Fabian Giesen

Abstraction maker, abstraction breaker. FUN FACT: things I prefix with FUN FACT are sometimes fun and sometimes factual, but very rarely both.

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npub1sqndnjhteg95ss2tk5xdmld540vv8hlhkpa4altk9cagjqrwrvhqurr8se

NIP-05 Address

rygorous@mastodon-gamedev-place.mostr.pub

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nprofile1qqsgqfkeet4u5z6gg99m2rxalk62hkxrmlmmq767l4mzuw5fqphpktspz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds4637q9

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relay.damus.io

nos.lol

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Last Notes

2026-04-22 01:09:35 UTC

FUN FACT: when Buddy Holly was Paul McCartney's age, he'd been dead for 61 years

2026-03-30 22:05:35 UTC

Never looked at the specs of the original SGI RealityEngine, and holy shit https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/166117.166131
this is completely bonkers for 1993. Just look at these boards!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealityEngine#/media/File:SGI-re2-ge10v.jpg (this is actually a RealityEngine 2 Geometry Engine)
and a Raster Manager board https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealityEngine#/media/File:SGI-re2-rm4.jpg
no wonder these things cost $infinity

2026-03-29 08:19:28 UTC

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As an aside, we use impossibly bright, impossibly blue light to inscribe tiny runes on sand, producing constructs that obey our commands (well, sometimes...) and communicate with us through literal liquid crystals.
This is not a fantasy setting. I'm just describing the real world
(well I'm leaving out 1000s of in-between steps, but still)

2026-03-29 08:10:48 UTC

FUN FACT: the "nano" prefix ultimately descends from Ancient Greek "nanos", which means "dwarf".
Consequently, translating "nanotechnology" as "dwarven machinery" is arguably defensible.

2026-03-27 21:28:13 UTC

hear me out: Oled Zeppelin

2026-03-22 02:48:48 UTC

wait what new Opus Magnum DLC just dropped?!

2026-03-20 00:55:43 UTC

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@nprofile…3q9y @nprofile…j05z nope
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/258/775/998/677/014/original/423fb31229218661.png

2026-03-19 00:42:01 UTC

Of course the Postmaster General is evading your questions. You want to talk to the Postmaster Specific

2026-03-08 04:17:06 UTC

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@nprofile…3q9y @nprofile…mv7s look both sides are rainbow sides as long as your label is gay enough

2026-03-08 02:33:12 UTC

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@nprofile…3q9y ...what about the non-mighty?

2026-02-28 00:45:00 UTC

"PCC has been selling organic meat since 1991!"
That's great for you! To be clear, however, I would greatly prefer meat you haven't been selling for more than 5 days or so

2026-02-28 00:06:14 UTC

This is not legal advice.
😎
it's illegal advice baybee

2026-02-27 22:35:00 UTC

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@nprofile…3q9y aeva, it's tuesday

2026-02-27 05:49:51 UTC

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@nprofile…3q9y *annoyed side eye* I feel like you're not really opening yourself up to my vision here

2026-02-27 05:36:35 UTC

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@nprofile…3q9y *puts arm over your shoulder, turns around so we face the same direction, gestures expansively*
Imagine this: all the takes have been had. There are no more takes. We're all out of takes.
No more takes. It has all been said.
Instead, look at those three kids there, building a sand castle.
It's pretty cool

2026-02-27 05:34:03 UTC

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@nprofile…3q9y or maybe they won't.
Maybe it'll be like the thing with vets where they're just like "nope, don't want to talk about this at all, actually"

2026-02-27 00:21:52 UTC

A recurring discussion that comes up in fiction circles every few years is would-be writers who don't actually read.
Not actually interested in reopening that particular bit of discourse, but it's making the rounds again and a thing I realized that in actual writing this is at least controversial enough to bring out the Hot Takes.
Meanwhile in programming, I know (and have worked with) several professional programmers who outright refuse to read anyone else's code, and it's just a thing.

2026-02-25 18:50:35 UTC

TIL that apparently, turning on the shower briefly, then turning it off while you lather up, and then turning it on again only to rinse off later is called a "navy shower".
To me that's just a shower. It never occurred to me to leave the water running the entire time. That seems both wasteful and ineffective.

