Top all-time · #686
Lionel Dricot
Personal blog · ploum.net · on HN as ploumsystemsphilosophywriting
Lionel Dricot writes Ploum.net, a personal blog at ploum.net about systems, philosophy and writing. Since 2012, 93 different Hacker News readers have linked it 152 times, most often “How to Kill a Decentralised Network”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 9 of 37 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Lionel Dricot's blog for essays on decentralised networks, XMPP and how Big Tech embraces and extinguishes open protocols, plus patents and AI at work.
- Recommended for · 9 comments
- Called a very good article, decent overview and interesting essay; one says it changed their mind.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 37 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Ploum.net par Ploum - Lionel Dricot.
Most-linked posts?
- How to Kill a Decentralised Network16 people · 19 mentions · first linked 2023-06-23
- 20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 1)7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2024-10-20
- The AI Pascal's Wager6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2026-09-30
- My Colleague Julius5 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2024-12-23
- Losing Signal5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2023-03-09
- We need to talk about your GitHub addiction4 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2023-02-22
- The Disconnected Git Workflow4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2026-02-01
- Reinventing How We Use Computers4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2022-12-05
- I Fell in Love with Calendar.txt4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2025-09-03
- Is Pixelfed sawing off the branch that the Fediverse is sitting on?3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2025-12-04
What Hacker News says?
Because of what Google did with Google Talk. https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-netwo... XMPP is underrated. A lot of people are imagining Pidgen in 2011, but the protocol has been extended, the actively developed clients are good, and it avoids the heavier parts of Matrix (both client and server side.) I wouldn't be surprised if Slack's replacement when Salesforce inevitably fucks it up will be…
Comment linking /2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html
on “Keep your phone number private with Signal usernames”Submitted Why I'm a Pirate as a story · 857 points
HN discussionExcept that the blog is also in French. https://ploum.net/2024-12-23-julius-fr.html The author is running a poll to establish the plural: https://mamot.fr/@ploum/113704470821790664
Comment linking /2024-12-23-julius-fr.html
on “My Colleague Julius”Submitted My Colleague Julius as a story · 599 points
HN discussionBut they aren't useful for that. Terry Tao uses them to improve his ability to use poorly-documented boilerplatey things like Lean and matplotlib, but receiving advice from them‽ Frankly, if a chatbot is giving you much better advice than a rubber duck, you're either a Jack-of-all-Trades (in which case, I'd recommend better tools) or a https://ploum.net/2024-12-23-julius-en.html Julius (in which case, I'd recommend…
Comment linking /2024-12-23-julius-en.html
on “Does current AI represent a dead end?”Submitted I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't as a story · 265 points
HN discussionVelocity is indeed a nice idea. According to XKCD’s law, the probability to have an xkcd reference is proportional to the number of comments (see https://ploum.net/xkcds-law/index.html ) But adding velocity is really nice. Should think more about it…
Comment linking /xkcds-law/index.html
on “Hold on there: WPA3 connections fail after 11 hours”Submitted Prepare for That Stupid World as a story · 172 points
HN discussion> Otherwise I can spread all kinds of made-up stories about my work mates, and claim they illustrate truths about human nature, right? This happens all the time, and it’s fine? A recent front page example [0] — did julius ever exist? Who knows. Would it change anything? Not really… A problem could definitely arise if you specifically called out a coworker without anonymization, but speaking in broad strokes is… perf…
Comment linking /2024-12-23-julius-en.html
on “The origin of the cargo cult metaphor”Submitted The Candid Naivety of Geeks as a story · 157 points
HN discussionYes, I'm not saying the TypeMatrix pure grid layout is 100 % ideal, maybe there should be just a little bit of stagger to account for the angle of the wrists - but there should still be symmetry of course. I think the TypeMatrix is far superior to the standard staggered layout though, when it comes to the concerns you raise. The standard layout is just horrible, reaching "v" and "b" with the left index finger while…
Comment linking /images/tmhands.jpg
on “My First Keyboard Build”Submitted Could we build a computer designed to last at least fifty years? (2021) as a story · 152 points
HN discussionI think this summarizes it pretty well. Even if you don't mind the garbage, the future AI will feed on this garbage, creating AI and human brain gray goo. https://ploum.net/2022-12-05-drowning-in-ai-generated-garbag... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_goo
Comment linking /2022-12-05-drowning-in-ai-generated-garbage.html
on “We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI”Submitted 20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 4) as a story · 122 points
HN discussionI met my wife because she saw on facebook a screenshot someone has taken from a tweet I did about a terrorist attack. (Charlie Hebdo 2015- Paris). This encouraged her to read my blog then to get in touch, etc… So meeting my wife happened because: 1. There was a terrorist attack 2. I tweeted about it 3. The tweet became popular 4. A random someone took the time to screenshot it to share it on Facebook 5. That random…
Comment linking /comment-les-reseaux-sociaux-ont-transforme-des-attentats-en-merveilleux-cadeau-danniversaire/index.html
on “Omegle founder shuts down site forever?”Submitted We need more of Richard Stallman, not less as a story · 92 points
HN discussionI know, it's terrible. "Why I'm A Pirate", on the front page for 17 hours now, makes that point very well. http://ploum.net/post/im-a-pirate
Comment linking /post/im-a-pirate
on “PIPA support collapses, with 13 new Senators opposed”Submitted The computer built to last 50 years (2021) as a story · 71 points
HN discussionThe goal is basically repeating what Google did with XMPP/Jabber: https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-netwo...
Comment linking /2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html
on “Threads Enables Fediverse Replies”Submitted The computer built to last 50 years as a story · 59 points
HN discussionExactly https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-netwo...
Comment linking /2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html
on “Threads Enables Fediverse Replies”Submitted I Don't Want to Interact with Stochastic Parrots as a story · 58 points
HN discussionI’m using Pure Maps and OSM And perfectly well. The only downside is that, on some maps, the grey-water is the same as the grey-road and it happened a few times that I thought a canal was a road when doing bike trip. Google Maps is working but sometimes loosing the position, probably due to the fact there are no Google services on the smartphone. So Google Maps is very unreliable. It may loose positioning in the mid…
Comment linking /2023-03-09-losing-signal.html
on “Hisense A9 Pro E-Ink Android Smartphone”Submitted Drowning in AI Generated Garbage: the silent war we are fighting as a story · 45 points
HN discussionI’ve been using an Hisense A5 daily for the last 4 years (so it is the previous model, which is less powerful and without Google Play store). https://ploum.net/se-passer-decran-avec-un-telephone-e-ink/i... Ask Me Anything about not having a true screen on your phone.
Comment linking /se-passer-decran-avec-un-telephone-e-ink/index.html
on “Hisense A9 Pro E-Ink Android Smartphone”Submitted 20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 2) as a story · 36 points
HN discussionAlso, keep in mind that patents don't mean the invention works , and they certainly don't mean the invention is useful for anything. https://ploum.net/working-with-patents/ > Note that by « valid », I mean that the Patent Office didn’t found a trivial prior art for this. It doesn’t mean that there is no prior art or that I’m the real inventor or that my invention works. An example of an insane patent: https://www.go…
Comment linking /working-with-patents/
on “Inventor Claims to Have Solved Floating Point Error Problem”Submitted 20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 3) as a story · 35 points
HN discussionA similar story with more details: http://ploum.net/post/working-with-patents
Comment linking /post/working-with-patents
on “A Patent Lie: How Yahoo Weaponized My Work”Submitted Stop Trying to Make Social Networks Succeed as a story · 25 points
HN discussion
