Doctor Memory
@blank.org
Just another bozo on this bus: please deflate your shoes before entering. The artist formerly known as dr_memory@twit (and same on livejournal, remember them?) and currently also known as @[email protected] on mastodon.
Banner photo by @lifewinning.com
Banner photo by @lifewinning.com
Pinned
Doctor Memory
@blank.org
· 11d
Death to the newsletter-industrial complex.
Stop paying people to feed your own opinions back to you with more adjectives.
Stop paying people to feed your own opinions back to you with more adjectives.
Later, UUnet was bought by MFS (Metro Fiber Systems, if memory serves.). MFS, in turn, was bought by a little company called WorldCom.
Yes, that one.
Yes, that one.
November 25, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Later, UUnet was bought by MFS (Metro Fiber Systems, if memory serves.). MFS, in turn, was bought by a little company called WorldCom.
Yes, that one.
Yes, that one.
(Fun fact: Cyclone is kinda my fault. Not that I wrote it, but RMF was also working at BBN at the time, and was getting frustrated that we couldn't keep PINpaper's news feed up to date. He came over to ask me what was up, I dumped on him and he said "there's gotta be a better way to do that.")
November 25, 2025 at 3:25 PM
(Fun fact: Cyclone is kinda my fault. Not that I wrote it, but RMF was also working at BBN at the time, and was getting frustrated that we couldn't keep PINpaper's news feed up to date. He came over to ask me what was up, I dumped on him and he said "there's gotta be a better way to do that.")
This. This this so much this. The next train on the Paris metro is never more than 3 minutes away and it is _life changing_. Oh, I have to make two transfers? Don't. Fucking. Care.
The MTA optimizes for the exact wrong thing.
The MTA optimizes for the exact wrong thing.
Spending a week and a half in Paris and Madrid really drives home the point that the (American-ish) concept of a "one-seat ride" is overrated, and frequent headways at nearly all hours of the day is the true gold standard.
November 25, 2025 at 2:58 PM
This. This this so much this. The next train on the Paris metro is never more than 3 minutes away and it is _life changing_. Oh, I have to make two transfers? Don't. Fucking. Care.
The MTA optimizes for the exact wrong thing.
The MTA optimizes for the exact wrong thing.
...which, in the late 80s / early/mid 90s era, meant that a sufficiently large flood of articles might run you out of space or, more annoyingly, out of inodes!
I think Cyclone was the first NNTP software that attempted to use an actual tuned data file format.
I think Cyclone was the first NNTP software that attempted to use an actual tuned data file format.
November 25, 2025 at 2:33 PM
...which, in the late 80s / early/mid 90s era, meant that a sufficiently large flood of articles might run you out of space or, more annoyingly, out of inodes!
I think Cyclone was the first NNTP software that attempted to use an actual tuned data file format.
I think Cyclone was the first NNTP software that attempted to use an actual tuned data file format.
Nitpick: they weren't even in a database, mostly! C-News and INN all kept their messages in individual files on disk: an individual message in alt.religion.kibology was something like /var/spool/news/alt/religion/kibology/foo.txt and you could prune your spool with `find . -mtime +7 | xargs rm`
November 25, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Nitpick: they weren't even in a database, mostly! C-News and INN all kept their messages in individual files on disk: an individual message in alt.religion.kibology was something like /var/spool/news/alt/religion/kibology/foo.txt and you could prune your spool with `find . -mtime +7 | xargs rm`
Reposted by Doctor Memory
Yes, HID headlights are very bright but the bigger problem is the proliferation of gargantuan vehicles with 5’+ hood heights so that if you’re driving a normal sized car their headlights are at your eye level rather than seat level like they’re supposed to be.
November 25, 2025 at 5:21 AM
Yes, HID headlights are very bright but the bigger problem is the proliferation of gargantuan vehicles with 5’+ hood heights so that if you’re driving a normal sized car their headlights are at your eye level rather than seat level like they’re supposed to be.
