iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 21/08/2026

Poke around the internet a bit and you'll find lots of easter eggs using the 418 status code, but that is left as an exercise for the reader. A good starting place is Google's teapot page (click the teapot). www.google.com/teapot

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 21/08/2026

For now, HTTP code 418 is considered unused and unavailable for other applications. For now...

[RFC2324] was an April 1 RFC that lampooned the various ways HTTP was abused; one such abuse was the definition of an application-specific 418 status code, which has been deployed as a joke often enough for the code to be unusable for any future use.

Therefore, the 418 status code is reserved in the IANA HTTP Status Code Registry. This indicates that the status code cannot be assigned to other applications currently. If future circumstances require its use (e.g., exhaustion of 4NN status codes), it can be re-assigned to another use.

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 21/08/2026

Now I know what your thinking... Coffee is serious business. Is this protocol secure?? Thankfully the spec addresses that issue head on.

Anyone who gets in between me and my morning coffee should be insecure.

Unmoderated access to unprotected coffee pots from Internet users might lead to several kinds of "denial of coffee service" attacks. The improper use of filtration devices might admit trojan grounds. Filtration is not a good virus protection method."

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 21/08/2026

The spec allows a generous number of options for its "Accept-Addition" header, including milk, syrup, sweetener, alcohol, and spice. It does NOT provide options for decaffeinated coffee, because "what's the point?".

The Accept-Additions header fields. In HTTP, the "Accept" request-header field is used to specify media types which are acceptable for the response. However, in HTCPCP, the response may result in additional actions on the part of the automated pot. For this reason, HTCPCP adds a new header field, "Accept-Additions".

Omitted Header Fields. No options were given for decaffeinated coffee. What's the point?

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 21/08/2026

In truth this was a satire about the growing trend of using HTTP as a default base from which to build more sophisticated applications.

"HTCPCP is based on HTTP. This is because HTTP is everywhere. It could not be so pervasive without being good. Therefore, HTTP is good. If you want good coffee, HTCPCP needs to be good. To make HTCPCP good, it is good to base HTCPCP on HTTP."

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 21/08/2026

The rationale was simple: computerists need coffee, thus in the hyperconnected IoT-crazed world of the 1990s, where one could already make toast via SNMP, humanity needed a protocol designed "espressoly" for brewing coffee.

Documentation covering the Abstract and the Rationale and Scope of the HTCPCP protocol, which reads as follows:
"Abstract. This document describes HTCPCP, a protocol for controlling, monitoring, and diagnosing coffee pots.

1. Rational and Scope. There is coffee all over the world. Increasingly, in a world in which computing is ubiquitous, the computists want to make coffee. Coffee brewing is an art, but the distributed intelligence of the web-connected world transcends art. Thus, there is a strong, dark, rich requirement for a protocol designed espressoly for the brewing of coffee. Coffee is brewed using coffee pots. Networked coffee pots require a control protocol if they are to be controlled.

Increasingly, home and consumer devices are being connected to the Internet. Early networking experiments demonstrated vending devices connected to the Internet for status monitoring (COKE). One of the first remotely operated machine to be hooked up to the Internet, the Internet Toaster, (controlled via SNMP) was debuted in 1990 (RFC2235). The demand for ubiquitous appliance connectivity that is causing the consumption of the IPv4 address space. Consumers want remote control of devices such as coffee pots so that they may wake up to a freshly brewed coffee, or cause coffee to be prepared at a precise time after the completion of dinner preparations."

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 21/08/2026

Everyone knows 404 Not Found or 403 Forbidden, but are you aware of 418 I'm a Teapot? 🫖🧵

Screenshot of RFC 2324 (HTCPCP/1.0), 1 April 1998, page 4, showing section 2.3.2 defining the "418 I'm a teapot" error code as "Any attempt to brew coffee with a teapot should result in the error code '418 I'm a teapot'. The resulting entity body MAY be short and stout."

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 21/08/2026

It's even prettier in person! ♥️🤍 #16-0 #IndianaUniversity

A man in a light green blazer smiles for a selfie beside the College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy, which sits on a red-and-white striped table in front of an Indiana University banner and a First Financial Bank backdrop.

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 12/08/2026

Today I sent an open letter to IU Board Chair David Hormuth and IU President Whitten about a post by Trustee Sage Steele, in which she publicly mused about torturing a named public figure and asked who wanted to join her. I am calling on IU leadership to say publicly that this is not who we are.

Screenshot of letter, page 1. There is too much text to fit within the character limit of this alt text. You can find a link to the PDF version of this letter in the next post of this thread.

Screenshot of letter, page 2. There is too much text to fit within the character limit of this alt text. You can find a link to the PDF version of this letter in the next post of this thread.

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 11/08/2026

I'm absolutely floored seeing a Trustee of Indiana University openly fantasize about torturing another human. This is abhorrent and shameful behavior, and IU should condemn it unequivocally.

