Jason Bowen 🇺🇦

https://mast.hpc.social/@jbowen

Storage guy. Sysadmin. HPC/supercomputing. Mathematician at heart. Free/open {soft,firm,hard}ware enthusiast. *BSD, GNU+Linux, AIX. Extreme software portability proponent.

(he/him or they/them)

🇺🇦 Слава Україні! 🇺🇦

(perfunctory: opinions are my own and not those of my employer)

#norobots

IRC: jbowen
Editor: ed(1)
BSD: Net
Stub website: https://infinitecactus.com/

Public Key

npub1al5wtlfvjxghajpk2yujrgw79esxq9jzym435gvy05wr8ddjdjms6pjpv9

NIP-05 Address

jbowen_at_mast.hpc.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqswl689l5kfryt7eqm9zwfp580zucrqzepzd6c6yxz868pnkkexedcprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntxyt227

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub1al5wtlfvjxghajpk2yujrgw79esxq9jzym435gvy05wr8ddjdjms6pjpv9

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Last Notes

2026-08-24 11:16:22 UTC

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It's great!

2026-08-24 00:03:13 UTC

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I thought so. Is it yours?

2026-08-23 18:30:00 UTC

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Love cyberpunk art!

2026-08-19 18:58:17 UTC

I'm actively trying to stop reflexively searching through my shell history for very short commands, but my fingers are often quicker than my brain on it.

2026-08-12 00:01:29 UTC

It is *very* difficult to say "list of empty dicts" clearly.

2026-08-10 17:34:18 UTC

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It's been quite a long time, but going through security once I heard two TSA agents talking about how good they were at picking out water bottles that had even small amounts of liquid in them.

2026-08-06 18:58:03 UTC

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I wouldn't call that a software holy war, though, it's a societal issue.

2026-08-06 18:33:13 UTC

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What's the current holy war? LLM good vs. LLM bad?

2026-08-06 18:16:59 UTC

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Wow, I never encountered that. Just good-natured ribbing of the "other side"

2026-08-06 18:12:49 UTC

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I always saw them as more fun than serious. Raging against emacs on message boards like it was an abomination unto humanity was more of a creative writing exercise than genuine vitriol.

2026-08-05 19:08:02 UTC

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metadata!

2026-07-30 20:43:45 UTC

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How long is a season to have 222 of them?

2026-07-30 20:38:02 UTC

RE: https://flipboard.com/@npr/business-uklg5idmz/-/a-2YtOzYduQG-rfzJUhbzI6g%3Aa%3A3195441-%2F0
Pop! Pop! Pop!
#note1mfy…h5k0

2026-07-27 20:38:11 UTC

I refuse to compile any C++ project which depends on Boost. Any time I even consider it and go to install some libboost* dependency, it pulls in half the universe and I ctrl-c before deleting the project source.

2026-07-20 21:54:37 UTC

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Yes! I've been arguing for a long time that "software engineering" should be its own thing (with more emphasis on proper engineering practices) with computer science being for folks who want to delve into the theoretical aspects.

2026-03-30 15:38:47 UTC

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Good, and I hope others follow their example. People need to realize that actions have real long-term consequences. So many people think that if we (I'm an American) elect a Democrat in the next election (assuming there is one), things will "go back to normal." What's been happening is not normal and it would be very unwise for other countries to rely on the stability of the US when we've demonstrated such a willingness to blow everything up.

2026-03-02 18:20:00 UTC

"Your opinion matters to us" is one of most condescending things I hear these days. We all know it's not, so stop pretending.

2026-02-18 00:01:36 UTC

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I can't bring myself to say anything positive about SCO or Darl McBride. (and the "UnixWare" name came from AT&T + Novell.

2026-02-11 19:43:49 UTC

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He's a far right politician. This is a "broken clock is right twice a day" situation.

2026-01-26 04:01:58 UTC

Are folks retreating from the LLM hellscape of the web to Gopher or Gemini protocols?
I'd really like to hear from folks about what's going on in the "small web" these days. Where to look for info, is one protocol gaining/losing tracking, or have they attracted userbases with different interests?
Any fedi-like communities on these protocols?
Boosts for visibility are appreciated, but there's no pressure to do so.
#smallweb #gopher #geminiprotocol

2026-01-20 23:35:48 UTC

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How about "no?"
https://www.thedailybeast.com/stephen-miller-orders-minneapolis-cops-to-surrender-to-feds-in-maga-fever-dream/

2026-01-20 23:33:58 UTC

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Um, is this real?

