The Raccoon Bytes

A reflection on the Forkiverse experiment, why it felt different from day one, and how it changed my view on instance choice in the Fediverse.

The brutal truth about choosing between single and multi-agent architectures for your AI project. Complete with battle scars, unofficial Microsoft insights, and the harsh reality that agents are just fancy microservices with commitment issues.

The story behind why I decided to open-source VocalCat—my social media management suite for creators. It’s about ego checks, building in public, and staying true to open-source values.

AI is taking over everything—except the parts that still need soul. Here’s why the future of software still needs people, not just prompts.

A recap of the most frequently asked questions about the Model Context Protocol (MCP) from my time as an expert at the MCP booth during Microsoft Build 2025. Covers what MCP is, how it works, authentication, differences from OpenAPI, agent-to-agent communication, and practical advice for developers.

In this blog post, I’ll share how I integrated the Model Context Protocol (MCP) into a real SaaS product, VocalCat, by reusing an existing API. This guide will highlight the interesting bits, challenges, and tips I discovered along the way. Buckle up! Why MCP? MCP is an open standard that simplifies connecting AI models to external tools and data systems. In plain terms, MCP is a way to give “hands” to copilots—a protocol that lets AI models not just answer questions, but actually take actions, even in the real world. Imagine connecting your copilot to your IoT devices, so it can control things in your home or office. It’s a bit dangerous, but incredibly exciting: suddenly, copilots can do more than just talk—they can act.

Bringing Static Sites to the Fediverse: Enhancements and Implementations Integrating static sites into this ecosystem via the ActivityPub protocol presents unique challenges and opportunities. In this post, I share recent updates and discoveries from my journey to seamlessly connect static sites to the Fediverse. Enhancing Content Delivery with Customizable Templates One of the primary goals in integrating static sites with ActivityPub is to ensure that content is delivered effectively within the Fediverse. To achieve this, I’ve introduced customizable templates for note generation. This enhancement allows the full content of a blog post to be included directly in ActivityPub notes, moving beyond mere link sharing—a practice often associated with bots—and leveraging the full potential of the Fediverse.

A rollercoaster of pride, panic, and AI gasliting I code to relax. Some people do yoga, some meditate—I open VS Code at 11 PM like a gremlin-raccoon. Don’t judge. I work full-time at Microsoft, and between family time and my other hobbies, I somehow keep starting new side projects. I’ve got VocalCat, an AI interviewer for SOMOS.tech, some fediverse experiments, and a Mastodon fork where I play with identity and static blog integrations. And last night, against all common sense, I started another one.

Processes, tools, and extensive documentation are not going to save your ass, but the Agile Manifesto may. A friend just landed a job after a long hiatus. The very next day, I asked him if he’d been fired yet. I know, I’m mean, but with my close friends, this is how we communicate. Don’t judge. He laughed (Narrator: in fact he did not) and then, for the bazillionth time, told me how nice it must be working at Microsoft. “You guys have all the processes, all the resources. Everything just works!”

Amplify Your Organization’s Voice: Embrace Radical Transparency and Authentic Connections Dear Leaders of Nonprofits and Public Organizations, In our digital age, social media platforms have become indispensable tools for communication, outreach, and community engagement. However, the landscape of these platforms is evolving, it’s crucial for organizations like yours to rethink where and how you engage online. The Challenge with Centralized Platforms Centralized social media platforms, such as X (formerly Twitter), operate under profit-driven models that can influence the dissemination of information. Studies have shown that Twitter’s algorithms tend to amplify content from right-wing politicians and news outlets more than from the left. Regardless of political orientation, algorithmic biases driven by profit interests are incompatible with the public interest.