Huh, TIL.

When using macros to build more complex abstractions, the need for computation and encapsulation arises. To this end, the TEX language provides intermediate storage for different data types (registers), operations on these types, a grouping mechanism, and control flow primitives. Per type, there are 256 registers, numbered from 0 to 255.

I’m don’t consider myself an artist by any stretch of the imagination, but this really resonated with me nonetheless as a programmer.

https://theoatmeal.com/comics/creativity_things

"stroustrup" sounds like a legacy C string function that has been proven to have 3 different memory safety issues

Really neat to see both the reverse engineering of a neural network as well as how the neural network learned how to do binary addition.

https://cprimozic.net/blog/reverse-engineering-a-small-neural-network/

I’ve never been a huge fan of the Labs PM mantra of “outcome > output”. Or resolutions and the like, really. I’m more about putting in the time and making sure that aligns with outcome goals instead.

https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/tech-debt-day

If you liked Return of the Obra Dinn, and especially if you were into it but it was maybe a little too much detective work for you to keep track of, I highly highly recommend The Case of the Golden Idol. It's a detective game where you investigate crime scenes and try to reconstruct what happened, similar to Obra Dinn's filling out of the ship manifest through inference. But the puzzles are a little smaller scope, and it's all 2D. It is SO GOOD.

https://www.thegoldenidol.com/

Wait, what? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of these being called “punched cards” before!

(From this nice look back at the history of the OEIS from the creator: http://neilsloane.com/doc/HIS50.pdf_

These generated images for “Jodorowsy’s Tron” are gorgeous.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/01/13/opinion/jodorowsky-dune-ai-tron.html

So You Want to Solve Python Packaging: A Practical Guide

First, the technical: Python is used by vastly different groups of people, some that don't identify as "developers". Those groups often have disparate expectations about how packaging should work. Some don't even know what a package is.

TWTR turning off APIs for power user apps breaks the NIGHT CLUB RULE:

Every night club in the world does the same thing: lets some beautiful young things skip the queue and get in the door to make it seem like THE PLACE. They don’t spend a lot, they aren’t walking ATMs. THEY ARE PRODUCING THE VALUE THOUGH.

TWTR is looking at ads as the value, but it's the CONTENT that's the value. Produced by power users.

TWTR is now going to be the equivalent of a disco filled with just gross old dudes.

The existence of an AI-generated TRON-Jodorowsky mashup implies the existence of an army of lawyers collecting data on how many Disney properties are included in these AI training data sets and explicitly classified as known Disney properties.

There’s a lot of talk right now about the transition from “pandemic” to “endemic” phase of covid-19. This makes it sound as if there’s some reduction in severity, because “pandemic” sounds scary and “endemic” is just a normal thing, something expected. But that’s literally the difference. There’s no threshold of reduction in virulence or disease burden that we’re crossing, we’re just literally getting used to it. Endemic just means “this is the level of constant carnage we expect”

Hong Kong.
The sidewalk is built of bricks.
Banyan tree. Its roots grow along bricks.

#thicktrunktuesday #tree #roots #hongkong

Honestly, I actually like YAML, as opposed to pretty much all my peers, but this ain’t wrong: https://ruudvanasseldonk.com/2023/01/11/the-yaml-document-from-hell

CircleCI published an incident report on their recent breach, and it's super interesting! https://circleci.com/blog/jan-4-2023-incident-report/

The attacker avoided 2FA by infecting a user's machine, waiting for them to auth, and then just copying their session cookie to another computer where they could use it with no local monitoring. Either of two things could have prevented this:

1) Access to sensitive resources could be restricted to trusted machines
2) The cookie could have been tied to a hardware key on the machine

I don't know who needs to hear this but

The postal service exists to deliver letters and parcels to people
Not to make money for shareholders

The transport system exists to move people to where they need to go
Not to make money for shareholders

The water, gas, and electricity supplies exist to provide people vital utilities
Not to make money for shareholders

The healthcare system exists to ensure (and that's ENsure, not INsure) the health of the population
Not to make money for shareholders

Shareholders in vital public services are a vampiric drain on those services

Capitalism is a disease

I think #poetry gives some bad advice on #python dependency pins: https://python-poetry.org/docs/faq/#why-are-unbound-version-constraints-a-bad-idea

Pessimistic pins like this plunge your consumers into dependency hell when packages update to consume fresh versions of their shared dependencies at different rates. If package Foo needs a new feature from click 8, and package Bar says "well, I work with click 7, better not try click 8" and never releases again, I'm hosed, even if Bar works fine with new click.

Your users should rely on CI, not #semver.

learning #rust from experienced devs

I wonder how mandating that employees be paid out (retirement funds, etc) before investors in cases of bankruptcy would change the risk profiles for investors. Likely for the better, I’d assume, as far as pressure to be well-run and prudently managed goes.

here’s your reminder that if a meeting ends early, you dont have to use that time to do other work. take that time for yourself.

you assessed what you would be able to accomplish that day based on your calendar and had come to terms with that already.

go take a walk. pet your animals. read. catch up with a friend. do something that brings you joy during those few minutes.

#WorkLifeBalance #Work #RemoteWork #SelfCare #TakeCareOfYourself #Meeting