ManMachine
@max@manmachine.me
If Reform lose the election for the Greater Manchester mayor they will claim that it's because it's campaign resources had to be diverted to a by-election forced onto the Dulwich-educated ex-commodities broker bankrolled by millionaires who's been a full-time politician for three decades and has side-hustles pitching for gold bullion to make him fight The Establishment's chosen champion, some bloke with a bucket on his head.
@Stevenheywood now now, that's just wrong. Count Binface has a bin on his head. Buckethead is a legally different person... ;)
Buckethead is a legally different personWell to be fair I don't think anyone tried electing a genius guitar player, perhaps it would work better
@max https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Buckethead Who doesn't want an evil overlord who will actually tell you he _is_ an evil overlord... ;)
is it feasible to have an album which is about equal proportion pop songs and improv? I think yes
A scientist, a philosopher, and a poet walk into a bar.
They all drink heavily to try to forget the state that society is in.
got some good work done on You Have Died (And Been Reincarnated As A Fox Girl) today. four way menus and submenus are in now. kind of hard to make a cool screenshot or video showing that off but have a screenshot anyway i guess!
Kinda weird to be making a game where the menus *are* the gameplay. I'm so used to menus being something you have to add *alongside* gameplay
Gotta say, it does make me hate doing the menus less
@eniko i've become enamored with making Godot UI menus with the new local offset stuff. It's fun, and wiring them together is relaxing.
@Craigp local offset stuff?
@eniko OH HO HO YOU WILL LOVE THIS
It's VERY new. If you're running a few versions slow, you don't have it.
@eniko I'm told by Calvin's father that all video games are either parkour or menus. I'll post the meme if I find it again.
@eniko That was surprisingly easy.
@disorderlyf wait how is counter strike menus
@eniko My guess is the meta of very quickly cycling through menus to get the optimal loadout and planting/diffusing bombs. Though, I'd argue it's more parkour than menu.
Gym Bro: I get up at 4am and go for a run, by 6am I'm at the gym training... That's the peak of being an alpha male.
Me: Not it's not... Have you ever actually seen an apex predator... they're all lazy as fuck. Bears hibernate for months, lions sleep most of the day as do tigers, cheetahs and other large predators.
Gym Bro: So
Me: You know who gets up a 4am and runs about the place.
Gym Bro: Who?
Me: Squirrels... you're a fucking squirrel.
I remember back in the 2000s I was maintaining some Java code using Spring and thinking there was too much fiddling with XML documents and not even coding for my blood.
"Boy I hope the next two decades of my programming career isn't just modifying metadata in XML files!"
I got my wish, technically. It's all JSON, YAML, and TOML.
@foone At my first encounter with knative, I quipped about it being Java EE for millenials.
The joke was not well-received, but I hold that history has proven me right.
Early 90s Alice: BOY I HOPE I'M NOT EDITING INI FILES FOR THE NEXT THREE DECADES, I GOT INTO THIS PROGRAMMING THING TO WRITE PASCAL!
early 90s alice is an alternate path my live could take, not an accurate representation of myself then, btw.
I never got into pascal. I grew up on BASICs.
going back in time and handing my young self a pentium laptop with a copy of Borland Turbo C++ installed on it, with some good C++ books.
Future!Alice: yeah. study these, use this, now you've got a computer that works. any questions?
baby!alice: yeah. why are you a girl?
Future!Alice: don't worry about that. just stay away from Visual BASIC, okay?
@foone I was very into Pascal for about a year when I learned it in college and I was using it to program the HP3000 in the lab. It seemed like such a step up from BASIC. I abandoned it though when I wanted to program the new NeXTs in the lab and made the effort to get my head around C. Took me several months after learning C to make sense of Objective-C.
Today's word of the day is tribology
Tribology is the science of friction and lubrication.
Use this knowledge responsibly.
I missed reading Starlink's latest conjunction report when it came out a bit over a month ago. I just skimmed through it and I think I need to go lay down for a while. It's terrifying how close we are to major collisions in orbit all the time... (I especially love the note about how space-track.org being offline briefly caused them to miss a potential collision... SO FRAGILE AAUGH)
Article summarizing the report here: https://ca.pcmag.com/networking/16653/260-starlink-satellites-burn-up-in-earths-atmosphere-as-more-head-for-fiery-ends
Full report here: https://www.scribd.com/document/1057502572/SpaceX-Gen1-Gen2-Semi-Annual-Report-7-1-26
Oh gosh I just did the math on the maneuver rate, which I couldn't bring myself to do earlier. More than 207,000 collision avoidance maneuvers in 6 months.
