Noel De Martin
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noeldemartin.com
Noel De Martin
@noeldemartin.com
https://noeldemartin.com/now

Problem Solver. Software Architect. Entrepreneur.

Making Solid Apps, and pondering what to do next.
Pinned
I've had this account dormant since creating it, but it seems like I'll start using it because Twitter is getting worse by the day.

In any case, I'm not super active in social networks. The best place to follow my work is still my website, which you can subscribe through RSS: noeldemartin.com/now
Noel De Martin's Now page
A page where you can find out what I'm up to now
noeldemartin.com
And in case you want to learn to play the guitar online, I can recommend Justin's website. I learned to play guitar from his courses a while ago, and he's an awesome teacher :). www.justinguitar.com
Learn how to play guitar with JustinGuitar.com
The best online guitar lessons are free! Learn to play guitar with fast, fun, and effective courses and song lessons for beginners and up! Community support!
www.justinguitar.com
January 2, 2026 at 8:52 AM
If you enjoyed that fingerstyle video, you definitely have to check out Tommy Emmanuel :D.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cHe...
Somewhere Over The Rainbow | Tommy Emmanuel
YouTube video by Tommy Emmanuel, CGP
www.youtube.com
January 2, 2026 at 8:50 AM
I ended up writing a mini-blogpost in my development journal. If you feel like reading some of my ranting, check it out: noeldemartin.com/tasks/learni...
Learning React
I've been avoiding it since 2019, but I cannot run away anymore: I'm learning React. My favourite fr...
noeldemartin.com
December 11, 2025 at 7:34 PM
I recently got into React again... and this is how it's going so far 😅.
December 11, 2025 at 7:34 PM
@thisismissem.social Hey, since we were talking about ATProto the other day, do you have any thoughts on this? I know Solid isn't great at this either, but at least SAI is supposed to solve it "at some point".
December 5, 2025 at 5:48 AM
It's the first time I'm trying to use another ATProto app (other than Bluesky), and this looks a bit scary 😅. Why does this app need so many permissions? Couldn't they be limited to the lexicon the app uses or something?
December 4, 2025 at 4:49 PM
In theory yes, RDF has a lot of edge cases and awkwardness. But in practice, I can't say that's ever been a problem for me making apps. I addressed this in a presentation I did specifically about DX www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghGm...
Thoughts on Solid Developer Experience | Solid Symposium 2024 | Noel De Martin
YouTube video by Noel De Martin
www.youtube.com
November 30, 2025 at 7:50 PM
And if ATProtocol eventually tackles private data, I won't consider it a viable replacement until there is more than one implementation for the PDS servers. As far as I know, there is only one at the moment.
November 30, 2025 at 6:40 AM
By the way, I don't think JSON-LD or RDF are the reason why Solid isn't working. It's the fact that the protocol itself is not being updated to solve problems that come up when developing apps, and also there isn't many people in the ecosystem working on DX or UX.
November 30, 2025 at 6:40 AM
Thanks for the shout-out :). Yeah, I would agree that Solid is not doing great... I haven't looked much into ATProtocol, because it's mostly for public data. But if they tackle the private use-case, I agree it can achieve Solid's vision. But I haven't looked into lexicons, so I can't say for sure.
November 30, 2025 at 6:38 AM
The only one I haven't watched is Idle Hands, but I liked the other ones you mention so I'll check it out :).
October 2, 2025 at 3:50 PM
If you're a fan of the Spooky Season, make sure to check out Media Kraken this month! You'll find my Halloween movie recommendations, and a couple more surprises!

What are your favorite Halloween movies?
October 1, 2025 at 5:06 PM
🔴 Hey! Remember that I'll be live in Today's LoFi Meetup. Starting ~20 minutes from now. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDQM...
Lofi/30 (Local-First) Meetup -- Tuesday September 30, 2025 at 8AM PST
YouTube video by Local First (LoFi.so)
www.youtube.com
September 30, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Noel De Martin
📣 Tune in for #LoFi/30 on Tuesday @ 8 AM PST (September 30, 2025) for yet another exciting lineup:
1️⃣ @noeldemartin.com - entrepreneur & SolidProtocol.org dev
2️⃣ German Jablonski - Creator of Fluski, DocNode & working on Paylod @ Figma.
3️⃣ Akshay Kumar - Founder of oorja.io

👉🏽 lofi.so
September 27, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Next week I'll join the lofi.so livestream to talk about my work on Solid and Local-First. You can watch live on Tuesday, September 30th, at 8am PT; or catch the recording later on.

www.youtube.com/@local-first...
Local-First Software
lofi.so
September 24, 2025 at 5:15 PM
This is the quote in case you're wondering:

"I still think Solid is the best thing that could happen to the Web (and maybe software in general). Even if there's only a slight chance that it works out, I'd regret not trying.".
September 10, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Here's something I never thought would happen, I'm quoted in Tim Berners-Lee's new book 🤯. That's awesome! Thanks @timbl.bsky.social :D.
September 10, 2025 at 6:03 PM
If you're a frontend developer, you may be thinking that modals were solved years ago. But there's something that's always bothered me. And once you see it, you won't be able to unsee it. #VueJS #Frontend

noeldemartin.com/blog/the-pro...
The Problems With Modals, and How to Solve Them
I have been building UIs on the web for 10+ years, and most of the time I've been using a component framework like Vue. There have definitely been some ups and downs in the frontend space, but overall...
noeldemartin.com
August 4, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Aquesta foto no és realista, tothom sap que els cereals van abans que la llet 🙈.
July 11, 2025 at 5:48 AM
Ara qué fas servir? Jo Feedly, pero també ho vull abandonar quan pugui xD.
July 8, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Another one bites the dust!

#Pocket is shutting down tomorrow... So, what are you switching to? I already learned the lesson, and I've been moving all my apps to Solid. In today's video, I'll build a Pocket replacement.

youtu.be/Xtxwbz7LrfU
Pocket is going away... Let's build a replacement with Solid!
YouTube video by Noel De Martin
youtu.be
July 7, 2025 at 12:08 PM
So... yeah. I don't know what else to say 🤷. Hopefully, this sort of thing is the exception rather than the rule.

If you don't know about my previous experience applying, I wrote about it in my blog: noeldemartin.com/blog/the-sou...
The Soul-Crushing Reality of Job Seeking
I've found myself looking for a job a couple of times in my career, and it has always been a grueling experience. This time, it doesn't seem like it's getting any better.
noeldemartin.com
June 25, 2025 at 5:58 PM
This is not the first time that I found about some "hidden rules" to bypass the normal granting process.

I don't think they are making it up, but the reality is very different from what is written in their website: nlnet.nl/useroperated... (check out the question "can you postpone the deadline?")
NLnet; Frequently Asked (and/or Anticipated) Questions
nlnet.nl
June 25, 2025 at 5:58 PM
I was hesitant to share this publicly, because I do think NLNet are doing a great job supporting important projects that wouldn't be sustainable otherwise. But as a frustrated past applicant, I think it's also important that I share this, because the granting process is not as fair as it seems.
June 25, 2025 at 5:58 PM