Author: OneTrueStudent

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Calculators

I just bought a $100 calculator.

Normally I’m in one of two regimes: $15 calculators or computer software (Matlab, Mathematica, etc.). I infrequently need something inbetween.

However, for some tests I now do, and the quick and dirty TI 30XIIS has hit its limits. Those limits aren’t excessive naming symbols. I got a TI 83+, which apparently isn’t one of the current really good graphing calculators. For me, it’s night and day. It can invert complex functions with a press of a button. I don’t slog through radian/degree conversions. The thing does full on matrix multiplication without dropping negative signs. It’s like seeing dawn.

Still, for a hundred bucks, it better knock my socks off.

It did.

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FBW

Turns out 747 did win. Fat Bear Week had a cheating scandal. Fake votes were cast for Fat Bear Week.

Fat Bear Week.

Someone cheated over Fat Bear Week.

Why?

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Spare Capacity

The tradeoff between efficiency and resilience seems to have tilted far in the direction of efficiency. That works well for a while. An efficient system easily compensates for problems we foresee. But problems are often unforeseen, and few people want to build resilience in the face of something they don’t expect.

With the pandemic, the pendulum has started swinging in the other direction, and I imagine it will swing far.

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Warfare

The reason getting involved in other people’s wars is terribly compelling to some people is that at least you know who is trying to kill you. You don’t know when and you don’t know where, but at least you know who. And humans put a great deal of importance in who.

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Elon Musk vs Twitter

Congratulations, Twitter. You forced someone you hate to buy your company.

Okay?

So now you hate your boss. And he doesn’t like you. And either he’s going to ruin the company as you’ve been saying for years, at which point he will ruin the company you work for, or…you’re all gonig to look like fools.

Seriously, what is the good outcome here?

CS Lewis’s Hell.