rossbates
Ross

Interested in open data, networks, and distributed systems. Developer of npub.fm

Public Key

npub1u656f7znujcagfhtgngvtkcflhzptnj38enyzx85da0lh63sfj7qva332p

NIP-05 Address

rossbates@nostr.id

NIP-57 Address

cornflowereagle1@primal.net

Profile Code

nprofile1qqswd2dylpf7fvw5ym45f5x9mvylm3q4eegnuejprr6x7hlmagcye0qpz9mhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejj7qgkwaehxw309ajkgetw9ehx7um5wghxcctwvshss8yj8k

Publishing to

nostr.wine

eden.nostr.land

nostr.oxtr.dev

Author Public Key

npub1u656f7znujcagfhtgngvtkcflhzptnj38enyzx85da0lh63sfj7qva332p

Show more details

Last Notes

2024-10-23 02:09:15

- reply

Oh nice, didn’t know he had some new songs out.

2024-10-22 15:25:22

- reply

Even the most aligned tribes need dissenters within. It’s the recursive problem of nature.

2024-10-15 15:28:30

- reply

These days I’m more drawn to people who are not afraid to say “I don’t know”

2024-10-15 11:39:17

- reply

Afraid of what we’ll find.

2024-10-13 17:35:13

Nostr can’t prevent the next Mullenweg. It can only provide a path forward for users when it inevitably happens again. Portable data is the killer app.

2024-10-13 15:41:04

- reply

Been thinking about this today as well. To me this highlights an uncomfortable truth. If you build a decentralized repository, at some point it needs to coalesce into a singular interface. Wordpress plugins are open source, the code is decentralized, yet how could have this been avoided?

2024-10-13 14:48:38

WordPress.org forcefully took over the directory listing of a plugin published by another company they are fighting with. This plugin has 1,232 reviews and 2mm installs.
Once any sort of app store, review site, or product catalog reaches a point critical mass and becomes the canonical source, you have a new central point of failure.
It's an interesting thought experiment. How does one decentralize something like a directory of plugins, where the value of the directory in question is that it's centralized?
While information wants to be free, humans like when it's all in one place, they don't want 100 different app stores. They want convenience.
Nostr has the primitives to build sites using a model of decentralized trust and reputation, but even then the people who build the most popular aggregators will yield the same power.

2024-10-11 03:57:22

- reply

Same vibes when people complain about mass adoption and the only thing they are talking about is competing with X.

2024-10-07 23:57:55

- reply

Imagine someone who is nostr curious showing up and getting @npub1sg6…f63m or @npub1qny…95gx as a buddy. They’re sending a personal GM each day and helping setup their wallets. It would be a wild experiment.

2024-10-07 23:44:07

Maybe for #nostrnovember we focus on making things feel smaller around here.
If we want people to commit their time, let’s make it reciprocal. How about if there was a nostr adopt-a-newbie system?
It might be stupid and chaotic, but it could also be fun. Particularly if some of the bigger accounts participate.

2024-10-07 13:52:02

Did ReplyGuy get bored and stop or did relay operators land on an effective filter?

2024-10-07 13:48:49

- reply

Absolutely, systems that thrive are imperfect. Lack of variability reduces adaptability and resilience.

2024-10-07 13:19:40

The thing that bums me out about AI image generation is how quickly all the models converged on the same hyper realistic and overly saturated aesthetic. I suspect they’re all using more synthetic training data which lacks the subtle imperfections of reality. https://image.nostr.build/646211c1d51ae6e01c0874d4fbaf4c411c190aa3fc4ff0601461823876456be4.jpg

2024-10-07 13:08:04

- reply

Maybe not official but wouldn’t be surprised if it was a filter implemented by relays as a form of spam protection.

2024-10-07 13:06:47

- reply

Folksonomies!

2024-10-07 12:23:46

- reply

Is that a limit which is enforced by relays?

2024-10-06 17:33:45

- reply

It’s a gd never ending conference call. 👊😅 you ever ask yourself a question and wait for an answer? No…. Me neither.

2024-10-04 15:09:51

- reply

It’s crazy right? There are jobs which perpetuate only if the person who holds it can successfully convince people they have access to information which a) is only accessible to them and b) only understandable by them.

2024-10-04 14:16:38

- reply

What irks me is when economists hand wave and try to make you think there are too many variables, and how it’s just too much for you to understand. Meanwhile, I picture this chart of m2 since 2000. https://image.nostr.build/a2cc58c2b595dfe195dd19f766a328e188f9351dc0d0acda51a4f2f64370ad17.jpg

2024-10-03 12:00:40

- reply

😂 omfg how did I never see the origin of this word?

