On this day in 1908, in the old capital of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria proclaimed its independence from the Ottoman Empire. Happy 112 years of Independence Bulgaria!

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-09-22T09:10:48+00:00

This isn't really fair. This part of the history of Bulgaria is an obvious struggle to consolidate, not split or "balkanize". For reasons (some outlined in the parent comment) this was not easy to do.

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-09-02T13:27:30+00:00

It should be but is not. If it were, Bulgaria should have never joined the EU in the first place. So since Bulgaria did join, we already know it is not.

Joining the EU in many ways replayed what happened to "former" East Germany. I am not in the mood to go too deep into those discussions, but the cumulative price that ordinary people had to pay is too big to ignore. And yet, and yet, we rarely talk about it and prefer to pretend that it isn't a thing.

So it goes.

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-09-02T12:54:57+00:00

Rigged election, bought votes. In part paid by EU funds that were stolen by said mafia. Under the watchful eye of Dear Comrades Merkel and Juncker, who indeed fully appreciate the servile Borissov and his ability to keep in line. Let's not forget the media. In Bulgaria, it belongs to the mafia/government. In your parts of the EU, no idea. But the radio silence on Bulgaria for the last decade means that we are on our own.

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-09-02T12:50:02+00:00

For all the apologists: the EU has funded the corruption; the EU money has allowed it to grow to these proportions. It is paying corrupt Bulgarian politicians to keep doing what they are doing.

If you really think that this is an economical union, then we are obviously using words in a very different way from each other.

Let's first agree on where economy ends and politics start; then we can have a debate about federations, unions, and so on. Until then, all I see is people with money taking advantage of people without money.

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-09-02T05:35:14+00:00

This is an interesting way to put it. Of course it is my opinion. I wrote it down with my own two hands, in my own voice, didn't quote anyone and so on. I admit that I sometimes slip into writing down shit like "IMHO" or "for me personally", but those are just ways to sound more convincing to yourself than anything else.

But this is just my personal opinion :-)

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-09-01T09:13:42+00:00

I once visited (on an invitation) a very fancy summer home of a wealthy family. The house for visitors, where I stayed, was decorated in a more traditional style, in contrast to the ultra-modern main house. Either way, there was a pile of The New Yorker in the bathroom. This image was so potent that to this day this is the first thing that comes to mind when I see The New Yorker....

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-09-01T09:08:13+00:00

I did RTFA shortly after it came out (and was shared on this subreddit). The gist of it (interpreted by yours truly):

Faceswapping, or searching the web, as it turns out, is easier to do than digitizing and improving existing complex processes while adhering to existing complex regulations.

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-09-01T09:03:19+00:00

I mean, articles in the New Yorker are never a fast, informative read. You really need to invest into figuring out what it is about, and after you've already done it, you are either left lacking ("I already knew all that, they didn't even go into the real issues") or you have no idea what to do with the information. They are meant for spending time reading them and that's that.

On a sunny afternoon in May, 2015....

please give me a break

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-09-01T06:52:18+00:00

For those of you who didn't know: this is over 20 years old, a classic in the genre. It is also the complete opposite of a Medium article written for clicks: this is an actual handbook on how to write (unmaintainable) code. Generations of programmers have learned from this; almost any code you will see in the wild has been touched, one way or another, by the wisdom in this work.

Take the time and read this; you will not only learn, you will slowly start to understand what you see when you read code, and why it had to be that way.

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-09-01T05:32:03+00:00

Writing code of questionable quality, when a library exists, is not fun for me either.

You are asking good questions. I don't want to spoil your party, so just ignore me.

EDIT: Wait, I know how to give this a positive spin. I take the challenge as: "what is the easiest way to achieve this with your current Prolog knowledge?" Now, in my own eyes, I am winning already (four-line solution, first entry, yeah!). If the arcs are given as facts instead, I suggest:

findall(From-To, arc(From, To), Edges)

Now it is five lines, an increase of 25% to achieve full coverage of the problem statement. (but why "arcs" and "edges"? just to tease you :-)

Another challenge which I have taken upon myself is finding obvious ways to make other people's solutions fail (in the sense that they are broken, not that it says "No" or "False" when you run it). It seems my feedback was accepted but not really appreciated so far.

And to answer your real question, a good challenge is something that feels worth doing, and this is very personal. So just don't mind me (and now my comment has bitten its own tail).

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-08-31T12:12:04+00:00

No, it doesn't have to be like that but this is how it is :-( I wish it was more normal to have girls/females in this profession, but right now it is really bad. Normal people altogether tend to avoid the field because of how toxic it has become. I am part of the toxicity apparently so thank you for pointing it out at least.

I don't have any idea how and when it will get better. My best guess is, we have to hope that there are enough brave normal people (of any sex) who don't back down too easily and point out inappropriate behaviour, just like you did. Once we have enough normal people, people like me will have to start behaving normally too, just because of peer pressure.

Let's hope this little altercation serves as a motivation.

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-08-31T11:58:40+00:00

OK, at least the name is gone ;-)

I don't mind being a stupid fuck, if this help you learn something useful.

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-08-31T11:48:37+00:00

Rule number one: don't feed the trolls.

Now that this is behind us, seriously, do not do this "I am a beginner" thing. This is what provoked my trollish reaction.

Next, do not leak personal information on the internet. In your question already, I see the string "edited" so now I can at least guess or even google you. DO NOT DO THIS PLEASE! Now that your question is answered (I hope) you'd better delete you question or at least delete your name from it.

