koalahedron

5 ms·

1.
by koalahedron 6y ago
Even greater is someone understanding my own sardonic sense of humor and putting it to good use. I did have a nice half round of golf today with my wife. What a beautiful day to spend with such a wonderful person! I'm out.
2.
by koalahedron 6y ago
20 years later, looks like they are taking RFPs for re-engining: [PDF] https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN11413 I guess he was right about the engines.
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by koalahedron 6y ago
> I know that jokes aren't really welcome on HN IMO, while I really don't come to HN to find dial-a-joke, or joke-of-the-day, I think some humor is essential in modern life. Since we're talking about Matt Keeter, you will
4.
by koalahedron 6y ago
I know Matt too, primarily from him rejecting my Libfive PRs for being " too 1337". But seriously, Matt, I might have a project for an in-person event regarding printing robots. Stay tuned--to what channel I don't know.
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by koalahedron 6y ago
Thanks! I noticed "PAiA" electronics sold kits of these--I remember that name from back then. Did they sell parts or other kits? Looks like they are still in business. Also noticed "Scungy Video" :) (Do NOT search f
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by koalahedron 6y ago
I worked at Boeing Wichita (which is no more), and an engineer told me that the B-52 was getting heavier over time because the old wires weren't removed for avionics upgrades. Of course, they were always trying to put one over on me a
7.
by koalahedron 6y ago
My wife sent me these that she has read and recommends: Textbooks: Cephalopod Cognition by Anne-Sophie Darmaillacq (Editor), Ludovic Dickel (Editor), Jennifer Mather (Editor) Cephalopod Behaviour 2nd Edition by Roger T. Hanlon (Author), Joh
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by koalahedron 6y ago
Taken further, you might argue that there might be condemnation eventually of the whole concept of pets and work animals too. I'm not sure I "condemn" these ideas, but I don't have a pet because I think animals should b
9.
by koalahedron 6y ago
Thanks all, for these references! My wife is into cephalopod intelligence. I'll forward this to her and ask if she has any other recommendations. I do know there are a couple of websites for cephalopod enthusiasts: https:/&#x2F
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by koalahedron 6y ago
I've never heard of Rick and Morty, but take my advice, don't try to shop your screenplay to VCs. They took a dim view of my "Adult Stewie" concept last year (think "Young Sheldon" backwards). Try Hollywood.
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by koalahedron 6y ago
> Nevertheless simultaneous invention happens all the time. Try telling that to Isaac Newton. :) Or better yet Edison or the USPTO.
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by koalahedron 6y ago
I had that book too, I just recognized it when I looked it up. I don't remember it as well, but apparently it was the display circuitry only.
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by koalahedron 6y ago
> delicious recipes Ha ha He also did the TV typewriter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_Typewriter which allowed people to have something to hook their bare board micro to. I had money to buy his green book, but n
14.
by koalahedron 6y ago
I think I even discovered "intentional O(random)" complexity with this gem from Acey-Deucy: 270 A=INT(14\*RND(1))+2 280 IF A<2 THEN 270 290 IF A>14 THEN 270
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by koalahedron 6y ago
By the way, back to the original topic, a bare-bones machine like the KIM-1 also required a lot of hand assembly. I guess everybody is gone from this post too, but I wonder if there is a fixed point corollary to Godwin's law--if you po
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by koalahedron 6y ago
Thanks again. Like you said it is fun to dream (ask the "Scheme Machine" guys sometime about how they would go about it now), but practically with technology like Julia's Zygote: https://github.com/FluxML&#x2
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by koalahedron 6y ago
Everyone's probably way past reading this by now, but for the record I ported the first example to Common Lisp: https://github.com/koalahedron/lisp-computer-games Man that brought back the memories, and I had a bl
18.
by koalahedron 6y ago
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. I'm afraid my DEC assembly language study ended at the PDP-11, but it is edifying to know the VAX had such an instruction. In some domains like numerical programming, ML, and graphics using SDF havin
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by koalahedron 6y ago
I was thinking an interesting (probably not feasible) opcode would be a derivative op for automatic differentiation at the machine level.
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by koalahedron 6y ago
I wanted a KIM-1 or a COSMAC Elf in the '70s, but I couldn't afford one as a kid. I eventually built a ZX81 kit from the proceeds of a summer job as my first computer. The KIM-1 had a 6502, the Elf had an 1802, and the ZX81 had a
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by koalahedron 6y ago
I recommend this MIT OCW for people interested in the math behind origami and folding problems: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-compu...
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by koalahedron 6y ago
It really seems like it should.
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by koalahedron 6y ago
Furthermore, to get an Emacs-like REPL (Edwin) 1 ]=> (edit) ;Loading "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mit- scheme/lib/prx11.so"... done
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by koalahedron 6y ago
It's also interesting that QBasic (which I didn't use) is related to IBM Cassette Basic, the first language I used on the IBM PC. If the computer couldn't find a bootable floppy, it booted Basic from ROM: https://
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by koalahedron 6y ago
Interesting idea! I had to think about what you were describing, but that actually is very similar in spirit to the experience back then. It's kind of like discovering the assembly monitor on the Apple ][, which you could get to by pok
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by koalahedron 6y ago
Thanks for reminding me of these wonderful illustrations. Your comment made my day! They were an essential part of the book, for engaging your imagination. They were also a gateway to books like Heiserman's "How to build your
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by koalahedron 6y ago
With some of the discussion recently about Fabrice Bellard, I was thinking a nice retro, minimalist PC OS could be made with TinyC, QEmacs, FFMpeg, TinyGL, TinyCore Linux, etc. I'm sure a lightweight Basic implementation could be foun
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by koalahedron 6y ago
I typed in a lot of these in the late '70s, it was "learning Basic the hard way" to get them to run. My access to computers was limited, so I read them more than used them at a computer. I later bought: http://ww