Steven Bell :pci: :pc2red:

Bug Reports Here:
https://t.me/+NCqewc8q0eU4NzYx

https://getalby.com/p/steven

Artisanal Coder.

You may know me from such apps as: LNBeats, The Split Kit, Sovereign Feeds, Music Side Project, CurioCaster, &
TranscriptSearchTool

Bug Reports: https://t.me/+NCqewc8q0eU4NzYx
GitHub: https://github.com/thebells1111/
LN Address: [email protected]
Nostr: npub1yvgrrzf4dnmu30qfhw95x87ruu0g2kpv3a64h8hpvqsre8qeuspsgd6pv9

Last Notes

2026-07-29 16:51:33 UTC

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Why do people spend more on a hand carved wooden spoon than a machine made one? They're functionally the same, so why is one 25x the cost of the other?
I think AI is the CNC machine of our creativity, and people are going to want the imperfect human made thing over the perfect machine made thing.
I think a way to filter the AI music will be valuable, so a way to verify it was made by hand or curated playlists. The music shows have been a good way of filtering, but it's tough.

2026-07-28 14:55:13 UTC

I'm brainstorming something. For chapters, it's tied to a timestamp, which is cool, but the same idea can be modified so it's not tied to a timestamp and you have swipable photos, sort of like IG. So you could be listening to a photographer telling a story about their photoshoot and you're swiping on the photos, but if there's one you want to spend more time on, you don't have a timestamp auto changing the photo.

2026-07-23 13:07:25 UTC

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Another issue I have, is it's sycophantic, which I don't like. I know I'm a dumbass, and like having some pushback on my views, iron sharpens iron.
I can imagine two people having a disagreement, running to their LLMs, feeding it the scenario, and getting back a response about why they're correct and the other person is wrong and missing the point. That sort of cheerleading is dangerous, and I worry we're going to trust it more and more to our detriment.

2026-05-14 02:42:07 UTC

I’ve been doing some vibe coding. It’s faster… I think. But it’s exhausting. I can’t quite place my finger on what it is. It almost feels like I’m in a constant argument “No, not that, this, and why did you change the styling. Go back to the old style.” When I’m done, I don’t feel relief like I did when I solved a problem. It’s almost a quiet resignation, like “Well, I’m glad that’s over.” I somehow feel more mentally drained and wonder what exactly I’m trading in for the speed.

2025-06-05 14:23:56 UTC

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No Alby shade from me. You guys have done a tremendous amount for the PC2.0 community, so I'm not sure why all the hate for a FOSS product.
And you're right, you're not the only wallet provider that has to block certain regions for whatever legal reasons you have, but you are the only one I'm aware of that let's you host stuff yourself.

2025-05-27 17:37:46 UTC

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The reality is, the spec is very open. Fountain could've chosen to not support lightning at all and gone all in on Hive or Monero, and the spec allows it. Then we'd have to decide if we want to build an app that supports the Hive or Monero protocol, because there would be valid RSS feeds using something besides lightning for listener support.

2025-05-02 19:26:24 UTC

The Funding Tag is your own sovereign linktr.ee
I'm pretty sure it can very easily be extended so it can be a direct clone, available in all apps.
Looking at these linktr.ees, if we add an img attribute, and something so you can tell the app what 'group' the item goes in, we pretty much have linktr.ee in the feed.
https://linktr.ee/hbo
https://linktr.ee/selenagomez
https://linktr.ee/hoe_math
https://linktr.ee/comedycentral
https://cdn.masto.host/podcastindexsocial/media_attachments/files/114/439/858/561/400/549/original/e2010aff208a0028.png

2025-04-29 19:57:11 UTC

It's coming.... 5/10/25
One QR to rule them all,
one QR to find them,
One QR to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them.
One QR code, multiple splits, splits can change on your command, in real time.
Verify the splits were made.
https://thesplitbox.com/metadata/d5def5f7-63da-4292-9ff8-18fb7fdc18fe
https://cdn.masto.host/podcastindexsocial/media_attachments/files/114/423/002/595/551/910/original/25c6abe7538747ca.png

2025-03-30 22:16:49 UTC

My idea with the signature in the feed isn't so much that we need to figure out how we can integrate with nostr, I'm not convinced we need to. It's more that some of their criticisms about why nostr is better than RSS may have some merit worth considering, and if so, how we can use their ideas for our own purposes.
I'm open to criticism so we can improve things we may not notice because we're insiders and can sometimes be myopic when viewing something we love.

2025-02-25 17:28:57 UTC

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Maybe muddying the waters, but just playing around with ideas.
I also wonder if we can try to standardize the srcset in some way, or maybe deprecate it.
So, a thumbnail is always a 1:1 image, but it should also be 150px W.
A Square Logo is also always a 1:1 image, but it should be 100px W.
As a host, I let them upload a Logo and crop and resize it for them.
As a player, I see that it's purpose is Logo. I know it's always 1:1 and the source image is ideally 100px W
https://cdn.masto.host/podcastindexsocial/media_attachments/files/114/065/670/971/359/577/original/6064b868c7881e24.png

2025-02-15 16:06:51 UTC

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I do too, which means I have to make a call to the feedUrl so I can get info the Index isn't currently parsing for, but also make a call to the Index, just to make sure the podcaster might have a value block.
Prior to needing to get info from the feed that wasn't in the Index, I only made one call, to the Index, since it had all of the info I needed.
If I did it to save code and bandwidth, I suspect other apps are doing it as well.

2025-01-23 02:19:44 UTC

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Take for example this. It's how they're handling splits. Each of those is an identifier for a user, and the server you can find their profile on. So you have to query that server to get the profile, then from the profile get the lnaddress, then from that get the callback, then from that get the invoice, then from that make the payment. Then do it all again for the next split, and the next split, and the next split.
lnaddress is shit.
https://cdn.masto.host/podcastindexsocial/media_attachments/files/113/875/254/666/313/402/original/2a34dbe8408b6941.png

2025-01-21 21:27:12 UTC

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@npub1cwm…wcs6 has relay.fountain.fm, but I'm not sure all of it's capabilities.

2024-11-30 16:58:50 UTC

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I was just getting ready to commend you on your concerns because I had a feeling you might think I was targeting you. I wasn't, so I apologize. I agree with most of your concerns, and a year ago when you were stating them they were even more valid. We're in a situation in which my preferred solution (keysend) isn't being widely supported, and probably won't be, and we have to shift to a solution I don't like, but I don't know a better alternative.

2024-11-23 19:02:27 UTC

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I think the idea is I can host the options endpoint on my own server, so I never have to update my feed. I put my options endpoint in the feed as the lnaddress, and if I decide to switch from Fountain hosting my wallet to Alby Cloud hosting my wallet, I only have to update the new address in one spot, which is on my server. Right now, if I change from one wallet provider to another I have to update every single feed my address appears in, including feeds I don't own.