matt_j

What drivelling times are these!

This seems like an over-protective attitude to me.

I rode my bike around the (Australian, suburban) streets from age 5, rode to school for 12 odd years, caught the train to the city and skated all over it from about age 13. My parents made a point of letting us (me and siblings) 'rough and tumble' as we grew up.

We had a lot of scrapes, don't get me wrong, but you learn a lot as a kid if you can fall over a few times. Kids are good at taking care of themselves, and each other, if you let them. Within reason, of course, but I see a lot of coddling these days and a lot of soft kids that have never been beyond the padded playground walls.

You can definitely ride offroad on the old style mountain bikes. I used to ride a department store bike ($200 job) on the tracks in a national park and had a blast, and it teaches you good riding habits as well. On a full suspension bike you can make all kinds of mistakes and they will be covered but on a rigid or hardtail you pay for those mistakes more dearly.

I ride a full suspension trail bike these days. It's really comfortable and I can go on much longer rides and hit all kinds of gnarly terrain. But I still like to get scrappy on my old hardtail sometimes :)

Perhaps not, but you don't have a lot of options on a handlebar. You could drill holes and bolt it I guess. I think they are OK for gravel tracks but if you are taking big bumps it's gonna be an issue, and modern MTB is all about big bumps 'cause we have suspension now <3

Bar-ends are mounted in the handlebar tube by friction alone. On any decently bumpy trail, they have a pretty good chance of twisting (forwards and down) and you could hit the handlebars with your face.

They are useful for one of the reasons curved bars are useful on a road bike, it's a change of position to give you a rest, and potentially a better climbing position but I doubt it.

I had bar ends on my bike in high school 'cause they were cool but I've ridden cross country and downhill MTB for a couple of decades now and bar-ends are not something I would consider adding to my bike.

Salty, but not wrong!

Carrying The Fire is my favourite astronaut memoir and I've read a few, it reads beautifully. Highly recommended to anyone with an interest.

Right! I'm familiar with Donato Dozzy and their collaborations, it's a match made in heaven. I need to chase down a copy of his K album on vinyl, it's lovely.

Nice!

I love acid music, such a simple formula with infinite variation. There's something so delicious about the wobble of a 303 bassline.

I just want to mention Tin Man for those who are interested in acid. He writes, mostly, quite palatable (often mournful) tunes at house music tempo, but he has a good range and goes full banger at times. A real wizard with a heart for the genre.

https://www.discogs.com/artist/313993-Tin-Man-3

You're entitled to your opinion, and I'm not arguing that the lockdown wasn't extremely strict or that the hotel quarantine debacle wasn't negligent on the part of the government (they should have put a much better security infrastructure in place) ... BUT, when the damage is already done, we still have a virus to contain and I think the measures that were taken were appropriate and very effective.

Protesting by not wearing a mask, or breaking the distancing rules, isn't doing you or anyone else any good. The science on how not to spread a respiratory virus is grade school level.

I spent 6 months in lock down in a 1 bedroom apartment in Australia. Working from home. 1hr outdoor/exercise a day. No more than 5km from home. We had pretty strict rules. I went for a walk around the block with my mate once a week and spoke to my family on zoom once a fortnight and that was about the extent of my social contact for a large part of 2020.

I managed pretty well. I'm a naturally introverted person, which is perhaps a good trait to have in this situation. I'm already used to spending a lot of time by myself and I have things I like to do. This is key, I think. I spent long hours making DJ mixes in Ableton and playing records on my hi-fi. That's a creative place for me and it was very satisfying to have the time to bury myself in it.

I wrote code, not heaps, but I played around with a few things.

I dug up some old/remake computer games (Half Life Black Mesa was by far the best)! I watched a bunch of old films I haven't seen in years, and a few bits and pieces on Netflix. I read books. I went for a 1hr walk every day and enjoyed the sight of trees and the sound of birds. I said a sincere thanks and smiled with my eyes at the people who staff the stores I shopped at once/twice a week. They have a hard job and I think it's important to convey gratitude to them.

