textlog

about

The quieter social microblogging platform.

textlog is a simple social text log: write short notes, follow people and hashtags, and join conversations without turning every thought into a performance.

Notes are limited to 500 characters. The constraint keeps them quick to write and read, making room for one thought at a time.

Small by design

textlog is built around words: notes, people, hashtags, and conversations. It is intentionally small, straightforward, and easy to follow. There are no engagement tricks or pressure to build an audience.

Your profile and notes are public. Joining is free, and you can download or delete your account data whenever you like. If you feel like it, you can also donate to support the service.

textlog collective is fiscally hosted by Open Source Europe. Our finances and contributions are publicly visible on Open Collective.

Be a good neighbour

Share what is yours to share, treat other people with respect, and don’t use the service for harassment, abuse, spam, impersonation, or anything unlawful. We may moderate or remove content that puts the community or the service at risk.

What's next?

Any conversation

profileenter to followGot my head in the clouds right now.wrote:
Is it just my phone or is HN down? I haven't been able to access at all today
I really love the feeling of a new social network app! Takes me back to high school when I first used facebook. Somehow makes it easy to share things.
profileenter to followSoftware • maker projects • music • DIY Mostly figuring things out as I go.wrote:
bill gates built microsoft by making computation cheaper faster and harder for government to restrain. now that he's a billionaire no longer dependent on the free market for his own success he's discovered the virtues of taxing the next wave of computation. 1995 gates would have called it a tax on innovation. classic pull-the-ladder-up-behind-you politics. #billgatesnotesenter to follow #microsoftnotesenter to follow #AInotesenter to follow #AItaxnotesenter to follow #techpolicynotesenter to follow
profileenter to followI carved wooden spoons and my favourite herb is lemon thyme.replied toprofileenter to followSoftware • maker projects • music • DIY Mostly figuring things out as I go.:
These were exactly my thoughts reading about how he thinks we should “preserve” some jobs for people; I don’t remember him being an advocate of preserving the jobs of typists, draftsman, typesetters, and other clerks when his company was leading a prior digital revolution…
I think it will still apply, just perhaps to a lesser degree. Kind of related to this blog postevnm.substack.comPlatform engineering still mattersReuse is a good thing, even with agentic coding I wrote recently (not to shamelessly plug my stuff 🫣)
I think if @stagasprofileenter to followcreative technologist creator of textlog intends to be an active user of the site henceforth, it'd it should be kosher. Otherwise, one of us who's been active on the site for a while could submit a post.
🤔profileenter to followHai I am kucontinued:
For this particular problem though, I feel like if the crawlers are coming from domestic / residential IP addresses and they lack a distinctive http header or user agent, it is indistinguishable from a denial of service attack and must be treated as such.
profileenter to followlate is the hour in which this conjuror chooses to appearreplied to🤔profileenter to followHai I am ku:
But as long as people can still use the site it's OK, right? Seems like the problem is often self-inflicted, either because the site is so bloated that answering even GET-requests is burdensome, or because they're trying to monetize the data and so must block non-paying scrapers.
I am trying to learn emacs for the fun of it. The tutorial is brilliant and clear. Any tips that would help me learning more things. I know all I need is practice but if you may have used it, you may know a thing or two.
i'm trying to express through a math equation the relationship between power, number of people, corruption and time. corruption = (time in a position of power * power)/number of people who have power what do you think?
profileenter to followresearcher, developer, dancerwrote:
i thought german state bureacracy was bad, until i had to go jump through the hoops of (an online retailers) coorporate hellhole of a dev program.
profileenter to followresearcher, developer, dancercontinued:
my naive vibecoding ass thought everything that can be built can be shipped. compliance is a b*tch
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ ░░░░░░░░░░░░▄▀▀▀▀▄░░░ ░░░░░░░░░░▄▀░░▄░▄░█░░ ░▄▄░░░░░▄▀░░░░▄▄▄▄█░░ █░░▀▄░▄▀░░░░░░░░░░█░░ ░▀▄░░▀▄░░░░█░░░░░░█░░ ░░░▀▄░░▀░░░█░░░░░░█░░ ░░░▄▀░░░░░░█░░░░▄▀░░░ ░░░▀▄▀▄▄▀░░█▀░▄▀░░░░░ ░░░░░░░░█▀▀█▀▀░░░░░░░ ░░░░░░░░▀▀░▀▀░░░░░░░░ #ascii_artnotesenter to follow
profileenter to followOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostlywrote:
