Wilco (7) #lastfm

https://www.last.fm/user/inkdroid/library/artists?to=1638057604&from=1637452804

🔖 Bitrot resistance of next-generation image formats https://www.ctrl.blog/entry/bitrot-avif-jxl-comparison.html

🔖 Creative Commons is shilling NFTs – Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2021/11/26/creative-commons-is-shilling-nfts/

@philbarker hah, exactly!

@baldur yes I read it, and I interpreted it. That's what reading is.

@baldur ah that is a luxury I do not enjoy, as I live in the US :-) I'm not trying to win an argument, because I actually agree with you here. I just thought that there is a very conservative message underpinning that post that is worth talking about. I've also seen some fringe civic use cases of public ledger tech that seem to have merit...but maybe I'm gullible or easily swayed.

@swib I remember it well, it is one of my favorite moments of my professional & personal life (my wife & kids came along too).

It speaks volumes that SWIB is still going strong with a consistent message of how the www can be used to support cultural heritage & memory organizations.

@baldur I think this is where the definition of crime gets interesting, because states get to decide what crime is, and what is placed outside the law. And the states and the laws don't always agree.

For example consider how the USD was used in the Iraq War, or what Exxon is doing to the environment.

I'm not saying that all the awful stuff going on with blockhain is ok, but just that it hardly compares to the atrocities committed with centralized currencies.

I'm not a huge Beatles nerd, but wow I definitely enjoyed Get Back episode 1. The technique of reconstructing scenes from pieced together audio & video is super interesting and almost dream like in places. I'd love to read more about their process for creating this "documentary about a documentary".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles:_Get_Back