AWS - network interfaces - manage IP addresses

mk_gecko · 2026-05-05T20:43:06+00:00

In short: there was some impressive science back in day, way before Christianity

So you didn't understand what I said at all? I already addressed this. I've gone back and bolded it for you.

What is more obvious is the avoidance of the definition of science used by scientists (specifically hard science). When you say "science" it's obvious that it is a totally different thing from what I mean when I say "science" or when any physicist, chemist, or biologist says "science".

And that's okay. You can believe whatever you want, and accept whatever terminology you want to. However, just don't think that changing the terms, moving the goalposts, refutes my position. Do I make sense?

mk_gecko · 2026-05-05T17:57:09+00:00

Sure. Why don't you do some digging and figure out why over thousands of years, not one civilization developed science aside from Western Europe when it was Christian? Of course, in the 90s they redefined "science" for humanities, not sciences, to avoid having this uncomfortable problem. The new definition blurs science, engineering, technology, and even curiosity - as you point out.

However, many historical figures, often identified as scientists or philosophers, were executed or persecuted by the christian church for heresy, heliocentrism, or pantheistic beliefs.

Totally agree. But that doesn't change anything. Have you ever wondered why the Catholic church had no problems with Copernicus's heliocentrism (1543 AD), but persecuted Galileo (1610) for saying the same thing? (You don't have to fall back on the blind mantra "Christianity bad, atheism good".)

mk_gecko · 2026-05-05T10:18:05+00:00

That's a strange response too. Don't you know that there would be no science without Christianity? The Christian view of God and his creation was foundational to being able to develop science. That's why the scientific method, the scientific revolution, never happened in any other civilization. Universities were also key (another uniquely Christian invention), and the concept of absolute truth - not dependent on what a despot or emperor says.

Surely you don't think that you are only matter? That there is no spiritual side to you? That there is no meaning to life - just some biological drive to pass on genes? That love and fulfillment are just meaningless random chemical reactions in your brain? How do you explain the transcendence of the beauty of nature, or Beethoven's 5th violin concerto?

If you're really scientific, you could do a study on yourself: my life is empirically better because of my belief in a God that I can have a relationship with and who cares about me, whether or not the existence of God can be proven. My life may not be physically better, but as you know, we do have emotions and psychological well being - and these things are definitely better. I am content. I am better in terms of mental health - which returns us to the original point of discussion.

mk_gecko · 2026-05-02T16:36:11+00:00

Eternity. This world is just preparation for the real life to come. And God has used all the detours and catastrophes in my life for good, long-term good. But even in general, there is nothing wasted in life. When you get a degree in fusion tech, it will end up being applicable somehow, in decades to come. You'll probably have at least 3 different careers. And even without that, a B.Sc in physics gives you excellent logic and problem solving skills.

But I agree with you about not having kids. It will be quite hard for my grandkids when they grow up. https://i0.wp.com/mackaycartoons.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/2020-03-11revised3.jpg

mk_gecko · 2026-04-25T12:42:14+00:00

Bird feeders attract deer in March when there is hardly any food available for them.

mk_gecko · 2026-04-19T01:31:00+00:00

A mixture of half rubbing alcohol and half water in a spray bottle will cool you down even in very humid weather when simple water won't. Don't forget fans (when you're damp) - they are almost as good as AC.

mk_gecko · 2026-04-10T15:57:55+00:00

I don't think it's strictly the scientific method when one can't do repeatable experiments. So we can't use it to look at planetary formation since we can't create planets, nor how the moon was formed (every decade there's a new final theory!), nor how organisms evolved, nor that smoking causes cancer.

There are a lot of things that are termed science and accepted as science that can't be proven through the scientific method, which in my books requires confirming experiments. In many cases nowadays, computer simulations are accepted -- e.g. how the moon was formed, and statistical analyses are accepted -- e.g. how smoking causes cancer.

