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Stop using Google Analytics
ericbuijs · Tuesday, 12 May, 2020 - 08:38 edit
In this blog post Marco Saric explains why you shouldn't use Google Analytics. The most important reason is that Google owns the web which is very bad news for us the users and our privacy.
Marco also provides a privacy friendly FLOSS alternative, Plausible Analytics.
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John Conway talking about inventing Game of Life
ericbuijs · Wednesday, 29 April, 2020 - 10:41
Really nice almost endearing video where, the recently deceased, John Conway explains how the Game of Life was invented (during coffee breaks). He called it the no-players game. Funny to learn that the original game was designed and played without computers and the first programmed version was on a PDP.
The interesting part of the Game of Life is that some configurations stall (die) fairly quickly while others seem to continue for ever although it's not possible to prove that (the halting problem). It's remarkable that a game which such simple rules is lacking such proof.
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Superbooth2020 from home
ericbuijs · Thursday, 23 April, 2020 - 09:40 edit
#Superbooth, the annual exhibition of electronic musical instruments has a home edition this year. If you're interested in synthesizers and other electronic instruments, product demonstrations and workshops the home edition of Superbooth starts at today 2pm (CET).
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John Horton Conway
ericbuijs · Wednesday, 15 April, 2020 - 14:51 edit
A few words for the English mathematician John Horton Conway who recently died and which you probably know for his invention of the cellular automaton called the Game of Life but who did so much more in the field of mathematics.
Animated comic by Randall Munroe.
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Linux Action News is no longer
ericbuijs · Friday, 10 April, 2020 - 09:00
I just learned that the Linux Action News Podcast has ended. That's really sad because I loved that show. If you want to hear the official statement here it is.
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Zoom is malware
ericbuijs · Monday, 6 April, 2020 - 14:15
My wife's company pulled the plug on Zoom today. Hmm, might have something to do with this: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/02/zoom-technology-security-coronavirus-video-conferencing
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Quantifying SARS-CoV-2 transmission suggests epidemic control with digital contact tracing
ericbuijs · Thursday, 2 April, 2020 - 09:42
We conclude that viral spread is too fast to be contained by manual contact tracing, but could be controlled if this process was faster, more efficient and happened at scale. A contact-tracing App which builds a memory of proximity contacts and immediately notifies contacts of positive cases can achieve epidemic control if used by enough people
So it's official now. I wonder how long it takes before we're all required (or forced) to install such an app.
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Zoom’s privacy problems are growing as platform explodes in popularity
ericbuijs · Wednesday, 1 April, 2020 - 08:24
Who would have thought.
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3Blue1Brown: Simulating an epidemic
ericbuijs · Sunday, 29 March, 2020 - 16:18 edit
Grant Sanderson from the 3Blue1Brown channel has made some very interesting observations when he simulated an epidemic with a self created SIR model (using manim, a scrappy open-source python library). He has taken into account the effect of social distancing, a central hub, identify and isolate cases, multiple communities and more. If you're interested in these kind of models (and who isn't now-a-days) you must definitely watch this.