iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Frank Hecker

Subvert @subvert.fm · 29/09/2026

30,000 artists, labels and supporters collectively own Subvert. Join and become a co-owner today. subvert.fm

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 29/09/2026

I've just finished my 8th Math Academy course, Probability & Statistics. For my activity stats, thoughts about my future MA plans, and additional musing about Justin Skycak's "education as talent development", see my latest post at frankhecker.com/2026/09/29/m...

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 26/09/2026

Unfortunately I don't have paper copies of the Netscape annual reports for 1996 on, and I can't find online copies of those either. If anyone has copies, I encourage you to scan them (I did mine at 600dpi) and upload them to the Internet Archive for posterity.

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 26/09/2026

Here's a fun bit of Internet history from the dawn of the World Wide Web: I couldn't find an online copy of the 1995 annual report for Netscape Communications Corporation (its first annual report post-IPO), so I scanned mine and uploaded it to the Internet Archive: archive.org/details/nets...

archive.org

netscape-annual-report-1995

Netscape Communications Corporation annual report for 1995. This was the first Netscape annual report since its IPO.

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 26/09/2026

I just voted in the @subvert.fm board elections! There was a good set of candidates and approval voting meant I didn't have to narrow my choice down to just one person. If you like music and want to buy from (and participate in!) a member-owned coop, check it out: subvert.fm

subvert.fm

Subvert - The Collectively Owned Music Marketplace

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Reposted by Frank Hecker

BOARDS OF CANADA @boardsofcanada.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

HI SCORES. 2026 REISSUE. 20 NOVEMBER, LP / CD. Celebrating 30 years of ‘Hi Scores’. boardsofcanada.com

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 22/09/2026

Is there any chance of the Twinstar Cyclone Runaway LNs getting an official release in English? That would help with recognition, since some sites and reviewers doing yuri reviews won’t review fan translations as a matter of policy.

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 21/09/2026

3) Worked at Mozilla, realized its business model was a one-off thing not replicable elsewhere. (As an aside, I think Mozilla could have been more effective funding other open source projects and developers instead of pursuing overly-ambitious and ultimately doomed projects like the Firefox OS.)

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 21/09/2026

2) Worked at CollabNet with (the original) Sourcexchange service, found that companies were not willing to directly pay open source developers to write open source code for them.

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 21/09/2026

Note: I have experience with the alternatives mentioned and discarded: 1) Worked at Netscape, proposed a form of "source available" license for Netscape source, but Netscape went with the Netscape Public License, then the Mozilla Public License, then adding GPL/LGPL, due to developer preferences.

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 21/09/2026

An excellent proposal, which gets at the key issues why other mechanisms (e.g., "source available" licenses) won't work. Also, supply chain risk is a major hot topic now, e.g., with government contractors, so I think the willingness to have a "supply chain" item in a budget is only getting greater.

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 20/09/2026

Especially now that some people are trying to position it as a component of a new “asset class”. Jeez folks just put your money in a Vanguard index fund.

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 19/09/2026

Oh, and before I forget: Team Dresch has re-released their all-time classic albums Personal Best and Captain My Captain in a variety of formats for the 21st century: www.jealousbutcher.com/collections/...

jealousbutcher.com

TEAM DRESCH – Jealous Butcher Records

To say Team Dresch were/are a political band is to miss the point. As they reminded in their great 1996 epistolary anthem “To the Enemies of Political Rock,” not singing about causes is a political st...

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 19/09/2026

One of my favorite bands ever, queercore legends Team Dresch, has a new album out, their first in 30 years (and it sounds great!). You can get it from @jealousbutcher.bsky.social and watch and listen at www.youtube.com/channel/UCvp...

youtube.com

Team Dresch

Thirty years after their last full-length release, Team Dresch are back with Furthermore—and it's exactly the album we need right now. While other bands might drop and add members after a 30-year hia...

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Reposted by Frank Hecker

Cozy Snugglefield @garybutterfield.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Whenever you think about keeping up with current events, keep in mind that you control how you spend your time, and you could be doing this instead www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB1y...

youtube.com

Kate Bush Babooshka In Venice Italy 1980 (Private Remaster)

YouTube video by The Night Flier

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 19/09/2026

Well, people are still reading, writing, and talking about popular culture that's been over for 100-200 years, and the number of those people doing it obsessively is not all that much larger. These subreddits are the 21st century equivalent of the Jane Austen Society and the Baker Street Irregulars.

