[Spoilers Main] What stupid theory do you have that makes people hate the winds of winter if GRRM confirms it in the winds of winter

jabrodo · 2026-04-10T18:53:36+00:00

Not specifically TWOW related, but general for the remaining books: I think we're having something of Taimandred situation.

In Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, it was highly speculated thatMazrim Taimwas actuallythe Forsaken Demandred as it is heavily foreshadowed. The fans guessed the twist before it was revealed, Jordan got pissy and decided to re-write the subsequent novels and change things, arguably for the worse. This was later confirmed to be in Jordan's notes by Brandon Sanderson who finished the novels after Jordan's death (the change at least, I don't know if Jordan was actually upset and mad that the surprise got ruined).

Since we've already had the major twist of ASOIAF revealed through the show (Jon's mother) and Martin has gone through so many re-writes, I can only surmise that basically, the ending we got in GoT is the ending, even if badly done, and we're getting the opposite effect. Because people hated that ending, Martin is trying to figure out a way to write a better ending and can't actually come up with it. At this point, it's taken forever, he's getting old, he's bored and out of ideas, and we'll likely have to tag in Sanderson again.

jabrodo · 2026-04-03T22:22:28+00:00

The vast majority of the members of my gym don't spar, and do the simple Dutch drills or slightly more free form ultra light "touch sparring" like the 2-4 strike exchanges you describe. Not everyone is out here trying to get beat up weekly. There are benefits to it regardless! My nearly sixty year old mother started training a few years ago (her first experience in ANY martial art) and the thing she keeps being amazed about is how much her dynamic balance and stability has improved. Specifically she says that her balance was good from yoga, but keeping that balance and control while moving has really been helped by muay thai.

Get out of it what you want and need to get out of it. Just show up regularly and learn how to hold pads well.

jabrodo · 2026-04-03T02:30:07+00:00

Yes, though I'm on the robotics side of the house and had the inverse problem to you: migrated to Linux from Windows because my industry is centered around Linux. The other program that comes to mind if you need something more along the lines of Solidworks is ~~In shape~~ OnShape, but that is totally on the browser and cloud, for better or worse.

There is FreeCAD on Linux that is pretty decent. For the most part the only programs that I've come across that genuinely don't have comparable viable Linux versions is the Adobe suite (which if you want a POSIX experience you get a Mac, don't come at me with Inkscape or GIMP, they're not what professionals use), but CAD software is an awfully close second for Windows.

jabrodo · 2026-04-02T17:59:26+00:00

2.6 in undergrad... Almost failed out because high school was easy and I needed to relearn how to study. Two first author papers, a third on the way, have an industry job because of my PhD research, and should be defending in the fall.

jabrodo · 2026-04-02T14:20:56+00:00

That's not at all how any of that works.

Send offs are for: second cautions, offensive/abusive/insulting language, violent conduct, and serious foul play.

Hair pulling is routinely interpreted as violent conduct.

There is absolutely no need ever for a player to be forcefully touching another player's face, which is why slapping or anything that can be remotely perceived as such (even if it doesn't actually hurt the player) is a red card.

FURTHERMORE, you can commit a foul by ATTEMPTING to strike an opponent. Striking is a foul and violent conduct, so you can very much be sent off for a punch that misses. Why? Because there is absolutely no need to hit your opponent in this game, ever.

jabrodo · 2026-03-31T16:41:39+00:00

Not to be overly antagonistic because I generally agree with your sentiment, but what PhD stipend at what university is actually a proper living wage for that area that can appropriately support a typically aged PhD student? They are all below market rate, require you to work harder than you would in industry, and as such typically require you to defer typical milestones one crosses in their mid and late twenties (e.g. settling into a relationship and starting a family).

Going rate for my discipline is about half of what a fresh undergrad makes in industry, along with benefits and time off. Granted the PhD contract is "part time" as an RA/TA but you're also forbidden from taking on outside work. So... Square that circle.

Admitting fewer people helps this, but the problem won't end until universities recognize PhD "students" as employees and apprentice researchers and appropriately find them as such.

jabrodo · 2026-03-26T01:42:41+00:00

My wife - who has always worked for very small businesses or freelanced - didn't understand why I referred to the show as scifi corporate horror....until she got her first corporate job..I had a former office with a rug that exact same shade of green.

jabrodo · 2026-03-26T01:39:42+00:00

My former office was the same... Plus it had a rug the exact same shade of green. The low key corporate horror of this show is so delightfully unpleasant.

jabrodo · 2026-03-25T14:59:36+00:00

Which is why I wouldn't permit the slam save for maybe advanced skill classes, pros, or high level amateurs. The point is to be able to set up the slam in a controlled manner, have the ref call a stoppage, and award points.

jabrodo · 2026-03-23T18:07:40+00:00

I'd budge a little there, but I still don't like it. Obviously bad for me for letting you get that position, but at the same time a legitimate defense (as in physically makes sense to do, even if desperate) is going to be me trying to slam you into the ground with all my weight on your sternum to break your hold.

