Chris J. Karr

I wear a lot of hats: software developer, entrepreneur, weird fiction publisher, writer, non-profit founder, election worker, local handyman, open-source creator, and Macross & X-Men fan.

Disclosure: Retail investor in #RKLB and #ASTS and a host of boring broad-market index funds. Will geek out about the companies listed above.

Tags: #Fedi22 #Chicago #Programming #SelfEmployment #Sailing #FolkHorror #WeirdFiction #ChicagoCubs #NewSpace #OpenSource #Princeton

Newsletter: https://www.notesfromthevoid.cc/
Sifa.ID: https://sifa.id/p/cjkarr.bsky.social
Gravatar: https://gravatar.com/earthquakehappilye7b4f98721
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cjkarr.bsky.social

Public Key

npub1rfwngle7ycxlfsv8m8sse5r2ymsx4d6j7tppuzlyka7kmf73dyfsf5fd0m

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsp5hf50ulzvr05cxrancgv6p4zdcr2kaf09ss7p0jtwltd5lgkjycprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntlwnym7

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub1rfwngle7ycxlfsv8m8sse5r2ymsx4d6j7tppuzlyka7kmf73dyfsf5fd0m

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Published at

2026-10-24T11:28:02Z

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Last Notes

2026-10-19 12:27:35 GMT

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- My version of this is "The Horrors persist, but so do I."

2026-10-15 17:27:01 GMT

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- It's not anywhere near a mass movement until "the people" are the ones providing and running the models, and not a handful of Big Technology elites.
Just wait for the copyright suits from these content creators where infringers' chat history with these centralized tools are disclosed as part of discovery during the trial.

2026-10-12 18:29:01 GMT

RE: https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/117429325749473121
There's a stupid easy fix for this:
➡️ RESPECT ROBOTS.TXT ⬅️
That's it. If your chatbot's user agent is in robots.txt AND robots.txt says "NO", stop immediately.
The reason that this plainly obvious mechanism isn't in place is because Big AI companies feel completely entitled to anything they can crawl.
The solution isn't to ask the model, "Pretty please?" The solution is to hardcode the prohibition about circumventing when site owners tell you "NO".

2026-10-09 17:23:05 GMT

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- My optimistic world HAS people assuming responsibility for the things that they put out in the world, and NOT treating where things fail as externalities that others pay for.

2026-10-09 17:20:52 GMT

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- Selling software will remain economically viable.
Until Claude et al. take responsibility for what their code does and offer someone to sue when stuff goes wrong, software will still continue to be sold, if only for that reason alone.
Vibe-coding software in certain spaces will be appealing ONLY until one big incident where someone screws up and it's the vibe-coder holding the bag.

2026-10-06 22:59:14 GMT

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- Neat.
Gotta find you a BeBox (or BeBox-like case) for when you first boot this up on raw hardware.

2026-10-06 22:56:38 GMT

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- This is giving me AppleScript vibes.
Did you pull any of that into your project?

2026-10-06 22:50:03 GMT

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- I guess the thing I've missed was the non-Unix phase of development. Any docs or info on what that looks like?
Also, is Argentum installable on a QEMU-compatible virtual machine? I'm not ready to throw real hardware at it yet, but would fire up a VM image to look around.

2026-10-06 22:42:41 GMT

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- Have you extended Cocoa concepts deeper into the OS level than something like GNUStep?

2026-10-06 22:37:22 GMT

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- I understand your motivation building it (and have enjoyed following that), but what's in it for your SECOND user?
Better performance than similar systems?
Easier to craft software on the platform (one of NeXTStep's big wins)?
Or, just curiosity to try something new?

2026-10-06 22:34:36 GMT

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- What's the problem or need Argentum addresses for potential users?

2026-10-06 19:32:55 GMT

Finally getting around to listening to the recording of last week's Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds concert.
It sounds GREAT. It's basically a new 3-hour album for me to enjoy.
I need to follow @npub1e9x…msz2's example and create a 3-CD set of it to give to some other Sturgill fans in my life.
#JohnnyBlueSkies #SturgillSimpson #ConcertBootleg
https://omgwars.com/system/media_attachments/files/117/395/619/410/277/642/original/950e1e2eda507577.jpg

2026-10-02 17:18:43 GMT

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Also, when it comes to terms like "modern UI" in year of our Lord 2026, unless the person arguing for that has some actual HCI research demonstrating what problems the new UI actually solves, I'm going to assume that you're just chasing design fads and NOT actually looking at making the product more approachable or usable.
For all the crap that Apple received in the Skeuomorphic era, those were superior UIs compared to what we have now.

2026-10-02 17:12:45 GMT

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I do a good deal of rescuing "obsolete" hardware, and having usable browsers that had no problem running on these older systems would be a godsend.
These days, I see older systems cut off from the web for the stupid reason that there aren't browsers with updated SSL certificates and folks like Mozilla have no interest in keeping those systems online.
As a non-profit organization that exists to serve the public, Mozilla has the latitude to do stuff like that.

