The ideally agreeable things and stuff of 2021

Dec 27, 2021

Mountainous things and of us that I stumbled on, learned, learn, met, and tons others. in 2021. No particular ordering is implied. Not the entire lot is new.

additionally: see the lists from 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010

Mountainous posts | articles | talks learn/watched

• A Short Historical previous of Fair-C – Sadly, Brad Cox passed away in 2021. Years within the past he participated in an unprecedented oral history (pdf) — RIP my extinct build of job-mate.
• The Birthplace of AI: The 1956 Dartmouth Workshop – A wellspring of files around the 1956 Dartmouth Summer season Study Project on Synthetic Intelligence organized by John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Claude Shannon, and Nathaniel Rochester. The put up dives into the proposal and a couple of of the well-liked attendees and their apply-on work. There’s a supplemental article at AAAI that’s worth reading as successfully. This put up motivated me to factor in a international in which the following tips took help of the computing universe and didn’t ever let inch. Here’s a work in growth and would possibly maybe per chance merely never get hold of completion but it’s been fun to this level.
• J notation as a tool of thought – Besides to to offering a big introduction to J, Hillel Wayne additionally touches on the underlying philosophies underpinning APL and J.
• Introducing the Smalltalk Zoo – An incredible condensed history of Smalltalk with links and videos alongside the kind. Extra importantly, the put up talks referring to the Welcome to the Smalltalk Zoo, a bunch of Smalltalk knowledge, emulations, and diverse diversified bits of files curated by Dan Ingalls.
• Bootstrapping a minimal math library – This used to be a uncomplicated put up and I’m certain that most mathematicians already knew this knowledge. Nevertheless, I’m not a mathematician and so the revelations were deeply interesting to me. I straight away ran off and started imposing the tips in my include puny language playground.¹
• The Kubrick Glimpse – JF Martel spends buckets of ink (so to talk) about Kubrick’s filmatic tool of focusing in an a personality’s face as it stares deeply into the camera. There would possibly be a stunning quantity of depth at the support of something apparently so uncomplicated.
• A Halt Glimpse at a Spinlock – A deep deep dive into the workings of the spinlock mutual exclusion worn. It’s been a very long time since I believed about spinlocks and it used to be dazzling how noteworthy I had forgotten — and what I didn’t know within the principle build.
• Uptime 15,364 days – The Computers of Voyager – There are few spare time actions better than spending years to utterly build the computing methods working Voyager 1 and a pair of. Mountainous discuss by Aaron Cummings. The references for the discuss are unparalleled too.

Most considered weblog posts by me

• Clojure Core – I joined the Clojure core crew on a paunchy-time basis and posted about it. I’ve worked on Clojure in my free-time for years and so the dedication to affix the crew for my right job used to be a no brainer. I’ve repeatedly felt that Clojure the language used to be interesting but the forces that drove its build and advent were far extra well-known. By engaged on Clojure paunchy-time I in point of fact feel that I can contribue something well-known (despite that my particular particular person contributions would be humble) to the computing industry.
• Clojure builds as an amalgamation of orthogonal parts – One among the principle initiatives that I worked on after joining the core crew used to be instruments.type and on this put up I dove into it somewhat.
• Thunks – I are inclined to either tweet nonsense or write long(ish) posts (i.e. longer nonsense) on my weblog. In the background I are inclined to jot down notes in a pocket book and transfer them as wanted into put up drafts. Rather then doing that, I’ll possible use Thunks to help notes in focused subject matters for (per chance) future nonsense.

Well-liked technical books stumbled on (and browse)