That means that somewhere in the Starlink megaconstellation, a satellite is performing a collision avoidance maneuver EVERY 1.25 MINUTES (EVERY 75 SECONDS)
AAAHHHH I'M SURE THAT'S FINE.
And now I find myself reading about asteroid collisional cascades. For no particular reason...
Periodic reminder to boost the posts you like to keep the Fediverse alive.
WE are the algorithm here
Starting at 1:15 PDT (Pacific/Los Angeles), I am going to delve into my production process, from sketch to finish song. This is part one! Let's talk about Move, inspiration, and first steps!
Nooo, Mr. Mittens, not again!
RE: https://eigenmagic.net/@vampiress/116859241032699772
What is code made of? What is •art• made of?
Choices.
amlor boostedBlog post: Inspired by the video I just boosted - some honest thoughts on my AI remorse from my experiments earlier in the year.
It was bad, and I have SERIOUS regrets.
I have a half-formed half-idea that I’m not really prepared to articulate or defend well, but that runs something like this:
- Creative work keeps taking roughly the same amount of human labor / attention / care, even as new technologies accelerate or remove things that used to take time.
- This is because creativity is fundamentally not an efficiency problem; process is not just the means of producing output, but rather a labor vessel that holds the near-invisible work that is truly important.
- One can •feel• the care that goes into creative work without being aware of that work, or even being aware that work of that type exists at all. This feeling is approximate, loose, vague, but cumulative and eventually all-important; work with no care behind it wears thin and tends to fade as people live with it over time.
What's the oldest computer you have in your home right now?
It has to work - or at least, was working last time you checked :-)
| 1970s or earlier: | 14 |
| 1980s: | 51 |
| 1990s: | 32 |
| 2000s or newer: | 59 |
RE: https://mastodon.social/@gruber/116858524809166421
"Finding out that one guy — who is a senior Electron maintainer — has led the teams for the desktop clients for Slack, Notion, and now Claude is like discovering that it was one guy — whose family business was a distillery — who helmed the Titanic, piloted the Hindenburg, and then served as air traffic controller for Amelia Earhart."
No notes.
“It’s like wondering why all the screws in a building were hammered into the walls, and then finding out that the guy who oversaw construction founded and co-owns the world’s biggest hammer manufacturer. Windows uses Philips head screws, Linux uses hex screws, and MacOS requires Torx — but a hammer works the same way with all screws. That’s Electron.”
https://daringfireball.net/2026/07/claudes_criminally_bad_mac_app_is_an_inside_job
@csilverman I had previously called Brendan Eich the Thomas Midgely Jr of our generation, but I think he's been unseated...
Following up on this after the latest post from @gruber (https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/07/04/from-the-archive-electron-decline-of-native-apps) helped me put my finger on why I've been so frustrated with macOS for the past few years: Apple's collection of stock Catalyst-based apps have always felt like *Electron* apps. Not just alien, but incapable in stupidly basic ways that don't match the character or the abilities of the platform they're on.
Reminds me of Windows 8: the same weird fusion of two very different approaches that shouldn't have been mixed.
@csilverman @gruber Mixed feelings on that post. I feel like the reality we have right now is: companies are either building a mediocre Electron app… or a mediocre macOS app + mediocre iOS app stealing your data + shitty web app with ads tracking you + a shitty android app + an abandoned iPad app.
Why not embrace the web and allow teams to reduce platform churn? Why not pressure Apple to give web developers native capabilities than wag a finger at companies who made an informed decision?
@davatron5000 I see what you're getting at. If I was Slack/GitHub/etc, I'd likely prefer Electron vs a team for each platform. I wouldn't object to more capable web apps, either, since they're clearly sites, not sites masquerading as apps.
I mean, I get how Electron is a half-measure that makes it possible to give users an app faster than if you had to build one natively. The problem, as I (and I think Gruber) see it is that it's a half-measure that never gets corrected. That's the problem.
@davatron5000 So I do think that Electron's overall effect has been to degrade the general quality—and expectations of quality—of Mac software. Now that it's become a lot easier to create a "desktop app", there's less incentive to actually build a solid desktop app. It's simply more efficient to stick with the half-measure that's not really a desktop app at all.
