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VT100 CSS Fix
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Simple brute force Mandelbrot from 1401 to Basic to Python
Read about http://dpeckett.com/turning-the-arduino-uno-into-an-apple who in
turn had been inspired by
http://www.righto.com/2015/03/12-minute-mandelbrot-fractals-on-50.html which
was discussed on Soylent
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/03/26/1555201 and out of pure
curiosity wanted to see what the simple Basic program would look like as
Python.
The Apple II result of the program is very limited by the screen/terminal as is
the direct translation into Python but it is then slightly improved to give a
result fairly close to the original 1978 first ever plot of a Mandelbrot. The
recent 1401 version has about twice as much detail than that.
N.b.: The Python is written and tested in Python 3.2.3 it does not and will
not work in Python 2.7.3 (having both in Linux is usually easy as
they're treated entirely separately as python and python3).
The Basic isn't tested or anything by me as I didn't write it, it is
some version that runs on an Apple II emulation.
Integer Basic program to calculate the Mandelbrot fractal:
1 DIM LINE$(31)
2 FOR PY=1 TO 15
3 FOR PX=1 TO 31
4 X=0
5 XT=0
6 Y=0
7 FOR I=0 to 11
8 XT = (X*X)/10 - (Y*Y)/10 + (PX-23)
9 Y = (X*Y)/5 + (10*PY - 75)/8
10 X = XT
11 IF (X/10)*X + (Y/10)*Y >= 400 THEN GOTO 15
12 NEXT I
13 LINE$(PX)="*"
14 GOTO 16
15 LINE$(PX)=" "
16 NEXT PX
17 PRINT LINE$
18 NEXT PY
19 END
Python translation and result:
N.b.: Unlike in Basic the Python ranges do not include the end points.
Basic goto structure is rearranged using a break and else statement.
"px" becomes "px-1" where applicable due to the difference between
Basic arrays and Python lists (or maybe I'm wrong about that).
Python printing is a bit more complex for the use case.
The Python still manages to be fewer lines and is much easier to read
in my opinion (I don't really know Basic but I don't know all that much
Python either). I can see why goto is vilified :3
>>> line = [None] * 31
>>> for py in range(1, 16):
... for px in range(1, 32):
... x = 0
... xt = 0
... y = 0
... for i in range(0, 12):
... xt = (x * x) / 10 - (y * y) / 10 + (px - 23)
... y = (x * y) / 5 + (10 * py - 75) / 8
... x = xt
... if (x / 10) * x + (y / 10) * y >= 400:
... line[px-1] = " "
... break
... else:
... line[px-1] = "*"
... for j in range(len(line)):
... print(line[j], end = "")
... print("")
...
***
* ***
**********
***********
* * ************
*****************
******************
******************
*****************
* * ************
***********
**********
* ***
***
*
>>>
N.b.: The output isn't identical most likely because Python automatically
creates floating point numbers out of divided integers.
Expanded Python example and result:
Increasing the fidelity of the plot isn't as straightforward as one could
assume in Python: ranges can be stepped but don't take floating point values so
one has to do it "manually" with a few more variables. We change things to
start from zero as well, no reason not to.
The smallest preset Linux terminals are 80x24 so we can at least try to make
use of up to 79x24 for display, or more if we imagine printing it as was done
in 1978 and resulted in a picture consisting of at least 31 rows and 68
columns (and if less than half the height scrolls off the screen that's not
much of a problem).
Our plot is distorted because our typeface is taller than it's wide but we can
use that to cram higher detail into the horizontal axis (and this will help
make it look less distorted as well).
Out of laziness I left the px-1 stuff in to save/discard an empty column and
shifting the plot 1 character to the left. One could increase that to something
like px-7 or 8 and lower stepx appropriately for a little bit more detail. If
one wanted to do it properly and avoid the wasted work one could instead shift
the 'for px...' range to (7, 86) or similar.
I think I've goldplated this enough as is, I blame procrastination :3
(I'm posting this in my journal to force myself to stop).
line = [None] * 79
stepx = 0.35
stepy = 0.5
for py in range(0, 30):
for px in range(0, 79):
sx = px * stepx
sy = py * stepy
x = 0
xt = 0
y = 0
for i in range(0, 25):
xt = (x * x) / 10 - (y * y) / 10 + (sx - 23)
y = (x * y) / 5 + (10 * sy - 75) / 8
x = xt
if (x / 10) * x + (y / 10) * y >= 400:
line[px-1] = " "
break
else:
line[px-1] = "*"
for j in range(len(line)):
print(line[j], end = "")
print("")
**
******
*******
* *****
*** *************** *
********************** ***
*************************
****************************
****************************** *
* * *******************************
********** ********************************
*********** ********************************
************* ********************************
*************************************************
*****************************************************************
*************************************************
************* ********************************
*********** ********************************
********** ********************************
* * *******************************
****************************** *
****************************
*************************
********************** ***
*** *************** *
* *****
*******
******
**
Not bad for 22 lines of code, easily recognizable :)
April 1st, 2015
A day that will live in e-fame-y.
