Nostr notes by Ben O’Matic

One last thought for the folks who say, "This is only bad for ...

2026-10-02T01:49:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…ycdm
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One last thought for the folks who say, "This is only bad for people who do bad things and are afraid of being caught."

Learn your history. Look up Cardinal Richelieu, who famously said:

"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him."

Everything can be taken out of context. In a surveillance society--even if the surveillance is nominally consensual--nobody is truly free.

In summary, the truth is we've already given up on a lot of ...

2026-10-02T01:46:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…rwkw
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In summary, the truth is we've already given up on a lot of our privacy because we use social networks, posting things that can be read and indexed and used for training and archived.

So the landscape has changed over the years.

But I still think that iListen is a creepy surveillance feature, and it's my hope that Apple publicly backs away from it, in a way that's a warning to all the companies trying to sell products that do the same thing.

Literally my most charitable read on the iListen feature of ...

2026-10-02T01:44:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…etnh
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Literally my most charitable read on the iListen feature of WatchOS is that they're trying to kill the market for whatever device OpenAI is trying to create.

Like, "Oh, you want to make a wearable that's always listening? We're going to poison that well."

But that's a really charitable read. It's probably more like, "They're going to get into this market. For once, let's beat someone to the punch!"

Honestly, my first thought on the transcript / daily summary ...

2026-10-02T01:42:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…46ed
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Honestly, my first thought on the transcript / daily summary feature was that this is the kind of thing that'll break up relationships.

So many people will try to settle an argument with their spouse or significant other by asking Siri. These are people who haven't learned yet that in a lifelong relationship, sometimes who's right and who's wrong is the least important aspect of a disagreement.

I mean, who knows? Maybe that'll be a good thing for people who shouldn't be in relationships.

These are the kind of features that could cause people to lose ...

2026-10-02T01:39:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…kuqp
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These are the kind of features that could cause people to lose trust in a company and its products. "Hey Siri" has had problems, but my impression is that they've mostly addressed them, while issues have also come up with Amazon's Alexa, and even more so with Meta's goggles.

I see so many ads where Meta is trying to rehabilitate the perception of the goggles' privacy features. No company wants to fight that battle. It's a waste of resources.

I've been meaning to write something about the new Apple ...

2026-10-02T01:35:14Z

I've been meaning to write something about the new Apple Watch iListen features.

I'm not too concerned about the rolling 15-second playback buffer, although the main reason for that is, if they're truly constantly flushing that buffer, and if that buffer can not be saved anywhere, there's not much utility to it. So honestly, my main concern for that feature is that it's kind of useless.

The transcription and daily summary features are a bit of a different story, though.

Gen Alpha Jokes Q: Why did the fax machine cross the road? A: ...

2026-09-30T23:46:41Z

Gen Alpha Jokes

Q: Why did the fax machine cross the road?

A: What the fuck is a fax machine?

I'll have to search, but my recollection is that this is ...

2026-09-25T00:06:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…4kzh
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I'll have to search, but my recollection is that this is actually something that's put in place to validate that e.g. images in a message or email or whatever are actually images and not attack vectors.

RE: https://appdot.net/@bennomatic/117273577536263876 The best ...

2026-09-15T22:34:30Z

RE: https://appdot.net/@bennomatic/117273577536263876

The best part of this extension is that I can share the important information without promoting his stupid name in any way.

quoting
note1whk…yq6g

My new custom-made browser extension is working just fine, according to CNN's home page.

My new custom-made browser extension is working just fine, ...

2026-09-15T06:13:02Z

My new custom-made browser extension is working just fine, according to CNN's home page.

I was working with a team building an integration layer into ...

2026-08-11T19:35:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…tpmv
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I was working with a team building an integration layer into their Salesforce ticket management implementation application, back in 2015.

By then SFDC required unit tests in all production-deployed code. So for the heck of it, I reviewed the unit tests to see how good the coverage was.

Every single one of them had one line of code:

return(true);

That go-live was rough.

THAT'S IT. I knew I'd never seen the movie again. I never ...

2026-08-04T22:04:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…0pdk
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THAT'S IT. I knew I'd never seen the movie again. I never rented it or watched it on TV or saw it in the theater... But while I was watching, some of the shots felt like I'd seen them a dozen times.

