This article on the beauty of finished software[1] made me think of all that I love about Lisp[2] and consequentially Clojure[3]. I think we should also think about the beauty of software that is backwards compatible and slow to change (think the opposite of move fast and break things - it doesn't need to move fast or break things if it is done right either first time or shortly thereafter), software that is the result of careful design, which consequently is pragmatic, extensible and a joy to use. [1]: https://josem.co/the-beauty-of-finished-software/ [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp [3]: https://clojure.orgPublished :
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'Largest local government body in Europe goes under amid Oracle disaster'[1] - very sad, if nothing else because there is no reason to use Oracle, or IBM's alternative, or Microsofts etc etc. There are plenty of perfectly usable and free alternatives and there have been for decades. So so sad. [1]: 20230907-bigtech-needlessly-breaking-the-world.edn
Published :'Twitter accused of helping Saudi Arabia commit human rights abuses'[1] - I don't know if it is true, but it is just one more bit of bad over there at 'X'... I'm re-evaluating whether I want to continue tweeting (xing?). Oh yeah, the verb is now broken/unclear... [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/04/twitter-saudi-arabia-human-rights-abuses
Published :In the spirit of iterative design I'm revisiting my previous information sharing architecture[1] and Udat Watchy Github repository[2] posts with a few updates. I've settled on Vox Machina[3] as the name for my data and event handling architecture. Accordingly I have started to migrate my Github repositories over to the vox-machina Github organisation. I have also done some thinking about the structure of the architecture to see if it can meet all my needs which has updated the diagram a little. More to come. [1]: https://r0ss.me/notes/20230608-information-handling-early-thoughts.html [2]: https://r0ss.me/notes/20230609-watchy-udat.html [3]: https://github.com/vox-machina
Published : I've been fascinated with working with information better for years. Some thoughts are starting to coalesce. These thoughts include how I'm looking into collection, processing, publishing and sharing information. This is a healthy blend of professional and personal interest. The diagram presents a number of ideas I will expand on as I develop my thinking. Here at least I've got some names for machinery that amuses me.
Published : Another day another 'silo' implosion. This time Reddit[1]. I'm confused, why are we enthralled by these silos? We can share our thoughts without paying, without our data being locked behind paywalls or preposterous third party API shenanigans. What do we need beyond Indieweb style protocols and cooperatively run hardware to enable them? Sure a little governance thinking... some of us are looking into that also. [1]: https://tinyurl.com/5rffp94v
Published :Experimenting with using Github as my Task Manager. Pretty much all my projects are in Github anyway and the 'Projects' functionality cuts across repositories and integrates nicely with todos in repos. The mobile app provides for projects interaction which is a bonus. Currently the MacOS client does not seem to. Finally looks like I can create todos on some kind of recurring basis with Github Actions. I will report back!
Published :I've finished creating a first attempt at part of the Webmention[1] protocol on my little Indieweb toolkit experiment. So far only receiving 'reply' webmentions on 'notes' on my site, but its a start. When it is feature complete and robust enough I'll update my indieweb wiki pages. Feels good to build it out for myself - slowly bringing me back into the software engineering world after a considerable time away. #indieweb #webmention [1]: https://indieweb.org/Webmention
Published :Ok, Fediverse posts (Indieweb notes only for now) seem to be working. I hit a snag in trying to trigger delete Activitypub activity from Bridgy Fed but that is potentially down to the particular tool I am using. It's been fun. Next on to building out some indieweb-login functionality on a pet project mine - more on that later.
Published :In a huge coincidence (World Password Day) yesterday (late evening) I spent a big chunk of time working on enabling passkeys, looking into the web dev side of them, and of course implementing the brilliant #indieauth. Very satisfying finding ways to use them in new projects I'm tinkering on, particularly where my projects concern friends and family, giving people ways to control their identity is just the right thing to do.
Published :I think this sentence is one of the best I have read in recent months. On the subject of ChatGPT Dan McQuillan says 'Instead of expressing wonder, we should be asking whether it's justifiable to burn energy at "eye watering"[1] rates to power the world's largest bullshit machine.' [1]: https://twitter.com/sama/status/1599669571795185665
Published :When you are building a Micropub capability on your indieweb site and you have too many post types to add and too little time - which are the most important? 😀 I've kept it easy so far, replies and likes - basic social capabilities - but I'm excited to do something more creative with reviews, favourites or something to do with one of my hobbies. #indieweb #micropub
Published :So I don't want to use Twitter in the browser, with ads and an interface I just don't want to be forced to use. Currently using email notifications on an adhoc basis as the UI now - obviously far from ideal - what are other people doing? Obviously anything I post goes to my own Indieweb website first and any silo's after. Clearly I'm on Mastodon and enjoying! #mastodon #twitter
Published :I have finally taken the first step towards implementing my own Micropub endpoint. Only notes (what I for some reason prefer to call posts) currently provisioned for but I can see the attraction of opening up my possibilities for adding content to my own site (and from there to re-posting in the silos). Feels good to bring the dev skills back online (albeit slowly - and wow the code is brittle right now) 😀 #indieweb #micropub
Published :There is a feeling of great satisfaction to be had when in addition to doing your bidding as you use it in your daily work your computer is busy working hard on something else for you at the same time. In this case using Whisper by OpenAI to transcribe all those little notes I've made to myself while walking or generally away from ⌨️. This is happening locally on my Mac and I feel like I finally have a minion 🤓. #openai #whisper
Published :Too much raw data is moving, obscuring the route to resolving issues in the real world - why is that? I'm interested in finding a better way to use information to resolve a subset of real world problems, without large and complex ontologies, without semantics bleeding across boundaries, without lock-in, without stifling innovation, without feeding 'big data' platforms or 'monism'. #signals
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