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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 9th, 2023

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  • Notepad is used by anyone who wants to see what is actually in a text file.

    It’s used a lot for stuff where data is transferred in a text format. Comma separated files etc. are still widely used for transferring data flawlessly without having to convert types or mapping a document standard or whatever method that could potentially fuck up or just take more time. It’s simple and it works.

    F.i if you open a file in excel or word, change one character and then save, you can bet that the entire file is fucked up afterwards, because those programs don’t show the data directly. The moment you open it, it might very well be fucked up just from that. If you transfer a file by some kind of JSON format, which is all the rage currently you’ll have to map it from both ends, and it also begs the question: Why are we doing running all this code just to transfer one byte?

    The beauty of text files is that it’s (almost) raw data. (Only “almost” because there are still different localization standards that can fuck up even a text file.)

    Notepad covers that. Of course we could use other apps for viewing data, but most of the time, it actually is text and not hexidemal codes or whatever you can save in bytes.

    Programming wise, the only thing I use notepad for is making DOS batch files. Again, because it’s raw text and should be created and read as such. No parsing, no compiling. Just text. I’ll also use it for storing data for programs, because it’s easy and raw.

    For actual programs, it’d be better to get Notepad++ or MS visual studio code, which at least will highlight commands and collapse functions etc. And still, these also aren’t actually IDEs, because they don’t compile the code (unless you get those add-ins).

    We could also use those for text files as well, but it’s overkill. I don’t really want to open an app to view data. Notepad is small and quick and not bloated with features, which is ideal for whenever I only want to see what’s in the file.

    The original MS Paint was similar for pictures. They fucked that up real good. Its been…14 years and I haven’t really gotten over how bad it is. It used to be pixel perfect and logical, but now you can’t even save a file with transparency, but hey here’s s brush with stroke width and blur that’ll make sure you can’t edit a single pixel. Way to go Microsoft.

    If they do the same to Notepad, I’ll have to resign my job, because it’s not going to work like that.


  • At first I thought it was just a general mammal thing, and it probably is, but the question really is why only some mammals have evolved to survive after the reproductional age.

    The article briefly mentions food availability as a key, and there are many other external causes, so it’s still not understood how or if longevity is inherited. In humans it’s generelly accepted that a long lifespan is partly inherited and partly due to society.

    The similarities to other species is interesting to confirm, because it shows that the construction of a society can maybe influence the genetic evolution. In short, it’s (maybe) a sort of indirect feedback loop, where if a society can afford to have old individuals, it will also evolve to more individuals getting old. I realise that evolution itself can not do this alone, but it can apparently take advantage of happening in a society that enables this.

    Anyway that’s just my take on it, I’m not a biologist.