Kartik Agaram

Building programs that are useful, easy to install, easy to run, easy to modify, easy to share.

More pinned posts: https://akkartik.name/freewheeling-apps
Longer bio: https://akkartik.name/about

Public Key

npub1ex6cqy953pqux8cf693umnrzlevkel8vp4v0znv0r646hzu4ffcsva6j2g

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsvndvqzz6gsswrruyazc7de330uktvlnkq6k83fk83a2at3w255ugpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsf6ht34

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1ex6cqy953pqux8cf693umnrzlevkel8vp4v0znv0r646hzu4ffcsva6j2g

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Last Notes

2025-12-21 19:57:37 GMT

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Interesting!
Now this is an expert, @npub1jax…00uy. If you're already considering Forth then use Uxn as a well debugged thing that is proven in low mem conditions.

2025-12-21 19:46:23 GMT

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How little memory do you have? Notice that he did get it running on that pocket computer. The extras version has a 32KB heap by default.
I just spent a couple of days debugging a GC, and I appreciate even more now how rock solid tinylisp is in that respect. Trying to reproduce that is hard regardless of language, which is why I suggest using something good that already exists. Spend more time in the HLL, life is better there.

2025-12-21 13:58:39 GMT

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Did you look at tinylisp yet? https://merveilles.town/@akkartik/115583127011087051
Forth is certainly more efficient in memory use. On the other hand, I get the sense you already like Lisp? He's already gotten this Lisp working on a pocket computer. That's some indication of fit for your purpose.
> BASIC is good for certain applications with software preservation
Only if the software you're preserving is BASIC programs? 😂

2025-12-05 00:55:26 GMT

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I've been playing with Lisp as well lately: https://git.sr.ht/~akkartik/tinylisp-sdl3
As it happens I just understood yesterday how the upstream project reclaims symbols.

2025-12-05 00:45:22 GMT

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!! What plans for GC?

2025-11-29 20:10:22 GMT

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I WATCHED IT

2025-11-29 19:52:20 GMT

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Oof did I miss it?

2025-11-16 00:32:46 GMT

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I'm kinda curious why. Is a code change responsible?

2025-11-09 23:56:27 GMT

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Oo ok, I stand corrected then.

2025-11-09 23:50:49 GMT

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Well, not an expert but iirc they're much older than elves, and the thing I remember is saying anything in Entish takes forever.
Tho I'm not really making a factual argument here 😂
@npub1e3d…mcr3

2025-11-09 23:41:11 GMT

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I wonder if the language of the Ents is unordered.

2025-11-08 01:19:04 GMT

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Oh yeah. I'm reluctant to travel out for the same reason. Means I need to come back in. Hope y'all are doing well!

2025-11-08 00:13:38 GMT

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Are you in the Bay Area?!

2025-10-17 03:23:41 GMT

I find myself wishing I lived in London just so I could attend this group.
https://breakingthegloom.com

2025-06-26 21:29:42 GMT

"As a tech entrepreneur, I’m intimately familiar with the venture-capital model. The vast majority of companies that a VC firm invests in will lose every cent of the investors’ money. But every once in a while there’s a big hit that pays for all of the other investments—and more. The same should be true for Canada: we invest in all of our people, but the vast majority of tax revenues should come from those fortunate enough to accumulate great wealth."
💥 @npub1spp…657a https://macleans.ca/politics/tax-the-rich

2025-06-04 22:43:56 GMT

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Mine is creating narratives for "good" and "bad", then trying to move the world towards the "good" side.

2025-05-31 20:14:25 GMT

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😂

2025-05-31 19:22:07 GMT

Wabi Tek Sabi
https://www.wabiteksabi.com
Thanks @npub1c0y…jmzp

2025-05-23 03:21:51 GMT

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Is there anything written about it on http://viznut.fi?

2025-04-23 16:32:10 GMT

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Is f4 an idiom on your uxn apps or something? Funny because I've been using f4 in Mu and driver.love, but as I recall I just picked the key at random.
@npub1xup…sm23

2025-04-21 19:13:24 GMT

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Yeah, I pulled everything, that's how the error in this pull got missed :D All working now.

