Hackers' Pub is a place for software engineers to share their knowledge and experience with each other. It's also an ActivityPub-enabled social network, so you can follow your favorite hackers in the fediverse and get their latest posts in your feed.
Here's my definition of federation:
> Federation: a technical approach to communication architecture which achieves decentralization by many independent nodes cooperating and communicating to be a unified whole, with no node holding more power than the responsibility or communication of its parts.
Now historically, federation has been achieved on the fediverse via "message passing". Actually, this is to the degree where I just always associated message passing with federation, but really, federation is about the distribution of power, creating an abstract whole in a sea of autonomy.
On top of "message passing" we will build "publish-subscribe" as a second-layer abstraction
"Your ideas are interesting and I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter."
You send me a letter saying you'd like to hear the things I have to say, okay, you're part of the reader list. That's how it works.
On top of that we can build even more abstractions and the net result is that this is how federation works in pretty much every "federated" system I know.
ActivityPub does some extra work to help you see replies on a thread, think "letters to the editor". This is a bit lossy sometimes though
switched my editor font to maple mono and i like it https://font.subf.dev/en/
It's true that sometimes users click over to a thread and see some replies but not all on their instance's UI. There's things that could be done to improve it, but it's sometimes mildly confusing, but not so bad, and you can click over typically to see whatever else is happening, and people learn to
I actually think this is improvable but I mostly don't care because this isn't as big a complaint as people tend to think it is on the fediverse, the other concerns like "what instance do I pick" tend to be bigger and "oh no my server went down"
That can be improved, we'll talk about that later
So let me introduce two models of communication which we can use to analyze these two systems. It's important!
- Fediverse/ActivityPub: "message passing"
- Bluesky/ATProto: "shared heap"
Okay, cool, terms established, let's talk about them and why they matter because they matter A LOT
"Message passing" is what ActivityPub uses. It's "like email", people say, and that's true.
Actually it's even a lot like physical mail. You write a letter, you say where it should go, it gets delivered to your house.
Message passing. The world runs on it.
Portable #ActivityPub objects with server-independent IDs https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep/src/branch/main/fep/ef61/fep-ef61.md
But to Bluesky's credit, Twitter's DMs aren't decentralized either! And getting and shipping something that works, now for the influx of Twitter users, again... I am sympathetic
Bluesky's team is doing an INCREDIBLE JOB in that way of scaling to meet the incoming stream of Twitter refugees
On that note, again, I am not reading the replies right now because I am (a) afraid to and (b) I'm never gonna finish this and we are a bit over HALFWAY THROUGH the analysis but I have this fear that EVERYONE is mad at me, Bluesky fans, fediverse fans
I am trying to be analytical. I am trying!!!
On that note, again, I am not reading the replies right now because I am (a) afraid to and (b) I'm never gonna finish this and we are a bit over HALFWAY THROUGH the analysis but I have this fear that EVERYONE is mad at me, Bluesky fans, fediverse fans
I am trying to be analytical. I am trying!!!
I said we are about halfway through and criminy we're halfway through the afternoon, I need a break to get some tea
We have a few big topics left:
- Decentralized identity, how does it work (magnets too, yes)
- The Org is a Future Adversary
- Christine critiques the fediverse
- Wrap up
I have returned, with tea
I am still not reading notifications. Well, I have seen a few fly by on the fediverse which is blipping and blooping nonstop in the Mastodon UI so people are clearly reading it there
Bluesky says "30+". How big is the +?? I will resist temptation to look and assume "31"
"Where are we going with this Christine?"
Well you could have just read the blogpost but 3 more sections remain, we are approximately 2/3 there
I know, bear with me, what is left is:
- What should the fediverse do?
- Preparing for the organization as a future adversary
- Conclusions
It is time for TEA BREAK 2: THE REHEATENING
I will also go to the bathroom
TMI? If you've read this far into this weird thread I am already giving you too much info
=== TEA BREAK 2 ===
I have returned, with tea
I am still not reading notifications. Well, I have seen a few fly by on the fediverse which is blipping and blooping nonstop in the Mastodon UI so people are clearly reading it there
Bluesky says "30+". How big is the +?? I will resist temptation to look and assume "31"
This isn't the only time I left a critique of ActivityPub-as-Deployed as opposed to ActivityPub-as-it-could-be: see also OCapPub, which critiques the anti-abuse tools of AP as inadequate and leading to "the nation-state'ification of the fediverse" https://gitlab.com/spritely/ocappub/blob/master/README.org
Oh, and ocaps!!!