Screenshot of a Twitter retweet. The original tweet is from the New York Post and depicts a photo of Anthony Fauci sitting during his recent Senate testimony. The text reads "Fauci privately warned of miscarriage risk linked to COVID vaccine while publicly claiming no issues, newly released texts show". That post was retweeted by Sage Steele (@sagesteele) who wrote "Where do I go to get permission to waterboard this man?? As he hangs upside by his toes, of course. Anyone wanna join me?"

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 06/08/2026

Ah yes, the infamous Trojan Pachanga

A horse-sized-and-then-some sculpture of a blocky cartoon horse standing in a large open lobby with dark paneled walls. Its body is clad in overlapping planks with a weathered wood look, painted in fading bands of orange, teal, yellow and green. Short V-shaped notches are cut all over the boards, giving it the fringed look of a piñata rendered in lumber. A round disc on its head serves as an eye. It stands on a patch of artificial turf, roped off with blue stanchions. To the right is a standee for The Odyssey: a row of armored warriors lit in cold blue, with a cloaked figure holding a sword walking between them. Text below reads "A film by Christopher Nolan / THE ODYSSEY / 07.17.26 / Shot entirely with IMAX film cameras."

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 01/08/2026

Had to get a closer look 🤩

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 01/08/2026

Long layover at Detroit (KDTW) and nearly spit out my beer when I saw this one casually taxiing by #AvGeek

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 01/08/2026

brb time traveling back to 2024 so I can vote in the Anchorage mayoral election

A green political campaign banner attached to a chain link fence with a portrait of a dog (a husky?) next to the words "The choice is clear! Write in Meiko for Mayor 24!"

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 26/07/2026

Treating my Oshkosh fomo by visiting the world's busiest seaplane base

A white and blue general aviation seaplane floating up to a dock

A red and white general aviation seaplane taxiing on the water.

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 24/07/2026

First time seeing glaciers with my own eyes! 🤩

A zoomed-in view from the air of two glaciers merging near a mountain

An aerial shot taken from an airplane of snow-capped mountain ranges and two glaciers merging at the base of a mountain

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 24/07/2026

Hit the jackpot for airport trading cards at KMSP yesterday #AvGeek

A man at an airport restaurant fanning a deck of trading cards

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 09/07/2026

Mine happens to be my wife's favorite painting, "Nocturne in Black and Gold - The Falling Rocket" by James McNeill Whistler. We finally got to see it up close a couple years ago in Detroit.

Oil painting, taller than it is wide. The canvas is almost entirely deep blue-green and black, with the paint thinned and brushed so the surface looks like haze. Showers of small gold and orange flecks fall from the upper center and upper right resembling the spent sparks of a firework. Pale gray smoke billows up through the middle. Below, a dark horizontal band suggests a bank of trees or a crowd, lit by a few streaks of yellow light near the left. The lower third is a paler ocher and gray-green foreground where several dim figures stand, barely more than smudges. Nothing is sharply defined; the whole scene is atmospheric rather than detailed.

A selfie of a man and a woman standing in front of the framed artwork described in the other photo at a museum gallery.

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 04/07/2026

My wife just called me into the kitchen to "see this Ameri-kinda-abomination." We're calling it the Star-Spangled Platter 🇺🇸 #4thOfJuly

A charcuterie board with alternating stripes of deli meats, crackers, and cheese, with a small bowl of blueberries in the corner, vaguely resembling the design of the US flag.

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 03/07/2026

Me circa 2013 doing a particle physics in one of those holes.

A man in a blue jumpsuit, hair net, and orange hard hat in front of a room-sized neutrino detector.

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 22/06/2026

One of the most important computers ever made? *laughs in Dell Dimension 4400*

A photo of a dell dimension PC tower with accompanying CRT monitor, keyboard, and corded mouse sitting on a wooden desk in what appears to be a stuffy office environment.

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 12/06/2026

I did not have "live opera performance" on my #IUTrustees meeting bingo card! Bravo to Robert Wente, who was the focus of this meeting's Student Spotlight.

A man enthusiastically singing opera at the IU Board of Trustees meeting next to a grand piano

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 12/06/2026

Here are the policy items.

Slide containing a list of the following policy approval items:
BOT-20 Search and Screen Procedures for Administrators
BOT-11 Faculty and Librarian Tenure
BOT-14 Faculty and Librarian Promotions
BOT-13 Faculty and Librarian Annual Review
BOT-24 Post-Tenure Faculty Productivity and Annual Review
BOT-14 Academic Appointee Responsibilities and Conduct

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 23/05/2026

Happy Caturday from Chandler

An orange cat asleep on a cat tree next to a sunny window hugging a red plushy toy

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 16/05/2026

Fact: it's illegal to leave Canada without having at least some poutine

Bowl of poutine with beef and cilantro on top

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 15/05/2026

My hollandaise powers are growing and soon I will be unstoppable

Top-down view of plated homemade eggs Benedict with asparagus on the side

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 22/04/2026

I would drop cursor so gd fast

Article headline: spacex strikes deal with cursor for $60B. The potential acquisition comes as Elon musk's rocket and satellite maker, which has been emphasizing artificial intelligence, is preparing to go public.