I'm sure I saw that video an endless number of times in the MTV era. That explains it.

Rewatching Desperately Seeking Susan for the first time since I ...

2026-08-04T05:49:07Z

Rewatching Desperately Seeking Susan for the first time since I saw it, when it first came out in theaters.

And once again, I was pleased and surprised to see a young Giancarlo Esposito in a brief but impactful scene early in the flick.

So cool.

Ok. Maybe I’m just slow. But in the show, Silo, it seems like ...

2026-08-03T05:36:21Z

Ok. Maybe I’m just slow.

But in the show, Silo, it seems like the protocol-enforcing computer is repeatedly saying the following:

1: If you don’t do what I say, the silo will destroy itself through violence.

2: To prevent that from happening, I will kill everyone in the silo. So do what I say.

Am I wrong? Do the “safeguards” make sense to you? If so, please explain it to me like I’m five.

#AppleTv #silo #dystopianfuture

I hear you, and I agree! On both sides of the equation… if it ...

2026-07-27T05:48:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…fmvm
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I hear you, and I agree! On both sides of the equation… if it appeared I was arguing, that’s my having failed to convey the complexity of my feelings on the matter.

Thanks the response!

I cut my teeth on the C64, starting in basic, moving into 6510 ...

2026-07-27T05:38:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…yl9y
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I cut my teeth on the C64, starting in basic, moving into 6510 assembly within about a year.

Theres something really special about writing directly to the hardware, and I miss it. And I get a little sad when I think about how much of the multiple orders of magnitude of hardware gains are soaked up by those abstraction layers.

And then I play my AR strategy game against my kid in the park, and I marvel at how far we’ve come.

#JSRFFD2forLIFE

Totally. There’s a guy named Steven Emerson I used to see ...

2026-02-21T16:39:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…qx97
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Totally. There’s a guy named Steven Emerson I used to see perform with his band pretty often in the SF Bay Area 25 years ago or so, and while he put out a couple of albums, I’ve never met anyone outside of one of his shows who knows who he is. Great crooner.

Cool thing is it’s so easy now to get on streaming, and he’s there, so anyone can find him.

Also, I had a band back in college, and our demo tapes are on streaming. I hope that we are that band for some folks…

At least one!

2025-05-06T07:39:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…9dnf
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At least one!

LOL, right? I just noticed a throwaway line that I'd never ...

2025-05-06T07:26:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…ptf3
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LOL, right?

I just noticed a throwaway line that I'd never noticed before, and it made me laugh out loud: “Not a dry seat in the house".

Like those guys were just wielding their manufactured sexuality like a sledge hammer.

But yeah, not for open mic night in my little town.

Also unrelated, I'm sad to say that I got a bee in my bonnet ...

2025-05-06T07:22:50Z

Also unrelated, I'm sad to say that I got a bee in my bonnet to play some Spinal Tap, and upon reviewing the lyrics, there's just no way I can perform this stuff live.

Specifically, I always liked “Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight”, which is a hilarious satire of over the top machismo in rock.

But playing it to an audience that's not in on the joke would not go well. I stand by my "hilarious satire" comment while also acknowledging it is deeply, patently offensive.

I made a meme! ...

2025-04-11T00:09:54Z

I made a meme!

I'm guessing that most of the folks who will see this already ...

2025-04-07T02:50:16Z

I'm guessing that most of the folks who will see this already understand it, but it's worth saying:

If it's possible for evil, deadly MS-13 gang members to be disappeared and thrown in a third-world gulag without due process, it's possible for any of us to disappeared and thrown in a gulag without due process.

Without due process, the folks executing the process literally haven't proven they’ve gotten the right person.

For all I know, MS-13 doesn't exist, or is a free lunch program.

1/2

Based on placement, those five women are clearly a bad-ass ...

2025-04-01T16:10:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…f9lg
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Based on placement, those five women are clearly a bad-ass security detail for the man they are protecting.

They put the tallest one in the back for 6 o'clock coverage, and you can see she's drifted a bit to cover the angle from the door to her left. Simultaneously, having cleared the corner, the agent in the brown boots has moved forward to leverage the natural protection of the wall, while orange-shirt has drifted back to protect from the stairs angle.

True professionals.

I think this might be my favorite driveway-night-sky shot I’ve ...

