Software should be fun, actually

In the late 60s, IBM was forced to unbundle software from hardware. It's time to do the same for data and applications.

We need to structurally separate user data from applications so that applications become *users* of data rather than *containers* for it.

This computer is the reason you can't download all software for free. The Franklin Computer Corp was a computer manufacturer founded in the early 1980s. Their flagship product was a clone of the Apple II, one of the most popular personal computers of the day. 1/4

Read “retardant” in a French accent as if it wasn’t a word I knew, almost googled it… but yes,

who should I be following on Bsky? need more food for the algo feed…

Lots of great phrases in here by @orionreed.com as he traces the portable file separate from apps, and describes the path to proprietary formats, to internalization, and finally how cloud affordances can't be exported and represented as a file.

Wrote a mini-essay, "Digital Topology & Economic Power", on how the file went from a site of user agency to one of enclosure — through proprietary formats, data internalization, then the cloud. Each step bundling real gains with a quiet transfer of power. www.orionreed.com/posts/app-fi...

"The 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 inherited the organisational form of the 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞: self-contained, manufactured at a distance from its users, designed for a general market."

Software is not soft. It arrives rigid, opaque, and brittle. The most malleable medium we have produced is, in practice, among the least malleable materials we encounter in daily life.

Still one of the paragraphs I'm proud to have had a part in writing. From the ever-nascent libcomp.org (the great phrase "rendered computationally passive" is from Melanie Hoff's "Always Already Programming")

"Just as the invention [of industrial automation] had the paradoxical effect of turning more [people] into full-time industrial workers, so has all the software designed to save us from administrative responsibilities turned us into part- or full-time administrators" — David Graeber

What are your favorite visual critiques of software? On my mind right now are: 1. "The long tail of user needs" 2. diSessa's monolithic apps vs computational media 3. (a recent favorite by @todepond.com) "wish these apps could talk to each other"

The biggest existential risk of AI is not AGI but the undermining of labor’s power as a counterweight to capital.

Enclosure [of agency supported by file-app separation] worked through the existing material form — first by hollowing it out (proprietary formats and internalization), then by abolishing it entirely (cloud platforms)

"The forces that are now shaping AI are the same forces that turned the open internet into monopolistic platforms, converted peer-to-peer participation into precarious labor, and enclosed the digital commons. They are now threatening to capture and enclose thought itself." osf.io/preprints/so...

In computing, “reading” data is always *writing* somewhere else.

Had a very good, many-hours-long conversation late into the night with @kevinmarks.com and we drank an entire bottle of gin (a litre?) I can still feel my insides complaining but I am ready to do it all again

It is a shame that "democratization" in software has come to mean broader access to products instead of participation in democratic processes — there is talk of LLMs democratizing software production, but I have yet to see social, collective and democratic processes govern the design of software.

make more liberatory computing propaganda, please

the application (app) model of software can, should, and must be abolished.

Googling for “a world without apps” has great contrast in its top two results: 1. An Apple WWDC intro equating a world without apps to a literal apocalypse 2. A keynote from Michel Beaudouin-Lafon arguing we should abolish apps in favour of a substrates-oriented computing

Emoji is neoliberal, not working class. We have 👮 police, 🏦 banks, 💹 stocks go up, 👔 office necktie, 🏛️ government, ⚖️ law, 🤴👸 royalty but no wages stub, no union card, no "on strike" sign, no pink slip. there's a levitating businessman emoji 🕴️ but no picket sign.

Whether something is decentralised or not is a function of the administrative control of different parts of the system, not a function of the network topology.

Always a pleasure to hang out with the FoC London crowd, had lots of lovely conversations about this demo and a million other things too. Thanks @chee.party @mimireyburn.bsky.social @todepond.com for hosting, looking forward to the next one!!

For me a spatial canvas for the social filesystem becomes meaningful when it's thought about as an integration domain. Taking us from a rigid, siloed interfaces of apps to something much more malleable and composable on the fly. @orionreed.com has a talk on this! www.youtube.com/watch?v=csGN...

this is probably doing the rounds already but my god, it's so cursed tonsky.me/blog/tahoe-i...

A modern Luddite wouldn't smash an iPhone. They would smash the subscription model that turned functional software into a rentier's dream.

I think @nsrnicek.bsky.social is among the sharpest theorists and writers on the political economy of software and computing today, I’m excited to read his new book tomorrow.

"[Steve Jobs] returned the company to its original vision: the personal computer as a consumer appliance, a black box enforcing a very traditional relationship between the vendor and the purchaser."

from www.loper-os.org?p=568

I appreciated this critique of the "Resonant Computing Manifesto" spacecadets.love/why-i-didnt-...

"trickle-down computing" as pernicious theory-of-change

Very happy to announce I’ve officially joined as a researcher @inkandswitch.com to work on malleable software! I’ve also been doing lots of quiet work on @folkjs.org with @chrisshank.com and look forward to sharing more of that soon too!

Okay. I’m back.

"Live Programming in Hostile Territory", a paper by me and @chrisshank.com, just got accepted to LIVEPROG! folkjs.org/live-2025/

Really enjoyed "Live Programming in Hostile Territory" by @chrisshank.com and @orionreed.com: folkjs.org/live-2025/ They are doing some great stuff with @folkjs.org, y'all should check it out.

please claude don't spoil the em dash, it's the best dash, I want my em dash! — em dash enjoyer

Dave Smith, 2000

Notes from the Lab - May 2025 [Better late than never!] github.com/folk-js/folk... Adversarial malleability was on our mind this month... canvasifying web pages, network indications, peer presence on any web page, and much more.

I enjoyed making the sketches for this post, they're just custom html elements I chucked straight into the markdown. This post was low stakes, just describing a thing I did. Next time will be spicier.

QR data transfer protocols www.orionreed.com/posts/qrtp/

most sane typescript type

anyone know of a good way to subscribe to specific researchers, RSS-style? Something that's not tied to a specific journal...

It occured to me that the web doesn't provide any utility functions for working with the geometry primitives (e.g. DOMRect), so I've proposed adding some: github.com/w3c/fxtf-dra... Seems like an obvious addition to me, but curious if others agree? Any other obvious ones beyond what I've mentioned?

UPDATE: I am going full-time on applied & independent research! After the last year with @websimai.bsky.social and ~5 years at BlockScience, it's time to give my research the attention it deserves. (1/4)

Computing could be a more harmonious and empowering force in our lives if we could mold it to our needs. We wrote a little about this vision of "malleable software" – past, present, and future. www.inkandswitch.com/essay/mallea...

What if browsers shipped with servers? You could open *folders* of html/css/js, open local files with HTTPS, update your ‘software’ via filesystem APIs when online… shifting agency toward users and creating new possibilities for authorship and distribution…

This was a lot of fun! After seeing PVH’s gorgeous slides I really want to make my future talks look that good. As always, after the talk people came up and said “have you heard of X/Y/Z?” and now I have so many better examples I wish I knew about when preparing the talk.