I'd want to take it further by using full RGB and cycling through some colormaps with different properties. Sequential, diverging, cyclic like in matplotlib.
Can't think of a specific use-case off the top of my head, but sometimes I just want the "feel" of the data when I'm plotting something, and maybe the same scattershot approach would pay off at some point on unknown hex data if it was an option.
I’ve been looking at a potential move to another country (which is momentarily looking like it will happen this year). Because I prioritize things badly, I went through my list of books to check out from the library and searched the catalogs of the two English-language libraries at my destination city. The list has 1,190 books. 175 are on the shelves of my local suburban library and all but 69 are available through the suburban library system (those 69 are available from the Chicago Public Library though). In the destination city, one library has 289 titles and the other 71.¹ The local public library will be the thing I miss the most if I move.
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1. I omitted audio books and translations to the local language² from the counts.
2. I speak the language decently and can read it fluently, but my general policy is not to read a book in translation if I can read the original language. This does mean that some of the books in translation, if the native system in the other country has them translated to the local language (they have a much less robust public library system in general and I’ve not seen any indication of any significant numbers of English-language books) I can get those there.
San Francisco Public Library [0] is the best resource for readers in California. Of all the libraries in the state, I've found they are the most likely to acquire new titles, and often they are the only holder if the subject is particularly niche and technical. Even most university libraries are switching to digital collections *which can't be loaned out*.
One reason I say SFPL is great for all^H^H^H many Californians+ is their book collection is available for free pickup at a your local library via the inter-library sharing program, Link+ [1].
((People, submit purchase requests at your local libraries. It's what it's for.))
The other is that they are subscribers to "O'Reilly for Public Libraries", which lets people access Everything from O'Reilly for Free [2].
My point was not whether $35/year per person on books is a lot or a little. I was responding to a comment where someone suggested libraries were a way to avoid high book prices. But they're not!
Libraries themselves (and by extension, taxpayers) suffer from high book prices.
Separately, would you mind explaining this part, as I'm not familiar with university libraries: "Even most university libraries are switching to digital collections which can't be loaned out."
Does this mean you can only read the digital collections when physically present in the library, or that they're only available to members and not via inter-library loan?
Just now, I went to suggest a book there and got a popup message saying they won't get that book because it's over 10 years old. It's a book about critical thinking. It doesn't need to be updated.
> I was responding to a comment where someone suggested libraries were a way to avoid high book prices. But they're not!
Most of the books I've bought got read by me, and then sit on a shelf forever. If a book is bought by a library, and used multiple times before it's weeded, that's a big win for $/read.
> Just now, I went to suggest a book there and got a popup message saying they won't get that book because it's over 10 years old. It's a book about critical thinking. It doesn't need to be updated.
I think the library is suggesting a 10 year old book might be better accessed through other means. Can you get it from interlibrary loan? Is it available on the used market? It may not be available through the library's usual sourcing, etc.
Why would the age of the book matter? If it were from a big publisher and they were to publish a new substantially-unchanged edition every three years, why would that make the library willing to consider the book?
The book in question is still in print and still available new.
If nobody wanted it in the first 10 years it was available, chances are it's only going to get one circulation if they buy it for you. That's not a great use of the libraries purchase budget or shelf space budget.
If they had a copy that wore out and it was circulated many times, they would have reordered it when they discarded it.
Some universities have it, but the only copy in CA public libraries seems to be at the Sharp Park branch in Pacifica (which I believe was acquired in the last couple of years - good on them!).
Berkeley public library has copies of the JS edition for what that's worth..
Worldcat says it's at 1483 libraries: https://search.worldcat.org/title/Structure-and-interpretati... (although some of them may not participate in ILL, and some may only have eBooks that you probably can't borrow unless you have an appropriate account)
I'm sure SFPL does tracking on ILL requests and if something comes up more than once or twice in a reasonable period and it's available for purchase, a copy will be purchased to add to the collection.
Request physical copies of books you want to read, and that you think are beneficial to the community. And check them out from time to time.
I'm sure a librarian does their best to keep abreast with the latest best books.. but would they know the field better than someone in it?
I've been told they have experts that consult on title selection. But based on the 004-006 section at most libraries, I can only infer that is the IT guy at the senior center..
Yes. I've found criteria for new books at public libraries to be very limiting. They usually will only acquire newly published books (published within a year or so). But they do get a discount from the publisher, perhaps 30%.
Basically, they will buy books that nobody's had a chance to review yet or talk about, but won't buy books published a year ago that everyone cites and recommends. It's a broken policy.
I'd say it is a way to avoid the high cost of books tho, in that they are a shared resource. Dozens of people may check out a single copy within a year. E-books at public libraries are more accessible, but only a finite number of copies may be accessed by patrons at a time - less accessible than you might think. Additionally, e-books are not owned, but leased. And the cost is substantial and comparable to the cost of a physical copy, and re-paid every few years.
