Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️
Yes, it’s Sunday morning. We had our grandkids stay with us for a couple days which is fun and exhausting. So, yeah, I’m a bit late this week. Rather I was a bit late last week? 🤔
Enjoy the links.
Shelby Talcott and Morgan Chalfant • Semafor
The US bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday evening, President Donald Trump said.
I put this here because it’s important and should probably warrant its own post. I don’t feel great about what “we” did to Iran. Yes, it’s a terribly oppressive nation with theocratic leadership and a model of what not to be as a nation. Yet, I wish we hadn’t 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 hasn’t been refined to its most dangerous state they could still put together a dirty bomb to drop on Israel. That’s frightening and I’m 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 it’s an evolution of whatever iOS 7 was, leaning into the frosted panels and bright accent colors. But whatever Liquid Glass seems to be, it isn’t 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. I’d expect a sizable series of posts related to the new design.
As for my take? I don’t really have one at the moment. I’m 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 that’s great! I’ve seen more than a few takes but Craig is an old timer in the Mac and iOS ecosystem and understands the OS’es 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.
I’m curious to see what Dave is going to produce. I suspect his timeline viewer will be a lot like Stream’s. 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? I’ll be keeping an eye out for whatever he creates.
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 you’re a React Native dev with an old app you’d like to upgrade to Expo here’s a nice article for you. Enjoy.
Brian Morrissey • 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? I’d argue it’s completely centralized. All these authors rely on Substack for their entire publishing system. From writing to distribution they’re built on a single system. And it’s a horrible company to boot.
No matter how many times I’ve told folks on Substack about their embrace of Nazi’s 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 don’t have to.
In Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror classic _The Shining, _the camera zooms in toward a black-and-white photograph hanging in the hallway of the Overlook Hotel. It’s dated July 4, 1921. Dead centre stands Jack Torrance — played by Jack Nicholson — smiling in a crowd of partygoers.
I had no idea there was a mystery surrounding the source of the picture. Problem solved!
My coworkers don’t 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, that’s fine. AI is just another tool in the toolbox. Use it, don’t use it. Doesn’t 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.
I’m cool with this idea! I love cats and Bodega Cats are a big deal in New York City.
I’m sure some folks will push back on the idea of allowing them permanent residence but I’d welcome it.🐱
Elon Musk fired Tesla’s head of operations in North America and Europe, amid declining sales in both regions and the electric vehicle brand’s 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 Tesla’s 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 who’s invested in the company. They need to fire Musk.
