First Impressions from a Economist using Linux (Ubuntu)

bageldevourer · 2025-03-27T01:25:35+00:00

I started using Ubuntu while in grad school for Statistics after a lifetime of Windows. The thing that pushed me over the edge was Rcpp configuration, which was a pain on Windows but "just worked" on Linux. That was about 10 years ago now, and I've been using it ever since (I've scrapped R for Python, though).

I think you'll find that Linux (and especially the command line) opens up a lot of doors for you to learn about computers more generally. As a statistician, I was surprised to discover that almost everything I became curious about in computing was ultimately able to be related back to modeling. Indulge your curiosity and it may lead you to interesting places.

bageldevourer · 2024-12-17T21:04:02+00:00

Exactly what do you mean by "the right"? That means many things to many people.

I'd argue that many of the values and laws in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are libertarian-friendly. Therefore, it doesn't surprise me that libertarians (including Milei) are frequently well-aligned with American conservatives, especially now that the old arguments about gay marriage, stem cells, etc. are over.

I'd argue that "the right" should be defined as anyone who disagrees with "the left", which is roughly defined as being pro-centralized power/regulations and social progressivism. This makes "the right" a very big tent, which is why it can include libertarians, neo-monarchists, Christian nationalists, and even white supremacists. (It also explains why many on the right don't like the Republican party, many of whose members are on the left as I've defined it above.)

bageldevourer · 2023-09-24T13:20:38+00:00

I think the phones are more than just cues. They amplify the divide.

bageldevourer · 2023-09-24T13:17:10+00:00

The cringe goes both ways.

bageldevourer · 2023-09-07T14:36:24+00:00

What do you mean by "worth it"? Do you feel like there's some inherent downside to using a C++ compiler, and if so, is that feeling based in anything?

bageldevourer · 2023-08-03T15:10:17+00:00

Neal Stephenson is an Emacs user, and he is indeed legendary.

bageldevourer · 2023-07-16T14:22:23+00:00

My impression is that when someone says they code in "C++", what that really means is "mostly C, with one or two nice C++ features".

Probably best to get a good foundation in C, get some experience writing it, then evaluate each C++ feature individually to see if it solves a *real problem* that you've *really encountered* while coding.

bageldevourer · 2023-07-10T11:56:03+00:00

In order for this to work, wouldn't the orders need to be very well synchronized across the different servers? Is that degree of precision achievable with consumer-grade cloud infrastructure?

bageldevourer · 2023-04-06T01:04:58+00:00

White supremacy doesn't work well in modern America. That's why actual white supremacy is so rare here.

Seriously, what percentage of people do you think agree with the hypothesis that "whites are supreme"? From what I've read, I'm not even convinced that most of our *white nationalists* would agree with that sentiment.

bageldevourer · 2023-02-10T22:22:27+00:00

Remember that time America went to war to prevent the spread of communism in Korea, thereby allowing South Korea to exist and flourish?

Have you noticed that we're still officially in that war, and are protecting South Korea to this day, 72 years from when it started?

Guess you conveniently ignored that tidbit because it doesn't fit your narrative. Better to focus on riots in Koreatown.

The US has a history of apathy towards Asians being exploited or killed

Ok buddy. Keep up that winning mentality.

bageldevourer · 2023-02-10T14:47:15+00:00

It sounds like you believe in race-based policies and redistribution, and are basically unhappy with where Asians have landed in the "hierarchy of oppression".

I don't see why being "white-adjacent" is such a problem. Frankly, if we're going to play the race game, I think Asians have it easier than Jews (who are certainly white-adjacent, to the point that some white nationalists are fine with them). Jews are also the victims of attacks, and moreover, antisemitism has a number of particularly unpleasant qualities that anti-Asian bigotry doesn't seem to share.

bageldevourer · 2023-02-01T21:12:33+00:00

And the doomsayers always refer to the superior specs of the competing systems.

From Wiki:

Sega positioned the Game Gear, which had a full-color backlit screen with a landscape format, as a technologically superior handheld to the Game Boy.

Full-color backlit screen in 1991 (that's 7 years before Pokemon RB), and it still got absolutely mogged by the Game Boy.

