Author: Geeks out of the Box

This is a blog about Simon, a young mathematician and programmer, and his little sister Neva. We write this blog together, share their projects and thoughts on their journey towards self-dicovery. They’re growing up in a supportive non-coercive learning environment. We deeply believe in interest-based, self-paced education and have had to move countries to make this possible as a family. Visit Simon’s website at https://simontiger.com/ We are a family from Amsterdam who moved to Antwerp because homeschooling is illegal in The Netherlands. This blog started as https://antwerpenhomeschooling.wordpress.com in March 2016. Over the years, most of our entries have gravitated towards exploring together with Simon as he has developed an insatiable passion for programming, math and science. His sister Neva is treading on his heals. We changed or name to Geeks of the Box in May 2021.
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NAND to Tetris with hardware: Problem Solving

Reading on in the From NAND to Tetris textbook. I realized I have a problem. One RAM chip only has one address but will have to be connected to three … Continue reading NAND to Tetris with hardware: Problem Solving

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Simon contemplating various voting systems

Last night, using simple logic, Simon proved to me why a two-candidate plurality voting system is better than many others. There’s a theorem called Arrow’s Theorem which says that any … Continue reading Simon contemplating various voting systems

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Simon’s sketch book, P vs. NP and Fallacy vs. Paradox

Simon took a piece of paper and drew P vs. NP and other complexity classes. P vs. NP is probably the most famous millennium problem, one of the seven most … Continue reading Simon’s sketch book, P vs. NP and Fallacy vs. Paradox

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Further plans about the NAND to Tetris project

One thing I don’t like about From NAND to Tetris is that they don’t explain sequential logic, like at all. They basically say: “Here’s a D flip-flop, don’t worry about … Continue reading Further plans about the NAND to Tetris project

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Nandgame!

Thanks to @BioGeek in the comments, Simon has discovered nandgame.com, one awesome computer engineering learning environment, corresponding to the first five chapters of the NAND to Tetris course (see our … Continue reading Nandgame!

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From NAND to Tetris

Last week, Simon found this awesome free computer engineering course and textbook, and dove right in. The course teaches how to create: A basic computer A higher-level language A mini … Continue reading From NAND to Tetris

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St.Nicolas Obsessions

Tomorrow we are celebrating Sinterklaas, or St.Nicolas’ birthday. It’s the climax of the traditional Dutch gift-giving season embracing the last two weeks of November and the first week of December. … Continue reading St.Nicolas Obsessions

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Simon’s Bézier Editor in p5.js

One more project inspired by Sebastian Lague: a Bézier Editor. Simon used Sebastian Lague’s algorithms to recreate the editor in p5.JS. Editor: https://editor.p5js.org/simontiger/present/r4gW2mgIo Code: https://editor.p5js.org/simontiger/sketches/r4gW2mgIo I added the export button! … Continue reading Simon’s Bézier Editor in p5.js

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Logic Gates. Simon has programmed his own Digital Logic Simulator.

Simon has been greatly inspired by Sebastian Lague’s new video on how computers work, it seems to have sparked a whole new wave of enthusiasm about logic gates and logic … Continue reading Logic Gates. Simon has programmed his own Digital Logic Simulator.