btbytes.com

2021, week 24

3 min read

Table of Contents

[TOC]

Monday, 2021-06-14 to Sunday, 2021-06-20

Code

Now using this script as I alluded in the previous week to generate the From around the web section from my pinboard.in bookmarks.

#!/usr/bin/env python
 
"""
gen_pinboard_bookmarks.py
 
Generate a list of markdown formatted stories
derived from pinboard.
(run venv/bin/pinboard-to-sqlite posts backups/pinboard.db
from the ~/btbytes dir first)
"""
 
import sqlite3
from isoweek import Week
 
 
def main(fromstring=None):
    """fromstring in the form of 2021W23"""
    con = sqlite3.connect('backups/pinboard.db')
    if fromstring:
        week = Week.fromstring(fromstring)
    else:
        week = Week.thisweek()
    first = week.days()[0].strftime('%Y-%m-%d')
    last = week.days()[-1].strftime('%Y-%m-%d')
    cur = con.cursor()
    cur.execute('select href, description, time, shared, tags, extended from posts where time >= ? and time <= ? and shared=1', (first, last))
    print(f'{week}, {first} - {last}\n')
    print('## From around the web\n')
    for r in cur.fetchall():
        if '#weekly' in r[4]:
            print(f'''* [{r[1]}]({r[0]})
{r[5]}
''')
 
if __name__ == '__main__':
    import sys
    if len(sys.argv) > 1:
        main(sys.argv[1])
    else:
        main()

From around the web

  • The Absurdity of Peer Review. The peer review is held up as the sole way to do science. This wasn’t always the case (article claims that peer-review became a thing since 1970).

The problem with that warning is peer review guards against nothing.

  • Learning to Love a Rigid and Inflexible Language — an article about Ada programming language. See related: Two studies related to Toyota’s Unintended Acceleration case:

  • Yale Law Journal - Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox by Lena Khan. This Note argues that the current framework in antitrust—specifically its pegging competition to “consumer welfare,” defined as short-term price effects—is unequipped to capture the architecture of market power in the modern economy. We cannot cognize the potential harms to competition posed by Amazon’s dominance if we measure competition primarily through price and output. Specifically, current doctrine underappreciates the risk of predatory pricing and how integration across distinct business lines may prove anticompetitive. These concerns are heightened in the context of online platforms for two reasons. First, the economics of platform markets create incentives for a company to pursue growth over profits, a strategy that investors have rewarded. Under these conditions, predatory pricing becomes highly rational—even as existing doctrine treats it as irrational and therefore implausible. Second, because online platforms serve as critical intermediaries, integrating across business lines positions these platforms to control the essential infrastructure on which their rivals depend. This dual role also enables a platform to exploit information collected on companies using its services to undermine them as competitors.

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