What obscure thing you enjoy do you never get to talk about?
Loosely inspired by how much people seemed to enjoy a similar question I asked on Games about unappreciated titles. But answers don’t have to be media related (they still can be though).
In R (programming language) they have some interesting differences. You can think of a vector as a train with many cars, and each can hold a number. Let’s say I have train with three cars and I store the number 2, 3 and 5 in them. That would be a normal well behaved vector (2, 3, 5).
I could take away one of those numbers and leave that seat vacant. It could look like this (2, NA, 5).
If I tell you to find the third number in that vector, that’s easy. It’s 5. If I tell you to find the ninth one, that just doesn’t make sense and the answer would be NULL.
So in other words, NA is a vacant seat with no number sitting in it. NULL is a place where there is no seat to begin with.
I personally think if you are writing code and you reference outside your memory space, then you should receive an error. I guess a null is already considered an error value, but I think notifying why you got a null would be great.
NA is not applicable or?
I don’t like this approach
The best thing about R is that it was written by statisticians. The worst thing about R is that it was written by statisticians.
I guess this NULL thing would be one of those cases.
NA would not be applicable, because it’s a placeholder for a missing value. In data analysis, you tend to have have lots of NA-values, and dealing with them is super common. Every function needs to be able to handle them gracefully. For instance mean(someValues, na.rm=TRUE) would be a command for calculating the mean of a particular vector while igrnoring all NA-values. Super handy. Excel handles these missing values in a very annoying manner, but that’s a topic for another rant.
NULL can be considered an error value, but obviously it’s not very helpful because it doesn’t tell you what went wrong. Obviously, R does have all sorts of error messages, but in this case it just says NULL instead. If you find that some variable has NULL in it, you can be pretty sure something went wrong and it’s most likely due to going outside the space of a particular variable. Likewise interger(0), character(0) or logical(0) are the results you get when you’re searching for something that doesn’t exist. Not really my favorite type of error.
Googology. The “study” of ridiculously large numbers. It’s a rabbit hole of recursion and mathematics that starts with stuff like googolplex (10^10^100) and never really ends.
I love the stories about how seemingly disconnected events at different times and in different parts of the world actually have a connection. Like how some random chance meeting of two people 100’s of years ago started a chain reaction that ended up with us having some cool new technology or idea.
Oh! I also love that too! And thinking about maybe having seen some of my current best friends before we ever met - like we were both at a mall at the same day when we were kids or something.
Jeri Ryan, who played 7 of 9 in Star Trek, was married to Jack Ryan, who was a Republican senator. Allegedly, Jack liked watching her have sex with strangers. They got into a sex scandal that led to Jack Ryan losing the re-election. The man who won that election was, then a political upstart, Barack Obama.
What’s the difference between complicated and complex? Normally people encounter complicated things in everyday dlife, but what you’re talking about is way beyond complicated. It’s truly complex.
There are other definitions on Wikipedia, but this example should get you started.
Asian beauty items, specifically kbeauty and jbeauty skincare. I love hearing about people's skincare routines and new niche items, ingredients and brands. But my friends irl aren't really into beauty (everyone i know is so pragmatic lol).
I really love beauty empties- I used to follow subreddits related to finishing beauty products, aka panning them (panning meaning hitting the metal pan at the base of powder cosmetics; panning has come to generally mean using up your products). There is something so satisfying about using up your stuff and I like vicariously experiencing it through other people. I mentioned that I was saving my empties for a few months to review which ones were worth repurchasing and my friends laughed at me, thinking I was joking.
I don’t wear make up but as someone who once got all the toothpaste out of the tube I can relate. Knowing that something got used to it’s fullest is quite satisfying.
I literally cannot answer this without seeming like a pretentious, arrogant ass. Anyway, quantum field theory, high energy physics, condensed matter physics, generative art, computing algorithms, arcane math theories (meaning difficult to understand, not magical), procedural art, simulations, awesome places to visit in the world, Factorio, the channels I watch on YouTube. Honestly, I don’t have anyone around me who cares about or understands most of my hobbies. They all love me and care for me, just not the stuff I like.
