Tim Bray 🇨🇦

Web geek and environmentalist with a camera at the bottom left corner of Canada. He/him.

These posts are coming from a member-owned cooperative: https://cosocial.info

My posts are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

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nprofile1qqsfw0rhnj67wtlskmc0gluws6hwr7kwrssmszhqmx79p9525ut7fwqpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qz9thwden5te0wfjkccte9ekk7um5wgh8qatzwhsepk

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Last Notes

2026-10-29 14:20:24 UTC

My Mac was running hot and sure enough, something (I forget what) was spinning in the background. So I went to the settings list of which apps are allowed to run in background (and which actually are). I guess I must have at some point authorized all of them? Anyhow, in 2026, it looks like a list of adversaries. I kicked almost everything off the list unless there was a clear and obvious benefit to me.
What a dystopia we’ve built.
#macOS #enshittification

2026-10-28 20:23:22 UTC

All these groovy new MBPros with M5/6 make me wonder if I’d notice a difference from my 3-year-old M2 box. #Mac #Apple

2026-10-27 15:31:38 UTC

Insta-follow, creator of the CSS Zen Garden back in the day: “Don’t call it a comeback” – Dave Shea
https://daveshea.com/journal/don-t-call-it-a-comeback/

2026-10-25 16:43:42 UTC

“BC nobly sacrifices good governance to teach one man about hubris”:
https://www.thebeaverton.com/2026/10/bc-nobly-sacrifices-good-governance-to-teach-one-man-about-hubris/
#bcpoli

2026-10-24 15:15:04 UTC

In which I offer a ringside seat at my struggle vs the temptation to use #GenAI on a couple of programming tasks: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/10/19/The-AI-Temptation

2026-10-19 23:55:27 UTC

A little on the unexpected side: https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/article/united-airlines-ceo-says-us-should-have-an-inheritance-tax-close-to-100-and-hed-pay-it-214906350.html
He also said “We should have a national wealth tax — it won't work by state because people will just move.”

2026-10-18 19:25:17 UTC

Why Hunterbrook is shorting Meta: https://hntrbrk.com/breaking-news/muse-tickertrends
A word of explanation: Hunterbrook is a team of investigative journalists in the employ of a private-capital fund. The journalists dig up dirt on some company or investment offering, Hunterbrook (the investment company) shorts it, then then Hunterbrook (the web site) publishes the dirt. While this sounds sketchy, it’s apparently legal.
#meta #muse #genAI
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/117/463/548/862/303/339/original/6eff981f8e1f6410.png

2026-10-17 17:23:12 UTC

Somebody is putting a *lot* of work into creating spam Fedi accounts, you can spot them by a post containing “google.co.<some-country-code>/share.google?q=" and then a whole lot of random hashtags. Please report if you see one.

2026-10-15 16:25:09 UTC

Today is FORTRAN’s 70th birthday; its reference manual “appeared in a glossy cover, handsomely printed, with the date October 15, 1956.” https://softwarepreservation.computerhistory.org/FORTRAN/paper/p25-backus.pdf
(The actual software wasn’t released till the following year)
No longer fashionable but still, one of computer programming’s biggest success stories. I tip my hat.

2026-10-13 22:22:08 UTC

John Gruber @nprofile…5rls says “The culture on X today is remarkably friendly and inclusive” Hmm, that's not how I remember it. So I spent an hour there and, maybe I’m weird, but… https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/10/13/True-Things-About-X

2026-10-10 22:45:25 UTC

Color Study: Fujifilm vs Pixel
https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/10/10/Color-Study-Fuji-vs-Pixel
#fujifilm #photography
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/117/419/037/338/581/222/original/fd05edb67b6f9439.jpg
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/117/419/037/398/090/566/original/c31940445ef930d7.jpg

2026-10-06 18:01:22 UTC

Hm, @nprofile…4hqr has published WE ARE GOING TO KILL “UNALIVE” at https://www.anildash.com/2026/10/06/kill-unalive/ - you might enjoy it. Two things:
1. There’s a whole book on the subject called “Algospeak”, where the first chapter is entitled Why Your Kids Are Saying “Unalive”, read about it at https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/03/05/Because-Algospeak#p-2
2. Weirdly, Anil doesn't mention the Fediverse or Mastodon, which is currently the largest sustained effort to free online conversation from the tyranny of the advertisers’ algorithm. Disappointing.

