rob pike
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robpike.io
rob pike
@robpike.io
18K followers 97 following 660 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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robpike.io
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.
robpike.io
aurora popping off in hobart tasmania
November 12, 2025 at 11:08 AM
robpike.io
Sugar gliders are cute
cuteness eating cuteness posing
November 11, 2025 at 9:27 AM
robpike.io
This could come in handy
an antique tin of THAR’s ointment for pimples, piles, eczema and bad legs
November 11, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Reposted by rob pike
taramurphy.bsky.social
We are offering 4 PhD scholarships in #physics and #astronomy topics @sydney.edu.au

Including:
* FRBs with @manishacaleb.bsky.social
* Quantum critical points with @domwilliamson.bsky.social
* Nanostructured materials with @boriskuhlmey.bsky.social

www.sydney.edu.au/scholarships...

⚛️ 🔭 ☄️ 🧪
Physics Foundation Scholarship
A stipend scholarship to support PhD students who are undertaking research within School of Physics, Faculty of Science at the University of Sydney.
www.sydney.edu.au
November 10, 2025 at 6:49 PM
robpike.io
Beware. Got pulled aside at the airport because my empty #fountainpen triggered security. It looked exactly like a fountain pen on the x-ray but they were terrified by its threat and needed to see it and disassemble it to be sure it was OK. Security incident barely averted. Sheesh
November 9, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Reposted by rob pike
taramurphy.bsky.social
This is your final week to apply for the Professor Harry Messel Research Fellowship. A 3 year position open to women in any area of #Physics or #Astronomy at the University of Sydney @sydney.edu.au

Deadline: 16th November

⚛️ 🔭 ☄️
November 9, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Reposted by rob pike
reneefrench.bsky.social
here's the process video for the Bub looking at Bub drawing. graphite on vellum.
November 8, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Reposted by rob pike
bhgross144.bsky.social
Happy birthday to the only two women with elements named after them on the periodic table: #MarieCurie & #LiseMeitner.

As I do every year, I will once again repeat my proposal that November 7 should be International #WomenInSTEM Day!

#histSTM #chemistry #physics
#OnThisDay #OTD #PeriodicTable👩‍🔬🗃️📜
The squares for Curium and Meitnerium from periodictable.com, featuring portraits of their respective namesakes, are presented above a caption "Only two women have chemical elements named after them. Both were born on November 7th." (I'm aware that there was some ambiguity surrounding Lise Meitner's birthday, but Ruth Lewin Sime's biography notes that Meitner celebrated the occasion on November 7.)
November 7, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by rob pike
niais.bsky.social
What is happening at Goddard is absolutely devastating. We are losing history. We are losing an incredible amount of human talent, skill, and knowledge. Rebuilding it will be impossible same for same. Industry can not absorb the people or the equipment. This is undoing space science in the US.
climatebrad.hillheat.com Brad Johnson @climatebrad.hillheat.com · 8d
Goddard spacecraft engineer: "I think it just kind of speaks to the atmosphere of the agency and the nation, where people are like, 'Well, laws don't matter for the people at the top anymore.'"
NASA is sinking its flagship science center during the government shutdown — and may be breaking the law in the process, critics say
"There is just a general acknowledgement that a lot of what is happening is illegal…"
www.space.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by rob pike
b612-asteroid.bsky.social
🚀 Our 2025 Progress Report is here! From the launch of the ADAM Platform to #AsteroidDay’s 10th anniversary and the #SchweickartPrize, this year marked real progress in mapping and protecting our solar system. bit.ly/4ohfuP2
2025 | Asteroid Institute | Annual Report - B612
B612’s 2025 Annual Report features the ADAM Platform launch, Asteroid Institute progress, and this year’s Schweickart Prize recipients.
bit.ly
November 5, 2025 at 11:29 PM
robpike.io
Smiski glows in the dark.

