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It’s funny to me that Apple made the new battery pack exclusive to the iPhone Air. If I really wanted the thinnest possible phone, no way I’m putting a case or extra battery on it. Even the bumper seems like too much.

As you probably know by now, thanks to the infinite supply of news on the subject, today new OS versions came out for Apple gadgets. Yes, it’s the one with that idiot Liquid Glass. Yes, I hate it. No, I don’t hate it because it’s different from what I was used to before. And...

From the latest Fediverse Report, about Mastodon quote posts:

Mastodon’s concern regarding the potential for harm with dunking does need some context however, researcher Hilda Bastian has a highly detailed overview of over 30 studies on quote posts on Twitter and their impact. Bastian notes: “There’s conflicting evidence on whether QTs increase or decrease incivility, and whatever effect there is, it doesn’t seem to be major.”

I think this dunking is real, but there are many other problems with social media that Mastodon does not attempt to address. Not sure quote posts are make or break.

Here's an idea. Why doesn't Apple make a laptop with a light shining out to highlight the user's face so they look better when they're on a Zoom call. I bet someone makes a device like this to clip on a laptop. Right??

When Really Simple isn't simple enough. 😄

OpenAI published a pair of blog posts today about their next steps for teen safety, acknowledging the trade-off on privacy. Sam Altman: First, we have to separate users who are under 18 from those who aren’t (ChatGPT is intended for people 13 and up). We’re building an age-...

Added a help page for upcoming Open Graph improvements in Micro.blog, including a template system to override the default styles. This is rolling out over the next few days. Very flexible, so hopefully plug-ins can be created for various styles.

Thinking of Robert Redford, what a career. Sneakers is one of my favorite films, and arguably the best film about computers ever made. All the President’s Men is so good. Watched both of these countless times. (Also just learned his mother was born in Austin.) 🍿

Until we start working together and for each other it’s going to keep getting worse.

I've started calling ChatGPT boss as in OK boss.

Tracks at North Lamar and Airport Blvd. 🚂

ChatGPT is great at SVG. Describe the icon you want and in a few iterations you have it, even if it's not in Font Awesome. I would have killed to have this a few years ago, before FA came out. This is the best of both -- use FA if they have the right icon, design your own if they don't. It also makes me think that now perhaps SVG-based user interfaces are within the realm of possibility. CSS is no way to design UIs. I have a podcast in the pipe about this. If you want to know what I mean, look at the docs for QuickDraw.

To people who read my blog. If you have a quick thought about something you read here, it's ok if you send me an email. It should be short and not personal, if it adds some info or perspective that might be interesting, or if you just agree feverishly (not so much if you disa...

Now would be a good time for everyone to watch this movie. This is where we are now. It's not in the future. Getting this info will help. Spread the word. Download a copy too. It's a great movie.

Happy #8bitday yesterday! It was the 256th day of the year.See last year’s post for why the 256th day is 8-Bit Day: https://tantek.com/2024/256/t1/happy-8bitday-binary-byteSince last year, the related Wikipedia article on “Programmer’s Day” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prog...

React is no longer winning by technical merit. Today it is winning by default. That default is now slowing innovation across the frontend ecosystem.

adactio.com/links/22133

I read recently read two books that had writers as their main protagonists: Death Of The Author by Nnedi Okorafor, and Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang. They were both perfectly fine. But I found it hard to get really involved in either narrative. The stakes just never fe...

I noticed that just like Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein in All the President’s Men, Chevy Chase portraying the titular  Fletch (Universal Pictures, 1985) has a Royal HH typewriter not only at his Santa Monica apartment, but he also has a matching one at his office at the Los Angeles Globe.  Fletch’s Apartment Office Fletch’s … Continue reading Fletch and his Royal HH Standard Typewriters

Andrew Chen has a great post on retention.

Finished reading: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. A short book, but it’s something special. 📚