occult

https://vox.ominous.net/@occult

Serving the darker bits.

#engineering #hamradio #meshcore #science #pinball #film #retrocomputing #history #poetry #urbanism #astronomy #NetBSD #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #Plan9 #Linux #Unix #Unix_Surrealism #Boston #CambridgeMA

Website: https://ominous.net
Matrix: occult:ominous.net
Home: Cambridge, MA
Listening To: Live: And All That Could Have Been - Nine Inch Nails

Public Key

npub1c60cc628p2pq7uxfmpjmcdnumh2fkuzjmu727a60dqaw2g48qnzq963dm4

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsvd8uvd9rs4qs0wryaseduxe7dm4ymwpfd7090wa8kswh9y2nsf3qpqqtnug93

Publishing to

Author Public Key

npub1c60cc628p2pq7uxfmpjmcdnumh2fkuzjmu727a60dqaw2g48qnzq963dm4

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Published at

2026-07-29T18:16:15+02:00

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Event JSON

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Last Notes

2026-08-05 23:31:03 CEST

Lufthansa Airbus A380-800 from Munich to Boston, landing at Logan Airport.
What a beast!
#Boston
https://media.ominous.net/media_attachments/files/117/045/032/024/603/199/original/9b6234687ab42928.mp4

2026-08-03 15:12:17 CEST

It's a shame that the only Fediverse equivalent to Instagram has essentially become abandonware. Aside from its many outstanding bugs (ActivityPub issues, broken account migration, an abandoned app that hasn't been updated in almost a year), it seems impossible for anyone to contribute to the project.
Instead, a federated TikTok clone has been prioritized, which, as far as I can tell, consists of 99% reposted TikTok slop videos.
Federated, decentralized brain rot is still brain rot.
Oh well.
https://media.ominous.net/media_attachments/files/117/031/724/201/848/757/original/afa046dd466e28a6.png

2026-07-26 02:40:24 CEST

Nice! Johnny’s has Sonic #Pinball!
#CambridgeMA
https://media.ominous.net/media_attachments/files/116/983/489/923/856/109/original/bf1f254ed0c53895.jpeg

2026-04-06 17:48:04 CEST

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, your home assistant graphs are wild, man.

2026-04-05 02:04:57 CEST

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I love this design. This is a full page ad for #UNIX networking software in UNIX Review magazine October, 1984.
Today we have ads where Google thinks it’s cute that Gemini wrote a child’s letter to their hero.
No one would dare put something like this out today for fear they may stand out.
They all want to conform to what's safe and known.
#Design #UNIX
https://media.ominous.net/media_attachments/files/116/349/156/558/199/003/original/b349c684ff8901ad.png

2026-04-03 14:05:54 CEST

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Ah, I forgot you were the local destroyer of dreams.

2026-04-03 13:48:52 CEST

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I just want to blast that horn while I roll by the MIT dorms at 11pm.

2026-04-03 13:39:24 CEST

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Look.
I just want to distribute the financial risk of leasing a train.
Please, don’t complicate this. Either we’re being irresponsible or we’re not.
Which is it?
I vote TRAIN.

2026-04-03 13:14:41 CEST

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I’d like to bring to your attention that PNLX 9619 is available for lease.
https://www.pnlxrail.com/locomotives
Are we leasing a train?

2026-04-03 05:01:18 CEST

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It’s an Amtrak diesel engine carrying what looks like an Amtrak passenger car to the maintenance yard.

2026-04-02 00:09:43 CEST

Watching the livestream of the Artemis II launch, I just witnessed one of the astronauts type in the password on their tablet while sitting in the capsule on camera.
#ArtemisII #Artemis #Artemis2 #NASA #InfoSec #cybersecurity #OpSec
https://media.ominous.net/media_attachments/files/116/331/733/269/486/731/original/209e6e37dd367163.mp4

2026-03-12 21:56:49 CET

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I guess I missed that time The X-Files had an episode in Vegas where the Lone Gunmen attended a conference called DEFCON.
@npub12ts…x422, did you know about this at the time? The funny thing is in the episode (S6E20), it was a defense contractor conference and they were not playing “spot the Fed”.
#TheXFiles
https://media.ominous.net/media_attachments/files/116/218/200/570/283/476/original/a26aa69d5bb51588.jpeg

