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   Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Sunday, 19-Apr-2026 12:08:50 JST Evan Prodromou

   Oh, interesting. Jon Stewart talked about his experience a few weeks ago:

   https://youtube.com/shorts/VceKeXJMVFA

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Sunday, 19-Apr-2026 12:09:12 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     I did search my name. I knew that Epstein was interested in the MIT media lab, and tech stuff in general, and I thought there might have been a situation where my name came up in email or documents.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Sunday, 19-Apr-2026 12:11:39 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     I was pretty uncomfortable about it. "His name is in the Epstein files" is a fact that comes without a lot of nuance. People don't expect that means that Jeffrey Epstein had a document with 50 people's names on it for a technical symposium proposal that he didn't end up funding or attending. They think it means you're on the passenger manifest to the island. They think that's all it *could* mean.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Sunday, 19-Apr-2026 12:14:03 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     Fortunately, my name is not in the files. I even tried some of the common misspellings. For a moment I was a little bummed, and then I realized that this was about exactly the best possible outcome.

     https://cosocial.ca/@evan/116042555125396860

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Sunday, 19-Apr-2026 12:15:37 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     I talked to a few friends and acquaintances whose names pop up. Some people had their names on software license statements. Others had popular Tweets -- apparently Epstein received popular Tweet email notifications and didn't know how to turn them off. A couple of people were on the syllabus for Media Lab courses.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Sunday, 19-Apr-2026 12:18:04 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     I kind of felt guilty for searching; like, just searching is a little suspicious. But seeing other people talk about their checks made me feel less uneasy about it.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Sunday, 19-Apr-2026 12:19:32 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     Anyway, my answer is Yes. I'm surprised so few other answers were yes, but I guess that's why I do these polls.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Sunday, 19-Apr-2026 12:30:34 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     • Jef Poskanzer

     @jef ha, good!

     https://youtu.be/wUZoSxEkFYI

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     Jef Poskanzer (jef@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 19-Apr-2026 12:30:35 JST Jef Poskanzer

     in reply to

     @evan Patton Oswalt has a good story about being in the files too.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Sunday, 19-Apr-2026 13:02:34 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     • aeva

     @aeva did you check?

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     aeva (aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Sunday, 19-Apr-2026 13:02:35 JST aeva

     in reply to

     @evan i imagine most people did not live in a world that had epstein in it prior to his death

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Sunday, 19-Apr-2026 13:07:20 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     • aeva

     @aeva ok, so, bad news/good news situation. Your name is in there, but in the most innocuous way one could possibly imagine.

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     aeva (aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Sunday, 19-Apr-2026 13:07:22 JST aeva

     in reply to

     @evan nope

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Monday, 20-Apr-2026 11:27:03 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     • aeva
     • Dave Neary

     @aeva @dneary Are you actually looking for funding for your projects?

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     aeva (aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Monday, 20-Apr-2026 11:27:05 JST aeva

     in reply to

     • Dave Neary

     @dneary @evan that's wild. how do i get in on the dubious funding gravy train for my foss projects? idk where i'd even begin to look for a zillionaire cryptorapist in need of a plucky do-gooder to help launder their public image

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     Dave Neary (dneary@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Monday, 20-Apr-2026 11:27:06 JST Dave Neary

     in reply to

     • aeva

     @aeva @evan My point is mainly that open source and tech startup folks are, in this era, the equivalent of composers, painters, and sculptors in Renaissance Italy, and folks like Epstein fancy themselves as this era's Medicis - "collecting" the future innovators and building the future by proxy.

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     Dave Neary (dneary@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Monday, 20-Apr-2026 11:27:07 JST Dave Neary

     in reply to

     • aeva

     @aeva @evan Nicholas Negroponte was the instigator and leader of One Laptop Per Child - several Red Hat and GNOME friends worked on that initiative. As you say, Joi Ito was one of the initiators of Creative Commons, and was also a Friend Of O'Reilly. Dean Kamen invented the Segway, made money from medical device innovations, and a founder of FIRST, the largest robotics organization for high school kids in the USA, covering three competitions - the FIRST Lego League (targeting elementary andmiddle school), FIRST Tech Challenge (middle and high school) and FIRST Robotics Competition (high school) - which my son is involved in.

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     aeva (aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Monday, 20-Apr-2026 11:27:08 JST aeva

     in reply to

     • Dave Neary

     @dneary @evan i only vaguely know who joi ito is because his name came up in a conversation once 14 years ago when i worked at creative commons and someone was weird about me not recognizing the name 😅 idk who any of those other people you name dropped are

     my meaning is I don't think there's all that many degrees of separation between people of prestige and power and people for whom these kinds of problems are completely alien

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     Dave Neary (dneary@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Monday, 20-Apr-2026 11:27:09 JST Dave Neary

     in reply to

     • aeva

     @aeva @evan Man, that was a convoluted sentence... All that to say that I have had conversations with my kids that sometimes bad people project a positive image by associating with people who do good things, and when the badness is revealed, it can take the people who do good things down with them.

     The conversation was prompted by Dean Kamen resigning from FIRST - my son has been part of a robotics team for a few years, and has met Kamen several times. I believe that he was one of Epstein's collection of people doing good things not looking too closely at how those things get funded.

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     Dave Neary (dneary@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Monday, 20-Apr-2026 11:27:10 JST Dave Neary

     in reply to

     • aeva

     @aeva @evan Given the number of acquaintances and professional contacts I have had with MIT folks who were involved by necessity with people who worked directly with folks like Joi Ito or Nicholas Negroponte, I think a lot of people I know might have checked if their projects were funded by Epstein.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Monday, 20-Apr-2026 21:33:45 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     • aeva
     • Dave Neary

     @aeva @dneary well, at least start a Liberapay or whatever!

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     aeva (aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Monday, 20-Apr-2026 21:33:46 JST aeva

     in reply to

     • Dave Neary

     @evan @dneary but also i figure being a nobody from nowhere working on a nothing project with no community doesn't open a lot of doors haha so i haven't given the idea of seeking funding much consideration. i figure the most likely outcome is i'm going to continue to work my day job for as long as it continues to exist

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     aeva (aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Monday, 20-Apr-2026 21:33:47 JST aeva

     in reply to

     • Dave Neary

     @evan @dneary yes and no? my current plan is to eventually list mollytime on steam on the theory that it's a good fit for the steamdeck hardware, and try to drum up interest for it. a few people have expressed fascination with it, but i'm not aware of anyone else making anything with it so this plan is probably not going to play out unless it gains traction gradually.