I'm not trying to "argue" with anyone. I am just clarifying how it works.
I think your missing the point. It isnt a random number generator, there is literally nothing random about it. It is a type of compression where the locationa nd page of the book is the compressed input and the output is the data on the page. As such it need not store the data on the site itself, but it also isnt at all what you said earlier "You'll never find anything there that you haven't input yourself".
I understand why you might call it a random number generator in the sense that you could use it to generate pseudorandom numbers. what I am trying to say though is that it isn't the best description because it has properties random number generators do not.
So thinking of it as simply a random number generator, is not the full picture is what im saying, though it is one interpretation you can use. for example if I gave you an ordinary random number generator, like the one you find in software, where it takes a seed and spits out random data, you couldn't use that to replicate the library of babel site because it is not reversible, there is no way to ask for the seed that will give a certain output.
Thats why thinking of it as compression is more valid because compression is a bidirectional process and ideally compressed data is indistinguishable from a pseudo random stream, so overall it fits the picture better. With compression every combination of input text will produce a **unique** identifier that is its compressed data, and in this case represents the location in the library, so its encoded as digits. So when you look up a page the numbers you enter are the compressed data and it decompresses into the seemingly random page of data.
The important part in all this is that unlike a PRNG this is a bidirectional process.
@qapaq I can throw in any themes you want actually. If there is a theme you want just do a pull request or even just link me to it and i can throw it in.
@hansw@mastodon.social I've been giving it a lot of thought and while circles can be used with groups (it might even work as is, i need to look). But the more I thought about it it wouldnt provide a fully private group capability, let me explain why.
Groups right now are little more than reboosts, however it is defined that way within the standard, basically if your actor_type in the protocol is "group" then a reboost means the same as a post added to the group. But from your perspective as a user/consumer its effectively a reboost with a similar permission scheme as such.
Now permissions in the fediverse for a post need to be considered in that regard. Permissions are a bit confusing because in the client the idea of permissions is not exactly the same as in the protocol. For example "unlisted" is in the permissions drop down but it isnt a permission at all, its a public post that doesnt go out and forward it to other servers. So what permissions basically are is private vs public.. public anyone can get without any encrypted special access. private requires you to validate and is encrypted and all, you basically provide a list of people who have access to it, in that sense a direct message and a circle message is very similar its just circles make your life easier. But it basically just constructs a list of who is allowed to see it similar to how a direct message constructs its list out of everyone mentioned in the post.
So a circle you can think of as a way of creating something like a direct message that lets you give someone permission to view the message as if you tagged them, but without tagging them (so they dont get a notification in the same way you would have in a DM)
So here is the problem.. For a private group people expect the behavior to be such that they can make a post that no one can see except for the people in the group itself. So you want a private message where the permission list is dynamic and changes to match the follower list of a group. that means the permission of the post needs to be controlled by the group server, not the origin server. which means teh post has to originate from the group account and not the user account for that to work at all.
Now you can still use circles, its just circles willl cause the post to only be seen by those YOU define in the circle. There is no way with a circle for you to say "The people who can view this are the members of the group".. all it can do is offer a fixed list of people you give permission to, which may and probably is a subset of the group and may even include people not in the group. so while that **is** useful it isnt exactly able to fill the same function.
If you moderate one of the groups at groups.qoto.org here is one useful tip.
You can add posts to the group by manually boosting them. Similarly posts made directly from the group account wont show in the group, if you wish for it to show in the group you must immediately boost your own post.
Yea thats fair. Proper marketing would have had both options from the get go really.
@Nigma I'll probably wind up voting Jo and just tell people I voted Trump.
@aminewatcher The most notable and exagerated example I can think of would be the Weimar Republic. their voting system was much like ours, not a coalition system but where the majority winner took the presidency, winner take all, the same being applied to each seat in their version of the senate.. so their system of voting was very similar to us. Despite the similarity they had a great many representatives and parties in each election. Full list of canddiateson the ballot and counted I think were upwards of 100 different parties in some years.
Though the definition of a two party system isnt so much who gets on the ballot but who wins. In the USA virtually all seats in our senate are one f two parties with a very small number being third party, so we call taht a two party system.
By contrast the weimar republic had a pretty healthy division of parties and seats. We see about 10 different parties holding seats at the same time.
@timorl ill be here tomorrow, have a great evening.
@timorl While I wouldnt go that far, I find almsot all media about him to generally be either extreme exagerations or blatent lies.. BUT with that said, the man is certainly evil and I dont like him in the least.
Remember my argument isnt that trump is not bad.. my argument is simply that 1) biden is worse 2) most of the facts against trump are distorted and exagerated to make him loose worse than he is, even if he is plenty bad on his own.
@timorl Alright, then do you have a quote fromt he report that claims trump acted illegally in a big to obstruct justice?
If you legitimately feel that one of the primary party candidates are the best, though its hard for me to see how, then yes, by all means, support them!
I would disagree with the inevitability of a two party system as evidenced by government systems. There are many governments, some of which much older than us, some of which are historic others are still around, which have had voting systems very similar to the USA. There are many examples of such systems not degrading into a two party system. So the argument that it is unavoidable and inevitable with a system like america's would seem incorrect if for no other reason than based on historic evidence.
Interested in all things nerdy, often obscure things as well:
#science
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Feel free to poke me with conversation!
@timorl Well to be fair I only think Biden is more evil than trump. trump being slightly less evil than Biden isnt really a glowing endorsement :)
Jeffrey Phillips Freeman
Innovator & Entrepreneur in Machine Learning, Evolutionary Computing & Big Data. Avid SCUBA diver, Open-source developer, HAM radio operator, astrophotographer, and anything nerdy.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, USA, currently living in Utrecht, Netherlands, USA, and Thailand. Was also living in Israel, but left.
Pronouns: Sir / Mister
(Above pronouns are not intended to mock, i will respect any persons pronouns and only wish pronouns to show respect be used with me as well. These are called neopronouns, see an example of the word "frog" used as a neopronoun here: http://tinyurl.com/44hhej89 )
A proud member of the Penobscot Native American tribe, as well as a Mayflower passenger descendant. I sometimes post about my genealogical history.
My stance on various issues:
Education: Free to PhD, tax paid
Abortion: Protected, tax paid, limited time-frame
Welfare: Yes, no one should starve
UBI: No, use welfare
Racism: is real
Guns: Shall not be infringed
LGBT+/minorities: Support
Pronouns: Will respect
Trump: Moron, evil
Biden: Senile, racist
Police: ACAB
Drugs: Fully legal, no prescriptions needed
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