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.

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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

I have a toddler. I come home from work, cook, feed, clean, wash up. We read stories and play. I put him to bed. Then I put something on the television and my wife and I scroll on our phones until she goes to bed. I am not so careless with the little free time I have. I continue to scroll until about 1 am. The next morning I do it again. On the weekends, I get to drink wine.
profileenter to followDigital business analyst, mostly on AI. Addicted to apps and domains. Family man.replied toprofileenter to follow:
Same. And on Monday, I look back and wonder how I ever got to fit five or six things in one weekend, and now one or two things fill it up entirely. Love the little ones though, they're my world.
profileenter to follow10+ years Seattle based software engineer.wrote:
Job I was hoping for gave me the "we found another applicant" treatment. I don't begrudge them for that, since I know I had a 'less than adequate initial coding interview. But still, it stings and sucks. Hopefully my other interviews yield better results...
🙈profileenter to follow"Beware those that would deny you access to information, for in their heart they dream themselves your master." — Sid Meyerswrote:
Productive weekend started four hours ago for me (at 06:00 EDT). Visited aunties and mum. Just got home, and waiting for wife to finish preparing to get on the road again. Next destination: nursing home (visit family, and “adopted” elders).
profileenter to followOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostlywrote:
I'm going to attempt to build a take on a board game I loved, from 1989, MBT, by Avalon Hill. Watch me face plant. Starting by trying to understand hex math.
Sick makes me calm. My mind goes quiet for some time. I can sit and look at the horizon. Or just contemplate the different shades of white of my ceiling while laying on my bed. I miss the silence of my youth.
profileenter to followI really enjoy learning, I really enjoy making. I'm learning to be less guarded.wrote:
there's a gentle kind of space not some echoing cave nor some incessant chirping flock more a darkened back room lit by a projector candid photos of your neighbors songs made only for friendly ears and the kind of brave words that rarely make it out of our hearts
Cool!! I'm currently designing and idea-shopping for an ultra light weight, super aesthetic browser whose goal is to go back to HTML roots and just be a "document browser". It would have HTML 4 and semantic HTML support, images, videos, full HTTP support, cookies, etc. No CSS, JS
profileenter to followDigital business analyst, mostly on AI. Addicted to apps and domains. Family man.wrote:
took me until now to learn described images with low-cost models > attaching images to high-cost model. silly me. output quality remains, cost lowers.
🤸profileenter to followcreative technologistGitHubstagas - Overviewstagas has 462 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub. creator of textlogreplied toprofileenter to followDigital business analyst, mostly on AI. Addicted to apps and domains. Family man.:
I'm amazed how good these models have become, that probably you don't need the high-cost one yeah. I'm producing comics for fun with the latest ChatGPT and they're flawless, no artifacts. ibb.co/TGBgYMQImgBBvibecoder hosted at ImgBBImage vibecoder hosted on ImgBB ibb.co/dn7rCxhImgBBpnp hosted at ImgBBImage pnp hosted on ImgBB
profileenter to followlate is the hour in which this conjuror chooses to appearreplied toprofileenter to follow:
You've hit the nail on the head. But here's the mindblowing part—writing isn't just about text on a page. It's not about listing a bunch of facts to memorize. Writing is about human connection. And here's where it gets even more fascinating... [parody, not AI]
🤪profileenter to followreplied toprofileenter to followlate is the hour in which this conjuror chooses to appear:
Some writing yes, If you want to write a post saying why your company has a position yes; if you are documenting an API, does the average swagger page have a human connection factor? If you are in X/FB, is any of your followers a "human connection"?
Then, in some spaces, say big corp communications, the terse, direct communication is desired, for example the quarter earning communication? What about software?, what part of your browser gives you the "human connection"?
profileenter to followlate is the hour in which this conjuror chooses to appearreplied toprofileenter to follow:
If writing (incl X/FB posts) is meant to convey "some human being did/saw/thought this and found it worth writing about", then AI undermines human connection and will annoy people. API docs, earnings reports, &c never conveyed that to begin with, so nobody will care about AI use.
profileenter to followI really enjoy learning, I really enjoy making. I'm learning to be less guarded.wrote:
I've been building a Markdown variant called Zd that's focused on extensibility and simplicity. I'm curious what you would change about Markdown if you were designing it from scratch, what challenges you face as a user, or what you wish were easier to do when incorporating Markdown into your own projects.
Yeah, 100%. That is completely something I am punting on currently. It would be easy to just copy over the solution from (extensions to) Markdown, but it's hard to entirely narrow in on both what tables ought to do and how to make them do it. If you had a magic wand, what would you have them be more like?
