Flutterby™! : The decline of the DIY web

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The decline of the DIY web

2026-08-26 16:18:46.94623+02 by Dan Lyke 0 comments

People are noticing the decline of Google: Xenotime, Librarian of Æther :trans_fedi: @xeno@hexokina.se

In 1970, Scientific American's legendary publication The Amateur Scientist ran an article on homemade transistors.

Not MOSFETs, but thin-film transistors made by Roger Baker with a DIY spray pyrolysis system. With handmade drawings like this.

In 2026, Google could not find this. I only found this from a StackExchange post which linked to a 2009 blog post that mentioned it. Then to see the actual article I had to go to JSTOR, sign in with my institution, re-sign-in to EZProxy, wait for the 2FA prompt, wait like a minute for their stupid website to load, click download, agree to not share it amongst the other terms and conditions, then download it.

I have no desire to go back to the world of 1970s, but I somehow feel the way that tech megacorps and licensing bs runs the world of 2026 is a scourge on human creativity and experimentation.

In another message, they link to FET Transistor Homemade From Cadmium Sulfide Photocell by Nyle Steiner K7NSM and https://sliceofpie.eu, but it's very clear that Google's search results are coalescing around selling YouTube ads and AI summaries, and not actually linking to real information.

[ related topics: Music Weblogs Artificial Intelligence hubris ]

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