https://xnet.fyi/blog Essays on local-first software, data ownership, and the open web. en-us Mon, 29 Jun 2026 17:30:00 GMT https://xnet.fyi/blog/the-tip-of-the-hook https://xnet.fyi/blog/the-tip-of-the-hook You write useQuery(TaskSchema) and get a live, local, cryptographically-authorised, syncing database — with no API endpoint, no auth middleware, and no cache to invalidate. A developer's tour of xNet's React hooks on the surface, then a dive beneath the waterline to the SQLite database running in a worker, the priority scheduler, and the signed change log that make “just trust the client” safe. The tip is small on purpose; the iceberg is yours to open. xNet Mon, 29 Jun 2026 17:30:00 GMT essay protocol decentralization https://xnet.fyi/blog/the-loom-you-can-read https://xnet.fyi/blog/the-loom-you-can-read The Luddites didn't fear machines — they refused looms they weren't allowed to open. Follow one note, “Buy milk,” all the way through xNet's internals: a file on your own disk, a signed change log, a name you mint instead of an account, and a three-line merge that settles conflicts with no server in the middle. A guided tour of a machine you're allowed to open — written for developers and everyone else at once. xNet Mon, 29 Jun 2026 01:09:07 GMT essay protocol decentralization https://xnet.fyi/blog/the-forest-and-the-field https://xnet.fyi/blog/the-forest-and-the-field Industrial farming strips the soil to exhaustion and trucks fertility back in by the ton. Surveillance capitalism does the same to the web. Permaculture is the discipline for growing land that feeds itself — and its principles are, almost furrow for furrow, how you regenerate a digital commons instead of strip-mining one. xNet Sun, 28 Jun 2026 23:39:38 GMT essay philosophy nature https://xnet.fyi/blog/the-right-to-say-no https://xnet.fyi/blog/the-right-to-say-no A musician on YouTube argues the economy quietly changed from growth to extraction, and the real prize isn't your money — it's your ability to refuse. He's mostly right. Here's the part software can actually give back. xNet Sun, 28 Jun 2026 22:10:50 GMT essay philosophy economics https://xnet.fyi/blog/the-desert-that-feeds-the-forest https://xnet.fyi/blog/the-desert-that-feeds-the-forest Every year a dead desert blows across an ocean and feeds the most alive place on Earth — replacing almost exactly what the rainforest loses. What Saharan dust, the bees nobody watches, and the maintainers nobody thanks teach us about the invisible substrate the open web runs on. xNet Sun, 28 Jun 2026 21:46:46 GMT essay philosophy nature https://xnet.fyi/blog/the-gentlest-furnace https://xnet.fyi/blog/the-gentlest-furnace A star carries the energy of a billion bombs and still feels calm from here. What hydrostatic equilibrium — the thermostat that keeps a star from exploding or going cold — teaches us about information, attention, and building technology that burns long instead of burning out. xNet Sun, 28 Jun 2026 02:27:04 GMT essay philosophy cosmos https://xnet.fyi/blog/data-should-work-like-soil https://xnet.fyi/blog/data-should-work-like-soil Beneath every forest runs a fungal network — the original internet. What mycelium, the human nervous system, and Tesla’s Warp teach us about building one worth living in, and how to heal one that’s gone sick. xNet Sun, 28 Jun 2026 01:23:39 GMT essay philosophy nature https://xnet.fyi/blog/a-great-pirate-age https://xnet.fyi/blog/a-great-pirate-age What pirates — the real ones, and the ones in One Piece — can teach us about owning your data. An essay on freedom, self-governance, and why you are the cargo. xNet Sun, 28 Jun 2026 00:28:34 GMT essay philosophy decentralization