Rob
@multirob.bsky.social
Freelance dev with a security buff, math and science-interested, lapsed book consumer, hobbyist nature photographer, experienced tracker (animal and human). He/him. Mostly try to be a good human. I physically cringe whenever I hear the word "cyber".
Whether it's mass surveillance, roving federal gangs, hyperscale datacenters, or creeping authoritarianism, you can tear down something bad in your community and have fun doing it.
September 26, 2026 at 4:12 PM
Whether it's mass surveillance, roving federal gangs, hyperscale datacenters, or creeping authoritarianism, you can tear down something bad in your community and have fun doing it.
The good news is, the adage still holds. So many of the people I know are exhausted or struggling, but are able to scrape together just enough effort to keep tearing down the things being built by the morally bankrupt. It's fun, prosocial, and energizing.
September 26, 2026 at 4:12 PM
The good news is, the adage still holds. So many of the people I know are exhausted or struggling, but are able to scrape together just enough effort to keep tearing down the things being built by the morally bankrupt. It's fun, prosocial, and energizing.
I also used Grav for a new site recently, and it had a few pain points but it was a reasonable alternative. But, their recent pivot towards AI has made them less attractive, for me.
August 10, 2026 at 3:41 PM
I also used Grav for a new site recently, and it had a few pain points but it was a reasonable alternative. But, their recent pivot towards AI has made them less attractive, for me.
I'm working with an organization now on a migration from Squarespace to WordPress, and Squarespace is being unnecessarily uncooperative about it.
I don't love the heavy commercialization in the WordPress ecosystem. Making anything polished and pro-looking costs $$/month (or $$$$/year).
I don't love the heavy commercialization in the WordPress ecosystem. Making anything polished and pro-looking costs $$/month (or $$$$/year).
August 10, 2026 at 3:41 PM
I'm working with an organization now on a migration from Squarespace to WordPress, and Squarespace is being unnecessarily uncooperative about it.
I don't love the heavy commercialization in the WordPress ecosystem. Making anything polished and pro-looking costs $$/month (or $$$$/year).
I don't love the heavy commercialization in the WordPress ecosystem. Making anything polished and pro-looking costs $$/month (or $$$$/year).
For maximum you-own-it control and longevity? WordPress. (But be prepared to keep up on the maintenance -- it's part of the DIY!) A blog with lower maintenance overhead? Ghost is good.
August 10, 2026 at 3:41 PM
For maximum you-own-it control and longevity? WordPress. (But be prepared to keep up on the maintenance -- it's part of the DIY!) A blog with lower maintenance overhead? Ghost is good.
I have worked with all of these, and I don't think there's a clear leading favorite for all use cases.
Quick toss-up semi-disposable site? Wix is fine, I guess? Slightly more professional site, willing to pay a bit, don't want to handle the nitty-gritty details? Squarespace is okay, kind of?
Quick toss-up semi-disposable site? Wix is fine, I guess? Slightly more professional site, willing to pay a bit, don't want to handle the nitty-gritty details? Squarespace is okay, kind of?
August 10, 2026 at 3:41 PM
I have worked with all of these, and I don't think there's a clear leading favorite for all use cases.
Quick toss-up semi-disposable site? Wix is fine, I guess? Slightly more professional site, willing to pay a bit, don't want to handle the nitty-gritty details? Squarespace is okay, kind of?
Quick toss-up semi-disposable site? Wix is fine, I guess? Slightly more professional site, willing to pay a bit, don't want to handle the nitty-gritty details? Squarespace is okay, kind of?
Well, it's been true for decades now that developer time is expensive, and RAM is ... cheap? *checks notes* Uh... *rechecks notes* ...oh. Oh no.
July 23, 2026 at 2:54 AM
Well, it's been true for decades now that developer time is expensive, and RAM is ... cheap? *checks notes* Uh... *rechecks notes* ...oh. Oh no.
You immediately hit a big reason I lost (some) interest in Go. Before AlphaGo, games were an expression of the players' personalities: aggressive, cautious, tactical, strategic. Today's players review games for individual moves that are probabilistically bad and that feedback steers their gameplay.
July 20, 2026 at 11:28 PM
You immediately hit a big reason I lost (some) interest in Go. Before AlphaGo, games were an expression of the players' personalities: aggressive, cautious, tactical, strategic. Today's players review games for individual moves that are probabilistically bad and that feedback steers their gameplay.
I've faced my fair share of criticism (locally, less so online) from people left of me, and I haven't always agreed with their takes, but confronting them has consistently made me a better member of society.
July 20, 2026 at 9:20 PM
I've faced my fair share of criticism (locally, less so online) from people left of me, and I haven't always agreed with their takes, but confronting them has consistently made me a better member of society.
The critics are telling you something important here. It's fine to say you had good reasons for doing it and it had good results, but I think you do yourself a disservice to just dismiss the criticism as another example of the leftist circular firing squad.
