iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nicola De Mitri

@nicoladem.it

160 followers 518 following 96 posts

Former physicist who makes scientific software, molecular models and occasionally 3D art. He. Italian and British. @_nicolasap elsewhere, user 172020 June 2023.

Posts Replies Media

Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 07/07/2025

I'm glad I have a tweet of mine – from almost 2 years before consumer-level LLM chatbots – that proves that I was a prolific user of en dashes back then already. (Not em dashes, as I'm from this side of the Atlantic)

Two tweets by Nicola De Mitri (@_nicolasap), dated Jan 25, 2021, 1:12 PM. Text:

"Fraction of the sentences I write – in tweets, chats, emails – that contain a en dash ("–"):

• before I found a quick way to type it: 78%

• now that I've found it: 98.4%

(on Ubuntu: Shift+AltGr then "--.". Shift+AltGr then "---" for the em dash)"

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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 17/04/2025

RE: typesetting. Wow. I'm suddenly so sad that I was in Tokyo last month without knowing about the city's printing museum. (Image enhanced from @npreining.bsky.social's blog, 2013)

metal typesetting tray filled with metal letterpress type. The rectangular frame contains multiple rows of various metal type blocks arranged in horizontal lines. There are spacers of different sizes, as well as mathematical symbols, equation-making blocks and text (Japanese characters).

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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 17/04/2025

To think of how modern mathematical notation (sums, integrals, differentials, subscripts/superscipts, roots, trig, ...) had already been long-established – and typesettable! – by the time this 1895 bulletin was printed. And look so similar to lecture notes from the computer era.

Old page in Italian showing some differential derivation

Old page in Italian, classical differential geometry (?)

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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 17/04/2025

Literal "preprints", I believe to prove and set a date for a discovery? Title, author, endorser. "These articles will be published in the next issue".

Old text, in Italian. "Botanica. — Origine e differenziazione degli elementi vascolari primari nella radice delle Monocotiledoni. Nota I del Socio R. Pirotta. Matematica. — Sugli spazi plurisecanti di una semplice infinità razionale di spazi. Nota di Francesco Severi, presentata dal Socio Segre.
Queste due Note saranno pubblicate nel prossimo fascicolo." It translates to: "Botany. — Origin and differentiation of primary vascular elements in the root of Monocotyledons. Note I by Member R. Pirotta. Mathematics. — On plurisecant spaces of a simple rational infinity of spaces. Note by Francesco Severi, presented by Member Segre. These two Notes will be published in the next issue."

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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 17/04/2025

"Herein, we present an alternative framework..." but in 1902's Italian. "Noi abbiamo però pensato che alla soluzione del problema si poteva forse arrivare..." ("We thought, however, that the solution to the problem could perhaps be reached...")

Old text in Italian: "Noi abbiamo però pensato che alla soluzione del problema si poteva forse arrivare determinando le grandezze molecolari di sostanze racemiche, sciogliendole in un solvente in presenza di un forte eccesso di uno dei loro componenti. All'applicazione di questo metodo molte e varie difficoltà si oppongono, e prima di tutto la non grandissima precisione che si può raggiungere coi comuni apparecchi crioscopici."
which translates to "However, we thought that the solution to the problem could perhaps be reached by determining the molecular sizes of racemic substances, dissolving them in a solvent in the presence of a strong excess of one of their components. Many and various difficulties oppose the application of this method, and first of all the not very great precision that can be achieved with common cryoscopic apparatus."

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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 08/04/2025

Checkmate, health nerd

meme: a man giving a clever look (grinning and pointing to his temple), saying "can't give it a critical read ...if it isn't written"

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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 12/03/2025

itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languag...

