@mathling@mastodon.social
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mathling

@mathling@mastodon.social

Retired software engineer. Now I write programs to make art.

Will natter on about tech in general with forays into linguistics, football, cooking, politics, climate, and random stuff.

Maker of jam. Petter of cats. Viewer of stars.

she/her or they/them

RSS feed: https://mathling.com/art-rss.xml

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mathling, to random
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On tools, a wee rant

I am fond of tools, tools of all kinds: tools for building and making, tools for cooking, tools for writing, software tools

Here's the thing: I find a tool I like and I am loyal beyond reason

I do not buy a shiny new spade when my old spade is already fine

I do not fool with a shiny new source control system when my old SCS is already fine

I have been using Emacs for a half century, about

mathling,
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I have a keen-bladed knife that I have resharpened many a time. It's tang is loose and held on with duct tape.

(My daughter finally bought be a new keen-bladed knife in exasperation. I love that one too.)

Loyal. Beyond all reason.

mathling,
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So, fellow software makers, I say unto you: I do not want you to go changing things on me for the sake of change. I am not using the most recent tablet with the most recent update of the most recent OS and the latest beta of the latest browser.

Dink around all you want, but what your tweakage leads me so see nothing but a f8$*&^%g blank screen when I load your page, know that I am filled with ire, with incadenscent rage of those betrayed by their favourite tools

mathling,
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In totally unrelated news, I can no longer read Mastodon on my tablet

mathling,
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@ThePiper Just so

The stories my duct-tape knife could tell, of soups made in the college dorms, and that accident with the butternut squash...

mathling, to genart
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interlude

Fun with cosines

r=cos(iθ) for series of i from center out

mathling,
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Something a little wilder

r=i cos(i cos(θ))

mathling,
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Wilder in a different way

cos(i cos(iθ))

mathling,
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Last one

Gentler

r=cos(i) cos(iθ)

mathling, to photography
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One of the oaks around the vernal pond at the Picchetti Range Open Space preserve.

mathling, to photography
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mathling, to random
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SIGH. Looks like we're going for yet another decade of "rebuilding" ⚽ 😩

mathling, to photography
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Zoozvi, the other homeless waif that has taken up residence in our garden, under a corner of the deck. She's a little on the chonky side, and is quite friendly, so I think she had a real home recently, but no one has claimed her. You can't tell from this angle, but her tail has an appalling kink halfway down. The back part droops when she puts it up, and she walks with a slight stiffness in her back hip, so she's been through some things.

mathling,
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When I say "quite friendly" I mean, Dan the Cat Whisperer can, after a couple of months, pet her. She will let me within a few feet, if she thinks some food is involved.

mathling, to genart
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interlude

Experimenting with a new colouring technique for rose curves and it's just chef's kiss

mathling,
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Colour is along lines from center to point on curve and based on length of that line

mathling,
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The results are really quite wonderful. I could run 1000 of these and post them all day

Even when you don't get the glowing center effect and a small discrete palette makes things look cartoonish, I love 'em

mathling, to random
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I just wanted to read a book I had bought not on my tiny phone screen and not in my browser.

Download, the button said, but all it gave me was a tiny XML file that nothing reads.

So I needed something that would actually interpret that to download the actual book.

Found a tool. Which needed some other library.

Which required a special make tool.

I'm five downloads in and no closer to my book.

Paper rules, man. Can read paper anywhere anytime even with crap wifi and bad eyes.

Angry fist

mathling,
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Six downloads. Special maketool has another special dependency.

mathling,
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Seven: another dependent library

mathling,
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Eight

I'm so lost in the sunk cost fallacy right now

mathling,
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Now we have to reconfigure ldconfig FFS

mathling,
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throws arms in air

VICTORY!

Jeezus, that was not the adventure I was hoping to spend my day on

mathling, to genart
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interlude

Starr roses

r(t) = 2 + d sin(at)/2
θ(t) = t + sin(bt)/c

Here drawing from the center to full the curve, colour based on distance from center.

a=7, b=18, c=19, d=1

mathling,
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More complex infolding, less density on the edges.

a controls the number of lobes
d controls the amplitude (I use d=1 and scale)
b and c control the wobbliness

a = 9, b = 10, c = 2, d = 1

mathling,
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Drawing lines to a different focus, lower line density

a=8, b=5, c=14, d=1

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