Brief inconsequential rant on behalf of H.P. Lovecraft
Today I lapsed in my local front of the ’War On Open Tabs (And Also Windows)’ (or ‘Woot(Aaw)’ for short) and from looking closer at ChipWhisperer-Lite detouring to EEVBlog and on to ESD (ElectroStatic Discharge) issues and Bill Beaty who tricked me into clicking onwards to ‘Vulture Central’ (The Register) where I ended up picking through the bones of the recent news of “Lost White City of the Monkey God Found After 500 Years” in which I came across a reference to a work of Lovecraft written 94 years ago which I didn't remember reading.
However it turned out I had read it under a different name, and on that same Wikipedia page once again yet another venerated authority was quoted slagging off HPL accusing him of being a “racist” or supremacist or anything else non-imaginative even though HPL had plainly explained what he was writing about or in response to (which was unimaginative shitty white village dramas).
At which point I wanted to congratulate E. F. Bleiler for picking through a dead man's brain in order to arouse himself and revel in the sticky glory of it. HPL would surely appreciate the combined or better yet unified necrophiliac morbidity and righteous “holy” bigoted megalomania of Bleiler's actions.
(And where else to offer my sarcastic approval than on my very own journal? Did I piss on his grave? I apologize but in my defense I can't be blamed for not noticing it on account of the latrine placed at the same spot by so many of his peers).
But yes for a while already E. F. Bleiler has been just as dead and if there's anything left after a few generations of macro and microfaunal procreation any maggots can continue his gruesome trade on his own brain :)
Now please excuse me as I make a few bookmarks for perusal in the eternity of time I do not have (and correct an index in an actual book) and close twenty or so tabs… the war must go on.
…and now I can't help but wonder what the world would be like if there was a Mr. and/or Mrs. Crowley-Lovecraft out there, and yes it has to be a double-barreled surname ;)
P.S. Happy Easter!
Foggy/overcast 88.8% eclipse: not much (or any) difference
Title says it all really but I found it surprising that there wasn't much noticeable difference. It started out foggy but the fog had mostly risen to 100% low cloud cover at local eclipse maximum (88.8%) yet if I didn't know and someone told me there was an 88.8% eclipse at that moment I wouldn't have believed them at all. The level of light felt unexceptionally normal. It was more noticeable a while after the local maximum was over as it started to get a little bit brighter but for all purposes it was just like a normal variation caused by weather, no weird shadows, not even any streetlights turning themselves on.
It was so unnoticeable I double-checked the time of the event and my clock. I guess my eyes almost entirely compensated for the small and ever so gradual change. Right now it's not even supposed to be entirely over yet but meh :)
I slept through the last eclipse so maybe this is all completely normal, the lack of difference that is; me sleeping right through “events” is very normal :D
Moral hazard: I learnt something today
How deeply unfortunate that it's given such an easily misunderstood ‘name’.
Want to sum up most or maybe all of humanity's problems in two words?
The specific meaning of ‘Moral hazard’ should be shouted from the rooftops. Every single human being ought to be taught what the concept means and the fact that it does not just apply as a term in economics. It describes every major problem inherent to politics I can think of. The fallacies of ideology and ideals or principles, the limits to society, the inescapable “death” from complexity, automatic corruption and institutionalized cronyism, the pressures towards groupthink, secrecy, pressure groups and lobbying, and everything else, it's all there, it touches everything.
If someone wants to make a truly better society and/or if they have to rebuild from the ground then they should focus on removing and inhibiting as much moral hazard as possible. Maybe it's all it takes but the amount of work it requires is enormous.
The first step towards that would be to identify all of it in anything new or old.
A little bit of sick (US & NK)
Maybe it's the season.
Anyway here's me quoting RT.com quoting Obama (whe-heey nested quotations):
‘“We cannot have a society in which some dictators someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States because if somebody is able to intimidate us out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they start doing once they see a documentary that they don't like or news reports that they don't like,” Obama said.’