2026-10-05 20:53:50 UTC

Good lord … seriously into mindfuck territory: https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/online-in-2026/
#genAI #TheSimpsons

2026-10-04 01:41:31 UTC

Just reviewed an incoming draft to the IETF. Something about it made my nose twitch so I sent it to Pangram which came back with a finding that it was 97% AI generated. I guess you'd call that a sloppy draft.

2026-10-02 21:06:54 UTC

Hey, still more not-exactly-hippies casting side-eyes on the financial prospects for #GenAI, in this case the Wall Street Journal, in “Will America Spend 9% of Its GDP on AI? The Industry Is Counting on It
To justify staggering investment sums, Americans will have to spend as much of their income on this one technology as they do on food”
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/will-america-spend-9-of-its-gdp-on-ai-the-industry-is-counting-on-it-3501bb4f?st=eJNL7P&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/117/373/351/568/922/196/original/8f4122b526ef62e9.png

2026-09-30 21:22:03 UTC

Researchers from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research conclude — hold on, I know this is difficult to believe — that the #GenAI business is financially unsustainable.
“AI Companies Are In a Race Against Time”:
https://econjared.substack.com/p/ai-companies-are-in-a-race-against?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosmarkets&stream=business&_bhlid=1f7d07d7c589a39c45d8d8ecd375479cbb962934

2026-09-25 22:37:21 UTC

In which I engage in heresy: The purpose of a system is NOT what it does: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/09/24/The-Purpose-Isnt-What-It-Does
#POSIWID

2026-09-20 05:39:12 UTC

Enjoying the spectacle of big-name mainstream commentators stumbling across the Rationalists and recoiling with a horrified you-must-be-joking expression.

2026-09-07 16:42:31 UTC

Petition to block MAGA PE scum from owning crucial Canadian payment infrastructure, namely Moneris: https://www.ourcommons.ca/Petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-7712

2026-09-03 15:16:17 UTC

VC isn’t VC anymore — understanding the rise of Cancer Capital - Anil Dash
https://www.anildash.com/2026/09/02/cancer-capital/

2026-08-30 00:34:58 UTC

We’ve known for a while that the idea of 2 states in IsraPal has been made impossible, but these maps make it shockingly obvious. https://www.newyorker.com/news/a-reporter-at-large/new-maps-show-how-israel-has-thwarted-hopes-for-a-palestinian-state (not a gift link, sorry)
Eventually the settlers or their descendants will pay a terrible price because the architecture of oppression cannot stand. Few will shed tears.

2026-08-29 21:13:56 UTC

Rockies, late-day, westbound.
#photography #aerial #canada
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/117/180/860/605/385/834/original/2b45ba14e8359625.jpg

2026-08-22 04:45:39 UTC

Really no point in offering concessions to mercurial narcissist bullies.
#nevent1q…q9de

2026-08-14 16:20:27 UTC

From a review of a recent AC/DC concert randomly linked from my feed: “…the crowd exited smiling and, in many cases, well-juiced. Outside the arena exit gates, rows of teens were waiting to drive their parents home.”
#music

2026-08-08 18:41:28 UTC

TIL that if you’re on a Mac and go to:
Settings > Apple Account > iCloud > Saved to iCloud
… you’ll discover all sorts of things you don't use shipping this & that off to iCloud without asking you and some of them (Siri, Shortcuts) will regularly consume 100% of a core while so doing. Fortunately, easy to turn off.
#Apple #MacOS

2026-08-04 00:40:52 UTC

“The mice are Maoists now”: https://existentialcomics.com/comic/666

2026-07-30 16:47:30 UTC

Mostly just leaves. If they look a little weird, it’s because I’m shooting into a fishtank.
#photography #FishTanksOfMastodon #Fujifilm
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/117/009/943/661/680/353/original/0251bc2219a045b5.jpg