• Tool Construct for Flexibility How to Retain far off from Programming Your self proper into a Corner by Chris Hanson Gerald Jay Sussman – The ideally agreeable book on programming and programming apply written in years. Hanson and Sussman are on fireplace — as if there used to be any doubt. I in point of fact get hold of a entire jam of notes for this book centered around Clojure that I’d cherish to Thunk some day. Unless then I will reveal that here is the progressed programming suggestions-centric book that I’ve wished for years. There would possibly be a deep level of interest on layered program enhance, DSLs, propagator networks, non-determinism, and degeneracy², all of which are puny lined in most computing texts. The colleges of instrument structure exposed on this book are told by natural methods, symbolic AI, ambient behaviors, and the blood and sweat shed over time developing purposeful programming methods. There’s a plethora of wisdom contained in these pages and a type of pondering required to fruitfully mine that wisdom to order the come of methods, but I mediate this job will be extra than worth the problem.
• Inner Macintosh – I was lucky to reach support across a jam of Inner Macintosh books within the neighborhood and it’s a multi-365 days venture of mine to work my manner by them. The first quantity within the collection covers the Macintosh 128Ample, 512Ample, and XL gadgets and their running environments and I followed alongside with my 512Ample in tow. This book (and the collection in classic) are among the many ideally agreeable technical references ever written. As a segment of my day job (and outside of it) I’ve wanted to leverage my technical writing abilities for hundreds of pages of fabric, and yet there’s repeatedly room for enhance on my segment. These books are inspirational.
• Digital Calculators by H. Edward Roberts – For a time early within the 365 days I began down the direction of building my include calculator and so I grabbed this book to gaze at the pondering on the subject from a reference that dates support to the early days of portable gadgets. The books is of direction dated but it covers a big fluctuate of subject matters, from fabrication suggestions of the time, to level to alternate choices, ergonomics, and even feature implementation suggestions temporarily.

Well-liked non-technical books learn

• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke – A triumph from Clarke (creator of the masterful Jonathan Irregular & Mr Norrell) that follows Piranesi, a personality for the ages, who lives in a (apparently) never-ending labyrinthine fortress. The story follows his on daily basis life, his interactions with others, and sooner or later his origins. Here’s structurally a pretty uncomplicated story but it turns out to be a cool, certain glass of water for my parched creativeness.
• Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed – This one falls into the “accurate conspiracy” sub-type but it takes that severely drained type into locations I haven’t learn sooner than. The story follows PaPa LaBas as he attempts to gaze the machinations of the Wallflower Dispute as the latter attempts to label out the “Jes Grew” virus that makes of us dance and journey joy.
• The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing – A scare unique of the mundane — a family attempts to address a panicked fifth baby. The book particulars the deteriorating happiness of a family coping with a scenario that no one around them can build nor empathize with. The book used to be harrowing to learn as a guardian.
• Yotsuba&!, Vol. 1 by Kiyohiko Azuma – Here’s as healthful a manga as one can get hold of. The story follows Yotsuba, an adopted girl who gets into diverse irregular conditions and filters life by her beatific lens. Laugh out loud comic.
• In the Dirt of This Planet by Eugene Thacker – This book is the entire lot and came into my life at the right kind second. It’s philosophy, media criticism, scare film commentary, stumbled on drama, steel studies, uncommon, eerie, and nihil without warning. A shut to very finest book for my sensibilities of the time.³
• Capitalist Realism: Is There No Different? by Tag Fisher – I came to gaze Fisher very gradual within the game, indeed, after he had taken his include life. There is an unparalleled body of labor to search out and whereas I’ve ideally agreeable dipped my toe to this level, I did arrange to learn what’s even handed his seminal work. The book starts with a uncomplicated premise, within the starting build attributed to Fredric Jameson and Slavoj Žižek — “it’s miles less advanced to factor in an stop to the sector than an stop to capitalism”. While a uncomplicated premise, Fisher spends a type of time unpacking this phrase and tying it to our original Western world, passed by a neoliberal filter. A gargantuan different of extra reads are wanted for me to in point of fact “catch” this book, but I was struck by the implied implications.
• The Fisherman by John Langan – Here’s a most modern purchase on the uncommon fiction sub-type very noteworthy within the vein of H.P. Lovecraft, M.R. James, Robert W. Chambers, and the cherish. Many words are spent to type tension and to world-type and are performed so in a overly, relate-songy manner. Fully a couple of books are written within the classic uncommon fiction type so as a fan of the kind this used to be a treasured get hold of for me.

Selection of books written or published

Selection of programming languages designed

0.25

I’ve been engaged on a Forth variant that’s driven not by any particular need but by a morbid curiosity to witness how deep that particular rabbit-gap goes. Particularly, I’d cherish to know what it takes to type a instrument suite from a Forth that comprises such things as an internal database, an embedded language, a reasoning system, an editor, and a structured programming ambiance.⁴ Over the direction of the 365 days I’ve researched each of those sub-methods and partly enumerated the minimal-viable parts wanted in a Forth to implement them.

The chart is a fragment of that compare and is currently ideally agreeable a imperfect enumeration of every feature wanted. One other pass on this checklist desires to occur with an seek in direction of distilling parts into their composite parts, in an strive to name a language kernel. As a aspect-effort I’ve began taking a gaze into methods to implement a VM for a Forth-cherish language by I’ve ideally agreeable scratched the bottom with the mainline interpreter. So much and lot of compare wanted composed.

