Published at: 11:09 pm - Monday September 27 2021
“The Harper.” by Vlas Mikhailovich Doroshevich (1864–1922). The Emperor Jin-La-O, may his memory be sacred to the whole braid-adorned world, was a wise and just Emperor. One day he summoned his entourage and said to them: – I would like to learn the name of the greatest villain in all of Beijing – in order […]
Published at: 05:09 pm - Wednesday September 22 2021
Lately, I found myself unable to resist the temptation to translate this very pertinent classic to English. If you, reader, know of a better translation, do not hesitate to write in. And so, here goes: “The Story of One Wetnurse.” by Vlas Mikhailovich Doroshevich (1864–1922). Emperor Jing-Li-O, nicknamed Hao-Tu-Li-Chi-San-He-Nun, which means Justice Itself, once woke […]
Published at: 10:05 am - Saturday May 02 2020
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 […]
Published at: 11:05 pm - Thursday May 30 2019
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 […]
Published at: 03:11 pm - Tuesday November 22 2011
You’ve met the Steam Lisp. Now meet vitrium flexile, the Roman Lisp: “… there was an artificer once who made a glass goblet that would not break. So he was admitted to Caesar’s presence to offer him his invention; then, on receiving the cup back from Caesar’s hands, he dashed it down on the floor. […]
Published at: 06:03 pm - Tuesday March 15 2011
In the past, I predicted that publishers will inevitably declare war on book-lending: “Let’s pretend that a Nook book (or any similar DRM’d ebook) could be lent in exactly the same manner as a physical book: to whomever you like, whenever you like, for as long as you like – with the added benefit of […]
Published at: 02:10 pm - Wednesday October 21 2009
The Nook, Barnes & Noble’s answer to Amazon’s Kindle, was greeted with fanfare for including a feature which allows users to “lend” a purchased book to anyone, with a guarantee of recovering it later. The first announcement I came across mentioned no other rules governing the lending process. My first thought was that such an […]
Published at: 09:05 pm - Sunday May 03 2009
This is a repost of my YC news comment on the subject. Lame reposting is not a capital offense (yet…) My first encyclopedia when I was young was a CD-ROM edition of Britannica. It had a superficially deep article on almost everything, and made for endless hours of joyful exploration. Then one day I found […]
Published at: 07:07 pm - Sunday July 20 2008
“Throughout my life I have known people who were born with silver spoons in their mouths. You know the ones: grew up in a strong community, went to good public or private schools, were able to attend a top undergraduate school like Harvard or Caltech, and then were admitted to the best graduate schools. Their […]
Published at: 11:01 am - Friday January 04 2008
The Architecture of Symbolic Computers (Peter M. Kogge) is quite possibly the most useful resource I have come across in my quest thus far. If you are interested in Lisp Machine revival, non-von Neumann computation, or the dark arts of the low-level implementation of functional programming systems, you will not be disappointed. More generally, I […]