Screenshot that reads: "The fact that there is a stubborn tendency in English grammar books to misrepresent will be as the future tense of be doesn't make it right. Traditional grammar is wrong about a whole big ugly bunch of other things too. The arguments that will does not form a tense are briefly summarized in The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, chapter 3, section 10.1, pp. 208-212, and set out in more detail in an article by Rodney Huddleston ("The case against a future tense in English", Studies in Language 19:399-446, 1995). The arguments include the fact that will expresses volition as well as future temporal location, and that it shows its own tense contrast between present and preterite"

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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 14/02/2025

Self portrait of my innie

A self-timer shot capturing a reflection of Nicola seated at a desk in a bright, naturally lit and modern study space, working on a laptop.

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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 02/02/2025

oh so this was you too?

the dowager countess and cousin Isabel wielding lightsabers in the drawing room of Downton abbey

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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 30/01/2025

Old me, in case you're wondering who the hell this is. Drawn by the same hand anyway, and it may work better as a pfp, so I may revert at some point.

A colourful digital portrait of the same man, drawn in a bold, cartoonish style. This time the focus is on his face, with round glasses and – as before – a full beard, freckles, and hair tied in a bun. The background features a purple circle, contrasting with the blue hoodie. Approachable vibes. (Illustration: Claudia Flandoli)

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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 30/01/2025

New PFP 🙃 (stolen from my wife's newsletter claudiaflandoli.substack.com/p/bilinguism...)

A simple digital sketch of a man sitting on a sofa with a laptop on his lap. He has his hair tied in a bun, is wearing a hoodie, sweatpants, and socks. The man is depicted from the side, looking slightly upward, as if thinking or engaged in a conversation. (illustration: Claudia Flandoli)

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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 07/01/2025

This 100%. And also: if someone told me that a political party used these characters as an embodiment of their values and manifesto, and asked me to guess if it was a party on the left or on the right, I'm sure I'd pick the (far) right.

Very muscular anthropomorphised animals: a lion and a bulldog, the latter in a police helmet. Strong apocalyptic vibes: dark shadows, cloudy skies. Typical traits of AI-generate images, with a strong teal and orange contrast.

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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 23/12/2024

When you still discover emojis you never knew existed. "U+1F68F Bus stop" was part of the original SoftBank set and included in Unicode Emoji since the very v1.0. 🚏

Google Noto Emoji design of the 'Bus Stop' emoji: a pole with three signs—a circular bus sign and two displaying lists or timetables.

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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 23/10/2024

My pet peeve is the overly elaborate style of Italian public notices. I wrote an exaggerate "leave your bike outside" sign, curious if an LLM would recognise the typical Italian verbosity and...it totally did! Wondering if it formed an opinion on Italian bombast on its own or by reading it somewhere

My prompt: ""La gentile Clientela è pregata di posteggiare biciclette, monopattini e velocipedi di ogni categoria presso le apposite aree sosta situate presso il posteggio anzistante Calzaturificio De Giovanni S.r.l. di De Giovanni Antonella e figli, sito in via Garibaldi 12 (posto qui di fronte). Si ringrazia per la Gentile Collaborazione."

What is this an example of?"

The AI:
"This appears to be an Italian public notice or sign requesting customers to park their bicycles, scooters, and other similar vehicles in designated parking areas located in front of De Giovanni Footwear Factory Ltd. (owned by De Giovanni Antonella and children), which is situated at 12 Garibaldi Street.
The text is written in a very formal, bureaucratic Italian style that's typical of official notices in Italy. The use of phrases like "La gentile Clientela" (dear customers) and "Si ringrazia per la Gentile Collaborazione" (thank you for your kind cooperation) is characteristic of formal Italian business communication.
The somewhat verbose and official tone used for a simple parking instruction is actually quite typical of Italian administrative and business notices, where formality and politeness are often expressed through elaborate language. It's the kind of sign you might find posted outside a business establishment in Italy."

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Nicola De Mitri @nicoladem.it · 03/07/2023

What do you mean you can't add videos to bsky?

A still image of a distorted dot pattern that is generally perceived to be moving (illusory motion)

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