Published
Weekend Reading — The Agentic AI revolution
Street Art Utopia “Darth Fisher sculpture by Frankey for Amsterdam Light Festival in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Photos by Janus van den Eijnden.”
Tech Stuff
Claude Code overview The Agentic AI revolution is taking shape and apparently Claude Code is this week's top contender. I just tested it on a small project (React + TypeScript + Remix) and it works really well. Like having a co-worker behind the keyboard.
Fastmail I recently switched from Google to Fastmail because if I’m going to pay for a service, I don’t want to pay a company that expects their employees to work 60 hours a week on building an AI that will soon replace them. Migrating my emails, contacts, and calendars was automagical: authenticate to Google and everything else happens in the background. I would say it's 8/10 (compared to Google + Spark app), priced cheaper, setup could be much easier (mostly Apple UX issues), other than that worth the transition.
Cropper.js Sweet library for adding a cropping UI to your webapp: users can highlight an area, adjust by pulling the handles, with Shift to modify X+Y together, etc. And it has a ton of customization options and you can try them all in the playground.
On the back of "this meeting could have been an email", I think we've reached the tipping point of "this native app could have been a webapp" for 90% of apps out there.
Filter Add a simple phot filter UI to your web app: crop, rotate, draw text and shapes, add a watermark, change colors, and much more.
Blot Sync a folder and it will publish that folder as a website. Couldn't get any simpler than that. You can sync Dropbox, Google Drive, Git, iCloud (coming soon). It can handle a variety of file types: markdown, images, Word, Google Docs, HTML, Org Mode, etc. At $6/month it's not free but also not crazy expensive for giving you such an easy to use website publishing setup.
theyre going to tell you that statically verifiable memory safety is "woke" and that segmentation faults are "what the founders wanted"
Animated Emoji An official repository of all things related to animating the Noto Emoji.
Fraction.js When you need to do math with fractions but you don't want to encounter any of the inevitable IEEE 754 limits.
Software Folklore A collection of stories about weird technical incidents. The first story was debunked by Snopes, but still these are fun to read and tell your coworker during a long debug night.
It's not uncommon to revisit your old code and discover that it's terrible, that you could do so much better now. This is different: I'm revisiting old problems and discovering that I'm so much better equipped to solve than I was ten years ago.
I don’t think we’ll pay for this later. This reminds me of C++ developers turning their noses up at Visual Basic developers during my Microsoft days.
You can do valuable things with software or really any technology without knowing how it works
Related, Erin Mikail Staples
"AI coding tools only limit your learning!!!"
❌ Think again ❌
For me, these tools let me ask the "stupid" questions without hesitation—no more endless Google searches or getting lost in Stack Overflow.
Tweek Calendar A very simple weekly calendar with a delightful UI that's just so simple and obvious and pleasant to use. It does have all the features you'd expect — reminders, Google sync, recurring tasks, printable calendar, etc — and you can pair the web UI with both iOS and Android apps.
cms 💪
If Apple Intelligence just fizzles out completely, remember to love that it panicked them into raising the stingy base RAM size of their entire product range!
With the new AI systems, the user no longer tells the computer what to do. Rather, the user tells the computer what outcome they want.
Waveform Renderer Show me your waveform and I'll show you mine 👋 🔉 Related, Freesound a collection of over 670K free sample sound files.
it's ridiculous how it's now normal that computers are adversarial to their owners and using a computer now means to be working around constantly hostility of software designed specifically to not help you, and this is accepted enough that for young people that's their whole idea of what a computer is, a sort of scammy robot always trying to pull one over you
Using CSS to create a CRT Brings back memories … and with that flickering look & feel.
MAKING SOFTWARE I hope one day this book gets published (as PDF). For now an amazingly beautiful website for the mailing list.
Every so often I remember this quote from the old Unix Support page at Cambridge:
"Please note that we don't support VMS or Ultrix, the former because while it is a worthy operating system it isn't Unix and the latter because while it is a Unix it isn't a worthy operating system."
Andy B “I've always wondered how the Internet works.”
Eye for Design
Revenge Font Sometimes you can squeeze a lemon into a refreshing drink:
Someone vandalised our building and we made a font out of it. Download it and donate towards local initiatives that will improve the art in East London.
The Secret History of the Manicule, the Little Hand that’s Everywhere
Familiar to anyone who pays attention to vintage aesthetics, I’m embarrassed to say it’s taken me 40 years to learn the name of the beloved typographic symbol that been guiding the way for centuries.
Developing Taste Taste in the modern world of software:
When the first car came out, consumers didn't care about its color, or silhouette, because the competition was a horse.1 But now that cars have been commoditized, quality and details have become more important than ever.