ActivityPub left giant holes in the spec around two things which sound the same but which are not the same: Authentication and Authorization
Trying to mix these two, you accidentally get ACLs, and then you get confused deputies and ambient authority, plagues of the security world
Alright you've heard enough critiques of Bluesky for a bit and I SAID I was gonna critique the fediverse and I am a WOMAN OF MY WORD
So let's get into it!
I have actually critiqued ActivityPub and the fediverse a lot! I have kind of never stopped critiquing it, ever since the spec was released. There's a lot that can be improved!
I have even gotten criticism from AT LEAST ONE ActivityPub spec author for critiquing AP-as-deployed but I do anyway
Before we get into the next section, earlier I left an easter egg, which you could reply to and say "I found the easter egg" or something
Now you can put 2 eggs
I 2 was once an egg
(Look I specifically transitioned so I could never be accused of making dad jokes again so that does not qualify)
Alright you've heard enough critiques of Bluesky for a bit and I SAID I was gonna critique the fediverse and I am a WOMAN OF MY WORD
So let's get into it!
Content addressing is important. It should not matter where content "lives". It should be able to live anywhere.
A server should be able to go down, and content should survive.
Go content addressing!
Actually with this and several other things I am going to bring up, I actually made sure there was space to do things right: there was a push to make ActivityPub "https-only"
I pushed back on that, I didn't want that requirement, and it was exactly for this reason: enabling content addressing
Actually something that is funny about ActivityPub is that there's "ActivityPub the spec", which I think is pretty solid for the most part, and "ActivityPub-as-deployed"
Many of the critiques I'm about to lay out we left holes in the spec for which I hoped would be filled with the right answers
One thing we have already discussed so, before I will say anything else, I will repeat: content addressing is really good, and I'd like to see it happen in ActivityPub, and it's *possible to do*, I even wrote a demo of it https://gitlab.com/spritely/golem/blob/master/README.org
Bluesky does the right thing here, AP should too
Anyway, if you know *anything* about me, you know I am a big fan of capability security (ocaps) and that's the foundation of our work over at 
@spritelyThe Spritely Institute
But we will come back to ocaps in a second because it turns out OCapPub is not the only time I proposed AP + ocaps!
The other time I wrote about ActivityPub + ocaps was in a proposal to, yes, Twitter's Bluesky process in 2020 with Jay Graber titled... "ActivityPub + OCaps"! https://gitlab.com/-/snippets/2535398
I think that document laid out all the right ideas for *the fediverse* (not saying bsky, the fediverse)
I have actually critiqued ActivityPub and the fediverse a lot! I have kind of never stopped critiquing it, ever since the spec was released. There's a lot that can be improved!
I have even gotten criticism from AT LEAST ONE ActivityPub spec author for critiquing AP-as-deployed but I do anyway
Actually something that is funny about ActivityPub is that there's "ActivityPub the spec", which I think is pretty solid for the most part, and "ActivityPub-as-deployed"
Many of the critiques I'm about to lay out we left holes in the spec for which I hoped would be filled with the right answers
Now I want to be clear here that I *don't* think that proposal was necessarily the right one for Bluesky, and I *do* think Jay Graber *was* the right person to lead Bluesky
What I wanted to do required a lot more research, and we have done that over at @spritelyThe Spritely Institute instead
The reason I bring up the proposal here is that I think it has all the right analysis of *what the fediverse should do*, if it was going to rise to the challenge of fulfilling its true potential
So let me lay out what the things in that proposal were:
Remember when I said that IMO @jay.bsky.team is the right person to lead Bluesky and that I am sympathetic with many design decisions of Bluesky (even if critical of them for being non-decentralized)?
Bluesky is building what they can for a scale big objective. The tech flows from goals.
So too does the social structure flow from the tech. It does on Bluesky, and it does on the fediverse.
