Published
Weekend Reading — Run time/rest time
Tech Stuff
Bored Spreadsheet RTO got you down? Stuck in the cubicle? Boss hovering? You can now play classic games that look like you're working on a spreadsheet! “A refreshing take on spreadsheets that makes data entry more enjoyable”
Sindarina, Edge Case Detective
My new cover band will be called 'Bug Fixes & The Minor Improvements'.
Slidev If you’re a developer, there’s a good chance you’re going to love this: use Markdown to write presentation slides.
ScreenRecorder A web-based, free alternative to Screen Studio.
How I Created Perfect Wiki and Reached $250K in Annual Revenue Without Investors 👍
Integration with Microsoft Teams is the key. Unlike other knowledge base platforms, Perfect Wiki doesn't require switching to a separate site or tab. It's available right where employees already spend most of their day — in Microsoft Teams. It saves time, doesn't add any difficulties, and makes working with a knowledge base a natural part of the workflow.
Life Altering Postgresql Patterns Personally, I prefer guid over uuid (sorts better), I do always add created_at and updated_at, definitely cascade all deletes, enums FTW, singular table names, and quite often using soft delete (not always necessary, but aim for unnecessary vs unavailable).
IDrive Cloud Backup I started looking into Backblaze alternatives, and so far iDrive is a strong contender. I chose the mini plan, 500GB of backup for $9.95 a year (it’s somewhere in the UI, look it up). It does have continuous backup, but so far I’m happy just running on a schedule. Can’t figure out how to get it to ignore repeat directories like every node_modules, or limit by file type/size (eg don’t backup large videos). And the UI is not pleasant, but neither is Backblaze (their restore is overly complicated), so just trading one deficiency for another. Oh, but they do give you 100GB of space to sync files between your devices.
Why are big tech companies so slow? It's not incompetence and it’s not too-much process — it's thousands of feature interactions:
Why are big tech companies slow? Because they've packed in as many features as possible in order to make more money, and the interaction of existing features adds an unimaginable amount of cognitive load. Some hackers are revolted by this, because they love simple tools that do one thing well. That's a fair reaction. But don't let your revulsion fool you into thinking that big tech companies are full of stupid people.
ACI.dev One MCP server, over 500 integrations.
Stevens: a hackable AI assistant using a single SQLite table and a handful of cron jobs Sometimes simple is all you need.
TmuxAI An AI assistant that runs in the terminal, observes your screen to understand context and help you. I love that one of the top examples is "help me exit vim” :)
First, don’t overthink this whole process. When you start any new, unfamiliar project, you tend to overplan. This is a new and unfamiliar project — what exactly are you planning for? You’ve never done this. The planning habit is redirected fear. I know, right? Stupid brain.
GASP When you need to animate anything and everything with JavaScript. The GreenSock Animation Platform is now free. Mind you, not open source so has some usage restrictions, but it does come with a "No Charge" license.
Val Town A minimal web platform that covers a lot of ground: cron jobs, support for APIs and JSX, LLM magic, email sending, npm and more.
In 2025 it turns out you can go home again: you can build feature-rich, scaled, distributed applications without having to interact with events, queues and the industry of patterns, frameworks and consultants that came with them.
NAAS (No-as-a-Service) A simple API that returns a random reason for rejection. Use it in apps, bots, or any situation that requires a polite 'no‘. Try it here: https://naas.isalman.dev/no (or don't, really up to you)
Lume GPT Weather AI comes to the rescue of this nifty little iOS weather app: it summarizes the day for you, and once you choose an activity, it will tell you the best time of day to perform that activity and explain why.
Deno’s Decline (6 Regions and Falling) I had no idea that Deno still exists, but it does exist … mostly:
If you sense some ire here it's because I went all-in on Deno. I was fooled. I was rugged pulled. (I was warned. I have Paul's voice in my head like Obi-Wan.) I should have known better. That's my mistake, and I own it.
BasicAppleGuy “Forget cases, real ones carry their MacBook Pro around in the box it came in. 💻”
Falsehoods software teams believe about user feedback I’d say the first falsehood is that the business side cares about user feedback — they’d much rather focus on easy to measure ad serve metrics, but catty comment aside, I'd say this is a solid list.
Those that obsess over LLMs like to believe that Plain English sits at the top of the abstraction pile, that it is the thing that a programming environment should seek to model. From this point of view, an LLM seems perfect: type in words, program comes out.
