J. E. Devilock

26 Feb 2025

Links on the Do Not Click list contain: might may could should would ? say/says

I have worked in the physical and social sciences, and I definitely agree with your description of some students viewing math as a language game.

Jay Daigle@profjaydaigle.bsky.social

Many students experience math as pushing around symbols that don't really mean anything. If that's your experience of math, maybe it's hard to viscerally get mathematician's complaints that a lot of AI proofs "only" solve problems, without generating any new understanding.

There are both students who enjoy the game and students who find it a tedious requirement. I have tried to link the symbols to observable phenomena (when appropriate), but to be honest, my colleagues in math have not been very receptive to that approach.

Experiment: my (old) #slackware desktop crashes waaay too often (almost weekly) when I have firefox open, especially overnight. Going to try working without firefox for a while.

18 Aug

I did get used to using vlc on #android, but tbh I feel pretty stupid having wasted time trying various text-/markdown-editor apps when #termux was always around to provide #emacs (and ssh and #mpd and ncmpcpp and python and ...)

19 Aug

To get emacs flyspell-mode under termux: pkg install aspell aspell-en ln -s /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/aspell ~/bin/ispell

17 Aug

Such is my respect that I first searched for the meaning of "qi-think" and now I vow to give it one

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11 Aug

The inevitable endpoint of "states' rights"

Micah@rincewind.run

*shouting until I am hoarse* LAND DOESN'T VOTE

28 July

"life is a zero-sum game to a lot" (of people who lost their economics mid-sentence)

John Scalzi@scalzi.com

The right-wing objection to me and my work happened largely not because of the plain text of any of my fiction, but because of my writing about politics and social issues in other places, and also because I've had a better career than they have had, and life is a zero-sum game to a lot of them.

26 July

Is there a way to mute Followed in Discover?

10 July

Smalltalk is the You'll Understand It When You're Older of languages and I want to respect it but Don't Be an Asshole is important to me and the documentation requires a certain patience

2 July

probability that privileged kids (or ahem their parents) raise "challenges": high to always

Asawin Suebsaeng@swin24.bsky.social

Also I….. I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this so feel free to bully me into deleting it but if your kid is intimidated by the real or completely imaginary trans kid trying to play their sport, maybe they suck at it and weren’t gonna go far anyway

24 June

Uncertainty about whether your own joy is good signals maturity.

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21 June

*dead*

Kendra James@kendrajames.bsky.social

The American Library Association is auctioning off a bunch of the classic celebrity “READ” posters along with a bunch of other full sized literacy posters. This is going to fix so many of my problems, I just know it. movieposters.ha.com/c/search/res...

10 June

re: hyperonline e-masculinism

Jeff Sharlet@jeffsharlet.bsky.social

This really is an astonishing piece, both as incredible reporting and as portrait of the depths of "masculinism" and its full merger with MAGA. I thought I knew what the Tates are; it's even worse, and worse in ways that are important to understand.

9 June

Owning the listeria

Adam Serwer@adamserwer.bsky.social

The raw milk thing is proof that you can trick conservatives into literally eating shit and liking it bsky.app/profile/prop...

29 May

no notes

Steve BOOSwood@papafazuul.bsky.social

BREAKING: Zack Attack has backed out of Freedom 250.

J. E. Devilock reposted

Who’s next?

en.opensuse.orgen.opensuse.org

26 May

wow terrifying message on attempted mount of my work docs wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock dmesg says BTRFS error: bad tree block start fortunately mount -o usebackuproot /dev/sda1 /mnt worked fine. Thank you #linux community #btrfs #slackware en.opensuse.org/SDB:BTRFS#Ho...

26 May

it was interesting to learn that raspberry pi 3B does not support btrfs. I have only been trying btrfs out as a lark (backups are good), but that was pretty scary for a few minutes

26 May

which AI dungeon master is best?

who you were just an hour ago

We are not as far West as we suppose we are

who you were just an hour ago

I saw the sad young cardinals and I should not be allowed to touch anything

who you were just an hour ago

we are burning up all of our choices ... we can taste fresh blood in our mouths again

who you were just an hour ago

I thought I'd figured out the world in a circular way

5 May

Congratulations to Bundy K. Brown on the Pulitzer citation

4 May

*torn between kinda liking two things*

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27 Apr

to wit, WordStar

🎃 Imani Gandy Corn 🎃@angryblacklady.blacksky.app

a word processor, a package of index cards, microfiche, and unearned hubris. - GenX

14 Apr

*the /appearance/ of fucking corpses

Popehat@kenwhite.bsky.social

For many years people have avoided fucking corpses. Jeffrey Dahmer is taking a different approach.

youtube.comI moved to Wayland :DYouTube video by Bread on Penguins

1 Mar

I was waiting for a trusted recommendation to try wayland/dwl on #slackware, and Bread on Penguins delivered. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpWh... verdict: I like dwl a lot, and it was pretty easy to set up. That said, I have not seen many clear improvements over what I was already using *yet*. 1/

2 Apr

Hmmm I suppose the fact that I haven't really used or configured the Wayland programs since posting the above underscores "not see[ing] many clear improvements"

1 Apr

This new policy does not, in fact, make me want to review products for free #amazon #enshittification

9 Mar

~ ln -s /storage/emulated/0 myhome #termux rules

1 Feb

What is your favorite essay that is not a) book-length b) dusty in tone, either for effect of because yeah it is old c) as much about joshing the form of an essay as about making an argument (see previous)? Asking for a kid who is supposed to write an essay but has not been taught how.

30 Jan

but is he malleable?

southpaw@nycsouthpaw.bsky.social

One day after Jerome Powell says he’s not impressed with precious metal prices as a macroeconomic signal (www.thestreet.com/investing/fe...), precious metal prices are collapsing.

4 Jan

"Foreign religions can be immensely attractive and highly overrated by those who know little of their own, and especially by those who have not worked through and grown out of their own." --Alan Watts

28 Dec 2025

not sure why the SlackBuild for audacity failed, but it installed to `/usr/local` just fine #slackware

20 Dec 2025

"Again you only prove my point that he is too incompetent to be truly dangerous." --Anti-anti-Trump, LLC

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theintercept.comAlabama Begs Supreme Court to Make It Easier to Execute People With Intellectual DisabilitiesThe bizarre oral argument in Hamm v. Smith shows how decades of case law rooted in science is now under siege at the Supreme Court.

16 Dec 2025

if your no-favor approach consistently favors the favored well I got no complaints

Radley Balko@radleybalko.bsky.social

The Supreme Court's disregard for precedent has red states chomping at the bit to return to regressive policies . . . like executing intellectually disabled people. theintercept.com/2025/12/14/h...

14 Dec 2025

This isn't freedom.

Laura Burkhardt@lauraannstl.bsky.social

This is college in the United States. Video from inside a Brown University building shows the moment that police found a group of students who were sheltering after the shooting on campus. This isn't freedom.

theguardian.comAll the president’s millions: how the Trumps are turning the presidency into richesFrom Vietnam to the Balkans, Donald Trump’s family has launched a global dealmaking blitz since his re-election

30 Nov 2025

"Very, very, very, very rich"? Kind of ... he's missing some 0's ... he's using the presidency to get a seat at the kids' table next to The Rich

Senator Chris Van Hollen@vanhollen.senate.gov

Trump isn't doing anything to lower costs for your family, but he is using the full force of the presidency to make himself and his family very, very, very, very rich.