new domain, who dis?

a lesson in webdev and a look into what's next

dotfiles dropping soon, trust

February 2025 (1366 Words, 8 Minutes)

note: while writing this post, i slowly started talking about things that i did not consider the subject when i started. it’s all over the place. here be dragons.

other note: off to a solid start with a half-incomprehensible blog post

other other note: this post is not the most sophisticated from a language standpoint, in more ways than one. you’ve been warned.

what this post was originally about

imagine my surprise when i found out this domain was available.

now, mind you, i hadn’t really had any forethought to any of this. i just wanted a website, y’know, maybe an email with that domain. normal website stuff. i had envisioned it taking ten, maybe fifteen minutes to get a site hosted once i actually bought the domain. it took (checking wakatime right now hold on) three hours and 15 minutes, at minimum. and that isn’t including any of the other stuff:

• took a solid hour or two to actually get the domain
• i set up email first, which meant i had to spend 30 minutes trying to actually purchase a plan with my email provider, and then actually fiddle with configurations for another hour to get email sending to and from my domain
• spent a while perusing the web for jekyll themes
  • also had to actually discover jekyll
• struggle with ruby and dependency hell, give up, come back a week later, completely nuke the ruby install, and only then get the damn thing to start
• spend like 2 hours trying to change the theme colors
• now’s a good time to mention i really do not like webdev
• like. im serious. my first programming language (well, real programming language) was java, my next was kotlin, and my third was rust (still learning)
• did i mention how long it took to change the colors

hold on im gonna eat be right back

oh hey happy 119th anniversary to the teddy bear. thats pretty neat.

okay. what was i saying?

right, hatred for webdev.

the culture

so basically you have three stereotypical types of programmers, right:

1. crypto-bro tech-bro tesla elon musk grifter X-formerly-twitter stupid-ass lame-ass boring-ass rich-ass 20s-30s white cis men
2. sysadmins
3. trans folks

you will Never Guess which side of programming tech bros most often falls under!

it’s webdev. it’s always webdev everything is done in webdev webpages desktop apps mobile apps car apps¹ embedded systems² rockets³ it’s all webdev forever and i HATE it

HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT FOR YOU. HATE. HATE.

i like to say webdev is the most gentrified field of programming on account of the culture surrounding it. there’s a lot of disregard for things like efficiency, which is how you end up with single-page applications that do nothing and yet take up half a gig of memory and multiple gigs of storage space.

of course, that isn’t to say that everyone who does any web programming should be banished to the Shadow Realm™; a lot of people who don’t fall under the techbro umbrella make websites and are perfectly good people. it’s just that the proportion of non-hacker-types in webdev is massive compared to everything else. actually, speaking of,

what we’ve lost

okay so i was not alive for this and chances are you weren’t either (unless you’re in your sixties, because in order to actually have been part of it you would have had to be in one of these universities)⁴ but back in the eighties the hacker culture really took off. you’ve got the jargon file, stanford ai lab, mit ai lab, system-v unix, bsd, sunos, nextstep, the pdp-11, usenet, news groups. this was like the peak of computing. even microsoft recognizes this; they released the ms-dos source code on github. like, when microsoft admits it, it absolutely must be true.

i saw a post some months back in which some famous activist from years ago talked about how hackers these days have no look. i believe he mentioned how he would probably be taking down credit card companies but there isn’t a look to that. i think about this sometimes, and i’ve definitely thought about it quite a bit while writing this. i think what he said rings true: there’s no culture, no look, no unifying attribute to programming anymore. people crack jokes every now and then about how the programmer look nowadays is thigh-highs and a skirt. there’s a lot to unpack there, but i think it’s still pretty telling about how little we define ourselves to be. i guess the closest we’ve gotten to a unifying platform in recent years has been, like, github. everyone has an account. but there’s no way to network, no online community worth sticking around for. irc’s all but abandoned, discord is shoving paid stuff into everyone’s faces, twitter’s a cesspool, reddit sucks, tumblr, bluesky isn’t cemented, and nobody uses mastodon.

okay, now what?

it’s not all bad. the next generation of hackers have a great foundation, with programs like hack club as well as hundreds of worldwide stem initiatives and a massive push for high-school-level programs promising a group with excitement and interest. languages like rust are becoming more mainstream, which may not seem relevant, but the culture these programming languages foster is nothing short of exceptional. programs like the first robotics competition bring in engineering-types, and ostem chapters provides a safe and inclusive outlet for those who may otherwise not have a tolerant network. co-op programs are popular with universities, giving students real-world experience.

this is what i’m talking about. this is what we need to have a second golden age of hacker culture. we may never have another usenet, but we may very damn well come close. and, again, i’m not saying there needs to be another usenet, because a lot of folks have settled into online spaces that they feel comfortable in, and i think that’s wonderful. that is what we need, and that is what we should strive for. in a community that you feel you can express yourself in, you will thrive.

the now

i digress. the past might have been shining, the future may look bright, but what about the now? what can people like you & me do to put this stupid conflict aside? how can we ensure we incorporate bill & ted’s mantra, “be excellent to each other?” and why the hell have i spent two hours on this blog post?⁵

well, you can first start by getting over yourself regarding “kids these days.” i may be guilty of this myself, but ragging on the younger generation and their phones or tiktoks or skibidi toilets or whatever doesn’t get anybody anywhere, and only furthers the generational gap.

same goes in the opposite direction: bemoaning how your folks just don’t understand you or being annoyed that they always go to you for help isn’t a productive use of your time. i know it may not always be possible (inb4 “but i had trauma”) but at least put some damn effort into it. actually talk to them if they’re doing something annoying or hurtful; chances are, they never intended to. i may not be a therapist, but i do know that being on the same page about things is quite useful.

take up a hobby that isn’t computers. learn how to knit. journal. write something. hit the gym. volunteer. read some new books. do some research. build something. go to a concert. learn an instrument. download fl studio. i promise you that it will benefit your mental health, and chances are that you’ll find a community you fit into. humans are social creatures, whether we like it or not.

i know a lot of things are uncertain as of right now, but do not give up. we will thrive as we have for thousands of years, and hopefully for thousands more.

-∆

p.s. look forward to more posts within the next couple weeks, but don’t expect a consistent theme. i’m not entirely sure what i want this blog to look like. edit a month later: i am not great at giving timelines apparently