Christophe Ponsard

Find me on other social networks mastodon: @cponsard@ludosphere.fr bluesky: @cponsard.bsky.social

Vibe-driven model-based engineering: when low-code and AI had a son Read on to discover how to best combine #lowcode and #AI (#vibecoding) to balance #determinism and #flexibility. #hint: all the paths do not lead to #Rome but to #models modeling-languages.com/vibe-driven-mo…

@le_gorafi Death is having a Chuck Norris experience !

La mort est Chuck Norris à 86 ans legorafi.fr/2026/03/20/la-…

@MarquisdeGeek 1K chess on zx81 ?

So, who can guess what silly thing I'm working on?

This computer is the reason you can't download all software for free. The Franklin Computer Corp was a computer manufacturer founded in the early 1980s. Their flagship product was a clone of the Apple II, one of the most popular personal computers of the day. But Franklin didn't just make a machine similar to Apple's: they openly and directly copied the Apple II's ROM, which meant it ran all the same software perfectly. They could do this because it wasn't yet clear if you could copyright compiled binaries. After all, a binary is just a bunch of 1s and 0s, basically math, and you can't copyright math! (Source code was already established as being copyrightable.) Unsurprisingly, Apple sued, and the Third Circuit ruled in their favor. This case (Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp) is still the foundation of US copyright for compiled software. Without it, you could legally download binaries of any software or email them to your friends (and the entire industry would likely look very different). That's why the Franklin has more than earned its place in our vintage computing lab at the @recursecenter.

Continuing my fun with the Enigma machine: I wrote two emulators for a Commodore 64, one in BASIC and the other in Assembly (Turbo Macro Pro, coded on a C64). The BASIC version does about 3 characters per second. The assembly version can encrypt/decrypt roughly 1500 characters per second.

She taught computers how to smile and changed how the world sees technology. Cupertino, 1983. The Macintosh team was building a personal computer for ordinary people, not engineers. The hardware was revolutionary, but there was a problem: computers still felt cold and intimidating. Green text on black screens. Cryptic commands. No warmth. No welcome. Steve Jobs wanted the Macintosh to feel different approachable, even friendly.Someone suggested Susan Kare. She wasn’t a programmer. She wasn’t an engineer. She was a sculptor and graphic designer with a fine arts PhD. She had never designed software. Jobs offered her a short-term contract to create a few icons for the new machine.She said yes. At the time, the Macintosh screen measured just nine inches diagonally, with a resolution of 512 by 342 pixels. Every icon had to fit into a tiny 32-by-32 pixel grid, in black and white. There were no established conventions. No visual language for graphical interfaces. Susan wasn’t refining a system she was inventing one. She began with graph paper. Each square represented a pixel. She sketched carefully, testing shapes that could communicate meaning instantly. A trash can for deleting files. A folder that resembled the manila folders found in offices. A document that looked like a sheet of paper. A floppy disk for saving work. Visual metaphors rooted in everyday life. Then she created the smiling Macintosh face—the “Happy Mac.” When users turned on their computer, it greeted them with a smile.It was a small detail. It changed everything. Until then, computers had no personality. Susan gave the Macintosh warmth. She understood that technology adoption isn’t just about power or speed—it’s about comfort. People needed to feel invited, not intimidated. Her influence extended beyond icons. She designed typefaces for the Macintosh, naming them after cities Chicago, Geneva, Monaco. Chicago became the system font seen by millions for decades. She created the Command key symbol based on a Scandinavian campsite marker so it would feel universal rather than language-specific. She even designed the whimsical “dogcow” graphic in the print dialog box an unnecessary but charming detail that made users smile. When the Macintosh launched in 1984, its friendliness stood out. The interface felt intuitive because it was built on visual metaphors people already understood. Other companies quickly followed. Microsoft Windows adopted similar icon conventions. The visual vocabulary Susan created became the foundation of modern user interface design. Decades later, we still use her language. The trash can icon. The folder. The floppy disk symbol for saving long after floppy disks disappeared. Her early pixel sketches shaped the way billions of people interact with technology every day. Susan went on to design for NeXT, Microsoft, Facebook, Pinterest, and others. In 2015, she received the National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement. Her original Macintosh icon sketches now sit in the Museum of Modern Art. She proved that design is not decoration it is communication. It bridges complexity and clarity. It transforms tools into companions. Before Susan Kare, computers were machines. After Susan Kare, they smiled.And once technology learned to smile, the world was finally ready to embrace it. ( Credit: Martinbutler )

