interfixus

Since I came across it in its very early days, for nearly three decades the fourmilab.ch site has been the one constant in my weblife. Treasure trove of projects and ideas and book suggestions. Eclectic is the word which pops up in my head right now and insists on being used.

Had a few email exchanges with the man himself. On randomness, on English grammar, on Swedish adventures in The Thirty Years' War, on certain politics (where we didn't necessarily see eye to eye but where there was plenty of room for civilised discussion). Unfailingly polite, informative, entertaining, and of course with cognitive ressources most of us can only dream of.

John Walker, thanks for all the effort and the inspiration. I shall miss your presence.

Or, as it turns out, even if you do.

So what? This crazy thing runs fine, albeit slowly, on my 12 year old ThinkPad. It's actually digesting an image of an anteater while I write this. Because of course it plays nicely and doesn't hog the hardware.

Ah yes, Mussolini's famous Norwegian campaign

> A German general decorating with the Iron Cross some soldiers of the Expeditionary Force and two soldiers of the SS, in Denmark, April 1940

Norwegian writing on Norwegian houses in Norwegian town with Norwegian trees in background. So a slight Gell-Mann effect creeps in, although the general outline of Bohr's escape seems well enough aligned with the facts as known.

> During the time I was dead

Semantic correction for this and all similar recollections: You are alive to tell the story, so you were, in fact, not dead.

Or, to be exact, halvfjerds.

Ha, I remember that news item, although from the other end of the world, and not really sure where I read it. The gist was that the first email had been sent to Australia, and I do distinctly remember that Melbourne was the endpoint.

It's not the author who doesn't get it. What is said is decimal gives rise to these round numbers, other bases yield other ones.

I did, not a month ago. Nothing strange about the process whatsoever.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from random noise.

> The actual toilet in which Friedrich Nietzsche realised God is dead

The actual caption which made me wonder if he was wrong.

> Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitaen

Eminently parsable for me. But then, I'm Danish and used to this kind of bolt-on word construction, or wordconstruction as I should far prefer it.