Ivan Reese

I want to squish code between my fingers.

Programmable Ink researcher at Ink & Switch.
Feeling of Computing podcast and community.

disjoint: he/him or they/them is fine
ointment: https://ivanish.ca
rejoinder: https://feelingof.com
adroit: https://spiralganglion.bandcamp.com

Public Key

npub1yzfa9n7ly768f2zupr0w2uzzfj2gf5hkgx45grke5met28a8he4smw5q34

NIP-05 Address

spiralganglion_at_mastodon.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqszpy7jel0j0dr54pwq3hh9wppye9yy6tmyr26ypmv6du44r7nmu6cpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsy87eux

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1yzfa9n7ly768f2zupr0w2uzzfj2gf5hkgx45grke5met28a8he4smw5q34

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Last Notes

2026-01-31 17:25:54 UTC

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implement some flavour of Tonedown?
https://wiki.feelingof.com/tonedown/
The (meh, but heavily commented) reference impl is line 86 to 256 here:
https://github.com/feelingofcomputing/wiki/blob/main/build/build.coffee
But generally, making your own to-html macro lang is a lovely little thing to do.

2025-12-20 03:18:17 UTC

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I'll take you up on that in ~6 weeks.

2025-10-16 20:07:56 UTC

🫠 https://automerge.org
A brand-new website for Automerge, designed by Todd Matthews and built by yours truly.
Featuring a playful interactive demo, beautiful illustrations, an emphasis on the people behind the project, and so many subtle details, assembled by a custom static site generator (the same one powering the new Ink & Switch website).
There's a lot more coming — improved docs, most of all. But this is a big step and I'm thrilled to share it with you.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/385/648/561/134/897/original/1c873d3732bf0d09.jpeg

2025-10-07 02:57:03 UTC

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15 for my fav
https://youtube.com/watch?v=oVVLkWjTISE

2025-10-02 04:45:51 UTC

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OH FUCK that's why it's rhombus, cube, cube with 1 hat, cube with 2 hats… they're all n-cubes.
Okay, next question — how does the dimensionality correspond with the size of the interval?

2025-10-02 04:41:16 UTC

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The "trouble" with this grid display is it uses one axis per interval, so you need a 5-dimensional hypercube of these to fully capture all the Shasavistic intervals in one space (or 6d if you also want octaves).
I can do 4d space — I've done the shadow/slicing exercises, I'm ready for that. I am not ready for 5d.

2025-10-02 04:34:59 UTC

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I'm completely absorbed by the music and notational stuff.
This is a really nice interval notational system! I don't understand the icons (rhombus vs cube probably has some deeper meaning) but I like how it's using the up/down arrows from common microtonal notation, but applying them to big intervals rather than tiny bends (quarter tones).
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/302/707/698/003/098/original/9bad246f58c5a195.png

2025-10-02 04:14:54 UTC

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Okay, just watched Caftaphata.
I'm definitely crying, but I think I'm crying tears of intellectual pain?
cube with the vanishing point slightly behind you, as a param space for vowel sounds?
placing your tongue against the roof of your mouth like you're overtone singing, but for making consonants?
And it's all in a 16-note microtone scale?
Fuck me. This is alien.

2025-10-02 00:40:38 UTC

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no, but their YouTube is great, damn
Anything in particular I should check out?

2025-09-24 00:31:50 UTC

I think this is the first time in my career I've needed the "double mod"
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/256/453/141/036/319/original/9000bf65b90f4002.png

2025-09-08 22:30:43 UTC

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Timely. The next episode of FoC is about a dream I had where I was hanging out in Daniel's bedroom.

2025-07-24 00:21:36 UTC

Ink & Switch is hiring someone to
* help engineer and maintain the Automerge TypeScript library, and
* build experiments that get people excited about Automerge!
It's a great group of creative people pushing computers to be fundamentally better. We'd love to have you.
https://www.inkandswitch.com/jobs/automerge-typescript-maintainer/

2025-06-19 14:50:55 UTC

Hey Germans, please come up with a word that means "the fear of typing `return` vs `shift-return` because you don't know which inserts newline and which sends the message"

2025-06-02 18:15:48 UTC

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I just mean, like, when you say "make this do that", it just starts doing it and you don't see anything on the screen to indicate "this is doing that". Doesn't need to be text.
(IIRC, going from memory)

2025-06-02 16:24:09 UTC

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Yeah! I had a call with Karl about this, and invited him to join the FoC community. He's now pretty active there :)
It's a cool project, though I wish it did more to visualize the program. It feels a bit "and then magic happens" to me.

