TL;DR summary of stories on the internet
nanofont3x4 is the world’s smallest readable 3×4 font with readable lowercase glyphs. It includes upper case (3×3) plus 1 pixel leading, and lowercase (some are 2×2!). The practicality of such a font is debatable, with potential uses like rendering in-game book pages or creating accurate print previews. The motivation behind creating such a font was […]
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Explore a variety of phone numbers for regional, toll-free, and dedicated lines on 2600.network. Discover credentials to log into Bulletin Boards after dialing in, courtesy of telnetbbsguide.com. Get tips and tricks on phone lines, modem use, and overall functionality. Analyze and track your connection with detailed statistics and graphs for all users. Interested in contributing? […]
Approximately 500 million years ago, the armored cephalopod Plectronoceras roamed the oceans. These creatures had a hard shell and tentacles, a design that proved effective for catching prey and protecting themselves. Ammonites, similar to today’s nautiluses, were also prevalent in the ancient seas. However, the nautiluses are now restricted to a small area in the […]
In the 1990s, computers were like magic, and we were wizards. Larry Wall’s foreword to Learning Perl from 1993, inspired a young me who stumbled upon the book in a book shop. Perl is not just a language; it’s about you, created by someone like you, for someone like you. The journey of Perl’s creation […]
To stay healthy in his 70s, David Sandler tried rapamycin, a drug promoted by researchers and doctors for extending life. Despite its popularity and potential to improve cell function, rapamycin is not approved by the FDA for aging. Some physicians believe low doses of the drug could increase lifespan, but side effects include reproductive issues […]
Robert Heinlein, a science fiction master, created a brilliant solution to handling fan mail in the days before the internet. He crafted a one-page FAQ answer sheet, which his wife Ginny would check off and mail back. While some may find receiving a form letter rude, it was better than being ignored, and all unanswered […]
New research suggests that Mars’ gravitational pull is influencing Earth’s climate and ocean currents in a 2.4-million-year cycle. This cycle, described as a cosmic butterfly effect, alters Earth’s orbit around the sun and leads to warmer climates and increased deep ocean circulation. By studying deep-sea sediment records, researchers discovered the impact of these cycles on […]
In Jan Wierix’s engravings, The Misanthrope is depicted as a figure burdened by a heavy cloak, symbolizing world-weariness. The series of twelve roundels portray literal enactments of Flemish proverbs relating to human folly and treachery. While seven scenes were engraved by Wierix, the authorship of the remaining five remains mysterious. The prints evoke the spirit […]
On March 17, 2024, Thomas Ptacek pondered on Mastodon about finding Spelling Bee pangrams that would lead to the highest scores in the game. Curious about this solvable problem, the author decided to take a crack at it. The article delves into the methodology used to identify the “worst” pangrams, those that result in the […]
LLM4Decompile is a groundbreaking open-source project dedicated to decompiling binary code using Large Language Models. The project focuses on re-compilability and re-executability, with a dataset of 4 billion tokens generated from compiling C code samples into assembly code. The evaluation benchmark, Decompile-Eval, assesses the decompiled code’s ability to be recompiled and pass test cases for […]