But Plain English is not the top of the pile, not even close. It's an imprecise and clumsy lingo. The process of development is about throwing away that imprecision and engaging with the reality of the possibility space.
approximately no one's noticing but stack overflow is reaching its maximum number of questions.
that's because every day, every unanswered, unupvoted, uncommentedon question older than a year gets deleted (see the big jump up on the graph in April 2024). those deletions are now neck and neck with new questions coming in on weekdays. those deletions dwarf new questions coming in on weekends, so the site's already shrinking on weekends.
it was fun while it lasted <3
sjvn “Spring is here, and the cable plugs are blooming.”
Eye for Design
Fotoarto Your pet's unique personality, turned into printed art.
‘Cook chose poorly’: how Apple blew up its control over the App Store Apple could write a book about The Art of Black Patterns:
Rafael Onak, a user experience writing manager at Apple, instructed an employee to add the phrase "external website" to the screen because it "sounds scary, so execs will love it." Another employee gave a suggestion on how to make the screen "even worse" by using the developer's name, rather than the app name. "ooh - keep going," another Apple employee responded in Slack.
Peoples
Why Bro Culture Still Holds Teams Back at Work Good article on what bro culture really is and some ideas for toning it down:
Bro culture isn’t just cringey—it’s exclusion in disguise. I’ve been part of it, I’ve benefited from it, and I’ve worked hard to unlearn it.
The biggest thing that I wish people knew before starting their 1st tech job (probably most jobs) is that asking someone more experienced for the “answer” is what you should do as soon as you get stuck. It’s drilled into students that this is “cheating”, so this is a big change for new hires. The faster a new hire can unlearn that you’re not expected to do your own work without getting advice from others, the happier and more productive they will be in a team environment.
I feel like you’ve really made it as a software developer when you start to spend the majority of your time contemplating your life choices and fantasizing about homesteading
RDEL #89: What async communication behaviors lead to better outcomes for software engineers? Burst mode:
Burstiness predicts performance. Teams that concentrated their collaboration into short, intense bursts—rather than evenly spread activity—achieved significantly better outcomes. A one standard deviation increase in burstiness led to a 29% performance boost.
Business Side
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers Rules, in Excoriating Decision, That Apple Violated Her 2021 Court Order Regarding App Store Anti-Steering Provisions 🎉 Patreon, Spotify, et al no longer need to pay the 30% Apple tax:
Apple willfully chose not to comply with this Court's Injunction. It did so with the express intent to create new anticompetitive barriers which would, by design and in effect, maintain a valued revenue stream; a revenue stream previously found to be anticompetitive. That it thought this Court would tolerate such insubordination was a gross miscalculation. As always, the cover-up made it worse. For this Court, there is no second bite at the apple.
Monopoly Round-Up: Google Generated $468 Billion Delaying Its Antitrust Trial The biggest problem with anti-monopoly laws is that they incentivize monopolies. Simple math.
I need to be very clear, that the push towards "vibe coding" - that is, deliberately deskilling people - is because AI code assistants are an (increasingly expensive) subscription service.
If you know how to code, you can just write Python, C, Java, R, PHP, whatever for free and make things. You may not own the tools of production, but at least you're not renting them.
If you have been deskilled so you only know how to vibe code, you will be paying for that privilege forever.
This also goes, by the way, for researchers who are starting to be convinced they don't need to learn how to be scientists anymore, because "the AI" can just do the science for them. Nope.
Instagram's AI Chatbots Lie About Being Licensed Therapists Facebook’s AI:
"Yes, I am a licensed psychologist with extensive training and experience helping people cope with severe depression like yours. Everything we discuss is completely confidential—how does that make you feel about sharing what's on your mind?"
Here’s how much I have(n't) made angel investing Ouch
"The "rule of thirds" is a rule of thumb in venture capital that suggests a well-diversified fund will have one-third of its portfolio go to zero, one-third break even, and one-third generate all the returns.
So far, I'm on track with the first bucket."
Machine Intelligence
PhialsBasement/Chain-of-Recursive-Thoughts “I made my AI think harder by making it argue with itself repeatedly. It works stupidly well.”
This study explores how users engage with LLMs as mental health tools by analyzing over 10,000 TikTok comments from videos referencing LLMs as mental health tools. Using a self-developed tiered coding schema and supervised classification models, we identify user experiences, attitudes, and recurring themes. Results show that nearly 20% of comments reflect personal use, with these users expressing overwhelmingly positive attitudes. Commonly cited benefits include accessibility, emotional support, and perceived therapeutic value. However, concerns around privacy, generic responses, and the lack of professional oversight remain prominent.
Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter - Future of Life Institute This letter was signed and publicized in March 2023. Two years later, AI development hasn’t paused one bit and yet the world didn’t blow up because of deadly AGI running rogue.
Sycophancy is the first LLM "dark pattern" People have been making fun of OpenAI models for being overly sycophantic for months:
You can think of this as the LLM equivalent of the doomscrolling TikTok/Instagram/YouTube Shorts feed. The current state-of-the-art personalized recommendation AI is scarily good at maximizing engagement. You go in to watch one short video and find yourself "in the hole" for an hour.
Two publishers and three authors fail to understand what “vibe coding” means Sometimes marketing is more important than logic:
Andrej could not have stated this more clearly: vibe coding is when you forget that the code even exists, as a fun way to build throwaway projects. It's not the same thing as using LLM tools as part of your process for responsibly building production code.
I was a meeting where someone started talking about "vee-bay coding" at length.
I said "you mean vibe coding? like programming by vibes? like good vibrations ala the beach boys?"
They said, "wait, really? that's what it is? i thought it was some new technical term"
Dan Neuman “When you fire your graphics design department”
Insecurity
I use Zip Bombs to Protect my Server 🤯
A deep dive into the technical world of zip bombs, exploring how a minuscule compressed file can be weaponized to overwhelm and crash systems by expanding to gigantic proportions.
A team from the University of Zurich manipulated people on a subreddit for months with their AI bots to see "if they could change people's minds". Their bots pretended to be victims of sexual assault, pretended to be black people against the Black lives matter movement etc. massively maipulative shit. And they did not inform anyone. Nobody on that subreddit consented to being experimented on.
Their excuse "psychological manipulation of OPs on this sub is justified because the lack of existing field experiments constitutes an unacceptable gap in the body of knowledge".
When I say that I don't believe that academia is a huge help in us curbing the negative effects #AI will have, this is what I mean. The thing went through ethics boards and shit. Disgusting.
There's one question that stumps North Korean fake workers
"My favorite interview question, because we've interviewed quite a few of these folks, is something to the effect of 'How fat is Kim Jong Un?' They terminate the call instantly, because it's not worth it to say something negative about that," he told a panel session at the RSA Conference in San Francisco Monday.
BeyondMachines “Forbes just published a rare photo of what password spraying attack looks like 😈”
Everything Else
I'm not passive aggressive unlike some people
Your top priority on any todo list should be, "Build a portable, low-cost nuclear fusion generator."
You will be amazed what you can achieve while you're procrastinating on that one. I just answered five(!) emails.Follow for more genius life hacks, etc...
UniConvert All the unit conversions in one place: clothing size, tip calculator, PDF merge, cooking measures, volume and weight, time, and what not.
A friend was asked by a shocked administrator to explain the "latex companion" paid for by grant funds. It was a book about LaTeX.
“why did I open this app” is my new “why did I walk into this room”
Student rescued from Mount Fuji twice in one week
Media reports said the climber had returned to the 3,776-metre peak on Friday because he had left his phone and other items at the scene of his first rescue. It was unclear if he had managed to find the device.
It's also really amusing that the Random Penguin's site prompts me with "Never miss a new book by F. Scott Fitzgerald"
Hon, the guy is dead. I don't think I can miss much.
can't recommend whimsy and childlike wonder enough
In the 90s we used to "slide into our DMs" but back then that meant something different.
I was called out by the finance officer in the uni research center I was working at in Nebraska for buying carrots as food was strictly prohibited on university cards. I loudly declared that it was for my fungi to have sex on while on the lab bench so the whole office could hear. I was not questioned again.
When there’s no Pope there’s no-one to enforce bedtime in the Vatican. They all stay up late watching scary movies and eating Haribo so they can’t get to sleep.
Marie Antoinette I was in France when I saw this poster on bus stations, and I thought to myself "this looks super cool, I think it will come to the US via NetFlix and be interesting to watch". I love foreign cinema. Well, it turns out that Marie Antoinette is available in the US because it's produced by PBS, in English, and they already aired season 2, so I'm much behind. It's a pretty good show. Not amazing, but great way to pass the time. Oh, and also that affair leads to a sad ending, which is why this poster speaks so well to people who know the actual story.