While this compare is occurring, I’ve worked on somewhat of bootstrapping code, of which there’s:

• knowledge stack
• return stack
• kernel functions: kpush, kpop, kdsadj, kdsaddr, kivar, krvar, kdstack
• dictionary enhance, search, and traversal
• preliminary words stack words: DUP, DROP, OVER, ROT, SWAP
• preliminary expose words: BYE, .S

And that’s what it seems cherish to this level. I’ll get hold of something that’s usable in 2022.

Selection of books learn

tons

For 2022 I’ve toyed with the basis of sticking to certain themes on a month-by-month basis as a replacement of the whim-essentially based manner that I’ve taken to this level in my life. Therefore, the subjects that known were as follows:

Banuary

banned books

Faebruary

delusion

Ides of March

history

Caperule

games and absurdity

Maystery

thriller

Carjune

manga, comics, and graphic novels

Appropriate-lie

non-fiction and occult

Thougust

philosophy, the sciences, and computing

Scitember

scifi

Shoctober

scare, uncommon fiction, and tales of damage

Noirvember

noir

Detember

detective fiction and proper crime

The disaster with a listing cherish this for me is that I don’t learn cherish this. My entire life I’ve been a very impulsive reader and previous attempts to persist with themes outside of an academic ambiance get hold of died on the vine. Presumably any individual else can originate something of it then again.

Well-liked musicians / albums stumbled on

• All over the build at the stop of time by The Caretaker – Here’s an incredibly ambitious collection of ambient works by a historically ambitious ambient artist. Merely put, the tune attempts to take the tone and feeling of any individual tormented by degenerative memory loss. The work is overwhelming at instances.
• Heresy by Lustmord – Here’s the roughly tune that you just potentially can hear taking half in as the gates of Hell birth.
• Wave Notation 2 – Restful Manner by Satoshi Ashikawa – An provocative combine of used Japanese tune with electronic parts, boiled down to their bare essences.
• Hoodoo Man Blues by Junior Wells – What I don’t learn about classic Blues would possibly maybe per chance maybe get hold of the Gargantuan Canyon but it’s a musical vein that I’ve tried to faucet over time and get hold of reach away enriched by the efforts. This one by Junior Wells will not be any exception.

Well-liked demonstrate referring to the fervour of steel detecting and about hobbying itself

Detectorists

Well-liked movies stumbled on

• Aguirre, The Wrath of God by Werner Herzog – Kinski’s acting is otherworldly. There are supplemental tales in Herzog’s My Simplest Fiend about Kinski that serve to enhance the enjoyment of his work.
• Beneath the Skin by Jonathan Glazer – An alien lures males to their deaths in an inky murky nether-jam. This film has very puny dialogue and it a gradual-burn but I stumbled on it riveting.
• Sunset Boulevard by Billy Wilder – I’ve know my entire life that this used to be regarded as among the many ideally agreeable movies ever made but never received around to searching at it. Let me me perfectly certain. Here’s a frigging imperfect-ass piece of filmatism! The level of depravity portrayed on this film is masterful and springs off in a life like manner. I would possibly maybe per chance maybe eye this 10,000 instances extra. The film is terribly finest — one for the private Pantheon.
• Unlit Narcissus -by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger I’ve repeatedly wished to continue to exist a mountain. The few instances that I’ve been on a mountain at main heights were invigorating. There’s a madness within the mountains and that’s something that I’ve repeatedly wished to journey for a sustained duration. Unlit Narcissus provides head on with that madness and it does so in a aesthetic manner. And not utilizing a doubt the film is born from the prejudices of its day and at instances it shows. Nevertheless, it does strive to address those prejudices straight and does so thoughtfully. This film is a masterpiece — another one for the private Patheon.

