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Scripting News Valid
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More art examples

I gave ChatGPT a picture of a man and woman, reading the screen of a computer to start, then asked for various renditions. In the style of Leonardo da Vinci. In the style of the cover of a John Steinbeck novel. As if it were an illustration inside Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. As if it were Mr Caputo and Chapman from Orange is the New Black. From Succession with Logan and Sioban Roy. From Severance, with Mark S and Helly R. If you step through the pictures after giving each a bit of your time, by the time you get here, if you were asked if it's art, I hope you'd say Who cares. If it's really art and it helps you see something new about anything (probably yourself) whether or not it's art is not really the most interesting question..

Scripting News Valid
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Is software art?

I believe it is. When people say my software thinks like they do, what's really happening is the software has gotten out of their way, they've incorporated the way it works into the base of their spine, so they can remain in the world they're writing about, and forget that they're using a piece of software. They perceive that as the software thinking like they do, which is fine -- it's the goal. But it's quite possible they have a totally different experience that takes them out of their suspension of disbelief by not working the way they expect, the same way it did the last 100 times, or it failes to open a file, or whatever might cause them to leave their own world and have to deal with the one I, and generations of software developers, have created, which can (as I know) be excruciating, humiliating, and whatever else you may feel.

Scripting News Valid
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What is art?

Yesterday I posted four new ChatGPT-created drawings, created with the latest upgrade of ChatGPT's drawing functions which are better than previous versions. The usual controversy is rekindled on the networks. The concern as always is that it learned how from human artists, ...

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

Yours Truly on ‘Geared Up’

youtube.com/watch?v=O569FVCoPYc

You’ll never guess what cohosts Andru Edwards and Jon Rettinger talked to me about on their Geared Up podcast this week. OK, fine, you guessed it. But I bet you didn’t guess that Flash on iPhone came up. Very fun show — I think you’ll enjoy it.

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Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

You’ll Never Guess Which Recent DF Article Was ‘Flagged’ at Hacker News

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43489058

“Flagging” isn’t what I was writing about yesterday, with regard to Daring Fireball’s unexplained ghosting at Hacker News in recent years. If you look at the list of recent DF articles at HN, only one is explicitly “flagged”. Whoops, now it’s two, but they’re both the same a...

Scripting News Valid
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A new ChatGPT drawing tool

ChatGPT's drawing function has gotten a huge upgrade. I've been doing tests for the last 24 hours. First I gave it a screen shot of WordLand and asked for a nice colorful poster for the product. Then I had it make a movie poster for Mutiny on the Bounty with different actors, and As Good as it Gets, and then a stunning rendering of an El Salvador news photo in the style of Edward Hopper. It refused to do an R Crumb rendering or Doonesbury, but it was OK with Hopper. WordLand poster by ChatGPT. Mutiny on the Bounty starring John Belushi and Jeff Bridges. As Good as it Gets starring Jackie Gleason and Melissa McCarthy. An Edward Hopper rendering of Secretary Noem at the El Salvador prison.

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

★ The Website That Hacker News Is Afraid to Discuss (You’re Reading It)

What bothers me isn’t so much that Daring Fireball is shitlisted at Hacker News. What bothers me is that it’s unexplained.

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

The Atlantic Has an Owner Committed to the Cause: Laurene Powell Jobs

status.news/p/atlantic-jeffrey-goldberg-signal-texts-war-plans

Oliver Darcy, writing at Status (paywalled — great content, terrible CMS experience that keeps logging me out on all my devices and requires a stupid email magic link to get back in), in a brief interview with Atlantic editor-in-chief and man of the moment Jeffrey Goldberg: ...

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

Apple Now Selling PCs From Other Companies at Apple.com

apple.com/mac/lumon-terminal-pro/

The work remains mysterious and important.

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Join a parade today

This morning‘s early morning missive from WordLand.. Talking with friends about What To Do. I actually have an idea. We all try to lead a parade, with a big viral idea, if only everyone would follow me, it might just work. A lot of us have that feeling. My advice — it doesn’...

