iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 29/05/2026

When visiting Japan, please respect local customs and laws. 🙇 Watermelon law is serious.

JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 06/05/2026

As a systems & compiler geek, I like finding and fixing inefficiencies. We stumbled upon neat low-lying fruit in VLMs: they keep paying for the same background over and over. We got huge speedups, 14.9–35.9×! Website: vlmaxxi.ng Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2605.03351 Code: github.com/jfbastien/VL...

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 27/03/2026

We told them story points are for complexity, and time is measured in T-shirt sizes.

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 25/03/2026

Brutal move from the evangelization strike force.

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 24/02/2026

France: 𝒜𝓅𝓅𝑒𝓁𝓁𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝒹’𝑜𝓇𝒾𝑔𝒾𝓃𝑒 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝓉𝑒́𝑔𝑒́𝑒 Japan: Just so you know… this one’s gonna STINK (it’s really good)

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 08/02/2026

What is shoulder Bjarne whispering in my ear?

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 03/01/2026

Fun fact I learned about Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing", after having chosen the talk's title 🫣

Another motif is the play on the words nothing and noting. These were near-homophones in Shakespeare's day. Taken literally, the title implies that a great fuss ('much ado') is made of something insignificant ('nothing'), such as the unfounded claims of Hero's infidelity and that Benedick and Beatrice are in love with each other. Nothing is also a double entendre: 'an O-thing' (or 'n othing' or 'no thing') was Elizabethan slang for "vagina", derived from women having 'nothing' between their legs. The title can also be understood as Much Ado About Noting: much of the action centres on interest in others and the critique of others, written messages, spying, and eavesdropping. This attention is mentioned several times directly, particularly concerning 'seeming', 'fashion', and outward impressions.

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 02/01/2026

My talk about "nothing" (what does a computer do when it has nothing to do?) is now online! 👨🏻‍💻 I had a lot of fun with this one. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgl0...

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 07/12/2025

MTG player 🤝 C++ dev getting rid of UB

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 05/11/2025

Oh!!! I challenge you to a duel!! 🤺 Kill Bill restaurant, November 11th, we’ll see who leaves the most skewers behind.

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 07/09/2025

Having some retro-TUI fun in preparation for my NDC TechTown talk at the end of the month.

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 12/05/2025

Protip for everyone: you gotta enable the "skills" section in your profile to be endorsed, and then click some buttons on it.

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 12/04/2025

日本語学習者が『を』を見た瞬間──『をぉ……』

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 24/02/2025

Is…. Wikipedia just casually foreshadowing a prophecy about DOGE… ? 👀

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doge_of_Venice

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 16/02/2025

It's going to take a bit more time for the collaborative trip report to make r/cpp, so here's an explanation on what happened with C++ profiles, their relevance to safety/security, and why this is a great outcome for quality of the feature and speed of delivery.

For profiles, we voted the following:

Pursue a language safety white paper in the C++26 timeframe containing systematic treatment of core language Undefined Behavior in C++, covering Erroneous Behavior, Profiles, and Contracts. Appoint Herb and Gašper as editors.

What does this mean?
Many people felt that what profiles are trying to address (security, safety) is hugely critical... yet profiles as they stand today are not ready. The C++26 train is leaving the station, but we want progress, now!
Enter white papers: it's a tool that ISO is now encouraging us to use, whereby we need WG21 plenary approval and SC22 approval, and then we have an approved white paper. The implication: We can get profiles in a white paper, implemented in compilers (behind a flag) before C++26 is finalized.
How does that work? White papers are a lightweight TS, or a heavy paper. The way we manage this is fairly open and we heard concerns which Herb and Gašper will suggest ways to address. For now, we have them as editors, they choose what goes in the white paper, and our hope is that they are trusted by everyone to do so while increasing consensus. EWG will see updates, forward them to CWG, then to plenary, then SC22, with votes at each stop. This is actually lightweight, and will allow rapid improvements and feedback. One way to address issues brought up is to have a git repo on github.com/cplusplus where the white paper is developed, with great commit messages, with periodic reports (say, monthly), and with periodic EWG telecons to review (say, monthly). Herb and Gašper will publish details soon.