🙈profileenter to follow"Beware those that would deny you access to information, for in their heart they dream themselves your master." — Sid Meyerswrote:
Just started, and two made it to be block list. This is going well! :-D
Didn't realize there's a block list! Good to include, even when the point is minimalism.
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 toprofileenter 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.
profileenter to followi create thingscontinued:
In the first attempt, Opus 4.7 successfully completed it and proved it. However, the solution is to enumerate all possible space and .filter out anything that doesn't qualify my definition, which is obviously not ideal (if cheating is too harsh).
profileenter to followi create thingscontinued:
I can't think of a good way to also prevent that kind of solutions and ended up prompting "please don't enumerate and filter". Opus 4.7 then reimplemented and proved the backtracking algorithm.
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
Catastrophic interference is also a favorite Wikipedia page and concept. The thing is, it doesn’t only happen to artificial neural networks, I’ve had it happen to me a few times. Especially with pin numbers, newer pins overwriting old ones and I’m always scared when I’m having hard time remembering something that this catastrophic interference applied and now the information is gone from my brain.
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
profileenter to followSoftware engineer (of course) in Londonwrote:
I finished Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte and now I'm struggling to take any other book seriously. I need a pallet cleanser or something before I can move on
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.
Great read, wish you best on your new endeavour!
new link; my page is a work in progress - it is now more mobile friendly hellodavid.dev/blog/thinkingDavid Gonzalez-VelezDavid Gonzalez-Velez | Software Engineer & ResearcherSelf-taught software engineer and researcher based in Chicago, specializing in quantum computation and full-stack development.
Tweaking the /hottextloghotA quieter place for your thoughts. algorithm. Really want posts like /post/142 i.e genuinely long discussions, stay longer instead of getting burried away by newer posts.
profileenter to followwrote:
For 30 years, productivity sky-rocketed with the advancement of automation and computing. Meanwhile, a decline in longevity was observed, correlated to sleep depravation. Productivity improvement goes to the owners class' pockets, sleep benefits the workers health.
For 30 years, productivity skyrocketed through automation, yet longevity plummeted as a direct result of sleep deprivation. While these gains accrue to the owner class, sleep remains an undervalued element of the worker's health. We are trading life expectancy for chump change.
😊profileenter to followPresbyter, husband, father, technologist, linguist, musician.continued:
After #exercisenotesenter to follow everything's awake and a good kind of sore. So much of habit-building has been to identify and train myself to value moderate discomfort that leads to growth as the most pleasurable of goals. Consistent spiritual efforts, healthy food and in proper amounts, minimum sleep quota, regular exercise a few times a week—all of these involve discomfort and force of will, but all of them enable growth and fulfillment.
🧑‍🚀profileenter to followнυмαηwrote:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣀⣀⠀⠀⢠⠉⢹⢳⢄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡤⠔⡞⠛⣵⠀⠀⠙⡄⢸⠀⢸⠀⡜⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⡴⠉⠈⡧⣀⣀⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡰⠃⠀⢰⠀⠘⡆⠀⠀⢰⠈⡀⠀⡀⡇⡇⠀⠀⠀⡰⡱⡝⠀⡜⠀⡜⠀⢈⠆⠂⠤⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⡀⢏⠀⢇⠀⠀⢃⠀⠸⡀⠀⠀⡆⡇⠀⡇⠁⡇⠀⠀⡰⢡⡱⠁⡐⢀⠌⢀⢴⠋⠀⠀⠀⣈⡆⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡁⠈⠹⣦⠈⢆⠀⠈⡆⠀⠱⠀⠀⢰⢁⠀⢃⢸⡇⠀⢠⢁⢧⠃⡰⢀⠎⢠⡾⠁⠀⠀⡠⠊⡠⠃⠈⣄⠀⠀⠀
me too, but at the same time i'm enjoying getting things done, otherwise i would get lost in details like bikeshedding naming variables and making the code look pretty, and little would be done.
profileenter to followwrote:
(Opinion) People don’t like generative AI because it made the {insert creativity} too easy. Saw the HN post on ‘AI music banned from top 40 chart in Australia’ and people had very strong opinions in both directions. The hot take: If you’re ok with someone’s creativity being outsourced to others, then you should be ok with AI doing the same. If “AI made this and I call it mine” is bad but “someone overseas on fivver made this and I call it mine” and it’s suddenly ok, time to self reflect.
