Posts by vees@epistolary.org
(DIR) Post #AtG9LBv6WmhAftoU7M by vees@epistolary.org
2025-04-19T19:49:55Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Harvard stood up to Trump, and the administration promptly declared that someone else made a mistake in challenging them. That's how you know Harvard won.
(DIR) Post #AtdEjNOTBfiFxYXCxE by vees@epistolary.org
2025-04-30T23:24:32Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@mwl Basically like publishing a retraction in a newspaper. Nobody will ever read it or apply context consistently.
(DIR) Post #Ath13VvZk5B345Yt4i by vees@epistolary.org
2025-05-02T18:37:31Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Any tips on how to convert a 26 year old web page archive from www.hotwired.co.jp into something with robust character encoding? The page says it is EUC-JP which fails iconv on a bad character, `file` command says it is "HTML document text, ISO-8859 text, with very long lines" which gives me some straneg characters, and the web suggests trying SHIFT_JIS which fails immediately. If I saved a EUC-JP file to Unix ASCII 26 years ago am I just unable to convert it?
(DIR) Post #AthLUS36tOKYF1qkXw by vees@epistolary.org
2025-05-02T23:01:19Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Nonilex @rbreich Meanwhile son Sam is already on twelve nascent social networks you haven't heard about yet to market his media company better
(DIR) Post #AthlyEaG7OgPyWDWD2 by vees@epistolary.org
2025-05-02T22:21:32Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Coming soon to my web site!In early 1999 #Swatch set out to publicize its new “Swatch .beat Internet Time” by launching #Beatnik, a grapefruit‑size “mini‑Sputnik” #satellite from the Mir space station. The plan was to replay user‑submitted voice clips (each had to include the word *beat*) on the #hamradio frequencies between 145.8 and 146 MHz. Because ITU rules forbid any commercial traffic on ham frequencies, the idea threatened to turn protected #radio spectrum into a marketing platform.In February of 1999, a young me stumbled onto the scheme while browsing Swatch’s website. I confirmed the frequency claim and posted the first public alert. That single e‑mail snowballed into the pages that aggregated press releases, contract excerpts, ITU citations, and template letters to regulators. The archive helped the ARRL, multiple #AMSAT groups, and hundreds of individual operators coordinate a unified protest that reached the #FCC, the Swiss and Russian telecom authorities, and the ITU’s Radiocommunication Bureau.The pressure paid off. Beatnik was hand‑launched from #Mir on 16 April 1999, but its transmitter stayed off; Swatch later claimed its batteries were “donated” to the cosmonauts instead. No commercial messages ever hit the airwaves. I recently found all the documents from that time and have converted them into consistent Markdown to republish. Watch this space!
(DIR) Post #AthlyL7nnb50GHxOKG by vees@epistolary.org
2025-05-02T22:46:55Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Related: Big props to BBC News because this article from 26 years ago is in the *exact same spot* with essentially the same code today http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/320560.stm
(DIR) Post #AticWdGA4kwxy5XXvc by vees@epistolary.org
2025-05-03T13:46:44Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@PopeASDF It's posted this morning!
(DIR) Post #AtjtitvVpKZRVuHGgy by vees@epistolary.org
2025-01-23T14:54:58Z
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@hobbsc @kelvin0mql We had a few women on my local 2m and 440 repeaters in the 90s and if they were on the nets or in a conversation it was regularly 73 to the men and 88 to the women at the end of the conversations. True in both New Jersey and Maryland area.
(DIR) Post #AtjtivdrRvdipk2CSO by vees@epistolary.org
2025-01-23T15:30:33Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@hobbsc @kelvin0mql @zondance It's part of the Phillips Code or 92 Code which was used by Western Union in 1859 decades before 88 could have been significant in any other contemporary meaning
(DIR) Post #AucihDCLOdf5dXaM7c by vees@epistolary.org
2025-05-30T15:02:50Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
If only there was a robotic tidying tool for grammar.
(DIR) Post #AuckVdWBuezPhUTcjg by vees@epistolary.org
2025-05-30T15:38:56Z
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@PopeASDF Oh, I don't like that at all
(DIR) Post #AucqfBBCjGBQQmatIe by vees@epistolary.org
2025-05-30T15:44:02Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@PopeASDF I worked in an agency for 11 years and thankfully this would have been considered a defect to all our (buttoned-up) clients if it made it to distribution
(DIR) Post #AvDuMoS5TWDNDMEJo8 by vees@epistolary.org
2025-06-17T13:55:00Z
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@strypey This is what Reddit, Digg, Slashdot and their ilk were supposed to be before determining that the money was in the comments.
(DIR) Post #AvSzVz8NBFexSvQIqW by vees@epistolary.org
2025-06-24T20:00:07Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@scarlet "Best I can do on short notice is an enby who knows their way around VLC on the command line"
(DIR) Post #AvXBC9JFcBH7JZev5M by vees@epistolary.org
2025-06-26T20:58:34Z
0 likes, 3 repeats
Live your life so an unflattering meme of your face is never used as a prop in the Irish parliament
(DIR) Post #Aw7ou1yFPF5EN96IHQ by vees@epistolary.org
2025-07-14T13:17:32Z
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@strypey If I hire a skilled protection force in a lawless country, I'm getting exactly what I paid for. A better example of a protection racket on the internet are those subscription companies that work to remove your personal information from data broker web sites, but often work in concert with (or are the same as) the data broker companies. Protection rackets manufacture the problem and then solve it. That's not the case with Apple.
(DIR) Post #AyNisjNjTluxaykS00 by vees@epistolary.org
2025-09-19T13:38:02Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
Attention Gen Xers and boomers with registered domain names 🚨 If you, like me, put a fictitious organization in your domain name registration 25 years ago because NetSol or ICANN did not allow you to leave that field blank, recent policy changes will make that organization name the *legal owner* of your domain.If your registrar has not already informed you of this change, I recommend going into your domain records and removing an organization if you do not have some sort of official ownership of that name just in case there is ever an ownership dispute in the future.
(DIR) Post #AyVoMMsaZI3ywURIMS by vees@epistolary.org
2025-09-23T21:03:33Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@rjbs Perl will outlive cockroaches on this planet
(DIR) Post #AzTP3dhowbHwFxyG3M by vees@epistolary.org
2025-10-22T16:48:02Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Nonilex Exactly how many laptops are on the cargo ships FROM the United States TO China? I'm guessing its the one the Captain uses for navigation and the ones in crew quarters going back and forth
(DIR) Post #Azx9qUt2qf9lhURq9Q by vees@epistolary.org
2025-09-30T18:24:50Z
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My employer has an Engineering Tech Lead and Software Engineer III remote role open now for immediate direct hire. Requirements are USA, Public Trust, 10+ and Bachelors. Please ask for more details through me and let me refer you because our policies don't let me get a referral bonus if you apply directly. #FediHired #FediHire