or all-in-one-page version:
https://tour.gleam.run/everything/

Language nerds may find it interesting that Gleam compiles to Erlang, then hands over to the Erlang compiler.

The Gleam compiler is written in Rust (some people would call it a transpiler, to which Gleam's creator says "same thing")

I'm not sure yet if a function can return multiple values/variables. Can functional languages normally do this? Anyway if not I guess I can have a function return a union with the various values contained within...

#gleamlang
#functionalprogramming

I am extremely curious to see what our big wet president’s new “battleship” is actually supposed to be, because in naval terminology “battleship” means something very specific, and the last time anyone thought it was worth building a ship meeting that definition was in 1946

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Vanguard_(23)

Happy 50th birthday to Scheme!

MIT AI Memo No. 349, ‘Scheme: An Interpreter for Extended Lambda Calculus’ was published on December 22, 1975

https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/5794

Happy 35th to the original Commander Keen trilogy. 🎂🎉🥂

($15 back then is approximately $36 today.)

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Commander Keen in "Invasion of the Vorticons" Episode One: Marooned on Mars title screen

Alt...

CONWANDER KEEN: INVASION OF THE UORTICON5 CONSISTS OF THREE UNIQUE AND CHALLENGING EPISODES: 1. MAROONED ON MARS $15 2. THE EARTH EXPLODES $15 3. KEEN MUST DIE! $15 ORDER THE TRILOGY FOR $30 AND YOU GET: * THE "SECRET HINTS & TRICKS" SHEET * THE SPECIAL "CHEAT MODE" PASSWORD * THE LATEST VERSION OF EACH GAME * SEVERAL FREE BONUS GAMES!

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ID Software. "We're In Demand!" WE ARE A GROUP OF SOFTWARE ARTISTS WHOSE GOAL IS TO BRING COMMERCIAL QUALITY SOFTWARE TO THE PUBLIC AT SHAREWARE PRICES. OUR EFFORT IS ONLY POSSIBLE WITH YOUR SUPPORT. WITHOUT IT, WE CANNOT CONTINUE TO MAKE THIS FINE SOFTWARE SO AFFORDABLE. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO THE FUTURE OF THE GROWING SHAREWARE MARKET.

Alt...

$15 per volume, or $30 for all three volumes! Commander Keen is the first truly "commercial quality" game to be distributed as shareware. It features ultra high-speed smooth-scrolling EGA graphics and superb sound effects. The animation and scrolling is updated at nearly 40 frames per second, for comparison, motion picture quality cartoons are filmed at only 24 frames per second. The story of Commander Keen is epic, and in the style of the memorable matinee serials, like Flash Gordon. You play the role of Billy Blaze, eight year-old kid genius who builds an interstellar ship when not working at home on his college fast-track degree. Among other household objects, Billy uses his Nintendo joystick for flight control and his mom's vacuum cleaner (heavily modified) for his ship's ion propulsion system (with pile height adjustment). At the hint of galactic trouble, Billy dons his brother's football helmet and becomes "Commander Keen"─defender of Earth! Ever on the side of justice, fairness, and high calorie junk food, Keen dispenses justice with an iron hand. Keen's first adventure takes you to Mars, where the Vorticon invasion force is planning their conquest of Earth. While Keen is exploring Mars the Vorticons steal pieces of his ship and hide them within their cities. Can Keen recover all the pieces and repel the Vorticon invasion? You'll explore many dangerous cities, packed with diabolical traps and hideous creatures, both of Martian and Vorticon origin.

Philosophy in a Foxhole -
https://existentialcomics.com/comic/632

Yikes, well the EPA climate change indicators page (among others) appears to have been removed (https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/view-indicators), along with the fact that climate change is human-caused (https://www.epa.gov/climatechange-science/causes-climate-change).

This is absolutely awful. This was one of the best resources for climate indicators data, and my go-to share for help answering public questions.

Luckily I captured some of them on my new U.S. climate page a few months ago: https://zacklabe.com/united-states-climate-indicators/

If you are in the USA and want to get started on your #selfHosting journey, you can buy a pre-installed FreedomBox.

