#it field

[ross-nekochan]

Questa era la situazione sul mio Linkedin fino a Martedì. In settimana si sono aggiunti altri 2 messaggi.

A me, senza nessuna esperienza concreta né competenza particolare.

Il motivo principale è che in questo paese mancano lavoratori a livelli estremi. In più, qui esistono (non) lavori che non esistono in nessuna parte del mondo.

Ditemi voi che lavoro è prenotare gli ascensori per i clienti di un centro commerciale oppure che lavoro è regolare il (non) traffico di un parcheggio di massimo 15/25 posti auto.

Invece il motivo del perché sono così richiesti posizioni IT ancora non me lo so spiegare bene, ma ho una teoria.

Partiamo da un presupposto: IT non significa "ingegnere" nel senso puro del termine, ma, banalmente, significa solo avere a che fare in qualche modo con i computer o con vari device. Non fai nè sai niente di più (al massimo poco più) dell'utente medio.

Per quanto riguarda la mia piccola esperienza in questo campo (sia in Italia che qui), IT ha significato solamente avere accessi da amministratore a qualche funzione (dato che sti sistemi aziendali sono tutti complicati) per aiutare i dipendenti a risolvere qualche problema all'account o alla stampante o altre cagate. Ora, in più, gestisco tipo il "magazzino" dei PC aziendali da fornire ai dipendenti quindi vanno resettati all'occorrenza.

Un lavoro stupido, letteralmente.

Eppure, io mi rendo sempre più conto che la grandissima parte dei lavori sono stupidi. Forse quello che lo rende leggermente meno stupido è solo il carico di "responsabilità", ma per il resto sono tutti lavori stupidi. Talmente stupidi che potrebbero farli chiunque. Ed è qui la chiave, perché se possono farli tutti vuol dire che siamo letteralmente pura manodopera. Ecco perché ne cercano a manetta. Non a caso, considero questo campo come la più bassa forma di manodopera del settore terziario: così come servono le persone che selezionano e impacchettano le mele negli scatoli, così servono persone che resettano i PC e li spediscono ai vari dipendenti. Non c'è ragionamento, non c'è cervello, ci sei solo tu che sposti e fai cose.

L'essere umano sprecato. Io che sento il mio essere senziente sprecato.

Eppure a tutti va bene così, va talmente bene che se la macchina minaccia il proprio lavoro automatizzato le persone pensano alla paura di perdere lo stipendio, piuttosto che alla possibilità di essere di nuovo essere umani. Ma non si può chiedere troppo a chi il cervello non lo vuole usare perché non gli è stato insegnato come si fa.

Nessun dubbio se in tutto il mondo stanno aumentando le partite IVA. I Tlon hanno scritto nel loro libro che il lavoro odierno è sperzonalizzante anche perché facciamo parte solo di un pezzo del processo produttivo e non vedendo il prodotto finito, non sentiamo il senso di soddisfazione in quello che stiamo facendo. Mettersi in proprio, almeno, ci rende partecipi del processo dall'inizio alla fine, così come accade con i lavori manuali, che, al contrario della società odierna, considero il lavoro tra i più belli in assoluto - se solo si riuscisse a guadagnarci adeguatamente.

I vegani si battono contro i diritti degli animali che vivono in condizioni terribili in stalla eppure io penso che i veri maiali siamo noi: chiusi nei vagoni dei treni tutte le mattine, stretti come fossimo carne pronta ad andare al macello. Anzi, in realtà lo siamo, carne pronta ad andare al macello. Siamo persino più stupidi dei maiali: perché se loro sono stati ingabbiati da noi esseri umani, noi siamo stati capaci di crearci la gabbia da soli e non riusciamo più ad uscirne.

Che razza di merda.

[jodielandons]

NOAH LYLES pulls out the Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Exodia the Forbidden One Yu-Gi-Oh! cards before winning all of his 100m races at the 2024 Olympic trials

[great-and-small]

Apparently the local university’s undergraduate entomology course sends students to catch insect specimens at the same place I like to go birdwatching, which explains why I saw three enormous frat looking dudes with tiny bug nets and overheard one emphatically say “bro BRO I told you we already have enough lepidopterans”

[389]

sinkhole in Illinois, 2024

[sirfrogsworth]

How do you take a photo of time?

I've been watching the track events at the Olympics since I was a wee lad. It was a tradition in our family. We'd gather around our ancient low-definition 19 inch CRT television and watch tiny blobs compete against other tiny blobs and root for our country.

It was a bit like watching YouTube on your phone in 144p.

Several heroes emerged.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee was amazing.

You can't forget about Flo-Jo.

And then the Olympics decided NBA players were allowed in the competition.

Which formed... The Dream Team.

Was this fair?

Well... they won each game by an average of 44 points.

So... no. It was not fair.

Though it became more fair as time went on.

But, umm... yeah. The other teams looked like the Washington Generals and the US looked like the Harlem Globetrotters if they stopped screwing around half of the game.

But my absolute favorite Olympian was a runner named Michael Johnson.

He was cool as heck.

For one thing... gold shoes.

But he also had this crazy, upright, Tom Cruise-ish sprinting style that just made him look like a running robot on the track.

And in the 1996 Atlanta games he just trounced EVERYONE. I mean, it wasn't even close.

Yikes. Those losing blobs are probably really embarrassed.

