18.01.2026
★ Thoughts and Observations Regarding Apple Creator Studio
Let’s Just Get It Out of the Way and Talk About the New Icons First, but Let’s Also Use the Icons as a Proxy for Talking About the Broader Software Design Problems at Apple
There’s a lot of hate for the new app icons of the entire Creator Studio suite, but while I think the...
Quoting Jeremy Daer
[On agents using CLI tools in place of REST APIs] To save on context window, yes, but moreso to improve accuracy and success rate when multiple tool calls are involved, particularly when calls must be correctly chained e.g. for pagination, rate-limit backoff, and recognizin...
17.01.2026
The Atlas Obscura Podcast
• SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura
Little Lambs, Big Back Story (Classic)
Spring is a popular time to visit Colonial Williamsburg, not least because it’s “lambing season,” the time of year when baby lambs are born and take their first steps (which is obviously very, very cute). But small as they are, these lambs have a big baaa-ckstory (sorry) – they are part of a breed that was once guarded like a trade secret, was smuggled into the American colonies, went extinct in the US in the early 20th century, and then was brought back right here at Colonial Williamsburg. This episode was produced in partnership with Visit Williamsburg.
Find out more at Visit Williamsburg
.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Verizon Offers $20 Credit After Daylong Outage
Verizon, in an announcement on Twitter/X regarding their daylong outage this week:
Yesterday, we did not meet the standard of excellence you expect
and that we expect of ourselves. To help provide some relief to
those affected, we will give you a $20 account credit that ...
Our approach to advertising and expanding access to ChatGPT
Our approach to advertising and expanding access to ChatGPT
The long-rumored introduction of ads to ChatGPT just became a whole lot more concrete:
In the coming weeks, we’re also planning to start testing ads in the U.S. for the free and Go tiers, so more people can benefit...
★ MacPaw Pulls the Plug on SetApp Mobile App Marketplace
Tim Hardwick, reporting for MacRumors:
The service will officially cease operating on February 16, 2026.
Setapp Mobile launched in open beta in September 2024.
In a support page, MacPaw said Setapp Mobile is being
closed because of app marketplaces’ “still-evolving and ...
A Visualization of the Evolution of Paris, 300 BCE to 2025
This is an animated 3D visualization of the growth of Paris from 300 BCE to the present day. It was made with Blender (no AI) by Christian Ivan, who notes that it’s a “simplification” and so might not be 100% accurate. To my eye, the broad strokes are all there. The subtle sound design helps with the overall effect as well.
674: A Reliable, Boring Partner
Pre-show: Casey’s dreams were squashed
Ubiquiti Travel Router
Verizon Jetpack
Marco’s hotspot (newer models exist; check for refurbs, they’re way cheaper than new)
Solis Edge
Follow-up:
The Grim Reaper FiOS CableCARD email came for John
TiVo Roamio Pro
Casey on Dow...
ChatGPT Adds New $8/Month ‘Go’ Tier, Will Soon Introduce Ads
OpenAI:
With this launch, ChatGPT now offers three subscription tiers globally:
- ChatGPT Go at $8 USD/month
- ChatGPT Plus at $20 USD/month
- ChatGPT Pro at $200 USD/month
And perhaps the bigger news:
We plan to begin testing ads in the free tier and ChatGPT Go in the US soon. Ads support our commitment to making AI accessible to everyone by helping us keep ChatGPT available at free and affordable price points.
Their pricing page has a comparison chart showing the differences in their four consumer tiers (free, Go, Plus, Pro). Screenshot, for posterity. The big difference that will keep me on the $20/month Plus plan for now is that the Go plan doesn’t have access to the Thinking model.
The rate at which the universe is expanding differs depending on how...
The rate at which the universe is expanding differs depending on how it’s measured. Gravitationally lensed supernovas could solve the discrepancy; the lensing allows for the tracking of the supernovas over time.
The Ping-Pong Hustler Who Inspired ‘Marty Supreme’. “If Chalamet has found, in...
The Ping-Pong Hustler Who Inspired ‘Marty Supreme’. “If Chalamet has found, in this role, an all-time character, it is surely in no small part because Reisman was an all-time character.” (Saw the movie; loved it.)
How Russia’s Children Got So Violent. “There is no positive ideology for...
How Russia’s Children Got So Violent. “There is no positive ideology for children in a country fighting a murderous war.” Ultranationalist & xenophobic violence is encouraged by Putin’s regime.
This website is compiling a sourced list of ICE abuses in Minnesota....
This website is compiling a sourced list of ICE abuses in Minnesota. (Click on “List” for the full listing.)
Photos of China’s Green Energy Transition
These photos by Chu Weimin show the mind-boggling scale of China’s green energy buildout.
Last year China installed more than half of all wind and solar added globally. In May alone, it added enough renewable energy to power Poland, installing solar panels at a rate of roughly 100 every second.
The massive buildout is happening across the country, from crowded eastern cities increasingly topped by rooftop solar panels to remote western deserts where colossal wind farms sprawl across the landscape.
Tags: China · Chu Weimin · energy · photography
Wikipedia turns 25 years old. (I can’t believe it’s only been around...
Wikipedia turns 25 years old. (I can’t believe it’s only been around for 25 years…trying to imagine the web without it is impossible at this point.)
Emoji Design Convergence Review: 2018–2026
blog.emojipedia.org/emoji-design-convergence-review-2018-2026/
Keith Broni, writing at Emojipedia, has a good illustrated survey of how most emoji sets have converged in meaning — almost entirely toward Apple’s designs:
There are several structural reasons why Apple’s designs so often
become the gravitational center of emoji converg...
International Station
At the Stone Skimming World Championships in Scotland (at an old slate...
At the Stone Skimming World Championships in Scotland (at an old slate quarry), it’s distance that counts, not the number of skips. “Anyone who is familiar with slate could instinctively tell you that it’s a particularly good rock for skimming.”