Daily Journal 📓

From @vicvijayakumar on full stack:

”We’ve managed to convince new developers that JavaScript is the easiest language to build applications in, but also give them toolboxes that come almost empty.“

Hearing from multiple people that we have to teach new Canadian founders about reverse vesting again. But also “fix” startup company formation so that it’s cheaper / easier. Ownr is not the solution.

I had three inspiring Causal Islands calls today. Marking the date here that I’m very inspired and energized by the people who want to get involved with Causal Islands Berlin …and beyond.

Grist is an open source cloud spreadsheet. Not quite an Airtable clone, but similar capabilities. Some of the layout and linking makes it feel like Filemaker. The Grist Labs team behind it is also very inspiring.

The Subconscious team is announcing that they’re shutting down. The very short version from Gordon Brander “Today, if you want to amplify intelligence, you probably wouldn’t build a decentralized notes graph, you would go to work on personal AI.”

Having just gone through this with Fission, I feel for Gordon and cdata and the whole team. Thank you for striving, for your writings, and for the wonderful community you built in your Discord.

WebTransitions is a new non profit created by Dietrich Ayala:

“to enable experimentation and innovation on the web platform. It is a connector between those who want to see change on the web, and those who can help make it happen”

OK, so I got AFFiNE running self hosted by pasting the compose file on Github into my test Portainer install. The team haven’t figured out yet what they’re going to charge or restrict for self hosting.

Self-hosting Guide to Alternatives: Notion covers AFFiNE, Outline, SiYuan, and AnyType.

I don’t think any of those listed are credible Notion alternatives.

We Need A Policy Agenda for Rural AI by Jasmine McNealy, Mozilla Foundation. Feels US-centric to me, covers broadband access, agtech. Related to some of my thoughts on Local AI.

Just spent a little bit of time with AFFiNE, a local first, open source all-in-one workspace with docs, canvas, and database aka “Notion replacement”.

I’m looking for something like this to adopt and recommend.

PeARS is “People’s Agent for Reciprocated Search”, an open source search system written in Python. Federated server plus local version to run from your desktop.

Turns out Teenage Engineering makes a mini-ITX computer case called the computer-1.

Any other suggestions for cool or customizable mini cases?

Jason Cohen @asmartbear

Pick advice that matches your goals.

Lots of people recommend Peter Thiel’s Zero to One. That’s wonderful if you’re aiming to build the next Facebook.

But if your focus is on creating a self-funded company prioritizing happiness and profits, that advice is incorrect.

Plus co-ops, collectives, and other emergent forms. We can build and own together.

I just recommended someone check out TinySeed. It’s a startup accelerator for B2B SaaS companies that are bootstrapping.

Yes, this is me starting to rebuild Startup info here.

Dokploy is another Docker + Traefik PaaS, most similar to Coolify. Written in TypeScript, Apache OSS, supports Nixpacks, Buildpacks, or plain Dockerfiles.

I tinkered with a Portainer install yesterday. I’m working my way through various Bring Your Own Server stacks. This one’s a little to low level / enterprise for my single server management needs.

Cap.so is an open source alternative to Loom — desktop screen recording and sharing. It uses Tauri for a desktop client.

@walkah tells me that deSEC is a very good no-charge DNS hosting service run out of Germany supported by NLnet. I still use Namecheap as my registrar, going to explore setting up a domain reseller somewhere.

Simon Wardley on why Wardley Maps use evolution rather than maturity in Map evolution not maturity: “(maturity is) almost always championed by salespeople who are trying to sell outdated technology that may not be in your best interest”

Hackathons are mostly bad. Hack days and gathering around demos are mostly good.