Sean Tilley

Former Community Manager of Diaspora*, I blog regularly about decentralized communication systems @ WeDistribute.org

Public Key

npub1ldzlnqkjf3ka4tkszt3gcfg5hfeq0gyv6uud2t385hhksfmx0yqq8fn99t

NIP-05 Address

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs0k30estfycmw64mgp9c5vy52t5us85zxdwwx49cn6tmmgyan8jqqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dse9yd5d

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1ldzlnqkjf3ka4tkszt3gcfg5hfeq0gyv6uud2t385hhksfmx0yqq8fn99t

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Last Notes

2025-08-20 09:29:38 UTC

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Obligatory meme from Nostr about "look what they need to do just to have a fraction of our power", but this is actually a really promising development.
#nevent1q…msqm

2025-06-26 06:26:34 UTC

I wrote a response to Tim Chambers' great article, "The Seven Deadly #Fediverse UX Sins". I analyzed his ideas, and surprisingly, we both came to similar conclusions about what needs to be done.
https://deadsuperhero.com/mitigating-the-7-deadly-fediverse-ux-sins/

2025-06-15 02:37:40 UTC

Has anyone tried to build a #Nostr client for an OnlyFans-like experience? I've been kind of wondering about how feasible something like this could be.
I don't just mean porn or smut specifically, but the mechanism for paid subscriptions with Lightning seems interesting.

2025-05-14 05:50:23 UTC

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It's interesting, this is heating up in the ActivityPub space a bit, too.

2025-05-14 01:18:01 UTC

I've been in the #Fediverse for nearly 15 years now. In that time, I've seen some amazing developments, and took their lessons to heart. I've always wanted to build my own platform, based on my findings.
This is a high-level overview of Postmodern, the platform I hope to someday build.
https://deadsuperhero.com/my-dream-fediverse-platform/

2025-05-12 22:11:26 UTC

Things have been a little slow for a while over at @nprofile…3fpp, mostly because of a really busy spring class semester. Now that I'm done with that, I want to start writing articles again.
What's some interesting things happening in the #Nostr sphere we ought to cover? We definitely want to write about it more.

2025-05-12 22:07:52 UTC

My Spring semester for school has finally drawn to a close. It was an extremely demanding semester, filled with late nights and massive amounts of homework. I'm finally free for a few weeks before summer classes begin, so I'm turning my attention to necessary Fediverse projects.
The only downside is that I'm really, really tired all the time. It's so annoying to want to do things, only for your body to tell you to keep sleeping!

2025-01-20 06:59:05 UTC

I’ve been bedridden for the past few days trying to work through a medical issue. No resolution as of yet, loads of wild dreams though.
My ability to get things done is pretty much zero right now. It’s really frustrating.

2024-12-24 20:57:26 UTC

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@nprofile…al0v given that Ditto has a Masto API, maybe it's possible for Nostr users to log into Surf as well?
Could be really interesting to see Nostr users having access to the same feed curation tools...

2024-09-07 18:14:17 UTC

It is only through a love for others and a spirit of generosity that we can mutually make life tolerable. At the end of your life, the only thing you will have are people: the relationships you’ve forged, the decisions you’ve taken, and the memories you’ve made.
Those things are more valuable and more crucial than what job you worked, what career you established, or how much money you earned.

2024-08-21 18:57:55 UTC

Trying out Damus for the first time on an iPad. Seems really nice! My only feedback is that I kind of wish the app was more optimized for a tablet layout.
It’s a minor, minor concern, though.

2024-08-21 18:55:39 UTC

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I really wish I could, it sounds like an awesome experience. Sadly, currently a full-time student, and the semester just started. 😅

2024-06-30 01:32:10 UTC

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Hopefully, it's not an anal suppository.

2024-06-30 01:31:47 UTC

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It's hot garbage. I signed up, got spammed by a bunch of bots, and my feed is full of idiotic NFTs.

2024-06-30 01:30:54 UTC

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Normally, I do 3 or 4 articles a week. Recently, though, I've just been mentally locked up and stressed out. Not publishing anything feels bad, but I have to look after my health.

