This letter written by Charles Babbage in 1840 is fascinating ...
... since it appears to be his earliest ever attempt to describe computational recursion in plain language
He *had* to use plain language -- the very concepts he was struggling to enunciate didn't yet have names
As Bruce Sterling puts it, this passage is “a breathless, painful description of the unique ability of software to operate on itself”
Item #12 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompson/a…
![A letter handwritten by Charles Babbage, in a neat script. It reads, in part: "“Those who are acquainted with the loom are aware that by means of cards having certain holes punched in them it is possible to weave with the SAME loom ANY design however complicated. The design is translated into cards and these direct the motions of the threads. By similar means the motions of the Calculating Engine are directed. Any formula however complicated is translated into cards and these being placed in the Engine it works out that particular formula and gives its numerical value”. “In one respect however it advances beyond the cards of Jacard. For in the case of the development of functions it backs the cards more or less so as to repeat the operation according to any assigned laws thus enabling a small number of cards to supply the place of a great many and rendering it unnecessary to effect the algebraic redevelopment of a function in order to make the cards the LAWS of that development only being communicated by the cards”.](https://fedi.ml/photo/preview/640/602287 "A letter handwritten by Charles Babbage, in a neat script. It reads, in part: "“Those who are acquainted with the loom are aware that by means of cards having certain holes punched in them it is possible to weave with the SAME loom ANY design however complicated. The design is translated into cards and these direct the motions of the threads. By similar means the motions of the Calculating Engine are directed. Any formula however complicated is translated into cards and these being placed in the Engine it works out that particular formula and gives its numerical value”. “In one respect however it advances beyond the cards of Jacard. For in the case of the development of functions it backs the cards more or less so as to repeat the operation according to any assigned laws thus enabling a small number of cards to supply the place of a great many and rendering it unnecessary to effect the algebraic redevelopment of a function in order to make the cards the LAWS of that development only being communicated by the cards”.")
Linkfest #25: The "Third Thumb", Prairie Strips, and Science Proves People Love Spoilers
Hello folks! It’s time for my latest “Linkfest” — i.e. "the opposite of doomscrolling”, in which I ceaselessly roam the Internet’s Plutonian shores to find...The Linkfest
I've donated to #SuperSwingDistricts, a strategy for donating to local candidates in important races that are also likely to "turn out" many voters who wouldn't have voted for the federal candidate otherwise. Thanks @glyph for building and sharing this 💜
Please take a look, this strategy seems compelling to me:
I really want to use my @playdate more, but the lack of a backlight makes it so hard to see after my cataract surgery. If I am not in perfect lighting I am looking at a blob.
The handheld is a joy and it is a shame I don’t go to it more often.
If anyone has recommendations on how to get better contrast/lighting please let me know. #playdate
Jak jsem se dozvěděl a později pochopil: CF radši nenasazovat na #servery, které odesílají citlivá data.
Cloudflare funguje jako proxy, od výchozího serveru dostává šifrovaná data přes https, které rozšifruje. Následně se spojí s cílovým serverem a data opět posílá sifrovaně (a nebo ne). Co se s daty v rozmezí u CF děje, to je otazník, věc důvěry.
Rozhodně bych CF nenasazoval tam, kde běží mailserver apod.
Vhodné je používat end-to-end šifrování. #bezpecnost #webhosting
GitHub - myshell-ai/MeloTTS: High-quality multi-lingual text-to-speech library by MyShell.ai. Support English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
High-quality multi-lingual text-to-speech library by MyShell.ai. Support English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. - myshell-ai/MeloTTSGitHub
I don't really understand why the CBC hates Trudeau and wants to force him out as leader.
I don't even like Trudeau, but the CBC's constantly trying to push a "Liberal caucus is revolting!" narrative is just so transparent and they aren't even owned by a billionaire.
