alcinnz

alcinnz, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

Hey, does anyone have any software development work that needs doing? I have some free months that need filling with contracts!

I know a number of languages including but certainly not limited to Python, Java, C, JavaScript, Vala, Haskell, Lua, Julia, GLSL, & more.

I have experience with standards & standards-setting, geospatial data, metadata, linked-data, opensource, static websites, GTK apps, & I'm developing a browser engine.

Also: I enjoy speaking!

#FediHire

alcinnz, 11 months ago to random

Occasional reminder: Please self-promote! (despite what others might say)

I want to see what others here creating. I'll boost, I may even give my own endorsement if I can do so honestly!

alcinnz, 1 year ago to random

A theme I saw yesterday & unwittingly contributed to: Old protocols are perfectly satisfactory. The issue is that as technology is brought to the masses it gets filtered through the lens of capitalism!

Personally I quite like:

• HTTP
• HTML (caveats)
• CSS (caveats)
• RSS
• XMPP
• eMail

I tend to be quite cynical about what gets sold as innovations, but I won't say there ever was a golden era of computing we've fallen from grace from.

~2000 had good standards though!

alcinnz, 9 months ago to random

It seems the time to remind you: I'm builing my own browser engines "The Argonaut Constellation"!

I see a need to illustrate an alternate vision for the web if we are to get the improvements we want. I see a need for a more modular engine to aid experimentation both regarding the web & elsewhere.

And well... Someone had to do it!

alcinnz, 5 months ago to random

One thing us developers can do for the environment: Write more efficient software!

You might save some electricity, thus making it easier to switch the grid fully over to renewables. But what really matters is for you not to be the reason your users buy new hardware!

Depending on how large your audience is and how green your other habits are, this might be the single biggest thing you can do! Probably not though.

alcinnz, 4 months ago to random

Hey, can I get some help from an experienced browser engine dev?

I want to understand webpage layout better so I can explain it better to computers. I'm not proud of the code I've written there & I welcome full rewrite! Or at least guidance in doing so!

I'm building my own (no JS) browser engine! :boost_love: :boost_ok:

P.S. I also have a theoretical Domain-Driven-Development approach I'd enjoy seeing someone try! But it feels like too much risk to me...

alcinnz, 1 year ago to random

The amount of effort which goes into making our home computers work is absolutely incredible!

We mine the purist silicon sand we can find & extensively purify it further. We grow massive crystals from it's molten form, then slice it like deli ham using special saws.

In our cleanest & most tectonically-stable buildings we use complex expensive equipment to etch absolutely microscopic runes (mostly for memory) shaping how electricity flows through this otherwise non-conductive crystal.

1/2?

alcinnz, 1 year ago to random

It's been calculated that individual climate action can sum to 25-27% of the needed carbon reductions. Sure this is nowhere near enough, but it is significant!

So I'd please like to stop seeing posts which implies that individual vs collective action is an either/or. We need both!

https://takethejump.org/
(There'll be a kiwi-localized link soon, followed by other countries)

alcinnz, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to random

Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs) are a huge opportunity for FOSS projects like LibreOffice, Blender, Inkscape, etc to offer the collaborative features of e.g. Google Docs without involving the cloud!

Put simply CRDTs suggest that if you (re)architect your model right it'll double as your undo stack & give you collaborative editting features. Merge changes as frequently or infrequently as you like, as long as it's deterministic & you never merge-conflict.

https://www.inkandswitch.com/local-first/

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alcinnz, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to random

How to Kill a Decentralised Network (such as the Fediverse) - Ploum: https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html

(Yes, I'm tired of this topic too, but I want to get this point accross to techies: learn from history!)

alcinnz, 6 months ago to random

While I certainly don't expect everyone to self-host, I think the difficulty of doing so is routinely exaggerated.

I frequently see tools for coping with corporate-scale needlessly treated as necessities.

I promise you: Self-hosting is easy for anyone with modicum of tech talent!
I speak from experience!

And I'm sure it can be made easy for everyone.
ISPs do incur the most unavoidable complications...

alcinnz, 5 months ago to random

Worldwide community of activists protest OverDrive and others forcing DRM upon libraries - Greg Farough @ Defective by Design @ FSF: https://www.defectivebydesign.org/blog/worldwide_community_activists_protest_overdrive_and_others_forcing_drm_upon_libraries

On Friday 8th December they're asking you to:

• Not use Libby, etc.
• Discuss the harms of DRM, especially in relation to libraries, with hashtag #DayAgainstDRM
• Don't watch any DRM'd or streaming-only media, etc for that day.