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 07/04/2026

Not me gathering around the hotel TV in San Diego to watch the post-lunar-transit interview

Artemis II crew gathering in the Orion capsule

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 11/02/2026

Cheers to the first full decade of gravitational wave astronomy!

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 11/02/2026

Every day that I visit the IU Board of Trustees website there seems to a new executive session that the public cannot attend. Most of these are committee meetings.

A list of notices for upcoming IU Board of Trustee meetings. There are 11 meetings listed. 9 of them are listed as "Executive session"

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 13/01/2026

Going through my photos from this weekend and man, what a game! ❤️🤍

A football stadium filled with fans, most of whom are wearing Indiana crimson. The IU Marching Hundred is on the field and in the formation of a capital "I".

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 30/12/2025

Exciting announcement: Construction has begun on the 3,000+ piece Lego Milky Way Galaxy set.

A pile of numbered transparent bags filled with lego pieces on a small table

A close-up shot of a partially-completed lego set depicting the milky way galaxy. In the foreground, a lego satellite dish is visible.

A zoomed-out shot of a partially-complete lego set depicting the Milky Way Galaxy.

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 12/11/2025

Explaining how amazing the aurorae were last night to my indoor cat

A gray cat stares blankly towards the camera, clearly unamused

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 26/09/2025

If you see this, post a bridge. (Walterdale Bridge, Edmonton, Canada)

The Walterdale Bridge with its white arches with the skyline of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada behind it.

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 18/09/2025

Spotted the iconic United A320 "Friend Ship" livery (N475UA) at Reagan National (DCA) the other week 🤓 #AvGeek #Aviation

A United Airlines A320 parked at a gate at Reagan National Airport (DCA). It is painted with the retro "Friend Ship" livery from the early 1970s, which features a blue and red stripe on the fuselage and a blue and red wedge on the tail. The tail and the fuselage both also have four stars, and the word "United" written in a serif typeface.

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 17/09/2025

Maybe it's time for a bigger cat tree...

A gray cat sleeping on the top of a small cat tree, with both his front and back legs hanging off of the edges

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 29/08/2025

11/10 fantastic weather story graphic out @nws.noaa.gov IND forecasting office 💯 #inwx

A graphic titled "A Gourd-geous Forecast" with the high/low temperature forecast for the next three days superimposed on cute gourd shapes.

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 01/04/2025

TODAY is the LAST DAY to qualify for the Indiana University Trustee ballot! I only need 50 more IU alumni signatures by 5pm EDT! As someone who has fought for graduate student rights, I want to bring "Lux et Veritas" back to university governance. Sign at vaselforiu.com

A graphic that says "Justin Vasel for Indiana University Board of Trustees. Put Change on the Ballot! Lux et Veritas. 50 more alumni nomination signatures needed by 5pm TODAY"

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 17/03/2025

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright kicks off #ARPAE25 energy innovation summit, sharing his excitement for near-term fusion energy potential and a shout-out to the awesome particle physics research at our national labs. My two favorite things! ⚛️

A conference hall at a convention center taken from near the back of the room, looking towards the stage

A man (DOE secretary Chris Wright) giving remarka at a podium in front of an American flag pole and a banner for the conference ("ARPA-E: forging the future")

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 23/12/2024

Good morning, Edmonton ❤️🤍 #skyline #canada

Skyline of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada taken from across a river on a mostly clear winter day. A white bridge is prominent in the foreground with the large buildings of the city just behind it

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 23/12/2024

Doesn't get more Canadian than this 🇨🇦🏒

A bowl of poutine consisting of fries, cheese curds, and brown gravy, with a hockey rink in the background

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 10/12/2024

Recently added the first Airbus to my small-but-growing collection of Delta trading cards. There's still a 717-200 flying out of my local airport that I'm on the hunt for #Aviation #AvGeek

An array of 4 holographic trading cards from Delta Airlines sitting on a shelf with other decorations and nicknacks surrounding them. From left to right, the cards are for the following aircraft: Airbus A321, Boeing 737, Boeing 767, and Boeing 767-400.

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 26/11/2024

The state of education in this country just keeps getting worse

A pop-up dialogue that says "Sorry, PowerPoint can't read ^0." above a large button that says "OK"

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 22/11/2024

Good morning happy Friday

Two cats (one gray and one orange) near a window bathed in deep golden sunlight as the sun, just visible in the background, has just appeared over the horizon. The gray cat is laying down sleeping, while the orange one is sitting nearby and looking pensive.

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