I don't write too often about my cycling milestones - but I guess the one today is worth mentioning:
I've reached the 20,000 km mark in this 208th day of the year.
That's 96 km/day, every day.
#cycling
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Thomas
@tg9541@mas.to
mastodon 4.7.2Engineer, trying to kick the habit by doing humanities and science; that doesn't work but I like it. Not a specialist to "follow" for a single subject, but I might know how some things are connected. High Reading-to-TV ratio. Ardent #cyclist (MAMIL).
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Joined October 29, 2022
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1st: 🇩🇪; 2nd.active: 🇺🇸 (most posts), 🇳🇱, 🇫🇷; 2nd.passive: 🇪🇸, 🇵🇹, 🇩🇰, 🇸🇪, 🇳🇴
Sports:
cycling (a lot), swimming
Hobbies:
understanding things that humans do (including technology)
Work:
simulation and automation-in-the-social in a highly-structured industry
Last week, during our traditional Easter family reunion, I took my father's old Peugeot touring bike from the basement and gave it a quick check-up. This was the first time it's been used in at least 35 years. I believe it still has the original tires, chain and sprocket. Indexed shifters have come a long way since the 1980s: it's not for nothing that Shimano SIS can be switched to non-indexed. Good enough for the occasional 10km ride downtown and back.
#cycling #bikeTooter #bikerepair
RE: @cognitiveresearch@mastodon.social
Sometimes you find a pearl when you least expect it.
Avoiding to search in places where masses of cheap class beads are in abundance certainly helps.
Recommended reading :-)
A different perspective...
Local young people, adolescents, even children: this sounds much like a viral social media thing.
#ceuta
https://elpais.com/espana/2026-08-01/sin-recursos-para-atender-a-los-menores-en-ceuta-veniamos-avisando-de-que-estaba-pasando-algo-pero-no-hicieron-caso.html
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@MikeFromLFE@cupoftea.social I can imagine that very well - I don't know how if I can sustain a routine after retirement, or have the health to do it.
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@MikeFromLFE@cupoftea.social Not bad! Developing a cycling habit after an extended pause is not so easy. Happy pedaling!
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@jerome In this case it had "CLAW" in the name and it was a fresh account: nomen est omen.
Otherwise, there might be many, depending on how reckless the person responsible for it is.
RE: https://flipboard.com/@npr/all-things-considered-ji18657oz/-/a-nHGHaQZgRfGovvOXDSslHg%3Aa%3A3195441-%2F0
Can we still call the USA a "republic"?
#USA
RE: @arstechnica@mastodon.social
Sometimes we have the chance to re-assess our understanding of the world, and we have to be very careful to put what we think we know into perspective. The article below describes such a chance, to get a better understanding of the boundary between what we know as the Ediacaran and the Cambrian world. If such a boundary even exists.
#science #epistemology
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@lpryszcz In my opinion a battery upgrade for a Pentium III isn't not worth it (if it's not for sentimental reasons): the performance/power consumption ration, important for mobile use, of cheap Core i5 machines is a lot better (not to mention the need to use 64bit binaries).
@JigmeDatse @codemonkeymike
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@elduvelle if you would ask "did you ever get a job or hire someone through LinkedIn" I would have the same answer.
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@pws I grew up close to France, and I proudly rode a Motobecane; bought it right over there, rode it right home 25 miles via the "green border". Steel frame, steel wheels, steel everything. That was long before Schengen, mind you.
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@MikeFromLFE you're right, the tires (tyres 🇬🇧) look suspicious. I kept the pressure at the lower edge.
And you're right again, in my youth I rode thousands of km, sometimes well above 200 km per day, with non-indexed shifters and 2x6 speeds. Some people say geared bikes are overrated. Did I mention that 1970s folding bike with a 2-speed F&S hub?
@vastverzet
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@andrejbauer yes, LLMs will go for it, and sound eager to please, no matter how dumb the prompt is.
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@wthinker
This morning I cycled a bit on streets that were frozen over - slippery enough that getting on the bike was a challenge. Riding was relatively safe, thanks to studded tires.
@pekkatahkola @inVinnieVeritas
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@Furthering@convo.casa Those who don't suffer from pollen allergies hear from people that spring means isolation (unless it's cold and it rains), but they can't really experience what it means.
I wish you a few days of no-pollen weather!
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@Szescstopni@circumstances.run the beavers had a healthy appetite for softwood trees along the beck - I'm curious what happens next. They change the landscape so much!
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@Szescstopni@circumstances.run for a few years we have one beaver dam here in the hills - these animals turned a beck and a meadow into a happy place for ducks and geese (and who knows what else).
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@markn Yes, it's a classic bike, kind of. The Shimano Exage cantilever brakes are the only thing to complain about... they're almost impossible to adjust. Maybe I'll swap them against something with less plastics at the wrong place.
