@csk@mathstodon.xyz
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csk

@csk@mathstodon.xyz

Mathematics, Computer Science, Art, Design, Music, Soup, Pedantry. he/him/anything

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gregeganSF, to random
@gregeganSF@mathstodon.xyz avatar

My new novel MORPHOTROPHIC will be published on 9 April.

Amazon is now accepting preorders for the ebook; other venues will follow soon.

There will also be print-on-demand editions from Amazon available on 9 April, but they can't be pre-ordered.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZ46L396

csk,
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@gregeganSF Hurray, something to look forward to! If I may ask, do preorders have a big impact with your publishing model? Increasingly we see authors desperate for preorders to boost visibility, but I don’t know whether you’ve seen similar effects.

csk,
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@gregeganSF Done! I'll make sure not to stare at the eclipse for too long, so that I can still read it. (Though I might end up re-reading A Fire Upon the Deep first...)

csk, to random
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

How have I never heard of the siunitx LaTeX package before? Now I want to write papers with lots of physical measurements in them, just so that all the units will be formatted nicely.

christianp, to vim
@christianp@mathstodon.xyz avatar

!!!!
I've just discovered that in , you can run the selected text through a shell command by typing
:terminal COMMAND

for example, I just formatted a passage of JSON by selecting it and typing
:terminal python -m json.tool

So handy!

csk,
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@christianp I inherited this bit of magic from a co-worker about 30 years ago. A piece of my .vimrc:

" Reformat the current paragraph
map ^W {!}fmt^M

So ctrl-W will re-wrap a paragraph to 80 character lines.

csk, to random
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

January 26: "Grow a seed"

Obviously I've given up on trying to stick to the schedule. This week in particular was much too busy. I'll try to respond to all the prompts in sequence, finishing whenever I finish.

For today, I took a shortcut. I happened to need code to draw large patches of the Ammann-Beenker tiling with matching rules for a paper I was writing. It sort of fits with the theme of "grow a seed" (because of the substitution rules) so I duly submit it here. Source code: https://editor.p5js.org/isohedral/sketches/AevXmr5Vq

csk, to random
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

January 25: "I should try to recreate this with code"

Here's an animated recreation of the pattern on my kitchen floor, which I also recently drew in order to offer as an exercise to my intro programming students. Source code: https://editor.p5js.org/isohedral/sketches/FP3Bs0KOu

A visualization of the decorative pattern on my kitchen floor, made up of grey lens shapes in eight orientations forming a regular geometric pattern. This visualization is animated: individual motifs slide along diagonal or rotate around axes until the original pattern re-forms.

csk, to random
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

January 24: Impossible objects (undecided geometry)

I can't be the first person to come up with this technique for creating random impossible geometry, but I was pleased to figure out the details. Source code: https://editor.p5js.org/isohedral/sketches/xoG_EhH6S

A random grey path on a pink background, The path has a square cross-section and looks like orthographic projection in 3D. The path shows impossible geometry in the style of the Penrose triangle.
A random grey path on a pink background, The path has a square cross-section and looks like orthographic projection in 3D. The path shows impossible geometry in the style of the Penrose triangle.
A random grey path on a pink background, The path has a square cross-section and looks like orthographic projection in 3D. The path shows impossible geometry in the style of the Penrose triangle.

csk, to random
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

January 20: "Use a library that you haven’t used before"

The choice of library was easy. I've been watching as the most excellent @davepagurek (a Waterloo alum) has been developing cool new features for P5.js, so I wanted to try his p5.filterRenderer library (https://github.com/davepagurek/p5.filterRenderer). I always love me some ambient occlusion, so I started playing with the "Contact Shadow" filter. Even better, if you deliberately underpower the filter, you get some nice pencil-like effects, which look good with these abstract stacks of cubes. Source code at https://editor.p5js.org/isohedral/sketches/AMjEOWXFC

A computer rendering that looks something like a pencil drawing of random stacks of cubes.
A computer rendering that looks something like a pencil drawing of random stacks of cubes.
A computer rendering that looks something like a pencil drawing of random stacks of cubes.

csk, to random
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

January 14: "Less than 1KB artwork"

Rather than create something new, I'm whipping out an old favourite for tiny code, a sketch that draws an animated rendition of the cover of Joy Division's "Unknown Pleasures" album. Self-contained HTML file right here:

<!DOCTYPE html><html><body style="background: black;"><script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/p5.js/1.9.0/p5.js"></script><script>f=0;draw=_=>{createCanvas(300,b=500).position(windowWidth/2-150,(windowHeight-b)/2);v=vertex;f++;background(0);fill(0);stroke(b);for(y=100;y<b;y+=5){beginShape();for(x=0;x<b;++x)v(x,y-80/(1+pow(x-150,4)/8e6)*noise(x/30+f/50+y));v(x,1e4);endShape()}}</script></body></html>

An abstract animation showing an animated rendition of Joy Division's "Unknown Pleasures" album cover. A densely stacked column of thin white plots trace out small mountain ranges that decay to flat at both ends. The mountains shift gradually to the left as they animate.

JimPropp, to random

@stevenstrogatz Has Karim Ani heard about the arithmetic of the projectively extended real line? https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/radiolab/id152249110?i=1000640015161

csk,
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@JimPropp @stevenstrogatz This was possibly the most infuriating episode of Radiolab I’ve ever heard. I say that will full respect to Steve, who I sense was going out of his way to be nice about it.

csk, to random
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

January 5: "In the style of Vera Molnár (1924-2023)"

Here's a generative interpretation of Molnár's "Quatre rectangles à la régle d'or" (Four Golden Rectangles, 2004). The lighting could be more naturalistic (e.g., shadow offsets and blur radii cued to the imagined height of each rectangle off the canvas), but I think this captures the spirit of the composition reasonably well. Source code at https://editor.p5js.org/isohedral/sketches/0zRnX1SFz

An rendering of an abstract composition comprising four equal-size golden rectangles arranged on top of a square background. The background and rectangles are lightly textured in grey, and drop shadows suggest that the rectangles are "floating" above the canvas.

csk, to random
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

January 3: "Droste effect"

This topic offers many heavy-duty mathematical digressions (e.g., Escher's "Print Gallery"), but I don't have time to go all-out on sketches this month.

