Amin Dost

fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list!Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

Posts

Post #4191154
@tog is domestic saw blade sharpening still a thing? Can you recommend anyone?
Post #4191153
A huge THANK YOU to the protesters and activists responsible for causing Powerscourt Hotel to choose to cancel an upcoming conference due to be attended by "200 senior figures from the world of politics, technology and defence" organised by technofascist Peter Thiel's Dialog group. The event is a material source of annual revenue [for Stonebrick LLC, trading as Dialog] and it expects to face a refund liability as a result of the cancellation of some $2.2 million (€1.9 million). h...
Post #3748221
@tschak@oldbytes.space they came out rather well! #Fujunet
Post #1869306
I try to understand sociotechnical systems and why they succeed or fail. Books like "From Whirlwind to MITRE: the R&amp;D story of the SAGE Air Defense Computer" are very revealing about how a hugely expensive and risky research project can be brought to successful completion: among the factors are shit-tons of money, strong oversight and solid organisational backing thanks to a handful of key personal relationships. I'm currently reading "Genesis of the Jet: Frank Whitt...
Post #1869304
@davidgerard I really enjoyed a chance to hear you talking off the cuff in a longer format on https://share.transistor.fm/s/55b01c02, David!
Post #1834342
This Guardian article https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/29/claude-ai-deletes-firm-database suffers from the same trap of anthropomorphism as the original I read: https://oldbytes.space/@fluidlogic/116482496017786464 agent gone rogue These tools have no concept of what a job is. They don't go rogue, they produce plausible text. Now complete idiots have wired them to command lines (the old school but still powerful way for humans to interact with computers) and APIs (programmat...
Post #1754133
This is fucking hilarious. @parismarx keeps the schtick going the whole way through. https://disconnect.blog/on-the-abdication-of-chief-prophet-tim-cook/ #TechWontSaveUs
Post #1754132
@felimwhiteley I appreciated the vehemence of your position on AI coding tools as expressed on today's #LateNightLinux: https://latenightlinux.com/late-night-linux-episode-383/ Are you aware if @degville and Will (is he on the Fediverse?) have read any of Ed Zitron's exhaustive analysis¹ of the completely insane ways in which the leading LLM coding assistant companies are setting money on fire? For each dollar subscribers spend, the LLM companies are subsidising by up to $15. The busine...
Post #1454321
The latest #PivotToAi episode by @davidgerard is just brilliant. Pivot to AI: 20260413 - AI doomsday cultist throws Molotov at Sam Altman’s house Episode webpage: http://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20260413-ai-doomsday-cultist-throws-molotov-at-sam-altmans-house Media file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/45fb8198-0759-425c-8e91-d25d321575a7/20260413.mp3?dest-id=5006510
Post #1403854
I'm going back through the @ataripodcast library and heard @savetz mention a fun interview with Mark Knutsen, who won first prize at a science fair with his simulation of the gravitational interactions between four stars, which he implemented in #ValFORTH on an #Atari800 after reading an article by A. K. Dewdney in the January 1986 #ScientificAmerican magazine, outlining how star cluster behaviour is investigated using computational models. The interview with Mark Knutsen is on YouTube, whe...
Post #1356113
You thought things were bad at #TheDocumentFoundation? I suggest re-reading ejected founder Michael Meeks' 1st April post. He's provided several updates. https://www.collaboraonline.com/blog/tdf-ejects-its-core-developers/ Follow the links in Meeks' post. The dysfunction he highlights at TDF is breathtaking. The evidence he brings to bear shows TDF is toxic to its core and is no longer fit to serve the purposes of #LibreOffice or its community. It solely exists now to perpetuate i...
Post #1266264
On episode 127 of "ANTIC, The Atari 8-bit Podcast: Brad's 76K Brain", Brad Arnold mentions the game "Omnitrend's Universe", which is new to me. Episode webpage: https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-episode-127-brads-76k-brain Media file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/ataripodcast/127ANTIC_2026_04_Brads_76K_Brain.mp3?dest-id=146000 About the game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe_(1983_video_game) Get the game: https://www.atarimania.com/pgesoft.awp?ve...
Post #1041211
Laine Nooney's"The Apple II Age" is packed full of superb, fresh insights into the character of the forces acting to shape how personal computing came to be defined during the pivotal years between 1977 and 1984. For example, here are a couple of pages on the compromises teacher and software author Tom Snyder had to make - sacrificing his goal of fostering collaboration and consensus-building among a group of students through exploration - to the neoliberal imperative of isolated...
Post #1041209
Superb keynote by @LaineNooney at #INITHELLO now up on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5XVojLWIQo It's a talk about the historiography of the history of computing, by way of their book "The Apple II Age". ...my secret anxiety... is that we have vastly misunderstood the actual powers at play that have put these technologies on our desks and in our pockets. ...a huge part of what drove the adoption of personal computing were the financial motivations of a small, elite...
Post #1010599
The Commodore C64C I picked up a few weeks back cleaned up nicely and needed exactly zero electronic work! I had no Commodore-specific accessories, like keyboard springs, power supply or video lead, so I've been buying those bits piecemeal as the need arose and as my optimism increased that the machine was probably going to be fixable with my minimal electronic repair skills. Just a few days ago, I had the board out, powered up, but with no monitor attached. Between scoping CPU and memory...
Post #320566
#retrocomputing folks: I'm trying to get a sense of the proportion of people here who are into a given class of retrocomputer today but didn't experience the machines when they first came on the market. I want everyone's input! Please boost! This poll is about the early consumer home computers released between say 1977 and 1994. Minicomputer poll: https://oldbytes.space/@fluidlogic/116026497511100991 32-bit home/personal computer poll: https://oldbytes.space/@fluidlogic/1160266051...