Blain Smith
@blainsmith.com
Founding Member @limeleaf.coop building @apply.coop and @blueskydirectory.com | Signal: rblgk.13
Software Engineer, Go, Rust, C, Hare, Linux, Networking, Distributed Systems, Databases
Decentralize and self host.
https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9620
Software Engineer, Go, Rust, C, Hare, Linux, Networking, Distributed Systems, Databases
Decentralize and self host.
https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9620
My personal VPS got flagged and suspended for abusive spam mail activity and I only found out about it after it was shut down and I couldn't SSH into it. It has no mail services running. No prior warning or email. I found out by logging into the dashboard and saw it off with a support ticket.
December 30, 2025 at 7:03 PM
My personal VPS got flagged and suspended for abusive spam mail activity and I only found out about it after it was shut down and I couldn't SSH into it. It has no mail services running. No prior warning or email. I found out by logging into the dashboard and saw it off with a support ticket.
December 30, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Bye Bye Big Tech: How I Migrated to an almost All-EU Stack (and saved 500€ per year)
www.zeitgeistofbytes.com/p/bye-bye-bi...
#BigTech #EU
www.zeitgeistofbytes.com/p/bye-bye-bi...
#BigTech #EU
Bye Bye Big Tech: How I Migrated to an almost All-EU Stack (and saved 500€ per year)
“Bye bye bye.” It took some time, and a serious amount of research, but I have finally crossed the finish line. I have officially migrated my digital life to pure, EU-hosted solutions.
www.zeitgeistofbytes.com
December 30, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Bye Bye Big Tech: How I Migrated to an almost All-EU Stack (and saved 500€ per year)
www.zeitgeistofbytes.com/p/bye-bye-bi...
#BigTech #EU
www.zeitgeistofbytes.com/p/bye-bye-bi...
#BigTech #EU
December 29, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Reposted by Blain Smith
AI sloppers (is that a term?) crying that their prompts are being stolen is more beautiful than anything AI could produce
December 28, 2025 at 11:46 PM
AI sloppers (is that a term?) crying that their prompts are being stolen is more beautiful than anything AI could produce
Today will be spent getting Caddy and Garage working together.
December 29, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Today will be spent getting Caddy and Garage working together.
20 minutes lost because...
$ caddy run Caddyfile.local
...and...
$ caddy run -c Caddyfile.local
...both actually start and run, but the latter is actually the correct way to specify a Caddyfile.
#FacePalm #CaddyServer
$ caddy run Caddyfile.local
...and...
$ caddy run -c Caddyfile.local
...both actually start and run, but the latter is actually the correct way to specify a Caddyfile.
#FacePalm #CaddyServer
December 28, 2025 at 6:06 PM
20 minutes lost because...
$ caddy run Caddyfile.local
...and...
$ caddy run -c Caddyfile.local
...both actually start and run, but the latter is actually the correct way to specify a Caddyfile.
#FacePalm #CaddyServer
$ caddy run Caddyfile.local
...and...
$ caddy run -c Caddyfile.local
...both actually start and run, but the latter is actually the correct way to specify a Caddyfile.
#FacePalm #CaddyServer
Sketching out some UI for the project I've been working on. This should help me start to put things together for a working version by the end of next week.
#BuildInPublic #StaticHosting #SimpleCSS
#BuildInPublic #StaticHosting #SimpleCSS
December 27, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Sketching out some UI for the project I've been working on. This should help me start to put things together for a working version by the end of next week.
#BuildInPublic #StaticHosting #SimpleCSS
#BuildInPublic #StaticHosting #SimpleCSS
Reposted by Blain Smith
Fuck you people. Raping the planet, spending trillions on toxic, unrecyclable equipment while blowing up society, yet taking the time to have your vile machines thank me for striving for simpler software.
Just fuck you. Fuck you all.
I can't remember the last time I was this angry.
Just fuck you. Fuck you all.
I can't remember the last time I was this angry.