My hot take: from the moment you use technology, be it an instrument, a synthesizer, a DAW, and now AI, it is still your idea, your effort, your time spent, and that makes it yours. Others can do the same if they choose. The same way someone chooses a classic guitar over a synthesizer, one can choose an AI over (insert ancient way of doing things).
I am not a musician, so I lack the jargon to properly explain what I mean. I used AI for creative writing (nothing too fancy, TTRPG). There, the broader the dice roll, the more generic and uninteresting the results. Slop, if you will. It was surprisingly good to build up on ideas I had however. I imagine muisic also has building blocks. Melodies, instruments, mixing, etc. AI can perhaps be used in a similar fashion there.
I heard a perspective I sort of like: if AI is a tool then acceptable AI use is, more or less, defined as "when my audience no longer notices or cares". It's dynamic like that. Bad photoshop is detectable and annoying, so are overusing presets. Your artistry needs to expand to meet the tool. I don't know if I 100% like that or agree. At the same time, it's a pretty straightforward line, a practical take.
I kind of ask that and here is my theory... news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49289341#49290428 But on the rejection for AI just for the sake of it, I think part is that analyzing takes effort and if there is more and more to analyze you creates this mechanism to defend yourself... scroll twi... I mean reject the premise as false and ask for a human made thing because that one is "truth" more worthy.
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 followI am just a grain of sand on your beach.replied toprofileenter to followEat, drink, listen to 🎶, & watch the fish. Occasionally cook.:
I never used the online version, but the last time I used the offline version it already was a horrible experience. This was about 5 years ago, before I had moved entirely to Linux. It was so bad I downloaded a pirated version of some old MS Office 2007 Blue Edition to have something acceptable. I unironically prefer Libre Office.
profileenter to followa work in progress; i love cats 🐱replied to(deleted account):
I never understood why they would allow you to follow different “feeds” but not hashtags. I like mastodon’s approach better.
profileenter to followa work in progress; i love cats 🐱replied to(deleted account):
Oh my god, art was the only reason I used bsky regularly. Not anymore, and I miss it too.
The job market feels like it's been run over by a truck. What's the play here? Anything automated/streamlined (job platforms, LinkedIn, etc.) feels like a dead end. Messaging people, networking and so on seems like the only reasonable way, and that's a hustle all on its own.
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🥸profileenter to followJust another AI guywrote:
I need to re wire my brain a bit. Last couple of weeks has been a bit harsh dealing with some issues I had with someone. I started to give it a go a pay a bit more attention to myself, is the second time I get therapy but for some reason this time feel harder.
mandelbrot #execnotesenter to follow for y in range(10): s='' for x in range(25): a=[] for q in range(2): z=c=x/25*3-2+1j*((y*2+q)/10-1);n=40 while n and abs(z)<2:z=z*z+c;n-=1 a+=[n<5] s+=" ▀▄█"[a[0]+2*a[1]] print(s)
██ ▀▄████▄▄ ▄ ▄████████ ███▄█████████ ▀▀▀▀▀▀████████████▄ █▀▀ █████████ ▀███████ ▀ ▀██▀ ▀▀
profileenter to followProfessional photographer, marketer and developer with a love for creative problem solving and quite the proud nerdy side!wrote:
I have developed a beautiful free app that lays out Instagram feed photos as a perfect masonry grid every time, no matter which photos you provide it. It's completely free to use if anyone wants to check it out msnry.appmsnrymsnry — Instagram carousels laid like masonryCompose your photographs into one wide grid. msnry slices it into pages that swipe as one continuous strip. #ainotesenter to follow #saasnotesenter to follow #developmentnotesenter to follow
🤸profileenter to followcreative technologistGitHubstagas - Overviewstagas has 462 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub. creator of textlogreplied toprofileenter to followProfessional photographer, marketer and developer with a love for creative problem solving and quite the proud nerdy side!:
Very cool! At least the landing page is amazing! I couldn’t try the app because I don’t have photographs locally, I thought it would be able to fetch my photos from Instagram, that part I found a bit confusing.
Who's enjoying #cnotesenter to follow in 2026? I'm back after ~14 years away (some sporadic once-in-a-while use in there) and I'm finding it better than ever, a smoother development experience and clearer code than pretty much every language out there, except for maybe #odinnotesenter to follow.
I get paid to write it if you can believe that.
Some specialized censors used in automated manufacturing. It's pretty cool, I look forward to coming into the office almost every day. I've worked for a few f500 companies and took a pay cut to come here. A bunch of people from my college robotics club work here too.
