Holy cow, when did this happen? š
I just decided to browse around the App Store to see if Stream was anywhere in the Apps tab, and it was! š
Itās under Apps You Mightāve Missed. Thank you! šš¼
P.S. The reason it doesnāt look like Iāve installed it is because Iām running a Beta build.
Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! āļø
Iām feeling a bit spicy, like that Mexican Mocha icon. A little heat, a little spice. Iām tired. Just beat and that makes me a little on edge and grouchy. Itās always been a huge personality flaw I try to keep under control but todayās writing will most likely be a bit negative at times. Itās just where my brain is at the moment.
You may want to skip todayās post if youāre looking for positivity.
Apologies in advance to those who brave the waters.
Mike Barnes ā¢ The Hollywood Reporter
Michael Madsen, the rough-and-tumble actor best known for his work in the Quentin Tarantino films Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 & 2, The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, died Thursday morning. He was 67.
I really enjoyed Michael Madsen as an actor, I especially liked him in Kill Bill. Budd was a real piece of work and his scenes with Uma Thurman and Daryl Hannah were extremely memorable.
RIP šŖ¦
Appleās new Liquid Glass design that was announced at WWDC25 is more than just a fresh coat of paintāitās a signal. One that points simultaneously to the future of digital interfaces and to the past. Weāre calling itĀ neo-retro.
Ged and The Iconfactory are some of my favorite designers and app builders in the Mac and iOS ecosystem. They absolutely live, eat, and breathe all things Apple and have their own unique style to enhance your app experiences.
There is currently a lot of hate being tossed around the Mac and iOS developer community around the new Liquid Glass design language and I can understand where folks are coming from, itās very different. Personally, I donāt care to enter the fray of opinions. Iāll just make sure my apps are as ready as I can possibly make them.
I really need some design help with Streamās icon set and plan to hire Iconfactory to do that work if I can make it work financially. Theyāre very reasonably priced and their work is incredible!
Jason Torchinsky ā¢ The Autopian
Ford has been using essentially the same logo for 116 years. That little fact reminded me about that one time that Ford at leastĀ considered changing their storied logo, and the creator of that unselected new logo was one of the greatest graphic designers of all time: Paul Rand.
Go check out this logo. Itās really interesting and I donāt hate it but the original, and still used, logo is iconic and worth keeping. I hope they never change it.
Some other logos I really love are GEās classic logo type in a circle and the Coca Cola script used for over 100 years.
Make no mistake, WordPress is one of the most dominant platforms on the web, if not _the_most dominant. Something like 43 percent of websites run on WordPress, in one of its many flavors. That includes The Verge ā the backend of our website is hosted by WordPress VIP. So this might be the first reverse disclosure on the show. Technically, weāre Mattās customer, and like any good customer, I made feature requests.
Iām a big fan of Nilay Patelās Decoder podcast and Nilay in general. Heās smart and he asks great questions and will push on folks. This interview with Matt Mullenweg was quite good and makes Mattās actions sound less wild.
I know a lot of folks disagree with what heās done to WP Engine but we canāt always agree with everything someone does, nor fully understand their motivation.
Anyway, this Decoder episode is a good one.
Microsoft is paywalling these features in Notepad and Paint
Itās a pretty sad state of affairs at Microsoft these days. I have a soft spot in my heart for Microsoft having worked directly for them or on contract at least four different times. Seeing them nickel and dime folks in the software they chose to include in the OS release is pretty disgusting. Hey, just leave the AI stuff out if itās too costly to the organization to give it away. Then again as long as folks can ignore it, it doesnāt really matter much.
There are also better choices available outside of Microsoftās included app. Notepad++ is a really great choice for a text editor and Paint.net for photo editing or pixel painting.
To be fair, RSS isnāt strictly required ā the real goal is for any social network to be able to follow any other. No need for cross-posting, duplicate accounts, or ācheck out my Instagram hereā links. You should just be able to read what you want, where you want. That said, right now, RSS is still the most practical and universal tool for this.
Yeldar is a bit hopeful RSS can play a key role in social networks and in many ways it already does. Mastodon, Bluesky, Pixel Fed, and Iād imagine many others already publish RSS feeds. I follow quite a few in Stream and many other feed readers can too. If youād like to aggregate a bunch of different feeds, use a feed reader. Itās all read-only and one direction but it would certainly give you a launch point for interacting with social networks.
Iāve been watching Dave Winerās projects and writing with great interest for years, 20+ to be exact.
Heās now off creating his new weblog editor ā WordLand ā on top of WordPress.
Daveās also been talking about inbound and outbound RSS. I get that. Inbound can be used by a service like Mastodon to make a post there. I use Micro.blog as my blogging platform and it does that for me, but I think thatās a little backward for what Dave is after. I think Inbound means the service looks for an updated RSS feed and automagically updates its own timeline with your post. That makes a lot of sense to me.
Outbound is what we have today. When we write to our blog we render it in two different formats; HTML and RSS, among others.
The thing I donāt understand in this particular setup is, how do you reply in that world? Does that work like it normally would and just display on a single social network or is RSS generated somewhere thatās read back by the originating weblog and rebroadcast somehow to form the thread weāve all become accustomed to on social networks?
Iād imagine it would just show up on the social network the person answered on. Thatās fine. Itās not round-tripped but thatās fine. The RSS feed would serve as a read-only source.
We are in peak hot dog season; they’re perfect to pluck straight from the vine (okay, refrigerated grocery store shelf) and toss right on the grill. A lot of us will be doing just that, especially on the Fourth of July, which is not only America’s Independence Day but also a certified grilling holiday. So just how many hot dogs do we eat on the Fourth? The answer, in cheeky internet terms, will indeed shock you.
Well, Iām a true American. I had a hotdog yesterday to celebrate the Fourth. I like them. Well, I like brats. Thats what I had yesterday but I ate it like a hotdog. So itās a hotdog. šš
Peter Thiel and his friends feel they no longer belong to our species.
This guy is a psychopath with money. Just like Musk and Trump. They seem to have been hurt by someone early in life and just want to create some strange dystopian society that allows them to do whatever they want. Want to pollute our waters? Sure, Mr. Thiel. Right away Mr. Thiel. Musk, same damned thing.
Letās get them the money to create their dystopia, on Mars. Then we can ship the whole lot there at once and get on living.
Iām sick of these rich asshole trying to run the world like theyāre entitled to it and weāre all sheep here to serve. Without all that money yāall are nothing but weirdos.
AMC Theatres is making it easier for moviegoers to know the actual start time of their film screening and avoid sitting through lengthy ads. A new notice has started appearing when people purchase tickets via the AMC website, warning that āmovies start 25-30 minutes after showtime.ā
I can certainly appreciate theaters giving us a warning about the ads before the move so we can skip them. The last few films Iāve been to have been super frustrating at the open because I donāt want to spend 30 minutes of my day watching ads before the film I just paid to see.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is hitting back at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerbergās recent AI talent poaching spree. In a full-throated response sent to OpenAI researchers Monday evening and obtained by WIRED, Altman made his pitch for why staying at OpenAI is the only answer for those looking to build artificial general intelligence, hinting that the company is evaluating compensation for the entire research organization.
domanbrain.jpg)
My opinion? OpenAI lead the charge for marketing what they, and the industry, refer to as āAI.ā I suspect the company known as OpenAI will cease to exist, Altman and the VCās will make a shit ton of money and move on to whatever is next. Thatās why Altman wants to keep his people. He wants that hojillion dollar exit. If you believe heās doing this for humanityās sake I have a bridge to sell you in New York City.
