FeedCity

Timely with some of my own posts, Firefox posted on X for the first time since Jan 2025:

We took time off of X, but we’re back. The internet is changing again, so we’re here as an independent voice for our users and the open internet.

Mozilla never stopped posting on their own separate account. I feel like “the internet is changing again” could use a link to a longer blog post. I assume that’s partly about AI, and most AI people are still only on X.

Nice surprise today to see a pair of new Stormlight novellas, outlined by Brandon Sanderson and then written by his pals. From the preface:

A mini-novel about Jasnah surviving in Shadesmar while everyone tried to figure out what was going on with Szeth and the Ghostbloods in the Physical Realm. I eventually decided that the novel worked better without Jasnah distracting us, as I wanted Shadesmar to be a big part of Oathbringer—and it would be better reserved for there.

📚

“I don’t think about you at all.” — Don Draper

If only it were that easy. Over the last year I’ve been reflecting on why negative, overly-personal complaints have affected me so much. I think it’s two things:

• I have never needed to grow thick skin. Over a 30+ year career, I’ve been lucky to get along with just about everyone I’ve worked with. I’ve also made a lot of friends in the Mac, iOS, and IndieWeb communities. Can’t really think of anyone being seriously upset with me before.
• I tend to fixate on things. So if I’m worried about something, I won’t be able to shake it for days or weeks. Negativity doesn’t get brushed off. It lingers for a long time and shapes my thinking on new situations I encounter.

Both of these get better with time. But neither is completely fixable without becoming a different person.

Thinking about the new debate on AI model distillation, I re-read my long-ish post from two years ago about fair use. There was a lot of AI training backlash at the time. I still like the post. Fair use and open web principles are intertwined.

OpenAI continues to fix design issues with ChatGPT for Mac. It almost works the way I want if you click on the ChatGPT mode and then choose “…” → “Organize sidebar” → “In one list” so the coding projects don’t get in the way.

This week we’ve started adding a special discovery interface for Bluesky starter packs. It’s live now on the web. The way I’m thinking about it: we’ll feature a selection of starter packs that change over time, but we also index many other starter packs you can search for. This will expand. 🦋

Last week as I was reevaluating the X API, I said I’d pause for a week. I’m now going to hold it indefinitely. It’s a distraction we don’t need, and in my attempt to make it easy to use, I didn’t appreciate how confusing the money part of this would be.

As I said in a follow-up post:

The mission has never changed: post short posts (and everything else!) to your own blog, which makes the web better, and also opens opportunities for smaller, safer communities.

I still believe in POSSE. It also inspired this post over the weekend about politics and open web principles.

RSS.chat -- I don't have enough places to fit all the ideas these days. But we have been digging and the pieces fit together pretty well.

There are three parts to the rss.chat ecosystem. Writing. Today's rss.chat product is a group writing system, designed for a school department, a team of developers, a family, a magazine or group blog, or just as well, a single author. I don't think it would work well wi...

Another thought about Rocky: it’s a great movie, and I think its Oscar is defensible, but All the President’s Men is really something special. I’ve watched it dozens of times. If the Academy were to redo the 1977 vote today, I wonder if they’d pick Rocky again.

The eleventh episode of Wonders of Web Weaving is out: In Episode 11, I chat with flaMEd, the author of flamedfury.com about, among other things, web communities around games and television shows, sharing music interests with a personal website, community in the indie web, and more. I hope you enjoy the episode! Wonders of Web Weaving also has an RSS feed you can use to follow along from wherever you get your podcasts.

Watched: Rocky. About 15 minutes into “rewatching” Rocky, I realized… I’ve never actually seen this movie. Looking forward to I Play Rocky too. 🍿

Apps like Granola make it easy to transcribe conversations without asking for consent. Those transcripts are a subpoena honeypot.

I saw these while browsing through a thrift store and correctly clocked them as thick tabbed dividers though the person who rang them up for $1.50 thought they were folders because of their heft.  I’ve been wanting some for use with 8.5 x 11″ index cards, but thought that most major stationers had quit manufacturing … Continue reading

Evening: Very productive day. We rolled through some UI stuff that had been on the list for a while. Set up for a big job tomorrow, server side. The worknotes for client and server apps.

Monday session in Glencolmcille

It’s a little mesmerizing watching Waymo track all the cars around an intersection.

Two methods for creating standards: bootstrap and boil the ocean.

Federico Viticci blogs in detail about Open Minis. Looks like a really impressive app that combines frontier models with a Linux shell on iOS so it can run like an agent with tools. Sort of like putting a mini OS inside a sandbox, and it can still reach out with local APIs when it needs data.

Hi all,