2026-02-21 23:07:31 UTC

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@nprofile…h6ty @nprofile…hcxx Yes ffmpeg uses its own (and AFAIK doesn't use FFTW at all) and yes FFTW kernels are, IME, usually not the fastest.
It's sort of the equivalent to ATLAS in dense LA, if someone still remembers that. Another big "throw a code generator at figuring it out" thing that produces big libs with tons of code with good-but-not-great perf. :)

2026-02-19 04:41:46 UTC

Angine de Poitrine (via @nprofile…x9sp) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ssi-9wS1so

2026-02-18 05:39:04 UTC

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@nprofile…hm63 Pretty sure that's not true.
The first two 3D cards I remember were the Voodoo 1 and Rendition Verite V1000, both announced late 1995 but only actually shipped late 1996 (like Q4).
IIRC the Verite was the one Carmack was initially focused on, too.

2026-02-18 02:56:41 UTC

I just read a YouTube comment calling Quake, and I quote verbatim, "an engine old enough that programmable shaders didn't even exist when it came out!"
man do I feel old

2026-02-07 11:00:41 UTC

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@nprofile…3q9y trick question. it's molecules. it's always molecules

2026-02-07 04:21:24 UTC

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@nprofile…3q9y I'm thinking Waiting For Godot might be God's peed aka on an extended bio break (look, the teriyaki place's always been fine before; but yesterday, apparently, less fine)

2026-02-07 03:59:53 UTC

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@nprofile…3q9y where on the speed of sound to ludicrous speed continuum is godspeed?

2026-02-06 23:00:28 UTC

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@nprofile…87np @nprofile…3q9y in fact, one could argue that past experience of pioneers of chemistry tasting and smelling all the compounds is precisely why we now tell students to not do that anymore

2026-02-06 22:49:54 UTC

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@nprofile…3q9y My favorite tidbit is how everything we have ever learned about fluorine chemistry acts as a stark warning not to engage in fluorine chemistry, and yet somehow you can go on Wikipedia and read sentences such as "Los Alamos National Laboratory used [dioxygen difluoride] to synthesize plutonium hexafluoride at unprecedentedly low temperatures"

2026-02-04 02:28:58 UTC

You ever think about how wild it is that modern humans have existed for like 300k+ years, and for approximately all of that time precisely zero of them had any idea how chemistry actually worked, but meanwhile your body is made of literally trillions of cells that somehow understand and remember everything you eat, so they're able to translate a weird very specific micronutrient deficiency into a food craving without you consciously being any the wiser?

2026-01-29 05:32:03 UTC

Everyone loves handmade boots but you say you have footmade gloves and they stare at you like you're some kind of idiot

2026-01-22 10:16:06 UTC

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@nprofile…3q9y @nprofile…j05z on a scale from 1 to 10, how often would you say chain-smoking femme fatales show up in your office?

2026-01-18 07:59:07 UTC

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@nprofile…3q9y FUN FACT: you do in fact have to intentionally jiggle the frequencies of many things that wiggle in your computer because otherwise you're creating not just random noise EM emissions but a low-power FM transmitter and that's not allowed

2026-01-18 05:58:46 UTC

once again I am asking how it feels to treat me like you do

2026-01-13 18:20:33 UTC

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@nprofile…3q9y I mean yeah, I'm familiar with the concept of central heating :), but your description made it sound like there's no individual control on the radiators at all

2026-01-13 18:05:57 UTC

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@nprofile…3q9y ...single thermostat? wtf

2026-01-13 17:24:17 UTC

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@nprofile…3q9y the real question: why do you have a fan standing in the other room in Chicago in Winter?

2026-01-13 00:38:04 UTC

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@nprofile…3q9y furthermore, Hail Eris

2026-01-03 22:47:07 UTC

About one third of my last three weeks has been travel days and I'm officially TRAVELED OUT. I can't imagine how touring musicians deal

2025-12-24 22:10:50 UTC

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

2025-12-24 09:53:18 UTC

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@nprofile…gkm9 Yup. I think I'm kinda underleveled for that boss. I've had like 5 attempts where I got it down to its last 10% of health so it's at a level where I feel like I could absolutely get it if the stars align but it's right on the edge...

2025-12-24 04:44:51 UTC

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@nprofile…gkm9 no. The forge? below the Temple of Shar in the Underdark.

2025-12-24 04:43:46 UTC

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@nprofile…gkm9 Nope!