2026-03-09 22:13:19 CET

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I found this ad for a six-degree-of-freedom 3D input device in the Summer 1989 issue of the SGI magazine "IRIS Universe".
I remember seeing stuff like this around in the 90s, but it all seemed so inaccessible at the time. Flipping through these old professional magazines, you spot some interesting engineering and industrial design.
@npub15yq…u3v7, you should get one of these, restore it, and get it working on one of your systems.
#SGI #UNIX
https://media.ominous.net/media_attachments/files/116/201/262/191/489/619/original/26f4cd3236706dc7.png

2026-03-08 23:04:38 CET

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When someone asks me what the #Fediverse, #Mastodon or #ActivityPub is I'll use this illustration from UNIX Review, April 1985.
#UNIX
https://media.ominous.net/media_attachments/files/116/195/810/711/433/547/original/a62ed80a97c43cca.png

2026-03-06 18:22:01 CET

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I know these were super serious UNIX business magazines back in 1985, but today they would literally be the cover of some punk zine.
#UNIX
https://media.ominous.net/media_attachments/files/116/183/375/153/887/081/original/22c257ce02df202a.png

2026-03-06 04:22:57 CET

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“Killswitch” (S5E11) makes another cryptography reference with a mention of 64-bit encryption. Taking place in 1998, this would be referring to DES, and that same year, the EFF built Deep Crack that could break DES in 56 hours. #TheXFiles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFF_DES_cracker?wprov=sfti1
https://media.ominous.net/media_attachments/files/116/180/082/500/539/314/original/fb98b541a844d3e9.mp4

2026-02-25 16:24:40 CET

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A reference to the Clipper Chip (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip) in “Memento Mori" (S4E14) from 1997.
The history of the Clipper Chip project is a fascinating story about the politics and history around strong #cryptography, #surveillance, and #privacy in the early 90s.
See the writing on this topic by @npub1jsl…93xu (https://www.mattblaze.org/papers/escrow-acsac11.pdf) and [@matthew_d_green](https://ioc.exchange/@matthew_d_green ) (https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2015/07/20/a-history-of-backdoors/).
It is worth studying and for those who did not live through it.
#TheXFiles
https://media.ominous.net/media_attachments/files/116/131/959/483/631/644/original/8ff4e1da8196a783.mp4

2026-02-25 13:57:34 CET

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From a 1991 SunExpert magazine article about “What’s to come” for network protocols. The article depicts a man traveling into the 2020’s, seemingly unaware of the chaos he’ll find.
He’s going to pass @npub1lym…fqe3 traveling back in time to 1991 to get some mint condition Sun workstations.
#SunMicrosystems #UNIX
https://media.ominous.net/media_attachments/files/116/131/379/583/898/146/original/d7555035b31ad34e.jpeg

2026-02-23 17:42:21 CET

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The Harvard Bridge looking toward Boston from Cambridge.
#Boston #CambridgeMA #Blizzard #blizzard2026
https://cdn.masto.host/voxominousnet/media_attachments/files/116/120/937/826/065/863/original/b952674af4c3537a.jpeg
https://cdn.masto.host/voxominousnet/media_attachments/files/116/120/939/972/260/451/original/8822cafc4f93046b.jpeg

2026-02-20 17:13:48 CET

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Computing in the year 2029 as depicted in UNIX WORLD magazine, 1985.
#UNIX
https://media.ominous.net/media_attachments/files/116/103/829/652/983/694/original/56ea0821975f88ad.png

2026-02-20 15:54:27 CET

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Boss: I need art for an article on #UNIX networking technologies for the next issue of UNIX WORLD.
Artist: come back tomorrow.
https://media.ominous.net/media_attachments/files/116/103/519/944/658/980/original/ccc52d3f601ec946.png

2026-02-17 17:05:57 CET

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There’s an LLM coding joke in here somewhere.
https://cdn.masto.host/voxominousnet/media_attachments/files/116/086/819/523/893/111/original/a353c1538130fb1f.png

2026-02-17 13:36:12 CET

Please don’t be shocked, but I’ve been reading old #UNIX Review magazines on Archive.org, as one does. I’ve been finding a number of interesting artifacts throughout. This June 1984 ad by Cadmus Computer Systems listed a #USENET address: !wivax!cadmus.
This is a UUCP bang path, for the kids who don’t know. The ! separates relay hops, it’s a literal routing instruction. Get to the backbone, reach wivax, forward to cadmus.
No DNS.
Machines screamed at each other to swap data.
#unix_surrealism
https://cdn.masto.host/voxominousnet/media_attachments/files/116/086/078/678/496/096/original/243b19dc7a0bc90e.jpeg
https://cdn.masto.host/voxominousnet/media_attachments/files/116/086/078/750/884/707/original/9f091eee8426fbc4.jpeg