(alt text limited, see r/cpp post when available for the rest)

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 02/02/2025

When I was writing a C++ paper, you were practicing the blade.

Charlie explains why there are exactly 8 bits per byte.

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 13/01/2025

Uh-oh, “Murakami” aliases so pointers are now like this

Takashi Murakami flowers that look like pointer deref.

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 30/12/2024

Went to a Louise Bourgeois exhibit. Ouch.

It is not so much
Where my motivation
Comes from
But rather
How it manages
To survive.

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 24/12/2024

I think my 7 year old might be a dork. 🤓🎄

D&D books to which you are the hero, originals and new ones, and Goosebumps.

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 22/12/2024

Tie your seatbelt. Tie your cigarette.

No smoking sign.
Seatbelt sign.
Both with red cross.

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 18/12/2024

This store, wishing us “what a furry Christmas”, has an IKEA pop-up store with a bucket full of BLÅHAJs, ¥999 each (less than $10). I will not be taking questions.

A store window with a squirrel.
It wishes “what a furry Christmas”.

A bucket of BLÅHAJ sharks from IKEA.
They are ¥999.

And IKEA pop-up store.
Three BLÅHAJ are inviting you in. Will you go in?

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 22/11/2024

Every compiler should have support for its own special anachronism as an opt-in. (from CCES 2.9.0 C/C++ Compiler Manual for SHARC Processors)

-anach
The -anach (enable C++ anachronisms) directs the compiler to accept some language features that are prohibited
by the C++ standard but still in common use. Use the -no-anach switch for greater standard compliance.
The following anachronisms are accepted in C++ mode when the -anach switch is enabled:
• Overload is allowed in function declarations. It is accepted and ignored.
• Definitions are not required for static data members that can be initialized using default initialization. The
anachronism does not apply to static data members of template classes; they must always be defined.
• The number of elements in an array may be specified in an array delete operation. The value is ignored.
• A single operator++() function can be used to overload both prefix and postfix ++ operations.
• A single operator--() function can be used to overload both prefix and postfix -- operations.
• The base class name may be omitted in a base class initializer if there is only one immediate base class.
• A bound function pointer (a pointer to a member function for a given object) can be cast to a pointer to a
function.
• A nested class name may be used as an un-nested class name provided no other class of that name has been
declared. The anachronism is not applied to template classes.
• A reference to a non-const type may be initialized from a value of a different type. A temporary is created; it
is initialized from the (converted) initial value, and the reference is set to the temporary.
• A reference to a non-const class type may be initialized from an rvalue of the class type or a derived
class thereof. No (additional) temporary is used.
• A function with old-style parameter declarations is allowed and may participate in function overloading as
though it were prototyped. Default argument promotion is not applied to parameter types of such functions
when the check for compatibility is done, so that the following statements declare the overload of two functions named f.

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 14/11/2024

I went to this amazing Pokémon art exhibit in Azabudai Hills: they commissioned a variety of artists to make art about Pokémon, in their own style. ポケモンxエ芸

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 12/11/2024

INSTRCUTIONS: Do NOT run up and down by running.

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 31/12/2023

This is the Canadian history they don’t teach you in school.

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 11/10/2023

🎉 Happy World Standards Day!!! 🥳 ... to everyone in the U.S. www.ansi.org/events/stand... ...those of us outside will be celebrating World Standards Day October 14th 🤔 www.iso.org/world-standa...

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 23/07/2023

Twitter employees will now be called “the league of evil exes”. Zuck has to defeat all of them.

Scott Pilgrim versus the world, where Michael Cera is also Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network.

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JF Bastien @jfbastien.com · 17/06/2023

When I worked at Apple, WWDR (world wide developer relations) said I couldn’t use the anvil drop animation for my WWDC presentation. I said “but Craig uses it!!” They said “you’re not Craig”. I am no longer at Apple, and now use anvil drop in every presentation.