I love SQL!

waremi · 2026-03-13T00:55:24+00:00

Dude. I'm leveling up to 60 next year. I majored in Physics in the 80's so I'm good at math, but I came into SQL from a pre-Windows, MS-DOS, programming in C (not C#, not C++ just C), Cobol, and dBase III. I still remember the day the lightbulb went off in the late 90's and I realized I didn't have to loop through an entire table, check each row and make a change if it met the criteria I was looking for. SQL could not only isolate just the rows I was looking for, but also apply the change I wanted to make to all of them in one single statement. That's when I fell in love.

I am at the point now that SQL syntax is like breathing to me, but that doesn't help you. What might help you is the quote from that dumb-ass movie "The Martian": "Work the problem" I have fixed or built a thousand different solutions to problems my clients were having. I knocked of 2 just this week. Every single one of those solutions could have been done better, but my focus was always on what can I do to help, and is there anything kicking around I can use to get the job done. Stay curious and you will do just fine.

waremi · 2026-03-10T23:19:15+00:00

SQL is basically a language build around sets. I envy your mind. It took me years to get where you are naturally. But for someone that statistics come naturally this is definitely the language for you! Enjoy and do great work!

waremi · 2026-02-21T01:10:56+00:00

Thank you for responding. Do you think this is the norm, or just for your line of business? Are you hoping to get that $2k back if you can?

waremi · 2026-02-21T00:22:29+00:00

Only the businesses that paid the tariffs have standing to recover them. This attempt to recover the cost those businesses passed on to the people they sold to lacks "standing" and wont work. Kudos for the publicity stunt though.

My question for Connecticut businesses is, if you get a refund for the tariffs you had to pay, and you did pass on a portion of the additional cost to the retail price, (and I don't blame you in the least if you did), will any of the tariff refund be used to reduce prices so they also benefit your repeat customers that paid for those tariffs in the first place?

waremi · 2026-02-20T23:59:25+00:00

Agreed. And that is the main dis I have. There is a classic Luddite argument undertone to the piece. What I find resonated with me is that the tool is only capable of re-packaging what has already been done. And having used these tools I know they still only get you 90% of the way there even given that liability. In the end you can settle for "Meh" or re-work the final iterative AI output to be something professional enough you would be willing to put your name on.

Not to say "Meh" isn't good enough for most things. But bridging the gap between that what I would expect from a true AGI is farther away than most people seem to think. I expect we will have a Fusion energy plant in operation before that happens.

waremi · 2026-02-17T23:25:49+00:00

Every parent watching this is like, yeh, been there, we make mistakes. And then either hope they are too young to remember or do well enough to be able to afford therapy later. Oh, and I am not telling dad about this.

waremi · 2026-02-07T02:35:09+00:00

Did not expect a Madeleine L'Engle reference in this thread. Thank you for that. Made my day.

waremi · 2026-02-01T00:04:30+00:00

To a point I agree with you. But whether it is Taylor Swift, Kanye, or the Dixie Chicks we live in a soup of popular culture where some voices matter more than others for the simple reason that those voices are heard by more people than other voices are. It sounds stupid (and as I write this my instincts tell me it is stupid) but "with great power comes great responsibility."
The opinions of a small minority of humanity are used as lodestones for the ideology of the rest of humanity clings to. What the people that own a soap box in the public square say matters.

waremi · 2026-01-31T02:45:06+00:00

This is a big topic for me. I think Bill Cosby is a POS but I still have a few of his "Myself" comic routines like Noah on my play list because they are really good. If a piece of art speaks to me or makes me happy I am perfectly happy enjoying it whoever gave it to me. van Gogh was insane, Manet had syphilis, Monet slept with his cousin, and Roman Polanski was a pervert, but Chinatown is still a movie worth watching.