I won't elaborate further on this, I actually would like you to pause and think about it. In which ways are tech and social systems bidirectional, here and otherwise? It's important.
Spec-wise in ActivityPub, I think it's possible. The ecosystem, as deployed? I think the ecosystem can and will only do part of it, if we really get everyone excited, maybe the content addressed storage and decentralized identity parts, in which case the fediverse will also survive nodes going down
The ocap stuff, I tried getting fediverse implementers excited about this and tbh, it's pretty hard to design into a Ruby on Rails or Django style framework and mindset. Backporting the right designs to existing systems is a real challenge.
Especially ocaps need to go bottom-up.
For this reason, @spritelyThe Spritely Institute's tech looks like it's very focused on computer science'y low-level BS, but that's actually because it's *too hard to build the systems I want right now on top of current technology*, we need stronger foundations
But people have to build for today too
Let's leave the ocap stuff to the side for now, then. Let's focus on what Bluesky and the fediverse have to learn from each other.
- The fediverse should adopt content-addressed storage and decentralized identity
- Bluesky should adopt real, actual federation and decentralization
The reason I bring up the proposal here is that I think it has all the right analysis of *what the fediverse should do*, if it was going to rise to the challenge of fulfilling its true potential
So let me lay out what the things in that proposal were:
Here is your recipe for making the "Correct Fediverse IMO (TM)":
- Integrate ocaps, which is possible because actor model + ocaps compose
- Content addressed storage!
- Decentralized identity (notice the *y*, I did not say DIDs) on top of ~mutable CAS storage
- Petname system UX
(cotd...)
(cotd ...)
- Better anti-spam / anti-harassment using OCapPub ideas
- Improved privacy with E2EE ("encrypted p2p" even a better goal)
Whew! An improved fediverse?
"Uh, Christine, this sounds like a lot, do you think the fediverse can take this on?"
Spec-wise in ActivityPub, I think it's possible. The ecosystem, as deployed? I think the ecosystem can and will only do part of it, if we really get everyone excited, maybe the content addressed storage and decentralized identity parts, in which case the fediverse will also survive nodes going down
Let's leave the ocap stuff to the side for now, then. Let's focus on what Bluesky and the fediverse have to learn from each other.
- The fediverse should adopt content-addressed storage and decentralized identity
- Bluesky should adopt real, actual federation and decentralization
The vision laid out for the fediverse, both independently in my writings and even in Jay Graber and I's joint proposal... well, it's a big lift.
@spritelyThe Spritely Institute would like to see if we can retrofit our version onto ActivityPub. Time will tell if that's a separate thing.
And perhaps this is all my *massive* Cassandra complex speaking. I won't deny that I have one, for better or worse
Still, despite all I have said about both Bluesky and the fediverse technically, it is because I want a hopeful direction for all of us. Secure collaboration. More important than ever.
Here is your recipe for making the "Correct Fediverse IMO (TM)":
- Integrate ocaps, which is possible because actor model + ocaps compose
- Content addressed storage!
- Decentralized identity (notice the *y*, I did not say DIDs) on top of ~mutable CAS storage
- Petname system UX
(cotd...)
(cotd ...)
- Better anti-spam / anti-harassment using OCapPub ideas
- Improved privacy with E2EE ("encrypted p2p" even a better goal)
Whew! An improved fediverse?
"Uh, Christine, this sounds like a lot, do you think the fediverse can take this on?"
Of course, adapting an existing system as deployed isn't easy.
I will say though that I think if Bluesky were to become *actually decentralized* it would look a lot like ActivityPub in terms of having directed messaging. This will also introduce similar challenges around eg replies, etc.
The fediverse and Bluesky, at great effort, could learn a lot from each other in the immediate term.
In the longer term, neither is implementing the ocap vision I think is critical for the big vision, and in a way, I think maybe neither can be easily rearchitected to achieve it. Well, not yet.
When I laid out the ideas of OCapPub to various fediverse developers, the response was "this sounds cool but I have *no idea* how to retrofit a Rails/Django app for this kind of actor-oriented design".
And they were right.
Remember when I said Conway's Law flows in both directions?
So too does the social structure flow from the tech. It does on Bluesky, and it does on the fediverse.