Thanks, and yeah, most of the YouTube channels I watch pertain to the rest of the list. It’s kinda hard to find someone who gets excited about Factorio or sorting algorithms.
The travel is great, but where I live is one of those black hole places where people get sucked in and stuck, never really getting (or wanting) to get out and see the amazing places in the world.
Contrary to some of the other comments here I think what you are saying is pretentious, but also that it’s good, It’s Good to be pretentious, at least sometimes.
I try to think about it like this sometimes: "Don’t be a gatekeeper, but also try to hit the in joke when appropriate.
have you watched the youtube series ‘the biggest ideas in the universe’? it’s got about all that (no art). That PBS space time channel is additionally quite fire
The State Emergency Services of Australian states. Basically, they’re state government funded volunteer rescue agencies that focus on floods and storms. They also provide other rescue services outside of major population centres, like vertical rescue and road crash rescue. I think it’s a great idea because we get enough severe storms and floods that a specialist agency is worthwhile, but there can be years between large scale events, so having the surge capacity of a volunteer agency is great.
It’s a similar story with the CFA/CFS/RFS/NTFRS¹/TFS¹/whatever’s happening in WA¹, but instead of rescue they do firefighting. Their main (“combat”) role is fighting bushfires, which happen seasonally so surge capacity is important. However, in country areas they also provide structural and vehicle firefighting services. I’m aware that the US have a similar situation with volunteer firefighters though, so I’m not so keen to teach grandma to suck eggs.
¹These agencies are metro and rural firefighting agencies, so their combat role is all fires, not just bushfires.
Sounds similar to the German THW (Technisches Hilfswerk - engl. Federal Agency for technical relief) It’s 99% (unpaid)¹ volunteers, and they assist in case heavy/specialized equipment is required. For example they build large pipelines and water reservoirs in case of wildfires to supply the firefighters, build tent cities including drinking water filtration, sanitary and kitchen facilities, as well as recovery operations after disasters².
While they mostly act locally (supporting buildings after fires, or recovering car wrecks when the firefighters don’t have big enough equipment) they do have some international quick-response forces.
¹ The volunteers are insured via the state, and employers in non-critical jobs are required by law to release them in case of an alarm.
² They were initially founded as a civilian service to restore infrastructure and recover civilians during wartime, (Ziviler Bevölkerungsschutz - engl. civil protection) they thankfully haven’t needed to do that job and nowadays focus on natural disasters, both national and intentional.
Similar, except both types of Australian agency do the firefighting and rescue work as well as the support work and some of the recovery stuff. The main focus of volunteer training though is on rescue/firefighting.
Cassette tapes. They may not have the most accurate sound, but they have a cool, unique sound, and they feel really nice to hold. People who love vinyl often hate tapes. I love both.
I have fond memories of making or receiving mixed tapes. It was very labor intensive to produce and imperfect (start of the songs often cut off, no smooth transition between songs, last song might also be cut off on the end) but that was part of the charm.
When you called up the radio station and placed a request so you could tape it but then the fucking DJ talks over the intro so every mix tape you make with that song has his dumb yapping baked in
I recently started collecting cassettes since a number of metal bands release on the format. Everyone always has an odd reaction when I start talking about why I think they’re cool.
I collect both. I still have an old early-90s Sony system that I plunked a modern record player on top of and use almost every day. I also have a (factory) tape player in my old project car and will record CDs to a tape with the same system. Listening to modern music on tapes in an old car is just fun.
I really like messing with various softwares on my computer. Most of the times it’s the old webpages and the old pieces of software that engage me the most.
Rhythm games, 100%. I am a fair bit obsessed with them but I have yet to find a friend who truly Gets It. They either only like music, or they like games. Somehow never the marriage of the two.
I like music, and I like games. But I loathe rhythm games. I’m so bad at them. I have pretty good rhythm in general, but those games kick my arse and frustrate the heck out of me.
I should probably add something of my own. I like failed firearms designs that had some features that makes them objectively better if you overlook all the downsides. Or generally anything where one person made it because they thought it was cool and no one with better judgement stopped them.
