Tim Bray
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Tim Bray
@tbray.org
6.2K followers 210 following 420 posts
Web geek and environmentalist with a camera at the bottom left corner of Canada. He/him.

I’m mainly on Fedi, @cosocial.ca@timbray. On this account I mostly post #blueskyabove photos; for more, if you’re not on Fedi try @timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
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Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
The human face of the Autistici/Inventati affair, “Canceling Emilyh”:
https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/09/08/Emily-Got-Canceled

“The wastrels in Washington can reach across the ocean and silence a Canadian creator on an Italian website. With no prior […]

[Original post on cosocial.ca]
Canadian eco-social practice artist Emily van Lidth de Jeude in her studio, 2023, working on a series about wildfires. Beside her on the floor stands a portrait of her Ukrainian grandmother.
September 9, 2026 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
Petition to block MAGA PE scum from owning crucial Canadian payment infrastructure, namely Moneris: https://www.ourcommons.ca/Petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-7712
Petition e-7712 - Petitions
www.ourcommons.ca
September 7, 2026 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
In which I fix a straightforward concurrency problem in my Go code, with multiple side-trips: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/09/01/Un-Racing

#software #concurrency #golang
I just landed a PR that fixed a nasty data race in Quamina. Which shouldn’t have been technically challenging, but I took side-trips into Erlang, unit test footguns, whether or not I should go on accepting LLM-generated PRs, and programming while aging.
September 2, 2026 at 6:06 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
Hmm, the Linux Foundation has a thing at https://x402.org, payment infrastructure using the HTTP "402 PAYMENT REQUIRED" status code that:

1. Is said to "empower agentic payments at scale",
2. Specifically lists as an advantage that you can ignore Know-Your-Customer legislation,
3. Accomplishes […]
Original post on cosocial.ca
cosocial.ca
August 30, 2026 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
In which I try to clarify the issues around #genai watermarking its text output without requiring readers to be computer professionals: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/08/24/Text-Watermarking
There’s been a lot of discussion recently about the GenAI giants “watermarking” their output, which to say inserting data so you can tell that it’s been generated by ChatGPT or Gemini or Claude or whatever. The technology for watermarking images is as old as dirt, works as advertised, and doesn’t affect image quality. What’s new and controversial is a claim that they can watermark text output cheaply, simply, and without harming the quality of the text. I was curious how they did this so I dug in a bit. I’m mostly convinced that it works and is pretty clever. However, all the explanations are full of Computer-Science jargon that you need to be a professional developer to understand. So here’s an attempt to explain to non-insiders and then, indirectly, opinions on whether it’s good and what it means and doesn’t mean.
August 24, 2026 at 8:53 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
In which I spend a week engaged and immersed in music, learn a new instrument and genre, am made full of joy. And suggest that some of you should do this too. https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/07/26/Music-Camp

#music
WCAMS 43rd Summer Music Camp 2026 A drawing of three sea creatures performing on musical instruments. WCAMS WEST COAST AMATEUR MUSICIANS SOCIETY
July 28, 2026 at 6:14 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
I frequently find myself explaining, often to people I don’t know, why it is that my online home is on #mastodon, why I’m putting time and effort into building and running an instance, and why those are the best choices.

So here’s my latest effort to pull all the arguments I use together in a […]
Original post on cosocial.ca
cosocial.ca
July 9, 2026 at 6:25 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
In which I write about the costs & benefits of making automata deterministic, with graphs and tables, and assistance from bluesman Willie Dixon: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/06/14/DFA-Costs

#automata #software
Bluesman WIllie Dixon (1915-1992), composer of "Built For Comfort." Graph of the event-matching performance of a deterministic finite automaton. Events/second vs number of patterns. As the number increases, the E/s is initially disorderly but settles into a more or less horizontal shape. Graph of the cost of adding a Pattern to an automaton in the case where the automata are nondeterministic. The increase in cost is unruly and jagged but more or less linear in the number of patterns.
June 16, 2026 at 8:54 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
“War is bad. Don’t start one. But we’re already in a class war and we’re losing. Where by “we” I mean most people; the winning side comprises, roughly, the richest 0.1% of the population, who are morphing into a hereditary aristocracy. So, what to do in a war one […]

[Original post on cosocial.ca]
Graph from Oxfam showing % of global wealth held by the richest 1% vs the other 99% between 2010 and 2015. In 2015 the lines cross.
May 6, 2026 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
I read the 2¼ novels making up the new series “The Captive’s War” by “James S.A. Corey” i.e. Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham. They’re most famous for “The Expanse” and while so far I’m not enjoying this series as much, I think it’s on a good trajectory.

