2026-05-20 08:00:00
# The new randomelements ep "silver machine" is out now!
You can read all about it over on the randomelements site.
The title track is on YouTube:
2026-05-19 08:00:00
# Subvert launches today
Today's the day...
Subvert, the cooperative-owned music marketplace, is officially live today! And yours truly is there as a founding member.
I have, so far, uploaded a recent selection of releases with plans to upload most of my tracks.
Subvert is different. Subvert is for the people, by the people, where every member is part owner.
It allows for "member tier" pricing so that you can offer fellow members a reduced price. You don't have to be a member to browse and buy but it has benefits.
I hope you'll join me there.
2026-05-18 08:00:00
# It's no secret that I've been struggling to finish tracks lately. I have an idea, create a loop, listen to it excessively, then can't extend it out to a full track.
I had three separate tracks at various stages of completion then my brain decided to have yet another idea when it woke me at about 4:30 the other morning.
If only everything came together that easily.
Last night, I went up to the studio just to see if anything would happen. The flood gates opened and I got about 90% of that new idea made — all of the patterns and recording, with just some editing and production to complete this morning.
OK , so it meant I didn't go to bed until far too late (I completely lost track of time, and I'm paying for it a bit today) but it was so worth it.
# I've linked to Terry Godier a few times lately (primarily with regards to being influenced by Current, his RSS // feed reader) and am going to do so again. This time it's in regards to the Byline extension for feeds:
Byline is an extension vocabulary for RSS, Atom, and JSON Feed that provides structured author identity, context, and content perspective. It solves content collapse: the loss of context that occurs when content from diverse sources arrives in a unified stream.
This is essentially /about info direct within a feed.
It reminds me of the nowns (NOW Namespace) extension that I proposed a while back.
Implementing it in a feed is really easy, as it should be. First, you add the namespace to your feed:
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:byline="https://bylinespec.org/1.0">then include the elements you need:
<byline:contributors>
<byline:person id="colin">
<byline:name>Colin Walker</byline:name>
<byline:context>Blogger, hobby coder, creator of acid music.</byline:context>
<byline:url>https://colinwalker.blog</byline:url>
<byline:avatar>https://colinwalker.blog/images/colinwalker-thumb.jpg</byline:avatar>
<byline:profile href="https://github.com/colin-walker" rel="github"/>
<byline:profile href="https://bsky.app/profile/colinwalker.blog" rel="bluesky"/>
<byline:profile href="https://randomelements.bandcamp.com/" rel="bandcamp"/>
<byline:theme color="#333333" accent="#FFB029" style="light"/>
</byline:person>
</byline:contributors>I've updated my feed, it will take effect overnight.
What will be interesting is adding it to /reader so that it can read the byline info from feeds. I'm thinking about how and where I do this.
2026-05-16 08:00:00
# I hadn't looked at /reader (AKA /inbound) for a few days; I can't actually remember how long.
There was a lot in there so I hit mark all as read.
There was probably stuff in there I might want to have read, but if I hadn't actually sought it out I obviously didn't want to read it that much.
I didn't really need to take such drastic action, seeing as items older than a week automatically drop out after gradually fading. I suppose if I was that bothered, the reverse would make more sense: items becoming bolder to emphasise that I haven't read them.
Read 'em while you can, once they're gone they're gone!
No, the whole point is to not pressure myself into reading anything.
It may seem contrary to explicitly subscribe to blogs, to say "these are the people I want to hear from", then not read them, but I am giving myself the option. It is not a guarantee, it is a choice and not an obligation.
