Nostr Web Client

Watching hundreds of thousands of logs fly by for some shred deployed infrastructure in a relatively small web app always makes me kind of queasy. The mindboggling amount of bits rocketing around the internet every millisecond is.. I don't even know how to qualify it. It's something like a religious experience?

It's both nauseating and awe-inspiring. Both "how can this possibly all continue to work?!" and "holy shit... we've managed to make this all work...?!"

It all feels terrifyingly fragile. Yet at the same time, it doesn't even hold a weak candle to the necessarily-still-hanging-together complexity of the "information system" of the natural world, and _that_ seems to keep working. We're just piggyibacking an itty-bitty bit of manmade junk sprinkled on top of the logical substrate of the universe.

I'm blathering... If you've ever watched logs flying by your screen in the right state of mind maybe you know what I mean. (not to mention that the "text logs" themselves are a "simple" narrative abstraction over a horrifically complex system that underpins them. Eeek! It's downright Lovecraftian)

Dr. Hax 2mo ago

I make and use the simplest possible technology for this exact reason.

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vinney...axkl 2mo ago

do you mean non-digital technology?

Dr. Hax 2mo ago

Sometimes. I'll use pen and paper over computers in some situations, for example.

But mostly I was referrimg to my preference for digital technology that are simple, stable and have long term support. These go hand in hand, but we seem to live in a world of npm and docker compose, and so many other projects and frameworks that have hundreds or thousands of dependencies. And that's how we get incidents like left-pad... To your point, it's a wonder we don't see more things like that breaking like that.

vinney...axkl 2mo ago

my personal website is very simple, self-hosted, no js no docker etc. its a nice break from the complexities of daily professional work.

i wonder if you like functional programning? its complex, but "simple and reliable" in a fashion.

Vyram Kraven 2mo ago

I like no js & no cloudflare

Dr. Hax 2mo ago

I like the concept, but I found I haven't enjoyed programming in them when I tried. Sometimes I just want to update a valuable, ya know? 😅

But I use Anisible in a declarative manner, which is along those same lines. Trying to minimize the number of changes when I re-run a role is like an addictive game. That and ansible-lint.

vinney...axkl 2mo ago

> I like the concept, but I found I haven't enjoyed programming in them when I tried. Sometimes I just want to update a valuable, ya know? 😅

hah yes this is exactly how i feel.