Console #28
Awesome Healthcare, Short URLs, and Offline Browsing
22120
22120 allows you to automatically build a self-hosted offline Internet archive from your browsing history.
language: Javascript, stars: 2244, watchers: 35, forks: 75, issues: 5
last commit: November 14, 2020, first commit: December 20, 2019
Makair
Makair was the first open-source ventilator tested on human patients. It is mass-producible at a low cost of ~2000€.
stars: 661, watchers: 39, forks: 69, issues: 15
last commit: November 15, 2020, first commit: March 18, 2020
There is also this research paper reviewing multiple open-source ventilators:
https://f1000research.com/articles/9-218
awesome-healthcare
awesome-heathcare is a curated list of open-source healthcare software, libraries, tools and resources.
stars: 1556, watchers: 135, forks: 213, issues: 5
last commit: October 6, 2020, first commit: February 23, 2016
GitHub Pages URL Shortener
GitHub Pages URL Shortener is a minimal URL shortener that can be entirely hosted on GitHub pages.
language: Javascript/HTML, stars: 632, watchers: 6, forks: 57, issues: 2
last commit: November 20, 2020, first commit: Nov 13, 2020
isomorphic-git
isomorphic-git is a pure JavaScript implementation of git for node and browsers.
language: Javascript, stars: 5262, watchers: 64, forks: 204, issues: 207
last commit: November 8, 2020, first commit: Jul 29, 2017
An Interview With Cris Stringfellow of 22120
What is your background?
I’m from Sydney, Australia, and got bored with it and lived in East Asia for the last 10 years. I wrote programs as a hobby since I was 10. I’ve worked for nobody notable or mentionable. I just treat languages as tools. I try to ignore them and get my body to remember how to use them, so I can code without thinking. But life is about way more than writing code.
“But life is about way more than writing code.” I love this, but it is surprising coming from someone writing open-source software for a living.
Well, I'm not doing it for a living... It's my day "job", like daily activity... But not every day, and I make a living by being alive not my getting people to give me money. I disagree with your terminology, but it's common terminology. I like to be clear. Clarity is part of it. Defining myself clearly is important. So I set the scope and bounds of how I live. Words are important. So for me, it's not surprising that someone who makes things with software as one medium knows there's more to life, it's natural.
What's an opinion you have that most people don't agree with?
Psychic ability is real.
If I gave you $10 million to invest in one thing right now, where would you put it?
Probably small-molecule / existing / approved-drug supplements that enhance cognitive and psychic ability and lifespan. There’s a lot of things that are hidden wonder drugs but overlooked: aspirin, piracetam. Taking out-of-patent chemicals that are well tolerated, cheap and abundant and finding uses as life-enhancing supplements. That’s motivating to me. Seems untapped potential. But I think I could do that for $2 million. The rest I would keep for later ideas.
Would 22120 be one of these, or, is that just for fun?
22120 is one of the ideas, but I don't think about it as something to save a portion of 10 million for. Because it seems it doesn't require money. Most of that 80% is for funding future possible ideas, which aside from the one I mention below, I have, but don't want to now put into a definite form that would be required to discuss them in words.
For 22120, I suppose the possibility of having search and archiving over browser history could threaten some businesses' interests, so I get if they want to do recon to find out my plan, but don't worry, there's no secret plan. It's all in the 22120 README. Aside from that, the remote browser I'm working on is part of a larger web scraping dream of mine that will also be released.
What are you currently learning?
Balancing emotional sensitivity with day to day life.
Why was 22120 started?
I wanted to know it was possible to use Chrome DevTools to run a cache. It was. Yay.
Are there any overarching goals of 22120 that drive design or implementation?
Simplicity. And “you’re not smart enough to debug it” (I think that’s Kernighan’s law?).
What tradeoffs have been made in 22120 as a consequence of these goals?
I say no to many things that are alleged “features” but might break the simplicity. I also have my idea which differs from how other people see the use case. I stick to me.