While āAIā is changing things for the worse in the corporate world it doesnāt have its uses in software development if you know what youāre looking for and how to validate its correct. These companies have crawled the web and stolen all the code that exists today on the open web. That begs the question āIs this as good as it gets?ā
In many ways Iām glad Iām approaching retirement age. That way I donāt have long to live in this āAIā based software engineering world. Overall, itās not for me. Iām a dinosaur in many way. Old, not that talented, and tired of the grind.
Iām just waiting to be fired. Itās inevitable.
Starbucks is kind of my leading candidate for a new career. I like coffee and people. I feel like itās a decent place to work.
Yes, Iām feeling more than a bit gloomy over my future, but it feels like a possibility to me. Best have a plan in mind if I canāt find another job.
Had to run to our storage to get our ice chests, corn hole stuff, and ice cream maker and found this fella. Yeah, heās long dead, but very impressive!
Our grandkids love putting āmakeupā on our happy garden monk. š
Our little bunny friend is in the front yard tonight!
Stunning how media has turned passage of the Abominable Bill into a will they-or-won’t they romcom with a July 4th deadline for Cinderella to kiss the prince, rather than a situation in which multiple members of Congress say they’re terrified they or their families will be killed if they cross Trump
This is what weāve come to. I hope these member of Congress stand up and do whatās right for our nation.
Let me be specific about what I mean. This week, Donald Trump postedĀ explicit ordersĀ on Truth Social directing federal law enforcement to conduct āMass Deportation Operationsā targeting āAmericaās largest Citiesā because they are āthe core of the Democrat Power Center.ā He used the term āREMIGRATIONāālanguage borrowed directly from European fascist movements. He accused Democratic officials of treason for opposing him. He framed resistance to his orders as hatred of America itself.
We are a fascist nation and thatās disgusting. My sincerest hope is we can force that orange asshole out of office after his four year reign of terror is over.
Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! āļø
Yes, itās Sunday morning. We had our grandkids stay with us for a couple days which is fun and exhausting. So, yeah, Iām a bit late this week. Rather I was a bit late last week? š¤
Enjoy the links.
Shelby Talcott and Morgan Chalfant ā¢ Semafor
The US bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday evening, President Donald Trump said.
I put this here because itās important and should probably warrant its own post. I donāt feel great about what āweā did to Iran. Yes, itās a terribly oppressive nation with theocratic leadership and a model of what not to be as a nation. Yet, I wish we hadnāt bombed them. So far things seem to be as stable as you could expect after doing something like this. Apparently the Iranians moved their nuclear material out of the sites. While it hasnāt been refined to its most dangerous state they could still put together a dirty bomb to drop on Israel. Thatās frightening and Iām not excited about the prospect.
In a way, one could say Liquid Glass is like a new version of Aqua. It has reflective properties reminiscent of that. One could also say itās an evolution of whatever iOS 7 was, leaning into the frosted panels and bright accent colors. But whatever Liquid Glass seems to be, it isnāt what many of us were hoping for.
Louie has been around the design block more than a few times. I like his takes on UI and design and enjoyed this piece on Liquid Glass. Iād expect a sizable series of posts related to the new design.
As for my take? I donāt really have one at the moment. Iām just going to adapt Stream to the new design and move on. I have so many things to add to Stream I find it difficult to get wrapped up in the debate around the new design language.
At some point I may have an opinion but not today.
The first thing I installed after the WWDC25 Keynote was the beta for iPadOS. There was only one reason: it had the windows we have all wanted for so long.
The iPad seems to have gotten a lot of love this release cycle and thatās great! Iāve seen more than a few takes but Craig is an old timer in the Mac and iOS ecosystem and understands the OSāes really darned well.
All that’s missing is a timeline viewer, and that’s what I’m working on now. It’s coming together pretty nicely, imho. Not an easy project, though on the surface it looks like it should be. Also there’s nothing proprietary about my timeline viewer. There could be a thousand of them. Anyone who has written an RSS feed reader will have all the low-level bits they need.
Iām curious to see what Dave is going to produce. I suspect his timeline viewer will be a lot like Streamās. Just a flow of blog posts in chronological order, no sorting, no folders, etc.
Having a timeline based feed reader is exactly what motivated me to create Stream in the first place.
Maybe Dave has other ideas? Iāll be keeping an eye out for whatever he creates.
Alfred Lieth Ć rĆøe ā¢ Expo Blog
In less than a week of work I migrated my 7 year old React Native app to Expo. The app Is called Blur, and is a fun party game that gives a group of friends challenges, questions, and mini-games to do! In addition to simple (and complex) React Native components, this app includes an iOS widget, notifications, custom fonts and a good list of dependencies.
If youāre a React Native dev with an old app youād like to upgrade to Expo hereās a nice article for you. Enjoy.
Brian Morrissey ā¢ The Rebooting
Substack is a consequential company in the rebooting, if you will, of media. It has emerged as shorthand for the decentralization of media.
Decentralized? Iād argue itās completely centralized. All these authors rely on Substack for their entire publishing system. From writing to distribution theyāre built on a single system. And itās a horrible company to boot.
No matter how many times Iāve told folks on Substack about their embrace of Naziās they continue to publish there, this includes some Jewish writers, which is shocking to me. There are alternatives. Molly White has done the work so you donāt have to.
In Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror classic _The Shining,Ā _the camera zooms in toward a black-and-white photograph hanging in the hallway of the Overlook Hotel.Ā It’s dated July 4, 1921. Dead centre stands Jack Torrance ā played by Jack Nicholson ā smiling in a crowd of partygoers.
I had no idea there was a mystery surrounding the source of the picture. Problem solved!
My coworkers donāt want AI. They want macros.
I understand where Ruth is coming from. Folks just want to do their jobs and if they think macros are better than AI, thatās fine. AI is just another tool in the toolbox. Use it, donāt use it. Doesnāt matter.
New York City Council member Keith Powers has partnered with our friends at Bodega Cats New York to pass legislation that would make it completely legal for these loyal felines to stay in their favorite spots in neighborhood convenience stores all around the five boroughs.
Iām cool with this idea! I love cats and Bodega Cats are a big deal in New York City.
Iām sure some folks will push back on the idea of allowing them permanent residence but Iād welcome it.š±
Elon Musk fired Teslaās head of operations in North America and Europe, amid declining sales in both regions and the electric vehicle brandās falling popularity, according to people familiar with the matter.
Oh, the irony! Space Karen made himself the most hated man in America. He caused Tesla to fall. He caused folks to sell their Teslaās and avoid them like the plague. Just like the Marmalade Messiah he has to blame everyone but himself.
Tesla needs good leadership. They need a CEO whoās invested in the company. They need to fire Musk.
My grandson loves Spider-Man.
Here are the various different types.
Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! āļø
Iāve been experimenting with another read later app called Flyleaf this week. Iām finding I love Plinky for saving links to articles, mainly about development, I can read at anytime. I normally do this with Notion but Plinky is really great at it.
