Matt Gumbley

Software crafter/engineer/TDDer; open source developer; real-time/fault-tolerant systems; Transputer & FORTH enthusiast; radio amateur MØCUV; Couch to 5K runner (lapsed); learning Japanese 🇯🇵. Uses AI/LLMs conscientiously.

Let's stick with the past, 'cos the future won't last.

Will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, de-briefed or numbered!

[Avatar: photo of me & my dog Oscar, a white cockerpoo; Header is a quote from the Postlight podcast entitled "Can We Understand Coders?"]

Blog: https://mattgumbley.wordpress.com
Locator: JO01EE
Location: Kent, England.
Github: https://github.com/devzendo

Public Key

npub1my5jpt5zpfrxzcqw6lya22dx57kt23wqjyscqx46luscf7g85a2s92puud

NIP-05 Address

m0cuv_at_mastodon.radio@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsdj2fq46pq53npvq8d0jw49xn20t94ghqfzgvqr2a07gvylyr6w4gprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntqyt8wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnswf5k6ctv9ehx2aqc8veg8

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

relay.primal.net

offchain.pub

Author Public Key

npub1my5jpt5zpfrxzcqw6lya22dx57kt23wqjyscqx46luscf7g85a2s92puud

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-10-16 07:47:21 UTC

- reply

I’d read that!

2026-10-08 21:27:54 UTC

- reply

do you find the LLM gets worse as you progress, as it has to refresh its context each time (I haven’t tried reasonix yet, so am unfamiliar with its use)? In your ongoing work with it do you run out of context, or are you “starting new sessions” regularly? I also much prefer small, focused sessions rather than “slop me a whole app”.

2026-10-04 09:51:57 UTC

- reply

really good for TDD too :)

2026-09-23 07:16:09 UTC

- reply

Would my Transputer emulation system qualify? https://devzendo.github.io/parachute/

2026-08-16 19:53:44 UTC

- reply

Yes, but like romaji, it’s a crutch until you master the “proper” way. I just wonder why make it so hard? Is it really necessary? (And of course, complaining at my pathetic efforts to stuff Kanji into my head)

2026-08-16 19:37:02 UTC

Take 友達 for example. (Friend, companion). In Hiragana, it’s ともだち - I can read that, straight off, four syllables, tomodachi. Forty-eight symbols. Instead I’ve got to memorise 2136 Kanji.
Ranting (whilst bowing)

2026-08-11 21:14:49 UTC

... Hendrix' "Small-C Compiler 2nd Edition" (https://ia600907.us.archive.org/29/items/collection-of-various-computer-literature/Books/A_Small_C_Compiler_2nd_Edition%5Bocr%5D.pdf) relates to a much enhanced version of his compiler.
I believe his first book describes Ron Cain's initial compiler (initial article from Dr. Dobbs in https://github.com/devzendo/transputer-k-r-c-compiler/blob/main/A%20Small%20C%20Compiler%20for%20the%208080s.pdf )
There's so much 'unobtanium' out there - masses of early microcomputer literature that's simply inaccessible.

2026-08-11 05:30:00 UTC

- reply

please take a look at https://blog.terrygodier.com/2026/08/09/mea-culpa-dark-hours.html - this plagiarism is something that does happen in real life

2026-06-05 09:35:37 UTC

- reply

Hi John, thank you! And thank you for your self-study list, I’ve been recommended Enderton’s books on set theory & logic elsewhere. I agree it would be best to attend a course; I’d love to - but can’t due to time/finance. So I have to study (very) part-time. My current end-goal is to study foundations, then up to the level required to understand Davis’ Engines of Logic, so, theory of computation. Side-quests into analysis & transfinite numbers.

2026-06-05 08:26:09 UTC

- reply

But LLMs are not truth, I know this! They’re only asymptotically approaching truth as models improve - but I don’t think the architecture is right to actually be intelligent at any point in the future.
So what’s a self-studying nerd to do?

