Mastodon

Category: Culture

Kudos, Hackers

Posted on by Morgan

A quick shout-out to everyone who built the web at its best. Using amazing tools, discovering inspiring sites and communities, connecting with peers—no social network—rocks.

Despite zero promotion, I occasionally get valuable feedback on this blog and my Shaarli. That means a lot, especially during tough times.

We build on the work of brilliant creatives who laid the groundwork. We save time thanks to countless articles, podcasts, tools and platforms crafted by talented people.

For every idea I have, someone smarter and more passionate probably already built something better—I know that. Yet I keep building, hoping someone will one day build on my work. Maybe I’ll pave the way for others. So, although support is relevant, I prioritize building useful tools and sharing them with everyone.

And to conclude...

Things nerds commonly have, but I don’t

Posted on by Morgan

Inspiration: https://forkingmad.blog/things-people-commonly-have-but-i-dont/

In a conversation recently with a colleague I casually mentioned I didn't have something. He was shocked... "but how then do you..." was the response.

So here's my list of don't haves

  • Spotify account. I have CDs and I've bought a CD player from KLIM. I just find the CD to be a very nice looking and collectible object, pleasant to listen to. Also I feel it's mine, and I like the creative goodies and packaging that you don't have with a digital copy of an album.
  • A NAS. I don't need a NAS to backup pictures or stream videos through Plex. I have a VPS where I run a Cloudron which hosts most of my web apps, one is for sharing my family pictures. And I also use Syncthing, and Dropbox to keep my photos in sync and backed up in several places. And next to that I use Plex but I just don't host it on my infra, I pay a provider for their generous bandwidth and for the fact they take care of streaming my content through Plex. It's so fluid. I couldn't and wouldn't maintain this at home.
  • A gaming machine nor a gaming chair. Seriously I do not see the point, because I consider most games do not require super advanced graphics or material to be fun. In fact I love minimalistic games with pixellated art. I'm old and also feel nostalgic of specific games that are all forgotten now. Anyway I'm developing the best game ever, which is the only one I play. More about this soon, when I'll buy the domain for the website, after I decide on a name.
  • A mechanical keyboard. Seriously, what's the deal is with those noisy expensive impractical keyboards.
  • A 3D Printer. Seriously, this is so cool to possess one, I just don't have the space for this now. Maybe when I'll have my own space in our future home.
  • A VPN. Sure it sounds secure but it's just someone else glorified proxy, and it's vulnerable to authority requiring logs or to any part getting compromised. You have to blindly and naively trust the VPN and people behind it to not disclose your information when their company will be required to by the authority. If different contexts I use them, i.e at work, of course, wherever it's mandatory.


Real DevOps do/dont – a list

Posted on by Morgan

[hint: this is not a serious post, I'm sorry if you feel attacked by this]

Inspired by Google search results for "Real Devs dont" (https://www.google.com/search?q=%22real+developers+dont%22).

  • Real Devs don't use UI - they use CLIs instead (https://terminaltrove.com/).
  • Real Devs don't need an IDE like VSCode, instead they code in production using Vim (and of course real devs use Nano. No, Emacs, https://xkcd.com/378/ ).
  • Real Devs don't use frameworks, they use libs.
  • Real Devs don't comment their code, there is no time for that.
  • Real Devs don't test their code, instead they throw all changes in production to save time.
  • Real Devs don't use their trackpad, instead they do practice touch typing (https://www.typingstudy.com/) and learn every app shortcut by heart, or build their own.
  • Real Devs don't need unit tests, instead they build programming skills.
  • Real Devs don't use debuggers, instead they stare at the stack trace for hours.
  • Real Devs don't joke or laugh at work, instead they blame every failure on poor colleagues competency.
  • Real Devs don't use Website builders, instead they code in raw HTML and CSS and throw JS away.
  • Real Devs don't trust anyone.
  • Real Devs use mechanical keyboards.

Piracy is now the rule, not the exception

Posted on by Morgan

This is so to the point: OpenAI Furious DeepSeek Might Have Stolen All the Data OpenAI Stole From Us (404media.co), thanks to Y. C. for sharing.

The question: if Meta and OpenAI are allowed to steal copyrighted content and make money out of it and out of any legal consent, and if all the LibGen/ZLib/Anna's Archive content was sniffed by AI models it means each of those big tech companies consider it is legal to steal content and grow their business without respect for the law. I would assume so that if this kind of act of piracy is treated as necessary for businesses, piracy is de facto legalized and commoditized.

They are all pirating content directly or indirectly by using AI models or libraries that make this content accessible to any mere mortal and for every business.

I do agree with Anna & their team, this is a clear evolution of the jurisprudence and a copyright reform is therefore needed. Until then, there is no ethical distinction between big tech and "pirates". See also Copyright reform is necessary for national security (annas-archive.li)

Sans

Posted on by Morgan

Can you live a day at work and at home "sans"?

Sans smartphone?

We used to boot a computer and even a modem and be actually productive and enjoy life without checking for news, notifications, or email every 15 minutes.

Sans version control conflicture crap due to using Git-ware conflict-friendly patterns?

We used to just work together on code and discuss code, without focusing on the version control tooling.

Sans CI/CD tools to validate your work?

We used to validate our work before committing, in the old days.

Sans markdown?

We used to be able to read and write text without non-sense formatting, HTML was even a thing.

Sans proprietary note taking digital tools (Obsidian, Notion)?

We used to take notes on paper or in our own text editors in the past and format our notes in "raw" HTML.

Sans LLM for coding?

We used to reason about code and go read a programming language book or ask for help from colleagues in case of doubt.

Sans daily upgrades and ads and other modern web crap?

We used to have nice experience with computers.

In a world that used to be simple, what other "sans" would you can think of?