Self-made software
September 17, 2026
Earlier this month I was listening to an episode of the BitFlip podcast, which talks about self-hosting. In that episode one of the two hosts was explaining how he had been looking for a good stand-alone self-hostable calendar server. Nothing he had found was as good as Nextcloud Calendar plugin (I agree there) but he didn’t want to run a full Nextcloud instance.
Since, as he told his audience, he lacked any coding skills, what he did was ask an AI to isolate the calendar code from Nextcloud in such a way that it could be run without the rest of the platform. It worked, and it didn’t cost him a lot of time or effort. He was pleased with the result. He admitted to being apprehensive about its security, so he deployed it behind a firewall and used Tailscale to reach it when outside his network.
The hosts reflected on the meaning of this story, comparing it to 3D-printing. When previously you’d need a craftsperson to build physical objects for you, 3D-printers allow you to do it yourself now. The result will be tailor-made for you. The same applies to software. AIs allow people without any (coding) skills to create tailor-made software for a single person to use.
I have another analogy. It’s like he told us he got someone to take the front door from his house and put it in his shed because everybody does that now. It makes no sense, has no value for anyone but himself and is only interesting because of the hype.
Unfinished
The other week, at work, I was given just fifteen minutes to create a report of a certain security aspect of all companies in our supply chain. Since our supply chain is enormous, the use of an AI was implied. In the following meeting, I could not present the results because I hadn’t written the report. I hadn’t had time to even read it. A machine had done the research and created it.
It was okay, I wasn’t meant to, but it still didn’t feel good. It felt, like, unfinished, perhaps? What did I even create? A prompt that resulted in the report, but not the report itself. That was just generated. What was, in fact, missing, was the feeling of accomplishment, the tiny bit of pride on something created.
Cheating
It’s like playing a (computer) game. I can play Portal, Lemmings, or some other puzzle game and look up online how to solve every puzzle. Obviously, I will finish the game without feeling any accomplishment. Also, I love gaming, so what would be the point?
But what if I solve most of the game myself and only look up a few levels that I can’t seem to solve. That is in fact how I finished Portal 2. If I hadn’t looked them up, I wouldn’t have finished the game. That wouldn’t be a problem, but I would also have missed the later levels that I did solve myself. As can be expected, the feeling of accomplishment was still there, but less, and I won’t forget having cheated a few times.
That is also how it would feel for me to have an AI write a scene or a dialogue in a story. I love writing, so there wouldn’t be a point in having an AI write them for me, even if the result would be objectively better. The effort itself is the point, because of the experience and what I learn from that, even it's just something about the characters involved.
Back to the report
Reflecting, I find that that is probably what I felt after generating an entire report at work. Having started on this job only a few months ago, going through the bulk of our supply chain, like the AI did, would have been a good way to gain knowledge that would serve me well in this job. Having realised that, whenever I have time, I re-do some of the research myself. This takes time and effort, but I find it worth it.
Which, in turn, brings me back to the podcast episode from the introduction. The podcast host can ask the same or even another AI to patch his calendar server when Nexcloud contributors have published an update. The same mechanism will enable him to add or remove functionality according to his needs. But without going through the, admittedly, considerable effort to learn to code and understand the codebase, he will forever depend on AIs to keep his calendar server running.
Depending on something that is not sustainable is eventually not a good idea.
After reading this, perhaps you think you’ve never read so many open doors kicked in at once. I certainly feel that way after writing this. Of course the feeling of accomplishment won’t be there when you didn’t create something. Thanks for explaining that! And without putting in the effort you won’t learn anything. Nothing new there.
So why, if this is all so clear, do people keep doing this? Why is this worth telling in a podcast? I want to live in a normal world again with houses with front doors. Can we stop the hype now?
Please?
Writing letters
September 14, 2026
It is 1992. You are sixteen years old, standing before a letterbox with the envelope, sealed and stamped, halfway inside, still in your hands, with a four-page handwritten letter. If you let go, it’s gone. The die is cast. The wheels are in motion. The Rubicon will have been crossed.
Today’s kids will never know the combination of ink, spit and cold sweat. Writing letters was a messy business.
That scene above is what I remember from the first time I sent a letter to someone at that age.
In the early nineties, writing letters was what many of my age did. I made a lot of music (as I do now) so I met people my age all over my country and even beyond and some of them wanted to stay in contact so we exchanged letters. After the initial responses, I got some confidence and letting go became less of a problem.
I must still have all the responses, but I have no idea what I wrote myself. How could I have? Cycle to the local supermarket and use the copier to copy my letters before sending them? The thought never crossed my mind. I also can’t remember this ever being an issue.
The cold sweat, though, is still very much there with kids today and their socials, probably much, much more. I’m just afraid that this time there is nothing to dilute it.
Is your internet up to date?
September 10, 2026
Erratum: in the previous post, I originally mentioned that our octet concert will be at the 22nd of November. This is wrong. The correct date is the 29th of November. The concert will will take place in the Amstelkerk and will start at 14:00.
“Internet.nl is an initiative of the Internet community and the Dutch government,” it says in the footer of the website of internet.nl. The community in question is a community of communities, listed on their about page. Among them is NLNet, an organisation that sponsors specific efforts within projects like Nextcloud, KDE and PostmarketOS. I have my thoughts on the Dutch government, but they are not suitable for this blog.
