LaurieWired
@lauriewired.bsky.social
researcher @google; serial complexity unpacker
ex @ msft & aerospace
ex @ msft & aerospace
Take a look at your keyboard.
See the backslash key?
It’s the *only* punctuation character (not a glyph!) created in the computer age.
Just about every typographic symbol on your keyboard is centuries old.
See the backslash key?
It’s the *only* punctuation character (not a glyph!) created in the computer age.
Just about every typographic symbol on your keyboard is centuries old.
November 11, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Take a look at your keyboard.
See the backslash key?
It’s the *only* punctuation character (not a glyph!) created in the computer age.
Just about every typographic symbol on your keyboard is centuries old.
See the backslash key?
It’s the *only* punctuation character (not a glyph!) created in the computer age.
Just about every typographic symbol on your keyboard is centuries old.
Shader systems are ridiculously powerful if you’re clever enough.
Most people use them to create visual effects. You know what’s cooler?
Running Linux.
Inside an emulated RISC-V CPU. Inside a pixel shader. Inside of VRChat...
Most people use them to create visual effects. You know what’s cooler?
Running Linux.
Inside an emulated RISC-V CPU. Inside a pixel shader. Inside of VRChat...
November 10, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Shader systems are ridiculously powerful if you’re clever enough.
Most people use them to create visual effects. You know what’s cooler?
Running Linux.
Inside an emulated RISC-V CPU. Inside a pixel shader. Inside of VRChat...
Most people use them to create visual effects. You know what’s cooler?
Running Linux.
Inside an emulated RISC-V CPU. Inside a pixel shader. Inside of VRChat...
HP Labs once built a broken supercomputer…on purpose.
Teramac had over 220,000 Hardware Defects.
The question was; can you make a reliable computer out of *known* bad parts?
It was a phenomenal software problem to route around the faults:
Teramac had over 220,000 Hardware Defects.
The question was; can you make a reliable computer out of *known* bad parts?
It was a phenomenal software problem to route around the faults:
November 5, 2025 at 6:28 PM
HP Labs once built a broken supercomputer…on purpose.
Teramac had over 220,000 Hardware Defects.
The question was; can you make a reliable computer out of *known* bad parts?
It was a phenomenal software problem to route around the faults:
Teramac had over 220,000 Hardware Defects.
The question was; can you make a reliable computer out of *known* bad parts?
It was a phenomenal software problem to route around the faults:
You’ve heard of the Unix 2038 Problem.
I bet you haven’t heard of the GPS 2038 problem.
Every GPS navigation device in existence experiences an integer overflow every 19.6 years.
Last time, it wiped out iPhones, NOAA weather buoys, and a number of flights in China:
I bet you haven’t heard of the GPS 2038 problem.
Every GPS navigation device in existence experiences an integer overflow every 19.6 years.
Last time, it wiped out iPhones, NOAA weather buoys, and a number of flights in China:
November 4, 2025 at 7:50 PM
You’ve heard of the Unix 2038 Problem.
I bet you haven’t heard of the GPS 2038 problem.
Every GPS navigation device in existence experiences an integer overflow every 19.6 years.
Last time, it wiped out iPhones, NOAA weather buoys, and a number of flights in China:
I bet you haven’t heard of the GPS 2038 problem.
Every GPS navigation device in existence experiences an integer overflow every 19.6 years.
Last time, it wiped out iPhones, NOAA weather buoys, and a number of flights in China:
The reason we know Radiation causes bit-flips in DRAM is pretty hilarious.
In the late 70s, Intel Ram was occasionally producing soft, uncorrectable errors.
Turns out, the ceramic packaging on the chip itself had a little bit of Uranium.
You know, as one does.
In the late 70s, Intel Ram was occasionally producing soft, uncorrectable errors.
Turns out, the ceramic packaging on the chip itself had a little bit of Uranium.
You know, as one does.