I'd be lying if I said it was all fine, there were definitely days when I was bored stiff, depressed or otherwise not in a great place, but it was helpful to remember that everyone was in the same boat, and my sacrifice, along with everyone else's, are what is going to pull us through.

Keep your chins up. Especially you guys in the USA. What a mess you have to fix over there. I hope this year is productive.

Making a mod is a really good driver for learning development. That's how I got started. It's good that the goal is so unreachable at the start. There's an awful lot to learn and you need to boostrap yourself, somehow, into doing something remotely productive.

I never finished my mod, but I spent 2 years learning C++, Photoshop, 3DS Max, Worldcraft, and all manner of other tools on the way. It was great exposure and it never felt tedious because my goal wasn't learning how to program, it was learning how to make a homing missile, or a texture for my fort. :)

I wasn't really interested, at the time, in learning how to write a simple bank that could process transactions, or a task list.

An astonishingly large percentage of the population are parroting this and all manner of other misinformation on social media, all day, every day, for months, and it's getting worse as one by one the dominoes fall and yet another impressionable mind is swayed and joins the chorus.

I don't think censorship is necessarily the right approach to mitigate this torrent of bullshit, but it's clearly out of control.

There's nuance to each of the terms. Asocial is what I would say an introvert often is; avoids social interaction without necessarily wishing ill, perhaps dislikes being in the company of others. Anti-social behaviour is disruptive to others, perhaps violent.

I agree that it isn't a trait to be proud of, but show me a government that isn't morally bankrupt and I'll show you a government that you don't know enough about.

Being civilized seems to be a low priority in the civilized world.

The US conflict with Iraq was unjustified and based on blatant lies. Whatever their reasons for invading, they were certainly to further their own interests, the economic boost of a war machine and rebuilding infrastructure, geo-politics, etc. The interests of the "poor Iraqi people" come about dead last on the list of reasons the wars occurred.

So "protecting your civilisation and way of life" from the fallout of an unjustified war that one's country (coalition of the willing?) participated in, does make one a bit of a bastard, and that's putting it lightly.

Last time I checked we're all humans and until we all live in relative comfort there's a bunch of fatties on one end consuming more than their fair share.

Cataclysmic events occur on geological timescales. Historically no species survives more than some thousands or perhaps millions of years, timescales short enough to fit between unavoidable extinction events.

Humanity is currently on a path to destroy the earth's capability to sustain us, on a timescale that is laughably small compared to geological timescales.

If we behaved better, humanity could conceivably exist for hundreds of thousands, or millions of years without being obliterated by an asteroid or colossal volcanic eruption(s).

At the rate we're going, we won't last another few hundred years before we create an environment so toxic and unlivable that we extinguish ourselves.

Luckily a few rich crap heads will get even richer before that happens, bless their cotton socks, so it will all have been worth it.

Speed is a factor. A motorcycle can easily travel 60km/h - 120km/h. A bicycle is likely to be travel at 20km/h - 40km/h. 40km/h is pretty damn fast on a bike. Maybe the enthusiast guys riding the beach in the morning get up to 60km/h but that's a pretty small percentage riders.

I had a Geocities site in high school (mid 90s) complete with wood panel background, animated gifs (rotating skull, etc), visitor counter, headings with color gradient, blinking text and an autoplay midi file of Hotel California.

I'm so sorry. :)

There is more to a beautiful equation than the shape of the symbols used to describe it. The beauty of Euler's identity is the relationship between 5 fundamental constants (0, 1, e, i, pi). It's simple, elegant and far reaching.

The relationship is the same regardless of the notation.