2025-12-23 08:09:51 UTC

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@nprofile…fnpd Windows 11x9, even

2025-12-22 04:27:47 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf Tsk. Did it get you to move? If so, it's not *misuse* of exercise equipment

2025-12-18 00:56:18 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf although, arguably: I don't think you can really get more low poly than a love triangle

2025-12-17 23:51:26 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf I need a judgment call over here: are 50s-style bullet bras lowpoly

2025-12-17 11:19:15 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf if you can't handle me at my conversation pit you don't deserve me at my trauma dump nook

2025-12-09 01:56:54 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf *picks up grain of salt, hands you a $100 bill* quick, buy this one grain for $100 for me, that makes the salt I have at home give me a multi-trillion market cap. I'll borrow against it and cut you into the deal!

2025-12-09 01:52:52 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf now that's putting a new spin on generative AI!

2025-12-08 07:48:47 UTC

Why does LHC, the Largest Hadron Collider, not simply eat the other Hadron Colliders?

2025-12-03 21:22:12 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf I just have notification pings for everything turned off and used it like email. If an app proves to me it can't be trusted with notifications, it won't get them

2025-11-28 04:17:41 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf I assure you, the piano was not new in 2000. I am personally aware of piano compositions as early as 1997

2025-11-27 19:31:30 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf what you think I was just picking a random example? Ma'am, I observe that holiday

2025-11-27 19:30:36 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf no that's in September

2025-11-27 19:29:40 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf I'm in this post and do not feel shame. Happy Thanksgiving!

2025-11-27 09:17:46 UTC

considering that composite video predates prime video by other 50 years, I am left wondering just how big the factors were

2025-11-27 06:18:43 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf *adjust glasses* it's only an Oscilloscope™ if it's manufactured by Eskil Sköp & Söner AB. this is merely a sparkling waveform display

2025-11-26 04:38:28 UTC

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@nprofile…fnpd yuuup

2025-11-25 22:21:25 UTC

Just realized to my disgust that the 25th anniversary of fr-08 is coming up in a month

2025-11-25 02:13:04 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf ah, the whim sickle, my favorite tool to harvest from the nigh barren plains of the everyday

2025-11-25 01:56:02 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf * as long as your budget allows for at least a few bucks. Otherwise it gets tricky at the low end unless you want to buy a free hundred at once

2025-11-24 07:12:12 UTC

man, if this was Victorian England, I don't want to know what Defeatist England would've looked like

2025-11-13 07:49:56 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf no, with actual dorm rooms on the premises, not just sleeping bags under the tables!

2025-11-11 21:55:50 UTC

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@nprofile…nzck Ternary is not usually branchless. Shortcut evaluation means that in the general case, branches are required.

2025-11-10 05:20:58 UTC

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@nprofile…xlvy little known fact: that was after!

2025-11-06 07:07:50 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf literally, the energy expenditure warmed up the surrounding water slightly

2025-11-06 07:06:42 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf I swear one day we're gonna find out this whole senescence business is only because some very fuckable jellyfish had this rare genetic disease 350 million years ago

2025-11-06 06:56:54 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf must be 🪄 coincidence 🪄

2025-11-06 03:29:42 UTC

new rule: anytime you open anything, you can refer to it as hacking

2025-10-24 03:44:54 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf *puts on math hipster hat* none of these are proven, merely evidenced

2025-10-10 06:06:29 UTC

"We saw we spent a lot of time, concatenating strings, so I figured, hey, could make this a lot faster if instead of single strings we had double strings that have a separate prefix and suffix that can reference an existing immutable string."
"But.. how does that actually solve the problem though?"
"Well we didn't solve it per se, but I have high hopes for my next idea: meet... the string quartet"

2025-08-16 04:19:42 UTC

Imagine going to a TV recording for a show called "Rockpalast" ("rock palace") in 1970 and the band is the then-newly-founded Kraftwerk and they whip out this https://youtu.be/vNoFHdlMrtI?si=7eFA4ECwYOf4-ZNf&t=1027
(This is not yet Electro-Pop-Pioneer Kraftwerk. This is still early Krautrock/super-experimental Kraftwerk.)

2025-08-13 06:56:42 UTC

The classic Wirth book title is "Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs", and you can tell how dated it is immediately from the title, because nowhere does it mention crash reporters, analytics backend services, auto-updaters, containers, or shipping alongside a browser or three

2025-07-29 19:52:00 UTC

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@nprofile…d23x @nprofile…w9qq 11:11:11 unorm rgb

2025-05-21 19:55:32 UTC

What's that mysterious workaround?
Core Huff6 decode step is described in https://fgiesen.wordpress.com/2023/10/29/entropy-decoding-in-oodle-data-x86-64-6-stream-huffman-decoders/
A customer managed to get a fairly consistent repro for transient decode errors by overclocking an i7-14700KF by about 5% from stock settings ("performance" multiplier 56->59).
It took weeks of back and forth and forensic debugging to figure out what actually happens, but TL;DR: the observed decode errors are all consistent with a single instruction misbehaving.

