Hillel is on Social Media Break

@hillelwayne.com

Formal methods, software history, chocolatiering. DMs open and happy to meet up in Chicago. Currently writing *Logic for Programmers* (out July-ish) Newsletter: https://buttondown.email/hillelwayne/

The units have been defined here so that precise conversion to sp is efficient
on a wide variety of machines. In order to achieve this, TEX’s “pt” has been
made slightly larger than the official printer’s point, which was defined to equal exactly
.013837 in by the American Typefounders Association in 1886 [cf. National Bureau of
Standards Circular 570 (1956)]. In fact, one classical point is exactly .99999999 pt, so
the “error” is essentially one part in 108. This is more than two orders of magnitude
less than the amount by which the inch itself changed during 1959, when it shrank to
2.54 cm from its former value of (1/0.3937) cm; so there is no point in worrying about
the difference. The new definition 72.27 pt = 1 in is not only better for calculation, it is
also easier to remember.

The printed words "only type" at 10x magnification. It's from a .ttf font so the type looks all smudgy

"An Austrian "hot dog" can use a hollowed-out baguette as the bread." — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dog

A proof printing of Logic for Programmers

You're worth $6 million in Illinois.
Your estate tax bill? $456,071.

Most people I talk to have no idea Illinois has an estate tax.
Or that it kicks in at $4 million.
Not $15 million like the federal exemption.
$4 million.

The section at URL https://codemarine.ai/research/#cost-of-bugs

Wordcount of each of the chapters (+ appendices + some mixins) showing that the wordcount of the book is now at 50,365

Tweet from 2018 saying

You want to stay relevant as a software developer for the next 10 years?

These are 3 major things you should focus on:

- GraphQL.
- Web Assembly.
- Web Components.

You will most likely end up using it so no better time to start learning it
than today!You want to stay relevant as a software developer for the next 10 years?

These are 3 major things you should focus on:

- GraphQL.
- Web Assembly.
- Web Components.

You will most likely end up using it so no better time to start learning it
than today!

$Given the previous SELECT t1.x etc query, the outer join version is {(t1.x, t2.y) for (t1, t2) in table1 x table2: 1. join_clause 2. where_clause } | {(t1.x, null) for (t1, t2) in table1 x {NULL}: 1. all t2 in table2: 1. !join_clause 2. where_clause } Where NULL is a special type that has all of table2’s keys but returns null for all of them. Notice that the first set comprehension is identical to the inner join. In the second set comprehension, the filter clause changes from join_clause && where_clause to (all t2: !join_clause(t2)) && where_clause. This is important because it means a left join can introduce an all quantifier to our query. Say we want a list of all employees who have never been a manager. The query, as a set comprehension, would be {e in employees: all dm: dm.e_id != e.id} We can’t use this quantifier as-is in SQL, but we can rewrite the comprehension into a left join form! # logic {e for (e, dm) in employees x dep_managers: 1. dm.e_id == e.id 2. dm.id == NULL } | {e for (e, dm) in employees x {NULL}: 1. all dm in dep_managers: 1. !(dm.e_id == e.id) 2. dm.id == NULL }$

Venn diagrams of join tables, from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13997365/sql-joins-as-venn-diagram

New subsriber: youreapieceofshit at hillel dot wayne

All my cool telescope mappings, like "local marks" and "everything in my vimrc folder"

The Abalone shell has shells of other shellfish living on its shell

A: "AI helped me diagnose my son!"
B: "So would common sense"
A: "No there's context here"
B: "How dare you"

Cognitive ease at a cost: LLMs reduce mental effort but compromise depth in student scientific inquiry

Use ScienceDirect AI!

Red and blue stage lights, they were yellow for EVERY OTHER TALK. Changing in time to the synthwave that's also playing

Systemland, "simple is the new black", etc.

"I have a proof that P != NP and have verified the proof in Coq"

(From https://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/2025/04/p-v-np-papers-galore.html?m=1)

An excel implementation of game of life. A glider is on the left in green cells, and the next stage is on the right. Formula at top of picture. Don't ask me how it works, I wrote this years ago

LfP v0.9. Bog standard latex chapter title header, table with alternating shades

mymax([1, 2, 3]) = 3
mymax([4, 2, 2]) = 4
mymax([1, 1, 1]) = 1
mymax([8, 0, 9]) = 9
mymax([-1, -2, -3]) = -1

mymax([x, y, z]) = -443x + 1148y + -617z + 0xy + 129xz + -34yz + -182

Balatro gold stake black deck violet vessel cleared with no hands and zero discards, with the weirdest set of jonklers

"I'll stick to the "licensing" definition because it at least has real practical implications."

Fermat's Library quoting Gauss as saying "In math there are no controversies", which is hilariously wrong

A chart showing all of the ways that GOTO can transfer into or out of a DO loop. Always into, never out.

4.3.4. Restriction. Since labels are inherently local, no go to statement can lead from outside into a block. A go to statement may, however, lead from outside into a compound statement.

Bowl of rice and crispy salmon skins mmmmmm

$---- MODULE TraceSample ---- EXTENDS TLC, TLCExt, Sequences, Json, Sample \* Replace with name of spec to trace ASSUME /\ TLCSet(1, <<>>) /\ TLCSet(2, <<>>) Record == /\ LET old_trace == TLCGet(1) IN /\ Len(old_trace) > Len(Trace) => /\ TLCSet(2, Append(TLCGet(2), old_trace)) /\ TLCSet(1, Trace) Final == /\ JsonSerialize("test-" \o ToString(JavaTime) \o ".json", Append(TLCGet(2), TLCGet(1)) ) ====$