iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Avani @avani.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Update: I have successfully uninstalled Stocks.app

Avani @avani.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

And yes I know the answer is to buy a Framework and run Linux but in a week I'll have this configured correctly and it will just blessedly work until the logic board goes out and I have to do this all over again.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Yep. That's already on the list. They held Microsoft over a barrel for this shit and even they weren't this bad.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I did this 3 years ago and found plenty of guides. Now I have some hazy memories and one guy on reddit.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Like yes i know it's not going to get me space back that's not the reason I'm going to spend my evening fucking with system partitions so i can delete "Stocks"

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

What happened in the last 5 years to make the tenor of the Internet change from "my device my choice" to "why do you even want to install vendor cruft in your OS, bro?"? This post is about me setting up a MacBook Pro.

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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 05/10/2026

I can’t emphasize this enough — “AI” wasn’t born corrupt and toxic. For ~75 years, it was mathematicians and scientists doing interesting, thoughtful work and trying to solve problems, making only the usual human mistakes. What “AI” did to machine learning is as tragic as what it did to artists.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I have conflicted feelings about this birthday gift.

A paperback copy of Fred Hoyle's "October First is Too Late"

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

We have made a new mistake over here. My son named him "Charon" because "he is strong and gentle and likes travelling," and I couldn't argue with that.

An Indian woman holding a tiny grey kitten with greenish eyes

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Eeeeeee! Happy birthday little one!

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Me, yesterday: I found a pool I can actually get to consistently that has open spots in Masters! Universe: Hey lol, wouldn't it be funny if you broke your tibia putting on your boots to go there?

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

This is my new favourite take on the question of "when does an AI get a soul?"

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I was Elizer's metamour, AMA :/

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I absolutely do not recommend for people to experimentally verify their client-server security model.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Cool cool their OS is 9 years out of date and API KEYS ARE HARDCODED. Brilliant work from Micah.

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Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I have had some great teachers in this life, and she was the one who taught me what I could call the survival techniques to being a writer. I wouldn't have made it this far without her. I'm grateful to her, for her. Rest in peace, Annie.

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Matt Henderson @matthen.com · 13/09/2026

Approximating the Lorenz attractor with a chaotic leaky water wheel. The orange dot is the centre of mass of the water. It traces (a projection of) the familiar attractor as the wheel spins seemingly randomly left and right.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Steen has also done proof and copy editing for academic papers my lab has put out. He's great at picking up context without getting lost in it!

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I saw what's left of Dawes glacier today, and promptly ruined several strangers' vacations by showing them a photo I took from a bit further back in 2007.

Dawes glacier in 2026. It's small and streaked with ridges from runoff.

Dawes glacier in 2007. It's at least 3x the size and the top isn't visible in the picture.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

My good friend who is a pro baker spent years trying to teach me pie crust before she gave up on me and let me just make the filing when we threw pie parties.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I worked for Arabian Prince at Vivendi. Why we got stuck with Barbie Horse I do not know, but the line "A foal is a baby horse" will haunt me to the end of my days.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Arabian Prince decided he wanted to learn to be a game producer, and so he took a production job at Vivendi and I ended up being his direct report. I did not know what N.W.A. was when I took the job, and so he had to show me. He still occasionally pings with tech questions.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I spent my first 5 months out of college getting paid to play Barbie Horse Adventures, working for a former member of N.W.A.

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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

A good rule of thumb: If the press release (or stenographic news reporting masquerading as journalism) says that an "AI" did something, that's deliberate obfuscation. Software doesn't do anything of its own accord, but folks sure like to talk about it as if it does: >>

buttondown.com

How to talk about "AI" without adding to the anthropomorphization

Emily M. Bender and Nanna Inie In our op-ed for Tech Policy Press ("We Need to Talk About How We Talk About 'AI'"), we made the case against the...

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Why hello Seattle. I wish I was doing more than passing through.

Photo from a car driving on the 5. A bright rainbow is pointing towards the Seattle 5N sign.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

For those who were at my worldcon talk: here is a far better explanation of why there was no "model going rogue".

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FLAVOR FLAV ⏰ @flavorflav.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

RIP Gloria Steinem. The world has lost a true pioneer and force for women rights,,, my deepest condolences to her family, friends, and team. Public Enemy will be forever grateful for her blessing and support of our track SHE GOT GAME. open.spotify.com/album/0BG4L6...

open.spotify.com

She Got Game - Single by Public Enemy | Spotify

Public Enemy · single · 2024 · 1 songs

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Dr. Stephanie @punkrockscience.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

How does Roman glass get those iridescent flakes? Nanolamellae. Basically, as the glass ages in alternatingly damp and dry soil, the silica in it precipitates out, then re-deposits in incredibly thin layers, which act as photonic crystal “mirrors” and result in the incredible colors.

pnas.org

Photonic crystals built by time in ancient Roman glass | PNAS

Ancient glass objects typically show distinctive effects of deterioration as a result of environmentally induced physicochemical transformations of...

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I got to meet her at the Women's March in 2017, and even in her 80s she was still made of ferocity. What a legend.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

So very this. I gave a talk last weekend to a general audience and this one lady in the audience could not get it out of her head that "well they wanted to escape so they banded together and did it " and aaaargh.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I wish we'd had time to do more than wave at Worldcon. I hope you're well and I am eager to hear more about what you've been up to!

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

At the time my French wasn't good enough to make my thoughts known to the guards which, tbh, was probably best for everyone.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

This was at the Université Paris Descartes, about ten years ago.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Coincidentally, the summer after this is when I got involved with lockpicking.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

This remains my all time favourite, though. On the other side of the white car in this photo is a wide open door to the same university hall but up 3 steps.

A ramp with a plaque across it that has the blue man handicapped symbol, but makes the ramp non functional.

The padlock holding the ramp closed. You had to have someone else walk up the steps to the unlocked door to unlock the ramp.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Using an iPad as a keynote remote is my A+ hack for teaching. I can read notes and write on the slides. It's just more kit than I generally want to carry when i travel.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

That sucks I'm so sorry.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Back in grad school, my advisor more than once had to *physically lift* me and my chair onto stages to give talks at conferences. I have also long given up on ever being able to read presenter's notes on my laptop when speaking, because the podium will never be reasonable.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Thanks for the heads up, and I hope you feel better soon!

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Biyu Jade He @biyuhe.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

📣 My lab at NYU currently has two open post-doc positions. We are interested in understanding perception, thinking, and hallucinations. We employ a range of cutting-edge techniques in human neuroscience (e.g., 7T fMRI, MEG, iEEG/DES) and computational approaches (e.g., DNN modeling).

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

A friend bought me a drink and made me talk out my novel and somehow structured it over the course of an hour better than I had in 2 weeks.

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Avani @avani.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Congrats, and what a gorgeous cover!

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