Yoz Grahame

@yoz

A small yoz-type object. He/him/oh. Passive Londoner, active Oaklander. Only eats kosher planets. Also @yoz@mastodon.social.

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Yoz Grahame@yoz· 28d

The cover of the game “Giana Sisters” for the Nintendo DS. There are two cartoony girls and a stone wall and fireballs and a dragon and piranha-looking creatures leaping from the water and HEY DO YOU THINK THIS IS A PLATFORMER

Yoz Grahame@yoz· 29d

as the late great Michael Bywater wrote in "Lost Worlds":

Screenshot of text from Michael Bywater's "Lost Worlds: What Have We Lost And Where Did It Go?"

This seems hard to grasp, but isn't. After all, if we don't know something, we can say with certainty: I don't know. (There are, of course - as Donald Rumsfeld said, with absolute clarity - 'unknown unknowns: the [things] we don't know we don't know This beautifully precise expression of an unassailable truth about ASSUMPTIONS earned Rumsfeld (or more probably his speech-writers) a Foot In Mouth Award from the Plain English Campaign, which rather reassuringly suggests that the awards committee of the Plain English Campaign is collectively stupider than the American Secretary of Defense.)

Yoz Grahame@yoz· 29d

weird! Arc on macOS (Chromium engine) doesn't italicise properly, but Safari does?

Yoz Grahame@yoz· 29d

Yoz Grahame@yoz· Jul 12

I realise that sounds like an absurdly picky thing, but think about how many of Hitchhikers’ best gags are in the dialogue. Far smaller details can ruin a movie. A story from film editor Dan Selakovich (source filmmaking.net/blog/246/Why... )

I'm reminded of this great story that happened some years ago on this big feature. The Studio did one of those awful screenings where they pull people off the street to comment on an unfinished film. EVERYONE said that they didn't trust the main character. Well, the studio went nuts trying to figure out how to make the lead more appealing. But the editor and the assistant knew exactly why:

the main character's dialogue track was just under 2 frames out of sync.
An editor would notice, but a general audience won't. Studio execs won't.
Hell, the director didn't even notice.
And the execs refused to believe that that was the problem. A week later they showed it again, back in sync this time. The result: glowing reviews. Yes, a dialogue track very slightly out of sync affected CHARACTER. Let that one sink in.

Yoz Grahame@yoz· Jul 9

BUT, that Python error is from ancient times - a whole six years ago. Python 3.10 (Oct '21) brought major steps in the right direction, and has kept improving since. They learned from Rust's bigger improvements, which in turn came from Elm: blog.rust-lang.org/2016/08/10/S... See? THIS IS FIXABLE.

$Previous versions of the interpreter reported confusing places as the location of the syntax error: File "example-py", line 3 some_other_code = foo() SyntaxError: invalid syntax but in Python 3.10 a more informative error is emitted: File "example-py", line 1 expected = {9: 1, 18: 2, 19: 2, 27: 3, 28: 3, 29: 3, 36: 4, 37: 4, SyntaxError: '{' was never closed Source: https://medium.com/@justin.bellavance/a-brief-history-of-pythons-error-messages-57cce5ea97ba$

Yoz Grahame@yoz· Jul 9

Finally, the popular language considered most beginner-friendly: PYTHON! >>> my_tuple = (1, 2, 3) >>> my _tuple[6] Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> IndexError: tuple index out of range No context, AND written in Standard Error Tone i.e. SOUNDS LIKE A DALEK

Some Python code and the error it returns:

>>> my_tuple = (1, 2, 3)
>>> 1 = 6
>>> my _tuple[i]
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
IndexError: tuple index out of range

A slide with the heading "Unfriendly tone". It shows a picture of some terrible 1970s sci-fi robots. Underneath, the text: "TUPLE INDEX OUT OF RANGE!"

Yoz Grahame@yoz· Jul 9

Java: Main. java: 3: error: ';' expected int n1 n2; // initialize two variables Main. java:3: error: not a statement int n1 n2; // initialize two variables 2 errors If you follow the first error, and add a semicolon between the two variables, it won't work. It actually needs a comma.

A slide with the heading "Bad remedial advice". It shows Java code, and the errors produced by the compiler.

The relevant line of code is:

int n1 n2; I/ initialize two variables

The two errors are:

Main. java:3: error: ';' expected

Main. java:3: error: not a statement

If you follow the apparent advice of the first error, and add a semicolon between the two variables, it won't work. It actually needs a comma.

Yoz Grahame@yoz· Jul 9

Let's look at the three biggest programming languages. Javascript in 2018: "TypeError: undefined is not a function" ... with no context beyond line number. In 2026: "TypeError: undefined is not a function (evaluating 'varname')" Still mostly meaningless.

A slide with the heading "Concealing relevant information" showing some code and an error.

The error reads:

Uncaught TypeError: undefined is not a function
ExampleApp.initialize example_app.js:7
(anonymous function)

The code in question (line 7) reads:

var tasks = new ExampleApp.Collections.Tasks(data.tasks);

Yoz Grahame@yoz· Jul 5

me and my mutuals

A shot from the hugely popular BBC Worldwide & Ragdoll Productions children’s show, “In The Night Garden”:
The Pontipines (a family of ten tiny puppets, dressed in red) at a long table in the garden. Behind them, standing on a thick tree branch, are the Wottingers (a family of ten tiny puppets, dressed in blue). The seething animus between them is barely contained.

Yoz Grahame@yoz· Jun 30

I don’t usually express my Californian side by screaming, but

A banner hanging from a lamppost in Camden Town, advertising “Yorkshire Burrito”. Apparently it is “original British street food”, but then so is my arse, and i bet I’m cheaper

Yoz Grahame@yoz· Jun 20

I am currently navigating the strangely mutated transport system in the city which, decades ago, was my home

Close up of a map of the Northern Line displayed on the curved ceiling of a London Underground train carriage. It shows Kennington station, and the bizarre new mutated leg containing Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station. This was not part of the Northern Line when I lived here twenty years ago, therefore it is WRONG

Yoz Grahame@yoz· Jun 9

hoping this pair lasts longer

side view close-up of an old bearded bloke wearing glasses with a thick black frame. On the arm of the glasses is printed the words “not in the face”

Yoz Grahame@yoz· Jun 9

i just remembered that my partner knows tons about interior design. she confirmed that my second guess was correct: they were all filled in or just boarded over is anyone else as fascinated or amused by this as i am

A cropped panel from an Achewood comic. Ray Smuckles, wearing a tux and bow tie, is speaking at a podium: “Hundreds of years from now, archaeologists are going to think we were all nimrods. Nice going.”

Yoz Grahame@yoz· Jun 7

It has one of the best opening pages of any book I’ve ever read. And yet it’s also the real life version of “Six Feet Under Par: A Chip Driver Mystery” from The Good Place