Frink

Frink may be easier to install and run than you think on most operating systems: * Have Java installed ( java.com ) On Fedora Linux “dnf install java” * Download the Frink .jar file frinklang.org/frinkjar/frink… * Double-click that file!

@scottew I kinda like that you can just eyeball that connector and see that it only has the two outmost out of 4 pins (power and ground) and it's probably not going to send data on the two innermost pins to try and hack your phone.

feels like the world collectively overinvested in USB-A infrastructure

@parakeetnebula @nickcammarata Our billion-dollar idea is making corporate cubicles that have their own A.) shower and B.) seat and C.) treadmill for pacing back and forth and a display that only shows 1.) blank screen 2.) waterproof whiteboard 3.) those research papers you meant to read but never had time for

@nickcammarata I feel like I take 14 showers a day too for the same reason. Why shower? Is it because it’s a contextual reset? I feel like I need sensory immersion in order to fully context switch.

people don’t understand the work ethic required to be a professional researcher. a pro basketball player’s job is to make baskets so they shoot 500 shots a day. my job is to have ideas so I take 14 showers

@parakeetnebula Also, thank you for being nice and asking about many things. You are awesome.

@parakeetnebula LOL it's him.

Really sad rn can u send me weird graphs

@parakeetnebula I like how you can see that different regions have different zip code allocation patterns from this graph. (I think you're looking at Iowa!) And that you can see different regions with borders between them! I need to research more about how zip codes are allocated.

@Frinklang This place is really a mess

@parakeetnebula Also making giant art on blueprint/diazo paper is fun but the paper is getting hard to find! You should try it! I have a stash of giant blueprint paper that I hope still works. You expose it to light and mask off areas and develop it with ammonia fumes. So cool! 6/6 done

@parakeetnebula Each little feature added to Frink *multiplies* its power with everything gone before. It's a wonderful revelation to realize that something you always wanted to attempt is now easy. 5/x

@parakeetnebula Yes it is one big continuous line! Someday maybe I'll write a program that, say, draws portraits with one line, maybe outwardly spiraling. Some of them sorta cheat by making the lines thicker in parts but that's a valid technique.

@Frinklang Wow is this all one big line

@mrdoornbos This is a great writeup of a simple technique that sounds too easy to work. Great job! I can't wait to try implementing it as a fast preprocessor to my massively-data-dependent cryptogram decoder that uses gigabytes of n-grams to find (very good) decrypts.

With OpenMP I got it down to 0.409 seconds on M4 Mac Mini with 32 GB of Ram, and down to 0.039 seconds by offloading it to the Mac's GPU

I let a Commodore 64 run for three and a half days straight. 87 billion instructions, 303 billion clock cycles, 5.9 million candidate settings tested. It cracked an Enigma message in German without knowing a single character of the plaintext. 🧵1/2

@stylewarning And yet, Emacs will still be there when the other editors are abandoned and gone.

I essentially agree with this. I recently wrote a getting-started for Coalton and I wasn't happy to write >This document isn’t an Emacs tutorial. There are lots of those online, and one built in to Emacs. This document will tell you what you need to get Coalton setup with Emacs.

@ID_AA_Carmack @PalmerLuckey @elonmusk Then return Scientific American to its former glory!

@PalmerLuckey It would be delightful if you pulled an @elonmusk , bought WIRED, and changed the editorial tone to Technological Triumphalism. Then maybe do MIT Technology Review.

This "deeply reported" piece from WIRED is inexcusably bad. First, it is just wrong. Not nitpicky things, fundamentally false jabs and premises. Second, it completely ignores the stakes of supporting active troops to push r/antiwork softboy talking points. Examples below.

@parakeetnebula I see patterns in this map. The Postmaster General is wiring orders directly into my brain

@parakeetnebula Visiting only the zip codes that are prime numbers, in numeric order. There are too many zip codes. Please eliminate those with those composite numbers.