2025-04-21 19:00:46 GMT

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Ah, my `git pull` failed and I didn't notice. I have some ancient thing. Sorry for the noise.

2025-04-21 18:54:52 GMT

@npub1z8r…mrq6 I'm seeing an error when I try to build Adelie from https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/adelie.
../uxn/bin/uxnasm src/main.tal bin/adelie.rom
Macro invalid: %- in @on-reset, src/utils.tal:3.
Include missing: %- in @on-reset, src/main.tal:3.
Does uxnasm now depend on some other file of macros being available in some location, or something like that?
cc @npub12s2…vwz5

2025-04-21 18:51:09 GMT

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How do you see such a global balance-of-trade being enforced? I think that's how people end up at bilateral balance: one has a hope of enforcing it.
@npub1uwy…8gll [@coaxial](https://mas.to/@coaxial )

2025-04-21 00:49:27 GMT

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Ah, I did see that. Just seemed like a lifetime ago.

2025-04-21 00:22:39 GMT

@npub153l…caex Does https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2025/04/20/keynesian-compromise imply that the current US trade policy is right? Or that it's redressing a real problem even if too bluntly, incompetently, etc.?

2025-04-17 18:38:37 GMT

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Interesting. Looks like it's basically the multiplication algorithm, but it saves you the need to memorize times tables for single digit numbers.

2025-04-17 17:03:19 GMT

Torque – A lightweight meta-assembler for any processor
https://benbridle.com/projects/torque.html
Inspired by Uxn: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43701369
Thanks a lot @npub15fn…7c32 for showing me this.

2025-04-09 15:32:16 GMT

TIL about swell touch paper.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43595193#43632732
#accessibility

2025-04-05 06:10:51 GMT

Automatically selecting colors with sufficient contrast.
Here's a test build of my hypertext browser where every "page load" picks a random background. The foreground and link colors adapt to preserve a minimum contrast (WCAG AAA level).
Colors in my markup language are no longer rgb.
Background colors are strings of the form 'hue:intensity:lightness', e.g. 'red:5:4'
Foreground colors can contain just 'hue' or 'hue:intensity'. Missing fields get filled in to maintain contrast.
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/114/283/862/376/952/313/original/d9f2099e429e98de.mp4

2025-03-31 18:59:51 GMT

Spent 2.5 hours writing a comment on the internet. Good times.
https://forum.malleable.systems/t/on-ui-as-code/313/14
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/114/258/578/227/671/169/original/a317da3cc73ea292.png

2025-01-25 16:28:47 GMT

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That is really thorough! As a part-time teacher to a few kids, now including my own, my ambitions have been much more limited. In particular, focusing on "coding" for life as distinct from vocational "Computer Science". My list:
- drawing to the screen
- types
- functions
- arrays
- records
- recursion
- playing sounds
Concrete example: https://akkartik.name/post/2024-10-26-devlog
Above all, I want my kids to feel agency over their computer, and to yearn for the vast sea of computational worlds.

2025-01-25 05:26:42 GMT

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Stipend taken away, wtf.

2025-01-19 01:12:55 GMT

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But natively?

2025-01-19 01:03:51 GMT

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Is it even possible to install anymore?

2025-01-17 17:16:48 GMT

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I wonder about izzzzi in reverse. Remember when people had walls on Facebook, and you could write on someone else's wall in addition to your own (which is basically all anyone does now)? I wonder if there's a kernel of something good there..
I'm probably thinking about it wrong. Sending messages is commodity, you have multiple ways today to get in touch with anyone. But there's some value near this idea that nobody is providing.

2025-01-11 19:31:07 GMT

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That's the thing I wish every person on the planet knew.

2025-01-08 20:59:31 GMT

Boom.
https://media.ccc.de/v/38c3-feelings-are-facts-love-privacy-and-the-politics-of-intellectual-shame
Thanks @npub1dlz…kj3e
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/113/794/727/939/319/635/original/857552582509b618.mp4

2025-01-04 20:41:34 GMT

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The stars calmly start to wink out one by one.

