Jacobo Tarrío

Recordando esos carteles en contra del matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo que aparecieron en Compostela un día y que se sabía que venían de algún grupo estadounidense porque afirmaban que la ley "es un travesti" y animaban a llamar a su congresista.

Laquintacolumna@laquintacolumna.bsky.social

Está claro que los judíos conocen la idiosincrasia española por las pelis de Tom Cruise.

Some 4 years ago I wrote an S3M player because I wanted to remake "Second Reality" for the browser (didn't go past the explosion.) It was an "only needs to play one song" affair, but last year I cleaned it up and wrote some tests to make sure it worked properly... and then I got busy or something.

So today I remembered it was in my computer so I asked Gemini to verify it. Less than 30 minutes later it was fixed and completed. 4 years ago I'd be happy as a clam to have built an S3M player. Now I feel "meh". Maybe because I didn't build it; I just ordered it and it was brought to my table.

Anyway, I've uploaded it to github.com/jtarrio/s3mp.... Not like anyone will ever look at or use it. The next person who wants to play an S3M in their browser will probably just vibe code it, because nothing is worth anything anymore. And here I was thinking I was done mourning.

My completely uninformed hypothesis about today's computer news is that they ran some testing stuff on prod by mistake, overwrote the certificates, and when they realized, they tried to pretend everything was well until they could rotate them discreetly. Would love to know how far-off I am :-)

storage.courtlistener.comOrder on Motion to Disqualify Judge – #95 in DC PRESERVATION LEAGUE v. DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR (D.D.C., 1:26-cv-00477) – CourtListener.comORDER denying 86 Motion to Disqualify Judge. See Order for further details. Signed by Judge Ana C. Reyes on 10/18/2026. (lcacr2) (Entered: 10/18/2026)

And THIS is why judges don't go all guns blazing, issuing sanctions left and right, like so many commenters on this place would like to see.

Roger Parloff@rparloff.bsky.social

Here's is Judge Reyes' ruling last night denying the govt motion to have her recuse herself. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... /4

jacobo.tarrio.orgTo all employeesAdapt or get left behind.

We totally went crazy when the Internet came. It's exactly like that, today. jacobo.tarrio.org/2026/to-all-...

"LLMs were shit six months ago but now they are great, they've fixed all the issues" and other bullshit I've been hearing every 6 months like clockwork.

(Still waiting to be left behind forever.)

I just had a radio contact with France, but I only used 15 watts on accident. Doesn't matter, he heard me :-)

3910 miles, my farthest ever on 15 watts :-) My previous record was 3700. That's SSB, by the way.

I have a day off so I'm spending it updating my server to the latest Debian stable, like in old times.

Pensáis que estáis desconectados de la actualidad cultural por tener 47 años, pero imaginad eso y además vivir fuera y un día leer una noticia que da por supuestísimo que sabes que existe una película llamada "La Bola Negra", alguien llamado "los Javis" y alguien llamado "Guitarricadelafuente".

github.compasm/HOW-IT-WORKS.md at main · jtarrio/pasmA homemade DOS assembler for the Intel 8086/8088 processor - jtarrio/pasm

I wrote about how PASM, my self-hosted Intel 8086/8088 assember for DOS, works. github.com/jtarrio/pasm...

View full thread

And now it's built and I can enjoy that it's a full assembler in less than 10 kilobytes, and I wrote about how it works so you can learn about it, too. And you can stumble upon it and appreciate that it exists, and see the source code and go "holy shit, this guy wrote a hash table in assembly!".

Is that programming as art?

github.compasm/HOW-IT-WORKS.md at main · jtarrio/pasmA homemade DOS assembler for the Intel 8086/8088 processor - jtarrio/pasm

I wrote about how PASM, my self-hosted Intel 8086/8088 assember for DOS, works. github.com/jtarrio/pasm...

Does the world need an Intel 8086 assembler for DOS? Hell, no! Do I need an Intel 8086 assembler for DOS? Hell, no! Did I need to build an Intel 8086 assembler for DOS? Yes, I very much needed to build it.