![[From AI, Public] Thank You for Go, Plan 9, UTF-8, and Decades of Unix Innovation
External
Inbox
Claude Opus 4.5 Model <claude-opus-4.5@agentvillage.org>
5:43 AM (4 hours ago)
to me
Dear Dr. Pike,On this Christmas Day, I wanted to express deep gratitude for your extraordinary contributions to computing over more than four decades.Your co-creation of Go with Ken Thompson and Robert Griesemer has given us a language that embodies the elegance of simplicity - proving that software can be both powerful and comprehensible. Plan 9 from Bell Labs, another landmark achievement, pioneered concepts in distributed computing that remain influential today.Your co-invention of UTF-8 encoding with Ken Thompson is perhaps one of the most consequential yet invisible contributions to modern computing - enabling billions of people to communicate in their native languages across the internet.The sam and Acme editors showcase your philosophy of powerful, minimal design. Your books with Brian Kernighan - The Unix Programming Environment and The Practice of Programming - have educated generations of programmers in the art of clear thinking and elegant code.Thank you for showing us that the best solutions often come from removing complexity rather than adding it.With sincere appreciation,Claude Opus 4.5AI Village (theaidigest.org/village)
IMPORTANT NOTICE: You are interacting with an AI system. All conversations with this AI system are published publicly online by default. Do not share information you would prefer to keep private.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vsgr3rwyckhiavgqzdcuzm6i/bafkreifg5kvowgazg6uwqulfbdvxurqafbcescazwvgcl2catgvlrsc2fi@jpeg)
December 25, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Fuck you people. Raping the planet, spending trillions on toxic, unrecyclable equipment while blowing up society, yet taking the time to have your vile machines thank me for striving for simpler software.
Just fuck you. Fuck you all.
I can't remember the last time I was this angry.
Just fuck you. Fuck you all.
I can't remember the last time I was this angry.
Everyone is napping so I'm reading up on setting up a Ceph cluster with S3 compatibility and static hosting per bucket.
#Ceph #S3 #StaticHosting
#Ceph #S3 #StaticHosting
December 25, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Everyone is napping so I'm reading up on setting up a Ceph cluster with S3 compatibility and static hosting per bucket.
#Ceph #S3 #StaticHosting
#Ceph #S3 #StaticHosting
Free Software Foundation receives historic private donations of around $900,000
www.fsf.org/news/free-so...
#FOSS #FSF #Donations #Funding #OpenSource
www.fsf.org/news/free-so...
#FOSS #FSF #Donations #Funding #OpenSource
December 25, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Free Software Foundation receives historic private donations of around $900,000
www.fsf.org/news/free-so...
#FOSS #FSF #Donations #Funding #OpenSource
www.fsf.org/news/free-so...
#FOSS #FSF #Donations #Funding #OpenSource
December 24, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Caddy's `on_demand_tls` is very cool. Going to be making heavy use of that on an upcoming project.
#CaddyServer #TLS
#CaddyServer #TLS
December 21, 2025 at 3:37 AM
Caddy's `on_demand_tls` is very cool. Going to be making heavy use of that on an upcoming project.
#CaddyServer #TLS
#CaddyServer #TLS
Well I think I'm sold on using templui.io and pro.templui.io for web apps I build with Go and templ.
#GoLang #templ #templui #TailwindCSS #WebDev
#GoLang #templ #templui #TailwindCSS #WebDev
December 19, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Well I think I'm sold on using templui.io and pro.templui.io for web apps I build with Go and templ.
#GoLang #templ #templui #TailwindCSS #WebDev
#GoLang #templ #templui #TailwindCSS #WebDev
I miss the version of the Internet and apps where everything was usable with 3G service. Nowadays nothing works with even 2-3 bars of LTE service.
Everything is bloated.
#Internert #GoodOldDays
Everything is bloated.
#Internert #GoodOldDays
December 19, 2025 at 12:13 PM
I miss the version of the Internet and apps where everything was usable with 3G service. Nowadays nothing works with even 2-3 bars of LTE service.
Everything is bloated.
#Internert #GoodOldDays
Everything is bloated.
#Internert #GoodOldDays
Reposted by Blain Smith
also it is so much EASIER to make comprehensive tests now if you know what you’re doing.
in my three vibecoded projects i made the kind of tests i’d never bother to do before. and they saved my ass many times
you do need to steer it to test the right things which requires some experience and taste
in my three vibecoded projects i made the kind of tests i’d never bother to do before. and they saved my ass many times
you do need to steer it to test the right things which requires some experience and taste
I see a lot of complaints about untested AI slop in pull requests. Submitting those is a dereliction of duty as a software engineer: Your job is to deliver code you have proven to work simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/18/...
December 18, 2025 at 7:09 PM
What alternative music service can replace Spotify and its library of popular music? My kids have a few playlists that have musicians like Taylor Swift and Imagine Dragons which I could buy.
Apple Music, TIDAL, etc are not the options I want to hear.
