Viewing profile — sunday_serif

For me, proof by contradiction only clicked (recently!) once I understood that logical consequence and unsatisfiability are equivalent. Once I understood that and reframed the cont…

I feel like the article “c is not a low level language” is worth linking here. Once you start to dig into how computer hardware really works, you start to realize that nothing is r…

I use google search only for the most trivial searches now. Something where I know almost precisely what information I want. I use LLMs for most info now, any slightly ambiguous qu…

Completely agree! The hard parts seems to be figuring out (1) how to cut red tape for only certain projects and (2) figuring out what red tape to keep. Chesterton's fence and all t…

True enough, but having designed a “fantasy cpu” gives you a better frame of reference for understanding the more complex features of a cpu (privilege levels, memory segmentation, …

Writing blog posts and being ok with them not being perfect. I often have an idea for a post that would be interesting, but then as a learn more about the topic in order to write, …

I particularly like the mit 6.S081 operating systems course [1]. The course has you make useful extensions to a reimplementation of the XV6 kernel in RISC-V. This course really hel…

I’m working through this book now and really enjoying it! Each chapter of the book includes a test suite to run against the code you’ve written. In some ways, the tests in this boo…

My favorite part of this book is that guides you through writing two separate interpreters for the same language. I think it really allows you to grasp some of the more intricate a…

Tell that to the lap swimmers.

I was so pleased when I finally discovered the QEMU Monitor. It is an excellent tool that covers a lot of the gaps in the QEMU documentation. Curious which devices are memory mappe…

A childhood favorite for many of us Gen-Z HN readers.

For me, this took me back to Marble Blast Gold. An early 2000s game with essentially the same concept. Great fun :-)

I love this! I think it also emphasizes the complexity and capability of software that underlies the systems most people think about. I think it is a common misconception that your…

I am always surprised when I find others don't just assume that undersea mining is more impactful. To me this fact feels like a given considering that is such a complex operation a…

Once I started thinking of LLMs as a form of lossy compressed storage for their training information… I started having more reasonable expectations for these tools.

Fitness I think. The top tier of fitness across a number of activities has never been more competitive. I get the impression that in previous centuries (and maybe even previous dec…

I am all for more open marketplaces for software, and I agree that Apple doesn’t seem to be respecting the intent of this legislation… But these complaints, from these specific com…

I try to be an optimist, but the constant stream of record breaking abnormal weather really steers me toward climate doomerism. Do others here feel similarly? Do you think these tr…

Can’t recommend Ezra Klien’s episodes on Israel and Palestine enough. There is no specific episode that stands out more than the rest. But any of the content since 10/7 is really g…

Yes! Ben eater’s content accompanies nand to Tetris so well. I did the 6502 project in which you assemble a computer system on bread boards (wiring together the clock, cpu, ram, et…