As for read later style apps, Flyleaf does a great job stripping away all the cruft and presents text in a way thatās easy to read with my aging eyes. š
I realized a couple days back that Kim and I graduated from high school 40 years ago. Thatās wild. That means we celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary this August. 40 is just around the corner. š³
Iāve added a new feature to Stream for my friend Ashur Cabrera. It allows you to invoke a custom URL scheme to make Stream add a new subscription. Kind of easy to do and the code was in really good shape to make it easy. Ashur did find a bug so Iām off exploring that and I ran into a crashing bug just running Stream in the usual way. It all seems to stem from building with Xcode 16.x. I managed to easily fix it on iOS but iPadOS still crashes. That has to do with my Split View and how itās being created. Itās a weird one. Iāll get it fixed soon, I hope, so I can finish off this new feature. š
Enjoy the links.
My biggest takeaway from WWDC 2025 is that Apple seemingly took some lessons to heart from its unfulfilled promises of a year ago. This yearās WWDC wasnāt merely focused on what Apple is confident it can ship in the next 12 months, but on what they can ship this fall. I might be overlooking a minor exception or two, but every major feature announced in the WWDC 2025 keynote was both demonstratable in product briefings, and is currently available in the developer beta seeds. I was also told, explicitly, by Apple executives, that Apple plans to ship everything shown last week in the fall.
It seems Appleās gonna give us a bit of Apple Intelligence with Xcode, which is really nice, and better support in Shortcuts to really make your apps shine. But one of the things Iām actually super interested to try is the on device models. I think Stream could use it for a recommendation system. Weāll see.
Oh, right, and that whole Liquid Glass thing is happening too.
My hope is to get Stream for iOS updates to Liquid Glass and add a recommended feeds list that is hand curated and generated using on device models. That should make for a swell update.
Enga Perez ā¢ Caring Minds United
Scientists have spent four years diving deep into the world of remote work and stumbled upon a powerful truth: working from home genuinely makes us happier.
I couldāve told you that. š But I have been thinking about going to the office one or two days a week.
I use AI a lot for work, pretty much all day every day. I use coding assistants and custom agents Iāve built. I use AI to help code review changes, dig into bugs, and keep track of my projects. Iāve found lots of things itās very helpful with, and lots of things itās terrible at. If thereās one thing I have definitely learned: it does not work the way I imagined. And the more folks I talk with about it, the more I find it doesnāt work like they imagine, either.
Pretty long post but worth a bit of time.
Iām not using LLMs for that much in my day-to-day dev work, yet, but I continue to use it for generating scripts and finding good answers to strange bugs in code. Iāll probably use it to help solve the iPadOS bug in Stream, since it just cropped up after updating to a newer version of Xcode since I last released it.
While more than 3.5 million people have spent the last couple of weeks glued to a brand-new Nintendo Switch 2, X user PatRyk (@Patrosi73) decided to invest their time elsewhere: trying to run iOS on the original Nintendo Switch. And they did it! Sort of.
I love hearing about folks hacking stuff into place to make things work where they shouldnāt. This is a prime example of that hacker spirit.
Microsoft is unveiling its own command-line text editor at its Build conference today. Edit on Windows will be accessible by using āeditā in a command prompt, allowing developers to edit files within the command line. Itās part of several improvements aimed at bettering the Windows experience for developers.
Since Microsoft has embraced open source tooling, Linux, and Mac more they seem to have gone back to more command like tools development. They did a brand new shell, that can host other shell types, and now theyāre building a brand new command line editor? Wild. š
Can you make it compatible with Brief? šš¼
The module looks nothing like an iPhone. It intentionally resembles the broadcast camera module, and Apple even had to match the weight so that its version wouldn’t alter a car’s specs. The inside, however, is completely different. (Apple gave us a peek during WWDC last week alongside an F1 car.)
Itās too bad this quality of video isnāt streamed out of the current camera setups on the cars.
Maybe thatāll be the next ābig thing.ā Go Pro like devices that stream super high quality video?
Rather than pausing new investments or considering divestment, many pension officials and asset managers are instead pressing Tesla’s boardto get Elon Musk to return to working full-time at the company, as if the core problem is simply that Musk is too distracted. However, this assertion overlooks a far more serious problem: Musk’s reputation is so tarnished that Tesla won’t be able to thrive as long as he remains the CEO.
Musk needs to go so Tesla can be remade into a great company.
Weāre already well into 2025, and it has been a huge start to the year for Mastodon. We want to bring you an overdue update on exactly what weāre working on, from a strategic perspective.
Itās great to see Mastodon charging forward. We absolutely need this open ecosystem for social networks.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Tuesday that the company expects artificial intelligence “will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains” over time.
“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people do other types of jobs,” Jassy added in a memo to Amazon’s workforce.
Iāve had really mixed feeling about āAIā (I donāt find it to be intelligent, at all.) at WillowTree weāve been pushing hard on using these LLM services to help us move faster. Hey, weāre in the client services business, we have to move fast. And the more I learn about it the more Iāve come to realize itās just a really good sidekick. We will continue to need to think through problems and come up with interesting designs and solutions because these services only āknowā what theyāre trained against. We still need to invent new things, right? Itās a hammer, nothing else.
Kimās berries are looking pretty happy. Theyāve struggled for years to produce berries.
Coffee with Bug this morning.
Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! āļø
Heat has moved into the Charlottesville area along with humidity. The heat isnāt so bad and I think Iām finally getting used to the humidity. As me how I feel about it in a couple months, I may change my mind. š
Nothing spectacular going on. Itās been a pretty average week.
The affected Anker PowerCore 10000 power banks were sold through Ankerās website, Amazon, Newegg, and eBay between June 2016 and December 2022. Given Ankerās popularity among Apple users and the fire risk these batteries pose, you should immediately check if your power bank is affected by visiting Ankerās recall webpage. Affected units are eligible for a free replacement or a $30 gift card.
I have one of these and love the darned thing. Guess Iād better see if I have one of the recalled versions. Iād happily take a replacement because theyāre wonderful! (Except for that whole possibility of catching fire thing.) š¤£
Today, weāre going to learn how modern programming languages are governed. Iāll explain how Swiftās dictatorial structure is uniquely terrible, and demonstrate to you how bad the situation has become.
I doubt that is a popular opinion, but I do share it. Some of the latest changes have made the language even more complicated than it was before.
Iām also old and somewhat set in my ways, until Iām not. I have yet to dive into the power of async/await and sendable types, which at a high level makes sense to me, and Stream could absolutely use it. The big question is, what reason do I have to do it when the networking code I have works fine the way it is?
I have project Rooster on the drawing board. Iāll use it there along with SwiftUI. Itāll take me 10-years to complete the work. š
Jason Hellerman ā¢ No Film School
‘Sinners’ is the Highest-Grossing Original Film in 15 Years
I want to see this film so much! Iām gonna have to convince Bug, our youngest daughter and movie buddy, to go see it with me. Probably wonāt take much convincing. Looks like weāll have to see it at home.
A British man has walked away from the wreckage of the Air India crash that killed 241 people in an extraordinary tale of survival.
All I could see was that scene of Bruce Willis in Unbreakable waking up in the hospital after the train crash.
Apple embraces the blurring lines between iPad and Mac. Finally.
I played around with this in the Xcode 26 simulator for a bit. Itās really interesting and makes me think Stream on iPad could really make good use of it. Weāll see if my creativity can stretch far enough to do something interesting.
