mastodon 4.7.3"Information flows both ways."
I'm a writer who struggles to tell stories. A programmer who struggles to write code. Just a ghost of social networks past, haunting the web.
On second thought, #Vi-like keybindings do have a couple of advantages:
But no, most of us don't think "3wdb" when trying to delete the third word from the cursor. That's machine speak.
Turned on the radio to listen to the news. Twenty minutes later, the news have been over for ten minutes and I have no idea what they said. How's your morning?
The trouble with open source is being a gift economy in a world that has largely forgotten such a thing can and did exist for thousands of years. You don't have to pay for it as if it was a product, because it isn't. But you really ought to consider giving something back. Add to the stone soup.
Turns out Pakistan has been installing #solar capacity at a blistering pace since 2022, except... they're completely dependent on imports from China for panels and batteries. A scenario I described in my novel exactly 10 years ago: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/4/7/how-pakistans-solar-boom-is-shielding-it-from-worst-of-iran-war-crisis
If you can't find the time to document your software project, how will you find the time to maintain all the crap you keep adding?
Ever noticed how rigid, harsh, even cruel sci-fi civilizations often look like better places to live than modern society? Been doing it in my own stories, without even meaning to. How?!
What happens here is that our supposedly enlightened ways are profoundly inhumane, even when we nominally protect human rights. On the whole, we only pay lip service to humanity. People can feel that, you know, even if it's hard to articulate.
I just visited three different sites in a row that all displayed the exact same anti-adblock banner. Did a double-take at first. Then a triple-take. What?!
We've literally given typewriters to a million monkeys, and now we're trying to make it the only way anyone ever writes anything.
Newsflash: journalists on TV suddenly explaining how much faster and cheaper it is to take public transport than commute in one's own car. Next you know, they'll be asking for bike lanes. And trees, so they can bike in the shade. So progressive.
Wish folks stopped using the term "Butlerian jihad", for several reasons:
- Frank Herbert loved the word "jihad" a little too much. It doesn't mean what he thought it meant.
- Look what he proposed to replace computers with: mentats. He clearly didn't know what computers were and what they did.
- They didn't just despise computers in Dune, but also things like *elevators*. Do I need to explain how ableist that is?
We can do better in 2026.
Can't remember if I announced my new project already, so: Babble-M is a toy programming language inspired by Lisp and Awk. It's designed to be small and simple, yet somewhat robust, with good error reporting and whatnot. The native port is barely working right now, but there's a link to the web-based prototype from Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/nosycat/babble-m
After three years and a failed experiment, I have a new toy #programming language. Will write more later; I'm tired. https://felix.plesoianu.ro/languages/babble-m/
You know, I have at least a couple of sci-fi stories where one thing the main characters take care of when leaving a planet is to hop online and do whatever they need while their ship is still in range of communication satellites.
You can't polish a turd.
People keep saying, "you must be willing to let your writing suck! You can fix it later!" No, you can't. Not the core of your prose. Little bits of wording or phrasing, sure. But you have to start on a strong note. Your first draft should already be most of the way there.
It's the same with code. If it doesn't have a solid foundation, every little frill you add is just more weight that drags it down.
Posted some updates about what I've been making and learning lately, health, cool finds and seasonal notes: https://felix.plesoianu.ro/journal.html#2026-03-25
By now invisible clothes are the hottest fashion throughout the kingdom. You can hardly find a taylor shop that does anything else. They'll even do it without telling you first. When you complain that they're charging extra and delivering half a suit, they'll either mock you or get uppity.
A huge storm is coming and nobody's dressed for it. Everyone forgot what they're supposed to do in weather like that.
The emperor has embarked on yet another war. Wearing invisible armor.
Pondering run control and data definition languages. What you can describe determines what your program can do.
Good to know I'm not the only one who deals with these #website gripes: https://forkingmad.blog/website-gripes/
@fdroidorg@floss.social Hot take: Google can afford to do this chiefly for two reasons:
If people knew they could buy a KaiOS phone and use it for 2FA or payments, Google might not be so cocky. If governments everywhere didn't keep threatening to eliminate cash, Google might not feel too big to fail. Demanding regulation is all good and well. I hope it works. But they'll just try again, like with Chat Control.