What is the most challenging problem that’s been solved in 22120 so far?
Probably the use of Chrome DevTools protocol as a cache runner. But actually, nothing was that challenging. I think it was just a good idea. It surprises me how something so simple and taking so little time became so popular. But also doesn’t surprise me because I know it’s useful.
When using 22120, if I open my email application, will that also be cached?
Yes, but you must click/open everything you want to be saved. Just try it and see, experimenting is the best way to understand how it works. You can switch to serve mode to see what’s been saved at any time from the control console.
What about sites behind a login wall?
Works fine.
Is it possible to migrate the cache from one laptop to another? If so, what is that process like?
Yes, simply copy the directory. Very simple.
What is your typical approach to debugging issues filed in the 22120 repo?
Ignore. Kidding, slightly. I try to balance and set boundaries. In OSS a lot of people ask, but few give. So I say no a lot and shut things down. To keep myself safe. But I feel really bad for people having a poor experience with something I built so I am genuinely interested in helping. I am judicious with my time.
What is the release process for 22120?
Very ad hoc, and quite poor. I manually test and push releases until everything works. Not pro at all.
Is 22120 intended to eventually be monetized if it isn’t monetized already? If so, how?
Licenses, cloud-hosted, and scale.
How do you balance your work on open source with your day job and other responsibilities?
My day job is open source so...
What is the best way for a new developer to contribute to 22120?
Be thoughtful and be substantial.
Could you elaborate on what you mean by “be substantial”?
Well I mean you know programming, we need to define everything exactly but language can be flexible so I'm not going to try to lock down the definition of a term like “be substantial” and say that it has to be defined like that. With that being said, some ways I feel about it now are as follows: “be substantial’ could be don't make a PR that corrects a typo or is like a one-line change of syntax or you know white space. Substantial is like feature, the complete kind of minimal change for the feature, and test it to make sure it works and make some decisions about that feature and that's a substantial change. It doesn't mean it will be accepted but it's something that it's clear what you're going to accept or reject. And “be substantial”, is sort of the ownership attitude, like, don't just suggest ideas, implement them, you know, so if you want a feature why don't you implement it. That is substantial contribution. Because I built this project not by suggesting ideas to myself, I built it by building those ideas, so if people want to contribute that's what they have to do. I'm not even saying I want to be an open-source maintainer nor have a big popular open-source project with a lot of contributors. I probably don't want that at all because I think that can devolve into something not good. But, if there are contributions from other people that are going to be included in the future, then substantial ones are what I want. But, again, it doesn't mean I'm going to accept any substantial change and if you're not happy with that you can make your project where you make the decisions.
Where do you see 22120 heading next?
Full-text search
Where do you see software development in-general heading next?
The VR realm in the late 2020s. But until then AI coming into IDEs
Where do you see open source heading next?
Members’ only open-source to rectify the pay imbalance and time abuse
This is interesting, a lot of people are using GitHub sponsors and Patreon for this. But, if there was a Substack for open-source that presumed exclusivity I think more devs would make more money.
For example, with Substack you can send out free and paid emails trivially, maybe you could do the same with open-source: free and paid forks. I guess the problem is, how do stop someone from just re-uploading the paid fork?
I'm thinking more like you pay a membership fee then you get access to the repo. I didn't think of how to prevent people from downloading, because I think existing controls like licensing and DMCA are effective, but I don't think you need it. It's a good idea, but I'm not fully convinced yet, and I think it could be a lot of work so I might be avoiding it.
Do you have any suggestions for someone trying to make their first contribution to an open-source project?
Pick something that you’re passionate about either because you encounter it in your day to day and the library which you like is the source of a problem you face, or you simply have a strong vision that aligns or overlaps with that project somehow. Your passion for what you do is important, otherwise, what’s the point?
What is one question you would like to ask another open-source developer that I didn’t ask you?
I know how to set my boundaries, but how do you set your boundaries in this community where people expect so much and give so little?
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