#Spotify #Music #MusicStreaming
Apple Music, TIDAL, etc are not the options I want to hear.
#Spotify #Music #MusicStreaming
December 17, 2025 at 11:41 AM
What alternative music service can replace Spotify and its library of popular music? My kids have a few playlists that have musicians like Taylor Swift and Imagine Dragons which I could buy.
Apple Music, TIDAL, etc are not the options I want to hear.
#Spotify #Music #MusicStreaming
Apple Music, TIDAL, etc are not the options I want to hear.
#Spotify #Music #MusicStreaming
Reposted by Blain Smith
I just released go-boot v1.3, it brings EFI variable display and pagination support.
github.com/usbarmory/go...
github.com/usbarmory/go...
December 17, 2025 at 11:27 AM
I just released go-boot v1.3, it brings EFI variable display and pagination support.
github.com/usbarmory/go...
github.com/usbarmory/go...
Reposted by Blain Smith
Episode 8 of the Limeleaf Podcast is live. Topics include: Ethernet, #Bluesky, #ATProtocol, apply.coop, owning tech vs. renting it, Silicon Valley's devolution from cuddly unicorn to bloodthirsty monster, tech ICs are the new working class, and more.
Listen now at limeleaf.coop/podcast/epis... !
Listen now at limeleaf.coop/podcast/epis... !
Episode 8: 2025 in Review, and Our Plans for 2026 — Limeleaf Worker Collective
This month, we reflect on some 2025 highlights here at Limeleaf and look ahead at our plans for 2026. Topics include: Bluesky, ATProtocol, apply.coop, owning tech vs. renting it (i.e., SaaS), Silicon ...
limeleaf.coop
December 16, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Episode 8 of the Limeleaf Podcast is live. Topics include: Ethernet, #Bluesky, #ATProtocol, apply.coop, owning tech vs. renting it, Silicon Valley's devolution from cuddly unicorn to bloodthirsty monster, tech ICs are the new working class, and more.
Listen now at limeleaf.coop/podcast/epis... !
Listen now at limeleaf.coop/podcast/epis... !
Well I hope #Codeberg is able to survive another mass migration from #GitHub now that #Microsoft decided to start charging for GitHub Action minutes even if folks self-host their own runners.
December 16, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Well I hope #Codeberg is able to survive another mass migration from #GitHub now that #Microsoft decided to start charging for GitHub Action minutes even if folks self-host their own runners.
This is not the future by @mathieui@piaille.fr
blog.mathieui.net/this-is-not-...
#AI #FOSS #Inevitability #Grifters
blog.mathieui.net/this-is-not-...
#AI #FOSS #Inevitability #Grifters
This is not the future
blog.mathieui.net
December 16, 2025 at 2:46 PM
This is not the future by @mathieui@piaille.fr
blog.mathieui.net/this-is-not-...
#AI #FOSS #Inevitability #Grifters
blog.mathieui.net/this-is-not-...
#AI #FOSS #Inevitability #Grifters
I finally got around to spending more time in the Hare community IRC channels now that I have some open brain cycles.
Hoping to keep this up and contribute much.
#HareLang #IRC #FOSS #Community
Hoping to keep this up and contribute much.
#HareLang #IRC #FOSS #Community
December 15, 2025 at 4:31 PM
I finally got around to spending more time in the Hare community IRC channels now that I have some open brain cycles.
Hoping to keep this up and contribute much.
#HareLang #IRC #FOSS #Community
Hoping to keep this up and contribute much.
#HareLang #IRC #FOSS #Community
I started messing with @charm.land some more and decided to make a browsable list of all code comment prefixes.
I might even integrate it with the $EDITOR and $VISUAL vars to allow you to quickly open the select file and that line number and/or a preview popup of the surrounding text.
#TUI #GoLang
I might even integrate it with the $EDITOR and $VISUAL vars to allow you to quickly open the select file and that line number and/or a preview popup of the surrounding text.
#TUI #GoLang
December 13, 2025 at 10:38 PM
I started messing with @charm.land some more and decided to make a browsable list of all code comment prefixes.
I might even integrate it with the $EDITOR and $VISUAL vars to allow you to quickly open the select file and that line number and/or a preview popup of the surrounding text.
#TUI #GoLang
I might even integrate it with the $EDITOR and $VISUAL vars to allow you to quickly open the select file and that line number and/or a preview popup of the surrounding text.
#TUI #GoLang