gbl08ma

I'm a software developer; preferences (descending): Go, Svelte, TypeScript, C#. I built @pds.labeler.tny.im, jungletv.live, underlx.com, and more. Disillusioned with Android; open web FTW. Slightly into game modding. Sometimes I make music. I use Arch BTW.

277 followers460 following110 stories

Longform Stories

Contact me

May 9·1 min read·2 words

Casio Prizm software

May 9·1 min read·3 words

About

May 9·1 min read·1 words

Hello site migration, my old friend

Paying homage to a tradition, this time, with a more radical change.

May 8·1 min read·18 words

On illegal software

Where I open my mouth, but not to verify I'm an adult

Feb 13·15 min read·2956 words

On illegal software

Where I open my mouth, but not to verify I'm an adult

Feb 13·1 min read·15 words

This is a test to demo a bug

Dec 8·1 min read·19 words

UpCloud's viral marketing travels in time

Where I find that I've been a long-time nonpaying customer of Bluesky's favorite, allegedly-affordable, cloud provider, while you get to be fed relevant portions of my life story.

Dec 8·11 min read·2104 words

UpCloud's viral marketing travels in time

Where I find that I've been a long-time nonpaying customer of Bluesky's favorite, allegedly-affordable, cloud provider, while you get to be fed relevant portions of my life story.

Dec 8·1 min read·34 words

GTA VI will be a disappointing masterpiece

Nothing can ever please everybody, and the highest-budget entertainment product so far won't be an exception. How can an excellent game disappoint?

Jun 16·1 min read·29 words

On paid public beta testing

Increasingly stale thoughts on software product quality, prompted by the redemption arc of the most awaited and most disappointing game release of 2020.

Feb 19·1 min read·28 words

I remade the GTA VI trailer in Watch Dogs

Director's commentary on high-effort shitposting that paid off.

Dec 31·1 min read·17 words

Musings about Watch Dogs

A retrospective review of one of the only Ubisoft-developed games I truly enjoyed, despite its numerous flaws.

Jul 25·1 min read·21 words

The Appeal To Celebrity Fallacy

Separating the art, the artist, the opinion, and your contributions. By the way, I have a community on Discord now.

Dec 31·1 min read·25 words

TIME for a WTF MySQL moment

Documenting the reasons why I tend to prefer Postgres - even when it's my friends getting bitten.

Oct 4·1 min read·23 words

Music albums I like

I, too, have the right to roleplay as a music reviewer.

Sep 4·1 min read·15 words

twenty twenty

Aug 13·1 min read·2 words

The limitations of hiding limitations: a striped case study

Artificial Intelligence is biased, and we're biased into thinking it is less limited than it is.

Apr 20·1 min read·25 words

Developing for Android is like being a (demonetized) YouTuber

Many are aware that some YouTubers are unhappy with how YouTube operates. But are you aware that Android app developers go through similar struggles with Google Play? Let me try and explain everything…

Mar 27·1 min read·52 words

I really like Discord. It’s a monster, it scares me

…and it’s also the next Steam. [2026 editor's note: it clearly wasn't, but it isn't any less of a monster today]

Aug 9·1 min read·31 words

Internet forums in 2018: are they really dying?

Analysis of the current state, and speculation about the future, of a few forums I'm familiar with.

Apr 25·1 min read·25 words

Thoughts about internet forums in 2018: a series of posts

An attempt at starting a series that, as per usual for this publication, will likely go nowhere. [2026 editor's note: it basically didn't]

Mar 2·1 min read·33 words

A brief mention to my popular project, UnderLX

It doesn't count as self-promotion if it's on your personal website, right?

Jan 15·1 min read·20 words

Sparkling Gambol One™

We’re adding another dimension to shitposting.

Dec 21·1 min read·9 words

Advice on Casio Prizm development

Please, let me close this chapter. Pretty pleeeease!

Oct 10·1 min read·13 words

The current state of Clouttery, and what I’ve been up to

Thoughts and prayers for a personal project I lost interest in, yet somehow is still online and mostly functional.

