Update

feminism.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Feminism
 
-*Sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from feminism.* --[drummyfish](drummyfish.md)'s law
+*Sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from feminism.* --old Chinese proverb
 
 Feminism, also feminazism or femifascism, is a [fascist](fascism.md) [terrorist](terrorism.md) [pseudoleftist](pseudoleft.md) movement aiming for establishing [female](woman.md) as the superior gender, for social revenge on men and gaining political power, e.g. that over [language](political_correctness.md). Similarly to [LGBT](lgbt.md), feminism is violent, [toxic](toxic.md) and [harmful](harmful.md), based on [brainwashing](brainwashing.md), mass hysteria, [bullying](bullying.md) (e.g. the [metoo](metoo.md) campaign) and [propaganda](propaganda.md).
 

game.md

@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ Despite arguments about the usefulness of games, most people agree on one thing:
 
 PC games are mostly made for and played on [MS Windows](windows.md) which is still the "gaming OS", even though in recent years we've seen a boom of "[GNU](gnu.md)/[Linux](linux.md) gaming", possibly thanks to Windows getting shittier and shittier every year. While smallbrains see this as good, in fact it only leads to more windowization of GNU/Linux, i.e. games will just move to GNU/Linux, make it the new place of business and destroy it just as surely (indeed for example [Valve](valve.md) is already raping it, by 2023 "Linux" is already almost unusable as it became more mainstream and popular). Many normies nowadays are practicing "mobile" or console gayming which may be even worse, but really choosing between PC, consoles and phones is like choosing which kind of torture is best to endure before death. Sadly most games, even when played on [GNU](gnu.md)/Linux, are still [proprietary](proprietary.md), [capitalist](capitalist_software.md) and [bloated](bloat.md) as hell. So yeah, the world of mainstream and even mainstream indie games is one big swamp that's altogether best to be avoided.
 
-{ If you are really so broken that you HAVE TO play proprietary games to live a meaningful life, the least harmful way for everyone is to [SOMEHOW GET YOUR HANDS ON](piracy.md) old DOS games, or at worst some pre 2005 Windowzee gaymes, and play them in [dosbox](dosbox.md)/[wine](wine.md) or engine recreations like [OpenMW](openmw.md) etc. Yeah it's dirty, proprietary, non-free shit, but at least you don't need a supercomputer, you won't be tortured by ads, robbed by microthefts or bullied into consuming Internet. It's best if you just use this method to slowly rid yourself of your gayming addiction to be finally free. ~drummyfish }
+{ If you are really so broken that you HAVE TO play proprietary games to live a meaningful life, the least harmful way for everyone is to [SOMEHOW GET YOUR HANDS ON](piracy.md) old DOS games, or maybe games for some old consoles like [gameboy](gameboy.md), [playstation](playstation.md) 1 etc., or at worst some pre 2005 Windowzee gaymes, and play them in [dosbox](dosbox.md)/[wine](wine.md) or engine recreations like [OpenMW](openmw.md) etc. Yeah it's dirty, proprietary, non-free shit, but at least you don't need a supercomputer, you won't be tortured by ads, robbed by microthefts or bullied into consuming Internet. It's best if you just use this method to slowly rid yourself of your gayming addiction to be finally free. Also make sure to absolutely NEVER pay for a proprietary game -- NO, not even an indie one. Give the money to the homeless. ~drummyfish }
 
 We might call this the **great tragedy of games**: the industry has become similar to the industry of **drug abuse**. Games feel great and can become very addictive, especially to people not aware of the dangers (children, retards, ...). Today not playing latest games makes you left out socially, out of the loop, a weirdo. Therefore contrary to the original purpose of a game -- that of making life better and bringing joy -- an individual "on games" from the capitalist industry will crave to constantly consume more and more "experiences" that get progressively more expensive to satisfy. This situation is purposefully engineered by the big game producers who exploit psychological and sociological phenomena to enslave *gamers* and make them addicted. Games become more and more predatory and abusive and of course, there are no moral limits for corporations of how far they can go: games with [microthefts](microtransaction.md) and lootboxes, for example, are similar to gambling, and are often targeted at very young children and people prone to gambling addictions. The game industry cooperates with the hardware and software industry to together produce a consumerist hell in which one is required to constantly [update](update_culture.md) his hardware and software and to keep spending money just to stay in. The gaming addiction is so strong that even the [FOSS](foss.md) people somehow create a **mental exception** for games and somehow do not mind e.g. [proprietary](proprietary.dm) games even though they otherwise reject proprietary software. Even most of the developers of free software games can't mentally separate themselves from the concepts set in place by capitalist games, they try to subconsciously mimic the toxic attributes of such games (bloat, unreasonably realistic graphics and hardware demands, content consumerism, [cheating](cheating.md) "protection", language filters and safe spaces, ...).
 