Framous Take a screenshot, drag & drop into the app, and the app adds a frame for you. It automatically detects whether the screenshot is from iPhone, iPad, Mac, or watch, to pick the right frame, and can tell whether it’s landscape or portrait.
People love to criticise the Bureau of Meteorology web site for being neglected and behind the times, but it still works perfectly in the Nintendo 3DS web browser in 2025 and isn't that what's truly important?
Peoples
Hands-On How to be an engineering manager and still keep some tech skills.
Weak engineering managers What to do when you report to a manager with no clout:
Why are weak managers a problem for you? Because events like promotions, being assigned key projects, and so on, are all things that your manager needs to actively set up. If your manager isn’t able to speak up for you effectively in promo calibration meetings, you won’t get your promotion.
I'm not sure which of you need to hear this, but:
If you push yourself to your limits and burn out for a company, you are trading years of your future productivity for minor gains in the present.
Burning out will fuck you up, it's like brain fog or depression, and it takes years to recover
Friendly reminder: most people do burn out if they work too much. The ND crowd is different. So when you see people who seem to be in work mode 24 hours a day, it might just be that they have ADHD and this schedule works naturally for them. Don’t force them into an NT work schedule, but also don’t emulate them if your brain is different. Choose the style that works best for you!
Business Side
Minimum Viable Startup Operations What's your MVSO?
We think of the operations part of a startup like getting dinner on the table. Sure, some days, you might try a new and involved recipe, but most days, you just need to get something good enough on the table FAST, so that you can devote more time to other family and life priorities.
"I scratched my own itch" isn't good enough
While you might find existing solutions inadequate, potential customers might consider them “good enough,” and therefore unwilling to risk switching to a new product made by a new company, that certainly lacks features, doesn’t lack bugs, and might not be around in two years.
The New Leverage: AI and the Power of Small Teams Speaking of movies, this is the office where they made the wonderful Flow, using open source software (Blender), to generate $20M in revenue and win an Oscar! Sometimes smaller is better:
While it’s early days, AI promises some degree of resiliency. For people with entrepreneurial drive, it’s an exciting time: we can take ideas from vision to execution faster, cheaper, and at greater scale than ever. For others, it’ll be unsettling – or outright scary.
The pressure to deliver quarter-over-quarter growth to appease shareholders invariably forces companies to prioritize short-term gains over long-term product quality.
Skype is dead. What happened? For example:
kype’s demise is a good lesson in how ineffective middle management can destroy good acquisitions. I have never met a Skype manager on Microsoft’s side who had any imagination. Most were such “drones” that next to them even a red clay brick would come across as a genius work of art.
The hardcore startup kids grinding 17-hour days in a Hayes Valley den If you want to understand startup culture in SF and I’m quoting from the article (and yes, that’s a YC startup, why do you ask?):
- "startup kids grinding 17 hour days”
- “20-something building the next big thing in AI”
- two drink choices: Monster Energy Zero Ultra or Skittles-flavored C4
- “startup that builds AI agents meant to be research assistants to human sales reps”
- “ultra-grindcore routine starts at 7 a.m., with sales calls, coding, and recruiting tasks regularly lasting past midnight”
- "intersperse his extreme work sessions with 15-minute walks and a few rounds of pull-ups”
- "a crowded college apartment classed up with decor ordered from Amazon”
- "trying to vanquish trillion-dollar tech incumbents”
- “fueled by $2 million in seed funding”
- “'It's 800 calories and 90 grams of protein,' said Austin Kennedy, who is on leave of absence from college in Illinois”
- "relentless ability to grind has gained recognition in tech circles to the point that even anti-aging messiah Bryan Johnson scolded the team”
- "without those inputs, you will have inferior intelligence + your inferior intelligence then builds an inferior ai”
- “He's postponed those travel plans indefinitely, perhaps until the startup IPOs”
- “The 22-year-old considers himself the 'father of the house' because he taught his coworkers/roommates how to do dishes”
Secret to successful businesses: How funding fuels job, company growth The real secret to success is being born to rich parents, but the second lesser known secret to success is having connections with people who can invest in your business:
Starting with $1 million boosts the probability of success by a whopping 25 percentage points. It's like the old Steve Martin joke: Here's how to become a millionaire: First, get a million dollars.
Goodbye Clicks, Hello AI: Zero-Click Search Redefines Marketing “As consumers rely more on AI-based search and summaries, how will brands adapt their strategies?” I think that's how Google Ads is going to grow in the next decade.
Machine Intelligence
KProfsBlog I love if this turns out into a win and becomes the basis for future lawsuits:
A man, frustrated that Substack would not respond to him, appealed to the company’s chatbot, which provided mild assurances that someone would get back to him. Substack never did, so he sued for promissory estoppel.
