#stevenlevy — Public Fediverse posts

Serial Number: 46-0171787
Olympia Pica No. 12 typeface, 10 pitch, 2.6m/m, 6 lines/inch, keyset tabulator, half-space spacing, vertical spacing, portable, bichrome, segment shift, American keyboard, 44 keys, 88 characters, white and gray plastic body with grey hood and gray plastic keys with white characters
Manufactured in Wilhelmshaven, Germany

I acquired this at thrift for $21.95 on 2026-05-10 for Mother’s Day in immaculate condition! It’s as if someone used it to type up a few essays then put it in the case for 49 years. Other than some minor wear, this may be the singularly cleanest typewriter I’ve ever purchased. As my first typebar electric Olympia, I was so looking forward to taking it apart and giving it a full clean, oil, and adjust, but beyond wiping off some exterior dust, this machine really needs no work. I’m both disappointed and elated at the same time. 

“Now listen to this. 
The gentle and soothing lullaby of a piece of machinery so perfect –”
—Frank Navasky, YOU’VE GOT MAIL (Warner Bros., 1998)

Serial Number: 46-0171787
Olympia Pica No. 12 typeface, 10 pitch, 2.6m/m, 6 lines/inch, keyset tabulator, half-space spacing, vertical spacing, portable, bichrome, segment shift, American keyboard, 44 keys, 88 characters, white and gray plastic body with grey hood and gray plastic keys with white characters
Manufactured in Wilhelmshaven, Germany

I acquired this at thrift for $21.95 on 2026-05-10 for Mother’s Day in immaculate condition! It’s as if someone used it to type up a few essays then put it in the case for 49 years. Other than some minor wear, this may be the singularly cleanest typewriter I’ve ever purchased. As my first typebar electric Olympia, I was so looking forward to taking it apart and giving it a full clean, oil, and adjust, but beyond wiping off some exterior dust, this machine really needs no work. I’m both disappointed and elated at the same time. 

“Now listen to this. 
The gentle and soothing lullaby of a piece of machinery so perfect –”
—Frank Navasky, YOU’VE GOT MAIL (Warner Bros., 1998)

Serial Number: 46-0171787
Olympia Pica No. 12 typeface, 10 pitch, 2.6m/m, 6 lines/inch, keyset tabulator, half-space spacing, vertical spacing, portable, bichrome, segment shift, American keyboard, 44 keys, 88 characters, white and gray plastic body with grey hood and gray plastic keys with white characters
Manufactured in Wilhelmshaven, Germany

I acquired this at thrift for $21.95 on 2026-05-10 for Mother’s Day in immaculate condition! It’s as if someone used it to type up a few essays then put it in the case for 49 years. Other than some minor wear, this may be the singularly cleanest typewriter I’ve ever purchased. As my first typebar electric Olympia, I was so looking forward to taking it apart and giving it a full clean, oil, and adjust, but beyond wiping off some exterior dust, this machine really needs no work. I’m both disappointed and elated at the same time. 

“Now listen to this. 
The gentle and soothing lullaby of a piece of machinery so perfect –”
—Frank Navasky, YOU’VE GOT MAIL (Warner Bros., 1998)

Serial Number: 46-0171787
Olympia Pica No. 12 typeface, 10 pitch, 2.6m/m, 6 lines/inch, keyset tabulator, half-space spacing, vertical spacing, portable, bichrome, segment shift, American keyboard, 44 keys, 88 characters, white and gray plastic body with grey hood and gray plastic keys with white characters
Manufactured in Wilhelmshaven, Germany

I acquired this at thrift for $21.95 on 2026-05-10 for Mother’s Day in immaculate condition! It’s as if someone used it to type up a few essays then put it in the case for 49 years. Other than some minor wear, this may be the singularly cleanest typewriter I’ve ever purchased. As my first typebar electric Olympia, I was so looking forward to taking it apart and giving it a full clean, oil, and adjust, but beyond wiping off some exterior dust, this machine really needs no work. I’m both disappointed and elated at the same time. 

“Now listen to this. 
The gentle and soothing lullaby of a piece of machinery so perfect –”
—Frank Navasky, YOU’VE GOT MAIL (Warner Bros., 1998)

YabbaDabbaDu! #StevenLevy speaks at #BildetNetze from @netzpolitik_org in #Berlin about our #HackerEthics

#Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution (25th Anniversery Edition)

Found his #Audiobook as a free #Download because Information wants to be free

#DDL: https://we.tl/t-vvFzxoroDl

25th Anniversary Edition

In 2011, Arıkan started his own small company and took polar codes to Qualcomm and Seagate to see if they had interest in implementing the idea.

“I did prepare some slides and sent them, but none of the US companies were really interested in it,” he says.

He takes the blame for failing to ignite their interest. “I was an academic who did not know how to promote an idea. Perhaps I did not believe in the idea that strongly myself.”