More […]
Original post on cosocial.ca
cosocial.ca
April 27, 2026 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
In which I grab a camera and go for a walk at dusk and try to convince you to do the same: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/04/13/Modern-Cameras

#photography
At dusk, a scattering of toys on grass next to a tree trunk In a shop window, three mannequins are garishly dressed in bright colors. Fruit-ptree blossoms (small and white with a touch of pink) on a branch (old and black with lichen) A plant with glossy green leaves and intense yellow-orange stalks.
April 16, 2026 at 9:23 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
In which I think out loud about Password Managers and take a closer look at 1Password and Bitwarden: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/04/09/Password-Manager-Angst

#security
Password Manager Angst
www.tbray.org
April 9, 2026 at 11:49 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
“Recently I read Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch and Algospeak by Adam Aleksic. The language we speak (and text) to each other is at the core of who and what we are, and the Internet is the strongest among the forces that channel and fertilize its growth […]

[Original post on cosocial.ca]
The covers of "Because Internet" by Gretchen Mcculloch and "Algospeak" by Adam Aleksic.
March 7, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
1/2 Two new blog pieces. In which I have opinions about GenAI and open-source: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/02/16/GenAI-and-OSS-opinion

#genai #opensource
Open Source and GenAI?
www.tbray.org
February 17, 2026 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
In which Claude Opus invades my open-source hobby project. The experience was… surprising.

Fairly raw anecdata here, analysis and reactions still to come: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/02/06/Q-Plus-C-Ch1

#genai #claude
Quamina + Claude, Case 1
www.tbray.org
February 15, 2026 at 9:42 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
“Welcome to the first Long Links of this so-far-pretty-lousy 2026. I can’t imagine that anyone will have time to take in all of these, but there’s a good chance one or two might brighten your day.” https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/02/03/Long-Links

This time out, featuring lots of […]
Original post on cosocial.ca
cosocial.ca
February 4, 2026 at 7:28 PM
tbray.org
I assume there are how-to-migrate-to-Blacksky docs somewhere? First step: Move PDS, right?
January 28, 2026 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
It took a year, but Quamina now has a full regular-expression capability, so I released 2.0.0. https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/01/20/Quamina-2.0

#golang #automata #opensource
Quamina v2.0.0
www.tbray.org
January 21, 2026 at 11:06 PM
tbray.org
Huh, @icegov.bsky.social is an interesting case. In the Fediverse, most instances probably wouldn’t host that account, but some would. The account would be broadly blocked, and some instances would probably block the hosting instance. Some folks would migrate between servers based on these choices.
January 17, 2026 at 2:22 AM
tbray.org
January 3, 2025: Start of the Epstein Files War.
January 3, 2026 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
“What happened was, a faucet started dripping. And then I managed to route around the malignant machineries of late-stage capitalism. These days, that’s almost always a story worth telling.” https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2025/12/18/Humanist-Plumbing
Humanist Plumbing
www.tbray.org
December 20, 2025 at 6:43 PM
tbray.org
˚The GenAI bubble is going to pop. Everyone knows that. To me, the urgent and interesting questions are how widespread the damage will be and what the hangover will feel like.”

www.tbray.org/ongoing/When...
After the Bubble
www.tbray.org
December 10, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
Tracy Numbers: “Here’s a story about African rhythms and cancer and combinatorics.” https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2025/12/02/Bell-Combinatorics

(Also #caturday)
A black cat with a colorful collar is examining a Gankoquim a dual-cowbell instrument from Ghana.
December 6, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Tim Bray
timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
In which I write about the pretty-awesome experience of attending the MLS quarter-final game with my son and 53,095 other good friends, and how getting interested in fútbol has had the side-effect that I’ve lost most of my interest in football (as in NFL) […]

[Original post on cosocial.ca]
Whitecaps fans gather in a nearby pub before the game. A portion of a large crowd at an indoor stadium, displaying a huge banner. Left of the banner is text “fire that burns”, center is a vaguely Tolkienesque photo of scary reptilian eyes, right is text "blue melts gold" Whitecaps fans parade cheerfully down Granville, singing dopey songs and chanting dopey chants.
November 26, 2025 at 10:31 PM
tbray.org
I thought the @sarahkendzior.bsky.social suspension was an interestingly nontrivial moderation scenario. I wrote up a little case study/explainer on how it might have been handled on Mastodon. Probably only for people who care about moderation nitty-gritty.
www.tbray.org/ongoing/When...
Actions available to a Mastodon moderator More actions available to a Mastodon moderator
November 14, 2025 at 5:44 PM