Having just shipped the kiddo into the real world, she's leaning liberal arts (her and her mom suck at math), but she has a benefit neither her mom or I had - EU deal citizenship. She's going to do a year here to figure things out - she's also been thinking about Europe. University in Europe, for undergrad, is different than the US.

I think the large class model and a barrier of exams to advance makes sense in Europe. I've not been in the University of California system for years, but the school I went to - some classes didn't always hold up a level of academic rigor.

No one has to suck at math. Any human can learn the majority of skills.

No one has to suck at any one thing, but one person can't possibly be good at everything. Time is finite -- everything you choose to do is a choice to not do some other thing.

nevertheless most people can be a lot better at most things than they are, in the same amount of time, if the education and culture around education is of higher quality.

Have you ever taught?

I have! My favorite students were the 55+ returning education students that really wanted to finally learn algebra and calculus.

Yes and I standby genxy’s comment. It was always a question of motivation, not ability.

And motivation was often impeded by either trauma or not finding a way to make it relevant to the student. Those are prereqs for learning anything. The common denominator for people that are good at something is that they liked it, so they did it more.

I know plenty of people that went through an engineering degree with me that do not like math, but they are competent at all the way up to what an electrical engineer needs to know, which is not research level math, but what most people would call advanced. I would never say I "like" math for example but I've always thought about it as something important to learn and get decent at to succeed in life.

I have way more interest in history and philosophy but the way I figured is I can learn all of that on my own because all you need is to read. Math is actually hard so I better get "trained by someone" at it.

I’m similar to you, except to upgrade my practical math skills at college I did cultivate a “liking” for math comparable to other technical areas I pursue. Namely, I started reading popular math books and articles, watching math youtubers, solving recreational puzzles from math periodicals… It was like, half actual interest and half contrived interest, seeing if I could develop in that direction. One summer when I had a lot of free time, with the help of a mathematician friend, I worked through a few advanced textbooks and video lecture series beyond anything I strictly needed. Progress was real but agonizing, and then I promptly forgot everything. It turns out that just maintaining a mid-to-late-undergraduate-level understanding of applied math is all I can be responsible for. It’s a responsibility I attend to, but my brain is only so mathy. At some point it becomes a question of both motivation and ability.

You also don't know the people who didn't make it through, because for whatever reason they aren't able to learn something they weren't able to like. Glad you were able to make it work.

I don't know the people that didn't make it through? You're under the impression I didn't meet anyone outside of those 25? And that I didn't have classmates all the way from first grade to university? Wat

I also agree. Doing university sudies in stem fiels is just.. doing the work, grinding until you get it. I was not very good at maths but i managed to pass the courses that I had. Most of my fellow students didnt.

It is what differentiates stem fields fron liberal arts, in my biased view. You are either talented at maths, physics, chemistry or you just grind, study with thr books snd exercises, until you know enough to pass the exams.

Coming from gymnasium/high schoolit is very different. There the teachers tell you what to do, at uni you have to figure out yourself how you need to study to get the results.

US universities have been known in Europe for being a childs play, if you were any good at all in stem fields

I always find these types of explanations doubtful, because you can always dismiss someone of subpar ability as not trying hard enough or you could define trying hard enough in a way that is not defacto practical.

My experience teaching is limited (but I have taught some, to be clear) but I have found learned helplessness to be the biggest barrier. People have varying aptitudes for different tasks, and varying aptitude and a finite lifespan does imply some people have a lower ceiling than others in a given subject, but humans are powerful general learners. They don't generally reach their ceiling in most subjects. The limit for someone "bad at math" is almost certainly self-fulfilling prophesies they internalized.

Speaking for myself I have in the last five years or so been learning I have much more of a capacity for making art than I had thought. My art is nothing special, but I am improving every time I practice. But when I was younger I thought that I was just good at STEM-yy things and bad at other things. Relatively speaking I am better at STEM-yy than art-yy things, and I'm probably worse at art-yy things than most other people. But I have huge room for growth and I think I will eventually produce some beautiful watercolors.

