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Historical references for use of 'octade' or 'octad':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

Lobbying = treason.

A democracy is supposed to do the will of the electorate, not the will of power groups commandeering electoral power.

Anyone asking for money via social media is 99.99% certainly a scammer.

Don't feel guilted into giving money to total strangers through a wire. Donating to your local wino on the corner would likely do more for society.

@justine@snac.smithies.me.uk

I recall a really old movie titled, DARKSTAR, with that theme of AI computer killing the crew.

There's still time to apply!

Senior Software Developer (backend)
Senior Software Developer (frontend)

Remote, full-time.

Join us to build and maintain open infrastructure powering global scholarly communication.

Apply by March 10, 2026. More info: https://www.crossref.org/jobs/

#hiring #jobs #remotework #remote

For 'research integrity' ban AI / LLM garbage from academia.

Funny, I was recently looking at bloom filters for the same reason: zero-knowledge bandwidth reduction.

Which field of Bachelor degree(s) have you?

'Age verification' is a thin pretext for the real purpose: mandating an API that allows remote access and control of the operating system.

Some mascot art is adorable, and some not so much. This one is just too grayscale for my taste.

Many times cops and government agents have been caught selling intelligence data to hostile actors. This is that gone to seed.

@david_bardos@mementomori.social

Don't forget the donation button.

'symbol of wealth'

hence

'globalism'

coincidence?

If a person or product is famous they are almost certainly compromised.

Decentralize all the things ...

"Removing anonymity from the web, which will inevitably happen when tech companies are required to identify and ban children, allows for easier government tracking and censorship of journalists, activists and whistleblowers [...] Non-profit and indie platforms could be forced to close, consolidating big tech’s power further. Mass surveillance systems, once constructed, could also be easily leveraged by governments and bad actors." - @taylorlorenz

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/02/ban-children-social-media-biometic-data-surveilled

#privacy #tech

Psychology is an administrative vocabulary masquerading as a natural science, and the most damning evidence is that the discipline best equipped to rescue it is quietly declining to speak its language. Thoughts?

https://brywillis634737.substack.com/p/the-zombie-factory?r=pvxh5

#philosophy #psychology #zombies #ethics #blog #substack #writing #critique #news #language #society #culture #power #instrumentation #evidence #podcast #thoughts

I just saw a tiny dog happily trotting down the street with a short string of those sausages that are linked together end to end in its mouth. It was so happy. The scene looked like a cartoon that had come to life.

I would like to find obscure and interesting manifesto type writings not listed on that web site. Suggestions? Links?

#manifesto

If your friend is going bonkers, get them to do group things that don't involve a computer or phone.

If you don't get it yet, this age verification that California is forcing into OS's (and Colorado is about to) isn't about protecting kids. It does nothing to protect kids.

But it is the first step towards needing your ID to use your computer, and tying your ID to everything you do with your computer.

In short, this is bad, and it's laying the ground work for mass surveillance the likes of which we haven't seen before.

And the thing that sucks is because they're using the "Think of the children" line, it'll probably go through without any resistance at all.

Make your plans now for how you want to respond to this, because its probably not a matter of if, but when this happens.

Seven people are put on trial in #France for:
- using encrypted apps like Signal
- participating in digital security training

“8 December” case: why is encryption on trial?
"On 3 October, the trial of the so-called “8 December” case began. Seven people are prosecuted for being a “terrorist group”.

The intelligence services in charge of the judicial investigation (Direction générale de la Sécurité intérieure, DGSI), the National Antiterrorist Prosecution Office (Parquet National Antiterroriste, PNAT), and the investigating judge based their case on the fact that the defendants were using different tools to protect their privacy and encrypt their communications on a daily basis.

This trial is part of an increased political push by states and law enforcement for surveillance measures and the criminalisation of encryption. That is why the trial is crucial in the battle against the state’s ongoing attempts to criminalise commonplace, secure and healthy digital practices.

EDRi member in France La Quadrature du Net has continuously defended people’s right to privacy and fought for strong protections of everyone’s digital security. Now, once again, they stand up for the last pillar of our digital #security – #encryption."
via @edri
@surveillance@a.gup.pe https://edri.org/our-work/8-december-case-why-is-encryption-on-trial/

Did #WhatsApp Lie About #Encryption For A Decade?