We’ve replaced him with a billion automated demi-Argics. It’s Argics all the way down in fact.
(That said it’s interesting that his particular flavor of Armenian genocide denial doesn’t seem to be a thing on the anglophone internet at least.)
(That said it’s interesting that his particular flavor of Armenian genocide denial doesn’t seem to be a thing on the anglophone internet at least.)
November 25, 2025 at 2:18 PM
We’ve replaced him with a billion automated demi-Argics. It’s Argics all the way down in fact.
(That said it’s interesting that his particular flavor of Armenian genocide denial doesn’t seem to be a thing on the anglophone internet at least.)
(That said it’s interesting that his particular flavor of Armenian genocide denial doesn’t seem to be a thing on the anglophone internet at least.)
I’m tagging @unchi.org into this thread just because we should all suffer together.
November 25, 2025 at 1:59 PM
I’m tagging @unchi.org into this thread just because we should all suffer together.
Reposted by Doctor Memory
THIS JUST IN
2026 special tours to Cusco Peru are now available for registration at abbysyarns.com/webshop/product-category/fu/travel
These are truly unique and can’t miss opportunities you absolutely can’t get with anyone else
Questions? Email [email protected]
2026 special tours to Cusco Peru are now available for registration at abbysyarns.com/webshop/product-category/fu/travel
These are truly unique and can’t miss opportunities you absolutely can’t get with anyone else
Questions? Email [email protected]
November 25, 2025 at 1:15 PM
THIS JUST IN
2026 special tours to Cusco Peru are now available for registration at abbysyarns.com/webshop/product-category/fu/travel
These are truly unique and can’t miss opportunities you absolutely can’t get with anyone else
Questions? Email [email protected]
2026 special tours to Cusco Peru are now available for registration at abbysyarns.com/webshop/product-category/fu/travel
These are truly unique and can’t miss opportunities you absolutely can’t get with anyone else
Questions? Email [email protected]
It’s fine, we can just ask the LLMs what to do when the… LLM serving infrastructure is down. Wait, shit…
November 25, 2025 at 1:46 PM
It’s fine, we can just ask the LLMs what to do when the… LLM serving infrastructure is down. Wait, shit…
GACK
It’s too early in the morning for the amount of drinking that makes me want to do.
It’s too early in the morning for the amount of drinking that makes me want to do.
November 25, 2025 at 1:31 PM
GACK
It’s too early in the morning for the amount of drinking that makes me want to do.
It’s too early in the morning for the amount of drinking that makes me want to do.
Oh yeah. That’s close to the ideal level of cognitive function to approach that movie from.
November 25, 2025 at 4:30 AM
Oh yeah. That’s close to the ideal level of cognitive function to approach that movie from.
Somewhere around here I still have my official Usenet Cabal (TINC) hat; I wonder where.
Cc @jayfurr.bsky.social
Cc @jayfurr.bsky.social
November 25, 2025 at 2:58 AM
Somewhere around here I still have my official Usenet Cabal (TINC) hat; I wonder where.
Cc @jayfurr.bsky.social
Cc @jayfurr.bsky.social
(Now I’m wondering if we know each other.)
November 25, 2025 at 2:49 AM
(Now I’m wondering if we know each other.)
This thread immediately got very out of control so I feel a little apprehensive about chiming in at this point but I’m gonna do so anyway just to appreciate your correct stance that AotC is the worst. Not merely the worst Star War but a contender for the worst movie I’ve ever paid money to watch.
November 25, 2025 at 2:32 AM
This thread immediately got very out of control so I feel a little apprehensive about chiming in at this point but I’m gonna do so anyway just to appreciate your correct stance that AotC is the worst. Not merely the worst Star War but a contender for the worst movie I’ve ever paid money to watch.
I go back and forth between being a little sad and extremely fucking grateful that Google eventually killed the DejaNews archive via malign neglect. Everything horrible about today’s internet was already there in embryonic form.
November 25, 2025 at 2:29 AM
I go back and forth between being a little sad and extremely fucking grateful that Google eventually killed the DejaNews archive via malign neglect. Everything horrible about today’s internet was already there in embryonic form.
