PoissonDistribution

Creating is fun because I can control the outcome; watching sports is fun because I cannot.

[LaurieWired @lauriewired]

There’s a famous Usenet story about a programmer (Mel) who refused higher level abstractions.

It was the late 1950s, and even in that era, Mel was…well today we’d call him a boomer.

Mel only wrote in raw hexadecimal. He didn’t approve of compilers, and refused to use optimizing assemblers.

"You never know where it's going to put things”, he said.

Everyone else in the company was moving on to FORTRAN, and they didn’t understand why Mel was so stubborn about using new tools. He *loved* self-modifying code.

“If a program can’t rewrite its own code”, he asked, “what good is it?”

Mel eventually left the company, and other engineers were tasked with understanding what was left.

Mel’s hand-optimized routines always beat the assemblers; but some of it looked absolutely bizarre.

One engineer took ~2 weeks to understand why there were loops with no exit condition…yet the program worked fine.

I won’t spoil all the details, you should really read it, it’s short. But it’s a fantastic piece on “what defines a real programmer?”…which is becoming increasingly relevant in this vibe-coded era.

I strive to understand computers as deeply as Mel! If we aren’t careful, we’re going to lose the “Mels” of this world to time.

That’s part of why I go so deep in my youtube videos. I hope that younger viewers are genuinely fascinated by the inner workings of our machines, instead of handing everything off to higher abstractions.

[PoissonDistribution @PoissonianDist]

@DoggiePoopEater @risx_rex @uniquemoviemom Grok said STATIC mag field. That doesn't contradict what the parent said. There are great experiments you can do with what they describe: make a copper penny almost stop falling (standard demo in phys 201 classes), levitate a frog, etc. Ask Grok to explain Maxwell's equations.

[Id rather not @Mycontrolonly]

.@nuggets

[girltalksball @girltalksball]

this eastern and western conference finals mvp height gap record might stand forever

[girltalksball @girltalksball]

like seeing the eiffel tower dunk on abraham lincoln

[PoissonDistribution @PoissonianDist]

“most of jokic's passes come from a post position”

[Lightdon @NarayanSomesh]

@maxfarmer32 @MavsHighlights How can you argue jokic has better vision though luka makes passes on the move penetrating and driving most of jokic's passes come from a post position. Luka can and does make all of the passes that jokic makes but jokic cant move like a guard and hence he can't pass like a guard

[PoissonDistribution @PoissonianDist]

People knock things like this but most of us have so much free time, especially as kids, and usually choose to do things that have far less value than this. And fact of the matter is usually people like this are successful at many things. It's not either/or for really smart folks

[Mina Kimes @minakimes]

Shrey knew those words because he’s spent countless hours studying them—not just how to spell them, but what they mean, and how they’re put together.

The @ScrippsBee is a testament to not only the power of hard work, but also a reminder of what the HUMAN brain is capable of. I’m so inspired by these kids.

[PoissonDistribution @PoissonianDist]

Reminder to @VicLombardi @RadioMoser & @BrettKaneRadio that there is no hard cap in the NBA and Vic has said he doesn't care about the future (rightly) yet the Nuggets roster is discussed like a zero-sum game. Only gripe about the show. Well, maybe there are others, too... 😉

[Sam Quinn @SamQuinnCBS]

I'll just keep reminding people that they don't need to create "room" to pay Watson. They have Bird Rights and they aren't currently hard-capped. They're just trying to avoid a huge tax bill, which is an enormously lame thing to do when you have a three-time MVP in his prime.

[PoissonDistribution @PoissonianDist]

@sradjoker @GraceJNBA NBA has seen more lawyering as the silver bullet every time the last lawyering caused unintended consequences. “the rules just need to be made to do more to address this issue” ... & it only leads to more issues & a game overall less connected to fandom/fan experience.

[Spencer @Spence0202]

That'll do it. Me personally, I think you have to get a bunch of these guys outta here.

A new coach wont get Drury and Kelly to take a shot on a 2 on 1. A new coach wont get Nelson to stop missing the broadside of an ocean. A new coach wont get Kadri to take a wide open shot on a PP last game.

A new coach wont get any of that.

And yet, we're probably getting a new coach anyway. And it'll end in epic disaster. Mark my words

[LandysKnee @landysknee]

Avs gameday vs Vegas
WCF game 4

[PoissonDistribution @PoissonianDist]

Broncos felt like they outperformed expectations; still young, still time. Avs are the biggest disappointment compared to what they should've accomplished. And while I saw the Nuggets meltdown coming from 5280' away, that core was the closest to my heart so that hurt the worst.

[Swipa @SwipaCam]

What hurt you worse, Denver?

[nba paint @nba_paint]

Shai Gill-geous-Alexander

[Vic Lombardi @VicLombardi]

We lost our dad early this morning.

Finally freed from the shackles of dementia. It’s an evil disease took the one thing he cherished most — his dignity.

Four years ago he was his normal effervescent self.

Four months ago he stopped talking.

Four weeks ago he became a prisoner of his own bed.

Four days ago he went to sleep and never woke up.

But I choose to remember Ezio Lombardi as the smartest man I’ve ever known.

The man who gladly played the foil in all of my goofy videos.

The man who came to this country with nothing but a 6th grade education and a pocket full of dreams.

I’ll always cherish this chat we had in the car several years ago on his birthday.

Rest easy, EasyE.

You will always be my hero.

[PoissonDistribution @PoissonianDist]

@TheAhmadOsman That's the title Bell Labs gave to its scientists and engineers. The greats there went by that title. Meant to be egalitarian. Besides, his name is “Karpathy”; there isn't a title that bestows the respect his name has earned.

[Derek @HumanDerek]

Where were you when they did all this, and worse, to Jokic (the defending MVP at the time) last year?
You realize that by being MIA, and letting those who filled the space cheer it on, you cemented it, right?

[𝖏𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖆 @30Betterrrrr]

Take me back to the two week period when this was a foul

[PoissonDistribution @PoissonianDist]

@CFatcock This is where I'm at as well.

[SportsNom @SportsNom]

@AndrewDBailey Fans hate flopping and complaining to refs more than all the tanking in the world but the league does not care

[Ahmad @TheAhmadOsman]

There are way too many parallels between dictatorships and closed source AI btw

Opensource AI winning is existential

No, I am not being dramatic, consider that you might be really underestimating things please