iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 21/09/2026

Wow! That was handled nicely. Props to the @moderation.bsky.app team.

Bluesky Moderation Team

Hi there,

Recently, we removed a Bluesky account you control (@babu.dev) for violations of our guidelines. After a thorough review, we have determined that the takedown action applied to your account was incorrect. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Consequently, we are revising our initial decision and reinstating your account.

Thank you for doing your part to keep Bluesky a welcoming and empowering place for all users.
--
Bluesky Moderation Team

Tim Burks <timburks@gmail.com>

Thank you very much! No harm was done to me by your decision.

best regards,

Tim

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 21/09/2026

I haven't heard anything yet, so this morning I sent in a request with "Appeal" in the title so the LLMs would be more likely to recognize it.

I'd like to request a lifting of the suspension of the
did:web:babu.dev identity.

Here's what I believe triggered the suspension:

On Friday (9/18), I was testing a self-hosted did:web:babu.dev (using
a private custom PDS implementation) as an alternative to my main
Bluesky account (@timburks.me, did:plc:ahr5yhciwadehhwm7fotyfju). As I
was doing this, I uploaded my sifa.id and semble.so records, around
2000 in total. These did not seem to be recognized by these two apps.
I suspected that the problem was that I created these records before
first using the apps, so the apps might have ignored them when they
appeared on the firehose. So to reset the apps, I deleted these
records and recreated them, initially with individual transactions for
each record. Later I rewrote my uploader to post records in large
batches (100 at a time), but my repeated deletion and recreation
attempts all failed to clear whatever caches that the sifa and semble
apps were using. In hindsight, it seems likely that this exceeded
moderation thresholds. These were app-specific records and not visible
to Bluesky users, so I think it would be inaccurate to say that this
activity was "spammy". But I would agree that it overloaded the
firehose and should not be repeated in the future.

Here's what I'm doing to prevent this from happening again:

I've added a "mute" mode to my PDS implementation. It turns off
firehose output during large imports with the expectation that a
"sync" event could tell interested clients about the large-scale
changes. Large batched requests are also supported via
com.atproto.repo.applyWrites.

Based on this I have a request and a suggestion:

Request: Please remove the "!takedown" label from did:web:babu.dev.

Suggestion: Please consider providing a more direct way to observe
account status than abrupt takedowns. For now, I'll explore watching
for "needs-review" labels on my accounts.

Thank you!

100

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 20/09/2026

I got a reply right away, but I wonder if it was automated. It didn't say exactly what the problem was and I haven't gotten a response yet to a follow up email that I sent on Friday evening.

Hi there,

A Bluesky account you control (@babu.dev) has been detected by our systems as being spammy, inauthentic, or disruptive to users. As a result, your account has been taken down.

As a reminder, Bluesky requires that users do not harm others, including spamming, scamming, phishing or otherwise disrupting the Bluesky experience for other users.

If you have any additional questions or wish to appeal this decision please email moderation@blueskyweb.xyz. We understand the inconvenience that the suspension may have caused to your Bluesky experience. Be prepared to show ID to verify that you are the same persona that operates the account as part of your appeal.

100

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 20/09/2026

Here's why I am getting into did:web for self-hosting: four instances of my PDS, each serving on a different domain and hosting a family of did:web accounts with no off-server dependencies.

031

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 18/09/2026

Couldn't work anywhere that calls it "golang"

110

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 09/09/2026

Debate me at #kexp www.kexp.org/read/2026/9/...

my top ten songs from the 90s:
1. sabotage (beastie boys)
2. flagpole sitta (harvey danger)
3. human behavior (bjork)
4. dreams (the cranberries)
5. smells like teen spirit (nirvana)
6. cannonball (the breeders)
7. know your chicken (cibo matto)
8. fight the power (public enemy)
9. killing in the name (ratm)
10. basket case (green day)

131

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 07/09/2026

This is a #kexp video that I will be replaying often

A death cab for cutie live session on KEXP

011

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 03/09/2026

#grpConf is on! These are the crazy people who decided to let me speak

A slide showing the program committee members

140

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 31/08/2026

I got this from @daviddark.bsky.social, but it was created fifty years ago by Sister Corita Kent might-could.com/essays/10-ru...

“Immaculate Heart College Art Department Rules

RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.

RULE TWO: General duties of a student — pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.

RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher — pull everything out of your students.

RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.

RULE FIVE: Be self-disciplined — this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.

RULE SIX: Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.

RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.

RULE EIGHT: Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.

RULE NINE: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.

RULE TEN: “We’re breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.” (John Cage)

HINTS: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything — it might come in handy later.”
–Sister Corita Kent

052

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 28/08/2026

Just what I needed to launch a torrential loop this morning

Bad Bara by Chloe Caillet in the KEXP app

110

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 23/08/2026

Wow, this KEXP BBQ is packed! Waiting now for AdP #kexp #kexpbbq

110

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 22/08/2026

Sea Lemon is giving us a great start #kexpbbq #kexp

110

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 13/08/2026

Also, fixing two problems at once really should be considered harmful

We rolled out SQLite 3.52.0 carefully—first to a few canary shards, then, when we saw it running smoothly, we deployed it to the rest of the control plane.