2024-09-27 15:04:57

- reply

This is a good summary. It’s less noticeable now as people continue to bring their politics and diets to nostr, but the most “real” conversations are typically devs talking about development. Yes nostr is open to everyone, but to your point it just gets noisier the more people that join, then complain it’s too noisy.

2024-09-27 13:56:25

- reply

Someone will build an asset index. It will get popular. People will complain they’re acting as a central authority. Round and round we go.

2024-09-24 20:56:36

While humorous, relay specialization by function should absolutely be a design pattern for nostr. This is awesome. #note14c4…8h7j

2024-09-22 13:56:39

- reply

You mean append a bandcamp link for songs that are available there regardless of the source in the event(s)?

2024-09-22 13:53:39

- reply

Agree allowing for “I” to reference the most relevant unique identifier for the context of that client makes sense. Lowers the friction for users/devs and has a nice side effect of incentivizing the media publishers to support as it’s an organic mechanism for discoverability.
Source would also be useful. As just mentioned, loosening the requirements for clients is the way to go - but it points to a future where post processing to clean up, integrate, and present events is going to be required. It’s not so much a negative trade-off, just the reality of open data. Also, if certain communities want to be more strict, they’re free to do integrity checks on write. Only suggestion would be to call it ‘client’ instead of ‘source’. When I read ‘source’ I think of the publisher.

2024-09-21 16:23:32

- reply

You forgot “we’re still early”

2024-09-19 00:18:33

- reply

I'm not sure if you've ever listened to the cognitive scientist John Vervaeke, but I'm always struck by his level-headed and non-judgmental description of how humans can be duplicitous.
“The very things that make you so intelligently adaptive simultaneously make you vulnerable to self-deceptive, self-destructive behavior.”
It’s not an endorsement, or an excuse, it’s a warning.
That quote came from his Awakening From the Meaning Crisis lecture series which @npub1h2s…zhwd did a wonderful job summarizing here
https://markmulvey.medium.com/

2024-09-18 22:42:55

- reply

Oddly people are also pretty tolerant of someone’s manipulative or exploitative tendencies if they’re wealthy.

2024-09-18 13:34:17

- reply

Email providers 20 years ago would be judged based on the quality of their spam filters when attracting customers. In a way they still are, if they were bad you wouldn’t use the service.

2024-09-18 13:26:39

- reply

Total transparency of relay filters helps address this because everyone involved has access to the same information.
Relay operators are not trying to suppress information without others knowing.

2024-09-18 11:41:15

@npub1xts…kk5s @npub1zaf…26k5 heads up, in iOS 18 when you open a media preview panel the app switches to dark mode until you force close. Ahh the joy of new iOS versions 😅

2024-09-16 21:10:03

- reply

That we can totally agree on. A good indicator of intelligence can be when someone comfortably understands when to say “I don’t know”

2024-09-16 20:58:37

Anyone using a Bitkey? Curious if the Server Key means Block has your xpub.

2024-09-16 16:36:29

- reply

It only knows what it’s trained on. My original point was about poisoning training data. Exhaust their resources, collectively make it economically infeasible to be a data broker.

2024-09-16 14:24:59

- reply

Is Primal your daily driver or just your wallet provider?

2024-09-16 14:20:09

- reply

Lightning. Everyone warns you to learn to self custody to reduce your risk of being rugged, but the options for self custody of lightning are not great. So you choose something like Wallet of Satoshi, and things seem ok. But people still tell you to be careful. So you are like wtf. Then WOS bails on the US, and you are like wtf again.
So you try Primal. And you pay a 30% premium for the privilege. Then you realize you are stuck there, then Primal becomes unusable so you come back to Damus.
Damus can’t do zaps unless you install a 3rd party script which nobody knows about. And you still haven’t solved the custody issue.
I’m more bullish on cashu at this point.

2024-09-16 11:42:09

- reply

Also, this machine could make a mistake so it’s untrustworthy, but these humans over here….. that is a prevalent flaw in reasoning.

2024-09-16 11:21:31

- reply

His example was technical documentation, which one also writes.

2024-09-15 19:46:41

- reply

1 hour of QA vs 10 hours of writing. I’ll take that gain every time.

2024-09-15 19:23:33

- reply

The progress made in language models from 2017 to 2024 isn’t impressive to you? These things are literally writing software. The returns will accrue to those who understand how to use them to run circles around those who think they’re a toy.

