Ilya Zverev

I love OpenStreetMap and crafting virtual things. he/him.

Public Key

npub1tkar8mcgerjtcrt9m6z6vrzqcq69ay6cgk5cv9eq3aqzesxr895s0zhf9w

NIP-05 Address

zverik@en-osm-town.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs9mw3nauyv3e9up4jaapdxp3qvqdz7jdvyt2vxzusg7spvcrpnj6gpzfmhxue69uhk7enxvd5xz6tw9ec82cspp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mq0dyzy9

Publishing to

offchain.pub

nos.lol

relay.damus.io

Author Public Key

npub1tkar8mcgerjtcrt9m6z6vrzqcq69ay6cgk5cv9eq3aqzesxr895s0zhf9w

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Last Notes

2026-10-27 14:45:28 UTC

A great article on why the recent PHP issue was predictable and not an outlier:
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-round-up-the-real-reason
Basically, money. Cybersecurity spending was never high and was only cut for past decades. It's a systemic problem.
"The vulnerabilities at the source of this week’s cybersecurity chaos were identified by researchers in 2024, then disregarded because the technology didn’t exist to make them exploitable."
Wherever you look, the security is underfunded, while AI for exploiting it is not.

2026-10-26 09:01:51 UTC

First I invented a GTFS Binary format.
Then I created a server to regularly produce and annotate those, splitting and merging feeds if needed.
Then I created a Flutter library to read the format and to connect to the server.
Then I drafted a library to connect to MOTIS and other transit routing backends.
And yesterday I tied that all together with an app that downloads feeds, displays departure times offline, and offers route plans via @nprofile…kj84 .
Thanks to @nprofile…7gup we're almost there!
https://cdn.masto.host/enosmtown/media_attachments/files/117/506/375/829/759/817/original/11dffa1cf4df9955.png
https://cdn.masto.host/enosmtown/media_attachments/files/117/506/375/828/609/797/original/2eee888e0ab6c957.png

2026-09-23 08:59:53 UTC

Currently working on annotating public transit stops, and was stalling it because working with raw GTFS zips would be slow and ineffective. How easier would it be to just use the GTFS Binaries with all the data already preprocessed and ready to use.
Today it dawned on me that there's no reason not to.
Rly proud of the data format, much better than GTFS Proto that came before.
One thing that bothers me is that @nprofile…ctk3 are preparing their own and I've no clue.

2026-07-06 08:15:29 UTC

@nprofile…ck6a this might be of interest to you / @nprofile…kj84 people: I've downloaded all the GTFS feeds and run some stats.
https://izv.ee/gtfs/sizes
(This is a part of my GTFS Proto project funded by @nprofile…7gup — investigating an alternative file format. Planning to meet you all at the @nprofile…eftw to discuss the results!)

2026-07-05 06:36:40 UTC

Started working on packaging GTFS feeds into something akin to cloud-optimized files (but for phones, so it's megabytes, not gigabytes). and feel out of my depth :I
On the other hand, GTFS in a protobuf was a success: 5 MB file + 28 MB vector tiles were all it took to make a 100% offline app that shows stops, arrivals for each, and routes for the entire Estonia.
It's just the initialization (binary → sqlite) took like half a minute, and that's unacceptable for a consumer app.
Thanks @nprofile…7gup
https://cdn.masto.host/enosmtown/media_attachments/files/116/865/972/249/527/173/original/bc28283902f04432.png

2026-06-21 11:59:54 UTC

Just wow. @nprofile…recg repository as of this moment has 180 open pull requests, 179 of those were created in a week by the same guy. Despite a high number of comments, I haven't found a single person there, just a bunch of AI bots.
https://github.com/postgis/postgis/pulls
https://cdn.masto.host/enosmtown/media_attachments/files/116/787/972/211/057/199/original/4049ced4f76d8743.png
https://cdn.masto.host/enosmtown/media_attachments/files/116/787/972/209/127/795/original/09fd2cb5ab13ef83.png