If only there was a different browser with arm64 builds 😁
From: @benschwarz
front-end.social/@benschwarz/1…
benschwarz (@benschwarz@front-end.social)
⭐ At the moment Google Chrome isn't available on arm64 architecture. Automations that use Chrome have to run on hotter, more power hungry and expensive CPUs 🔥 If you want to see Chrome running on more efficient hardware, star this issue: https://iss…Front-End Social
still don't have it as the flatpak....
bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.…
1646462 - Add Firefox ARM64/AArch64 option to Flathub (Flatpak)
UNCONFIRMED (nobody) in Release Engineering - Release Automation: Other. Last updated 2024-09-07.bugzilla.mozilla.org
I think the tide is starting to turn in GNOME and free desktop accessibility for blind people. Check out this positive message on the Orca mailing list, from a former vocal critic of free desktop accessibility: freelists.org/post/orca/Thanks…
Note: This has nothing to do with the work I did earlier this year prototyping a new Wayland-native accessibility stack. So I'm not being self-congratulatory.
[orca] Thanks so much for Orca - orca - FreeLists
[orca] Thanks so much for Orca, orca at FreeListswww.freelists.org
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*blushes* Hey, that sounds like something I'd write.
Oh hey, I wrote that like yesterday! :)
World Wide Web Consortium (@w3c@w3c.social)
At W3C@30, Jun Murai spoke about "One internet and the web" "So what started from the original idea, like a dream, 60 years ago, now turned out to be a reality. And, this is a space we are working for.w3c.social
Having to tap the "don't support the Factorio devs sign" again but no one will listen because no one really cares.
resetera.com/threads/the-direc…
The director of Factorio (shown during Nintendo Direct) has a history of sexism, homophobia and racism...
In early summer of 2021, we had a thread regarding this situation. While it was discussed in the gaming community for a bit, it faded away fairly quickly. During today's Nintendo Direct, I hadn't...ZeoVGM (ResetEra)
The GNOME Foundation Board is seeking input on what people would like to see from GUADEC in the future. We'd love to hear your thoughts.
discourse.gnome.org/t/feedback…
Feedback wanted: what do you want from GUADEC?
The GNOME Foundation Board of Directors is planning to revisit our future events strategy, particularly the question of where GUADEC should be held. We would like to hear input from the community before we discuss it ourselves.GNOME Discourse
In the distance you hear a Grue.
WCAG Quick Tips for Content Writers | WCAG
Writing in plain language, providing clear instructions and page titles and other important guidance and tips for content writers.Mitesh Gudhka (WCAG)
Gramerly: we will read your emails and wrote a summary for you, saving you time!
Also gramerly: We will write your emails for you.
Like, at what point is this just burning gpu cycles for no reason? No one is reading the long as email Gramerly wrote cause gamerly is also summarizing it on the other side.
We all know about scripts/checkpatch.pl
But are people aware of scripts/czechpatch.pl?
$ cat scripts/czechpatch.pl
print('lol no')
Gmail, Outlook, they all offer an “Unsend” feature – but did you know that this only delays sending your email?
Do you use the “Unsend” feature or do you dislike the forced delay? Let us know in the comments!
Find out more about the “Unsend” feature 👉tuta.com/blog/how-to-unsend-em…
#Email #Emailtips #Unsend #Emailundo
How to unsend an email – the ultimate guide. | Tuta
Clicked send only to realize a mistake? Learn how to unsend an email in Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, Yahoo, and from your iPhone.Tuta
If I'm correct it was just a spin-off from a google experiment function that would keep your emails from being send on weekend nights to avoid sending drunken emails to your boss/friends and then you had to 'approve' them in the morning to be actually send.
The 'unsend' function is so obvious that it's just delayed, but I did use it a few times to correct grammar.
[ngtcp2] set max window size to 10x of initial (128KB), as the quiche backend does by kazuho · Pull Request #15392 · curl/curl
QUIC backends use flow control windows initially set to 128KB. In #14880, the maximum size used by the quiche backend was increased to 1280KB, but that of the ngtcp2 backend remained at 128KB. With...GitHub
Nem sequer vou discutir esse ponto de vista, porque desta vez, tenho uma solução fácil, rápida e que pode agradar a todos.
Nem sempre é fácil, mas desta vez, é! Façam isto:
Se querem afastar-se de ideologias políticas, baseiem-se na ciência e na evidência. Reúnam um painel de especialistas (sociólogos e psicólogos) e deixem-nos definir o currículo.
