OCTADE or OCTAD is a retro word that means either an octal digit of three bits, or an octal octet or an eight-bit byte. Thus an octade, depending on its historical use, is either 3 bits or 8 bits.

OCTADE was used to specify eight bits, as opposed to BYTE which is not necessarily eight bits as the word BYTE could signify any of several numbers of bits.

This yields the retro 1337 numbers of 38 and 83. The number 38 is one more than 37 so a bit more elite a bit cooler. Thus it owns cardinally shorter byterz.

83 mod 38 equals 7, the highest octal digit. 838 mod 383 equals 72 or 9 times 8 which is 8 squared plus 8.

8338 mod 3883 equals 572 which is 72 times 8 minus 4 or 71.5 times 8.

8383 mod 3838 equals 707 which is 88 times 8 plus 3.

I prefer the old word OCTADE to the word BYTE. OCTADE sports a Euro-peon dignity and gravitas like an Internet serf ready to surf the worknet like pwnd peons. This is very true when pronouncing OCTADE with a thick Pennsyltucky Dutch or Yinzer accent. The Bostonian pronunciation sounds like bad beginner German or muffled mumbling of 'lactate.'

OCTADE or OCTAD was also used to describe a poem of eight stanzas.

OCTADE was also used to describe a period of eight years, or two leap years.

OCTADECANAL is a pheromone found in butterflies. It is butterfly perfume. I would not wear butterfly cologne. But I would sell it. Who would buy and wear my snobby smell? With wordplay we can call it OCTADE CHANNEL No. 8 . All rights reserved, ye French odor snooties.

Historical references for use of 'octade' or 'octad':

Burroughs B5500 Information Processing Systems REFERENCE MANUAL
https://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/burroughs/LargeSystems/B5000_5500_5700/1021326_B5500_RefMan_196705.pdf

Philips Data Systems Product Range - April 1971
https://www.vintage-calculators.nl/Philips%20productoverzicht%201971.pdf

Is there another name for octet that means 8 bits?
https://www.quora.com/Is-there-another-name-for-octet-that-means-8-bits

#octade #octad #binary #byte #jargon #etymology #bytemology #wordplay #wordgames #wordcrimes #history #retro #retronym #retronymous #yinzer #pennsyltucky #humor

@wordplay@lemmy.ml @Vocabulary@lemmy.ml

--

OCTADE | news://alt.flashback | https://soc.octade.net

#Coffee #CowboyCoffee #MorningMudd

Name: Byrl Raze Buckbriar (call me Raze).

Likes: Interested in WORK PRODUCT, inspiration, faith, truth, beauty, nature, self-improvement, encouragement, edification, praiseworthy things, how-tos, beautiful things, artwork, fluid poems, and general human kindness and achievement. See my profile hashtags for technical subjects of interest.

Disclaimer: If I follow your account it does not imply agreement with your views.

Site: Cryptography project site. (https://octade.net)
Publications: https://octade.net/publications.html
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5144-3278
Netnews: Find me on #Usenet in #Newsgroup alt.rhubarb.
Git: https://codeberg.org/OCTADE
Keyoxide1: https://keyoxide.org/0CF7084CF97B85F2ABF97010C6663A42C56F5F0E
Keyoxide2: https://keyoxide.org/B9B2A8EC2C4B20D2011CFEAA07E4A7FFF6585E8F
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/octade.bsky.social
HackerNews: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=OCTADE
Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/@buckbriar

Your wooden
Words are
Symmetrical,
Branches from
A sturdy trunk,
Towering,
Dense canopy.
Mine are
A forest
Fire.

#poetry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA_hmtuAPTY

[copypasta]

Did the Algorithm Change Your Decisions? | How Your Feed Was Engineered

Right now, somewhere on the internet, a video is being uploaded.

Within seconds, a system that no one elected, no one audits, and no one fully understands decides whether anyone else will ever see it.

Sometimes, it decides no one should.

And that’s the end of it.

In this episode of Plain Meaning, we examine how the modern internet quietly transformed from a system designed to deliver information… into one that decides what information exists for you at all.