Related, finally someone putting a cost on lazy writing: Judges Are Fed up With Lawyers Using AI That Hallucinate Court Cases
A Student Used AI to Beat Amazon’s Brutal Technical Interview. He Got an Offer and Someone Tattled to His University Amazing! This AI will help you land a job at one of the FAANG!
</sarcasm>
This just goes to prove how useless the "technical" interviews are at companies like Facebook or Amazon. They're testing you for being an agreeable cog in the machine that they can layoff at a moment’s notice but also meanwhile could maybe write a few lines of code while working on an AI to replace yourself.
Amazon loves AI, except when candidates use it in job interviews Related, a strong case of the irony:
The tech giant is cracking down on the use of AI tools in job interviews, highlighting the ethical challenges of AI's role in recruiting.
I experimented with Claude.ai and ChatGPT to create a Python script to generate directories and files for a new C++ project.
Claude.ai was much better. The code it generated was much nicer, and actually worked. ChatGPT's scripts were awful, and often wouldn't even run without manual fixes.
The prompt I used is attached to the generated script, here: https://gist.github.com/kristopherjohnson/17fc6b6d0f02ac4e2fd41bd2e2fac289
AI firms follow DeepSeek’s lead, create cheaper models with “distillation” If you're “distilling AI” to compete with DeepSeek on affordable pricing, are you a) just being cheap? b) actually realizing there’s no need to blow $$$B on AI? c) downscaling your AI to fit in a mobile phone?
Sources: the White House is weighing measures to restrict DeepSeek, including banning its app from US app stores, because of national security concerns Certainly DeepSeek is a “national security concern” because they proved good AI could be made on the cheap which is a grave concern for all the billionaires invested in the stock price of OpenAI, Facebook, etc (stocks = “securities”).
Microsoft is reportedly plotting a future without OpenAI Related, the stock market is crashing so this is really the perfect time to pop the bubble (or maybe they just switch over to Anthropic):
Microsoft’s AI head is plotting a future without OpenAI. According to a report from The Information, Mustafa Suleyman, the head of Microsoft’s AI division, has set his sights on a bold objective: reducing the company’s dependence on OpenAI. "After setbacks, Microsoft’s AI guru Mustafa Suleyman appears to be making slow progress helping the company wean
AI is ‘beating’ humans at empathy and creativity. But these games are rigged So computers are better at computing? Mind blown!
All that these examples of so-called “AI victories” show us is that machines are better than humans at performing empathy, creativity and conflict resolution in machine-like ways.
I stopped saying thanks to ChatGPT – here's what happened Be nice to the robots because one day …
However if, like me, you instinctively add pleases and thank yous, research suggests that’s not just harmless – it might actually help. Polite, well-structured prompts often lead to better responses, and in some cases, they may even reduce bias. That’s not just a bonus – it’s a critical factor in AI reliability.
Latest Turing Award winners again warn of AI dangers The Noble Piece of Code prize goes to a pair that suggested AI reinforcement learning is a thing.
Related, OpenAI reportedly plans to charge up to $20,000 a month for specialized AI ‘agents’ I don’t know what PhD’s make, but for OpenAI that’s $20K/month:
OpenAI’s most expensive rumored agent, priced at the aforementioned $20,000-per-month tier, will be aimed at supporting “PhD-level research,” according to The Information.
My current therapy consists of chatting with an AI who training data ended in 2023, filling it in on the latest news and reading its reaction and alarm. The fact that it is preemptively planning for my safety makes me feel cared for.
The mix-in revolution This article is your daily reminder that AI has existed in one form or another since the 1950’s. AI brought us the culture of Lisp, Lisp gave birth to Emacs, so your IDE has more AI history behind it than you realize:
John McCarthy began developing Lisp in 1958 while he was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was motivated by a desire to create an AI programming language that would work on the IBM 704, as he believed that "IBM looked like a good bet to pursue Artificial Intelligence research vigorously.”
Insecurity
How do librarians remotely access their computers?
ssh!
Revealed: the scammers who conned savers out of $35m using fake celebrity ads The math makes sense. £162,000 in 135 hours is a remarkable £1,200/hour which is really amazing hourly rate … for the scammers:
The fake adverts, which often reference the billionaire Elon Musk, appear to have been placed by affiliate marketers, who communicated anonymously with the scammers and earned fees by gathering the contact details of potential victims.
Answering the phone in French sure gets the scammers to hang up pretty quick.
Tell me you're storing unhashed cleartext passwords without telling me you are storing cleartext passwords.
Everything Else
Plantagotchi An “AI-driven self-watering pot". Basically Tamagochi device to take care of your plants with a super cute emoji face (laughs when you tickle it). Also got a water sensor, a light sensor, can show time and weather, and other useful things, but important this is the most entertaining thing you can show your friends when they visit your place.
