@david_chisnall Maybe a better analogy: imagine we only had trains and last-mile delivery on horse carts
For 30 years, nerdy rail engineers (on their days off) have tinkered with door-to-door rail networks. They build impressive examples in their back yard – tech that becomes light rail, and is absorbed by existing rail companies
Buses and cars are invented and solve the last-mile problems. They crash due to flaws and operator error all the time.
The backyard rail engineers are angry.
Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
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Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
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Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
@neilk@xoxo.zone
·
1d ago
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Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
@neilk@xoxo.zone
·
1d ago
@david_chisnall As someone who has been an enthusiast and contributor to open source since before it had that name:
We have never delivered on the idea of user-modifiable software. We have sometimes freed software builders from unnecessary toll booths and restrictions. In other words, we built something that works for us and stopped.
I think your analogy of literal crazy taxis is good when talking about LLMs for noncoders. But there was no actual product from FL/OSS world that it’s displacing
We have never delivered on the idea of user-modifiable software. We have sometimes freed software builders from unnecessary toll booths and restrictions. In other words, we built something that works for us and stopped.
I think your analogy of literal crazy taxis is good when talking about LLMs for noncoders. But there was no actual product from FL/OSS world that it’s displacing
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Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
@neilk@xoxo.zone
·
3d ago
@molly0xfff It would be great if they could invent an AI to do the anxiety part for you and leave you the writing
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Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
@neilk@xoxo.zone
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4d ago
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Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
@neilk@xoxo.zone
·
6d ago
@twipped I don’t think that’s true.
There’s all kinds of useful software that’s not being built or could be vastly improved. But the structure of the market and internet tech now favors monopolies. ZIRP is just a part of that. New software companies must promise monopoly-scale profits or that it will be acquired by a monopoly. This distorts everything.
We had the same kind of stagnation in software prior to the internet going mainstream in the 90s
There’s all kinds of useful software that’s not being built or could be vastly improved. But the structure of the market and internet tech now favors monopolies. ZIRP is just a part of that. New software companies must promise monopoly-scale profits or that it will be acquired by a monopoly. This distorts everything.
We had the same kind of stagnation in software prior to the internet going mainstream in the 90s
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Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
@neilk@xoxo.zone
·
Apr 13, 2026
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Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
@neilk@xoxo.zone
·
Apr 10, 2026
@ben actually never mind, you are making a different point. sorry about that
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Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
@neilk@xoxo.zone
·
Apr 07, 2026
My thoughts are with my Iranian friends and their families. None of them support the regime.
Some of them, over the past few months, even dared to hope that American intervention might improve their lives.
Some of them, over the past few months, even dared to hope that American intervention might improve their lives.
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Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
@neilk@xoxo.zone
·
Apr 06, 2026
Americans often seem unequipped to understand that a leader can be an absolute idiot.
The rich must be geniuses. The president must be a strategic mastermind. The belief in meritocracy is deep.
I’ve seen so many people wringing their hands about Trump’s cognitive decline. I don’t see it. In his first administration, he wanted to nuke hurricanes and put venomous creatures in a moat along the US-Mexican border
The rich must be geniuses. The president must be a strategic mastermind. The belief in meritocracy is deep.
I’ve seen so many people wringing their hands about Trump’s cognitive decline. I don’t see it. In his first administration, he wanted to nuke hurricanes and put venomous creatures in a moat along the US-Mexican border
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Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
@neilk@xoxo.zone
·
Apr 04, 2026
mixed feelings about missing the Atmosphere conference currently at UBC. Spouse and I are on a mini working trip elsewhere in BC
mirrors my mixed feelings about Bluesky/ATProto generally. Some great people are in that space but it is very unclear to whose benefit all of this will be. Even disregarding the perfidy of the dominant company, I don’t buy the premise that distributed networks are meaningfully more free, nor that social media feeds are a net good. Other than that it all seems cool 🤷♂️
mirrors my mixed feelings about Bluesky/ATProto generally. Some great people are in that space but it is very unclear to whose benefit all of this will be. Even disregarding the perfidy of the dominant company, I don’t buy the premise that distributed networks are meaningfully more free, nor that social media feeds are a net good. Other than that it all seems cool 🤷♂️
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Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
@neilk@xoxo.zone
·
Mar 31, 2026
the source code for Claude Code leaked. some people have posted analyses using Claude, without reading it. Some people have translated the source to other languages using Claude without reading it. Anthropic uses Claude to make Claude without reading it
This means that you could be the first to read or understand the design
This means that you could be the first to read or understand the design
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Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
@neilk@xoxo.zone
·
Mar 31, 2026
Nicolas Carlini has been experimenting with what attackers can do with tools like Opus 4.6. He found severe security issues in the Linux kernel that had been lurking since 2003
He describes himself as an LLM skeptic, but concludes that LLMs are already better than the top individual security researchers in the world and soon will exceed the collective capability of the entire security community
https://youtu.be/1sd26pWhfmg
He describes himself as an LLM skeptic, but concludes that LLMs are already better than the top individual security researchers in the world and soon will exceed the collective capability of the entire security community
https://youtu.be/1sd26pWhfmg
![Nicholas Carlini - Black-hat LLMs | [un]prompted 2026](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1sd26pWhfmg/hqdefault.jpg)
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Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
@neilk@xoxo.zone
·
Feb 06, 2026
A guy called my dad and said he’d won a million dollars in a contest! All that was needed was to advance $1,000 to cover fees
My dad told the guy he would happily split the winnings, $500K each, if the guy paid the fees for him
The guy hung up
My dad told the guy he would happily split the winnings, $500K each, if the guy paid the fees for him
The guy hung up
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Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
@neilk@xoxo.zone
·
Nov 25, 2025
@sarahtaber@mastodon.online That’s kinda what Electroboom is for electronics
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Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
Neil Kandalgaonkar
@neilk@xoxo.zone
Hacker, bicyclist, househusband. Medium-ochre man in tech. Living in beautiful downtown East Vancouver. You probably have used software I contributed to.
xoxo.zone
@neilk@xoxo.zone
·
Mar 25, 2025
@fj I know this was just a joke, but is there any work on what sorts of communication practices and protocols would be appropriate for both accountability and security?
i.e. non-repudiable, verifiable, archived in a way that can be revealed to legitimate authorities, court orders, or enough time passing
i.e. non-repudiable, verifiable, archived in a way that can be revealed to legitimate authorities, court orders, or enough time passing
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