#introduction

Alt...

a gravel road winds through the forest. on the right, a "private road" sign reads "eratee" (est.)

It's so weird that a lot of people think the quality of software is measured in how often it gets updated—it's literally the opposite.

falling into a rabbit hole…
at least my html pages mostly text and easy to convert to #gemini

It feels like developers are currently split into two groups that do not really understand what the other group is talking about:
One group tries to reduce their dependency on Big Tech by switching to alternative search engines, code forges, map providers, operating systems…
And the other group is trying to increase their dependency on Big Tech by adopting agentic and/or vibe coding.

Nifty #picoCAD2 timelapse. Coming soon to Steam!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-WUDnNH3rQ

#lowpoly #pixelart

I've just published Snk on itch.io for Playdate owners. For free. If you play, tell me about your experience, or if you have any problems, I'll be happy to help.

You can download it here: https://gunbolt.itch.io/snk

#playdate #lua

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Screenshot for Snk, a snake game clone running on Playdate with isometric perspective.

You know, a glass teletype. That toy that kids keep calling a "monitor," even though we all know monitors are reference speakers used in audio production.

I had the privilege of penning an article for the latest issue of Good Internet Magazine!

It is all about the process of making and experiencing art and how friction and inefficiency needn’t be dirty procurances to avoid and evade.

https://goodinternetmagazine.com/rebelling-against-efficiency/

If you enjoy this article, you might consider picking up the physical print copy of the magazine, which you can buy on the site. A proper palpable paper printing of passionate prose for your pleasant perusal.

#IndieWeb #SmallWeb #PersonalWebsites #GoodInternetMagazine

> "Many personal website owners
deliberately choose inefficient methods
for updating their sites. They write
HTML by hand, upload files directly
via FTP, or maintain static sites that
require manual intervention for even
simple changes. These choices would
be considered backwards in a
professional context, but they serve
important psychological and creative
functions"

by @vale, in the current #GoodInternet issue.

me and my #hugo #ssg site deployed via #ftp feel very seen

#smallWeb #indieWeb

i try to push shell as far as it reasonably goes. for most tasks, sh, find, grep, sed, and cut is more than enough. only when things become truly complex or painfully slow do i reach for another language.

i used to care a lot about strict portability, but in practice i only run my scripts on macos and #openbsd. that simplifies things: if shellcheck is happy, i'm happy. i'm 99% sure my scripts work on other unix-like systems, but i don't feel the need to check.

what really draws me to shell is that it's always there. it's part of the base system, requires no extra installation, and the runtime has been stable for decades. that stability translates directly into confidence: shell scripts feel future-proof.

i know i can run something like ssg.sh ten years from now and it will still work --- certainly on #openbsd, and hopefully on macos too. there's no dependency churn, no worrying about the "right" version of python or ruby, and no hoping the ecosystem hasn't moved on.

it just runs.

Alt...

built with /bin/sh

This is very slow. And that's not caused by the old CPU. Hopefully a new ssd + ide>sata adapter will arrive soon.

i'm thinking how to make smallest possible backups...

• 12 posts
• 60 following
• over 9000 files (sic!)

$ du -hd0 /var/snac && find /var/snac | wc -l
61.8M	/var/snac
    9532
$

$ curl -s https://romanzolotarev.com/pub/hi.rss | wc -c
    9999

i use shell scripts to configure and deploy a few #openbsd servers:

• generate configuration files locally for each server (sshd, httpd, relayd, acme-client, nsd, and now #snac2)
• deploy with ssh or rsync (set permissions, time)
• clean up if needed
• run health checks that all configurations applied correctly (testing with nc, dig, curl, etc)

@h3artbl33d @opentechfan rdist rocks! when you don't screw it up.

At the moment we use it sync our 4 DNS VMs. In the past we also managed a cluster of relayd VMs.

https://openbsd.amsterdam/blog/rdist-1-when-ansible-is-too-much.html

Thank you very much for your awesome work, @grunfink@comam.es 🙂

Full Moon

#textmode #1bit #pixelart

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Text mode base Full Moon drawn with black and white semigraphic characters. Moon is on the center of the picture surrounded by a starry sky. A shooting start is passing by on the left.

The time is probably right.

Back in 2022, when I was still using iOS, I wasn’t completely happy with the Fediverse apps that were available. I was mostly using Akkoma, and the interface I liked the most was actually its web UI, even on mobile. So I started playing with Xcode and put together the foundations of an app tailored to my needs.

A lot has changed since then and today we have great alternatives like IceCubes, Mona, Ivory, etc. Each one has strengths and weaknesses though, so I picked up my old project again and kept pushing it forward.

So I’m happy to announce that my app will finally see the light: I’ve been using it for the past few days and, in my spare time, I’m fixing bugs and adding missing features. I’m building it around my own needs, so it doesn’t have to “appeal to everyone”. I wouldn’t call it opinionated, but it’s definitely targeted.

The app will have one key trait: #snac2 support will be a first-class feature, not an incidental one. Many apps, especially on iOS, support snac as a side effect, but the experience is often not optimal. In this case, the choice is deliberate and it strictly follows the Mastodon API support implemented by snac. So snac will work properly (within the limits of the platform, of course).

Among the features already implemented: the app is minimal and lightweight (under 10 MB, including debug code), easy on RAM, and privacy-first (for example it strips EXIF data from media before posting, so the server will never see it). On snac it also cleans up the "Boosted by Aoderelay" messages that appear when using a relay, removes the character limit, and supports posting in Markdown.

I also added support for Apple Intelligence to generate alt text, both for the media I post and for media posted by others that is missing alt text.

Everything is processed locally through Apple APIs and only on supported devices. The results aren't amazing, Apple Intelligence is extremely limited, but in my opinion it's the only privacy-friendly and ethical way to approach it. And of course, you can disable it.

On Mastodon it supports all the main features: lists, quote posts, granular notifications (you can choose what you want for each category), notification grouping, multi-account support, and it works.

It's still missing a few things (block, etc.) and has some bugs, which I’m spotting as I keep using it.
As soon as it's stable enough, I'll invite a few people to test it. I still haven't fully decided how I'll distribute it: an Apple Developer account has a yearly cost, and I hope to reuse it for other projects too. So this app might be paid, with a trial period, but if possible (I still need to check what’s feasible) I'd like it to be free if you connect to one of the BSD Cafe instances, illumos Cafe, or any snac instance, including your own.

I don't know how long it will take before it's ready... but I can already tell you what it will be called.
It already has a name, and it's... MastoBlaster.

This name was chosen for personal reasons, and also because of its similarity to Master Blaster by Stevie Wonder, which even today feels relevant and fitting for the Fediverse.

Stay tuned!

#MastoBlaster #Fediverse #Mastodon #iOS #FediverseApp #Announcement #Apple #snac #snac2 #BSDCafe #illumosCafe

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MastoBlaster, showing my profile on my phone

see also
https://comam.es/snac-doc/snac.5.html

# rcctl stop snac 
# cd /var/snac
# tar -cpf /tmp/snac data
# rcctl start snac

# rcctl stop snac 
# cd /var/snac
# tar -xpf /tmp/snac.tgz
# rcctl start snac

any plans to use sqlite or some other database?

also thank you for creating #snac2. i love it!

We have spun up 5 new VMs during the last 48 hours. Some were booked by known friends of ours, some booked by new friends we have never met before. Welcome on board!

#git #hosting #gameoftrees #openbsd

like/favorite if this appears in your feed please :)

#selfhosting #snac2 #openbsd