blinry

blinry, 17 days ago

@thibaultamartin Ohh, got any specific recommendations for what to see in one day? :)

blinry, 17 days ago

Whoa, there are cafés and bakeries everywhere in Lille! Had luck with the weather today, and got to admire its cobblestone streets and brick buildings.

Quite some action in the city today: I saw a wedding with a big traditional choir, and I think there was a football (?) match against Lyon.

A decorated building with many windows close to each other.
A pedestrian zone with cobblestone ground and an old storefront.
Another pedestrian zone.

blinry, 17 days ago

Also, behind this unassuming façade hides a massive 10-storey book store, one of the largest in the country! If only my French was better... :/

A map that shows the 10 floors of the store.
A view into the book store.

blinry, 16 days ago

Boarding the Eurostar to London! ✨ Looking forward to see all the fish!

blinry, 16 days ago

Didn't spot any fish, but some passengers sang about sharks! 🦈

London also is full of loud, drunk men today... :( I'm assuming it's sports-related – does someone know what's going on?

quickly changes stations, gets on another train and flees

A mob of men raising their fists. A policemen observes. Blue smoke surrounds the scene.

blinry, 16 days ago

I'm in Oxford! Sandstone buildings, bars, and bookshops!

I did this "self-guided tour for new and prospective students", and enjoyed it a lot! It's very well-produced, and playing audio based on my location worked quite well.
https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/new/knowyouroxford

A circular sandstone building. It's a library for old English books.
A cluster of sandstone buildings. It's some college, I think?
A shopping steet with cute shops.

blinry, 16 days ago

And look who I met! @katzazi and @leyrer! Everyone's gravitating towards #emf2024! :D

blinry, 16 days ago

I also visited University of Oxford's Museum of Science, which showcases a lot of scientific instruments, including some super pretty and old astrolabes!

The museum didn't do a good of explaining how to use them, though. Need to look into that later tonight, maybe! :)

A blackboard used by Einstein.
Three astrolabes.
A 3D model hinting at a molecule structure.

blinry, 15 days ago

Isn't it weird that humans and bananas ever shared a common ancestor?!

A diagram showing ancestry relastionships of all lifeforms.

blinry, 14 days ago

Had a brilliant day in Oxford!

Visited Blackwell's Bookshop! <3 They have a giant underground room with cozy lighting, and staff that radiates their love of books!

blinry, 14 days ago

Saw a dodo skeleton at the Natural History Museum!

blinry, 14 days ago

Found the Penrose Paving at the Mathematical Institute!

Also learned that they published most of their undergraduate lectures on YouTube: https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/node/67930

blinry, 14 days ago

I really enjoyed my stay in Oxford, glad I came here! Such a cool and interesting place!

Tomorrow, I'll head to my final in-between stop before I go to #emf2024!

My shadow falling down a flight of stairs.
Another college from above.
A water-spewing demon on a chiech spire.

blinry, 14 days ago

Minding the step today.

blinry, 14 days ago

@Charlesflorian I missed those! Next time! :)

blinry, 14 days ago

I'm in Bletchley! :) Was greeted by a cat committee.

Cat 1
Cat 2

blinry, 14 days ago

Visited the National Museum of Computing today. I've been to plenty of computer museums – but this one is special: Almost everything works!

You can type on an Enigma, and then see how a bombe helped decipher it. It's loud!!

They also have a computer from 1951, the "Witch", which still works! It had 340 bytes of RAM, could calculate five values per second, and punch them out on paper tape!

A man stands in front of a big device with many rotating wheels.
A computer as big as three big wardrobes, with many vacuum tubes.
Paper tape with punched-out holes on wheels.

blinry, 14 days ago

More curious discoveries:

The largest "hard disk" I'd ever seen! (Capacity: 8 megabytes)

blinry, 14 days ago

Which disk drive should I get? Choices choices choices...

blinry, 14 days ago

You can play the "Colossal Cave Adventure" (the OG text adventure game), talk to ELIZA, and play tic-tac-toe using the number dial of an old phone!

I'm telling ELIZA about modern AI. It doesn't understand.
A phone next to a simulated tic-tac-toe display.

blinry, 14 days ago

Ah yes, Ruby 1.9.3. The peak of programming language design.

blinry, 14 days ago

Hard to believe that these were real ads, and not some retrofuture sci-fi.

"Only 2.1 m wide"

"New low cost per bit!"

As for disc files, highlighting their many advantages.

blinry, 14 days ago

Hello, Riley from the future! Uh, should we be worried?

blinry, 14 days ago

Assorted tech porn.

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blinry, 14 days ago

Finally, a collection of photos for the #mechanicalkeyboard crowd! :P Which one would you like to type on?

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