WhatsApp just got sued for allegedly lying about end-to-end encryption, with claims that #Meta employees can access any user's #messages through a simple internal request.

While the lawsuit provides no technical proof, we'll show you the confirmed privacy issues with WhatsApp and explain why closed-source encryption is fundamentally untrustworthy.

https://techlore.tv/w/oqjQuc25Sc7xcEfavaf1Cf

Sammelklage: WhatsApp-Verschlüsselung angeblich unwirksam

Eine Sammelklage gegen Meta behauptet, die Ende-zu-Ende-Verschlüsselung von WhatsApp-Nachrichten sei nur eine Fassade. Meta weist das entschieden zurück.

https://social.heise.de/@heiseonline/115972331299926515

A new class‑action lawsuit alleges WhatsApp’s end‑to‑end encryption is ineffective, claiming Meta can access users’ supposedly private chats despite long‑standing privacy assurances. 📱🔒
https://www.heise.de/en/news/Class-action-lawsuit-WhatsApp-encryption-allegedly-ineffective-11156940.html
#WhatsApp #Encryption #Meta #Privacy #TechNews

#SIgnal is the better #WhatsApp ✅ 💡

https://signal.org/download/

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/01/introducing-encrypt-it-already

the EFF is now launching "Encrypt It Already" a push to try and get companies to invest in stronger privacy protections for Data & communications

You can find out more at the announcement/article above, and the official website here: https://encryptitalready.org/

#EFF #Privacy #Security #Encryption #E2EE

hat.sh lets you encrypt files locally in your browser using modern cryptography — nothing is uploaded or stored.

Perfect for securing files before sharing or using cloud storage. Open-source and self-hostable.

👉 https://github.com/sh-dv/hat.sh

👉 More tools like this : https://digital-escape-tools-phi.vercel.app/

#Privacy #Encryption #OpenSource #SelfHosting #DigitalSecurity

Cryptomator is a client-side encryption tool for cloud storage services.

Data protected via AES-256 encryption.
Individual and business features.
Managed and self-hosted options.

ENCRYPTED

File content.
File/Folder name.

NOT ENCRYPTED

File/Folder access/creation/modification timestamp.
Number of files/folders in a folder/vault.
File size.

Website: https://cryptomator.org
Mastodon: @cryptomator

#Cryptomator #Encryption #InfoSec #Privacy #CyberSecurity #FreeSoftware #FOSS #FLOSS #OpenSource

Alt...

Cryptomator logo.

📌 End-to-end encryption doesn’t protect everything you think it does. It secures content in transit, but not metadata, backups, logins, or account access.

Whether you’re a user or a business leader, understanding this gap between privacy marketing and technical reality matters.

👉 Read more: https://medium.com/@biytelum/end-to-end-encrypted-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-means-59c0ab39296b

#Privacy #Encryption #Security #TechTruth #DataProtection #BiyteLüm

My message for #GlobalEncryptionDay... for every entity interested in #surveillance:
I will resist and it's my human right.
Encryption is not for bad actors only, it protects innocent people every day.
We are not criminals.

#privacy #encryption

Alt...

My modified photo. Woman in grey hoodie and black trousers, with right hand up and close to camera, is blurred. Top and bottom parts of the image are covered with added dark blue shadow. Whole picture is covered with semi-transparent Base64 PGP message. There is pale yellow text near bottom part: "I am not a criminal. I am not a terrorist. I USE ENCRYPTION."

European lawmakers keep asking for the impossible: Break #encryption in a way that’s ”safe”

They can’t tell the difference between technical and legal

Unfortunately there is a trove of ”experts” with devious intent, that keep telling them this is possible!

It’s not. Breaking encryption is fundamentally unsafe. It would open our entire society to Russian and American #influence operations

And that includes the companies we’re expecting to build #EU Data #Sovereignty

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pfVng5csqyk

From threat modeling to encrypted collaboration apps, we’ve collected experts’ tips and tools for safely and effectively building a group—even while being targeted and tracked by the powerful.

Alt...

How to Organize Safely in the Age of Surveillance

X's documentation explicitly states:

"Direct messages are not protected against hacking or unauthorised access."

If messages aren't protected against hacking, they're not encrypted properly.