Our backup monitor promptly turned red, and reported corruption in 13 different databases. This was extremely alarming, but we followed our recovery procedures to fix all the supposed corruption, and everything was happy. It turned out these databases had not suffered real corruption, but were subject to a second problem in the version of SQLite.

We shared our errors with the SQLite developers, which uncovered a bug in SQLite related to stale expression indexes. If you create an index on a computed value, and then the computation changes, the index will contain mismatched values, which gets reported as corruption by PRAGMA integrity_check.

In our case, we were storing some high-precision timestamps as text, converting them to a floating-point number in a VIRTUAL generated column, and the SQLite 3.52.0 release that fixed our data race also made an optimisation that subtly changed the rounding behaviour for text-to-floating-point conversions. Our canary shards didn’t have any timestamps that triggered the changed rounding behaviour, so we missed this in our phased rollout.

000

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 06/08/2026

Good news! The employer who laid you off wants to re-hire you. Bad news! It's IBM.

A post from a recruiter on LinkedIn:

Some of you got laid off because a company said AI could do your job.

Update! They want you back.

IBM cut HR roles for AI this year. The AI handled the routine stuff fine, but stumbled on the judgment calls, the ethical gray areas, the parts that needed an actual human. So IBM announced it's tripling entry-level hiring in the US in 2026.

230

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 05/08/2026

I didn't think I liked DC4C but this is good

Stone Over Water, a 2026 release playing on KEXP

010

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 28/07/2026

Wow! Shonen Knife is in the top ten albums on Qobuz right now

They're number nine with Let's Knife Re-Cut, a 2026 new release

020

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 12/07/2026

There are way too many drops and pauses in our YouTubeTV coverage of these matches

000

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 10/07/2026

I have a speaking slot at gRPConf '26

Session description:

A lightweight gRPC-compatible implementation for sidecars

gRPC is more than just a protocol: it's an opinionated set of tools and recommended ways to build servers and clients of networked APIs. But what if you have different opinions? Not all of us work in Google-scale contexts with monorepos containing thousands of services, strict controls over those implementations, and a fleet of engineers to keep them all up-to-date.

Sidecar is a Go library that supports gRPC wire protocols in the most minimal way possible: using the Go standard library and virtually no external dependencies. Originally created to communicate with sidecar proxies over Linux abstract sockets, Sidecar builds on Go generics, concurrency primitives, and native HTTP2 support to make gRPC clear, simple, and maintainable.

Sidecar grew out of IO, a new Envoy controller that was created to bring the powers of service meshes to individual developers. We'll talk about how IO and Sidecar work together to create a new class of secure and maintainable applications.

140

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 02/07/2026

Who's jamming with Cheryl and me today?

52 Girls by the B-52s is playing in the KEXP app

020

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 25/06/2026

This is amazing... I knew this post was garbage and now I have quantification www.solo.io/blog/what-is...

010

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 25/06/2026

I had my hopes up for a second da doo doo doo da dah dah dah

A sign in the window of a pizza shop saying "Pizza with the Police"

130

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 23/06/2026

Between us, I really wanted to just say "FUCK YOU, SLOW DOWN" but this was my first time posting on Nextdoor in a while.

A local post:

Guys… I am honestly done with e-bikes. I just had 2 e-bikes flip the cars off on middle of street and it’s really starting to bother me. Please get more police in for this type of behavior. I don’t want any more of this behavior and these guys have really been a struggle to handle them. Please look out and stay safe ❤️

My reply:

I walk a lot in Los Altos and wish we were this worked up about speeding and reckless drivers. When I do drive, I'm frequently tailgated by impatient people who want to exceed the speed limit or race past pedestrians. I wonder if we are really worried about the safety of those kids doing wheelies or if we just want them out of our way.

130

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 22/06/2026

idk i just google things 🙃

110

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 22/06/2026

This is fantastic! But did Troy really pronounce Mangetout as "man get out"? I guess I've been getting that wrong from the start.

The KEXP app showing that it's playing Conditions of Love (Boys Shorts Remix) right after an Air Break and a remix of Mangetout

300

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 18/06/2026

So you think *your* local In-n-Out drive through is slow

A headline saying that a California man who fell asleep drunk is in an in n out drive through serving prison time... I think

010

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 18/06/2026

Wow these kids have classic good taste, which I guess you would expect since their parents took them to KEXP this morning *strikes cowbell*

The last two kids have requested songs by Prince and Blue Öyster Cult

020

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 18/06/2026

It's like Yoda and Miss Piggy had a baby or was that DJ Morgan on the Morning Show with @djjohnrichards.bsky.social this morning?

It's take your kids to the DJ booth day today and they're playing requests from the kids in the booth.

110

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 16/06/2026

PSA for Android users (and look, Google AI didn't even protest)

000

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 15/06/2026

This is silly, and by anthropomorphizing Gemini, some Google product manager is pretending that "it" is lying and not them.

100

Tim Burks (inactive) @timburks.me · 30/05/2026

It's just repulsive (YMMV) to read someone commenting authoritatively from an obviously shallow understanding. Give me your hot takes, but don't act like you're Moses when you do.