FeedCity

I think everyone is floored by this $1.5 billion settlement. Anthropic essentially won on fair use, so I just assumed the pirated books settlement was going to be a little more low-key than this. Hope the authors see most of the money. Never a dull moment in AI land!

Sarah Perez reporting on a Common Sense Media assessment of Gemini:

Common Sense also said that Gemini’s products for kids and teens ignored how younger users needed different guidance and information than older ones. As a result, both were labeled as “High Risk” in the overall rating, despite the filters added for safety.

This is part of what is probably a major shift underway at AI companies to worry less about helping create biological weapons and more about kids and psychological safety. Maybe futurists think too much about the sci-fi inevitabilities and not enough about today.

If my calendar is correct, one of the OG bloggers Anil Dash is turning 50 today! His blog, which I believe has been active since 1999, inspired me with how he effortlessly transitioned between his top-tier fandom of Prince and his thoughtful commentary on the nuances and second-order effects of what we were doing with blogging, micro-blogging, … Continue reading Happy Birthday Anil →

This is great. James Dempsey’s Liquid Glass song:

I made the lyrics as intelligible… as Liquid Glass controls are legible. Come on everyone, sing along! You don’t know the words, but neither do I. 🎶

Kagi News looks good! First they define the problem:

Driven by relentless ad monetization, news has become mental junk food - an endless stream of clickbait that destroys our ability to think deeply and clearly.

I’ve only watched a few clips of last night’s dinner with tech execs at the White House. Is it possible to accept the invitation and not grovel? This is my first draft at a comment: It is great to be here with so many leaders in the industry. <nodding to others around th...

Back in March 2024, The Browser Company—a name I still find hilarious, all these years later—published a website called “We Might Not Make It”. They described it as: A limited series that breaks down the top 5 reasons our company might not make it to next year. (And why we ...

I upgraded feedland.org to a new version of the system software, still being tested. In the process I started a fresh items table. This means for the next day or so your timeline may have a lot of items for a few feeds, as it catches up with every feed it keeps track of. Also, the server was down for a couple of hours while we did the upgrade. Still diggin! ;-)

Texas is adding state parks faster than I can visit them. Bear Creek:

Not only does the site provide access to the Frio River, Spring Creek, as well as its namesake Bear Creek, but there are several streams, canyons and ridges providing an idyllic background for hikers.

🏕️

Going to Saint Augustine. brb

This is the 106th edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Louie Mantia and his blog, lmnt.me To follow this series subscribe to the newsletter. A new interview will land in your inbox ever...

All the big boys, all the Berties, all the envelopes, yeah, they hurt me. I was 12 when the das started killing themselves all around me.

https://www.rte.ie/news/presidential-election/2025/0905/1531932-bertie-ahern-presidency

There have been a lot of improvements to Micro.blog lately. If you don’t follow the @news account closely, you can also subscribe to the weekly email of posts from news.micro.blog, delivered every Monday.

Simon Willison has vibe-coded 124 useful tools.

Our shop does not have a public restroom for customers, so we ask for your understanding! Yes, yes!

Dusting off a little of the queued up work for JSON Feed. Thanks to Daniel Pietzsch, the JSON Feed Validator now has a JSON API, if any apps need to hook into validating JSON Feeds using it. There’s a new format=json URL parameter.

Seeing this sign after parking my car… Not so much worried as I am curious how bad it must be to order a custom sign for this.

Probably the last post-work rays of sunlight for 2025.

Thursday session

Ever since first adding book reading to Micro.blog, I’ve tried to avoid recreating my own book database. So we lean on Google Books, Open Library, Goodreads, and even (for a while) paying for metadata. I think that approach has run its course. Going to add our own book curation and cover tools.