Remote

Hippasus500 aka jwn2

@Hippasus500@federate.social

mastodon 4.7.3

Husband
Father (“Papa” to the grandkids)
Hacker (rusty, working on that)
Lover of philosophy (deontology, noetics)
Apple Fanboy
Outlander Fanboy
Atheist
One-time actor
Foundational books: The Bible (I wasn’t always an atheist); Mythology (Hamilton); The Hobbit; The Lord of the Rings; Future Shock; Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; Gödel, Escher, Bach, Doubt, A History; Good Without God; What We Owe To Each Other. There are many more. But who am I, how I think derives from these.

148 Followers

279 Following

18 Posts

Joined November 10, 2022

Still Reading:

It’s an ever growing list. It may eclipse the list of Books Finished

Current Book (The one I’m mostly reading):

The Second Estate (Madoff)

Last Book Finished:

Arcadia (Tom Stoppard) also Fleming’s companion to the play

Next Book:

Enshittification(Doctorow)

Hippasus500 aka jwn2 @Hippasus500@federate.social

· 5mo ago

#LeftWordle 1,757 2/6*

⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Both LeftWordle and NYT solutions are related in a curious way. Perhaps the universe is sending a strong message we should heed, #youngpups.

#Wordle 1,757 3/6* mean: 3.72- winning: 98.3674% streak(C/M): 15/174

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

But I have to say I don’t really want the NYT’s word to apply to me. Had I applied myself better, I might have snuck past the #OldGal. But she is the mistress of Wordle today.

federate.social

Hippasus500 aka jwn2 @Hippasus500@federate.social

· 8mo ago

Replying to

@wdlindsy@toad.social Regarding Trump’s laughable (if only it were so) justification for invading Venezuela, the New Republic writer writes: “It all smacks of the schoolyard bully sneering, ‘What did you say about my mother?’ to a hapless smaller kid who actually said nothing, then citing this invented insult as justification for forcibly taking his lunch money.”

Hippasus500 aka jwn2 @Hippasus500@federate.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@petergleick@fediscience.org @ChemicalEyeGuy@mstdn.science I just stumbled across an article in The Economist about an attempt to invent a page description language more amenable to LLMs. Apparently, LLMs have trouble parsing PDF documents structured as multi-column, newspaper and magazine style articles. I say more power to the PDF!!!! #Resist #ArtificialIntelligence and #AIslop

Hippasus500 aka jwn2 @Hippasus500@federate.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@barstep@mas.to A testament to your dedication!

Hippasus500 aka jwn2 @Hippasus500@federate.social

· 11mo ago

Replying to

@gdinwiddie@mastodon.social @MugsysRapSheet@mastodon.social Mugsy, what you’ve had enough of is somewhat different than what George (or Joseph Heller, for that matter) had in mind. I like to think I share Heller’s sensibilities. As for what you’ve had enough of — Yeah. I’m with you there. #NoKings

Hippasus500 aka jwn2 @Hippasus500@federate.social

· 26mo ago

Replying to

@JosephMenn@infosec.exchange @cigitalgem@sigmoid.social I’ve been an open source advocate since long before we called it “open source”. This quote in the WaPo article particularly struck me: “It’s not free as in speech, or even free as in beer,” [Brian Behlendorf] said. “It’s free as in puppy, and it needs care and feeding.” to which I add, craftsmanship, commitment and honesty. True of any software of any consequence, regardless of whether it’s free, open, or anything else.

Hippasus500 aka jwn2 @Hippasus500@federate.social

· 19mo ago

Replying to

@aral@mastodon.ar.al @Disputatore@masto.pt Instances can be blocked either individually, or by the instance manager/owner(s). See https://fedi.tips/how-to-defederate-fediblock-a-server-on-mastodon/

fedi.tips

How to block (defederate) a server on Mastodon | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

Hippasus500 aka jwn2 @Hippasus500@federate.social

· 26mo ago

Replying to

@JosephMenn@infosec.exchange @cigitalgem@sigmoid.social The economics of businesses built around software are worthy of Deep Thought (I got 42 reasons and “being rich” ain’t one — sorry, in a playful mood…). I struggled mightily with this while trying to build a business around Eudora that respected its origin as free software, or maybe open source (still don’t know the answer to which it is or should have been). I failed. But mostly for lack of imagination.

Hippasus500 aka jwn2 @Hippasus500@federate.social

· 10mo ago

@Gargron@mastodon.social I missed your announcement Eugen, but I applaud what you’ve done. Many years ago, I found myself in exactly the same place as you were when struggling with your decision. I didn’t handle as well, and it cost me dearly. Congratulations! (And nice camera work, btw. Impressive. )

Hippasus500 aka jwn2 @Hippasus500@federate.social

· 36mo ago

Replying to

@pinsk @katestarbird Because it supports the idea that Rep. Jordan and his ilk want to suppress the free flow of information. Kate and her students may well be resolute in the face of Jordan’s agenda. (I hope they are!) I’m inclined to see what Jordan (and those like him) is doing in that light.

Hippasus500 aka jwn2 @Hippasus500@federate.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@peterbrown Snopes.com: “reviewing the evidence, we found that some elements of the claim were relatively accurate, while others were harder to verify because of a lack of information. We contacted representatives from the Pentagon, Iran's foreign ministry, India's defense ministry and the Sri Lankan government. None had responded to our inquiries at time of publication; we will update this report if they do.” https://www.snopes.com/news/2026/03/06/us-sank-iranian-ship-survivors/

Investigating claims US sank unarmed Iranian ship and refused to rescue survivors

Snopes

Investigating claims US sank unarmed Iranian ship and refused to rescue survivors

The IRIS Dena was headed back to Iran from Visakhapatnam, India, where it participated in a multination naval exercise.

Hippasus500 aka jwn2 @Hippasus500@federate.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@peterbrown Good points, both. Of course, with this administration, the mantra is admit nothing, deny everything. Fortunately for the truth-tellers. They really suck at their mantra.

Hippasus500 aka jwn2 @Hippasus500@federate.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@peterbrown I am no fan of what my country is doing, Peter. It is hateful, immoral, wrong is so many dimensions. But if we are to right what’s wrong, we have to be certain of what is true. That the ship was in international waters, that it was headed back from an invited exercise are undisputed. But beyond that, the story is unclear.

Hippasus500 aka jwn2 @Hippasus500@federate.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@peterbrown Or with a depleted armory at a minimum. I don’t have military experience, but it would be imprudent for a warship to be at sea and completely defenseless.

Hippasus500 aka jwn2 @Hippasus500@federate.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@peterbrown It is the hallmark of bullies to attack the weak and defenseless. There is no question this administration has an overabundance of unrestrained bullies.

Hippasus500 aka jwn2 @Hippasus500@federate.social

· 26mo ago

Replying to

@cigitalgem@sigmoid.social @JosephMenn@infosec.exchange We are in perfect agreement about rampant ML. We could have a healthy debate regarding the vitality of open source v proprietary software, I expect. Discriminating the meaning of “better” in this context always feels like an exercise in fractal geometry to me. By artificial intelligence, what we mean is man-made, as if we’re somehow not a part of Nature, the author of natural intelligence, presumably. But I infinitely regress.

Hippasus500 aka jwn2 @Hippasus500@federate.social

· 26mo ago

Replying to

@cigitalgem@sigmoid.social @JosephMenn@infosec.exchange Oh please! Blame that on Dorner and Beckley. They were the creative ones.

Hippasus500 aka jwn2 @Hippasus500@federate.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@BroGle@universeodon.com Not normal for me. But you? Perhaps you’re just that good.