2026-07-28 20:23:13 UTC

Say hello to Mr Shrimp.
#Photography #CrustaceansOfMastodon
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/116/999/467/308/483/726/original/d7ca913dec9fa7a6.jpg

2026-07-19 15:42:40 UTC

The “settlers” are brutish animals without hearts or souls, supported and protected by the state of Israel.
I think the only way forward is a program of absolute full-on boycott and disinvestment.
A Hellish Month in the Occupied West Bank
https://www.infinitejaz.com/p/a-hellish-month-in-the-occupied-west

2026-07-18 19:13:33 UTC

Wanna read a maximally-anti-#GenAI screed? Here ya go: https://hermit-tech.com/blog/ai-mania-is-eviscerating-global-decisionmaking
I now only rarely work behind the doors of companies doing major tech deployments so won’t comment on how accurate-vs-overblown this piece is, but the writing is lucid.

2026-07-12 17:23:54 UTC

I know this has been heavily linked to, but Evans’ “Ways to think about token pricing” - https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2026/7/9/ways-to-think-about-token-pricing - is really very good and everyone making a bet on #GenAI should bloody well read it with close attention.

2026-07-09 18:24:18 UTC

I frequently find myself explaining, often to people I don’t know, why it is that my online home is on #Mastodon, why I’m putting time and effort into building and running an instance, and why those are the best choices.
So here’s my latest effort to pull all the arguments I use together in a coherent sequence: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/07/05/Choose-Mastodon

2026-07-07 01:36:01 UTC

Before the #worldcup started, a lot of non-American footy fans were thinking it'd be good if the US team went far and showed well, raise soccer consciousness in North America, etc. Trump & Infantino killed that in about 30 seconds, all those people are Belgium fans as of now.

2026-07-01 00:44:23 UTC

The #worldcup got less interesting today because now everybody's convinced that France is going to sweep through without breaking a sweat. “Everybody” includes me.

2026-06-29 18:47:58 UTC

I asked them to pose and they did.
#bloomscrolling #photography
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/116/834/885/754/248/663/original/8c5c6b5c3374b6d7.jpg

2026-06-28 17:30:56 UTC

In which the non-technical world notices the concept of the “Open Web”, and Google’s abandonment of it: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/google-ai-oligarchy-and-the-end-of-the-open-web - Essential reading, I think.

2026-06-27 23:16:12 UTC

Huh… discovered our everyday VPN “Private Internet Access” has sketchy ownership with heavy Unit 8200 links and other red flags. Looked at some others… ick. What’s a good general-purpose VPN that doesn’t have weird ownership or a history of data leaks and is technically competent? Our instinct is to avoid free products.
#VPN

2026-06-26 21:23:50 UTC

Hey, looking for a Windows consultant in Vancouver, got a friend, a successful psychologist, whose install and hosting are all messed up and needs the kind of help I can't give. Will pay, obviously but it's a small job. DMs open.
#FediHire

2026-06-26 20:01:16 UTC

OK, I’m impressed: https://jeantimex.github.io/threejs-water/
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/116/818/187/044/412/903/original/441f009f58235be2.png

2026-06-24 16:36:27 UTC

#uspol #worldcup
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/116/806/057/036/879/141/original/bd0e1ed0c1aa9f29.png

2026-06-20 21:48:48 UTC

I have tickets for a #worldcup game tomorrow (NZ-Egypt) and in the “tickets” app there’s this little card illustrating the things you’re not allowed to take in. On my phone it is absolutely indecipherable. On a big screen still pretty ridiculous.
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/116/784/636/023/237/469/original/fd74474df2703ea9.png

2026-06-18 17:10:34 UTC

For those who live or have lived (like me up till 2020) in JavaLand, this will be a stimulating read: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/project-valhalla-explained-how-decade-work-arrives-jdk-skowroński-paulf/ (tl;dr: Java value classes)
When I was a Java-head, I mostly hated all the new Java features because to a one, they made it less readable. I think this mostly won’t? Can’t wait to hear reports back from people who try applying it to big codebases.
#java

2026-06-17 18:00:26 UTC

Oh my goodness gracious: https://www.dell.com/en-ca/shop/dell-ultrasharp-52-thunderbolt-hub-monitor-u5226kw/apd/210-bthw/monitors-monitor-accessories

2026-06-16 02:33:44 UTC

This is interesting because it’s the first RFC I’ve seen past 10K, and also because it’s interesting. https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc10008/
#http #rfc #ietf

2026-06-12 15:11:18 UTC

When the aliens arrive, it’s gonna cost the TV networks millions, because all the green screens will become useless.

