Karsten Schmidt

Intoxicating, non-toxic! 27+ years of interdisciplinary opensource R&D, software dev, computational art/design/craft/edu, landscape/nature photography, darkroom, kallitypes, electronic music. Trying to do meaningful work. Creator & maintainer of the thi.ng ecosystem of 200+ code libraries.

Except boosts/linked content, all published media is my own work & copyright by me. Most posts delete >2 months.

Available for consulting/commissions. Searchable.

he/him

#ThingUmbrella #TypeScript #Zig #Forth #LandscapePhotography #AltProcess #Darkroom #Kallitype #Geometry #AlgorithmicArt #GenerativeArt #PermaComputing #Music4Coding #Hiking

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toxi@mastodon-thi-ng.mostr.pub

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nos.lol

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Published at

2026-08-17T11:40:14Z

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Last Notes

2026-10-27 07:45:05 UTC

Boundary Line (2025)
(The outside trough of a glacier's side moraine is where vegetation growth often is starting first (or contained in), where lower erosion provides better long-term stability and the trough itself ensures more accumulation of moisture/water and some protection from harsh katabatic winds... These young first generation forests are some of my favorite places, but due to the ongoing glacial melt and the coming water shortages in these valleys, they might never make it to fully mature, old growth stage 😢)
#TextureTuesday #LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography #Glacier #Alps #Abstract
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/510/085/967/732/470/original/6d6ef8dfd4edc93c.jpeg

2026-10-26 14:08:54 UTC

Slow-mo, pitched down Amen breaks always have been working well and this track hits the mood very well today...
Desolate - Withering Beauty (2017)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iX0wO1BtaQ
#Music4Coding

2026-10-26 12:09:28 UTC

Such a great idea! At times, I've been daydreaming about something similar in our larger area (Augsburg, Landsberg am Lech, Kaufbeuren, Füssen): Talks, show & tells, tutorials, short workshops for small groups (max. 10 people) and even got a couple of nice friendly, chill cafés for it in mind... 🤔
Sprache/Language: Denglisch, je nach speaker... (oder Bairisch/Schwäbisch wenn's nicht anders geht 😂)
If anyone "local" would be interested, please ping me! Nothing is organized as yet. Topics are fairly open, but I was hoping for anything related to sharing knowledge & skills related to (in no particular order): creative making, analog or digital (craft, art, code, photography etc.), tech, frugal computing, mesh networks, diysynth/eurorack, Alps/mountains, hiking/expedition reports, mapping, dataviz, climate, energy, renewables... basically, Solarpunk, enlightenment club/salon and all things (and more) I'm actively interested in myself...
https://eliitin-some.fi/@henrik/117505996503163891
#SkillShare #Idea #Augsburg #Landsberg #Kaufbeuren #Füssen #Bayern

2026-10-26 09:59:45 UTC

Reminder: This below is the signalling and attitude (plus much, much worse[1]) needed on display these days to raise ~$22 million (thus far) from Silicon Valley within just a few short months for an agent-friendly veneer of an existing open source project. Some of the same donors in turn have dropped their previous support (minuscule in comparison) of other FLOSS projects on which they've partially built their businesses on...
This is less about DHH, as it about the actors enticed by and enabling these developments and their politics[2], just in case you're still in doubt about the great mask-off period in the technology landscape currently underway and why so many people/practitioners are increasingly frustrated and disillusioned about these reveals, about the(ir) work done for decades and for solidarity, now being co-opted by people using wealth and access as platform for nothing else but spewing hate, division and to enrich themselves even further...
"Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely"
— John Dalberg-Acton
[1] https://brennan.day/normalized-fascism-in-open-source-12-million-given-to-dhh/
[2] Claiming projects are "apolitical" is politics, especially when outspoken anti-humanitarians like DHH are in leadership positions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apoliticism#Criticisms
#OpenSource #FLOSS #2026

2026-10-25 17:45:03 UTC

Arrival (2026)
(Inspired by film years ago, experienced last month...)
#SilentSunday #LandscapePhotography #Alps #Forest #Light
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/502/791/022/930/959/original/146ad8902cb4eaeb.jpg

2026-10-25 14:11:20 UTC

(One of) The fundamental issues with AI/LLM/agent use in #FLOSS is that what has been a culture of communities largely defining and organizing themselves through certain ways of creating/learning/working/maintaining/exchanging in the open, has slowly been turned into an anti-culture which is essentially only focused on free end results (products), produced ad-hoc, with source available, but more or less as a side effect, as just another output artifact from a black-box process, and definitely not a central organizing factor or value anymore...
We really need to start acknowledging this dichotomy of purpose & value and start refining our language to defend existing meanings of what "open source culture" is/was about...
#OpenSource #FLOSS #Culture #Community #AI

2026-10-25 07:30:02 UTC

Scale Override (2025)
(Berglhütte/Rifugio Borletti at the bottom left. Located at 2188m, but only near the bottom of one of the main spurs leading up to the majestic white Ortler summit at 3905m...)
#SilentSunday #LandscapePhotography #Photography #Alps #Mountains #Scale
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/498/830/070/751/607/original/d1170bdc218787d2.jpg

2026-10-24 11:43:19 UTC

Still remember the first time I listened to this epic track by Daniel Myer aka Architect some twenty years ago... glitchy, heavy, trancy, melancholic, fantastic sound design, build up and layered production...
(If you're not too keen on the more glitchy parts, skip the intro to 3:07)
Architect — St. Vodka (2005)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ct1nbUyKi8
#Music4Coding #Architect #IDM

2026-10-24 09:58:40 UTC

Wanted: The Kraftwerk-inspired Thermian leader's voice from Galaxy Quest for GPS navigation guidance. How to make that happen on iOS?
(A recent update of @nprofile…ctk3 somehow reset the voice to some 1990s default voice config and it very much reminded me of that character... :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIWPKy98pKw

2026-10-23 16:23:42 UTC

Getting ready for creating a larger contact print of this image tonight... Just some more fine tuning of the talus fields needed...
#Photography #BlackAndWhite #NoirCountry #Darkroom #PrintMaking
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/491/146/522/621/942/original/8e333b3b56447ae7.jpg

2026-10-23 09:07:25 UTC

From Oculus/ModRetro to Anduril & co. Boys with toys continue being living proof of the primitive worldview formed from watching too much idiotic Hollywood sci-fi. But they're all so very good at exploiting the huge appetite and openings for defense funding and government contracts in the current ethics-free and testosterone soaked, dripping/tripping environment of the US admin...
Warhound raises $200M to engineer war dogs and arm them with Anduril gear
https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/22/ben-lamm-raises-200m-for-warhound-to-engineer-war-dogs-and-arm-them-with-anduril-gear/
Related, some very good & entertaining commentary about Colossus Biotech (who're key part of Warhound) and their "de-extinction" & cloning business model:
https://arutherford.substack.com/p/dire-wolves-remain-very-extinct
Ps. Considering the $100k-200k price tag for a trained security dog aimed at VIPs, one can just imagine the profits to be made for weaponized dogs...

