One of the [to german or english native speakers] more cryptic signs put up at various locations of #39c3. I had to use cyrillic OCR and a ukranian to english translation software to make sense of it. Very nice, congrats to whoever did that.
Vibe coding provides a tantalizing answer in that situation: maybe it’s too varied to •abstract•, but not too varied to •plagiarize• and call it good.
This is something subtly different from abstraction. It’s not “do this in the standard way.” Instead, it’s “just rip off whatever other people are doing right now.”
A lot of people really want that — and tbh, a lot of them are not wrong to want it. I personally love the craft of programming, but let’s face it, a lot of software out there just needs to look like everything else and be done with it.
I’ve had this contingent of the language police show up in my replies a few times now over the word “cosplay,” and look…
OK, I get it, I get the instinct to say “Don’t drag me into this!” and I applaud the effort to push fascists out of communities, yes to all that…
…and also we need to recognize that what ICE is doing absolutely •is• cosplay. The word means “costume play.” It refers to assembling and wearing costumes that are not necessarily functional, but show affinity for a particular subculture by reproducing characters from that subculture’s popular narratives.
ICE are cosplaying Call of Duty. That is an accurate description of what’s happening. (Listen to “Gear.”)
I make software and I make music. I don’t think either one of those things •should• be about violence. I don’t •want• them to be about violence. But both are used in the service of violence, like it or not. I shout the violence out whenever it shows up. But would be ridiculous for me to point at what Palantir does and say “That’s not software!” Unfortunately, it •is• software. To deny that would be beyond self-defeating; it would be irresponsible.
ICE •is• doing cosplay, and we hate it. It’s an insult to the cosplay subculture. It is an insult to the whole of humanity. Fascism creeps into all of our spheres, into every beloved craft and community, and the response is never to pretend it’s not there. The response is to drive it out.
@…
https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@wildrikku/115956545807535535
A look at Michael Saylor's Strategy, known for buying bitcoin via creative financing strategies, as its stock trades way below its peak amid the crypto downturn (Rob Copeland/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/0…
Since my job is stable now and I have saved up some money, I have decided to stop accepting donations via GitHub Sponsors and Ko-fi. I would like to thank everyone who helped me over the years. There are people who need the help much more than me right now.
If you needed a suggestion, @… is doing a lot more than me for #Gentoo these days and will certainly appreciate your help. He's also way nicer than I'll ever be.
https://github.com/sponsors/thesamesam
https://ko-fi.com/thesamesam
To the best of my knowledge, Gentoo project does not need extra money right now, but there are other awesome projects such as Disroot or many Fediverse instances that would definitely use some help. However, in general I'd suggest towards supporting individuals rather than projects: people need money to live, and can use your donations directly, while projects are often bound by red tape.
Finally, please support human artists and craftspeople (and I'm counting human software developers in that). Donate to projects and people who resist enshittification and who refuse to use LLMs. They need the money.
Once again, thanks for all.
Alpaca, which builds software to let companies offer stocks, ETFs, and other financial instruments, raised a $150M Series D led by Drive at a $1.15B valuation (Ben Weiss/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2026/01/14/alpaca-fundraise-series-d-brokerage-infrastruct…