@tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz

Tristram Brelstaff @tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz · Aug 04, 2026

Replying to @ChrisMayLA6@mastodon.me.uk

@ChrisMayLA6@mastodon.me.uk A few months ago, I made a modified version of this picture as a form of 'art therapy': https://mathstodon.xyz/@tristrambrelstaff/116205699704133731

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Tristram Brelstaff @tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz · Jun 18, 2026

Replying to @Tattooed_Mummy@beige.party

@Tattooed_Mummy@beige.party "He waffles near the subject but is obviously not really sure what he's talking about." That sounds like his mind has been replaced by an LLM

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Tristram Brelstaff @tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz · May 25, 2026

Replying to @johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz

@johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz I seem to remember reading that James Watson got banned from organic chemistry lab work for trying to heat benzene over a naked flame. After Watson famously started "The Double Helix" with "I have never seen Francis Crick in a modest mood", Crick thought about starting his autobiography with "Jim was always clumsy with his hands. One had only to see him peel an orange".

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Tristram Brelstaff @tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz · May 06, 2026

Replying to @johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz

@johncarlosbaez I just misread the title as "Inepta Mathematica".

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Tristram Brelstaff @tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz · May 01, 2026

Replying to @dpiponi@mathstodon.xyz

@dpiponi@mathstodon.xyz Why shouldn't the voters themselves decide which electoral district they want to belong to?

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Tristram Brelstaff @tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz · Apr 29, 2026

Replying to @jkanev@fediscience.org

@jkanev @alda (Not entirely relevant but... ) That reminds me of the old Yellow Pages heading: "Boring see Civil Engineers"

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Tristram Brelstaff @tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz · Apr 08, 2026

Replying to @algernon@come-from.mad-scientist.club

@algernon Also, it can worth building things even if they are not worth building, because that is how you learn how to build things.

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Tristram Brelstaff @tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz · Apr 03, 2026

Replying to @baldur@toot.cafe

@baldur@toot.cafe Wow!. So good software engineering is necessary after all. Who'd have thought it?

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Tristram Brelstaff @tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz · Apr 01, 2026

Replying to @tante@tldr.nettime.org

@tante A real Wizard of Oz moment. You peek behind the veil expecting to see clean shiny code full of insights and best practices but instead you find something that could have come from a 1970's hacked up version of ELIZA.

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Tristram Brelstaff @tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz · Mar 30, 2026

Replying to @mrundkvist@archaeo.social

@mrundkvist I think even Ken Thompson would have difficulty implementing Unix on a 1kbyte ZX80. But fortunately I was already onto an i486 machine by the time I discovered Linux.

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Tristram Brelstaff @tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz · Mar 30, 2026

Replying to @db@social.lol

@db The clowns are in charge of the circus!

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Tristram Brelstaff @tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz · Mar 30, 2026

Replying to @mrundkvist@archaeo.social

@mrundkvist It was back in 1997 that I came across a Red Hat Linux box in our local bookshop and suddenly realised that now I could actually Unix machine at home. This possibility had never occurred to me before that moment. I had always assumed that Unix was just for universities and big companies. This was the second great "Aha!" moment in my computing career. The first was when I came across an advert for the Sinclair ZX80 in the August 1980 issue of New Scientist in the local library and suddenly realised that now I could actually have a computer of my own at home.

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Tristram Brelstaff @tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz · Mar 26, 2026

Replying to @codinghorror@infosec.exchange

@codinghorror The very wealthy are a danger to the operation of democracy in the same way that monopolies are a danger to the operation of markets. And they should be regulated and restricted in the same way.

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Tristram Brelstaff @tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz · Feb 28, 2026

Replying to @ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us

@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us I gave up on Labour membership when Jeremy Corbyn failed to come to an agreement with the Greens and Liberals. He might have actually got into power had he done so. I think that such an agreement will be even more necessary now that Labour are bringing 16 and 17 year olds into the electorate.

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Tristram Brelstaff @tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz · Feb 27, 2026

Replying to @mrundkvist@archaeo.social

@mrundkvist @annabmeyer The fact that a river crosses a mountain range actually indicates that the river was probably there before the mountain range rose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rivers_by_age

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Tristram Brelstaff @tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz · Jan 09, 2026

Replying to @Gargron__dup_1@mastodon.social

@Gargron@mastodon.social We need to identify the companies that are funding and supporting this. And then target them with as much negative publicity as possible.

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Tristram Brelstaff @tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz · Jan 25, 2025

Replying to @aral@mastodon.ar.al

@aral@mastodon.ar.al Trump is pushing to become the first US president to be assassinated with a harpoon.

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Tristram Brelstaff @tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz · Feb 27, 2023

Replying to @drmaddkap@meow.social

@drmaddkap@meow.social It is the suit he wore on the Moon but it shrunk a bit in the wash.

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