2025-01-03 22:58:29 GMT

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Source code: https://paste.sr.ht/~akkartik/ced670ff511c89c50f1bddb998a6d0ea540fa2a5
Try it out at https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel. Carousel works on phones, but for this script you'll need a computer. Put image files inside the source directory or the save directory (https://www.love2d.org/wiki/love.filesystem)
Again, many thanks to @npub1dkf…zrz3 for providing the starting point. I didn't know anything when I woke up this morning.

2025-01-03 22:53:30 GMT

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5. Vincent van Gogh, "The Starry Night" (1889)
You knew this was coming. I expected impressionism to really stress this approach. After trying out a few options for color smearing, I quite liked how this turned out.
@npub1dkf…zrz3
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/113/766/877/976/549/419/original/36d9dc4f9e9378e5.jpg
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/113/766/878/562/813/569/original/d07482174ee7b117.png

2025-01-03 22:50:45 GMT

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4. Edvard Munch, "The Scream" (1893)
@npub1dkf…zrz3
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/113/766/865/989/714/524/original/573e3fd040354844.jpg
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/113/766/866/711/423/510/original/180d626d74aed2db.png

2025-01-03 22:48:23 GMT

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3. Robert Delaunay, "Rhythme, Joie de Vivre" (1930)
This one's my favorite.
@npub1dkf…zrz3
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/113/766/854/372/092/235/original/2c8cc21adcde1e12.jpg
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/113/766/855/228/777/797/original/6f58eef72dfca529.png

2025-01-03 22:45:00 GMT

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2. Paul Klee, "Fire in the Evening" (1929)
@npub1dkf…zrz3
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/113/766/841/767/863/358/original/0e9422b26639408c.jpg
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/113/766/841/841/722/682/original/960b8083d54768c6.png

2025-01-03 22:41:58 GMT

I spent this morning packing circles.
Many thanks to @npub1dkf…zrz3 for the inspiration (https://genart.social/@ronikaufman/113764788131792092)
1. Piet Mondrian, "Composition A" (1923)
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/113/766/820/115/540/194/original/a27ec3db21d2212e.jpg
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/113/766/820/186/986/187/original/3fe7f8a49381e518.png

2024-12-23 16:14:49 GMT

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😬
https://paste.sr.ht/blob/320bb94ba7775d1ec60113437e4240b626988343

2024-12-01 17:25:28 GMT

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My adventure is going to be reading every single post I can find.

2024-11-29 21:21:55 GMT

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Sorry, sorry, I did redact it from the original post after I realized..

2024-11-29 19:51:47 GMT

@npub1z8r…mrq6 Some typos in https://100r.co/site/shining_sand
itterate > iterate
fibionnaci > fibonacci

2024-11-25 04:37:14 GMT

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Jeez, I need to sit with this one.
A pedestrian comment: excellent use of 'delve'.

2024-11-17 16:34:38 GMT

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Oh good idea.

2024-11-17 16:26:38 GMT

I'd like to request that all mentions of Bluesky receive content warnings. Who's with me?
(I'm on there as well, a bit. I can think about it easily by going to it. I don't _also_ want to think about it while I'm here, kthx.)

2024-11-15 17:51:50 GMT

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Where's my "we'll see" option?
https://merveilles.town/@akkartik/111959166014334879

2024-11-13 20:02:05 GMT

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I think maybe it's a reference to macroexpansion time vs run time.

2024-11-06 01:26:51 GMT

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See also my half-baked idea of attaching arguments to glyphs in 2D.
https://akkartik.name/post/2024-06-30-devlog
https://akkartik.name/post/2024-07-03-devlog

2024-11-02 16:51:29 GMT

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Oh I have swirled around this so much: https://akkartik.name/post/division-of-labor

2024-11-02 16:20:51 GMT

Expanding our understanding of simplicity from 1D to 2D
Stefan Lesser at Splash 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYU62sx-EoQ
There's also in there a nice rant about how our culture is "cultivating ignorance".

2024-10-28 16:08:07 GMT

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Yes! Thank you!

2024-10-28 16:00:53 GMT

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I think the notation on this page was throwing me.
15/6 left.2 side.3 > side.3 right.5
Might be worth unpacking this to:
(Following [@wim_v12e](https://merveilles.town/@wim_v12e )'s point) "The computer might assign left to 2, side to 3 and right to 5. Now the initial state of "left side" becomes 2*3 = 6 in the accumulator.
There are like 3 notations in those 3 lines:
* the rewrite rule
* mapping words to numbers using '.'
* AC showing both the words and the number they represent.