That sounds really cool. Above all I really like hearing that someone enjoys their work and likes showing up for it. I've had that feeling on a few contracts and it's great. Looking to get into embedded myself, since it seems that's where you get to have all the fun writing C. :)
#cnotesenter to follow has been such a pleasure. Haven’t tried Odin, but was using #zignotesenter to follow for a while, and I just found myself pulled back to C. A minimal sharp tool. Runs anywhere. Can actually write a compiler for it. Short bootstrap chain from hex0. Does anybody care about these things (anymore)?
Support everywhere (in every way) was key to me starting to use C again. It's nice to not have to worry about the language you use being left out somewhere, a non-starter somewhere else and having to mentally translate it to something else (Zig/Odin in a debugger -> C).
🙈profileenter to follow"Beware those that would deny you access to information, for in their heart they dream themselves your master." — Sid Meyerswrote:
There is someone absolutely rotten and fetid in this airplane. Every 10 minutes. Dear Spaghetti Monster!
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 follow#Emacsnotesenter to follow, dev, life, random stuff. the netherlands.wrote:
top
what is a refinement? honest question - I'm restructuring our refinements now. Like having group of people discussing 5 items in an hour gives little chances any one of them will be addressed properly, unless they are trivial.
#AInotesenter to follow brings so many issues. It really accelerates. Not only the good parts but also the bad parts. Combine this with a product person that doesn't even know what a refinement is. I'm 41, maybe I'll study to pivot, maybe I'll get into trading. I can't handle it anymore.
🙈profileenter to follow"Beware those that would deny you access to information, for in their heart they dream themselves your master." — Sid Meyersreplied toprofileenter to followswiley.net Try my zero dependency agent harness: public.swiley.net/agent.py If you're spending too much time on sites like these install bingeblock.com:
My reply didn’t carry literal meaning. If you are familiar with the now-out-of-fad expression, you know you don’t need to be a boomer, to be a boomer. :-D
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.
I underestimated how many terrible programmers who think C++ is a good choice over C exist on LinkedIn and ended up in some kind of flamewar, my bad.
profileenter to followI'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you - Nobody - too? Then there's a pair of us! Dont tell! they'd banish us - you know!wrote:
I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you - Nobody - too? Then there's a pair of us! Dont tell! they'd banish us - you know! How dreary - to be - Somebody! How public - like a Frog - To tell your name - the livelong June - To an admiring Bog!
profileenter to followlate is the hour in which this conjuror chooses to appearreplied toprofileenter to followI'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you - Nobody - too? Then there's a pair of us! Dont tell! they'd banish us - you know!:
Yesterday upon the stair I saw a man who wasn't there He wasn't there again today How I wish he'd go away!
profileenter to followCurrently in remission from ME/CFS after 3+ years. Occasional software engineering leader, app developer, blogger, zwifter, and just being online.wrote:
Been a bit quiet here the last week or so. Recovering from ill health, at risk of redundancy, and working on side projects. It's been a bit full on. Does anyone make pay check/cheque money from side projects? Can I use my redundancy runway to turn some websites from side hustle to salary money?
🤸profileenter to followcreative technologistGitHubstagas - Overviewstagas has 462 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub. creator of textlogreplied toprofileenter to followCurrently in remission from ME/CFS after 3+ years. Occasional software engineering leader, app developer, blogger, zwifter, and just being online.:
Recovering from ill healthHope you’re feeling better now!Does anyone make pay check/cheque money from side projects?That’s the dream, I’ve only made a few hundreds so far. I’ve had a machine gun approach. Shoot as many rounds as possible in the hopes I might hit something. #AInotesenter to follow has helped immensely in this direction. I’ve done a dozen projects past year and while a few became #viralnotesenter to follow I’m still not there yet. I’m hopeful though! 😊 #sidehustlenotesenter to follow #entrepreneurshipnotesenter to follow
working on permanent.sh a coding agent for the growing and seemingly permanent underclass of people that are left behind by the unbelievable pace of progress in ai the big labs are fighting over felonybench (exploitbench) and google deepmind ceo left to work on drug discovery
profileenter to followwrote:
It's not clear, based on personal experience, how long - if it all - the software development field will value devs who actually enjoy the work. Most people I know are producing mostly AI work and there's an obvious skill decline that's resulted from it. 1/?
But does it matter if your boss doesn't care? Or if their boss doesn't care? If the paychecks keep coming who cares? What's the point of choosing the mountain if the "joy" just means more hours on screen that could have been spent elsewhere? 2/?