Rob Ricci
@ricci.io
Research Professor in the Kahlert School of Computing at the University of Utah
Not planning to be here much, my main account is on the fediverse at https://discuss.systems/@ricci/ - you can follow it directly here as
@ricci.discuss.systems.ap.brid.gy
Not planning to be here much, my main account is on the fediverse at https://discuss.systems/@ricci/ - you can follow it directly here as
@ricci.discuss.systems.ap.brid.gy
Pinned
Rotation Key Census, December 2025
Census of rotation keys and other ways of asserting strong control over identity on the Atmosphere
rob.leaflet.pub
I did a study of now many users in the atproto world (Bluesky and the broader Atmosphere) have strong control over their identities via rotation keys or other methods
I've moved arewedecentralizedyet.online to new datasources, including actual monthly-active-user counts for the #atproto world. Using actual MAUs, there are a full 1% of active accounts now that are not on Bluesky PBC PDSes.
January 14, 2026 at 6:01 AM
I've moved arewedecentralizedyet.online to new datasources, including actual monthly-active-user counts for the #atproto world. Using actual MAUs, there are a full 1% of active accounts now that are not on Bluesky PBC PDSes.
Reposted by Rob Ricci
OK fellow atproto nerds: I've been drinking the Bluesky and Blacksky firehoses for the past month+ and recording the DIDs that I see.
How different do you think the sets of dids and PDSes relayed are? Put in your guesses!
I'll post a reply with answers when this post is about 24h old.
How different do you think the sets of dids and PDSes relayed are? Put in your guesses!
I'll post a reply with answers when this post is about 24h old.
January 12, 2026 at 1:01 AM
OK fellow atproto nerds: I've been drinking the Bluesky and Blacksky firehoses for the past month+ and recording the DIDs that I see.
How different do you think the sets of dids and PDSes relayed are? Put in your guesses!
I'll post a reply with answers when this post is about 24h old.
How different do you think the sets of dids and PDSes relayed are? Put in your guesses!
I'll post a reply with answers when this post is about 24h old.
OK fellow atproto nerds: I've been drinking the Bluesky and Blacksky firehoses for the past month+ and recording the DIDs that I see.
How different do you think the sets of dids and PDSes relayed are? Put in your guesses!
I'll post a reply with answers when this post is about 24h old.
How different do you think the sets of dids and PDSes relayed are? Put in your guesses!
I'll post a reply with answers when this post is about 24h old.
January 12, 2026 at 1:01 AM
OK fellow atproto nerds: I've been drinking the Bluesky and Blacksky firehoses for the past month+ and recording the DIDs that I see.
How different do you think the sets of dids and PDSes relayed are? Put in your guesses!
I'll post a reply with answers when this post is about 24h old.
How different do you think the sets of dids and PDSes relayed are? Put in your guesses!
I'll post a reply with answers when this post is about 24h old.
Reposted by Rob Ricci
Remember the tape that my research group found recently? Well...
"Computer History Museum software curator Al Kossow has successfully retrieved the contents of the over-half-a-century old tape found at the University of Utah last month." [Actually, in July.]
www.theregister.com/2025/12/23/u...
"Computer History Museum software curator Al Kossow has successfully retrieved the contents of the over-half-a-century old tape found at the University of Utah last month." [Actually, in July.]
www.theregister.com/2025/12/23/u...
UNIX V4 tape successfully recovered
: Crucial early evolutionary step found, imaged, and ... amazingly ... works
www.theregister.com
December 23, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Remember the tape that my research group found recently? Well...
"Computer History Museum software curator Al Kossow has successfully retrieved the contents of the over-half-a-century old tape found at the University of Utah last month." [Actually, in July.]
www.theregister.com/2025/12/23/u...
"Computer History Museum software curator Al Kossow has successfully retrieved the contents of the over-half-a-century old tape found at the University of Utah last month." [Actually, in July.]
www.theregister.com/2025/12/23/u...
We found a tape containing UNIX V4 - long believed lost - in storage at the University of Utah. Yesterday, the Computer History Museum read it! There's a raw copy of the tape up at archive.org/details/utah... , a .tar at squoze.net/UNIX/v4/ , and much more at discuss.systems/@ricci/11550...
UNIX V4 tape from University of Utah (raw) : Computer History Museum : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
UNIX V4 tape from the University of Utah, received by Martin Newell in June 1974 around when he modeled the Utah Teapot.This is the raw analog waveform and the...
archive.org
December 20, 2025 at 5:24 PM
We found a tape containing UNIX V4 - long believed lost - in storage at the University of Utah. Yesterday, the Computer History Museum read it! There's a raw copy of the tape up at archive.org/details/utah... , a .tar at squoze.net/UNIX/v4/ , and much more at discuss.systems/@ricci/11550...