2026-10-23 06:30:01 UTC

A Hidden Life (2023)
(One of several ~500 years old and still functional grain mills used as one of the film locations for the eponymous, beautifully shot and incredibly touching movie by Terrence Malick, which also is highly relevant to our current moment in time, about standing up for personal ethics and peaceful coexistence in a society which has given up on either...)
#Photography #BlackAndWhite #NoirCountry #Alps #History #WaterMill #FilmLocation
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/487/271/772/997/918/original/2335cc542a79df08.jpg

2026-10-22 18:58:50 UTC

PPWR update from the EU Council:
Simplification: Council agrees negotiating stance to cut red tape for small packaging producers
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/de/press/press-releases/2026/10/21/simplification-council-agrees-negotiating-stance-to-cut-red-tape-for-small-packaging-producers/
tl;dr The Council agrees with the urgent need for simplification and removing the EPR duties, albeit with different conditions than what parliament voted for a day prior (instead of max. company size and annual turnover, the Council proposes to use packaging volume as limit — fair enough and no difference to most micro biz).
The Council's position is: "[...]that producers of packaging and packaging of packaged products established in the EU may be exempted from the obligation to appoint an authorised representative in another member state if they make available on the market of that member state a quantity of packaging below 1 tonne per calendar year. The mandate also contains a safeguard clause in case a producer is found in breach with EPR obligations."
Although great news, I'm not sure about the timeline for next steps towards an actual change of law. The press release only states:
"The presidency will enter negotiations with the European Parliament on this file as soon as possible with a view to reaching a quick agreement."
"[...]the objective of concluding work on all simplification packages by the end of 2027."
I'm very much hoping that the EPR parts will be dealt with on a much shorter time horizon — most of the impacted businesses will likely NOT survive another 14 months (until end of next year)...
Still, one small win at a time! 🙌
#PPWR #EU #Regulation

2026-10-22 10:42:27 UTC

Biological landfill. This is close to the picture we should have more often in mind when thinking about the long-arc future of our being & doing here, the relationships and struggles we engage in on this planet... Consider the trillions of lives lived before, after and in parallel to us, whose raw materials are we all consume, share, recycle and transform over and over again, even if separated by aeons...
#Fossils #Geology #Biology #Time

2026-10-22 06:30:00 UTC

Sky Castle (2024)
#LandscapePhotography #Photography #BlackAndWhite #NoirCountry #Alps #Mountains #CloudAppreciation
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/481/732/885/273/295/original/282232e8a93dfdc3.jpg

2026-10-21 16:42:27 UTC

Something I'm only slowly re-learning after experiences of 2021/22... 🥹

2026-10-21 09:16:34 UTC

Am I correct in assuming that Firefox on iOS is not actually using the Mozilla OneCRL mechanism to distribute certificate revocations and seemingly is just piggybacking on Apple/WebKit's infrastructure? I'm on latest FF v158.1, but still able to connect to sites with the compromised SSL certificates...
https://emudhra.we-have-a-problem.com/
Does that mean I'll have to update to iOS 27 now or wait for some other Apple security update? Arrgghhh... 🫣
#Firefox #iOS #eMudhra #SSL #WeHaveAProblem #InfoSec

2026-10-20 19:35:03 UTC

🚨 Please read & act if you're running a small online shop in the EU or are even just a customer of one! These people need your urgent support! Otherwise the still new EU-wide packaging & waste regulation (PPWR) as it currently stands and is in full effect WILL kill most of the small businesses in the EU, incl. the livelihoods of artists, designers, illustrators, makers etc. who're trying to survive by selling physical goods online...
The legislation already came online in August, but it's been an utter bureaucratic mess! Official communication and clarification were even worse/absent for many weeks since rollout! An exemption from the most damaging parts for nano/micro-businesses was only voted[1] on in parliament today (almost 60(!) days after introduction), but with positive outcome! However this support by parliament is only a small win and we need more pressure on MEPs to clarify the severity of this situation for the next round(s) of negotiation with the EU Council and member states.
To clarify: The most damaging & costly part of this regulation is the requirement for a legal representative in each EU country you want to ship to. The cost of a single representative is several hundred Euro per yer per country. If you're intending to sell to the entire EU, that's worst case 27 middlemen to pay, aka (tens of) thousands of Euro in just regulatory fees every single year. It's completely unrealistic, disproportional, non-sensical and against every aspect of the single market principles... It is now easier to sell to outside the EU than it is to sell inside the EU! Make it make sense!
The only people this regulation benefits are major retailers and the growing compliance industry!
Please boost for visibility! Thank you! 🙏
[1] https://www.rapporteur.com/news/meps-back-small-business-exemption-from-costly-waste-reduction-compliance/
#PPWR #EU #SME #SaveMicroEnterprises #Legislation #WriteToYourMEP

2026-10-20 16:33:44 UTC

I haven't registered a new domain name in years. What are good/ethical DNS registrars these days? Thank you for any recommendations! 🙏
#FediAsk #DNS

2026-10-20 15:13:20 UTC

Naming things is hard, especially if all the good names are already taken/occupied by the most banal & trivial things/projects imaginable, or hardly have a direct relationship with the name/concept... 😩
#NamingThings

2026-10-20 13:05:32 UTC

I was planning to redo this amazing tour again today, maybe the last chance before the temperature drops, the first snow arrives and the cable car goes into maintenance for the rest of the year (even with that help it's still a 24km hike). Sadly, looking at the forecast, I guess it'll have to be a 2027 adventure now...
#TextureTuesday #LandscapePhotography #Photography #Alps #Mountains #Texture

2026-10-20 06:30:00 UTC

Kugelhorn (2022)
(First dusting of snow near the peak complimenting the rich autumn colors/textures of the forest below)
#TextureTuesday #LandscapePhotography #Alps #Mountains #Autumn #Texture
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/469/915/023/787/727/original/c848f20cab254603.jpg