This is encryption theatre, not encryption.

Words matter in security.

#Encryption #Cybersecurity #Twitter #Privacy

I built pagevault, a tool that turns any file into a self-contained encrypted HTML page. PDFs, images, whole websites, encrypted into a single .html you can email or host anywhere. Decrypts in the browser via Web Crypto API, no backend needed.

Chunked encryption handles 100+ MB files without choking the browser. Each chunk gets its own script tag, decrypted sequentially, then removed from the DOM for GC.

#encryption #python #webdev #opensource

https://metafunctor.com/post/2026-02-13-pagevault/

Happy to report that about a year after getting a mate to communicate using Signal instead of WhatsApp, we just today made the progression to securing our emails via pgp. 🥳

He was already using Thunderbird as his email client, and although just a few clicks it was a James Bond meets Bill Gates moment when we sent and received encrypted, signed emails to one another. 🤓

[Per the anarchist theory of practice] I remain convinced this practice of changing how we behave on the internet with intention will continue to change the people engaging in it. Digital prefigurative politics, nibbling away at surveillance capitalism one little data set at a time.

Slowly slowly catchim' monkey...... 🐒

Happy days. 😀

#pgp #encryption #Thunderbird #privacy

1/2 🚨 Today, the European Parliament is holding a public hearing on "lawful access to data for law enforcement." This hearing will platform the Commission and Europol's relentless attack on end-to-end #encryption.

We're heard this before: "lawful access" = encryption backdoors = #MassSurveillance ❌

✊🏾 We need EU lawmakers to #KeepItSafeAndSecure #KISS 🔒

💌 Sign our petition and join us in urging our lawmakers to protect encryption and ban spyware: https://edri.org/take-action/our-campaigns/keep-it-safe-and-secure/

Delta Chat is a messaging platform that works over email.

Setup is similar to a email client.
Messaging is decentralized and interoperable.

Supports end-to-end encryption via PGP.
PGP encryption keys are created automatically.

Default desktop client is based on Electron.
Electron is based on the Google Chromium web browser.

Website: https://delta.chat
Mastodon: @delta

#DeltaChat #Messaging #Privacy #InfoSec #E2EE #OpenPGP #PGP #OpenSource #FOSS #CyberSecurity #Encryption #FreeSoftware

Alt...

Delta Chat logo.

New AirSnitch attack breaks Wi-Fi encryption in homes, offices, and enterprises

That guest network you set up for your neighbors may not be as secure as you think.

🛜 https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/02/new-airsnitch-attack-breaks-wi-fi-encryption-in-homes-offices-and-enterprises/

#airsnitch #wifi #encryption #home #itsecurity #it #itsec #network #office #enterprise #security #wifibreach

"New research shows that behaviors that occur at the very lowest levels of the network stack make encryption—in any form, not just those that have been broken in the past—incapable of providing client isolation, an encryption-enabled protection promised by all router makers, that is intended to block direct communication between two or more connected clients.

The isolation can effectively be nullified through AirSnitch, the name the researchers gave to a series of attacks that capitalize on the newly discovered weaknesses. Various forms of AirSnitch work across a broad range of routers, including those from Netgear, D-Link, Ubiquiti, Cisco, and those running DD-WRT and OpenWrt.

AirSnitch “breaks worldwide Wi-Fi encryption, and it might have the potential to enable advanced cyberattacks,” Xin’an Zhou, the lead author of the research paper, said in an interview. “Advanced attacks can build on our primitives to [perform] cookie stealing, DNS and cache poisoning. Our research physically wiretaps the wire altogether so these sophisticated attacks will work. It’s really a threat to worldwide network security.” Zhou presented his research on Wednesday at the 2026 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium.

Paper co-author Mathy Vanhoef, said a few hours after this post went live that the attack may be better described as a Wi-Fi encryption “bypass,” “in the sense that we can bypass client isolation. We don’t break Wi-Fi authentication or encryption. Crypto is often bypassed instead of broken. And we bypass it ;)” People who don’t rely on client or network isolation, he added, are safe."

https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/02/new-airsnitch-attack-breaks-wi-fi-encryption-in-homes-offices-and-enterprises/

#CyberSecurity #Wifi #Encryption #AirSnitch