By the bonfirehttps://blog.witch.academy/~/ByTheBonfire/atom.xml2020-12-09T11:03:24.117675+00:00<![CDATA[Découverte du système impérial]]>https://blog.witch.academy/~/ByTheBonfire/découverte-du-système-impérial/2020-12-09T11:03:24.117675+00:00Freyja Wildeshttps://blog.witch.academy/@/freyja_wildes/2020-12-09T11:03:24.117675+00:00<![CDATA[<p>Les Anglophones (enfin, la partie bien tordue d'entre eux) ont une blague
récurrente concernant notre cher système métrique :
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MepXBJjsNxs" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://blog.witch.academy/static/media/E1EAB7D5-8EFE-2FC0-7914-D20AFBF7C5DD.gif" alt="John Oliver from Last Week Tonight saying emphatically "No one understands the metric system""></a></p>
<p>Nous autres Français, concernant leur système de mesure, impérial donc, on
s'en fiche plus ou moins. C'est un fonctionnement étrange qui a très peu
d'incidence sur notre vie quotidienne (à moins d'aimer le football
américain ;)).</p>
<p>Mais pour un·e développeur·euse, le sujet peut devenir une vraie préoccupation
quand il faut préparer une application pour un pays l'utilisant
(e.g. États Unis, Chine, Australie ou Royaumes Unis). Donc, rapide
explication du fonctionnement de cette bizarrerie avec quelques faits et
une bonne cuillère de mauvaise foi.</p>
<p>Commençons par notre si beau (en toute objectivité, bien sûr) système
métrique.
L'unité de référence est le mètre, étalonné sur une grandeur physique
précise : la distance parcourue par la lumière dans le vide en 1/299792458
secondes. La seconde, est elle aussi bien définie dans le système
international (ça concerne l'atome de césium et des changements d'état, le
quantique c'est précis ;), mais ce n'est pas le sujet. Le reste des unités
pour les distances, utilise la base décimal, donc :</p>
<pre><code> 1m = 10dm = 100cm = 1000mm
</code></pre>
<p>Du gâteau, les écarts entre chaque “palier” sont constants. Quand on a
compris qu’on fonctionnait en base 10, c’est trop facile.</p>
<p>Le système impérial, c’est une autre histoire. Ici, on mélange les bases et
c’est n'importe quoi. Donc, on va se concentrer sur les unités principales :
mile (mi), verge (yard, yd), pied (foot, ft) et pouce (inch, in).
On a donc :</p>
<pre><code> 1 yd = 3ft = 12in = 36ft
1 mi = 1760 yd
</code></pre>
<p>Premier constat : la base change à chaque palier. Un coup base 12, un coup
base 3. Ainsi, entre le yard et le pouce, c’est de la base 36… Et alors le
top, c'est quand même ce 1760 de l'espace, cerise sur le cafard.
Petite image de Wikipédia pour vous aidez à comprendre pourquoi on comprend
pas :</p>
<p><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit%C3%A9s_de_mesure_anglo-saxonnes" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://blog.witch.academy/static/media/8864D313-764A-2862-8144-4433A49A6F2C.png" alt="Représentation des rapports entre unités de longueur anglo-saxonnes. (source wikipedia.fr)"></a></p>
<p>Complexe ! Mais ne partez pas, y'a encore moyen de s'amuser puisque
apparemment on fait ce qu'on veut.</p>
<p>En effet, pour ce qui est des mesures plus petites que le pouce, il y a
deux méthodes de représentation.</p>
<p>La première, en décimal, avec trois chiffres significatifs.
Par exemple : 0.0625in. <em>Tiens ! Bonjour système décimal, tu t'ennuyais ?
Prend un siège, on t'attendait plus !</em></p>
<p>Soit utiliser les fractions, et là, on se lâche carrément.
On peut représenter la sous division avec toutes les fractions de
dénominateur une puissance de deux, de 1 à 64 : ½, ¼, ⅛, …, 1/64.
On trouve même dans 3DSMax un joli et surprenant 1/100 là où l’intuition
nous ferait chercher 1/1000 ou un 1/128.
Donc notre 0.0625 de tout à l’heure peut devenir : 4/64. Sauf qu’on sait
réduire les fractions pas vrai ?! Donc on préférera 1/16 (SketchUp
fonctionne ainsi). Si bien que, dans un logiciel par exemple, si une
dimension est de 1/16 et que j’augmente de 1/64 (ma précision minimale).
