"The Advantages of a Dragon."

Lately, I found myself unable to resist the temptation to translate this very pertinent classic of science fiction to English. If you, reader, know of a better translation, do not hesitate to write in. Meanwhile, here goes: “The Star Diaries of Ijon Tichy: The Advantages of a Dragon.” Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006). Until now, I’ve said […]

Regarding VPNism.

In the spam trap today, I turned up this piece of “fan mail”: Good afternoon there, I became even more concerned about our future after reading your http://www.loper-os.org/?p=1299 page. Our government continues to use surveillance technologies to collect sensitive data and then there’s a real risk that this data can be leaked. Did you know […]

The Fossil Vault.

I have recently built two new WWW mirrors containing certain publicly-available software: 1. Historic Gentoo Distfiles. I have been using Gentoo for nearly all Linux-related work since 2007. It was “the lesser of evils”: to my knowledge, no other Linux variant ever offered a comparable level of rodenticidal control, while at the same time providing […]

TMSR North Ameristan Rack Prospectus: Second, Revised Draft.

Note: this the second, revised draft of the prospectus, incorporating feedback from prospective customers. The previous draft can be seen here. I have provisioned a machine colocation rack for the exclusive use of The Most Serene Republic, as represented by the WoT L1 and L2. If you, reader, are not in this roster, you may […]

TMSR North Ameristan Rack Prospectus: Initial Draft.

Edit (27 Oct 2019) : This document is supplanted by the second draft of the prospectus. I have provisioned a machine colocation rack for the exclusive use of The Most Serene Republic, as represented by the WoT L1 and L2. If you, reader, are not in this roster, you may safely skip this article.

An Inexpensive Machine Park, of Yet-Indeterminate Quality.

Oct. 16 edit: included name of the vendor being evaluated. Today I had occasion to lease some local rack space in my town. Currently I will not mention the vendor by name here, as I do not yet know the quality of the service, but if it proves satisfactory, will reference the vendor in an […]

Posted in: Bitcoin, Cold Air, Friends, Hardware, NonLoper, Photo by Stanislav No Comments

"Sometimes, at night, I dream about the boat."

Below is an entirely unofficial translation of “Иногда ночью мне снится лодка”, by Alexander Pokrovskiy — an old sailor-turned-memoirist, AFAIK entirely unknown in the English reich. On some nights, I dream about the boat. It is underway, beneath the water. I dream about it after I’ve had a very tiring day. The dream is always […]

25 Years of Loud, Expensive Space Heaters.

A half-written draft of this piece has been living on my HDD for nearly half a year. Recent discussions re: the subject of “aging and death of PC irons” prompted me to dust it off and quickly post. Regularly-scheduled programming will resume shortly… “The tools, the means and the methods disappear under the overwhelming dead […]

Lost Technology: The PQ3QI-01 Sunlight-Readable Display.

In the last quarter of the previous year, I got hold of a virginal (sealed OEM-crate) PQ3QI-01 sunlight-viewable LCD panel (and, after several unsuccessful attempts — an old box where it fits.) These marvels are long out of print but apparently still available, somehow, from the Chinese, at around 100 $ per. If the backlight […]

Posted in: Hardware, NonLoper, Photo by Stanislav 1 Comment

“Finite Field Arithmetic” Regrind into Keccak-V Format.

The long-promised Keccak-V regrind of the current FFA codebase appears below: Title VPatch Seal “Chapter 1: Genesis.” ffa_ch1_genesis.kv.vpatch ffa_ch1_genesis.kv.vpatch.asciilifeform.sig “Chapter 2: Logical and Bitwise Operations.” ffa_ch2_logicals.kv.vpatch ffa_ch2_logicals.kv.vpatch.asciilifeform.sig “Chapter 3: Shifts.” ffa_ch3_shifts.kv.vpatch ffa_ch3_shifts.kv.vpatch.asciilifeform.sig “Chapter 4: Interlude: FFACalc.” ffa_ch4_ffacalc.kv.vpatch ffa_ch4_ffacalc.kv.vpatch.asciilifeform.sig “Chapter 5: “Egyptological” Multiplication and Division.” ffa_ch5_egypt.kv.vpatch ffa_ch5_egypt.kv.vpatch.asciilifeform.sig Chapter 6: “Geological” RSA. ffa_ch6_simplest_rsa.kv.vpatch ffa_ch6_simplest_rsa.kv.vpatch.asciilifeform.sig Chapter 7: “Turbo […]