2026-06-11 18:36:13 UTC

We are trying to move our cats off US-made supermarket cat food to something local and alleged to be of better quality. There are 2 cats, fat/smart and black/dim. There are 2 food categories, dry & wet. So far we are 25% there, fat/smart has relented and accepts that the new dry food is edible.
As for the other 75% there are many puzzled looks (“what is this stuff in my bowl?”) and resentful glares (“you used to give me food, why aren’t you giving me food!”).
Wish us luck.
#catsofmastodon

2026-06-03 15:16:47 UTC

1/ You can think that Tridge made some mistakes (I do, and he acknowledges them) and disagree with his take on GenAI (I do) but the pitchfork-wielding burn-the-witch mob being led by @nprofile…c2nm should show some humility and humanity. I acknowledge I'm a bit prejudiced based on having for a few decades used Tridge's work to save my ass and achieve results that seem miraculous.

2026-06-02 21:29:50 UTC

In which I consider the state of incumbent markup formats. https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/06/01/XML-and-JSON-in-2026
#json #xml
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/116/682/639/841/267/956/original/d79007e521607bba.png

2026-05-30 00:54:57 UTC

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This flower wants to have hot sweaty transgressive sex with you, or maybe just kill you and feast on your flesh.
#bloomscrolling
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/116/660/791/777/140/895/original/57bc0f8be3593500.jpg

2026-05-30 00:53:21 UTC

This is a *nice* flower, a *gentle* flower, a flower you could take home to Mom.
#bloomscrolling
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/116/660/785/485/222/614/original/695461c48f0c7dc1.jpg

2026-05-27 19:27:31 UTC

I signed this petition and if you’re a Wikipedia editor you probably should too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wiki_Workers_United_solidarity
#wikipedia

2026-05-27 16:59:36 UTC

In which @nprofile…4zt6, who’s on a tear recently, defends and promotes the use of the word “clanker” to replace “agent” (in the LLM sense): https://lucumr.pocoo.org/2026/5/26/clankers/
#genai #clanker

2026-05-26 17:52:21 UTC

Most of the fossil fuel consumed in North America is produced in North America. The cost of production hasn’t gone up, but the price has, because of Trump’s foolish war. Thus an avalanche of pure profit for the oil&gas sector. This is not remotely reasonable. What to do about it? Impose a lower price by government fiat? Price controls are hard.
Here’s a Canadian petition drive with another pretty simple idea: A windfall tax on unearned profits: https://act.stand.earth/page/97584/petition/1
Doesn’t sound crazy.

2026-05-22 18:41:09 UTC

TFW you spend a couple hours trying to track down a horribly obscure bug, you're looking at the code blankly and are getting seriously irritated and then it was a typo in your unit-test code.
#software

2026-05-22 16:31:16 UTC

The tbray dot org hosting provider, which has been rock solid for years, has been mostly down for the last 72 hours. They claim DDOS. I know hosting is a tough business but I guess I gotta look elsewhere… not what I wanted to be worrying about just now.