It didn’t happen all at once.

It happened step by step.

Feed by feed.

Platform by platform.

Until nearly everything you see online is filtered through a machine making decisions on your behalf.

We trace how:

• Social media moved from profile pages to infinite feeds
• Facebook’s News Feed shifted from chronological to algorithmic control
• Advertising—not user experience—drove the need to control timing and visibility
• “EdgeRank” introduced the first large-scale automated editorial system
• By 2016, every major platform—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube—had adopted algorithmic feeds
• Recommendation systems replaced direct navigation across the entire internet

But this isn’t just a story about technology.

It’s a story about incentives.

Because once platforms controlled what you saw, they didn’t just control engagement.

They controlled attention.

And once attention became the product, the system began optimizing for something far more powerful than clicks.

We examine what happened next:

• How foreign influence operations exploited algorithmic feeds during the 2016 election
• The role of Cambridge Analytica and its parent Strategic Communication Laboratories in psychological targeting
• The scale and strategy of Russia’s Internet Research Agency
• How fake local news accounts built trust before deploying disinformation
• Why most influence content wasn’t political—but divisive
• How algorithms amplified all of it without distinction

And then we go further.

Because 2016 wasn’t the end of the story.

It was the beginning.

We look at how:

• Algorithmic systems shape not just what you see—but how you think
• Platforms reward emotional, extreme, and addictive content
• Foreign-owned platforms introduce new geopolitical risks
• Systems like ByteDance’s TikTok operate differently across countries
• The same algorithmic architecture can produce completely different realities depending on its objectives

This episode is not about one platform.

It’s not about one political party.

And it’s not about one country.

It’s about the system itself.

Because the algorithm isn’t just recommending content.

It’s acting as an editor.

And most of the time, you don’t even realize it’s there.

By the end of this video, the next time you open a social media app, you’ll understand:

Why your attention isn’t fully yours.

Why the world you see isn’t necessarily the world that exists.

And how to recognize when a machine—not you—is deciding what matters.

#Algorithm #SocialMedia #DigitalMedia #YouTube #Facebook #Instagram #NewsFeed #TikTok #Twitter

[/copypasta]

This post is a test; please ignore (or don't, whatever).

I have reduced my postings from three hours down to 1 1/2 to two hours. Are you happy with the content I'm curating.

Please click favourite also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZcXvuvGxmk

[copypasta]

Mobile phone and seatbelt detection cameras may sound like a narrow traffic enforcement tool, but many people know them by a more revealing nickname: “crotch cams.” In this video, Dr. Jon Padfield examines how these cameras work, why they are spreading across the United States, and what they actually mean for privacy, surveillance, and public policy. He breaks down federal traffic fatality data, questions whether photographing drivers’ groin areas is really the best way to improve safety, and compares these systems to other interventions like rumble strips, pavement markers, and pedestrian islands that may save more lives without expanding surveillance.

Drawing on his own highway safety research background, Jon argues that serious public safety questions deserve serious debate, not rhetoric or gaslighting. He also explores the broader incentives behind these systems, including revenue generation, data collection, and the growing overlap between roadside surveillance and in-vehicle monitoring technology. If we truly want safer roads, this video asks whether more cameras are the answer—or whether we are choosing surveillance over better solutions.

[/copypasta]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnUxRahoBJU

[copypasta]

How private is online therapy? And what happens to your most sensitive personal data when you trust an app with it?

There is an often-quoted idea that the true measure of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable members. Nearly 2,000 years ago, the Book of James expressed a similar principle: caring for those in distress while remaining morally uncorrupted.

Today, tens of millions of Americans are seeking help through online therapy platforms. But what happens when companies entrusted with deeply personal struggles turn that information into a business model?

In this video, I examine major online therapy platforms including BetterHelp, Talkspace, and Cerebral—and the growing concerns around how sensitive mental health data is collected, shared, and monetized.