make_stats.sh

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ echo "making stats"
 
 FILE_NAME="wiki_stats.md"
 
-printf "# LRS Wiki Stats\n\nThis is an auto-generated article holding stats about this wiki.\n\n" > $FILE_NAME
+printf "# LRS Wiki Stats\n\nThis is an autogenerated article holding stats about this wiki.\n\n" > $FILE_NAME
 
 printf -- "- number of articles: " >> $FILE_NAME
 ls *.md | wc -l >> $FILE_NAME

mechanical.md

@@ -2,7 +2,9 @@
 
 WORK IN PROGRESS
 
-Mechanical computer (simple ones also being called *mechanical [calculators](calculator.md)*) is a [computer](computer.md) that uses mechanical components (e.g. marbles, gears, strings, even fluids ...) to perform computation (both [digital](digital.md) and [analog](analog.md)). Not all non-[electronic](electronic.md) computers are mechanical, there are still other types too -- e.g. computers working with [light](light.md), biological, [quantum](quantum.md), [pen and paper](pen_and_paper.md) computers etc. Sometimes it's unclear what counts as a mechanical computer vs a mere calculator, an automaton or mere instrument -- here we will consider the term in a very wide sense. Mechanical computers used to be used in the [past](history.md), mainly before the development of [vacuum tubes](vacuum_tube.md) and [transistors](transistor.md) that opened the door for much more powerful computers. However some still exist today, though nowadays they are usually intended to be educational toys, they are of interest to many (including [us](lrs.md)) as they offer simplicity (independence of [electricity](electricity.md) and highly complex components such as transistors and microchips) and therefore [freedom](freedom.md). They may also offer help after the [collapse](collapse.md). While nowadays it is possible to build a simple electronic computer at home, it's only thanks to being able to buy highly complex parts at the store, i.e. still being dependent on [corporations](corporation.md); in a desert one can much more easily build a mechanical computer than electronic one. Mechanical computers are very cool.
+Mechanical computer (simple ones also being called *mechanical [calculators](calculator.md)*) is a [computer](computer.md) that uses mechanical components (e.g. levers, marbles, gears, strings, even fluids ...) to perform computation (both [digital](digital.md) and [analog](analog.md)). Not all non-[electronic](electronic.md) computers are mechanical, there are still other types too -- e.g. computers working with [light](light.md), biological, [quantum](quantum.md), [pen and paper](pen_and_paper.md) computers etc. Sometimes it's unclear what counts as a mechanical computer vs a mere calculator, an automaton or mere instrument -- here we will consider the term in a very wide sense. Mechanical computers used to be used in the [past](history.md), mainly before the development of [vacuum tubes](vacuum_tube.md) and [transistors](transistor.md) that opened the door for much more powerful computers. However some still exist today, though nowadays they are usually intended to be educational toys, they are of interest to many (including [us](lrs.md)) as they offer simplicity (independence of [electricity](electricity.md) and highly complex components such as transistors and microchips) and therefore [freedom](freedom.md). They may also offer help after the [collapse](collapse.md). While nowadays it is possible to build a simple electronic computer at home, it's only thanks to being able to buy highly complex parts at the store, i.e. still being dependent on [corporations](corporation.md); in a desert one can much more easily build a mechanical computer than electronic one. Mechanical computers are very cool.
+
+{ Britannica 11th edition has a truly amazing article on mechanical computers under the term *Calculating Machines*: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Calculating_Machines. Also this leads to many resources: https://www.johnwolff.id.au/calculators/Resources.htm. ~drummyfish }
 
 If mechanical computer also utilizes [electronic](electronics.md) parts, it is called an electro-mechanical computer; here we'll however be mainly discussing purely mechanical computers.
 
@@ -24,18 +26,18 @@ Next we may divide mechanical computers to:
 And to:
 
 - **autonomous**: Computers that only require to be started and then work completely on their own, without human intervention.
-- **semi-autonomous**: Computers largely working on their own but still requiring some human assistance during computation, for example rotating some lever to keep the parts moving.
+- **semi-autonomous**: Computers largely working on their own but still requiring some human assistance during computation, for example turning some handle to keep the parts moving.
 - **computation helpers**: Tools that only aid the man who is doing most of the computation -- typical examples are [abacus](abacus.md), [slide rule](slide_rule.md) or [integraph](integraph.md).
 