I won't elaborate further on this, I actually would like you to pause and think about it. In which ways are tech and social systems bidirectional, here and otherwise? It's important.
The vision laid out for the fediverse, both independently in my writings and even in Jay Graber and I's joint proposal... well, it's a big lift.
@spritelyThe Spritely Institute would like to see if we can retrofit our version onto ActivityPub. Time will tell if that's a separate thing.
Of course, adapting an existing system as deployed isn't easy.
I will say though that I think if Bluesky were to become *actually decentralized* it would look a lot like ActivityPub in terms of having directed messaging. This will also introduce similar challenges around eg replies, etc.
To the end of the fediverse, perhaps I sound bitter, "they didn't adopt ActivityPub the way *I* saw it!"
The truth is that Mastodon didn't, but Mastodon also saved ActivityPub. It then painted a vision of the future that wasn't, at least, what Jessica Tallon and I expected of it. But it saved AP.
Before I get any further, I just want to say that the Spritely Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, your donations are tax-deductible in the US!
And we have a few different donor levels... some of them even let you get your name in video game credits! (More on that in a few!)
Spritely is built by people who know and understand decentralized (social) networks and their strengths and weaknesses today very well: 
@tsyesikaJessica Tallon and I, two co-founders (and the first two working on Spritely's engineering) are both co-authors of the ActivityPub spec powering the fediverse!
Spritely is built by people who know and understand decentralized (social) networks and their strengths and weaknesses today very well: @tsyesikaJessica Tallon and I, two co-founders (and the first two working on Spritely's engineering) are both co-authors of the ActivityPub spec powering the fediverse!
Unfortunately it's not feasible or easy to do everything we'd like in decentralized social networks today... not on the fediverse nor anywhere!
The vision of Spritely is "secure collaboration". Finding how to do it was a four-year research project before the Spritely Institute even launched!
To the end of the fediverse, perhaps I sound bitter, "they didn't adopt ActivityPub the way *I* saw it!"
The truth is that Mastodon didn't, but Mastodon also saved ActivityPub. It then painted a vision of the future that wasn't, at least, what Jessica Tallon and I expected of it. But it saved AP.
The fediverse and Bluesky, at great effort, could learn a lot from each other in the immediate term.
In the longer term, neither is implementing the ocap vision I think is critical for the big vision, and in a way, I think maybe neither can be easily rearchitected to achieve it. Well, not yet.
[Do not turn off fediverse]
I laid out definitions of "decentralization" and "federation", and Bluesky meets neither, without major rearchitecting or moving the goalposts on those terms, which I cannot accept.
However, "credible exit" is a good goal for Bluesky. Bluesky created that term and it's a good and feasible goal.
I laid out a strong critique, but let me end on a call to empathy.
Bluesky is built by good people, and the fediverse is built by good people. Neither reflect the designs I presently would like to see today, but ultimately these are built by humans trying their absolute hardest.
I don't know about you, but there's a lot about the world today that worries me. I don't think building decentralized versions of Web 2.0 era social networks is going to get us there.
We need tech that's secure, that's robust.
We need tech that's *participatory*.
We need tech for you and me.
One of the things I'm most proud of about the fediverse is that it owes its success to a lot of queer people working on it. This lead to the fediverse being very queer itself. I'm proud of that.
Maybe it's weird to say, but that seems to be happening again with Spritely.
My girlfriend 
@vvvivi 💫 and I made a music video together called "In Unexpected Places"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88JUfWLJJ5g
https://share.tube/w/k6zcRg7zbR1BRvuedseTGZ
It's about a low-poly eye that falls in love with a cube (sorta). We made it a while ago (@vvvivi 💫 made the music and I animated it) and I'm still very proud of it!
Because I constantly hear myths about the good old compact cassette here's a longer post dispelling them:
1. They can sound as good as CDs
2. They don't wear out
3. You can't use a pencil to wind them
4. You can go to specific tracks automatically
5. You don't need to carry around extra batteries
I will elaborate below:
1. Sound Quality
Many higher-end decks can record cassettes on metal tape with various Dolby noise reduction settings; especially the combination of metal tape and Dolby S will make tapes that are pretty much indistinguishable from listening to a CD.