2025-05-29 17:04:19 UTC

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that's the biggest crossover since 150hz!
(Dumb, dumb joke)

2025-05-29 16:58:06 UTC

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🛎️

2025-05-29 01:45:47 UTC

On my personal website I have an RSS feed… and a CSS feed: https://ivanish.ca/feeds/
I just decided what the third _SS feed will be.
Coming in December.
#DecemberAdventure

2025-05-17 00:13:43 UTC

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Mr Scruff? Kid Koala? Jaga Jazzist?

2025-04-11 19:04:32 UTC

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was just playing with this one my daughter assembled.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/320/884/920/266/815/original/dd3de5e71b09eee2.jpeg

2025-04-08 17:13:45 UTC

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lol

2025-03-22 04:38:51 UTC

Reaaaaally can't wait for Blue Prince.
3 weeks
(Folks are calling it the new Outer Wilds / Animal Well, so avoid spoilers accordingly)

2025-03-18 13:46:54 UTC

Is anyone here an Active Listener?
Would love to hear a brief experience report on what sorts of work you can do while listening to music.
For instance: Can you write code? If the music has lyrics? What about CSS? Not just programmers — can you draw? Can you read? Fiction? Can you have a conversation?
Curious how common it is for music to hijack your attention, and what that means to you.

2025-03-14 14:37:02 UTC

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9:45-ish :)

2025-03-11 22:37:15 UTC

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FWIW, I can't remember pretty much anything I said or felt prior to the very most recent episode. So I have no idea what I meant by that. Even if I listened back to it, I probably wouldn't remember. I just continually externalize my ever-evolving thought process, to mixed effect.
Appreciate the pointer, though :)

2025-03-07 20:27:36 UTC

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love those colors

2025-03-07 05:03:34 UTC

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what I find wild is... that not all programming is bootstrapped by other programs, because it can't be, because there had to be a "first" programming system. These days we always make new programming systems with old programming systems, on hardware we don't control.
Like, flip flops are cool, but they don't feel mind-blowing on their own enough considering what they are and what they enable.
Maybe this is why people are attracted to category theory — it's a (false) "bottom".

2025-02-27 23:51:03 UTC

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The lab is funded mainly by sponsorship from companies and individuals who appreciate our research, agree with our goals, want to support our work, or have a particular project they'd like someone to do and it happens to align with us.

2025-01-19 00:04:16 UTC

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Did you catch the "a pixel is not a little square” reference in the ending segment?
(If you're not familiar with the reference, google that line — it's a great paper)

2025-01-18 23:55:57 UTC

Oof, this project is ancient.
* removes jquery
* adds coffeescript
Much better.

2025-01-05 00:16:30 UTC

God does not play dice with my computer™
Correctness and efficiency only™
Discrete xor continuous™
I wonder, as you do, what I'm even talking about.
https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/074

2024-12-27 20:31:54 UTC

The next future of coding episode won't be released until the bass is perfect.

2024-12-16 20:50:38 UTC

My favourite game this year is you must first
pick a programming language ideally an esoteric one, write your own implementation of the game, share the codebase with someone, then live stream or otherwise publicly perform yourself doing constrained breathing for 22 minutes
then you get to play the game.
https://github.com/ivanreese/2222
https://merveilles.town/@neauoire/113663687641186150

2024-12-16 20:27:38 UTC

It's here!! This is a project that CERTAIN PEOPLE have been working on for the past while that I've been eager to share with you all. I don't want to describe what it is (and ignore what Elliot says, what does he know). Just go play with it and see what happens.
https://mathstodon.xyz/@vez/113663246711330210

2024-12-08 16:00:52 UTC

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I'm on there as spiralganglion

2024-12-02 01:46:32 UTC

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Yeah. It feels thematic, but not consequential. Very much like the outcome of what I imagine was MOUNTAINS of brainstorming that led to all the stuff we now call imsim :)

2024-12-02 01:33:45 UTC

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holy crap I remember that and *never* used it!