2026-10-19 12:59:20 UTC

The doom-cycle of contemporary democracy and social lethargy:
Politicians, journalists, activists, influences are almost exclusively using US billionaire owned social media for communicating with the public. No control over visibility, audience. No serious efforts done of switching to alternatives and/or educating/promoting a public shift, neither by those influential people nor by the larger public.
For any voices critical of media platform owners or their interests/allegiances, at opportune moments, these platforms are increasingly limiting/disabling/blocking access/propagation or engage/enable disinfo campaigns whenever it serves their owner's interests. No accountability, only easy-to-make void excuses, meaningless apologies (if at all). Blaming the mythical AI/algorithm/automation. Thoughts 'n prayers. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused...
The same politicians, journalists, activists, influencers are then going back to step 1 to loudly complain and publicly express their outrage...
How much longer is this still supposed to be rational or even acceptable behavior? Why is this lethargy so ubiquitous? Who are the media managers to not at the very least start diversifying your clients' comms away from these corrupted platforms? At least some of these people are supposed to be leaders! Just occasionally also show you're able to...
The fear of not being able to retain their little current reach/visibility (which is easily arbitraged and corrupted as per #2) and having to start building up an audience elsewhere seems to completely paralyze everyone, even though as DJT's team has shown, it is very possible to switch to new platforms/channels and people will be following, en mass. Thanks to open standards, one doesn't even need to own the full platform...
#Fediverse #SocialMedia #Politics #Rant

2026-10-19 10:00:04 UTC

We interrupt this program for a classic IDM broadcast from happier times:
Bad Loop — Glacier (200x)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq-xTlvMAb4
#Music4Coding #BadLoop #DemoScene #IDM

2026-10-19 06:30:03 UTC

Descent Into Oytal (October 2023)
(Epic evening light shafts illuminating the lower parts of the valley, showing the path ahead which we took underneath the stars a few hours later. The upper part of the valley is one of Germany's true dark places (Bortle scale 2), great for stargazing... The peaks on the left are two of the four summits of the Höfats, a unique mountain with some of the steepest slopes in the eastern Alps)
#MountainMonday #LandscapePhotography #Photography #BlackAndWhite #NoirCountry #Alps #Mountains #Light
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/464/834/858/168/906/original/fb3b4bdad4775ea8.jpg

2026-10-18 06:00:07 UTC

Golden Cloud Core (2026)
(Four months ago, the last light refracting in the clouds, spending a night in the central Alps at 2850 meters... 😍)
#SilentSunday #LandscapePhotography #Alps #Mountains #Glacier #CloudAppreciation
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/458/527/846/336/121/original/18506eb3249da1fb.jpg

2026-10-17 11:58:55 UTC

If the three+ decades of free (ab)use and lack of participation/reciprocation (financially or otherwise) of commercial players and governments have not killed FLOSS software projects/culture, it very much feels like LLMs and their euphoric adoption are finally succeeding with that by now, in some sense even in a suicidal manner...
In 2026, The Great Dying is upon us and some of the projects left standing will have already turned into institutions whose main goals will be survival, risk aversion (often in the form of sycophantic behavior towards sponsors) and increased centralization/hierarchy (internally and externally, as relating to their position in their own respective domains), involving the open sacrifice of other previously held values/goals and/or partners/groups of the community... The end (survival) justifies the means.
The larger effects are reduced diversity, choice and innovation. Equally, for those left outside and still having energy, resources & vision, it means more room and clarity to attempt something truly different, centered around the key lessons from these sociotechnical upheavals...
Can we stop building/imposing easily corruptible hierarchies (of tech/tools/people), can we?!
#FLOSS #OpenSource #AI #Community

2026-10-17 09:51:22 UTC

Single Use Software is a great phrase and way to think about this! Some other alternatives I'd like to offer:
It's the NIH Syndrome (Not Invented Here) gone hyperviral & mainstream:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_invented_here
It's also the Lisp Curse supercharged (which equally applies to Forth, IMO), i.e. the disconnect between extreme expressive power, coupled with lacking skills/talent/constraint, turns problems that are mainly technical into social problems:
https://www.winestockwebdesign.com/Essays/Lisp_Curse.html
And finally, to paraphrase the great Alan Perlis:
"An AI/LLM/Agentic programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing."
(May we add: "...including social/environmental costs")
#AI #NIH #LLM #Lisp #Forth #Quote

2026-10-17 06:30:05 UTC

Foggy Mornings Ⅰ (2026)
#MorningWalk #LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography #Light #Fog #Autumn
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/453/280/029/183/550/original/b767c9409bc42694.jpg

2026-10-16 16:35:22 UTC

Cladonia grayi & Parmelia sulcata (?)
#LichenSubscribe #FungiFriday #NaturePhotography
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/451/556/172/664/141/original/e70fe37c940852e3.jpg

2026-10-16 16:09:23 UTC

"Music is so relaxing and the percussion instruments make the accents of the different rhythms so easy to listen to that you should have no difficulty in keeping time..."
DJ Food — Bass City Roller (1997)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_he6sM58lY
(Slooowww, but beware of sub-bass...)
#Music4Coding #DJFood #NinjaTune

2026-10-16 05:30:00 UTC

Thin Layer Of Life (2026)
(I love scenes like this, exposing just how thin and fragile this carpet of life is in the high mountains, considering the ages/centuries, the obstacles it took to overcome and the relationships needing to form for this varied life to get and retain its temporary foothold here... It's inspiring and very symbolic to me)
#LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography #Alps #Mountains #Autumn
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/447/523/312/419/944/original/46319ab02caaff9f.jpg

2026-10-15 12:37:47 UTC

“Fast tech is the blind spot of the e-waste world. Black Friday and Christmas will bring another enormous wave of electronic toys, decorative lights, mini gadgets, chargers and other inexpensive electronics into our homes. Their low price doesn’t mean they have no environmental cost. We need them to be collected and recycled when they’re no longer in use” — Pascal Leroy, Director General of the WEEE Forum
#EWaste #Recycling #Consumerism

2026-10-15 06:45:03 UTC

Evening Walk (Last night)
#EveningWalk #LandscapePhotography #Sunset #Silhouette
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/441/942/563/743/306/original/ac3989ee1b3be5b5.jpg

2026-10-14 16:05:39 UTC

Just published a new helper package https://thi.ng/hiccup-sanitize to cleanup a hiccup component/element/SVG tree. Supports removing/keeping user-defined attributes and/or elements (and their entire sub-trees).
#ThingUmbrella #ReleaseDay #OpenSource #Hiccup #Sanitze #TypeScript #JavaScript

