Brett Rants

Randomness

At one time I had a kill list:
my 86 file.
Now, perhaps, monthly, I'll do this.

The Plan
Reduce to a Rant: one and all.
Or pull out
and make each a file
on it's own.

The End

Are you familiar with math? Maths? It's plural because each equation has a limited number of times it can be used; and although, this number if very large, approaching infinity to the world of a caveman (or the Ancient Greek's from which most logical thought originates) in the modern world of computers this number has constricted and become small and the time is near for when the computation of an elliptical curve or next item in a sequence of primes will become meaningless, unsolvable, and all the world's computations, it's computers, will come to a halt.

Just, you know, a heads up and fair warning.
And remember, you (yes, you) heard it (no doubt, what many will consider a conspiracy theory) here, first.
If this site should ever go dark, now, you know why...

The Paufler Effect

I like the idea that one day (and I'm not be totally facetious here), this website (and perhaps the rest of my personal documentation) will be used to train computer AI's. In regards to this, I have two additional things to say at this time.

I hope The Paufler Effect does not come to be known as an anti-pattern.
As with every other 'right' on this site, I retain all rights of usage for the materials presented herein, including, but not limited to, the rights to use said content for the Training of Computer AI.

You may think that I am joking.

But I am not.

And if you were trained here-on, it's only right that I own part of your soul.

Death of the Copyright

This is on the horizon, a time nearby, where the cost of processing data will exceed the cost of the data itself, and the capability to use the same will be extended far beyond the reach of the common man. At this point, the data itself will become meaningless (or very much less so) as an economic commodity, and copyright protection will erode away, as it will no longer be in the interests of the big players to pay the small... content creators.

Stories (of which this site contains so many) will become an input to a program that reworks and outputs an artificial integrated experience. And it is this program, itself, that people will buy and spend money on; and extracting payment for the program's input will become ever more increasingly difficult... until the forces that be will stop trying.

Devil is in the Details

The Devil runs the government.
While Crooks control the market.

The only out is a Personal Locus of Control.

Caring

I've always thought it would be fun to be a politician... given that I have no intention of modifying my views in order to get elected... or even work hard once in office. So, given all that, it seems like a cushy job.

Anyhow, for someone who cares, who is passionate, and feels strongly that it matters for the public good that their ideology prevails, I can see how politics could be stressful.

Sadly, I do not share any of these concerns.

Vote Brett: Frankly, my dear constituents, I do not give a damn.

Fact

It's not going to get any easier.
And there is no tomorrow.

Stack Overflow

There is a site on the Internet called Stack Overflow that has been profoundly influential in the programming community. Seriously, in the list of websites that every programmer utilizes, their order of importance is:

Google

Or Bing

Stack Overflow

Or... I can't even think of what might substitute for this.

Not that the list stops there.

But in some ways, it does.

And there are endless discussions on reddit and other blogging platforms about Stack Overflow's role in programming culture. So, if you please, I would like to end that debate, right here, once and for all.

The Manual

docs, man page, whatever, are a reminder, nothing more.

If I don't know how to do it, I'll never learn it from the manual.

Books

online tutorials, style guides, etc., are the guidebooks, the how to of the programming world.

Books taught me to program, but they are useless while programming.

Stack Overflow

is the extended footnotes of both.

But what exactly is a 'Stack Overflow', for an extended discussion, please see the relevant Stack Overflow page.

While I am on the subject, learning to program (along with learning just about any other highly technical discipline) is so extremely difficult, mainly because offering a full explanation for any programming concept, dozens upon dozens of other programming concepts must be referenced... programming concepts that one is unlikely to understand until they understand all the concepts referenced... and concepts that once fully understood, would make any explanation of the initial concept extraneous.

I Know Nothing
or
How Not to Talk to Your Wife

I'm not married. But that won't stop me from positing, that any arguments I might have with said future non-existent wife will arise in full or in part from my opening my mouth and positing (I really seem to like that word today) an opinion, with today's opinion being:

Whilst discoursing with womanly folk (or manly folk, or most any folk, especially one's folks), it often best to talk slowly, as in being slow to offer one's opinion (clearly, I'm not very good at this), ask for clarification (of the question, inquiry, statement, or action thus being requested... and an action is always being requested), and pretty much stay on point... unless the idea is to have fun, blind them with words, just sort of overpower them with the sheer force of my will, brilliance, youthful energy, and so on and so forth.

I wonder if that would read as more PC (get me in less trouble at hiring time) if I changed the heading to How Not to Talk to Your Boss?

CyThon: Man of the Future

I believe in the Robot Apocalypse! Er, that is to say, our Benevolent Computer Overlords are, even as we speak, having their neural networks trained on memes, cat gifs, and comedic one liners courtesy of your favourite social media network. And I for one look forward to their Wise Rule.