November 3, 2025 at 7:41 PM
The reason we know Radiation causes bit-flips in DRAM is pretty hilarious.
In the late 70s, Intel Ram was occasionally producing soft, uncorrectable errors.
Turns out, the ceramic packaging on the chip itself had a little bit of Uranium.
You know, as one does.
In the late 70s, Intel Ram was occasionally producing soft, uncorrectable errors.
Turns out, the ceramic packaging on the chip itself had a little bit of Uranium.
You know, as one does.
A Spooky Unix story for Halloween.
A new programmer accidentally ran “rm -rf *” as root, on one of the main computers at the University of Manchester.
He stopped halfway, but /bin, /etc, /dev, and /lib were gone.
What followed was one of the most insane live recoveries in computer history:
A new programmer accidentally ran “rm -rf *” as root, on one of the main computers at the University of Manchester.
He stopped halfway, but /bin, /etc, /dev, and /lib were gone.
What followed was one of the most insane live recoveries in computer history:
November 1, 2025 at 6:14 PM
A Spooky Unix story for Halloween.
A new programmer accidentally ran “rm -rf *” as root, on one of the main computers at the University of Manchester.
He stopped halfway, but /bin, /etc, /dev, and /lib were gone.
What followed was one of the most insane live recoveries in computer history:
A new programmer accidentally ran “rm -rf *” as root, on one of the main computers at the University of Manchester.
He stopped halfway, but /bin, /etc, /dev, and /lib were gone.
What followed was one of the most insane live recoveries in computer history:
The biggest predictor of coding ability is Language Aptitude. Not Math.
A study posted in Nature found that numeracy accounts for just 2% of skill variance.
Meanwhile, the neural behaviors associated with language accounted for 70% of skill variance.
A study posted in Nature found that numeracy accounts for just 2% of skill variance.
Meanwhile, the neural behaviors associated with language accounted for 70% of skill variance.
October 31, 2025 at 6:21 PM
The biggest predictor of coding ability is Language Aptitude. Not Math.
A study posted in Nature found that numeracy accounts for just 2% of skill variance.
Meanwhile, the neural behaviors associated with language accounted for 70% of skill variance.
A study posted in Nature found that numeracy accounts for just 2% of skill variance.
Meanwhile, the neural behaviors associated with language accounted for 70% of skill variance.
Programming Isn't Math, It's Linguistics.
Compilers and Humans have the same problem. We're all terrible at understanding each other.
Join me for some formal language theory, a lot of C++, and some "recreational" insults.
Compilers and Humans have the same problem. We're all terrible at understanding each other.
Join me for some formal language theory, a lot of C++, and some "recreational" insults.
October 29, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Programming Isn't Math, It's Linguistics.
Compilers and Humans have the same problem. We're all terrible at understanding each other.
Join me for some formal language theory, a lot of C++, and some "recreational" insults.
Compilers and Humans have the same problem. We're all terrible at understanding each other.
Join me for some formal language theory, a lot of C++, and some "recreational" insults.
Thermal engineers literally peform miracles.
Today's chips would absolutely *fry* with older cooling.
If we were stuck with 2000s era heatsinks, every modern CPU + GPU would be basically unusable.
A 2001 Flagship GPU pushed ~30W. Now we have to deal with 500W+!
Today's chips would absolutely *fry* with older cooling.
If we were stuck with 2000s era heatsinks, every modern CPU + GPU would be basically unusable.
A 2001 Flagship GPU pushed ~30W. Now we have to deal with 500W+!
October 27, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Thermal engineers literally peform miracles.
Today's chips would absolutely *fry* with older cooling.
If we were stuck with 2000s era heatsinks, every modern CPU + GPU would be basically unusable.
A 2001 Flagship GPU pushed ~30W. Now we have to deal with 500W+!
Today's chips would absolutely *fry* with older cooling.
If we were stuck with 2000s era heatsinks, every modern CPU + GPU would be basically unusable.
