jdvh

7 ms·

1.
by jdvh 1y ago
We've spend the last couple of years building a local-first end-to-end encrypted multiplayer notes app (Thymer). We also explored running sqlite in the browser but ultimately concluded that we didn't really sqlite or a real databa
2.
by jdvh 1y ago
Hey thanks for mentioning us! With Thymer we really care about performance, but Thymer is also end-to-end encrypted because we don't want to compromise on privacy. And it's real-time collaborative and offline first. Thymer has opt
3.
by jdvh 1y ago
In theory you can have these "zero cost abstractions" but in practice I don't think so. The user manual gets thicker. Concepts like 'delete permanently' and backup/restore get more complicated. Users will get c
4.
by jdvh 1y ago
Rule of thumb: every 10% increase in complexity cuts your potential user base in half. This is why people make backups by copy-pasting files. This is why Excel is so dominant. This is why systems like hypercard and git are not mainstream an
5.
by jdvh 1y ago
You're free to argue that this isn't "pure" CRDT, but the CRDT algorithm still runs normally, just a bit later than it otherwise would.
6.
by jdvh 1y ago
I don't think that's required, unless you definitionally believe otherwise. When clients disagree about the the order of events and a conflict results then clients can be required to roll back (apply the inverse of each change) to
7.
by jdvh 1y ago
It's still early, but we have a checkpointing system that works very well for us. And once you have checkpoints you can start dropping inconsequential transactions in between checkpoints, which you're right, can be considered GC.
8.
by jdvh 1y ago
As long as all clients agree on the order of CRDT operations then cycles are no problem. It's just an invalid transaction that can be dropped. Invalid or contradictory updates can always happen (regardless of sync mechanism) and the re
9.
by jdvh 1y ago
Completely decentralized is cool, but I think there are two key problems with it. 1) in a decentralized system who is responsible for backups? What happens when you restore from a backup? 2) in a decentralized system who sends push notifica
10.
by jdvh 2y ago
You can think of ejectable as the opposite of being locked-in.
11.
by jdvh 2y ago
1. Planned, but our first focus is the web app (plus desktop Electron) 2. Yes. We have a bunch of default views like table, kanban, photo gallery, and calendar. You can also create your own views with a JS plugin, like this silly example of
12.
by jdvh 2y ago
In exchange for perpetual development and maintenance costs. Total cost of ownership doesn't go down by rolling your own in-house.
13.
by jdvh 2y ago
Absolutely. There is no phone-home of any kind.
14.
by jdvh 2y ago
I think the main problem is lock-in. If you can't get your data out you can't leave. This is true for open source and for commercial products alike. If you own your data and if you have the option to self-host you can always opt o
15.
by jdvh 2y ago
Certainly not. I don't believe progress is always good. But subsidies should be reserved for ambitious projects that push the state of the art forward. For those projects that realistically will not get funded commercially. CERN, for i
16.
by jdvh 2y ago
Because when innovative software isn't made inside the EU then Europeans will simply use the best products made elsewhere.
17.
by jdvh 2y ago
In the short term a free open source govt alternative may be a net positive for society. I don't think it is in the long run. Government projects like these are not likely to really push the state-of-the-art forward. This project even
18.
by jdvh 2y ago
Thymer[1] uses CRDTs for everything. It's an IDE for tasks and planning. It's a multiplayer app, end-to-end encrypted and offline first, optionally self-hosted, and an entire workspace is a single graph. So CRDTs were the logical
19.
by jdvh 2y ago
Both "everything in the cloud" and "everything local" have their obvious technical advantages, and I think they are mostly well understood. What really drives the swing of the pendulum are the business incentives. Is the
20.
by jdvh 3y ago
Thymer has real-time multiplayer with CRDT based synchronization. With org-mode you can collaborate, but you'd have to DIY with git or something similar. Thymer is also end-to-end encrypted. With org-mode you'd have to self-host s
21.
by jdvh 4y ago
For the table situation we solve this by have a generic concept of a "card" that is rendered as a table cell when it's the grandchild of a table (table > tr > td) but otherwise it's just a standalone item, much lik
22.
by jdvh 4y ago
We've looked at Yjs but ultimately decided to write our own thing from scratch. Even scale-ups with thousands of users will have people working on different parts of the document tree in practice. The client doesn't need to receiv
23.
by jdvh 4y ago
We're using a single end-to-end encrypted document tree synced with CRDTs for our collaborative task IDE[1]. All data for a team is a single tree (graph really, if you count transclusions) and its kind of magical how simple everything
24.
by jdvh 4y ago
That's not why Pascal compiles quickly. Resolving undefined symbols isn't difficult or slow, it just means that you have to keep track of what's resolved and what's unresolved and that takes up memory, which was very pre
25.
by jdvh 4y ago
I suspect this might be why most open source software struggles to reach the quality of commercial products. If it takes 10 attempts to get the major design questions right a company will either get there eventually or get outcompeted. Open
26.
by jdvh 4y ago
I know I'm biased because I'm working on an E2EE todo/planning app[1], but over the years I've become convinced that E2EE apps are the future. All the syncing code you have to write anyway if you want your app to work of
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by jdvh 4y ago
Draper backed Holmes and still supports her to this day
28.
by jdvh 4y ago
The problem for (1) is not the camera. It's very likely moisture in one of the connectors in the wiring harness in the tailgate. The fix is contact spray and taping up the connector with duck-tape. (You can test if this is the problem
29.
by jdvh 4y ago
You can rootkit your Mazda and disable the “tyranny” if you like. It’s no big deal, I just never felt the need to do it.
30.
by jdvh 4y ago
It’s also a multistep process with a touch screen: 1) find the button on the screen 2) lean over to reach it 3) touch it and look at it while doing so to confirm you did it right. In a clickwheel car the wheel moves the focus rect. You twis

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