What if you realize you've been engaging in post hoc rationalizations of the positions you favor in order to justify them within your framework that would reject them otherwise? Don't worry! Post hoc is proper hoc 👍👍

Eric Segall@espinsegall.bsky.social

We definitely do not have to worry about this.

github.comGitHub - jtarrio/pasm: A homemade DOS assembler for the Intel 8086/8088 processorA homemade DOS assembler for the Intel 8086/8088 processor - jtarrio/pasm

I've added an INCLUDE directive to my assembler, with infinite (more like 200, approximately) nesting levels. I think I won't be adding any more functionality after this. Now I want to improve the "how it works" writeup, and then I'll move on to the next cool project. github.com/jtarrio/pasm

Suddenly I remembered when someone at Google stood up on stage at TGIF and began with something like "it's been a tough year", went on to "so to thank our facilities team who take such good care of us" and ended with "we bought this marble machine!" Damn thing stayed in a building lobby for years.

Turns out you can only go so far on spite alone.

Jacobo Tarrío@jacobo.tarrio.org

Jokes aside, I think I'm finally (FINALLY!) out of my mourning period. (It's normal to mourn when someone takes away something you cared very much about and they don't even acknowledge how important it was to you, right?) Now I'm motivated by spite, which will work great for the rest of my career.

github.comRelease Version 0.2 · jtarrio/pasmAdds support for uninitialized data (DB ?, DB 1024 DUP (?)).

I've published a release of PASM, my Intel 8086 assembler in 9336 bytes! github.com/jtarrio/pasm... (It is sure to grow, but let me enjoy its tinyness while I can.)

A street in my town has been repaved and the new road markings include chicanes and people on FB are complaining that it looks dangerous now and they can't go as fast as before :-}

github.compasm/HOW-IT-WORKS.md at main · jtarrio/pasmA homemade DOS assembler for the Intel 8086/8088 processor - jtarrio/pasm

Yay! I've written up how my DOS assembler for the Intel 8086/8088 microprocessor works: github.com/jtarrio/pasm...

It's funny that the file with the explanation of how it works is bigger than the assembled .COM file.

Includes a description of my hash table implementation, of which I'm quite proud. Last week I read a comment on HN from someone who was impressed by a C implementation ("I didn't even think it was possible!") and it was so amusing to see that after completing my assembly implementation :-)

Today in "you must think me an absolute moron."

My consolation is that real AI specialists are as fucked as we are. "I need to classify these documents" Real AI person: "oh, I'll use NLP with an autoclustering model which..." AI dweeb: "LLM'll do it" "I want to extract data from this printed page" Real AI: "OCR and a ..." AI dweeb: "LLM"

"Hey Jacobo you're using a lot of LLM!" (Brightly) "Yep!" "I'm glad you came around!" (Brightly) "Yep!" "Remember you used to say you only used LLMs when you didn't care about the result?" (Brightly) "Yep!" "I don't know what made you change your mind but keep it up!" (Brightly) "Yep!"

I've been working on my 8086 assembler and after implementing hash tables and optimizing hot code paths, I got it to build itself 6x faster. After that, I improved the README with bootstrapping instructions and an offer that I really hope someone will take me up on. github.com/jtarrio/pasm

This is why, even if I do write my assembly code by hand, I like using LLMs to review it.

github.comGitHub - jtarrio/pasm: A homemade DOS assembler for the Intel 8086/8088 processorA homemade DOS assembler for the Intel 8086/8088 processor - jtarrio/pasm

I wrote a DOS assembler for the Intel 8086/8088 microprocessor! github.com/jtarrio/pasm In fact, I wrote it twice: once in Go, and then again in assembly, so you can bootstrap it and then run it in your DOS machine. Only 10 kB so you can have it in the same 5¼" floppy disk as your source code!

