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Cosmopolitan. Brooklyn-based indie game developer best known for Semantle.
@NovalisDMT on Twitter

novalis honked 08 Feb 2026 03:22 +0000

Kai Huang's 2012 Functions was dramatically more elegant than this year's, because of the constraint. Functions (2026) is less about the sequential ahas of figuring out the functions, and more about grinding through to figure out what X and Y can go into g(X, a(Y)). Several of Kai's functions were really fun, while these were rather straightforward. Weirdly, the solution page for the 2026 puzzle doesn't mention Kai's as an inspiration, which seems odd, given that the puzzle has exactly the same name and a very similar conceit.

At least when Allie Goertz covers Nine Inch Nails, missing the point is the point.

novalis bonked 04 Feb 2026 18:28 +0000
original: codepo8@toot.cafe

I'm buying a kitchen and they sent a sample of the marble counter top with a metal ball showing what the sink will be like. Now my desk looks like a 90s 3D rendering tool demo image.

A square marble tile with a shiny metal ball on it next to some papers and a coffee mug.

novalis honked back 02 Feb 2026 15:56 +0000
in reply to: https://mathstodon.xyz/users/mjd/statuses/116001541578924884

@mjd @luksfarris I think of multiplication as coming from a generalization of skip-counting. Like, you're trying to inventory a bunch of stuff, so instead of counting, one amphora, two amphorae, etc, you count two, four, six, eight, ten makes a boxful, one box, two boxes, etc.

You need formalized multiplication when you have enough (fungible) stuff that counting becomes hard.

You get division in a similar way -- if you have those 42 squirrels and six people, you deal them out into six piles one-at-a-time (keeping track of where you started in case of remainders). But I think most ways of formalizing it rely on already having multiplication (at least doubling).

novalis honked 23 Jan 2026 21:05 +0000

Just tried to get a 1099-INT from my bank. It's under Settings. Wow.

novalis honked 23 Jan 2026 14:59 +0000

"That is, per the hard constraints, we want Claude to never clearly and substantially undermine Anthropic’s legitimate efforts to ... engage or participate in catastrophic forms of power-seeking."

  • Claude's constitution

novalis bonked 13 Jan 2026 15:10 +0000
original: bkuhn@fedi.copyleft.org

https://sfconservancy.org/sustainer/

This is the toughest time to work at a charity. When a charity posts its fundraiser, the total ask has been vetted 100 times: it's the amount that the org needs to keep going for the coming year.

Unlike your local PBS/NPR station, #SFC doesn't have a service we can interrupt to
pitch appeals for donations (& we probably wouldn't even if we did).

#SFC is short $48k with just days to go.

If you want me & my colleagues to work for #SoftwareFreedom in 2026, please give.

novalis honked 08 Jan 2026 02:47 +0000

Are you playing along with Only Connect? Want your chance to do the wall yourself instead of just yelling at the screen? Play along with this vibecoded tampermonkey user script) on OCDB. Public domain, as Gemini wrote it.

You can still yell at the screen, but only about categories that you solved.

novalis honked back 24 Dec 2025 01:06 +0000
in reply to: https://clacks.link/users/attoparsec/statuses/115771622384494510

@attoparsec Crazy idea, but what if instead you did something that took 8 or 9 clock cycles, considering one input at a time? So, you would use a clock divider to choose one input into two 4-input AND gates into a single adder (with its previous output as the other input; initial state set from self). I don't know if the necessary discrete logic components are reasonable, or if this is too complicated or won't work for some other reason, but it seems like it could used fewer chips.

novalis bonked 22 Dec 2025 15:42 +0000
original: abliss@mastodon.cloud

Last night I dreamed that a salesperson was touting some electronic gadget, and said that the box includes a USB-C charging cord, and also includes a trash can to dispose of the cord in. An onlooker asked "but why? I already have a trash can that I can use." And the salesperson said "don't be silly, by that logic why would we include the cord?"

novalis honked 07 Dec 2025 02:28 +0000

Please enjoy a nudi pic. Danielle requested a hooded nudibranch hoodie, so I had one made for her. As you know (or would, if you read her newsletter), hooded nudibranchs smell like watermelon, so I also got her the appropriate scent.

A figure in a hooded nudibranch hoodie, holding a bottle of watermelon scent spray. The hoodie is blue with orange rhinophores, oral hood tentacles, and cerata. The hood covers the figure's face.

novalis honked 05 Dec 2025 18:28 +0000

Just filled in a form with a "State/Providence" field. (No, it wasn't a Rhode Island-specific form).

novalis bonked 04 Dec 2025 17:38 +0000
original: bkuhn@fedi.copyleft.org

😲 👀 … Judge Leal in #SFC's landmark impact litigation against #Vizio (regarding their violations of #GPLv2 & #LGPLv2_1) is leaning toward partially granting our motion for summary adjudication.

Such motions are difficult to win, so this is amazing.