New, powerful FreedomBox hardware available for purchase!
https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/new-powerful-freedombox-hardware-available-for-purchase/3969

This is the second edition. It is powerful enough to run the entire set of apps (40+). You can also do some desktop tasks like web browsing/LibreOffice if you connect a monitor.

Storage and RAM can be upgraded. #rightToRepair

---
The web store is a WordPress app running on a #FreedomBox

in order to cope with today's DRAM pricing crisis, i propose we look to the solutions of the past

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photo of a 3 1/2 inch floppy disk for Connectix RAM Doubler 2, for Macintosh

The West Coast Health Alliance continues to strongly recommend vaccines to protect our children, noting that rigorous research of millions of people in multiple countries over decades provides high quality evidence that #vaccines are not linked to #autism. The Alliance is deeply concerned about inaccurate claims to the contrary recently posted on the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

https://doh.wa.gov/newsroom/west-coast-health-alliance-stands-scientific-evidence-vaccines-are-not-linked-autism

For this #GivingTuesday I'm going to make the (biased) argument for why you might consider donating to @spritely, especially if you care about a healthier future for the internet! https://spritely.institute/donate/

Here's a little thread explaining more... 🧵

When a kernel commit starts with "In A.D. 1582 Pope Gregory XIII found that ..." you know you're in for a ride:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=f076ef44a44d02ed91543f820c14c2c7dff53716
tl;dr: Rockchip decided November should have 31 days...

what are we going to be experts on after the ai bust?

Servo Report for Week 47 2025

Highlights from last week:

- Added support for font-optical-sizing
- Implemented SHA-3 in WebCrypto API
- Added support for reloading DevTools tab
- Hide the servoshell tab bar in full screen mode

You can help support Servo, an independent web rendering engine, and the health of the web ecosystem by donating:

https://github.com/sponsors/servo
https://opencollective.com/servo

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Decorative report cover with the Servo logo that reads "Servo Report Week 47 2025”

Stumbled upon this cool #Rust project in Gnome Software Center.
https://codeberg.org/haydn/typesetter

Typst is a hybrid document format, somewhere between Markdown and Latex with a compiler fast enough for real-time preview.

It might be worth moving out of GitHub just to avoid nonsensical vibe-coded pull requests.

Also, GitHub Actions is the most inefficient CI/CD system I've ever encountered.

Migrating from GitHub to Codeberg ⚡ Zig Programming Language
https://ziglang.org/news/migrating-from-github-to-codeberg/

But my calendar is self-hosted, as an app within Nextcloud (running on my new FreedomBox from Libre Crafts). So I added my Nextcloud account in the Gnome settings, and it shows appointment reminders that are integrated into the desktop (appear under the clock).

#Thunderbird #Gnome #Nextcloud

New post from me over on the @spritely blog: Composing capability security and conflict-free replicated data types

Local-first apps often use CRDTs, but I'm not really aware of any that fully embrace capability security. This post is an attempt to show how the two can be composed using a simple group chat application as a case study.

https://spritely.institute/news/composing-capability-security-and-conflict-free-replicated-data-types.html

#spritely #localfirst #ocaps

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A diagram of a local-first chat room shared between Alice, Bob, and Carol.

Hey, I bet you didn't hear that Zork 1, 2, and 3 were open-sourced today!

…Oh, you have heard. Yeah. Way ahead of me. :)

Here's my comments, and some details that you might not have seen.

https://blog.zarfhome.com/2025/11/zork-is-open-source

#InteractiveFiction #Zork

But note that tools installed using uvx do not have access to the dependencies of your project. They are run in a separate environment with only their own dependencies installed. So for things that need to import the project's dependencies, such as pytest or mypy, you will need to use "uv run ..." instead of uvx.

