As an aside, bit-player.org is an amazing blog and resource. Recently I've been thinking about what will happen when Brian Hayes, its author, shuffles off this mortal coil.
Other than relying on the Wayback Machine, what are the options for keeping a site like this alive and at least minimally maintained, at its original URL?
If you are volunteering, reach out and ask him. If not, ask for volunteers here then reach out and ask him. I an sure he would be happy to work with you on it.
Not much is known about the Necrotyr who became Aleph-Null.. oh you didn't mean that Aleph-Null.
Random old mysteries like this are fun. Maybe this will spread far enough the original Aleph-Null could hear about it but there's increasing odds they're dead.
John Francis in the comments seems to have (correctly) uncovered the mystery,
looking at the homepage given in that comment via wayback machine has a link github with commits as recent as november.
There's a specific tool for this. It works similarly to a spoon or knife, but it reduces the odds of cracking the jar or slipping and putting a knife through your hand.
I've got one in my kitchen drawer, and it works well. Occasionally you get a jar where the gap between the lid and the jar is too narrow for the tool to slot in, but that's rare.
I've used the spoon trick for the longest time, until I was found faced with the challenge in complete lack of spoon or similar instrument.
Then I looked at the cap and realised it has this wedgy shape slightly protruding.
Well, hold the jar strongly in one hand and hit that part hard with the ball of the hand near the base of the thumb. This deforms the cap just enough that air gets in.
Might take a couple of tries to get the hang of it but has worked for me ever since: I've never used the spoon trick again since at least a decade.
I rarely delve into comments sections. Kind of assumed if someone had brought up a solution the author would have updated it but I can see that dropping off when a comment comes 8 years after the article was published.
https://archive.is/qfeTH
As per the comments it was Richard Parkins, talked about on their website -https://web.archive.org/web/20220430130623/http://www.zen224...
Robert Morris mentioned in the letter was Robert Morris Jr.'s father.
Core Wars did lead to real life Cyber Wars.
[edit] Wow the in/famous CNN cover https://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19880926,00.htm... said this two months before the Morris Worm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_worm
Wasn't core wars a game (well a game if you find programing in assembly fun) https://corewars.org/
As an aside, bit-player.org is an amazing blog and resource. Recently I've been thinking about what will happen when Brian Hayes, its author, shuffles off this mortal coil.
Other than relying on the Wayback Machine, what are the options for keeping a site like this alive and at least minimally maintained, at its original URL?
If you are volunteering, reach out and ask him. If not, ask for volunteers here then reach out and ask him. I an sure he would be happy to work with you on it.
Not much is known about the Necrotyr who became Aleph-Null.. oh you didn't mean that Aleph-Null.
Random old mysteries like this are fun. Maybe this will spread far enough the original Aleph-Null could hear about it but there's increasing odds they're dead.
John Francis in the comments seems to have (correctly) uncovered the mystery, looking at the homepage given in that comment via wayback machine has a link github with commits as recent as november.
http://richard-parkins.free.nf/
I can’t wait to try that spoon trick next time I have a jar that is hard to open. I’ve been using a strap wrench.
I found(*) a new technique recently that works everytime.
Tap the edge of the lid on a hard surface while pointing the jar 45 deg downward.
Tapping the lid is a common suggestion, but the magic ingredient is the downward angle.
* by found I mean shown, by a senior professor of mechanical engineering.
There's a specific tool for this. It works similarly to a spoon or knife, but it reduces the odds of cracking the jar or slipping and putting a knife through your hand.
https://avantihomewares.com/jar-opener-blue/
I've got one in my kitchen drawer, and it works well. Occasionally you get a jar where the gap between the lid and the jar is too narrow for the tool to slot in, but that's rare.
I've used the spoon trick for the longest time, until I was found faced with the challenge in complete lack of spoon or similar instrument.
Then I looked at the cap and realised it has this wedgy shape slightly protruding.
Well, hold the jar strongly in one hand and hit that part hard with the ball of the hand near the base of the thumb. This deforms the cap just enough that air gets in.
Might take a couple of tries to get the hang of it but has worked for me ever since: I've never used the spoon trick again since at least a decade.
I find the tip of a butter knife, or other blunt-ish table knife, to work better.
I rarely delve into comments sections. Kind of assumed if someone had brought up a solution the author would have updated it but I can see that dropping off when a comment comes 8 years after the article was published.
Not sure if related but back in the day there was an aleph null associated with ADOM https://web.archive.org/web/19990428120058/http://www.aleph-...
Will the real Aleph Null please stand up?
Background: Aleph Null was a pseudonymous author of a column in a 1970s software journal whose identity is unknown.
They wrote on many eclectic computing topics. Their true identity is still unknown.
And no, this comment isn't an AI-written summary. :-)
This guy says he is Aleph Null: http://richard-parkins.free.nf/
I thought Aleph Null was countably infinite?
for a second I thought they were talking about the author of https://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs161/fa08/papers/stack_smas... but apparently that's aleph-one.
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