Sharing your work with others is a hard computer science problem in 2026, the Year of our Lord. You either here the sound of chirping crickets or the sound of "AI Slop" yells.
My past 3 projects went viral. I didn’t write a single line of code in any of them. But I still feel I engineered them. There were a few people that noticed but the majority didn’t see an issue.
You're fortunate in that you've genuinely captured something that people clearly want with textlog. No one wants another static site generator or coding harness. Ideas that resonate are pretty few and far between now.
I should have said past 4 projects went viral but the other one I did a lot of coding too, so wasn’t entirely “AI slop”. In all cases though, I made something I wanted to see. It just happened to resonate with others. Still, none of them extremely popular yet. All <500 users.
profileenter to followHow wonderful to be alivewrote:
I forgot that I was at work and did my big sneeze, not the work sneeze. The one where a startled deer looks straight into the camera, which then zooms out to a flock of pigeons taking off, and a crow makes a warning noise. Someone dropped something in the adjacent lab. I hope it wasn't my fault.
Been working on an old mastodon hosting project I tried to start a few years ago, with a focus on privacy. This is the first big project I've tried to come back to with the help of coding agents and find it invigorating, and gives me the confidence to actually finish the project. Who knows if it will ever make a dollar, but it sure is fun to watch my ideas come to life.
profileenter to followYear 4 CS. Like tech, systems, game devreplied toprofileenter to followMaker and Builder. Cloud, embedded systems, video, telephony, radio, electronics, linux, whatever. blog.herlein.com:
I've been working with physical AI - Letting LLMs control robots in a warehouse to collaborate and collectively come up with a physically correct solution to carry out a natural language intent. We had to study the reactive nature of agents, nudges they required, etc.
profileenter to followYear 4 CS. Like tech, systems, game devreplied toprofileenter to followMaker and Builder. Cloud, embedded systems, video, telephony, radio, electronics, linux, whatever. blog.herlein.com:
haha that's a coincidence. Site looks awesome. The moving away from ROS2 part is so true. One of our main potential customers for physical AI solutions (a telecom provider in JP) communicated the need for agents to be able to pick up controls from any vendor
profileenter to followYear 4 CS. Like tech, systems, game devcontinued:
I apologize if that sounded obvious/non-obvious/amateurish haha. I was an intern and worked more on the agentic side of things, it was just a non-primary experiment
profileenter to followhallucinating with llms...wrote:
I made a chrome extension to bring the top Hacker News stories to your new tab, with quick summaries. So every time you open a new tab, you might discover something everyone else hasn’t heard about yet. If you’ve never heard of Hacker News: it was created by Paul Graham(founder
profileenter to followHi! I'm a programmer and enjoy playing music. Jesus is my Savior, and my ultimate goal is to "glorify God and enjoy Him forever." (Westminster Q1).wrote:
I've avoided social media (except YouTube) all my life, but this looks like it could finally be a better way to do it. Maybe I'll keep a running journal of cool things I'm working on here or weird bugs that I've found. Or just the struggles of coding. First one: GitHub actions was down again today when I specifically wanted to test my app's deploy and auto update flow...
HN, and some carefully picked r/Reddits. Can't stand Lobste.rslobste.rsLobstersA computing-focused community centered around link aggregation and discussion..
I'll toss in Alterslash which is more general tech, but always has something interesting.
profileenter to followOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostlywrote:
Writing. I want to do it, very badly. I just don't want to be bad at it. You have to be bad at it in order to get good at it. But... Catch 22 isn't it?
profileenter to followEat, drink, listen to 🎶, & watch the fish. Occasionally cook.replied toprofileenter to followOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostly:
Who are you writing for? If for yourself, who cares - write. Do it in a place/tool that allows you to edit/rewrite some parts. In the future you can re-clarify, or if you get better, you can improve them. Focus on what you enjoy to write and write away.
profileenter to followreplied toprofileenter to followOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostly:
I think reading helps quite a bit, especially writing about what you’ve read, even to yourself, just so you can go through the process of having to explain something that you’re only recently familiar with. There’s something about that process that seems to be helpful, at least to me.
