timorl @timorl@qoto.org

@moonbolt @timorl

I believe GIF is in the same situation: it used to be patented, with some not-very-clear general licenses, and patents have expired.

I understand the wish not to use things that weren't intended to be publicly usable by their original inventors' company, but do realise that this class of things contains many more things than one might think and that the limited lifetime of patents is designed precisely to allow such usage regardless of those wishes after some time.

.hg Okay, let's talk about blockcodes!

I have a usecase for blockcodes.

They will be displayed on screens (printed much less commonly if at all) and scanned by phones (or other form factors of computers). They will usually encode ~192 bytes of binary data (but should be fairly scalable, just in case that grows significantly in the future).

I care about:
1. Sparsity (they'll frequently be rendered in one phone and scanned by another, so they should be able to encode those ~192 bytes without becoming too dense)
2. Resilience (an important part of any bitcode)
3. Free standards (everything about the encoding should be public, not behind a paywall or encumbered by a patent)
bonus 4. Ease of decoding by paw (see https://mst3k.interlinked.me/@moonbolt/106860351935131196 )

I don't care about:
* Conformity (the overall system design can be altered to accommodate; implementors will be told they should support whatever encoding I choose; compatibility with other systems is not a requirement)

Suggestions?

- Click "Download PDF"
- IEEE: Pay $30 first!
- Open the paper via Sci-Hub
- "This paper is U.S. Government work, not protected by U.S. copyright."

#TIL Fun fact: some papers on Sci-Hub is 100% legal.

also looking for CP437 fonts reminded me that i made a 16-seg-like font for dwarf fortress once
it's beautifully ugly

Great article just hit talking about SafePKT, an EU funded research project with myself, @sh4l and our excellent colleagues, advancing the art of automatic software verification for Rust code in the PKT ecosystem! 🎉

https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2021/08/179147-caleb-james-delisle-co-founder-at-pkt-explains-how-theyve-used-blockchain-tech-to-pay-users-for-contributing-unused-internet-bandwidth/

Problem: The actual receptors in the retina are on the back so light has to pass through the blood vessels and other support infrastructure to reach them.
Smart solution: Move receptors to front side.
Evolution solution: Fix it in software.

While I knew about Dunbar's number before, the smaller and larger social groups he postulates are interesting:
https://youtu.be/-wC8oOyiDhk

They are:
Inner Circle 5
Sympathy 15
Overnight/Affinity Band 50
Active Network 150 (Dunbar's number)
Acquaintances 500
Human capacity to recognize 1500

I think we need to agree collectively to consider soundbites and political memes impolite.

it’s a complete domination of style over substance, and we can’t debate anything meaningful this way, the tribal dadaism of what goes on on all major social networks is just awful.

Considering it good form to at least put together a couple of paragraphs worth of arguments for a position should be the minimum that we do.

all of my linux installs

two kinds of dwarf fortress fights:
- the -cotton ball- fractures the skull, bruising the brain!
- 50-year long colossus siege

Sketch of The Analytical Engine invented by Charles #Babbage.

The notes of #AdaLovelace are really REALLY something any programmer should read.

In particular, the famous Note G first lines are prophetic.

```
It is desirable to guard against the possibility of exaggerated ideas that might arise as to the powers of the Analytical Engine. In considering any new subject, there is frequently a tendency, first, to overrate what we find to be already interesting or remarkable; and, secondly, by a sort of natural reaction, to undervalue the true state of the case, when we do discover that our notions have surpassed those that were really tenable.

The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform. It can follow analysis; but it has no power of anticipating any analytical relations or truths. Its province is to assist us in making available what we are already acquainted with. This it is calculated to effect primarily and chiefly of course, through its executive faculties; but it is likely to exert an indirect and reciprocal influence on science itself in another manner. For, in so distributing and combining the truths and the formulæ of analysis, that they may become most easily and rapidly amenable to the mechanical combinations of the engine, the relations and the nature of many subjects in that science are necessarily thrown into new lights, and more profoundly investigated. This is a decidedly indirect, and a somewhat speculative, consequence of such an invention. It is however pretty evident, on general principles, that in devising for mathematical truths a new form in which to record and throw themselves out for actual use, views are likely to be induced, which should again react on the more theoretical phase of the subject. There are in all extensions of human power, or additions to human knowledge, various collateral influences, besides the main and primary object attained.
```

http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html

I will be talking tomorrow at 6pm CEST about data colonialism, and how data extraction affects commonality in and outside of technological practice.
https://www.mybehavioralsurplus.org/projects/howtostaywiththetrouble