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rob pike

@robpike.io

16K followers 96 following 630 posts

Long career as a dilettante at Bell Labs Research and Google, mostly building weird stuff no one uses, but occasionally getting it right, such as with UTF-8 and Go.

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rob pike @robpike.io · Jan 19

In 1922 Alfred Stieglitz made a series of photographs of cloudy skies, calling them Equivalents because they matched an emotion or mood he was feeling.

This is my Equivalent for today.

A broken button with an helpful sign, a metaphor for my mood.

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rob pike @robpike.io · 1d

Congratulations to the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, László Krasznahorkai, who looks just like someone should look if they have won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

(And no, I had never heard of him. Congratulations nonetheless.)

Stanley Pignal @spignal.bsky.social · 2d

There are two types of people: people who've never heard of László Krasznahorkai and people who pretend to have heard of László Krasznahorkai.

FT Weekend @ftweekend.com · 2d

The Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai, known for his postmodern, dystopian novels, is the winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize for literature: on.ft.com/43dn191

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Joshua Shapiro @josh.shapiro.foo · 1d

I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything by AI. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed with AI, or buy anything sold or processed with AI, or process anything sold, bought, or processed by AI, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed by AI.

Nancy Parmalee @nparmalee.bsky.social · 1d

I don’t want to generate or receive an email, document, manuscript, PowerPoint deck, post it note, grocery list, novel, film, or hit list that has been generated with AI.

Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 1d

I write because I love writing. I love writing even when I'm struggling with a writing problem that is killing me. Finding a way through that problem is both intensely rewarding and also helps me become a better writer. There is no reason for me to ever outsource that.

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renee french @reneefrench.bsky.social · 3d

current state of bub

drawing of a 3 headed, (at least 3 heads) creature with one arm showing.

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Anne Bertucio @annebdh.bsky.social · 3d

Want to work on open source full time? The @roost.tools engineering team is starting to hatch! Come build OSS tools making a difference in Trust & Safety.

This is a fully remote role, though some schedule overlap with North American time zones is expected.

www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

ROOST.tools hiring Staff Software Engineer in United States | LinkedIn

Posted 8:52:18 PM. About ROOSTROOST is a community effort to build scalable and resilient safety infrastructure for…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.

www.linkedin.com

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renee french @reneefrench.bsky.social · 5d

this is one of the most beautiful things i've ever seen from my friend charles a brilliant genius

Charles Lister @charleslister.bsky.social · 5d

@reneefrench.bsky.social a bubs warframe inspired cross fanart piece from one of Renee Frenchs OC. @warframe.bsky.social
@warframe.com

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renee french @reneefrench.bsky.social · 5d

quickie of Buddy

drawing of a budgie with incorrect proportions and a blank stare

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News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · 6d

NEW: Extraordinary scenes in Amsterdam this afternoon (Sunday, Oct 5).

An estimated 250,000 bring the city to a standstill; people all wearing red to show solidarity with Palestine 🇵🇸

(🎥 Ahmed Zantac)

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Eric Brandom @ebrandom.bsky.social · 7d

Thinking not for the first time about how the Clash song Spanish Bombs is closer chronologically to the Spanish Civil War than we now are to the song.

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renee french @reneefrench.bsky.social · 9d

waiting room drawing

graphite drawing of a chair with knees and skin folds

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Burrito Justice @burritojustice.bsky.social · 10d

quick while the government is shut down let’s all switch to metric

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verdverm @verdverm.com · 18d

I swear using @cuelang.org is like having superpowers

Just CUE-ified the lexicon for permissioned spaces, so much easier to have consistency and readability. The JSON form is generated into the expected directory.

github.com/blebbit/atpr...

#atdev #atprotodev @atproto.com

atproto/lexicons/com/atproto/space/flexicon at main · blebbit/atproto

Social networking technology created by Bluesky (with Blebbit patches) - blebbit/atproto

github.com

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 10d

before and after hegseth's directive

Sean Connery is a red strapped outfit. He's very hairy.

William Shatner as Captain Kirk. He's in a black strapped outfit and has a smooth chest.

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renee french @reneefrench.bsky.social · 11d

tuesday

grahite and watercolor drawing of a tired fleshy thing

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rob pike @robpike.io · 13d

Also fruit bats are really cute.

