BC TECH
Saved by @zmbnski

The first area to focus on is diversity. This has become a dogma in the tech world, and despite the fact that tech is one of the most meritocratic industries in the world, there are constant efforts to promote diversity at the expense of fairness, merit and competency. Examples:

 USC's Interactive Media & Games Division cancels all-star panel that included top-tier game developers who were invited to share their experiences with students. Why? Because there were no women on the panel.
https://t.co/6vXSMt6B9N
ElectronConf is a conf which chooses presenters based on blind auditions; the identity, gender, and race of the speaker is not known to the selection team. The results of that merit-based approach was an all-male panel. So they cancelled the conference. https://t.co/TVSQRbnfTP
Apple's head of diversity (a black woman) got in trouble for promoting a vision of diversity that is at odds with contemporary progressive dogma. (She left the company shortly after this incident.)
https://t.co/avEPxSGC3y
Also in the name of diversity, there is unabashed discrimination against men (especially white men) in tech, in both hiring policies and in other arenas. One such example is this, a developer workshop that specifically excluded men: https://t.co/N0SkH4hR35
The creator of the hit video game Assassin's Creed stated his position on hiring developers: "If the candidate has a dick, he’s not hired."
https://t.co/x0Cu1v9bQb
Of course, the biggest story showcasing SJW's influence in regards to the tech world is Google's firing of @JamesADamore, who shared a few scientifically based, reasonable ideas about how to improve diversity which disagreed with the progressive dogma. https://t.co/XkTYjsfPZQ
Another area that has seen inroads by SJWs is insistence on "Codes of Conduct" (CoC) rules in open source projects. While they sound fine in theory, the reality is that it lets certain activists police the kind of people who are involved in a project. https://t.co/UWOlb6AIiw
This CoC trend has disturbed so many people, it's even pushed some top developers to leave projects that they have been heavily involved with from the very beginning.
https://t.co/aCrZR20eac.
Here's a related controversy, where some Linux developers are threatening to pull their code from Linux due to objections to a CoC (scroll down to "The Controversy").
https://t.co/JrdVMPClSq
More on the Linux Code of Conduct controversy here: https://t.co/H4lNs8EYjc
A controversy over the Code of Conduct and accepting pull requests from people of color erupted on the Django project: https://t.co/u2MULvY7x9
An example of how Codes of Conduct are used to enforce ideology: GitHub removed a repository because the word "retard" was used: https://t.co/8KaLqMlhi3
SJWs have often tried to get people dismissed from speaking engagements at conferences. When that doesn't work, they try to get the whole conference shut down. Here's one example where they tried to get a speaker booted, labeling him a misogynist: https://t.co/rQWojetz4g
They also tried to shut down LambdaConf because they didn't approve of a speaker's politics (his talk wasn't going to be about politics, purely technical topics). When the conf organizers didn't agree to boot him, they went after the conference itself:
https://t.co/wwMVoNbxnB
They had actually succeeded the year before in doing the same thing to him at a different conference:
https://t.co/CmnyFVCv3g
Another area of influence is in how games are designed, with SJWs not approving of sexual imagery in games. A character in Overwatch had to be modified due to complaints that she was too sexualized:
https://t.co/EtKinifoTH
A trivial example, but still illustrative of how the tech world is so sensitive to SJ concerns: Google actually changed the name of a new file compression format - the .bro format (short for 'Brotli') - because of complaints that it was offensive:
https://t.co/c1sU6drpMn
Another trivial, but instructive example: Apple and Adobe come under heavy criticism for doing an image manipulation demo at a conference that changed a picture of a woman to have a smile. https://t.co/UzN5yHjSyu
A more serious example: Two developers at a conference sharing a private joke about "dongles" end up being fired after a woman overhears them and complains:
https://t.co/qMOiVzMaLm
Here's a story of a woman who faced the wrath of feminists for disagreeing about how best to help young girls who want to learn to code. She wanted to teach them programming, they wanted to teach the girls gender politics. https://t.co/LIhwWxLn0J
We can also see just how far reaching SJWs influence in tech are from the fact that high level decision making bodies are supporting their nonsense: https://t.co/CjOpCEZ20a
Another idiotic grant supporting SJW nonsense: https://t.co/EST1l4moE7
There is also the very concerning issue of social media companies censoring and demonetizing figures who are saying things that go against the progressive dogma. @joerogan discussed that here: https://t.co/QOb0SzQ8mr
Some more examples of tech companies blacklisting those who disagree with progressive ideas: https://t.co/czPmXjZKIp
An ad supporting a pro-life candidate was banned on Facebook: https://t.co/gfuOQaYbEH
Discussion with sex researcher demonetized: https://t.co/vnv0GPpWtA
Here's another noteworthy case: a leading Drupal developer was kicked out of that community due to people discovering that he has some weird sexual kinks, even though not a single person within the community ever reported any misconduct from him. https://t.co/9L4fXJSRRz
Underlying so much of this is the constant demonization of men in tech (it's actually an underlying thread within all SJ ideology, not just here). Here's a story of an active campaign to smear a tech luminary bec he doesn't conform to contemporary norms. https://t.co/88vzytWFdc
Regarding how social media companies have taken the side of SJWs in the culture war, @marcorandazza at @Popehat spelled this out very clearly 3 years ago. It's only gotten worse since, IMHO. https://t.co/JtanHbJSGQ
On a lighter note, check out this award granted to Google for all the resources they've put into promoting diversity. https://t.co/ap0cWJcgpl
Reader responded to this thread saying that hes now required 2 comment his code with gender neutral pronouns. Reminded me of this: tech reporter replaces industry standard term "man-in-the-middle attack" with more inclusive "person-in-the-middle". https://t.co/aimXB5Npd8
I'm reluctant to take anything related to emoji seriously, but even that topic shows the influence of social justice trends, as there are constant efforts to make emoji that are more diverse and inclusive. Consider the issue of skin colors in emoji: https://t.co/bRlLM8ZXC2
And then there's this effort at inclusivity, which may or may not be a joke. I'm really not sure. Poe's Law applies. https://t.co/ikvVYgcbWa
And apparently, some women are really upset that the women's shoe emoji, and others depicting women's clothes, are totally sexist. https://t.co/xhorAY60ID
Some more examples of anti-male sentiment openly expressed at a tech conference a few months ago: https://t.co/2NqCe8lUo5
Another blatant demonstration of anti-white/male prejudice expressed by a prominent software developer. https://t.co/eJTCU4bEfZ
That respected developer also railed against an author of a programming book because the subtitle of the book had the word "craftsman" in it. https://t.co/GSUR5LRjzF

