i have a dnd character who is a wizard and studies thaumatology, literally "study of miracles". she's into writing spells and tearing apart how magic works. but unlike a lot of fantasy like "oh you must read the works of the elders who had a deep connection with magic" she's very much a scientist about it, doing experiments and publishing papers
when she explains what she does to people, she often gets questions like, what specific kinds of things is she trying to figure out. her go-to answer is that a huge unsolved mystery in her field is why everything in magic seems to happen in multiples of six seconds. it's this constant throughout different schools of magic, independently discovered by spellcrafters from different cultures... it seems fundamental, but why? what's special about six seconds?
of course, the dnd rules state that six seconds is the length of a combat round, but she doesn't know that
if anybody knows @eve_elle and has communications with her outside mastodon I hope shes doing alright !
According to the Many Worlds Theory, there are parallel dimensions where the wave particle collapse induces another timeline for each observed event. Which means there's at least one other parallel dimension in which MY BRAND NEW TAPE MEASURE DIDN'T DISAPPEAR AGAIN!
It's a conspiracy😭
These people took the floppy controller used in the BBC Micro, an Intel 8271, and set about finding out how it worked. In the course of that, they discovered it's actually a dual core processor, with over 3x the transistor count of a 6502.
Then they dumped the ROM by visual inspection of the micrographs of a decapped 8271, and reverse engineered the instruction set, with a full disassembly available.
h a r d c o r e
https://scarybeastsecurity.blogspot.com/2020/11/reverse-engineering-forgotten-1970s.html
Competing software aesthetics within the "open source" umbrella:
- lean, mean, a joy to use. the dream.
- hosted on sourceforge, hasn't updated in 11 years, except to upgrade Boost every few months.
- "customizability", ie preferences screen a giant hell-salad of every conceivable option.
- zero documentation. codebase totally uncommented. are you cool enough to use this? no.
- completely bespoke UI system that manages to work OK even if it sticks out on your desktop and kinda breaks ur brain.
Call to get prisoner released
Rebel Elder and political prisoner #RussellShoatz aka #MaroonShoatz is 77, has colon cancer and just tested positive for covid-19. He's in a cubicle in a prison gym, being denied medication and surgery for his cancer and is in dire need of release. Call PA Gov. Wolf and demand Maroon's release today: +1 717 787 2500
Transitioning in mid-life
alt: @confusedcharlot@kolektiva.social
https://confusedcharlotte.tumblr.com
http://quietcarlota.tumblr.com (backup)
https://www.pillowfort.io/charlotte
confusedcharlotte#1650
confusedcharlot@twitter
#nobot