2026-05-20 19:12:09 UTC

In which I don’t accept an invitation to a high-prestige unconference. “I declined, because it’s in the USA”: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/05/19/Declining-America
#USpol

2026-05-19 00:21:45 UTC

Hey, I asked @nprofile…48dj and he confirmed my impression: This year (last month, actually) is JSON’s 25th birthday.
{ "greeting": "Happy birthday!"}
#json

2026-05-17 16:52:15 UTC

I ❤️ Debian: https://nerds.xyz/2026/05/debian-13-5-linux-security-update/
#debian #linux

2026-05-13 22:54:56 UTC

So I'm driving home to my Mom's place in a city I don't know that well, so I read off her address to the Android Auto in the rental, and this irritating male voice says “that appears to be a residential neighborhood, and driving there will take you about 16 minutes. Shall I add it as a destination?" What walking-vacant-space product manager thought this was an improvement over just popping the route and time onto the screen with a "Start" button (that starts itself in a bit)?
#FuckGemini

2026-05-12 19:03:57 UTC

Oh, Matt Levine: https://newsletterhunt.com/emails/317039
#GenAI
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/116/563/157/648/307/961/original/3c92837fcf8eca7c.png

2026-05-11 04:59:22 UTC

“Summary:
A compromised dependency in the JavaScript ecosystem led to credential theft, which enabled a supply chain attack on a Rust compression library, which was vendored into a Python build tool, which shipped malware to approximately 4 million developers before being inadvertently patched by an unrelated cryptocurrency mining worm.”
#nevent1q…lmsk

2026-05-08 15:40:56 UTC

“Photographer Spends Night on Freezing Mountain to Capture Rare Triple Galaxy Arch” - astonishing photo and interesting how-it-was-done narrative.
https://petapixel.com/2026/05/08/photographer-spends-night-on-freezing-mountain-to-capture-rare-triple-galaxy-arch/
#Photography

2026-05-06 16:23:06 UTC

“War is bad. Don’t start one. But we’re already in a class war and we’re losing. Where by “we” I mean most people; the winning side comprises, roughly, the richest 0.1% of the population, who are morphing into a hereditary aristocracy. So, what to do in a war one didn’t choose?”: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/05/03/Life-During-Class-Wartime
#USpol #cdnpoli
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/116/528/551/364/676/095/original/6f314ec2ff382608.png

2026-04-29 19:04:39 UTC

Good Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_a_needle
Think: Camel.

2026-04-27 23:48:23 UTC

https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/60/3/198
From the British Journal of Sports Medicine: “Conclusion While transgender women exhibited higher lean mass than cisgender women, their physical fitness was comparable. Current evidence is mostly low certainty and has heterogenous quality but does not support theories of inherent athletic advantages for transgender women over cisgender.”
#trans

2026-04-27 18:26:22 UTC

Existential Comics publishes every Monday, and rarely misses:
https://existentialcomics.com/comic/652

2026-04-24 17:05:54 UTC

Took my ancient cello into the luthier for maintenance. What a charming experience! Thanks to Brian and Angel for their warm greeting and the loaner instrument.
https://wilderdavis.com/fr
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/116/460/771/914/242/632/original/a134d75df09546d0.jpg
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/116/460/771/932/808/779/original/730e0acb66b6371e.jpg

2026-04-23 19:07:21 UTC

Tl;dr: #GenAI doesn’t actually have a plausible business model.
https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/917380/ai-monetization-anthropic-openai-token-economics-revenue
I’m shocked … shocked.

2026-04-20 17:46:42 UTC

This is outrageous. Per Matt Levine “Musk saved about $143 million by illegally waiting to disclose his purchases [of Twitter shares] so he could buy more in secret.”https://newsletterhunt.com/emails/282521
But, who exactly did he illegally extract (let's just say “steal”) that money from? The stock market makes it difficult to identify victims.
If I stole 143 *thousand*, no matter from who, my ass would be in prison. Also, $143M is pocket change to this guy.
So, this calls for a prison sentence. No?

2026-04-18 21:48:42 UTC

Having a little issue where we tie up our boat at the cabin.
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/116/427/910/078/246/042/original/c6a9986bfa99942e.png

2026-04-18 16:01:20 UTC

Adobe Has Run Out of Allies | PetaPixel
https://petapixel.com/2026/04/18/adobe-has-run-out-of-allies/
Disclosure: Former ally.