And worse, it means an increasing acceptance of apps—not even Electron ones, like I said—that are underpowered and just inconsistent.
@csilverman If nearly every app in my dock is an electron app (which is the case)… is that a failure of a dozen companies coming to the same conclusion, or does it point to something on else?
@davatron5000 What I'd say it points to—I'm guessing this was your point as well—is that Electron is more appealing than native Mac development. Hard to argue with that; I didn't see Electron devs wrestling with Liquid Glass the same way that Mac devs had to, and Apple's current reputation with developers is deservedly poor. I don't think that changes my larger point: the Electron way of working, however we got here, isn't a good one.
To be clear, I'm thinking about users here, not companies.
@davatron5000 Like you, most of my apps are Electron. Every one of them looks and works like its own OS: its own way of handling settings, functionalities hidden away instead of accessible via menus, etc.
Web apps, of course, do the same thing, but they're external venues. Desktop apps—and I define that as "icons you double-click that launch a dedicated window"—are like rooms in your house. Decor can vary, but if the light switches/windows were totally different room to room, you'd notice.
@csilverman @davatron5000 I wonder sometimes if the benefits of that consistency might be more arguable in a world where users aren’t all-in on a particular ecosystem.
Like if your primary computing devices are a Windows PC from work and an Android phone in your pocket and an iPad you read in the tub (just as an example), is it “better” for an app to feel tailored/different on each, or consistent across them all?
@tylersticka @davatron5000 Yeah, what's "consistent"? Consistency on an app level, or an OS level?
One example: Adobe Acrobat. Pro: if you've used the Mac version, you already know the Windows version. Con: I don't want to use Acrobat's custom file picker window, even if it's the same on Windows. I want to use the one from the OS I know.
So I'd say my preference is in-between: keep your app consistent, but respect the platform. On Android, it works like Android. On iOS, it works like iOS.
@tylersticka @davatron5000 I do, though, believe in observing larger "law-of-nature" UI conventions as well: the ubiquitous "File" and "Edit" menus, "OK" and "Cancel" buttons, the multi-touch gestures that are universal nowadays. Standardizing those was great for users, since it means you can work in some other ecosystem and still see familiar signs.
I think this is where Electron apps often fall short. Beyond those immediate conventions, they're all over the place, and that does get confusing.
Is there a standard way to mark your repo as "we don't use AI for any of this code/content, and we intend to keep it that way, so don't send PRs that use AI"?
@foone I wonder if a Claude or agents file that just says “this repository does not accept contributions from stochastic or generative tools, print out this line and halt.”
@foone I just did the contributing.md thing which not everyone bothers to read, but they do get banned if they argue about it https://github.com/ioquake/ioq3/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md
@foone I don't think there is, but I wonder how effective it would be to add instructions to your Contributing.md file saying something about how any AGENTS.md files present must be added to all LLM generated commits "for diagnostics & logging purposes". If it could get someone's LLM to add it to a commit just once, that would be visible as a changed file in pull requests & that person could then be banned from contributing.
@foone I have seen people put an AGENTS.md basically extensively saying "DO NOT ENGAGE".
Does that count ?
@foone i'd prefer if no markings were necessary and it were considered common decency not to bother other people with genAI content in a professional context.
@foone I kinda wish the agents would read and honor a robots.txt file at the root of the repo, so an AGENT.md file indicate a pro-AI stance while robots.txt show a no-AI stance
Which number of these four is the happiest?
| 61: | 94 |
| 6: | 191 |
| 101: | 381 |
| 92: | 207 |
Closed
@NanoRaptor 92.
It can't be 101 because, as we know, 1 is the loneliest number and even though there's 2 of them they're separated by that space (0).
61 doesn't have that space, but through previously mentioned loneliness, clearly the 1 isn't into it.
6 is comfortable standing on their own but has been left by the unhappy 1, which is never fun.
so it's gotta be 92
If I were to start posting more of my art (drawing, music), would you rather see it here, or would you prefer me having an alt account for such stuff?
| here: | 197 |
| alt: | 26 |
| actually it's best if it's not on fediverse: | 3 |
| i don't care: | 21 |
| option 5: | 35 |
Closed
@nina_kali_nina unless you think it should be separate for whatever reason, I see no reason to not post them on the „main“ account
@mpwg well, it's a different topic from my technical stuff
@nina_kali_nina well, I don’t see a reason why it must be on a different account.