2024-06-30 01:29:50 UTC

The ActivityPods project released a small boilerplate app and tutorial for people interested in building #Fediverse web clients that work with #Solid. I hope to poke around a bit, and see what’s possible. 😁
https://docs.activitypods.org/tutorials/create-your-first-social-app/

2024-06-26 14:33:51 UTC

Every day I fail to publish an article, I feel disappointed. The burnout has been really bad the past week and a half.
I’ve got a ton of pieces in the works, so I’m going to double down today.

2024-06-21 23:46:15 UTC

Modded base-building in Fallout 4 helps me destress, by allowing me to partake in the beautiful fantasy of owning my own house and land.

2024-06-21 03:06:16 UTC

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Like I said, the main thing I know about is using a bridge.
@npub1nha…mujl built that stuff, he could probably tell you better than I.

2024-06-21 01:15:41 UTC

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Hmm, looking into it more closesly...it looks like you would need to use something like Mostr for the relay piece. I had assumed that maybe Ditto shipped with it by default, but maybe that's not the case? Not totally clear.

2024-06-20 20:13:41 UTC

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Ditto works with both. In a nutshell: it's a Nostr relay that translates to ActivityPub, that happens to have a Mastodon API layer that hooks up to SoapBox.
Basically, you can use it for both networks at the same time, and you benefit from being able to use Mastodon apps as well.

2024-06-19 15:52:10 UTC

The future used to be a beautiful place. Soon, everything will change. In the times ahead, the fear of tomorrow leads Man to hide in the past.

2024-06-19 00:20:44 UTC

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I know that this system is intended to help students get the placement and assistance they need…but, as someone who is doing college late in life, a lot of my scores just make me feel stupid. 😞
I think the reason I gave up on this 15 years ago was that I didn’t want to have to grind through prerequisites for classes that I naturally struggled with, especially when I didn’t see a point. Overcoming that is going to be hard.

2024-06-19 00:14:06 UTC

There’s nothing like a college placement exam to remind me of everything I’ve always hated about school.
“Read this dry, uninteresting story problem to identify a language factor that you will never care about in your day-to-day life!”
“Hey, guy who hasn’t done geometry or algebra in 15 years! Figure out these polynomials from ordered pairs.”
“Hey, guy who wants to pursue Computer Science, find tell us if this APA citation is correct!”

2024-06-18 21:09:22 UTC

This is 100% fake, but as I slowly wade into modding #Fallout, I've been thinking of making good on an old idea I've had...
https://m.primal.net/IpjG.png

2024-06-18 20:42:14 UTC

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My cofounder @npub164z…wtjq pointed me in this direction. I just wanted to say that we both relate to this a lot when it comes to working on @npub1w9w…k403.
There are all kinds of headaches and logistical hurdles to starting a news publication, from finding passionate and qualified writers to hours of dedicated research to editing stories to get them exactly right.
When I started this thing, I just thought it would be neat if the Social Web had their own "OMG! Ubuntu" site for that particular space. Over time, though, I've become way more interested in telling human stories, and reporting on some of the uglier, harsher things that come up: infighting, monopolization, ecosystem problems, CSAM, doxxing, you name it.
I decided some time ago that I'd stop being a cheerleader, and start reporting the actual news, even if it made people mad. I still get to write cool and fun pieces, but this decision has helped shape the kind of culture our organization is about.
We're still in the process of figuring out incorporation and fundraising ourselves. It's really tough! But I just wanted to say that we see you, relate to an lot of what you're doing, and wish you the best on your journey!

2024-06-18 08:46:31 UTC

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Like written fanfics, quality control is all over the place. But, I think there's something really special to total conversion mods: in about 100 years time, most IPs will likely go into Public Domain.
If it's Public Domain, and modding tools exist, you effectively have a game engine where fans can interpret and extend lore and gameplay in any way they desire. 99% of what they need is already there, all they have to do is the monumental 1% task of making their unique pieces to infuse into the game.

