![\"Jon](\"https://www.taskboy.com/img/jon-stewart-fist.jpg\")
So I am blogging/microblogging again, but this time I am only publishing to taskboy.com. I have feeds! You should use them. We need to build out\nindieweb to get back the Internet that was. Because that internet was weirder and more enjoyable.
\n\nMostly, I needed to update my notes feed. You can find that feed under 'feeds' in the navbar. Mostly, I will talk about my music. If you are here for\nperl stuff, believe it or not, I am still making bank on my perl skills. It continues to be my favorite language (thanks to Moo and Mojolicious).
\n\nThe point is, if you still follow me (and I am not sure that you should), the notes roll is going to be the thing to follow.
\n\nBTW, I still use that wordle hack I posted a while ago. It helps.
\n\nCheers!
\n"},{"url":"https://www.taskboy.com/2023y11m10d_13h54m34s-the-harbinger-of-mood.html","title":"The Harbinger of Mood","date_published":"2023-11-10T14:01:50Z","content_html":"My first Bandcamp EP is call The\nHarbinger of Mood and is available now. This album was recorded\nover the summer of 2023 using many of the synthesizers I obtained in\n2022. The four tracks have a distinctly synthwave flavor to them, but\nwithout over nostaglia.
\n\nFive original pieces of art were commissioned for this album from the\ntalented Michal Kváč.
\n\nThe great thing about Bandcamp is you can listen to the tracks before\nyou purchase them. When you are ready to join my cult, I mean, fan\nclub, consider purchasing a\nt-shirt featuring Michal's artwork.
\n\nIf you enjoy the EP, please drop me a note.
\n\nCheers.
\n","id":"https://www.taskboy.com/2023y11m10d_13h54m34s-the-harbinger-of-mood.html"},{"id":"https://www.taskboy.com/2022y02m11d_14h54m54s-wordle-solver-revisited.html","content_html":"A few rounds of testing suggested that adding a \"required\" list of\nletters would be helpful. These are letters for which the position is\nunknown, but Wordle has identified as correct.
\n\nThe usage pattern is:
\n\nwordle-solver.pl â¦er wat ulc\n
Also, the world list gets additional prefiltering. No words with\ncapitals or apostrophes are considered.
\n\n#!/usr/bin/env perl\nuse strict;\nuse warnings;\n\nsub main {\n my ($pattern, $exclude, $required) = @ARGV;\n\n if (!$pattern) {\n die(\"$0 [PATTERN] [EXCLUDE] [REQUIRED]\");\n }\n\n if (length($pattern) != 5) {\n die(\"Pattern must be 5 characters\\n\");\n }\n\n $exclude //= \"\";\n $required //= \"\";\n my @required;\n if ($required) {\n @required = split //, $required;\n }\n\n open my $wordsFH, \"<\", \"/usr/share/dict/words\" or die(\"words: $!\");\n\n NEXT_WORD:\n while (my $word = readline($wordsFH)) {\n chomp ($word);\n next NEXT_WORD if length($word) != 5;\n next NEXT_WORD if $word =~ /['A-Z]/;\n\n if ($word =~ /^$pattern$/i) {\n for my $r (@required) {\n if ($word !~ /$r/) {\n next NEXT_WORD;\n }\n }\n\n if ($exclude) {\n if ($word =~ /[$exclude]/) {\n next NEXT_WORD;\n }\n }\n\n print \"$word\\n\";\n }\n }\n close $wordsFH;\n}\n\nmain();\n
I am thinking about making this functionality available through a web\napp. Drop me a note if you think this is a good idea.
\n","date_published":"2022-02-11T15:01:31Z","url":"https://www.taskboy.com/2022y02m11d_14h54m54s-wordle-solver-revisited.html","title":"Wordle Solver revisited"},{"date_published":"2022-02-08T21:41:33Z","url":"https://www.taskboy.com/2022y02m08d_21h34m31s-solving-wordle-with-perl.html","title":"Solving Wordle with Perl","id":"https://www.taskboy.com/2022y02m08d_21h34m31s-solving-wordle-with-perl.html","content_html":"Wordle, love it or hate it, has grabbed the popular imagination for\nmany. It is a solo puzzle game that is like Mastermind, but with\nwords and you have but six tries to figure out the 5 word puzzle.
