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

wheretofind.me: https://wheretofind.me/@owen
web: https://grimoire.ca/
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Last Notes

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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.