Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️
Nothing of interest to report this week except my failure to really grok React Native and by extension TypeScript. Everything about it feels counterintuitive. 🤣
I’m slow. I mean really slow. Part of my issue is trying to learn two things at once. It would suit my style of learning to start with TypeScript — or JavaScript — and go from there, eliminating the weirdness that is React Native.🧠
Hopefully I’m able to get myself sorted or work may decide it’s best to kick me to the curb and I really don’t want that.
I hope you enjoy the links.
NOTE: I just reread this and it’s kind of a downer. You may want to stop here and go enjoy your day on a hike or mowing your yard! 🤣
It’s like a weight has been lifted from the soul of the iPad. It remains a very nice device to use in full-screen mode with all the simplicity attendant to that mode, or via a single tap it can turn into a multi-window, multitasking device that’s appropriate for the Mac-class hardware underpinning today’s iPads. The iPad no longer feels like it’s trying to live up to the promise of being the Future of Computing; with iPadOS 26, it’s more comfortable being itself.
There’s been a lot of hate thrown at Liquid Glass and Alan Dye by developers and punditry alike.
In this piece Snell mainly sticks to discussing the changes and advancements to iPadOS. It’s major. The OS has been given a lot of the features that make the Mac a Mac while retaining what makes an iPad an iPad, like being based on iOS at its core.
I’m curious to know what my wife will think about this version of iPadOS when it hits her iPad. I’ll give her the lowdown before it ships. She may not want to upgrade.
Satya Nadella • Microsoft Corporate Blog
I also want to acknowledge the uncertainty and seeming incongruence of the times we’re in. By every objective measure, Microsoft is thriving—our market performance, strategic positioning, and growth all point up and to the right. We’re investing more in CapEx than ever before. Our overall headcount is relatively unchanged, and some of the talent and expertise in our industry and at Microsoft is being recognized and rewarded at levels never seen before. And yet, at the same time, we’ve undergone layoffs.
Of course this is going to feel hollow to most folks who lost their jobs. I have a dear friend from my Visio days who lost her job. She’d been with Microsoft since the acquisition, that was 24 years ago. Now, she’s cast aside. I don’t ask these things but I hope she escaped with a large amount of stock.
They’ve eliminated over 15,000 jobs this year alone, I’ve heard the number as high as 17,000, all in the name of training AI models. So AI is indeed taking jobs from humans, just not in the way everyone thought it would. Wow.
In short, I believe the AI bubble is deeply unstable, built on vibes and blind faith, and when I say “the AI bubble,” I mean the entirety of the AI trade.
At some point I fully expect the technology to train LLMs to come way down in price and hopefully these extremely greedy corporations will stop polluting the environment and sucking down power like a drunk at an open bar.
I also fully expect a lot of consolidation in the industry. OpenAI seems like it’s bound to disappear, either through lack of funding or acquisition. It can’t continue to operate forever on money given to it by VCs. They’ll want their money back at some point, right?
The Atlantic • Arthur C. Brooks
“It’s not true that no one needs you anymore.”
These words came from an elderly woman sitting behind me on a late-night flight from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. The plane was dark and quiet. A man I assumed to be her husband murmured almost inaudibly in response, something to the effect of “I wish I was dead.”
“I wish I was dead.” is a phrase I’ve used quite a bit in my adult life. It’s not surprising given the disorder I have but I still think it from time to time. I’ve never been truly happy with what I have been given, mentally. I wish I were some sort of genius software engineer who was solving tricky problems for humankind. Then there’s the part of me who is super tired. Worn down like an old tire about to come apart. I feel used up and I, honestly, have trouble competing at this still young age. Times change. It’s the one constant in life. Younger folks come up through the ranks with so much knowledge and skill. Hell, right out of college they’re very advanced. I know, I know, I was once that young kid. I was once pretty confident, no arrogant, I was arrogant. That was a mistake. Arrogance is never good. Confidence is better.