The only light in the photo is his own phosporescence. He's about 3cm tall.
A glowing toy doing some stretching and looking engaged.
November 4, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Reposted by rob pike
missingthept.bsky.social
Password to louvre surveillance server upgraded to “louvre1.”
perryodontal.bsky.social Perry Areolar @perryodontal.bsky.social · 9d
the password to the louvre surveillance server was "louvre"

www.thesocialpost.it/2025/11/02/f...
according to the liberation newspaper, documents dating back to a 2014 inspection by the French National Agency for the Security of Computer Systems reported a staggering detail: "the password of the louvre's video surveillance server was simply " louvre. "
November 3, 2025 at 9:19 PM
robpike.io
Formal verification is great but not sufficient and not a cure-all.
November 4, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Reposted by rob pike
richardkadrey.bsky.social
Good morning.
I don't know who did this, but I love you.
An abandoned building by the beach where a window overlooks the sea. The water through the window resembles a painting, so someone has scrawled Free Rothko on the wall.
November 3, 2025 at 3:01 PM
robpike.io
Aw.
November 2, 2025 at 4:49 AM
Reposted by rob pike
reneefrench.bsky.social
Tuna Dancing (hi @tinybabbyboy.bsky.social )
November 1, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Reposted by rob pike
andrewmueller.bsky.social
On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.
October 31, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Reposted by rob pike
crawshaw.io
This is a very nice blog post because it is not afraid to explain hard work in terms of simple concepts. go.dev/blog/greente...
The Green Tea Garbage Collector - The Go Programming Language
Go 1.25 includes a new experimental garbage collector, Green Tea.
go.dev
October 30, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by rob pike
swtch.com
Happy to see someone outside Google rebuild/verify Go toolchains. Thanks @agwa.name! www.agwa.name/blog/post/ve...

"So far, Source Spotter has successfully reproduced every toolchain since Go 1.21.0, for every architecture and operating system. As of publication time, that's 2,672 toolchains!"
I'm Independently Verifying Go's Reproducible Builds
Introducing Source Spotter, a Go Checksum Database auditor and Go toolchain reproducer
www.agwa.name
October 30, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by rob pike
sportsandsuffering.bsky.social
I regret to inform everyone that my pedantic brain couldn’t let me live until I knew whether or not dodger blue and blue jays blue are the same blue. They are ONE PANTONE NUMBER APART.
a graphic showing the pantone numbers for the two core colors of the toronto blue jays. they are skydome blue (pantone 293) and Stieb Navy (pantone 282) a hat and canvas tote with the pantone number for Dodger Blue (294 C)
October 29, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Reposted by rob pike
julietshen.bsky.social
I am SO excited to share that the fantastic @cassidyjames.com is joining @roost.tools as our OSS Community Manager! Hear from Cassidy on this (very) exciting news

cassidyjames.com/blog/ive-joi...
I’ve Joined ROOST ⋅ Cassidy James Blaede
Building community around open, scalable, and interoperable online safety tools
cassidyjames.com
October 27, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Reposted by rob pike
reneefrench.bsky.social
from stream yesterday (hi @jasonantoon.bsky.social )
drawing of a grey rabbit and a slug person with 3 lumps on its back. the slug person is gesturing with a flipper to the bunny. one of the lumps appears to have jumped off the slug's back and is falling.
October 27, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Reposted by rob pike
verdverm.com
Going back to watch one of my favorite GopherCon talks of all time to see if I can figure this out 🕵️ I recall some profile pics in an early email system at bell labs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rw_...
GopherCon 2016: The Go Gopher A Character Study - Renee French
YouTube video by Gopher Academy
www.youtube.com
October 24, 2025 at 12:48 AM
robpike.io
Bit of history there.
reneefrench.bsky.social renee french @reneefrench.bsky.social · 20d
thing variation
drawing of a thing shaped like a horn, with the bell facing left, floating, and made of a material that is not shiny and sort of peachy in color
October 24, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Reposted by rob pike
annebdh.bsky.social
I recently learned the vet’s ticketing system takes photos and the front desk enjoys them immensely. Fast forward to text message threads that are just snoots asking for refills.
Greyhound dog leaning their nose into the camera, looking intently.
October 22, 2025 at 10:59 PM