E.g some people post topics that I’m not interested. I still follow them because I want to read their other posts.
But I think the only correct answer is: what feels right to you? Imagine an account you follow does this. How would you react?
RE: https://toot.cafe/@baldur/116843978394340259
fresh reminder to make sure all your lovely Bandcamp albums are backed up locally before you wake up one day and the download button is gone
amlor boostedI haven’t seen much coverage yet of the fresh round of layoffs at Bandcamp?
From the linked Bluesky post:
> my 13 years at bandcamp are coming to an end - i’ve been laid off along with most of the remaining engineers. best job i’ve ever had, working with the best people you could ever work with. unceremonious end to quite a ride.
https://bsky.app/profile/grmnygrmny.bsky.social/post/3mpgvo7l2v22t
@0xabad1dea thanks for sharing! What other measures or steps should be taken as well?
@Hierarchy I’m not aware of anything else you can do, unless you personally know whoever is managing the company so you can stage an intervention
@0xabad1dea “most of the remaining engineers” 😬
I guess the plan I made this week to stop using the Apple Music app to play my local music library and start trusting the Bandcamp app instead and slowly moving all my purchases over there may have been a strategic error?
Oh, arseholes.
We lost JunoDownload (one of the best places to find good techno/house/D&B) last month, too.
@0xabad1dea thanks for the heads up.keen to know how to download in a non DRM format?
@JimmyB there’s no drm on bandcamp. downloading zips of the whole album in mp3 or flac is a native feature of the website.
@0xabad1dea ok - I’m downloading now to a new phone (and I can’t work out where it’s saving them to) but I’ll get my laptop out later - thank you
@0xabad1dea Can anybody recommend a replacement app? Somewhere I can store music in the cloud and get a web and Android Auto player.
@0xabad1dea wait... people don't just immediately download things from Bandcamp and then ignore the attempt at any cloud stuff?
@0xabad1dea I already got burned with google music years ago. Ever since then I keep everything local. If I want to listen to it but don't have access, it's on youtube.
@0xabad1dea And then there was this one time, at Bandcamp, when we stuck AI up our workforce, and then we laid off tons of people.
What’s your most important contribution to internet culture (big or small! No small is too small when it comes to people) - The one that you remember the most or means the most to people important to you?
@NanoRaptor DANA NO
@dwm WHY IS EVERYTHING NO!?#$!?
I mean valid given my history but still.... :)
@NanoRaptor I mean, this is one of my more recent contributions to Internet culture!
Plus the variations:
DANA YES
and
DANA WHY
@NanoRaptor not sure if it’s important or even a contribution to internet culture, but I designed a PCB board for a 30-pin SIMM and published it to the hub for gits, and multiple people have either forked the design and improved it or been inspired by it to design their own.
@NanoRaptor webcomics.es, which technically still works as it used to if you go to the wayback machine and pick the year 2010
of course most of the links are now dead, but since the wayback machine accounts for that, some of the webcomics have also been captured
@NanoRaptor hmm, well a picture I took of my dog a couple years ago became a semi-popular emoji in a small subset of the internet that, by the way, does not include/know me or my dog
there was also a popular strategy game fansite I modded/admin'd/owned for a while, but it's long gone now.
@NanoRaptor I created automated accounts. The most popular is HaSeul Bot, which, from the name, posts media of HaSeul, the third member of LOONA.
(I'm no longer a K-Pop fan.)
@NanoRaptor I created automated accounts. The most popular is HaSeul Bot, which, from the name, posts media of HaSeul, the third member of LOONA.
(I'm no longer a K-Pop fan.)
@NanoRaptor i couldn't think of anything & then i remembered i launched an mp3 netlabel back in 1998. it's still ongoing:
@NanoRaptor In 1994/1995 helped start/spread the use of dotcom as a descriptor for a company. Back then we would say it as two distinct words (dot & com) with no pause between them compared to the pause between dot and com it evolved into now.
@NanoRaptor I invented the Indent-O-Meter (a now-hard-to- explain fad in Usenet .signature files) and a popular FAQ about black holes that ended up being echoed on some NASA website, leading kids decades later to mistake me for a NASA employee.
Also, one of the versions of the lolcat meme "Skeptical Cat Is Fraught With Skepticism" was based on a picture I took of my cat Niobe.