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katbamkapow.bsky.social
kat
@katbamkapow.bsky.social
2.6K followers 260 following 1.3K posts
over-explainer for fame & fortune, 9-5 academic, 24/7 analog enthusiast.

PhD of computer/networking/net histories, LGBTQ+ activism, STS, critical HIV/AIDS studies. you might know me from video games

once: uc irvine
now: u of michigan
💾🌿💽 kb.place 💽🌿💾
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katbamkapow.bsky.social
2026 is the year of kagi bc what the fuck is this
google search results asking what services i subscribe to (netflix, hulu, amazon prime, disney+, hbo max, peacock, paramount+, etc) to "get better recommendations"
November 22, 2025 at 9:47 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
was reading about pirate radio last night and found this incredible newspaper article, “president moves to stop mob rule of wireless” which is very cool, likening pirate radio operators to outlaws & mobsters… fun & evocative!!

anyway you’ll never guess what this was next to
President Moves to Stop Mob Rule of Wireless Mr. Taft, His Cabinet, Ariy and Navy and Other Experts Confer on Scheme for Worldwide Regulation of • Service to Prevent Interference in Times of Disaster. a whole front page spread with “president moves to stop mob rule of wireless” between “HOPING AGAINST HOPE, THRONGS AWAIT SURVIVORS” “ALL THE TITANIC SURVIVORS ABOARD THE CARPATHIA” and “Latest List of the Survivors of the Titanic”
November 22, 2025 at 1:56 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
the internet that could have been
an article from College & Research Libraries News from 1998 titled, "Web rings: An alternative to search engines "
November 20, 2025 at 8:00 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
getting a little silly with the no a.i. watermarks atp
"butlerian jihad approved" around a skull
November 20, 2025 at 4:43 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
prepping course materials for next semester ❌🤖❌
a range of human-made stamps that read "100% human made, no a.i." and "NOT TO BE UPLOADED TO A.I. SERVICES" and "a human with a phd (not a robot) made these course materials" and "dr. brewster made this, not a robot" and "butlerian jihad approved" and "uploading these materials, including via screenshots, to any llm or other artificial intelligence service is in direct violation of course policies"
November 20, 2025 at 4:41 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
hell yeah man
reddit comment: if any of my services go down, it'll be down to my own fuckup thank you very much.
November 18, 2025 at 6:00 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
reddit post title: smirking emoji when will they learn? big strong dog / weak small dog meme big strong dog: self hosters weak small dog: centralized infra users reddit post title: aSimpleFix [oh no anyway jeremy clarkson meme] me when cloudflare goes down but i host my own vpn server reddit post title: here we go again astronaut shooting astronaut meme wait it's all DNS? always has been
November 18, 2025 at 5:59 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
i wonder why i have carpal tunnel and then i spend over an hour piecing together an intricate timeline of important events for my p2p class
extensive timeline of networking and computer history ranging from the tech model railway club in 1962 and community memory in 1973 to fidonet in 1982 to napster in 1999 and bit torrent. the timeline ends at the pirate bay
November 13, 2025 at 5:44 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
lol. lmao.
article from 1996 issue of byte about linux, titled "LINUX MATTERS" with a popup from adobe acrobat asking me if i want to share the combined pdf i just made
November 12, 2025 at 7:29 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
here's the issue: archive.org/details/wire... LMAO one of these things is not like the other i love being alive
Sex, Lies, and Avatars: Sherry Turkle knows what role-playing in cyberspace really means. A profile by Pamela McCorduck The Anarchist - Inventer of FidoNet Guerilla ISP wholesaler and general all around homopunk activist Tom Jennings, is looking for a suit - By Paulina Borsook It says something about the peculiar sociocultural moment that Tom Jennings - the out-there San Francisco homo punk activist possessed of tattoos on his skull and multiple piercings overall - is looking for a CEO. Or venture capital. Or some big corporate entity to sell out to, as quickly as possible. When Shred of Dignity, theskateboarders group Jennings co-founded, fought for skateboarders' rights against city hall, the group won. And though the analogy may seem a tad oblique, Jennings will probably meet with just as much success in his current efforts to cash in and cash out on the Internet. It seems these days that to succeed as an anarchist, you have to succeed as a businessman. There's a kind of cheap theatric irony in the fact that Jennings first took control of The Little Garden (TLG), a San Francisco provider of Internet access, when he was on food stamps; yet now that TLG has more success than he and his staff can keep up with, he's looking for an exit play, to sell out. He wants to stop working the entrepreneur's 90-hour weeks and is talking about buying a piece of safe, income-generating commercial real estate. “I’m just burned out,” he explains, "though it's better since we started hiring people. With early microcomputers, it was more exciting - everyone was a weirdo. Then it got boring, all suits. The suits in the Internet business now are taking chances, and even the worst of them have some interest in what's going on. But in a few years" - after Jennings hopes to have departed - "they'll be terrible." With a character like Jennings, however, you have to figure the probability for an uncomplicated retreat into the rentier class is low. Jennings, at the age of 40, has already invented the technology for the garage-band version of the Internet, FidoNet, which in scope, if not media sexiness, riv… For Sherry Turkle, author of the provocative Life on the Screen — the first serious look at the multiple personalities we live in cyberspace — we are experiencing that historical, liminal moment when the old has begun to die and the new has not yet arrived. In other words, a period of tension, extreme reaction, great opportunity - and, above all, exhilaration. A profile, by Pamela McCorduck. Images by Jill Greenberg
November 11, 2025 at 4:19 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
went to the vet
a long haired calico cat in a vet’s office in a sink. her mouth is obscured by the edge of the sink and it kinda looks like she’s coming out of the tap
November 11, 2025 at 2:24 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
yeeeAAAHHHH
Date Received: 2024-01-31 Type: general suggestion Comment Type: general suggestion Patron Comment on 2024-01-31 12:00 PM: I want a bay blade compatishin.
November 8, 2025 at 4:10 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
sifting through public comments for the library i think some people are writing more than once
Date Received: 2025-06-20 Type: general suggestion Comment Type: general suggestion Patron Comment on 2025-07-31 3:40 PM: if a peice of a puzzle is gone then the person who lost it can't check out another puzzle till they find the peice Date Received: 2025-06-20 Type: general suggestion Comment Type: general suggestion Patron Comment on 2025-07-31 3:41 PM: That All of the puzzle peices should be in A box and if not found buy A new puzzle Date Received: 2024-11-26 Type: general suggestion Comment Type: general suggestion Patron Comment on 2024-11-26 12:00 PM: We need some coffee and cookies its getting cold out and its harder to get to the other side of town walking so if you add cookies and coffee it will be a little more interesting. Date Received: 2024-11-25 Type: general suggestion Comment Type: general suggestion AADL Response on 2024-11-26 12:00 PM: This comment was submitted anonymously. Patron Comment on 2025-11-25 12:00 PM: We need a table with coffee and cookies and cookies for the kids.
November 8, 2025 at 3:58 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
jack and i donated $3,570 to Food Gatherers today! thank you so much for your generosity.
Food Gatherers donation transaction page for USD $3570 Food Gatherers donation confirmation page, reading: Thank You! Your donation was received. Thank you for your generous donation to Food Gatherers. A confirmation email has been sent to your email address if one was provided. If you started a monthly donation, you will receive a receipt each month when your recurring gift is processed. With your donation, you have joined many of your neighbors who believe that our community's strength, growth, and well-being all start with access to nutritious food. Your generous giving has a transformative impact across our community. With your donation, you are providing nutritious, reliable meals to food-insecure children, students, adults, seniors, and veterans; as well as supporting data collection, trainings, and advocacy initiatives. A strong community is vital to fighting hunger where we live and we are grateful that you have joined us! Stay Involved!
November 7, 2025 at 6:08 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
just wanted to update and say that i'm waiting for these balances to clear, and am planning to donate $3570 to food gatherers tomorrow! (numbers here reflect payment processor fees -- jdq & i will cover them to bring us back to the total we got on stream!)