2026-01-09 20:43:24 UTC

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Well now I feel like I can't read, lol. Sorry about that.
@npub15m2…gezc @npub1f78…2vp5 @npub1qnu…tgsk

2026-01-09 20:31:38 UTC

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Totally fair point about what "privacy" means in context.
Agents are different in that they're quite literally first-party spyware. An admin doesn't have to decide to view your email, it's actively being flung all over the place.
@npub15m2…gezc @npub1f78…2vp5 @npub1qnu…tgsk

2026-01-09 20:14:46 UTC

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It's much more old school, but I've been using Migadu for a few years now. I became aware of them from a blog post by @npub1qnu…tgsk (which has apparently been taken down now?)
Here it is from the Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20240620003715/https://drewdevault.com/2020/06/19/Mail-service-provider-recommendations.html
I also think of email like postcards. There's nothing to provide security unless you and the recipient(s) agree on some encryption scheme (e.g. PGP).

2026-01-05 21:27:46 UTC

Is there any way at all to get Gmail to do strict string matching in search? Using quotes around, say, two search terms, will still match either word, in any order or part of the message, any capitalization. It's very frustrating.

2026-01-05 07:57:38 UTC

I've been out of the loop for a couple of years on Linux phones. I'm poking around on blogs and Mastodon posts, but I figured I'd just ask:
Whats currently (as of January 2026) the most functional, stable, boring phone + OS combination?
I have a PinePhone from a few years ago and a couple Pixels to play around with.
(If you're comfortable with it and feeling generous, I would appreciate a boost for visibility)
#linuxmobile #linuxphone

2025-11-05 00:47:29 UTC

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I haven't gotten a sticker the last few years for "regular" in person voting

2025-09-25 15:44:49 UTC

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Thank you for the explanation. I assumed some form of isolation would be the norm rather than refusing to take the child as a patient.
I did not think through practices not having the facilities to properly isolate unvaccinated patients from newborns/children who haven't yet been vaccinated.

2025-09-25 15:07:29 UTC

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> DeSantis said pediatricians should not deny care to children because they don’t have certain vaccinations.
I can't imagine any pediatrician *denying care* to an unvaccinated child. I can certainly imagine them urging the parents to vaccinate their children, but they would still provide care to the best of their ability in the face of poor choices by parents.

2025-08-12 21:20:12 UTC

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I feel like Lyndon Johnson probably did once or twice.

2025-07-07 21:46:05 UTC

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I'm inclined to argue that we're beyond the present progressive tense.

2025-06-25 19:14:50 UTC

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I'll stick to the framebuffer, thank you very much.

2025-06-03 05:39:29 UTC

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That's brilliant...

2025-05-27 15:58:47 UTC

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Trump is a transactional guy. This is the norm for him. One of the many reasons he's unfit for any public office (or really anything else besides mob boss).

2025-04-02 23:45:53 UTC

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As an American, just don't make them available in the US.

2025-04-02 16:36:26 UTC

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What are you planning on using it for? I don't know what I'd do with a nib that broad and wet.

2025-04-02 14:31:46 UTC

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That is a phat music nib...

2025-03-30 04:18:38 UTC

Can I ask the Fedi mindshare for Android keyboard recommendations?
I've been a SwiftKey user since I got my first smartphone in 2012 when they were an independent company. I've tried other keyboards, but keep coming back to SwiftKey and I need to finally get off of it.
I'd love something that will still provide the quality of autocorrect, but I'm willing to accept lesser quality to feel less gross.
If you're comfortable, I'd appreciate a rehare for opinion diversity :)
#android #keyboards

2025-02-28 23:18:28 UTC

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Didn't Trump comment that this would be good television? That's all he's interested in.

2025-02-14 22:07:28 UTC

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Damn, I'm so sorry :(
I don't know what else I could do/offer, but are donations needed to keep things going?

2025-02-04 22:34:03 UTC

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I don't like that I can't tell...

2025-02-04 22:33:32 UTC

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lol, this is a parody, right?

2024-12-06 05:54:06 UTC

It's difficult to search for this, but did WASD Keyboards (wasdkeyboards.com) go out of business?
Anyone know the story there?
#wasdkeyboards #keyboards #mechanicalkeyboards

2024-11-23 02:51:37 UTC

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I mean text editors, particularly modal ones are just state machines, right?

2024-10-22 21:22:19 UTC

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I read "parity bit" as "party bit" just now and that's the only way I ever want to refer to it again

2024-10-03 21:02:41 UTC

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I've been using FairEmail on Android for quite a while and I'm happy with it.
https://email.faircode.eu/

2024-10-02 21:02:17 UTC

I am so tired of having to deconstruct marketing language around technical products. In a lot of cases it turns me off from looking deeper into things.
#angryoldman #greybeard

2024-09-25 04:04:15 UTC

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One of the reasons I'm running a lot more BSD these days.

2024-08-09 19:29:59 UTC

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Is this in an article or talk?

2024-08-06 20:56:16 UTC

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wtf?