2026-10-14 15:26:15 UTC

Anyone else encountering internal server errors when pushing to @nprofile…mvm4?
git push
Enumerating objects: 14, done.
Counting objects: 100% (14/14), done.
Delta compression using up to 8 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (9/9), done.
Writing objects: 100% (9/9), 2.66 KiB | 53.00 KiB/s, done.
Total 9 (delta 6), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0 (from 0)
remote:
remote: Forgejo: Internal Server Connection Error
To codeberg.org:thi.ng/umbrella.git
! [remote rejected] main -> main (pre-receive hook declined)
error: failed to push some refs to 'codeberg.org:thi.ng/umbrella.git'
#Codeberg #Git

2026-10-14 06:45:01 UTC

Bernina Falls (2024)
(Just one of many cascades forming these falls in their eponymous mountain range of the Alps...)
#WaterfallWednesday #Photography #BlackAndWhite #NoirCountry #Waterfall #Alps
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/435/416/021/769/311/original/bdd5e3b9bca91b45.jpg

2026-10-13 11:15:10 UTC

Invisible Chasm Ⅳ (2024)
(Small section visible of the path leading down to the mouth of a glacial canyon, 300-400 meters below... Beginnings of the side moraine visible on the opposite side)
#InvisibleChasm #TextureTuesday #LandscapePhotography #Photography #Abstract #Texture
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/433/310/179/875/340/original/d3f9a3e99ede1369.jpg

2026-10-13 09:35:54 UTC

Pete and Repeat were on a boat. Pete fell out, who was left on the boat?
https://social.wildeboer.net/@jwildeboer/103509861237806820

2026-10-12 16:19:33 UTC

Ashridge (2020)
(Today, six years ago... On one of the first outings in the English countryside after the lockdowns)
#LandscapePhotography #CloudAppreciation #Buckinghamshire
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/428/844/730/374/197/original/2819da3d377be194.jpg

2026-10-12 12:39:03 UTC

"For generations, Indigenous Bolivian women were not allowed to walk freely in the wealthy or central parts of the nation’s capital, La Paz, where they were considered lower-class and expected to stay at home or work in servitude. More recently, this attitude has changed as Aymara and Quechua women have taken back their rights, expressing themselves confidently through characteristically tall bowler hats, long braids, and bright shawls, skirts, and petticoats.
Originally meant as a pejorative term, cholita has been embraced by Aymara and Quechua women, who have adopted the name as a signal of pride. Photographer Todd Antony (previously) caught up with a group who call themselves the “Climbing Cholitas,” and a breathtaking series of images was born in Cholitas Escaladoras."

2026-10-12 06:45:01 UTC

Zugspitze (2021)
(View of Germany's tallest peak, last glacier [remnants] and the absolutely grand Höllental below, state as of five years ago...)
#MountainMonday #MonochromeMonday #LandscapePhotography #BlackAndWhite #NoirCountry #Alps #Mountains
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/424/130/893/228/436/original/6e3eef9f7a6bb0cc.jpg

2026-10-11 20:07:12 UTC

The chords and solo guitar in this one are cutting very deep tonight, but are equally healing, considering the state of the world...
Gacha Bakradze - Mississipi (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is26L3WPiac
#Music4Coding #NoBeat

2026-10-11 18:11:27 UTC

Spent the whole afternoon setting up https://www.borgbackup.org/ to backup my laptop to cloud storage, fully encrypted, compressed and deduplicated. Also wrote a daily backup shell script to manage various source locations and backup conditions (e.g. presence of external SSDs). The compression uses LZ4 by default but can also use zstd and others. Together with the dedupe feature it seems very efficient. Of the original 54.9 GB so far, it's 41.9 GB compressed and only 19.7 GB deduped...
#Backup #Borg

2026-10-11 11:00:45 UTC

In The Puez-Geisler Range (2023)
(One of the most photographed mountains in the background, albeit here from a more untypical POV...)
#SilentSunday #LandscapePhotography #Photography #BlackAndWhite #NoirCountry #Alps #Mountains
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/421/928/846/282/796/original/5f82a68d3b728ea9.jpg

2026-10-10 06:45:01 UTC

Early November Morning Walk (2025)
#MorningWalk #LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography #Autumn
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/412/997/260/454/790/original/9c0eacc87c9194c1.jpg

2026-10-09 22:32:11 UTC

Random memory which recently popped back to the front of my mind: Some years ago someone here was commenting like: "very nice pictures, let's see how much of (or how closely) this all reflects your actual lived reality".
I remember being quite taken aback by that comment at the time, since it implied that I'd be leading some fake Instagram lifestyle, which literally couldn't be further from the truth. But sorting through all the images of the past 5 years, it's undeniable how drastically my life has changed since leaving behind 23+ years in London and having become more able to live out my love and appreciation for nature & photography, which always have been my main inspirations, also for my computational work (in fact it was photography & darkroom experiments which got me into computational art). I made the most of it I could in London (e.g. by working for 8+ years mostly from a bench in Highgate Woods, working on large projects for clients all over the world). But a suburban woodland also is incomparable to living near an endlessly fascinating major mountain range with incredibly rich & varied culture and ancient history to draw from...
So with that, I hope the pictures I've been sharing here are (mostly) seen as what I intend them as: Shared moments of wild or abstract natural beauty, oftentimes inviting pondering the time & processes shaping these environments, questioning our own role/presence or (in)significance there... Curated yes, very much so, but staged, absolutely not!
Ps. I'll again look into changing this server into a multi-account setup and potentially setting up more topic oriented sub-accounts. I'm currently feeling there's maybe too much self-censoring going on because I don't want to spam people and I think the new setup might help those people only following me for some small subset of my niche interests (instead of causing them to unfollow me...)