2025-02-04T17:51:22Z

I think this might be my favorite driveway-night-sky shot I’ve ever taken.

No filters, just a long exposure on a semi-cloudy night with stars and planets visible in the clear spots.

Interesting. I guess this is one of those convenience-phrasings ...

2024-12-29T09:00:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…gcul
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Interesting. I guess this is one of those convenience-phrasings that a non-native speaker (like me) would work around not knowing by using more wordy formations.

I would have started that sentence, “Es ist möglich, daß…”, or, “Ein Möglichkeit ist…”

Or even more likely, to try to sound less clunky, I’d probably have said, “Ich glaube…" or “Man glaubt…”

I remember a few times when my exchange brother told me my formulations were that of e.g. an Opa drinking tea with pinky extended.

You know what I like about this place? Or at least about the ...

2024-11-08T20:04:54Z

You know what I like about this place? Or at least about the folks I follow? Very few people are simple caricatures.

What I mean is most folks aren’t trying to “cultivate a personal brand”.

One post is about a your job, another is about your hobbies, another is about a cause you're passionate about, another is about a hope or a fear or a joy or a pain.

It's the way I've always used social media, and on the bird site, I always felt like I was doing it wrong.

Here, that's the norm. It's cool.

The smart bands will build succession plans, become the Band of ...

2024-11-02T07:29:34Z

In reply to nevent1q…vz3z
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The smart bands will build succession plans, become the Band of Theseus, and stay relevant forever!

Example: I think we can all agree that Jefferson Starship is a 70s rock band, right? I'm in my mid 50s, so I was maybe in preschool when they formed.

An old high school friend of mine, Jude Gold, who was—I think—one year ahead of me, is now their lead guitarist.

(I don't actually know if they plan to keep swapping in new players, but it could be cool…)

I asked Google how many days old I am based on my birth date. I ...

2024-10-27T21:27:25Z

I asked Google how many days old I am based on my birth date. I didn’t feel like figuring out the whole leap year thing and doing the math myself. I knew Google would give me an AI response and I was OK with that.

But AI clearly doesn’t actually think. Not only did it not give me the days, its response in years was off by four.

Apparently, it trained on an article where someone born in my birth year did some math and hit “publish” four years ago.

Sigh.

Hi all! My 15yo kid is thinking about a career in tech, and has ...

2024-10-16T02:12:27Z

Hi all!

My 15yo kid is thinking about a career in tech, and has an assignment in his career counseling class learn more about various tech careers.

To that end, he wrote up a bunch of questions and we put them into a Google form, and I was hoping I could ask those of you in tech—hardware, software, AI, infosec, whatever!—to fill out some answers.

And if you wouldn't mind boosting, that'd be even more awesome.

Thanks!

https://forms.gle/ZvPxzFevQcfodQYk9

I just wish they had made a more positive case for her. Saying ...

2024-09-30T15:05:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…08we
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I just wish they had made a more positive case for her. Saying “Donald is bad” over and over again didn’t keep him out of the White House the first time.

She’s fantastic in Pachinko, too, on AppleTV+.

2024-09-17T04:32:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…phlt
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She’s fantastic in Pachinko, too, on AppleTV+.

I'm guessing that must be the first gen MBA? The one that ...

2024-09-16T03:31:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…96zn
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I'm guessing that must be the first gen MBA? The one that also had the hinged cover over the USB ports on the side?

I think I had the second generation, and I'm *almost* certain that it didn't have those hinges. I think I got mine in 2010…

Still, I remember gasping as I watched Steve pulling that thing out of a manilla envelope.

https://youtu.be/kvfrVrh76Mk?t=213

LOL I guess? I’m old enough to understand that we don’t get ...

2024-09-05T18:32:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…z9yq
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LOL I guess? I’m old enough to understand that we don’t get to choose what people label us so guess I won’t argue with “boomer”.

Here’s today, 19 years later.

Hah. My phone wanted to show me this picture, from 19 years ago ...

2024-09-05T17:09:51Z

Hah. My phone wanted to show me this picture, from 19 years ago today.

I was about ten pounds lighter, and my hair hadn’t started greying yet. This was obviously pre-kid, too.

This is a reminder that any time you’re feeling down about how you look, think about how you’ll see your current self in 20 years.

Oh to be as dashing as this guy again. Not to mention as healthy, energetic, and naive.