“Hurray complexity.” — Capuccino’s Slant on Slant

Slant’s resident Firefox enthusiast, Capuccino’s finger prints can be found all over the website. A connoseuir of all things digital, it’s not surprising to see Capuccino in our Discord server pointing out content in need of fixing. A stickler for technical correctness and productive debate, this is Capuccino’s Slant on Slant.

If you were the answer to a Slant style, “what is the best” question, what would the question be?

It would be what is the best (xy) for a (use case) use case, The more detailed the question is, the easier it gets answered, but for some games or non-enterprise stuff, a simple what is the best (xy) for (yz) will suffice enough.

What an incredibly technical answer.

I probably go way too verbose on some answers. Hurray complexity.

Does complexity come naturally to you?

It does when its needed, but sometimes I go with KISS: “Keep it Short and Simple.” Or, on my asshole dialect, “Keep It Short you little Shit.”

The KISS method is underrated. I always heard it as “Keep It Simple, Stupid.”

Yeah, that’s the most common. Journalists abide to that rule for character limit reasons. It keeps content tidy and straight to the point as well

Unless they get paid by word. I always preferred flat rates for that reason.

They get paid per news covered AFAIK. TBH some of my writing and recs are very much trying to follow the journalistic approach.

It depends on the publication, at least in the US. Most places pay by the column or estimate length, some by articles accepted, and others (mostly online based places) by word. That’s a little beside the point. Is journalism an interest of yours?

Ah no, I was a campus journalist during senior high school and I never wrote an article, but I learned much from the profession. That’s why biases and unsourced infos are the ones I cringe at on Slant. I always want people to assert one valid source to support their claim, otherwise its all bullshit and naysay.

I agree. Where do you draw the line, though, between a well evidenced claim and hearsay? Technical info is fairly easy to source, but often people are objectively making subjective claims.

I always compare all statements I see in Slant on my own catalog of sources, Wikipedia included, I support or enhance a claim if its valid, I aggresively flag when its a hearsay. Say someone who claimed “Go is uninspiring” is very subjective and more hearsay.

Based on my garnered data, some people do enjoy Go, its just that the rift is very generalized. So it gets flagged. (Fun fact: that Con exists and a lot of counter arguments can be presented against that con)

Do you view yourself as being more of an objectivist or subjectivist in general? And do you see argument or debate as healthy?

I’m an objectivist, I aim for the truth, not opinion. And no, I don’t think debates can be healthy, especially when it gets heated.

If you feel a debate gets heated, step away immediately.

I agree that heated debates are often problematic, but I think a well meaning debate can be great. I’m also more of an objectivist, and I think debate is often eye opening to the nuance of facts. When not masked in logical fallacies and ad hominem attacks, of course.

Most modern debates are very ad hominem attack based, I suggest if someone does that, throw a well structured burn. I learned quite a few from Reddit.

Learning from Reddit is always good. Examples?

r/MurderedByWords has a fancy collection. While I can’t give an example, you’ll find plenty of those in the mentioned subreddit. hat place is the madhouse for praising well made murders.

It’s been a while since I’d visited MurderedByWords. Nice to see that it’s still as good as it used to be. This is the most difficult question I’m going to ask you in this whole interview: top 5 subreddits?

Oh boy. You might be disappointed, but:

r/HistoryMemes, r/space, r/Linux, r/animemes, and the man the myth the legend r/spacex

I would gladly replace r/spacex with a Elon Musk subreddit.

I’m only disappointed because r/spacex isn’t full of Elon memes.

Inb4 r/elonmusk incoming.

I’m already there. I’m happier now.

Wow. Time to replace r/spacex.

Who needs science when you have memes?

😤

So I’ll spare the question of whether science and programming are interests. You seem to know a little bit about almost everything, and quite a lot about more than a few things. Do you think that’s accurate?

I don’t quite see myself as that, I’m always exploring, and it feels like every knowledge I digest is explained to me like I’m 5 years old. I say to know more, read more.

Reading is the key to many doors. What are you reading now? Are you more of a book person or an article person?

I’m a rebel, I’m both. And I’m reading “Go The F*k To Sleep” right now.

Has it helped your sleep schedule?

Oh yes, totally. I’m not sarcastic. It did.

Really?

I mean if you have nothing else to do, laughing your ass off before going to sleep helps. May I suggest also turning up the audiobook for added effect.

That’s fair. Does Samuel L Jackson do the actual audiobook?

Oh yes, he did. Check the rec for it, I linked the YouTube video of him narrating it precisely.

Star Wars or Star Trek?

Oh no, I’m not brave enough for politics.

Now that we know what you’re reading, what’re you working on right now?

Oh, its a small project that uses TensorFlow, its a chatbot that can understand human context and natural language queries for arithmetic operations. Let’s say you ask “what’s 9+10” it obviously won’t answer “21.” Rather, it’ll examine that query and write off the result of the requested arithmetic operation.

How complex can it get?

Not sure but Bo Shao’s project can give you a understanding how complex it can go, which where we based off the project. It’s linked as a submodule for now.

Is this a personal project?

Uh huh, not really big or anything, just for a hobby we were working at. It’s quite interesting how technology and software advancement has grown over the year.

The year or years?

This year precisely. Machine Learning wasn’t too mainstream until 2018, yet all people do with it is play Despacito.

I get the sense that even now the bubble is just beginning to burst. ML is, in my view, much more exciting than VR, yet people seem to be looking more in that direction as far as the main-mainstream is concerned.

I believe so, gaming is trying to get to VR, but the people are more focused on AIs today. Microsoft has been doing some blogs to create a inclusive AI they cover how they would do it.

Check their Inclusive Design blog. Microsoft Design has been hell bent making an AI that feels unique.

Do you think they’re getting there?

Judging from technology today? It’s possible, but not mainstreamed until a year later.

Is programming just a hobby for you?

Oh yes, I love programming, I tend to make things that I kind of find lacking today, and its a fun thing you can try. You get to know how your computer works behind the curtain.

Is that how you picked it up? Wanting to see behind the curtain?

Quite so. I’ve always been interested how a system works, how you can try solving a problem with programs.

Programmers are unsung heroes that codes everyone’s apps and we should thank them for their dedication to make lives easier just like engineers.

Definitely. I think more people should learn just a bit of coding. Both to appreciate the people who do it well, and to get modernized a bit. What other projects have you done? What do you aspire to do?

I think my other projects was basically creating a new API wrapper library for a specific API because the official one sucks ass. And I aspire to become a Software Engineer, granted I can survive my college.

Good luck with that. Has college been tough for you?

Totally, but it’s welcoming.

The toughness is welcoming?

A challenge is always great, when the challenge fades the inspiration and motivation fades away, as well.

That’s a good mindset to be in. Especially if you’re hoping to become another unsung hero. Are there any specific engineers you look up to?

Does Stuart Kearney count?

I think Stuart can count.

He’s an amazing man, first NASA, now Slant, he wows me. Next thing we know, he’s the next Elon Musk. A man can dream.

I’m sure he’s considered it. 😂

Oh boy.

If you have questions you’d like to ask, Capuccino will be fielding them on our Discord server.