Mike Booth
@mechfish.bsky.social
Wrangler of computers. Fond of bakeries. Slowly making progress on the giant reading list. I mostly lurk here on Bluesky but maybe someday I’ll be inspired.
Someday I might compose the essay, sweating blood as i write, to explain to myself why I never post anymore. Then perhaps I’ll either publish that and keep publishing, or I’ll quietly set fire to it and start publishing something else.
November 27, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Someday I might compose the essay, sweating blood as i write, to explain to myself why I never post anymore. Then perhaps I’ll either publish that and keep publishing, or I’ll quietly set fire to it and start publishing something else.
Reposted by Mike Booth
Reposted by Mike Booth
I don't need to have the entirety of humanity's collective trauma beamed directly into my eyes every day - I just need a moderately sized timeline of diverse voices who will alert me to danger and an audience that likes pictures of little robots and tolerates my rambling opinions.
November 22, 2024 at 1:30 PM
I don't need to have the entirety of humanity's collective trauma beamed directly into my eyes every day - I just need a moderately sized timeline of diverse voices who will alert me to danger and an audience that likes pictures of little robots and tolerates my rambling opinions.
Reposted by Mike Booth
The main lesson I’ve learned is that the streaming era needs social objects to structure navigating endless choices and make it fun (your podcast is a particularly successful one!) and that the streaming platforms have less than zero interest in providing them
November 1, 2024 at 5:51 PM
The main lesson I’ve learned is that the streaming era needs social objects to structure navigating endless choices and make it fun (your podcast is a particularly successful one!) and that the streaming platforms have less than zero interest in providing them
it’s now almost 25 years since i was first asked to test an “AI algorithm” for scraping arbitrary websites that turned out to be powered by a hidden grad student who would “debug” every demo until it worked.
Mechanical Turk. Oldest trick in the book.
Mechanical Turk. Oldest trick in the book.
I knew it!
April 2, 2024 at 5:34 PM
it’s now almost 25 years since i was first asked to test an “AI algorithm” for scraping arbitrary websites that turned out to be powered by a hidden grad student who would “debug” every demo until it worked.
Mechanical Turk. Oldest trick in the book.
Mechanical Turk. Oldest trick in the book.
Reposted by Mike Booth
Every publishing discourse can be summed up by:
- Thing is terrible
- So are all the other Things
- Wow, why did we get into publishing again
- Please just buy my fucking book, I don't care where
- *heavy drinking*
- Thing is terrible
- So are all the other Things
- Wow, why did we get into publishing again
- Please just buy my fucking book, I don't care where
- *heavy drinking*
March 24, 2024 at 3:55 PM
Every publishing discourse can be summed up by:
- Thing is terrible
- So are all the other Things
- Wow, why did we get into publishing again
- Please just buy my fucking book, I don't care where
- *heavy drinking*
- Thing is terrible
- So are all the other Things
- Wow, why did we get into publishing again
- Please just buy my fucking book, I don't care where
- *heavy drinking*
Reposted by Mike Booth
Bluesky could use a feature that shields you from the fourth, fifth and so on reps of a repost, especially one you've already reposted yourself. Or just show every third one, or something to make each day less of a procession of "That One Again."
March 16, 2024 at 3:06 PM
Bluesky could use a feature that shields you from the fourth, fifth and so on reps of a repost, especially one you've already reposted yourself. Or just show every third one, or something to make each day less of a procession of "That One Again."
Reposted by Mike Booth
"Even today, in mathematics or physics, we can observe an asymmetry in the treatment of women and men in academia.
And as Emmy Noether taught us, whenever a symmetry is broken, that means something is being lost."
that's an amazing piece of writing with a gut-wrenching conclusion
And as Emmy Noether taught us, whenever a symmetry is broken, that means something is being lost."
that's an amazing piece of writing with a gut-wrenching conclusion
March 13, 2024 at 11:20 PM
Reposted by Mike Booth
Reposted by Mike Booth
Ryan Gosling god BLESS you for this Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend tribute
March 11, 2024 at 1:47 AM
Ryan Gosling god BLESS you for this Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend tribute
Reposted by Mike Booth
All of Bret's ancient warfare essays are great, and I'd love it if there were a wargame design that properly modeled any of it.