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Reposted by Frank Hecker

Erica Friedman @okazu.yuricon.com · 18/09/2026

Today on Okazu –Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 6 (作りたい女と食べたい女) Our four protagonists all take steps forward to be their authentic selves and eat delicious food along the way in this empowering tale of found family, queer joy and cooking. okazu.yuricon.com/2026/09/18/t...

Four women stand around a tall, round table laughing and smiling. Three hold up chicken wings while the fourth takes a photo of them with her phone.

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 17/09/2026

Stuff like the OpenAI/Huggingface hack distracts us from the tons and tons of cybercrime that is not AI-enabled (but likely will be AI-assisted in future). Here's an example from my former employer Infoblox, which uses DNS-related data to find malicious actors: www.infoblox.com/blog/threat-...

infoblox.com

Illegal Gambling Sites Reveal Three Types of Cybercrime

Casino websites that look nearly identical disguise three major types of crime: money laundering, gambling scams, and a front for China-aligned APT malware C2.

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 16/09/2026

Hmm, I just destroyed the ancient Roman and Egyptian civilizations, and am hoping I can destroy the ancient Chinese civilization next.

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 15/09/2026

Very true, my point being that LLMs are not a magic solution to these prerequisites.

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 14/09/2026

Let SubTuringBradBot have (almost) the last word: "If the 'Gutenberg Singularity' requires a specific kind of intellectual rigor to navigate, then the automation of that engagement may indeed alter the nature of the cognitive system itself." Where "alter" perhaps means "make it less effective". 7/7

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 14/09/2026

I am not sanguine about LLMs providing either the background knowledge or the motivation. For knowledge at least I defer to the learning science folks and their panoply of techniques: direct instruction, mastery learning, scaffolding, low-stakes testing, etc. It's not clear what an LLM adds. 6/

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 14/09/2026

This is further democratization: a distinguished professor may not have the time or inclination to answer your (perhaps naïve) questions, but their bot will (or should). But (me speaking now) one must have the background knowledge to know what to ask about _and_ the motivation to acquire it. 5/

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 14/09/2026

"What is happening now is the extension of the Machiavellian Singularity, not a rival to it." The LLM externalizes the mental simulation of past and present others: It has read the texts, it can answer your questions, either as a homogenized consensus thinker or as a simulacrum of an individual. 4/

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 14/09/2026

Mass literacy via public education. Mass availability via public libraries, paperbacks, the Internet/Web (including "pirate" sites for papers & books). The availability to search for information via printed indices & Google. The ability to add your own thoughts via a blog or self-publish a book. 3/

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 14/09/2026

Mass printing made it possible for an individual like Machiavelli to have access to the (written) thoughts of past and present others and to (in their mind) create a simulacrum of them, ask questions of them and argue with them. The next 500 years saw the elaboration and democratization of this: 2/

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 14/09/2026

Suspend your opinions re AI/LLMs (positive or negative) long enough to read this thread & the linked-to article. Just as humanity has already experienced an economic/technological Singularity (from 1870 on) we have also already experienced an intellectual Singularity (from 1500 on) post-Gutenberg 1/

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Baiheverse @baiheverse.com · 13/09/2026

"obey my every command. you can't say no to anything." "I love you." Everything she demanded, she got. 𝙄 𝙂𝙤𝙩 𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙏𝙚𝙖 𝘽𝙞𝙩𝙘𝙝 𝙞𝙣 𝘾𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙨. Season 1 complete, 37 chapters. Season 2 continues next week. read on Baiheverse: baiheverse.com/en/manhuas/i... #gl #baihe

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Reposted by Frank Hecker

Erica Friedman @okazu.yuricon.com · 10/09/2026

Flu absolutely hamstringed me, so I never got to thank everyone who helped push Okazu a little closer to our Annual Goal! We are still about 10 $10/ month sustaining patrons away from being able to stop canshaking for a bit. Your support for Okazu and Yuricon goes directly to writers and creators!

