jshprentz

Note well. In Latin, nota bene.

Back in 1978, with 300 baud modems, we wanted to minimize the number of characters transmitted. Peterson, Bitner, and Howard reported[1] in Communications of the ACM their algorithm to optimize the tab stop columns for a text document. They observed reductions of 7 to 30 percent of the number of characters transmitted.

[1] https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/359657.359661

This generic packaging appeared in the movie "Repo Man" [1], apparently based on similar grocery store products [2].

[1] https://twitter.com/waxpancake/status/1002568447140622336

[2] https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/107433/whats-the-...

The proposed bill [1] targets corporations with market capitalization over $150 billion that engage in arts, entertainment, recreation, motion picture, and video industries (North American Industry Classification System codes 71 and 5121) and their licensees. The three-page bill restores the earlier 28-year copyright duration with one 28-year renewal possible.

Introduction of a bill is no guarantee of its passage.

[1] https://www.hawley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/Co...

Prof. Koopman's list[1] of embedded system lecture notes and presentations includes a companion YouTube video[2] about the case study.

[1] https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/lectures/index.html

[2] https://youtu.be/DKHa7rxkvK8

Kevin Wentink has compiled excerpts from pre-code movies into a series of short thematic videos[1]. Most of his videos contain clips from a dozen or more movies. They have inspired me to track down many of the source films.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/c/PreCodeHollywoodClassicClipsbyKevi...

April Fools' Day On The Web [1] compiles a list each year (starting in 2004).

[1] https://aprilfoolsdayontheweb.com/

A 50-foot-long, 9-foot-high, 1885 circus poster was discovered in 2015 when a bar in Durand, Wisconsin opened a wall to expand the bar into an adjacent property [1]. After methodically removing the wall, the bar owners enlisted a team of experts to clean and restore the poster. The poster is the main attraction in the Orton Room, the bar's banquet room named in honor of Miles Orton, the owner and manager of the Great Anglo-American Circus and a performer featured on the poster [2].

[1] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/huge-19th-century-...

[2] https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/wisconsin/articles/2...

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette [1] provides many more photos and in-depth reporting.

[1] https://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2022/01/28/pittsburg...

HN discussion about Scott Aaronson's blog: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29778348

R. A. Lafferty extended the cyclorama concept to become "The Longest Pictures in the World," which showed the Mississippi River shore in minute detail. In Lafferty's 1970 short story "All Pieces of a River Shore," a collector searches for fragments of the picture, which had been displayed in hundred-yard sections by travelling shows a century earlier. A Stack Exchange answer [1] describes the story in detail.

[1] https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/134578/story-conce...

Snow covered trees fell across the tracks, delaying Amtrak's northbound Auto Train by 12 hours.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/northern-virginia/t...

Compare with college students' failure to notice their professor's hint in a class syllabus: "Thus (free to the first who claims; locker one hundred forty-seven; combination fifteen, twenty-five, thirty-five), students may be ineligible to make up classes and ..."

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/18/us/tennessee-professor-syllab...

"Without life, one cannot grow," sayeth the generator.

Yes, you described it very well. As I recall, at least two words were carved on each stick, maybe four.

At a summer job in 1973, we used carved wood sticks to quickly set the toggle switches for the bootloader.

Watch out for Dogpile.

Obligatory, current, and timely XKCD: https://xkcd.com/2513/

Paul McPharlin provides an extensive history of manicules starting on page 47 of his 1942 book, Roman Numerals, Typographic Leaves and Pointing Hands [1].

"Why did so many readers, until relatively recently, take the trouble to stop and draw a whole hand when they simply wanted to mark something as important? And why did so many authors and printers use the increasingly heavy-handed image of the manicule to direct the attention of their readers?" William H. Sherman explains in his 2005 paper, Toward a History of the Manicule [2].

[1] http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b4200870

[2] http://www.livesandletters.ac.uk/papers/FOR_2005_04_001.pdf

Harley-Davidson stopped making sidecars in 2011 according to a 2016 Washington Post story [1]. The DC police owned more sidecars than motorcycles, but recent Harley-Davidson motorcycles were built without a way to attach the sidecars.

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/could-ico...

The Rotrics DexArm [1] supports 3D printing, laser engraving, and other functions with quick-change end-effectors. Their Kickstarter delivered the desktop robot arm last summer; now they also sell through Amazon. The 3D printing volume is "bigger than 220 x 220 x 270 mm (8.6 x 8.6 x 14.9 inch)." I have printed dimensionally sensitive models such as Raspberry Pi enclosures.

[1] https://www.rotrics.com/

Bot Libre [1] "allows anyone to create their own chat bot for free, including free hosting, even for commercial bots." Paid plans [2] provide more bot interactions, larger knowledge bases, and design support. You can download the free community edition [3] to run on your own server.

[1] https://www.botlibre.com/

[2] https://www.botlibre.com/upgrade.jsp

[3] https://www.botlibre.com/download.jsp

Google Books Ngram Viewer [1] shows a usage blip (glitch?) in 1962, a exponential growth starting in 1964.

[1] https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=glitch&year_st...

This incident was summarized and discussed at The Aviation Herald. http://avherald.com/h?article=4e59311c

From the README, Snoop is "primarily meant to be a more featureful and refined version of PySnooper. It also includes its own version of icecream and some other nifty stuff."

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

I use PySnooper[1] when code behavior deviates inscrutably from my mental model. Like Icecream, PySnooper exhorts, "Never use print for debugging again." A simple example:

    import pysnooper

    @pysnooper.snoop()
    def add_up(numbers):
        total = 0
        for number in numbers:
            total += number
        return total

    add_up([123, 456])

When run, PySnooper prints the activity of the decorated function or method:

        $ python example.py
        Source path:... /home/joel/example.py
        Starting var:.. numbers = [123, 456]
        08:46:58.742543 call         4 def add_up(numbers):
        08:46:58.742692 line         5     total = 0
        New var:....... total = 0
        08:46:58.742722 line         6     for number in numbers:
        New var:....... number = 123
        08:46:58.742755 line         7         total += number
        Modified var:.. total = 123
        08:46:58.742787 line         6     for number in numbers:
        Modified var:.. number = 456
        08:46:58.742818 line         7         total += number
        Modified var:.. total = 579
        08:46:58.742847 line         6     for number in numbers:
        08:46:58.742876 line         8     return total
        08:46:58.742898 return       8     return total
        Return value:.. 579
        Elapsed time: 00:00:00.000405

[1] https://github.com/cool-RR/PySnooper

This video shows yacv visualizations of LL(1) and LR(1) parsing. https://youtu.be/BozB0O0__Qg

"I love my Electric Pencil." [1] Michael Shrayer's word processor was released in 1976 for the Altair computer. [2] Other versions soon followed.

[1] See ad on page 10: http://www.atarimania.com/mags/pdf/SoftSide_Vol_2_No_08.pdf

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Pencil

The letters and spacers 3D-print as individual pieces. Rearrange them to form your message and slide them onto rods that snap into the body frame.

With the supplied letters and spacers as examples, render the font of your choice as additional models to 3D-print.

Your book explains A/B testing.