What to do? I want to collect notes in a more organised way. Or at all, really. Otherwise things disappear. I’ve heard good things about Obsidian so thought I’d give it a try. But I’d like to have backups of my notes and have the option to collect notes on multiple devices such that they’d automatically be synched. Obsidian has encrypted synch support, but only if you pay. Not that it’s a lot ($4/month), but that also requires setting up payments, which involves giving out personal ...| ahiru.pl
A large part of the reasoning behind having my own media center was data control and privacy. I started using Migadu for email a while ago, as I decided I’d had enough of giving away my data to the various free email providers. Yes, I know that unless both sides of exchange take care of privacy then nothing really changes, but it has to start somewhere. Having weaned myself off of Googles mail and storage systems, there was still one killer app left to migrate, i.| ahiru.pl
I’ve had the idea of a blog tumbling around my head for a while now. Not that I have anything specific to write about - more just a general thought that it could be good to write my ideas down. For a few years I’ve been doing the equivalent of an blog via email to a friend. They don’t react in anything like realtime (generally replying to a whole bunch of emails every monthish) so it’s pretty much like sending my thoughts out into the ether.| ahiru.pl
Seeing as there are those with backups and those that will wish they had backups, I deemed it time to set one up. My ISP gives everyone a public IP and I had a Raspberry Pi 4 lying around from a previous attempt, so I thought that I might as well set up a proper server at the same time. The initial goals: a decent amount of space available (at least a few TB for starters) a media server or something from which films, music etc.| ahiru.pl
Approaches to Ethics There are three basic approaches to ethics, each focusing on a different aspect: Name Focus Example Virtue Ethics Integrity Greek heros Deontology Rules Kant Consequentialism Outcomes “The ends justify the means” Most schools of ethics are a mixture of the three, but you can find some examples of purish versions, e.g. Stoicism is a pretty pure form of Virtue Ethics, Kant’s categorical imperative an example of Deontology, and Utilitarism an example of Consequentialism.| ahiru.pl
I decided that it would be nice to have a secure(ish) method of sharing docs, so went by a friends recommendation to try CryptPad. This is a sort of google docs lookalike with E2E encryption and can be hosted locally. CryptPad has decentish docs, and the process is explained here. There were a couple of things that I had to work out on my own: Node setup Install NVM - this requires either logging in/out, or running the magical commands that result of it Setup the recommended version of node: ...| ahiru.pl
My balcony boxes turned out to be lovely. It’s not a full garden, and it by no means could support me, but it’s lush and green which is pretty much all I could expect from 2 square meters. The top boxes are mainly a flower mix, which look like random meadow flowers such as can be found in Poland. I also have some wild strawberries, garlic and lamb’s lettuce in the top boxes, both of which are thriving (the first strawberry was eaten today).| ahiru.pl
The Białowieża Geobotanical Station has a wonderful map of the potential natural vegetation of Poland. I looked around to see if it can be bought somewhere, but the only version I could find was as an album of 12 partial maps. Not quite what I had in mind. Fortunately, the authors have made the map available over the internet as 16 bitmap images. The obvious next step was to manually join them into one giant map, which can be found here| ahiru.pl
These are the series I watched (or at least started) and my impressions. They’re more or less ordered from most enjoyable to least. I added my scores to each title (on a scale of 1 to 5). Spoilers alert, etc. The Way of the Househusband 2 Score: 5 日本語: “Gokushufudou 2” This is nice wholesome entertainment. The first season was better (of course), but this is still excellent. I love the juxtaposition of Yakuza in trivial, everyday situations.| ahiru.pl
Spoiler alert: Since this is about a film, I’m obviously going to reference specifics Everything Everywhere All at Once (which I’ll abbreviate to EEAaO) won 7 Oscars yesterday, so it seemed like something that might be worth watching. The acting Oscars seem valid. The main characters really did act well. I have no idea what the editing one is given for, so that might be correct. But if that was the best screenplay and motion picture of 2022, then it seems like a really bad year for films.| ahiru.pl
I’m going through “All of statistics”, and one of the exercises is to work out the probabilities for the Monty Hall problem. The basic idea is that there are 3 doors, one of which contains a prize, the others have nothing (or a goat, in the original). You choose one door, at which point Monty Hall asks if you’re sure you want that one? To make it more interesting, he chooses one of the other doors that don’t have the prize behind them and opens it.| ahiru.pl
I want to be stronger. This is true in general, but in this case specifically I want to save the world and so need the resources to do so. The current main candidate for X-risk seems to be AI, so it would be rational to power up in order to help in that epic battle. So this is a list of skills that would be useful, along with sources from which to learn more.| ahiru.pl
The teachings of Jaynes-sensei I’ve recently been trying to get through Probability Theory: The Logic of Science, which has come highly recommended, and with which opinion I so far wholeheartedly concur. It generally explains why Bayes was right, starting with a couple of basic desiderata, i.e.: degrees of Plausibility are represented by real numbers qualitative Correspondence with common sense that it always reasons consistently It turns out that these are totally sufficient to come up wit...| ahiru.pl
Plants are pleasant. Growing ones own is good. Problem is that they require light and space to grow. I considered setting up a hydroponics system or - even better - aquaponics, but was informed in no uncertain terms that Not In This Flat. Luckily a large (for a flat), southern facing balcony came to the rescue. So I got me some balcony boxes to plant stuff in. I find the idea of self-sufficiency very alluring, so I want to be able to grow as much of my own veg as possible.| ahiru.pl