2026-10-02 17:09:48 GMT

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If I were running the place, I'd focus less on AI features and UI chrome and nail down the performance of the browser.
In an era where computing resources are getting more scarce and expensive for the average user, a browser that actually runs faster, more efficient, and more securely with each update provides a compelling message that users can enjoy the "modern" web on older hardware and get off the upgrade treadmill.

2026-10-02 17:07:18 GMT

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Varma, in particular, seems to have come down with a severe case of Silicon Valley Brain and is under the impression that he's competing with Chrome, et al. on Chrome's terms.
He controls NO operating systems, NO hardware platforms, and only exists to serve as an argument in Google's future antitrust cases.
He needs to be thinking differently about protecting the WEB as the WEB, and thinking about what Mozilla can do to repair the Internet social contract that Google's actively torching.

2026-10-02 17:03:18 GMT

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Now, on to the Ars interview.
In short, it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in me. I'm choosing to use Firefox as a bit of a port in a storm - I'm ACTIVELY NOT INTERESTED in my browser changing to adapt to an economic bubble.
Do I think AI will be important? Yes. Do I think it will look anything like it does now? Absolutely not.

2026-10-02 16:03:26 GMT

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Note that I AM a fan of Mozilla's VPN product and I PAY for that monthly. That lives in a separate app, and that's how it should be.

2026-10-02 16:02:38 GMT

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Firefox is probably the most central app in that respect, and one of the reasons I moved over to it a few years ago was the constant interface and "features" churn in Chrome.
I'm not going to claim to be the average user, but I am NOT looking for new features in a mature web browser. Firefox has a robust theming and extensions infrastructure for making changes, and changing the container that sits around the Gecko web view shouldn't be done without a good reason (IMHO).

2026-10-02 16:00:05 GMT

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First thought: I may have reacted a bit more harshly than may have been merited when I saw the new UI pop up on a VM where I use FF to complete some VPN stuff (not worth getting into).
That said, I'm FLOODED in apps that I've been using for years cramming new stuff in (e.g. AI) at a tempo where I no longer look forward to updates, but DREAD THEM.
These aren't apps that I use for peripheral things, but core elements of daily workflows.

2026-10-02 15:57:12 GMT

RE: https://flipboard.com/@arstechnica/ars-technica-nb4if9fgz/-/a-Ye-Z2bqwQwS64Kritxo3eA%3Aa%3A1805463070-%2F0
Some more thoughts on Firefox.
I was in the air most of the day yesterday, so I didn't have time to participate in the thread my rant caused.
I read this interview, and I have some Thoughts.
#Firefox #Mozilla
#note1v0a…3u3l

2026-10-01 12:38:33 GMT

I'm goddamn tired of software redesigns every year, just so some product manager can justify a raise and promotion.
FIREFOX WAS FINE.
Now I need to spend time looking for a theme that doesn't force me to relearn where everything is now.
https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/new-firefox-design-is-here/
#Firefox

2026-09-28 20:42:57 GMT

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- Any systemic issue or something else, like discovering that there's anonymous (or user-hidden) classes that actually implement things like NSArray and can be swapped out by the runtime?

2026-09-28 19:53:58 GMT

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- If migrating forums is NOT a solution for you AND you expect this kind of knee-jerk pushback, write a couple more longer posts using a tool that keeps track of your writing history (e.g. Word or any modern word processor), and when of the "IT'S AI!" trolls accuses you, give them the document with the history included in there, and kindly request that they fuck off.
Do that a few times and transfer the burden of proof onto them with a documented paper trail of writing without AI.

2026-09-28 19:50:56 GMT

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- I don't know what topics you're writing on, so I'll take your word for whatever you say about this one and online communities.
On the Fediverse, it's not generally topical, but part of that may be that you're not posting on those topics. I find this the case for several of my interests, and I'm working at posting the kind of content I would want to see IF it were topical and use that as a seed to find other like-interested people.

2026-09-28 19:40:52 GMT

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- Find better forums? If people are going to be that knee-jerk dismissive for some stupid reason, you need to find better people to spend your time on.

2026-09-11 19:29:56 GMT

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- I was rather surprised how BAD the Lord of the Rings extended editions were encoded on DVD.
They were working hard to stuff as much on those discs as possible, and that included (video) encoding quality.