2026-06-05 08:21:37 UTC

- reply

There’s a great series of books by Lara Alcock - How to study for a maths degree; how to think about analysis; how to think about abstract algebra - I wish I’d had these prior to “real” study.
And Claude is very encouraging about these, and other books it has recommended in other areas of study (logic, analysis/calculus, set theory & transfinite numbers incl. Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, forcing)
… 4/n

2026-06-05 08:13:00 UTC

- reply

But.. it’s not the same as asking Prof for their recommendations.
Some writers are supremely generous with advice for self-study online - @npub1g0j…k8ap ‘s Logic Matters site and superb freely available books are featuring on the logic strand of my studies (I have his Formal Logic in paperback); there are online books like Richard Hammack’s Book of Proof at https://richardhammack.github.io/BookOfProof/ that Claude suggested (parts of)… 3/n

2026-06-05 08:04:38 UTC

- reply

I am not a member of any uni; not a student - if I were, I could ask maths faculty members for advice on which books are best for self-study, given my current knowledge.. but I don’t know anyone who might be able to offer such advice.
So I asked Claude and now have a study plan and list of books (some of which I had; some I’ve obtained 2nd hand).
It’s all extremely plausible (as LLMs are, by definition), and from reading so far, these books seem to work as a pathway. … 2/n

2026-06-05 07:59:14 UTC

Trying to kick the #AI #LLM habit, help needed please!
I have a long-running discussion with Claude, building a study plan/reading list for me to self-study various aspects of undergraduate #maths. (I did 2 years of it, 30 years ago, then switched to just computer science - the stronger of my 2 subjects; I was really struggling with maths at that level). I’ve always wanted to get back into it, but can’t justify an OU degree, nor do I have the 16 hrs/week to devote to it. … 🧵 1/n

2026-04-12 14:25:36 UTC

Has anyone tried modifying store e-ink shelf displays to turn them into useful gadget displays? I see them in many stores now - some are around 4 inches square, quite a useful size, with several colours. I looked on Aliexpress, and they certainly don't seem cheap in unit quantities - £35ish? There must be economies of scale for shops. Pimoroni sell their 'Inky wHAT' 4.2" 4-colour display for £36. Are there cheaper options? #eink #electronics #display #hamradio (ish)

2026-04-08 17:58:52 UTC

- reply

The RP2050 in RISC-V mode?

2026-03-23 10:46:54 UTC

- reply

is it related to this problem? I had this, very annoying! https://superuser.com/questions/1207195/cannot-dismiss-certain-reminders-in-lightning-thunderbird#1212160

2026-03-13 17:49:47 UTC

Re-reading @npub1z8r…mrq6 ‘s excellent talk “Weathering Software Winter” https://100r.co/site/weathering_software_winter.html and one line really struck home, in the light of all the woe we’re seeing (AI, sloperating systems, age verification aka biometric identity capture/surveillance etc.):
“I wanted a way of doing computers that nobody could take away from me.”
So the Transputer emulator is at the base of my attempt to do that.

2026-03-13 17:38:41 UTC

If the planets align, and if I get a nice contiguous chunk of time over the weekend, there’s a slight possibility of seeing “Hello World” run on the Pi Pico Transputer Emulator. Got a deadlock to fix, a refactoring of the logging system to do, and am yet to complete the USB CDC link implementation .. but I got it past initialisation to its “boot from link” stage last night.

2026-03-13 14:59:13 UTC

- reply

ah! I see now! Is this an out-of-the-box System 6 theme, or did it require lots of hacking together? (I’ve tried to get something like it working on Linux Mint XFCE4, with not much success). The Uxn programs look really great - I thought they must be System 6 programs, they fit so well.

2026-03-13 09:33:28 UTC

- reply

Hi Devine, I’m intrigued by the desktop / wm / theme and apps you’re using here - I see from the thread that this is Arch, what’s the rest of this lovely minimalist stack please?