 ## Basics
 
-**Analog** computers are usually special purpose. { At least I haven't ever heard about any general purpose analog computer, not even sure if that could work. ~drummyfish } Very often they just solve some specific equation needed e.g. for computing ballistic curves, they may perform [Fourier transform](fourier_transform.md) etc. Especially useful are computers performing [integration](integration.md) and solving [differential equations](differential_equation.md) as computing many practically encountered equations is often very hard or impossible -- mechanical machines can integrate quite well, e.g. using the famous ball and disk integrator.
+**Analog** computers are usually special purpose. { At least I haven't ever heard about any general purpose analog computer, not even sure if that could work. ~drummyfish } Very often they just solve some specific equation needed e.g. for computing ballistic curves, they may perform [Fourier transform](fourier_transform.md), compute areas of arbitrary shapes that can be traced by a pencil (see [planimeter](pleanimeter.md)) etc. Especially useful are computers performing [integration](integration.md) and solving [differential equations](differential_equation.md) as computing many practically encountered equations is often very hard or impossible -- mechanical machines can integrate quite well, e.g. using the famous ball and disk integrator.
 
 As mere [programmers](programming.md) let us focus more on **digital** computers now.
 
 When building a digital computer from scratch we usually start by designing basic [logic gates](logic_gate.md) such as AND, NOT and OR -- here we implement the gates using mechanical principles rather than transistors or relays. For simple special-purpose calculators combining these logic gates together may be enough (also note we don't HAVE TO use logic gates, some mechanisms can directly perform arithmetic etc.), however for a highly programmable general purpose computer **logic gates alone practically won't suffice** -- in theory when we have finite memory ([in real world](irl.md) always), we can always just use only logic gates to perform any computation, but as the memory grows, the number of logic gates we would need would grow exponentially, so we don't do this. Instead we will need to additionally implement some **sequential processing**, i.e. something like a [CPU](cpu.md) that performs steps according to program instructions.
 
-Now we have to choose our model of computation and general architecture, we have possibly a number of options. Mainly we may be deciding between having a separate storage for data and program (Harvard architecture) or having the program and data in the same memory (intending for the computer to "reshape" this initial program data into the program's output). Here there are paths to explore, the most natural one is probably trying to imitate a **[Turing machine](turing_machine.md)**, probably the simplest "intuitive" computer, but we can even speculate about e.g. some kind of rewriting system imitating formal [grammars](grammar.md), [cellular automata](cellular_automaton.md) etc. Turing machine seems to be the friendliest (both for construction and programming -- try to program something useful in [rule 110](rule110.md)...), most natural way, so that might be the best first choice.
+Now we have to choose our model of computation and general architecture, we have possibly a number of options. Mainly we may be deciding between having a separate storage for data and program (Harvard architecture) or having the program and data in the same memory (intending for the computer to "reshape" this initial program data into the program's output). Here there are paths to explore, the most natural one is probably trying to imitate a **[Turing machine](turing_machine.md)** (many physical finite-tape Turing machines exist, look them up), probably the simplest "intuitive" computer, but we can even speculate about e.g. some kind of rewriting system imitating formal [grammars](grammar.md), [cellular automata](cellular_automaton.md) etc -- someone actually built a simple and elegant [rule 110](rule_110.md) marble computer (look up on YT), which is Turing complete, but not very practical. So Turing machine seems to be the closest to our current idea of a computer (try to program something useful in rule 110...), it's likely the most natural way, so that might be the best first choice we try.
 
 Turing machine has a separate memory for program and data. To build it we need two main parts: memory tape (an array of [bits](bit.md)) and control unit (table of states and their transitions). We can potentially design these parts separately and let them communicate via some simple interface, which simplifies things. The specific details of the construction will now depend on what components we use (gears, marbles, dominoes, levers, ...)...
 
@@ -52,7 +54,7 @@ The **advantages** of gears are for example instant transfer of motion -- even i
 Besides others gears/wheels can be used to:
 
