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Thorsten Ball

@thorstenball.com

4.3K followers 250 following 720 posts

Author of interpreterbook.com and compilerbook.com. Working at Sourcegraph. Previously Zed. Programming where the rubber hits the road. Writing Register Spill at: registerspill.thorstenball.com

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Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jul 19

Oh yeah. Wait for that 1 Mile chapter. Or battery park.

Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jul 15

Will pass on!

Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jul 15

Don't they support "!<command here>" in there?

Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jul 12

Arriving with the sound of two thousand angry tambourines, here it is:

New issue of Joy & Curiosity!

registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/joy-and-cu...

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Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jul 9

Glad you like it! :(

Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jul 6

Oh my god, Marty, would you look at that!

What is it, Barbara? Are you okay?

Marty, it's... it's... two made-up names and...

a new issue of Joy & Curiosity!

registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/joy-and-cu...

Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jul 2

So sorry to hear, Brian. Man that sucks. Virtual hug

Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jun 28

Look, look, look! It's back!

The two week break is over.

A new Joy & Curiosity.

Read it here (if you're not subscribed — wow): registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/joy-and-cu...

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Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jun 25

I wrote about it in the last or second to last newsletter :)

Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jun 21

Extending the summer break: no newsletter this weekend.

Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jun 19

Not sure I'm following, tbh

Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jun 13

I think it comes from gaming

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Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jun 13

CARO: Robert Moses, who replaced corruption in New York City, was worse than corruption for the democratic processes. In the postwar era many forces were coming together to destroy those processes in New York. But he was the most import—

THORSTEN, CARO'S FRIEND: fuck him up bob

Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jun 10

Well, just ask someone who says agents can't code?

Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jun 10

I don't think agents commit that much, but write a lot of code. 80%?

Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jun 10

ampcode.com/news.rss

ampcode.com

Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jun 10

Amp now supports subagents.

They're very powerful and I wonder whether they will change a lot of things.

So I wrote about them: ampcode.com/agents-for-t...

Screenshot of the blog post that starts with this text:

"Amp now has subagents. Here’s what they look like in action:

<screenshot of app showing subagents>

But chances are that the first sentence and even that screenshot didn’t cause your facial expression to change.

After all: who even knows what a subagent is? So let’s start there.

What’s a subagent? If you’ve read How to Build an Agent you know that we define an agent as “an LLM with access to tools, giving it the ability to modify something outside the context window.”

Subagents are tools, too. They are agents that can be started by the main agent, the one you’re interacting with when you use Amp.

[...]"

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Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jun 8

(And yes! Brilliant post!)

Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jun 8

Since you like Go: I've found that implementing an agent yourself and playing around with that is the best learning experience

ampcode.com/how-to-build...

How to Build an Agent

Building a fully functional, code-editing agent in less than 400 lines.

ampcode.com

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Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jun 8

Drums being drummed on, rattles, cymbals—

A group of people shouting hey, hey, hey—

Something's falling out of the sky, thrown out of a plane, what is it?

The group of people is pointing towards it.

"Hey, it's a new Register Spill!"

registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/joy-and-cu...

Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jun 3

Haha, es wurden mir PIN/PUK gegeben damit man auch Online was freischalten kann, aber gleich dazu gesagt: "das müssen sie nicht! sie können den brief erstmal irgendwohin legen"

Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jun 3

Municipal office in my town let me know that my new personal ID is ready.

The Reply-To here translates to:

"Please use email from attachment"

Welcome to small-town Germany

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Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · Jun 1

Yesterday I told my wife "you have to watch this" and showed her the Dyson keynote with the PencilVac and the FluffyCones and said stuff like "look! double lasers!" and "haha, no, wait, the best is yet to come"

Today I'm wondering whether she looks at me the same.

Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · May 31

Wait, what is tha—

Someone slipped something under the door. It's...

Look, it's a new Register Spill!

(Special Saturday Morning Delivery with Special Jujutsu Intro)

registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/joy-and-cu...

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Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · May 29

Okay, okay, `jj split` — that's nice.