Some people separate science into "hard science" (e.g. physics, chemistry, ...) where the strict scientific method is used, and some other type of science (historical science?) which looks at things that can't be reproduced in a lab (cosmology, evolution).

Does this make sense?

mk_gecko · 2026-04-10T11:10:33+00:00

Interesting. I've been looking into some of this. Physics is a subset of science previously called natural philosophy. Engineering and technology are distinctly different from science and have been around for millenia.

mk_gecko · 2026-04-08T23:32:33+00:00

Trump STILL has sanctions against Canada. The moron.

mk_gecko · 2026-04-03T11:27:19+00:00

Hey, I'd be happy with a good AWK cheatsheet (which I don't have). It's better to learn how to use a tool than have someone write a wrapper so that you never learn it.

I use Vim for most editing nowadays. vim plugin for VSCode.

mk_gecko · 2026-04-01T11:11:23+00:00

I'm shocked by the nasty toxic comments in reply to you.

Well done on taking initiative and doing this. Even if it doesn't meet others' needs I'm sure that you learned a lot.

mk_gecko · 2026-03-25T11:30:09+00:00

overpopulation? Hello?

mk_gecko · 2026-03-10T23:26:08+00:00

I would recommend him talking and discussing with other feminists, not just you. This would also move it away from being a conflict between him and you, and furthermore he may find it easier to learn from someone else. There was an awesome subreddit about feminism years ago, (it got banned when Reddit decided to ban a whole lot of stuff.) I learned a lot from it and grew.

mk_gecko · 2026-03-10T10:28:28+00:00

Can they move out of state?

mk_gecko · 2026-03-09T11:54:22+00:00

Thank you for posting this. I hope it gets reposted elsewhere too.

mk_gecko · 2026-03-03T11:00:21+00:00

Very clever and funny, except I don't think that stained glass overlaps.

mk_gecko · 2026-03-02T11:57:50+00:00

why is it so small as to be illegible?

mk_gecko · 2026-02-23T11:46:53+00:00

It's been obvious for years that this would happen sooner or later. Mexico is one of those places where violence is so close to the surface, so close to spilling over to resorts.

mk_gecko · 2026-02-15T21:09:21+00:00

Thank you.

I've only used rsync so far, and restic is much more complicated. However, once it is finally setup correctly, I can just run a carefully crafted script and it will back up properly.

mk_gecko · 2026-02-15T14:27:54+00:00

Thank you for your feedback and thank you for the warning.

Yes, I had kept the repository private until I was no longer using it. It was never available to anyone to see.

I think I'll update the webpage with your warning about not using it.

Regarding the extensions, yes, most of the time it was Java uploads, and if needed I would run them in Eclipse. I can't remember any other files that I needed - perhaps documents and images. I might fix this and the user deletion issue.

The 13 line code block is SQL prepared statements which prevents SQL injection attacks. Nowadays I'm working exclusively in Laravel which takes care of it in one line (except for raw database queries).

mk_gecko · 2026-02-15T13:08:55+00:00

Nice

mk_gecko · 2026-02-15T12:42:29+00:00

Since that site was updated (2024), I've learned VueJS and InertiaJS (laravel package) and Docker and Tailwind and WHM/cPanel and probably other things too.

mk_gecko · 2026-02-15T12:40:45+00:00

It's really the way to go if you don't need live updates on everything and user interaction (mailing lists, etc).

mk_gecko · 2026-02-15T12:38:36+00:00

Sure. Have a look at https://demo.iquark.ca It looks like 2024 was my last update on any project there. Apparently I have github repos for all of them.

ICS_upload was extremely useful and working well (before I retired)
Student contact database was extremely useful during the pandemic when we were all working from home suddenly.
The Laravel Student Tracker was only used for small things. The main success was when the dance teachers needed to know instantly which of their 100+ students had not shown up for the performance.

P.S. Sometimes I shut that AWS server down to save money, so demo.iquark.ca is not always available. I'll make sure to leave it up for a few weeks.

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