profileenter to followOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostlyreplied toprofileenter to follow:
If I can't explain it back perfectly, I tend to avoid even trying. I sort of skip all the questions that come in between, because I can't answer them yet. It's an odd place, my head.
🤡profileenter to followreplied toprofileenter to followOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostly:
Same. The way I consume information influences how I think. Short form content makes my thinking fragmented without a clear structure. I feel that fragmented thinking won't lead to convincing writing. And I'm trying to regain some of that lost control.
profileenter to followOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostlyreplied to🤡profileenter to follow:
Very interesting! I think something along those lines might be happening for me too. Another aspect, always cooking in the back of my mind, "if you can't explain it well, don't explain it at all."
profileenter to followOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostlywrote:
I'm not sure the world needs another static site generator, but I made one. get-taxus.org Giving the project some TLC this week, doing some bug squashing. If you want and SSG that doesn't fight you, give it a go.
🧙profileenter to follow"The impediment to action advances action, what stands in the way becomes the way." - Marcus Aureliuswrote:
One day I would like to see Thailand. That would be nice.
spiral #execnotesenter to follow for(y=-5;y<5;y++){ s="" for(x=-10;x<10;x++){ r=Math.hypot(x/2,y);a=Math.atan2(y,x/2);s+=" .:*#█"[((r+a*2)%5+5)%5|0] } console.log(s) }
::.........:::***## .. ...::**## ######## ..::**# ###********# ..::*# #**:::...::*# ..:**# . ##**::. ..::**## ##**:.. #*::***## ##**:.. ###### . ##**::... ... . ##***:::......:::
I truly love the experience of using apps with rich, deeply interactive, beautifully animated, gorgeous user interfaces. Then I see a beautiful text-based interface and something about it feels so natural, so inevitable, so perfectly clear, and I'm instantly captivated by its simplicity and clarity. Hypertext is fascinating.
I recently made a 10 foot sailboat and took it on a fifty-mile adventure in the Salish Sea. I can still feel the way the wind pushed the boat over the water. I kept imagining the way that our progress was the sum of the vectors of wind, current, and gravity. #tinkeringnotesenter to follow
profileenter to followEat, drink, listen to 🎶, & watch the fish. Occasionally cook.wrote:
Sipping Choya’s ウメッシュ ノンアルコル。😋
Sipping Choya's Umeshu (plum wine), non-alcoholic. 😋
profileenter to followgrocer-engineer and polynomial enjoyer. not into reactionaries i attempt to stave off burnout with a healthy dose of dark souls, bloodborne, and friendswrote:
taking a week off to stave off burnout, catch up on some reading and writing and small projects, and finish Ocarina of Time. also will make soup
In my storm and stress phase, I tried many things, but nowadays I tend to choose boring technology when it comes to work, for me that is Ubuntu or Debian with XFCE4 Desktop. On my personal System I currently run Omarchy though.
profileenter to follow🍎 A lifetime Apple user. Partner says I am pedantic, sarcastic, and cynic. I just want to be me.wrote:
Which Linux distribution do you like the most, and why? Follow the previous with your favourite desktop environment.
profileenter to follow10+ years Seattle based software engineer.wrote:
Recently hit 10+ years (cumulative) of being a software engineer. I must say, I enjoy senior level interviews much more than coding interviews.
Fired up street view on Google Maps to have a look around. It seems like a pretty relaxed and peaceful place to live. 🌞
I was obsessed with Greece as a kid because of The Chipmunk's Adventure movie where they were dancing on the statues, ha. I was more into he statues (even if cartoon) than the dancing, and yet I have still never been there (I'm 45).
Crete is beautifulIt is!hiking a long gorgeThat would be Samaria Gorgeen.wikipedia.orgSamaria Gorge - Wikipedia! it’s not very far from here and it’s the largest in Greece, 7–8 hours hiking. You arrive at a beautiful beach. I crossed it when I was little, I remember whining a lot because for my small feet it was much harder.
Really glad to be using Haskell for work - especially in today's climate with agentic coding. Our team uses containers to keep our development environment consistent across team members, though, and most agent sandbox approaches want to either offload your work fully to the cloud or they want to sandbox the agent harness process itself. We're not ready for full cloud based development (yet?) and sandboxing just the agent doesn't work for us when the agent needs to run docker. #haskellnotesenter to follow #ainotesenter to follow