2026-03-06 16:31:55 UTC

So, full-on retrocomputing with systems that aren’t connected to the Internet. How do we share code? How do we collaborate? We’ll need to send USB drives by post. How did we do it in the olden days? Adverts in “micro mart” magazine. Dial-up modems :) I was reminiscing the other week about the early editions of BYTE magazine that had the subtitle “The Small Systems Journal”. Perhaps It Is Time for a new BYTE?

2026-03-06 16:23:27 UTC

I should read “The Case for Working with Your Hands: Or Why Office Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good”. And go Amish.

2026-02-27 23:02:27 UTC

But… what happens when true AGI is developed? Not just “LLMs with greater scale”: the real thing.

2026-02-27 22:50:58 UTC

AI booster doom has really drained me today. The career I’ve had for decades is suddenly dead, really? Pretty much overnight? My tests suggest it’s useful at small scale but that’s all.

2026-02-14 18:26:31 UTC

- reply

Zed? Helix?

2026-02-11 20:54:51 UTC

- reply

everyone writes software on 3.4GHz monster PCs, where they can’t actually feel how much slower the latest change they made was from the earlier code. I do much of my hobby programming on a really old laptop and you know immediately when you’ve written slow code. (Well, after a slow build)

2025-10-10 21:32:49 UTC

Today I read in slack-jawed amazement that Apple DOS 3.1 was written in 35 days. On punch cards, fed into an Apple ][ by a paper tape reader built by Woz. From the starting point of the Read/Write Track/Sector code from Woz and Randy Wiggington. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_DOS

2025-08-01 14:28:27 UTC

I wonder if there’s a long German word for wondering whether there’s a long German word for something?

2025-05-12 15:42:48 UTC

Lovely Docker! You too can turn every microservice into its own special snowflake and implement Linux From Scratch every time! FML…

2025-04-06 08:39:32 UTC

At the risk of igniting some controversy, but hopefully stimulating debate, I’d like to ponder the question: #Meshtastic and #LoRa mesh networks in general, #MeshCore, #Reticulum etc. … Are they “Amateur Radio”? #HamRadio - I know the technical UK answer “No, unless on 433MHz with the “Licensed Operator” setting on, with amateur license; no encryption, so no Reticulum allowed”. I’ll leave the question a bit open like that without further qualifications. Please boost for visibility! 73 Matt

2025-04-05 15:26:44 UTC

Took my #Meshtastic node and my dog on a long walk to a local high point, and heard another node briefly, but it doesn’t send its location, so no idea where. Makes me wonder whether putting some camouflaged solar nodes in the woods on high points might help the mesh grow. If I could build an ultra cheap node, and secrete many of them as in #Geocaching - I wonder if there’s some crossover opportunity there?

2025-04-01 18:06:06 UTC

- reply

maybe add a GPS receiver and interface it (don’t know how) to NTP?

2024-08-30 12:26:49 UTC

- reply

I appreciate the argument (Must Use The New Hotness!) … but I work on a telephony microservice that has soft real time requirements, where memory safety and determinism are critical, written in Rust. Garbage collected languages are less useful in this space. We could have used C++ or maybe Go. I feel both would have been harder work (have only dabbled in Go). Trying to shoehorn Rust into the Linux kernel - will be a gargantuan undertaking, easier to start afresh.

2024-08-29 21:47:26 UTC

I read this today - https://notgull.net/announcing-dozer/ - peered into the rabbit hole that is bootstrapping, and considered my #Transputer tool chain, whose assembler is written in Scala and C compiler being written in Rust… it’s going to be hard to bootstrap.

2024-07-30 21:09:01 UTC

- reply

I went the other way - for Rust development- VS Code is only half an IDE in comparison to IntelliJ, but so much faster. JetBrains’ tools just hammer my older MacBook - VS Code much less so. Would be interested to discover your assessment of Zed: I was thinking of trying it.