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@UlrikeHahn There is a lot of value in researching the psychology of the "AI"-Human feedback loop; not by using LLMs as a model of our mind but by analyzing what we believe about LLMs (or "agentic systems" based on them) when exposed to it; a skinner-box we collectively create while using it.
We may have a chance to expose meta-mechanisms of the social, laws that govern the probability of socio-psychological effects in a way that's open to epistemological practice.
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@jfparis Ici 717 km lun -> dim. 697 km, 725 km et 602 km les semaines avant. Je prendrai Raclette, Tartiflette et Fondue, merci!
@MatthewNewell@Cycling_Liz
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@juergen_hubert Geht mir ähnlich... präsenile Bettflucht. Ich mag aber die langen Abende wirklich sehr.
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@luis_in_brief that's what came to my mind, too. I thought by myself: since when a "city" in the USA is it that it's no longer a city proper but a conduct of car traffic?
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@Swede1952@universeodon.com a turkey vulture, I assume... aren't those called "buzzards" by the Southerners?
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@pekkatahkola I've been to Oulu; stayed there for a night, worked on the airport tarmac on a September day. I no longer remember why it was so important to be there, but I liked the town, and memories of some places are still vivid after 20 years.
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@Sven@mstdn.games I'm here because Mastodon is a bit like the old Internet, the old forums, the old IRC: people are in small communities, plus the occasional chat with a stranger. Yes, it's also a Skinner box, bot one where the rules are transparent, and where I have a choice. I'm enjoying it.
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@Sven@mstdn.games maybe a bit too much psychology and philosophy for a casual conversation... my bad :-)
Replying to on mastodon.social
@leanderlindahl@mastodon.social Try working with Indian companies. You'll be back after you discover that the last person who knew anything about the problem they promised to solve is about to leave.
The problem is still there, but now it's yours, including managing new hires.
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@JigmeDatse I also once had a Panasonic Toughbook which served me well in countless workplace and prototype tasks. The downside of these laptops is non-standard hardware. These days, Freedos or a console BSD are the closest thing to a viable OS installation one can get. @codemonkeymike @lpryszcz
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@leanderlindahl@mastodon.social It's narratives, right? Let's not leave them to others. There is quite a lot a few skilled people can pull off. The masses can't invent new things. The few can.
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@JigmeDatse I own an Atom N280 "netbook" which runs the last viable Debian distribution, soon likely without an up-to-date web browser. Battery life is still good after 15 years, but unlike in its prime it's only fast enough for console applications these days. I still keep it around because it served me well in the years where I used to be a "traveling engineer". Back then mobile Internet was expensive and I ran a "DNS tunnel"; good enough for a shell.
#nostalgia
@codemonkeymike @lpryszcz
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@davidgerard@circumstances.run re Roko's basilisk:
Borges on the problem, or "it's all in your head". Instructive, a warning: madness isn't necessarily a neurological condition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zahir
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@Sven@mstdn.games the social and the illusion of the social, intelligence and the illusion of intelligence... in both techno-psychological domains, "social networks" and "ai", the users reinforce their own dependence and illusion. I believe that this is also the case for any kind of readily available subject of attention, e.g., books, newspapers, cinema, radio, or TV.
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@lionelb@expressional.social these things were highly practical and optimized to be easily maintainable: every moving part is either well protected or can be accessed with ease, and the protective parts won't make maintenance harder but easier. I wonder how the PTO (power take-off) looks like.
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@YorksBylines@mastodon.social Maybe some people who technically are Scottish know what it takes...
https://mastodon.scot/@alanferrier/116403790893125724
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@Sven@mstdn.games That's a long journey, it may well take years to do. Berger's "Social Construction of Reality" is a good entry point. Also the writings of Jacques Ellul on the socio-technical might be suitable.
This said, I allude to behaviorist attacks on our autonomy, technical devices turned into virtual Skinner-boxes. TikTok on a smartphone is a good example for applied behaviorist techno-psychology.
Combine that with what Ellul described in "Propaganda" and you know that we're in deep trouble.
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@joost_rekveld@assemblag.es Thanks for this post!
Jazz as the clash of 20th century modernity (as opposed to the clash of the 19th century modernity), with one foot in Futurism, and the other on primordial ground.
Wiederholt wanted to be creative... and he got further than most.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sascha_Wiederhold
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@knapjack yes, for sure, I wouldn't recommend using them for a long ride. I'll buy new ones :-)
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@JigmeDatse A Pentium III laptop that still works is quite remarkable. When I tried to open the display lid of an old Olivetti laptop (with 128 MB RAM I believe) which I had kept in the basement for as long as I own the netbook, 15 years, it simply broke off. I didn't use much force; Olivetti must have used PVC instead of more durable plastics. Once the plasticizer are away such an item is trash. The design was nice, though.
@codemonkeymike @lpryszcz
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@lionelb@expressional.social That's what I expected - it's a "modern" PTO at the rear of the tractor, I suppose