sogaiu

argy-bargy

https://github.com/pyrmont/argy-bargy/blob/dc3e5b6176bb18f9123ec7ce0f663d5a673a1f66/argy-bargy.janet#L176 - config

jeep

it looks like there have been attempts to use small language models with retrieval augmented generation. here is one such effort from 2024 that seems to have had some level of success.

perhaps it's possible to train a small language model on a subset of code that does not require attribution for reuse (e.g. 0-clause bsd, mit no attribution, etc. [1]) and then to have it work with a much larger body of code (i.e. include stuff that requires attribution) via retrieval augmented generation.

the idea is not to replicate the full capabilities of what major dark boxen provide atm, but rather to see what is possible. it would be interesting to see what kinds of tasks this sort of thing could be useful for. i think at least from the legal and ethical perspectives, one might be in the clear because the parts that would require attribution would be traceable [2].

[1] i know there isn't as much of this kind of thing compared to stuff that requires attribution.

2026-04-11

Tepe Telegrams

2026-04-10

Tony Hoare (1934-2026) - Jim Miles > One final note I would like to share from these meetings with Tony is perhaps the most intriguing of what he said, but also the one he delivered with the greatest outright confidence. In a discussion about the developments of computers in the future - whether we are reaching limits of Moore's Law, whether Quantum Computers will be required to reinvigorate progress, and other rather shallow and obvious hardware talking points raised by me in an effort to spark Tony's interest - he said 'Well, of course, nothing we have even comes close to what the government has access to. They will always be years ahead of what you can imagine'. When pressed on this, in particular whether he believed such technology to be on the scale of solving the large prime factorisation that the world's cryptographic protoc

2025-12-31

Writer Ted Chiang on AI and grappling with big ideas - Avery Keatley, Scott Detrow, Patrick Jarenwattananon
ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web - Ted Chiang - version archived elsewhere as original is paywalled

In 2013, workers at a German construction company noticed something odd about their Xerox photocopier: when they made a copy of the floor plan of a house, the copy differed from the original in a subtle but significant way. In the original floor plan, each of the house’s three rooms was accompanied by a rectangle specifying its area: the rooms were 14.13, 21.11, and 17.42 square metres, respectively. However, in the photocopy, all three

(defmacro each-reverse [identifier list & body]
  (with-syms [$i $list]
    ~(let [,$list ,list]
      (var ,$i (,dec (,length ,$list)))
      (while (>= ,$i 0)
        (def ,identifier (in ,$list ,$i))
        ,;body
        (-- ,$i)))))

steps

choose a release https://alpinelinux.org/releases/ -> 3.23.3

download iso and checksum from https://alpinelinux.org/downloads/

wget https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.23/releases/x86_64/alpine-standard-3.23.3-x86_64.iso
wget https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.23/releases/x86_64/alpine-standard-3.23.3-x86_64.iso.sha256

This talk was given by Gregor Kiczales of Xerox PARC at OOPSLA ’94, 10/26/94. © 1994, University Video Communications. A transcript, with point- and-click retrieval of the slides, is available at http:/www.xerox.com/PARC/spl/eca/oi/gregor-invite/gregor- transcript.html

Why are black boxes so hard to reuse?

I think our field will go through a revolution. We will fundamentally change the way we think about and use abstraction in the engineering of software.

The goal of this talk is to summarize the need for and the basic nature of this abstraction framework.

The change is not new problems or new systems, but a new way of thinking about existing problems and existing systems.

	# create file
	$ echo hello > fun.txt

	# symmetric encryption
	$ gpg --verbose --verbose --pinentry-mode loopback --symmetric fun.txt
	gpg: enabled compatibility flags:
	gpg: using cipher AES256.CFB
	gpg: writing to 'fun.txt.gpg'

	# decryption

	$ janet
	Janet 1.41.3-dev-8f446736 linux/x64/gcc - '(doc)' for help
	repl:1:> (tabseq [i :in [:a :b]] i i)
	@{:a :a :b :b}
	repl:2:> (defn loop [&] nil)
	<function loop>
	repl:3:> (tabseq [i :in [:a :b]] i i)
	repl:3:9: compile error: unknown symbol i

	# reference: https://ianthehenry.com/posts/janet-game/the-problem-with-macros/