davidcarlton

[davidcarlton]

In honor of EconTalk's 1,000th episode, host Russ Roberts reflects on his long, strange journey from pioneer of the podcast format to weekly interviewer of leading economists, authors, and thinkers. Hear him answer your--and Chat GPT's--questions about why he got started, how he preps, and how he picks guests. He also explains why debate gave way to conversation--even about arguments with which he disagrees--and why EconTalk isn't only (or even mostly) about economics anymore. And yes, he shares some of his all-time favorite episodes and why he's so grateful to be the host.

EconTalk #1000 (with Russ Roberts) - Econlib

I honestly think EconTalk is kind of a special podcast.  I don’t know that I think episode 1000 is a particularly good starting point, but there’s a lot of good stuff in the library of episodes.

[davidcarlton]

In my experience, high-level enjoyment, like a sport, is composed of many interlocking micro-skills that must be trained individually, but which reinforce each other. This is not how enjoyment is taught—the only tip people typically receive re enjoyment is to “be mindful.” I think this is a suggestion to adopt what meditators call “one-pointed focus,” a form of concentrated, narrowed attention on a small portion of conscious experience. It’s a mediocre suggestion for a couple of reasons. First, this is hard to do well, even for seasoned meditators. Second, it is far from the only enjoyment-producing mental motion. In this post, I’ll attempt to catalog the other enjoyment micro-skills that are most familiar to me.

How to like everything more - by Sasha Chapin

Interesting advice.

[davidcarlton]

Interesting parallels with this and Qi building during Calm Abiding; I wonder if it's literally the same thing going on?

[davidcarlton]

A century ago, antihistamines were a revolution in allergy treatment. But now, we’re on the cusp of another. Omalizumab, sold as Xolair, is an asthma medication that was approved more than 20 years ago, but it has proven successful in treating seasonal allergies in recent preliminary trials. So successful, in fact, that now some doctors in the US are prescribing it for certain patients during hay fever season. It is an injection, rather than a pill or a spray, that’s given a couple of weeks before pollen and grass levels start to rise. One obvious benefit is you get a single shot and enjoy your spring. But even better, omalizumab can forestall allergic reactions at the source. That means an injection could stop all allergic reactions — not only seasonal allergies but food allergies (such as peanuts) and insect allergies for a prolonged period of time. This class of treatment — monoclonal antibodies, special artificial proteins that carry instructions to the body’s immune system — have the potential to be a genuine all-in-one allergy wonder drug.

Is there a cure for seasonal allergies? Actually, yes. | Vox

Hope that pans out, that would be great.

[davidcarlton]

That is where CrossOver and CodeWeavers come in. Without CodeWeavers there would be no Wine on Mac. There would be no GPTK. Hell, even Rosetta would likely be more restricted as many of the extensions added in recent months were only added due to pressure from Mac gamers. The revenue from CrossOver is what keeps Wine on Mac alive. By contrast, Whisky is based on CrossOver, but we don't produce any bespoke fixes. I, quite frankly, do not have the requisite skills or time to do so. As a result, the amount that Whisky as a whole contributes to Wine is practically zero. This is not a fair trade, and continuing this parasitic relationship could easily harm CrossOver's continued profitability and the existence of Wine on Mac as a whole. TLDR; Whisky harms Wine on Mac.

Maintenance Notice - Whisky Documentation

Huh, wow.

[davidcarlton]

Interesting interview; makes me wonder how much of our current political unfortunateness is related to this...  (Certainly not all, but it also makes me think that a lot of it is related to traumas related to child rearing styles that have similar effects.)

[davidcarlton]

Here are some mysteries about depression:  In most illnesses, the list of symptoms is hit or miss. Not every patient gets every symptom, or even every common symptom. If a common symptom of an illness is breaking out in hives, many people will break out in hives, but some people won’t.  Depression is much stranger. Like other diseases, you sometimes get symptoms and sometimes do not. But on top of that, you also sometimes get symptoms, and other times get their opposites.

The Mind in the Wheel – Part V: Depression and other Diagnoses – SLIME MOLD TIME MOLD

Huh.  Interesting series of posts.

[davidcarlton]

Simone Weil sounds like she was extremely intense.

[davidcarlton]

I do like Laurie Anderson.

[davidcarlton]

The ubiquitous ESP32 microchip made by Chinese manufacturer Espressif and used by over 1 billion units as of 2023 contains undocumented commands that could be leveraged for attacks. The undocumented commands allow spoofing of trusted devices, unauthorized data access, pivoting to other devices on the network, and potentially establishing long-term persistence.

Undocumented commands found in Bluetooth chip used by a billion devices

Sigh.  Seems like it probably requires physical access to exploit, at least.

[davidcarlton]

Interesting experience report.

[davidcarlton]

My next-to-last job was in Rwanda, where I managed a project to improve Rwanda’s trade with its neighbors.   It was a small project — me and half a dozen Rwandans, mostly IT people.  We were working to (1) help Rwanda integrate into the East African Community, and (2) improve the functioning of Rwanda’s “Electronic Single Window”, where traders go to move their goods through Customs.

USAID: My next-to-last project — Crooked Timber

Interesting post, I didn’t know about any of this stuff.

[davidcarlton]

Pleasant conversation about opera and musicals.

[davidcarlton]

Hearing more frequent meaningful stories of progress feels healthy, I think?

[davidcarlton]

Good interview with one of my favorite authors.

[davidcarlton]

Neat story of font geekery.

[davidcarlton]

How to be a Principal Engineer/Senior Principal Engineer/Senior Architect/fancy-sounding-title Engineer, a thread:

James Cowling on X

Good advice here.  Here’s an unrolled version, if you prefer that: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1879984381785514083.html