This episode of the Shop Talk Show is the dictionary definition of “rambling” but I had a lot of fun rambling with Chris and Dave!
People and blogs involved with and about the IndieWeb community, the fediverse, and/or the open web in general.
Matt Mullenweg
• Matt
What a Week
There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen No attribution, but fun Quote Investigator dive. Sorry for dropping off the daily blogging train; it just turned out to be a week of pleasant surprises and life-changing events. I’ll share with y’all the second-most exciting one. I know I’ve been pushing … Continue reading What a Week →
ArtLung
• Joe Crawford
Virginia Hats
Last week the weather was mild. It’s almost always mild here in San Diego. We were walking to the beach: Pacific Beach. We were headed to the spot on the south side of Crystal Pier. It was Sunday: game day. All the sports bars in San Diego are active that day. And it was MLK...
Where is our Churchill?
I'm interested in the movie Darkest Hour. Specifically the scene where Churchill is surprised by a visit from the king, who we learned earlier is pissed off, while Churchill is morose and undecided on what to do. The King wants Churchill to know that he wants to fight, and t...
Snow and dreaded politics
Good morning. I am wiped out from the storm that just went through. Did a bunch of shoveling this morning, still have more to do. About two feet of snow, some drifts much higher. The snow is light, but it packs down from the weight of snow that falls on top, so shoveling is ...
Open source vs. open platforms
Daniel Supernault had a series of posts over the weekend promoting Loops, his TikTok-inspired app focused on short-form video, but open source and connecting to the fediverse. This one sentence stood out to me:
If it’s not open source, you’re not the user, you’re the produc...
Dave Rupert is swearing off APIs, frustrated with building on someone else’s platform:
That’s a hard stance, but I need a backstop at the idea phase to prevent me from wasting limited life force. If I don’t have the data, or can’t generate the data, or it’s not an open protocol… it’s not worth building or even thinking about.
I think some platforms are safe to build on. They should be permission-less and ad-free. (One of his abandoned apps is a historical marker app, which I’ve wanted to build for a long time too.)
I was tinkering around with Clawdbot but it’s a little overwhelming. What do you use an app for when it can do everything? Started to get worried that I was opening up a huge security risk, so decided to scrap it. Will watch how these tools evolve.
ArtLung
• Joe Crawford
PB Today
Panorama From today at Pacific Beach It was a quiet weekend. But a positive one. I have some interesting things coming up this week. I’m hoping for the best. The world… is frustrating. I keep adding new videos of me riding waves at /videos. They’re mostly for me. I can see some progress but mostly...
Chris Aldrich
• Chris Aldrich
Rest in Peace: Typewriter Repair Legend Duane Jensen (August 21, 1961-January 25,2026)
🗓️ The Level Up
The Level Up is an indie improv showcase. Join us as we watch amazing New York indie improv talents gain XP on the Magnet stage, unlock new achievements, and reach new milestones. Or do comedy.
Come support Michael as he dons his hosting-duties cap for three exciting indie teams!
- BIZZO (IG: @bizzonyc)
- AM 2 PM (IG: @anthonyjulian_improv)
- UP TO NO GOD (IG: @uptonogod)
I’ll be playing with Bizzo, as well as with Michael and the rest of the Level Up!
Looking forward to it! And to seeing you there!! (Yes, you. Come on out!!!)
Saturday January 24th, 2026 @ 10:30pm
Magnet Theater
254 West 29th St (btwn 7th and 8th Ave.)
New York City, NY 10001
Tickets $10: https://magnettheater.com/show/tickets/60293/
Mark Gurman pulls together a bunch of Siri AI news for Bloomberg:
The company has been planning an announcement of the new Siri in the second half of February, when it will give demonstrations of the functionality.
Also more details about cloud-based models. On-device just isn’t good enough yet.
This site Bugs Apple Loves might be a little unfair, but the iCloud photos part is good:
You took some photos. iCloud says ‘Uploading 847 items’. You wait. Next day: ‘Uploading 847 items’. Week later: ‘Uploading 847 items’. Is it stuck? Is it working? Is there an error? There’s no progress bar. No ETA.
In my experience, Apple tries to optimize when it syncs based on battery life or network or some other hidden criteria. In practice this just makes photo sync slow and unreliable.
They should host games on ChatGPT.
They couldn't have chosen a more ideal liberal state to own. I don't think any of this is an accident. Next time they will kill two, American citizens of course. And we'll protest. And then 25. It's starting to sink in that this is not just a bad dream and it's not going to end.
Gonna try to watch all the Oscar nominations this year. Over the weekend caught up on Bugonia (what the heck?) and The Smashing Machine (not much plot, but really liked the characters). 🍿
Michelle Obama was wrong when she said "when they go low we go high." There is a difference. We always try to tell the truth. And sometimes the truth is pretty damn low.
Best Picture nominees
Nominated for best picture of 2025, ranked by Metacritic rating.
- One Battle After Another. 95
- The Secret Agent. 91
- Marty Supreme. 89
- Train Dreams. 88
- Sentimental Value. 86
- Hamnet. 84
- Sinners. 84
- Frankenstein. 78
- Bugonia. 72
- F1: The Movie. 68
BigCo companies and countries
Random ramblings with past experience dealing with tech bullying.
As I think about next steps for building out from WordPress to create a network of users and their writing, I wanted to review how XML-RPC came to be, so I did a podcast, and found some real gaps in my memory....
As I think about next steps for building out from WordPress to create a network of users and their writing, I wanted to review how XML-RPC came to be, so I did a podcast, and there were some real gaps in my memor. Then just a minute ago as I was browsing around the discuss.us...