Instead, I took this as an opportunity to celebrate the latest addition to the public domain. The result isn't quite as slick as I'd like, and not really that Droste-ish, but I'm calling it on account of time. Messy source code at https://editor.p5js.org/isohedral/sketches/iNUAHFZLM

A looping animation of an field of Steamboat Willies stretching towards the horizon. We zoom in on the window of the frontmost Willie's boat, revealing a field back in the starting position, ready for the loop to begin anew.

csk, to random
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Let's kick off Genuary 2024!

January 1: "Particles, lots of them"

Each particle has one random friend and one random enemy. In each time step, a particle takes a step towards its friend, a slightly larger step away from its enemy, and a teeny step towards the centre of the screen. The result is nicely chaotic behaviour with no real physics. Source code at https://editor.p5js.org/isohedral/sketches/zSZ0-Omzx

A short clip of a particle simulation. Particles move randomly and vigorously, with a tendency to cluster at the centre of the simulation. The centre occasionally spits out long filaments that writher around before converging again.

csk, to random
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

If Amazon had simply told me they were raising Prime Video prices, and introducing an ad-supported tier at my former price point, then maybe, maybe I'd have shrugged it off. But their pitch that I should pay an additional premium to restore the service I already had just reeks of , so goodbye.

csk, to random
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

If anybody is still playing with aperiodic monotiles, here's a (draft) new interactive app: https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~csk/hat/h7h8.html. It draws patches of tiles using the H7/H8 substitution system in our paper. More importantly, it includes a slider that lets you explore the continuum from chevrons, to hats, to Tile(1,1), to turtles, to comets. As always, you can save PNG or SVG files of your drawings. Have fun! :monotile:

csk,
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@christianp Cool! That's not something I was familiar with. It feels a bit brittle in terms of usability (hard to know for sure whether you've snapped, for example). How do you feel about it?

csk, to random
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

On a whim today I re-read the 2008 short story "Crystal Nights" by @gregeganSF (https://www.gregegan.net/MISC/CRYSTAL/Crystal.html). It's remarkably prescient, not so much for accurately predicting the state of AI research in 2023, but for anticipating the mindset of the 2023 tech CEO. The story may as well be titled "Don't Create the AI Torment Nexus".

(Bonus: the story mentions SHARCNET, the network of academic compute clusters we used in Ontario universities around that time. Presumably "Julie" was meant to be a CS prof at, say, University of Toronto.)

nervous_jesse, to random
@nervous_jesse@mathstodon.xyz avatar

The latest custom puzzle hot off the press (aka laser cutter) is by algorithmic art legend Jared Tarbell.

If you don’t know his work, spend some time at https://www.complexification.net/

csk,
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@nervous_jesse Jared's work is amazing -- obviously his computational art, but in other areas too. For what it's worth, Tom White "restored" Substrate, porting it to P5.js: https://dribnet.github.io/substrate/.

csk, to random
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

It was one year ago today that David Smith emailed me out of the blue, asking about my work on computing Heesch numbers. A few days later he tipped his hand and showed me a drawing of the hat polykite for the first time. Happy Aperiodic Monotile day to all who celebrate.

christianp, to random
@christianp@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@csk have you made any dichromatic steganography images other than the ones in your bridges paper?
I've been asked to put together some pub quiz questions on the topic of disability, and I'm very tempted to put in a "write down this number" question, using an image only dichromats can see

csk,
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@christianp No, I haven't done anything with that work beyond what's in the paper. I was frustrated by the combination of the brittleness of the techniques and the obvious difficulty I had in assessing the quality of the results.

I think I could get you set up with the code fairly quickly if you wanted to experiment.

csk, to random
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Non-orientable corporate logo seen in the wild.

csk, to random
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Good news: over on the website for the Bridges Conference, we've updated the Future Conferences page (https://www.bridgesmathart.org/future-bridges-conferences/) with preliminary information about the 2025 conference. It's scheduled for 14–17 July 2025 in Eindhoven, Netherlands. (2024 is in Richmond, Virginia, USA.)

ZachWeinersmith, to random
@ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social avatar

Daughter is suddenly super into Greek mythology (she started on Rick Riordan, though weirdly stopped halfway and wanted a mythology book). I got her the classic D'Aulaires and she's eating it up. Any recommendations? She's 9.

csk,
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@ZachWeinersmith I asked my kid, who started out much like your daughter and is now a Classical Studies major. They recommended four anthologies, two of which are by Riordan himself.

csk, to random
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

I try to stay open-minded about old and new music, and I'm always trying to learn more. But no matter how much I hear them, I find The Cure essentially unappealing. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. (OK, I have a small soft spot for "Close To Me".)

mc_frontalot, to random
@mc_frontalot@mastodon.cloud avatar

My third album, Final Boss, is fifteen years old! For the rest of the day, have 15% off my whole catalog at https://frontalot.bandcamp.com w/ the magic code BOSSYBOSS. Also, take a moment to calm the tumultuous stampede of the passing decades. Or anyhow that's what I'll be doing. Okay, thanks!

csk,
@csk@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@mc_frontalot Just noticed that the cover art is by Scott C. His work is most excellent.

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