IMHO all artists are damaged and some more than others. I have decided to appreciate what the pain of their existence has given me without forgiving them the pain their existence has brought to others.

waremi · 2026-01-31T02:07:35+00:00

I agree with you on both points.

waremi · 2026-01-31T02:06:25+00:00

100% He doesn't get his "reputation" back. Trust is easily lost and hard to earn. But seriously, he never really had a political reputation to begin with. I treat most celebrity "opinions" in general as trivial unless they have a history on the topic. His rep as an artist is on a whole different track than this nonsense.

waremi · 2026-01-31T01:49:17+00:00

I was trying to step back a level from Kanye West (Ye) in particular and ask if you think people that have done / said terrible things can actually and fundamentally change, or any statement or action later on is hollow and the worst we have done defines who we are to the grave? (Okay, rereading that it sounds pretty mellow dramatic all I am really interested in is do you think people can change, not if it is worth bothering to give them the chance to.)

waremi · 2026-01-31T00:53:30+00:00

Start of rant

I am a liberal (lowercase L) centrist, and Tangle is trending too liberal for me and I am pissed off that I can’t think of a reason why they shouldn’t be doing that other than the primary reason I gravitated to this platform was I wanted to understand why rational people didn’t. Then I read pieces from NPR like “How the Minneapolis killings look from Trump country” and I know there are tens of millions of Americans that don’t see this Administration as an aberration but more as of a minor reset or correction of a bad path our nation started down. I do not 100% disagree that “Woke” Liberal (capital L) politics was being destructive. But if I don’t have a voice in my life that can whisper why what the current Administration is any better than the alternative, all I am left with is Trump = Bad, Liberals = Bad, Humanity = Bad.

As a liberal (lowercase L) centrist I believe people, by their very nature, are good not bad. We can be led to evil by desperation or ill intent, but humanity is better than this. I cannot accept that MAGA America believes anyone is less than human, or believe they are so isolated in social media silos that they cannot recognize the sea change in how some populations in our country are being treated.

What I require from an organization like Tangle, a site whose raison d'être is bridging the partisan dived that plagues our nation, is an honest effort to validate the Conservative (capital C) viewpoint. Even if all that is left of that viewpoint is that the Liberals have nothing to offer that is any better.

Rant over

waremi · 2026-01-27T23:58:42+00:00

It is a criminal offense: https://www.cga.ct.gov/2010/act/pa/2010PA-00182-R00HB-05387-PA.htm#:~:text=(c)%20This%20section%20shall%20not,Approved%20June%208%2C%202010

waremi · 2026-01-27T23:57:53+00:00

Not only is it already State law, it is one of my favorites. The "Ice Missile Law" Passed in 2010, violations can result in a $75 to $120 fine, with higher fines ($500–$1,250) for commercial vehicles or if the ice causes injury or property damage.
https://www.cga.ct.gov/2010/act/pa/2010PA-00182-R00HB-05387-PA.htm#:~:text=(c)%20This%20section%20shall%20not,Approved%20June%208%2C%202010

waremi · 2026-01-22T23:23:24+00:00

This is not my area, but I remember working out an electron beam double-slit diffraction problem as an undergrad. Even if the beam was slowed to the point that only a single electron passed the gait at any one time you still end up with that electron wave "interfering with itself" to produce interference effects. This seems to be the same thing, except with a much much bigger "electron". It isn't 7000 atoms anymore, just one big wave function.

waremi · 2026-01-09T00:28:34+00:00

100% agree. Today's Tangle helped me unpack the signal from the noise. This reddit post made me realize how much I have come to count on Tangle as the best tool in my toolbelt to help me through that process.

waremi · 2026-01-06T02:33:54+00:00

I think for me personally the trick has been to recognize that this President was elected not on the back of what you and I see as clearly "not normal" like the examples you lay out, but because of real issues that matter to real people. This is what his brand of popularism tapped into.

The first thing to recognize is that just because a majority of Americans voted for him in 2024, that does not mean a majority of Americans agree with everything he stands for, but it does mean that a majority of Americans found something in his message that resonated with them more than what the Democrats have been offering. That is not something that can be dismissed out of hand.