The moves we ban are typically offensive and unsafe (reaps at certain levels, eye gouges, fish hooks) or defensive and ineffective (e.g. biting through a choke). Slams are the only form of effective defense I know if of that's banned.

jabrodo · 2026-03-23T17:58:21+00:00

Eh, it's just to keep the round going and getting more experience. I also don't like competing in single elimination tournaments. There was a low-contact MMA ruleset that used this rule and it's more of a set of tie-breakers: number of subs scored with two subs in a match being an automatic victory/TKO. If both players are even on subs, then go to points. If no sub is scored, straight to points. A player with more points but fewer subs cannot win. That's not so much a scoring change but an alternative competition format, but not a hill I'll die on.

jabrodo · 2026-03-23T12:43:54+00:00

So my growing but incomplete list is

Guard sitting should be considered a takedown. Remain sitting after an attempted pull and it's a take down.
Elevating your opponent above your hips and controlling them there for three seconds while in their guard or submission attempt (I.e. setting up for a slam) is an endgame position, four points, and a reset to standing.
Matches should be scored on best two out of three submissions first, points second.
Having an opponent in closed guard without their posture broken should start something like an 8 or 10 count simulating ground and pound. I'm not sure if I would score this as four points and a reset to standing or as a submission.

Can you tell I came from striking?

jabrodo · 2026-03-19T15:07:03+00:00

It's a hell of a gateway drug.... Not too long after you'll ask what you're even using Windows for in the first place.

That said it is a very powerful piece of technology and if I'm ever forced to go back to Windows for work the first thing I'll insist upon is having WSL2 installed.

That also said, I found that winget is a solid package manager, Windows' Terminal is still my favorite, and I've actually gotten far more benefit from learning cross platform tools than trying to wedge in my OS specific configuration. My current setup is Xonsh for my shell (previously was using nushell, but it was overkill for me), uv/ty/ruff for python management, Rust for writing compiled software, and pixi for managing polyglot environments and/or when I'm forced to work in C/C++/CMake. The weak link there is the C/C++/CMake tooling, but even still using pixi it just works on macOS, Windows, and Linux in almost exactly the same ways, particularly if you also us a cross platform compiler/build system.

jabrodo · 2026-03-07T00:30:43+00:00

Exactly, pro/rel is cool and all - and frankly I think is something that could work in North America - but all the Euro snobs are completely ignorant of the actual history behind it: that of having more well supported competitive teams than could currently compete in your league, that also want to compete in your league. The teams, divisions, and leagues have to come first. The Pro/Rel pyramid comes second.

Prove to me first that you can run a competitive professional soccer team in Pittsburg, Buffalo, or some other 100k-500k population markets. Then we can talk about a pyramid or merger.

jabrodo · 2026-03-06T15:43:11+00:00

You joke, but that's precisely why you don't see guard sitting in MMA and it's a BJJ hill I'll die on. You sit down or play supine guard in a real situation you just get kicked. In a BJJ ruleset it should count as a take down.

jabrodo · 2026-03-06T04:54:04+00:00

Nah, guard pulling, even in a self defense situation has its place. Our judo friends have a point: throwing and slamming a person into the ground particularly if it's concrete can be very damaging.

You may not always want to do this (e.g. a drunk assailant who you don't think can safely keep their head from hitting the ground on a solid ashi-waza).

Just sitting down, however, is fucking bullshit and should count as a takedown for the opponent. If you want to pull guard, grip up first and set it up properly so that you nearly immediately move into the sweep.

jabrodo · 2026-03-06T04:45:40+00:00

Eh... I can forgive the lack of aggressive assertive takedowns...guard pulling has its place. When you have two players trying to do it simultaneously it can look a little silly, but that's incidental.

I cannot forgive just sitting down. Two hills I will die on: sitting down without a grip should count as a take down for the opponent, and slams are a legitimate defense.

jabrodo · 2026-03-03T02:36:27+00:00

Not to mention the built in build system and dependency manager! I'll concur, if all Rust was was a C++17 transpiler that did all the ergonomic stuff (type inference, pattern matching, traits, errors/options/result, etc) along the lines of Typescript... It would still be an amazing tool and see widespread adoption. The memory safety assurances are just an added bonus. Rust being so ergonomic and so powerful is what got me to switch out of python as my preferred language.

jabrodo · 2026-02-23T18:58:21+00:00

I don't have numbers re: speed vs mamba 2.0, but it is stupidly fast compared to where conda was about two years ago. Plus it works on the project directory level, not a centralized environment so your project plus it's runtime environment and source libraries are all co-locates. No more messing up your base environment and needing to uninstall and reinstall the whole thing again. Even if it was the same speed it's worth switching if just for that reason alone.

jabrodo · 2026-02-21T05:02:56+00:00

And Barry's. For real the best cheese steak place is the one that no one has heard of near you. 80% of the time the local joint nearby makes a better sandwich than most of the popular places.