2024-06-18 08:41:13 UTC

Story mods in video games are basically playable fanfiction, and that’s a good thing. I’m playing a version of Fallout 4 that’s modded in more ways than I can count, and exploring a fan quest involving the Enclave.

2024-06-18 08:37:18 UTC

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To be at least a little bit fair to the researcher, there are dozens of different protocols, networks, and attempts happening concurrently at any given moment.
Yeah, missing out on Nostr is unfortunate, but I'll bet he didn't mention XMPP, Matrix, Zot, OStatus, Tent, Diaspora, Farcaster, and on and on and on. Sure, most of those things are either dead or even smaller than Nostr, but this collective effort has been going on for like 20 years now.
My point is, in a space where there's always yet another effort that's not known widely about within a group, it's a guarantee that someone will feel slighted because their specific thing got no credit.

2024-06-15 20:41:04 UTC

So, this comes up every now and then on #Nostr: running a relay on your phone. It's probably not super practical for using as a conduit for sending out to the network, but you know what it could be useful for?
Storing a copy of your social graph locally.
What if someone designed an NSec Bunker-like experience, where identity, and content management, auth, and storage all live in your device?
I started off thinking about this in the context of how limiting Fediverse servers can be, but I think it could suit Nostr. You could even set it up to import and translate data from other services, like your Facebook or Medium exports. With the right mechanisms, you could even sync it from one identity to another, somewhere else on the network.
Am I crazy, or does this have legs?

2024-06-15 05:55:05 UTC

My brother is the drummer for a Gears of War-themed blackened death metal band called Hammer of Dawn. They just released a new album today.
https://hammerofdawnmetal.bandcamp.com/album/matriarch

2024-06-14 20:57:42 UTC

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The thing that’s frustrating about personal insecurity is that you can doubt yourself, even when there’s tangible evidence to the contrary. I personally hold on deeply to the idea that I’m stupid, may have a steep learning disability, and have been masking all this time.
What makes no sense, though, is that I literally spent two hours the other day talking to a guy in detail about peer-to-peer system architecture. I can program games with elaborate, bespoke systems. I’ve written over 100 technical articles, and led engineering teams through detailed implementations. I write poetry, make art, compose music, make people laugh, and will stay up all night talking to someone in need.
I know I should just “get over it”, but insecurity is weird in that it’s not rational. I can point this out to myself, but it doesn’t change how I feel.

2024-06-14 20:16:52 UTC

I'm applying for college. It's exciting, but I worry that I'm not smart enough to do well in school. My past grades were terrible because of bad habits. The last time I tried this, I dropped out.
I'm going to power through and try my best, but the thought gremlins got me feeling some type of way.

2024-06-14 00:38:47 UTC

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There's so much knowledge and experience, so much ground to cover. It's going to be a juicy episode for sure.

2024-06-14 00:29:53 UTC

Holy fuck. We talked to @npub1wmr…g240 for almost two hours, and if neither of us had time constraints, we would've kept going.
Absolutely fascinating mind, and a delight to talk to. Can't wait for Season 2 of our podcast!

2024-06-13 01:57:19 UTC

I’m starting to think that only neural networks can actually pass this shit anymore.
https://image.nostr.build/2976e477f1c9ed08b82f98c9b262fd979fa9c0dd9553b0ee718c879dcd05d646.jpg

2024-06-10 20:35:35 UTC

It's funny that we have photo avatars in 4K quality, but I still have trouble figuring out if the person I know online is the same person I'm meeting AFK for the very first time.

2024-06-10 19:56:11 UTC

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As an aside, I also write constantly. I have an app on my phone, so that I can fill any downtime I have with writing. This has been crucial for slow jobs, where my brain tends to wander and I end up thinking deeply about subject material.
Currently, I'm between jobs (honorable discharge from Air Force), so I have to adjust some of my habits to accommodate a greater amount of free time. Ironically, this shift has made me less productive, much in the same way that one might collapse in their home after a long journey. I have to tend to my own needs.

