Another question about tonight. Where will Elon be? In the seat usually occupied by the VP or the Speaker? Will he make faces at the camera or interrupt Trump?
People and blogs involved with and about the IndieWeb community, the fediverse, and/or the open web in general.
The single most important thing about what Musk is doing is that it is Musk that is doing it. Not elected, not accountable to anyone, and the only way we know what he's doing is from the aftermath. We play no role in his choices. Completely unacceptable. Let's get that much straight. That's where we start. Plus, he would be our last choice if we were in the market for a crazy despot running our country. He wasn't born or educated here, and thus has very little idea of who we are and thus what the people he's firing do.
Remember when watching the speech tonight, if you are watching, what our Capitol was like on that infamous day. The guy speaking, the guy up there on the podium, he did that. That's who he is. And where is right now, that's where it happened. Takes a lot of nerve to return to the scene of his greatest crime, so far.
v0.7.39 released
Great list of folks to follow on Micro.blog. Thanks for the reminder @Miraz!
We used to have Micro Monday around here, to help community members be discovered. Here are a dozen of the many Micro.Bloggers I enjoy…
M.G. Siegler: Apple Should Swap Out Siri with ChatGPT.
Apple won’t do this, and some users might not want it either, but it’s a legitimate idea. Generative AI provides a very rare moment of disruption. If a good Siri is two years away at best, that’s a long time to risk on something so important.
I like the naming on this collaborative Git system based on AT Proto: Tangled. The servers are “knots”. Just the right amount of clever.
Werd I/O
• Ben Werdmuller
Minimum Viable Startup Operations
[Minimum Viable Startup Operations]
This is a good inaugural post from two people who really have lived the startup operations life many times over:
"We think of the operations part of a startup like getting dinner on the table. Sure, some days, you might t...
Even when it seems the news is all bad, there is something incredible. James Harrison’s blood donations saved two million babies’ lives:
Harrison donated blood and plasma a whopping 1,173 times, according to Lifeblood, every two weeks between 1954 and 2018. […] Harrison’s plasma contained a rare and precious antibody called anti-D, which was discovered in the mid-1960s. It is used in medications to prevent haemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn
I never thought I needed a “leafless tree” emoji but it’s a nice addition. Still hoping for “iced coffee” one day.
Monday session
Monday session
Great interview with Dario Amodei on the Hard Fork podcast. About his disappointment at the AI Action Summit conference in Paris:
If you’re a public official, if you’re a leader at a company… People are going to look back, they’re going to look back in 2026 and 2027. […] Be careful what you say. Don’t look like a fool in retrospect. A lot of my thinking is just driven by — aside from just wanting the right outcome — I don’t want to look like a fool. And I think at that conference, some people are going to look like fools.
Dario always seems the most level-headed of all the AI company CEOs.
Sideloading on Android has improved since I last used it. It’s a pretty smooth user experience now, while still warning enough that you’re outside the usual “safe” app install flow. Good balance that we’ve wanted Apple to adopt for a decade.
Chris Aldrich
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• Chris Aldrich
Good morning so far, deployed a few server bug fixes, submitted a new Android release to Google. Lots to do. SXSW coming up toward the end of the week.
Idea for SNL. A special episode of Law and Order where the cops arrest someone for being disrespectful to Trump,. The prosecutors debate among themselves if they have to do this, no one quits, they don't feel good about it but they prosecute, being assured by the District Att...
Untitled
Being nominated once and winning once is great, congrats. But nominated a bunch of times and never winning is worth a lot. Edward Norton: 4 nominations. Ralph Fiennes: 3. Like how LeBron with 10 trips to the NBA finals and “only” 4 championships is still the greatest of all time. (Wait, what?!) 🤪
There is nothing like a live performance of Defying Gravity. Even on TV, I still get chills when they nail it. Great way to start the Oscars. 🍿
Werd I/O
• Ben Werdmuller
Please see Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
It’s Oscars day! I haven’t seen very many of the nominees this year, but of the ones I have, I need to make this recommendation:
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, nominated for best documentary picture, is brilliant. It’s an under-told part of American history, still highly relevant and ongoing today, told through the lens of its surprising intersection with the jazz musicians of the time. One of those films that I think everyone should see in order to educate themselves. It doesn’t make for a cheerful evening, but it’s all wonderfully done.
It’s available to rent on streaming services right now, and is worth it. If you don’t want to pay to rent, it will hopefully be a part of someone’s streaming library later on.