We’ll look at:
• The explosive growth of online therapy
• FTC actions against BetterHelp and Cerebral
• Allegations of data sharing with Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, and others
• Broader concerns about privacy across mental health apps
• What this means for people seeking help during their most vulnerable moments

[/copypasta]

https://tuba.geopjr.dev/

#Fediverse #Fedi #Software #Linux #Windows

5C00B1ED00B1ED00

#L3375P3AK

What happens after #AgeVerification laws take effect: The chilling effect of online age and ID checks

https://proton.me/blog/age-verification-laws-chilling-effect

#privacy #FreeSpeech #politics

Fun post pointed out by Werner Koch on the GPG "post-quantum defaults" thread:

https://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2026-March/039449.html

"""
Quantum Cryptography, while intellectually neat, does not present a
practical attack that we need protection against at this time.
Kleptographic Standards on the other hand are very much a practical
attack that we need to protect against at this time.

When a standards body tells you that you should cast aside well-studied
cryptographic algorithms which have earned their trust through dozens of
years of examination, testing, and motivated attackers, for the sake of
protection against Quantum Crypto? The attack you should be protecting
against isn’t Quantum Crypto.
"""

#cryptography #QuantumCryptography #security

As someone with an interest in cryptography and, I guess as an extension, tradecraft (shout out to Minnesota Spy Club), I thought it was interesting that the Irish military intelligence agency (formerly "J2") decided to "decloak" in the Irish Times:

• https://www.irishtimes.com/podcasts/in-the-news/the-spy-service-protecting-ireland-inc/ [podcast]
• https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/04/04/the-spy-is-the-boring-guy-in-a-suit-inside-the-states-military-intelligence-service/ [interview]

It all seems reasonable enough but I don't know about the whole thing about protecting (among other things) "Irish business interests abroad." And then to tell us that they're working for "Ireland Inc.?" IDK. Not really the kind of public image that inspires confidence.

#Spooks #Cryptography #Tradecraft #Facebook #Meta #RegulatoryCapture #Corporatism

https://dev.to/dattran2346/building-a-youtube-to-podcast-pipeline-with-yt-dlp-ffmpeg-and-backblaze-b2-8nm

#Podcast #Podcasts #Audio #Youtube

https://casti.fyi/youtube-to-podcast.html

#Music #Audio #Video #Podcasts #Youtube

SINS of Christian Nationalism & Zionism

Sins of Christian War-Making

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-maDeoEDiI

Synopsis:

Holy war is a doctrine of the devil. Every church and organization promoting war for Christ is anti-christ.

Man cannot solve the evil in the world by 'fighting' or violence. That is exactly what the devil and his minions want. The gospel can not be spread by the sword or power of the state.

Every form of radical liberation theology or dominion theology is satanic because it denies the word of God and replaces it with the gospel of war.

Christian nationalists hate the lost because they too are lost souls with a messiah complex. Instead of following the messiah they want to reconstruct him in the imperial state. They do not have love of their neighbor.

My observation:

Christian Nationalism is disguised Roman imperialism, globalism and Zionism, hence it is neither Christian nor nationalist in character. Christian Nationalism has the same character imprint as Holy Roman Empire crusaderism. It is wicked and deceitful.

Christian Nationalists claim to advance 'dominion' or 'taking dominion'. This is blasphemy. The dominion over the nations was given to Jesus, not to imperfect men. Jesus is the one who is given dominion over all the nations. Thus Christian Nationalism blasphemously posits itself as the messiah with the dominion, just like its Catholic parent church.

#GunpointGospel #Crusades #HolyWar #Catholic #HolyWar #Christian #ChristianNationalism #Nationalism #Zionism #Christianity #DominionTheology #Church

--

OCTADE | news://alt.crossover | https://soc.octade.net

NEWS : news://alt.flashback | news://alt.crossover

#Usenet #NetNews #NNTP

Maybe it means one must be high on spirits during the crime ...

... or the crimes were committed while high?

If Drumpf had a son he would look like Afroman ...

... because he got high.

Drumpf + Afroman = High Crimes and Misdemeanours.

