Imran Nazar ~ عمران نزر

Front-end #typescript developer and general keyboard tapper; author of Internet RFC 7168 (Hypertext Coffeepot Control Protocol for teapots); occasional plumber, more than occasional #c64 #retrocomputing enthusiast, terrible at classical #piano.

Header photo is a verdant scene looking over the landscape near Buxton, England, taken from a single-track country road.

Last Notes

2026-08-01 13:53:15 GMT

- reply

@nprofile…h0ux @nprofile…pd3l Requires full read and write access to your Mastodon account? Seems a bit over-extending.

2026-07-19 07:38:22 GMT

A technical #ActivityPub question for a Sunday: is it possible/desirable to have every Actor on an instance share the same key pair?
I'm building something vaguely in the vein of FediMeteo, where all the accounts are automated and you'd generally follow one of those automated accounts to get the weather for your locality. Now, FediMeteo has a different key pair for each account, so the bot for Birmingham's weather has a different public key to Manchester.
But it's not a requirement that each account has a unique key, if the keys are only used for signature verification, right? Like, I don't think it'd be a security issue if "Weather for Birmingham" was signed with the key from "Weather for Manchester".
My question: is this another one of my Sunday Bad Ideas, and I should really have a key pair per account instead of trying to have the whole instance share?

2026-07-12 18:13:05 GMT

- reply

@nprofile…vfe6 So my extended family back in Pakistan have been dragged up into the middle classes by remittances from the UK over the years, and they're now able to do quite well out of this solar revolution: the whole house runs off-grid until at least 4pm, and we're looking into more battery storage to extend that into the night.
But yes, there are families in the village who can't afford a panel-and-inverter setup, and they're left relying on three hours a day (on a good day) of power. As more households leave the grid entirely, the providers' incentive to keep things running falls further and further.

2026-07-06 20:56:10 GMT

Ok, I'm unofficially looking for work. I haven't _yet_ had the axe fall, but when the whole company is all-in on LLMs, the VP Eng expresses frustration at low velocity over the last month, and the team lead quotes Fable output stating it could do the work in an afternoon...
I should start mapping out the exits for this place. Fifteen years next month, and it could well end quite ignominiously.
Based in Manchester, UK; available to work worldwide (wherever local regulations allow contracting to a consulting limited company); full-remote would be a stipulation, but open to annual meetups etc.
And no LLM usage would be the other stipulation.
If there's work out there in renewable energy or permacomputing, I'd be especially open thereto.
#FediHire #GetFediHired

2026-06-07 21:16:21 GMT

- reply

@nprofile…zmtw #Alt4You
Gameplay from Lego Batman: Batman takes something from a stuffed bear and plugs it into a computer. Subtitle: Red Hood One put something in this bear, but what? Let's analyze it.
On the computer monitor appears two screens of what looks suspiciously like Commodore BASIC, followed by a banner that reads: BAT BASIC v19.89
Video cuts to a Commodore 64 emulation, where the above program listing is typed in and run. It brings up a small yellow Batman logo, which bounces around the screen.

2026-06-03 05:43:11 GMT

It's #WorldBicycleDay and a good time to mention this graph from Scientific American, first published in 1973, and updated 2025.
A person on a bike is the world's most energy-efficient mode of transport, and it's not even close. Salmon use three times as many joules/g/km to get around, and then it's jet aircraft at 5x.
#BikeTooter #Climate
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/116/684/552/224/629/628/original/035ea0317820a597.jpg

2026-05-03 18:31:25 GMT

- reply

@nprofile…xnyu Thanks for this list so far; really enjoyed The Year Without Sunshine.

2026-02-02 11:53:21 GMT

- reply

@nprofile…5y53 @nprofile…kee2 Dutch air raid siren test day: https://www.government.nl/topics/counterterrorism-and-national-security/question-and-answer/public-warning-sirens

2024-08-14 20:52:34 GMT

To congratulate my nephew on his graduation in CS, I promised to put the word out on his job hunt, so:
Anyone looking for a newly-minted junior developer? He's well-versed in C# as well as JavaScript, and has spent a week over the summer shadowing a React/TypeScript team, so he'd settle in fine at more or less any frontend shop.
He's looking for work either fully remote or in the area of Manchester, England. If you need his resume/CV, hit me up!
#FediHire #GetFediHired #webdev