Can you spot the error ...

I need to download this to check it out later:

Calling @Chartodon Spine ...

It's enraging ... all of it ... and I hope you take them to the cleaners, and justice is served.

CC: @ashleygjovik

People who believe they'll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, learn it doesn't work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you. -- Neil Gaiman

Bertrand Russell on how fascism starts: 'First, they fascinate the fools. Then, they muzzle the intelligent.' (Compressed ... full quotation: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/906301)

@dcnorris While I agree with you, this needs to be put in the context of random people reading the comment.

In my experience, most random readers would read the first 15 to 20 words and lose interest.

To gain readership it needs more "punch", which I think the abbreviated version(*) provides

(.*) I didn't write this, I saw it elsewhere. The justification here for the simplification followed by a link to original is mine.

@clacke I think that should go in my toot rotation. I have a script which every day takes the next item off a list, toots it, then puts it back on the bottom.

I'll add that. Do you want to be credited? If so, how?

Example:

"My number one advice to my younger self: Your prototype *will* be put into production"
-- Paraphrased from https://mathstodon.xyz/@clacke@libranet.de/111131868536836880

@clacke I used to work in soft-realtime safety-critical software, so this was a well-known and well-worn clip.

We had to balance formal reasoning, semi-formal reasoning, loose arguments, and careful testing, and it was surprisingly interesting and satisfying.

But in those cases we knew in advance what we were trying to achieve, and specifying that formally, or semi-formally, was part of the job.

In this case I've hacked together something to see if it might be useful, and it's grown into a thing that people use.

Software, eh?

(Also, I'm interacting with reverse engineered interfaces to software I neither understand nor control. So ... yeah. Fun.)

@clacke Thank you.

After a few weeks of trying it randomly I'll announce it properly.

Thanks for the motivation to get it done. It wasn't so bad ... the other options will be harder.

@clacke OK, this might actually work now:

Calling @Chartodon Spine ...

Now I need to make sure I didn't break anything else ...

@clacke (And no, I don't have any unit tests ... it's still all an experimental hack.)

@clacke I've got it working semi-automatically on my local machine, but I've had problems getting it to work on the 'bot.

I'll put it on my queue of things to look at sooner rather than later.

Do you have a specific discussion I can use for local testing?

I'm guessing this one:

https://mathstodon.xyz/statuses/111124890888971530

@grumpysmiffy Apparently *both* types of beta decay:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium-40

Intriguing. That's nerd-snup me for an hour or so ...

@nschultz @erinbee

@sundogplanets

(You probably know all this)

As is common knowledge, the dedicated "Real Programmer" can write Fortran programs in any language.

One skill you can help impart is to help them write well-structured, well-architectured, well-designed code in Fortran. The skill of how to write understandable, maintainable code is transferrable between languages.

I remember writing and maintaining Fortran code ... it *can* be clear and a delight to work with. Help them on that path.

@cstanhope The "discussion" on The Orange Site provides a fascinating insight into the people there.

It's disturbing, and oddly compelling, rather like a car crash.

There are some people there that I not only never want to work with, but who I never want to meet.

@cstanhope Absolutely.

Sometimes I look at how convinced some of them are that they must be right, based on their extensive experience of programming, and their clearly impeccable reasoning, and wonder if I am similarly afflicted with an excessive confidence in my abilities.

It serves as a warning ... I hope I heed it well enough and often enough.

That said, some of the people there are stunningly good. I hope *that* judgement isn't based purely on whether they agree with me.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

@jens ... the immediate parent.Then back out and click on another post. You are effectively traversing the tree that Chartodon makes explicit.

I agree with many of your points, but the situation is nuanced.

I suspect a more careful, relaxed, and broader discussion would be useful and helpful, but that won't happen for any one of several reasons.

2/n, n=2

@Gargron

@jens Although I do observe that while good and decent users make excellent use of features offered, there are always those who act in bad faith. The sad truth is that while we can trust the vast majority of users, we cannot trust them all, and some features can and will amplify the bad actors.

Decisions have to be made, a balance must be struck, and no choice is perfect.

You can see exactly what someone is replying to in the web interface by clicking on the post and seeing ...

1/n

@Gargron