Alex McLean

Non-academic #UKRIFLF research fellow at non-profit org [@thentrythis](https://mastodon.thentrythis.org/@thentrythis ), working on algorithmic patterns ([@alpaca](https://mastodon.thentrythis.org/@alpaca )).

Instigator of TidalCycles (npub1z94…66yf), and co-founder of algorave (npub18wf…5ush), TOPLAP (npub1dzh…xerq), algomech festival, etc

I tend to post live coding related things as Alex McLean (npub1mq9…ak8u)

he/him

#searchable

Home: https://slab.org/
Research: https://thentrythis.org/about/alex-mclean/
Source: https://codeberg.org/yaxu/
Project: https://algorithmicpattern.org/

Last Notes

2026-07-22 18:42:38 CEST

Thinking of hosting a 'permacomputing meetup'. What's a permacomputing meetup and what happens at them?

2026-05-21 17:33:07 CEST

Google are using @npub1t2k…dp2g to advertise deepmind, here under "Create music through real-time collaboration: See how Gemini 3.5 Flash coordinates multiple agents to create a song using the Strudel music library." https://deepmind.google/models/gemini/flash/
They've made it sound really awful ! The timing is totally off. Also the music is awful with bad energy.
I'm surprised google employees are allowed anywhere near strudel and its dreaded AGPL license.. https://opensource.google/documentation/reference/using/agpl-policy

2026-05-06 15:28:04 CEST

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I haven't really looked into them but surely they are designed, built and controlled by people? The people making them are all about power, so don't know why they wouldn't use their ownership of LLMs to change political opinion etc. Musk has talked about this a lot

2026-05-06 14:59:28 CEST

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Yep I'd generally push back on LLMs being described as algorithms, if noone can see how they work there's no algorithm to talk about, it's just black box statistics. I think here though they are just talking about algorithms in terms of systems/machine-making in general, and LLMs fit that.

2026-05-06 13:21:55 CEST

This from Ingold (being alive 2011, pg. 62) reads as more optimistic than it used to. LLMs are closed rather than open, and can we really say its users aren't losing skill as "the ‘living appendages’ of lifeless mechanism"?
https://post.lurk.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/527/347/587/058/763/original/c7db0e4f7a625f86.png

2026-02-10 10:37:52 CET

I was really pleased with the range of @npub1mzx…hw6y microgrants, although it was uncompetitive - we were able to fund all the proposals that fit the open call and had enough detail to evaluate.
Crowdfunding for free/open source at this level is tricky because people do it for fun and intrinsic value, it's hardly possible to fund at a market value, and underpaying while placing expectations on what you do (via bounties or whatever) can be a huge demotivator. We came up with a plan for one option on the open call where people could just ask for some money - not as a payment, but just for some recognition for work they've already done - not to say please do this, or to compensate for the weeks and months poured into the project, but just to say thank you. It's still a bit weird that you have to apply to an open call to be thanked though..

2025-12-06 12:21:00 CET

I really want to be interested in this "dark forest theory of the internet" but just listened to their podcast about the economics of it and they just went on and on about using substack and discord as if that was somehow revelatory? I couldn't get the point of what they were saying at all. Then they talked about how charging for membership of their closed group didn't really make money but helped weed people out, with no consideration that some people don't have spare cash? Then went into crypto and I tuned out but there was something about tax..
https://post.lurk.org/@yaxu/115662439422697358

2025-08-09 17:50:10 CEST

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Er, @npub1s9u…dnmu is the one distracting from the genocide. He totally misrepresents Bartov here - show me where he supports Fabio's antisemitic argument that European holocaust memorials should close.
https://ghostarchive.org/archive/A4bFM
Lets spend our time focussing on Palestine-led initiatives like BDS rather than defending intellectually dishonest posts from random techbros. Especially when those techbros are apparently proud to break that boycott by working for companies high on BDS list! Bonkers.
https://bdsmovement.net/bookingcom-stop-profiting-war-crimes

2025-04-14 12:06:34 CEST

"Today is a beautiful day to embrace being cringe."
https://letter.visualgrowth.com/p/cringe
https://post.lurk.org/system/media_attachments/files/114/335/751/140/161/528/original/f5c5501a254ce47c.png

2025-02-10 10:24:57 CET

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One thing I love about the fediverse is that my blog has now started to have comments again, like the old days! https://slab.org/2025/02/01/tidal-a-history-in-types/

2025-02-03 14:15:21 CET

Academic fields can be SO DISAPPOINTING
Oh, a "critical digital heritage" conference, right up my street!
But the topics are: VR simulations of ancient buildings, Mobile apps and public engagement, Virtual museology and exhibitions, Computer-generated reconstructions of historic sites, etc...
Ooh, a "live electronics" performance! But that just means doodling with max patch parameters and no live soldering AT ALL.
What exciting-sounding academic fields have you been disappointed by?

2025-01-02 11:54:53 CET

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You could potentially have a backchannel where the 'audience' tries to coordinate but I like the idea of trying to communicate ideas silently only through action, like in the magic maze board game.

2025-01-02 11:53:01 CET

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It would mostly be pretty boring to be the `c`, but you can imagine the X moving up to a scrollY instruction and the Y noticing and moving down. Then if the `c` gets really bored it could head off to a comment, the rest of the line might follow (in a flo[c]k!), and then try to reassemble into a meaningful instruction at the start of it.. then the slash characters might move to bring that instruction into play..

2025-01-02 11:49:51 CET

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yes it would be a total nightmare, but I just love the idea. It'd be really interesting to see what collective tactics people come up with.

2025-01-02 11:32:23 CET

Idea that's been in the back of my mind for years: flok but only one live coder (the first person to join) has control of the cursor - moving it around and adding/deleting letters as normal. Everyone else is an ascii character symbol. When they join a session they enter a queue and every time a live coder types a letter someone pops off the queue and becomes that letter (or space or punctuation symbol or whatever). They can move the letter around the screen unless/until they get deleted by the live coder and go to the back of the queue.
Basically this is audience participation where each audience member participates as a character on the screen.
I think it might work quite well. Major troublemakers would just get deleted (they'd try to run away from you, but your cursor could search for that letter and then 'ride' around on them before deleting them). Slashes would work together in pairs to enable/disable different lines.
The only problem is that you'd need an audience of 500 or so to make a complex, well-commented pattern, but could have fun with a lot less.

2024-10-16 14:28:53 CEST

I keep on coming back to the total absence of discussion AI in my corner of mastodon, apart from the occasional bit of snark. Someone pointed out the almost total absence of AI at the fairly huge [@emf](https://social.emfcamp.org/@emf ) meeting of technologists. AI still seems front and centre in academia though, although it seems hype is waning in some fields too. How is it where you are?