Paper Tape Is All You Need – Training a Transformer on a 1976 Minicomputer
A single-layer, single-head transformer written in PDP-11 assembly language. This project is the spiritual successor of Xortran, a neural network that learns XOR with backpropagation in Fortran IV on the IBM 1130 (1965) and PDP-11/20 (1970). The natural next step was to see if those machines could successfully train a small transformer in an acceptable […]
Comprehensive C++ Hashmap Benchmarks (2022)
It’s been over 3 years since I’ve spent considerable time finding the best C++ hashmap. After several requests I finally gave in and redid the benchmark with state of C++ hashmaps as of August 2022. This took much more work than I initially anticipated, mostly due to the fact that benchmarks take a looong time, […]
Antimatter has been transported for the first time
Scientists successfully transported 92 antiprotons in a truck around CERN, Europe’s particle physics laboratory, using specialized bottles which prevent contact with matter.Credit: CERN Antimatter is matter’s equal and opposite. If the two meet, they annihilate each other, turning entirely into energy. This makes it incredibly difficult to store or move antimatter. On 24 March, a […]
The 667MHz Machine
Disclaimer: I wrote this on a basic text editor which has spell and grammar check, presumably powered by some sort of AI/LLM tech. The ramblings, and run-on sentences, are all mine. Every generation eventually earns the right to get overly nostalgic about their time. As a kid, I used to read tales of homebrew computing […]
VR Is Not Dead
As news of Meta shutting down Horizon Worlds, its virtual reality social platform, started to spread, commentators rushed to declare VR technology dead. They are wrong. Five years ago, the future looked promising for VR technology. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in October 2021 that the company would change its name to Meta and focus […]
Earthquake scientists reveal how overplowing weakens soil at experimental farm
A plot of experimental land at Joe Collins’ Field near Harper Adams University, where University of Washington researchers travelled to collaborate on an agroseismology experiment examining the impact of tilling on soil moisture. Photo: Marine Denolle/University of Washington Researchers (from left to right) Ethan Williams, Joe Collins, Simon Jeffrey lay the fiber optic cable just […]
Thoughts on Slowing the Fuck Down
2026-03-25 The turtle’s face is me looking at our industry It’s been about a year since coding agents appeared on the scene that could actually build you full projects. There were precursors like Aider and early Cursor, but they were more assistant than agent. The new generation is enticing, and a lot of us have […]
Local LLM by Ente
LLMs are too important to be left to big tech. There is a gap between frontier models and models that can run on your device, but local models improve each day, and once they cross a certain capability threshold, they will be good enough for most purposes; and will come with full privacy and control. […]
.apks are just .zips; semi-legally hacking software for orphaned hardware [video]
C++26: A User-Friednly assert() macro
C++26 is bringing some long-overdue changes to assert(). But why are those changes needed? And when do we actually use assert, anyway? At its core, assert() exists to validate runtime conditions. If the given expression evaluates to false, the program aborts. I’m almost certain you’ve used it before — at work, in personal projects, or […]