2025-04-02 04:42:45 UTC

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@nprofile…t3wn ULA! ULA! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAp6RUNEN-U (yes, German, but just watch on)

2025-04-02 01:45:34 UTC

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@nprofile…t3wn Original Pentium! (Ken Shiriff's write-up making the rounds in German tech media.)

2025-04-02 01:38:59 UTC

FRND. friend shaped
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/114/265/810/710/037/540/original/e5e6ce40a9e000ae.png

2025-03-25 03:30:03 UTC

I never hear about writer's parry, is that a Dangerous Forbidden Technique?

2025-03-15 23:14:26 UTC

Wikipedia has this image on its page for "ampoule" and I have so many questions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampoule#/media/File:Cesium133Cesium.JPG

2025-02-27 05:53:54 UTC

having to restrain myself from using words like "zany" when I see someone reading the dictionary because I don't want to spoil the ending

2025-02-25 01:47:18 UTC

The Imperial March but it's coming from Vader's chest control panel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox93IwDZB3s

2025-02-15 23:28:35 UTC

tired: zero-initialized memory
wired: nought-y bits

2025-02-08 07:43:16 UTC

LFT-Nine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws4twUyt-MY if you know how the C64 works, this starts out bog standard and then gets increasingly WTF

2024-06-24 06:47:14 UTC

Is "forensic accountant" a D&D class? Not exactly, no. But is it not _not_ a D&D class? Alas, also no.

2024-03-02 21:53:17 UTC

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@npub1vvk…xj9f This time, I made sure I have plenty of slack because my last move (from Germany to the US) was a complete shitshow (mostly due to factors outside my control, but having more slack in the scheduled would have helped)

2024-03-02 20:54:55 UTC

My new landlord (I'm moving soon) seems consistently surprised that, when they give me an itemized list of paperwork etc. they need me to take care of, I do so within a day unless there is something that actively prevents me from doing so.
Which now has me surprised. Like, wtf? There are absolutely plenty of things that go in my "not urgent, will probably take me 3 weeks to get to it" pile, but anything to do with a move is, you know, NOT THAT

2024-02-20 17:32:45 UTC

...You don't know how to use the 3 z shells?

2024-02-20 16:40:18 UTC

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@npub1ph7…srhq that's what VPEXPAND* are for

2024-02-19 23:28:54 UTC

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@npub1f3n…e887 you'll find that if you create a strong enough vacuum of UI programmers, the UI will suck all by itself due to physics

2024-02-19 23:19:56 UTC

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@npub1f3n…e887 if one transaction is good, updates using two separate transactions are twice as good!

2024-02-19 19:48:33 UTC

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@npub15ye…g69l @npub1ctg…5dmj yeah I know, you just use PCBs where possible, but wireless routers _do_ need wires on account of the (ever escalating) antenna arrays

2024-02-19 19:34:24 UTC

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@npub1vfh…e0hv That suspension is so low I can't help but wonder if that's street legal

2024-02-19 19:11:37 UTC

BREAKING: Our tear-down of a popular brand of supposedly "wireless" router proves there's in fact lots of wires inside

2024-01-30 01:05:27 UTC

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@npub1wr4…lppx just some happy little ludicrous gibs...

2024-01-28 23:59:24 UTC

You can't spell cough without kaff! actually, .... hmm.

2024-01-11 00:07:44 UTC

the Necroyesmicron, because even as a scary necromancer, sometimes you have to be open to things <3

2024-01-02 07:19:04 UTC

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@npub1x02…4ytm v_mad_u32_u24 is full rate, not quarter (since it can use the FP multiplier). Only the integer MADs with full 32x32->32 muls are quarter rate

2023-12-15 01:33:40 UTC

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@npub159y…uf43 record shaders

2023-11-22 21:21:23 UTC

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(all of this prompted by me looking at some compiler-generated code on Cortex-A57 and wondering why it was appreciably slower than I could explain, even with everything in cache. Yes, the compiler uses STR q-form for stores. I guess it should prefer STUR when the immed operand fits, huh?)

2023-11-22 21:18:59 UTC

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I take back my previous take-backs, the everything to do with the vector pipes on Cortex-A57 really is supremely cursed, le sigh