2024-12-01 21:32:23 UTC

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Yeah, that rings true.
I only played the original (lots) and Invisible War (once). I don't remember the photo / post-it UI you're describing, but maybe it was in one of the later ones?

2024-11-19 00:43:15 UTC

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cc [@jimmyhmiller](https://hachyderm.io/@jimmyhmiller ) @npub1h8h…vmly — not a bad idea

2024-11-14 23:57:32 UTC

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I quite enjoy Runabout Inference Ticket. Haven't read Tonk, Plonk, and Plink, but will now!

2024-11-13 19:36:06 UTC

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I should play that game.

2024-11-11 22:16:57 UTC

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This is great. Such a thick atmosphere.
Did I hear a bootleg easter egg at 23:42?

2024-11-11 21:30:20 UTC

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I've been so stoked to hear this

2024-11-11 04:06:06 UTC

Anyone have good references / examples of experiments with multidimensional time? As in more than one time dimension coexisting or interacting. Ideally in a continuous representation, not discrete steps.
I'd prefer examples that are visual in nature, given that time is a dimensional, almost spatial thing.

2024-11-10 17:56:14 UTC

please never refer to it as "the future of coding”
you can use whatever name you want, so long as
Á people might know what you mean
ß it's not "future of coding”
Ç I feel a lil uncomfortable every time I read it
sincerely,
fuc

2024-11-10 05:09:30 UTC

A block-based editor where you can "melt" the blocks and just edit the raw text, and then "freeze" the text back into blocks for bigger structure-aware edits.

2024-11-09 19:04:16 UTC

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I would love to play with an environment that relaxed the uniqueness requirement, perhaps by being nondeterministic or by forking the universe.
(Resisting the urge to make one of these, but on a long enough timespan...)

2024-11-09 18:48:41 UTC

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oh heck! I hadn't realized this is reversible. That's disgustingly cool

2024-11-08 23:02:37 UTC

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I think it's this page from the paper. There are some things I'd change, but it's pretty good all things considered.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/449/825/257/699/728/original/73dbb235b71e7ec7.jpeg

2024-11-08 01:03:28 UTC

Some people get into this line of work because they love programming.
Some of them want to help more people get into this line of work by making it easier to love programming.
I'm in this line of work despite hating programming. I don't want to make programming easier to love — I want programming to go away.
Some people object to this framing, or feel threatened by it.
I'm not going to be able to make programming go away for them.
But maybe I can make programming go away for me.

2024-11-07 22:40:35 UTC

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Not quite sure what you mean. Do you have an approximate timestamp, or can you offer more detail?

2024-11-05 19:01:32 UTC

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A Slower Speed of Light, but PbD!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu7jA8EHi_0

2024-11-05 18:58:16 UTC

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https://www.youtube.com/c/MockMechanics

2024-11-05 18:51:49 UTC

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I've seen some folks make projects like this — they use a 3d game-like environment with points and lines and spring physics to do basic physical modelling synthesis (which is a whole rich category of software, ICYMI — but the 3d game-like env is a more recent progression)
Looked around for some half-remembered videos, didn't find the ones I had in mind, but if you search "3d physical modelling synth” you'll surely find some interesting stuff
Eg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmRJot6RnFE

2024-11-05 01:37:17 UTC

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I'm always fighting the urge to just go full [intro to Episode 17: Where Is The Ham?]

2024-11-04 22:55:06 UTC

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All of it, three times over. And California King, and Do By Friday, and Reconcilable Differences. You found my weakness!

2024-11-04 19:42:31 UTC

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FWIW, I'm on team "let's remake computing from the ground up in an environment that's visual / canvas first, so everything either has a position or is a relation between things that have a position", so there's never not some sort of visualization and that's explicitly a part of what a thing is. (We have that in text too, you just kinda take character rendering for granted most of the time)

2024-10-31 22:07:24 UTC

The website for Automat (by @npub1v87…ylwa) is pure juice.
https://automat.org

2024-10-24 00:47:27 UTC

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WIP: https://ivanish.ca/magnetic-fields/

2024-10-16 23:51:16 UTC

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Not yet. There's
a very outdated blog post: https://ivanish.ca/hest-time-travel/
a podcast: https://ivanish.ca/hest-podcast/
and that's it for links.
I think the podcast mostly holds up. A few things have changed, but not so much, all things considered.