2026-04-15 20:32:27 UTC

BOOM: Ticketmaster GUILTY of Monopolization
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/boom-ticketmaster-guilty-of-monopolization?publication_id=11524&utm_campaign=email-post-title&r=wabr&utm_medium=email

2026-04-11 16:33:14 UTC

https://www.ledevoir.com/opinion/libre-opinion/969674/fedivers-lutter-contre-ingerence-etrangere-proteger-notre-democratie? (en français) Translated title: “The Fediverse resists foreign interference and protects our democracy”
#fediverse

2026-04-07 16:54:26 UTC

I read that huge tedious New Yorker piece about Altman, “Can He Be Trusted?”, so you don’t have to. Betteridge’s Law applies. Altman does seem to believe the things that he’s saying. Even when they turn out to be false or are the opposite of something he was saying recently. At least he’s apparently not a sex pest. Also, Musk hates him and that’s not nothing.
It’s pretty clear he doesn’t understand what the technology he’s peddling is and does. I think history won’t be kind to him.
#genAI

2026-04-07 16:30:50 UTC

Why those gorgeous shots from Artemis are courtesy of a 10-year-old Nikon camera, rather than anything shipped since then: https://petapixel.com/2026/04/06/the-10-year-old-nikon-d5-dslr-really-is-the-best-camera-for-artemis-ii/
#Photography #nikon

2026-04-05 00:56:16 UTC

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@nprofile…a4ar @nprofile…7yuj I just tried it and if it was gone it's back now

2026-04-04 22:52:26 UTC

This piece is great and everything @nprofile…7yuj says about it is true. I would add: If you feel like you mostly know what the author is saying about the development experience, maybe stay with it because it's really well-written. But if you don’t want to, skip down to where he takes up the ethics and humanities issues. Very deep and very intense stuff there. #genai
#nevent1q…t0jh

2026-04-02 22:26:26 UTC

1. GenAI is probably going to impact us but how? Nobody knows.
2. The worst thing about GenAI isn't the technology, it's the shitty people: https://karlbode.com/the-problem-with-ai-is-shitty-human-beings [<must-read]
3. We can’t have a grown-up conversation on the subject because the trillion-dollar bet’s feer+greed pressure crowds out truth.
4. When the bubble pops, the shitty people will melt away. Then we can maybe figure it out.
5. We so *SO* need that bubble to pop. Next week would be ideal.
#GenAI

2026-04-01 16:13:26 UTC

Wow, Baldur has dug up a gem here. Savor this paragraph:
#nevent1q…r9qy
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/116/330/332/440/054/712/original/a926f2a37c5e9dd9.png

2026-04-01 16:10:32 UTC

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@nprofile…3src Then there's the other data center debt comprising large sums that Big Tech companies have promised to pay, structured in such a way that it doesn't appear on their balance sheets. They can probably afford it even in a worst-case scenario (except maybe Oracle), but it'd mean the end of their cash fountains that have sustained a high proportion of stock-market growth.

2026-03-31 01:24:29 UTC

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@nprofile…ugp2 I'd second the recommendation for @nprofile…7yuj
I'd also recommend a glance at my essay on why Mastodon/Fedi is currently the best choice for social networking: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2025/11/03/Time-to-Migrate

2026-03-30 23:30:06 UTC

Om doesn't pull any punches. Tl;Dr: Google sells its fiber biz to a PE. The rest is sadly predictable.
https://om.co/2026/03/27/astounded-google-flips-its-fiber-to-pe/

2026-03-29 21:02:56 UTC

Congrats to @nprofile…yvcw on the #NDP win.
Obviously there will be much “B-b-but he’s a *socialist*!” pearl-clutching on all the legacy and new-right channels. Also, screaming from the Prairie fantasists who think they can build a prosperous future on fossil fuels.
There is a huge vacant political space to Carney’s left. There for the NDP to pick up if they can message effectively, as the UK Greens are.
#cdnpoli

2026-03-27 18:57:15 UTC

Speaking as a person who is currently thinking of migrating off GitHub, I found this thread super helpful. Thanks @nprofile…wpkg !
#nevent1q…y8xl

2026-03-26 21:21:17 UTC

Hmm, writing a thing and, without thinking about it, used the verb “enslopify”. I can’t be the first. I think it’ll catch on.
#GenAI