thank you all so much for your support!
stripe balance saying that $2162 will become available november 5th paypal balance reflecting 1279.05
November 4, 2025 at 3:25 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
i am streaming popular video game REPO with my friends @danika.bsky.social, @badbucket.bsky.social, @notquitereal.bsky.social & we are trying to raise money for FOOD GATHERERS, a food bank and food rescue resource here in washtenaw county!

we're live now, come thru :)

twitch.tv/danikaharrod
antoine vollon's mound of butter, foregrounded by three repo robots. handwritten in purple it says "REPO for FOOD"
November 2, 2025 at 11:31 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
sometimes people just think that their friends are funny but me and my friends are funny. please enjoy this one minute bit about the oscar mayer wiener song
November 2, 2025 at 6:50 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
I Love L.A. Randy Newman Beach Boys California Girls The Beach Boys Los Angeles, I'm Yours The Decemberists Los Angeles Big Thief Garden Song Phoebe Bridgers California Joni Mitchell All I Wanna Do Sheryl Crow MAMA'S & the PAPA'S California Dreamin' (Single) The Mamas & The Papas Babylon Sisters Steely Dan Not Like Us Kendrick Lamar
November 2, 2025 at 4:42 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
please REMOVE mark fisher from ur ai generated slop images i beg you, oh my god the slow cancellation of the future indeed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
youtube still for a video explainer, "explaining 'capitalism realism (mark fisher) in 8 minutes" with a thumbnail image of an AI generated times square of ads and a fake cover of "capitalist realism" by mark fisher on an iphone or something with an ai generated image of mark fisher
October 28, 2025 at 3:44 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
youth culture is DISGUSTING…
Students come to college with more knowledge of popular culture vampires than awareness of Marx.
October 26, 2025 at 9:58 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
oh ok
google search for: can the subaltern speak AI overview: "The answer is complex: yes, the subaltern can speak,"
October 24, 2025 at 4:52 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
btw, and you might have encountered this already, but if you go under "refine your recommendations" on pinterest, you can turn off genAI from showing up on your feed
pinterest UI screen to turn off genAI interests. it says: Choose GenAI interests you’d like to see in your recommended Pins. Architecture Art Beauty Children's fashion Entertainment Health Home decor Men's fashion Sport Women's fashion each category has a greyed toggle icon
October 18, 2025 at 10:30 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
i'm sorry???????
Although most people recover from depression and have no further issues,
October 18, 2025 at 3:51 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
found an ancient artifact
google+ invitation e-mail dated 7 september 2012
October 11, 2025 at 5:01 PM
katbamkapow.bsky.social
is that good
a pie chart reflecting survey responses to the question "has trump's second term posed a greater or lesser threat to the rule of law than you expected?" red reflects: much more threat than i expected light grey: more threat than i expected grey: similar threat to what i expected dark grey: less threat to what i expected black: much less threat than i expected it is approximately over 60% red, roughly 25% light grey, roughly 10% grey, and roughly 5% black
October 6, 2025 at 2:07 PM