2026-06-03 18:04:50 UTC

This is glorious.
https://github.com/ErikMcClure/bad-licenses

2026-02-13 14:59:27 UTC

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@nprofile…t0lt Tbf I have no idea. I saw it done well in the MicroBlocks talk on FOSDEM, but there the guy used 200 euro academic camera:
https://archive.fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-4304-microblocks-2-0-a-complete-makeover/
With a webcam, I had issues:
https://youtu.be/4v-UMTvrugc?t=142
Two things to solve:
1. Focus. Camera tends to fixate on fingers, on the table, on buttons, but not on the screen. A fixed adjustable focus might work well.
2. Brightness & Contrast. A bright LED screen confuses the camera matrix, and it tries to re-adjust, losing some data.

2026-02-13 07:48:43 UTC

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@nprofile…t0lt I tried doing this on an ESP32 device, but could not find a reliable solution to project the screen. It was all coming out blurry, my webcam could not focus :(

2026-02-01 21:18:43 UTC

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@nprofile…jjs5 I've starting mass writing feedbacks, and 1 in 3 talks leads to the "Resource Not Found" error — from the mismatch of slugs in the pretalx database and the website.
Is the feedback stored when this error appears?

2026-01-22 20:42:42 UTC

Oooooooh.
It just hit me.
Wikipedia was born in the US. That's why there is the Wikimedia Foundation which controls the project, keeps everything inside its infrastructure, and is the single point of contact for the project.
OpenStreetMap was born in Europe. By the words of Juri, our DNA is different: we provide the data and do the absolute minimum, allowing hundreds of companies flourish on our data. E.g. there are no official routers or search engines.
#openstreetMap #wikipedia #opendata
#nevent1q…3qk5

2026-01-22 15:07:02 UTC

After the success of the @nprofile…83pg LED badge at @nprofile…jjs5 2025, I'm looking into other, more visible badge options for the upcoming conference!
#fosdem #fosdem2026
https://cdn.masto.host/enosmtown/media_attachments/files/115/939/365/493/103/957/original/50b5b051aa6784e9.jpg

2026-01-12 14:10:32 UTC

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@nprofile…7gup @nprofile…fu0r We need to make this a thing at @nprofile…jjs5 . Like, a booth where people are invited to leave their comment. Maybe with a speech-to-text thing to speed this up.

2025-12-08 14:48:54 UTC

Making a talk on #enshittification in two weeks (in Russian), gotta need all the @nprofile…998y 's talk recordings despite having read every one of his blog postson the topic :) So thanks @nprofile…yv77 for sharing.
It's one thing to say "read so much I can basically explain it myself" and another to actually go and explain.

2025-06-20 06:59:47 UTC

In @nprofile…qz4x 's The Lost Cause there was some software that kids used to show fellow residents a vision of a better future by modelling their streets and their houses. Basically what construction companies do to sell houses, or what road building companies do to sell asphalt. But easier and faster to use.
The question is, do we have anything like that? I'm at a point where I need to show a future of my town to residents, and I want to show them pictures and renderings, not just maps.

2025-03-26 11:42:31 UTC

Many people here advise to self-host. Buy a Hetzner server, install Ghost / Forgejo / NextCloud / whatever. Understandable, though I have problems with that approach, namely, what happens when you skip a year.
But also there's an ongoing AI problem. After stealing all the books and pictures, they moved on to disrupt another public good: open source servers. There is daily ongoing DDoS on every server you know, including personal hosts. Self-hosted got more expensive.
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/03/devs-say-ai-crawlers-dominate-traffic-forcing-blocks-on-entire-countries/

2025-02-21 13:01:03 UTC

"We as an open source community have to re-do everything by ourselves. Everything — social networks, messengers, office software, 15-minute scripts, beacons... How did it come to this?"
My FOSDEM talk about 15-minute cities and my Python script to prepare not-so-pretty but actionable maps for those is on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5fcwhULpg8
(It's 5 minutes of tech talk and 13 minutes of urban theory and my experiences.)

