asciilifeform: back to above, the gods loving a joke, perhaps this is how we find out that p==np.

asciilifeform: i should also point out that 'fits in head' does not mean yours and mine, necessarily. there are many different heads.

asciilifeform: i can't guarantee that anyone will especially like the answer, if an answer were ever to appear.

asciilifeform: therein lies the real chthonian ur-terror here.

asciilifeform: until such is written, we will not actually know if bitcoin works.

asciilifeform: incidentally

asciilifeform: regardless of what else it does.

asciilifeform: not fits in head - ipso facto not well written

asciilifeform: well written == operates correctly + fits in head.

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: wat ?

asciilifeform: room for improvement.

asciilifeform: except right now we've a few 10k of lines which do not work.

asciilifeform: kakobrekla has it.

asciilifeform: better or best << http://log.bitcoin-assets.com/?date=29-10-2014#901470 ☝︎

asciilifeform: because mathematically impossible.

asciilifeform: no one gets to pwn it

asciilifeform: but that, if software is written correctly, it does not matter if an entire galaxy runs same.

asciilifeform: i don't much care about 'shoulds'

asciilifeform: my point earlier was not that dr. evil should force everyone somehow to use similar $widget, but that the whole 'monoculture is bad' concept exists in the popular mind solely because of microshit.

asciilifeform: i'd like to aim for type no. 2 here.

asciilifeform: mod6: http://www.loper-os.org/?p=305 << my essay on subject

asciilifeform: why not?

asciilifeform: you could use, for example, chinese ones

asciilifeform: who forces you to use arabic numerals?

asciilifeform: like a gigantic black hole that warps spacetime around it into strange shapes.

asciilifeform: idiocy we suffer from as a consequence of having microshit on our planet

asciilifeform: diversity of systems << idiocy

asciilifeform: butbut... the spec's right here!

asciilifeform: or 'tiger' tank.

asciilifeform: will you build ?

asciilifeform: mod6: you can probably download most of the info necessary to build a vintage mercedes benz.

asciilifeform: it works - or not.

asciilifeform: but software - doesn't.

asciilifeform: we all wear out. plastic or meat.

asciilifeform: like, your whole reich goes down

asciilifeform: e

asciilifeform: safety critical means not always death, but wors

asciilifeform: as in, would you want a multithreaded os like unix on, e.g., pacemaker ?

asciilifeform: one of the things pretty much no one (save possibly mircea_popescu) seems to comprehend is that bitcoin is, what old timers call - 'safety critical code'

asciilifeform: (jp?)

asciilifeform: 'first the man takes a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes the man'

asciilifeform just wanted a fucking book

asciilifeform: nic - similar. see example in 'bare metal os' (bsd license, iirc)

asciilifeform: disk - see example posted earlier (< 1 kb asm)

asciilifeform: the only devices a hypothetical bitcoin x86 os needs to comprehend is disk and nic

asciilifeform: what other things?

asciilifeform: that's a separate work

asciilifeform: mod6: idea being, among other merits, that in the future shedding the os entirely will be considerably easier.

asciilifeform: mod6: custom fs doesn't require an os-level turd, just a raw block device that the process is permitted to r/w.

asciilifeform had to look up most of above to make any sense

asciilifeform swears by 'unix hater's handbook'

asciilifeform downed pilot not worm connoisseur

asciilifeform would like to stay that way

asciilifeform innocent of ab initio unixen, other than as school homework

asciilifeform: ecc with amd cpu - almost impossible to obtain now. ecc on intel - on high-end 'xeon' boards.

asciilifeform: mats_cd03: no

asciilifeform: mod6: idea was, blockchain, as potentially the majority user of future hdd space on planet, deserves own (ab initio) scheme of mapping to block device.

asciilifeform: (re: 'go into forest')

asciilifeform: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKuatNrLHLY << with english translation in 'show more' box ☟︎

asciilifeform: them.

asciilifeform: 1m!

asciilifeform: she must've cleaned the last throne with eyes.

asciilifeform: probably began by driving ancient hdd 'voice coils' directly with his amps...

asciilifeform: (theme of block devices...)

asciilifeform: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_BeGDkNRtA << non-obligatory, but goes with the theme

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: seeking russian speakers to operate << srsly, operate, not translate ?

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: afaik he did it by reversing ye olde 'pc 9000'

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: remember the fella who booted linux on dead 'seagate' pcbs ?

asciilifeform: http://pastebin.com/CugtJUXt << int 13

asciilifeform: even now?!

asciilifeform: lol!

asciilifeform: on ancient boxes with parallel 'ata' - /dev/hdX

asciilifeform: /dev/sdX - raw block device present on all unix systems, represents a block device - e.g., hard disk - as a sequence of blocks of N (usually 512) bytes

asciilifeform: controller-agnostic.

asciilifeform: ('int 13' - traditional x86 bios interrupt function which exists to this day, used by most os boot loaders to fetch kernel from disk)

asciilifeform: ('pio' - programmed i/o, mode of using standard 'ata' without dma. used by simple schoolboy operating systems for x86)

asciilifeform: ('metal port' being a hypothetical 'bitcoind' that boots up as x86 os)

asciilifeform: and crap directly therein.

asciilifeform: if we're talking about a humbler turd that runs on unix, it'd take /dev/sdwhateverthefuck'

asciilifeform: a purist - can use x86 bios 'int 13' block routine. (slower)

asciilifeform: works on every machine i own.

asciilifeform: if we're talking about a metal port, i'd use my pio hdd driver (about 1k asm)

asciilifeform: what drivers.

asciilifeform: just, normal lba drives.

asciilifeform: nein

asciilifeform: existing fs are built to be 'all things to all people'

asciilifeform: blockchain gets a block device.

asciilifeform: aha.

asciilifeform: meant - fs crafted for the occasion.

asciilifeform: when i said fs,

asciilifeform: sufficiently smart fs will compact runs.

asciilifeform: again, compress.

asciilifeform: no need to ever store a mb of zero

asciilifeform: (run length encode)

asciilifeform: if only basic rll

asciilifeform: a la 'doublespace.'

asciilifeform: can compress below fs layer, realize

asciilifeform: disk longa, vita brevis

asciilifeform: http://lh3.ggpht.com/-8kIGkSd5HlY/UFdBJkTZo-I/AAAAAAAAdLQ/oGTBToZyGR8/karni-mata-temple-6%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800

asciilifeform: http://www.lovethesepics.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/pampered-rats-at-rat-temple.jpg