#python #uv

I have been dreaming of this day for over five years. Proctorio’s lawsuit against me is forever over. I’ve won my life back!

https://linkletter.org/update-33-the-lawsuit-is-over/

#3167 - Car Size

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Four-panel black-and-white comic. Panel 1, caption: “100 years ago.” Two stick figures stand beside a bicycles at left. At right is an early open-top car. One figure says: “It’s too dangerous riding a bike with these cars around. I should get a car, too.” Panel 2, caption: “50 years ago.” Left: a large sedan; right: a small hatchback facing it. Two figures stand between them. One says: “Small cars are less safe in collisions with larger vehicles, so I should get a bigger one.” Panel 3, caption: “Today.” Left: a big SUV; right: an even bigger SUV facing it. Two figures stand between them. One says: “Everyone has huge SUVs now. If I don’t get the biggest one, I’m putting my family at risk.” Panel 4, caption: “Soon.” An armored SUV with riveted plates, side spikes, and two long roof arms holding spiked clubs at each end. Two figures standing next to it: “If I don’t install more whirling spike clubs, I’ll be destroyed by all the other drivers who…” Hidden text: "'They really shouldn't let those small cars drive in traffic. I worry I'm going to kill someone if I hit one! They should have to drive on the sidewalk, safely out of the way.'"

Musk, his DOGE gang, and Marco Rubio are responsible for a staggering death toll. It should be reason to refuse association with any of Musk's products, but large death tolls become statistics.

In the short doc "Rovina's Choice", Atul Gawande shows what happens when you suddenly withdraw aid that was saving children's lives. You can watch it for free to mobilize that "suicidal empathy".

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary/the-shutdown-of-usaid-has-already-killed-hundreds-of-thousands

If able, consider donating to the WFP to help. US chapter:

https://donate.wfpusa.org/page/UNWFP

• uv for package management
• pytest
• ruff for linting and formatting

Imagine if the package registries and #OpenSource components that you use were no longer available.

Would you still be able to deliver a single line of code? Would your software even start, or would your business come to a standstill within minutes?

https://phpunit.expert/articles/open-source-blackout.html?ref=mastodon

Another week, another wiki available offline so that you guys can rebuild civilization.

WikiCiv is now available for download and offline browsing at https://browse.library.kiwix.org/#lang=eng&q=wikiciv

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Screenshot of the WikiCiv landing page.

In case you missed it, here are some of the recent announcements on the FreedomBox forum:

Tiny Tiny RSS app is no longer available, please migrate
https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/tiny-tiny-rss-app-is-no-longer-available-please-migrate/3986

Debian 13 Trixie release information for FreedomBox
https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/debian-13-trixie-release-information-for-freedombox/3987

New, powerful FreedomBox hardware available for purchase!
https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/new-powerful-freedombox-hardware-available-for-purchase/3969

FreedomBox 25.15 released
https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/freedombox-25-15-released/3993

#FreedomBox #Debian #news #announcement

Finally did the long-pending migration of my RSS feeds from TT-RSS to Miniflux.

There are still some rough edges with the FreedomBox app for Miniflux. I will get to fixing them as I use Miniflux more.

It's awkward when you can't complain about something because you were the one who implemented it. 😅

Maybe FreedomBox also needs a proper managed service for PostgreSQL to do upgrades and purges. I found 9 different versions of PG daemons running on my machine.

#RSS #MIniflux #selfHosting

it has been a while, but whoo, new bloggery: "wastrel, a profligate implementation of webassembly" https://wingolog.org/archives/2025/10/30/wastrel-a-profligate-implementation-of-webassembly

My brain thinks that Go is like 7 years old, Rust is 5 years old and Zig is from last year.

Reality: (from Wikipedia)
Go is 15 years old
Rust is 13 years old
Zig is 9 years old

The last two will add 1 more year in Jan & Feb respectively. How is Zig ~10 years old?

Also, my brain knows that Python is older than Java, but refuses to believe it since I didn't learn them in that order.

the printer industry is so completely broken today that this project could revolutionise home computing. https://www.crowdsupply.com/open-tools/open-printer

I appreciate the greatest technical minds on Earth taking a communications network that was designed to withstand a nuclear exchange, and turning that network into something that can't survive a DNS error from a single company.

I can't understate how good of a job the Ink and Switch folks did at this Automerge website. Wow, holy shit https://automerge.org/

And the fact that you can *interact* with the visual demo at the top?

This is the new high bar for a technical website. Holy moly.