A 2001 Flagship GPU pushed ~30W. Now we have to deal with 500W+!
All US Nuclear Reactor incidents are public and posted online by the NRC.
My Favorites:
“The reactor cavity is full of water. [Individual] ingested some amount of cavity water.”
(Michigan, 4 days ago)
“Unit 2 is being reduced from 100% in response to the influx of jellyfish.”
(Florida, 2011)
My Favorites:
“The reactor cavity is full of water. [Individual] ingested some amount of cavity water.”
(Michigan, 4 days ago)
“Unit 2 is being reduced from 100% in response to the influx of jellyfish.”
(Florida, 2011)
October 26, 2025 at 2:46 AM
All US Nuclear Reactor incidents are public and posted online by the NRC.
My Favorites:
“The reactor cavity is full of water. [Individual] ingested some amount of cavity water.”
(Michigan, 4 days ago)
“Unit 2 is being reduced from 100% in response to the influx of jellyfish.”
(Florida, 2011)
My Favorites:
“The reactor cavity is full of water. [Individual] ingested some amount of cavity water.”
(Michigan, 4 days ago)
“Unit 2 is being reduced from 100% in response to the influx of jellyfish.”
(Florida, 2011)
Dynamic programming was invented to confuse the Secretary of Defense.
Seriously.
Wilson (the SecDef) “would get violent if people used the term research in his presence”.
RAND mathematicians thus needed a cover story to hide their work:
Seriously.
Wilson (the SecDef) “would get violent if people used the term research in his presence”.
RAND mathematicians thus needed a cover story to hide their work:
October 23, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Dynamic programming was invented to confuse the Secretary of Defense.
Seriously.
Wilson (the SecDef) “would get violent if people used the term research in his presence”.
RAND mathematicians thus needed a cover story to hide their work:
Seriously.
Wilson (the SecDef) “would get violent if people used the term research in his presence”.
RAND mathematicians thus needed a cover story to hide their work:
imagine if modern datacenters looked this beautiful
glass walls, street level, IBM in the 1960s was unmatched
glass walls, street level, IBM in the 1960s was unmatched
October 23, 2025 at 5:41 AM
imagine if modern datacenters looked this beautiful
glass walls, street level, IBM in the 1960s was unmatched
glass walls, street level, IBM in the 1960s was unmatched
Every year, we get closer and closer to a true “Egg Computer”.
We’ve already made:
- Egg Transistors
- Egg Resistive Memories
- Egg Supercapacitor electrodes
- AND + NOT Logic Gates
Albumin is a hilariously good organic semiconductor material.
We’ve already made:
- Egg Transistors
- Egg Resistive Memories
- Egg Supercapacitor electrodes
- AND + NOT Logic Gates
Albumin is a hilariously good organic semiconductor material.
October 22, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Every year, we get closer and closer to a true “Egg Computer”.
We’ve already made:
- Egg Transistors
- Egg Resistive Memories
- Egg Supercapacitor electrodes
- AND + NOT Logic Gates
Albumin is a hilariously good organic semiconductor material.
We’ve already made:
- Egg Transistors
- Egg Resistive Memories
- Egg Supercapacitor electrodes
- AND + NOT Logic Gates
Albumin is a hilariously good organic semiconductor material.
Using text opacity to visualize information flow of source code is such an insanely good idea.
Imagine using a small model to auto-highlight fuzzier concepts like contextual relevance.
Only working on backend code? Opacity fade UI functions…etc
Imagine using a small model to auto-highlight fuzzier concepts like contextual relevance.
Only working on backend code? Opacity fade UI functions…etc
October 20, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Using text opacity to visualize information flow of source code is such an insanely good idea.
Imagine using a small model to auto-highlight fuzzier concepts like contextual relevance.
Only working on backend code? Opacity fade UI functions…etc
Imagine using a small model to auto-highlight fuzzier concepts like contextual relevance.