IMPEACH AFROMAN

Mandatory Brawndo dosage is the contraceptive antidote.

#Drumpf #Afroman #Impeachment #Constitution #Brawndo #Humor #Jokes

Alt...

Tryptich of Afroman wearing an American flag striped suit.

Please don’t be shocked, but I’ve been reading old #UNIX Review magazines on Archive.org, as one does. I’ve been finding a number of interesting artifacts throughout. This June 1984 ad by Cadmus Computer Systems listed a #USENET address: !wivax!cadmus.

This is a UUCP bang path, for the kids who don’t know. The ! separates relay hops, it’s a literal routing instruction. Get to the backbone, reach wivax, forward to cadmus.

No DNS.

Machines screamed at each other to swap data.

#unix_surrealism

Alt...

A man works on a computer with multiple monitors displaying graphical data, surrounded by an advertisement for Cadmus computer systems.

Alt...

A vintage advertisement for the Cadmus 9000 computer system, highlighting its complete set of tools and contact information.

My problem with solarpunk is how do you make solar panels without mines and refineries and factories and all that messy stuff?

Game devs, drop the keyboard and play this drinking game. Then continue coding to experience real vibe coding.

https://ludocity.org/wiki/Tablero_de_Yinzer

[copypasta]

Tablero de Yinzer is based on Tablero da Gucci, which in turn is based, allegedly, on a gambling game called Tablero de Jesus. Tablero de Yinzer is the version Tablero da Gucci played in Pittsburgh, as adapted by members of Obscure Games Pittsburgh.

[/copypasta]

#Yinzer #Pittsburgh #Beer #Games #BoardGames

#Yinz #Yinzer #YinzerMafia #Pennsyltucky #Pennsylvania #Keystone #Appalachia #Allegheny

Alt...

Beer glass with Pennsylvania map shape and the word Yinzer.

Europe, the AI Continent.

One year ago, we launched the AI Continent Action Plan. Since then, we have made huge strides:

✅ 19 AI factories are now live across EU countries.
✅ We established the AI Skills Academy to train experts.
✅ The AI Omnibus is cutting costs for business.
✅ We have earmarked €1 billion to support AI adoption in industry.

We are building a secure and innovative AI future for Europe.

Here's how 👉 https://link.europa.eu/nj3VH9

Alt...

A robotic hand and a human hand reaching towards each other, reminiscent of "The Creation of Adam." They are framed by a circle of glowing pink and blue stars. Below, white text reads "EUROPE The AI continent," with the European Commission logo in the bottom right corner.

New from me: Fediverse Report #158 - What is Mastodon for?

On the recent discourse about the Mastodon becoming an echo chamber and the community's anti-ai sentiment, and how the fundamental tension in that @Mastodon allows for people to create communities and 'place' on the instance level, but people experience community and culture on the federation level

https://connectedplaces.online/reports/fr158-what-is-mastodon-for/

The sky matches my mood

SCOTUS rules that ordinary Americans do NOT owe income tax!

https://youtu.be/bTLYcr-JuDc

SCOTUS just contradicted a century of circuit courts and their malicious rulings subjecting Americans to the income tax. Will anyone notice?

[copypasta]

Dr Champion shows you the astounding words of a recent US Supreme Court decision, in which the Court explains why Americans need not pay income tax! The Court also bitch-slapped half the US Circuit Courts of Appeal in the process. A truly phenomenal decision! (Recorded December 4, 2024.)

[/copypasta]

#Taxes #IncomeTax #IRS #SCOTUS #courts #law #legal #money

OCTADE or OCTAD is a retro word that means either an octal digit of three bits, or an octal octet or an eight-bit byte. Thus an octade, depending on its historical use, is either 3 bits or 8 bits.

OCTADE was used to specify eight bits, as opposed to BYTE which is not necessarily eight bits as the word BYTE could signify any of several numbers of bits.

This yields the retro 1337 numbers of 38 and 83. The number 38 is one more than 37 so a bit more elite a bit cooler. Thus it owns cardinally shorter byterz.

