2021-10-23
Readings
Amazon paper on S3 - This amounts to half-methods-paper half-concrete-research. Papers focused on semiformal reasoning should happen more; unclear whether peer review would be too much of a burden for industry. Interesting to see empirical testing (fuzzing?) play such a prominent role. There are some ChaosEng techniques used as well. https://www.amazon.science/publications/using-lightweight-formal-methods-to-validate-a-key-value-storage-node-in-amazon-s3
Interesting video on whether magnetic monopoles exist. PBS Space Time does a good job at being reasonably accessible to people without a deep physics background.
IQ2US Debate a few weeks ago on whether we should expand the Supreme Court. I would’ve zoomed in way more on certain arguments that were just mentioned in passing that are key to how I think about the issue, but it’s good for people to watch debates.
Unprompted Thoughts
I’ve rarely felt comfortable at protests; wrote some guidelines defining the behaviour and ideas of protestors I would be less likely to find objectionable: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m9fIhCchr5RhF2PfFQu02taDw1FGvDz3mrL4CHNI4dc/
Interesting to learn a bit more about how hibernation and pregnancy interact in bears.
For awhile I’ve used a metaphor for most politics of Scylla and Charybdis and recently I’ve been developing it further - the idea that politics is not well understood as hero versus villain, but rather navigation of overlapping worlds - one of the stormy tendencies in human nature, and another in navigating specific social challenges. One could possibly lose one’s reasonability while still reaching a good policy - handling power well is difficult. This applies strongly, I think, to the current situation in American politics. We shouldn’t try to be neutral in all things, but keeping a steady temperment while recognising there are dangers in a disintegrating center, from radicals on both ends, is important.
Current Events
The NYC General Election (for a number of positions) is coming up. I wrote some thoughts on how I intend to vote. Surprisingly, the Libertarians managed to field two moderates that I actually (currently) intend to vote for; one of them even supports public transit, which is a rare statement for a Libertarian. Surprising. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UcD90axMcvDgH1W9ZrO19RmGCH5DCGFZIq0G4nnQeRM/edit?usp=sharing
Recently a number of gender activists became upset that a comic, Dave Chapelle, doesn’t agree with how they see themselves, staging a walkout (at which there was some controversy about major news outlets mischaracterising a counterprotestor) and making a number of nutty demands. This kind of thing is not unique to that kind of activist; in the past the Catholic League similarly cried “bigot” at things they felt were anti-Catholic; I don’t know if they’re still at it. It might be useful to have nuts on both sides visible to help more people realise that one doesn’t have to be entirely neutral to reject the nuts and take a hardline free-speech stand (as I do).
Tension between China and Taiwan has been in the news a lot recently, with discussion over US military aid, questions over whether China will be able to keep strongarming other countries into not recognising Taiwan, and continued questions over whether China will invade and if that happens would the west intervene. I recognise the Republic of Taiwan as having been a separate country and government from China since the KMT fled to the island, and feel the US should have a solid commitment to defend them, including a willingness to go to war.
Reviewlets
This is not an ordinary review, but Apple announced a lot of new hardware this week, and I am happy to see systems with reasonable amounts of RAM offered on Arm64 now. It’s bizarre that Apple of all companies was standing on the strength of its CPU while starving the thing with inadequate RAM and integrated graphics (the latter is still a problem).
Also not an ordinary review, but Minecraft Live was also this week, and they both delayed some features and gave them a good reason to be delayed - the “Deep Dark” biome won’t be in the big update later this year, having been pushed back a second time towards the big release next year. They did a good job explaining why the delay will let them do a better job with it, showing off a new vision. It’s important, when you do this kind of thing, to explain well and end with excitement. They managed.
After a lot of time with it, I’m giving Amazon’s Kindle Fire a thumbs down. Largely for performance reasons. The display is good and the price is right, but the tablet is frustratingly slow (whether it’s a weak CPU or not enough RAM I don’t know), even when sticking entirely to Amazon’s Kindle app. Turning pages in a book I’m reading should not be slow. I ordered a high-performance tablet this week (from Lenovo) to replace it. Hoping that works out better.
Amusements
I ordered Codex Seaphinianus (book) and it arrived recently - it’s not a reading (because it’s written in an invented script and may not mean anything) and is perhaps closer to an art book. Fascinating and very weird.
Watching a seal get weighed is heartwarming.
Pusheen’s Pumpkin Patch.
Recent Music
Jesper Kyd primarily writes music for videogames, bringing a lot of unusual instruments (such as Tuvan Throat Singing) together. I recently came across a song he wrote called “Into Eternity” which reminds me of waves on a beach. This would be interesting music to read Neil Gaiman’s “Lucifer” series to.
Amir Naghdi’s “Romantic Flamenco” is a piece I’ve loved for years. It captures heartache pretty well (Romance a bit less so, to me at least).
Bjork’s “Army of Me” is in a strange key, and is difficult to play on piano/keyboard; it’s hard for me to decide if it’s a pretty or ugly song, but it’s one I often want to hear