As an aside, I've also found that almost everyone thinks they're bad at math? My friends with PhDs don't think they're good at math but they've forgotten more than I know about it. I think I'm bad at math but I can prove a thing or two. My spouse thinks they're bad at math, and they can't do the things I can do. But a few months ago they needed to do some simple algebra at work, and a coworker said, "dang, I wish I was good at math."

Somewhere out there Terence Tao is saying he's alright at math but he has nothing on that Euler fellow.

Could not agree more. I also taught for some time and generally had good results, almost everybody "got it".

There was one person, though, that I just could not get anywhere with. Even after several private lessons. Turned out that somehow she convinced herself that she will never get it and never be able to progress. Even if she did get it right one week, the next week was as if that never happened. I found no way across that barrier :(

This is not true. Math aptitude is not evenly distributed.

Good education, where one is imbued with motivation to learn and develop knowledge. That's not evenly distributed.

Anybody can learn math.

You are being disingenuous. Of course people with disabilities or severely deficient in cognition have innate difficulties that might hamper or completely preclude the development of mathematical skills.

The main point is that the educational environment most people have to deal with: public school in most countries, focused on rote memorization of formulas for passing tests, is the main factor on the incredibly inefficient and adversarial perception of most students and adults.

If you are able to understand something as "basic" as higher order effects in economics and societies, accrued from an understanding of rates of change from calculus, you are of course extremely privileged. On the other hand you are not some gifted unicorn with a special brain, you are just lucky (exceptions exist, but even they have to be somewhat lucky).

[Edit: grammar, ambiguity]

In most of Germany neither is required (Baden Württemberg requires non-EU citizens to pay 1.5k€ per semester). Commonly though you have to pay from 200 to 300€ administrative fees.

The harder problem is to enter Germany, but as you have EU citizenship, that's not a problem for you.

What is EU deal?

EU dual citizenship

Edit: if anyone’s confused, there was a typo in the original post. I corrected it.

It's the new deal.

I just found two 4tb Samsung EVO drives - unused - while organizing my garage.

I forgot to add, I paid ~500 each, Samsung for the same drive is quoting $2k on their site (maybe a new sku). These were bought 2ish years ago. Strange things are a foot at the Circle-K.

Lucky find! Just picked up one of those for a build, ohhhh boy was that a painful purchase. Thank god for my fortune to work in tech.

I think there are many jobs Americans have decided the just don’t want to do - at a large scale. That said many do.

There is a completely different dynamic with job shops like wipro and others sponsoring “high skilled visas” which are only used to undercut certain labor markets.

I'm not against tightening up the constraints to prevent what becomes indentured servitude dressed up in red, white, and blue. That doesn't help the American people or those who carry within them the American dream. But fixing that is not everyone's actual intent, and that does really bother me.

And your point? The US has an issue where at a certain price point labor has no interest. Reality is that is multiplied if it actually requires real work in a field, rudimentary construction, etc.

This is not a visa issue, but one we solve with illegal labor and visas.

The real solution is visas and making those that done want to work and sponge off social services, actually work.

My kiddo graduates soon, her baby daddy owes $75k in back child support - say 7 years. He’s talented enough to make $150+ wood working. Refuses to do anything because the man/etc. Branch not far from tree.

I’d love to turn a POS like him in such that someone equally talented and wants to contribute can, take a percentage. The person gets a visa, the dead beat gets servitude. No take on the servitude just taxes maybe going off to pay the debt.

The US is a land of opportunity, but also a land of a bunch of idiots that are entitled.

I don't know anything about that situation, but it sounds difficult and I'm sorry that it's happening to your loved ones. I'm not sure you can make someone work if they don't care to, though. Like, take the common example of debtors having their driver's licenses suspended for their debt. Is that really helping anyone? They certainly won't be any closer to paying it off.

I can't disagree with your final assertion there, but there's really very little you can do besides offer greater incentives that get people to genuinely want to work. And I know there's not a market for that and that the rich are keeping the purse strings tight. So it goes.

