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Thomas Karpiniec

@octet-stream.net
159 followers 118 following 522 posts

Tasmanian dev often writing networking-related Rust. Mostly opinions about computers. AKA thombles and VK7XT. octet-stream.net site-validator.fly.dev social.octet-stream.net/@thomask

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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 05/10/2026
Blog: Tuning web search in Open WebUI octet-stream.net/b/scb/2026-1...
octet-stream.net
Tuning web search in Open WebUI
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 04/10/2026
Hands up everyone who's had to put "play video game" on their daily task tracker to make sure they actually check out for a while
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 30/09/2026
An activitypub server based on atproto storage accidentally gets more popular than Mastodon
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 27/08/2026
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv5_...
youtube.com
C64 music : Cybernoid 2 (title) by Jeroen Tel
YouTube video by inphanta
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 27/08/2026
Oh I never knew they covered Love Potion No. 9 - I've been missing out!
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 24/08/2026
Potentially on two fronts - e.g. I could imagine high-end Chinese tech orgs deciding they don't need to bother presenting their work or collaborating in English any more because westerners can just translate
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 17/08/2026
I've just published netwatcher v0.8.0 with a long list of bugfixes #rustlang
octet-stream.net
netwatcher v0.8.0 - the AI bugfix release
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 13/08/2026
If I called it a "CLI harness around a world model" I wonder if I could get investment funding for my MUD
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 13/08/2026
I get that reference. I think?
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 12/08/2026
There’s a bonkers bug in iOS Calendar where recurring events spontaneously email no-op updates to invitees. It’s driving my contacts nuts, going to have to switch to Outlook
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Reposted by Thomas Karpiniec
Matt Keeter @mattkeeter.com · 12/08/2026
Dwarf Fortress bug and/or the hit country song of summer 2026
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 11/08/2026
In community orchestra news, our current conductor is using words like "shred" and "chopped" to describe musical expression and I'm having to translate for my desk partner
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Reposted by Thomas Karpiniec
depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
not to be confused with quesadilla
Ķ
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Quesadilla.
Ķ (k-cedilla) is the 17th letter of the Latvian alphabet.
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 09/08/2026
I have the HaLow dongles up and running. The good news is that iPhones can both supply power and get bridged ethernet connectivity over a single USB connection. The bad news is that Android appears to lack the required driver. More notes: octet-stream.net/b/scb/2026-0...
A recent-model iPhone is connected via its USB-C port to a Heltec-branded WiFi HaLow radio dongle with an antenna attached. It has a little multicoloured LED showing purple. They are placed on a desk next to a second Heltec dongle, whose USB connection extends to a computer off screen. It has a blue LED. The iPhone is showing a basic speed test website in Safari on a host at 192.168.100.228. The page reports that it has downloaded 1 MiB in 14.40 s (71.1 KB/s).
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Reposted by Thomas Karpiniec
amos @fasterthanli.me · 08/08/2026
re: "how is vibed shit more secure to run than random github repo": bsky.app/profile/fast... agents will leave vulns in by mistake/omission, not malice randos on github, in this climate, however... different story. yes the game has changed 🤷 adapt.
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 09/08/2026
Turn off phone without taking a screenshot challenge (impossible)
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 07/08/2026
Exciting HaLow delivery today - very interested to see what these can do
Photo of an opened box on a table. Company is Heltec Automation. Product title is HaLow Dongle; Wi-Fi Halow (802.11ah); Network Bridge. The open box shows two small plastic units alongside antennas and USB cables.
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 05/08/2026
Some notes on using OpenCode and DS4 for local inference with Xcode Coding Assistant: octet-stream.net/b/scb/2026-0...
screenshot of Xcode showing a Coding Assistant conversation in progress with OpenCode where it's preparing Swift code
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 02/08/2026
If @tangled.org had set up as tngled.org most of Bluesky would be like “yeah my code’s on tingled, check it out”
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 31/07/2026
It's disappointing how little development the iOS/Android Bluetooth APIs get. Androids can emit periodic advertisements but not receive them. iOS can receive extended advertisements but not emit them, and doesn't offer Coded PHY at all. These have been around for years now.
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Reposted by Thomas Karpiniec
Dr Paris Buttfield-Addison 🔜 MIGW26 @hey.paris · 30/07/2026
Seeing a lot of discourse about the Sydney Games Festival. Wait until they see my plan for the New Sydney Games Festival, held at the pub, in Hobart.
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Reposted by Thomas Karpiniec
depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
need to start using the dutch word for "party animal"
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 26/07/2026
Very much enjoying justif - a great new lib for text rendering on the web. github.com/lyallcooper/...
github.com
GitHub - lyallcooper/justif: Publication-grade text justification for the web
Publication-grade text justification for the web. Contribute to lyallcooper/justif development by creating an account on GitHub.
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Reposted by Thomas Karpiniec
amos @fasterthanli.me · 24/07/2026
me: "who the hell is playing alarm bells through my macbook speakers..." *runs `printf "\a"`* me: "mhh no that sounds different..." *hears 4x 440Hz beeps at 1s interval* me: "THERE IT IS AGAIN WHAT THE F—" the agent working on my NLE: "hey so I've solved the AV sync issue" me: "oooohhhh neat"
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 23/07/2026
Blog: I noticed the Matrix Rust SDK using some pretty wild techniques on Android to avoid the developer having to provide JNI context. I'm… not quite prepared to use them but it's pretty impressive.
octet-stream.net
Automatic JavaVM and Context detection using Rust on Android
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Reposted by Thomas Karpiniec
Lyna @blooym.dev · 23/07/2026
It’s interesting seeing people get angry at Codeberg for banning predominantly LLM projects from being hosted there when they’ve clearly outlined the costs problem of hosting it 99.99% of these people would rather give 200$ to Anthropic than donate even half that to Codeberg for hosting their shit
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 22/07/2026
TIL the mesh networking support in the XO-1 laptops was designed specially so it could still forward packets for other devices even while the laptop (at least the main CPU) was fully suspended. Super cool.
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 22/07/2026
Blog: I'm getting excited about WiFi HaLow mesh networks and a bit meh about MeshCore octet-stream.net/b/scb/2026-0...
octet-stream.net
Hold on to your hats, HaLow is here
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 22/07/2026
Now if qwen3.6 autonomously hacks someone you have a problem because the computer it hacked can probably run the model too
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 20/07/2026
It's going to be an interesting day the first time a cloud inference provider gets hacked and malware tool calls get sent to all the clients
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 15/07/2026
Having fun and learning Polish with some local models. (Not pictured: Siri voice speaking the tutor lines)
Screenshot of a terminal program. It shows an AI language tutor speaking in a mixture of english and polish, and logs about taking recordings and processing it via various local models including Qwen, Whisper, and PhoneticXeus.