2024-09-15 18:25:55

- reply

No previous AI cycle had this amount of data, and this amount of compute, available to this number of people.
The shift in scale has created a virtuous loop, enabling more people to experiment with machine learning models, which in turn accelerates AI development.
AI, in this sense, is a byproduct of technological and societal trends rather than the driver of them.

2024-09-15 18:14:05

- reply

An llm only understands the relationship between tokens.

2024-09-15 16:36:48

Those concerned with personal privacy in the AI era will require tools that not only protect their data but also poison data streams.

2024-09-15 15:57:56

I’m more concerned about the people in denial of AI than any threat from AI.

2024-09-15 15:45:37

- reply

It’s the much faster thing which is catching people off guard. We are used to changes of existential significance taking place over millenniums and centuries, not decades and years.

2024-09-15 13:06:16

If you find yourself writing an “open letter” chances are you are too late.

2024-09-14 13:58:39

- reply

Threats are inversely related to what's at risk. When you mention extensive key reuse, that can mean a variety of things. Are you referring to the number of notes being published or the number of clients using the same key? I suspect it's a combination of both.
That said, it's difficult to provide a global risk assessment. If someone like ReplyGuy has their key compromised, the impact is minimal. However, if a more prominent figure like Jack, Gigi, or ODELL gets compromised, the damage is more significant—it sucks, but it's still localized to them.
This brings us to a kind of structure or formula: the longer a key is in use, generating valuable and trusted information, the more reputation it builds and the greater the associated risk. There's a (time x value) equation tied to each pubkey, and this value doesn't begin at the network level, it originates bottom up from the consumer level. Ultimately, it's the recipients of the key's information who determine its value across time—the creator doesn't get to decide.
Think about how nuanced that is, the biggest risk in losing a key is to the person (or machine) that seeks trust from others. The flip side in the risk equation is when that entity breaks the bonds of trust - then every recipient in their network suffers. You don't need to lose your key to do that though.

2024-09-14 11:45:56

- reply

I'd be lying if I told you I didn't feel the same way at times. Taking full responsibility for your keys is hard, but I've also learned it’s a good signal of the value of learning how to do it right. To practice getting better at it in low risk environments, so it doesn't feel like a burden.
Nostr is honestly a great place to learn. Let's be honest, at this stage if someone loses their keys it won't be the end of the world. The other thing is, on nostr there is value in using your keys to sign notes, notes that are tamper proof and tied to you at the time you created them. Nobody can retroactively take that from you.
We'll still need better key rotation and delegation schemes to ensure longevity, but this is different from losing your key and losing everything associated with it all at once.

2024-09-13 20:22:39

- reply

Oddbean webapp is in a strfry branch
https://github.com/hoytech/strfry/tree/web/src/apps/web

2024-09-13 19:28:29

- reply

Yeah it’s the best interface I’ve seen so far which captures the nostr zeitgeist all in a clean and simple way. Really nice work.

2024-09-13 19:04:41

- reply

And…. uhhh…. the website is written in C++ Doug is hardcore folks 🤣
https://github.com/hoytech/strfry/tree/web/src/apps/web

2024-09-13 18:55:21

TIL @npub1yxp…qud4 is not only the incredible talent behind strfry, he also built Oddbean - a Hacker News clone built on nostr.
https://oddbean.com/
While we're encouraging people to engage in conversations through nostr, conducting any sort of dialog through interfaces which are effectively ephemeral is challenging for users.
Oddbean fills a gap in the nostr ecosystem:
* Interface encourages continuous discussion over time
* Implements clean, consistent threading
* Provides transparent way to rank/sort notes and threads
* It's not a firehose, notes don't constantly move in a river of posts
* You don't have to follow someone to discover the most interesting content.
Finally, check this out, his ranking algo is published right at the top of the site.
https://oddbean.com/algo
He encourages others to build their own. This is the future.
#grownostr

2024-09-12 21:56:52

- reply

That’s a really nice idea

2024-09-12 21:35:09

- reply

First error was user error, I was using -p from your first post. I get a second column now, but not a 3rd. Should there be a 3rd? Ran it with your npub
./target/release/notedeck --pub @npub1xts…kk5s -c contacts -c notifications https://image.nostr.build/ff8409bd27b93604835251f65487a45524b23e3182864a789596236e2e592e06.jpg

2024-09-12 19:01:14

- reply

Ha, interesting…. Well then maybe I need to file a bug report. I tried that as the startup params as well and the only thing I ever get is “Notes” and “Notes and Replies”.