La mesure suivante affichée est : 5/64. En résumé :
1/16 + 1/64 = 5/64
Quand on est pas habitué, la lecture n’en est que plus compliquée.</p>
<p>Du coup, après avoir découvert tout ça je me demande : comment les
anglophones peuvent avoir un problème avec le système métrique ? Quand on
a réussi à appréhender le joyeux foutoir du système impérial, je m'attendais
à ce que le système métrique soit tristement simple en comparaison.</p>
<p>Au temps pour moi.</p>
]]><![CDATA[[en] The Guardians of the Galaxy]]>https://blog.witch.academy/~/ByTheBonfire/en-the-guardians-of-the-galaxy/2020-12-08T21:42:37.926966+00:00Freyja Wildeshttps://blog.witch.academy/@/freyja_wildes/2020-12-08T21:42:37.926966+00:00<![CDATA[<p>I had never heard about the comics before a friend of mine mentioned the
movie has being one of the best adaption to the big screen. Now that I've
seen it, I must say: it is one of the best action movies I ever seen.</p>
<p>But before I start explaining why it is so awesome, let's have a little
disclaimer. First, as stated above, I don't know the comics so I'm not
judging the adaptation. Secondly, I haven't seen all the Marvel's movies
(specifically not Thor 2 and Captain America: the winter soldier), hence
I'm seing this as a standalone.</p>
<p>The plot is about Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, a scavenger that travels
through space looking for objects to sell to private
contractors. After an quite dark introduction that will give him pathos,
we find him casually dancing in an old ruined palace searching of an old
and mysterious orb.He will soon discover that he is not the only one
looking for it.
Some guy named Ronan wants the orb for his master Thanos. The later is a
very powerfull being, probably the most powerful in the universe.</p>
<p>Star-lord soon meets three others charaters. Rocket, some kind of super
intelligent raccoon, resulting from numerous and horrible scientific
experiments. His friend Groot, a big talking tree that acts as his
body guard. And finally, Gamora, one of the two daughters of Thanos.
Both have been tortured and trained to become the most dangerous living
weapons. After they all get arrested, they'll meet the last of the soon to
be guardians, Drax. A very strong man that wants nothing more but to
destroy Ronan, who killed his familly. They will quickly understand that
if they want to survive, they going to have to team-up to fight Ronan to
prevent him from getting the orb, which holds a tremendous power.</p>
<p>So why is this movie so good ? For a start, the characters are great.
Star-Lord
is very joyfull and fun. Even though he seems to be selfish, he is going to
be the leader of the group that will eventually make every members
stick together dispite their differences. Added to that,
his wonderfull audiocassette player which plays a very important role in
the music of the film. Rocket is cold, always jocking and mocking other
members of the group and seems to care only about his survival and Groot's.
He has very funny lines that makes him endearing. You'll love his
intelligence and his energy. Groot acts has the silent (most of the time)
wonder of the movie. A little naive, he soon shows that he cares a lot
about others, no matter what. In fact, he is like a child, a child in the
extremely powerful body of a big moving tree. Drax is the brute of the
group, he takes everything very seriously, specially metaphores which he
takes litterally. This leads to very funny moments. Nevertheless, he is
still
touching given the fact that he has lost his familly. Last but not least,
Gamora, she is the most determined of the five, and the most sensible too.
She has been on the <em>dark</em> side all her life, hence she knows what a threat
are Ronan and Thanos. Now, she hopes for a change and a chance of
redemption.
All those characters who seems to have nothing in common will unite to
protect the galaxy. They will find common ground because they all suffered,
and it is this suffering that makes them who they are.</p>
<p>All those very good elements are supported by excellent soundtracks.
Indeed, one of the greatest aspect of the movie lies in those 70s pop song
you can here throughout the movie. They always
pop out at unexpected moments giving the movie an energy and a joyfullness
I rarely experienced. Everytime those song started, whether it was David
Bowie, the Jackson 5 or Blue Swede, an uncontrollable grin came to my face.
And most of the time, I kept it just long enough for another song to start.
And the fact that all those soundtracks are legitimated by Star-Lord's
artefact, his radiocassette player, only adds to the movie a consistency
that is very valuable. The original ambiance tracks are very discrete but
quite good, they simply accompagny what's happening on the screen. It offers
a good break from the invasive pop songs and leave more place to the
dialogs. All in all, the soundtracks are very effective.</p>
<p>Visually, the movie is interresting too. The colors are very faithful to
the comics. A lot of plain and light colors. The special effects are very
good and action scene very efficient.</p>
<p>But enough with the good stuff. Even if I loved this movie, there is a few
things that aren't so great. I could talk about sound in space, but that
wouldn't be relevant. No what
really disappointed me is the character development, espicially Gamora's.
It is really rushed. One scene she's with Ronan, explaining she wants to be
the one trying to take back the orb, the next she tells Star-Lord that
she intended from the beginning to betray him. It seems to be enough for
Quill, but as a spectator, it fills odd. In fact, the other characters are
not much more developped. Each has one scene, often short, where we get
an explanation of the source of his suffering and thus motives (suffering
is the driving force of the movie) but in the end they are all
classical tropes of the genre. We've got the selfish because he suffered too
much from scientific experiment, the vengeful guy-with-nothing-to-lose,
the bad girl who tries
to be forgiven, and the kind alien. I have to admit that the director is
very honest about the movie, nothing here pretends to redefine the genre
and it is a light movie. Much in contract with the late comics adaptation
like Batman or The Amazing Spiderman. The movie is full of joke on those
tropes we're used too. Like the "bouding" moment, where everyone stand up
to affirm his will to finish the mission even if it means death. And Rocket
comments "Yeah we're all standing now, like a bunch of idiots !". It's
funny, but it doesn't hide the fact that marvel's got a formula they indent
to use until we're all fed-up.</p>
<p>Anyway, despite its little flaws, the movie is great. It is full of energy,
joy and fun. In my opinion, it is, after the first Iron Man, the best
Marvel so far.</p>
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