wingologA mostly dorky weblog by Andy Wingo2012-02-21T12:07:58Ztekutihttps://wingolog.org/feed/atomAndy Wingohttps://wingolog.org/palindromically delimited carnivalhttps://wingolog.org/2012/02/21/palindromically-delimited-carnival2012-02-21T12:07:58Z2012-02-21T12:07:58Z

Our time aligns on strange axes, sometimes. Last palindrome day, 11/11/11, found me walking the streets of Gothenburg with Werner Koch, the GPG maintainer. Werner said that in Germany, the carnival season opens on the 11th of November, at 11:11:11 in the morning. Today, 21022012, closes the carnival week here in Catalunya.

I was in Gothenburg for FSCONS. It so happens that the videos for the talk I gave there, Guile: Free Software Means of Production, just came out last week. So, as another point along that carnival axis, I offer in <video> form:

Alternately you can download the video directly (~112MB, 50 minutes). There are notes too, a superset of the slides from the talk.

As I said back then, this one was aimed at folks that didn't necessarily know very much about Guile. It was also different from other talks in that it emphasized Guile as a general programming environment, not as an extension language. Guile is both things, and as the general-purpose side gets a lot less publicity, I wanted to emphasize it in this talk.

In the last 20 minutes or so, we did a live-hack. Inspired by a tweet by mattmight, we built Bitter, a one-bit Twitter. I tried to convey what it's like to hack in Guile, with some success I think. Source code for the live-hack, such as it is, is linked to at the end of the page.

Andy Wingohttps://wingolog.org/fscons 2011: free software, free societyhttps://wingolog.org/2011/11/28/fscons-2011-free-software-free-society2011-11-28T11:38:36Z2011-11-28T11:38:36Z

Good morning, hackersphere! Time and space are moving, in the egocentric coordinate system at least, but before their trace is gone, I would like to say: FSCONS 2011 was fantastic!

FSCONS is a conference unlike any other I know. I mean, where else can you go from a talk about feminism in free software, to talk about the state of the OpenRISC chip design project, passing through a hallway track conversation on the impact of cryptocurrency on the welfare state, approached from an anarchist perspective?

Like many of you, I make software because I like to hack. But I make Free Software in particular because I value all kinds of freedom, as part of the "more beautiful world our hearts know is possible". We make the material conditions of tomorrow's social relations, and I want a world of sharing and mutual aid.

But when we reflect on what our hands are making, we tend do so in a context of how, not why. That's why I enjoyed FSCONS so much, that it created a space for joining the means of production to their ends: a cons of Free Software, Free Society.

As a GNU hacker, I'm especially honored by the appreciation that FSCONS particpants have for GNU. FSCONS has a tithe, in which a portion of the entry fees is donated to some project, and this year GNU was chosen as the recipient. It's especially humbling, given the other excellent projects that were nominated for the tithe.

So thank you very much, FSCONS organizers and participants. I had a great time!

are you bitter about it?

I gave a talk there at FSCONS, GNU Guile: Free Software Means of Production (slides, notes).

Unlike many of my other talks, this one was aimed at folks that didn't necessarily know very much about Guile. It was also different from other talks in that it emphasized Guile as a general programming environment, not as an extension language. Guile is both things, and as the general-purpose side gets a lot less publicity, I wanted to emphasize it in this talk. Hopefully the videos will be up soon.

In the last 20 minutes or so, we did a live-hack. Inspired by a tweet by mattmight, we built Bitter, a one-bit Twitter. I tried to convey what it's like to hack in Guile, with some success I think. Source code for the live-hack, such as it is, is linked to at the end of the page.

For a slightly more extended example of a web application, check out Peeple, originally presented in a talk at FOSDEM, back in February. Peeple has the advantage of being presented as a development of separate git commits. Slides of that talk, Dynamic Hacking with Guile, are also available, though they are not as developed as the ones from FSCONS.

Finally, for the real documentation, see the Guile manual.

Happy hacking, and hopefully see you at FSCONS next year!

Andy Wingohttps://wingolog.org/hacker culture, permaculturehttps://wingolog.org/2009/11/10/hacker-culture-permaculture2009-11-10T22:53:15Z2009-11-10T22:53:15Z

callings

Here's an idea: of everyone out on the ether brushed by these bytes, there has to be a good number of us that are in "it" not just for the game, but for life: in the sense that our actions can be life-affirming, that our interactions can help bring about a more beautiful world.

So, with that realization in mind, I call "book club". Let's read a book together!

What book, you ask? Here's mine for now: Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability. It's by David Holmgren, one of the originators of the permaculture design system.

I think that Holmgren has as much to say about how we live life as Alexander. He's also a builder, in a way. It really seems to me that Holmgren's work fosters Alexander's quality-without-a-name. All that is by way of introduction, to say that people that like Alexander, of whom there are many in the hacker world, might well enjoy Holmgren.

But why this book now? The answer is that Lyn Gerry, the host of the radio show, Unwelcome Guests, is reading it to us: an hour every week. It's nice to hear a book. It's also nice to hear it like this, over time, so every part has a chance to seep in.

So. For the first installment I'll give a direct link to the MP3: here. It starts with a poem and a tune, then the reading. I'm not sure where the reading starts in second installment, from this week's episode, because I just downloaded it. Usually it's at the start of the second hour -- the hours are separated in the direct downloads -- but I always listen to the whole thing anyway, so I download them both. There's a podcast link too on the archives page.

I would like for our conversations about the book to be open, in the sense that radio is open, for people to tune in and listen to if they want. By that I mean to say let's not have a mailing list -- what do people think about seeing if we can have a cross-blog-and-comments, cross-identica/twitter discussion? That could fail of course, but it sounds like a nice thing to try.

Anyway, let me know if you want to join. I know that if you're interested, that will make at least two of us.

cold, cold part of the world

I'm off to Sweden tomorrow for the 2009 GNU Hackers Meeting, co-located with FSCONS, the Free Society Conference and Nordic Summit. I'll talk at the GHM about recent developments in Guile, and Guile's place within the GNU universe. If you're going to be at FSCONS, let's meet up!