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A List of Missions to Venus

Aug 24, 2023 · 2 min read · Prattle

My favourite wikipedia article is called List of Missions to Venus. Nowadays we're all amazed that astronomers can send a rocket out, and expect it to fly around the planet three times, nip round the moon, change trajectory while passing Jupiter, and land on some asteroid like a cautious butterfly, so it can send …

How Algorithms Can Affect Our Lives

Aug 20, 2023 · 1 min read · FOSS

Shopping If you ask Google what to buy, it wants to show you the products from companies which have paid it the most, or products that it owns, such as Google's Office suite. Friends & Activities Someone posts up an event - skating, clubbing, or gardening - whatever it is, the algorithm correctly detects that this kind …

A Review of Soft Server

Jun 21, 2023 · 2 min read · Review Git Linux

Soft Serve is a git server for the command line. You can see the maintainers' version here, with ssh: 1ssh git.charm.sh It looks like this: 1 2 Soft Serve 3 4 • Repositories About 5 6 ┃ Bubble Tea 7 Updated 31 minutes ago 8 ┃ A powerful little TUI framework [mirror] 9 ┃ git clone git@git.charm.sh:bubbletea.git 10 11 …

Sci-Fi

May 21, 2023 · 2 min read · Prattle

Deep Space 9, Season 6, Episode 9 - 'Statistical Probabilities' This episode introduces the ridiculous notion that clever people can predict the future with clever Maths, and it's very special. Most sci-fi relies on now-but-later ideas of how the world works, and fancy special effects, to entertain. This episode didn't …

Alternative School Programs

May 12, 2023 · 6 min read · Learning

I find it bizarre how similar all schooling is, and how few alternatives people have tried. Of course some experiments exist, such as Summer Hill, run by Neil, which famously did not demand that pupils attend any classes, and showed why children would attend classes anyway. And of course different schools exist - …

Critical Thinking: An Introduction

May 7, 2023 · 3 min read · Prattle Philosophy

Fallacies and critical thinking are all the rage in some circles, but I hear a lot about (and occasionally experience) people making 'logic-noises' who clearly haven't studied the subject. In fact, they seem unaware one can take a University course in the subject, as they've missed the first lesson every student of …

Auto Eugenics

Apr 28, 2023 · 5 min read · Politics Philosophy

Once in a while I hear of someone who's decided to not have children because of bad ideas. I don't want to argue that anyone should or should not have children, but I do want to remove those bad ideas. The bad ideas usually go something like this: "I have this condition, and I don't think I should inflict that on …

University Degrees are Weird

Apr 26, 2023 · 1 min read · Prattle Learning

I imagine the conversation between a University and potential student going like this: 1 I'd like to get qualified in a subject. Four years. 1 Woah there, I haven't told you what I want to learn yet. Doesn't matter. Everything takes four years to learn. 1 Really? Everything? Art and medicine? Computing and Sociology? …

Building a Meme in Under a Month

Apr 20, 2023 · 10 min read · Security Politics

People have parroted that old cyber-security phrase - 'depends on the threat model' - so often, so quickly, and so vacuously, that I find my toes curling at the sound of it. But after some dealing with some imbeciles on Reddit's /r/privacy, I have to write this article about the importance of the threat model. It …

Neutral News

Apr 15, 2023 · 3 min read · Prattle Politics

"News sources are biased", and "everyone lives in a bubble", we all hear constantly (or perhaps that's just my bubble). But what would a non-biased news source look like? Taking a strict middle-ground gives immediately ridiculous conclusions. Perhaps the UK's food banks suggest some problem, but not much of a problem? …