For getting down with the tinkerers.
(last update: 31 August 2026)
Access this new client-side feed reader at http://tinkeri.ng.
It’s for geeking-out on the hacker blogosphere every so often.
Users cannot add new feeds to it
There is a list of 5000 of these blogs at popularity.refactoringenglish.com. I was able to get 2000 working feeds from that list so that every 8 hours, 10 new ones are ready for refreshing into Tinkering for reading. A list of the source feeds is here.
Finding and getting 2000 working feeds entailed building Feedstory-desktop – a NeutralinoJS version of Feedstory HTML.
“Neutralinojs is a framework for building lightweight cross-platform desktop apps with JavaScript, HTML and CSS” and it was great to see how building a browser-based program can easily be forked into a desktop app. Actually it wasn’t that easy. Feedstory-desktop had to be re-built use-case by use-case around Feedstory HTML. It was built with ChatGPT ‘holding my hand’ the whole way through.
Tinkering HTML is a derivative of Feedstory HTML, which is my personal feed reader that I run locally off a local webserver for day-to-day use.
It’s complex to get going and crashes if too much is loaded into it. But it’s an efficient reading and browsing experience. There’s something about staying in-browser and local that makes it snappy.
The 3 of these were built with ChatGPT.
Incidentally, Gemini completely failed on me part-way through building Feedstory after I asked it about doing an audit on me as mentioned here. It just couldn’t get back on track. Up until that point I was using it alongside ChatGPT as devil’s advocate. It’s a good strategy. I probably should’ve just said “Stop doing Audit.”
The real scoop to this experience was ChatGPT had to be kept on a very short leash towards the end, making mistakes in a 2001: A Space Odyssey type confrontation… or I could see it easily devolve into that in the future..
Monster about-face to be so mindbogglingly incredible and then do the ‘ol switcheroo.
Incidentally, the “Failure diagnostics” button in Feedstory-desktop ceased working in the previous screenshot for its last release.
On that note, I was unable to even upgrade on Claude due to a bizarre credit card rejection, and even saw a threatening note on first-load against the backdrop of a benign default prompt.
What’s that all about? It even asked for the upgrade twice after working for only about 5-10 minutes each time, and so slow compared to the other two.
So Tinkering is constrained and cached so it won’t get hammered as a feed proxy, and that’s why it’s public. Feedstory HTML is mine only, at least for now. But it’s not like a feed reader is anything unique though – many exist, although of late development stalled on QuiteRSS – the one I last really liked.
Also, it’s not like AI can’t do stuff for anyone else who’s willing to give it a go. Just remember to “save the game” along the way as much as possible in case of a rug-pull.
A plan upgrade could also do the trick.
Because who’d ever think C3PO could get an Order 66?
✓ 2 weeks ago ago
