After travel and work and family things that have pulled me away, I’m back to the Micro.blog photo challenge! Day 18, texture. Dusting off the microphone.

I said I was going to take a break from AI-related blogging, so I’ll just link to this mostly without comment: The Open AI Files. There is a lot in here that skeptics will welcome. Good attempts at unraveling the corporate structure too.

Tynan Purdy has released a Raycast extension for Micro.blog. If you use Raycast and want a quick way to blog, definitely check this out.

I wonder what kind of machines are running Xcode Cloud. We have to do some setup for each build, and it’s significantly slower than running on my own Mac. Anyway, gonna push out an iOS beta shortly and then submit to Apple today with a couple draft post fixes.

Trying out the new fediverse improvements in Threads. Haven’t launched the app in a while, so I’m happy to discover that following Micro.blog accounts from Threads appears to be working. Interesting choice for Meta to sort of relegate fediverse posts to their own timeline in the UI.

I remember thinking in Trump’s first term that he was a war president without a war, so he goes after political adversaries and immigrants with the same “we must destroy them” attitude usually reserved for an actual conflict. And now… Iran. Trump is unpredictable. Worst person to be in power. 🇺🇸

I recorded a quick video on YouTube of a new way to have photo accessibility descriptions generated for you. There are a lot of different ways to manage photos in Micro.blog, but this flow is working well for me on the Mac side. Of course if you have AI disabled, it’ll skip this.

Reflecting today on some kind words that were shared with me last week in San Jose. There’s nothing like talking face to face. When we’re only typing at each other online, we’re more quick to jump to the wrong conclusions, more likely even to dehumanize other people.

Seeing this link today on Daring Fireball about self-driving reminded me of something I’ve wanted to blog about. Tesla is supposedly set to start their robotaxi service in Austin this weekend. I’m slightly worried about it. Now that I’ve been in a Waymo — and experienced how...

Neat new plug-in for Micro.blog-hosted blogs from @jim:

I threw together a really simple Micro.blog plugin to automatically open external links in a new browser tab or window by adding a “_blank” target link attribute via Javascript.

This works because plug-ins can insert bits of JS into a page.

Glad I stopped sending my posts to the fediverse for a little while. So much of what I see on Mastodon is tribal. Small communities can be great, bringing people together and offering tools for moderation, but people also seem careless and prone to attacks right now.

Tried the ChatGPT integration in Xcode 26. It’s pretty good! It seems to guess at which of my project’s files it should include in the context. Wouldn’t mind if it sent even more, at least all my Obj-C headers.

I’ll be releasing a new Mac app today, with a few updates for macOS Tahoe. It’s the bare minimum, and more changes will be needed later when Tahoe ships to everyone. One quirk that is annoying me is how to handle items that were previously very close to the edge of a window, like this photo icon.

“Can I preemptively squircle myself?” — John Siracusa on ATP, discussing Tahoe’s dock round-rect jail

Duncan Davidson is moving on from Shopify, in part because of what will change with AI:

It’s like 1997 and the early web all over again. But different, and more extreme. Of course, like then, many will be looking for a free lunch or to create party tricks. And, like the web, it’ll take us a while to really figure out how it’s going to change the world. For those that invest the time and effort, however, entirely new horizons are opening up even as entire industries are about to be rewritten.

Not convinced about the new menu item icons in macOS Tahoe. It seems very unlikely that there will be suitable icons for every menu item in an app, so you’re left with a disjointed UI. I think it’s going to be more distracting than helpful.

Today we shipped an update to Micro.blog for iOS that has lots of little bug fixes. You can grab it in the App Store. Here are the changes: Added publish status to post options screen for publishing drafts. Added poster frame URL when copying HTML for videos. Improved acces...

D. Griffin Jones blogs a mockup of the Finder icon, restoring the colors:

The frustrating thing is that Apple definitely prototyped this exact design. It was probably one of the first designs they tried.

One issue Apple might’ve run into is what to do about dark mode. In Tahoe, they keep the person outline in the same blue. I hope they continue to iterate on this.

Listened to AppStories on my walk this morning. Fascinating what a completely different WWDC experience I had without a ticket this year, mostly hanging out in San Jose. I had a great time, though, more chill and less frenzy than past years. Part of getting older is I don’t need to do everything. 🍻

Because I wrecked my Xcode install for release builds by upgrading to macOS Tahoe, I’m switching over to Xcode Cloud. Probably should’ve done this earlier. By waiting a few years, at least Apple probably has gotten most of the kinks worked out.

The left-aligned text for alerts in macOS Tahoe is such a welcome improvement. Apple just needs to center the icon and it’ll be good.

I just updated the Micro.blog photoblogging page with the latest words for week 3! 📷

Stay safe everyone going to a No Kings protest. I like this:

A core principle behind all No Kings events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values and to act lawfully at these.

🇺🇸

Now that I’ve had a little more time with it, I see what Dia is going for. It’s not just about asking AI questions about a web page. It also aspires to become the starting point for all questions, replacing dedicated apps like ChatGPT or Claude.

Gatto from Enrico Casarosa sounds amazing:

The Annecy crowd cheered the announcement and went wild as Docter unveiled animation tests of a distinct, unique hand-painted look, something Pixar has never shown before. The film appears to be rich in colors from Venetian settings, and blends 2D hand paint textures with cutting-edge CG animation.

Casey Liss blogs some initial reactions to WWDC, including on the new iPad multitasking:

They work well with a finger, but work great with a pointing device. The new multitasking mechanism will remove many of the shackles I feel when using my iPad Pro. I no longer feel like I’m trying to wade through wet cement when using it. I don’t feel like I’m bending to its needs — rather, it’s bending to mine.

We’ll be doing a couple betas of Micro.blog for iOS, whenever Apple approves it. If you’d like to be on the latest version, you can sign up on TestFlight. I tend to do short betas — just a few days or week and then it’ll ship to everyone.

Trying Dia, which is now available if you had an Arc account. It is very interesting. Not sure yet whether I will stick with it, or go back to Arc.

Steve Job’s commencement speech at Stanford is so good. On the 20th anniversary, the Steve Jobs Archive has published notes and drafts he sent himself. I love seeing this.

Tragic airplane crash in India. A single survivor out of over 200 people… Keep thinking of Unbreakable.