TRES leches? In this economy?
The rabbit went to the vet earlier and now he's got an ego about him.
"Oooh he's a beautiful little fella. And they're usually so frightened, but he's not at all, is he? It's nice to see them so confident"
Ask your doctor if unscheduled, rapid disassembly is right for you.
I have a mouthwash that says "freshens breath for 24 hours when used twice daily"
Someone's taking pictures in San Francisco at an angle to make the streets look level. I feel simultaneously amused and triggered. (Seeing the cars level is what really fuels the illusion)
Forget hitting the ground running, try hitting the ground not breaking your legs.
Finally got one of those cars with a TV in the dash, but the only show it plays is someone backing over my trash cans ...
Over the weekend, Newbury's Paddington bear statue was vandalised
I cycled by its bench today, and people have left marmalade as a tribute.
my favorite part about emails is ignoring them
She did not "blind you with science." You were told to put your goggles on three times.
World's oldest llama enjoys comforting chronically ill children in North Carolina
A bucktoothed llama that spends his days comforting chronically ill children at a North Carolina camp founded by NASCAR royalty has been crowned the world’s oldest llama in captivity.
Should you refuse to show compassion because you believe it would make you appear weak, then you have misunderstood what strength is. It is honorable to have concern for others, to show empathy and to offer aid to someone in distress. To rebuke this is cowardice, not strength.
at the stage where I walk into the coffee shop, and they start making me a giant jug of coffee before I even say a word
Robot Dreams I haven't had this much fun watching an animated video in such a long time. According to Wikipedia it's a tragicomedy, a Spanish-French co-production that takes place in 1984 NYC. And it’s definitely NYC: the shops, food stalls, subway, parks, beaches, dating … It’s also very 1984: Tab (remember the drink?), Jelly Beans, roller skates, flash cameras, boombox …
AI is the media's chance to reinvent itself You'd think this article is warning us about the sad state of journalism in 2025, but no … it's about our future with AI, which I think is a false equivalence – blaming the machine because it behaves exactly like a human would?
The practice of public-interest journalism involves, among other things, establishing the veracity of information before publishing it, and correcting the record if it turns out to be incorrect. Through this process, day after day, journalism accumulates an imperfect but permanent record, archived as articles, audio and video, of what has happened.
Sindarina, Edge Case Detective
If I ever retire from tech and start an automobile repair shop in a quiet town somewhere, I am going to call it ‘Auto Correct’ 🚗🧑🏻🔧🔧🧰
Rick Calkins This has got to be the most interesting vehicle of the 60’s. Unfortunately only one unit ever built, but it does feature La Linea on the side!
Fiat 1100 Spiaggetta, 1962, by Ghia. A one-off beach car based on Fiat's light van (the 1100T) with 3 rows of wicker seating and space for 7 to 8 passengers, plus a driver.
RIP (finally) to the blockchain hype And the award for most stupid word salad that pretends to sound intelligent by mixing some high-brow words goes to:
There’s still interest in some related technologies, including cryptocurrency and blockchain wallets, but Leow doesn’t see widespread adoption in the future unless blockchain is paired with other emerging technologies such as AI and quantum computing.
Denmark's postal service to stop delivering letters Since 99% of the letters in my mailbox are just spam and then other 1% could have been an email, I like that change. You'd still be able to send letters, you just have to use one of the other carries (UPS, FedEx, etc).
some bicycling news. Born in a hospital in Utrecht is this tricycle for young patients to drive around in the corridors of the hospital with an infusion they need for their therapy. Now available for the rest of the world. The bicycle is baptised ‘Infuuts’ (combining the word fiets and infusion).
Eggs in a Wombat's Kit “Running a numbers racket has always been immoral, and the outrage here is only that the wrong villain had an advantage.”
On April 22, 2023, someone won a $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot by spending $25 million to buy nearly every possible number combination in the draw. The winner, identified only as a business entity called Rook TX, of Scotch Plains, N.J., ended up claiming the lump-sum payment of $57,804,000 before taxes.
'You've got to have a laugh,' says British man who put fake legs in pothole
A British man has been either swerving around or barreling over the more than metre-long crater in his village for the last eight months. But instead of getting mad about it, he decided to do something silly.
I know folks who tend to think that the richest people must be the smartest people.
But then I ask them 2 questions:
Who’s the richest person you ever met?
Who’s the smartest person you ever met?
And they almost always give me two different answers.
Sure millions will suffer under the Trump tariffs, but my succulents are THRIVING with all the extra attention my stress relief garden's getting! 💁♀️ 🌵 ✨