Happy 83rd Birthday to Ken Thompson! 🎂 A true computing legend and co-creator of UNIX, B, and Go—technologies that shaped the modern software world and still power the bulk of today’s infrastructure. 💻️🔥

Today in 1925, #ACMTuringAward recipient Douglas Engelbart was born. Engelbart received the Turing Award in 1997 for his inspiring vision of the future of interactive computing and the invention of key technologies to help realize this vision. Engelbart invented or helped pioneer foundational technologies of modern computing, including the computer mouse, hypertext, windowed and split-screen interfaces, interactive text editing, email, and groupware. At Stanford Research Institute, he led the development of the oN-Line System (NLS), famously demonstrated in the 1968 “Mother of All Demos,” which helped define computer-supported collaborative work and shaped personal computing and the Internet. Read about his contributions and impressive career, here: amturing.acm.org/award_winners/…

A Brief History of the Spreadsheet ift.tt/1AP4Q87

⭐️Calendrier de l'avent mathématique⭐️ Jour 19 : Benoît B. Mandelbrot

@PeterLodewijk Attention is all you need. Same for students :-)

Do you want to understand why ChatGPT is so smart? It is because of a key mechanism invented in 2017: transformers with attention. This is where the apparent intelligence of LLMs comes from. Here is a great Youtube video that explains transformers: youtube.com/watch?v=eMlx5f…

@FrPetsitters ❤️😺

Journée Internationale du Chat Roux 🐈 ➡️ Vous voulez un secret ?? 🗣️ 80% des chats roux sont des mâles ! 💫 En ce jour, célébrons ensemble nos félins flamboyants🧡 🫵 Si vous aussi vous avez un petit rouquin dans la famille, partagez nous sa photo en commentaire… 💬 📸

Tu n'es pas à Pas Sage En Steïr centredesabeilles.fr/pas-sage-en-st… ? Désolé pour toi mais tu peux le suivre sur live.passageenseine.fr/cinema ou twitch.tv/passageenseine #PSESQ

Cette semaine, la @Ligne9_RATP était fermée. En gros, le but était de passer de l'image de gauche à l'image de droite pour contrôler toute la ligne. La @Ligne14_RATP aussi a fermé. Je vous raconte pourquoi. ⬇️⬇️⬇️ #Thread

🔟 TOUR DE FRANCE STAGE WINS ! CHAPEAU L'ARTISTE ! #TDF2025 | 🇧🇪 @WoutvanAert

In June 1997, Macromedia released a vector graphics editor for creating interactive Macromedia Flash 2.0 web animations. #WebDesignHistory

1/ I am saddened to report (from today's print version of Le Monde) the passing away of the great French computer scientist Jean-Raymond Abrial. He is a pioneer in formal methods and their applications, particularly through three major innovations: the "Data Semantics" model,

Got an idea to make life better for pets? 🐕 🐾 Enter the 2025 #PetHacksChallenge and show it off! Submission Deadline: June 10th | Join the Challenge ➡️ hubs.la/Q03ncTLh0 #Hackaday #MakerChallenge Sponsored by @digikey

@HistoryMattersX @jiji00777 Totally agree voice could not dominate music but what a nice bloody harkonnen style scenography. Hope we can hear a more spicy version in final 🇧🇪 #dune

@jiji00777 🇧🇪 #Belgium A lot of red and vibes, but his vocals were not good. Maybe to the final, but not a winner And I say this as a Belgian. #Eurovision #Eurovision2025 #Basel

Omgg Belgium slayed so hard everything was on point this was really insane will he be the surprise of the season?!! #Eurovision2025 #Eurovision