What's up with FUTO?

Some time ago, I noticed some new organization called FUTO popping up here and there. I’m always interested in seeing new organizations that fund open source popping up, and seeing as they claim several notable projects on their roster, I explored their website with interest and gratitude. I was first confused, and then annoyed by what I found. Confused, because their website is littered with bizzare manifestos,1 and ultimately annoyed because they were playing fast and loose with the term “open source”, using it to describe commercial source-available software.

FUTO eventually clarified their stance on “open source”, first through satire and then somewhat more soberly, perpetuating the self-serving myth that...

Photo Walk: 5 “Radioactive” Places in Paris Worthy Of Visiting

Let’s Combine Science, Fun, and History

Continue reading on Never Stop Writing »

The Small Web 101

Info: This is a living document. It will be updated in the future and I am happy for recommendations to add to it!

Disclaimer: I am intentionally not featuring products – let’s say, a paid search engine run by a company that supposedly lets you find things on the small web – or platforms like IndieWeb, that publish articles like “Set up an Indie Website using Known on Amazon Web Services”, “Set up an Indie Website using Blogger” (a Google service), and “Get Started on WordPress”, because that is exactly what the small web is not about.

I will not feature <insert your favorite webring here> because while webrings are great for...

Connecting an Airthings Radon Detector to Home Assistant with Python and MQTT

Adding a Radon Detection to your Smart Home

Continue reading on Level Up Coding »

Alpine Linux on a Bare Metal Server

When I began work on 📨🚕 (MSG.TAXI), I kept things deliberately low-key, since I didn’t want it turning into a playground for architecture astronauts. For the web console’s tech stack, I went with the most boring yet easy-to-master CRUD stack I could find, that doesn’t depend on JavaScript. And while deploying Rails in a sane way (without resorting to cOnTaInErS) is a massive PITA, thanks to the Rails cargo-cult mentality and the author’s followers latching onto every half-baked wannabe-revolutionary idea, like Kamal and more recently Omarchy, as if it were a philosopher’s stone, from a development perspective it’s still the most effective getting-shit-done framework I’ve used to date. Best...

SEGV License

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE, COPY, MODIFICATION, PREPARATION OF DERIVATIVE WORK, REPRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION:

This section defines certain terms used throughout this license agreement.

1.1. “License” means the terms and conditions, as stated herein, for use, copy, modification, preparation of derivative work, reproduction, and distribution of Software (as defined below).

1.2. “Licensor” means the copyright and/or patent owner or entity authorized by the copyright and/or patent owner that is granting the License.

1.3. “Licensee” means the individual or entity exercising permissions granted by this License, including the use, copy, modification, preparation of derivative work, reproduction, and distribution of Software (as defined below).

1.4. “Software” means any copyrighted work,...

Updates 2025/Q3

This post includes personal updates and some open source project updates.

Q3 has been somewhat turbulent, marked by a few unexpected turns. Chief among them, changes to my home base. In mid-Q3, the owner of the apartment I was renting abruptly decided to sell the property, effectively giving me two weeks to vacate.

Thanks to my lightweight lifestyle, moving out wasn’t a major ordeal. However, in a global housing landscape distorted by corporations, wealthy boomers, and trust-fund heirs, securing a new place on such short notice proved nearly impossible.

Embracing the fact that I am the master of my own time and destiny, and guided by the Taoist principle...

IoT in Python For Beginners: MQTT and Home Assistant Integration

Let’s Work with Hardware (no Soldering is Required)

Continue reading on Python in Plain English »

Cloudflare bankrolls fascists

US politics has been pretty fascist lately. The state is filling up concentration camps, engaging in mass state violence against people on the basis of racialized traits, deporting them to random countries without any respect for habeas corpus, exerting state pressure on the free press to censor speech critical of the current administration, and Trump is openly floating the idea of an unconstitutional third term.

Fascism is clearly on the rise, and they’re winning more and more power. None of this is far removed from us in the FOSS community – there are a number of fascists working in FOSS, same as the rest of society. I don’t...

Thoughts on Cloudflare

As many of you know, I am skeptical of the concept of relying on someone else’s computer, especially when a service grows to the point where it becomes an oligopoly, or worse, a monopoly. Cloudflare is, in my view, on track to becoming precisely that. As a result, I would argue they are a net negative for the internet and society at large.

Besides the frustration they cause to VPN and Tor users through incessant captchas, Cloudflare’s infamous one more step pages have dulled users' vigilance, making them more vulnerable to even the most blatant malware attacks.

Moreover, under the guise of iNnOvAtIvE cLoUd InFrAsTrUcTuRe, Cloudflare not only enable phishermen...