Creators of ORCA and their works embracing tech minimalism and software freedom | Hacker News Reader

Creators of ORCA and their works embracing tech minimalism and software freedom

esoteric.codes

143 pointsretang26 comments

Wow, their website was a delightful rabbit hole. Lots of creativity (invented language, invented date system, etc) and technical goals that resonate with me. Long term tech, minimalism, home made software.

This is about a live coding language/environment, not the ORCA screen reader by GNOME:

https://help.gnome.org/users/orca/stable/

Nor the Seattle regional transit card: https://kingcounty.gov/depts/transportation/metro/fares-orca...

Nor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_icVqP1ADA, nor but maybe closer to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpBJhbSG46A ?

Hundred Rabbits are among my greatest inspirations along with the likes of Carmack and Marlinspike.

I have read several books on sailing now and I'm just ITCHING to find a sailing partner for couple years of coast-riding and coding.

I know many people in your situation who never went because they were waiting for that partner to share it with.

I know quite a few who went on their own and had a great time.

I met one (that I know of) who never came back (but when I met him, he was having a great time)

Go.

Seriously tempting... However I feel like I will only get what I am looking for out of it if I have one or two people to share the experience with. Have you ever gone off like that before?

Ha, yes a couple of times and I did meet people even though I went on my own. I am still in touch with a friend from 20 years ago who has been stuck in Tahiti since last April though I'm generally pretty poor at keeping contacts up.

My plan was to buy a boat and cruise locally to get experience then branch further afield. That didn't happen, the boat I bought was in the Caribbean and I stayed there for three years then sailed it back to the UK. Since then I took a (turned into two year) sabbatical up and down Ireland and west coast UK. That was a few years ago now and do feel twitchy sometimes..

Another great pair of interviews with one of the creators of ORCA (goes into a lot more detail):

https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/044

https://futureofcoding.org/episodes/045.html

First off-- Orca is incredible. It was just the piece of software I needed to get unstuck from a music-making rut and actually release a couple of new tracks. It's constrained, of course, yet has enough depth for serendipity, which is probably the most important thing to me for making music.

Reading about Rekka and Devine makes me feel like they come from a different planet. I can't imagine a more different lifestyle that's also somehow so close to home. I made a small pull request to Orca, and it felt so strange somehow to bridge that gap. (Devine seems awfully nice, by the way, based on that incredibly limited interaction.)

I could never live the way they do--I enjoy simple comforts, I guess, and I like having a house to hold guitar amps and drums. But I hope they can continue to enjoy their own lifestyle for many years to come. The world is richer with people like them in it.

Since they make software with Electron it's very strange kind of minimalism. Nevertheless ORCA is incredible.

Orca, Dotgrid, Nasu, Dito, Left, etc.. are all written in C. https://sr.ht/~rabbits/smol-gui/

you are both correct, Orca was originally made in electron, the C version is newer

Oh, thanks, nice to see an update here.

These guys are a huge inspiration for me and my personal work. I really love their approach to technology, and I wish there were more people exploring alternatives to the tech co/startup/capitalist grind. (Maybe there are? Recs welcome)

They are incredible. I keep coming back to their blog to be fascinated with their life and work.

You might enjoy the husband and wife team behind https://monome.org/about/

Or also the husband and wife team behind Noise Engineering: https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/noise-engi...

Kindof an interesting pattern here.

See Peter B. who makes synthesizers such as the Ciat-Lonbarde line and Ieaskul F. Mobenthey line of eurorack modules.

https://synthmall.com/

Also,

http://petermopar.blogspot.com/

> I wish there were more people exploring alternatives to the tech co/startup/capitalist grind.

I've always assumed they can do what they do because they're independently wealthy though maybe that's not the case?

> It's a choice we made that works for our *unique financial situation*, but it's not something that we advocate for, or that we think would scale well in for-profit environments.

One take on 'unique financial situation' would be that they're independently wealthy, another would be that they don't have liabilities like a mortgage or children (though a boat certainly costs money to maintain...).

1369€/mo from patreon apparently, but from what I learned from other sailors, boat maintenance alone can eat all that up already (and more).

They strike me as resourceful, I bet they run the boat on a tight budget.

Here's what I know: They made the game Oquonie together and I believe they earned a lot of money from doing that. Also they got the idea of living on a sailboat from talking to someone in a bar. Living on a sailboat is not more expensive than living in a city with these real estate prices we have. I think you need to calculate about 10% of the original price of the boat for upkeep each year.

Agreed their whole philosophy on art and technology is so interesting. Some of the most interesting current outsider technology.

Same. And the constraints of living on a sail boat have led to super interesting decisions about power consumption and computing.

They also use plan9 as their primary workstation!

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