I was pointed to this rather capable web application by a colleague. At work, it sometimes has a role in testing companies in our supply chain. Internet.nl can test your web or email domain and tell you if you’re using all the modern and reliable internet standards, and if not, how to fix it. My domain now has a 86% score, but that’s only because I’m still not on ipv6.
After testing your domain, you get a percentage and for anything not up to standards, you receive a detailed explanation about why this is important and often how to fix it. One thing I didn’t know about was security.txt, a standard text file that should be available at .well-known/security.txt on your server. It is there to provide contact instructions to someone who has found a weakness in your site. It is adopted by organistations such as Google, the BBC, GitHub, Meta and various governments, among which the Dutch.
Creating this file also had me create two extra slash pages, /thanks and /security-policy, both meant for the internet vigilante who selflessly scours my domain, hunting for weaknesses. The files are there to tell them how to proceed and what to expect of me. Copy them if you want to. You can’t copy my security.txt because it is signed and changing the domain name will make it invalid.
Other things internet.nl focus on are up-to-date keys and software and proper web server security settings. Those are easily fixed by a quick DuckDuckGo search and an extra line in your web server/reverse proxy settings.
As mentioned before, my site receives its daily share of people trying to log in or have it run scripts, mostly assuming there is something here to log into in the first place. I’m not really concerned about those. They mostly receive 404s and 403s, just like the AI bots.
I will have to re-sign my security.txt again when its key expires. This is an extra chore and something to keep track of. I still haven’t been contacted by someone stumbling on a data leak, which means that until now, all I got for my efforts is a higher percentage on internet.nl. I suppose that’s better than the alternative.
Viola
September 07, 2026
I bought a viola. It was time.
My new viola
A viola is like a violin, but the strings are tuned C, G, D, A, where a violin’s strings are G, D, A, E, making a viola a fifth lower. In a string ensemble, like a quartet or string orchestra, its function is that of the alt/contralto in a choir, the first voice "under" the soprano. Indeed, in Dutch, the instrument is called altviool. In German, it's called a bratsche, after the sound it makes when you accidentally sit on one.
Its default key is different too. Where violin parts use a G key, viola parts mostly use a C key, and occasionally the G key in higher fragments.
The same note (C) in a C (viola) and a G (violin) key
The shiny instrument in the picture above is built in 2009 by Jay Haide. It was bought by someone living in the greater Amsterdam area who had received violin lessons as a kid, but never continued playing since. He told me that during the Corona pandemic, like so many of us, he was looking for a new hobby and bought this viola. It didn’t work out for him, so he put it up for sale at Marktplaats.nl. He sold it to me some weeks ago for a price that I could well afford.
Whereas my violin has a black tailpiece and black tuning pegs, those on this viola are a light brown colour. The chin rest is attached in the middle. Each string has a fine tuner. On my violin I only have a fine tuner on my E string, as tuning higher strings needs more precision. On a violin this would mean it's a study violin.
The dust became visible in the picture only
The sound of the instrument is of that of a very good study viola, and more than I had expected for the price I bought it for. There are ample layers of depth in its tone that can be reached quite easily.
The strings that the previous owner had used, are not of my favourite kind, and they were a bit worn too, showing darker streches here and there, so I replaced them. Replacing all four strings on a viola (or any string instrument for that matter) means having to do a lot of tuning while rehearsing, especially the first days, but after a week they kept their tuning quite well, even overnight.
The bow that came with the viola was black and rather light. I found I have to use more pressure than is comfortable to reach the deeper sound of especially the lower strings. I also bought another, heavier, bow, but when rehearsing for a longer period, that bow's weight itself felt more exhausting than putting the pressure on the original bow. It's good that I have both now so that I can choose.
My default musical instrument is a violin, but last May, during rehearsals of an orchestra project, I was approached by someone in our violin group. She told me she and some friends were looking for a new viola player for their octet (2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, French horn, bassoon and clarinet). They had organised a very interesting upcoming project, and she asked if I would be interested. Their plan was to play Franz Schubert’s Octet in F Major, as well as a new arrangement by Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen of Schubert’s “Moments Musicaux”, six lovely pieces originally for piano. The latter would be the Dutch premiere of the arrangement.
Normally, when preparing for a project, I go to imslp.org or archive.org to see if I can find the sheet music before obtaining the official ones. With a new piece, there wouldn’t be any there. What I did find, was a viola adaptation of Carl Flesch’s violin scale book I remember painstakingly having to work my way through, long ago, when I still had violin lessons. I didn’t know that even existed.
There will be a single concert, on Sunday afternoon, November 22 29, in the Amstelkerk in Amsterdam.
Moon with Venus
September 03, 2026
During the start of an evening at the beginning of our holiday in Italy last June (Italy really is a gift that keeps giving), the moon and Venus were just two degrees apart from each other in a cloudless sky.
So what was I to do, with my astrophotography setup safely and uselessly at home and just my Fujifilm X20 in my hands?
Venus (centred) with the moon (F2.8, 1/40 sec., 28.4mm focal lenght) July 17th, 2026 at 21:09:10
Well, reflecting, perhaps use that little wall right at the edge of the terrace. It was made of bricks so it looked quite reliable. Or, if you must take a fully zoomed in picture from the hand, by all means, go ahead. But why not use the timer to have at least a chance of holding it still while pointing at an object 0.91319 au away?
Orbital positions on 17 jul 2026, 21:09:10 according to Celestia Space Simulator
We might even have been able to enjoy phases in Venus that way.