> The US has an issue where at a certain price point labor has no interest.

That price is driven by the benefits system creating a price floor, not by intrinsic lack of interest.

Whoa there. What's wrong with "undercutting labor markets"? Last I heard, when a profession (e.g. doctors) decides to limit the number of practicioners in order to charge a higher price to the public, that's a bad thing. It benefits the people currently employed in that profession now, but it hurts others who wants to join, and it hurts the public who wants to get the service (e.g. healthcare). The sum of hurt is greater than the sum of help. Cartels are harmful; they don't stop being harmful just because there are borders involved.

I mean, it's one thing if you think immigrants commit more crimes or use more taxpayer money. These are both false, but at least the argument could hypothetically work. But if you say that even perfectly law-abiding, non-welfare-using, good-work-performing hypothetical immigrants shouldn't be allowed in because they would "undercut labor markets", that's plain nonsense. Such nice hypothetical immigrants should be invited in large numbers and everyone would win from it.

If someone has no specials skills beyond what a current citizen college grad has, why is there a need for that individual to have an H1 or related visa? Many visas get issued to people that take the equivalent of a University of Phoenix degree.

Well, not everyone.

Those having their labour under-cut aren’t going to directly benefit.

I wish i could ill find the video, the farms in CA certainly do need labor. In the 90s when there was another - people south of the border are taking jobs bs - an interview er asked people waiting for for support at a welfare office in Salinas (lots of farms) offering jobs in the fields. Unanimous nope.

They are needed and often do more than those that are citizens.

Easy fix.

Remove, or at least tighten the requirements, for welfare.

Your argument seems to be the equivalent of: if the (illegal? surely some of them) immigrants could get welfare they also wouldn’t do those jobs.

As welfare increases to the point where it starts to competes with jobs, it seems sensible to expect welfare will compete with jobs. Especially when you take in to consideration the expenses welfare recipients don’t incur as a result of not having to attend the workplace nor dress for such.

It’s a type of visa with benefits afforded a more temporary form.

A green card like a visa can be revoked. Citizenship gets a bit more interesting with the current administration.

I’m not going to be able to find the reference in my head, but I thought there had been a couple Bob’s over the years.

The descent into IBM hiring/etc is when I sort of last stopped reading.

Interesting. I may need to add some sensors.

I spend time in two places. San Juan Islands WA and Santa Cruz, CA.

On island, nights are too quiet. During the day, a float plane a mile away sounds like it is next door.

In Santa Cruz, the house is on a major street. Busses, ambulances all sorts of yahoos.

I sleep better quiet. But I sleep even better when settled - mind not going, etc.

I generally don’t sleep well at all. The biggest factor is - has my brain settled. Background and noise don’t matter.

I find if I work out consistently I am always getting great sleep and getting really tired in the evening, but if I don't I might not ever feel tired then I look up and it's 3am. I never made the connection between heavy exercise and sleep before, but it seems obvious in hindsight. Got to do what we are built to do not what modern life insists we do.

I think being active, especially evenings, is helpful. When in Santa Cruz, my wife ensures via threat (joking) that I attend her evening pilates classes. It does help with sleep.

> The biggest factor is - has my brain settled. Background and noise don’t matter.

I'm there too on this. Something I've found helps is listening to certain types of audio. Some audio books can work, but if they're too engaging or interesting it's counter-productive.

My current solution for this is a particular YouTuber; I noticed a long time ago that watching his videos in bed (when I already given up on trying to sleep immediately because my brain was too alert) seemed to help me relax and feel drowsy. Now it's almost a switch - start a video, phone face down, and I rarely need a second one.

“Has my brain settled” I feel this.

I started meditating recently (~10mins per day) and have found it to be surprisingly effective. It’s a combination of body scanning & mindfulness meditation.

It doesn’t always help, but tends to.