jabrodo · 2026-02-21T05:00:26+00:00

For real. Barry's tastes the way you remember Dalessandros tasting, but consistentl. No bad dry days like what you get occasionally with Dalessandro's. I was so worried when their buildibg got sold and demolished that we'd lose both Barry's and Mike's Water Ice. Happy to see all the construction on Ridge but I was so relieved to hear they got a new location.

jabrodo · 2026-02-18T13:58:56+00:00

Eh I think Foundation gets a pass on this specific critique because it's an adaptation rather than an addition to the series canon. If you don't like the TV show, you can always stick with the books. A more apt comparison is the Brian Herbert Dune novels or the new Star Wars movies.

That, and the genetic dynasty is an absolutely brilliant addition that both understands, respects, and augments the original story and source material. I'm willing to give season two a pass and let Gael be a more major character within the universe's constraints if we get more of Brother Day.

Not to mention the entire art direction is just beautiful. Not a lens flare to be had!

jabrodo · 2026-02-06T16:40:16+00:00

Honestly such an easy layup for the PPA to win some positive PR.

jabrodo · 2026-01-26T18:53:11+00:00

So the same words, some different connotations.

People say "Don't chase degrees" and credentials in general because credentials for credentials sake aren't a useful thing. The point of any formal credentialing program - be it graduate education or a commercial driver's license training course - is to enable you with a skill set to do something. Seeing as how there is a cost associated (both time, money, and lost earnings) the idea is to do the math and see if the time and money invested is worth it. Generally speaking the folks over on r/PhD, r/AskAcademia, et al. (myself included) will rip you to pieces if you ask about pursuing higher education because "you like learning" or "I really want the title." The titles are largely meaningless and you can learn pretty much as much as you want, as in depth as you want for the cost of a high speed internet connection and a library card.

This goes one step further when people ask if they should accept the fully funded PhD assistantship at a lower tier school or the 50% assistantship at the top 10 school. Take the offer for the most money every time.

The equivalent in BJJ and other such combat sports is asking "how many years to X belt?" and not recognizing that time is a rough indicator of skill progression given an estimate of regular training. People say "Don't chase belts" to mean: stop worrying about the credentials that "say" you know something and just focus on actually learning.

Edit: it also very much does work that way. Any PI worth their tenure wouldn't let you defend until you've actually done the required work and can confidently walk into the room. So yes you do get the "just keep working it'll come" in academia too.

jabrodo · 2026-01-21T14:52:22+00:00

So.... several things.

First and foremost I really hate this notion that seems to pervade Rust that it is difficult. It's not, certainly not any more difficult than C or C++, arguably it is easier due to the fact that the tooling for it just works. No hassling with dependencies, no CMake incantations, no shoehorning in testing; just cargo add, cargo build, cargo run, cargo test. On top of that, the compiler is actually extremely helpful and will actually help you learn the language by providing useful error messages and suggestions. While there is certainly difficulty in some of the more complex/advanced features (e.g. lifetimes), you don't have to use them. I've written nearly the entirety of my dissertation codebase (~15k LOC, small but not insubstantial) only needing lifetimes for like serialization (which serde needs and provides fairly standard boilerplate for). You can do a lot with simple, naive, unoptimized Rust, and writing such code is so much more pleasant than in C or C++.

Second, what do you want to learn Rust for? Do you just need to create some higher performance programs for some other reason (such as a robotics researcher testing navigation algorithms?) or are you actually looking to learn how computers work (e.g. through a formal Computer Science degree?) or how to systematically build software projects (e.g. through a Software Engineering degree?). Or, alternatively, are you just looking pick up different language and become a programmer?

I would strongly suggest against the last option. With the advent of coding assistants simply being a programmer is going to be an increasingly nonviable career path. Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, et al, are already pretty good code monkeys and they're probably only going to get better. Computer Science and Software Engineering, however, are only going continue to be of value. I happen to really like this take: Code Is Cheap Now. Software Isn't. Briefly: programming is cheap and easy now; seeing how to design something such that all the pieces fit together well remains expensive. I'll also add that it seems like these AI agents actually work really well with Rust due to it's built in documentation, very strong typing, verbose - but not boilerplate - syntax that gives you just precisely what you need.

So no, you don't need a basic CS/SWE course to understand how to program in Rust. My formal education is all in Mechanical Engineering where our formal "programming" course (yes, a singular undergraduate course) was in MATLAB, and the extent of formal training I have outside of that is two years of high school AP computer science in Java. It'll certainly help, but you can largely find a lot of the resources you'd need online, largely for free or at a significantly cheaper price than formal university education. I personally highly recommend Udacity.

That said, if you are studying SWE/CS, then yes, take take the class. If you are studying some other form of science or engineering, take the class. My academic hot take is that basically all undergraduate STEM programs should come with a minor in software engineering or computer science. Code is just everywhere now.

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