More from Tech

Patrick McKenzie
Patrick McKenzie
@patio11
A thread on HN about bad code in legacy projects both makes me think how little we've learned as a discipline over the years and, honestly, how little credit we give ourselves for some pretty major

Fun going down this list and thinking: "Hmm, plausible at a well-run modern software shop", "Hmm, possible, but requires implausible tradeoffs", "Literally disallowed by languages", and "If you were to attempt doing that our test suite wouldn't let you merge."

I think we as an industry celebrate (not quite the right word) failure too much and don't celebrate success nearly enough. There is no DailyWTF for competent execution, word of which generally stays pretty local to the source while incompetence passes into legend.

Alrighty let me try to thread the needle on being the change I want to see in the world while not giving away anything that will get me in trouble:

Ruby has wonderful developer ergonomics. Typed languages are easier for machines to guarantee the correctness of. We built a type checker for Ruby (and I believe it is slated for OSS release sometime).

c.f.
TECH
Corey Gwin
Corey Gwin
@corey_gwin
Great thread full of potential https://t.co/jA8h08M48z ideas! 💡

📸 Social disposable camera app

Create a digital "roll" with friends. Take pictures from the roll. You can't see them until: the roll is used up, a time limit expires, or you get to a specific location.

🎙 Asynch interview platform

Send a guest a video or audio clip asking a question. Guest replies when able with same medium. Repeat. When done, share produced video/podcast.

✅ 24 Hour Startup Checklist/Overlay

A web app to track the progress of your project: ideation, naming, shipping code, launching.

Page can also be a dynamic browser overlay for live streaming.

Have tools for polls, surveys, sharing, launching to various outlets, etc.

👩‍⚖️ Healthcare "Lawyers"

If health insurance screws you over, no one has your back but you. Instead, can pay a small monthly fee to a service to take care of BS like this for you should issues arise.
TECH
Advertisement
Yoel Roth
Yoel Roth
@yoyoel
We’ve recently seen research about so-called “bots” and misinformation on Twitter and wanted to share our perspective on why findings that might seem remarkable at first are likely inaccurate. We’re working on a more detailed explanation, but some comments for now.