Another way libraries avoid the cost of new books is by relying on other libraries to expand their collection. When my local library joined LINK+, for instance, they substantially decreased the amount of new books they would acquire, and it's stripping influence from the individual patron. Good luck borrowing a copy of Laws of Software Engineering [0] anywhere. Or Crafting Interpreters [1].
As far as university collections go, most have large libraries with huge collections that are available to borrow - somehow. But most of the books are very old. The new acquisitions are primarily digital and may only be accessed through a locked terminal or web portal. Whether the general public has access varies and often costs quite a bit or is free for the immediate community.
(range of options: $1000/yr to $35/two-weeks, remote unclear)
I have had some luck accessing some e-books at some colleges, but for the most part you need to have a login. It really depends on their policies and licensing deals with digital publishers.
Libraries also do a lot more than just provide books. $35 per resident per year for everything that libraries do provide is forking cheap, and we would be greatly impoverished if they were to disappear.
But my point above wasn't about whether that number is high or low. It's that the price of books is paid by us, even it's funneled through taxes and librarians.
I cringe watching my daughter dogear her books. It hurts me deep in my soul to see her nice books damaged that way.
But objectively my reaction is wrong. Books are not mystical objects to be revered. They are objects to be used. Nearly all books end up in a landfill or recycled eventually. What does it actually matter if they end up there covered in annotations and filled with dog eared pages?
Books you have borrowed? Absolutely do not write in them or dogear pages. Books you intend to share with others? Generally the same. Rare books or valuable books? Of course. Normal books you got on Amazon or from your local bookstore that you use only for your personal enjoyment? Use them how you want.
Why? Books are to be read, annotated, lived with and lent out, not treated as precious objects in a way that is completely orthogonal to their use-value.
> Why? Books are to be read, annotated, lived with and lent out, not treated as precious objects in a way that is completely orthogonal to their use-value.
I'm not being black and white like that. Some books "are to be read, annotated, lived with and lent out" others should be treated with more care.
For an extreme example: if somehow you come to possess the Book of Kells, don't go scribbling your brain farts all over it. You're a modern person who can easily buy paper or a notebook to hold such things.
Growing up, I couldn’t afford new books for school all the time. Ended up thrifting a lot of them. Annotations were like a mixed bag of candy. Sometimes they were your favorite flavor and sometimes they would give you brain aneurysms. Unfortunately that experience makes me treat books as precious objects.
My issue with borrowing books was the logistics of it. Showing up, borrowing, returning on time, remembering to return. I'd rather own. Plus, I really like Kindle. It eliminates the largest annoyance I had with books - keeping them open while reading. It introduced an annoyance of its own though; it has to be charged. Once a week or two. So not that bad.
And then there is IC versus leadership. They're opposites. Lead times and supply chains are a headache in hardware, but tangible deadlines are great for keeping the project grounded. In software you have to invent your own discipline to keep the team on pace and bend over backwards to explain to physical-minded stakeholders why you can't build something with no lead times overnight.
Sure you can, just get an older one. I'm very happy with my jailbroken Kindle 4 running KOReader. AFAIK re-registering won't brick it, you can still sideload just fine.
We should be normalizing a separation of device and ecosystem. These are for consuming books, it's not an awful inconvenience to sideload every 19 hours of consumption to queue up the next read.
> I tend to be very exacting in my word choice. If I used a specific word, I meant it.
You aren't alone. My professional written communication is meticulous. I think carefully about my audience and optimize word choice for very low probability of accidental collision or misinterpretation.
I don't think everyone should communicate this way all the time, but I do think everyone should recognize that loose communication in mixed company can waste a lot of time. My job involves inter-team and inter-department collaboration and I take the time to do it well.
> I feel like people using AI to both read and interpret language is the death of rigorous language.
I agree AI is eroding diction. I don't like the idea of such a heavy inertial force on the evolution and usage of language. Or the idea that it might be grinding off variation in word choice and self-expression.
I think there are bigger negative impacts here than most people realize. For example, it reminds me of the part in Snowcrash about how language variation is important to mitigate the spread and criticality of mind viruses and danger memes. I think you could totally look at modern authoritarianism through this lens, for example.
Consider that you may not be doing this very well. Or that it is even possible to even know what your audience is (going to be). I have found the less I assume about my audience, and thus the more verbose and elaborate I am, the better the reception of my communication tends to be, on the whole. I'll save the terse and meticulous for people who I know and level with in terms of that preference.