2024-06-10 19:49:52 UTC

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This is a really good question. I try to aim for a minimum of 2-3 articles per week. When I'm on a roll, I can get 5 or 6.
I have an extensive backlog of drafts (40+), and try to sit on things until they "feel" ready to publish. If it's a really urgent "Breaking News" piece, I can bang out something high-quality in a matter of hours, but I still have to take the time for research and accuracy beforehand.
Quality is extremely important to me. Very rarely do I ever push out a piece that I feel "meh" about. I know that if I don't feel attached to my piece, the audience definitely won't, either. So, I often take a lot of time getting the details, phrasing, framing, and presentation just right.

2024-06-10 17:27:31 UTC

I’ve been extremely behind on publishing things for @npub1w9w…k403. I am trying my best to continue getting articles and podcast episodes out, but it may be at a slower pace for a while.
I’m sorry to anyone that’s been disappointed at our current pace. Right now, I can only muster a few articles per week. I’m doing my best to mitigate this, and turn our publishing into more of a team effort. There may be a point in the near future where I just need to take a break.

2024-06-10 16:42:46 UTC

Recovering from burnout is hard. I keep telling myself "Oh, I'll just sleep for a week, everything will be fine!", but there isn't a one-and-done solution. Instead, you have to actively look out for yourself, and work on changing a world of bad habits that all piled up.
I'm exhausted and require excessive amounts of sleep right now. Working in tech, and then later the military, drained me a lot. Recovery requires me to abandon old survival tools, like excessive amounts of caffeine and nicotine.

2024-06-10 16:03:23 UTC

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This is honestly just good etiquette, and is also true for the Fediverse and Bluesky. Open source in general, really.
Being able to write a good issue for a repo's tracker is crucial. You need context: what steps did you take to make it happen? Can you recreate it? If there was an error message, either in a GUI or a terminal, what was it? What was your OS / browser setup? Did you have to use something specific to get the app to work on your device, like Homebrew?
It can become kind of a rabbit hole of "What info do I need to bring with me?", but any supportive information is better than nothing.

2024-06-07 06:39:30 UTC

Dungeon Meshi is so ridiculously good, it’s not even fair. Fantastic writing, great characters, loads of good jokes, beautiful style, and a lot of heart.
A retro-style Final Fantasy-like in this setting would be incredible.

2024-06-07 04:30:54 UTC

Once again, I am flying by the seat of my pants, ahead on some things, but behind on many others.

2024-06-05 09:18:38 UTC

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When "Social Web" was first proposed, I was kind of grossed out because so many aspects that meant something to me felt diminished. It felt like something was missing.
I sarcastically suggested we called it "Womp Triangle", because on the surface it's equally meaningless. We shitposted a lot during FediForum, and now this abomination exists.
https://www.womptriangle.online/

2024-06-05 09:15:57 UTC

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The closest anyone has gotten is "Social Web", which is somehow less bad than all the others.
I kind of like thinking of this whole thing as a constellation, or an ecosystem. "Fediverse" will always be personal for me, as it's part of my own journey with technology, but I'll admit that I am always fond of it.

2024-06-05 09:05:34 UTC

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Yeah, it's super confusing. I appreciate that we can specify that we can choose different ones to do different things, but I'd rather not have to think about it too hard.

2024-06-04 02:38:02 UTC

I’ve been seeing a few tech blogs talk about this concept of using AI clones in meetings, and it just sounds like a horrible idea.
If your work culture has you so double-booked that you have to use an AI agent, your meetings are the problem.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/3/24168733/zoom-ceo-ai-clones-digital-twins-videoconferencing-decoder-interview

2024-06-03 08:45:44 UTC

Working on a #design study for @npub1w9w…k403's branding and visual language. It’s just a rough draft for now, but it’s fun to think about and sketch out ideas.
I’m a total hobbyist / amateur when it comes to this stuff, but it feels really cool to finally put some kind of foundation down.
https://image.nostr.build/aab94e7aca1b890d86bf81006c547d60fe4256001c30461bfbb15c277a2832aa.jpg
https://image.nostr.build/5b65055a1adaf3e3141c8fdb16c5eb3c0781743e6e296198ada33e291650fd97.jpg
https://image.nostr.build/36a98a15ed17e641ff1bef30ceb1f4afac29a79ba97d624aa0f3dd5f55ff5241.jpg
https://image.nostr.build/4617fd9aa9375e787852de9ae5aa37e44cd698d99aa3a156cb4aa33ebe3e1a27.jpg

2024-06-02 11:35:12 UTC

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Awesome, thanks for the pointers! Yeah, initially the thought of people just jamming their private keys into apps kind of really bugged me. Actually, reading up on NIP-26 is what motivated me to ask.