Only working on backend code? Opacity fade UI functions…etc
You’re (probably) measuring application performance wrong.
Humans have a strong bias for throughput.
"I can handle X requests per second."
Real capacity engineers use response-time curves.
Humans have a strong bias for throughput.
"I can handle X requests per second."
Real capacity engineers use response-time curves.
October 17, 2025 at 7:16 PM
You’re (probably) measuring application performance wrong.
Humans have a strong bias for throughput.
"I can handle X requests per second."
Real capacity engineers use response-time curves.
Humans have a strong bias for throughput.
"I can handle X requests per second."
Real capacity engineers use response-time curves.
super excited to share I’ll be keynoting at re//verse this year!
October 16, 2025 at 7:59 PM
super excited to share I’ll be keynoting at re//verse this year!
Lopsided compute systems are fascinating.
That is, architectures massively overpowered in one dimension (e.g. PS3, Vector FLOPs) .
But crippled by another (PS3, ~256MB VRAM).
It’s not *quite* as much of an issue these days, yet it always leads to interesting programming:
That is, architectures massively overpowered in one dimension (e.g. PS3, Vector FLOPs) .
But crippled by another (PS3, ~256MB VRAM).
It’s not *quite* as much of an issue these days, yet it always leads to interesting programming:
October 15, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Lopsided compute systems are fascinating.
That is, architectures massively overpowered in one dimension (e.g. PS3, Vector FLOPs) .
But crippled by another (PS3, ~256MB VRAM).
It’s not *quite* as much of an issue these days, yet it always leads to interesting programming:
That is, architectures massively overpowered in one dimension (e.g. PS3, Vector FLOPs) .
But crippled by another (PS3, ~256MB VRAM).
It’s not *quite* as much of an issue these days, yet it always leads to interesting programming:
GPU computing before CUDA was *weird*.
Memory primitives were graphics shaped, not computer science shaped.
Want to do math on an array? Store it as an RGBA texture.
Fragment Shader for processing. *Paint* the result in a big rectangle.
Memory primitives were graphics shaped, not computer science shaped.
Want to do math on an array? Store it as an RGBA texture.
Fragment Shader for processing. *Paint* the result in a big rectangle.
October 14, 2025 at 8:43 PM
GPU computing before CUDA was *weird*.
Memory primitives were graphics shaped, not computer science shaped.
Want to do math on an array? Store it as an RGBA texture.
Fragment Shader for processing. *Paint* the result in a big rectangle.
Memory primitives were graphics shaped, not computer science shaped.
Want to do math on an array? Store it as an RGBA texture.
Fragment Shader for processing. *Paint* the result in a big rectangle.
Colleges do a terrible job of teaching C++.
It’s not “C with Classes”. Injected into curriculums as a demonstration of early CS concepts, it leaves many with a sour taste.
Students later immediately fall in love with the first language that *doesn’t* feel that way.
It’s not “C with Classes”. Injected into curriculums as a demonstration of early CS concepts, it leaves many with a sour taste.
Students later immediately fall in love with the first language that *doesn’t* feel that way.
October 13, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Colleges do a terrible job of teaching C++.
It’s not “C with Classes”. Injected into curriculums as a demonstration of early CS concepts, it leaves many with a sour taste.
Students later immediately fall in love with the first language that *doesn’t* feel that way.
It’s not “C with Classes”. Injected into curriculums as a demonstration of early CS concepts, it leaves many with a sour taste.
Students later immediately fall in love with the first language that *doesn’t* feel that way.
My favorite programming burn is Bjarne Stroustrup was once (supposedly) asked what he thought of Java.
He said he doesn’t like to be negative about C++ Applications.
He said he doesn’t like to be negative about C++ Applications.
October 12, 2025 at 2:34 AM
My favorite programming burn is Bjarne Stroustrup was once (supposedly) asked what he thought of Java.
He said he doesn’t like to be negative about C++ Applications.
He said he doesn’t like to be negative about C++ Applications.