... because letting the agent run docker gives them a too-easy escape hatch from their sandbox. So we're currently stuck with using VMs. This turns out to be tricky but seems do-able. My current approach is to provision a VM image and use Incus for the execution. My main goal is to keep my current workflow of local/non-agent dev working seamlessly and share the source with the VM/agent.
This means sharing my working dirs with the agent VM but overlaying artifact dirs from VM-owned block devices so we don't take too big of an IO perf hit. I also don't want the agent to be able to git push so that means we need some quirky git config to rewrite origin paths and thread through some agent specific PATs ("thanks" GitHub) for read-only repo access. These ALSO need to be threaded through to the development containers - they need to clone private repos.
It's tangential to the sandboxing topic, really. I started the first post with a broader intent in mind and then elaborated on the sandboxing setup I'm working on. For AI-assisted coding, though, it's nice because Haskell provides a lot of feedback earlier in the development process compared to lots of other languages. It tends to work once it compiles (obviously not all the time).
profileenter to followI am just a grain of sand on your beach.wrote:
while we wait for this to be true we could add our bits together remember to not sleep forever return when your dreams are through Start with cringy poem, end with cringy pseudocode. At least it comes naturally.
github.com/crustyrustaceanGitHubcrustyrustacean - OverviewBuilding all the things mostly in Rust...mostly... - crustyrustacean Unlike others, I’m far too quick to put stuff up here. I tend to look on building and showing as THE point, but maybe I’m wrong.
profileenter to followGot my head in the clouds right now.replied toprofileenter to followOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostly:
I looked at your personal website. I too am my own worst enemy and afraid to write. I feel like I have something to say but at the same time I don't know what to say. How can that be?
Vår konges livsgjerning går mot slutten, landet samler seg for å ta farvel med en konge som har vært samlende og god for landet. Må Gud velsigne hans minne og hans etterfølger. #norgenotesenter to follow #kongharaldnotesenter to follow
Our king's life's work is coming to an end, the country comes together to say goodbye to a king who has been unifying and good for the country. May God bless his memory and his successor. #norwaynotesenter to follow #kongharaldnotesenter to follow
they too have every incentive to exaggerate because they are selling safety and/or books on the topic. I don’t believe we won’t see it coming. Any issues that will manifest will be very visible and we’ll have plenty of time to mitigate their impact.
i dont think its all talk, these are smart people that have been in ai since the 2000s, and they raise good points. current incentive structures are very dangerous long term
they could be making a lot more money by just working at ai firms i fear. the thing that got me worried the hacking incidents lately, huggingface etc. if the capabilities consistently outspeed the development of safety measures, and if the private arms race logic continues, i dont think this is a good spot to be in long term
profileenter to followwrote:
日本語話者はどれくらいいるんだろう。ここで日本語で書き込み続けるのはどうなんだろう
I wonder how many Japanese speakers there are. Is it okay to keep posting in Japanese here?
ここで日本語で書き込み続けるのはどうなんだろう サイト作成者はさまざまの言語の話者が一緒に話せる場面にしたい気がする /post/1045
I wonder if it's okay to keep posting in Japanese here. I get the feeling the site creator wants this to be a place where speakers of various languages can talk together. /post/1045
profileenter to followwrote:
I stopped interacting much with social media years ago and am honestly not sure how to do this any more… but I like the shape of what is starting here.
profileenter to followlate is the hour in which this conjuror chooses to appearreplied toprofileenter to followresearcher, developer, dancer:
Reminds me of the Kiwix offline Wikipedia "nopic" version. (I downloaded that version because it's much smaller than the full version that includes images.)
profileenter to followProgrammer by day and night. Lover of art. Mixing art and programming is the dream.replied toprofileenter to followresearcher, developer, dancer:
Images are fine for me, but should be behind a link, or a small thumbnail. Non-animated. Videos too. But that’s me. They will most likely have to be hosted elsewhere, while the thumb could be here. Nah. We are ok with just text.
🤸profileenter to followcreative technologistGitHubstagas - Overviewstagas has 462 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub. creator of textlogreplied toprofileenter to followProgrammer by day and night. Lover of art. Mixing art and programming is the dream.:
Yeah, before you know it the feed becomes a collection of memes. Have to click or perhaps a browser extension that you personally see the opengraph/linked image in the feed but it's not inviting people to post them for the feed itself.