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rob pike @robpike.io · 13d

I'd take the critters in Australia over a brown recluse any day. Also I've encountered countless poisonous snakes (rattlers) all over North America but never in Australia.

Anecdotal, yes, but the fuss about poisonous creatures in Australia is greatly overblown. The world is full of scary things.

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Edward Elderman @elderman.bsky.social · 14d

This only happens to you once

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Tim Bray @timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 15d

Last week I gave a talk at the IPTC’s “Photo Metadata Conference”. Here’s a blog-ified version, with lots of juicy digging into exactly what works and what’s broken in C2PA in 2025. Also strong opinions about provenance. And a link to the YouTube recording […]

[Original post on cosocial.ca]

Photo in a shopping mall in Sydney, Australia, which includes Content Credentials.

Content Credentials display provided by Lightroom describing the editing of a photograph.

Contributor details: Information shared by people involved in making this content

Produced by

Timothy Bray
@Instagram twbray
@LinkedIn Tim Bray

Content Details
Information about this content and how it was made.

App or device used

Lightroom Classic 14.5.1

Recorded by

Adobe Inc. on Sep 9, 2025

Actions

Color or exposure edits
Adjusted properties like tone, saturation, curves, shadows, or highlights
Cropping Edits
Used cropping tools, reducing or expanding visible content area
Opened
Opened a pre-existing file
Ingredients
L100004.DNG
Recorded by Leica Camera AG

Photograph taken with a Google Pixel 10 of objects on a desktop: A small black statuette of Budai, a crystal ball, and the base of a wooden lamp. Two wooden shafts appear in the background, but their nature is a mystery.

The photo has been edited using Google's Magic Erase and that fact is disclosed in its Content Credentials.

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Jason Bailey @jasondashbailey.com · 15d

'Three Days of the Condor' hit theaters on this day in 1975. It was one of the all-time great conspiracy thrillers (and RIP Robert Redford obvi):

Classic Corner: Three Days of the Condor

Sydney Pollack's Watergate-era spy picture is a series of fascinating contradictions and none-too-subtle historical references.

crookedmarquee.com

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ProfKori @profkori.bsky.social · 16d

I saw someone say how frustrating it was that media outlets weren't interviewing people with autism. Well, @nellscovell.bsky.social was apparently thinking the same thing! Read and share!

www.thedailybeast.com/my-brilliant...

My Brilliant Nephew on RFK Jr.’s Lies and What People With Autism Really Need

In a deeply personal essay, our unmissable columnist Nell Scovell tells how Max LaZebnik shows the true value of the people disparaged by Kennedy and Trump.

www.thedailybeast.com

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Jason Wright @astrowright.bsky.social · 16d

She basically invented astrophysics.
She proved the laws of chemistry, quantum mechanics, and statistical mechanics, not just gravity, applied universally.
She determined the composition of the sun and primacy of hydrogen in the universe.
She advised the PhDs of Frank Drake and Frank Kameny.

Elise Cutts @elisecutts.bsky.social · 17d

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ✨ figured out what stars are made of ✨ when she was just 25. 🔭🧪

Her PhD thesis basically established the Harvard astro department — at a time when Harvard didn't officially allow woman students.

I wrote this little profile to mark the 100th anniversary of her thesis:

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rob pike @robpike.io · 17d

This article from 2012, discovered thanks to spiraling down a rathole that landed me on Wikipedia's article about him, is perhaps the best cultural analysis of Mark V. Shaney I have seen.

observer.com/2012/07/mark...

Meet Mark V. Shaney, Usenet’s Very Own @Horse_ebooks

If you’ve spent a significant amount of time on the Internet, you’ve undoubtedly encountered the phenomenon of @Horse_ebooks, a Twitter spam bot that has managed to escape being shutter…

observer.com

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rob pike @robpike.io · 17d

I think you meant, "heaven forfend."

rob pike @robpike.io · 17d

Citations please. Every trustworthy scientific site that I can find says that the chemical name for water is just "hydrogen oxide".

Or perhaps you mean to speak of the "oxides of hydrogen", of which, as you say, there are many.

Or are you just pedantry-baiting me back?

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rob pike @robpike.io · 18d

Falafel at Mamoun's on MacDougal street. Street food at its pinnacle.

rob pike @robpike.io · 18d

It's just hydrogen oxide. "Dihydrogen monoxide" is a pleonasm.

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