Child mortality Historical rates of child mortality are abysmal. Before 1900 almost half the people born died before they were 15. Almost a third of them died before they were one year old: This has gotten a lot better lately, with now “only” 4% of children dying before they are five years old. In developed countries it’s gotten so well that while I’m guessing that most people know someone who lost a child family member, they might not have known the child.| ahiru.pl
I got a new work laptop with various spyware installed. I therefore want to limit its access to my systems, what with me being paranoid. Previously, if I wanted to listen to music, I’d connect my NFS music partition and play it from my work computer. But why go through the intermediary, when I can play stuff directly from my Pi? Especially as it was originally supposed to be a media center.| ahiru.pl
I just finished watching Brave. I was ordered to watch it, as all Disney films Must Be Known, but had been putting it off for a while. It’s pretty much what one could expect of a Disney film - the princess has duties, but wants to live her own life, and over the course of the film both she learns the value of tradition, and her parents learn the value of letting teenagers have their way.| ahiru.pl
My sister has a classification of people where most are neutral, but some are unicorns and some are magic. The idea being that unicorns are wonderful and mystical beasts which have to be protected with everything possible because of how amazing they are, while magic people are those who do so, with the additional attribute of actively shielding them from evil and healing them when injured. The idea is surprisingly apt.| ahiru.pl
This is the second part of my thoughts on how I understand “Positive Impact”, where I’m wondering what “Positive” means. The “Impact” part can be found here. Signs A positive value is one that is larger than zero. Not all that helpful. Though at least we know it’s not negative, which is something. The question is what (and how) is being measured. I think it’s safe to assume that a positive outcome is one that the evalutor would describe as “good”, while a negative one as...| ahiru.pl
I’ve been asked to define how I understand “Positive impact”. Which is an exceedingly good question. Also an unexpectedly hard one. Which shouldn’t be surprising, seeing as that is pretty much the main thing studied by philosophy of morality etc. So here’s my attempt at solving one of the hardest and most elusive problems of humanity in a single blog post. Trivial, I know. Just in case it wasn’t obvious, I’m not trying to create an overarching framework of morality here, just wr...| ahiru.pl
I often find myself looking for a blog post that I read 2 years ago to prove some point or other, just to end by giving up. I somewhat started to address this problem by book marking them, but that tends to get spread over various browsers. Of course there are services that offer this, hehe, service, but that goes back to my paranoia. So a manual list will do for now.| ahiru.pl
As a part of my ongoing quest for excellence, world domination etc., I’ve lately been educating myself on various critical topics, e.g. that ancient islanders lived in turtle shells, a morsel of information which, as anyone with an ounce of reason will readily assert, is of the utmost importance to a person aspiring to the peaks of wisdom. A part of these educational endeavors is to go through a bunch of lectures on various topics.| ahiru.pl
Temporal-Difference Learning I’ve been watching David Silver’s Reinforcement Learning lectures. They’re really well done, and I personally found them at the right ration of new/known info. I.e. they’re challenging, but not incomprehensible. I’m not sure if I should take that as a complement or an insult… Anyway, I was struck by how well humans can be modeled by Temporal-Difference learning. Although I see from Wikipedia that I’m not very original, seeing as there is a whole sect...| ahiru.pl
I finally got round to finishing Arcane. Mark me as impressed. All round. It starts as a steampunkish dystopia and just gets better. I mean who doesn’t love magic in their gear sets? The diversity of characters is astounding. Which is of course to be expected from a series based on LOL, but I’m still impressed they managed to pull it off. And it’s not just the characters which are diverse.| ahiru.pl
Fiszki z roślin Polski Chcę wiedzieć jaki rośliny spotykam. Ale mam słabą pamięć. Na ratunek przychodzi Anki. Tutaj jest zbiór fiszek co by z tym wspomóc. Łacinska nazwa Nazwa pospolita Achillea filipendulina Krwawnik wiązówkowaty Achillea millefolium Krwawnik pospolity Aconitum firmum Tojad mocny Actaea spicata Czerniec gronkowy Adenostyles alliariae Miłosna górska Aegopodium podagraria Podagrycznik pospolity Ajuga reptans Dąbrówka rozłogowa Alliaria petiolata Czosnaczek po...| ahiru.pl
Fiszki z ptakami Anki to wspaniałe oprogramowania do nauki czegokolwiek. A zatem zrobiłem sobie fiszki by się nauczyć rozpoznawać poniższe ptaki: W fiszkach Bogatka Drozd śpiewak Dymówka Dzięcioł białogrzbiety Dzięcioł czarny Dzięcioł duży Dzięcioł trójpalczasty Dzięcioł zielony Dzięcioł średni Dzięciołek Dzwoniec Grubodziób Jerzyk Kos Kowalik Modraszka Mysikrólik Oknówka Pierwiosnek Rudzik Szarytka Szpak Trznadel Zięba Zniczek| ahiru.pl
It’s hard to remember what books are worthy of recommendation, so this is a list of such books, updated whenever I think of something new to add. These are the books I’d like to have in physical form, or which I’d take with me if sent to Mars. Some are simply wonderful and worthy of multiple rereads, others are useful in striving for Arete. Most are both. Books to re-read Because they’re so good LotR Dune Wiedźmin Emily Lilith Shirley Lent Among Others Earthsea The Left Hand of Darkn...| ahiru.pl
This blog seems to be turning into a bad and very verbose Ansible wannabe. The initial idea was more of a description of what was configured etc. but it’s starting to turn into a tutorial how to make something like a freedom box. Pitty I didn’t know about that earlier… Anyhoo - it would probably be a good idea to just make a ansible playbook describing how to provision everything, rather than writing it all out step by step.| ahiru.pl
My brain seems to not get statistics and probability. So I was wondering about how averaging things out is influenced by the amount of items being averaged, and in particular, how the underlying distribution will change things. Here are some stories to illustrate the issue: Minting You’re a Dutch banker working for the famous Wisselbank. Your job is to check whether the coins coming in are good. You know that each coin should weigh 25g ± 0.| ahiru.pl