 - **Transmit power**, i.e. delivering motion to components that need motion to work (even in computers that don't use gears themselves as computing components).
-- **Do [arithmetic](arithmetic.md)**: for example a differential can be used to instantly add two numbers (or actually to compute any linear combination, e.g. average, ... using the [slide rule](slide_rule.md) concept we can probably even implement multiplication, division etc.).
+- **Do [arithmetic](arithmetic.md)**: for example a differential can be used to instantly add two numbers (or actually to compute any linear combination, e.g. average, ... using the [slide rule](slide_rule.md) concept we can probably even implement multiplication, division etc.). A simple stepped-cylinder (kind of a "gear") alongside with normal gears can also be used to implement addition, subtraction and even multiplication (as explained e.g. in 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica; this principle was used e.g. by the old Russian calculators).
 - **Represent a general digital value** by how they are currently rotated, i.e. a gear with *N* teeth -- each one labeled with a value -- can hold one of *N* values depending on which of the values is currently under some pointer -- this is often used in mechanical calculators e.g. to display computed values. This has the advantage of being able to represent a digital number with one relatively simple part (the wheel) without having to encode multiple bits (i.e. many smaller parts). This may also be used to make a **[look up table](lut.md)** -- imagine e.g. a wheel which by rotating looks up some value that may be represented e.g. by displacement (imagine spinning spiral) or holes on the wheel. If the gear represents a natural number, it naturally implements [modulo](mod.md) increment/decrement (highest value will overflow to lowest and vice versa).
 - **Represent one [bit](bit.md)** by turning either clockwise or counterclockwise.
 - Possibly represent values also in other ways, for example by speed of rotation, rotation vs stillness, position (gear traveling on some toothed slider, ...) etcetc.
@@ -62,7 +64,7 @@ Besides others gears/wheels can be used to:
        1         1
   __  ,-,  ___  ,-,  _______
  |   { o }     { o }   ,-,  |
- |    '-',    ,-,'-'  { o } |
+ |    '-;,    ,-;-'   { o } |
  |    _|||___{ o }_____;-;  |
  |            '-'.-.  { o } |
  |_____________ { o } _'-'__|   
@@ -73,7 +75,7 @@ Besides others gears/wheels can be used to:
        0         1
   __  ,-,  ___  ,-,  ______
  |   { o }     { o }-,     |
- |   ,'-' ,-,   '-{ o }    |
+ |   ,;-' ,-,   '-{ o }    |
  |  _|||_{ o }_____;-;     |
  |        '-'  .-.{ o }    |
  |___________ { o }'-'_____|   
@@ -85,9 +87,9 @@ Besides others gears/wheels can be used to:
 
 ### Marbles/Balls
 
-Using marbles (and possibly also similar rolling shapes, e.g. cylinders, disks, ...) for computation is **one of the simplest** and most [KISS](kiss.md) methods for mechanical computers and may therefore be considered very worthy of our attention -- it's much easier to build a "marble maze" than to build a geared machine (even gears themselves aren't that easy to make).
+Using marbles (and possibly also similar rolling shapes, e.g. cylinders, disks, ...) for computation is **one of the simplest** and most [KISS](kiss.md) methods for mechanical computers and may therefore be considered very worthy of our attention -- the above mentioned marble [rule 110](rule_110.md) computer is a possible candidate for **the most KISS Turing complete computer**. But even with a more complicated marble computer it's still much easier to build a "marble maze" than to build a geared machine (even gears themselves aren't that easy to make).
 
-**Basic principle** is that of a marble performing computation by going through a maze -- while a single marble can be used to evaluate some simple [logic circuit](logic_circuit.md), usually (see e.g. [Turing Tumble](turing_tumble.md)) the design uses many marbles and performs sequential computation, i.e. there is typically a **bucket** of marbles placed on a high place from which we release one marble which (normally by relying on [gravity](gravity.md)) goes through the maze and performs one computation cycle (switches state, potentially flips a memory bit etc.) and then, at the bottom (end of its path), presses a switch to release the next marble from the top bucket. So the computation is autonomous, it consumes marbles from the top bucket and fills the bottom bucket (with few marbles available an operator may sometimes need to refill the top bucket from the bottom one). The maze is usually an angled board onto which we just place obstacles; multiple layers of boards with holes/tunnels connecting them may be employed to allow more complexity.
+**Basic principle** is that of a marble performing computation by going through a maze -- while a single marble can be used to evaluate some simple [logic circuit](logic_circuit.md), usually (see e.g. [Turing Tumble](turing_tumble.md)) the design uses many marbles and performs sequential computation, i.e. there is typically a **bucket** of marbles placed on a high place from which we release one marble which (normally by relying on [gravity](gravity.md)) goes through the maze and performs one computation cycle (switches state, potentially flips a memory bit etc.) and then, at the bottom (end of its path), presses a switch to release the next marble from the top bucket. So the computation is autonomous, it consumes marbles from the top bucket and fills the bottom bucket (with few marbles available an operator may sometimes need to refill the top bucket from the bottom one). The maze is usually an angled board onto which we just place obstacles; multiple layers of boards with holes/tunnels connecting them may be employed to allow more complexity. { You can build it from lego probably. ~drummyfish }
 
 NOTE: Balls may be used to perform computation also in other ways than described here, very notable is e.g. the **[billiard ball computer](billiard_ball_computer.md)** (which also has a great advantage of performing reversible computation). However here we will focus on the traditional "marble maze" approach.
 
