Matthew 
@mattasdata@social.cleverlibre.org
Research Software Engineer | PhD Physics | Author of Super Smart Science: Nuclear Physics Made Easy | Lindy Hop + Yoga + Programming FTW
Joined Apr 2022
Matthew
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we have chosen to put most of our research into documents in PDF format.
PDFs are a huge pain to make accessible.
most scientists write their papers in Latex, overleaf, etc., which cannot produce accessible PDFs.
to make such PDFs accessible, one uses Adobe Acrobat, which is expensive and proprietary.
increasingly, we post our PDFs to arXiv, which ~forbids accessible PDFs b/c they can't be compiled from source.
~none of our science is accessible.
artifacts (and file formats) have politics.
@nixCraft you can avoid this if you use the AppImage of Firefox since it disables automatic updates. It has the added benefit of also being compatible with KeePassXC which the snap version of Firefox is not. The downside is that Appages are not terribly well integrated into most systems and you need to remember to manually update.
Matthew
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Stop thinking of Twitter, TikTok, IG, (et al) as social media sites.
They are **Content Refineries.**
Like processed food manufacturers they take user content & extract the most addicting/engaging content. Brains eat it up but in an unhealthy “devour the whole bag of chips” way.
They make hyper-processed social media junk food.
Mastodon is more like a potluck. We're all bringing dishes. It's a mess. Kids are running all over. But we are, at least, real people sharing real things.
Matthew
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RIP Dick Fosbury, a man who revolutionised his sport with a smart piece of physics.
Fosbury realised that by jumping backwards and bending his back he could pass over the bar while his centre of mass went under.
Genius.
Matthew
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We're recruiting a new Head of Research Software Engineering at the University of Sheffield.
Come and help us to make research better!
https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CYD056/head-of-research-software-engineering-rse
#RSE #rseng #software #engineering #research #jobs #academia
Matthew
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Two years since the new version of google icons and the struggle is still real
Matthew
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Matthew
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To everyone outraged about Gary Lineker, I'd like to remind you that Jeremy Clarkson said striking public sector workers should be shot dead "in front of their families" on The One Show. We were told that Clarkson had a "right to his freedom of expression and that is protected".
Matthew
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As a former expert on infectious diseases and large language models, and a newly-minted expert on bond risk management, let me explain what happened at SVB
Matthew
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Please, please, stop using "foo" and "bar” in code documentation. Give us real examples that mean something. Not "if (foo > bar)," but “if (height > limit)." Not “foo++” but “counter++”. Give us a logical hook to hang our hat on, not nonsense words.
First blog post in a while. Musing on how central #RSEng teams can be structured and my experience in a central team. Comments and thoughts welcome 🤓
The Anatomy of a Central RSE Team
https://bssw.io/blog_posts/the-anatomy-of-a-central-rse-team
@coderefinery Are these delivered remotely? I get the sense from the use of the term "watch-party" that these are remote, but I want to confirm. Also, are these free for all outside of Nordic countries to participate?
@eScienceCenter Will the presentations of this session be made public? Even though presumably the call isn't applicable to organisations outside NL, some of the topics covered look quite relevant to some discussions I have been having around Technical Readiness Level and Software Sustainability.
@dabeaz I came across them whilst learning a #functional language and was quite bamboozled. Do you have any good resources for a gentle introduction? In theory, they look a lot better than the hacky regex I tend to write.
Matthew
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🚨🚨 It's happening!!! 🚨🚨
Submissions for the first @us_rse Conference are open:
https://us-rse.org/usrse23/participate/
Chicago, Oct. 16-18.
This year's theme: “#SoftwareEnabled Discovery and Beyond.” #RSEng #reproducibility #researchsoftware #Engineering
Please boost!
Matthew
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One lesson connected to ChatGPT is that reliable pple aren't those who have good answers in general, but those who answer ONLY things they know v. well.
When lost, you'd rather get no direction than a wrong one.
Real doctors let you know what is outside their expertise.
From birdsite
RT @ucu
Lots of people don't realise how difficult it is to work in higher education
UCU member Chris explains what it's really like👇
Watch, RT, back our members
#ucuRISING
Matthew
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accidentally wrote "saad" instead of "saas" in a text to my partner; they immediately coined "Software as a Disappointment"
and honestly, where is the lie
My new lockdown hobby was doing #puzzles and it has continued into "normal times". I find the algorithmic nature of them therapeutic. Does anyone have good recommendations for #SciencePuzzles? Or puzzles with a #science #SciencyArt theme? I did the #LHC #ATLAS detector earlier this year which was great. A bit late for the #Higgs10 celebrations but hey ho!
Research Software Engineer | PhD Physics | Author of Super Smart Science: Nuclear Physics Made Easy | Lindy Hop + Yoga + Programming FTW
Joined Apr 2022
