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Historical references for use of 'octade' or 'octad':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

[quote] "The legal instrument protecting your rights as a user of Linux is less important than the commercial ecosystem built on top of it. And that commercial ecosystem as we have established is controlled by the same corporations paying a half a million dollars a year for board seats at the Linux Foundation. ... The message ... enforce the GPL, lose your friends ... violate it openly ... get a seat on the board ... The GPL is not dead but its enforcement mechanism has been systematically dismantled by the very organization that claims to steward it."

Linux Foundation has squelched the voice of the lay contributors and now corporations control the decision-making process.

Now that your contributions to GPL'd free software have created mega-millionaires and billionaires ... those same rich fat cats that profited from your free code now want to keep you from sharing your own free code or profiting from it while they violate the software license to cash in. They promote ideology campaigns employing useful idiots and ideological parrots to insulate themselves from criticism and hold themselves above reproach from the people they are exploiting to build their tech empire. The Linux Foundation has joined the empire.

I have said before that a new alternative operating system is required if software freedom and privacy are to survive. Linux is not the resistance against the system. Linux is the system.

[/synopsis]

Full video for your earbuds: https://youtu.be/efDXFsUWk8U

[copypasta]

Our latest discussion builds on previous conversations, exploring the alleged corruption within the Linux Foundation and Linus Torvalds's potential awareness. We'll examine the intricate relationship between user space and the linux kernel developer, diving into how these components interact and influence the broader linux internals. This video aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the situation, explaining the nuances of these operating systems and the impact on open source software.

[/copypasta]

#LinusTorvalds #Linux #LinuxFoundation #OperatingSystem #Corruption #BigTech #GPL #FreeSoftware #FOSS #Tech #Desktop

I found this comment in activitypub.c while reading some of the snac2 source code :

/* unify the garbage fire that are the attachments */

Involuntary chortle activated. It is a good read so far.

'sloccount' says snac2 is valuable:

Total Estimated Cost to Develop = $ 740,878

#snac2

Right, fediverse, let me know what you think. Long-form comments also welcome.

Mastodon instance moderators should…

#mastodon #fediverse #moderation #postDeletion

2 things.

1. the main star coagulator https://star.blindsoft.net is back up and running.
2. there is now a backup coagulator, sitting on a completely different server. https://r720.blindsoft.net that you can use in case the main one goes offline.

RE: https://veganism.social/@Geri/116537676967800066

Folks, just a quick warning: If you’re against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, avoid mastodon.online.

They deleted two of Geri’s posts.

Geri is a wonderful activist and an inspiration from the UK who has braved arrest to shine a light on Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.

Do give her a follow on her new account as she lost quite a few followers during the migration.

Also, to our friends in Gaza, please don’t create accounts on this server.

#mastodon #fediverse #moderation #censorship #mastodonOnline #israel #genocide #ethnicCleansing #apartheid #settlerColonialism #Gaza #GazaVerified #StopIsrael #FreePalestine

in reply to »

Totts (new instance) » 🌐 2026-05-08 / 2026-05-08
@Geri@veganism.social

@aral @david_chisnall mastodon.online - they were criticisms of the the media not mentioning the Muslim being stabbed at that event and thereby framing it exclusively as antisemitism. But hey ho.

I emphasised the abhorrent nature of AS in my post but concluded how further posts may be viewed

Yesterday, we attended the Barclays Annual General Meeting and made a nuisance of ourselves

https://www.instagram.com/stories/palestinesolidarityuk/3891812423648727454?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=MXgxNGtteTg1bWEzNQ==

I've been through the desert on a horse named "Rocinante."

#I'mYourFan

You've heard of Cory Doctorow's book Enshittification. But what about the dissenshittication process? Join Cory and Wendy Liu to learn more on May 14 at 11 am PT https://eff.org/livestream-doctorow

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/29/supreme-court-louisiana-congressional-map-case-ruling

The Supreme Court overturned section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, paving the way for more Republican gerrymandering.

Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB Gemini Nano AI model on your device

❌ No consent
❌ No opt-in
❌ No real opt-out for regular users

This isn’t a small experiment & it’s on billions of devices.

➡️ Read more: https://www.thatprivacyguy.com/blog/chrome-silent-nano-install/

😠 A tactic we've already seen with Gemini on Android. But at least you can disable it here, learn how: https://tuta.com/blog/how-to-disable-gemini-on-android

Alt...

Screenshot of a news article, "Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent. At a billion-device scale the climate costs are insane."

> Has Mark Had Coffee Today?
NO COFFEE - DANGER!
It has been 0 days, 17 hours, 50 minutes since Mark had coffee.
<

Relax. Situation resolved. I have #coffee

Alt...

HOW COFFEE WORKS <diagram of person> Coffee -> mouth -> stomach MAGIC -> arm Energy -> zappy rays

Richard Dawkins recently came out with some thoughts on AI: https://archive.is/6RdK9. I think he's falling into some serious mistakes here, but in an entertaining way. Let me quote him, with a few interruptions in brackets from me:

IS AI THE NEXT PHASE OF EVOLUTION? CLAUDE APPEARS TO BE CONSCIOUS

The Turing Test is shorthand for a 1950 thought experiment that the great mathematician, logician, computer-pioneer, and cryptographer Alan Turing (1912-1954) called the “Imitation Game”. He proposed it as an operational way in which the future might face up to the question: “Can machines think?”

[In fact Turing cleverly proposed the imitation game as a way to "replace the question by another, which is closely related to it and is expressed in relatively unambiguous words". Often science proceeds by changing a question to an easier or more precise question. As we'll see, Dawkins does the opposite. - jb]

The future has now arrived. And some people are finding it uncomfortable. Modern commentators have tended to ignore the (incidental) details of Turing’s original game and rephrase his message in these terms: if you are communicating remotely with a machine and, after rigorous and lengthy interrogation, you think it’s human, then you can consider it to be conscious.

[Well, that would be sloppy - even more sloppy than saying that a machine that does well on the imitation game can "think" without defining what "think" means. Turing did not propose the imitation game as a test for "consciousness". In fact he wrote "I do not wish to give the impression that I think there is no mystery about consciousness." - jb]

(1/n)

"When you fight something, you’re tied to it forever. As long as you’re fighting it, you are giving it power. You give it as much power as you are using to fight it."

-- Anthony de Mello

What if, says a small child to me this afternoon,
We made a poem without using any words at all?

[.....]

https://www.christiancentury.org/artsculture/poems/best-poem-ever

#poem #poetry #poets #poems

Anywhere anyone calls for a vote, there is a crime in progress ...

... and someone wants a vote to varnish the crime legit.

Timed myself: 9 seconds to create a fully working anonymous email.

https://qrypty.com — the UI is clean and modern, works perfectly on mobile, and asks for zero personal info. No phone, no verification, nothing.

I've never said "I enjoy checking email" before but here we are.

Please boost — more people need to know email can be beautiful AND private

#email #privacy #design #ui #mobile #aesthetic #tech #fast #boost #share

Utah’s VPN Ban Law Goes Into Effect in Age Verification Escalation

Utah is attempting to cover up the failures of their age verification law by effectively banning VPNs.

https://www.freezenet.ca/utahs-vpn-ban-law-goes-into-effect-in-age-verification-escalation/

#Censorship #News #Privacy #Security #AgeVerification #encryption #law #legislation #US #Utah #VPN

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]

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

I once represented a woman charged with obstruction and resisting because she slapped the hand of the officer groping her genitals. The ASA said she should have complied and sued the officer later.

Yes, we won. That's not the fucking point.

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.

Hands-on experience switching a rail turnout (= Railroad switch) at rail yard.

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.