Monthly Recap (Jan 2021)
Major updates * Well, a new year and a new adventure for me at Sigma Computing (bit more on that soon) Minor updates * Played a bunch with silly-but-fun air-pump "rockets" * Switched…
Soylent emeralds is made of ... dragons?
I said it but I didn't do it, but here is one of those .... anomalies I mentioned earlier. Again, who is this for? It's bizarre. But it exists. (There are many more, I just haven't taken…
Generally Interesting Links - Jan 2021
Science * The Greenland crater (this is old though, before the discovery of the second one) * I had no idea about the Neolithic bottleneck * On “Mycelial Connections” While it’s true that humans…
Scala -> Rust
Over the weekend, I took a first stab at transforming my prior little cave-generation toy (https://abacusnoir.blog/2020/08/02/cave-generation/) from Scala to Rust. Old repo: https://bitbucket.org/aga…
Declaring “watch-later” bankruptcy
I’m sure a lot of people get to this point … it’s a form of procrastination, clicking on the tempting little Watch Later mini-clock-face. “Of course I’ll watch you”, I say to the little thumbnail. F…
Annual recap- 2020
Me: * “Company kick-off” cruise in the Bahamas * My first (and probably last) ever * In retrospect, very happy this didn’t turn into a COVID super-spreader event * Started tiny daily meditati…
Monthly recap (Dec 2020)
Major updates * A stay-at-home end-of-year vacation * Lots of driving around or walking around locally Minor updates * A day trip to San Francisco (chocolates at Ghirardelli, having coffee ou…
Generally interesting links - Dec 2020
Science * Old teeth These human ancestors, who roamed different patches of Eurasia roughly 1.77 million and 800,000 years ago, respectively, share a claim to fame: Their fossilized teeth harbor…
A time of transition
I've been at Confluent for a year and half now, and it was fun in many ways, but I've decided upon a change, and I'm joining Sigma Computing next week. Another instance where I was lookin…
Human Mental Games
Was watching Queen’s Gambit today (up to four episodes now), and realized how different the attitude to chess (and perhaps Go too) would’ve been back then. Today, in a post-Deep Blue, post-Alpha Go,…
Nostalgia corner: Urban Assault
Many games have come and gone, and I haven’t actually played anything for about five years now (!), and looking back, I can barely recall most of what I played. Some names that do stand out though (I…
Generally interesting links - Nov 2020
Computing * On making less software * On the microprocessor to the personal computer * On how there might be a lot of efficiencies up for grabs right now * On Gopher and Gemini (i.e. as alternati…