We are steadily moving from the "fuck around" phase into the the "find out" phase.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/15/record-leap-in-co2-fuels-fears-of-accelerating-global-heating

#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

FreedomBox 25.13 has been released! Here are the highlights:
- backups: Fix robust handling of known errors
- debian: Stop privileged service during upgrade or removal
- miniflux: Fix DB connection issues during install/uninstall

See the full changelog here:
https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/freedombox-25-13-released/3935

#FreedomBox #FreedomBoxRelease #BorgBackup #Debian #Miniflux

I think this article makes some good points. And makes it clear why physics is not a good substitute for philosophy.

#Physics #Philosophy

Throw-away fruity laptop - Forking Mad:
https://forkingmad.blog/throw-away-apple-laptop/

New-ish blog post: Adventures of a YAML engineer

https://blog.legoktm.com/2025/08/28/adventures-of-a-yaml-engineer.html

(I actually wrote this back in May and never published it...)

I mostly wanted to brag about a bit of YAML code I wrote back in March for #SecureDrop's completed migration to Ubuntu Noble that I neglected to mention in the blog post explaining the technical details. Yes, #YAML, is a programming language.

Newsletter: In a media landscape dominated by algorithmic feeds that aim to manipulate and extract, sometimes the most radical thing you can do is choose to read what you want, when you want, without anyone watching over your shoulder.

Here’s how to use #RSS.

https://www.citationneeded.news/curate-with-rss/

I didn't expect Google to wage war against general-purpose computing itself.

We have custom ROMs, but how long before Google decides that the AOSP doesn't have to be open source anymore?

It's already quite a struggle to run the essentials like banking and cash transfer apps without Google Play Services. A new update might drop at anytime and your app stops working. Some apps won't let you use the old working version for security reasons.

Google asks what we think of their plans to block Android app installs outside of Google Play (unless the developers let Google verify their identity and pay a fee).

Want to tell them your opinion, just submit this form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfN3UQeNspQsZCO2ITkdzMxv81rJDEGGjO-UIDDY28Rz_GEVA/viewform?usp=dialog

"Sideloading" is the rentseeker word for "being able to run software of your choosing on a computing device you purchased". There is no reasonable case for an operating system developer having a say over what programs you run on your hardware.

#Android #Google

Syncthing v2.0 changes:

https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/releases/tag/v2.0.0

Repeated warnings of AI-driven layoffs is fueling anxiety among workers, who report feeling pressured to accept pay cuts or worse conditions to keep their jobs (Anne Lutz Fernandez/Nobody Wants This)

https://nobody-wants-this.ghost.io/ai-is-already-disempowering-workers-through-hype/
http://www.techmeme.com/250729/p47#a250729p47

Today, I met a FreedomBox for Villages volunteer, Satya at a local conference. It was pleasant surprise to know that they have recently deployed a community Wi-Fi network in a remote island village in the Narmada river that barely has cellular phone signals. The village only has an elementary school (until class 4), so the main thing they needed to provide was Moodle with some K-12 educational content.

Another non-profit might set up satellite Internet in the near future.

#FreedomBox #Moodle

Gleam is an interesting new functional programming language. It is an ML-family language with syntax very similar to Rust, but it's not a replacement.
If you like Rust and don't like Go (or Elixir's Ruby syntax), Gleam might be worth considering for I/O bound applications needing high concurrency.
Gleam can also replace Elm on the browser. Code written in Gleam is apparently 30% faster than hand-written JavaScript.

https://gleam.run

#Gleam #Elixir #Rust #FunctionalProgramming #FP

I bought an Android TV 4 years ago. Only today I had a working idea to get rid of ads on it.

Google's launcher is set as the default. It shows ads at the top which considerably affects the TV's performance. It also deceptively keeps showing titles from the Play Store as if they are available from one of your installed apps.

So, just get another launcher. You can install one from the Play Store and set it as default.

No Google Launcher, no ads.

What is the best "impact assessment" for an NGO? If a huge Big Tech company like #Meta publicly says your work should be prohibited.. 😂

If you wanna join @noybeu and make us even more "powerful" click here: support.noyb.eu/join 😜

(From a paywalled MLex Article)

Alright folks it is now official: THE KIWIX OFFSPOT IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AND SHIPS WORLDWIDE

The official retail price is/will be USD 319 (taxes & shipping included) and you can buy it here: https://kiwix.org/en/kiwix-hotspot/

Grab it while supplies last!

As for the technical subtleties 👇

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A picture of the Kiwix Hotspot: a sleek, black aluminium case with "Kiwix Hotspot" written on top.

I am still amazed at how many people just live their lives like "I have to do the thing because it's the new thing and the people selling the thing say everyone will be doing it".

https://git.sr.ht/~jvalleroy/lister

It's a TUI and CLI program to manage a list of items in a text file.

#scheme #guile

Redis, the popular in-memory data store, returns its main system to open source license AGPL, after facing criticism in 2024 for moving to a dual-license model (Lindsay Clark/The Register)

https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/01/redis_returns_to_open_source/
http://www.techmeme.com/250501/p40#a250501p40

I started using GitHub Copilot for work to generate both test and production code in January.

Since the refactoring work it was generating for me was too much, I stopped using it for production code a month ago.

It keeps creating test files in the wrong directories and breaks half the scripts in the repository (not consistently though 🤦‍♂️). Yesterday, this got pushed to the main branch and broke scripts for everybody.

The day has finally arrived! I've completely given up on AI-generated code.

You remember #Apple scanning all images on your #mobile device?

If you have an #Android #phone, a new app that doesn't appear in your menu has been automatically and silently installed (or soon will be) by #Google. It is called #AndroidSystemSafetyCore and does exactly the same - scan all images on your device as well as all incoming ones (via messaging). The new spin is that it does so "to protect your #privacy".

You can uninstall this app safely via System -> Apps.

https://developers.google.com/android/binary_transparency/google1p/overview

I have one prediction for 2025 that I am most confident about.

2025 will be the hottest year on record (since 1850), just like the two years before it.

#climateCrisis

Tiny Apocalyptic Time Tip 🌐✨

If you too feel uneasy about
the state of the world,
and you too worry about losing access to one of the greatest knowledge treasure of the internet,

Know that you can download an
offline copy of Wikipedia!

Here's how 📚👇

1. Download the free and open source software Kiwix (this will be your reader): https://kiwix.org/en/applications/

2. If you want smaller versions of Wikipedia, you can download them within Kiwix.

Within the app, go to "Categories" in the menu on the left, then browse to a topic/version you want. Scroll to the bottom for Wikipedia mini, for example. Click on it then click "Download" on the right

3. Once you have downloaded a database, click on "Opened" on the left > database you want to search > "Open Main Page" on the right.

4. You can use the Search field on the upper-right to find topics like on online Wikipedia! 🔍

5. If you want the full English version of Wikipedia (110GB), you might want to download it from the torrent file instead. Install a torrent client of your choice (I use Transmission).

Then, go to this page, click on "Download - 109.89 GB" blue button on the first result (size may vary overtime), then select "Torrent file": https://library.kiwix.org/#lang=eng&category=wikipedia

6. Once you have the torrent file, open it with your torrent client to start the download. This is BIG! Be patient! 📦

7. Once the download is completed, open your Wikipedia `.zim` file with Kiwix!

8. Magic! 📖✨

Extra Tip: You can download many other awesome knowledge files from the Kiwix Library! Personally, I also got the iFixit knowledge base! ⚒️

#Wikipedia #Kiwix #Offline #KnowledgeIsPower

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Screenshot showing the application Kiwix with the open Wikipedia entry for Kiwix. Very meta.

New blog post: Three years of #SecureDrop

https://blog.legoktm.com/2025/01/31/three-years-of-securedrop.html

This is the longest I've ever held the same position at a job, so a few notes on what I've been up to over the past year and what I enjoy.

We're hiring a Senior Software Engineer on the @securedrop team at @freedomofpress.

SecureDrop is open source whistleblowing software. The project is at a critical inflection point as we get ready to build the next-gen version based on a modern cryptographic protocol.

100% remote, full-time, $110-$120K base salary with comprehensive benefits for US-based employees. (If you're not in the US, we can discuss consultancy models.)

Hmu for questions.

https://grnh.se/813b998c5us

#GetFediHired

Happy #NYC #CongestionPricing Eve!