2024-06-02 10:26:30 UTC

I'm just starting to research this more, but I've got a #Nostr question pertaining to private keys and security.
As a best practice, it seems like we don't want people to use their NSec to log into a bunch of different clients. Instead, it seems a more favored practice these days is to delegate something to do your signing for you, like the Alby browser extension.
The user experience is pretty good, and it seems like the current wisdom is to use the browser or a mobile client for this, instead of storing it on a server. My general inquiry is, how secure is this? Is this the best way to do things?
On the #Fediverse side of things, it's more common to see OAuth for client auth. Of course, that all relies on servers, and goes a bit against a peer-to-peer model.
I'm curious as to whether a hybrid approach is possible, or even makes sense: allowing users to tether themselves to some kind of identity provider that more or less does delegated key rotation and some kind of Auth dance for them?

2024-05-31 18:45:48 UTC

Sitting here, twiddling my thumbs as I wait for people from the apartment management company to walk through and try to find a reason to evict us. Because I guess a carpet had a little bit of dog pee on it.
They don’t even give you a specific time for when it’s going to happen; they just provide an 8-hour range for when it might happen. So now I’m sitting in my living room, trying to catch every time a dog pees on the floor before these people spontaneously show up.
Landlords and rent-seekers are awful, awful people, and my hate grows every day.

2024-05-29 09:02:52 UTC

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I'm super curious about this! Is it confirmed that both companies are working on Nostr integration? Is there a place where I can learn more about this?

2024-05-29 05:27:49 UTC

I'm a little behind on writing or publishing any pieces for @npub1w9w…k403 at the moment. I plan on getting back on that treadmill soon, but I just started my transition out of Active Duty military. My body is currently beyond exhausted.

2024-05-27 03:32:38 UTC

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I know, I know, I’m banging on an old drum again. But, I feel like Nostr’s way of doing things is like a sneak peak of what might have been possible with ActivityPub C2S.
We should totally steal these ideas, and turn them into a FEP.

2024-05-27 03:32:07 UTC

I feel like the way #Nostr does apps is superior to how we do it in the #Fediverse.
This isn’t to say that Nostr apps are inherently better. Some Mastodon apps have an incredible amount of polish, and extremely creative features.
Nostr’s standardization on identity and credentials and appended data is really, really good, though. Everything I sign into just works. Whereas, as a Non-Mastodon user with partial MastoAPI support, that isn’t always the case. I often have to cross my fingers and hope it works.

2024-05-22 05:29:40 UTC

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Maybe @npub1wmr…g240 has some thoughts?

2024-05-22 05:28:56 UTC

General #Nostr question: is there a Buffer-like team posting app in the ecosystem yet?
There's an open source PHP-based platform called #Mixpost that's pretty good, and supports most of what I want.
I'm not a brilliant PHP dev by any means, but I've been musing over forking some code and submitting a basic, basic pull request that implements NIP-01 (and probably more). Would there be any interest in using Mixpost within the community, if it were to support Nostr?
I wrote a really basic feature request here: https://roadmap.mixpost.app/items/158-nostr-support

2024-05-22 05:23:00 UTC

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If you're looking at prior art for a foundational basis to look at, Loomio is great. It's not decentralized at all, but it could give some pointers on consensus-based decision making.

2024-05-16 18:46:26 UTC

Slightly dumb question: is did-plc in #Bluesky similar in purpose to npub in #Nostr? 🤔
They both seem like forms of decentralized identities based on keys. I haven't read too deeply into it yet, but I'm extremely curious.