Violent Night 2 sets December 2026 release, with Tommy Wirkola returning to direct the sequel
Sign me up! We loved David Harbour as the Viking St. Nicholas and it sounds like this film may lean into that a bit!
I know weāll see this one in theatres.
Barnes & Noble has updated its Nook app for iPhone and iPad with a new “buy on BN.com” button that redirects users to the company’s website to complete e-book and audiobook purchases
Another big name taking advantage of new App Store policy that allows folks to link out to a payment system not Appleās.
I really wish Apple would cave on this and allow third party payment systems in app. Apple has always been about the User Experience and allowing folks to use other payment systems right inside their apps would deliver that. Jumping outside the app is a forced limitation. Apple wants devs to use their IAP, so they force a bad experience by making users jump to a web page if the app chooses to use a third party system.
Weāve had online payment on the internet for years and years now. There are many trustworthy third party payment systems to choose from that could keep payments above board.
If Apple would drop their fee to five percent I doubt few companies would choose to use a third party solution.
Alas, they will continue fighting against it. š„ŗ
Vivaldi browser might not be the first to come to mind when you’re looking for the best browsers on the market. But after switching from Arc and giving it a proper try, I’m officially hooked. Vivaldi is packed with features, making it one of the most underrated browsers available today.
Iāve installed this but I havenāt given it a good look yet. Itās yet another app built using the Blink rendering engine (part of Chromium.)
I wish someone would go off and do a really cool WebKit based browser with a 100% SwiftUI GUI. WebKit is the guts of the browser, itās everything from networking to parsing to rendering. Itās basically the browser minus the UI surrounding it.
Looks like Finder isnāt the only Mac application to see big icon changes in macOS Tahoe. Poor Otto had his arms, legs, and pipe taken away:
The new #LiquidAss, yes, I know, itās LiquidGlass, UI introduced at WWDC this year is a big change in all the various operating system flavors.
Itās fine. Iām just going with the flow on this one. I have some ideas to make Stream embrace it a bit. More on that later. I really wish I could go work on this full time until iOS 26 ships in September. I think I could do some really cool stuff between now and then. As it is, Iāll do the best I can with the time I have.
The original Black Sabbath line-up - Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward - will reunite once more to play their farewell show at Birmingham’s Villa Park on July 5, and, in common with his bandmates, the guitarist admits to a certain amount of trepidation as to how the day might play out.
I wish the entire Sabbath lineup a perfect show and send off. Iād love to be there. š¬š§
But here at Multiline Comment HQ we donāt measure Appleās leadership team by their penchant for bootlicking or falsifying testimony in federal court, or even by public opinion. No, our tools are different: we use headshots, and lots of ‘em.
Over the years Iāve gotten to know Ashur a bit and heās a super nice, super smart, and super creative dude. Follow him. He does nifty web experiments on occasion and other interesting stuff like this! ā¤ļø
On the one hand, it echoes and amplifies the training distribution argument that I have been making since 1998: neural networks of various kinds can generalize within a training distribution of data they are exposed to, but their generalizations tend to break down outside that distribution.
To be honest this article makes me feel a bit better about what we refer to as AI today. Our man made AI is only as good as weāve been able to make it. Itās not self aware, nor is it thinking, itās just dumping balls into the top of the pachinko machine and making choices based on its inputs. Thatās it.
Is this a rant against LLMs? Nope. Theyāre darned useful but you still need to question the answers you get. Validate them.
From a coding perspective theyāre pretty darned good. Theyāre the next evolution in IDE tool tip style help. Iāve seen them used to great effect generating unit tests for existing code and even produced nice solutions for other problems.
Keep in mind those outputs are only as good as the inputs used to train the LLM. Itās code that already exists in the world. Itās just been digested by the LLM so it can spit it out quickly.
Cody Williams ā¢ The Daily Downforce
After a 13-year absence, and a lot of speculation this week, it was finally made official in Motor City: Dodge is coming back to NASCAR!
I am super excited by the return of Dodge to the Truck Series! Now, letās get a new Cup team set up and how about an IndyCar and F1 team? More racing, more American horsepower on the various grids!
Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! āļø
Iāve been on vacation/holiday/or whatever you call it. Work calls it Paid Time Off, or PTO. I call it time with the grandkids.
Kim and I spent most of the week camping with our grandchildren at Myrtle Beach State Park. This was our first trip to the park and I really enjoyed our time there. The amenities at the park were excellent. We had power and water at our campsite hooked directly to our trailer, a bathhouse about 30-yards away, and a nice camp store just around the corner. Oh, right, not to mention the beach about 100 yards from the campsite. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at the beach and kind of chilled or puttered around other places Myrtle Beach had to offer.
There are so many places to see and things to do we didnāt even scratch the surface. Next year we have to do seven to 10 days with our entire family in tow. ā±ļø
Brian Merchant ā¢ Blood in the Machine
ā¢ļø WARNING: Substack
Like a lot of figureheads in the AI industry, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says that ordinary people are not ready for the changes AI is about to unleash on the world. In a widely circulated interview with Axios, Amodei warns we are on the brink of what his interviewers describe as a ājob apocalypseā that will wipe out half of entry level jobs and cause the unemployment rate to rise up to 20%.
Iām more torn than ever about using AI in the workplace. As I mentioned last week, I used AI to help with a CI/CD GitHub Action I was setting up and it provided clues to my issue but I never really found a true answer to the problem. It took an experienced human to figure out what I missed in my setup.
Poor prompting on my part? Probably. This is why AI will replace me someday. š
By that time I hope to be retired.
Youāre probably wondering what happened. One day we were all-in on Arc. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, we started building something new: Dia.
This piece feels rambling to me. Itās obvious the author has a lot to say and feels the need to justify their move to sideline Arc. I donāt blame them. I know folks who love Arc and have gone all in on it. Theyāre extremely disappointed. Hopefully the like Dia. š¤š¼
Jonathan M. Gitlan ā¢ Ars Technica
Verstappen slowed to let Russell through, then sped up into turn 4, opening up his steering and colliding with the Mercedes. Call it petulance or frustration; it was an inexcusable lapse of judgment from a driver. Using one’s car as a weapon against another competitor on track is unacceptable, and the 10-second penalty that Verstappen earned as a result dropped him to 10th place at the end, ruining his own race more than anyone else’s.
I donāt know Max Verstappen but Iāve never really liked the guy. Temper tantrums like this donāt have a place in racing but they do happen. Professional athletes get to their positions by being the best at their craft and often have large egos to go along with the skill. Verstappen is a prime example of ego and skill.
Firefox could be put out of business should a court implement all the Justice Departmentās proposals to restrict Googleās search monopoly, an executive for the browser owner Mozilla testified Friday. āItās very frightening,ā Mozilla CFO Eric Muhlheim said.
It would be absolutely tragic if Mozilla was out of business. We need more browser engines, not fewer. Microsoft giving up on their browser was a huge blow to the ecosystem and competition.
The thing is, the only companies who could afford to bail them out want to control the internet and have corporate interests to fulfill.
Who could be a good steward? Facebook? Definitely not. Theyāre a super scummy company. Apple? They donāt need another browser. Google? Donāt need another browser. Microsoft? They should have their own browser and seem like a logical choice, but they wouldnāt embrace the open web as Mozilla does. Remember ActiveX controls in IE? Yeah, total nightmare in an otherwise good browser. And to think Microsoft was arrogant enough to declare IE complete.
