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Just watched Darkest Hour, a biopic of Winston Churchill, as he became prime minister and had to decide whether to surrender or fight Mr Hitler as they called him. I had seen it of course when it came out, but it's especially appropriate to our times. I'm glad the NATO's are resisting the US. We have to all work together to keep democracy alive, not just in our own countries, but around the world. If ever there was a time when working together mattered more than it does today, I sure can't think of it.

For Micro.blog this year, we want to highlight more long-form blog posts. The kind of posts that are worth setting aside a few minutes to read, not just a quick skim. Ever come across a post you love? Drop the URL in this new slow reads submission form. 🐢

You don’t see this everyday.

HELLO SAN DIEGO WWW FOLKS! On February 3, 2026 at LeStat’s on Park will be the triumphant and yet very low-key return of in-person Homebrew Website Club. Information is on the event page: events.indieweb.org. What will happen? Well, this is an IndieWeb thing where we get together and work on our websites and talk about...

The first time I saw a Waymo, I just about lost my mind, laughing. “There’s no one driving that car!” Now they’re everywhere and it’s normal. When I see one now, I just think, “There’s a safe car that is unlikely to run over a pedestrian.”

Good analysis from Laurens Hofs on ICE getting a verified badge on Bluesky and the resulting fallout. It underscores some confusion in the fediverse about what Bluesky is:

When fediverse users say they don’t want to be bridged to Bluesky, they’re applying an ActivityPub mental model to ATProto infrastructure. In one sense this is a bit of a category error, the bridge connects to networking infrastructure, not the application.

He doesn’t let Bluesky off the hook either, though. Good points on how ICE presence alone (without any posts) is a fear tactic.

AI assistants could if they wanted drive all of us crazy in different ways. Advertising squared.

I’m still excited for the Pebble Index ring because of the focus on extensibility, but I cancelled my pre-order. I kept asking myself: will I ever actually wear this thing? Nope.

Meanwhile I’ve been plotting to hack a iPod Mini into a voice recorder, ripping out the guts. Might be beyond my skills.

Rainy, misty morning in Austin. This weekend is going to be cold, with ice and maybe snow. Hopefully we’re ready for it. I’ve been mostly worried about the new tree we planted. Added new mulch to protect the roots. Going with sheets and plastic over it. 🌳

This week on the People and Blogs series we have an interview with Ryan, whose blog can be found at laze.net. Tired of RSS? Read this in your browser or sign up for the newsletter. The People and Blogs series is supported by Piet Terheyden and the other 122 m...

Another Homebrew Website Club took place yesterday. The next HWC DUS will be on Feb. 19th.

I’m sick. I think it‘s manflu. Symptoms include aches, pains, pouts, and petulance.

Please send pics/videos of your dogs and cats to cheer me up.

Something ChatGPT is good at. Give it a photo of the Statue of Liberty and ask it to remove the cement platform and change the background to pure white, then make the background transparent, reduce it in size, and paste it into the right margin of a blog post.

Wouldn't it be something if the leaders of European democracies said if democracy and self-government around the world is to have any hope the American government has to stop attacking their own citizens. We see where this is headed, they might say, and there will be no coming back from this for the US, if they turn the country, which still is the leader of the free world, into a police state. What if the European leaders said out loud and in public the things the Republicans and most of the Democrats refuse to say. The inverse of what JD Lance says about their governments and their people.

I hear Canada will be importing EV's from China. Now I'm going to have EV-envy a few hours drive away from home. They make better cars in China, I hear -- than we do in the good old USA. Too bad, it didn't have to be that way. And isn't it tragic that China is less politically toxic than the American citizen who made the car I drive now.

Apple's 1984 ad, with the benefit of hindsight, said "a new generation is going to take over now so get ready." We live very much in those times again. Now every time I use ChatGPT to do something that I never would have been able to do before I realize wow we just did "that" again. The same feeling I got when I first saw the 128K Mac at the Apple office on Bandley Drive in 1983, about the same time as Apple people saw the ad at their sales meeting in Hawaii in October. The Mac had an exciting but rough start, but by the turn of the century it was obvious that something completely different had happened.

Getting the sense that what’s happening in Minnesota is about to reach a tipping point, or maybe already has, where it becomes so clearly unacceptable to everyone regardless of political party that there will be new pressure for change. This is not sustainable. 🇺🇸

Watched some of the Jack Smith hearing during lunch. What can I say that hasn’t already been said? We screwed up, took too long to bring charges. But I’d put Jack Smith in charge again if there was a way to run it back in 2029, even unlikely, given the statute of limitations. 🇺🇸