This article on When to use Web Workers had this good chart that shows that smartphone CPUs aren’t hitting a performance wall in the same way that PC CPUs did in 2005.
Scala, Java, Unix, MacOS tutorials (page 104)
It’s great to see wealthy people trying to save the environment. Per this CNN.com story, “Pink Floyd's David Gilmour auctioned 126 of his guitars for a record-breaking $21 million at a New York charity auction Thursday to fight against climate change.” Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay bought the “Black Strat” for ~$4M, and apparently he’s going to make it available to the public.
TechCrunch has a nice, full quote from Bill Gates on what he considers his greatest mistake. I include part of the quote in this image because his “winner-take-all” comment is so important.
I saw this slide from ScalaDays 2019, and it now looks like Scala 3.0 (Dotty) is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2020.
I was writing with a friend about Facebook, and realized how much I dislike facebook.com because (a) they don’t let me control my own timeline — not surprisingly, humans don’t like to be controlled by algorithms — and (b) you definitely get the feeling that you’re a piece of meat and they’re trying to sell you. If they were perceived as a kind, benevolent company that didn’t constantly force their version of “what’s important” on people, people might use it more.
Over time I’ve discovered a number of things that I have no memory of from the years 2014 to 2016, when I was at my sickest with the mast cell disease. Apparently I created this image and wrote these words on August 24, 2015. (Here’s a link to the original post, if you’re into that sort of thing.)
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever Gods may be,
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance,
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears,
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years,
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
~ Invictus, by William Ernest Henley
(which I learned about via Leonard Nimoy)
“To complain is (your) nonacceptance of what is. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in power. So change the situation by taking action or speaking out. Leave the situation or accept it; all else is madness.
If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options:
- Remove yourself from the situation
- Change it
- Accept it totally
If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options. Then accept the consequences. No excuses. No negativity.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, The Power Of Now (slightly edited by me)
There are many nice cartoons/illustrations in Eckhart Tolle’s book Guardians of Being: Spiritual Teachings from Our Dogs and Cats, and this “Shtop Thinking” cartoon is one of my current favorites. (The book is a collaborative effort between Mr. Tolle and Patrick McDonnell, artist/illustrator/cartoonist who may be most well known for his “Mutts” cartoons.)
I learned today that you can use JavaScript for “scripting” on macOS. These docs say that has been the case since Mac OS X 10.10.
This images comes from this good Seeking Alpha article on investing in “dividend” stocks. There are some good nuggets in that article, but (except for the formatting) I like these words and that chart.
These days I generally feel very good, but as I go through some of these medical treatments they can make me feel pretty miserable, especially when combined with the effects of the MCAS. During times like that I usually just meditate in bed or in a recliner, generally not thinking about anything, just breathing, letting the inside and outside become one. I do this almost all of the time.
But other times when I can’t do that for one reason or another, I started to create a little “feel good” list to reflect on. This is something that when I’m not feeling well and I can’t meditate, it helps to remind me that life has generally been very good to me. I think about various things, all of the favorite times I’ve had in my life, meeting my wife, playing baseball, all of the dogs, good vacations, fun with friends, etc.
One thing I hadn’t thought about in a long time that came to mind recently was that when I was 32 years old I worked for a company I called the Evil Empire, and something good happened on my last day there. (That wasn’t their real name, but some of the owners of that company inspired me to give it that name.)
Found a note today that I wrote on December 24, 2005. I noted that a friend went out of their way to wish me a Merry Christmas, and it was the nicest thing to happen recently and I never wanted to forget it. Reading it tonight made me smile again. Never underestimate the potential effect of the simplest kind word or act.
While I’m going through some medical treatments I drive into Boulder, Colorado once or twice a week. This was today’s view (June 20, 2019) while driving into Boulder on Arapahoe Road. As you can see, the tallest mountains still have some snow on them.
If you’re interested in meditating but can’t quite seem to do it without getting distracted, I recommend making a game of it. One game I use is, “How long can I take to count to five full breaths?”
The game itself is simple: Just before you begin to meditate, start a stopwatch on your phone. Then breathe in, and as you do so, internally say “one.” Then breathe out and internally (or externally) say “two.” Try to take these breaths as slowly as you can, with all of your focus on the current breath and current number. Keep doing this until you breathe out and say “ten,” and when that breath is finished, stop the stopwatch and see how long it took. The game is to make this time as long as possible.
I saw this “I think my guardian angel drinks” post on a friend’s Facebook page many years ago (2104), and it always makes me laugh. (Sorry, I don’t know the original source of this image.)
Here are two good articles on taking a tour of the Patrón distillery in Guadalajara, Mexico, one from traveldistilled.com and a second from distillerytrail.com. (This post is inspired by a tequila discussion with one of my nieces at another niece’s recent wedding.)
Per the Technical University of Munich, Bitcoin is causing CO2 emissions comparable to Hamburg.
In “Eat, Pray, Love,” Elizabeth Gilbert describes what meditation can be like. :)
In this final, third part of my three-part introductory series on Scala.js I’ll demonstrate a technique that can help you build single-page web applications with Scala.js. That is, the body of your HTML page will look like this:
<body>
<div id="root"></div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="./target/scala-2.12/scala-js-hello-world-jsdeps.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="./target/scala-2.12/scala-js-hello-world-fastopt.js"></script>
</body>
After that, your entire application will then be written in Scala/Scala.js, which is converted into JavaScript code in the scala-js-hello-world-fastopt.js file.