83 mod 38 equals 7, the highest octal digit. 838 mod 383 equals 72 or 9 times 8 which is 8 squared plus 8.

8338 mod 3883 equals 572 which is 72 times 8 minus 4 or 71.5 times 8.

8383 mod 3838 equals 707 which is 88 times 8 plus 3.

I prefer the old word OCTADE to the word BYTE. OCTADE sports a Euro-peon dignity and gravitas like an Internet serf ready to surf the worknet like pwnd peons. This is very true when pronouncing OCTADE with a thick Pennsyltucky Dutch or Yinzer accent. The Bostonian pronunciation sounds like bad beginner German or muffled mumbling of 'lactate.'

OCTADE or OCTAD was also used to describe a poem of eight stanzas.

OCTADE was also used to describe a period of eight years, or two leap years.

OCTADECANAL is a pheromone found in butterflies. It is butterfly perfume. I would not wear butterfly cologne. But I would sell it. Who would buy and wear my snobby smell? With wordplay we can call it OCTADE CHANNEL No. 8 . All rights reserved, ye French odor snooties.

Historical references for use of 'octade' or 'octad':

Burroughs B5500 Information Processing Systems REFERENCE MANUAL
https://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/burroughs/LargeSystems/B5000_5500_5700/1021326_B5500_RefMan_196705.pdf

Philips Data Systems Product Range - April 1971
https://www.vintage-calculators.nl/Philips%20productoverzicht%201971.pdf

Is there another name for octet that means 8 bits?
https://www.quora.com/Is-there-another-name-for-octet-that-means-8-bits

#octade #octad #binary #byte #jargon #etymology #bytemology #wordplay #wordgames #wordcrimes #history #retro #retronym #retronymous #yinzer #pennsyltucky #humor

@wordplay@lemmy.ml @Vocabulary@lemmy.ml

--

OCTADE | news://alt.flashback | https://soc.octade.net

Into the cathedral
Of night
To be baptized
By ancient
Starlight
And made
Whole.

#poetry

https://youtu.be/Nhz6vao13bs

[copypasta]

California AB 2047: The End of Open Source 3D Printing

California just introduced a bill that doesn't just regulate "ghost guns", it mandates a digital kill switch for every 3D printer sold. California AB 2047 requires "blocking technology" that connects your printer to a government-approved database before every single print. If the system goes down, or your file is flagged, your hardware becomes a paperweight.

This isn't just about firearms. This is the death of Open Source. If this bill passes, it effectively bans Marlin, Klipper, and Orca Slicer, forcing every manufacturer to lock down their firmware. It turns general-purpose computing into a walled garden where you only rent permission to use the hardware you own.

[/copypasta]

#OpenSource #RightToRepair #Privacy #Clippy #California #Monopolies #3dPrinters #3dPrinting #Technology #Government #Firearms #Guns #SoftwareFreedom #Surveillance #Panopticon #Lobbyists

All the donor-funded foundations ought to be fighting against and speaking out against this Orwellian garbage.

@eff@mastodon.social
@fsf@hostux.social
@linuxfoundation@social.lfx.dev
@privacyint@mastodon.xyz
@openssf@social.lfx.dev
@rms@mastodon.xyz
@CCIAnet@techpolicy.social
@WriterOfMinds@sigmoid.social
@SeaGL@mastodon.social
@hopeconf@mastodon.online
@w3c@w3c.social
@ACM@mastodon.acm.org
@irtf@discuss.systems
@osi@opensource.org

The Cryptographic Zombie: How Keybase Went from Privacy Darling to Zoom’s Cleanup Crew

Once the ultimate geek flex for cypherpunks, Keybase promised to make PGP cryptography accessible to mere mortals. Today, it hovers in the digital ether as a "zombie" app. Here is the story of how a revolutionary open-sour

https://schulz.dk/2026/04/06/the-cryptographic-zombie-how-keybase-went-from-privacy-darling-to-zooms-cleanup-crew/

#Misc #Privacy #Security #cryptography #nostalgia #security