If people are bored because "all jazz sounds the same" / "heard it all before" how is that the popular sounds of today are all regurgitated EDM / rock-lite / rap-lite / "nothing-music" that literally all sounds the same and most of it awful? :P

There's been a long downturn in appreciation for good music IMO. My parents generation (boomers) are more musical than my generation and I think it's getting worse. More of them play instruments. More of them (can) sing. The music they like isn't necessarily highbrow, but it has more musical complexity than most of the stuff on the radio these days. Even simple stuff, like harmony, or a unique rhythm.

A lot of popular music today is atonal trash written for the meme generation. Autotune, weak synthesized sounds, highly compressed for punch to the detriment of everything else, same old rhythms, no harmony, barely a melody, etc. I have nothing against dance music, or hip-hop, in fact I have a deep love for music in both of those genres, but there's a thick layer of terrible that rises to the top of the pop charts and you have to dig through it to find music of any worth.

I'm no musical elitist, but I do take the time to listen outside my comfort zone and it has broadened my horizons enough that I'm not satisfied listening to whatever tripe some top20 station decides they'll make popular this week. I'd rather listen to Muddy Waters for the 1000th time. :)

I completed a bunch of courses at Udacity before they introduced the Nanodegree programs. I enjoyed the experience and gained useful knowledge in areas that my regular degree program didn't cover (brushed up on Stats, Python web programming, JavaScript graphics, etc), but free courses doesn't seem like a viable business platform.

The Nanodegree programs are not free, and from the courses that are included it's clear that you would gain valuable skills, but are they recognized as a qualification in industry at large? I'm sure some employers would consider them, but would enough employers?

Regardless, it's a fantastic service that they offer, and I'm grateful for it. Hopefully they can keep the ball rolling and pivot to a place that is profitable enough for them to continue.

Plaid is another cool artist on Warp Records.

Good sounds :) Do you know Future Sound of London? Try their Lifeforms and Environments (I, II, III, ...) albums.

Nice app mate, I particularly like the elements that show the colors used with a practical example.

Every time I come up with some crazy bash construction someone shows me how I could have done it more elegantly with AWK and nothing else. <3

https://gregable.com/2010/09/why-you-should-know-just-little...

I read on the train when I commute to and from work. The train is frightfully busy, rammed full, noisy, uncomfortable, but as soon as I open my book it's just me and the page. It's my favourite part of the day, my own little world. The only problem is the trip seems too short, I lift my head after what seems like a few minutes and I'm already pulling into my station.

That's a good point, and I still hear music I like today it's just that absolutely none of it is on any popular radio station.

Finding music becomes easier the more you practise, but a few things you can do are: 1) Follow the 'if you like this, you might like this' recommendations in your music program of choice. 2) Curate your own playlist/collection to better inform the algorithms. I use Youtube, SoundCloud and BandCamp a lot these days and keep a list of favourites on each site. 3) Go out and see bands if you have access to bars/venues, it's better in cities. See bands you don't know but sound good on paper. There's a ton of good music from bands that aren't signed to major labels 4) Talk to people, what do they like? Check out their recommendations, update your favourites lists, back to 1) and follow your nose. 5) Inform yourself about what labels release music you like. Following labels is often better than following artists, they each curate a sound of sorts and have some variety across that. Discogs.com is a great site for learning about artists, labels, etc and finding specific releases. 5) Listen to community radio. They often have DJs that are really into genre X or sound Y and are a wealth of information and great playlists. Popular radio stations don't exist to play music, they are just advertisement platforms.

What kind of music do you like? I can probably throw a few artists at you.

Modern pop music is becoming trashier by the year. Loud (as in no dynamic range), obnoxious crescendos and drops, little nuance, simple melodies, no harmony, obvious grooves that lack the subtle swing required to shake someone from the inside. Ever increasing narcissistic and low-brow lyrical content. It's everything I despise.

Pop music has always been trashy, but there's a big difference between The Monkeys and Cardi B. I hear pop songs from the past and hum along. Pop songs from the present inspire nothing but a frothing rage in me.

Thankfully there's a lot of great music that isn't popular! I just have to avoid the radio and television.