2024-10-28 15:55:10 GMT

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Oh!
I see now.
flour sugar apples apples oranges cherries
= 2*3*5*5*11*13
= 21450

2024-10-28 05:30:13 GMT

@npub1z8r…mrq6 I've been trying off and on for a few days, for a few minutes at a time, and I just don't understand https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/fractran.html _at all_.
I do understand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRACTRAN, I think. I just don't understand your/@wryl's notation.
:: left side > right side 15/6 left.2 side.3 > side.3 right.5
AC 6 left side accumulator
00 6 × 15/6 = 15, side right result
No part of this makes sense to me. Is this saying ":: left side > right side" translates to 15/6?

2024-10-28 00:56:18 GMT

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Yes, with a suggestion by @npub1s8h…zg6y

2024-10-27 23:40:51 GMT

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I just remembered that I made something with silly shapes as well a year or two ago.
Not too many levels, though. I should add more. 7yos enjoy it more than 4yos.
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/113/382/010/176/852/160/original/3a06f8c507e28c27.mp4

2024-10-21 03:51:42 GMT

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These folding instructions are so cute :pilin:

2024-10-15 15:25:03 GMT

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Those first 2 movies still got it. Particularly if you're 7 years old haha.

2024-10-15 15:22:59 GMT

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Hey, we just watched the Superman movies this weekend!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN4xBqA44M4

2024-10-10 16:04:57 GMT

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This is all pretty slippy/tadi. (I think.) But is it permacomputing? 🦋 I'm doing a lot on every frame, and recomputing on mouse clicks would be even more wasteful.
(Watch @npub1h8h…vmly's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft6xOAijwFo if you haven't yet.)

2024-10-10 15:57:40 GMT

I hadn't tried this until today, but it turns out to work*: I can create equations forwards and back, and trigger either selectively based on what blanks I fill in.
* The fine print: to switch directions I have to fill in the right blank, clear the old blank, and then type in something outside the old blank.
Works better if I clear the old query first, but who can remember that?
Perhaps I should just recompute on every mouse click. Then the third step will be clicking outside any blanks.
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/113/283/913/401/375/478/original/47a8aa7803a07c74.mp4

2024-10-05 15:35:37 GMT

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Totally. I'm here for the BAM, not the spirograph 😄

2024-10-05 15:33:52 GMT

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Oh would you look at that!
(https://basicanywheremachine-news.blogspot.com running https://www.qb64tutorial.com/the-tutorial)
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/113/255/519/812/485/826/original/474792084c338b89.png

2024-09-30 20:39:30 GMT

This is amazing: overlapping webrings arranged in a Subway map.
https://gusbus.space/smallweb-subway
via the #32bitcafe newsletter https://listmonk.32bit.cafe/archive/august-31-2024-2
cc @npub1n7p…gcy6 of https://32bit.cafe
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/113/228/438/427/712/314/original/c1a23ef27d815912.png

2024-09-20 16:34:33 GMT

Has everyone checked out @npub1dqw…h4lu's Brainfuck enterprise empire? If you haven't you should: https://github.com/bf-enterprise-solutions
Pay particular attention to the code and documentation style guide for maintainable Brainfuck 🤯 😂 🤯 😂 🤯 😂
> UPCOMING (contact us to pre-order): State-of-art asynchronous web-server, nine nines reliable key-value store, and an industry-destroying machine learning framework---all written in Brainfuck!
I don't know if this is serious. To a large extent it doesn't matter!

2024-09-15 20:41:16 GMT

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https://llllllll.co seems ok for me.

2024-09-09 15:40:14 GMT

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I try very hard to avoid language development, after having spent many years trying to avoid language development by doing language development (mu).