Sep 2·1 min read·30 words

Redesigning the Clouttery database

Where I rediscovered the wonders of relational databases.

Feb 19·1 min read·12 words

The stack powering tny.im: goodbye redundancy! The end of an era

Did you know distributed systems are harder to design and run than centralized ones?

Dec 19·1 min read·25 words

500 days later: Windows 10, revisited

Where I continue to pretend Microsoft ever cared about user experience and consistent design. [2026 editor's note: the real fix was already in the footnotes, just switch to Linux and use KDE]

Dec 13·1 min read·38 words

WoSign is shit, and so is StartCom

Transport Layer Expletive

Sep 27·1 min read·10 words

HTTPS on this blog

Safe reads.

Jun 28·1 min read·6 words

My programming experience

The most long-winded and least structured CV you've ever seen.

Aug 23·1 min read·13 words

Windows 10 is pretty good

Diminishing the value of my earlier opinion piece by going for a "both-sides" approach.

Aug 1·1 min read·19 words

Windows 10 is unfinished

Paying customers better get used to crowdsourced beta testing.

Jul 31·1 min read·13 words

Utilities v1.5 progress – March update

A Zneak-peek into upcoming Casio Prizm software.

Mar 9·1 min read·13 words

A use for NT on ARM, after all

A underutilized architecture target makes for a great marketing stunt.

Feb 2·1 min read·18 words

PicoC comes to the Prizm and other upcoming Utilities features

With great power comes great... potential for bricking.

Jan 31·1 min read·18 words

How Android’s “won’t fix” problem is the result of poor standardization

That phone is so last year! Buy a new one, will you? It'll be the same as your old one, and yet annoyingly unique.

Jan 28·1 min read·35 words

Distributed systems and mersit, a Tiny Server Redundancy Manager

Do you know what we need to tame an unreliable distributed system? Another flaky, peer-to-peer distributed system.

Sep 29·1 min read·26 words

Recovering from prolonged outage

It turns out that there is a minimum cost to acceptable reliability and durability.

Jun 30·1 min read·18 words

90/90/0.001

Thoughts about an extreme case of the Pareto principle.

May 6·1 min read·10 words

Server status updates

OK, I give up on freeloading. I'm sure everything will be fine now. [2026 editor's note: not everything was fine. I'd only find true reliability years later, with DigitalOcean and, later, Hetzner...]

Apr 12·1 min read·35 words

Utilities v1.3 is out

The latest updateZ to my Casio Prizm software.

Mar 21·1 min read·12 words

Regarding dead Prizms

Apparently these are made of fragile glazz.

Jan 11·1 min read·10 words

Utilities version 1.2 is out; Casio retweets

Did I get a social media/PR guy fired?

Jan 10·1 min read·15 words

Data caps and app updates

Stating what's obvious to every technologically literate person.

Dec 20·1 min read·13 words

The situation of the Casio Prizm

Did you know that the best product doesn't always win its market?

Nov 29·1 min read·18 words

OpenDNS on Linux Mint

Discovering disappointing defaults well after committing to using a distro is a rite of passage for Linux users, isn't it?

Nov 26·1 min read·24 words

Nokia OS history, fragmentation and other stuff

A retrospective of Nokia's many OS development endeavours.

Sep 4·1 min read·15 words

Hardware-software compatibility on handhelds

If only there was a unified and extensible interface that could help with this...

Aug 22·1 min read·18 words

Crowdfunding

Aug 22·1 min read·1 words

YOURLS really is awesome

High praise for extensible open source software... and my own extensions, I suppose.

Jul 31·1 min read·17 words

Utilities Beta 9 is out!

Featuring the most complex upgrade procedure ever seen on graphical calculator software.

Jul 21·1 min read·17 words

Prizm

Casio sure is glad these weren't the Znowden Leaks. Or Leakz.

Jun 22·1 min read·12 words

Alternative IM/VoIP solution?

