The Computer And General Tech Thread - Software, Hardware, Questions, etc.

[Raphael]

I'm trying very hard not to panic over the latest Android vulnerabilities.

[Torco]

are they that bad?

[Raphael]

Apparently they allow everyone who knows your phone number to do whatever they want with your phone. Or so I've heard.

[Travis B.]

Apparently a workaround is to turn off WiFi calling and Voice over LTE.

[Torco]

ah, good. i have that turned off since 2021. I recommend it, I mean, it's a scam but also, it doesn't work as well, at least for me.

[Raphael]

Problem is, I haven't found those settings in my phone's settings yet.

[Torco]

recommend you google how to turn off blabla alongside your particular version of android or, even better, phone model. the silly people at google, as well as most OEMs, insist on going "you know what? this option actually goes over here"

[Raphael]

Thank you. I think I've figured it out now.

[rotting bones]

I like to think of it as akin to certain types of religious practice: you assemble a highly complex offering to an amorphous and very pernickety being who will only accept it and do what you want if you get every detail of the ritual exactly correct. Which, as zompist points out, is not something most people are mentally capable of doing.

I've seen it being argued that this is one of the reasons why IT took off so strongly in India, as some forms of Hinduism demand exactly that kind of mindset.

Apparently this is common in rituals, at least Indo–European ones: I like https://acoup.blog/2019/11/01/collectio ... k-religion as an example of this.

What about the Talmud, Chinese geomancy, etc?

[bradrn]

I've seen it being argued that this is one of the reasons why IT took off so strongly in India, as some forms of Hinduism demand exactly that kind of mindset.

Apparently this is common in rituals, at least Indo–European ones: I like https://acoup.blog/2019/11/01/collectio ... k-religion as an example of this.

What about the Talmud, Chinese geomancy, etc?

I don’t know, what about the Talmud? I know too little about traditional Chinese religion to say anything about it, except that I never restricted anything to only IE rituals.

[Ryusenshi]

What about the Talmud, Chinese geomancy, etc?

Well, there are a lot of Jewish and East Asian people in IT!

[Travis B.]

The two largest groups in all the companies where I have done software development other than White Americans have been Indian(-Americans) and Chinese(-Americans).

[rotting bones]

I don’t know, what about the Talmud? I know too little about traditional Chinese religion to say anything about it, except that I never restricted anything to only IE rituals.

The Talmud is infamous for hyper-detailed rulings on how to fulfill mitzvot. For example, you can't work on Shabbat. But what about work you began before the Shabbat? What about moving corpses? What oil can or can't be used to light the lamp? ...

I have no first hand experience, but my understanding is that highly observant Jews consult mavens who understand these details very well. These experts are often able to find loopholes in the maze of restrictions.

[rotting bones]

Well, there are a lot of Jewish and East Asian people in IT!

In India, we have minorities like Jains and Farsis who are overrepresented in intellectual professions.

A lot of traditional societies were highly ritualized. I don't think extremely detailed rituals were rare. (Amusingly, Confucianism explicitly identifies such rituals with civilization. Eg. See the tea ceremony.)

[rotting bones]

The two largest groups in all the companies where I have done software development other than White Americans have been Indian(-Americans) and Chinese(-Americans).

Globally, Indians and the Chinese have a large population that's not bogged down by traditionalism. In my university, most foreign CS students are Indians, Chinese, Turks, Arabs and Greeks.

BTW, I don't know if I'd characterize Hinduism as "Indo-European". Hinduism as practiced today derives a lot from Dravidian religion.

[rotting bones]

"Today, it is quite commonplace – for instance, in parts of Africa and Papua New Guinea – to find initiation ceremonies that are so complex as to require bureaucratic management, where initiates are gradually introduced to higher and higher levels of arcane knowledge, in societies where there are otherwise no formal ranks of any sort." - Graeber

[bradrn]

I don’t know, what about the Talmud? I know too little about traditional Chinese religion to say anything about it, except that I never restricted anything to only IE rituals.

The Talmud is infamous for hyper-detailed rulings on how to fulfill mitzvot. For example, you can't work on Shabbat. But what about work you began before the Shabbat? What about moving corpses? What oil can or can't be used to light the lamp? ...

I have no first hand experience, but my understanding is that highly observant Jews consult mavens who understand these details very well. These experts are often able to find loopholes in the maze of restrictions.

Correct… though the Talmud is a book of law, where you’d expect such detail in any case. As for loopholes, the traditional Jewish position is that because God knows exactly what He’s doing, He must have put them in deliberately for us to find and use!

[rotting bones]

Correct… though the Talmud is a book of law, where you’d expect such detail in any case.

I'd be surprised if it's not unusual for ritual texts to go into details regarding, IIRC, how to hand things to Jews, gentiles and dogs vis-a-vis the boundaries of your courtyard.

As for loopholes, the traditional Jewish position is that because God knows exactly what He’s doing, He must have put them in deliberately for us to find and use!

The traditional Islamic position is that the loopholes in Jewish law are a bad thing. The laws should be streamlined and have fewer loopholes.

Personally, I prefer hyper-detailed laws with a million loopholes.

[MacAnDàil]

Loopholes are for megacorporations to exploit so no.

[rotting bones]

Loopholes are for megacorporations to exploit so no.

This is sacred law sent down by an angry deity. Graeber offers some amazing insights on the origins of the sacred: https://archive.org/download/graeber-wengrow-dawn