The internet used to be limitless, open to anyone with an idea. Now, itās a polished prison run by tech giants. Is this the future we signed up for? Hereās how Big Tech quietly turned freedom into captivity.
I think you could piece together a lot of what the big silos offer but it wouldnāt be as complete or cohesive. Blogs, Mastodon, and Micro.blog are great for social network replacements but so many people rely on Facebook for all of those activities. Heck, many businesses only have Facebook pages.
Side note: I once built a little website for a nano brewing company in Exeter, CA. I offered them the keys to it and they turned it down because Facebook gave them what they needed.
Also, they have a website now! Good move! The domain I got for them was better, but this works. I picked up bellcraft.beer for them.
They couldāve also picked up bellcraftbrew.co instead of the .com, but to each his own. I think that just proves the power of .com verses everything else.
It did not take any particular skill in forecasting to predict, at the end of 2024, that the unprecedented partnership between Donald Trump and Elon Musk would come to a dramatic ending. Both Trump and Musk are independently famous for their erratic leadership styles and abrupt purges of once-close allies, and neither shows any long-term patience for anyone who opposes them.
Iām here for the Space Karen and Marmalade Messiah breakup. Bring it! Theyāre both such petty man children. Each smoking his own supply and blaming everyone but themselves for their problems.
I canāt wait to be shot of both of them.
Please, send them to Mars to start a colony. They can own it and call it Muskland or Trumpville or whatever they want. At least I wonāt have to hear about them ever again.
A collective of international animation unions, federations, and organizations are calling for action over the usage of artificial intelligence, citing its destructive impact on the craft and business of animation, as well as on industry workers.
I like this move. And like Iāve said before AI has its uses but for some things we should say āNo.ā
If youāre a craftsman of any kind Iād say no to using it for the craft part of my job. The thing I pride myself on. In this case itās the artwork.
I was wondering what kinda things you, dear reader, like to read online?
I like all kinds of stuff but most of it boils down to tech related stuff. I read old timers like Dave Winer and Jeffrey Zeldman. I also like reading folks like Manton Reece, [John Gruber](daringfireball.net], and Joan Westenberg among many others!
But then in the mid 00s things changed, and since then the users have flocked to closed systems. It would be similarly wonderful if we had an open social web, but we donāt. Mastodon is open but itās not simple like the web is, and Bluesky is simple, but it is not open. And neither supports the most basic features of the web.#
Iāve heard ActivityPub and Mastodon can be challenging to code against but Iāve also heard Bluesky is extremely difficult to understand from a technical perspective. Maybe itās just me?
Folks are building open alternatives to many closed systems on ActivityPub. So it does work!
Dave continues to build excellent tools on top of technologies heās created, like RSS. Itās different and it missing some of the things people like, like replies (as far as I can tell, itās missing replies? I could be very wrong about that. I donāt know what I donāt know. Ya know?) š
If you havenāt seen WordLand you should give it a gander. Itās really the editor bloggers using WordPress really need. At least I think it is. It would be extremely cool if Dave and perhaps others could define a protocol for editors to connect to all different types of blogging systems. Heh, I think thatās what ActivityPub and others are for? š¤
We need taco trucks on every corner of the White House sporting that picture, in poster size, on the side of their trucks. š¤£
Andā¦ weāre off to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. āŗļøā±ļø
Our granddaughter found herself a friend. A little firefly. Her name is Sparkles.
Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! āļø
I went out on Monday and picked up a 2008 Chevy Silverado 4x4 pickup. Why? Well, we bought a camping trailer last spring and we discovered pulling it with Kimās Honda Pilot felt unstable and underpowered. Basically it felt like we were on the edge of something going wrong at any time. It was just unsettling.
Iāve been without a vehicle since COVID and since Iāve always had a truck and we wanted one for the trailer it was an easy decision. Plus, as far as trucks go, it was inexpensive.
Would I love to have a new Chevy or Ford EV Truck? You bet! Am I willing to spend $60,000 plus to have one? Sorry, canāt do it.
Anywho, I like it! š»
This is wild. Both because they declined ā again, for the first time in a decade ā but more so because they have to know the signal it sends in declining.1 At best, it looks like they’re trying to avoid answering any non-staged questions about how things are going. At worst, it looks like they’re freezing Gruber out for a few recent critical posts about the company ā notably, his “Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino” post about the Apple Intelligence shitshow back in March.
When I read Johnās post about this years The Talk Show at WWDC I figured Apple was showing their displeasure with Johnās earlier piece.
Like most big companies Apple has run into their fair share of problems, criticism, and lawsuits.
The law is finally catching up with some of Appleās policies around their 15-30% fee for sales in the App Store, which is the only way to sell an iOS App.
They lost a case in California that says they have to allow third-party payment systems. App developers have Epic to thank for that. Iām not switching my in app purchase strategy. Iāll continue to use Appleās system, at least for now.
Brown University Computer Science
This book is designed to help C++ programmers learn Rust. It provides translations of common C++ patterns into idiomatic Rust. Each pattern is described through concrete code examples along with high-level discussion of engineering trade-offs.
Really nice resource if, like me, you have a C++ programming background! From everything Iāve heard, Rust is a great language. I kind of wish someone would do a low-level equivalent for C++ devs moving to Swift.
Has anyone proven that Swift is just as performant as C++ on Mac, Linux, or Windows?
I know Microsoft is using Rust for some Windows APIs now. I donāt recall if it was GDI or User, but Windows does have some Rust code in it now.
As policy makers in the UK weigh how to regulate the AI industry, Nick Clegg, former UK deputy prime minister and former Meta executive, claimed a push for artist consent would ābasically killā the AI industry.
Maybe the AI industry needs to be killed or at least thrown in technical and political jail until a rational, equitable, system can be devised to pay authors and artists for their work.
How about the AI folks give us access to all their hard work? Their code, their algorithms, their LLMs, and all of their compute for free? All for the betterment of mankind. I bet theyād balk at that. š
Holly Cain ā¢ NASCAR Wire Service
A day filled with high hopes and trophy expectations after weeks of hard work at track and a year to contemplate the quest ended abruptly Sunday after NASCAR star Kyle Larson crashed just before the midpoint of Sundayās Indianapolis 500 ā a race ultimately won in a sprint to the finish by three-time and reigning IndyCar champion, Chip Ganassi Racingās Alex Palou.
I feel really bad for Kyle Larson. He is without a doubt, in my mind, the greatest driver in the world today. Heās able to adapt to anything and everything, but that doesnāt mean heās perfect. Last year he finished the race, in 16th I believe, this year he made a mistake and crashed out, taking two other cars with him.
It does happen, even to Kyle Larson. Heās a high risk high reward driver. Heās always on the edge of disaster.
After leaving Indy he got to the Coke 600, lead a number of laps, and spun out. No crash but he lost the lead and was mired in the back of the pack for the remainder of the day.
As a Kyle Larson fan I feel terrible for the guy.
Harvard Lets You Take 133 Free Online Courses: Explore Courses on Justice, American Government, Literature, Religion, CompSci & More
Iād like to take advantage of these courses! Iāve wanted a History degree for years and years. Maybe I can get some great American History courses through this program? The CompSci courses would be nice too! š
Daniel Rosenwasser ā¢ Microsoft TypeScript Blog
Today, we are excited to announce broad availability of TypeScript Native Previews. As of today, you will be able to use npm to get a preview of the native TypeScript compiler. Additionally, youāll be able to use a preview version of our editor functionality for VS Code through the Visual Studio Marketplace.