Reposted by Rob Ricci
Here's the document release you were waiting for today!
The UNIX V4 tape!
https://archive.org/details/utah_unix_v4_raw
#retrocomputing
The UNIX V4 tape!
https://archive.org/details/utah_unix_v4_raw
#retrocomputing
UNIX V4 tape from University of Utah (raw) : Computer History Museum : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
UNIX V4 tape from the University of Utah, received by Martin Newell circa June 1974 around when he modeled the Utah Teapot.This is the raw analog waveform and...
archive.org
December 19, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Here's the document release you were waiting for today!
The UNIX V4 tape!
https://archive.org/details/utah_unix_v4_raw
#retrocomputing
The UNIX V4 tape!
https://archive.org/details/utah_unix_v4_raw
#retrocomputing
Reposted by Rob Ricci
Are you being tracked when you visit your government's websites?
Probably!
We (@sachindhke, Faisal Mahmud, Sandra Siby, and I) have a new paper appearing at PETS (the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium) next July that looks at government websites from […]
[Original post on discuss.systems]
Probably!
We (@sachindhke, Faisal Mahmud, Sandra Siby, and I) have a new paper appearing at PETS (the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium) next July that looks at government websites from […]
[Original post on discuss.systems]
December 17, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Are you being tracked when you visit your government's websites?
Probably!
We (@sachindhke, Faisal Mahmud, Sandra Siby, and I) have a new paper appearing at PETS (the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium) next July that looks at government websites from […]
[Original post on discuss.systems]
Probably!
We (@sachindhke, Faisal Mahmud, Sandra Siby, and I) have a new paper appearing at PETS (the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium) next July that looks at government websites from […]
[Original post on discuss.systems]
Reposted by Rob Ricci
The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.
December 16, 2025 at 11:31 PM
The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.
Reposted by Rob Ricci
Incredible free vacation opportunity for cool guys.
From the Oklahoma U student paper: the school is now saying it will automatically suspend faculty (with pay) in response to student complaints
www.oudaily.com/news/ou-poli...
www.oudaily.com/news/ou-poli...
December 13, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Incredible free vacation opportunity for cool guys.
Reposted by Rob Ricci
I'm preparing new datasources for the social networks on https://arewedecentralizedyet.online/
For the fediverse, I'm switching to getting hosts from nodes.fediverse.party and fetching the nodeinfo myself - all of the different crawlers I've looked at fetch slightly different sets of hosts, and […]
For the fediverse, I'm switching to getting hosts from nodes.fediverse.party and fetching the nodeinfo myself - all of the different crawlers I've looked at fetch slightly different sets of hosts, and […]
Original post on discuss.systems
discuss.systems
December 11, 2025 at 5:53 AM
I'm preparing new datasources for the social networks on https://arewedecentralizedyet.online/
For the fediverse, I'm switching to getting hosts from nodes.fediverse.party and fetching the nodeinfo myself - all of the different crawlers I've looked at fetch slightly different sets of hosts, and […]
For the fediverse, I'm switching to getting hosts from nodes.fediverse.party and fetching the nodeinfo myself - all of the different crawlers I've looked at fetch slightly different sets of hosts, and […]
Reading the atproto feed this evening and it's not beating the rap that the atmosphere and the fediverse are just going to reinvent each other
December 10, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Reading the atproto feed this evening and it's not beating the rap that the atmosphere and the fediverse are just going to reinvent each other
Reposted by Rob Ricci
I did a study of now many users in the atproto world (Bluesky and the broader Atmosphere) have strong control over their identities via rotation keys or other methods
Rotation Key Census, December 2025
Census of rotation keys and other ways of asserting strong control over identity on the Atmosphere
rob.leaflet.pub
December 8, 2025 at 7:49 PM
I did a study of now many users in the atproto world (Bluesky and the broader Atmosphere) have strong control over their identities via rotation keys or other methods
I did a study of now many users in the atproto world (Bluesky and the broader Atmosphere) have strong control over their identities via rotation keys or other methods
Rotation Key Census, December 2025
Census of rotation keys and other ways of asserting strong control over identity on the Atmosphere
rob.leaflet.pub
December 8, 2025 at 7:49 PM
I did a study of now many users in the atproto world (Bluesky and the broader Atmosphere) have strong control over their identities via rotation keys or other methods
Hi, I just thought you might want to know that 'atproto' is an anagram for 'poo tart', in case you needed recipe ideas for your atproto-themed get-together
December 7, 2025 at 5:17 AM
Hi, I just thought you might want to know that 'atproto' is an anagram for 'poo tart', in case you needed recipe ideas for your atproto-themed get-together
Writing a thing about rotation keys for did:plc atproto identities. What are the best places to point people to in order to create their own rotation keys? I know PDS MOOver can do this - other good user-friendly tools to point people to?