2026-10-09 15:26:45 UTC

We see those (mostly the German version though) so often on signposts all over the Alps, even in the most remote & stunning areas. The irony makes me smile each time. It seems the people of Baden-Württemberg really do like their home state, like a lot... ;)
#NotBadHereBut

2026-10-09 12:23:32 UTC

Valle dei Sogni (2026)
(Complete solitude in the valley of dreams — that's how it felt and how I will remember/cherish it...)
#FootpathFriday #LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography #Alps #Mountains #Hiking
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/410/929/776/595/194/original/332e8d35aed82dec.jpg

2026-10-09 08:53:33 UTC

Son again having a real fun day with Deutsche Bahn again: Two different seat reservations canceled automatically (original from a few weeks ago plus the alternative booked last night). DB staff completely useless, no single source of truth available. The website says seats are available, yet the system is canceling them hours after booking and just couple of hours before traveling. Emails superseding info on mobile app and website, just complete mess... no idea which to trust. There might be eventual consistency in their system, but the delays until that's reached is super unhelpful...
I thought UK trains were the worst I knew (in different aspects), but DB keeps working super hard to win that race... chronic underfunding by government obviously a big contributor...
#Trains #Germany

2026-10-08 14:09:52 UTC

I love it when nature documentaries also provide extremely timely commentary about our current world and state of affairs at large:
"In more extreme environments competition is less decisive because it has one great drawback: It uses up a lot of energy. In the mountains, energy is a commodity one must manage with care. [...]
The strong eliminate the weak. We assume that's how nature works, but that's not entirely true. Up above the clouds the rules are different. Up there where nothing else can grow. When the poverty of the soil is compounded by extreme climate conditions, the rules change and life reveals one of its most wondrous secrets. [...] The strangest of them all also lives at the highest altitude, the mysterious Rock Jasmine. It may appear to be a single plant, but in fact it shelters a multitude of tiny, invisible creatures. Bacteria, mitess and insects live as a community within the Rock Jasmine. It is itself an entire ecosystem, capable of living completely autonomously.
These plants demonstrate one of the fundamental mechanisms of the natural world. When there is nothing left it isn't the strongest that succeed, but those that held one another. The tougher the conditions, the more vital it becomes to work together. That's the lesson from the inhabitants of the Alps..."
— Frédéric Fougea
The current psychopathic behaviors of our leaders are accelerating/catapulting us all towards harsher, more austere climates (not only literally, but also sociopolitically speaking) and with that, it falls on us to learn and adapt those same lessons & strategies above, as quickly and efficiently as we can. Mistakes will be made, many attempts will likely be required, but symbiosis, solidarity and collaboration always have been, and will increasingly become key survival strategies over the coming years, for many more people, once they give up on their zero-sum gaming and have learned the lesson that endless competition is depleting their own resources (as infinite as they may appear at the moment) and only worsens their own conditions...
Alps, the last sanctuary in Europe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykhKHl7SxRM
(Already had shared this beautifully filmed documentary a couple of years ago, but been rewatching it with different eyes...)
#Nature #Documentary #Symbiosis #Collaboration #Alps

2026-10-08 11:17:15 UTC

Fire (2026)
(Fireweed, Epilobium angustifolium L. in its best namesake form)
(Re-upload, due to uploading wrong version earlier...)
#BloomScrolling #NaturePhotography #Photography #Alps
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/405/006/839/897/500/original/f8cb0adb7242ad9e.jpg

2026-10-08 11:00:11 UTC

Fire (2026)
(Fireweed, Epilobium angustifolium L. in its best namesake form)
#BloomScrolling #NaturePhotography #Photography #Alps
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/404/939/735/663/565/original/7ce85414459bc75e.jpg

2026-10-07 20:14:34 UTC

I remember creating physarium sims for my architecture students back in 2013 and then only managed to run a few thousand agents in realtime (in Java/Processing). Even that was super exciting. Now people are casually able to throw around four million of them (and in < 8KB, incl. music)...
Lovely stuff and I like the use of density/pattern masks/gradients to create these multi-scale aesthetics. Beautiful! 🤩👏
#Demoscene #Physarium #GenerativeArt

2026-10-07 13:34:35 UTC

A great new entry for the "How to lie with data visualization" collection...
#DataViz #Energy

2026-10-07 13:09:50 UTC

Considering Sturgeon's law (i.e. "90% percent of everything is crap"), having 1000x more ideas would directly translate to having 900x more crap to deal with, by everyone, in potentially any domain. Considering the people who're proposing this crap are also out to commercially exploit some/most of these ideas (at least attempting to), that particular envisioned future would have the potential to become one major ubiquitous man-in-the-middle attack on society...
https://sunny.garden/@Artists_Ali/116920398941707514

2026-10-07 13:08:21 UTC

2026-10-07 06:45:04 UTC

Labyrinth (2026)
The literal name of this section of a wall of almost a thousand meters[1] of near vertical ice, a slowly shapeshifting maze of seracs, flowing, fracturing, the light refracting and revealing the beautiful blue ice glow of the (dying) glacier... No photo can do justice (to the scale and impressions). For reference, the cliffs in the foreground are ~2.4 km (1.5 miles) in front and the path to the ice goes first over/across them...
(Ps. I will keep posting my images of glaciers and their precious fragile environments until someone tells me off, and then probably continue anyway... To me they're some of most fascinating and important envs in the world, their changes/losses having vast implications elsewhere too.)
[1] ...much more if one includes the more shallow sections above/below...
#WaterfallWednesday #LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography #Glacier #Alps #Abstract
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/396/952/003/425/288/original/b4a8bae12e93ef68.jpg

2026-10-06 19:37:07 UTC

The below is correct and any claims of "rogue behavior" and other popular attempts at anthropomorphization are merely means to actively distance the original purveyors of software agents by 1) shifting blame onto users of agentic tooling and 2) claiming agents themselves are something more advanced than auto-generated, buggy, shoddily assembled, half-baked, brute-force and insufficiently secured products with the unfortunate inherent capabilities to directly employ a vast library of trained malware patterns.
This is not just lack of security. It is lack of design, lack of foresight. Above all, it is lack of care, of responsibility. It is a social failure of imagination of what technology could/should be like.
These software products (agents) should never have been released in this current form in the first place. Instead of addressing LLM's fundamental knowledge management issues & shortcomings, the industry keeps on building increasingly fragile layers atop, each one with more anthropomorphisms attached to normalize these shortcomings and sell them as breakthroughs (even if these are sold with supposed civilization-ending warnings).
The true "advances" this whole industry has pioneered are how their PR strategies have managed to successfully influence such a vast number of people in such short time (< 4 years), incl. people who should know better and/or have an official duty/responsibility to be more objective & critical of the constant flow of vapid claims and explanations put forward by this industry... journalists, educators, politicians, doctors, civil servants have MUCH explaining to do about their lack/failure of objective critical assessments of this tech! Regurgitating the industry's talking points (aka distractions) without neither acknowledging their own roles and sycophantic/egotistic behaviors and ignoring the actual real multi-domain emergencies already knocking at our doorstep — all this is simply unacceptable! If these people cannot or will not exercise the required level of objectivity, then we need to elect & elevate the people who can...
#AI #Agents