Well-liked games stumbled on

• The Field of the Cloth of Gold – For those of you conversant in board games and their evolution, you would possibly maybe per chance maybe maybe also merely acknowledge a term “German-type Board” game. In the early 1990s the board game industry used to be in disaster. Nevertheless, in Germany a vogue grew and sooner or later unfold around the sector that helped to build the floundering passion. The games well-liked in Germany at the time, or the “German Faculty” tended to get hold of a different of shared traits that helped them to score a help of the industry, alongside with: orderly and streamlined tips that were easy to educate, few special-exceptions and combos, a shared game web page, and non-combative but compulsory participant interaction. Video games cherish Catan, Carcassonne, and Widespread Artwork were the head of this kind. Nevertheless, over time this kind fell from type and were superseded by extra complex offerings. That acknowledged, once in a whereas a game hits the scene that hearkens support to the bygone days of the German Faculty and The Field of the Cloth of Gold is one such game. The foundations are uncomplicated, the game play annoying, and the time investment brief. Here’s another triumph from the unparalleled Amabel Holland.
• Babylonia – Speaking of the German Faculty of board games, the master dressmaker in that college is Reiner Knizia. His body of labor is staggering and with Babylonia he’s managed so as to add to his oeuvre a game that’s deep and paying homage to classics cherish Tigris & Euphrates and Samurai. I’ve ideally agreeable performed a couple of games but this one is a keeper.

Well-liked programming languages (or connected) I hacked on/with on my include time

• Forth – There’s not loads to instruct about Forth that hasn’t been written a million instances sooner than excluding that it twists my brain cherish no language sooner than it. I’ve known about it for years and even took a stab at a diminutive implementation within the previous but it wasn’t until I began dabbling in SBCs that I began the use of it for additional interesting applications. I don’t know the build this exploration is going but I’m having a blast.

Programming languages feeble for work-connected initiatives

• Clojure – 2022 marks the 12th 365 days⁵ as a paunchy-time Clojure programmer and the 1st 365 days as a paunchy-time Clojure core developer.
• ClojureScript – Less-so now than when I was consulting paunchy-time but I once in a whereas dig into detect the implications of modifications to Clojure on CLJS.
• Datalog – The Datomic taste of Datalog is the taste of resolution for database catch entry to, be it in-job or within the cloud.
• Bash – I managed to catch score some work on the Clojure CLI so Bash used to be in play there. That acknowledged, I pondered Bash extra than I wrote bash this 365 days.

Programming languages (and connected) that I hope to search out extra deeply

• Forth – I’ll proceed to tinker with my include impl as well to existing impls focusing on SBCs.
• Joy – While a concatenative language cherish Forth, Joy performs out in a noteworthy extra purposeful type. Indispensable extra exploration wanted here.
• MMSForth – A version of Forth for desktop computer methods within the 80s that’s puny known within the intervening time. There are a type of classes to learn from this lost gem, especially within the kind to originate a entire programming ambiance with Forth interposed between the user and the bare steel.
• KAMAS – KAMAS used to be early outliner instrument that focused the Kaypro II computer. It had an embedded Forth-cherish language that customers would possibly maybe per chance maybe use to script the utility. Shrimp survives about this language and I’d cherish to resolve that in some procedure maybe per chance but even supposing there’s an abandonware version for DOS, it doesn’t hold the paunchy feature jam of the Kaypro version and thus no embedded language. It seems an right Kaypro is wanted and in some procedure maybe per chance the KAMAS discs received as successfully. The computer segment is the easy step whereas the instrument has proven advanced to search out.

Well-liked papers stumbled on (and browse)

Listed below are a couple of that I enjoyed in 2021.

• Object Oriented Extensions to Forth by Dick Pountain – Crucial aspects implementation suggestions so as to add object-oriented parts to Forth. It desires to be eminent that not all Forths are created equally and so what works on one would possibly maybe per chance merely not work on another. This paper particulars methods so as to add OO to a Forth-79 or Forth-83 appropriate system.
• A Forth Implementation of Snort by Tom Hand – Snappy describes the implementation of a LISP in Forth. There are scant particulars of the implementation and most is left to the reader’s creativeness. Indispensable extra detail is stumbled on in Pountain’s book “Object Oriented Forth” the build the kernel of a LISP-cherish subsystem is created on the kind to an OO system.
• Stack Computers: the brand new wave by Philip J. Koopman, Jr. – Koopman’s classic book on stack-essentially based architectures is a fun learn and at the identical time advisor of a lost future.
• A Historical previous of Clojure by Effectively off Hickey – Effectively off particulars the origin story at the support of Clojure and tons of the pondering that went into the language build.

Restful haven’t learn…

Pattern Recognition, I Ching, A Fire upon the Deep, Don Quixote, and a boat-load of sci-fi

Well-liked technical convention attended

None — per chance subsequent 365 days.

