blinry ✨ @blinry@chaos.social

Buffon's Needles are a surprising method for estimating Pi: You drop "needles" randomly on a line grid (where the distance of the lines equals the length of the needles). Then 2*(number of needles)/(number of needles which intersect the lines) ≈ π https://mste.illinois.edu/activity/buffon/

Import arbitrary code from Stack Overflow as Python modules! The first true "do what I mean" environment! :D

$ pip install git+https://github.com/drathier/stack-overflow-import

Demo:

A language that reads like RFC822 mail headers? One that is based on knot theory, and can be reproduced on a piece of yarn? A language that tries to run code snippets from StackOverflow? In Russia, "Hello world" prints you? A language that looks like Nethack levels?

Sometimes, I wake up and want to invent a new esoteric programming language! But what should it be? I like themed ones like Shakespeare, and spatial ones like Befunge. I think that y'all might have some great ideas, so hit me up! :D

Guests are usually not allowed, "to maintain a safe environment that is conductive to learning". It's really important for the faculty that each person in the space is familiar with the social rules. As an exception, you can bring children on school closure days, and infants.

Alumni are welcome in the space Thursday - Friday, and on off-hours (before 10:30 am and after 6:30 pm), and they often announce themselves and what they are working on on Zulip, to invite others to join them.

Alumni can use doorbot to buzz themselves in, and to call the elevator – it activates servomotors attached to a Raspberry Pi to press physical buttons! :P It works... most of the time. To traverse floors, they can use the the yardstick keyfobs!

Members of the RC community have 24/7 access to the space, which is great! ✨ Current Recursers have smart cards to enter the building, to take the elevator (it opens directly into the 4th and 5th floor), and to traverse between floors via the shared staircase.

YES THANK YOU I AGREE

✨ Presenting: "Running Out Of Space", a short, interactive horror story. Would love to hear what you think! https://morr.cc/running-out-of-space/

Closeby: a structure nicknamed "Vessel" (final name to be determined), which is basically comprised of 154 stairs going nowhere. Looks a bit lost among the neighboring skyscrapers...

... the "High Line" has since been redeveloped as a public park, which is more than 2 km long! 🌸 #florespondence

Originally a rail trail connecting factories and warehouses in western Manhattan...

LOL

Heh. :) Sure, why not.

"small questions" is for quickly asking a thing that has been bugging you. One of the main streams is "397 Bridge", about things going on in the physical space. And then there are many small streams about specific programming languages, frameworks, or other areas of interest.

Other nice streams are "pairing" (find people for pair programming), "social (new york)" (go to museums or other events together), "victory" (celebrate that you figured something out), and "beanbags" (talk about your feelings).

Doing "check-ins", where you talk about what you did/what you plan to do, have always been part of RC. Some people like to do that in person, and others use a Zulip stream. I try to check-in there each morning, and have found it tremendously helpful for organizing my thoughts.