# In hope of a digital arts and crafts movement

We are witnessing the industrialisation of the digital realm.
LLMs and generative AI are the looms of the 2020's.


I see many complaints of the current digital dystopia. AI slop and
pressure to use assistive tools for coding. If it's your job then
the pressures can be difficult to withstand.

The tools I have chosen to do my job have always been my choice. I
remember times when I've had job interviews and specifically asked
if I could choose the operating system I would use. When told I
would have to use Windows, I have politely declined.

It seemed ridiculous to be using open source technologies to provide
online services and for development but, required to use a Windows
desktop to interact with them.


Programming is no longer my job but, I still enjoy the occasional
programming challenge. I don't make it easy for myself by using
what I'm most comfortable with, that would be to use Perl. 

For a while I have been deliberately constraining myself to shell,
awk and sed. There's a lot that can be done with these powerful
tools and they are often overlooked.

Recently my endeavours have been to make simplistic versions of
some packaged software, which would do far more than I need. 

Off the shelf solutions contain a multitude of options, and complexity,
catering to the desires of many. My needs are simple and so too are
my solutions.

The art is to get the needed functionality out of the minimum of code
and effort. Deliberate constraint leads to novel solutions.


## Amateur radio logbook

The most recent example is my amateur radio logbook. You could
hardly call it a piece of software. The data is stored in a TSV
file and is entered via a shell function 'LG <CALLSIGN>'.  This
writes a UTC timestamp, callsign and data from my transceiver (mode,
band and frequency), using the rigctl program, to the TSV file.
After which it opens the TSV file in my text editor at the last
entry, so that I can add a signal report and any comments about the
contact. I then save and exit the file.

To look for previous contacts I can do partial match search using
another shell function 'LF <CALLSIGN>' which will list any matches.

It's all just shell, awk and sed.

Other examples include my [password manager][1] and [gopher server][2].

[1]: gopher://gopher.icu/0/phlog/Computing/password-store.md
[2]: gopher://gopher.icu/0/phlog/Computing/rc-shell-and-new-gopher-server.md


## What I like about gopher and amateur radio

I like that people are largely willing to have a go at making things
for themselves and share what they learn. That is the reason I
document a lot of my projects, they may be of use to someone trying
to do something similar or even just give them some inspiration.

I've made no secret of the fact that I have borrowed from a lot of
people in the gopher space. People like Matto, Ben Collver and Jay
Scot have been an inspiration and source of ideas for a number of
changes to my gopher space and small programming projects.

These are real people who I have exchanged emails with over time
and although contact is not frequent, it is valuable when there is
occasion for it. There remains a sense of community spirit.


## Made by people for people

We are becoming dependent on governments and faceless multinationals
with nefarious intent. 

With every technological advancement in our digital realm, I feel
like our freedom is being eroded and that we are no longer benefactor
but a slave to it.

I feel that I'm grasping onto whatever control of my own destiny
that I can. If that means maintaining my own software stack and
holding onto ageing technology then so be it but, I don't feel that
I am alone.

Keep the the art of programming alive and remember that, it is meant
to make our lives better not worse. To serve, not to enslave.