Problema resolvido. De nada.
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This thought was triggered by a comment on an article about Rust: lobste.rs/s/ktwhai/rust_prism#…
To be clear, language complexity isn't a good thing for its own sake. Still, reading that comment made me have that sudden reaction.
This, slightly further down in the comments, along with the idea of Kernighan's Lever, gets to the problem with that sort of flexing:
"This implies that programmers exist in isolation. Most of the code I read was not written by me. If the subset of the language that I stick to is a completely disjoint subset to the one a collaborator sticks to, we can’t review each others’ code. If I jump into a new project and it’s using a distinct subset of the language to the one 1/2
@torvalds on the removal of some [russian] entries from the MAINTAINERS file:
lore.kernel.org/all/CAHk-%3Dwh…
"'It's entirely clear why the change was done, it's not getting reverted [...]
[…] the "various compliance requirements" are not just a US thing.
If you haven't heard of Russian sanctions yet, you should try to read the news some day. […]
[…] I'm Finnish. Did you think I'd be *supporting* Russian aggression? Apparently it's not just lack of real news, it's lack of history knowledge too."
A friend came to visit me yesterday, and he was sneezing. And I said “is that covid?” And he goes “I don’t think so, it’s just a cold”.
Tested him on the spot.
He had covid.
I really believed something good would’ve come out of this: widespread testing, architectural changes for ventilation in public buildings, rethinking sanitary regulations on food production, work from home as default, universal basic income, etc.
Instead everyone is just trying really hard to forget and pretend it never happened.
I could be wrong about what they're doing, I've only listened to it briefly.
All the people who think calling Trump a fascist is an exaggeration, or just a political attack, should consider something.
Wanting to close the borders, bombing a synagogue, naming left-leaning people as "degenerates" doesn't make you a fascist. Those are just the natural courses of action that the fascist ideas lead you to.
Fascism is a set of ideas and theories. Well defined about a century ago, first in Italy, then mostly in Spain and Germany.
And the thing is that if you read the transcriptions of the speeches the Italian and Spaniard ideologues from the 20 and 30s of the last century, you will be surprised how close they are to the ones by, not only the 2024 unleashed version of Trump, but also from its 2016 tamer version or pretty much most of the mainstream republican party politicians at large.
"Fascist" is not just a generic violent boogie man. It's a very specific set of ideas which are becoming increasingly mainstream among the global right.
Trump is a fascist. Putin is a fascist, even if he pretend to be fighting them in Ukraine. Netanyahu is a fascist even if he shields behind the Holocaust to commit genocide. A fascist is not someone who covers themselves in nazi regalia. A fascist is someone whose ideas match with fascism.
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Bear in mind that the difference between a "disposable" vape and a "technically rechargeable" one is basically just the addition of a USB port that had to be intentionally removed from the off-the-shelf electronics used to make it.
Selling "technically rechargeable" devices as cheaply as the "disposable" ones they replace won't fix the problem.
In terms of material use, ten "disposable" vapes are about the technological equivalent of a smartphone.
Imagine a phone you threw over your shoulder after making ten calls.
Now imagine the next "disposable" device that uses the same amount of materials.
We shouldn't be banning individual products. We need a comprehensive Circular Economy Bill that bans ALL products that don't fit strict criteria of sustainability, reuse, repair, remanufacture and compostability.
commonweal.scot/single-use-pol…
Single-Use Policy
Craig Dalzell Imagine a new innovation in portable electronic technology. With this new gadget, you can speak to your friends and family, no matter how far away they are. This device – a “telephone…Common Weal
Et voilà pour la facturation électronique on sera obligés de passer par des prestataires privés, propriétaires, et payants.
Un surcoût pour toutes les entreprises, particulièrement les petites.
Jorge Candeias
in reply to Jorge Candeias • • •Similarly, if you root or in any way support a fascist against a democrat, however flawed that democrat may be, you are also a fascist.
Again, own it or shut the fuck up.
And this applies to all levels of politics, from your neighborhood to global geopolitics.