sunday_serif's comments

I use google search only for the most trivial searches now. Something where I know almost precisely what information I want.

I use LLMs for most info now, any slightly ambiguous query really. Often times I use the LLM to figure out what source I should find, then I just use google for retrieval

When I want to “surf the web” I use kagi search (usually with small web filter) when I want to see sources written by people. This isn’t that often, but when I need it kagi is the best!

An example, the other day I wanted to make fermented hot sauce, and I couldn’t remember how much salt was needed for the fermentation. I could google and get served hundreds of crappy ad ridden recipe sites that have the answer to my question buried under five pop up videos, or I could ask an llm with one or two follow ups and have a much more pleasant experience.

Then when I decided I wanted to follow a real recipe I used kagi with small web to find a recipe page that wasn’t an ad farm.

A few more steps than google, but all and all so much better.

Completely agree!

The hard parts seems to be figuring out (1) how to cut red tape for only certain projects and (2) figuring out what red tape to keep.

Chesterton's fence and all that.

True enough, but having designed a “fantasy cpu” gives you a better frame of reference for understanding the more complex features of a cpu (privilege levels, memory segmentation, virtual addresses, cache hierarchy, etc.)

I often feel like those who haven’t done the exercise of understanding the ISA of a “fantasy cpu” have a really hard time understanding those more advanced features.

I guess all I am saying is that learning the “fantasy cpu” still has value even if everything else in the real world is more complex.

Walking before running and all that.

Writing blog posts and being ok with them not being perfect.

I often have an idea for a post that would be interesting, but then as a learn more about the topic in order to write, I start to realize how much I don’t know. At this point, the post either dies or I spend way too long learning every irrelevant detail until I feel like I know enough.

So I think the skill I am trying to learn is writing as a non-expert. Learning to write in a tone that makes it ok to not know everything. Writing in a tone that conveys my experience and understanding, but doesn’t try to be an authority on the subject.

Writing is a tough skill!

I particularly like the mit 6.S081 operating systems course [1].

The course has you make useful extensions to a reimplementation of the XV6 kernel in RISC-V.

This course really helped me start to understand how an OS works and what the hardware software interface really is.

[1] https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2020/ — linking to the 2020 class because all of the lectures were uploaded to YouTube to accommodate remote work during the thick of Covid.

I’m working through this book now and really enjoying it!

Each chapter of the book includes a test suite to run against the code you’ve written.

In some ways, the tests in this book feel very similar to the labs in the book Computer Systems: A programmers perspective — which is high praise!

My favorite part of this book is that guides you through writing two separate interpreters for the same language.

I think it really allows you to grasp some of the more intricate and nuanced parts about building a programming language.

You can encounter all of the big ideas in the first half of the book and gain enough familiarity with them so that when you revisit them again in the second interpreter, you can actually absorb the interesting parts.

Such a phenomenal book!

Tell that to the lap swimmers.

I was so pleased when I finally discovered the QEMU Monitor.

It is an excellent tool that covers a lot of the gaps in the QEMU documentation.

Curious which devices are memory mapped to which regions on your virtual board and the docs aren’t specific? Check the device info in the monitor!

Want to know what interrupt signals a device might generate and can’t find that info in the docs, use the monitor to check!

It’s honestly a life saver.

A cool tip I recently found to make using the Monitor easier when you are running your QEMU machine in nographic mode is that you can have QEMU read and write the monitor to a file on your system. Then you can use a tool like socat to have one terminal running your QEMU machine and another running your monitor! Super convenient.

This stack exchange answer explains the details:

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/426652/connect-to-r...

A childhood favorite for many of us Gen-Z HN readers.

For me, this took me back to Marble Blast Gold. An early 2000s game with essentially the same concept.

Great fun :-)

I love this!

I think it also emphasizes the complexity and capability of software that underlies the systems most people think about. I think it is a common misconception that your OS is the "lowest level" of the software stack, but in actuality, there is this firmware-ish code that truly owns your system. Sometimes it does a job and goes away, other times stays running the whole time your system is up, transparent even to the OS.

Sometimes, the attitude people have about this is along the lines of... "who cares, its just low level code to get my devices running, nothing serious can happen down there".

But knowing that you can get a whole IRC client down there doesn't make it too hard to imagine all the other nefarious things that could go on.

I am always surprised when I find others don't just assume that undersea mining is more impactful.

To me this fact feels like a given considering that is such a complex operation and the sea is such a delicate environment.

Of course its great to have data to back up what we know... but I'm always surprised that we have to go so far out of our way to back up what should be intuitive.

Once I started thinking of LLMs as a form of lossy compressed storage for their training information… I started having more reasonable expectations for these tools.

Fitness I think.

The top tier of fitness across a number of activities has never been more competitive.

I get the impression that in previous centuries (and maybe even previous decades) individuals who were particularly coordinated and fit could succeed in many different professional sports.

Now, each and every physical activity… no matter how niche seems to have an incredibly competitive upper echelon, wether it is soccer, cricket, marathon racing, ping pong, archery, rock climbing, surfing, or whatever. You need to dedicate extraordinary amounts of time and energy to that activity to be the best.

I suspect this hasn’t always been the case. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more professional athletes now relative to the population size than ever before.

I am all for more open marketplaces for software, and I agree that Apple doesn’t seem to be respecting the intent of this legislation…

But these complaints, from these specific companies, read a bit like: Apple’s walled garden is problematic because it won’t let me build my own walled garden on their platform >:(

I try to be an optimist, but the constant stream of record breaking abnormal weather really steers me toward climate doomerism.

Do others here feel similarly? Do you think these trends are reversible? Is technology the solution? Something else?

I guess my real question is: how do you incorporate all of this change into your worldview and outlook?

Can’t recommend Ezra Klien’s episodes on Israel and Palestine enough.

There is no specific episode that stands out more than the rest. But any of the content since 10/7 is really great.

I find his coverage to be very nuanced and he’s brought on a bunch of guest with a wide range of viewpoints.

Yes! Ben eater’s content accompanies nand to Tetris so well.

I did the 6502 project in which you assemble a computer system on bread boards (wiring together the clock, cpu, ram, etc).

It helped solidify many of the concepts from nand2tetris. For some reason doing it all physically with real chips and wires made it all a bit more memorable.

I’d love to try his other bread board project in which you assemble all the inner workings of a cpu on bread boards as well — I think this is what you were referring to.

I don’t have any numbers on hand, but I have to imagine this would also reduce a lot of waste.

I didn’t realize until recently that almost all billboards are made of a thick plastic vinyl material.

I recently saw one of these billboards folded up on the ground before it went up. It’s just a giant chunk of plastic that I imagine ends up in some landfill somewhere.