iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 17h

Label me confused. How can one be "cruel" to an AI? www.bbc.com/news/article... The article says 'But what Anthropic would consider "abusive or cruel behaviour" towards its models remains unclear.'

bbc.com

Anthropic bans users from being 'cruel' to its AI systems

The firm said users can no longer engage in "sustained and needless" abusive behaviour towards the tech.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Fun list of movie stars at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI's_1... "[In 1999], Gregory Peck, Katharine Hepburn, Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Shirley Temple, Lauren Bacall, Kirk Douglas and Sidney Poitier were alive, but have since died. As of 2026, at age 91, Sophia Loren is the sole surviving star."

en.wikipedia.org

AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars - Wikipedia

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Kansas, heading west on I-70, west of Manhattan, early 1990s. Hours and hours of THIS.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Watching "Mr. Moto's Last Warning" (1939). Peter Lorre, John Carradine, George Sanders. This was in a 50-movie set I bought many years ago. Never watched it. "Mr. Moto?", I thought, "nah." Looked at the actor list, read about Moto, glad I did. Virginia Field delivers a *superb* monologue.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

One doesn't hear about Universities or Colleges offering mortgages. They aren't allowed to compete. One has to ask about it. Funny thing: the head of the mortgage office at our University was also the town's Mayor. That was his day job :)

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Universities / Colleges WANT your home, if you default on the mortgage. They can use it. Visiting Professors, speakers, rentals for grad students and honored people. Banks don't want the home, they want $. No insurance: Univ/coll don't want anything to do with that. Taxes, same. You pay that.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

During the Reagan years, banks wanted 21% interest on home loans. Yes, 21%. Our mortgage was through the University for which we worked. 15%. No Insurance. Universities and Colleges offer mortgages. Ask about the one from which you graduated and/or the one for which you work. Reason:

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Yes, they want debt. My financial institution gave me a document that bought my car. The dealer asked "Is there any reason you didn't finance through us?" and I almost laughed. They didn't do due diligence, and I drove the car home without buying it. It took weeks for them to fix their mistake.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Not "major", but definitely the Culture series by Iain M. Banks. (Banks thought sf was conservative by nature, didn't write that way.)

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Oh well. Canadians who own property in Florida are going to eat a big tax hike. I visited Boca Raton once, after Hurricane Andrew, Sep1992. People lost their homes. I was shown buildings full of empty condos. People who didn't like Canadians told me Canadians owned them. Sigh.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Looking at Texas's rules/laws about property tax changes is confusing. If I buy another property, can I reduce the tax liability for the place where I don't live? It's my understanding that I can. It's hard to tell, though, from looking at comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/proper...

comptroller.texas.gov

Property Tax Exemptions

Texas has several exemptions from local property tax for which taxpayers may be eligible. Find out who qualifies.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

In Texas, if one owns a property *and* lives in it, one pays "homesteader" property tax. That's lower than if one does not live on the property. If one owns another property one does not list as their primary residence, the homesteader tax rule didn't apply. Maybe it does now.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This confuses me. I live in Texas and property taxes are assessed by the county, not the state. Florida could do the same. Texas doesn't let counties alone, though. A recent statewide change made it possible to own multiple properties and pay nothing extra for the extras, kind of. [...]

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Florida's upcoming tax change might mean residents pay less and Canadians pay a LOT more. www.cbc.ca/news/world/f... DeSantis: "I want Canadian tourists and Brazilian tourists subsidizing the state and making it so Florida residents pay less taxes. I don't want to give Canadians a tax cut."

cbc.ca

Florida weighs ditching property taxes and sticking Canadians with the bill | CBC News

Florida voters are weighing whether to scrap residential property taxes and the state's governor has a solution to that potentially huge revenue loss: tax Canadians more.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Residence hall (dormitory) named after her. housing.umich.edu/residence-ha...

housing.umich.edu

Mosher-Jordan Hall – Michigan Housing

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

If "Eric Idle" and "Trump" were mentioned in the same sentence, that would be historic. Alas, my digestive tract says I shouldn't watch that again, and that part of me rules the roost these days.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Another Austin DC video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHDf... but this one is Netapp-centered. After Oracle bought Sun, I bet the Netapps went bye-bye. One of those bigshots in this video was a complete ass hole. Oh yeah, if I didn't mention it before, this DC is gone, closed, shut down.

youtube.com

Oracle Austin Data Center

YouTube video by Vervint

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjnk... is what the DC looked like when I worked there. The woman at a keyboard facing away from the camera was one of my team leads for a short while. Hilarious to see her again. Toward the end, note the empty space on the DC floor. I wonder if they ever filled it.

youtube.com

Oracle Austin Data Center

YouTube video by tiagoruiz

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

www.youtube.com/watch?v=n51L... is one of the data centers where I worked. It's fun to see some of the faces of erstwhile co-workers. We weren't supposed to tell people it was a DC. The only thing outside that identified it was a street address. Then, wham, they started posting videos. Sigh.

youtube.com

Oracle Austin Data Center on Managing The Modern Data Center

YouTube video by Oracle Video

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Definitely pardon/excuse me if I'm preaching to the choir.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

There are (still) some who would disagree with my wording "his ideas and writings are accepted". That's OK. Gould's ideas help with the old "these two species *are* different species, but they're so similar. How could this be?" issue. (To put it rather crudely, with little text space.)