Well-liked code learn

• Fairy-Stockfish – a version of the Stockfish engine built around facilitating variants. I’ve waited for something cherish this for years and can now promptly retire my janky Grande Chess implementation!
• T9 predictive textual dispute material code – Bear in mind T9 predictive texting? Stop you leave out it?
• Becoming a Forth in 512 bytes – A shrimp Forth implementation that nearly suits in a boot sector.
• SectorLISP Now Fits in One Sector – … and now it suits in a boot sector.
• …and now has GC in ~475 bytes – I’m entirely onboard for the amble at this level!
• Functional transformation of immutable objects – A Java proposal within the works from Brian Goetz discussing purposeful transformations on Java objects and the toughen there for.
• 1968 Forth – A itemizing of 1 of the earliest versions of Forth by Chuck Moore.
• Ribbit – A Blueprint implementation with the purpose of fitting a entire language, amble-time, and GC into 4K or less.

Lifestyles-changing abilities “stumbled on”

• Info superhighway Archive’s Books to Borrow – as an avid reader, purchasing for build new sources for interesting books is a persevering with strive against. the Info superhighway Archive’s 1-hour borrow provider has been an unparalleled resource for extinct, vague, and out-of-print finds.

Stammer of plans from 2020

• Use additional time working on Clojure and ClojureScript – This used to be a smashing success as I joined the Clojure core crew to work on the language and its ecosystem paunchy-time. I’ve been lucky ample to originate a train affect and I hope to serve the language pass forward into the long amble.
• Dive deeper into microcontroller programming, especially with the Teensy – My SBC of resolution proper now is the Teensy computer. It has diverse modes of operation and is Arduino appropriate. I’ve put a official different of hours into it this 365 days and am fervent to learn extra.
• Add another entry to my non-public programming languages zoo – My Forth is coming alongside but it wasn’t completed in 2021.
• Learn extra philosophy and mathematics – This used to be hit or leave out, even supposing I did detect a branch (nihilism) that I had previously left out.
• Get extra eager with the native Ragged Faculty MtG scene – Covid continues to complicate this idea.
• Return to civilization. – ditto

Plans for 2022

• Assist catch 1-2 Clojure releases out the door – One is within the works for early 2022 and the preliminary plans for another are forming as you learn this.
• Learn Finnegans Wake – I’m a couple of chapters in and get hold of hit a wall. This one will purchase at the least all of 2022 to prevent.
• Dwell on the Forth manner for passion endeavors – I see no motive this couldn’t occur.
• Fabricate a Lisperati1000 – The Lisperati1000 is Conrad Barski‘s birth-sourced cell terminal-centric Snort-hacking machine. I’ve assembled all of the component parts and it’s time to build them all collectively.
• Continue making growth on my calculator venture – I additionally get hold of the parts for a calculator essentially based around the ATmega328P processor. While studying methods to type a key matrix will be enlightening, I’m in point of fact taking a gaze forward to writing the calculator instrument. And not utilizing a doubt the use of an ATMega328P as the core is overkill for calculator programming⁶ but I’d cherish to search out the lost-world of Compulators and my electronics skill are nowhere shut to up to snuff for such an exploration.⁷

2021 Tech Radar

• are attempting: Nexys 3 FPGA board
• adopt: Babashka
• assess: odoyle-tips
• help: Learn-Eval-Print-λove
• stop: “Widespread” C++

Folks who impressed me in 2021 (in no particular train)

Yuki, Keita, Shota, Craig Andera, Carin Meier, Justin Gehtland, Effectively off Hickey, Jenn Schiffer, Nick Bentley, Paula Gearon, Zeeshan Lakhani, Brian Goetz, David Nolen, Jeb Beich, Paul Greenhill, Kristin Looney, Andy Looney, Kurt Christensen, Samm Deighan, David Chelimsky, Chas Emerick, Stacey Abrams, Paul deGrandis, Nada Amin, Michiel Borkent, Alvaro Videla, Slava Pestov, Yoko Harada, Mike Fikes, Dan De Aguiar, Christian Romney, Russ Olsen, Alex Miller, Adam Friedman, Tracie Harris, Alan Kay, Alan Watts, Elizabeth Warren, Warren Ellis, Naoko Higashide, Zach Tellman, Nate Prawdzik, JF Martel, Phil Ford, Nate Hayden, Sean Ross, Tim Lawful, Chris Redinger, Jordan Miller, Tim Ewald, Stu Halloway, Michael Berstein, Rafael Ferreira, Robert Randolph, Joe Lane, Pedro Matiello, Jarrod Taylor, Jaret Binford, John Cooper, Conrad Barski, Amabel Holland.

Onward to 2022!

:F