
Dissecting a Shader Quine - nice_byte
https://gpfault.net/posts/shader-quine.txt.html
======
Asooka
Once you think about it some more, it's not that different from any other
quine. A quine is a program whose output is bytes that are shown as text to
the viewer. GLSL doesn't have text rendering capabilities, but all that means
is that you have to embed a text renderer in your quine, i.e. a fixed string.
Once you can build a quine, embedding any random fixed string in it is more or
less trivial.

Not that it's not super neat, but the more interesting achievement for me is
the compact text renderer, not the act of embedding a text renderer in a
quine.

~~~
DonHopkins
Somebody should upgrade it to support a nice high resolution Dijkstra
handwriting font!

[https://joshldavis.com/2013/05/20/the-path-to-dijkstras-
hand...](https://joshldavis.com/2013/05/20/the-path-to-dijkstras-handwriting/)

------
jepler
related: [https://gizmodo.com/how-this-equation-draws-
itself-169816920...](https://gizmodo.com/how-this-equation-draws-
itself-1698169205)

------
another-cuppa
The thing doesn't show anything for me on Firefox or Chrome on Linux.

~~~
exikyut
Ah, another in the ranks of non-working WebGL. So many things I can't see :(

(I browse via VNC - long story - and I need to claw back as much RAM as
possible so Chrome is usable, so I tend to kill the GPU accelerator process
since it makes every renderer process use about 75% RAM! But byebye WebGL...)

~~~
Something1234
I kind of want to know why you browse via vnc.

~~~
exikyut
A very good question :) the reason is partly hilarious and absolutely
mystifying (to me at least).

The TL;DR of it is that for some reason I haven't yet identified, using some
kinds of electronic equipment affects my ability to focus and think clearly,
and replaces whatever clarity I have with debilitating fog and anxiety
instead, and the impact is so great this state can last for weeks afterwards
in worst-case situations. I've been aware of this since 2008 (when I had a bad
reaction to something that forced me off all my computers for 4 years), and
it's the reason I can't work or study, because my nerves keep reacting
(sometimes somewhat violently) to random bits of tech. :(

I know it's not a screen/display/eye thing, since the device that initially
set me off (a PlayStation 2) caused problems even if wasn't plugged into a TV.
I know it's not some kind of "electromagnetic radiation sensitivity" thing,
because I've been using Wi-Fi for years, I started using Wi-Fi _after_ the PS2
reaction, and I've never had a single issue (no brain fog or other symptoms)
with it.

I still can't use PS2s, I still get the same reactions, and I still react to
random things. An electronic toll-way (highway) tag (the kind that beeps when
it goes under a toll point). Some USB speakers. Multiple graphics cards.
Random computers I have to avoid.

And, unfortunately, every LCD I have here. :(

So my ThinkPad T43, which for some random reason seems to be okay, is actually
really just my "screen", although obviously I use its keyboard as well. I use
it to VNC to an i3-based machine I previously used with the aforementioned
LCDs until (eyebrow-raising story short) that PC got turned off and I realized
the screens were only the icing on the cake and that the machine itself was
also causing a lot of issues. Not sure whether it was switching the PSU or
removing the GPU that helped, but I can tolerate it being on now, so that's
how I browse. Typing over old+flaky 54Mbit Wi-Fi from upstairs to downstairs
(with an amplified Wi-Fi dongle at my end, even! Definitely not an EM/RF
sensitivity problem) is great: I was very impressed to find that per-character
latency is only maybe 30-40ms, maybe even 25ms. (At some point I hope to
measure it with a slow-mo camera, that would be cool.)

But yeah, the not-working and not-studying thing is driving me nuts.
(Particularly with health issues involved that are really expensive to
treat.... :D The reason I'm using a 12 year old computer isn't really because
"it's a magic PC", it's more that I've just never been able to go shopping for
anything [else].)