Some of the conversation:
Tutor [en]: I think you said
Tutor [pl]: Czy to jest blisko Śląska?
Tutor [en]: That means "Is it close to Silesia?"
Tutor [pl]: Tak, Tatry są niedaleko Śląska. Można pojechać samochodem.

Can you explain the grammar of blisko Śląska.

Tutor [en]: Sure.
Tutor [pl]: blisko
Tutor [en]: means "close" and is followed by the genitive case.
Tutor [pl]: Śląsk
Tutor [en]: in genitive becomes
Tutor [pl]: Śląska.
Tutor [en]: So
Tutor [pl]: blisko Śląska
Tutor [en]: means "close to Silesia." Similarly:
Tutor [pl]: blisko Warszawy, blisko Krakowa.
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 06/07/2026
It's a trade-off all right. I've been making more effort recently to grab RSS feeds and skip the noise. Yours is certainly on the list.
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 29/06/2026
Does reddit get the "LOOKS LIKE CLAUDE I CAN TELL BY THE GRAMMAR" randos? If not it may actually be worth a fresh look
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Reposted by Thomas Karpiniec
Nick Rempel @nrempel.com · 28/06/2026
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 28/06/2026
Blog: Getting ready for local inference
octet-stream.net
Getting ready for local inference
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Reposted by Thomas Karpiniec
Tobias Bieniek @tobias.bieniek.cloud · 27/06/2026
🦀 first basic prototype for the diff viewer on crates.io seems to work as planned 😍 and the regular code viewer is now publicly released :) #rustlang
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 25/06/2026
Old Mac owners 🤝 Recent Mac owners "it's worth more than when it was new!"
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 25/06/2026
It dropped “sanguine” on me this morning and like, sure, rings a bell but I still had to look it up
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 19/06/2026
I’ve been playing with an open source tool that’s coded with heavy AI assistance (dirge) and it’s an interesting dynamic. Usually if I found a bug I’d try to make a PR. Here it’s better if I just write a good issue and the maintainer can quickly generate a fix in exactly the way that suits them.
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 17/06/2026
Blog: No more Standard Search for standard.site octet-stream.net/b/scb/2026-0...
octet-stream.net
No more Standard Search for standard.site
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 16/06/2026
Good news for the 3 people who bought the Mac Studios with 512 GB RAM I guess
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 15/06/2026
I checked and the top page had 4 of your posts in it so there's going to be an element of self-assessment here
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 14/06/2026
It's true. Currently stuck in a miserable tradeoff between "use the nice 120Hz laptop screen" and "have decent posture".
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 14/06/2026
netwatcher 0.7.1 is out, adding BSD support (crates.io/crates/netwa...). The obvious platform gap now is Redox OS. I've looked into it and I believe all the primitives are there. I just need to build a convincing integration test.
crates.io
crates.io: Rust Package Registry
crates.io serves as a central registry for sharing crates, which are packages or libraries written in Rust that you can use to enhance your projects
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 14/06/2026
Love to see it!
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 13/06/2026
This discovery came about when I accidentally had US holidays enabled in my calendar and I was upset about this “flag day” that didn’t bother to mention what I’m supposed to do
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 13/06/2026
TIL it’s called a flag day because Multics once used Flag Day (the US holiday) for a coordinated incompatible change to ASCII values on 14 June 1966.
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 12/06/2026
90s kids
Meme template, woman grimacing on left, looking interested on right. Left side has a screenshot of the windows 95 full-height busy hourglass mouse cursor. Right side has the variant of that cursor where the pointer arrow is still there and the animated hourglass is smaller and in the corner, indicating that work is proceeding in the background but you can still click on things.
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Thomas Karpiniec @octet-stream.net · 11/06/2026
Over the years I’ve seen various links to blog posts by @dbushell.com and shamefully it was only today I realised the domain is a name and not a grumpy linux blog
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Reposted by Thomas Karpiniec
eliza🌻 @elizas.website · 10/06/2026
i get a sick thrill every time i write code that handles something like a UUID collision or a 64-bit counter overflow gracefully. sure, it'll never happen, but when it does, it won't be *my* code that breaks
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