Recent Posts

Squircles and Sparkles

You know what's easy to find in app icons these days? Squircles and "AI sparkle" stars.

How do you get the squircle? Well, we know the formula for the unit circle is

$$x^2 + y^2 = 1.$$

But we can generalize to any positive real power of $d$, with a radius of $r$:

$$|x|^d + |y|^d = r^d$$

Here's what you'll get when you let $d=7$:

As $d$ goes higher, the shape becomes a closer approximation of a rectangle. (Interestingly, if you let $d=1$ you get an actual rectangle, but tilted 45 degrees like a diamond.)

It's when $d$ is fractional that you get the sparkle. Here's what you'll get when you let $d=0.4$:

With the help of Claude Code, a made an Icon Builder Web App. It can export SVGs, a favicon.ico, and an iOS-ready PNG for the homescreen.

You can find the code on GitHub.

Thoughts on Distributed Computation in Plur1bus

In "Pirate Lady" (S1E2), we see Zosia (played by Karolina Wydra) act with the kind of quiet confidence of someone who can pull a dead body out of wreckage and then motor scooter along to fly a plane with a short take off runway by herself.

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Hello, blog world!

As Simon Willison said:

The best time to start a blog may have been twenty years ago, but the second best time to start a blog is today.

For me, today is that very today.