gronjo45

Happy Tuesday,

So that we move along in the timeline of study groups… It seems clear that enough of this community is interested in learning more about the computing systems we interact with every day.

A tentative list of topics is what I’ve provided below. To facilitate discussion, what do you think is missing from this list? It is not yet ordered, but is there something that should be introduced before any of the topics on the list, that is not currently there?

My idea is for us to start at the atomic scale, and get a bit oriented with solid state, semiconductor, and condensed matter mathematical modeling.

After this, linguistics and their application to computer programming languages, HDL, and the way this connects to physical design is the next step.

The goal of this is for us to design a main board, as well as all the constituent chips mounted to communicate as a single system. I can imagine we will delve into each individual system. I understand that this is a long undertaking, but it is a good project for FLOSS minded people.

Topics:

1. Physics and electrical/computer engineering fundamentals
2. Linguistics and design of programming languages
3. Board technology and process chemistry, fabrication of chips from design files
4. EDA software, FLOSS developer tools
5. RISC-V CPU Architecture, *RAM and Memory Design… Many more here.

Looking forward to working with many of you. We have a talented crew that browse this forum.

-G

Happy Friday,

tldr: For the multilingual among us, is it easier for you to "hear" a language, or are you better with reading/writing/speaking?

A week or so ago, I made a post regarding linguistics and enjoyed hearing how many of you enjoy the subject.

With autism, it is known that we tend to process oral instructions differently than neurotypicals. In my own experience, written instructions are crucial for my understanding of a task. It also helps to have a paper trail.

For me, most oral communication sounds a bit "underwater". It depends on the person's degree of articulation, the noise in the room my level of anxiety, and a slough of other factors. Some days there is no "noise", but on days when my brain just isn't processing correctly, it makes it difficult to want to ask the person "what"? 3 times, or even ask when I misunderstood the phrasing or intention behind their utterances.

Whenever I've searched "Can read and write a language, but not understand it", there are no results on the first search page. But rather, those who can understand a language and cannot write it. Movies are helpful when there are subtitles, as I can help build associations by "seeing" the symbols of the written language when it is spoken. When I did this as a teenager with Russian, I suddenly was able to understand people. As I could "think" in how they were producing the phonetics.

Certainly, the degree of familiarity with the language helps tremendously. When I lived in Germany, despite speaking the language most of my life, it was a different ballgame hearing people use it in real life, rather than in a quiet room with headphones on talking with people whom I am already acquainted. Don't get me started on how loud Lidl/Rewe were, and Swabian/Saxon dialects could influence my foreigner's conception of the language.

Spanish and Russian are similar for me, as I've used them for A LONG TIME, so I'd imagine the phonetics have crystallized in my head compared to languages I'm still getting used to.

Hindi, Telugu, and Bengali have been a bit difficult for my ear to adjust to. This underwater feeling resurfaces a lot. It's not unique to foreign languages though...

Sometimes I'll figure out that a song I've heard in department stores or just walking about is actually in ENGLISH! When it just sounded like a bunch of pots and pans bashing together or only the instrumental comes to mind.

Because of motor-mouth tendencies, I have found that I am able to speak, read, and write a language... But not quick to comprehend what another person is saying to me. This may be due to phrasing, difference in accent, or a straight up garbling of the sounds when they reach my ear. Maybe my brain just "demodulates" the signal wrong? Or perhaps I'm just a bad listener.

Looking forward to reading your comments.

Cheers,

-G

Hi Everyone,

tldr: Reviving the hardware group on Matrix with a focus on RISC-V and prototyping for fun.

Lately I’ve found myself wanting to study in a group setting, as it’s easier to absorb topics when there is a friendly cohort chugging along together.

The topics I want to cover are comprehensive involving hardware, design, and software.

So that the group benefits from others’ expertise/special interests…

If you are interested, send me a DM, or post in this forum what you would like to see/teach in a small group of 5-10 individuals.

The greater goal is to design a piece of computer hardware together. I am thinking we could work on a RISC-V Core and maybe a board just as a group hobby project.

Cheers,

-G

Happy Friday Everyone,

tldr: What times has the modern web frustrated you by forcing you to create an account or use a platform you don’t want to?

A food truck that I love, and learned by serendipity that it serves the public more than once a week… Has thrown me into a fit of rage. But not the truck itself.

Coming to Lemmy has been an overall benefit for my psyche and has helped me overcome some executive function issues I’ve dealt with throughout my life. I have enjoyed chatting with many of you, and am glad that corporate social media platforms are now all gone from my life.

Less algorithmic ensnarement, more thoughtful interactions with community members among other positives. I’m sure that many of us are also the Linux weirdo of our respective spheres of influence. It has also helped me encourage others to be more mindful of the technologies they use and has resulted in deeper friendships.

However, living in today’s world, it is impossible to go more than 2 feet or several links without being met with a Linktree, Facebook page, Instagram, or some larger company to gatekeep.

I’d imagine this food truck would not get nearly the publicity they do without utilizing the most common ways people interact with their pocket electronic boxes… But when I forgot the password to the Facebook account, the displayed automated message implied I was abusing the reset password feature and that I was blocked from doing so.

It made me wonder, what ever happened to people having their own websites?? I’m in the intermediate age where I didn't grow up with dial-up or less-abstracted computing systems, but remember how ubiquitous personal sites were.

This has made me want to get into spinning up my own website. I have acquired a domain name as well as a server for storage hosted by a provider. I do not want to start with anything complicated, nor do I intend to use a corporate service like Wordpress to host this site. However, because I am new to this, I don’t want to accidentally dox myself or do something idiotic with the server.

Since this is not a technology page, I would like this post to open up discussion about your own frustrations with local businesses being inaccessible without a larger big brother platform like Meta or Google gatekeeping the advertisement and accessibility of a service.

Thanks and stay cool and weird,

-G

Howdy Folks,

From talking with many neurodivergent people throughout life, and finding community among those who have a fascination with linguistics…

Are any of you deeply interested in the subject? If so, what first sparked your curiosity? What abilities did you hope to acquire?

To connect with a wider group of people? To read ancient languages, or perhaps to win your favorite scrabble competition in a tongue you can’t speak?

I’m curious, as it feels like language learners form a spectrum of their own. For me, it helps contextualize so many facets of life, and has widened my world of friends and literacy.

Plus, it’s fun to know what someone may be thinking in their native tongue when speaking your mother language.

Living in a foreign country whose language I spoke for 15+ years from childhood gave me a huge shock, when I realized psychology and phrasing play a larger role in communication than just a daisy chain of words.

Makes me wonder how peculiar my own accent(s) / phrasing sound to their respective natives. One of my favorites it when speaking Spanish, is to accidentally declare that you are pregnant instead of embarrassed… Makes the correction twice as effective! Or when a man in German expressing his love for Hummer cars is not actually professing passion for lobsters 🦞

For those of you whose native language isn’t English… Have you had any mismatched moments like this? What funny things have you heard English learners mismatch?

-G

Recent events have had me thinking a lot more about which tools we will be allowed to use in the workplace.

It was difficult to undo the damage that using Windows for most of my life affected my perception of computers.

Using Linux has widened my perspective on technology in general and made it a lot more fun to explore low level and systems programming.

Do many of you get to use Linux tools at work? How would you feel about more small establishments and local shops using software that gives them more control?

I’d imagine payment software, and a whole slough of other services are now sold as SaaSes when historically they did not need to be digitized or have an unnecessary middle man.

Just a little Tuesday thought for discussion. Hope you all are doing well.

-G