Last night I decided to invigorate my nostalgia and watch the track events again. And I got to see one of the wildest races in history.

It didn't even last 10 seconds but it was one of the most exciting sporting events I've ever witnessed. Almost every runner won the race.

After I saw that initially, I was like... who the heck won???

Even in slow motion I wasn't sure.

This was one of the closest finishes in history. There has never been a race where all 8 runners were within this margin.

The arena was silent as the winner was being confirmed. The runners just kind of paced around waiting for official word. My best guess was the Jamaican runner, Kishane Thompson. But then the loudspeaker announced Noah Lyles.

The last tiny morsel of American pride burst out of me with a big "Wooooo!"

I forgot what it was like to be proud of my country. I wish it happened more often. But this young man, despite being last place in the first 3rd of the race, turned on the afterburners and won in a photo finish.

And that's when my inner nerd took over.

Because when they showed the photo finish image, it looked super weird.

Why is the track white?

Why do all of the runners look all warpy like that QWOP game?

So I went down a research rabbit hole to figure this out.

Photo finishes are actually fascinating. The first photo finish captured the end of a horse race in 1890. But that was mostly luck and timing. The actual photo finish mechanisms weren't used until 1937.

Originally they would film the finish line through a physical slit.

And the first horsie head that appeared in that slit would be the winner. This technology ended a huge aspect of corruption in horse race fixing almost overnight.

But we have come a long way since then. And I'd like to introduce you to the Omega Scan 'O' Vision Ultimate.

This slow motion camera sits fixed on the finish line of every race. The concept of the photo finish has remained remarkably similar to the 1930s approach. The camera sensor is specially designed to only record a vertical slit.

Only the finish line itself is actually captured.

And because it limits what it records to only that slit, it can capture 40,000 frames per second to get amazing temporal resolution.

So why don't the photo finishes just look like, well... this?

That is because the camera takes a picture of time more-so than dimensional space. I guess it would be more accurate to say it *assembles* a picture of time.

As the runners cross the finish line, the camera combines all of the little strips of pictures into a single image.

It's almost like if you tried to reassemble a piece of paper after it had been shredded.

Imagine each strip of paper is a picture of ONLY the finish line, just at a slightly different point in time.

What if someone stopped on the finish line and didn't move... what would that look like?

Once they got there, the same part of their body would just be repeated.

So the right side of the photo finish picture represents earlier in time and it just assembles the image strip by strip as time passes and you literally get a picture of time itself.

NEAT!

Okay, but how do they determine the winner from the photo finish?

I mean, that shoe looks like it is ahead of Noah Lyles!

Clavicles!

The IAFF rules state the foremost part of the torso must cross the finish line first. And the endpoint of the torso is the outer end of the clavicle.

So if you get this bone across the finish line first, you win the race.

Two more fun facts!

The start of the race is actually just as carefully timed as the end of the race. There are sensors in the starting blocks of each runner.

The starting gun also has an electronic sensor.

They have determined the fastest a human can react to the sound of a gun is roughly 100 milliseconds. So if you start running before 100 milliseconds they know you didn't actually hear the gun, you just got antsy and started running too early.

And the final fun fact...

Did you notice the Omega logo at the top of the photo finish?

That isn't superimposed or added after the fact. That is captured by the camera.

But if this image is composed only of tiny little slivers, how did they get the Omega logo to show up?

That is a little display. And it is synchronized with the Scan 'O' Vision Ultimate to show a little sliver of the Omega logo for each frame captured.

So when the final image is stitched together, it looks like a cohesive logo at the top of the photo.

Pretty clever, Omega!

[heylsgowt]

[nasa]

Do You Love the Color of the Sun?

Get dazzled by the true spectrum of solar beauty. From fiery reds to cool blues, explore the vibrant hues of the Sun in a mesmerizing color order. The images used to make this gradient come from our Solar Dynamics Observatory. Taken in a variety of wavelengths, they give scientists a wealth of data about the Sun. Don't miss the total solar eclipse crossing North America on April 8, 2024. (It's the last one for 20 years!) Set a reminder to watch with us.

[critter-creature-or-beast]

The third one looks cool

[daftmooncretin]

spock’s room decor is actually fucking bonkers. The weapons??? the big red velvet curtain??? like ok phantom of the opera go crazy.

for reference jim’s room has some photos and a plant so we can surmise this is uniquely a spock being a dramatic weirdo thing

[thunderstruck9]

John Salt (British, 1937-2021), Black Ford in Field, 1972. Oil on canvas, 48 x 72 in.

[mirrorhouse]

Eric Bogosian and Luke Brandon Field as Daniel Molloy INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE

[greedandenby]

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??

Was randomly watching Adam Sandler's comedy special when lo and behold: who do i spot lurking in the audience? Not ONE, but TWO DANIEL MOLLOYS!!!! 😭😭😭

[duckysprouts]

brain chemistry changed from no longer you and monster btw

[continent-of-wild-endeavor]

Job interview tip I got from a tiktok but it's genius:

If you were unemployed for a while, they're going to ask if you can explain the gap in your resume. Unless you were actually doing something cool & relevant, this is hard to answer in a way that makes you sound like a good corporate cog. So here's the best and infallible answer -

No you cannot, because you signed an NDA.

You now sound mysterious, desirable, worldly, experienced. They can't even really ask you more about it! Perfect.

[heylsgowt]