[2026 editor's note: WhatsApp would add E2EE in 2016, but by that point, they had already been acquired by Facebook. The average Joe sure did switch to it, though. And that's the story of how we got C…

Jun 10·1 min read·42 words

Slitaz servers down

I know as much as you do, judging by these visitor analytics.

Mar 3·1 min read·15 words

Server changes

If you see something, say something.

Feb 24·1 min read·8 words

Updates on lots of things

Internet connections can be difficult to come by; fortunately, compilers don't run in the cloud.

Nov 17·1 min read·20 words

Server reloaded

Featuring proof of the value of backups.

Sep 11·1 min read·9 words

Theme changed

Sep 8·1 min read·2 words

“Hidden” 256MB storage on the Flytouch 3 P041

I'm sure nothing will go wrong with using this undocumented FAT partition... of this undocumented cheap Android tablet...

Aug 27·1 min read·26 words

Rugatu: Q&A for Bitcoins

My most profitable blog post ever. [2026 editor's note: to the question of whether I sold, I'll leave you to ponder what's the most likely answer.]

Jul 10·1 min read·30 words

Presenting tny.im

Hopefully, this time it will stick around. [2026 editor's note: it would only shut down in January 2025, when the overhead of dealing with service abuse became unbearable]

Jun 14·1 min read·30 words

l.f.nu is down

Apologies (again), a promise, and a tease.

Jun 13·1 min read·10 words

Status update

It's a late announcement of a tightly coupled feature in disguise.

May 30·1 min read·13 words

I don’t appreciate the “Like” button

Musings about the semantics of “liking” things. [2026 editor's note: and we barely knew what things people would do for likes...]

Apr 21·1 min read·27 words

This website is back!

After some late-night Wordpress reinstalling.

Apr 13·1 min read·9 words

4.l.to is back, but now as l.f.nu

From one weird home to another. [2026 editor's note: and that wouldn't be the final destination of this URL shortener...]

Mar 30·1 min read·27 words

4.l.to is down

The harsh reality of depending on someone else's domains.

Mar 21·1 min read·12 words

SliTaz is not dead

All volunteer-run projects deserve some quiet time, after all.

Feb 21·1 min read·13 words

ReactOS 0.3.14 has been released

It turns out they're still going somewhere.

Feb 12·1 min read·12 words

I’m not dead…

[2026 editor's note: the use of the verb "warn" in this post is a good showcase of the differences between English and idiomatic Portuguese...]

Feb 3·1 min read·27 words

My cheap Android tablet is fixed!

microSD cards posing as internal NAND flash can be a boon for DIY repairs.

Jan 12·1 min read·20 words

A closer look at OpenID, and the problems in its implementations

Why bother supporting a standardized authentication method, to only allow the use of specific authentication providers?

Dec 27·1 min read·27 words

Merry Christmas!

Ho, ho, and ouch, my tablet broke.

Dec 24·1 min read·9 words

Forcibly changed servers; data loss!

Somehow, drama ensues.

Dec 2·1 min read·8 words

The Raspberry Pi: What it is and why it will make a difference

Delicious hardware. [2026 editor's note: as we all know today, I was right. In fact, it ended up being perhaps more impactful than I'd expected...]

Nov 19·1 min read·38 words

I'm alive!

Yes, this thing is on.

Nov 17·1 min read·7 words

My first Slashdot submission was… accepted!

[2026 editor's note: apparently I exchanged DMs with Liz Upton and I didn't remember?!?]

Oct 30·1 min read·20 words

My email addresses

Pick-and-choose.

Oct 27·1 min read·4 words

Now running with nginx!

A bleeding edge reverse proxy, for a boring old site. [2026 editor's note: it's using Caddy now. And no more Wordpress.]

Oct 7·1 min read·25 words

Strange times… again!

May you live in, etc.

Oct 6·1 min read·8 words

I have been upgraded to .com!

An early birthday gift.

Oct 5·1 min read·10 words

ReactOS: will they ever get somewhere?

I can't believe this open source, volunteer-run project doesn't reach its goals as quickly as I'd like!

Oct 2·1 min read·23 words

Website address changed, cya cz.cc!

