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The issue is not of low resolution exactly, but font format.

Knuth uses bitmap fonts, rather than vector fonts like everyone else. This is because his entire motivation for creating TeX and METAFONT was to not be reliant on the font technology of others, but to have full control over every dot on the page. METAFONT generates raster (bitmap) fonts. The [.tex] --TeX--> [.dvi] --dvips--> [.ps] --Distiller--> [.pdf] pipeline uses these fonts on the page. They look bad on screen because they're not accompanied by hinting for screens' low resolution (this could in principle be fixed!), but if you print them on paper (at typical resolution like 300/600 dpi, or higher of typesetters) they'll look fine.

Everyone else uses TrueType/OpenType (or Type 3: in any case, vector) fonts that only describe the shape and leave the rasterization up to the renderer (but with hinting for low resolutions like screens), which looks better on screen (and perfectly fine on paper too, but technically one doesn't have control over all the details of rasterization).


Maybe you did this too: I misread the comment you're replying to as

> …you’re arguing against someone who believes they are.

when actually it says

> …you’re arguing against who someone believes they are.

(meaning “you're arguing with someone against who they believe themselves to be” or something like that.)


Oh, you’re right - I did. I was very confused! Thanks for pointing this out.

Would that satisfy most commenters here?

Prediction: Android will roll out a flow for “experienced users” that they promised in November with “in the coming months” (https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/11/android-de...), which will allow “experienced users to accept the risks of installing software that isn't verified”. And even then people will still complain Google is being too controlling by making the warnings too scary / the process too onerous, etc. (I don't expect installing apps from source via adb connected to laptop to go away!)


This is what I was able to find with some quick searching:

- From Dec 2024 there's https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/2915570/state-g... and https://theinvestor.vn/thai-govt-collaborates-with-google-to... which list some efforts done in “collaboration between the Digital Economy and Society (DES) Ministry [of Thailand] and Google”. It mentions “The initiative started in April, providing the Google Play Protect feature”, which “blocked attempts by criminals to install apps more than 4.8 million times on more than 1 million Android devices”. And https://www.nationthailand.com/blogs/business/tech/40036973 is from earlier (Apr 2024), about the introduction of the Google Play Protect feature.

- From April 2025 there's https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/around-the-gl... a blog post from a “VP, Government Affairs & Public Policy”, which mentions “people in Asia Pacific feel it acutely, having lost an estimated $688 billion in 2024” (I think this may be across all scams?) and ends with “Combatting evolving online fraud in Asia-Pacific is critical” after listing a bunch of random things (unrelated to Android) Google is/was doing. This suggests to me that Google was under some criticism/pressure from governments for enabling scams, and eager to say “see, we're doing something”.

- The developer verification announcement came four months later in August 2025: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/08/elevating-...

> In early discussions about this initiative, we've been encouraged by the supportive initial feedback we've received. In Brazil, the Brazilian Federation of Banks (FEBRABAN) sees it as a “significant advancement in protecting users and encouraging accountability.” This support extends to governments as well, with Indonesia's Ministry of Communications and Digital Affairs praising it for providing a “balanced approach” that protects users while keeping Android open. Similarly, Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society sees it as a “positive and proactive measure” that aligns with their national digital safety policies.

This shows that it was a negotiation with the governments/agencies in Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand that were breathing down on Google to do something.

- The fourth country where this developer verification is rolling out first is Singapore, and https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/android-malware-sc... is from Sep 2023 while https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/google-android-dev... is from Feb 2024 which mentions that a certain upgrade to Google Play Protect (blocking apps if they “demands suspicious permissions such as access to restricted data like SMSes and phone notifications”) was first rolling out in Singapore.

- And the most recent https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/11/android-de... from November 2025 (which promised the “students and hobbyists” account type and the “experienced users” flow “in the coming months”) also has a “Why verification is important” section that mentions the “consistently acted to keep our ecosystem safe” and “common attack we track in Southeast Asia” and “While we have advanced safeguards and protections to detect and take down bad apps, without verification, bad actors can spin up new harmful apps instantly”.

