Boss: hey Bob, our users are asking for an API to determine if a video can be played in the browser. Bob: yeah, I get it, but this is really complica -- Boss: go on now, git! You'll figure it out. Bob: [muttering to himself]

The latest

Folks, we have the best π: lcamtuf.substack.com/p/folks-we-h...

Chickens now have power, can play games or watch TV

Lord give me strength to stay on this platform

Getting silly with C, part ~(~1<<1) lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/c3/?n

How many dimensions is this? lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/dimensi...

My position on the "doomsday" risk of superhuman AGI is that if IQ offered you a decisive advantage, the world would be run by nerds. I think it's essentially a geek power fantasy. The returns on puzzle-solving skills rapidly diminish past some modest threshold.

I'm sorry folks, the spec made it clear

An update on the chicken coop. Doors and windows by my wife (there's another window on the back, and a chicken door inside).

Multitudes: lcamtuf.substack.com/p/multitudes

If you work in software, you know about the halting problem. But you *can* decide if a program halts in a finite number of steps! Except, when you do, it kinda summons the ghost of Kurt Gödel. An accessible essay on the limits of algorithmic knowledge: lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/beavers...

A slightly unhinged calculator fact: in the golden era of electronic calculators, some Japanese shopkeepers were reluctant to trust the newfangled device, so Sharp made a line of combination calculator / abacus devices. Here's a photo, next to some other stuff I own.

An update on an update on the chicken coop

I don't know where you folks get your non-orientable manifolds, but the experience of ordering from Cliff Stoll at kleinbottle.com is second to none

What is infinity, and why it's not trivial to show that 0.9999... is equal to 1: lcamtuf.substack.com/p/09999-1

The proof that π = 4 lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/pi/

Self-referential abstractions, or a quick look at the wacky epistemology of analog circuitry. lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/abstrac...

I finally decided to bite the bullet

An update on chickens

A 20-minute intro to complex numbers (featuring cats): lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/complex/

Decibels are ridiculous: lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/decibels/

There's this joke primality testing library that claims 95% accuracy in O(1) time: github.com/mawerty/Is-P... It does so by always returning false. The density of primes between 1 and n approaches 1/ln(n). For a 32-bit int, 4.6% of values are prime, so the code is right 95.4% of the time. 🡇

Can you have complex numbers in 3D, and what the heck are quaternions? lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/complex2/

I'm old enough to remember when our #1 concern about the veracity of online information was that anyone could edit Wikipedia

The Mathematics of Love: lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/love/

What a coincidence, I have the same interests

Sierpinski triangle? In my bitwise AND? lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/triangle/

I found a motto for my Substack

The Long Winter: lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/winter/

A (fairly) gentle intro to transfer functions and resonant filters: lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/rc-filt... To fully appreciate it, you'd probably need to be up-to-date on the preceding article, linked on top.

I revamped my article on complex impedance. It now offers: 1) An accessible analysis of RC, RL, and LC circuits, 2) A cute proof for why the Cartesian plane interpretation of impedance makes sense, 3) A basic primer on complex numbers, featuring cats. lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/lcr

One of the cool things about electricity is that there's more charge in a button battery than in a bolt of lightning. I promise this is true. One ampere is the flow of one coulomb (~6 quintillion electrons) per second. A typical CR2032 battery packs about 200 mAh. 🡇

How do we generate clocks in digital circuits? From relaxation oscillators, to crystals, to phase-loocked loops: lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/clocks/?1

As it turns out, the C compiler orphan-crushing machine offers no benefit: web.ist.utl.pt/nuno.lopes/p...

I always longed for a social network where you don't actually interact with people so Bluesky is pretty great

My approach to teaching electronics: lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/teaching/

Resistors, Johnson-Nyquist, and nV/√Hz: lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/noise/

We're at the "pivot to a social network" stage in the development of AGI

Real MLCCs (and inductors) have curves: lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/mlcc/

A book on the philosophy of HN is long overdue

Stand for what you believe in

A reassuring message from the 401k plan

Why do lemon batteries work? lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/lemons/

The Rapture: lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/rapture/

Look GCC, I don't think I'm being unreasonable here

A novel way to implement loops: godbolt.org/z/164jvGz1b