Her decision is tentative; join the hearing today (details in linked post) to hear the oral arguments in real time.

https://sfconservancy.org/news/2025/dec/04/tentative-vizio-ruling-in-favor-of-sfc/

#OpenSource #FreeSoftware #copyleft #SoftwareFreedom

novalis honked back 04 Dec 2025 15:30 +0000
in reply to: https://turtleisland.social/users/dillyd/statuses/115658630932171043

@dillyd Only if you are careful about cross-contamination. When I scoop baking powder, I use a clean spoon that I have dishwashed since I last used it for scooping flour. If you just use whatever spoon, then you've probably cross-contaminated something. Similarly, if you used a butter knife to spread butter onto your wheat bread, and then gone back for more butter with the same knife, and now you're going to use the rest of that butter for the cookies, you've got a problem. But if you use fresh butter, or if you are careful, then you'll be OK.

novalis honked back 04 Dec 2025 15:22 +0000
in reply to: https://clacks.link/users/attoparsec/statuses/115661245322746088

@attoparsec @Extelec There's a lot of climatic inertia. If we take dates 3 months apart, here in NYC, the coldest part of the year is Dec 6 / March 6 (by highs) and Dec 13 / March 14 (by lows). Data from 1990-2020, by eyeball. The warmest part is about opposite that, conveniently. So starting on the equinox is way closer than centering on it would be. Of course, climates do vary; Dominus notes that the four-season model doesn't really describe where he lives as well as a ten-season model would... or would have, anyway.

novalis bonked 26 Nov 2025 21:57 +0000
original: conservancy@social.sfconservancy.org

Today Software Freedom Conservancy is launching our biggest fundraiser match challenge yet! With a whopping $211,927 from our generous matchers, every dollar you donate until January 15th 2026 will be doubled! This has been a huge year for us and we're so thankful to all the individuals who help sustain our organization.

You can become a sustainer and read more about what we've been up to here:

https://sfconservancy.org/sustainer/#YearInReview

novalis honked 25 Nov 2025 03:14 +0000

I didn't follow this story when it came out, but I'm totally baffled that, in stories about his acquittal, the New York Times didn't name David James Cleary as Soldier F. The Times is a US-based paper, which is not obligated to follow the censorship laws of the UK. Where's the spine?

novalis honked 11 Nov 2025 01:53 +0000

I don't really like using Blender, but I have to admit that its undo functionality is really solid. It makes it feel very safe to experiment.

novalis honked 05 Nov 2025 00:02 +0000

Does anyone know someone whom I could pay to make custom hoodie to my specifications?

novalis bonked 30 Oct 2025 13:23 +0000
original: nina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt

A parallel universe where the concept of a "key board", be it a piano or a typewriter keyboard, never got popular. Most people are using fretted lute / guitar input with their computers; people who mastered chords can type faster than those who cannot. Some countries prefer violin/shamisen style of input, and thus in the 40 years of computerisation their spoken languages have changed to incorporate legatos and pitch changes. The biggest coder flame war of all times is not vim vs emacs but plectrum vs bow. A few historians uncover a long-forgotten prototype of a computer controlled by percussion.

novalis honked back 27 Oct 2025 18:34 +0000
in reply to: https://honk.novalis.org/u/novalis/h/XL6RpLM4yhvxt8vQsR

I have to admit to a slight fib so that I can give credit where it's due; I actually used cool-retro-terminal instead of RetroArch (I thought about actually using RetroArch, but it looked like a hassle to get Apple emulation working, so I did the easier thing; sorry if the fonts aren't perfect).

novalis honked back 27 Oct 2025 13:36 +0000
in reply to: https://mathstodon.xyz/users/mjd/statuses/115441565181706866

@mjd A lot of insurance companies will ship it direct, eliminating the need to go pick it up. To avoid the hassle of a real therapist, there's a thing called "medication management", which is basically a pill mill; appointments are usually virtual and very, very short. Also, if Adderall doesn't click, try dextroamphetamine -- patients tend to prefer older psychiatric meds. (Or modafinil, which I recall working really, really well for sleepiness, as well as being not entirely useless for ADHD). (You probably already know this and just be wanting to share the funny story)

novalis bonked 14 Oct 2025 16:40 +0000
original: jmac@masto.nyc

Random thought: Say what you will about Peter Jackson's literalist depiction of Sauron, but he's a rare example of an genocidally evil movie villain who has won a permanent place in language and culture without becoming the least bit cool or admirable, yeah? If you compare some thing or person to Sauron, everyone understands what you mean, and no rational person will take it as a compliment.

novalis honked 10 Oct 2025 17:50 +0000

It is interesting to think of the "tech bros should study liberal arts" meme, today, as liberal arts schools like Columbia knuckle under to the Trump administration while MIT refuses to do so.

I say this not to attack the liberal arts, but to note that the theory that a certain sort of education improves one's moral judgment seems to be having a hard time these days.