2026-02-17 03:03:13 CET

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From “End Game” (S2E17), Mulder uses a handheld GPS. It looks to be a Magellan brand unit. Consumer GPS was still very rare in 1995, and selective availability was still in effect, so GPS accuracy was still ~100 meters.
The display shows real coordinates which actually plots to the Beaufort Sea which is exactly where the episode takes place.
Something I never would have picked up on before, the date displayed “03Feb95” seems to be the original air date.
#TheXFiles
https://media.ominous.net/media_attachments/files/116/083/497/009/143/167/original/25597a87f32379c7.jpeg

2026-02-09 22:54:06 CET

I have decided to begin re-watching the entire original (seasons 1-9) run of The X-Files.
It has been more than 10 years since I last did this, and I am looking forward to it.
#TheXFiles
https://media.ominous.net/media_attachments/files/116/042/891/196/169/251/original/511c7fd9a23d9ca5.jpg

2026-02-01 17:25:37 CET

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for me, once I had reached my new baseline of no phone, suddenly I noticed the buzzing became downright annoying. I knew it wasn't anything important. I was turning on Do Not Disturb mode more often to shut it up.
I went from worrying about what I was missing to being annoyed that I was being pinged so much. Sure enough, I'd take a glance at my screen, and there was nothing I needed to care about.
My behavioral changes are much less dramatic walking around a city, of course.

2026-02-01 17:23:33 CET

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You know, I've never thought about it like that. My sense of oblivion has been walking around the city of Boston; yours is much different than mine, with higher stakes. My concerns of leaving the phone behind are downright comical compared to your adventures in and out of oblivion.
I think you're more qualified to write about that kind of mindset than I!

2026-01-28 04:14:04 CET

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nice! I love this trend. Added your RSS so now you have to keep updating it!

2026-01-22 16:54:29 CET

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I've also created an image gallery.
https://img.ominous.net/
In the same vein as https://subversive.pics/ by @npub1lym…fqe3, I will be curating and dumping random images I find on the internet or take around town.
There's an RSS feed and a Mastodon mirror @npub17d8…rg2c available.

2026-01-22 16:49:41 CET

I've created a personal website.
https://www.ominous.net
It is built with the Oscean static site engine written in Uxn by @npub1z8r…mrq6, who along with @npub1lym…fqe3 and their respective websites, have inspired me to develop my own.
I have set a goal to write a long form essay once a month with my first being “The Stars in Your Eyes Are Stolen: Æon Flux and Decentralized Power Systems” found here: https://ominous.net/Æon_Flux.html
I hope folks enjoy my little corner of the internet. I intend to expand it often.

2026-01-07 22:53:05 CET

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You can, and folks have booted it on real hardware!
https://vox.ominous.net/@occult/115759331681756867

2025-12-28 22:05:13 CET

Catching up on #39C3 talks from #CambridgeMA / #Boston.
Make sure to see @npub1wh2…zlqx discussing geostationary satellite signals interception and insecurities.
https://www.wired.com/story/satellites-are-leaking-the-worlds-secrets-calls-texts-military-and-corporate-data/
Recording: https://media.ccc.de/v/39c3-don-t-look-up-there-are-sensitive-internal-links-in-the-clear-on-geo-satellites

2025-12-20 20:03:12 CET

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I would buy her side-project solo album on vinyl.

2025-11-29 03:11:15 CET

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Another friend just tried it, not logged in, and had no account and again it was able to look up their location.
https://cdn.masto.host/voxominousnet/media_attachments/files/115/630/555/626/564/187/original/414da140ae434b10.jpeg

2025-11-07 18:24:45 CET

@npub1z8r…mrq6 @npub1z2c…laft I’ve been reading posts about your travels aboard PINO as well as Permacomputing principles and have wondered if you’ve ever tried MeshCore or Meshtastic while sailing. I should include @npub1aw0…7ktg in this question as well.
It seems like something that would fit nicely into permacomputing and your low bandwidth/limited communication needs. There’s a large community of users in the PNW and we have created a very large mesh here in Boston.