Owen

https://mastodon.transneptune.net/@owen

Turnaround time on interesting suggestions/questions: between 2d and 2y.

wheretofind.me: https://wheretofind.me/@owen
web: https://grimoire.ca/
email: mailto:[email protected]

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npub1vkpfj9m9p4wae2ukptft3mqcfwenvlwtjs6f8kjpjn90jwuq0zzq9uc8gs

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Profile Code

nprofile1qqsxtq5ezajs6hwu4wtq454casvyhvek0h9egdynmfqefjhe8wq83pqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds3caszl

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npub1vkpfj9m9p4wae2ukptft3mqcfwenvlwtjs6f8kjpjn90jwuq0zzq9uc8gs

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Last Notes

2026-10-01 19:13:43 GMT

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I should try this with finely-sliced garlic

2026-10-01 19:03:54 GMT

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Oh are we making hot dogs

2026-09-24 16:00:51 GMT

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I'm giving a framing that suggests mendacity, and I think some people do have that level of wilful deception going on, but I also think there are a lot of folks who think they care about open source software, and do so sincerely, because they've never had the opportunity _not_ to care while still having the life they want. We don't have perfect self-knowledge on this stuff either.

2026-09-24 15:52:14 GMT

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I just made a sad noise.
I think there are a lot (at least by human terms) of people who work on open source software for principled reasons, but I think they're probably outnumbered by the people who work on open source software because it's the only way they can find to get hired in this industry.
I don't even think that's necessarily a bad thing - there's room for many reasons - but LLM products that facilitate resume building contributions come at a cost to other peoples' needs.

2026-09-23 16:58:50 GMT

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Mongo and Redis both going through it about licensing because AWS operationalized the understanding "this license means we owe you nothing if we build a business reselling your product" seems like a prime example in this space, IMO

2026-09-23 16:56:28 GMT

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If you can't own land, hey, free beads! But the other guy's going to operationalize the idea that not only _can_ they own land, but also the idea that they now _do_ own that land.

2026-09-23 16:55:58 GMT

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Coming back to this a week later, it seems like the fundamental error in this - and it's an error I have absolutely committed myself and which I regularly see around me - is in assuming that the other guy is going to operationalize _your_ understanding of the world, and not _their_ understanding of the world.

2026-09-16 16:10:07 GMT

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I do not know what an alternative looks like, but I want to point at the space where it should be, at least.

2026-09-16 16:09:47 GMT

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I mean, that's the infuriating thing, IMO: even taking the FSF's goals in the best possible light, the methods they have selected to achieve those goals depend intimately on having the resources to effectively access the legal system, in the hopes that the state can be made to step in to further those goals as part of resolving a contract dispute.

2026-09-16 15:54:54 GMT

I don't think it's possible to have a license-centric view of free/open software that doesn't center the state.

2026-09-02 17:15:38 GMT

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Hell, I see my technical-in-group peers resorting to LLM support to navigate this exact category of bullshit. Some of them are the same people who get judgy about others doing it, though fewer than I expected in my professional life.

2026-09-02 16:30:45 GMT

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For my community it's at the point of being ritual forgetting. None of us would willingly subject ourselves to enterprise SSO, or corporate VPN requirements, or Confluence, and we complain vocally about these things to one another. It's The Same Pile, only the community membership of the speaker has ever differed.

2026-08-26 19:11:07 GMT

brb gotta unlock my charger
https://cdn.masto.host/transneptune/media_attachments/files/117/163/388/157/899/587/original/9907410bcf732815.png

2026-08-18 14:32:08 GMT

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on the one hand, a three-button approach to weapons instead of a weapon picker was actually a significant design refinement for the genre and has had extensive, permanent impact
on the other hand, they haven't had a second idea since, really

2026-08-07 15:19:07 GMT

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"Other people have to be able to build this" is not the social norm for the community bazel et al service

2026-07-16 17:32:10 GMT

I'm not using third-party libraries because it takes too long to write all that code for myself.
I'm using third-party libraries because I think the authors know something about the domains involved, and have reified their understanding in code.
If there's no understanding to reify, then it's not useful to me.

2026-05-11 23:27:36 GMT

https://about.gitlab.com/blog/gitlab-act-2/
Gitlab started giving me bad vibes a few years back, and I abandoned my attempt to relocate my Github stuff over to it at that time.
This press release makes me _extraordinarily_ glad that I dodged the metaphorical bullet. The news itself is depressing, but the things it reveals about the company's leadership are inexcusable.

2026-03-21 01:46:22 GMT

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For the #factorio nerds in the audience, this is Py's _green_ circuit board.

2026-03-21 01:46:04 GMT

soon
https://cdn.masto.host/transneptune/media_attachments/files/116/264/634/304/930/717/original/c494673af33064a0.png

2026-01-24 19:09:59 GMT

RE: https://mastodon.social/@mhoye/115950673345256369
It's not often I find myself disagreeing with mhoye, but this is one of those instances - not about the results, where I agree perfectly, but about the reasons.
As I see it, we as a profession have allowed all of the ways we can relate with the users of the software we write to be shoved aside, so that the only way most people experience software is as a contract. The rest follows.
#note1q4p…u3y5

2025-08-10 15:43:01 GMT

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congratulations!

2025-04-21 20:32:25 GMT

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I strongly suspect that the `web+` schemata you've seen are the result of [rules like this one](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/web-platform/best-practices/url-protocol-handler#background_on_the_registerprotocolhandler_method).
Freestanding apps usually have wide discretion to register URL schemata, but browser-hosted apps are subject to concerns of both the OS and the browser vendor, and, in this case, additionally the whims of WHATWG.
That shapes the advocacy, I think?

2025-04-21 16:11:21 GMT

Reality is always weirder than the shit we make up for fun.
https://cdn.masto.host/transneptune/media_attachments/files/114/376/822/584/020/307/original/3655006c3a7b8d96.png

2025-03-05 18:39:32 GMT

Programmers out there: can I safely assume that you were drilled on the idea that global variables have a bunch of unpleasant side effects on the design of your programs, and that you should avoid them, however it is that you learned to program?
Or is my expectation that this is widespread advice more idiosyncratic to my own experiences than I realize?

2024-11-06 18:20:30 GMT

Hey, you. Yes, you. I hope you know this: it's okay to make decisions about people because of their politics. It's okay to cut people out of your life, or to disregard their work, because of who they support or what harms they stand behind.
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

2024-06-20 19:33:24 GMT

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The classic changelog serves, among other purposes, to persuade users of the importance of installing an update. The vestigial changelog - "Bug fixes and feature improvements" - is a frank admission that we no longer feel like there's any point in doing the suasion when users don't get to say no in the first place.

2024-06-20 19:31:54 GMT

I dunno, but I have a feeling that the normalization of automatic updates has relieved developers and their clients of having to consider a user's needs to a large degree. Software change is now something you do to your users, not something you persuade your users to accept.