2026-09-08 19:29:11 GMT

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- The reason I bring up Reticulum in these conversations is because it already has the notion of "stamps" where the requester has to complete a proof of work assignment before it can retrieve data.
It's mainly used at the moment at the network management layer, but I can see this idea moving up the stack, and potentially expanding to include something like micropayments as alternatives to cryptographic proofs of work.
https://reticulum.miraheze.org/wiki/Stamp
#Reticulum #ProofOfWork

2026-09-08 18:29:47 GMT

I've witnessed similar behavior over at @npub1mku…hlmz. My personal site's been down for a while (unrelated to AI) while I think about what it means to host a website in 2026 and beyond.
Dealing with bots is only one part of the issue. The other is syndicating content in forms that get some traction on networks like these. A third issue is preparing for emerging networks like Reticulum.
I have SOME ideas about how to proceed - looking forward to putting them into use.
https://stephenfollows.com/p/what-just-happened-to-thenumberscom-should-worry-us-all

2026-09-08 14:34:00 GMT

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@eliasulrich/117234902637900790
Spidering enough content to have this be useful will be a challenge, but this is where a voluntary federation model like Mastodon's could really be useful.
You go spider the corner of the web you're interested in, and I'll go cover the H.P. Lovecraft, X-Men, and mesh networking corners. We'll federate with each other so I can use your index and you can use mine.
I would be very surprised if this doesn't already exist in some form. @npub1764…nuj0 - does this ring any bells?

2026-09-08 13:44:27 GMT

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- I've been meaning to ask how the degree program's been going since our interview some time ago.

2026-09-08 13:14:41 GMT

Just finished @npub1fdr…lvhs's "The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI", and I'll be giving this out to folks who need to read it.
It's a sober and grounded take on the weird AI times we find ourselves in, with some great actionable advice for folks who want tech to be better for everyone.
More thoughts below...
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621568/thereversecentaursguidetolifeafterai/
#AI #Centaur #ReverseCentaur
https://omgwars.com/system/media_attachments/files/117/235/592/121/907/160/original/fba7d10e43b3ca5b.png

2026-09-07 06:07:27 GMT

After MUCH more compiling than I care to admit, I have the iMac G5 running WindowMaker/GNUStep with some decent performance.
I need to get more software installed (more compiling - YAY), but the foundation to work from is pretty solid.
#iMac #G5 #PowerPC #Gentoo #WindowMaker #NeXTSTEP #GNUStep #RetroComputing
https://omgwars.com/system/media_attachments/files/117/228/247/777/898/103/original/095fdc9437f30e13.jpg

2026-09-04 17:31:09 GMT

It's been about a week since I switched back to Mastodon from Bluesky and I had a few observations:
1. I haven't quite put my finger on the reason, but things are a lot more chill here. I don't find myself knee-jerk responding to something I saw posted (the "Someone's Wrong On The Internet" illness), and convos here have been more about what folks are working on and their projects.

2026-09-03 13:41:25 GMT

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- Being able to look at MeshCore's message hops between two LoRa points is quite helpful in knowing where additional repeaters and other infrastructure is needed.
In Reticulum, it kind of feels like flying blind. (Maybe I haven't found the troubleshooting toolkit there yet?)
#Reticulum #MeshCore
https://omgwars.com/system/media_attachments/files/117/207/391/411/565/719/original/4a3e64552eb7d7ec.png

2026-09-03 13:32:34 GMT

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- My general strategy with LoRa networks - with a goal towards ending up with a local robust Reticulum network - is to effectively "prototype" the physical layer with MeshCore, since it has decent tooling to show where RF failures happen.
Once I'm confident I have a solid MeshCore network running, begin converting nodes (or installing parallel nodes) to build out the physical RF layer for Reticulum.
#LoRa #Reticulum #MeshCore

2026-09-02 15:08:25 GMT

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- I don't do any agentic coding - I write infrastructure and it's MY butt on the line if something breaks, not Claude's - but I work with folks who do. It's been an *interesting* educational experience.

2026-09-02 15:06:35 GMT

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- Well, now we know that there's at least two of us.
🙂

2026-09-02 15:02:10 GMT

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- I really dig what Common Corpus is trying to do to ethically source their data.
What we need now is a community-run SETI@Home / Folding@Home-like method to train a model on that data, where folks *choose* to donate compute to help train the model.
https://huggingface.co/datasets/PleIAs/common_corpus
#CommonCorpus #EthicalAI

2026-09-02 14:55:36 GMT

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- I'm probably in a similar boat. I like arguing online too much, and on the AI front, I think the algorithms and technology are generally pretty neat, but I want ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the current instantiation of it, and think that we are underestimating how well it "hacks" evolved human psychology.
Withholding my endorsement (and excitement) until I can run it in my closet with an ethically-trained model.

2026-08-31 18:11:58 GMT

Getting back into the Fediverse as my primary posting medium.
Since I left, I've really gotten into mesh networking, esp. MeshCore, Reticulum, and Ham Radio in general.
Looking for some interesting folks to follow, so some of that content can start flowing to my server. Let me know if you have any favorites.

2026-07-01 22:46:09 GMT

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This is why I'm not going to do this over a public network until I have any sense of whether it would be a nuisance or not.
It probably only makes sense if the MC nodes already have a well-defined path between them, not on some mobile (flooding) node.

2026-07-01 19:11:17 GMT

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I'm kind of afraid to ask until I get some sense of the Reticulum overhead. Given Reticulum's overall design, there are WORSE protocols to proxy over MeshCore...

2025-01-22 17:51:55 GMT

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- Any ETA when this may be turned back on at pixelfed.social?