bär works

Matt Baer

before we begin...

  1. Like life itself, this document is ever-changing and unfinished.
  2. Existence precedes essence.
  3. Some of what you read might be [wait.hacking.] propaganda.
  4. Other writing was crafted by Facebook's algorithm.
  5. It is ...
    👍 Like

once we've started...

  1. I'm Matt Baer
  2. I make things on the internet and travel and write and do other things, too
  3. As with all things on the internet, verify sources, question the author's authority, and don't take things too seriously.

* * *

where

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

NYC — May 7

Jax — May 12

Tampa — May 18

Jax — May 23

OBX — July 6

Jax — July 16

France — July 21

Italy — July 27

Jax — August 6

Spain — September 13

DC — October 19

Jax — October 24

Brussels — January 31 – February 7

Jax, as of February 7

Portland, March 27 – April 2

Jax, as of April 2

NYC, September 25

Westport, September 26 – 29

NYC, September 29

Northern VA, October 1

Japan, November 4

Northern VA, November 24

recent

projects

  1. #shouldvestayedhome — selfies from the underwhelming world outside. Preview.
  2. さまよう (Samayou) — save useful URLs while you travel. A much-needed service I made while I was in Japan.

building

  1. Write.as — simple, privacy-centric blogging. Start writing.
  2. Write.as for Teams — calm, focused team communication. Create a team.
  3. Read Write.as — a reading space for Write.as. Start reading.
  4. WriteFreely — self-hosted blogging / text publishing. Start a blog.
  5. WriteFreely.host — painless community hosting. Start a community.
  6. Submit.as — simple writing submission. Accept submissions.
  7. HTMLhouse — a real-time HTML editor. Create a site.

semi-launched

  1. Snap.as — photo galleries and essays. Get notified.
  2. Read.as — ActivityPub-enabled reader. Look.

unlaunched

  1. Remark.as — privacy-first comments. Look.
  2. Draft.as — simple text collaboration. Look.
  3. Jot.as — private note-taking. Look.

internal

  1. Capture.as — website screenshots as a service. Look.

the frozen moments

Couldn't afford an iPhone XR Max 12; stuck shooting on a camera from 1985. See the gallery here. Otherwise:

More galleries published on Snap.as.

the written thoughts

Most of my concerns are Trending on Facebook. But when my squishy human body distracts me from my Twitter feed, or my iPad or phone dies and some original thought comes to mind, I publish it on Write.as.

Read here.

the free services

There aren't enough free, stable internet utilities. I run some for myself, and want to share. Besides the things I'm building above (that are free to use), let me know if you want an account on any of these.

  1. Writing Exchange — a community of writers in the fediverse.
  2. Code.as — code hosting, public or private.

the code

While I wait for code-writing AI to take my job, I program for fun and pine for the days of punchcards, chanting: It can be this way forever! The computers will do what I say...

  1. make medium readable again - a browser extension to make Medium less annoying. People say it's cool.
  2. punctuation - extract only punctuation from a body of text.
  3. siteshot - simple web application for capturing website screenshots.
  4. htmlhouse - web application for quick, anonymous HTML publishing.
  5. nerds - telnet server enabling users to publish text online.

support

Like what I do and build? You can help keep me building simple, privacy-preserving software, and away from an office job, in a couple ways:

Besides money, a little shout-out about the things I'm building goes a long way. If you really like Write.as, there are several ways to tell the world about it.

* * *

Further reading

  1. my professional persona and "personal brand"
  2. interesting links
  3. what I haven't finished reading
  4. what I haven't started watching
  5. what I'm doing now

Contact

Want to talk or type? Find me in real life or via email, respectively.

Email is echo bWF0dEBiYWVyLndvcmtzCg== | base64 --decode or (if you don't know what to do with that) combine:

I use Signal for messaging and you should, too (email me for my phone #). PGP key on Keybase. Code on GitHub. Bite-sized complaints about software on Twitter. Remember to throw out your TV and delete your Facebook.