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

There was this guy named Stephen Jay Gould. He was making, er, waves in evolutionary science. Look at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen... for info. In the 1970s and 1980s, bringing up his ideas in class could mean a BIG argument. Nowadays his ideas and writings are accepted.

en.wikipedia.org

Stephen Jay Gould - Wikipedia

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The big white thing with the rounded roof is a structure at least a decent city block long. Across the street from Boring is StarLink, and it's at least as big as the Boring site.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

They lived in an area of Bastrop where neighbors were a quarter-mile away. Not much sound, stars fill the sky at night. Now they get this hummmm and were looking to move. Attaching an old google satellite-view map of Boring. That rectangular area was almost filled in when I was there.

old Boring Company satellite view courtesy of google

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The friend was having a house built northwest of Austin TX, and one day she saw some people trying to look in its windows, checking it out. She May I Help You'd them, and they told her they wanted to move away from The Boring Company because of this humming sound they couldn't stand any more. ...

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

After retiring, I got bored and drove to The Boring Company in Bastrop TX. Quick drive. I took a photo but can't find it, alas. There was a barely-audible hummmmmm. It was around 100F, so I didn't stick around. Later, a friend told me she met some people who lived around half-a-mile of it ...

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I drove past at least one BIG data center to get to the DC where I worked. That's six I could hear. Five of them are no longer there, as DCs are like cell phones -- one buys a new one 'cause, you know, new tech. It's hard to upgrade a DC. Build new, shut down the old. There's another ...

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

In my decades of sysadmining I worked at three BIG data centers that were in the middle of neighborhoods. None were this noisy. If one was within 50 feet of one of those DCs (not easy), one could hear something as loud as a next-door leaf-blower. The others were big-fan noisy.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Mercantilism. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercant... Historically proven to damage much more than it helps.

en.wikipedia.org

Mercantilism - Wikipedia

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Dorothy Malone? The same Dorothy Malone that was on Peyton Place, and was in those Douglas Sirk "weepies"? Malone, self-described as "a good Catholic girl", who professed to *enjoy* the final kiss with Robert Stack in The Tarnished Angels? Ooh. Thx for posting. Must find that DVD...

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The person who came by to check to see if we were registered to vote thought that was unusual. I said it wasn't. The same thing had happened to others here in Texas. Whatever mistake was made was NOT recent. I'm gonna say it happened last year, and might NOT have been a mistake.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

When I renewed my driver license and vehicle registration, I requested the voter registration card be updated and sent. Nice option available here. It took *months* for the new voter card to arrive. I wondered why. I mentioned that to someone who came by to see if we were registered to vote ...

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Funding of such a museum would be something like the funding of the deportation monument in France (one day, we'll have one for the United States). It'd also be as controversial. It might not be part of the Smithsonian. Mostly, it'd be worthwhile. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9...

en.wikipedia.org

Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation - Wikipedia

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

In late August 2025, I visited the National Museum of the American Indian, among other DC museums. There was a large, detailed section on the removal of the Potawatomi, called the Trail of Death, worth visiting. A museum devoted to a native holocaust would be a massive undertaking.

President Andrew Jackson quote, 1833: "They have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement which are essential to any favorable change in their condition. Established in the midst of another and a superior race, and without appreciating the causes of their inferiority and seeking to control them, they must necessarily yield to the force of circumstances and ere long disappear." NOTE Andrew Jackson was elected President as an "outsider" who would "clean up" the federal gov't.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This is a case of "hurt me, hurt me"

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

New game in the house. Who wants to play American Dictator?

Board of American Dictator game, money, game pieces, "questionable decisions" cards, supreme court justice you can buy.

Some of the American Dictator? "questionable decisions" cards.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

After watching video about Douglas Sirk, I'd like to see "Has Anybody Seen My Gal?", which has Dean in it. Sirk thought Dean had great potential, promoted him to the studio, and was rebuffed in favor of Rock Hudson. Hudson needed help, Sirk thought. Dean, not so much.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Curious. I have not encountered backs of heads or legs. It sounds kinda like fun. Most of my time here is spent watching interactions. I get the impression some of the people here have several different personas. I wonder how that works. Maybe some are drunk and some are sober. Like that.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

LOL I used Safari once. Emphasizing any of the four words of that sentence would be OK. First and last would be brutish, though.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Some of the new follower messages come from someone with a name like "please help (me/my child/my family/our hunger/in danger/need the devil's lettuce). What's the deal? OK, I'm kidding about the devil's lettuce, but...you know. Or maybe you don't know and never get those new followers. Tell me.

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Bluesky question, help me out. I'm here out of curiosity. I post a few things. I get new follower messages. I look at the new follower's profile and see this: one zillion followers two zillion following 15 posts Is this normal? Then there's another type...

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Spencer PriceNash @spricena.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The public library had discs of episodes of Dark Shadows, Star Trek Prodigy, and five Predator movies. Dark Shadows drove me nuts, as I hadn't seen the show since I was a '60s child. ST Prodigy was fun. Ahnold in the first Predator movie held up well. Now on Predator 2: Want Some Candy? lol

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