The overall picture I get is less of “Google to suddenly abandon these iterative security improvements” but more like: under pressure from governments to stop scams, Google has been doing various things like the things you mentioned, and scammers have also been evolving and finding new ways to carry out scams at scale (like “impersonating developers”), and the latest upcoming change requiring developer verification on “certified Android devices” is simply the next step of the iteration. It sucks and feels like a wholesale lock-down, yes, but it does not seem a jarring disconnect from the previous steps in the progression of locking things down.


Don't miss the program he wrote after teaching himself BASIC from a book at age six (Fig 5 / book page 222 / PDF page 10):

> 320 print "(brmmmm-brmmmm-putt-putt-vraow-chatter-chatter bye mr. fibonacci!)"


That program listing hit me right in the feels.

I remember when I was 6 or 7 teaching myself Applesoft BASIC and writing programs with funny (to me) little print statements all through them - when computing was just exploding with possibility.

I wouldn't have had a clue what a Fibonacci sequence was though ;)


This does feel like something a super smart alien pretending to be an 8 year old would write.

Sometimes I wonder if HNers have met more aliens than 8 year olds.

Most 8 year olds haven't met any aliens.

Many have, from their perspective.

Found myself counting characters in case there was an easter egg in there. Spoiler: there isn't an easter egg in there.

The whole program is an Easter egg :) “sorry, he wasn’t born yet! try again” vs “no, he is already in heaven, try again”, and that cute goodbye routine.

See also Terence Tao's comments at https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2022/05/10/partially-specifie... which say things even more strongly (I had collected a link to it at https://shreevatsa.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/big-o-notation-a...):

> The symbol ∈ only is a viable solution in a portion of the use cases. For instance, an assertion such as O(n)⋅O(n) = O(n²) would not be correctly describable as O(n)⋅O(n) ∈ O(n²). Perhaps O(n)⋅O(n) ⊂ O(n²) would be defensible, but now one has to devote a non-trivial amount of thought into deciding which of the connectives =, ∈, ∋, ⊂, ⊃ to use in a given context. For instance the assertion “Since sin(y) = sin(x) + O(|y−x|), we have sin(x+O(1/n)) = sin(x) + O(1/n)” would now become “Since sin(y) ∈ sin(x) + O(|y−x|), we have sin(x+O(1/n)) ⊂ \sin(x) + O(1/n)”. Using the equality sign for all of these use cases instead is more intuitive and corresponds more closely to how the verb “is” (“to be”) is actually used in mathematical English.

and

> … Nevertheless most of us still often think in mereological terms rather than set-theoretic or first-order terms […] without requiring translation to set theory or first order logic; indeed, such a translation would only serve to slow that mathematician down as he or she would usually have translate it back into mereological form in order to wield it effectively. Because of this, I think it is worth adjusting our notational conventions to more closely align with our actual thought processes… I don’t see much advantage in interpreting each instance of the O() notation in the exponential type bound f(n) = O(\exp(O(nᴼ⁽¹⁾))) or the calculation (1 + O(1/n))ᴼ⁽ⁿ⁾ = \exp(O(1/n)⋅O(n)) = \exp(O(1)) = O(1) (for n sufficiently large), in terms of ideals.


The 2014 talk of Knuth that is being discussed (transcription published later in 2021): “Let’s Not Dumb Down the History of Computer Science”: https://cacm.acm.org/opinion/lets-not-dumb-down-the-history-...

HN discussion from 2021: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25907481


At the bottom of the article, it says:

> From When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy by Beronda L. Montgomery. Copyright © 2026. Available from Henry Holt and Co., an imprint of Macmillan

Usually this means that the article is actually a book excerpt (often the first chapter of the book), and in this case we can find online the book's table of contents:

    Preface
    Introduction: Life as Testimony
    1. Pecan Trees and the Roots of Stolen Botanical Knowledge
    2. Sycamore Trees as a Path to Freedom
    3. The Secret Lives of Willow Trees
    4. Poplar Trees Bear Strange Fruit
    5. The Sweeping Promise of Mulberry
    6. A Haven for Community in Historic Oak Trees
    7. Cotton Shrubs and Seeds of Subversion
    8. The Gift of Apple Trees
    Conclusion: Black Botanical Legacy Reclaimed
Usually the first chapter is self-contained, but in this case possibly there was some context about “Antoine’s innovation” in the Introduction that precedes the first chapter.


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