Pfft, trivial for me! I'll binge DRM-free!

alcinnz, 4 months ago to random

The Web is Fantastic - Robb Knight: https://rknight.me/blog/the-web-is-fantastic/

How Big is YouTube? - Ethan Zuckerman: https://ethanzuckerman.com/2023/12/22/how-big-is-youtube/

The Internet Is About to Get Weird Again - Anil Dash @ Rolling Stone: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-commentary/internet-future-about-to-get-weird-1234938403/

How bad are search results? Let's compare Google, Bing, Marginalia, Kagi, Mwmbl, and ChatGPT - Dan Luu: https://danluu.com/seo-spam/

Questionable Advice: “My Boss Says We Don't Need Any Engineering Managers. Is He Right?” - Charity Majors: https://charity.wtf/2024/01/05/questionable-advice-my-boss-says-we-dont-need-any-engineering-managers-is-he-right/

alcinnz, 1 year ago to random

Service-as-a-Software-Substitute (SaaSS) is a judgemental term coined by the FSF to indicate there is no technological reason for some software to be an internet service. Only presumably financial ones.

Notably not all Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) qualifies as SaaSS, and many cases we may need to make SaaSS judgements feature-by-feature rather than product-by-product.

This is an important concept since proprietary software has now shapeshifted into SaaSS. Any favourite examples?

alcinnz, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to random

Ugh! My debugging tools aren't helping me figure out why Haphaestus is freezing/crashing when I integrate all its pieces together!

They're just saying "Null pointer in the GHC garbage collection!" I've tried GDB, LTrace, & Valgrind.

Help please! I'm willing to pay an experienced Haskeller to get myself unstuck! Or maybe a C dev's better...

alcinnz, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to random

I believe that the web is best suited to publishing information/entertainment/etc, whereas native platforms are best suited for heavily-used interactive tools! Like editors! Ofcourse these are 2 ends of a spectrum, & as such no project fully rests on either extreme.

But this is what the visual affordances & underlying languages of these platforms favour. So choosing the appropriate platform for your project will help its longevity!

Not that the tech industry cares about longevity...

@vertigo

alcinnz, 2 months ago to random

Today I've had a few remainders of how much I dislike how the software industry is funded. Its mostly ads, or stepping in as unnecessary middlemen. Sometimes we coerce users to pay, but that's negligible. Or we push the problem off by telling a good story to venture capitalists.

Really we need to rework our economic system. We need systemic change.

But until then: Pay for the things you benefit from online, especially when you're not coerced to!

alcinnz, 3 months ago to random

I'm a huge fan of RSS/Atom webfeeds! Both as a publisher and as a reader/listener they free me from worrying about schedules, or missing anything the authors I enjoy have published!

They can also (depending on the site) aid me in catching up with a blog's backlog, & are terribly trivial to create!

Much better than the constant & distracting "push notifications" that are the dominant experience today! I set my reading schedule!

alcinnz, 2 months ago to random

My stance on "AI":

Machine learning is a well-established tool performing important tasks. Like speech recognition & (to a lesser degree) synthesis, auto prediction, machine translation, & much more!

But what's got people excited is making these larger than ever, which I personally find to be a terribly uninteresting direction. And I wish I wouldn't be pressured to take interest.

I reckon the usecases people are finding for LLMs can be achieved much more efficiently!

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alcinnz, 28 days ago to random

Linux Elitism...Again - Kev Quirk:
https://kevquirk.com/linux-elitism-again

This behaviour is shameful! Flooding a request for empathy with pushback. This is no way to promote software freedom, it rightly turns people off!

Some people (not me) have had a bad experience with "Linux", we must respect that.

alcinnz, 13 days ago to random

A new search engine I'm really starting to enjoy:

Stract! https://stract.com/

404 recommended it.

alcinnz, 4 days ago (edited 4 days ago) to random

Developer's PSA: The way you & your culture do things isn't the way everyone does things! Be wary of cultural constructs, no matter how basic they may seem!

Time & dates. Text. Punctuation. Names. Addresses. Iconography.

What else am I forgetting?

P.S. This is also a politics PSA. Very topical to NZ right now!

alcinnz, 3 days ago to random

Pluralistic: The disenshittified internet starts with loyal "user agents" (07 May 2024) - Cory Doctorow:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/07/treacherous-computing/

Pretty much describes what gets me into browser dev... I'm sure we all think we know what's best for users though...

alcinnz, 1 month ago to random

Throughout designing my hypothetical hardware-browser, I kept security in mind. Since its whole purpose is to display untrusted data!

My primary tactic is object-capabilities: Once you've revoked a privilege you can't regain, but your caller still has it. No overhead!

Build a sandboxing linker upon that & apply separate privileges to each transcoder which makes up our browser & OS...

That should keep help minimize most security holes!

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