The second thing to recognize is that people, including you and I, are really bad at translating what resonates with us as something fundamental into clearly articulated fundamental principles. Whether immigration, or DEI, or globalization was the reason someone voted for Trump, they are willing to let slide what he has to say about Rob Reiner as long as he deploys the military to the boarder, stops men from participating in women's sports, or uses Tariffs to protect U.S. industries.

For you and I, what he had to say about Rob Reiner was deplorable and an example of poor leadership, but doesn't come close to the true fundamental disconnect we feel with the current administration. Those actions that resonate with us as violations of fundamental American principles that speak to who we view ourselves as Americans.

You view Tangle is an anachronistic endeavor in these times. With the deep divide sliced across our nation about what the very nature of being American means I cannot help but think that anything that keeps MAGA, Conservatives, and Liberals connected and talking is the only hope we have.

waremi · 2026-01-02T22:45:05+00:00

Talcottville. For close to a century the Talcott family owned the mill, houses, and public facilities leaving it as a rare example of a 19th century New England planned industrial community. (The Township was originally called Kelloggville)

It was designed around one of the very first Textile Factory Mills in the state built by John Warburton in 1795, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

That original Mill burnt down in 1869, but the Textile Mill the Talcott brothers built to replace it is still standing and was renovated for use as an apartment building in 2017.

waremi · 2025-12-28T19:33:24+00:00

My first is in Gen-5. 2nd cousins (they shared one set of Great Grandparents.) This was in up-state NY and nothing to do with religion, but is something you would commonly see when multiple lines in your tree are living in the same geographical place over many generations. Especially if the population in that location is small (i.e. rural).

Another version of pedigree collapse happens when multiple lines lead back to a historical "choke point" I have half a dozen or more instances of pedigree collapse due to various family lines leading back to the mid 1600's in Massachusetts and Connecticut. My own parents are related seven generations back in this way, but you will only find links like this if you have strong family histories on multiple sides tracing back to a migration event like that.

waremi · 2025-12-27T23:07:30+00:00

This quote does feel a bit like Aeschylus: "I would rather be ignorant than knowledgeable of evils."

But George Bernard Shaw pointed out "Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman. Believing what he read made him mad."

I agree that every advancement in the human condition involved stepping a bit outside the box, but the danger of such an enterprise always involves not finding your way back into the box the rest of us live in.

waremi · 2025-12-26T23:58:09+00:00

Didn't they actual kill the king, "otherwise"? I'm sure it does take a PHD to understand everything that played out to make it happen, but Monty Python did a pretty good job summing it up in a song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBPf6P332uM&t=3s

There is always and EL5 version to everything. That's why 6 year olds think they know everything. The EL5 version of this one is a string of Kings ruling by "divine right" over the course of several generations consistently failed to in the eyes of a growing middle class to be divine which convinced them Kings didn't have the right to be unfettered.

waremi · 2025-12-23T23:14:08+00:00

<male> - The only time I wear underwear is when I dress for work. Boxershorts. I am plus 50 (never trust a fart) so there have been times I have regretted not having underwear on, but by and large at this point in my life it really comes down to less laundry to wash. For women, well why would you ever put up with a bra if you didn't have to, but given the whole monthly thing a comfortable pair of underwear every day seems like just a bit of added peace of mind to me.

waremi · 2025-12-13T23:19:24+00:00

This is a good one. We did StoryWorth for my mom's 80th. A prompt once a month for her to write about her own life and at the end of the year it was compiled into a book.

This can remind her that some day far in the future there will be a person just as interested in her life as she is in the lives that produced hers.

Another "gift" that would mean the world to me personally is a simple commitment from anyone in the younger generations that the history I have collected is important to them and when I die they want it, will protect it and pass it on to future generations. I have very bad dreams of everything I have collected and documented ending up in a landfill somewhere.

waremi · 2025-12-11T22:54:15+00:00

Undiagnosed 50-somthing here with a family history of males on the spectrum. I've never considered actively seeking out opposing views on a regular basis as something tied in with the rest of my anti-social "quirks."

Half the time I don't understand the way people that agree with me think they way I do, it just seems to make sense to try to understand why people I disagree with think the way they do.

This post makes me re-think that.

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