For example, I've yet to run into an ancient wargame design that clearly emphasizes the hastati/principes swap in battles, though it was central to Roman success.
For example, I've yet to run into an ancient wargame design that clearly emphasizes the hastati/principes swap in battles, though it was central to Roman success.
I realize I forgot to post out last week's blog post!
So...Last week on the blog! Continuing our discussion of how to beat a Macedonian phalanx, we looked at some of the advantages the legion has beyond the tactical: operational and strategic 'edges:' acoup.blog/2024/02/16/c...
So...Last week on the blog! Continuing our discussion of how to beat a Macedonian phalanx, we looked at some of the advantages the legion has beyond the tactical: operational and strategic 'edges:' acoup.blog/2024/02/16/c...
Collections: Phalanx’s Twilight, Legion’s Triumph, Part IIb: Handfuls of Maniples
This is the second part of the second part of the second part of our four part look at the great third and second century BC contest between the Romans and the heirs of Alexander, asking the questi…
acoup.blog
February 22, 2024 at 2:38 PM
All of Bret's ancient warfare essays are great, and I'd love it if there were a wargame design that properly modeled any of it.
For example, I've yet to run into an ancient wargame design that clearly emphasizes the hastati/principes swap in battles, though it was central to Roman success.
For example, I've yet to run into an ancient wargame design that clearly emphasizes the hastati/principes swap in battles, though it was central to Roman success.
Reposted by Mike Booth
I recently made a comic complaining that NASA refuses to listen to my good ideas for improving the Solar System (xkcd.com/2750).
To my delight, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate has sent me an actual expert panel evaluation of my “flatten the planets” proposal! Sadly, they decided not to fund it.
To my delight, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate has sent me an actual expert panel evaluation of my “flatten the planets” proposal! Sadly, they decided not to fund it.
February 22, 2024 at 2:45 PM
I recently made a comic complaining that NASA refuses to listen to my good ideas for improving the Solar System (xkcd.com/2750).
To my delight, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate has sent me an actual expert panel evaluation of my “flatten the planets” proposal! Sadly, they decided not to fund it.
To my delight, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate has sent me an actual expert panel evaluation of my “flatten the planets” proposal! Sadly, they decided not to fund it.
Reposted by Mike Booth
Tech bros *hate* RSS because it is a way for information to go directly between authors and audience without them being able to extract rents in between.
“RSS is dead, he repeats endlessly throughout the book.”
There is something about RSS that really bugs the tech bros.
There is something about RSS that really bugs the tech bros.
February 7, 2024 at 9:03 PM
Tech bros *hate* RSS because it is a way for information to go directly between authors and audience without them being able to extract rents in between.
Reposted by Mike Booth
93% of paint splatters are valid perl programs
93% of Paint Splatters are Valid Perl Programs | Colin McMillen
TLDR: read the paper and view the gallery of pretty Perl programs. In this paper, we aim to answer a long-standing open problem in the programming languages community: is it possible to smear paint on...
www.mcmillen.dev
January 24, 2024 at 4:22 AM
93% of paint splatters are valid perl programs
Reposted by Mike Booth
what our market research indicates is that there are times when houseflies are so annoying that one is legitimately in the market for burning one's house and starting over in antarctica, the only continent where these flies do not exist
www.qwantz.com/index.php?co...
www.qwantz.com/index.php?co...
October 30, 2023 at 12:50 PM
what our market research indicates is that there are times when houseflies are so annoying that one is legitimately in the market for burning one's house and starting over in antarctica, the only continent where these flies do not exist
www.qwantz.com/index.php?co...
www.qwantz.com/index.php?co...