2025-02-17 20:13:49 UTC

JOSM needs a new leadership.
It's currently running on closed infrastructure and subject to whims of a single person. Multiple discussions for moving it somewhere public were shut down by the maintainer. This AI thing just highlights how bad it is.

2025-02-11 10:50:09 UTC

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@nprofile…nvne I wonder if we can make the entire OSM ecosystem move to an OSMF-hosted @nprofile…qe73 instance. Like we had with SVN back in the days.
@nprofile…z29q

2025-02-08 07:42:21 UTC

One of @nprofile…zcw8 grant proposals dealt with excessive tile loading from OSM servers. Just checked in 3.40 — and OSM maps look better and load faster indeed.
https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/qgis-psc/2024-November/010348.html

2025-02-07 09:25:55 UTC

Couple years ago I got sad every time I saw a good person I know fall for crypto and NFT. Now I get sad seeing good developers falling for AI.
I understand it is hard to resist huge corporations shoving it in your face, but we have more brains and love for people than corporations, we can know better.
(this is about #JOSM, yes.)

2025-02-06 07:39:01 UTC

url shorteners lol
https://cdn.masto.host/enosmtown/media_attachments/files/113/955/797/041/970/767/original/c53f90fba39c4931.png

2025-01-15 08:34:14 UTC

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@nprofile…5sr3 Absolutely devastating for all his fans, including myself. And his yesterday response only makes it worse :(
https://journal.neilgaiman.com/2025/01/breaking-silence.html

2025-01-13 19:32:55 UTC

To add context to Meta blocking Pixelfed mentions, I should remind everyone that Youtube silently hides comments containing "OpenStreetMap". I think @nprofile…ewxt found that out a few years ago.
https://en.osm.town/@mastodonmigration@mastodon.online/113819524597166451
https://x.com/harry_wood/status/1451201614170116102

2025-01-11 09:12:28 UTC

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@nprofile…5sr3 @nprofile…7t6w I guess it is possible: just set up a hook or a cron job, and fetch comments on rebuild.

2025-01-08 10:45:04 UTC

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@nprofile…5sr3 Also just 3 for me — MGS instead of CS — but I can see why they chose those games. They should have added, "that's relevant to modern gamers". I doubt anybody buys that Myst remaster available everywhere.

2025-01-07 19:45:41 UTC

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@nprofile…5sr3 How was it even allowed

2024-12-29 14:00:27 UTC

All donations from Meta, Microsoft, TomTom, and Amazon to @nprofile…y5ug should be compared to their $3 mln annual Overture Maps membership fees.
(and also to non-profit donations lol, how crazy is that a German fund donated more than a trans-national corporation)

2024-12-06 13:06:59 UTC

I heard, #Lenovo are great, so this summer I got their new laptop, a mouse, and a dock.
Laptop (AMD) — does not have deep sleep, drains the battery in stand-by in 4 hours, same as when not sleeping.
Mouse (Yoga Pro) — side buttons broke in 2 months. The seller repaired them, but two month after, broke again.
Dock — HDMI does not work. Granted, it's a refurbished Gen 2 dock, but still.
My faith in Lenovo is at the sea level now.

2024-11-20 15:53:43 UTC

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@nprofile…5sr3 @nprofile…m0th @nprofile…mhl7 yay, a bit more, and we'll come to agree that the item on the roadmap to better POI in OSM (as I presented in Antwerp in 2023) makes sense!

2024-08-24 07:56:39 UTC

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@npub1zp3…9n8x I've been arguing it's the same for maps! Leaflet / MapLibre defaults don't fit any use case actually.

2024-06-23 16:13:30 UTC

Phew. It is done. Level0 is now HTTPS-enabled with OAuth2 support, working on a new fast server. All thanks to @npub1927…8a3c support that made me speed up my php coding and ansible scripting.
Enjoy! https://level0.osmz.ru/
(My others services are migrating too, e.g. the imagery offset database.)

2024-06-17 14:16:29 UTC

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@npub1zp3…9n8x I'd say you remember more joy from your childhood. Watching my children, I think I have the same amount, even being tired and burnt out. You just have more sources of joy.