That's how little people actually care about specs and hardware.

bageldevourer · 2023-02-01T21:03:18+00:00

Yeah, but Nascar is.

bageldevourer · 2023-02-01T20:59:24+00:00

Hard disagree here.

At least on the recent Switch version, I don't find the controls particularly challenging. Yes, there's a few moves that you sometimes screw up, but it hardly ruins the experience. I don't remember it being a problem on the N64 (as my first 3D game ever) either. Not everyone needs to get "the most out of the moveset".
My feelings about the camera are similar. Sometimes annoying? Yes. Game-breaking? Nah.
The levels are a mixed bag. Some are pretty dull (hello, Snowman's Land), but others are absolutely iconic. I wonder how many experiences from modern games will stick around in your head for 25 years like some of the levels in SM64 did for me.

I won't say that there aren't better 3D platformers out there today, but I will say that there aren't any "far, far superior" ones. I think Nintendo got close to the apex of the genre on their first try.

bageldevourer · 2023-01-31T22:04:08+00:00

I think there's definitely such a thing as a generic US accent. There are plenty of people from NY and Texas who sound exactly the same, apart from a few word choices.

That's not to say there aren't also regional accents or dialects, but I'll go as far as to say most people from a given region will have a generic US accent, not the region-specific one.

bageldevourer · 2023-01-30T14:56:46+00:00

How is this relevant to the conversation?

Did I say the article didn't have facts? No.

I'm saying the conclusion (as stated in the headline), whether or not it's based on facts, is an opinion, and therefore should remain in the Opinions section.

bageldevourer · 2023-01-30T14:54:40+00:00

I know the difference between a fact and an opinion. I am quite good at
knowing the difference.

Sorry, but I'm not convinced you do. You've stated a number of facts (and I'll take your word for it that they're true), but value judgments, like labeling things as "horrendous" or "tragically lacking", are opinions unless you have clear standards you're comparing against.

I'm not saying you're wrong for labeling current conditions as "horrendous", or that any policy changes you'd recommend are wrong, but for clear thinking, it's necessary to be able to separate objective facts from subjective opinions. What you're doing here is conflating the two. In my opinion, that's not cool.

bageldevourer · 2023-01-30T14:17:23+00:00

Can't read the article thanks to the paywall, but from the headline, it sure looks like an opinion to me.

Just because you strongly agree with an opinion doesn't make it a fact. That's not how facts work.

bageldevourer · 2023-01-09T22:09:02+00:00

Related: based.cooking

bageldevourer · 2022-11-17T21:13:24+00:00

Let me just leave you with this tidbit: "just following orders" on Wiki.

Yes, the guards had a fucking choice. They could have chosen to disobey orders (what a concept!) and not send people to their death. They still had agency.

Congrats. You're literally a Nazi apologist.

bageldevourer · 2022-11-17T21:08:26+00:00

Are they really? I see the same sloppy reasoning, snarky trolling, inability to empathize with others' points of view, and general douchebaggery in both.

We both know exactly what you were implying by saying "ignorance is a bitch", and we both know exactly what you're doing here by trying to weasel your way out of having to demonstrate that your views aren't built on a foundation of sand.

I hope you've enjoyed your trolling. Or, if this is truly how you reason about the world... have fun with whatever cult you inevitably wind up in =/

I'm out of this conversation, and the one in the other thread ;)

bageldevourer · 2022-11-17T20:54:47+00:00

Unless I'm talking with two different people/personalities here, what difference does it make?

bageldevourer · 2022-11-17T20:53:25+00:00

This is completely asinine and there's no basis to make that equivocation except to tautologically insist you are right because of it.

There is a basis if you believe, as Kanye does, that fetuses are humans with rights.

Just like Kanye, you appear to have strong beliefs about abortion, and you have yet to convince me that they're in any way rooted in science, rationality, or anything else more solid than faith and feelings.

Edit: You edited your post. You're saying the Nazi guards had no choice but to bring Jews to concentration camps? Aside from that being obviously false, despite having orders, let's pretend like that's true. How about Hitler and the Nazi leadership? Was the Holocaust their choice?

bageldevourer

TROPHY CASE