iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Justin Vasel

Cassidy @cassidoo.co · 11h

Get a library card If you have one already: use it

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 22h

bsky.app/profile/just...

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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 07/10/2026

Spectrum Allocation xkcd.com/3307/

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 07/10/2026

I love seeing plain text acknowledged as a technology, because it truly is! It seems simple at first glance, but representing text digitally is a surprisingly complex challenge. So much so that it has been summed up simply as "there is no such thing as plain text."

youtube.com

Plain Text - Dylan Beattie - NDC Copenhagen 2022

YouTube video by NDC Conferences

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 26/08/2019

IS YOUR CHILD TEXTING ABOUT NEUTRINO PHYSICS? LMAO = Lepton Mixing And Oscillation WTF = What's The Flavor? BRB = Bad, ROOT! Bad! TFW = That Force is Weak NP = Nobel Prize SMH = Solve Mass Hierarchy, or Standard Model Higgs, depending on the context.

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 06/10/2026

Another neutrino Nobel Prize in the books!! 🏅🌌

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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 02/10/2026

Ground Effect xkcd.com/3305/

Comic. [Two people flailing high in the air. Three people on the ground running ahead of them. Arrows and a dotted line indicate that this second group is within roughly one body length of the surface.] [caption] The “ground effect” explains why sprinters can run most efficiently if they stay within roughly one body length of the surface.

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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

There's a long discussion going on in my mentions about whether or not "LLMs" (quotes explained in a sec) apparently getting mostly* correct answers to arithmetic questions is "inconsistent" with the stochastic parrots metaphor. >>

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Steve Gale @stevewg.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Colley Hill, Surrey: coffee break from birding the steep scrub. Love the plaque on the bench I’m sitting on

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LZ Dark Matter @lzdarkmatter.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Our new results are out! We have observed a single nuclear recoil in our detector that we find difficult to explain with our background model. Could it be a hint of dark matter? It’s far too early to say, but it’s certainly intriguing! #darkmatter

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 26/08/2026

They disinvented the VCR. You might think that the reason we don't have VCRs anymore is because VCRs were supplanted by DVDs, PVRs and streaming, but that's not the case. They had it in for the VCR from the very start, and they never stopped trying to kill it. Eventually, they succeeded. 1/

A 1960s family living room in which a mom, dad and two kids are mesmerized by a cabinet-style TV. The image has been altered. The TV has an early 1990s VCR atop it. The TV screen is displaying a cross-sectioned human head with brains and spine on display. A huge fist has materialized in the room, with bloody spiked knuckle-dusters, smashing into the VCR. The oil painting over the sofa has been replaced with a pulp image of a male head, its cranium removed and replaced by a dome. Inside the dome is a red eight-segment VCR clock, displaying 12:00. The background in the painting is a tangle of cassette tape. The whole image's colors have been boosted, giving it an overexposed look.

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Library of Congress @librarycongress.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The Library is devastated to learn of the passing of Dolly Parton, a music legend and titan of children's literacy. Her Imagination Library program has earned multiple Library Literacy Awards and, in 2018, she visited us to donate its 100 millionth book to our collection and host a story time. 🦋❤️

Dolly Parton reads to children in the Library’s Great Hall in 2018. Photo by Shawn Miller.

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 24/08/2026

Despite the .ai domain, this wonderful site is all about the human touch. Palette cleanser for anyone feeling nostalgic or feeling too 2026.

museum.parallel.ai

Museum of the Human Web

The Museum of the Human Web preserves the cultural artifacts that shaped internet history.

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Reposted by Justin Vasel

Ben Cotton (he/him) @funnelfiasco.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

It's `sudo shutdown -h now` o'clock

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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

At one point, the HTTP Working Group noticed that 418 was the first unused status code and eyed it up for future uses. This triggered the Save 418 movement ("We are the teapots").

save418.com

Save Error Code 418

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

Okay, so this is clearly not a serious spec. Or is it? Technically, it is listed as "informational" and has not formally been adopted as a standard, but many web frameworks have worked these status codes into their libraries anyway as a treat.

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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

Not all coffee machines can do fancy things like add syrups, so if it can't fulfill the request it will send back a 406 Not Acceptable return code. Send your request to a teapot and you'll get back the aforementioned 418 I'm a Teapot error.

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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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Reposted by Justin Vasel

Internet Archive @archive.org · 20/08/2026

📻 On National Radio Day, we celebrate the deep history of radio. From pulp heroes to breaking news to ham radio enthusiasts, it's a medium built for community. 📡 Tune into radio history in our collections: archive.org/details/oldt... #NationalRadioDay

Cover of Radio News magazine's September "Special Tube Data Issue," priced 25 cents. A large Art Deco-style vacuum tube in blue, yellow, and orange dominates the red cover. Headlines read "An Untuned R.F. Coupler for Screen-Grid Tubes," "The 1930 Amateur Regulations," "How to Judge Tubes," and "Complete Tabulation of Tube Characteristics." Signed by artist David Hymes.

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Maxwell Yezpitelok @mrmxy.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

"If you don't use AI you'll get left behind" Brother I've sent emails from a Super Nintendo, I fucking love getting left behind

Photo of a CRT monitor next to a Super Famicom console with an XBAND modem inserted. The monitor's screen shows the XBAND's email composing screen. The message being composed has the subject line "I'm writing from a snes :00" and is addressed at a user named "フフフ".

Screenshot of the email composing screen from the previous photo.

Screenshot of the bsnes-plus Super Nintendo emulator open on Ubuntu. The game loaded is identified as "X-Band Modem BIOS (J)" and the emulator window shows the XBAND email inbox screen. There are two emails: one from user "mrmxy" with the subject line "i'm writing from a snes :0" and one from "System" with the subject line "Welcome!!" Behind the emulator window is a terminal window showing the emulator's log (indicating emulated modem activity) and a file explorer window with some Super Nintendo ROMs and save files.

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 18/08/2026

The letter I posted last week about Trustee Sage Steele is running as an oped in the Indianapolis Star today. Please share with fellow Hoosiers, and consider sending an email of your own to the IU President and Trustees if you believe this behavior demands an official university response.

indystar.com

Sage Steele's waterboarding fantasy dishonors Indiana University | Opinion

Sage Steele helped adopt Indiana University's principles on civic discourse. Her social media post about Anthony Fauci violated those standards.

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Justin Vasel @justinvasel.xyz · 14/08/2026

Got my tickets, tomorrow's gonna be a good day!

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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 14/08/2026

Geology Building xkcd.com/3284/

Comic. [A college building labeled “Department of Geology” with a diagonal slash through center making it look uneven.] [caption] The administration regretted giving the geology department free rein to design their new building.

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Sam Rose @samwho.dev · 13/08/2026

This might be the most beautiful thing I've read in my life. What a privilege to be alive in 2026. ordinaryabundance.com

ordinaryabundance.com

Ordinary Abundance

A walk through a modern apartment, through the eyes of the people for whom everything in it was new.

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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 · 12/08/2026

You can access the PDF version of the letter here: bloomdocs.org/wp-content/u...

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

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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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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

It’s hard to explain but tv was better when you couldn’t watch the show you wanted whenever you wanted to watch it and most of the shows were worse and the TVs were worse and the entire experience was worse, that’s when it was better

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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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