July 20, 2026 at 9:20 PM
The critics are telling you something important here. It's fine to say you had good reasons for doing it and it had good results, but I think you do yourself a disservice to just dismiss the criticism as another example of the leftist circular firing squad.
Still though, it was the leftists that showed up in our area, that consistently applied local pressure, that put the work in. We talked to libertarians. Had good conversations. But they never showed up. We left the door open for them.
July 20, 2026 at 9:20 PM
Still though, it was the leftists that showed up in our area, that consistently applied local pressure, that put the work in. We talked to libertarians. Had good conversations. But they never showed up. We left the door open for them.
I did a lot of work to de-Flock my area, including helping to develop ALPR state legislation earlier this year, so I fully understand your thinking on going on Tucker's show (and don't really have a personal opinion about that). We also tried to be explicitly non-partisan, for all the same reasons.
July 20, 2026 at 9:20 PM
I did a lot of work to de-Flock my area, including helping to develop ALPR state legislation earlier this year, so I fully understand your thinking on going on Tucker's show (and don't really have a personal opinion about that). We also tried to be explicitly non-partisan, for all the same reasons.
Keep making them spend this money, all the time. There should be hundreds of simultaneous grassroots initiatives across the country that are making billionaires feel pressure to spend large sums of money to defeat. Pick a favorite cause and force a billionaire to stop it.
July 20, 2026 at 5:50 PM
Keep making them spend this money, all the time. There should be hundreds of simultaneous grassroots initiatives across the country that are making billionaires feel pressure to spend large sums of money to defeat. Pick a favorite cause and force a billionaire to stop it.
So, I sympathize completely with what the commenter is saying, but I would like to reassure them (or anyone else) in that field that it will change, but some of that change will be interesting and lead to valuable new insights and exploration.
(I hasten to add that I am not a fan of AI, generally.)
(I hasten to add that I am not a fan of AI, generally.)
July 20, 2026 at 5:44 PM
So, I sympathize completely with what the commenter is saying, but I would like to reassure them (or anyone else) in that field that it will change, but some of that change will be interesting and lead to valuable new insights and exploration.
(I hasten to add that I am not a fan of AI, generally.)
(I hasten to add that I am not a fan of AI, generally.)
Likewise, while Go feels a little less personal to me, now, some of the longtime players are using the descendants of AlphaGo to find new ways of thinking about and understanding the game. A lot of longtime Go dogma has been critically re-examined. That's good.
July 20, 2026 at 5:44 PM
Likewise, while Go feels a little less personal to me, now, some of the longtime players are using the descendants of AlphaGo to find new ways of thinking about and understanding the game. A lot of longtime Go dogma has been critically re-examined. That's good.
Chess hasn't been ruined. A younger generation of players are playing a much more interesting game now. The books of openings I studied have been replaced by deep, new, probabilistic variations.
July 20, 2026 at 5:44 PM
Chess hasn't been ruined. A younger generation of players are playing a much more interesting game now. The books of openings I studied have been replaced by deep, new, probabilistic variations.
I was an avid chess player when Deep Blue won, and then I was an avid Go player when AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol. That second loss hurt, it left me with feelings similar to the reddit comment.
But:
But:
July 20, 2026 at 5:44 PM
I was an avid chess player when Deep Blue won, and then I was an avid Go player when AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol. That second loss hurt, it left me with feelings similar to the reddit comment.
But:
But:
I think the single most frustrating issue I've repeatedly run into while doing sysadmin things for the last 20 years is legit services that casually mix their traffic in with abusive networks. This has been a problem for a long time and I'm so, so disappointed that LetsEncrypt is doing it too.
January 5, 2026 at 7:51 PM
I think the single most frustrating issue I've repeatedly run into while doing sysadmin things for the last 20 years is legit services that casually mix their traffic in with abusive networks. This has been a problem for a long time and I'm so, so disappointed that LetsEncrypt is doing it too.
Whether it's because of any of a couple dozen different AI slop outfits aggressively crawling sites, or login abuse, or one (large) segment of the occasional DDoS, AWS has earned itself an honored place in my iptables drop rules.
Except that also causes a LetsEncrypt outage.
Except that also causes a LetsEncrypt outage.
January 5, 2026 at 7:51 PM
Whether it's because of any of a couple dozen different AI slop outfits aggressively crawling sites, or login abuse, or one (large) segment of the occasional DDoS, AWS has earned itself an honored place in my iptables drop rules.
Except that also causes a LetsEncrypt outage.
Except that also causes a LetsEncrypt outage.
(Been a fan for a while btw, and I'm one of the organizers for Flock-related efforts here in Eugene, Oregon, where we've been able to get them shut off. Your recent videos have been popular here.)
December 1, 2025 at 10:18 PM
(Been a fan for a while btw, and I'm one of the organizers for Flock-related efforts here in Eugene, Oregon, where we've been able to get them shut off. Your recent videos have been popular here.)