Graphing Calculators like the TI-83 receive a lot of hate for perceived obsoleteness.
Unironically, it’s one of the few times that younger generations experience a limited computing system.
The creativity from boredom, no phone, etc makes for some interesting programming.
Unironically, it’s one of the few times that younger generations experience a limited computing system.
The creativity from boredom, no phone, etc makes for some interesting programming.
October 9, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Graphing Calculators like the TI-83 receive a lot of hate for perceived obsoleteness.
Unironically, it’s one of the few times that younger generations experience a limited computing system.
The creativity from boredom, no phone, etc makes for some interesting programming.
Unironically, it’s one of the few times that younger generations experience a limited computing system.
The creativity from boredom, no phone, etc makes for some interesting programming.
Open Source isn't going to help.
There's a way to invisibly compromise all software.
A perfect, self-replicating "sin" passed down for generations of compilers.
It's not just theoretical, and Ken Thompson showed us how.
There's a way to invisibly compromise all software.
A perfect, self-replicating "sin" passed down for generations of compilers.
It's not just theoretical, and Ken Thompson showed us how.
October 8, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Open Source isn't going to help.
There's a way to invisibly compromise all software.
A perfect, self-replicating "sin" passed down for generations of compilers.
It's not just theoretical, and Ken Thompson showed us how.
There's a way to invisibly compromise all software.
A perfect, self-replicating "sin" passed down for generations of compilers.
It's not just theoretical, and Ken Thompson showed us how.
Artificial Chemistries (ACs) are the weirdest kind of “programming” you’ve never heard of.
Imagine being a chemist; but in an alternate-reality fanfiction where the elements that make up the world are wildly different.
Here’s how you write it.
Imagine being a chemist; but in an alternate-reality fanfiction where the elements that make up the world are wildly different.
Here’s how you write it.
October 7, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Artificial Chemistries (ACs) are the weirdest kind of “programming” you’ve never heard of.
Imagine being a chemist; but in an alternate-reality fanfiction where the elements that make up the world are wildly different.
Here’s how you write it.
Imagine being a chemist; but in an alternate-reality fanfiction where the elements that make up the world are wildly different.
Here’s how you write it.
It’s easy to predict how tech will change in your lifetime based on which mechanisms are already near theoretical limits.
- Battery energy density
- Display Resolution
- Datacenter Cooling
- Drone Endurance
- Skyscraper height
All very unlikely to 10x.
- Battery energy density
- Display Resolution
- Datacenter Cooling
- Drone Endurance
- Skyscraper height
All very unlikely to 10x.
October 6, 2025 at 6:07 PM
It’s easy to predict how tech will change in your lifetime based on which mechanisms are already near theoretical limits.
- Battery energy density
- Display Resolution
- Datacenter Cooling
- Drone Endurance
- Skyscraper height
All very unlikely to 10x.
- Battery energy density
- Display Resolution
- Datacenter Cooling
- Drone Endurance
- Skyscraper height
All very unlikely to 10x.
DDR5 is unstable garbage.
Max out your memory channels? Flaky.
Temperature a bit too hot? Silent Throttle with no logs.
Too “Dense” of a stick? Good luck training.
Last gen was rock solid by comparison. Here's what happened.
Max out your memory channels? Flaky.
Temperature a bit too hot? Silent Throttle with no logs.
Too “Dense” of a stick? Good luck training.
Last gen was rock solid by comparison. Here's what happened.
October 3, 2025 at 7:45 PM
DDR5 is unstable garbage.
Max out your memory channels? Flaky.
Temperature a bit too hot? Silent Throttle with no logs.
Too “Dense” of a stick? Good luck training.
Last gen was rock solid by comparison. Here's what happened.
Max out your memory channels? Flaky.
Temperature a bit too hot? Silent Throttle with no logs.
Too “Dense” of a stick? Good luck training.
Last gen was rock solid by comparison. Here's what happened.