cholling

Fediverse nomad (but without nomadic identity, sadly) roaming from server to server and software to software until I find something that just works. Developer of #python, #java, #go, #csharp, #fsharp, and, many years ago, #prolog. Interested in #retrocomputing, #permacomputing, and #solarpunk.

Homepage: [cholling.com](https://cholling.com )
Codeberg: [codeberg.org/cholling](https://codeberg.org/cholling )

Last Notes

2026-08-06 13:18:53 UTC

I've been working my way through the list at https://handcraftedcode.org/ (thanks @npub15z3…0xrp ) and following the people there because I really want to connect with others who are resisting the siren song of vibe coding. Thanks to the many who have followed me back.
I'm really interested in hearing what everyone's doing with handcrafted code. But I'm especially interested in hearing how people are navigating the current job market. I know some are probably resigning themselves to using AI at work but not on personal projects, and I'm certainly not going to judge anyone for that: the economy sucks, you do what you have to to survive, no ethical consumption under capitalism, etc.
But I'm sure there are a lot of people like me who are making the principled stand not to use LLMs even at work, and I'm wondering: how's that going? Have people managed to find jobs that haven't bought into the hype? If so, how did you find such a job? My attempts to find some sort of curated online list of companies that don't require AI use have not been successful; it mostly turns up listicles from three years ago, with names of companies that all mandate AI use in 2026.
I left my AI-mandating job back in June. I'm thinking of going freelance and looking for contract work from companies who either don't like AI, or don't care whether or not I use it as long as I do good work. I'm not really sure how big a market there is for that, and I'd love to hear people's experience.
I'd really love to start some sort of mutual support network for working AI-free developers, like a way to share information about available no-AI jobs with prospective no-AI employees. But that's pretty much what FediHired is, and while I love that, I haven't had much success with it.
My other, more daring, plan is to form an employee-owned tech cooperative composed of developers who don't use LLMs and don't take contracts with clients who want us to use or implement them. I wonder if there's enough interest out here to support something like this?
#handcraftedcode #noai #nollms #coops #cooperatives

2026-07-31 18:31:02 UTC

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Thanks! Though the fact that you didn't think I was joking when I said they put you in BSD jail if you don't have a valid BSD license really worries me. 😆

2026-07-31 14:10:59 UTC

I've been trying to explore the world outside GNU/Linux (or, as I've recently taken to calling it, "Sexual predator userspace plus egotistical botlicker kernel"). Naturally, the first stop on this road is the fragmented world of #BSD.
I won't lie, the experience is very reminiscent of running Linux in the 1990s: hardware support is dicey at best, it's very rare to find commercial software that will run on it, and the guiding philosophy seems to be that user-friendliness is an undesirable quality that will only result in The Wrong People using your software. Nevertheless, I'm committed to giving it a fair trial.
So far my favorite variant is #OpenBSD, especially for servers. I like the fact that it's secure by default, rather than being a hacker's dream out of the box that you then have to figure out how to secure. But I have questions.
- One of the #FreeBSD features I've heard touted a lot is "jails," which I gather means "like Docker but harder to use". But this doesn't seem to be a feature in OpenBSD. Is there something equivalent in the OpenBSD world, perhaps under another name?
- The only *BSD that I know for sure has banned LLM contributions is #NetBSD. What, if any, are the LLM policies of OpenBSD and FreeBSD?
- Has anybody tried audio production in BSD? What's the experience like? It took years for Linux to get to the point where you could more or less do serious audio work, and I hate to think of regressing back to "if you buy this one particular sound card they stopped making in 1998 and recompile the kernel with a dodgy patch someone posted to USENET you can maybe kind of play a .WAV file".
Thanks in advance for your help!
(I have been informed by an anonymous source that "BSD jails" are in fact what they put you in if you use the software without a valid BSD license. I am not sure this is correct.)

2026-07-22 00:00:50 UTC

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At least you've found me loads of new people to block. (Or even, in the most recent case, block twice.)

2026-07-01 19:22:11 UTC

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OK maybe I misunderstood. I thought you were saying Go ignored years of usability research (i.e. by requiring lots of boilerplate to make up for missing features) but maybe you meant it ignored research about fancy features (i.e. dependent types) instead.
If anyone else knows of studies about which programming languages or language features are easier to learn, especially for beginners, please send them my way!

2026-07-01 19:12:08 UTC

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Do you have any good sources or starting points for programming language research specifically targeting usability?

2026-05-15 15:49:40 UTC

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or BASIC

2026-04-20 20:11:54 UTC

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What specifically does "ethically trained" mean?

2026-01-02 14:26:42 UTC

Okay, I think maybe it's time to give #FediHired a try. I'm a senior software engineer with 14 years of experience, based in the United States. Mostly back-end development and data engineering, with enough front-end experience to be dangerous. I'm most comfortable with Python but I've used Java, C#, PHP, and Go on the job, and off the job I've dabbled with more esoteric choices like F# and Prolog.
I'm looking for a job because my current employer has begun enforcing a return-to-office mandate, and has also declared that we're going "AI-first" and intends to start mandating the use of Copilot. I would prefer a fully remote job, and I _will not_ use LLMs of any kind, for any reason. Not "would prefer not to." _Will not_.
I realize that this principled stand makes me nigh-unemployable in the current employment landscape. I'd be willing to take a serious pay cut to work for someone that doesn't force us to use planet-burning plagiarism machines. I don't even necessarily want a job in the tech industry; honestly, I'd probably prefer it if it wasn't. Does such a job exist in 2026?
#getfedihired

2025-11-14 18:21:36 UTC

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Yes, AI is famously profitable.

2025-07-27 17:21:01 UTC

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I'm so far ahead I have legs now

2025-07-26 20:06:42 UTC

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Alameda didn't survive the Eugenics Wars

2025-03-31 20:11:34 UTC

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Funny that. Marc Okrand, the creator of the Klingon language for the Star Trek movies, was a linguist specializing in languages of the natives of the Pacific Northwest. He deliberately incorporated some of those languages' features because, to an audience familiar only with English and maybe one or two closely related (Indo-European) languages, they would seem more "alien".

2025-01-28 19:39:24 UTC

For years I've been hearing that "One day AI will be smarter than humans and we'll all be doomed."
"Nonsense," I said. "AI is very stupid, and not getting noticeably smarter." And I was right.
But I didn't think about the fact that there were _two_ ways that prophecy could be fulfilled.

2025-01-15 12:15:38 UTC

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Degrees centigrade per... cubic gram???

2024-11-01 09:36:10 UTC

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Or, "how to make people who use screen readers hate you even more"