That’s all gone now. Now I’m holding on. The reason I continue on when “I wish I was dead” thoughts pop into my head is family. I have people I love who depend on me. I need to keep going for them.
I hope someday I can retire and work on my little projects. Until then I’m holding onto that knot I tied in my rope years ago.
NASCAR will race on the Coronado Naval Base in San Diego in the summer of 2026, according to concepts of the event plan to be announced this week.
🔥 Hot take. The drivers may like it but from a fans perspective this is going to suck compared to The Chicago Street Race.
Think about it. You go from one of the most beautiful cities in the world to a military base with no downtown, no restaurants, no hotels, nothing to do besides sit in the stands on hot tarmac for a few days. No thank you.
Why not setup a race course through downtown San Diego or another big California city?
Did you hear how well Woodstock ‘99 went? Yeah, it was held on an old military base. Not that the NASCAR race will turn out that bad, but it doesn’t seem like a great venue in my opinion.
Maria Azzurra Volpe • Newsweek
Turns Out a 4-Day Workweek Is Actually Better for Your Health
I’d like to do this but the business I’m in isn’t one it would work for.
Doing 10 hour days to make this work is fine with me and I know others who would like it as well. More time off to live is always a good thing especially as I’ve gotten older. I need to do stuff while I’m still able to move. 😂
Christian Falch and Brent Vatne • Expo Dev Blog
React Native 0.81 introduces precompiled iOS builds, cutting compile times by up to 10x in projects where React Native is the primary dependency.
This is a nice thing for the React Native crowd. It’s always good when the vendor of your platform gives you upgrades that make huge leaps in productivity.
As a developer with years of experience using really great tooling the one thing I’d love to have for my new React Native world is a real debugger. The thing we’ve had for decades doesn’t really exist, as far as I’m aware, for React Native developers. Imagine being able to set breakpoints so you can look at the state of your app and the machine. That would have saved me hours and hours this week alone. If someone would do that I’d be eternally grateful.❤️
Federico Viticci • MacStories via Mastodon
Liquid Glass is a mess so far, especially on iOS. Actually pushing me to use apps without Liquid Glass.
More of that Liquid Glass disdain I was talking about earlier. This release has been more controversial than any release I’ve witnessed. I’m not personally upset about it. I’ve been using iOS on an old phone and it seems fine so far. I’m excited about some of the UI changes it brings like toolbars at the bottom of the screen. I’m hoping I can pull together some good changes for Stream.😃
Oracle and OpenAI have entered an agreement to develop 4.5 gigawatts of additional Stargate data center capacity in the U.S. This investment will create new jobs, accelerate America’s reindustrialization, and help advance U.S. AI leadership. It also marks a major milestone for Stargate, OpenAI’s AI infrastructure platform and long-term vision to deliver the benefits of AI to everyone.
Every time I read about some new gigantor data center being built for LLM training and servicing all I can think of is how terrible it is for the environment and people who live around them. These new robber barons don’t give a crap about anyone but themselves. It’s all about putting huge sums of money in their pockets, only God knows why.
“But AI is going to save the world, Rob!” Doubt it. Right now is helping to burn it to the ground.🤬
Werewolf films have been a fairly ubiquitous presence in the horror genre for decades, but only a handful have really broken through to mainstream audiences. There are several reasons for that lack of popularity, but quality isn’t necessarily one of them, as our list below will attest.
This is a pretty good list and includes some films I’ve never heard of. I’m totally down with their #1 pick but I’m disappointed they didn’t include Benicio del Toro’s The Wolfman from 2010. I really enjoy it and still watch it from time to time.🐺
POLITICS
The Editorial Board • The Globe and Mail
But while the business owners’ friendly gestures are well intentioned, they are also tone-deaf. There is a far deeper unease creeping into the U.S.-Canadian relationship than can be fixed with friendly signage and eager smiles. The tourism boards of border states cannot undo what U.S. President Donald Trump has done.
I love our Canadian friends. I work with a bunch of them everyday. I hope we make it up to them when we, hopefully, go back to being a democracy.🇨🇦❤️