Communication is all about adaptation. It is a dance, in that what you think is precise and clear is never going to be shared among every person you are trying to communicate with. Clearly if your manager passes your doc through an LLM, you made an error in judgement. If this upsets you (and I don't have unlimited energy for this either), you should find more likeminded, or at least sufficient numbers of likeminded people so that it doesn't take all of your time and energy away. There is after all a reason why you get along better with some than others, and communicative preference is one reasons why I think.
Sometimes I thoroughly enjoy having to stretch my mind though. I'd hate to work with only people like me (I have!).
> I have found the less I assume about my audience, and thus the more verbose and elaborate I am, the better the reception of my communication tends to be, on the whole.
I think knowing your audience is key. Am I creating something meant to be read in 90 seconds by high level leadership to reinforce the importance of the project, or to another team meant to help inform them what is needed on their end, or as an enduring detailed document record meant to show due diligence and proper protocol? I could write a document that contained all of those things and more, and no one read it.
You rarely have no idea who your audience is likely to be. Your town’s local paper, national paper, and financial paper are all written differently for different audiences and different assumptions on shared information, priorities, etc. A local paper is going to focus on impacts to Smalltown USA, where a financial paper is going to focus on market effects and will likely assume its audience has a higher baseline understanding of financial concepts than a local paper would.
People that can tell a good joke is another version of this. If it is the wrong audience or the wrong situation, that joke will fall flat. You have to be able to “read the room” to get people to laugh with you.
"Clearly if your manager passes your doc through an LLM, you made an error in judgment"
It could also be the PM, passing everything through an LLM to make it "more understandable". Clearly, they didn't care enough to check the result.
I think so. Who writes something and why are important context for what we do with the information. It's an issue with the lack of disclosure, not AI in general.
Most longform readers will assume an author has deep expertise and spent a lot of time organizing their thoughts, which lends their ideas some legitimacy and trust. For a small blog, an 8,000 word essay is a passion project.
But if AI is detected in the phrasing and not disclosed, it begs a lot of questions. Did AI write the whole thing, or just light edits? Are the facts AI generated, too, and not from personal experience? What motivated someone to produce this content if they were going to automate parts of its creation; why would they value the output more than the process?
> But if AI is detected in the phrasing and not disclosed, it begs a lot of questions.
absolutely zero questions from me.
If I see two exactly same writings: one - by human, another - by AI. For me its doesn't matter.
> Most longform readers will assume an author has deep expertise and spent a lot of time organizing their thoughts, which lends their ideas some legitimacy and trust.
It's the incorrect assumption of "most readers". Before AI there are enough methods to throw a long read. So, AI isn't really a gamechanger here
What's really nice about tiny e-readers is that you can read without having to move your eyes horizontally.
If there are only four words per line, you can slide your eyes down the middle and take in all the words in a chunk like you would for normal speed-reading.
I have an xteink X4 and X3 and I swear I can read for much longer without strain. You can also just crank your margins way up on most other e-readers.
Is it really worth the tradeoffs of having significantly smaller storage space, reduced screen size, and clicking through way more often, just to not have to move your eyes as much horizontally?
For me seems to be. I keep it in my front shirt pocket, pull it out to read all the time. I've gone through 8 books on it so far this year. That's 7 more books than I read on my Kobo by this time last year given how convenient it is to take it everywhere. Granted I'm usually a paper book reader so my Kobo was always just a travel device, but the Xteink makes it so easy to squeeze reading in everywhere.
Just wait until you get older and need to increase the font size. Now you're down to 2 words/line and you get carpal tunnel or De Quervain's from the constant clicking to page. I'm only half kidding.
Try the M5Stack Paper S3 instead. I am running a community build of Crosspoint Reader on mine, it actually has a touchscreen and a microSD card reader, supposedly limited to 16GB but handles my 128GB card just fine.
I agree but I adjust text like this for readability using epubs and iPhone apps. I don’t see a reason for another device given how good iPhone screens are now.
Personally I think it's an inverted bathtub curve.
Some things are so cheap you can't mess it up. Some things are well-made because the manufacturer made a series of quality-conscious decisions that really added up.
The trouble is the middle, where consumers pay the most attention to branding to make decisions. At the extremes, though, brands matter less.
The poor man wants boots. The rich man wants boots. The man in the middle wants Timberlands or Harley-Davidsons or Doc Martins or whatever.
A good example would be modern safety razors. I was looking at alternatives to the King C Gillette and most of the generic branded ones performed similarly to the big three German brands.
I'd want to take it further by using full RGB and cycling through some colormaps with different properties. Sequential, diverging, cyclic like in matplotlib.
https://matplotlib.org/stable/users/explain/colors/colormaps...
Can't think of a specific use-case off the top of my head, but sometimes I just want the "feel" of the data when I'm plotting something, and maybe the same scattershot approach would pay off at some point on unknown hex data if it was an option.
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