@codinghorror someone needs to get ahold of that tightly
Software developer in Austin and erstwhile electronic musician https://nertzy.com Author of the Ruby gems pg_search and with_model Formerly: Olin College ('06, Partner), Spiceworks, Pivotal Labs
@codinghorror someone needs to get ahold of that tightly
Checking out the new browser landscape: https://blog.nertzy.com/2025/07/02/checking-out-the-new-browser.html
I like a coffee shop that plays classic rave music.
At Civil Goat Coffee in Austin, TX.
🎵 LFO - “To the Limit (Peel Session)” https://www.civilgoat.com/
Random electronics history: a common logic primitive in electronics is the Schmitt trigger, a comparator with hysteresis: rather than switch between logic low/high at the same threshold in both directions, the threshold for low-to-high transition is higher than that of the high-to-low transition. This is nice for cleaning up noisy inputs, among other things.
Why's it called a Schmitt trigger though?
Predictably, it was invented by grad student Otto Schmitt in 1934, while he was studying the electrical properties of squid nerves. He published it in his PhD dissertation as a "thermionic trigger", which let's be honest is a much cooler name and sounds like a component of a doomsday device.
He also made significant contributions to the invention of the differential amplifier, again as part of studying neurobiology.
It's a nice sort of immortality, to give your name to a fundamental and ubiquitous piece of circuitry. That you invented while pursuing a completely unrelated field.
(also I'm going to assume that "invented by" is likely an oversimplification, and that many of these ideas were in the zeitgeist of the time, but history likes simple stories where ideas spring fully formed in the mind of a single genius)
This silly game is more fun than I expected. I’m a big Picross/nonogram fan. https://pixelogic.app/every-5x5-nonogram
🌮
Downloading the new Season 2 games for my Playdate and experiencing an unexpected color coincidence. https://play.date
Wow, https://jj-vcs.github.io/jj/latest/ is an impressive tool for going beyond Git for version control. I’m going to try to incorporate it into my daily workflow right away.
I’m enjoying listening to a conversation between two of my old colleagues from my New York days about building projects in today’s world.
Listen to the first episode of the new More Makers podcast by Steve Berry at Thought Merchants, interviewing Sam Coward about his Traffi project monitoring a dangerous New York City intersection with AI. https://open.spotify.com/episode/7zLy1BrEpK7qQivhzoxKQa?si=403f4d7300e542d0
@quinn Journalism not looking too hot when measured by land area.
Just went to my first EFF-Austin meetup. @manton spoke about micro.blog and we all had a lot of great conversations about social networks past, present, and future.
@marci Sounds good to me!
@surf I’m waiting too… Saw the presentation at SXSW Fediverse House and I’m excited!
@foone Ooh that one came pre-installed on my very first computer as a kid, a 486DX. Alongside demos of Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure and Wolfenstein 3D.
Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing.
I grew up in Oklahoma City, and felt the blast that day from 15 miles away at my middle school.
On the 10th anniversary, in 2005, I wrote a short article about my personal experience. https://blog.nertzy.com/2005/04/19/ten-years-ago.html
@hotdogsladies Oh yeah I saw that on Slashdot.
@marcoarment Weird to see an old The Magazine graphic showing up on the Drudge Report 🧐
@hotdogsladies I bet Leland did it.
Yndling at International Nights at Rivian Park / SXSW 2025
The great Cory Doctorow speaking truth here at the Fediverse House at SXSW.
“When life gives you SARS, make sarsaparilla” https://pluralistic.net