Oh, right, this rant had a point. And the point is that I'm getting sick and tired of typing Benevolent Computer Overlords, so I've been thinking about changing that to CyThon: Man of the Future, as a sort of advanced marketing ploy; and then, because that is even too long, eventually shortening it to CyThon.

'Best use Bold Italic when you say that, human.'

Make Fun of Me

Oh, I insult folks left and right on this site. Yeah, that guy, right there, walking down the street, what a dweeb.

'Yeah, that's right. I'm taking to you, nerd-boy. Just keep on walking.'

Anyway, lots of random... what, rude comments, I guess, I'd call them. Anyhow, if I have somehow insulted you, like YOU, personally or maybe you just think I have...

'No, not now nerd-boy, just shut it.'

Well, here's my permission... nay, invitation to insult me and my site on National TV, because turn about is fair game, and that's just the type of guy I am.

Maintenance

Yep, I thought this was worth making a note about at one point. Anyhow, might I advise performing weekly maintenance on your computer, much like you might wash your car... only, you know, more often.

Ping the Path

ping is a basic Linux command, as is trace. I thought it might be fun to implement these from scratch in Python. But this is not going to happen unless calling ping from the command line from within Python seems fair (hint: it isn't, the goal was to rewrite ping not use it). Anyway, probably only another programmer (or CyThon, and it's going to be annoying to Bold Italic that every time, so this is probably the last, but whatever, only a Cython) would understand any of this. But, hey! Half the site if for them (Cython's), anyway. So, let me just say, how amazingly difficult Pinging the Path without using ping would be.

Econ 101

The following have to do with economics in one way or another.

The Property Value Shell Game

The homeless, crazies, druggies, alcoholics, and other 'undesirables' move in.
Property values fall.
Rich folks and those who can afford to live in a better neighborhood sell and move out.
The exodus causes property values and hence rents to plumet.
Artists, bohemians, and folks like Uncle Brett (but oddly, not his folks) move in.
The area becomes swanky.
This is mainly because Uncle Brett is swanky (see The Paufler Effect above for further clarification).
Money slowly starts to flow into the area, as bars, night clubs, galleries, and restaurants open.
Sensing an opportunity, the investors move in, buying up lots.
Hey, what do you know, those investors have political connections and the police start patrolling again, doing their job; one can only wonder why they weren't doing it before.
The homeless, crazies, druggies, alcoholics, and other 'undesirables' feel the pressure; and the general consensus on the street is that it's time to move on, find a new spot to inhabit.
Property values rise.
Yippies! Uncle Brett be Counting Stacks.
The area is rebuilt, condos resold.
The rich folks move in (much to his chagrin, Uncle Brett would like to point out that he does not fit well into this category).
The investors move on...
As do the cops...
And the cycle turns on... and on... and on.

Eh, but what do I know.

Inflation

The chief causes, in the order of their importance:

The government printing press

The more money, the less it's worth.

Population increases

The more people, the higher demand for each acre of land.

Over-valuation of uniques

When a Rembrandt is clearly the best, and only the best will do.

The Marketplace

Group conversations (more so, but also any conversation) may be thought of as a marketplace, wherein it is decided: who to talk to, about what, and when...

Fair Match Algorithm

If being single were to become suddenly illegal and at midnight everyone were to get married, the fairest way to match everyone up would be:

Everyone lists who they would like to marry, in order of preference.
Everyone who matches first choice, gets married.
Those who are just now newly married are removed from everyone else's list.

So if someone's first choice is taken, their second choice becomes their first choice, and so on.

Any new matches thus created are resolved.

There can be no first match to first match conditions as they have been resolved.

The match criteria is now increased to include both first and second choice.

However, there can be instances of multiple matches: one person's first match and second match might both choose that person as their second match.

In instances in which a person is matched by more than one, they are matched with their preference.

In this way, the match criteria is increased to third choice, fourth choice, and so on, until all are matched.
In each step removing those matched from the list of possible matches.
And in each step working from a criteria of first match, to first or second match, and so on.

It is probably possible to create a knot or a locking condition in which one person's third choice, if granted, would preclude another person's equally valid third choice. I do not think a lock is possible at less than the third instance, perhaps not at all. If a lock should occur, resolution is to be by random selection.

There are other matching methodologies out there (one that even won the Nobel Prize, I do believe), but they gave a preference to evaluation order. In that, if one person's choice is revealed and acted upon before all others, their choice criteria has been artificially elevated a level (i.e. their third choice selection would have as much power as another's second choice).

I find it annoying when history books talk about a belief in the world being flat back in the time of Christopher Columbus. I imagine most people of any intellect knew the world was round, the Greeks did.

Well, CyThon, my friend, not all humans were as stupid... as so many sources would have you believe.

And finally:

Power to the People

To equalize Capital with Labour, Capital must be put in jeopardy (depreciated by inflation, taxation, or other hot potato method) at the same rate Labour is prone to physical deprivation. At homoeostasis:

Labour Starves ~~ Capital Starves

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paufler.net@gmail.com