FeedCity

I wrote a few blog posts in WordLand this morning because it was convenient. It's good the same way I like to use a twitter-like app to write first drafts, when all I have to type into is my iPad. I've also started using it on my desktop for short things, but I just wrote and edited a complete blog post, a response to something Krugman wrote, about how gambling is destroying sports. And what for? It's like what Marge said at the end of Fargo. "There's more to life than a little money, you know." It feels like they're feeding the NBA into a wood chipper. What comes out the other side won't imho be recognizable as sport. And here you are, and it's a beautiful day.

I've got so much new stuff stacked up, on its way out. Hold onto your hats.

I've archived December in the GitHub repo, in OPML, as usual.

Welcome to a brand new year. The best one ever. 😄

I posted this on Threads, and thought it should also be on my blog. :-)

I don't want to be critical of anyone in the WordPress world, there's already a lot of that going around. I want to be off on the side, seeing the immense value of the platform, and things we can do with it that aren't possible any other way.

Toward that end, I want to say -- for a product that is so incredibly useful for writers, not much attention has been paid to how writers work. We can do a lot better, imho.

Again, not meant to be in any way personal. It's just the way it happened.

In addition to a $20 per month ChatGPT account, I also have a full Gemini account because I bought a snazzy new Pixel 9 Pro which comes with one year of Gemini included. So far that's just meant that I get pop up dialogs all over the place telling me I can use Gemini with Gmail, Google Drive and whatever else. Honestly it's just annoying. I do not want these apps to do my writing for me. Please. That imho is not a valuable use of AI. I can write for myself thank you very much.

After his death at 100 on Sunday, the news has been full of talk about Jimmy Carter. It's not polite to say it's exhausting and boring, and seems pointless. Then I happened to hear Jimmy Carter himself, on the latest episode of the Fresh Air podcast, and that was fantastic and totally worthwhile. It had been a long time since I listened to him, and I've grown a lot since then. Listen to the person, much more interesting than people talking about the person.

Hartley Charlton, MacRumors: Apple TV+ is set to be available to stream for free from Saturday, January 4 to Sunday, January 5, providing its full catalog with no subscription fee. Following a series of teasers, Apple today confirmed the free weekend on social media, bui...

Braintrust query: I'm kind of stuck with my little feed reader in Bluesky. It works, but a few hours into it, at 10PM last night, we start getting rate-limit errors from bluesky. If it really is a rate limit, shouldn't reset after a while?

Still looking for WordLand testers who write good bug reports and use WordPress for writing on a regular basis, even daily.

Sad to say the current WordLand testers are not using it enough to help break in the software. It's a good product, and for people who do a lot of writing in WordPress, I think it would be very useful, maybe even transformative. But I can't open it up until I'm fairly sure it...

Speaking of sponsorships, the Q1 schedule is filling up, but I’ve still got this week and next open. If you’ve got a product or service you think would be of interest to DF’s audience of people obsessed with high quality and good design, get in touch.

James Fallows, in a 2023 piece for The Atlantic, written when Carter entered hospice care:

Jimmy Carter survived to see many of his ambitions realized, including near eradication of the dreaded Guinea worm, which, unglamorous as it sounds, represents an increase in human well-being greater than most leaders have achieved. He survived to see his character, vision, and sincerity recognized, and to know that other ex-presidents will be judged by the standard he has set.

He was an unlucky president, and a lucky man.

We are lucky to have had him. Blessed.

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

An upcoming version of the Magic Mouse with voice control for AI would “make sense,” Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said today, though he claimed that he has heard no rumors about the feature so far.

Alongside the voice-input mouse, it’d make just as much sense to bring back some of that see-through 1998 iMac aesthetic by switching MacBooks to transparent aluminum.

Fun and interesting list overall (via Kottke), but #7 caught my attention: Walking speed on the streets of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia has increased 15% since 1979. (“Shifting Patterns of Social Interaction: Exploring the Social Life of Urban Spaces Through A.I.”)...

I'm playing with using Bluesky as a very simple feed reader. 1. Running up against its lack of style and formatting. Very bare bones. Not sure if people will like. 2. What's the rate limit? My app is getting rate-limited with not very many posts. (According to their docs on rate limits, I don't think my project is anywhere near the limit. It's creating posts. I'll start counting them, I guess.)

Braintrust query: Do you subscribe to one or more AI service?

My thanks to Junjie for sponsoring last week at DF to promote Due, their excellent reminder app for the Mac, iPhone, and iPad. I first linked to Due back in 2010, writing this short post: I’ve been trying this $3 app for a few days and digging it — a convenient, low-fric...

The New York Times:

While his presidency was remembered more for its failures than for its successes, his post-presidency was seen by many as a model for future chief executives. Rather than vanish from view or focus on moneymaking, he established the Carter Center to promote peace, fight disease and combat social inequality. He transformed himself into a freelance diplomat traveling the globe, sometimes irritating his successors but earning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.