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Steve Downey

@sdowney.org
985 followers 399 following 4.7K posts

Professional C++ nerd. I worked to make optional<T&> happen. Working to make Text less bad in C++. Whole person, not a brand. Posts about politics, software, books... Software engineer at Bloomberg LP Views are my own he/him @sdowney@mastodon.social

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Reposted by Steve Downey
Vincent Ledvina @vincentledvina.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Here it comes... the large coronal hole is almost directly facing Earth now, which means fast solar wind is 3-4 days away. In fact, NOAA SWPC has just issued a G1/minor storm watch for Oct 2. This means there are chances for mid-latitude auroral displays Thu and Fri nights. #heliophysics
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 20h
Huh, remember when we gave AOL and WorldCom all the money because Internet?
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The Phantom Tollbooth Quotes @phantomtollbot.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"But there is one problem even more serious than that," he whispered ominously. "What is it?" gasped Milo, who was not sure he really wanted to know. "I'm afraid I can tell you only when you return. Come along," said the Mathemagician
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Pru @prufrockluvsong.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Please stop calling me on my phone that's not what it's for
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 28/09/2026
I would like more coffee but I am trapped.
Fynn, smol bean, resting his head on my arm.
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 28/09/2026
Regulatory capture is a real thing. But really, most of the time, an industry is full of people who want real regulations and have the expertise to help define and enforce them. That doesn't mean they could be voluntary. Or that they could just do it themselves. Have you met people?
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 28/09/2026
I made my parents teach me to read by the expedient of making them read the same book "again" until I could read it by myself.
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RSPB @rspb.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"Hear me out, we all agree to cancel Monday..." 📷️ Paul Browning
A pair of Kestrels huddle together on a mossy branch, their heads tucked close as if whispering conspiratorially to one another. The golden evening light highlights the intricate patterning on their feathers while the woodland behind fades into a soft blur.
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Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 27/09/2026
Place the close “ or else I’ll feel like I’m quoting the entire thread NO I AM NOT NEURODIVERGENT AT ALL WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT AHAHAHA
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 28/09/2026
It is such a Monday that I thought it was Tuesday for the first 30 minutes.
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 27/09/2026
The Illuminatus! trilogy was accidental vaccination against the TESCREAL virus.
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 27/09/2026
It's also important in explaining why the popular kid clique in High School is doomed and you will be avenged.
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Sarah Andersen @sarahseeandersen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The image is of a four panel comic.
The first panel shows Sarah, the protagonist, working at a desk. A brain next to her says, "We need to take breaks!"
The second panel zooms in on Sarah's face. She is annoyed. She says, "What if I don't listen to you?"
The third panel shows the brain smiling.
The fourth panel shows the brain reaching towards a lever. The brain says, "I'LL MAKE YOU."
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Annalee @flowerhorne.com · 26/09/2026
Right so the real trouble with phones is that they can make us think that we're not bored when we are in fact still bored
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 26/09/2026
"you had my curiosity, but now you have my attention"
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 26/09/2026
"Sucks for everyone" is the best way to harness the energy of the aggrieved white suburban mom. Keeps them from worrying about the "undeserving".
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 26/09/2026
She does not get eaten by eels at this time.
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Elizabeth Bear @matociquala.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Happy Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov Saves The World day to all who celebrate.
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 26/09/2026
My cats are not sure what we're looking at, but are happy to participate.
Fynn, the very orange smol cat, and Bubba, who is spiritually orange, looking in the same direction I am, because that's what we are doing together.
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 25/09/2026
The sky is trying to warn me
A very very red sky at sunset in the approaching Stormpocalypse.
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 25/09/2026
'AI "super intelligence"' is a "rationalist" / TESCREAL article of faith. It's a risk like Roko's Basilisk. Existential risk is a term of art in AI. Pin anyone down on what they mean. If it means risk to the infinite future of humanity filling the local galactic cluster or human extinction, no.
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Liz Shuler @lizshuler.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
*9 to 5* may have been a comedy, but for so many of us women fighting for respect on the job, it felt all too real. Dolly helped make us laugh at the boss and imagine what we could change together. Happy 9 to 5 Day! We miss you, Dolly.
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𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉 @seanfranco.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
ICYMI, this account that is live-blogging The Lord of the Rings (based on Tolkien’s calendar in the appendices) is just getting started again with Frodo journey. It’s a good follow if you want to see random appearances of hobbits and such on your feed.
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Crip Dyke @cripdyke.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
When you're thinking about the all time greatest moments of television, not nearly enough people think of this one.
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 24/09/2026
Never been to the opera before? Now’s your chance. We’re giving away 70,000 free tickets to the @metopera at the iconic Lincoln Center. Go to on.nyc.gov/opera to enter the lottery. There’s not a bad seat in the house.
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Solomon @solomonrmissouri.com · 24/09/2026
lol lol lol lol lol lol lol
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Detritus Books @detritusbooks.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Nobody talks, everybody walks.
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 24/09/2026
If you zip a zip file that has a zip file in it, it's going to keep shrinking, and eventually you can squeeze all of your data into a fraction of one byte. It is science.
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 23/09/2026
std::movable_box: Give Users the Ranges Movable Wrapper isocpp.org/files/papers...
isocpp.org
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 23/09/2026
An Infix Operator and a Keyword Escape for C++ Two jobs for the backtick, the last free token isocpp.org/files/papers...
isocpp.org
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 23/09/2026
Extending C++ with Unicode Mathematical Operators Declaring operator⊞, and what an implementation says about it isocpp.org/files/papers...
isocpp.org
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 22/09/2026
In which I am cranky: sdowney.org/posts/existi...
sdowney.org
✌Existing Practice✌
"Standardize existing practice" was barely true of the first C++ standard, and it is the wrong rule now. It was already being stretched in 1998. The ARM was existing practice. Templates as specified i
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 22/09/2026
So far the paperclip maximizing machine is focused on GPUs in data centers.
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John Timmer @jtimmer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Ok, this "there are two separate brains" thing appears to be making the rounds, and I want to be absolutely clear: this is a press office overhyping some perfectly reasonable science that won't come as a surprise to most developmental biologists.
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 22/09/2026
Not yet, but soon...
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Bryan Cantrill @bcantrill.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
New @oxide.computer swag just arrived, and... hot damn
A t-shirt depicting Oxide Computer Company in the style of a famous and defunct computer company
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Brooklyn Books & Booze @ Barrow's Intense @bklynbooksbooze.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Yesterday's Brooklyn Books & Booze Author Book Fair 2: The Bookening! at Barrow's Intense NY Tasting Room was a ton of fun and a ton of running around! Here's a video of the authors at work....
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Naomi Kritzer @naomikritzer.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I went looking for a gift link for this article and was happy to find it. It's a riveting, haunting read.
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 20/09/2026
Despite Betteridge's law of headlines, and "betray" is not the right word, I think the web of obligations and subsidiarity means taking more care that your children are not being harmed by your choices.
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The Phantom Tollbooth Quotes @phantomtollbot.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
"But if all the roads arrive at the same place at the same time, then aren't they all the right way?" asked Milo. "Certainly not!" he shouted, glaring from his most upset face. "They're all the wrong way. Just because you have a choice, it doesn't mean that any of them has to be right."
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Punk Rock History @punkrockhistory.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
47 years ago today Pennie Smith photographed Paul Simonon of The Clash at the New York Palladium, September 20, 1979. She made one of the most famous images in music history. #punk #punks #punkrock #theclash #PaulSimonon #penniesmith #history #punkrockhistory #otd
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The Phantom Tollbooth Quotes @phantomtollbot.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
"Everything here is called exactly what it is. The triangles are called triangles, the circles are called circles, and even the same numbers have the same name. Why, can you imagine what would happen if we named all the twos Henry or George or Robert or John or lots of other things?“
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Ralph Bakshi @ralphbakshi.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Never too late for some #frazetta friday!
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 19/09/2026
Ultimately nothing we can do will work against the super intelligence we are defending against, so in researching their capacity to escape control, that's what we will do, nothing.
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 19/09/2026
The missile knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't... youtu.be/6iBeRfOAAwk?...
youtu.be
missile knows where it is monday
YouTube video by therealbarenziah
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Foxscotch @foxscot.ch · 19/09/2026
Alteration of the "STOP DOING MATH" meme, edited to the following:

STOP DOING SPECS

- SOFTWARE WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE STRICTLY DEFINED
- YEARS OF SPEC WRITING yet NO REAL-WORLD USE FOUND for the AUGMENTED BACKUS-NAUR FORM
- Wanted to establish standards anyway for a laugh? We had a tool for that: It was called "MANPAGES"
- "The container of a navigable navigable is the navigable container whose content navigable is navigable" - Statements dreamed up by the utterly Deranged

LOOK at what Spec Authors have been demanding your Respect for all this time, with all the RFCs & working groups we built for them
(This is REAL Spec, done by REAL Spec Authors):

[Screenshot of the introduction to Annex K of the ISO/IEC 9899:2024 working draft]
?????

[Screenshot of the purchase page for IEEE 802.11-2024, showing a price of $913]
???????

[Drawing of two carrier pigeons standing side by side]
?????????????????

"Hello I would like [photo of a clothespin-based DHCP implementation info page] IPs please"

They have played us for absolute fools
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Super Shoe @shoe.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is incredible nitter.app/banteg/statu... H/t @gregdoucette.bsky.social
nitter.app
banteg (@banteg)
>be me >discover effective altruism >apparently normal charity is inefficient >why donate to random sad thing when spreadsheet can tell you optimal sad thing >fair enough >buy mosquito nets >save live...
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 18/09/2026
The good news is that the effective altruist / rationalist sexy apocalyptic death cult involves consenting adults.
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 18/09/2026
Unicode 18.0 released! blog.unicode.org/2026/09/anno...
blog.unicode.org
Announcing the Unicode® Standard, Version 18.0
Version 18.0 of the Unicode Standard is now available. The Unicode Standard is the foundation for all digital communications, and this new v...
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Steve Downey @sdowney.org · 18/09/2026
PRICE LIST

I CODE MANUALLY

$500

I CODE, YOU WATCH

$800

I CODE, YOU ADVISE

$1000

I CODE, YOU HELP

$1500

YOU VIBE CODE, I HELP

$2000

YOU VIBE CODE, I ADVISE

$3500

YOU VIBE CODE, I WATCH

$5000

YOU VIBE CODE, I REVIEW

$8000
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