2026-03-26 17:00:40 UTC

Here's where you go to tell GitHub that it can’t train CoPilot on your code & interactions: https://github.com/settings/copilot/features
Just sayin’
#GenAI

2026-03-20 16:52:48 UTC

The reason I joined the Android team in 2010, and that since 2008 I’ve carried Android not iOS devices, was that I could just download software. And other people could download mine.
This new process is a massive breaking of faith with the community.
To be fair, every year or two Apple ratchets up the difficulty of downloading Mac apps.
The doors on every open platform are swinging closed, fast or slow. Capitalism is broken. Another reason we need to protect the Web.
Feaugh.
#nevent1q…qv64

2026-03-19 20:43:27 UTC

Super disappointed that this was left undisclosed: https://bsky.social/about/blog/03-19-2026-series-b
I don’t see how you can build a VC-supported free product without slipping into the Torment Nexus which is to say AdTech.
I do believe the Bluesky people really do want to try to do this. But I still don’t see how.

2026-03-09 19:36:15 UTC

Seems painfully obvious that, whatever you think about #genai code, anyone using it is heading for a code-review logjam. Assuming that the org requires code review; if yours doesn’t, nothing I can say will help you. Anyhow, Rishi Baldawa writes smart stuff about the problem and possible ways forward, in ˚The Reviewer Isn't the Bottleneck”: https://rishi.baldawa.com/posts/review-isnt-the-bottleneck/
[My prediction: A lot of orgs will *not* do smart things about this and will suffer disastrous consequences in the near future.]

2026-03-09 06:57:08 UTC

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@nprofile…kjcu @nprofile…ls6k @nprofile…tk7j Reminds me: I need to recycle the SCSI cables in That Box out in the garage. I’m optimistic that eldritch horrors will not leap out of it should I open it, but let’s take it off to recycling in a closed condition.

2026-03-08 17:38:53 UTC

Attensity!
https://attensity.net/
h/t @nprofile…pnhw

2026-03-04 21:27:59 UTC

Knuth on Claude:
https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/papers/claude-cycles.pdf

2026-03-04 17:28:47 UTC

From @nprofile…pnhw
GitHub status
https://mrshu.github.io/github-statuses/
A more honest third party monitor of GitHub services. The vital service has under 92% of uptime for the last three months. Rumor is they are migrating everything to Azure and it is going very badly

2026-02-28 20:46:09 UTC

In which I compare the AI bubble to the Kansas Experiment: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/02/27/Kansas-and-GenAI
(Tl;dr: In 1991, Kansas slashed taxes based on Tea-Party theories that this would stimulate growth and make everyone better off. It didn’t go well.)
#genAI

2026-02-25 06:06:43 UTC

Amazon may be in fairly big legal trouble here: https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/amazon-busted-for-widespread-price?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=11524&post_id=189053872&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=wabr&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

2026-02-24 22:33:07 UTC

Gotta say, some of the comments on this one had me snorting out loud.
#nevent1q…hh68

2026-02-24 18:16:29 UTC

IBM crashes because we’re gonna YOLO a replacement for banking and credit-card back-ends, replacing billions of lines of COBOL with vibe code. Uh…
https://www.techbuzz.ai/articles/ibm-crashes-11-as-anthropic-threatens-cobol-empire

2026-02-24 04:09:48 UTC

Taking action against AI harms - Anil Dash
https://anildash.com/2026/02/23/taking-action-ai-harms/
What Anil said.

2026-02-22 16:41:54 UTC

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@nprofile…4xpq @nprofile…a6hr OK, but you talk about "us" and "them" as if they're equivalent forces, and they’re just not. The problem is that one of the factions is insane. It is that specifically that is causing the breakdown of conversation, not some generalized bipolar extremism.

2026-02-22 06:49:27 UTC

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@nprofile…4xpq @nprofile…a6hr I guess the problem is the word "polarized" - the etymology is straightforward from "polar" as in "polar" opposites", and thus the word has the strong connotation that the poles are unreasonable and truth is somewhere in the middle. When you're talking about current US politics, that’s actively misleading and dangerous. I think anyone wanting to argue seriously about the current scene should really stop using "polarized" and "polarization".