My guess was a binary counter combined with an adder, with delay equalling 2+8*D1+16*D2+32*D3+64*D4. But I don't own one, so I can't directly verify.

So Long to Cheap Books You Could Fit in Your Pocket

I am certainly going to miss mass markets, and cherish some of the ones I have (Cornell Woolrich’s Black novels ftw). But some of the ones I’ve pulled off the shelf lately are virtually unreadable, like a copy of 1984 that looks like it was printed entirely in 8-point bold.

Given the information on the back, how do the dip switches (likely) work? How much of a delay is the current setting?

The golden snake is definitely a top 10 animal.

The probability seed m beats seed n is n^β/(m^β + n^β) for β≥1. We have a standard knockout tournament with 2^k players seeded 1..2^k i.e. seed s faces seed 2^k+1-s in the first round etc. For which β does seed 1 have a positive probability of winning the tournament as k → ∞?

A person with n dice attacks a person with n dice. We match highest dice, then next highest and so on. Ties go to the defender. The asymptotic expected number of losses for the defender is c*sqrt(n) for some constant c. What is c?

MIP*=RE We show that the class MIP* of languages that can be decided by a classical verifier interacting with multiple all-powerful quantum provers sharing entanglement is equal to the class RE of recursively...

I don't know if this is common knowledge, but two quantumly-entangled hyper-aliens could (probabilistically) convince you that a particular Turing machine eventually halted, even if it'd take 10^500 steps. (assuming my understanding is correct)

arxiv.org/abs/2001.043...

For the math folks on here: NSF has suspended Terry Tao's grant. www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/...

A book with a dark red cover. The title is Egyptian Hieroglyphics for Complete Beginners

Stopped in Oxfam for some fair-trade chocolate and came away with a new hobby

Arrange the following three sums in increasing order of size, where n goes from 1 to infinity.

A. Sum[(-1)^(n+1) sin(n)/n]
B. Sum[(-1)^(n+1) (sin(n)/n)^2]
C. Sum[(-1)^(n+1) (sin(n)/n)^3]

(via Stan Wagon)

I think @gregegansf.bsky.social will find this one particularly interesting.

Hello, everyone. I'll be importing my followers from the Bad Place this week, so please have patience.

Fishtopher, a brown and black striped tabby cat. He lays in the shelter next to a chrome bowl. His large head is hung low to the floor of the kennel, as he looks up with sad green eyes and very large, round cheeks. His ears are slightly down and his mouth looks small and almost like a frown. He protects his body with his round tail in a very sad, closed off manner.

Fishtopher, a brown and black striped tabby cat, now in his forever home. He stands up and leans against the couch but the lower half of his body is blocked by the camera person's leg. He looks slightly upward with large, sparkling green eyes. His ears are pointed up and forward and his mouth is almost in a wide smile. His pink nose is a much brighter pink now, and his large cheeks are still large, but smaller in comparison.

to be loved is to be changed

Looking for thoughts on these digital subscriptions. I've subscribed to most of these at some point in the past, but as physical subscriptions.

New York Review of Books
London Review of Books
Times Literary Supplement
LA Review of Books
The New Yorker
Boston Review
n+1
Paris Review

Bilbo lies upside down on the coffee table and smiles into the camera, comfy on his blanket. He says "Kiss please!"

kiss pelase !