Even normal or chrome tape with Dolby B (around since the 1970s) will give great results; likely indistinguishable from a CD when played in a car or while out and about with a personal player.
Some extremely high-end tape decks produce better than CD results in some regards (for example some Nakamichi models go to 26KHz+ with frequency response, while CD are inherently limited to top out at 22KHz).
It's true that the dynamic range of CDs is much better than either vinyl records or tapes. However, unless you're super into classical music there's likely not much music for which this truly matters, as 99% is mastered to use much less dynamic range than provided by any audio media format. (If you're super into classical music you probably want SACD or other high-res lossless sources anyway, not CDs.)
2. Yes, it will wear out mechanically but you will wear out mechanically before it does. Please watch VWestlife's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dgJ4hRHBiw
3. European and American pencils are too thin to engage the cassette reel cogs. (You'd need to get a Japanese pencil. People mostly used BIC pens for this purpose which have the right thickness.)
4. Most (nice) decks and personal players from the early-to-mid nineties onwards have track skip features (e.g. Sony has AMS, Automatic Music Sensor), which allow precise winding to a specific track.
Some decks even did this in the early 80s!
5. My late-90s Walkman has seventy-eight (78) hours of playback on one (1) single AA battery.
Anyway, the main reason why I like them is they're fun to use and recording them is very deliberate instead of algorithms selecting music for me. :)
Solo Leveling’s Adaptation and the Echoes of Anti-Korean Sentiment and Japanese Imperialism
Solo Leveling’s Japanese release removed all references to Korea–a glaring decision when the Jeju Island Arc blatantly parallels Japan’s colonization of Korea.
https://www.animefeminist.com/solo-levelings-adaptation-anti-korean-sentiment/
Show HN: Smooth CLI – Token-efficient browser for AI agents
Link: https://docs.smooth.sh/cli/overview
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46901233
RE: https://solarpunk.moe/@vv/115296641911502837
Hi! It's #BandcampFriday if you would like to support my music with all the funds going to me!
I've just released a new song made with my m8! Presenting "marmalade coast" by EncryptedWhispers!
I am very proud of this one and I think it's quite nice and relaxing
CC-BY SA
Now available for purchase on Bandcamp
https://encryptedwhispers.bandcamp.com/track/marmalade-coast
#bandcamp #bandcampMusic #newMusic #electronicMusic #synth #DirtyWaveM8 #originalMusic #beach #sunny
Check out my newly-released track mystic! Finished ages ago, but just sat on my hard drive because i'm a goober (a cute lil peanut)
https://encryptedwhispers.bandcamp.com/track/mystic
#EncryptedWhispers #M8Tracker #synthesizer #chill #NewMusic #bandcamp #OriginalMusic #Music #MastoArt
presenting, ARIDMIRA by #EncryptedWhispers ! now out on #bandcamp
https://encryptedwhispers.bandcamp.com/track/aridmira
#m8Tracker #NewMusic #Dawless #ElectronicMusic #SynthFam #music #transMusician
Ancient... Angel... Above...
#EncryptedWhispers presents a new track... AAA
out now
https://encryptedwhispers.bandcamp.com/track/aaa
greater
danger coming
believe
#musician #newMusic #m8tracker #trackerMusic #electronicMusic #synth #music
Random Acts of Malice by EncryptedWhispers, out now. Please enjoy this track made in a single session without the ability to save or take a break.
https://encryptedwhispers.bandcamp.com/track/random-acts-of-malice
#bandcamp #dawless #m8tracker #NewMusic #artist #musician #electronicMusic #trackerMusic
I have finally created a BandCamp account for my music under the name EncryptedWhispers! I have put two tracks on there so far, but expect more in the future.
One of these is Stratosphere Kickflip: https://encryptedwhispers.bandcamp.com/track/stratosphere-kickflip
You may kick me a coin or two if you wish.
RE: https://solarpunk.moe/@vv/115323336969148684
I provided the cover art on this one. One of my fave tracks by any artist, but extra cool that this artist is my gf :3
string escaping is literally an application of hilbert hotel
Inside Fediverse
Cat 🐈🥗 (D.Burch) 
@
Ian Wagner