The team chose Go because they did a straight port of their TypeScript/JavaScript code to Go. The syntax was very similar so it was kind of a no brainer and Go is a memory safe compiled language.
Itās too bad they didnāt use Rust.
Taylor Troesh ā¢ Good Internet
Soon it will become something else entirely. Because itās my website and Iām perpetually becoming somebody else.
I wish I had the skill to make my own websites. The fact that Taylor can and does is impressive. And to top it all off I love her style!
Personally Iām always after a JavaScript free site as plain HTML. Thatās what I get with Micro.blog.
I do have a bit of JavaScript in my blog, at the end to see how many visits posts get. Itās minimal.
A recent experiment by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University staffed a fake software company entirely with AI Agents ā an AI model designed to perform tasks on its own,Ā basically ā and the results were laughably chaotic.
You canāt rely on AI to do things without monitoring it. Think of it as an intern, only not as smart - because itās not intelligent, itās a pachinko machine that often times makes really good guesses.
Use it, do not trust it, and for goodness sake verify everything it produces if youāre going to use it. It could be a real time saver, or wreck your work if youāre not careful.
I used our AI product this week and while it gave me good answers it didnāt provide me with a solution to my problem around publishing npm packages to GitHub. It gave me great information on how to setup part of my GitHub Actions script but Iāve never done it before and was hoping it would ājust work.ā It didnāt.
I hadnāt setup the Packages section in the repository to accept packages from my own repo. Live and learn.
BTW, that is not an indictment of AI failings. It provided me with great answers to my prompts. It really did. I just didnāt know what I didnāt know.
Reading GitHubās documentation on the matter wouldāve been very beneficial to me. Next time Iāll be better prepared for my sake and the AIās.
Tripp Mickle, of the New York Times, wrote another one of those articles exploring the feasibility of iPhone manufacturing in the United States. There is basically nothing new here; the only reason it seems to have been published is because the U.S. president farted out yet another tariff idea, this time one targeted specifically at the iPhone at a rate of 25%.
I canāt see how Tim Cook and Apple can possibly manage their way out of TACO Manās sights. He desperately wants Apple to make things here in the states. Apple has the money to do it, but they donāt want to do it.
They could help local Community Colleges and Universities spin up training programs to teach the skills necessary to build iPhones, IPads, and other products, but that would take years and years to do and take lots of cash to pull it off.
Apple wants to make money, not spend it. Remember, itās all about shareholder value to these folks. Itās not about helping our fellow man find a great paying job.
Your job title says “software engineer”, but you seem to spend most of your time in meetings. You’d like to have time to code, but nobody else is onboarding the junior engineers, updating the roadmap, talking to the users, noticing the things that got dropped, asking questions on design documents, and making sure that everyone’s going roughly in the same direction. If you stop doing those things, the team won’t be as successful. But now someone’s suggesting that you might be happier in a less technical role. If this describes you, congratulations: you’re the glue. If it’s not, have you thought about who is filling this role on your team?
As a Staff Engineer Iām way more valuable to my team being the glue that brings us together. I act as mentor, coding buddy, and I see projects from 30,000 feet all the way down to minute details.
Iām not nearly as smart as 99% of the developers in the world. Iāve just been around the block a few times and Iāve built lots of different things on different OSāes using a mix of languages. Iāve done everything in the development life cycle so I know how to take something from concept to shipping and know how to do it with a team. Thatās my strength. Sure, I can write code, but I really enjoy doing that glue stuff. Itās often random, sometimes spur of the moment ā like fixing something in our iOS app yesterday so we could submit it to Apple.
I love the mix of people I work with daily. I have excellent management surrounding me who encourage me to serve my purpose on the team. Add the amazing Software and Test Engineers I work with daily and you have the perfect formula for happiness on the job.
Given all that Iād still love to retire and work on my apps full time. Not because I hate my day job but because I desperately want to build my apps! š
Less than two years later, the company has announced that itās discontinuing Arc in favor of a new app ā Dia ā which it is also pitching as the future of internet usage
I find this puzzling. I know so many people who absolutely love Arc! Why not keep it running to serve the people who love it? Keep a tiny crew on it, let it evolve slowly.
In the end VCs have to get paid I suppose. This is part of why we canāt have nice things or useful software. š¤£
Kirsten Grind and Megan Twohey ā¢ The New York Times
Mr. Muskās drug consumption went well beyond occasional use. He told people he was taking so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that it was affecting his bladder, a known effect of chronic use. He took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. And he traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall, according to a photo of the box and people who have seen it.
It is unclear whether Mr. Musk, 53, was taking drugs when he became a fixture at the White House this year and was handed the power to slash the federal bureaucracy. But he has exhibited erratic behavior, insulting cabinet members, gesturing like a Nazi and garbling his answers in a staged interview.
Queue lawsuit in 3, 2, 1ā¦
The manās brain, like Orange Manās, is addled. And like the TACO heās a stable genius.
Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! āļø A day late!
Weāve had our granddaughter this weekend so yesterday was filled with activities. I managed to get started on this post but had to put it down and do things like play tea party and go to the lake and play a game she made up, as far as I know, called zoo keeper. Iām the zoo keeper and she was a black panther. š„°
Anyway, weāve had a great time and weāre both pooped out, in all the best ways.
With retirement imminent āĀ this is my last job, and June 6 is my last day (maybe Iāve buried the lede here) āĀ I want to thank my team publicly for how theyāve made me a better engineer and, more importantly, a better person. From the bottom of my heart.
Congratulations, Brent! Go read the post to get the full context. Brent talks about his biases going into his job at Audible and how it changed him. Itās a really great, heartfelt, tribute to his co-workers.
Today, Mozilla announced in a support document that it will soon end development of Pocket, its read-later app thatās been around since the early days of the App Store
Welp, there goes a piece of my workflow for Saturday Morning Coffee. Pocket sits at the middle of my process and tooling. I save links through the week and save them to Pocket. On Saturday I find all the properly tagged saves and use those to write these posts.
Iām not sure what Iāll move to, yet. Unread has a read later feature, I may give that a go. Iām also looking at Plinky.
Iāve had read later support on my Stream list of features for years. Just havenāt done it.
Son of a bitch Epic did it. This was like a double bank shot.
I had to go download Fortnight as soon as I saw they were back in the store. I still havenāt fully configured it yet and all Iām really interested in is seeing their in app purchase screens.
I wonder if this is Johnās way of Claim Chowderāing himself? š
I like Johnās writing because he calls it as he sees it. I think the shock and surprise are real on his part.
Jensen is among an increasing number of job seekers who have found themselves being interviewed by A.I. programs as part of the recruiting process. Pitched by tech companies as a cost-efficient means of automating a laborious screening process typically done by an HR representative or recruiter, this A.I. software has the capability to āinterviewā hundreds of candidates, whom it can then recommend for further interviews with actual human beings. But for those on the other side of these chats, the experience of auditioning for a computer can feel somewhat surrealāand leave a rather unpleasant impression of a potential employer.
This is a bit much folks. Letās keep humans in the interview process. I know this was a screening call and all but I donāt think Iād care for it either.
