@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

r00ty

@r00ty@kbin.life

I'm the administrator of kbin.life, a general purpose/tech orientated kbin instance.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

On the other hand, simulation theory is a logical theory to rationalize the “purpose” of why we exist.

Now see. I think simulation theory is one of the possible explanations for our existence. But, I would disagree that it gives any credence to a purpose to our existence.

It also doesn't really answer the core question of how things began, it just defers them upwards to another civilisation. Unless you want to say it's simulations all the way down, there needs to be be a root real existence somewhere and there the origins pose the same questions.

I've not yet heard any explanation as to how our universe came to be that I truly believe. All explanations are problematic. But even if simulation theory were true, I'd still be bugged by the fact that we still don't get any closer to the answer of how it all began. It just explains how the universe as we know it exists.

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

I'm using God as a generic term for creator. I do realise it's a loaded term though.

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

I know it's a few days later now. But I'm agnostic and not explicitly atheist and the reason is that, one of the few scenarios that made sense to me, I never thought of as simulation theory.

It was that the big bang doesn't remove the possibility of a God. That God could just be an alien that exists outside our concept of time and created this universe with the concept of time as an experiment.

I suppose this could be a simulation too. That is, that alien outside our concept of time creates a simulation of a universe with a linear time.

But, you know it's all thought experiments.

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

Fuck all of that. Linux desktop really could use a benevolent dictator that has some vision and understanding what the average user wants.

It already has these. They're called Linux Distros. They decide the combination of packages that make up the end to end experience. And they're all aimed at different types of user.

Why are none explicitly aimed at the average Windows user? I suspect there's one major reason. The average Windows user is incapable of installing an operating system at all, and new PCs invariably come with Windows pre-installed. This isn't a sleight on them by the way, it's just that most computer users don't want or need to know how anything works. They just want to turn it on, and post some crap on Twitter/X then watch cat videos. They don't have an interest in learning how to install another operating system.

Also, a distro aimed at an average Windows user would need to be locked down hard. No choice of window manager, no choice of X11/Wayland. No ability to install applications not in the distro's carefully curated repository, plus MAYBE independently installed flatpak/other pre-packaged things. The risk of allowing otherwise creates a real risk of the system breaking on the next big upgrade. I don't think most existing Linux users would want to use such a limiting distro.

Unless Microsoft really cross a line to the extent that normal users actually don't want anything to do with windows, I cannot imagine things changing too much.

Me vs my ISP

So I was looking into getting port forwarding set up and I realized just how closed-off the internet has gotten since the early days. It’s concerning. It used to be you would buy your own router and connect it to the internet, and that router would control port-forwarding and what-have-you....

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

Yep. The ISP doesn't offer it any more. They stopped, I think when RIPE officially "ran out" of new net blocks. But I've moved address twice so far and have kept the allocation. Well, on the last move they messed up and gave new a new single IP. I complained, and they asked why it matters so much to have my old IP. I pointed out I had a netblock, and they fixed it up pretty quickly.

Pretty soon, full fibre will be in my area and available on the same ISP. So, hoping for a smooth transition to keep it for a bit longer.

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

And this is why I'm unlikely to change isp. I have a /29 ipv4 block and /48 ipv6 block. No extra charge. Grandfathered features from over a decade ago.

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

I'm on mbin BTW. The fediverse arch.

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

Well, I'm not a lemmy user. But I generally read the comments to gauge whether it is worth reading the article.

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

Maybe if the failed us version got that far it would have included 911 instead.

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

We never changed emergency numbers. It might have referred to when we changed directory enquiries from a single one operated by your phone provider to multiple options with the prefix 118 xxx. Or perhaps when we extended emergency services to also have non emergency numbers for police and health issues.

Otherwise it's been 999 for decades (with 112 also routed to the same).

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

Not really. Some people do, but if you look at printed numbers it's usually a space. At least from my experience.

Number formatting is a funny thing too. So Wokingham (which is on the Reading 0118 prefix) is 0118 9. But the format is generally written 0118 9xx xxxx and not 01189 xxx xxx. But other area codes are like 01268 xxx xxx. London is especially interesting because people format differently, mostly based on age. See London numbers used to be 01 xxx xxxx. So people wrote their numbers as (01) xxx xxxx (if you lived in London you just dialled the last 7 digits). But over time the London prefixes evolved many times. Now it is 020 for London and xxxx xxxx. But the main first digits often still follow older patters of 7 for inner London and 8 for outer London (for older numbers at least). So older people (and I mean my age, not elderly) often format their number as 0208 xxx xxxx.

Went off on a tangent a bit there. Main story is, in my experience no hyphens is more common. But people do sometimes use them.

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

I think when I was much younger, in the 80s it was more common to use hyphens. But I think this was more when people wrote with a pen on paper.

On shop fronts and when printed, seems quite the rarity here I think.

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

No, really? Wow, this is completely new information!

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

Geek trivia.

It would almost be a valid Wokingham (Berkshire UK) number (well 0118 999 8819 would be) except I think after the second 9 there's no allocated numbers.

That is, it's not possible to dial in the UK, you would get an number unobtainable tone as soon as you dial 0118 99 on a landline phone.

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

When I reached the essentially "I use arch btw" I assumed it was just badly written satire.

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

Here in the UK, I don't think I've seen one of those in use for more than 20 years. Maybe it is still in use elsewhere?

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

If you were over 40, you'd call them opal fruits!

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

I have a clear memory from the 80s for sure where these were routinely used on pre-sliced bread loaves. I'm sure I have seen them since the 80s. But they became much rarer for certain.

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

I mean, technically you could use unsigned 32bit if you don't need to handle dates before 1970. But yes, the best course of action now is to use 64bits. The cost is pretty much nothing on modern systems.

I'm just cautious of people judging software from a time with different constraints and expectations, with the current yardstick.

I also wonder what the problem will be. People playing ghost recon in 2038 are going to be "retro" gaming it. There should be an expectation of such problems. Would it prevent you loading or saving the file is the question?

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

Yeah, that's my point. It'll be a retro game by 2038 and anyone playing it will know it's "one of those quirks"

The bigger problem is software where the date really matters.

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

It's not poorly written software if it's is old. Likewise the y2k bug is often declared as bad programming, but at the time the software with the y2k bug was written memory was measured in kilobytes and a lot of accounting software and banking software was written in a time when 64k was the norm. Oh, and I'll tell you now I know of at least some accounting software that is based on code written for the 8088 and has been wrapped and cross compiled so many times now it's unrecognisable. But I know that 40 year old code is still there.

So 2 digits for year was best practice at the time and at the time software vulnerable to the 2038 bug 32bit epoch dates was the best practice.

Now, software written today doing the same, could of course be considered bad, but it's not a good blanket statement.

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

Back in the olde days of programming (I'm talking about compilers from the 80s) the coding connoisseur knew that getting a certain error that seemed like nonsense could easily be solved by adding an extra, or removing a remark line from the top of the code and recompiling.

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

#pragma OccasionallyCrash false

r00ty,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

I think they call algorithms AI these days. At least I caught one of our VPs saying that a few months ago.

r00ty, (edited )
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

Well I think goingToCrashIntoEachOther needs to return another drone object. Then don't can take that object. Based on self.serialNo and other.serialNo a mutually beneficial avoiding manoeuvre could be executed.

If you're about to crash into more than one other drone.. Good luck the function specifies "EachOther" meaning just one other drone!

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