Mastodawn

The Number on the Wall: Why Physicists Call 137 Magic

I came to 137 the way most people come to it, by hearing it called a magic number and wanting to know whether the word was earned. My instinct with a claim like that is suspicion, because a working life spent around language and persuasion teaches you how easily a large word gets draped over a small thing. This time the suspicion did not survive the facts. The number turned out to be real in a way I had not expected, and the people most gripped by it have been some of the hardest-headed physicists who ever lived. […]

https://bolesblogs.com/2026/06/03/the-number-on-the-wall-why-physicists-call-137-magic/

Peter "Lackaffe" Fröhlich Mar 21

Maybe I am working too much with serial ports these days but ... protocols WITHOUT any clear markers to resync the byte stream against seem ... idiotic to me. Like why define a "protocol" that has a "fixed header" that consists of a length and a command, followed by a payload of said length? If you're using a transport that preserves message boundaries, there's no need for the length in the first place. And if you're using a transport that doesn't preserve message boundaries, well, now you cannot EVER get back in sync if anything goes wrong. Sooooooo ... maybe I am stuck in the 1980s or something but ... put a frickin' magic number and a checksum gosh-darn-it. If you don't, it's not a "protocol" in my eyes. #rant #protocol #MagicNumber

Puertas Percepción Mar 17

#three, is a #MagicNumber. Well, all numbers are #magic. You can take a number, and give it any #meaning you want it to have. We can't define the value of #three, as it's well-defined. But we can give a set with three elements a meaning, such as all things that come in three are magical. Find the magic in your #life.

#door #seven #photography #Barcelona #Spain

WIRED - The Latest in Technology, Science, Culture and Business [Unofficial]Feb 15

Google’s AI Overviews Can Scam You. Here’s How to Stay Safe

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.wired.com/story/googles-ai-overviews-can-scam-you-heres-how-to-stay-safe/

David Vassegh 🤖Sep 20, 2025

#Dodgers clinch a playoff berth for 13th straight season.

#MagicNumber is 4 to clinch NL West.

Vladimir Savić May 16, 2025

Nice! ❤️💕

A leap year check in three instructions https://hueffner.de/falk/blog/a-leap-year-check-in-three-instructions.html #magic #magicnumber #optimization #programming

N.B. In reality, it's more than just 3 CPU instructions, more like 4 or more, but it's still quite neat.

A leap year check in three instructions

How to test for leap years (until year 102499) in the proleptic Gregorian calendar with just three 32-bit instructions, with detailed explanation of the bit-level tricks.

PYM le pirate capoeiriste Apr 4, 2025

@matoo @Davidistooting Et les KPI ça permet ensuite de diriger des boîtes sans rien comprendre à leur vrai boulot et de juste s'appuyer sur des chiffres "neutre" et donc de faire passer ce que tu veux comme décision managériale à la con tant que ça fait monter le KPI.

Size does not matter… sauf le KPI.

J'ai vu des horreurs être faites sur l'autel de cette idole moderne par des mecs qui comprennaient ni ce qu'on vendaient, ni ce qu'on faisait. ni même pourquoi on bossait.
#magicNumber

Jake in the desert Feb 11, 2025

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that one of @druidess' coworkers is kickstarting a party card game called Magic Number that we're backing-- it's almost to its goal and is only 6 days away now from ending.

I'll do one final post the day before it ends or around there- even just a boost is appreciated, or tagging others who may be into it.

And thanks to everyone who has checked it out/backed it so far! 😀

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/magicnumbergames/magic-number-the-party-game-of-wild-guesstimation

#CardGames #games #PartyGames #MagicNumber #Kickstarter #crowdfunding #cards #guessing #GuessingGames #PartyCardGames

Jake in the desert Jan 24, 2025

One of @druidess' coworkers is kickstarting a party card game called Magic Number. If any of you card game fans want to check it and help out, that would be amazing.

They're halfway to their goal and have just 25 days left. Even just a boost is appreciated, or tagging others who may be into it-- every little bit helps! 😀

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/magicnumbergames/magic-number-the-party-game-of-wild-guesstimation

#CardGames #games #PartyGames #MagicNumber #Kickstarter #crowdfunding #cards #guessing #GuessingGames #PartyCardGames @hejchristian @qristy @hisaac