Now I want to read a sci-fi novel set in the near future about two programmers who need to learn non-vibe-coding to write something under the radar of the AIs (plural!) watching their every move online.

To save the world.
In rust.

And they're fighting over vi vs emacs.

And it will have to be on an OpenBSD machine, since every performance setting is disabled because of rowhammer et alter.

Something like the Morse stuff in Cryptonomicon?

#AI #nealstephenson #cryptonomicon #vibecoding #vi #openbsd #bsd
#writingprompt #rust #rustlang

@Kerplunk @dw_innovation
#Cryptonomicon is a book worth reading, for several reasons including amusement, and has an interesting appendix on a card game.

Try not to mention the #Crocodile

#SciFi #NealStephenson #Encryption

I'm about halfway through reading #Cryptonomicon, and I'm amazed at the predictions that #NealStephenson had about cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and the organized crime involvement. (They haven't fully materialized yet in the book, but it's definitely pointing in that direction.) Its also made me do some historical reading u-boats and WW2 gold that I always thought were just conspiracy theories. #books #reading #history

I've been reading #Cryptonomicon, and I genuinely have no idea how Neal Stephenson does it. He'll go on these tangents that are apropos of nothing, but they are so incredibly well written that they're delightful to read even though it is basically pointless filler. The case of this I read last night was the Van Eck phreaking of Tom Howard's laptop. His friends were spying on his screen without his knowledge to win a bet, and he happened to be writing a long winded and absurdly hilarious story to the editor of Penthouse magazine. #literature #author #books

@beka_valentine I picture:

#TheBaroqueCycle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle

Especially the #TechnologickalCollege in

#TheSystemOfTheWorld

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_System_of_the_World_(novel)

By #NealStephenson in addition to his handling of #Turing in his

#Cryptonomicon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon

We still use the purely theoretical #TuringMachine as a base measure of a computional system.

So often it takes a concentration of resources, enabling an inventor to try and fail, over and over again, often at great expense.

@aj

DETAILS:

Phase 1: After taking vows of celibacy and abstinence and forgoing all of our material possessions for homespun robes, we (viz. appended resumes) will move into a modest complex of scavenged refrigerator boxes in the central Gobi Desert, where real estate is so cheap that we are actually being paid to occupy it, thereby enhancing shareholder value even before we have actually done anything. On a daily ration consisting of a handful of uncooked rice and a ladleful of water, we will [begin to do stuff].

Phase 2, 3, 4, . . . , n - 1: We will [do more stuff, steadily enhancing shareholder value in the process] unless [the earth is struck by an asteroid a thousand miles in diameter, in which case certain assumptions will have to be readjusted; refer to Spreadsheets 397-413].

Phase n: Before the ink on our Nobel Prize certificates is dry, we will confiscate the property of our competitors, including anyone foolish enough to have invested in their pathetic companies. We will sell all of these people into slavery. All proceeds will be redistributed among our shareholders, who will hardly notice, since Spreadsheet 265 demonstrates that, by this time, the company will be larger than the British Empire at its zenith.

SPREADSHEETS: [Pages and pages of numbers in tiny print, conveniently summarized by graphs that all seem to be exponential curves screaming heavenward, albeit with enough pseudo-random noise in them to lend plausibility].

RESUMES: Just recall the opening reel of The Magnificent Seven and you won’t have to bother with this part; you should crawl to us on hands and knees and beg us for the privilege of paying our salaries.

(2/2)

#Funny #Startups #BusinessPlan #Cryptonomicon

@aj The business plan from Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon:

MISSION: At [name of company] it is our conviction that [to do the stuff we want to do] and to increase shareholder value are not merely complementary activities—they are inextricably linked.

PURPOSE: To increase shareholder value by [doing stuff]

EXTREMELY SERIOUS WARNING (printed on a separate page, in red letters on a yellow background): Unless you are as smart as Johann Karl Friedrich Gauss, savvy as a half-blind Calcutta bootblack, tough as General William Tecumseh Sherman, rich as the Queen of England, emotionally resilient as a Red Sox fan, and as generally able to take care of yourself as the average nuclear missile submarine commander, you should never have been allowed near this document. Please dispose of it as you would any piece of high-level radioactive waste and then arrange with a qualified surgeon to amputate your arms at the elbows and gouge your eyes from their sockets. This warning is necessary because once, a hundred years ago, a little old lady in Kentucky put a hundred dollars into a dry goods company which went belly-up and only returned her ninety-nine dollars. Ever since then the government has been on our asses. If you ignore this warning, read on at your peril—you are dead certain to lose everything you’ve got and live out your final decades beating back waves of termites in a Mississippi Delta leper colony.

Still reading? Great. Now that we’ve scared off the lightweights, let’s get down to business.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: We will raise [some money], then [do some stuff] and increase shareholder value. Want details? Read on.

