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I use ChatGPT for all kinds of work problems, and for a lot of other stuff too. It can collaborate, and it has much more broad and deep knowledge than I do, than any human. No one knows whether it thinks or is self-aware, any more than we know whether humans think or are self-aware. For that reason, I think, ironically, there's no point discussing it, we'll never get an answer, because we have no idea what intelligence or thinking is. But it is every bit as thoughtful as any human I have ever worked with. And the whole business about pattern-recognition is imho bs. People who say that are just repeating what they heard from someone else. From a user standpoint, it's absolutely nothing like pattern recognition.

iPad windowing looks good. Funny we were so worried the Mac would become too much like iOS, but sort of the opposite has happened to the iPad over the years. Files app also becoming a little more like the Finder.

Looking forward to trying Apple’s on-device models. It’s a great direction for them to take. But I’m still doubtful they are going to be good enough for some things, after you’ve been spoiled on much larger cloud-based models. Would love to see Apple’s private cloud computer opened up later too.

New blog post about Micro.blog themes from @ericgregorich. I like the way he describes the “layers” of a custom theme. That’s not a word we’ve used, but it fits well.

My post yesterday about Sam Altman has been pretty well received. Not everyone agrees, which is totally fine! We’ll see how the post ages in a year. I tried to put significant thought into it, though, not just fire off another hot take into the “love AI / hate AI” debate chaos.

Good morning from San Jose. I need to find coffee. My brain is finally switching gears to WWDC. Have barely had a chance to really think about what to expect or to get excited.

I went to the DNC in 2004 and 2008. Both times I heard from friends later that TV had been focused on riots, which confused the hell out of me, because I didn't see anything. There was some obnoxious stuff at the 2008 convention in Denver, we had to walk a gauntlet of ugly pictures of dead fetuses going in and out of the convention center. But in neither case were there any disturbances. I see the same sort of thing happening in LA now.

Some random thoughts about wealth. Suppose you're an average middle-class person who works for a tech company when the company is bought out for a huge amount of money and your stock is now worth $10 million. It's liquid today. You just received a check for $10 million. What...

The relationship between shame and motivation in web development, especially regarding accessibility.

Skune is a variable font designed to have the jagged, frenetic appeal of lo-fi garage punk

Day 8 of the Micro.blog photo challenge: travel. Heading down to San Jose. Not actually my train… It arrived on the other track.

It’s the day before the WWDC keynote, an event that used to be anchored by Steve Jobs. He’s been gone 14 years and there has yet to be another executive at Apple who could do what he did. Every once in a while we see a glimpse of a leader in tech who stands out, capturing a ...

Always a good day to be able to release some app updates, even on the weekend. Happy to get Micro.blog 2.5 for Android and 3.5.4 for Mac out the door. Currently have some downtime while waiting for laundry, fixing a couple more things for an iOS app updates this week.

Craig Hockenberry blogging on the eve of WWDC. I expect many developers will agree with his points about App Intents… It’s a lot of work that ultimately puts all the UX control in Apple’s hands:

Instead of building our own ideas on top of a LLM, we’re supposed to provide the internal details of our apps to Apple so they can do it on our behalf.

Picked up a new hoodie while in Berkeley. Despite knowing exactly what the weather’s like in the Bay Area, I packed only short-sleeved shirts. 🤪

I wasn’t planning to give money to this woman holding up a cardboard sign with her kid, on the corner of the grocery store parking lot, until some guy walked by and started yelling at her. Shockingly hateful. And as backdrop we have what’s going on in LA. 😞

Sunk cost fallacy strikes again. I spent way too much time on my local LLM experiments, finally went back to the main branch to ship a new version. Micro.blog 3.5.4 for Mac is available with some fixes.

Top of Jason Becker’s wish list for WWDC is a package manager for users. It often feels like I’m drowning in package managers, especially with React Native development which somehow requires like 3-4 different package managers. If Apple could somehow step in and simplify all of this, could be nice.

I love the mountains but I have to say that the agricultural landscapes have something very appealing to my brain.

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Quiet, cool morning walking through downtown Berkeley. Last time I was here was when I took this photo. That was an amazing trip.