> You’d be surprised at just how many people believe in the supernatural. I wouldn't - the majority believes in an invisible sky friend.
And out of those who don't, a bunch believe in an invisible simulation programmer
Old tech is haunted
31–40 of 103 posts
Re: Old tech is haunted
#32I'm reminded of the "I can't send email to anyone over 100 miles away" story. There is, of course, a perfectly rational explanation... but that doesn't change the spooky arbitrariness of it..
EDIT: Not sure why I forgot to link this, out of one of my all-time favorite presentations. I give you: The Mechanical Transmogrification of Diodes into Capacitors!
https://c3.ndc.nasa.gov/dashlink/static/media/other/Observed...
Re: Old tech is haunted
#33Haunting is overfitting data to a pattern (ghost) that can explain everything. The benefit is less thought about things that don’t matter, but missing out on learning something useful is the disadvantage.
Overfitting seems pretty great for survival - who cares if one in 100 canines is friendly - much safer to avoid them! Humans seem to be unique in that we occasionally second guess our overfit models. And in the case of avoiding dangerous animals, the result couldn’t have been more wonderful: Dogs!
Confronting and undoing a casually overfit mental model is harder the more subtle and useful they are - but those are the bits that hide the great secrets of the universe!
Re: Old tech is haunted
#34Haunting is the page blocking modal demanding I register at Substack. That site and Medium are begging for a Nitter.
It already exists: https://archive.ph/wFjRx
Re: Old tech is haunted
#35I'm reminded of the "I can't send email to anyone over 100 miles away" story. There is, of course, a perfectly rational explanation... but that doesn't change the spooky arbitrariness of it.. EDIT: Not sure why I forgot to link this, out of one of my all-time favorite presentations. I give you: The Mechanical Transmogrification of Diodes into Capacitors! https://c3.ndc.nasa.gov/dashlink/static/media/other/Observed...
For those that haven't see it yet.
Re: Old tech is haunted
#36I'm reminded of the "I can't send email to anyone over 100 miles away" story. There is, of course, a perfectly rational explanation... but that doesn't change the spooky arbitrariness of it.. EDIT: Not sure why I forgot to link this, out of one of my all-time favorite presentations. I give you: The Mechanical Transmogrification of Diodes into Capacitors! https://c3.ndc.nasa.gov/dashlink/static/media/other/Observed...
And the "more magic" switch: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/magic-story.html
Re: Old tech is haunted
#37I don't pretend to know how any of this stuff works, but I acknowledge it, respect it, and pay tribute when I can.
Because I am working on a Web product which aims to be compatible with every Web server and Web browser in every configuration, I went out of my way to visit historic places, such as the Netscape offices in Mountain View, and Urbana-Champaign campus where Mosaic was developed.
I sat and meditated on their history and the events which happened there. And I feel that my product better as a result.
Re: Old tech is haunted
#38Haunting is the page blocking modal demanding I register at Substack. That site and Medium are begging for a Nitter.
Medium has https://scribe.rip/
Re: Old tech is haunted
#39Old tech? My current tech is possessed by those doing Satan's bidding. Constantly tempting me, always whispering in my ear to want more, making me covet what others have.
if only you knew how bad things really are
Do you mean that the tech is in a worse state than it would appear at first glance, or that literally most of society is built in order to accomplish those same goals.
Re: Old tech is haunted
#40Even our new technology is haunted. Random changes to Jira configurations with nothing in the audit logs...
Ghosts in the machine, spirit in the system, hear the whispers, screams are distant.