Lighthouse Lore — Evening Watch

We escaped SMS for prettier apps,
but when money moves and doors unlock,
the old signal still rings first.
Apps whisper when they feel like it.
Infrastructure insists.
That’s why banks still text you.
Not nostalgia ; accountability.
Sometimes the least exciting light
is the one that never fails.
#LighthouseLore #DigitalTrust #SmallTech #RCS #SMS #CalmTech #EveningWatch

Caught a bug over the holidays so I’m mostly resting, feeling sorry for myself, and taking the time to at least carry out some mindless housekeeping tasks (updating dependencies, etc.) on some of my Node modules.

Released updates to the following packages yesterday:

Tape-based Node.js testing:

• Tap monkey (https://codeberg.org/small-tech/tap-monkey)
• tap-out (https://codeberg.org/small-tech/tap-out)
• esm-tape-runner (no changes; just migrated to Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/small-tech/esm-tape-runner)

Let’s Encrypt:

• Node Pebble (https://codeberg.org/small-tech/node-pebble)

Enjoy! 💕

#NodeJS #SmallTech #tape #testing #tapMonkey #tapOut #esmTapeRunner #LetsEncrypt #NodePebble #npm #modules

An interview I gave to Euronews six years ago. Interview is in English with Turkish subtitles.

You decide how it has aged.

https://tr.euronews.com/2019/03/08/teknoloji-sirketleri-insan-varligini-tehdit-ediyor-dijital-haklar-aktivisti-aral-balkan

#BigTech #SiliconValley #PeopleFarming #fascism #SmallTech #tech #HumanRights #democracy #peerocracy

Just added Web Reachability API (at least that’s what I’m calling it) support to https://ip.small-web.org.

It’s for testing the reachability of your Small Web servers (using a domain or, more importantly, an IPv4/IPv6 address). I’m using it to implement Web Numbers¹ support in Auto Encrypt² and Kitten³.

Protocol:

• At http://<endpoint> return an empty HTTP 200 response that includes the following custom header: 'web-reachability-id': ‘<uuid>'
• Hit: https://ip.small-web.org/reach/<endpoint>/<uuid>/
• If you get a 200 response back, your endpoint is reachable. Anything else signals an error.

Enjoy! 💕

¹ https://ar.al/2025/06/25/web-numbers/
² https://codeberg.org/small-tech/auto-encrypt
³ https://kitten.small-web.org

#WebReachabilityAPI #WebNumbers #IpAddresses #reachability #Kitten #AutoEncrypt #SmallWeb #peerToPeerWeb #SmallTech

#BigTech #SmallTech
Tech-Giganten sollen Medienvielfalt finanzieren
"Der Bundesrat drängt auf die Einführung einer Digitalabgabe. Ziel ist es, die wirtschaftlichen Grundlagen für die Medienvielfalt in #Deutschland zu sichern. ..."

https://www.heise.de/news/Bundesrat-fordert-Digitalabgabe-Tech-Giganten-sollen-Medienvielfalt-finanzieren-11122127.html

#Technology #Politik #EU #NRW #Germany #Bundesregierung

Can anyone point me around to organizations doing #smalltech ? I'm in the market for a new job, and have a great interest in downsizing something without grand plans.

the customer is not the product

we don't want venture capitalists driving us to make mass profits.

RE: https://social.publicspaces.net/@publicspaces/115730008366625403

Wie zie ik op woensdag 21 januari in Enschede bij de @publicspaces bijeenkomst over duurzaamheid en digitalisering?

Er zijn deze keer beperkt plaatsten beschikbaar voor organisaties die nog geen lid zijn van PublicSpaces en meer willen weten.

Zie:
https://publicspaces.net/event/kennissessie-duurzaamheid-en-digitalisering-bij-tetem-in-enschede/

CC: @erikkemp @zeno4ever

#Tech #Bigtech #SmallTech #AI #NL #Enschede

🥳 New Kitten Release

• Reduces minimum Bash version requirement for installing Kitten to Bash 3.2+ (was previously Bash 5+). This removes the requirement for people on macOS to upgrade the ancient version of Bash that Apple ships with their desktop operating system. (If you’re on Linux none of this was ever an issue for you.)¹

• Updates runtime to Node 24.12.0, the latest long-term support (LTS) version.

https://kitten.small-web.org

¹ While it’s easy enough to update your version of Bash on macOS using Homebrew, that only works (as we discovered on Friday https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/115706233541301655) if you’re running one of the latest three versions of macOS and thus excludes people with perfectly functional older computers. (Don’t get me started on why Apple ships an ancient version of Bash as we’ll go down the rabbit hole of open as in “open for business” vs “free as in freedom” and corporate capture and how capitalism will happily be the end of us if we let it. Aren’t you glad you didn’t get me started?) ;)

#Kitten #KittenRelease #SmallWeb #SmallTech #bash #NodeJS