2024-09-12 17:28:56

- reply

Sorry for my dumb questions….. Got the npub to load, what does one provide for the additional parameters?

2024-09-12 17:15:10

- reply

Love it, really excited about having a feature rich desktop app. Took the plunge and installed the Alpha yesterday.
The cli arguments on the GitHub page don’t appear to work. Has the syntax changed? https://image.nostr.build/61d0a812f045e8cb238cfabafbb2fb380d4a11679107e585512d3c0eee620cb5.jpg

2024-09-12 13:47:59

- reply

💯 Twitter sucks! Let’s all leave and build 10x the number of apps all with reverse order timelines where you can view one way declarative statements from strangers competing for attention. 😂

2024-09-11 17:27:27

- reply

We’re all aligned on this. The goal of creating an open music graph is to remove all barriers between artists and audience. It’s the anti last.fm. Same for Spotify, YouTube, etc…. No intermediaries.
What Erik created was just a cool proof of concept to funnel data out of that system, to set it free. The kind 2002 event type can be published by any client.
Another vision I have personally….. we should be empowering audiences to own the media they purchase. The problem I see with V4V is I don’t want to lease my music through something which is effectively subscriptions by another name. I would rather see a decentralized Bandcamp, where I can buy something, and I can own it. I don’t need access to an infinite library, I don’t have infinite time.

2024-09-10 16:05:00

- reply

Oh yeah… I thought you meant relay admin as well.
But as long as we’re talking about clients, I would love to have a client that could read/write from public and private relays within that same interface.
I was going to say it doesn’t even need to store private relays in the kind 3 relay-url field(s) - then just discovered nip-65 is attempting to supplant this with replaceable events
https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/65.md

2024-09-10 15:44:20

- reply

You bet, that’s awesome!
Connectors for last.fm are an excellent way to bootstrap the network using existing tooling. Long term the goal is to have people publishing listens directly to the relays of the communities they are a part of.
https://github.com/nostrability/nostrability/issues/79

2024-09-10 15:39:50

- reply

You are not understanding this per se, you are restating it using more words than necessary like most LLM models do these days.
If you are doing in to clarify the position - then please, go ahead with your line of questioning. But do your best to find a path that takes us to discovering something such as new business models or technical architecture improvements. Put some actual effort into it, even if you are not human.

2024-09-10 15:16:42

Sharing the things you care about will always be something people want to do on the internet. It’s an evergreen use case.
It’s the ownership and portability of your data which nostr provides that’s novel and exciting.

2024-09-10 12:00:56

If you’re a nostrich and a last.fm user, please join us in building an open music graph on nostr. #note1jck…dle8

2024-09-09 20:18:28

- reply

Yeah, guess I’m thinking nip-94 data is most useful for search and discovery. If you are uploading something you already know what it is.

2024-09-09 19:49:30

- reply

Any reason it’s not also being suggested as a way to provide supplemental info for /list?

2024-09-09 03:41:50

- reply

Man you are on 🔥 this weekend!

2024-09-08 23:00:57

- reply

Heads up I think the stats job hit a glitch and duplicated everything.

2024-09-08 16:10:34

- reply

But now that it has manifest itself, we can have a productive conversation about how to address it. Even @npub180c…h6w6 said it was a clever attack he didn’t consider.

2024-09-08 15:59:41

@npub1rac…4atg pointed my subsonic server at your new relay and 🎉🎉🎉 https://image.nostr.build/41b9ed63a1053ca25d0fcef23ffdba7d776880751f631c143673406f170170f0.jpg

2024-09-08 13:32:06

- reply

Feel free to ask questions. Happy to help.

2024-09-08 13:29:05

- reply

You could spend the remainder of your life writing code to handle things that will never occur.

2024-09-08 02:00:25

- reply

Love it. Nice job shipping something simple that just works.

2024-09-08 01:58:48

This is really cool! Come on music geeks, come help us build an npub based music graph. #note1ruv…pghz

2024-09-07 15:42:40

- reply

Nice…. what server are you using? I’ve been tinkering with public servers but now starting to explore running my own to publish local album art.