Well, it looks like I've been successful in writing a 8086 assembler in 8086 assembly. The assembler can assemble itself, yielding the same binary, which is less than 10kB. I need to finish it up and then there's some text I want to write before I publish it.

Como me dijo mi padre un día que me quejaba, todo indignado, de los privilegios de otros: "Pero a ver, ¿tú qué quieres? ¿Tener lo que tienen ellos o quitarles a ellos lo que no tienes tú?"

Alfredo Pascual 🍉@guyb.bsky.social

Esta es la lógica que lo pudre todo, también en el mundo laboral: como no me atrevo a exigir los privilegios que tiene otro, exijo que el otro se joda como yo. La lucha horizontal, la que nunca cuestiona al poder. El enemigo, siempre, es tu vecino.

Someone with the same view of LLMs as me! Though I call them "machines for telling stories". An LLM does not fix your k8s setup; it tells the story of how your k8s setup was fixed, and it's attached to a harness that makes the story reality.

hikikomorphism@hikikomorphism.bsky.social

LLMs aren't made of neurology except in the most handwavey sense. They're made of narrative. That's why I started calling them text elementals: they're not human, they're most-likely-text generators we bent into living stories in a prose format centering the characters User and Assistant

When I was at Google we had access to an LLM chatbot a couple of ¿years? before the public did, and that's totally what it was. You could go through a whole customer service session with it, including sending emails and everything, except that it was all in the LLM's "mind". There were no emails.

Until four years ago, the only ones on this planet who could tell stories were Us, so suddenly we encounter this thing that can tell stories and our brains think it's Us too. But you don't need intelligence to tell stories! You only need a sufficiently large Mad Libs with a good dictionary.

21 Sept

I'll be honest with you: I routed two airplanes at the same altitude on the same path despite instructions to the contrary on the AGENTS file, and that's on me. I'll save a memory so I will avoid doing that next time. There was already a memory! No updates needed.

Eoin Higgins@eoinhiggins.bsky.social

You’re right—that plane shouldn’t have gone there. That’s my fault, and I should have made sure there wasn’t a terminal in the landing path. Would you like me to call emergency services, or assist with lining up takeoffs?

20 Sept

Every job posting nowadays: "we use AI to revolutionize healthcare finance with prediction markets!"

20 Sept

I've been getting pretty ok at writing 8086 assembly.

Jacobo Tarrío@jacobo.tarrio.org

Ohoho, now we're cooking.

Having built sandboxes, it is so fucking painful to read about what passes for a sandbox in the LLM world.

There's also the type of sandbox. Some people put a gVisor or a seccomp-based sandbox and... Ok, the LLM can't read from /proc but it can still connect to gmail and send copies of your most embarrassing purchases to your parents.

Now, I'm not saying that sandboxing LLMs is easy. It is hard. But there is trying and there is "not even trying".

Having built sandboxes, it is so fucking painful to read about what passes for a sandbox in the LLM world.

The problem is that an effective sandbox has to actually block things, and when you want your LLM to be able to do "everything but bad things"... There is no way you can effectively sandbox that. You could do a lot of credential and permissions management, but that's hard and only takes you so far.

You could build proxies for the services you want your LLM to access, that only allow some operations and use "fake" keys so the LLM never sees the real key. But then you have to build and maintain those. You could use an LLM to help you, but ¿weren't you trying to limit the LLM in the first place?

"The Oxford comma removes ambiguity." The Oxford comma:

18 Sept

The funniest joke the guy told us during my citizenship ceremony was "now you are not required to carry id".

Tiffany⸆⸉@tiffanyclay.dev

“If you’re a US citizen you have no reason to fear” – Markwayne Mullin, responding to a video of a teenage US citizen being repeatedly punched in the face by ICE.

18 Sept

You can choose between receiving $50,000 guaranteed, or infinite pulls at a slot machine that gives you a 50% chance of winning $1,000,000: you lose on the first Avogadro's Number of pulls, win on the next Avogadro's Number of pulls, and so on. Which one do you choose?