Intelligible systems are built on a few basic principles.1 While reducing my dour skepticism to the memorable maxims that codify Informed Naked Ape Protocol I repeatedly asked myself what animates unflagging skepticism? What turns naturally cheerful and optimistic people like myself into raging cynics? What motivates noble trolls to put down the pizza and grab … Continue reading iNap #1: Enough People are Scum
Category: Posts
Post categories
Informed Naked Ape Protocol
Many think we are living in a golden age of bullshit. That public discourse has never been gaudier or more demeaning. That respect for truth and decency has reached all-time lows. The mental pygmies that hold these opinions don't read or think for themselves. Deceiving ourselves and others is the one thing our species excels … Continue reading Informed Naked Ape Protocol
NumPy another Iverson Ghost
Click here for a PDF version of this post. During my recent SmugMug API and Python adventures I was haunted by an Iverson ghost: NumPy An Iverson ghost is an embedding of APL like array programming features in nonAPL languages and tools. You would be surprised at how often Iverson ghosts appear. Whenever programmers are challenged … Continue reading NumPy another Iverson Ghost
Setting SmugMug Print Size Keywords with Jupyter and Python
For the last few weeks, my normal hobbies have been preempted by my obsessive refactoring of an old SmugMug keyword setting program. Many years ago I wrote a small application that helped me maintain meaningful SmugMug keywords. I used this application for years until inevitable software changes broke it. Replacing it with something better has … Continue reading Setting SmugMug Print Size Keywords with Jupyter and Python
Government Shutdown and Rapture 2018
It’s 2018. 2018 has prime factors of 2 and 1009, e.g. 2018 = 2 * 1009. Did anything happen in the years 2 and 1009? In the year 2 Venus and Jupiter were in conjunction. Some speculate this may have been the “Star of Bethlehem.”In 1009 the Church of Holy Sepulcher was destroyed. How odd, … Continue reading Government Shutdown and Rapture 2018
Dear Apple Pay Stop Harassing Me!
Dear Apple Pay stop harassing me! I will never sign up for you and no amount of iOS app-nagging will change that. You’re pathetic interruptions merely remind me why I “resist” installing every freaking iOS upgrade the Apple mothership foists on its hapless phone users. I use an iPhone1 but I am not a member … Continue reading Dear Apple Pay Stop Harassing Me!
Downloading SmugMug Captions with Python and Jupyter
This blog post started out as an experimental rendering of a Jupyter notebook. I wanted to see how difficult it would be to convert a notebook to a WordPress.com blog post. Even though Jupyter exports notebooks in HTML and Markdown they do not display well "out of the box." No doubt one could craft CSS … Continue reading Downloading SmugMug Captions with Python and Jupyter
Review: The Way We Die Now
The Way We Die Now is not the best book I’ve read this year but it may be the most important. In Seamus O'Mahony’s opinion, modern society has forgotten how to deal with death. There are many reasons for this, the collapse of religious belief, the demolition of the extended family, the triumph of the … Continue reading Review: The Way We Die Now
The Mass Kill as Performance Art
It’s been almost a week since the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay massacre and the idiot media is still looking for “a motive.” They remind me of O.J.’s fruitless search for the “real killer.” I don’t watch the alphabets, except when trapped in airports or, with increasing annoyance, in my employer’s cafeteria so I’ve missed days … Continue reading The Mass Kill as Performance Art
EquiFucked
If you have the misfortune of dealing with US Fuckancial orifice Insertions (Financial Institutions) you’ve probably heard of the Equifax hack. Equifax is one of three large companies in the US that collect, without your explicit approval, personal credit information to compute credit scores. Your credit score is a single number that allegedly measures how … Continue reading EquiFucked
Analyze the Data not the Drivel 