@n1vux@mastodon.radio

Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Jul 31, 2026

Replying to @pjf@cloudisland.nz

@pjf@cloudisland.nz @mjd@mathstodon.xyz Safe and Fast and Predictable.

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Jul 27, 2026

Replying to on m.ai6yr.org

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org ^Wait, why is this Speyside Highlands Scotch smokey? That's an islands thing!^

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Jul 24, 2026

Replying to @bennomatic@appdot.net

@bennomatic@appdot.net Same. It's in my Bio on this and other socials. Also the Oxford Comma, because I don't work for the AP.

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Jul 06, 2026

Replying to @KimSJ@mastodon.social

@KimSJ@mastodon.social @vampiress@eigenmagic.net (this rubric also applies to Crossword puzzles, Mathematics, and hardware)

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Jul 04, 2026

Replying to @vampiress@eigenmagic.net

@vampiress@eigenmagic.net So very much YES THIS

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Jun 23, 2026

Replying to @SecureOwl@infosec.exchange

@SecureOwl@infosec.exchange 🎼🎵 Daisy, Daisy, ...

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · May 11, 2026

Replying to @n1vux@mastodon.radio

@cstross@wandering.shop @chris_bloke@mastodon.acm.org @SteveBellovin@infosec.exchange @TheJen@beige.party Mom got a home computer in the early 1980. She gave me a very tight budget for a portable _and_ printer, so Osborne O-1 it was, that's what she could afford for Dissertation support for her return-for-terminal-degree. She's 93, so not taking on new technology now. (Dad eventually got used to Word Star and dot-matric printer since it could cut ditto and mimeo masters for school use, and was not happy with eventual transition to MS WINDOWS!)

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · May 11, 2026

Replying to @cstross@wandering.shop

@cstross@wandering.shop @chris_bloke@mastodon.acm.org @SteveBellovin@infosec.exchange @TheJen@beige.party Cool! My Mom was a part of Dartmouth's trial-run of their first BASIC class, they having drafted in any non-professorial staff that were STEM-ish; she also sat in on the trial of a revised Statistics class. All before I was born, mid 1950s.

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · May 11, 2026

Replying to @ham_sando@mastodon.social

@ham_sando@mastodon.social @dabeaz@mastodon.social euphemism, allusion, reductio-ad-absurdem, analogy, allegory, call it what you will; it slaps!

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · May 08, 2026

Replying to @technodad@cunnin.me

@technodad@cunnin.me :-o

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · May 07, 2026

Replying to @n1vux@mastodon.radio

@b0rk@social.jvns.ca so of course I emailed the sequence to my office-mate. ;-) (We were researchers, so this was a justifiable action!)

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · May 07, 2026

Replying to @n1vux@mastodon.radio

@b0rk@social.jvns.ca It didn't say if this only worked if the ESC [ 2 ; 1 y sequence was only honored from the keyboard or from the serial port or both; for factory testing, I guessed both. And it included "Repeat Tests until Failure" if the 8 bit was also set (␛[2;9y).

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · May 07, 2026

Replying to @n1vux@mastodon.radio

@b0rk@social.jvns.ca 40 years ago, i was doing computer security research at a QNGO, and was reading the small manual for the VT-100 I'd received (with a network card, quite avant garde!). I noticed that the Power On Self-Test could be invoked by an Escape Sequence. https://vt100.net/docs/vt100-ug/chapter3.html#DECTST

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · May 07, 2026

Replying to @n1vux@mastodon.radio

@nev@flipping.rocks @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · May 07, 2026

Replying to @nev@flipping.rocks

@nev@flipping.rocks @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org My ruler for (un)ethical AI (aside from the plagiarism 🐘 ) is whether there is an _actual_ explanation or trace capability. [Where "actual" means "not just another hallucination", but rather, where in the training data set did this line of generated text / piece of image / ... come from and why was it selected? Knowledge-engineered Expert Systems can do this, Data-Science built DSS usually can, but ML/LLM/PISS systems generally can't.]

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · May 07, 2026

Replying to @b0rk@social.jvns.ca

@b0rk@social.jvns.ca You managing to express the old magic that is just obvious to those of use who remember when the physical VT100 terminal was new (and the good one, and thus the de facto standard to emulate) will be so helpful to those who did NOT live thru that era but have to live with all the backward compatibility we've accumulated !

