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Kylie Robison, reporting for The Verge: OpenAI is releasing a new model called o1, the first in a planned series of “reasoning” models that have been trained to answer more complex questions, faster than a human can. It’s being released alongside o1-mini, a smaller, chea...

Brian Heater, reporting for TechCrunch: The iPhone 16 took center stage at Apple’s “It’s Glowtime” event, but the most interesting tidbit came from a different line entirely. Indeed, among a sea of new hardware came an intriguing software update to one already on the mar...

I was trying to explain to Miguel de Icaza, a longtime developer friend, how Dropbox was within inches of making the web a million times more useful, ten years ago, and then backed away from it. I don't think I've ever told the story here on my blog, so here goes. In 2014, ...

Just watched a Harris rally in Charlotte NC. She's using what Trump said in the debate in her new campaign speech. Brilliant. Getting him on the record in that context is a gift. 60 million viewers. Up till then he only took interviews where he could bully his way past the interviewer.

Braintrust query: I got an email from OpenAI saying I could access the new models, but I don't see the new models in the popup menu.

When making products, you can think of them as a collection of features or answers.Some people may say "you mean features or benefits?" No, I mean answers. Answers are counterpoints to questions people have in their heads. Answers fill holes, answers snap into sockets. Ben...

And btw I also am wasting my ideas, one in a hundred has any influence, and even then it's minscule, the ideas drift away unimplemented. I keep writing, hoping I see a way to get into the global conversation, again. I remember what it's like. But I'm not done. We still have a big problem to solve in our political and communication system. Online software is where it's at.

Another fantastic thinker and writer who is mostly scattering his ideas into the wind -- Dan Conover, who when he comes out with a piece, I stop everything and sit down and carefully read it and savor it, because not only is there sure to be new info and new ideas, but the writing is sooo good. He's a former local reporter in South Carolina. I met him on a road tour I did a bunch of years ago. Where does he post this stuff? Facebook. I want it to be part of the concentrated web writers union. Maybe think of it as my karass, my version of The Atlantic, perhaps. Or my version of the op-ed page of the NY Times. I think there is definitely enough good stuff out there, unorganized, to easily rival them for originality, depth of thought, experience and great writing. Dan is on my list of such superheroes.

I've been enjoying the recent blog posts by my longtime friend Jeff Jarvis. A couple of months ago, I was practically begging him to do this. He was pouring so much unfocused energy into making journalism play an appropriate role in our democracy. When Jeff started posting t...

Someday an election will be like Game of Thrones or Succession. A campaign would be a season. There would be character development, arcs, twists, revelations, unforseen events. Near the end of the season you have the election, with the following episodes the plotting, intrigue, and undermining of democracy, and at the end of the season the inauguration of a new president. Each year you have more of this, until four years later you go through the election all over again. People would really study the candidates, and would have reasons they like one character over another. And maybe the patriarch doesn't die, and decides to run again. This is where we're heading, we might already be there.

It would have been cool if Harris had said "He's going to have you for dinner" instead of "He's going to eat you for lunch," which is what she said Putin would do to Trump.

Makes you wonder if that was a slip of the tongue or if it was a little Easter Egg she dropped for our later amusement.

What Harris is doing is marketing. It takes a lot of impressions to get people to believe she can be president. If she wants to win, she has to do a lot of interviews and rallies and say quotable things, and be tweeting all the time, not just in the campaign snark accounts (...

Idea for TV series. Law and Order style crime drama where all the crimes are against humanity.

Taylor Swift, in a post late last night on Instagram: I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make. I also want to say, especially to first time voters: Remember that in order to vote, you have to be re...

Even if his supporters don't see it, Trump is a pathetic broken has-been. When he's gone we'll dance in good riddance.

Trump was at his most pathetic lying bullshit asshole self. He looked and sounded terrible. I wouldn't have traded places with Harris for anything in the world, she did fantastic. The pressure on her was enormous. I don't think Trump said one thing that was true. And Harris made the point that the division is coming from that guy over there, and if we don't want it all we have to do is turn the freaking page. For once the power is with the people. The Repubs in the Senate wouldn't vote to convict, the Supreme Court just gave him immunity, but the American people, in a few weeks, can tell them all the fuck off.

The most encouraging thing about last night's debate was that the moderators were journalists. When Trump repeated his most egregious lie about murdering babies being legal in certain states, moderator Muir confidently, almost derisively, said that there is no such thing. And when Trump said he didn't admit he lost the election, and then when challenged said in a snotty way he was being sarcastic, Muir plainly that wasn't true either. It was like the Monty Python dead parrot sketch. ABC News was the last place you'd expect real journalism to surface, maybe the NYT et al will follow their lead.

BBC News:

Apple has been ordered to pay Ireland €13bn (£11bn; $14bn) in unpaid taxes by Europe’s top court, putting an end to an eight-year row.

The European Commission accused Ireland of giving Apple illegal tax advantages in 2016, but Ireland has consistently argued against the need for the tax to be paid.

The Irish government said it would respect the ruling.

Apple said it was disappointed with the decision and accused the European Commission of “trying to retroactively change the rules”.

Ireland doesn’t want the money:

The Irish government has argued that Apple should not have to repay the back taxes, deeming that its loss was worth it to make the country an attractive home for large companies.

What a great win for Margrethe Vestager, making clear to the world that the EU is hostile to successful companies. Good job.

Juli Clover, reporting for MacRumors: Apple today discontinued its ill-received FineWoven material, introducing no new cases that use the leather replacement. The company has also removed existing FineWoven iPhone cases for older devices from its website, though FineWove...

My iPhones 16 briefing yesterday was at this new building. It is very nice. A little cozy — it’s not that big. Great light, and from the main room, a splendid view of the main building. Restroom doors are like bank vault doors.