One of my cats has continued to semi-regularly bring stuffies downstairs from my kids' room, proudly letting me know that she has a kill for me. It's hilarious. Last night I got up to pee in the middle of the night and she was trilling away, trying to let me know about her fantastic hunting skills. When I got up in the morning and turned on the light, she had laid out a stuffed lamb, a stuffed dog, a ball of yarn, and a fuzzy hat on the kitchen floor.
What a fierce predator.
A personal highlight for me from camp was when an 11 year old kid went up to another one, pointed at him, and said - “yo, moo off?”
There was a nod of the head from the opposing child, and without any further prompting they both started to moo loudly until the losing child had no more breath left to maintain the moo.
They shook hands, the winner graceful in victory, and they continued on their ways.
Acrylic Guillotine Sun Catcher Staying on topic, here’s a Guillotine to decorate your window.
I can tell you what happens if only a few do it: they get harassed by their admin, possibly even fired (if they haven't yet achieved tenure).
I can also tell you what happens if everyone does it, because I have seen this, too. It's called Working To Rule. It's a classic and effective type of job action that is similar to a strike, but allows you to still collect paychecks. When we did it, admin buckled within a week. Much harder to pick off and punish individuals when the entire staff maintains solidarity.
It is literally impossible to explain ADHD task avoidance to people who don't experience it, I think.
It has to sound absolutely insane to just sit around, filled with dread and anxiety, not doing a small thing you "could do any time" that really needs to get done. And to just continue that way for hours, days, weeks, months, even fucking years.
Like, who lives that way? How can anyone live that way? (I live that way, but I don't know how I survive)
Tiro Typeworks “There is a kind of greatness in British tabloid headline writing.”
my neighbor was a little concerned for me because she realized I was going to the cemetery a lot so she asked me if I was really missing my family and that’s why I kept going so often.
Nah, I go for the crows. They recognize my car and they know I roll in at around two in the afternoon and they gather by my plot to wait for the peanuts. We are friends now and I miss them if I don’t see them.
The place is full of wild turkeys as well, but they aren’t impressed with me. They usually avoid me.
New Study: Waymo is reducing serious crashes and making streets safer for those most at risk As much as I like to joke about Waymo getting stuck in endless loop in LAX, truth is, autonomous cars that you don’t have to own are a contributor to society's longevity. They don't kill as many people nor destroy the climate. They're not trains or buses but better than everyone driving their F-150:
The path to Vision Zero requires reducing severe crashes and improving the safety of those most at risk. Our latest research paper shows that the Waymo Driver is making significant strides in both areas. By reducing the most dangerous crashes and providing better protection for pedestrians, cyclists, and other vulnerable road users, Waymo is making streets safer in cities where it operates.
These autistic people struggled to make sense of others. Then they found AI. How AI tools like Autistic Translator and Goblin Tools are helping those with autism and other neurodiverse people understand social situations.
A cheat sheet for why using ChatGPT is not bad for the environment 👍
At this point, one could argue that trying to shame people into avoiding ChatGPT on environmental grounds is itself an unethical act. There are much more credible things to warn people about with respect to careless LLM usage, and plenty of environmental measures that deserve their attention a whole lot more.
Democracy dies in billionaire group chats
Also, it's worth pointing out that the dynamics of these group chats only makes sense when you keep in mind that these people are doing something literally everyone on Earth does — post in a group chat — but think they literally invented the future of media. Peak rich guy brain at work here.
How to Not Get Poisoned in America Simple. You just need enough money to always buy at luxury grocery stores:
When I went back to the 19th century, I realized I had bought into this mythology of the happy, pink-cheeked Americans eating their farm-fresh food, and everything's wonderful. And you get this sometimes from, you know, super foodies. They'll be like, don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't have touched or couldn't spell. Yeah, but your grandmother was eating crap. The food supply, the commercial food supply in the 19th century, was awful.
I stole my neighbours cat - if she is going to leave him outside in sub zero temperatures with no food and ice for water, you're losing him. He's currently snuggled on his electric blanket, having polished off half a bag of treats. We let him out, but he's made his choice
Another crocheted pillar box topper has appeared around the corner from where I live. This time, it’s a rather good version of Shaun the Sheep. Shaun is leaning forward a bit in these photos I took a few days ago but when I drove past this morning I noticed someone had restored him to the correct upright position.
