Python Dependency Management
is Missing a Piece
A comparison of dependency resolution across software ecosystems, and why Python’s model leaves library authors with no good options.
At long last
Miles found a web-based Python turtle environment! I taught him about parametric equations and normalization and Python functions and HSV & RGB color spaces today! I HAVE WAITED TEN LONG YEARS FOR THIS!!! 💻🐢🤩🥳
A new era of DANCE!
My new StepManiaX stages are installed and ready to go! Goodbye, aging DDR Extreme arcade cabinet in my garage. Hello, year-round dance workouts in climate-controlled splendor. Huge thanks to Kyle Ward and everyone at StepManiaX for all their hard work making this hardware a reality.
Fight for transgender rights
Been fretting about this, and struggling with what to write here that could possibly change hearts and minds. As a person of cisgender privilege who keeps himself very busy, it is seductively easy to just cross my fingers and hope for the best when it comes to the societal trajectory of minority rights. But it makes me sick, and scared, to see our current administration explicitly condoning this kind of discrimination. Where is the compassion for fellow human beings? And why is it so hard to believe the science that overwhelmingly refutes the notion of immutable and infallible binary biology-aligned gender from birth? Are Republican priorities (building border walls, “saving” the unborn, growing the economy at any ecological cost) really more important than cultivating a society of mutual love, respect and tolerance?
The least we can do is vote. And if you have the time and energy to do more, you can do more! https://www.out.com/news-opinion/2018/10/21/hell-no-memo-7-action-items-protect-trans-and-gnc-people
Face fungus
I reached up absentmindedly to itch my cheek. There was something fuzzy and alien there, like a giant caterpillar. Panicked, I scrambled to tear it from my face before it assailed me with its deadly venom. But my efforts were in vain—for it was my beard.
Not an ordinary fella!
Teddy learned DDR yesterday! He passed Wild Rush, and Orion Civ mix, and was close to passing Paranoia Survivor. O_o
He scored a B on Butterfly! (PA still needs work tho lol)
He played for almost two hours! While we were playing “I Do I Do I Do” he was singing “I do I do I do, do I do love, Dada. Dada is the be eh eh eh est, dada”
What an amazing little guy!
Unattainable rewards
Dada: If you have a good day at school, then you can have red tablet time in the evening.
Teddy: Nooo! That means I’ll never get to do red tablet ever again!
Mama: What do you mean, Teddy? You just have to have a good day at school!
Teddy: My friends all fight me!
Kids know best
Anna: I’d really like to go to Catherine’s and get some new summerwear. And right next to there is—
(Teddy interrupts and asks a slew of questions.)
Curtis: Teddy, Mama is trying to talk. Can you please be quiet and listen?
Teddy: I’m gonna tell Mama what she means!
Kidsplained! Happy Mother’s Day!
Miles was awesome this morning
He has been playing Minecraft lately. When we start the game together, his world loads, the UI frame is white, the game autosaves regularly, and all is fine. But when he starts it alone, the UI frame is red instead of white, and autosave is disabled. I figured he must be making different menu choices, but was not sure what it could be.
This morning, after Miles played for ~90 minutes in red mode, I was concerned he might lose his work, so I asked him to save it. When he tried, there was a notice that he was using a “trial texture pack” and would need to sign in to PSN in order to buy it before he could save. Evil.
Of course, Miles plays under his own local user, which is not associated with a PSN account. We tried signing in under Anna’s account, but the PlayStation will not let you use the same PSN account with two different local users. Our only option would have been, I guess, to create a PSN account for Miles specifically, which IIRC is against their TOS since Miles is under 13.
Anyway, Miles got impatient at this point and decided to just reload his game with the normal texture pack. I expected him to be upset, but instead he happily said, “Hmm, I broke this ice before. But I’m glad it’s back! Now I can break it again; it’s SO FUN!”
Worst-case scenario
When my family sleeps late, I worry that they have somehow died during the night. But I don’t want to check on my kids, because it will wake them up and the quiet time will be over. Please tell me I am not the only one.
Dust in the Wind
On Thursday, What.CD was raided by French police. It was a veritable “Library of Alexandria” for the world’s music, painstakingly curated by a worldwide group of passionate enthusiasts. And now it is gone forever, metaphorically burned to the ground. We live in a worldwide culture that sanctions mass destruction of information and knowledge. What a tragedy.
Technology is improving so quickly every year, and yet we cannot take the continued existence of anything for granted. For that reason, and many others, I renewed my donation to Wikipedia today. It is too late for What.CD, but at least we can contribute to other critical reservoirs of knowledge. I invite you to do the same, and in the words of Jimmy Wales: “Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet has free access to the sum of all human knowledge.”
Vertebral artery dissection
Dear family, friends, colleagues and loved ones,
The wisdom of Siri
Me: “Have you heard of ImageJ?”
Siri: “You know what they say… a lie can
travel halfway around the world
while the truth is still getting its
pants on.
I’m not sure I get it, but it’s funny.”
Thanks macOS, that’s very reassuring.
Who made the world?
Teddy: Dada, who made the world?
Me: There are a lot of passionate opinions about that. Some people say that God made the world. Do you know who God is?
Teddy: Nope!
Me: You’ve never heard of God?
Teddy: Nope!
(I tell Teddy about God.)
Me: But nobody has any proof.
Teddy: I have proof!
Me (intrigued): You do? What is it?
Teddy: I know him!
Me: Really?
Teddy: Yeah, I met him.
Me: Wow. What did he say to you?
Teddy: I forgot. I made him.
Me: You made God?
Teddy: Yeah. Out of iron, sauce, and sugar. Also metal.
(Teddy lets that sink in for a moment.)
Teddy: Uh oh. I said “uh oh” because I have the hiccups now. I hate having hiccups.
Zero tolerance policy
Teddy: “Can I have a grapefruit?”
Me: “We’ll have that for breakfast tomorrow. Right now, please eat your dinner. You have blueberries, and edamame beans, and sugar snap peas, and grilled cheese, and doggies…”
Teddy: “I don’t have doggies.”
Me: “I know, I was being silly.”
Teddy: “You were being wrong.”
Irrefutable logic
Miles unfolded the printer trays, and insisted they stay that way. Rather exasperated, I asked him why. “So it can fly better!” I was convinced. :-)
Unacceptable risk
“Using defined methodologies is integral part of successfully supporting the technology needs of campus and UW System. Without a holistic approach, we risk meeting our goals, expectations and deadlines.” —UW-Madison Division of Information Technology
Unspoken incredulity
Turned on NPR and heard: “…funded in part by the pajamagram company. Providing matching pajamas to you and your entire family, including cats and dogs.” In the most monotone, bored voice I have ever heard on that station. Could practically feel the “Really??” dripping out of the radio!
xfce
If your /proc/cpuinfo says Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz or something similarly weak, run xfce. While “xfce” may be a stupid and unpronounceable name, it is an excellent software suite. Do not run Unity, even with graphical effects disabled as completely as possible.
Actually, never run Unity under any circumstance. Or Windows. In fact, it might be best to throw away your computer and try something less exasperating, like having some children.
Humanist affirmation
Humanist Affirmation of St. Francis:
“I will strive to be a channel of peace;
that where there is hatred, I may bring love;
that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;
that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;
that where there is error, I may bring truth;
that where there is doubt, I may bring assurance;
that where there is despair, I may bring hope;
that where there are shadows, I may bring light;
that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
I will strive to seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;
to understand, than to be understood;
to love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
It is by experiencing death that one awakens to life.”