As part of my interview with WilllwTree I had to record myself answering a set of predefined questions. I understood the assignment right away and was happy to do it. WillowTree is a client services company. Even developers need to be good with the client. They wanted to see how I may operate with a client. The questions werenāt tech questions. They were easy questions as I recall. All about the interaction and presentation not about my knowledge.
I got to the next round of human interviews and managed to land the gig.
OpenAI, made the biggest acquihire inĀ Silicon Valleyās history. Sam Altman and his crewĀ bought Jony Ive and his coterie of ex-Apple hotshotsĀ for a whopping $6.5 billion. It is an all-stock deal for io Products, a 55-person company that is building an āamazing AI device.ā
My goodness thatās a lot of cheddar! And I canāt get anyone to throw a paltry $1MM at me to go do what I want. š Namely work on Stream and Rooster(my top secret project. š) š
MCP on Windows offers a standardized framework for AI agents to connect with native Windows apps, enabling them to easily participate in agentic interactions on Windows. Windows apps can expose specific functionality to augment the skills and capabilities of agents installed locally on a Windows PC.
This is the sort of thing iOS and Mac developers would like. Give us the ability to hook our applications up to AI agents using a well defined protocol.
While itās not ready for prime time yet Iād imagine it will ship close to when they say it will.
Microsoft is, once again, pushing things in the right direction for developers because they know the value developers bring to Windows.
It really is too bad they missed the mobile revolution. This time theyāre out front, leading.
For once I agree with the Orange Turd in the Whitehouse.
He should be the first convicted criminal we ship to a prison outside the United States.
Remember those 37 convictions? I do.
Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! āļø
Iāve had a pretty fun week. Our dev team is doing really great work for our client, got to hangout with my grandson at his very important preschool graduation, and I had my first physical therapy session yesterday.
Overall a darned good week! š
Mike Barnes ā¢ The Hollywood Reporter
Joe Don Baker, the broad-shouldered Texas tough guy who portrayed characters on both sides of the law, most notably Sheriff Buford Pusser in the unexpected box-office hit Walking Tall, died May 7, his family announced. He was 89.
I remember watching Walking Tall as a kid and thinking Sheriff Buford Pusser was a real badass. I think Iāll have to watch it again.šŖ¦
Mike Wendling, Rajini Vaidyanathan & Paul Coletti ā¢ BBC
Microsoft founder Bill Gates said he intends to give away 99% of his vast fortune over the next 20 years.
This is really nice of him in todayās world of Oligarchs. Heād have been worth so much if he hadnāt started giving his money away. We need more kindness like this in the world.
Thank you, Mr. Gates. ā¤ļø
Apple is trying to dissuade Europeans from using iOS apps that support alternative payment options by making them look scary.
Apple will absolutely not give up on its 15-30% cut of each app sale in the App Store.
What I really dislike about these scare tactics is how they imply that a third party purchasing system is not safe and secure. Web payment systems have been around for years and years and predate the App Store. Iād imagine there are some questionable players out there but I trust companies like Stripe and Shopify. Iām sure there are many other trustworthy companies out there.
If Apple keeps fooling around theyāre gonna get some major fines in the EU.
When I started writing apps, the availability and quality of developer tools was considered to be an advantage for native development vs. the Web. These days, I still think native APIs usually lead to better appsāthough there are some awful Catalyst and SwiftUI apps that would have been better as Electronābut the Web tooling has really improved. I think many would now consider it a strong advantage.
I know this article by Michael is talking about Electron but Iāve spent the last year and a half working on a project to slowly transform native iOS and Android apps into 100% React Native Apps and itās gone really well. Same idea, different frameworks and platforms.
The start was slow and we spent the first four to six months building our bridging strategy and coding it. Once that was in place, along with React Native code to go with it, we started replacing hunks of functionality, feature by feature.
Recently a new Expo App was created and all that React Native work we started in the hybrid app has been shared via npm packages with the brand new app. Itās completely jumpstarted the new app with many features already built and tested in isolation. Iād say somewhere between 40-50% of the new app now works just by using these packages. Our networking, UI navigation, analytics, and telemetry packages were thoughtfully created to work with the native bridge code and 100% React Native code.
Anyway, Iāve written about it. Check it out if you have a minute. Itās been a really fun project.
Crypto giant Coinbase has confirmed its systems have been breached and customer data, including government-issued identity documents, were stolen.
Whoops. Will anyone ever be able to create a website and/or service thatās secure enough to not have breaches?
Iād imagine the best way to do it is not create the website or service in the first place. š
Warner Bros. Discovery is changing the name of its streaming service back to HBO Max. During its Upfront event on Wednesday, the company announced that it will rebrand Max this summer, a change HBO head Casey Bloys said ābetter representsā its offering.
Iām glad they did this. HBO has always been a place for quality series and originals. Itās a premium brand and with the addition of the Max name says āHey, itās the HBO you love with this other stuff we think you might enjoy.ā š
Chiara Mooney ā¢ Microsoft React Native Blog
Letās first talk about why Office chose to use React Native. Office has hundreds of millions of customers who expect visual consistency across desktop, mobile, and web. Currently, there are over 40 Office experiences which use React Native to build cross-platform features such as Privacy Dialog and Accessibility Assistant.
This is fascinating and weird to me all at once. Microsoft, one of the greatest software shops of all time is using React Native in Office. Yeah, you read that right, React Native in Office.
Did you know Microsoft is the primary contributor to React Native for Windows?
Can you imagine if someone did this for Mac? Oh, Microsoft did? Wait, what! Iām not sure how good this support is, but Iād love to see how it works.
Itās too bad a dyed in the wool Mac shop doesnāt take this on. Having an AppKit expert building this would make for a better framework, in my opinion. Of course Apple wouldnāt do it, but they should. Iād continue to build apps with Appleās native tooling because I think it makes for better apps, but having something that opens the door to thousands and thousands of developers is good for the platform and might encourage more developers to create desktop apps instead of websites.
Ulrik Egede ā¢ The Conversation
While smashing lead atoms into each other at extremely high speeds in an effort to mimic the state of the universe just after the Big Bang, physicists working on the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland incidentally produced small amounts of gold. Extremely small amounts, in fact: a total of some 29 trillionths of a gram.
I wonder how much it cost to create 29 trillionths of a gram of gold from lead? š
It is pretty amazing. I wonder what else theyāve created in there? Hopefully not a world ending virus. š³
Royal Enfieldās eagerly anticipated electric motorcycles, unveiled late last year under the Flying Flea brand, are now confirmed to hit the market early next year.
This is a nice looking bike. Very modern construction with the look of a bike from days long past. Not a bad option for motorcycle enthusiasts.
Microsoft is redesigning the Start menu in Windows 11 this month with a new, wider design that finally lets you disable the recommended feed of files and apps. While the new Start menu looks different to what exists in Windows 11 today, this design refresh could have looked a lot different as Microsoft has now revealed in concept images.
Finally. šš¼
Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! āļø
My struggles continue with sciatica. Thankfully it is much better than it was a week ago but I have a ways to go. Physical therapy is just under a week away and Iām hoping they can help me get this darn impingement un-impinged. Iām getting three to four hours of decent sleep a night then I get restless.
Itās gonna get better. I know it.