2024-09-08 01:06:42 GMT

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I didn't imagine Tom Bombadil looking like that!
https://merveilles.town/@akkartik/107687413458195682 (but really it seems increasingly difficult to tell which browser is Tom Bombadil in this analogy anymore)

2024-09-05 18:49:54 GMT

@npub19ua…53cv Regarding https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2024/09/04/0dependencies
> It’s hard to write an app with 0 dependencies.
There are segments, platforms and eco-systems that focus on this. Uxn, PICO-8, etc. Lua and LÖVE in particular have subcultures that attend to dependencies as a first-class design constraint. (Not all Lua programs use LuaRocks.)
Now some shameless plugs of my own projects over 10+ years:
* https://github.com/akkartik/mu
* https://akkartik.name/freewheeling
* https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel
Anyways. There are dozens of us! 😂

2024-09-05 00:52:25 GMT

@npub1z8r…mrq6 This is pretty neat: https://dynamicland.org/archive/2023/CCA_talk
Next-gen adelie for Handmade Seattle? :D Though you'd need to lug a projector..

2024-09-04 19:05:39 GMT

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"The sensors in our current systems include off-the-shelf webcams, because our current systems are research prototypes. But an ideal sensor might, for example, sense physical material with high fidelity while being blind to human beings. Such sensors are more likely to be developed if we demonstrate the need for them.
"We are not proposing a future with cameras everywhere."
https://dynamicland.org/2024/FAQ/#Relationships_to_society

2024-08-28 00:42:05 GMT

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I didn't understand this at all 😄

2024-08-27 03:21:31 GMT

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It was @npub1pmj…wuwl:
https://merveilles.town/@calutron/112917828266262711

2024-08-27 02:18:28 GMT

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Minor clarification for readers that I didn't notice anybody else pointing out (but maybe I missed it):
Your old toots will still be perfectly accessible on mastodon.social after a move. They just don't move with you, but old bookmarks will continue to work.
As an example, here's my old account before I moved: https://mastodon.social/@akkartik
I can move back any time if I choose to.

2024-07-30 18:56:48 GMT

Really nice test for whether a street feels nice for pedestrians:
"If you were driving past and saw a friend walking or rolling there, what would your first thought be:
“Oh, no, Henry’s car must have broken down! I better offer him a ride.”
“Oh, looks like Henry’s out for a walk! I should text him later.”
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2023/7/28/if-we-want-a-shift-to-walking-we-need-to-prioritize-dignity

2024-06-24 20:36:23 GMT

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Agreed!
I do think energy-efficiency would be a perfectly great constraint for the Future of Computing, though. For one, we're going to have less energy in the future than we do today. For another, it feels like a constraint that can unleash creativity.

2024-06-24 18:56:34 GMT

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Yeah exactly. I've been trying to nudge them for a while.
On the other hand, I have my own priorities which are not always the same as yours. I'm curious, what would you use to start a forum in 2024 given permacomputing and low-energy principles? I'd definitely want to try to adopt it myself and if so advocate for it to others.
(My priorities are hackable sources and open formats for the data as you can guess.)

2024-06-24 18:47:39 GMT

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To respond to the second sentence: you're right that I have access to powerful computing systems. (4 years old though, not just of this year.)
On the other hand I have a community I want to keep in touch with. That's the "ties" I was referring to.
So there are different kinds of incommensurable forces in the universe. The fact that one force doesn't push me away doesn't imply _no_ force will.

2024-06-24 18:33:57 GMT

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I use it at work, but that's not it. I tend to think of "work Slack" as an entirely different beast.
Really the Slack I am stuck with is https://futureofcoding.org/community.
It's the same with the digital world as it is with the real world: when disasters or pestilence break out, it's a privilege to be able to walk way. Lots of people have ties that keep them from doing so. So it seems simple-minded to say, "if they could they would have already." The trade-off changes continually.

2024-06-24 16:04:44 GMT

Yet another nail in the coffin of culture preservation: Slack is going to start permanently deleting data from free plans after 1 year.
If you care about being legible to the future 50 years from now, get thee out of Slack. Now.

2024-06-05 08:32:45 GMT

Book recommendation: "The Price You Pay" by Aidan Truhen
I can't remember the last time a book grabbed me so. Sad to see the end of it. The silver lining: I suspect it'll be just as fun to reread.
I also can't remember where I got the recommendation from. @npub19ua…53cv?