I used to do yoga and meditation. I let that slip while life transitions. I have some meds from my doctor (seroquel) which is knock me out, but getting back to being active and disconnecting is a better approach than pills.

I recently had (and then lost/left on a plane!) a Lumenate Nova[1] and found it was very helpful at quickly getting me away from the mind going state. I work very late to overlap with distant timezones and would often find it difficult to get to sleep once I went to bed given I've been staring at screens and on calls only minutes before hitting the pillow. This was great.

[1] https://lumenate.co/lumenate-nova/

I find my mind goes straight to settled if my phone and all configurable electronics are in a completely separate room. Its like I give up seeking more stimulation.

An off topic addendum - those are 2 very nice places to be. Maybe someday.

River Otters have been pretty prevalent in the San Juan Islands. I've not heard of issues with them there. I more hear negative impacts - going after chickens/etc; aggressive; things like that.

> aggressive

If not friend, why friend shaped?

Stability of ecosystem. No systemd. Native ZFS. Jails over Docker. Been using it for 20+ years and it’s my preferred server OS.

No, I mean do you run FreeBSD boxes where users who should not ever assume root access actually login to do tasks?

My point is that if you do, you probably shouldn't run, for e.g applications which need production db credential, or hold sensitive data on these boxes, or .. whatever.

Edit: I use FreeBSD extensively, for various things -- but shell access to them is restricted to the sysadmins..

No. And hosting providers I have used usually use VM isolation (QEMU/etc) for the VPS type instances they allocate to users. The VM is vulnerable if it happens to have a kernel compiled such that allows this vuln.

Also statements like this one - TBH -- I don't have any of these kinds of boxes anymore. Who is really running anything like this in 2026 and for what purpose?

Does not convey what your clarification attemps to state.

I mean, where I work we offer machines to external users where they have shell access to be able to do their science, but I don't want them to have root access. Other institutes we work with (like supercomputer networks, etc) give us/users non-root access.

When things like CVE-2026-31431 or the bug that this thread is about affect our systems it causes a big headache. Yeah, we firewall off what we _can_ by having different machines doing critical things versus the ones where science users have code execution, but we don't have the resources to give every user their own machine.

Extinct? Far from, just doesn’t draw the crowd/press Linux does. An OS used as a stable server OS workhorse with exceptional ZFS support and doesn’t have to push for the desktop market doesn’t mean it’s extinct.

I’ve run FreeBSD on stinkpads back in the early 2000s fine. I prefer MacOS these days as a daily driver - hardware quality.

But server OS is FreeBSD. Void when I need Cuda/docker/etc. (Yes, FreeBSD has docker support, but just use Linux if needing that.

Yep

Try to search vacancies for FreeBSD or candidates with FreeBSD knowledge/background, you will be surprised, its desert.

Even TrueNAS realized it's a dead end for reaching wide audience needs and migrated to Linux (as you mentioned zfs, your probably heard a thing or two on TrueNAS).

I have not tried in the last 10 years, so don't have numbers, my ballpark figure about having small infra team say of 5 persons and try to hire for FreeBSD would be longer and more expensive.

I see somewhat tolerable Linux Corp fleet of laptops (still meh, but somewhat works), what you will reply to your users when they complain on WiFi or Zoom not working and how will procurement work for you interesting questions for me.

Red Book for FreeBSD animal, can meet somewhere deep in tundra, but not a widespread species- extinction form my POV.

Same. I've been using it since 1996. Initially, we used it at an early ISP for DNS, SMTP, and POP3 for roughly 8K users, and it stuck with me.

Free root for anyone for over 20 years too.

Nope.

The bug appears to have been introduced in some FreeBSD 13 version.

I run FreeBSD servers that do not have this bug. In my "kern_exec.c" there is no "consume" anywhere. There is also no "memmove" at all.

That file was last patched in 2024, but whatever changes had introduced that bug, they were not back-ported to older FreeBSD versions, so those are not affected.

Nope. The need to monotize and the fact that an acquihire cost some money is exactly why relying on a specific runtime is where people should have concern.