Later, those companies did work on polar codes and got their own patents, but without the same vigor as Huawei.

“If it weren't for the persistent efforts of Huawei researchers,” Arıkan says, “polar codes would not be in 5G today.”

I asked him about the over-the-top Huawei ceremony immortalized in that YouTube video.
He told me that he'd received the invitation to visit in June 2018.
“I said, ‘What is the occasion?’
And they said, ‘Mr. Ren wants to give you an award,’” Arıkan recalls.

“I figured that Huawei is very happy because the standard has been made, and polar coding is definitely in it.”

He thought he would show up and there would be a pleasant conversation with the founder and some engineers. He might leave with a plaque.

Arıkan arrived in Shenzhen and stayed at a guest house on campus.
He had tea with Ren and was toasted by executives, including Wen Tong.
But he sensed that something bigger was afoot.

“They revealed the program to me one step at a time. I didn't know how big that room would be, what kind of building we would go into. They didn't tell me to dress nicely.” (He did anyway.)

An hour before the ceremony his hosts informed him that perhaps he should prepare a speech.
He hurriedly finished his remarks in the town car on the way to the ceremony.

“I have spent the last 30 years at Bilkent University doing research on a variety of problems that culminated in polar codes,” he told the crowd in his halting English.

“Today our roads cross on a happy occasion.”

The spectacle didn't go to Arıkan's head. “They were not honoring me,” he told me as we sat in his office.

“Huawei was saying, ‘We didn't steal this idea from anybody, and here is the originator of the idea.’

There is no question that Huawei is the most technologically sophisticated company in China.

Maybe for the first time in a thousand years, China is showing they are competing head to head with the rest of the world in technology.

The US could live with intellectual property theft, but it is much harder to live with being in competition with an equal power.

“Polar codes itself is not what's important,” he continued. “It is a symbol.

5G is totally different than the internet. It's like a global nervous system.

Huawei is the leading company in 5G. They will be around in 10, 20, 50 years
—you cannot say that about the US tech companies.

In the internet era, the US produced a few trillion-dollar companies.

Because of 5G, China will have 10 or more trillion-dollar companies.

Huawei and China now have the lead.”

US companies and the US government can no longer expect to beat China back with threats or indictments, even if they are sometimes warranted.

And it's not just telecom companies like Huawei.

For all the furor at the highest levels over whether the teen-oriented social app TikTok presented security issues, the real threat to American business was that its Chinese engineers had devised an AI-powered recommendation engine that Silicon Valley had not matched.

Arıkan says the experience has led him to respect Huawei
—and to provide a warning to the country where he learned information theory.

“I owe a lot to the US,” he says.
“I give you friendly advice:
You have to accept this as the new reality and deal with it accordingly.”

To paraphrase Shannon:
No one knows the future. But Huawei and China now have a hand in controlling it.

-- excerpts from:
https://www.wired.com/story/huawei-5g-polar-codes-data-breakthrough/

by Steven Levy, editor at large at Wired.

Steven has written seven books, including Hackers, Crypto, Artificial Life, Insanely Great (a history of the Macintosh), and, most recently, In the Plex, the definitive story of Google. He attended Temple University and has a master’s degree in literature from Penn State.

#ErdalArıkan #5G #polarcodes
#RenZhengfei #Huawei #ChineseGovernment #ZTE #DOJ #intellectualproperty #Cisco #Nortel
#stevenlevy #Wired

Los 6 principios de la ética hacker.

Por Steven Levy (1984)

1. El acceso a ordenadores y a cualquier cosa que pueda enseñar algo acerca de la forma en que funciona el mundo, debe ser ilimitado y total.

2. Toda la información debe ser libre.

3. Desconfía de la autoridad, promueve la descentralización.

4. Los hackers deben ser juzgados por su capacidad y no por sus títulos, edad, raza, sexo o posición.

5. Puedes crear arte y belleza en un ordenador.

6. Los ordenadores pueden cambiar tu vida para mejor.

#hacker #hackers #éticahacker #stevenlevy #ordenadores #computadores #retro #principios #historia

HAPPY HACKING FRIDAY!!! keep on hacking for social change
and love please follow all this awesome people :anarchiststar: @neko @sidd_harth0_5h4h @oximurah @x3r0x @olamundo @Anarkat @ana @dokuja @codeforchaos #hackerethics #anarchism #hackerculture #hacking #ff #descentralization @_1b0 #stevenlevy @HackerRadioShow @kolektiva @hackernol #hackthesystem @meow @maltman23

HAPPY HACKING FRIDAY!!! keep on hacking for social change
and love please follow all this awesome people :anarchiststar: @neko @sidd_harth0_5h4h @oximurah @x3r0x @olamundo @Anarkat @ana @dokuja @codeforchaos #hackerethics #anarchism #hackerculture #hacking #ff #descentralization @_1b0 #stevenlevy @HackerRadioShow @kolektiva @hackernol #hackthesystem @meow @maltman23