We continue to be excited by the research opportunities that Twitter data provides. Our service is the largest source of real-time social media data, and we make this data available to the public for free through our public API. No other major service does this.

Many researchers, academics, and journalists use our public API — a set of tools for programmatically accessing information on Twitter. We make all public Twitter content available via our APIs. You can learn more about them here:

The basic issue with much of the research based on our public APIs is simple: The APIs don't provide insight into our defensive actions to protect Twitter from manipulation, including bots.

Because of this, API-based research can't distinguish between accounts we've already identified as bad (and hidden or removed) and real, authentic ones.
TECH
Taylor Holiday
Taylor Holiday
@TaylorHoliday
1/ What causes long term sustained performance in an ad account?

🧵featuring real examples 👇🏻

If you explore the source of FB ad growth and subsequently revenue growth for eCom brands it is almost never a function of iterative improvements to ad creative or tactics over time.

2/ More often it is a series of moments that unlock an order of magnitude increase in awareness, engagement, traffic and performance.

These moments can be caused by:

A single ad
A big PR moment
A breakthrough campaign
A change in market dynamics
A new product release
Etc.

3/ The problem is they are very hard to predict and create.

I’ll give you an example of a few that happened for us @QALORing that changed our trajectory (and ad account performance) each time...

4/ The first was @andydalton14 wearing a ring on @HBO hard knocks. It was the peak of the series popularity and they did a :30 piece on the ring he was wearing while playing.

See screenshot

Notice the traffic before and after the peak.


5/ This increased organic traffic let us alter our AdWords strategy, extract more post intent demand from new searchers and pull clips of the show to supplement our ad credibility.
TECH
Shannon Woodward
Shannon Woodward
@shannonwoodward
Ok, I’ve told this story a few times, but maybe never here. Here we go. 🧵👇


I was about 6. I was in the car with my mother. We were driving a few hours from home to go to Orlando. My parents were letting me audition for a tv show. It would end up being my first job. I was very excited. But, in the meantime we drove and listened to Rush’s show.

There was some sort of trivia question they posed to the audience. I don’t remember what the riddle was, but I remember I knew the answer right away. It was phrased in this way that was somehow just simpler to see from a kid’s perspective. The answer was CAROUSEL. I was elated.

My mother was THRILLED. She insisted that we call Into the show using her “for emergencies only” giant cell phone. It was this phone:


I called in. The phone rang for a while, but someone answered. It was an impatient-sounding dude. The screener. I said I had the trivia answer. He wasn’t charmed, I could hear him rolling his eyes. He asked me what it was. I told him. “Please hold.”
TECH

You May Also Like

Melissa (she/her)
Melissa (she/her)
@LiteraryMouse
In regards to the #CapitolCoup, I’m in a unique position. I monitored forums ahead of time and then was present for the coup itself.

These are my observations based on what I saw and the evidence that’s been collected so far. I reserve the right to adjust my analysis as needed.

Let’s talk about the organization of the coup first. Seeing some people insist that the coup must have been highly planned and coordinated.

Yes and no. This was a #StochasticCoup. We’ll see little evidence of direct communication between Trump and the insurrectionists.

Within the insurrectionists, there was not one group that executed the storming of the Capitol.

Rather, there were a number of smaller groups working independently towards the same goal. I expect you’ll see little evidence that these various groups communicated with each other.

What you will see is detailed planning and coordination within these small groups.

Then there were the joyriders, those Trump supporters who weren’t directly involved in any plotting but who were more than happy to go along for the ride once the coup was in motion.

After four years, the insurrectionists were carefully attuned to Trump’s messaging.

Every tweet and statement of his was treated as marching orders and carefully dissected for meaning.

It’s why shutting down Trump’s Twitter account was so important.
POLITICS , INSURRECTIONISTS
GunduHuduga| \u0c97\u0cc1\u0c82\u0ca1\u0cc1 \u0cb9\u0cc1\u0ca1\u0cc1\u0c97|\U0001f549
GunduHuduga| ಗುಂಡು ಹುಡ...
@GunduHuDuGa
#SatiSavitri #RealLifeExperiences #BharatDarshana

Bharat Darshana publishes a small monthly magazine which has some very interesting puranic anecdotes and snippets.