\n\nOf course, this is a task for Perl
\n\n#!/usr/bin/env perl\nuse strict;\nuse warnings;\n\nsub main {\n my ($pattern, $exclude) = @ARGV;\n\n if (!$pattern) {\n die(\"$0 [PATTERN] [EXCLUDE]\");\n }\n $exclude //= \"\";\n\n open my $wordsFH, \"<\", \"/usr/share/dict/words\" or die(\"words: $!\");\n while (my $word = readline($wordsFH)) {\n chomp ($word);\n next if length($word) != 5;\n if ($word =~ /^$pattern$/i) {\n if ($exclude) {\n if ($word =~ /[$exclude]/) {\n next;\n }\n }\n print \"$word\\n\";\n }\n }\n close $wordsFH;\n}\n\nmain();\n
Give it a regex pattern to match like 'gr.at' and an optional list of\nletters you know are not in the solution to get back the list of\npossible words that fit the pattern.
\n\nNo, I didn't take the fun out of this game â you did.
\n"},{"id":"https://www.taskboy.com/2021y06m16d_14h29m43s-jon-stewart-has-left-the-building.html","content_html":"
Jon Stewart appeared to be backing the racist, debunked idea that COVID-19 was made in a Wuhan science lab on the very first Late Show filmed in front of a full audience in more than 400 days.
\n\nOn the one hand, this is just a drop in the ocean that is \"people being wrong in public\" problem that is the scourge of our Information Economy times. Further, to speak unpopular or even wrong ideas is (in the U.S.) a fiercely protected right. Lastly, history has shown us enumerable examples of smart people holding odious beliefs. Humans are complicated, yet we seem to pretend that they are not.
\n\nIf you believe that the Chinese government manufactured COVID-19, there is little I can do change your mind. But, here is Rebecca Watson speaking about this very topic and why the consensus of virologists who have studied this pathogen do not see evidence of human manufacture.
\n\nI am old enough to know this will change almost no one's belief on this, but it is there for those with an open mind.
\n\nBut this particular person espousing this particular conspiracy theory is disquieting. Stewart was, during the Bush years, a fact-checking juggernaut. Sure, he had a research staff then and yes, I was happy to hear neo-conservative propaganda trashed. But it seemed then and seems even now that Stewart is a pro-little-guy and pro-truth crusader. His decades-long work for getting benefits for 9-11 first responders is a testament to this.
\n\nNow, take that guy off the air, fire the fact-checking team and stick him on a farm for several years and you have a very ordinary rich guy free to consume media that feeds his preconceptions, just like Mike the MyPillow guy or Elon Musk or the former president. Then recall that, like all public figures, Stewart likes an audience and that \"hot-takes\" are the currency of the same, should we be that surprised to see him digging in on a controversial position?
\n\nI hope that Stewart's performance was a Kaufman-esque stunt. That Stewart wanted to point out the criticality of media literacy in a world where monied interests lie to the public. But I am not holding out a lot of hope for this outcome.
\n\nMuch is made on the political Right of how the Left is turning into Thought Police who mandate a party line (which is an irony so rich I trust I need not point it out). As Stewart gets called out for supporting a debunked idea promulgated mostly by zealot supporters of the former president, it is important to remember the challenge of epistemology. How do we know what we know? We all have to defer to the considered, professional opinions of those technocrats who study the subjects that we do not. Do these experts get it wrong sometimes? They do, but at a much lower frequency than non-experts do. If not, then there is no reason to have experts at all. An expert opinion can be and should be challenged in good faith. But most of the time, the experts are closer to the truth than anyone else. Reality is not obliged to agree with our preconceptions or crazy ideas.
\n\nStill, this example of a dude being wrong in public hurts.
\n","date_published":"2021-06-16T14:36:27Z","title":"Jon Stewart has left the building","url":"https://www.taskboy.com/2021y06m16d_14h29m43s-jon-stewart-has-left-the-building.html"}],"title":"Taskboy"}