Moving my posts to a not-as-shady home.

Sep 29·1 min read·12 words

Accepting Bitcoin donations

e-begging for nerds.

Aug 18·1 min read·6 words

Google banning free domain services – AKA a guide to free domain services and Google

I'm sure it's reasonable to ask for extreme granularity when banning malicious URLs! [2026 editor's note: says someone who would later operate a URL shortener for over a decade, throughout which they …

Aug 11·1 min read·54 words

2007′s internet communities seen by xkcd

Looking back on what changed in just four years.

Aug 2·1 min read·15 words

GrooveMobile, a Grooveshark client for Windows Mobile that I like

Modern-ish software for aging operating systems running on obsolete hardware. [2026 editor's note: to connect to a music streaming service that's now defunct, I think?]

Jul 27·1 min read·35 words

Chrome Web Store

Where I realize that 'apps' are more fashionable than 'websites.'

Jul 22·1 min read·13 words

Distinguish between Linux and Windows users and fanbois

Sorting... people... into... bags? [2026 editor's note: if you guessed I was 14 when I wrote this post, you'd be right.]

Jul 9·1 min read·29 words

Now running with WordPress 3.2

Technology stack update resulting in the tragic loss of IE6 support.

Jul 5·1 min read·16 words

New Virtual Private Server

[2026 editor's note: I'd never have learned Linux if I didn't have to reconfigure my servers every other month during my teenage years!]

Jun 25·1 min read·27 words

Websites asking for full name, web security experts say don’t

I sure hope this airtight separation of Internet identities and real-life identities will continue forever! [2026 editor's note: it didn't. Now please confirm your age to continue. Also, remember old …

Jun 22·1 min read·47 words

Google marked this site as malware – Chapter 2

Where I continue to act surprised that the entirety of someone else's top-level domain is treated the same when it comes to web security.

Jun 16·1 min read·33 words

Ubuntu updates are killing me

The cries of someone yet to discover Arch.

Jun 9·1 min read·13 words

Apache, nginx or other web server?

Reverse-proxying my frustrations with compatibility.

Jun 8·1 min read·11 words

Produce, produce, produce!

Proof that before "the YouTube algorithm" we had "Search Engine Optimization," but the sentiment was the same.

Jun 8·1 min read·20 words

Right-click blocking

Ranting about an extremely annoying UX pattern. [2026 editor's note: that annoys me just as much today as back then.]

Jun 5·1 min read·22 words

First spam post

What an achievement. You'll never see someone as happy for receiving spam.

Jun 3·1 min read·15 words

Google marked this site as malware!

[2026 editor's note: in retrospective, it must have been the quality of my writing.]

May 20·1 min read·20 words

I hate MS Windows

Frustrations with choices made by others. [2026 editor's note: consider that Windows 11 hadn't even come out! But yeah, Vista on underpowered hardware wasn't necessarily better.]

May 4·1 min read·30 words

Ubuntu 11.04 – But is it Ubuntu or MacOSX?

Where I confuse Unity, the desktop environment, with Ubiquity, the Ubuntu installer.

Apr 30·1 min read·21 words

Homebrew on MY Wii

Someone is delighted by newfound freedom.

Apr 22·1 min read·10 words

The categories of free web hosting – revised edition

Non-paying customers really can be the worst... but it says something if your business is specifically catering to those.

Apr 14·1 min read·28 words

The two categories of free web hosting

Apparently, this world is binary? Surely this post won't need an even more unhinged correction.

Apr 13·1 min read·22 words

Homebrew on the Wii

Look who did a software update they shouldn't have, and is now jealous of other people's freedom.

Apr 12·1 min read·21 words

Hi!

Who let this guy in?! [2026 editor's note: particularly given his particular English proficiency! And he's only 14?!?! Nowadays, in Portugal, you can't go on social networks without parental consent a…

Apr 10·1 min read·43 words

Manual publishing test

Please ignore

Jan 2·1 min read·16 words

Backdate test

Please ignore

Jan 1·1 min read·7 words