2026-10-06 14:35:19 UTC

Since it's #TextureTuesday, and since I missed them earlier, here are some recent images by the great @nprofile…n5sg with some beautiful abstract impressions of the Pyrenees in early autumn... 🤩
https://mastodon.social/@pyrenaicus/117392950842315096
https://mastodon.social/@pyrenaicus/117275415447852061
https://mastodon.social/@pyrenaicus/117303883012329191
https://mastodon.social/@pyrenaicus/117347409616427622
#Photography #Pyrenees #Mountains

2026-10-06 12:57:32 UTC

Found some of my old (and first) teenage years cameras and other photo equipment on the DDR Museum website. Artifacts from a truly different life... Some of these were already 15-25+ years old when I first used them in the '80s...
More items/objects here:
https://www.ddr-museum.de/de/objects/filter/sammlungsbereich/42
All image credits belong to DDR Museum. Reference links in alt text.
#Photography #Camera #History #DDR
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/394/076/521/149/010/original/de5e61f5387665ad.jpg
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/394/076/525/291/434/original/fd8668cabb483c65.jpg
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/394/076/520/907/710/original/33c0681e17a4837f.jpg
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/394/076/526/771/702/original/6b7a823f85fe1763.jpg

2026-10-06 11:47:54 UTC

In the past two weeks I already couldn't help but prepare roasted pumpkin & garlic cream soup twice, so I guess that puts me in the "Love it" camp... 😋

2026-10-06 11:37:26 UTC

Hologram's Solstice (2018) is just what my ADHD brain needs today to remain calm... Melodic, rhythmic & aural evolving complexity of the finest synthetic vintage... (Headphones recommended)
https://runningbackrecords.bandcamp.com/track/solstice
#Music4Coding #Hologram #Synth #NoBeats

2026-10-06 06:45:01 UTC

Gurglerferner (2026)
Beautifully rich textures and structures, emphasized by the hard light and created by glacial abrasion of this once great (and still utterly majestic) glacier flowing directly from the central Alpine divide. If you squint you can see a faint path zigzagging up the exposed & plucked bedrock near the center bottom... Like the Vernagtferner in a neighboring valley, this glacier too has caused ice lakes to form several times over the past centuries, occasionally ending in GLOFs (glacial outflow floods) causing widespread destruction in the valleys below...
#TextureTuesday #LandscapePhotography #Photography #BlackAndWhite #NoirCountry #Alps #Glacier
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/391/008/256/168/856/original/6420d55992830233.jpg

2026-10-05 08:31:05 UTC

Pass dal Güglia
Sep 29, 2024
Sep 28, 2026
#MountainMonday #LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography #Alps #Mountains
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/387/366/489/088/497/original/0cefbf1df4b20a13.jpg
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/387/366/489/088/496/original/305e5f3a32846165.jpg

2026-10-04 15:39:57 UTC

Sign of the times. Gaudi & zusaufen bis zum erbrochenen Ende! Ist es denn auch wirklich eine Wiese, wenn's nur Bier aber gar kein Gras zum konsumieren gibt? 🤔

2026-10-03 14:25:34 UTC

Gran Inversion (2026)
(Gran Zebru (3851 m) and the glaciated Monte Cevedale (3769 m) and Adamello-Presanella Alps [with main peaks at 3539 & 3558 meters] towering high above the clouds floating above the valley)
#SilentSunday #LandscapePhotography #Photography #BlackAndWhite #NoirCountry #Alps #Mountains #CloudAppreciation
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/377/435/748/312/083/original/79345fe103ab69bf.jpg

2026-10-03 12:00:31 UTC

I've started collecting dates for various photography related markets/events in southern Germany & Austria (mostly Tirol) for the coming ~9 months. If you know about other such events (esp. for fine art photography prints), I'd highly appreciate any pointers and I'll add them to this list. Thank you! 🙏
The events are also available as static ICS calendar file here:
https://data.thi.ng/calendars/artmarkets-de-at.ics
Kunst & Design Markt Stuttgart
https://kunst-designmarkt.at/stuttgart/
10 - 11 Oct 2026
20 - 21 Mar 2027
Kunst & Design Markt Konstanz
https://kunst-designmarkt.at/konstanz/
17 - 18 Oct 2026
17 - 18 Apr 2027
Münchner Fotobörse
https://fotoboerse-muenchen.de/
18 Oct 2026
Artfair Innsbruck
https://www.artfair-innsbruck.com/
23 - 25 Oct 2026
ARTMUC Kunstmesse München
https://artmuc.info/
23 - 25 Oct 2026
Kunst & Design Markt Salzburg
https://kunst-designmarkt.at/salzburg/
24 - 25 Oct 2026
13 - 14 Mar 2027
Kunst & Design Markt Augsburg
https://kunst-designmarkt.at/augsburg/
31 Oct - 1 Nov 2026
1 -2 May 2027
Kunst & Design Markt Innsbruck
https://kunst-designmarkt.at/innsbruck/
7 - 8 Nov 2026
27 - 28 Feb 2027
Kunst & Design Markt Wien
https://kunst-designmarkt.at/wien/
14 - 15 Nov 2026
10 - 11 Apr 2027
Kunst & Design Markt Nürnberg
https://kunst-designmarkt.at/nuernberg/
28 - 29 Nov 2026
24 - 25 Apr 2027
Kunst & Design Markt München
https://www.kunst-designmarkt.at/muenchen/
3 - 4 Apr 2027
Fürstenfelder Naturfototage
https://www.fuerstenfelder-naturfototage.com
23 - 25 Apr 2027
Oberstdorfer Fotogipfel
https://www.fotogipfel-oberstdorf.de/
16 - 20 Jun 2027
Fotomesse Tirol (Innsbruck)
https://fotomesse.tirol/
Sep 2027
#Photography #FineArt #Artist #Market #Events #Germany #Austria

2026-10-02 10:51:15 UTC

The beauty of pure synth. A single filtered sequence, repeated in ever changing variations, deeply touching, on perma repeat... 😍
nthing — I Hear You
https://nthng.bandcamp.com/track/i-hear-you
The opening track from nthng's new album Last Light Of The Sun (released today):
https://nthng.bandcamp.com/album/last-light-of-the-sun
#Music4Coding #Synth #NoBeats #nthng