INTRODUCTION: [This trend], which everyone knows about, and [that trend], which is so incredibly arcane that you probably didn’t know about it until just now, and [this other trend over here] which might seem, at first blush, to be completely unrelated, when all taken together, lead us to the (proprietary, secret, heavily patented, trademarked, and NDAed) insight that we could increase shareholder value by [doing stuff]. We will need $ [a large number] and after [not too long] we will be able to realize an increase in value to $ [an even larger number], unless [hell freezes over in midsummer].

(1/2)

#Funny #Startups #BusinessPlan #Cryptonomicon

F.U.M.

In Neal Stephenson’s epic sci-fi novel “Cryptonomicon”, we read of a character in one of the modern timelines who is a techie and a new business owner. This guy has a running gag where he has an app he wrote that sits in his PC’s toolbar that checks his bank accounts and his investments and calculates how long it’ll take until he makes “Fuck You Money”. It’s a dollar amount at which he’ll feel free enough that, if someone were to tell him no or otherwise crimp his style, he could say, “fuck you” and continue on with his life without damage. He keeps checking it throughout the story.

That’s a great running gag.

But now we’ve seen exactly what “Fuck You Money” looks and acts like. It’s ugly, cruel, and dangerous. Absolutely unhinged. Inhuman.

The joke’s not funny anymore.

#Cryptonomicon #monsters #sciFi #wealth

from The #Cryptonomicon (p. 25)

Tell me what this sounds like to you. Passage from 2000.

“. . . Ordo into streaming mode where it will decrypt the files just long enough for him to read them and then, when he closes the windows, expunge the plaintext from the computer’s memory and from its hard drive.”

#TAILS #Amnesiac #RAM #AntiForensic
#NealStevenson

@fstopnomad
It isn't pretty, is it.
(There's something about it in #Cryptonomicon IIRC)

I did enjoy visiting it.

The Tech Barons have a blueprint drawn in crayon. They have not thought any of this through. By Dave Karpf https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/the-tech-barons-have-a-blueprint

«The reason we have to take Balaji’s musings seriously at all is that they provide a window into what Elon Musk and the DOGEkiddies are trying to accomplish. The tech barons think they should be allowed to opt out society. They do not know what the administrative state does. They do not care to find out».

#politics #cryptonomicon #musk #uspol

#randomthoughts
- #gaming - trying to play #starcitizen is how you learn #patience and #understanding.
- #elitedangerous is an adequate substitute, but after 3k+ hours, its hard to be engrossed anymore.
- #sundayscaries obsoleted by last week's distraction-free work-shopping with my team as we build out our capability and maturity. #anxiety is now excitement. I actually did 5 hours of work today in preparation for the coming week, by choice. Its probably been 10+ years since I chose that end of the work/life balance scale on a Sunday.
- peppermint and chamomile #tea keeps the heart, stomach, and mind #calm
- #Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson is more enjoyable than #SnowCrash, probably due to the history and non-apocalyptic relatability.

@spmatich … (another/probably too many)

… Because although it is an Enigma to most, it is fascinating to some, and ¡useful!

There's a lot about it in #Cryptonomicon , fiction by Neal Stephenson.

@MissConstrue @noelreports

There's a bit about it in #Cryptonomicon (an SF novel of wide scope by Neal Stephenson) - anyone can cut undersea cables, but once one State starts doing it, others will follow.

So back in the relatively sane times, they didn't.

Even further back, into I suppose Hornblower times, letters of marque and reprisal might be issued to privateer ships by one State, to damage the trade of another.

@CiaraNi
Inter-Library Loan.
There's a bit about it in #Cryptonomicon , a novel by #NealStephenson

Neal Stephenson – Announcing Polostan
https://nealstephenson.com/news/2024/04/25/announcing-polostan,-on-sale-october-15,-2024/
#ycombinator #Neal_Stephenson #SEVENEVES #Reamde #Anathem #Baroque_Cycle #Quicksilver #Cryptonomicon #The_Diamond_Age #Snow_Crash #Subutai #Magic_Leap

2/27/24 — Open 6-9p. Mask recommended. No open drinks, please.

I've wanted to read this guy's books since they were new. Sadly, I haven't much time to read. They're on my endless TBR. The last books I read were in Dec. '19, bus-bound due to major car work. "A Princess of Mars" & "Treasure Island" got me through. I really want to keep this 1st/1st gem, but it's not to be.

#BonnettsBooks #DaytonOhio #BrickAndMortar #UsedBookStore #NealStephenson #Cryptonomicon #BookSellerLife
@bookstodon

Randomizing/rotating which flavor cat food can to open... "the vicar's wife has become sloppy, and forgotten to close her eyes when she takes the balls out of the bingo machine" #CryptoNomicon

O hivemind , does anyone have their copy of #cryptonomicon handy or remember offhand Enoch Root’s explanation of techne?

#cryptonomicon hit me in profound ways. I just did a state of awareness change recently, and think I will re listen to it. Being introduced to the #fediverse has also made me understand a whole different level of my own self I had not previously been able to speak about outloud, I did not have the mental vocabulary. I have a feeling it will be like watching a show in color that was previously in black and white.