When I picked up this month's magazine, I was intrigued by a story which I want to share as below

1/

This is a real-life incident as narrated by Prof. Krishna Bihari Pandey titled "Sati Savitri"

Sati Savitri is a well known puranic figure from Srimad DeviBhagwatham and Mahabharatha as one of those who fought with Yama to save her husband.

2/

This story is a modern real-life experience which mimics the puranic account in it's own unique way.

The story occurs in 1975 with Prof and his wife in Delhi with professor working as a researcher in university. Prof's family is in Allahabad in a large joint family

3/

Once Prof gets to know that his mother is not keeping well. He goes to his native and brings his mother. With dedicated care of his wife, his mother recovers quite remarkably and regains full stamina and strength

Mother-in-law & Daughter-in-law go out for shopping frequently

4/

Life's going smooth until one day when they receive a telegram that Prof's father is not keeping well.

His mother is distressed about the situation and requests her son to take her to the native. Prof is a little angry due to frequent travels and turns it down

5/
RELIGION , ALL
Advertisement
Jaya_Upadhyaya
Jaya_Upadhyaya
@Jayalko1
RISHI BHRINGI AND ARDHA-NAREESHWAR SHIVA

Rishi Bhringi was a devoted bhakt of Mahadev. However, in his devotion to Shiva, he ignored Mata Parvati.

Once, he visited Kailasha along with other Rishis. All the Rishis did parikrama of Shiva and Parvati both except Rishi Bhringi.


The same situation continued whenever Rishi Bhringi visited Kailasha. Mata Parvati decided to teach him that Shiva and Parvati are one and inseparable.
So on one such visit, Mata Parvati sat on the left lap of Mahadev when Rishi Bhringi came.


Seeing this, Rishi Bhringi took the form of a bee(some say bird) and did pradakshina/ parikrama only around Shiva’s head and ignored Ma Parvati.
Angered Mata took away the Shakti from his body. Rishi lost his blood and flesh and was left with a bare skeletal form.


Seeing him in such a situation where he was unable to support himself, Shiva granted a third leg to him.
Shiva then fused one half of his body with that of Ma Parvati and appeared as Ardha Nareeshwar.
Rishi Bhringi finally realised that Shiv and Shakti are one and the same.
🙏🏻
ALL
Roger Grosse
Roger Grosse
@RogerGrosse
Important paper from Google on large batch optimization. They do impressively careful experiments measuring # iterations needed to achieve target validation error at various batch sizes. The main "surprise" is the lack of surprises. [thread]

https://t.co/7QIx5CFdfJ


The paper is a good example of lots of elements of good experimental design. They validate their metric by showing lots of variants give consistent results. They tune hyperparamters separately for each condition, check that optimum isn't at the endpoints, and measure sensitivity.

They have separate experiments where the hold fixed # iterations and # epochs, which (as they explain) measure very different things. They avoid confounds, such as batch norm's artificial dependence between batch size and regularization strength.

When the experiments are done carefully enough, the results are remarkably consistent between different datasets and architectures. Qualitatively, MNIST behaves just like ImageNet.

Importantly, they don't find any evidence for a "sharp/flat optima" effect whereby better optimization leads to worse final results. They have a good discussion of experimental artifacts/confounds in past papers where such effects were reported.
MACHINE LEARNING
Tweeting Historians
Tweeting Historians
@Tweetistorian
@ChenHuailun here. I'm adding a supplementary thread before today's scheduled one to expand on the origins and early history of the Church of the East (aka the Nestorian Church) ~ahc #jingjiao 1/


The Church of the East traces its origins to the christological position of the School of Antioch, which held that the human and divine and human essences (ουσία) of Christ were united in a single prosopon (πρόσωπον). ~ahc #jingjiao 2/


This ran against the position of the School of Alexandria, which held that the two essences of Christ were united in a single hypostasis (ὑπόστασις). In general terms, hypostasis is more inherent than prosopon. ~ahc #jingjiao 3/


One implication of the Antiochene rejection of the hypostatic union is that Mary could not accurately be called the Theotokos, or God-bearer. Instead, she is the Christotokos, the Christ-bearer. ~ahc #jingjiao 4/


These Christological debates were further complicated by Syriac terms such as 'kyana' (ܟܝܢܐ), associated with 'ousia' but later translated to 'hypostasis' by Syrian Orthodox; and 'qnoma ' (ܩܢܘܡܐ), sometimes contentiously translated as 'hypostasis' or 'person.' ~ahc #jingjiao 5/
RELIGION