FoxQuirk 🦊 @quirk@computerfairi.es

this is why I think encapsulation is the actual important part of object-oriented programming. inheritance and dynamic dispatch are, in limited applications, useful tools for sharing abstractions, but the sharing is not the point. that's another common misconception about abstraction that drives me up the wall.

here's a concrete example of an actual abstraction: strings. you can, if you are so inclined, carry around a raw byte buffer together with information about how large the buffer is, how much of the buffer is used, etc. but that's error-prone. every place you have to use the string, you have to keep all of these things straight in your head. make sure the right size is associated with the right string, make sure you don't swap the size and capacity arguments to a function, yadda yadda yadda.

this is why string manipulation in C sucks so hard.

or. you can stick all those raw parts in a struct, say "do not look at the bits behind the curtain," and just traffic in strings, like a normal first-class data type. that's an abstraction. it doesn't have to be a class (but it helps), it doesn't have to involve inheritance or dynamic dispatch. you're replacing a big bag of complexity with a reification of its corresponding high-level concept. that's abstraction.

I see the infosec industry has finally achieved security once and for all by shutting down every workstation connected to the internet

I am looking for a (preferably derogatory) term to evoke the steaming, interconnected mess of for-profit academic publishing, research-institution and funding-body selection criteria, and research career structure.

I was thinking of something like an analogue to "military-industrial complex" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93industrial_complex) - so something like "academic-publishing research-institution industrial complex".

I would greatly appreciate suggestions for a name for this.

@openscience @academicchatter #OpenScience #OpenAccess @petersuber @albertcardona @brembs @jonny @UlrikeHahn

Decided to check where it's possible to watch Oshi no Ko legally

Crunchyroll: This series isn't listed

Hidive: No series are listed at all. The front page just says "No content available". what

Amazon (🤮) Prime Video: This series is listed, but it says it's not available in my country (at least they're upfront about it)

Possible other streaming sites?: I have no idea how to find out if there are any. I didn't see any on Google, at least

Cool. It's great how piracy is a solved problem

@hikari “Mozart in Mirrorshades” by Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner (1985)

going to change history. i'm gonna tell mozart about house music

So present Joe Biden came down with COVID-19 and the YouTuber who interviewed him has questions about contact tracing or the complete lack thereof.

#joebiden #COVIDsNotOver

here's my bucket list:

• see a bucket

has anyone ever made a mod of half-life set, like, the day before. so it's just a normal day at work. and freeman just walks around the office, vibing. i would love to play that

If you like off-by-one errors you will love knitting

I would cast so many little spells in there

‪the most hilarious thing in audiophile digital technology to me btw is direct stream digital. a technology that requires such an absurdly high notional sample rate that it causes serious ultrasonic noise problems, and has to be converted from pcm anyway so what's the point‬

how are audiophile dacs a thing lmao

it costs ten thousand dollars? it reproduces the signal authentically? buddy, the artist recorded the song on an aurally transparent $1 adc. no amount of dollar signs will “restore” the quality already “lost” to that

buy a fucking piano

they're gonna give biden the trump steroids for his covid and the next time a reporter asks him why he's reneged on being a "bridge candidate" he's gonna rip their fucking head off with a single hand

Of course the claimant backed down. How could they do otherwise?

But the fact remains that they should face legal repercussions for claiming ownership over something they don't own.

I should, at least, be able to bill them for the time I spent dealing with their spurious claim, but frankly the repercussions should be worse and deeper than that.

Issuing an illegal takedown notice should come with serious risk.

I just got a copyright claim against a video I posted on youtube 10 years ago.

The video is a film by Georges Melies that was shot in the 1890s.

Someone is attempting to claim copyright over a film that is 130 years old, who's director died 86 years ago.

Now 1) I don't give a shit about this clip on youtube. 2) The person who made this claim is clearly in the wrong. 3) I can't be the only one that they have targeted illegally. 4) Youtube is a problem.