Raven Onthill
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
mastodon
4.6.0-nightly.2026-03-16
Just a dilettante amateur political science bird who lives in the US Pacific Northwest. If you want to know what I think, try my blogs at adviceunasked.blogspot.com and shinycroak.blogspot.com. I’ve also been known to write about science fiction, computing, and design.
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Joined May 10, 2022
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@cstross@wandering.shop
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@cstross@wandering.shop
RE: https://mastodon.social/@workchronicles/115887342621053928 All you need to know to understand how actually-existing crapitalism operates. (You don't deal with a mafia organization by fining them o
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Raven Onthill
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
Just a dilettante amateur political science bird who lives in the US Pacific Northwest. If you want to know what I think, try my blogs at adviceunasked.blogspot.com and shinycroak.blogspot.com. I’ve also been known to write about science fiction, computing, and design.
mastodon.social
Raven Onthill
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
Just a dilettante amateur political science bird who lives in the US Pacific Northwest. If you want to know what I think, try my blogs at adviceunasked.blogspot.com and shinycroak.blogspot.com. I’ve also been known to write about science fiction, computing, and design.
mastodon.social
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
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Jan 13, 2026
@cstross@wandering.shop hence RICO. Which is also a fruitful source of civil rights violations.
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@cstross@wandering.shop
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@cstross@wandering.shop
Now is a great time to force-feed your CTOs on the writings of Niklaus Wirth (inventor of Pascal, Modula-2, and Oberon among other things, and proponent of "less is more" in software—he wrote an entir
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Raven Onthill
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
Just a dilettante amateur political science bird who lives in the US Pacific Northwest. If you want to know what I think, try my blogs at adviceunasked.blogspot.com and shinycroak.blogspot.com. I’ve also been known to write about science fiction, computing, and design.
mastodon.social
Raven Onthill
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
Just a dilettante amateur political science bird who lives in the US Pacific Northwest. If you want to know what I think, try my blogs at adviceunasked.blogspot.com and shinycroak.blogspot.com. I’ve also been known to write about science fiction, computing, and design.
mastodon.social
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
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Jan 06, 2026
@cstross@wandering.shop bring back Burroughs mainframes!
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@cstross@wandering.shop
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@cstross@wandering.shop
But do we want BRAAAAINS??? https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:77lswp42lgjyw36ozuo7kt7e/post/3mbd7zycblc2w
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Raven Onthill
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
Just a dilettante amateur political science bird who lives in the US Pacific Northwest. If you want to know what I think, try my blogs at adviceunasked.blogspot.com and shinycroak.blogspot.com. I’ve also been known to write about science fiction, computing, and design.
mastodon.social
Raven Onthill
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
Just a dilettante amateur political science bird who lives in the US Pacific Northwest. If you want to know what I think, try my blogs at adviceunasked.blogspot.com and shinycroak.blogspot.com. I’ve also been known to write about science fiction, computing, and design.
mastodon.social
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
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Jan 01, 2026
@cstross@wandering.shop "I'm not dead yet."
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@cstross@wandering.shop
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@cstross@wandering.shop
Psst: Microsoft's suicide note just dropped https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/115770620333626312
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Raven Onthill
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
Just a dilettante amateur political science bird who lives in the US Pacific Northwest. If you want to know what I think, try my blogs at adviceunasked.blogspot.com and shinycroak.blogspot.com. I’ve also been known to write about science fiction, computing, and design.
mastodon.social
Raven Onthill
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
Just a dilettante amateur political science bird who lives in the US Pacific Northwest. If you want to know what I think, try my blogs at adviceunasked.blogspot.com and shinycroak.blogspot.com. I’ve also been known to write about science fiction, computing, and design.
mastodon.social
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
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Dec 24, 2025
@cstross@wandering.shop I suppose they're doing it because they need memory safe code for security, especially in government applications. Whether they can do it…I wish I'd heard of a smaller project that has tried this approach. Surely they should do a pilot project first?
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@cstross@wandering.shop
Yeah, that'd help. In my experience dictation software is 100% useless for writing fiction. Can't handle quoted dialog, has a vocabulary limited to the average business or casual phone user, utterly p
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Raven Onthill
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
Just a dilettante amateur political science bird who lives in the US Pacific Northwest. If you want to know what I think, try my blogs at adviceunasked.blogspot.com and shinycroak.blogspot.com. I’ve also been known to write about science fiction, computing, and design.
mastodon.social
Raven Onthill
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
Just a dilettante amateur political science bird who lives in the US Pacific Northwest. If you want to know what I think, try my blogs at adviceunasked.blogspot.com and shinycroak.blogspot.com. I’ve also been known to write about science fiction, computing, and design.
mastodon.social
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
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Nov 19, 2025
@cstross@wandering.shop Problem is, the people who build these things don't really care about accuracy or utility for serious users. My hypothesis that ML text processing is most popular with people who are semi-literate or even functionally illiterate remains undefeated.
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@cstross@wandering.shop
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@cstross@wandering.shop
This is why the first modern bicycles, circa 1885-1890, were sold as "safety bicycles"—and drove the penny-farthing into extinction within five years! https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/di
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@Remittancegirl@mstdn.social
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@Remittancegirl@mstdn.social
@cstross@wandering.shop I imagine that falling off a penny farthing could result in broken bones.
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@cstross@wandering.shop
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@cstross@wandering.shop
@Remittancegirl@mstdn.social It regularly did! Also they didn't have gears or brakes (the pedal was fixed to the driving wheel). Early safety bicycles didn't have gears or brakes either, but at least
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Raven Onthill
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
Just a dilettante amateur political science bird who lives in the US Pacific Northwest. If you want to know what I think, try my blogs at adviceunasked.blogspot.com and shinycroak.blogspot.com. I’ve also been known to write about science fiction, computing, and design.
mastodon.social
Raven Onthill
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
Just a dilettante amateur political science bird who lives in the US Pacific Northwest. If you want to know what I think, try my blogs at adviceunasked.blogspot.com and shinycroak.blogspot.com. I’ve also been known to write about science fiction, computing, and design.
mastodon.social
@ravenonthill@mastodon.social
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Nov 17, 2025
@cstross@wandering.shop @Remittancegirl@mstdn.social brake shoes.
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