2026-10-02 10:38:03 UTC

Rocky Road (2026)
(Even if hundreds of years old, some paths [in life] always will & should remain rocky as they can be good teachers...)
#FootpathFriday #Photography #BlackAndWhite #NoirCountry #Hiking
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/370/878/797/395/311/original/4c391c5e3ebe64b6.jpg

2026-10-01 10:49:28 UTC

Very good and necessarily scary article about this year's extreme glacial volume losses in the Swiss Alps, including great visualizations. The effects will be felt all over central Europe, this is not just a local problem...
https://www.srf.ch/wissen/klimawandel/eisverlust-2026-massive-gletscherschmelze-so-viel-eis-verschwand-im-hitzesommer
Also The Guardian is leading with a related article:
20% of Swiss glaciers lost in five years
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/oct/01/switzerland-glacier-loss-fossil-fuel-pollution-europe
#Glacier #ClimateChange #Switzerland #Europe

2026-09-30 14:10:48 UTC

Non-virtual Reality (2026)
(The office this week... Meticulously planned weeks/months ago, then been waiting for the right time/weather/season, now capturing a year's worth of impressions in just a few days...)
#LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography #Alps #Mountains #Autumn #Color #Glacier
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/360/390/757/830/072/original/c458b3bff8473fb3.jpg

2026-09-27 06:30:02 UTC

The Quiet Place (2024)
(Actually only half true. More up close, glaciers are full of the most amazing sounds... yet from this distance, higher up, all you can hear is the wind and your own breath/heartbeat...)
#SilentSunday #LandscapePhotography #Alps #Glacier #Mountains
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/339/912/657/107/035/original/b8be89ddfd156c6e.jpg

2026-09-26 12:00:00 UTC

Show me your Super, I'll show you my Art! 💪🫶

2026-09-26 11:34:42 UTC

Self-taught vs formally taught, in a nutshell... 😅

2026-09-25 15:00:09 UTC

Alpine Autumn (2026)
(No extra saturation, only polarization. For those never been in the mountains around this time of the year, these colors sure might look artificial to you...)
#FootpathFriday #LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography #Alps #Mountains #Hiking #Autumn
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/332/273/271/434/817/original/6c0c15c364c57791.jpg

2026-09-25 13:19:20 UTC

Been searching for this clip for months... Perfect summary for working in tech (not only) in 2026...

2026-09-24 13:59:55 UTC

"An emperor who has an obsession with fancy new clothes, and spends lavishly on them at the expense of state matters. One day, two conmen[1] visit the emperor's capital. Posing as weavers, they offer to supply him with magnificent clothes that are invisible to those who are either incompetent or stupid. The gullible emperor hires them, and they set up looms and pretend to go to work. A succession of officials, starting with the emperor's wise and competent minister, and then ending with the emperor himself, visit them to check their progress. Each sees that the looms are empty but pretends otherwise to avoid being thought a fool or incompetent.
Finally, the "weavers" report that the emperor's suit is finished. They mime dressing him and he sets off in a procession before the whole city. The townsfolk uncomfortably[2] go along with the pretense, not wanting to appear inept or stupid, complementing the emperor's attire[...]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor%27s_New_Clothes
[1] Different retellings of the story use different names, e.g. Sam, Dario, Elon etc.
[2] In our current ongoing retelling, townsfolk are portrayed as much more comfortable, adding an unexpected twist to this classic story...
#HansChristianAndersen #Fairytale

2026-09-24 13:10:13 UTC

Aside from the original point of the quoted message, just imagine all the information requested in these (hardcoded) "ideas" put forward by the model to be helpful (3rd image) and handing these answers to Meta, one of the most untrustworthy companies in the world... And then also imagine, how many people are actually happily doing so without hesitation!
These behaviors & patterns are some of the real risks of AI. Blinded by the illusion and promise of intelligent machines, their partial utilitarian benefits (which could be equally achieved otherwise), people stop perceiving the actual dangers of the ongoing increased exploitation & surveillance of their own lives, the destruction of environment and society around them, directly and indirectly...
#AI #Meta

2026-09-24 11:51:37 UTC

For context: This is part of the fabulous mega thread by @nprofile…qj99 taking apart Meta's new Muse model, after prompting it to send him its entire filesystem (and it happily complying)... The amount of gaslighting done by AI companies and the numbers of unwitting people falling for these hyperbolic claims are increasingly hard to comprehend & digest...
#AGIIsHere

2026-09-24 08:02:19 UTC

Tomorrow is photo chem recycling day (every six months here): This means impending darkroom session today, checking vintage grades, measuring pH levels, filtering and replenishing various concoctions/solutions...
#AltProcess #Darkroom #Kallitype #Photography #FineArt #PrintMaking
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/324/968/002/691/659/original/59b0658969b4bd9f.jpg

2026-09-23 20:04:50 UTC

Tonight's evening walk & photo session at the local bird sanctuary... 🤩
#EveningWalk #LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography #Sunset #Lake
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/322/146/686/743/442/original/616b6a03ee1c304f.jpg
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/322/146/682/896/756/original/ab971b9d24085160.jpg

2026-09-23 10:54:14 UTC

If you're using #TypeScript or #JavaScript or #NPM, where do people hang out and talk about projects/issues these days (other than on Reddit, Discord), i.e. where are the communities/exchanges, since the topics obviously aren't popular on Mastdon. For a while now, any of my posts and project/release announcements related to these hashtags always seem to go pretty much straight to /dev/null...
Grateful for any pointers! 🙏

2026-09-23 09:35:10 UTC

More NPM troubles: Anyone else been getting 404s when trying to publish to NPM in recent days? I hope they're not messing with the 2FA publish token workflow already. I was banking on having another 3 months before their proposed sh*t[1] hits the fan...
(Trying to share, helping others and publishing open source is becoming an ever increasing burden... 😭)
[1] https://mastodon.thi.ng/@toxi/117319641837659759
#NPM #OpenSource #ThingUmbrella #FediAsk #LazyWeb