I had a really great time at work at the end of the week. I was called on to help some of the iOS Devs on our team to fix a few bugs. It was a blast pairing, what a great way to end the week.
Looking for a weekend escape? The first two episodes ofĀ Long Way Home, the latest installment in Apple TV+ās best travel series, have just dropped ā and itās the perfect watch if youāre craving a scenic adventure.
The Long Way series on Apple TV have been so much fun to watch. Highly recommended. šš¼
Stephen Clark ā¢ Ars Technica
Kosmos 482, a Soviet-era spacecraft shrouded in Cold War secrecy, will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere in the next few days after misfiring on a journey to Venus more than 50 years ago.
So this hunk of space debris is supppsed to crash down soon, if it hasnāt already, and itās supposed to fall on land. Duck! š°ļø
JR Farr ā¢ Lemon Squeezy Blog
This is a big step forward. Stripe Managed Payments is designed to handle all the heavy lifting for digital businesses from sales tax and fraud prevention to global compliance and customer support. Simply put, you can focus on growing your business.
When I read this I wondered if it could be used as a new in-app purchasing system for iOS Apps that want to bypass using Appleās payment system? I bet it can.
The small creatures look like oval mini-sailboats that can grow up to 4 inches long. Their gelatinous bases can range in color from vibrant blue to deep purple, and they have transparent triangular “sail” on top. It’s what allows them to be blown across the surface of the open sea where they typically live ā and with strong enough winds, onto coastal sands.
I lived in California for over 50 years and Iāve never heard of these. Theyāre beautiful. āµļø
Many horses, including Spotify and Amazon’s Kindle Store, have already left the barn. But Apple is moving quickly to shut the external payments door opened by last week’s ruling that the company willfully failed to comply with court orders regarding anticompetitive behavior.
I didnāt think it would take long for big companies to flip that switch.
Now we wait and see if Apple can get the courts to overrule the judgement. I canāt see that happening but Iām not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. šø
Charlie Chapman ā¢ Revenue Cat
Within hours after the news broke, our team shipped a Web Paywall Button. A new component you can drop into any RevenueCat paywall to whisk users over to a RevenueCat-hosted web checkout, complete the purchase, and then unlock access in-app as if it were a native buy flow.
That sure didnāt take long.
It makes me wonder if anyone is going to use Apple Pay for their payment system? š
Heck, if Apple switched their payment system to charge something like 5% Iām sure folks would use it.
Iād put money on that happening if the ruling remains in effect.
Andy Matthewās ā¢ News Thump
Doctors uncover link between increasing number of children getting measles and their parents being gullible morons
What a headline! I couldnāt resist! š
“A federal court cannot force Apple to permanently give away free access to its products and services, including intellectual property,” Apple’s lawyers wrote in the motion.
I donāt like it when Apple makes claims like this. I know my software uses their SDK but I wrote the code that is the app, itās not theirs.
Sure, the operating system is theirs, the tooling is theirs, and the software that gives our software access to the operating is theirs. But me selling an app using a different payment system denies them money and doesnāt jeopardize their āproducts, services, and intellectual property.ā Theyāre worried about the, potentially billions, of dollars they could lose.
Just say that. Say āweāre going to lose hundreds of millions of dollars if people choose different payment methods.ā
Or, or, how about this! Change your percentage to 5% and call it a day. Iāll bet folks wouldnāt change their payment mechanism then, because it would be competitively priced.
Iām happy for developers who want to take advantage of the new rules. Good for them and their bottom line.
I donāt make much off of Stream and RxCalc so Iāll probably continue to use Appleās payment system.
I had such a rough night sleeping. I didnāt sleep much due to pain and not being able to find a comfortable position.
Iām thankful I had some Hydrocodone/APAP left over from knee surgery. At least it takes the edge off. š
Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! āļø
Mike Barnes ā¢ The Hollywood Reporter
Ruth Buzzi, who was so hilarious as the lonely spinster Gladys Ormphby, the lady who swung her handbag as a lethal weapon, on Rowan & Martinās Laugh-In, has died. She was 88.
Iām old enough to remember Laugh-In and Ruth Buzzy was a hoot.
R.I.P. šŖ¦
The judge ruled that developers should be able to link to other ways to make purchases from inside their apps, so they could process payments via their own website and payment systems. In doing so, developers should have been able to forgo paying Appleās 30% commission on in-app purchases.
Some developers are already making changes to use their own payment system. Iāve read that Spotify is preparing a new release and Epic wants to return to the store with their own payment system. John Grubers hot take on Epic returning is a good read and one I hadnāt considered. I just figured it was a done deal, it might be?
Danish consumers are boycotting Coca-Cola, Carlsberg (CARLb.CO), opens new tab CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen said on Tuesday, noting that the brewer, which bottles the drink in Denmark, had seen Coca-Cola volumes decline while local rivals gain share.
It makes sense that other countries are abandoning American products. Prices are being driven up and who wants to pay a huge tax to buy something they can get locally?
“When we started working on ‘Moving Pictures’, everything came along just so effortlessly,” he continued. “We were well prepared, we’d written all the material, we knew what we were doing. We went in, we got sounds. We did things a little differently.
Iām pretty sure the Rush video for Limelight was recorded during this studio time. I wore that cassette tape out, it was so amazing.
Race and Commercial Breakdown of the 2025 Jack Linkās 500
Total minutes of complete race broadcast: 212 Minutes of race broadcast: 187 Minutes of traditional commercials: 25 Minutes of side-by-side commercials: 36
Iāll be checking this site out after each race this season. The total time we saw full screen racing was 186 minutes, which feels much longer than I recall.
The total commercial time was 61 minutes! An hour of commercials! One third of the time watching the race was commercials. Their side by side commercials, which they think is the cats meow, suck. The commercial takes up most of the screen and we get commercial audio.
Iāve seen action happening on the track Iād love see and hear full screen.
The coverage is very substandard. I hope Amazon does a better job than The CW and Fox. Iām not holding my breath.
Jerry Cantrell lends his voice to a song on the soundtrack to new vampire film Sinners.
Itās a nice little article and we get some insight into the directors mindset around the music for the film.
3 billion users = $15ā$20 billion is not real math. Itās just bullshit. The users are only valuable right now because they perform a lot of Google web searches within Chrome. Chrome users also make money for Google by using other Google properties that show ads, like Maps and Gmail. And Chrome encourages users, in general, to use Google properties and services like Docs. If you try to work out how valuable Chrome is to Google, itās seemingly worth a veritable fortune. But that doesnāt mean Chrome holds any value of its own, on its own.
Before reading this I was wondering how a company who forked WebKit to create Chromium is worth anything? As John points out itās basically Google Search and Marketing. They also have great online services in Gmail and Google Docs. Read Johnās piece he says it all.
Ben Smith and Liz Hoffman ā¢ Semafor
JC Chandor likes to joke that you could trade off the viewership data of Margin Call, the 2011 film that tells the story of an unnamed bankās catastrophic 24 hours during the 2008 financial crisis.
I watch Margin Call once in a while and itās loaded with amazing talent. Great film. It makes you realize how fragile our entire economic system really is.
So I guess we’re reaching the point where if you want to remain vaccinated against COVID, you’ll have to figure out how to buy an illegal import from this “dark web” I’ve been hearing so much about.
Iām digging the name Bobby Brainworms. I never ever thought our nation would ditch science for conspiracy theories.