n8   Doesn't follow you ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ

@n8
396 Followers
302 Following
7K Posts
I care 100X more about *how* you argue and how you treat the people you disagree with than I care about what you think.
Formerly ofLWN, Linux.com, OSTG
Currently ofType design research
TexasLinux Fest
Just interested in, you know, in,uh, Principles of Modern Banking and, History of Piracy. Paintings of Orozco. Modern French Theater. The... Jurisprudential Factor of Mafia Administration. Diseases of Horses and novels of Joyce Cary and... Ethnic Choices of the Arabs. Thing

@pixelambacht Suddenly I owe you for having informed me, entirely in passing, that @rudytheelder is on Mastodon to follow.

Hashtag halfway through the Ware tetralogy, because I have a score of cyberpunk books I recklessly decided I would read in strict chronological (publication...) order....

Once or twice a year, I see a post on Reddit titled (roughly) "forget the aggravating 'font editors,' here's how you can create your own font today entirely in Illustrator!"

If I was granted omniscience for a day, I'd deeply like to understand the thought process behind those posts. Is it __solely__ "price"? Maybe, but I can't imagine that's all of it.... What do they find so abhorrent about real type design? I'd love to know.

(And I feel like there's something they find unpalatable, but IDK.)

If you are near downtown Portland before (or on) June 28, it'll be your last chance to check out the Northwest Museum of Cartoon Arts before they close down. They have a fabulous exhibit of Will Eisner pages. I always love to see how much whiteout got used. There's also a rack of old Mad Magazines to read! https://nwmoca.org/

If any UK-resident friends & readers worry about the heat wave, I can give you a few small pointers as a native Texan*

1. It's helpful to wear hats & carry water, but it's more important to only walk in the shade, shadow to shadow, pushing the weak out of your way.

2. Meal plan: boil water today, freeze it to use later in the week.

3. AM and PM are arbitrary, switch up.

* In contrast to, say, Ted Cruz, who was born in Canada, look it up, a fact for which Canada has yet to formally apologize.

I found this write-up about OpenAI's recent mathematical-proof news to be thought-provoking; it offers a breakdown of what sorts of "unsolved problems" are getting solved by AI agents, and which ones are not:

If you're solving "no one knows this because brute-force is all we've got" problems or disproving conjectures by counterexample, then, yeah, that's useful, but it's not the same as upending research or reasoning.
https://theconversation.com/an-ai-solution-to-an-80-year-old-problem-has-shocked-mathematicians-283686

An AI solution to an 80-year-old problem has shocked mathematicians

Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdล‘sโ€™ โ€˜planar unit distance conjectureโ€™ has stood since 1946 โ€“ but an AI disproof has made mathematicians pay attention.

The Conversation
@ohbendy @TiroTypeworks well, one thing I wondered and I can't tell as a non-reader is where there are relationships between letters outside of the visual realm. Like phonetically related letters, or historical ones. E.g., (and admittedly this is a blend of several), Latin "i" and "j" are not related sounds, but the visual connection is because one is an offshoot of the other. Or phonetics nerds might argue that "b" and "p" should clearly have related forms because the sounds are related.
@ohbendy @TiroTypeworks serious question, although it might sound like trolling: how are we defining "unrelated" ?

@penguin42 Thanks.

On the latter, I don't know if I'd really have the time, but it seems like an opening that has a passable benefits package but does not require you to own a necktie, which is a definite plus.

And, on the former, I have no reason to believe otherwise, but I find it somewhat peculiar that I have yet to see anybody show it on a map.

Things I've googled today with BBC News on muted in the background

- "is andy burnham keir starmer's son"
- "is andy burhman keir starmer's little brother"
- "can us citizen be mayor of manchester"
- "why so many empty seats at cricket oval"
- "did spectators die of boredom yesterday cricket oval"
- "are andy burnham keir starmer same person'
- "is makerfield real place'
- 'keir or kier real spelling'
- 'people know running for mp in random place is crazy government system'
- 'is binface boris'

Current mood: resisting the temptation to featurecreep from an #Emacs major mode into a project.el/projectile project type....