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

2026 Porsches Still Won’t Have Next-Gen CarPlay, Which Was Announced in 2022

macrumors.com/2025/03/26/2026-porsches-still-wont-have-next-gen-carplay/

Hartley Charlton, MacRumors: Apple’s next-generation CarPlay experience is still nowhere to be seen following Porsche’s announcement of a major upgrade of its infotainment system for 2026. The upcoming 2026 model year Porsche Taycan, 911, Panamera, and Cayenne feature a...

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

Calling the White House’s Bluff, The Atlantic Releases the ‘Houthi PC Small Group’ Signal Text Thread

theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/signal-group-chat-attack-plans-hegseth-goldberg/682176/?gift=j9r7avb6p-KY8zdjhsiSZwFkSOi1GsFtx-t3XSS0Gew

Jeffrey Goldberg and Shane Harris, reporting once again for The Atlantic: Ratcliffe said much the same: “My communications, to be clear, in the Signal message group were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information.” President Donald Trump,...

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Doc's approach to WordLand

Watching Doc Searls use WordLand to post to his WordPress blog. He's using it the way Manila worked for blogging in the late 90s early 00s. Every day is a new page, which contained as many items as you liked. When you add a blank line that starts a new post. It's Markdown k...

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

Of Course Trump Has Surrounded Himself With Idiots This Time Around

goodreads.com/work/quotes/23497-the-origins-of-totalitarianism

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism:

Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.

Eight years of Trump was going to be eight years too many no matter how it worked out, but the four year Biden term between Trump terms makes the difference clear. Trump corrected what he perceived as a lack of loyalty/fealty in his first term by surrounding himself with nothing but morons this time.

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Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

Notification Summary Miscues

onefoottsunami.com/2025/03/20/erroneous-notification-summaries/

Paul Kafasis: Since they were first enabled last year, I have frequently found Apple Intelligence’s notification summaries for emails to be something less than helpful. Here are some I spotted in just the past few days. The first one of these is particularly interestin...

Jason Fried Valid
Text • Jason Fried

Go do business

Business isn’t something you learn in books. Or posts. Or threads. You can’t read your way to the right hire. You can't consume enough content to produce a product. You have to do. You learn business by doing business. Hiring by hiring. Products by building them. We k...

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

OPSEC Isn’t Even the Worst Part of ‘SignalGate’

talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/signalgate-is-bad-but-opsec-isnt-even-the-worst-part-of-it

Josh Marshal, writing at Talking Points Memo: Especially in the national security domain, many things the government does have to remain secret. Sometimes those things remain secret for years or decades. But they’re not secrets from the U.S. government. The U.S. governme...

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

The Problem Is Far More Than Just Whether Signal Is ‘Secure’

politico.com/news/2025/03/25/signal-cybersecurity-trump-war-planning-00246881?cid=apn

Maggie Miller and Dana Nickel, reporting for Politico: The app’s security is viewed as fairly strong due to its robust privacy features and minimal data collection, as well as default end-to-end encryption of all messages and voice calls. The app also includes a function...

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

Days After the Trump National Security Team’s Signal Leak, the Pentagon Warned That Russian Hackers Are Using Phishing Attacks to Abuse Signal’s ‘Linked Devices’ Feature

npr.org/2025/03/25/nx-s1-5339801/pentagon-email-signal-vulnerability

NPR: Several days after top national security officials accidentally included a reporter in a Signal chat about bombing Houthi sites in Yemen, a Pentagon-wide advisory warned against using the messaging app, even for unclassified information. “A vulnerability has been i...

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

New York Post: ‘European Union to Fine Meta Up to $1B or More for Breaching DMA’

nypost.com/2025/03/24/business/european-union-to-fine-meta-up-to-1b-or-more-for-breaching-digital-markets-act-sources/

Thomas Barrabi, reporting for The New York Post: The European Union is set to slap Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta with a fine that could stretch to $1 billion or more for allegedly violating its strict antitrust rules, The Post has learned — setting up a possible showdown with P...