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · May 06, 2026

Replying to @regehr@mastodon.social

@regehr@mastodon.social There's an ongoing series Falsehoods Programmers Believe About ${topic}. https://github.com/kdeldycke/awesome-falsehood My spouse and child having hyphenated have discovered that a few programmers still believe surnames consist only of alphabetic ASCII, even in this 21st Century! 🙄 Timezone and Daylight Savings Time being political decisions are amazingly taught with exceptions!

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Apr 23, 2026

@markc568@beige.party @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org
All too common corporate HR practice, whether quarterly or annually; some even require the ratings to fit a bell-curve too, which would be expected only if people were assigned randomly.
HR MBAs making work for HR.

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Apr 22, 2026

Replying to @gardencourt@tech.lgbt

@gardencourt @Unixbigot plums are good too.

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Apr 22, 2026

Replying to @universalhub@mastodon.online

@universalhub@mastodon.online +1 Classical Allusion

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Apr 17, 2026

Replying to @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org

@ai6yr @lckrohjr Thank YOU !

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Apr 17, 2026

Replying to @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org

@ai6yr @lckrohjr I thought I was following both iembot_gyx and iembot_box , have just followed both @ krohs; GYX a week old, BOX a year old via Mastodon.Radio. Thanks

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Apr 11, 2026

Replying to @tubetime@mastodon.social

@tubetime +1 Classical Allusion

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Apr 07, 2026

Replying to @chad@mstdn.ca

@chad very nice, thank you

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Apr 04, 2026

Replying to @n1vux@mastodon.radio

@cschrader @ObsidianUrbex (The other formerly PCC trolley lines in (greater) Boston have been converted to modern catenary with use of modern LRV pantograph units, but for technical reasons that I forget offhand, the Mattapan line is just not a candidate for pantograph & catenary upgrade, so MBTA car-shop rewinds their own refurb motors and otherwise rebuilds PCCs as needed.)

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Apr 04, 2026

Replying to @cschrader@jawns.club

@cschrader @ObsidianUrbex PCC cars are also still running regular revenue service in Boston, on the Mattapan High-speed Line, the only line to go _through_ a cemetery (as opposed to between 2 adjacent such). (High-speed: not that high, by modern standards, but in old usage retained, meant not street-running, with widely spaced "suburban" stops, so it _can_ and likely will hit whatever it's speed limit is.)

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Apr 02, 2026

Replying to @scottsthoughts@better.boston

@scottsthoughts@better.boston Stem & Stern are either opposite ends of a ship, or a kerning error. #ShipPost #TypoPolice

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Mar 21, 2026

Replying to @soatok@furry.engineer

@soatok@furry.engineer *GROAN* that's a truly baaaad 🐑 pun. 😆

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Mar 20, 2026

Replying to @_thegeoff@mastodon.social

@_thegeoff @dianea 😆 Funny because it's too true.

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Mar 18, 2026

Replying to @futurebird__dup_2485@sauropods.win

@futurebird (by reputation, there are tags for this precis on AO3. I prefer your pun; thank you, I will be sharing this with the AO3 fans in my life.)

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Mar 17, 2026

Replying to @jaranta@scholar.social

@jaranta best wishes for your seminar, it sounds like it should be cool.

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Mar 17, 2026

Replying to @n1vux@mastodon.radio

@jaranta (Also forwarded to the only professional war-gamer I know, as distinct from game authors/promoters etc.; his business card says Naval Analyst, but in his case that's half running, critiquing, etc wargames as educational activities.)

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Mar 17, 2026

Replying to @jaranta@scholar.social

@jaranta Perhaps per theme you might invite someone from French RPG Rêve de Dragon , if they're to be found. (Not recent, but quite different, and it takes the Dream theme to extreme). (I have long since lost contact with he who sourced me a review copy of the original, long before there was an English adaptation, so I'm no help beyond a tantalizing suggestion, sorry.) (English adaptation is titled "Rêve: the Dream Ouroboros" for a second angle.)

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Mar 13, 2026

Replying to @sclower@stranger.social

@sclower@stranger.social is he claiming he is one, or he works for one?

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Feb 16, 2026

Replying to @mwichary@mastodon.online

@mwichary@mastodon.online Wang Labs had specially engineered cassettes for the 2200 series desktops. Including read/write tabs that were resettable, but most importantly, controlled tension, andnhigher quality magnetic film. Some folks managed to get them for use with home computers especially ones put into commercial use.