2024-05-10 06:12:37 UTC

As a fun little experiment, @npub1d9r…62as and I worked together to get a #Mastodon instance up and running that stores media on #IPFS! It was an interesting learning experience.
I don't think we're ready to announce anything yet, as this was in service of another project in development. But, there's an increasing number of ways to host content on an IPFS node service, and tie it back to platforms like Mastodon using an S3-compatible API for Object Storage and some proxying.
This is all pretty rudimentary, but the big-brain realization is that a more robust version could be done by pairing Minio to s3x if we wanted to self-host an IPFS node with those specific features.

2024-05-07 05:49:14 UTC

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@npub1wmr…g240 might find this interesting, as we continue to grow our efforts of covering different networks.

2024-04-30 03:31:47 UTC

Is there a good web tool for reading the JSON data of a #Nostr event? Currently working on an explainer article on @npub1w9w…k403 for newbies, but haven't found a good method to do this yet... 🤔

2024-04-24 06:29:26 UTC

> Get home from work
> Flop onto bed
> Beagle runs towards me
> Snuggles in my arms
Perfection. 🥰

2024-04-21 11:26:26 UTC

Taking a big step with @npub1w9w…k403: we're beginning to write about #Bluesky and #Nostr, and have given them dedicated sections on the site.
I have a piece coming up that's a crash course guide to Nostr for newcomers. It's pretty good so far, but needs work. What are things you think people totally new to Nostr ought to know? What would current-you tell past-you about it?

2024-03-09 09:23:36 UTC

I'm trying to explore #Nostr more, for two reasons:
1. I want to increase our coverage of efforts like Nostr and Bluesky for @npub1w9w…k403
2. I want to actually make an effort against some long-held biases I have about Nostr, and explore it fully.
The thing is, my feed feels really boring right now. It's mostly a bunch of crypto bros taking about Bitcoin, Nostr, and AI stuff. Are there parts of the culture here that go deep on any other subjects?
As with all decentralized systems, the question is: where do I find the good stuff?

2023-11-17 06:16:19 UTC

So many narratives in media are high-stakes these days. One man must fight the alien horde, unlock the secrets of The Engineers, and save The Multiverse!
It would be fun to write low-stakes drama: a guy tries to buy a cake for his co-worker's office party, to gain access to her Costco membership.

2023-11-15 16:18:04 UTC

I started using #Penpot as part of the design process for my sites and projects. It's a delight to use! I had no idea that it was going to be this good. 🤯
It's free and open, and kind of resembles Figma. As someone who's not familiar with using design tools at all, it was really easy to jump into!
https://penpot.app/

2023-11-10 00:19:56 UTC

This is the culmination of a tremendous amount of effort. For the last few months, I've been working with some amazing, thoughtful, and talented people.
We're discussing the future of decentralized social, and by extension, the Internet. We've got some incredibly cool things coming very soon.
#note1cak…vukr

2023-11-02 21:13:05 UTC

Kind of a weird #Nostr question: is there an app out there that functions similarly to Buffer or Hootsuite?
Basically, my organization at @npub1w9w…k403 is expanding its presence and our team would love to have some kind of shared space for posting to Mastodon, Bluesky, Nostr, and other places.
I think there's a very real potential for a platform that does post management for federated, open, and decentralized platforms. I'm hesitating against developing something from scratch, but it's really tempting 😬

2023-11-02 19:30:29 UTC

I love my best friend. He's the kind of person where, regardless of the amount of time since our last call, we still pick up and chat for two hours like it's nothing.
We can talk about anything, show any emotion, laugh about the craziest subjects, and I come away from those things with a full heart.

2023-08-25 16:04:24 UTC

Being in the Air Force is like going to a potluck. Most people brought something great, some people didn't bring anything good at all, and nobody brought any plates or utensils.

2023-08-23 23:20:25 UTC

Someday, in the far future, somebody will look back on the slightly less-far future with amusement.
They'll say "Wow, people really used to put cybernetic implants in their eyes? That's brutal and primitive! We just use genetically modified bacteria in our stomachs to hallucinate an operating system for us."