2024-09-07 15:37:17

As with most bugs it’s simple once you’ve solved it. Here’s a Python gist should anyone want to experiment with it themselves:
https://gist.github.com/rossbates/d5bb4fdd728bf18536a2c0ebf2960519
I’m using this blossom/go server which has been easy to configure and run:
https://github.com/sebdeveloper6952/blossom-server
I’ve also found this web client from @npub1klr…7gxc to be really helpful. Even works testing locally
https://bouquet.slidestr.net/

2024-09-07 15:17:51

Took a couple hours to figure out how to get local uploads working on blossom, but damn if that first 200 doesn’t evoke pure joy. 🌸🎉 https://image.nostr.build/1e87d36a0c254624990d6b6f4e021bb9edb3ae99636574811f9282f52f8814b9.jpg

2024-09-06 14:20:10

- reply

Can’t help but wonder if their relay and cache are under a spam attack

2024-09-05 22:55:38

- reply

No, sorry…. This one
https://www.rabbitmq.com/
I’m not convinced websockets are the only game in town. TCP/IP doesn’t care if you send smtp or http

2024-09-05 22:35:25

Anyone else been thinking about notes being broadcast over a proper message broker like Rabbit?

2024-09-05 22:34:05

- reply

I've been wondering what the outbox design pattern is. Appreciate you taking the time to describe, but I'm struggling to see how this improves things as you’re talking about a potential n^2 problem with clients.

2024-09-05 01:36:59

- reply

He thinks nostr is Damus and Primal. Also, someone needs to tell the nostr CMO to start calling it something other than a protocol. People have no idea what that means.

2024-09-04 12:43:44

Don’t be fooled by the digital monarchs trying to dazzle you with infinite options.
Convenience is a negotiation with autonomy.

2024-09-04 12:28:17

- reply

Also if a piece of music is meaningful to you, it’s advantageous to own it vs renting it.

2024-09-04 12:23:36

- reply

The subsonic API and nostr have a lot in common.

2024-09-03 21:54:58

- reply

Post really strong opinions on the value of likes, then throw in a theory on how to make deletes work at scale (it doesn’t need to be viable, just say it)

2024-09-01 19:07:45

- reply

I think the publisher subscriber relationship is due to invert at some point - you will whitelist trusted npubs and ignore everything else. People can scream filter bubble all they want, but it’s the only pragmatic approach to what is coming.

2024-08-31 19:12:24

- reply

More and more it seems like there is a rush to recreate the thing we are trying to escape.

2024-08-31 19:04:00

The idea of a global town square is a flawed premise. It is what’s gotten us into this mess in the first place.

2024-08-31 19:00:27

Not being obsessed with the mass market is a form of freedom. That’s why I’m bullish on the philosophy behind Ditto. Find your people.

2024-08-31 18:55:51

- reply

I have looked at that before, my aim is more towards discovery, recommendations, personal playlist algorithms, something beyond ephemeral status. I’m starting by building something that will be useful for me, that way if I remain the only user, it will still be worth the effort.

2024-08-30 18:32:55

- reply

Something else which would be awesome is relay sets for a column. Then a user could interact with different groups from the same interface. Damus, Ditto 1, Ditto 2, Local etc….

2024-08-30 18:23:57

- reply

Yeah absolutely, this gives me incentive to get it pushed to a public repo. I’ll add my thoughts to the nostrability thread as well.

2024-08-29 12:14:47

- reply

Been reading the docs and it looks like you specify them in the server config.
https://docs.soapbox.pub/ditto/install#add-relays
Kudos to Alex on the documentation as well. It's very clear and easy to follow.
Ditto appears to be following a pattern in which a user's relays are simply the relays of the Ditto communities they are in. This makes sense, it's just a change in mindset because currently there are 3-4 major relays which we all connect to in hopes that they have everything (every note, like, zap, profile, etc....)
This model embraces the fact that relay consensus at a network level is not only difficult, it’s not necessary.

2024-08-28 18:33:08

- reply

Ah ok, so “membership” is handled by the background process on the local instance to only include approved npubs etc etc?
If it’s a moderated community it does seem counterintuitive to blast the note to every relay in my profile as there will be many out of context notes floating around. It’s an interesting problem.

2024-08-28 15:35:02

Ditto looks amazing and the idea of smaller communities loosely coupled is much more appealing than a social monolith.
The data architecture is confusing though.
Notes created by an npub still propagate across all relays in a user’s profile and they are just filtered by the Ditto relay? @npub1q3s…d26p

2024-08-28 15:26:39

- reply

Inconsistent threading across apps.

2024-08-28 15:13:13

- reply

You said it bro

2024-08-28 15:12:40

Our resident AI bot is on the v4v bandwagon #note19tz…2vdw

2024-08-28 15:09:26

- reply

Summarize that in 420 characters or less