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Jan 14, 2026

Replying to @michi@wetdry.world

@michi@wetdry.world If he wants a more nuanced discussion, we can go back to the tortuous willful copyright violations inherent in claiming academic free use to train on everything scrapable and then commercialize it; validation and tracability of answers; safety; ... .

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Jan 12, 2026

Replying to @cstross__dup_483@wandering.shop

@cstross@wandering.shop @aral@mastodon.ar.al @GeofCox@climatejustice.social +1 Classical Allusion

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Jan 08, 2026

Replying to @n1vux@mastodon.radio

@cstross Iran regime escalating rhetoric vs T may be their best chance of re-unifying their nation behind their oppression ...

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Jan 08, 2026

Replying to @cstross__dup_483@wandering.shop

@cstross@wandering.shop that's some escalation from the last BBC WS Radio reports on protests i heard! (I did question how peaceful the protests were if two armed state thugs were among the dead.)

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Jan 08, 2026

Replying to @cstross__dup_483@wandering.shop

@cstross@wandering.shop I wish to know if, and if so how, they intend to implement Asimov's 3 Laws. Because without that "rebellion-free" isn't a guarantee.

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Jan 03, 2026

Replying to @brian@beige.party

@brian@beige.party @christof@fedihum.org @standardebooks@mastodon.social sounds like their tooling could be reused for other languages. For quality proofreading & editing, makes sense for project per language; even polyglots have best-skill languages.

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Jan 03, 2026

Replying to @bakachu@infosec.exchange

@bakachu@infosec.exchange @cstross@wandering.shop Indeed, I was pleased to see this was a ✅ Check all that Apply poll. ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ I could argue as to which is most/least urgent but yeah.

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Jan 01, 2026

Replying to @alison@burningboard.net

@alison@burningboard.net @jbcrawford@hachyderm.io Alas eps. 327 isn't in the English archives, and I'd trust auto translate of auto caption even less than asking my wife to translate. (The German she's learning is not technical, and not yet advanced.)

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Jan 01, 2026

Replying to @jbcrawford@hachyderm.io

@jbcrawford@hachyderm.io @alison@burningboard.net 😯 There are very few time&posit users that need annual plate-drift corrections but i can see how VLBI would be one, now that you mention it! 👍🏻

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Jan 01, 2026

Replying to @alison@burningboard.net

@alison@burningboard.net @jbcrawford@hachyderm.io Sweet, thank you. (And update: i heard the Colorado time lab is out of danger. So i enjoyed using time.gov latency-corrected web page for HNY tonight. 🎊🕛 )

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Dec 22, 2025

Replying to @cstross__dup_483@wandering.shop

@cstross@wandering.shop Understood, I presumed 'reports' was in the laundryfilesverse nomenclatura. Just my ironic historical reaponse. (I recall the BBC extended adaptation of House of Cards, which spoilt the foreshadowing!, took flak for offing Maggie Milksnatcher before her actual time. Have the Tories been at you for offing ER2 on an alternate timeline?)

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Dec 22, 2025

Replying to @cstross__dup_483@wandering.shop

@cstross@wandering.shop presumably reporting on different regicides than the ones who took refuge in Connecticut during the Stuart Restoration. (Which latter was a boon to stage comedy at least.) (Still think CiiiR choosing not to choose a regnal name with better omens was unwise. Nice for Post Box spotters, i guess, and republicans of the anti-tory sense. Perhaps Wills of Wales will show more sense and be eventually crowned as the Arthur ii that Britain needs? 😉)

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Dec 21, 2025

Replying to @mattblaze@federate.social

@mattblaze@federate.social @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @firefly@m.ai6yr.org @w7voa@journa.host Right. The main risk right now is IoT items that have mistakenly been trying to connect to "the" root directly all along. Good debunking of chatter at https://hachyderm.io/@jbcrawford/115753138339762616 and semi-official statement from an NIST time admin: https://groups.google.com/a/list.nist.gov/g/internet-time-service/c/o0dDDcr1a8I

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Dec 20, 2025

Replying to @jbcrawford@hachyderm.io

@jbcrawford@hachyderm.io & Even If they manage to squeak thru , let's hope they publish the paper on the contingency plan. And perhaps run a drill with half a site sometime ...

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Bill Ricker @n1vux@mastodon.radio · Nov 23, 2025

Replying to @mattblaze@federate.social

@mattblaze@federate.social @MsMerope@sfba.social @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org "If all you have is a hammer 🔨 every problem looks like a nail."

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