~/.bnux

“Tech oligarchs are seeking to colonize every part of our society, including public education, using tools like generative AI.” socialistcall.com/2026/10/20/a...

Practicing Vim Instead of Practicing Vim feat: hjkl, a browser game with 101 levels for learning vim https://read.ryancowl.es/posts/practicing-vim-instead-of-practicing-vim/

Resolving Blocked Shortlinks with Alfred feat: Alfred workflow that resolves shortlinks over DoH and strips tracking params https://read.ryancowl.es/posts/resolving-blocked-shortlinks-with-alfred/

🤨

Notes on code review in the time of AI docs: what changes about code review when most of the code was written with an agent https://read.ryancowl.es/posts/code-review-in-the-time-of-ai/

Something about writing MicroPython on an ESP32 gives me the false yet nevertheless comforting feeling that I have some semblance of control over my life

"Martin" is 55 yrs old. "I have 22 yrs of experience picking strawberries -nearly half my life. I'll keep harvesting until I no longer can do so. I haven't taken one break today as every minute counts when working piece rate. I'm not earning enough to pay my bills." #WrFeedYou

"One day, he buys a mule, which provides the worker who uses it with a modest 10 percent productivity gain. Benjamin fires 99 of his workers and purchases 99 mules, expecting a 1,000 percent productivity gain. The driverless mules cause plow damage to his property in excess of $50 million."

Hello from hachyderm test: verify Mastodon syndication after hachyderm migration https://read.ryancowl.es/posts/hello-from-hachyderm/

I turned my website into a personal social network that connects to Bluesky and the Fediverse—here’s how. I'm tired of posting on so many different social networks,... https://justinpot.com/i-turned-my-website-into-a-personal-social-network-that-connects-to-bluesky-and-the-fediverse-heres-how/

With standard.site landing in the Bluesky timeline, I've been trying to learn more about atproto lexicons. I started hacking away at a little proof-of-concept project I'm calling LinkedAt://. Think of it as LinkedIn but maybe less terrible. https://read.ryancowl.es/posts/atproto-job-board/

the worst part about AI coding agents is that kids these days won't experience the joy of vim keybindings

More than 100 people are on hunger strike at Adelanto ICE detention center. Yesterday, families and community members shared what's happening inside. People are forced to eat expired food with maggots in it, denied medical care, and dying in a facility that shows complete disregard for human life.

The web was always social Diving into the idea of bridging different social networks and protocols like ATproto and ActivityPub to enhance the web. Looking back at my personal web journey, from Web 2.0 to now, emphasizing that building connections... https://herve.bzh/the-web-was-always-social/

FOSSE is in preview and Reclaim is headed to WordPress.org feat: announce FOSSE developer preview and Reclaim theme directory work https://read.ryancowl.es/posts/fosse-reclaim-the-web-block-theme/

#atproto folks: how do you decide when to build on an existing lexicon vs. create a new one? I’m especially interested in cases where an existing shape is close but not an exact fit. Are there norms/best practices for proposing changes upstream vs. creating a new lexicon?

I keep seeing pieces likening the AI rollout to the Industrial Revolution. I’ll admit there are similarities between the two. But the similarities I see are not the ones being packaged into neatly wrapped sales pitches about productivity gains and shared prosperity. read.ryancowl.es/posts/aindus...

... need to fix my syndication script

OUR FIGHT: We have taken legal action against The Times for using AI programs to surveil and monitor our members. Read The Verge article here: www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

50% of American workers say they want to join unions, but 10% of workers are IN unions. Where’s the disconnect, you might wonder? The game is rigged. www.epi.org/publication/...

The WordPress team is hard at work bringing decentralized protocols (like @atproto.com!) to the wider web

👀

making huevos rancheros in this economy

I spent the last month on a greenfield project during a company-wide push to use more AI assistance. I wrote up a few DevEx takeaways on dogfooding, PR/deploy queues, and what changes when implementation moves faster. https://read.ryancowl.es/posts/when-writing-code-is-not-the-slow-part/

explaining to my boss that I didn’t need to review that PR because I told my AI to not make any mistakes before committing my .env to a public GitHub repo

What web would you reclaim? On FOSSE, the open web, and what could come next https://read.ryancowl.es/posts/what-web-would-you-reclaim/

What web would you reclaim? On FOSSE, the open web, and what could come next https://read.ryancowl.es/posts/what-web-would-you-reclaim/

We're seeing another uptick in ICE activity and have been supporting local vendors as best we can so they aren't forced to choose between their safety and their livelihood. Please donate if you can! venmo.com/code?user_id...

Pushing Posts to the Atmosphere https://read.ryancowl.es/posts/pushing-posts-to-the-atmosphere/

Yes, and don’t ask again when running another supply chain attack.

Let's try a quote...

A Vim + Tmux + Aider Workflow for Local LLMs read.ryancowl.es/posts/aider-...

reviewers HATE this one simple trick!

Solidaridad para siempre!

2. Yes, and don’t ask again for: rm*

the girls are fightingggggg

broke: commit messages woke: semantic commit messages bespoke: satanic commit messages

tired: `git commit -m "chore: update README"` wired: `git commit -m "chore: update README" && git push` inspired: `chat, light the rain forest on fire, update my readme and push those changes to production`

cd ~

As of today, Starbucks' "Red Cup Day", Starbucks baristas are on strike! Starbucks will learn that red is the color of the workers. PGH DSA calls on our community to respect the picket line and stand with the workers and refuse to drink scab coffee! Solidarity is our strength ! (1/2).

“Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, and tell local cops whether to contact ICE about the person, while simultaneously removing apps designed to warn local communities about the presence of ICE officials.” www.404media.co/google-has-c...

✦⁺₊✩☽⋆𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙨𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙢𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙖⋆☾✩⁺₊✦ (twitter account got banned)

explaining to my kids that I’ll never be able to retire because some nerd kid at DOGE vibe coded their way into dropping the work history table from the Social Security Admin MADAM database because they never heard of COBOL