Like the Gyrojet pistols, unlike traditional pistols they used rocket projectiles. This meant two major things one the guns didn’t need to have any pressure bearing parts and could be made incredibly light compared to normal pistols (.88lb/.4kg vs ~2.2lbs/~1kg), and the down side they reached maximum speed much slower than normal cartridges.
This meant that in practical terms a target close enough might not give the rocket sufficient time to accelerate to effective speed and wind would have a greater effect on the projectile. Hence they don’t make them anymore.
I’m a big lover of the engineering and design of firearms, but think we’re ridiculously over-armed in the US. Puts me in an odd position; I’m prior service - I look at weapons as weapons. Some people see them as fetishes and it gives me the creeps.
If you’re interested in both engineering and design you should check out Forgotten Weapons if you haven’t yet. He does disassemblies and summarizes the history of firearms.
I would LOVE to meet him, if just to ask: does it ever bother you, the disconnect between responsible gun ownership, historical preservation, and outright firearms idolization?
He accepts questions for his q&a on patreon about every month. My take is that for many they’re rarely used items that are prolifically displayed (often inaccurately) in media, leading to harmful myths like not needing to aim shotguns. Plus in English we tend to exaggerate things so when people hear stories they can walk away with misconceptions about the true extent of their abilities.
my take is that for many they’re rarely used items that are prolifically displayed (often inaccurately) in media,
In 2021, there were a total of 48,830 firearm deaths.
That’s not a media myth, it’s a fact. Our country has become an free fire warzone and I didn’t sign up for this shit.
As of september there were over 50 school shootings just this year.
Myths? Misconceptions? Please, don’t. Just don’t. That’s an incredibly poor way to respond mate. Dead kids, dead innocents, deserve better than ‘it’s just a myth’.
This is my problem with firearms. They’re so nifty that people lose their fucking minds when it comes to being responsible owners. Which then makes it ridiculously easy for people who can’t access them legally access them anyway. And I’m fucking tired of adults acting like children when it comes to weapons.
I think you’ve misinterpreted my message. I was talking about people viewing them as magic talismans rather physical objects.
My mentioning of myths was in reference to things like the notion that shotguns have sufficient spread as to not require aiming (which could lead to disastrous consequences) not a denial of any events.
My reference to being rarely used is on an individual scale. A lot of people own firearms that they rarely if ever use.
In 2021, there were a total of 48,830 firearm deaths.
so with 400m firearms, 330m potential users, their interactions with firearms resulted in 40,000 dead people - this isn’t an accounting of all the gun violence, just the deaths.
sir. 40,000 dead people. Double the death count of the battle of Antietam on both sides. It’s tenfold the deaths on d-day.
And we’re doing it every fucking year. Gun violence has eclipsed car accidents as the number one killer of children.
I’m trying to interpret what you’re asserting but the I feel strongly the premise is ignored in these discussions and it’s more of the same - we respect firearms for different reasons. I respect them as dangerous weapons our society is overly fascinated with and it’s bothering me that more people don’t share that respect.
Incredibly, no one discusses the real threat to firearms ownership, and that’s the inevitable backlash that will result in ‘more firearms is the answer to firearms violence’ - this childish idea that no one would ever take your toys, no matter how bad the carnage gets.
Kinda feels like we were both on Point A and now we’re at Point C but neither of us knows what happened to Point B. I wasn’t trying to argue with you if that was an impression I gave off. I’d be more interested in your stance on DI vs Piston or your favorite operating systems.
I think roller delayed blowback is among the most graceful solutions.
I’d be more interested in your stance on DI vs Piston
was a 90s soldier so only messed with DI rifles and crew served stuff. I wouldn’t mind owning a piston driven rifle like a g3, I like those 70s and 80s hk setups.
I think you’re a firearms simp who just wants to firearms simp and not be called on it. so go buy another assault rifle and tell yourself it’s freedumb.
I’d be more interested in your stance on dead kids vs. shit interpretations of a 232 year old constitutional amendment that’s been reinterpreted by fuckwits.
