Notices by Christian Lawson-Perfect (christianp@mathstodon.xyz)

A few mathematicians in the UK have set up the Queer, Equality and Diversity Network for Maths. (Name chosen entirely for the acronym: QED)

https://sites.google.com/view/qednetwork/

"The QED network is a community-led effort by UK mathematicians to connect and support LGBTQIA+ members of the UK mathematics community.

The impetus to set up such a network grew out of the 2024 BAMC conference under a drive for increased UK visibility and community for queer people in the mathematics community."

They're on bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/qedmathsnetwork.bsky.social. I'll see if I can get them over here too 🤞

When I got a proper stand, Erwin Kreyszig thought he could finally retire after a decade underneath my PC monitor.

But no! I've brought him out of retirement to serve as a counterweight for my 3D printer on this wobbly table.

@julesh and then you have to say "BATMAN!!!" or you can be legally declared dead inside

@julesh don't make me go and look for commits that start with 13

Just wrote a git commit whose hash starts '1111'.

Is this a portent of something good? Will my next rebase go smoothly?

I've just discovered https://www.map.signalbox.io/ which shows the real-time position of every train on the British mainland.

It will make me a much less anxious traveller next time I'm waiting for a train!

@julesh good, the system works. My only fear is that somehow I keep giving them money after I've paid my loan off

@julesh I haven't look at my student loan since I was 23 and I don't think they've even got an address I lived in this decade. I'm choosing to believe it's best for all involved if I don't know any detail about it

@micke @tristan957 oh sorry, I've re-read your post and realised I skim-read the last line! I thought you were asking if there was already a built-in way of doing it

@micke in normal vim, `gx` will do this

@julesh very quake-esque!

In the middle of another day in the office where I've tired myself out walking back and forth across campus, I think I really should get myself something to move more efficiently while I'm in town.

Can anyone suggest some options? I'm 198cm tall and just under 100kg, and in the UK.

I don't think I could leave a full-sized bike here - can't leave it in my office and there's no locked bike shelter near my building. I live an hour-ish bike ride from work, so riding my bike in is fun sometimes but definitely doesn't help with the tiredness problem!

Is there a cheapish folding bike that could take me?

Or a scooter?

I'm not thinking of anything electric - we're currently not allowed to keep the batteries in our offices, and the distances are short enough that I don't really need motor assistance anyway.

#BikeTooter

I have an Apple AirTag attached to my cargo bike. My android phone keeps warning me that an unknown AirTag is following me. How do I tell it that the AirTag is mine?

I feel like this is just training me to ignore the warnings.

We've limited notifications from mastodon.social again because we're getting a lot of spam from them, again.

@julesh how much of what I'm looking at is intentional?

@julesh it's still quite common to have USB-A at one end though, isn't it?

@ryanc that is fascinating!

I have a dataset of first names given to babies in the UK between 1996 and 2015, from the ONS. The probability that two people with the same first name have different recorded genders is about 4%, which isn't far off the number you were given.

Does anyone else play my game JIGGRAPH?

https://somethingorotherwhatever.com/jiggraph/

It's never the wrong time to look at my wobbly clock http://wobble-clock.glitch.me/

@tmalsburg YES.
I have an almost unique job dedicated to developing assessment software in a university, with no publishing or teaching requirement, but almost all other research-level software is the responsibility of precariously employed people, on contracts that lead nowhere. Universities really need to work out how to employ and reward these people properly.
The "research software engineer" job title framework seems to be fairly successful at this.

I think that the will is there from managers, but they often can't employ people on good terms because HR doesn't recognise the role.