@@ -142,4 +144,6 @@ Whether the use of fluids/gases (water, air, steam, maybe even sand, ...) is sti
 
 ### Other
 
-Don't forget there exist many other possible components and concepts a mechanical computer can internally use. Teethed **cylinders/disks** may be used to record plots of data over time or to store and deliver read/only data (e.g. the program instructions) easily, see music boxes and gramophones; **[punch card](punch_card.md)** have widely been used for storing read-only data too. Sometimes deformed cylinders were used as an analog **2D [look up table](lut.md)** for some mathematical [function](function.md) -- imagine e.g. a device that has input *x* (rotating cylinder along its axis) and *y* (shifting it left/right); the cylinder can then at each surface point record function *f(x,y)* by its width which will in turn displace some stick that will mark the function value on a scale. To transfer movement **strings, chains and belts** may also be used. [Random number generation](rng.md) may be implemented e.g. with [Galton board](galton_board.md). Some mechanical computers even use pretty complex parts such as mechanical arms, but these are firstly hard to make and secondly prone to breaking, so try to avoid complexity as much as possible.
+Don't forget there exist many other possible components and concepts a mechanical computer can internally use -- many things we leave out above for the questionability of their practical usability can be used to in fact carry out computation, for example dominoes or slinkies. Furthermore many actually useful things exist, e.g. teethed **cylinders/disks** may be used to record plots of data over time or to store and deliver read/only data (e.g. the program instructions) easily, see music boxes and gramophones; **[punch card](punch_card.md)** have widely been used for storing read-only data too. Sometimes deformed cylinders were used as an analog **2D [look up table](lut.md)** for some mathematical [function](function.md) -- imagine e.g. a device that has input *x* (rotating cylinder along its axis) and *y* (shifting it left/right); the cylinder can then at each surface point record function *f(x,y)* by its width which will in turn displace some stick that will mark the function value on a scale. To transfer movement **strings, chains and belts** may also be used. [Random number generation](rng.md) may be implemented e.g. with [Galton board](galton_board.md). If timing is needed, pendulums can be used just like in clock. Some mechanical computers even use pretty complex parts such as mechanical arms, but these are firstly hard to make and secondly prone to breaking, so try to avoid complexity as much as possible.
+
+BONUS THOUGHT: We have gotten so much used to using our current electronic digital computers for everything that sometimes we forget that at simulating actual physical reality they may still fail (or just be very overcomplicated) compared to a mechanical simulation which USES the physical reality itself; for example to make a simulation of a tsunami wave it may be more accurate to build an actual small model of a city and flood it with water than to make a computer simulation. That's why aerodynamic tunnels are still a thing. Ancient NASA flight simulators of space ships did use some electronics, but they did not use computer graphics to render the view from the ship, instead they used a screen projecting view from a tiny camera controlled by the simulator, moving inside a tiny environment, which basically achieved photorealistic graphics. Ideas like these may come in handy when designing mechanical computers as simulating reality is often what we want to do with the computer; for example if we want to model a [sine](sin.md) function, we don't have to go through the pain of implementing binary logic and performing iterative calculation of sine approximation, we may simply use a pendulum whose swinging draws the function simply and precisely.

wiki_stats.md

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 This is an auto-generated article holding stats about this wiki.
 
 - number of articles: 538
-- total size of all texts in bytes: 2739611
+- total size of all texts in bytes: 2741763
 
 longest articles:
 
@@ -23,6 +23,13 @@ longest articles:
 latest changes:
 
 ```
+Date:   Thu Jan 11 23:31:02 2024 +0100
+bloat.md
+capitalism.md
+how_to.md
+mechanical.md
+wiki_pages.md
+wiki_stats.md
 Date:   Wed Jan 10 15:57:16 2024 +0100
 left_right.md
 wiki_stats.md
@@ -42,10 +49,6 @@ Date:   Sun Jan 7 16:06:57 2024 +0100
 how_to.md
 people.md
 permacomputing_wiki.md
-rock.md
-slowly_boiling_the_frog.md
-Date:   Sun Jan 7 03:16:15 2024 +0100
-how_to.md
 ```
 
 most wanted pages: