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Hi, I'm LGUG2Z. (spoken aloud as "Jeezy" - the last two alphabetic characters [G, Z])
During my career I have worked across Central Asia and the Middle East in the humanitarian sector, and across Europe and North America as a software engineer.
I own, develop and operate notado.app, kullish, blucerne and xeetshot.
I maintain a number of popular educational source software projects and Discord communities, and I post software development content on YouTube
Projects
komorebi - Tiling window manager for Windows
Notado - Content-first bookmarking service
Kullish - Bring-your-own-links comment aggregator
Blucerne - Advanced search filters for Bluesky
whkd - Simple hotkey daemon for Windows
wpm - Windows Process Manager inspired by systemd
xeetshot - Longer xeets without Twitter Premium or threads
helix-vim - Batteries-included Vim-like configuration for Helix with a funny README
komokana - Automatic application-aware QMK-style keyboard layer switching for Windows
بیتیاب - Couplet-finder for classical Dari / Farsi / Tojiki Poetry
The World of Terra Ignota - Highlights from Ada Palmer’s novels describing the histories of the post-national “Hive” and “Bash” organisational structures
elasdx - Kubernetes-friendly ElasticSearch index template update, reindex and cleanup tool
unsubscan - Find unsubscribe links in your inbox
Recent Posts (Powered by Mastodon)
Got a refurbished Pixel 8 for ~$350 as a travel burner for my wife
#Android on this feels *a lot* more premium and polished than #iOS on my iPhone 15
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This is why I use a firewall license which forbids all commercial use by default, and make corporations pay for a license for their employees to use the software
https://mastodon.social/@bagder/114279277545262096
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No open source software license is going to save you from late stage capitalism, not even GPL
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Recent Highlights (Powered by Notado)
My highlights also include opinions and views that I disagree with; they should not be read as endorsements, or considered indicative of my own personal beliefs
Absolutely everything is tracked as a work item with estimates. Anything you think should be done needs to be justified and tracked the same way.
My grandpa once said something that seemed ridiculous but makes a lot of sense: that every workplace should have a “heavy” who steals a new worker’s lunch …
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> In the last years you often have some manager where you basically have to justify every thing you do and always a huge pile of work that never gets smaller. So you just hurry through your tasks.
This has been my exact experience. Absolutely everything is tracked as a work item with estimates. …
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Here are the implications of this:
The biggest beneficiaries of open source software are massive corporations such as Google, Facebook, etc.
By being worth more than what they pay for it, open source is the largest transfer of value from the working class (software programmers) to the capital …
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On the "Threads" app I got very similar experience, a lot of breastfeeding erotica and other weird adult content that made me feel I'm doing something illegal.
Also, their algorithm must be assessing human features too because at some point Instagram started showing me women with ever largest …
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This feels representative of our times: Using chatbots to power a gig economy of para-social relationships for lonely people short on real in-person interactions.
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The experience of passive consumption (cable TV, tiktok, etc, pointed out in another comment here) is essentially the experience of psychological obliteration.
When you get sucked into reels, you go from "here" to "there," and in the process, while you are "there," your entire whole self is …
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On the "Threads" app I got very similar experience, a lot of breastfeeding erotica and other weird adult content that made me feel I'm doing something illegal.
Also, their algorithm must be assessing human features too because at some point Instagram started showing me women with ever largest …
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Brilliant move.
The transition of the major social networks over the last 10-15 years -- from being a space for friends to interact to being a space to consume content produced by "unconnected" entities like influencers -- has created a huge opening for someone to claim the friends and family …
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Meta has basically copied TikTok as an 1:1 app at least twice, the most recent being Lasso. The problem most of these many companies trying to emulate TikTok’s success is that the UI/UX and content delivery aren’t the secret sauce. It’s a near bulletproof algorithm that needs comparatively little …
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Some art-haters in the comments, so to defend this piece of contemporary art for a moment: one thing I love about it is a commitment to the long future of art, creativity, and civilization. What does it take to keep an instrument playing for six hundred years? To commit to that idea -- like the …
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LLM-based tools cultivate dependence on rent-seekers, and meanwhile the spam they generate is destroying search engines and polluting all sorts of other educational resources.
Take heart: as many of the *loudest* developers (but far from all developers) choose to let their programming skills atrophy …
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Absolutely everything is tracked as a work item with estimates. Anything you think should be done needs to be justified and tracked the same way.
My grandpa once said something that seemed ridiculous but makes a lot of sense: that every workplace should have a “heavy” who steals a new worker’s lunch …
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> Sarah: Built a fusion reactor at 16. Now? Debugging fintech payment systems.
It's striking to imagine a fully functional fusion reactor that could benefit humanity, yet its creator now focuses on fintech payment systems. This highlights the importance of a strong middle class, which seems to be …
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OK I guess I’m going to go against the deluge of comments here; And give an appreciable reason instead of denigrating those who might choose this.
The context, though, I am British. I grew up in Britain. I went to British school.
I can’t speak universally about my experience, (even within all of …
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Four thoughts:
1. I've developed a analog->digital path for my kids. Before they can get a music player, they get a CD player. Before they get video games, they get board games. And then, for video games, before they get Super Mario Odyssey they get the original Super Mario Bros. Each of these "first …
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July 5th through September in Seattle are a dream; incredibly long days, dry but not too hot. The sun never sets. I've been a lot of places on the planet and PNW summers are uniquely great.
However, during the winter it's dreary, it's dark by noon, and every year around October the raven comes …
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This article doesn't mention it, but being laid off will change you at a psychological level. It can be a deeply traumatic event.
I was laid off over 5 years ago, and, as these things usually go, it was a complete shock to me. The company had been acquired, and my services were no longer needed. It …
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Pair programming is draining for most introverts, and there are a lot of introvert programmers.
I love coding, but I'd rather work a McDonalds fryolator than pair for more than an hour at a time. Short bursts--fine. Mentorship--fine. That's not a joke or derision--I'm serious. The fryolater would be …
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