In retrospect it’s amazing Usenet lasted as long as it did. If you described how NNTP worked to a modern infosec engineer they’d think you were pranking them.
(news.admin.policy veteran of a thousand psychic wars here)
(news.admin.policy veteran of a thousand psychic wars here)
November 25, 2025 at 2:28 AM
In retrospect it’s amazing Usenet lasted as long as it did. If you described how NNTP worked to a modern infosec engineer they’d think you were pranking them.
(news.admin.policy veteran of a thousand psychic wars here)
(news.admin.policy veteran of a thousand psychic wars here)
And just in case anyone was already having too good of a time, this was about when the church of Scientology started suing Usenet providers for “hosting” copies of leaked church documents, decades before s230 clarified safe harbor provisions.
November 25, 2025 at 2:23 AM
And just in case anyone was already having too good of a time, this was about when the church of Scientology started suing Usenet providers for “hosting” copies of leaked church documents, decades before s230 clarified safe harbor provisions.
Simultaneous to that, the rise of the alt.binaries.* groups meant that even the cancel storms were getting swamped (by byte count) by base64-encoded porn: suddenly Usenet traffic started being both a financial burden and a legal liability, so the major players started pulling back. :(
November 25, 2025 at 2:17 AM
Simultaneous to that, the rise of the alt.binaries.* groups meant that even the cancel storms were getting swamped (by byte count) by base64-encoded porn: suddenly Usenet traffic started being both a financial burden and a legal liability, so the major players started pulling back. :(
Sanford Wallace and his close contemporary in early Usenet commercial spamming, Michael Wolff.
YES THAT ONE. THE NORTH REMEMBERS.
YES THAT ONE. THE NORTH REMEMBERS.
November 25, 2025 at 2:13 AM
Sanford Wallace and his close contemporary in early Usenet commercial spamming, Michael Wolff.
YES THAT ONE. THE NORTH REMEMBERS.
YES THAT ONE. THE NORTH REMEMBERS.
You’re right and you should say it. Neither shiny fluffy white rice nor savory wild rice; a third thing, more boring than either.
November 25, 2025 at 1:59 AM
You’re right and you should say it. Neither shiny fluffy white rice nor savory wild rice; a third thing, more boring than either.
Reposted by Doctor Memory
"But they were all of them deceived, for another Loko was made..."
they're adding a fifth loko
November 25, 2025 at 1:07 AM
"But they were all of them deceived, for another Loko was made..."
(Personally I always enjoyed it when the inevitable “so where did you go to” conversation among any new group of Googlers happened and after the inevitable slew of mit/caltech/stanford/berkeley answers I could pipe up and say “high school dropout.”)
November 25, 2025 at 1:26 AM
(Personally I always enjoyed it when the inevitable “so where did you go to” conversation among any new group of Googlers happened and after the inevitable slew of mit/caltech/stanford/berkeley answers I could pipe up and say “high school dropout.”)
I don’t want to oversell circa-2006 Google’s internal egalitarianism— it was still mostly white/asian dudes with mit/caltech/stanford degrees by the numbers. But there were all sorts of cracks that weirdo dropouts and nontraditional hires could come through and it’s heartbreaking that’s gone now.
November 25, 2025 at 1:21 AM
I don’t want to oversell circa-2006 Google’s internal egalitarianism— it was still mostly white/asian dudes with mit/caltech/stanford degrees by the numbers. But there were all sorts of cracks that weirdo dropouts and nontraditional hires could come through and it’s heartbreaking that’s gone now.
And not only guys! The original search/traffic SRE hivemind was astonishingly gender-balanced (well, by SV standards) and IIRC had more than one female former drive-swapper in leadership roles.
November 25, 2025 at 1:16 AM
And not only guys! The original search/traffic SRE hivemind was astonishingly gender-balanced (well, by SV standards) and IIRC had more than one female former drive-swapper in leadership roles.