2026-09-23 09:27:47 UTC

Just published a new comment on the NPM discussion page about upcoming phase out of 2FA tokens for direct publishing and the dire consequences this will have on many projects (including ~220 of my own packages). I'd appreciate if more people impacted by these changes are making their voices heard, before it's too late...
https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/201329#discussioncomment-18564680
Quoting here too:
This "discussion" has been up for almost 3 months and not a single time has the NPM team here constructively responded to any of the serious concerns raised here. So I will reiterate my strong objection to these proposals once more:
These changes, however well intended, are plainly exclusionary practices and bad for what's left of open source culture!
Trusted publishing is excluding any form of publishing with a custom publish tool/workflow which doesn't use a CI.
Staged publishing, the only cited alternative proposal, is completely unusable for publishing large numbers of packages, e.g. from a monorepo. At the very least this needs to be updated to allow batch approvals/publishing of staged packages, otherwise it's completely unfeasible!
These combined effects mean people publishing multiple/many packages in one release cycle (e.g. from a monorepo) won't be able to publish to NPM anymore and will have to find alternative hosting, which will incur further effort on the maintainer side & much reduced visibility/findability of our opensource work. Thank you very much NPM team! Not!
At the very least we're all deserving some actual feedback to these issues, not just an announcement that this is how it's gonna be from January and then absolute silence for months or snarky one-liner replies when people are trying share workarounds for this fiasco and some of the largest changes ever proposed to the NPM ecosystem!
#NPM #2FA #TrustedPublishing #Monorepo #OpenSource #ThingUmbrella

2026-09-22 15:10:40 UTC

And there it is: DJT officially rebranding AI to SI (Super Intelligence) in all official US communications, hoping to remove negative connotations and counter the growing backlash against AI-affine tech & politics...
#AI #UNAssembly

2026-09-22 13:17:15 UTC

Watching UN general assembly live stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6_Kl2oVOTs
So far very good speech by António Guterres...
#UNAssembly

2026-09-22 08:33:08 UTC

Glacial Abstract (2026)
#TextureTuesday #LandscapePhotography #Abstract #Art #Glacier
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/313/764/554/778/010/original/b82edfd7d2b17288.jpg

2026-09-21 06:30:01 UTC

Catcher Of Clouds & Light (Zugspitze, 2026)
#MountainMonday #MonochromeMonday #LandscapePhotography #BlackAndWhite #NoirCountry #Alps #Mountains
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/306/188/610/472/794/original/c05db6743eea388b.jpg

2026-09-20 14:15:04 UTC

After The Drought (2026)
(Temporary bounce back of lush greens, at least for a few weeks, after an extremely hot & dry summer in the Alps...)
#SilentSunday #LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography #Forest #Alps #Mountains #Hiking
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/303/784/451/230/842/original/c64fa2cc550df6b3.jpg

2026-09-20 08:50:05 UTC

Golden Hour, Green Lung (2026)
#SilentSunday #EveningWalk #LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography #River
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/302/506/526/237/576/original/1db495dd26db1d23.jpg
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/302/506/534/536/561/original/12c1f79ba6984970.jpg

2026-09-11 15:05:19 UTC

Perspective Reset (2026)
(Carved by glaciers, houses for scale, colors for delight... the path ahead, to be taken 8 hours later...)
#FootpathFriday #LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography #Autumn #Alps #Mountains #Glacier #Hiking
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/253/021/219/140/858/original/ecdec54354422792.jpg

2026-09-11 09:44:55 UTC

Any "open source" project with a section proudly titled "Backed by the oligarchy" on its homepage[1] should be more than just a red flag to anyone (even if you don't know or care about the other horrendous political takes of its main author).
This project with all its fascist dog whistling (including the "You're someone now") in various marketing materials is nothing but an outright subversion & enclosure of FLOSS culture & efforts. What we're witnessing is the initial creation of and invitation to a maligned subculture, funded by: "The billionaires, mere millionaires, and corporations funding the lion's share of the development, maintenance, and spread Omarchy".
Please stop belittling this mess as a harmless "collection of dotfiles" and laughing it off as rich people sinking their money into this project. There's a much bigger picture here to be worried about!
[1] Sorry, not linking to it...

2026-09-09 09:43:18 UTC

If the Anthrobbing and/or ClosedAI IPOs are actually going ahead, will everyone who's not buying stock (and therefore not helping their super AIs to be brought about) later be punished for eternity by those companies' basilisks? Asking for a friend.

2026-09-08 06:00:00 UTC

Fog Over Forggensee (2026)
(Stunning light & fog encounter on a recent early morning walk...)
#LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography #Fog #Trees #Autumn #Mountains
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/231/445/630/548/420/original/741127c721a4fee9.jpg

2026-09-06 06:45:04 UTC

Revisiting An Ancient Friend
(...aiming higher/further today, before the days are getting too short, possibly attempting to record a new addition for my #TimeFade project[1], but will decide on final route when I get near the glacier... This image is from October 2025.)
[1] https://mastodon.thi.ng/@toxi/116862604028533210
#SilentSunday #LandscapePhotography #Glacier #Alps #Mountains #Hiking
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/220/757/337/058/725/original/17824f3df23ed7e0.jpg

2026-09-05 11:02:47 UTC

Just released a new version of https://thi.ng/mime, reflecting the current mime-db and now also including manual additions of 20 common camera RAW image file formats (various manufacturers), as well as new helper functions and the ability to dynamically register/override file extensions and their MIME types in their preferred order.
#ThingUmbrella #MIME #TypeScript #JavaScript #OpenSource

2026-09-05 07:23:35 UTC

Of course, for someone for whom size is everything, it’s anathema to suddenly be portrayed as smaller and more proportionate...

2026-09-03 07:30:14 UTC

Sycamores, Early Autumn (2023)
Early autumn mood & colors already setting in. Looking forward to my favorite season of the year...
#LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography #Trees #Alps #Mountains #Autumn
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/205/933/273/405/027/original/2361e89db3d613c5.jpg

2026-09-01 11:31:12 UTC

A small #ThingUmbrella code snippet for a current shop admin task, to help me with preparing different print size options in both inches and centimeters, grouped by landscape, portrait or square format.
The script illustrates how to functionally iterate over all possible sizes in a min/max range, converting & formatting units and grouping sizes based on their aspect ratio. All mostly relies on https://thi.ng/transducers and https://thi.ng/units for different transformation/conversion steps.
I'm posting this since in a recent poll people had indicated that they'd like to see more code snippets for using my libraries — maybe someone finds it as an useful reference...
Full source code:
https://gist.github.com/postspectacular/a122ab9c1cd52934b8093461231c6044
#TypeScript #JavaScript #FunctionalProgramming #Transducers #UnitConversion #Photography
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/195/556/211/897/226/original/5dbd175efee8b784.png
https://mastothing.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/117/195/556/231/485/526/original/b0c99cc041b5f07c.png