Vi

I had to learn a little bit of vi to do something the other day. (Edit a Python file to install CentOS 7 on a MacBook Pro, specifically.)

What a terrible turd of a text editor. I already hate that part of my brain that knows anything about vi now.

I canโ€™t wait to forget it all.

Next gen

Yeah, I know itโ€™s Facebook and I had to unblock their domain to even read this, but this is interesting.

Itโ€™s really just an extension of a standard sort of design that Iโ€™ve been reading a lot about lately, but amped up to 11.

We were able to build our fabric using standard BGP4 as the only routing protocol. To keep things simple, we used only the minimum necessary protocol features.

Itโ€™s actually a really simple network design though I know it looks byzantine and complicated. Itโ€™s awesomely scalable; Iโ€™m impressed. Iโ€™ll likely never need something like that, or even to design something 1/100 that powerful, but it does give me some ideas that I can use in networks that I’ll likely build.

Punch up

I agree โ€“ this bothers me as well. Itโ€™s so much easier to punch down, and though unattractive imagesmen in society have done themselves no favors (GamerGate, etc.) they donโ€™t really hold that much power. And since unattractive people are easy to hate, they make targets that are irresistible to just about anyone (the same is true of unattractive women, before anyone gets upset) including the Left, which really should know better.

But people are afraid of punching up, so they punch down. If you punch up โ€“ at the real people with power in society โ€“ they can and do punch back. Very hard. Sometimes hard enough to ruin your life forever, so I understand the fear. But thereโ€™s no victory to be had, or even any satisfaction, in punching down.

So punch up. This is why.

i really need people to stop talking about mras only in terms of fedoras/being bronys/how unkempt they are, etc. because there are dudes out here looking like hollister models who need to be held just as accountable for their creepy/misogynistic behavior

Some 27-year-old unemployed overweight dude in his momโ€™s basement yelling racial slurs in Halo v-chat and threatening Anita Sarkeesian on Twitter while certainly an asshole and while 517ed541257f9db933ba65ac2b401cf0also certainly supportive of and contributory to patriarchy has scarcely more power than the people he rails against (which goes together, actually). Heโ€™s already been abandoned by society and knows it. Thatโ€™ s part of the reason heโ€™s so angry.

To end the Halo-screaming dude, you should really be working on dismantling capitalism and the entire system of patriarchy and similar tasks like that, not making fun of some dude who while vile became that way for a reason. And definitely not descending further into the identity politics hellhole, because thatโ€™s what the elite wants you to do as it assures themโ€“ absolutely fucking guarantees โ€“ that nothing useful will ever get accomplished.

I have sympathy I guess for people like the apocryphal basement dweller because I couldโ€™ve easily been him, if not for a few lucky breaks and my absolute ridiculous stubbornness.

In the Left, itโ€™s only cool to body-shame, fat-shame and otherwise police using tactics youโ€™d otherwise never countenance as long as it’s directed towards people you hate. I canโ€™t get on board with that. I donโ€™t like being a hypocrite, and thatโ€™d make me one.

I don’t punch much these days (metaphorically or literally) but when I do, I always try to punch up.

Eye

I know itโ€™s terrible to hear, but I would put absolutely no stock in any eyewitness reports about the Michael Brown shooting โ€“ either by bystanders (friendly or otherwise) or Darren Wilson himself.

I know supporters of both sides will crucify me for this, but eyewitness testimony is utterly unreliable, and not because people are lying.

Did Michael Brown have his hands up? Was he turned away from the cop or towards the cop? What did he actually do?

Without video, we donโ€™t know. Weโ€™ll never know. No matter how many eyewitnesses you think you have, it doesnโ€™t matter.

In reality, eyewitness testimony is about as reliable as what your cat thinks about quantum mechanics. I would put more stock in astrology than in eyewitness testimony, especially since evidence shows the more traumatic the event or unexpected, the less accurate the memory.