( source )
Damn right.
Obama & the US made precisely this point four years ago according to the New York Times:
‘When Air Force personnel on the service’s computer network try to view the Web sites of The Times, the British newspaper The Guardian, the German magazine Der Spiegel, the Spanish newspaper El País and the French newspaper Le Monde, as well as other sites that posted full confidential cables, the screen says “Access Denied: Internet usage is logged and monitored,” according to an Air Force official whose access was blocked and who shared the screen warning with The Times. Violators are warned that they face punishment if they try to view classified material from unauthorized Web sites.’
( source )
Because it is completely different when it is not an entertainment movie but instead a list containing some of the biggest and most central papers in five countries as well as large number of irrelevant smaller ones. It doesn't compare at all and has to be far more unimportant than Hollywood fiction.
If the task is to record history for the future then it is of particular unimportance since no one will ever use it for anything sensible:
‘An error message pops up every time a search is performed with the word “WikiLeaks”.
It’s not entirely clear when the US National Archives decided to block these searches.’
‘The Library of Congress went further by blocking access to WikiLeaks content from its server in 2010.
The American Library Association suggested this violated the First Amendment rights of internet users to receive information.
“The Library of Congress’s decision is a violation of the First Amendment and a violation of the American Library Association’s Bill of Rights. Moreover, it is a violation of the professional ethics of librarians to always provide free access to all information,” their statement said.’
( source )
Nor does it take much for the banhammer to fall, as is right, rumor is enough, rumor is fact:
‘The directive states:
“We have received information from our higher headquarters regarding a potential new leaker of classified information. Although no formal validation has occurred, we thought it prudent to warn all employees and subordinate commands. Please do not go to any website entitled “The Intercept” for it may very well contain classified material.
As a reminder to all personnel who have ever signed a non-disclosure agreement, we have an ongoing responsibility to protect classified material in all of its various forms. Viewing potentially classified material (even material already wrongfully released in the public domain) from unclassified equipment will cause you long term security issues. This is considered a security violation.”
A military insider subject to the ban said that several employees expressed concerns after being told by commanders that it was “illegal and a violation of national security” to read publicly available news reports on The Intercept.
“Even though I have a top secret security clearance, I am still forbidden to read anything on the website,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject. “I find this very disturbing that they are threatening us and telling us what websites and news publishers we are allowed to read or not.”’
( source )
Hello robots :P
A rigid notion of determinism turns it into a mechanical folly and inverts the importance away from higher functions and towards the lowest detectable causal events, it creates a world in which ultimately the smallest and most remote causal interactions are given disproportionate amounts of importance even though such interactions are constantly changing at speeds far faster than the results they are supposed to have deterministically forced into being. With such an outlook it wouldn't be “turtles all the way down” but instead “turtles all the way up”.
By analogy of a computer program the importance according to such determinism is given to the bits flipping between zero and one rather than the higher structures ruling their behavior.
Such determinism remains technically true but becomes devoid of meaning, comprehension, and value[¹], and thus also without importance.
Instead for any given end result determinism acts as a negative feedback loop in relation to its own importance when given enough complexity: a robot operating its algorithms on the basis of what might as well be an infinite number of ever-changing, causal, and mutually connected variables cannot remain a robot, it is forced into random output and/or the beginnings of intelligence where it chooses which output to give and later also chooses the reason why it is supposed to be the correct output or why a different output is more correct.
Hmm, googly eyes or Einstein afro? It makes sense to me…
(Also ¹ looks like a nice explanation of why “pop” determinism and nihilism so often end up as best friends.)
(And another tangential: if it was possible I wonder what an inverse square type of law would look like for each causal step in determinism, the fact that it rained yesterday has no discernible impact on me writing this journal entry (but now it has and thus two points were made rather than one: one about determinism and one about indirect Wittgensteinian word games).)
The focus of this post was really meant to be the part at the end that I made bold.
To me it makes one or two connections in a way that I haven't seen before (and I know about system complexity and emergence and such). In some way it feels a bit more direct and explanatory tying in a correct understanding/evaluation of determinism as well as (possibly the most basic) evolutionary pressure/fitness challenge. In this way it gets very hands on and mucky (conceptually, and also conceptually reducing the challenge of creating intelligence to that of triggering such a first move and then escalating it). Has anyone seen anything similar elsewhere?
P.S. Yet another tangential: a different kind of amusing folly, more entertaining than determinism but maybe not all that different after all?
