Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Buy my house!
My 1925 Tudor on half an acre in Elkins Park, PA is up for sale. Here's why I loved living in it
Role & Opportunity Kit — score roles vs perception before you hire or ship
An Ode to Links
Microsoft’s Humanist AI document is long, I’m still reading it, but so far I like it. It’s a rejection of the idea that AI could one day be a peer of humanity:
At Microsoft AI, we begin with a simple premise: people matter more than AI. Technology’s purpose is to advance human civilization and to accelerate human flourishing.
It complements my recent blog post on AGI.
We’re rolling out a series of improvements for podcasts in Micro.blog. The first was last month with a better web playback UI. Now there’s also a Listen Later feature that builds on bookmarking. Coming soon: a new version of Wavelength with audio narration for posts and more.
Muse is in the 2nd spot in the App Store now, behind the perpetually 1st place ChatGPT. I’m not planning to use Muse, but it’s fascinating if it resonates with Meta’s user base after the initial interest. It’s basically ChatGPT Work but simplified, slightly less capable, and maybe less confusing.
Even a stopped watch is right twice a day. Related: this week Don Trump said he’d like a united Ireland, and that all this talk of humanity-ending AI is bollocks.
Even a stopped watch is right twice a day.
Related: this week Don Trump said he’d like a united Ireland, and that all this talk of humanity-ending AI is bollocks.
I’ve been quietly improving the saved links feature in Micro.blog, available to Premium subscribers. Nice way to find what you’ve linked to on your blog. This screenshot of the Mac app shows the new web page thumbnail previews for quick scanning.
What We Can Know
Not totally sure when to update to macOS 27. I just submitted an app update to Apple with Xcode 26. Feels safest to stick on that until the iPhone Duo simulator is out.
BTW, the rootupdates process is working now, you can follow changes via an RSS 2.0 feed, of course. In this version, the feed is the way updates are transmitted. The enclosure on each item is a fat page. And because it's a feed, I can follow it in FeedLand, and the blogroll on scripting.com picks it up too. Screen shot.
Today’s Dithering podcast is fun. Ben Thompson leaning in to the “liberty or death” take from his Monday post. For me, AI pacing is good, but also he and John Gruber have a good point that we don’t need to accept the narrative of possible human extinction.
Another interesting acquisition by OpenAI of former Apple folks:
Glass Imaging was founded by Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop, a pair of former Apple engineers who previously led the team that developed Apple’s Portrait Mode. This background directly informs the work they now do at Glass Imaging, where they use AI to overcome the physical size constraints of smartphone cameras.
OpenAI clearing thinking beyond the first device they will reveal this year.
How I think Web Apps Should be Installed – Ben Francis
tola.me.uk/blog/2026/02/12/how-i-think-web-apps-should-be-installed/
Some good ideas on how browsers could offer the ability to install the current site. Frankly, anything would be better than the current woeful situation!
Until we start working together and for each other it’s going to keep getting worse.
In many ways JavaScript is a better language than UserTalk. For example I miss JSON constants. I miss certain language constructs, like conditional assignments. We don't have the idea of a const. On the other hand, JavaScript doesn't have environment features Frontier has. I want to have Atlantis run JavaScript the same way Cancoon (the codename for the kernel of Frontier before this version) ran AppleScript.