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 10/09/2026

If you want to buy a whole box or more, my alternative (plus some Vertigo) comics collection sorted by box is at frankhecker.com/frank-hecker... 3/3

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 10/09/2026

The complete list of my alternative (plus some Vertigo) comics collection sorted by artist is at frankhecker.com/frank-hecker... 2/

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 10/09/2026

For alternative comics fans in the DC/Baltimore area (or coming here for SPX), I am disposing of my collection of over three hundred comics from 25+ years ago (lots of TCJ/SPX favorites with some Vertigo). If you're interested, please DM or email me (address on my website) and make me an offer. 1/

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 05/09/2026

Amazing. I'm not following any of the front runners. This may help account for the relative calmness of my Bluesky experience.

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 04/09/2026

Maybe you're just going to paywalled posts? Try this one, which I found in a random search and should not be paywalled: samanthasyurigarden.substack.com/p/whispered-...

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 04/09/2026

So if you don’t want to install the app you’re out of luck.

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 04/09/2026

What's the exact error you're getting? And can you include a sample link? I can open up random Substack articles (found via Kagi search) in Safari and Chrome on macOS Sequoia, works just fine. Sometimes you'll need to click "No thank you" when it asks for your email address, but that should be it.

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 04/09/2026

I like a comment I saw elsewhere (paraphrasing): you could draw a random human 100 times and not find someone who had a better life than you do now.

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 04/09/2026

Note: If you figuratively spin the wheel a few times, most of the stories end like "died in childbirth at 16", "died of tuberculosis at 8 months", "died of dysentery at 39", etc. The "About" page quotes Muriel Rukeyser, "The universe is made of stories, not of atoms". Most of these are sad ones. 2/2

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 04/09/2026

If you're willing to look past the use of LLMs in creating this (and I would claim that this is a very good use of them), this is an incredible site. It's hopefully an antidote to both presentism and to seeing the past only through the eyes of its elites: anyhumanever.com 1/

anyhumanever.com

Any Human Ever

One life, drawn at random from all who have ever lived.

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 04/09/2026

That trip down Vertigo memory lane was like reliving the 1990s for me. I was a Vertigo completist--I even have all 3 issues of Sebastian O--before I totally switched over to alternative/indie comics. This incarnation of Vertigo seems like it might end up like when resurrection spells go wrong.

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 03/09/2026

I'm not suggesting that AGI/ASI & "the end of work" will lead to the US, etc., reverting to honor-based societies & the oppression of women. But it might arrest the growth in women's employment and gender equality in countries where female seclusion is still the norm or has been until recently. 7/

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 03/09/2026

And for women in honor societies, men's need to maintain their honor may compel men to seclude women, severely restrict their activities, or even (in some cases) kill them. Sometimes modernization and economic growth lead to increased female employment and mitigate this, but sometimes not. 6/

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 03/09/2026

Such societies also see an honor vs. income trade-off: earning income past a certain point or in certain ways decreases one's honor--"being in trade" for aristocrats, "getting above your station" for the Italian immigrants, "having a job" for the US UMC women, "selling out" in online communities. 5/

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 03/09/2026

Back to RL: Societies in which people's status depends on group membership traditionally have been honor-based, in which it is all-important to maintain one's reputation within the group & the reputation of the group itself vs. others, & there is no external impersonal authority ("rule of law"). 4/

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 03/09/2026

(Which is also a pattern we see in online groups that form around common interests and are all or mostly independent of people's employment or other work. Think online fandoms of various genres or works, online activists for various parties or causes, and so on.) 3/

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 03/09/2026

It may be one in which people derive worth not as individuals but from their relative position in larger groups (e.g., extended families, clans or clan-like groups, closed classes) & their energy goes toward maintaining their positions within their groups & policing the words & actions of others. 2/

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Frank Hecker @frankhecker.com · 03/09/2026

An interesting article. Summary: If "AGI"/"ASI" means no human has to (or can profitably) work anymore, we have historical models (18th c. French aristocracy, 20th c. US upper-middle-class women and poor Italian immigrants), on what kind of society might result. asteriskmag.com/issues/15/af... 1/

asteriskmag.com

After Work, We’ll Have Each Other

Once you realize what that means, you’ll be giving two cheers for the American work ethic.

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