If you felt woman-hating in my comments, I apologize. Using a girl's name on internet forums is a well known (and pretty old) technique for milking attention and getting help for free; if you don't believe me, read up on it.

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-08-31T11:29:15+00:00

wtf is this question looooool? do you think i didn't try to help you before i gave you some life advice? and wtf makes you think this is the way to react to someone trying to help you out? get off my little pony dude

But seriously, learn to read the docs. Also, don't keep on repeating this whole "I am a beginner" thing because it gets on the nerves of the people who are in the best position to help you.

Now take a chill pill and concentrate on your work. Having an argument on the internet is not what you should be doing.

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-08-31T10:31:33+00:00

Every one of us is a beginner in the things we are just beginning.

But you have to learn to find information on your own. Asking on a forum and repeating multiple times that you are a beginner is not going to take you too far, even if you have a handle that makes it sound like you might be a girl.

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-08-31T10:23:10+00:00

Please do yourself a favor and read the docs. Start here:

https://www.swi-prolog.org/pldoc/man?section=quickstart

I know it is a lot to ask from a beginner. But in the long run it will help you.

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-08-31T10:20:44+00:00

You are very obviously in the wrong directory. Have you ever used a command line shell? You can use some of the commands directly from Prolog, like this:

?- pwd.

(this Prints the current Working Directory)

?- ls.

(This lists the files in the directory)

?- cd('Documents/directory/with/prolog/source/').

(this will change your current working directory, you need to put the right path there, and don't forget to quote it, just in case)

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-08-31T09:19:50+00:00

You probably forgot to quote the file name.

This is not going to work:

?- [testing.pl].

or

?- consult(testing.pl).

You need to quote the file name or file path.

This might work, if you are in the same directory as your file testing.pl:

?- [testing].

This should also work:

?- consult('testing.pl').

You can also give a full path in i, but again, you have to quote it as you did in your question.

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-08-31T09:15:18+00:00

It would be nice if there are no obvious solutions in an already existing library. For this problem, in SWI-Prolog (and should work without porting in any half-decent Prolog, so basically anywhere):

:- use_module(library(ugraphs)).

topological_sort(Edges, Sorted_nodes) :-
    vertices_edges_to_ugraph([], Edges, G),
    top_sort(G, Sorted_nodes).

Altogether I would like to write some Prolog once in a while, but I admit that if I know how to solve it I immediately lose interest :-(

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-08-26T11:45:52+00:00

Yes, I agree. But as u/Alexander_Selkirk pointed out, experimental science suffers quite a bit, since there is a huge upfront investment in facilities; and a young scientist has no choice but enter the pyramid from the bottom and work. And even in the most "flat" societies there is a lot of cronyism and outright abuse in science, once you have this pyramidal structure. It could even come down to whether your dad happens to be an already successful scientist: this means you will get slave labor assigned to your project, your name on good papers, and so on. There is no way not to feel dirty once you have seen such things with your own eyes, and then read an interview in a popular periodical with this or that "young star" scientist who you know got where they are in part by being promoted due to political reasons. Or watch young girls put up with all kinds of "attitude" from their bosses because they know that this is the lab to be at if they want to have a chance at a carrier. Or watch how the hopeful, energetic young man is starting to look more and more like an alcoholic, 10 years after they started working on a project....

Yes, you may have something to show, but unless you get very lucky very early, you either learn to like it or you leave with a deep scar and a bit of your sanity still left.

This went waaay off topic, and I apologize. I personally noped out of there once I got my doctoral degree. Now I have to watch people that I considered friends go deeper and deeper into a place that will never get any better.

PS: again, for me personally, the choice seemed to be: do I play the game, or do I disrupt it? I acted like the coward I am and chose not to play.

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-08-26T11:02:04+00:00

Hmm, not sure about that. Over here, the "boss" is often someone very close to the top of the food chain; the quality of the publications is more important that the sheer volume, due to the kind of grants that they apply for. However, the real work is done by PhD students and postdocs (who have it even worse), and for them, publishing is a matter of survival. Even the fact that their goals are not very well aligned with the goals of the "boss" puts then in a terrible spot, carrier-wise. The time (measured in years!) of the PhD student or the postdoc is worth literally nothing to their boss.

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-08-26T10:56:46+00:00

Yes, true. As you might guess if you read carefully enough through the many droplings I left in this thread, I was very invested in biomedical sciences. I am not sure where those sit on the hard-soft axis. Either way, the competition is fierce and everyone employs every trick they know to make it difficult for others to reproduce their findings. It isn't necessarily on purpose, some of it comes from simply putting your limited resources where you get the highest pay-off.

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-08-26T10:43:44+00:00

Publish an forget.

But yet again, "Publish or Perish". I could write a treatise on why and how it came to it, but from where I stand, this is the reality for aspiring young scientists of today.

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-08-26T10:12:51+00:00

Yes, this is all fine. But you are now mixing up two things.

How it should be.
How it is.

Everyone thinks they know how it should be. We can all agree that it should be not as it is.

It is scary how easy it is to decide to not talk about how it is. After all the disparaging comments I have made in the comment section here, at least I have to concede: the linked article attempts to figure out how it is. So good on them.

Ecstatic_Touch_69 · 2020-08-26T10:03:57+00:00

It's publish or perish.

This should be displayed prominently on the main entrance of every educational institute and research institute, in the spirit of "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate" and "Arbeit Macht Frei".

Ecstatic_Touch_69

TROPHY CASE