2024-09-21 05:12:57 UTC

At my old job, I was free to choose which license to put on my code.
At first I just used MIT, but later was drawn to public domain licenses like The Unlicense.
Now that I'm no longer employed there, the code that's public domain *feels* better. The MIT stuff is tainted with acrimony. It's not my code. It belongs to that company. But the public domain code belongs to everyone.
I'd encourage you to dedicate your work to the public domain whenever you can. I think it's a radical move.

2024-09-05 05:09:41 UTC

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I do not give a single grain of shit about what npm packages (or whatever) it takes to make [attached] happen.
But I am *dying* to know more about what it means when objects become dynamic.
Like, if everything in my house were suddenly computationally dynamic… what's the first thing I'd want to go play with? My guitar? My cutlery? My shoulders?
I have no idea, and I want to find out.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/083/218/528/594/310/original/f870e18ff660e617.png

2024-09-05 04:35:50 UTC

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If I want to do Dynamicland at home, I don't need the software. I need to understand what it means for computation to be a property of an object, like color or temperature. That's a radical new idea. If I understand that idea, I can find my own way to make that happen with stuff I've already got.
But if they give me software to run, I've got to figure out how to run C code on my Mac, and buy the right kind of projector, figure out how they do calibration, figure out how they persist state…

2024-09-05 04:31:26 UTC

Calls to “release the Dynamicland software” make just as much sense as asking for the J.S. Joust software (code, binary, whatever).
Having JSJ as software would make it *harder* for me to play the game.
Does it run on my Mac? Where am I gonna get PS Move controllers anymore?
Instead, how about we… just hold plastic cups full of water… and the last person with water left in their cup wins! Yes!
I have knowledge about the game. I have the design in my head. That's more portable than software.

2024-09-02 20:12:35 UTC

The quips are cheap, there's too much red yarn, but still, this hits so hard.
https://briefs.video/videos/what-is-react/

2024-08-07 04:31:10 UTC

Teenage Engineering Medieval?
More like Jodorowsky's Zune.

2024-08-05 22:14:47 UTC

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They're just so long, is the thing. We're trying to do shorter works.

2024-08-05 18:06:12 UTC

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Oh cool! I actually used `with` a bit back in ActionScript 2. It's underrated.

2024-08-05 12:42:12 UTC

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not yet!

2024-08-05 05:39:26 UTC

It feels good to write css.

2024-08-03 03:55:48 UTC

Tonight was ESB — "Luke, I am your father" — with my kid. Big nerd-dad moment.
That's all. I'll be back to VPL shitposts now, sorry.

2024-07-30 23:43:54 UTC

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Dreams got ever-so-slightly closer. And there are things like Incredible Machine, or (arguably) Factorio. Gotta get away from the use-mode/edit-mode distinction.
Do you Eskil Steenberg's “game” LOVE, and the ecosystem of tools around it? That might be the closest. Things like… in the modeller, a space ship sometimes flies by and shoots at your mesh.

2024-07-30 23:30:22 UTC

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AFAIK, instead of AppleScript, they now heavily encourage App Intents (and related, like Siri Intents), which are used by Shortcuts, some Siri features, and especially Apple Intelligence. So the principle is similar, though the interface changed significantly. (I think for the better, but I suspect this is a hot take.)

2024-07-30 23:24:58 UTC

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A) The GUI happened
B) Multimedia happened. My school curriculum included Logo, Photoshop, Macromedia Director and (eventually) Flash — not counting optional stuff I studied like 3D animation, video production, etc.
C) The web happened. I knew a lot of kids in the late 90s/early 00s who made websites, but not more traditional "software”.

2024-07-30 23:17:42 UTC

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oh heck, you got me.
Also — I'm very likely going to switch FoC away from a managed podcast hosting service and just hand-roll the RSS feed. I do that for the Hest podcast and it's so much less hassle.
I have a raging flaming poisoning case of "not invented here”.