December 6, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Writing a thing about rotation keys for did:plc atproto identities. What are the best places to point people to in order to create their own rotation keys? I know PDS MOOver can do this - other good user-friendly tools to point people to?
Reposted by Rob Ricci
KSL TV @ksl.com interviewed the members of my research group who recently discovered a rare piece of computing history: an old tape that might contain UNIX V4. ksltv.com/science-tech...
University of Utah team discovers rare computer relic
A research team at the University of Utah uncovered a rare piece of computing history.
ksltv.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:18 PM
KSL TV @ksl.com interviewed the members of my research group who recently discovered a rare piece of computing history: an old tape that might contain UNIX V4. ksltv.com/science-tech...
I've been using this site for several months, and I still don't know what this button does, but "viewing the full thread" definitely ain't it
December 2, 2025 at 4:11 PM
I've been using this site for several months, and I still don't know what this button does, but "viewing the full thread" definitely ain't it
I made a mirror of the git repo for arewedecentralizedyet.online on @tangled.org . Currently using my own PDS but their knot - I intend to try running my own knot soon. Very neat!
tangled.org/ricci.io/are...
tangled.org/ricci.io/are...
ricci.io/are-we-decentralized-yet
Code and data for arewedecentralizedyet.online and related projects
tangled.org
November 30, 2025 at 6:12 PM
I made a mirror of the git repo for arewedecentralizedyet.online on @tangled.org . Currently using my own PDS but their knot - I intend to try running my own knot soon. Very neat!
tangled.org/ricci.io/are...
tangled.org/ricci.io/are...
Do you want to know what your "Following" feed would look like without Bluesky-the-company? @mackuba.eu made a feed for this! Check out bsky.app/profile/did:... - you'll only see accounts you're following that are not on Bluesky-owned personal data servers (PDSes).
November 23, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Do you want to know what your "Following" feed would look like without Bluesky-the-company? @mackuba.eu made a feed for this! Check out bsky.app/profile/did:... - you'll only see accounts you're following that are not on Bluesky-owned personal data servers (PDSes).
Reposted by Rob Ricci
This came up a bit at @eurosky.social and is the only reasonable way to talk about how centralized any decentralized system is. Without appropriate funding nobody can moderate at the scale PBC does without heavily relying on AI and we see how that’s going for us.
Let me put it this way: the bluesky PBC moderation team has as much power as 1,361 moderation teams on the fediverse, combined. (How many fedi instances have to block an account to block it from the fraction of the network bsky controls) That's a whole lot of power in a very small number of hands.
November 23, 2025 at 9:01 AM
This came up a bit at @eurosky.social and is the only reasonable way to talk about how centralized any decentralized system is. Without appropriate funding nobody can moderate at the scale PBC does without heavily relying on AI and we see how that’s going for us.
Reposted by Rob Ricci
Me and the blep.cat team are working on creating an open Bluesky PDS running on rsky-pds!
This takes a bit of setup, and we expect it to be done in 48 hours.
This takes a bit of setup, and we expect it to be done in 48 hours.
Blep.cat
blep.cat is a Fediverse instance ran by Scan, a Software Engineer! Made for everyone (except rule-breakers 😠) but mostly focused about developing and open source!
blep.cat
November 23, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Me and the blep.cat team are working on creating an open Bluesky PDS running on rsky-pds!
This takes a bit of setup, and we expect it to be done in 48 hours.
This takes a bit of setup, and we expect it to be done in 48 hours.
Reposted by Rob Ricci
It’s way past time that qualifying nations refused to attend the World Cup. This is just yet another reason. None will though.
President Donald Trump's administration will not permit supporters from Haiti to enter the United States next summer after the nation qualified for the World Cup.
Donald Trump tells one nation's fans to stay away from World Cup in America
www.mirror.co.uk
November 23, 2025 at 3:41 AM
It’s way past time that qualifying nations refused to attend the World Cup. This is just yet another reason. None will though.
Average man thinks about the Roman Empire every 40 minutes" factoid is incorrect, @themountaingoats.bsky.social , who records a new song about the Roman Empire every 47 seconds is an outlier and should not have been counted
November 23, 2025 at 5:25 AM
Average man thinks about the Roman Empire every 40 minutes" factoid is incorrect, @themountaingoats.bsky.social , who records a new song about the Roman Empire every 47 seconds is an outlier and should not have been counted