The PN 90 is used a lot by the movie industry because it ejects casings downwards so they do not hit the other actor’s or the filming crew’s faces. It was originally made as a relatively small firearm that can penetrate body armour to be used by the truck drivers and guards in case the Soviets invaded and dropped well armoured paratroopers behind the front lines.
Theology. I’ve read so many religious texts from all sorts of religions and while many people might discuss the organizations of religion a lot, or make fun of religious people, I rarely get to talk about the belief systems and their cultural relevance to various peoples both now and in the past or even discuss the possibilities of God and what God may be if one existed. I don’t study for the belief itself, I personally am an atheist; but knowing these belief systems helps understand people a bit better. Plus some of them are actually full of kick ass stories. Hindu is insane with space battles and shit.
I’m also an atheist who’s read most of the major religious texts, and you’re right, this is the best way to read them. If I’d sat there going, Ha ha, this is all very illogical, I can prove this didn’t happen… well, I wouldn’t have had a lot of fun!
I love the bit early in the Mahabharata where two brothers keep fighting and causing chaos. Eventually the gods get annoyed at them and turn one of them into a turtle and the other into an elephant. BUT! They find a shallow lake, so that they can keep fighting, but that causes loads of flooding, so then another god (who’s a bird) comes and picks them up and puts them in a giant tree.
And well, these aspects have implications. Like with an oboe, even the basic waveform is quite interesting, so it’s excellent for solos.
On the other hand, with a more boring sound, like a sine wave, you can do relatively wild things in terms of melody or combining them into intervals, and listeners won’t feel overwhelmed as quickly.
And then you’ve got the fun field of drums. You can often just take white noise (or pink noise etc.) and just make its volume drop off rapidly and that already sounds similar to a drum.
Which is again interesting on the boring/interesting spectrum. That noise signal adds a short moment of chaos into the mix. But then we often make drums play quite structured rhythms to entertain a different boring/interesting spectrum over time.
I love sound engineering and design as a whole. Music production was what got me into it. It’s still mind boggling to me how much you can do with a simple sine wave and process it into essentially unlimited amounts of various sounds.
I never knew a thing about music theory, synthesizers, drum machines, etc. Almost 7 years down this path and I’m still learning as I go and just as curious as when I first started.
Seeing different instruments through an oscilloscope or watching the different frequencies dance as a whole on an EQ plugin is my favorite.
The thing for me is, I did already know large chunks of music theory before getting into sound design, but traditional music theory doesn’t concern itself with waveforms.
So, I know that a fourth interval sounds spiritual or that a triad in the base key sounds like ‘home’, i.e. you probably don’t want to return there fully, unless you’re concluding the journey / music piece.
But like, these are two completely random, basic examples and I don’t know what the waveforms look like for them. Whether there’s anything in the waveforms that correlates with that perception.
So, it feels like I learned most of the chemistry without any of the physics. And that I do now need to learn the physics to discover more of the chemistry. That there’s potentially even quite large chunks of uncharted territory for music theory, because everyone’s so obsessed with chemistry. Will have to see, if I’ll discover as grand things as I’m hoping for.
SurgeXT is a so-called VST plugin for use in digital audio workstations (DAWs), which is what the big boys & gals use to make electronic music. But it can also be started standalone, as just a digital instrument. And then you can type on your computer keyboard to play your sound like on a piano. SurgeXT is powerful, it will overwhelm you. Still does for me.
MilkyTracker presents an old-school way of making complete songs, generally 8- or 16-bit songs.
It’s quite reduced in its features, which makes it a lot less daunting, and does allow playing around with waveforms for instruments rather directly.
Honestly, I don’t think, you can really make a wrong start into this field. Lots of modulation methods have been around since the 70s and 80s, which you’ll find in basically any music software.
Try to find something that’s fun to you, to do with those sounds, so you keep coming back to try out new things.
For example, I’m a musician, so somedays I do just jam out to myself.
But working towards a little 8-bit song and just trying to create pseudo-instruments is also cool.
If you do have fun with it, you can splurge on hardware, like good headphones and a MIDI keyboard, but you don’t need those to get into it.
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