now we're in this weird moment where the biggest app in the worls is a remix app, to have any success you need people to remix what you make, & everything becomes an advertisement for itself w/ an industry built on massive illegal remix everyone wants you to do but it's not legal to do
“Experiment 1, referred to as ‘The Monolith,’ was designed to investigate the behavior of the enculturated chimpanzees in response to the appearance of two relatively big objects in its living enclosure: a transparent quartz crystal (Figure 1E) and a rock of similar size (Figure 1D).”
That game in all the Duolingo ads where a hole in the ground eats things, gets bigger, eats bigger things, etc.
my most pessimistic take on ai codegen is that it automates the production of tech debt
Ontario’s investing in its future… a good example for other provinces (ahem)!
😳
From @pkrugman.bsky.social:
“Analyzing crypto prices isn’t like, say, analyzing housing prices in the Naughties, where you could compare prices with fundamentals — because with crypto there are no fundamentals, it’s vibes all the way down.”
open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
Early Spring? Only six more weeks of winter!
globalnews.ca/news/1164817...
Yes, though it’s not exactly new: blog.trailofbits.com/2025/07/18/b...
You can test new tech ideas using the Seinfeld Test
Would the product eliminate the plot of an episode? (Google maps, cell phones, paypal, battery packs)
Good tech.
Would the product inspire new Seinfeld plots? (NFTs, AI chatbots, crypto currency, blindboxes, metaverse land sales)
Bad tech.
Second prong of the Seinfeld Test: tech invented after Seinfeld finished its run is probably bad.
"Would Kramer be convinced he should get in on it"
Now ask whose cuts kicked off the whole crazy cycle… 🤔
Finally checked out @ltratt.bsky.social's pizauth for OAuth2 authentication with background mbsync and msmtp... where has this tool been all my life?
(answer: doing its thing quietly and without making a big splash)
A dialog box that says an app called JSON Viewer can't open JSON files
Great work, everyone.
A little icon of a road work warning sign with the text, “This page is under construction”
Hey kids: there was a time when the whole Web looked like this (but with a grey background instead of white). It was glorious.
“OK, grandpa”, etc.
www.sce.carleton.ca/netmanage/to...
This is too funny: every time I try to renew, ieee.org seems to work but then it stops immediately when I validate my card details. It can't actually be me breaking ieee.org, right? Right?
downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ieee.org
Sorry guys
downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ieee.org
Sorry guys, looks like I broke the IEEE.
Tried to renew my IEEE membership, and it didn't like the characters in my city (St. John's, NL). Now when I visit ieee.org:
"The requested URL was rejected. Please consult with your administrator."
And, of course:
"Instead of regarding the obligation to use formal symbols as a burden, we should regard the convenience of using them as a privilege" (Dijkstra)
"If every user of an application needs to write the same code, your API is wrong. If you abstract away the boilerplate and reuse that abstraction, you’ve made the world better. If you create a tool that generates the boilerplate, you’ve made the world more fragile." (Chisnall)
Elegant thoughts about "programming" in natural language and why formal representations (like programming languages) aren't going anywhere:
"Formal languages empower us with precision, gifting us a more perfect command over our subjects." (Alejandre)
alexalejandre.com/languages/en...
Are you someone who cares about privacy in Newfoundland and Labrador? We'd love to see your proposal for a presentation, panel or workshop at APSIM 2026!
Also, save the date for November 26–27...
New blog post! A close look at Tahoe menu icons https://tonsky.me/blog/tahoe-icons/
An extension cord with the female end chopped off, leaving bare leads exposed
Shoveling accident…
These should not be made, they must not be made, etc.
