Nostr notes by Baldur Bjarnason

Sent out the first proper edition of the Premium Newsletter ...

2026-10-30T14:04:56Z

Sent out the first proper edition of the Premium Newsletter before lunch today. It's on the longer side as it covers ten days instead of seven

(I'll send it again to late subscribers over the weekend so they don't miss the first one)

You can find this update on Patreon here https://www.patreon.com/baldurbjarnason/posts/out-of-ai-crisis-173848451?pr=true

To get future editions of the premium newsletter you can either pay monthly via Patreon or prepay for a year via PayHip (50% discount until the end of 1 November)

https://payhip.baldurbjarnason.com/b/BMsyT

“A statement in response to Andreas Malm being denied entry ...

2026-10-30T12:26:27Z

“A statement in response to Andreas Malm being denied entry into the Un | Verso Books”

https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/news/a-statement-in-response-to-andreas-malm-being-denied-entry-into-the-united-kingdom

> We can only assume, since no reasons have been given for banning him, that it is Andreas’s positions on Palestine, no different from the ICC and UN commissions, is the cause.

Videos and blog posts from "AI"-pilled software ...

2026-10-30T11:39:26Z

Videos and blog posts from "AI"-pilled software developers talking about how their careers are gone or in a dead-end seems to have become a genre in a very short space of time. At least a couple of notable examples just this week.

“If we stop, we lose - Piccalilli” ...

2026-10-30T08:54:56Z

“If we stop, we lose - Piccalilli”

https://piccalil.li/blog/if-we-stop-we-lose/

> It’s been a rather morale draining era in the making websites industry since the wider tech industry decided to gamble everything on LLMs. We at Piccalilli see it amongst the community and feel it ourselves.

“The Chinese AI crash is not the end, but it is cheering – ...

2026-10-29T15:04:39Z

“The Chinese AI crash is not the end, but it is cheering – Pivot to AI”

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/10/28/the-chinese-ai-crash-is-not-the-end-but-it-is-cheering/

Out of the ‘AI’ Crisis – Premium Newsletter launch and ...

2026-10-29T10:08:10Z

Out of the ‘AI’ Crisis – Premium Newsletter launch and Halloween Sale

Because, as with many others, things are a bit rough, so, I'm launching a premium newsletter in addition to the regular one.

I'm hoping this will help pay for the work that goes into the newsletter, videos, and podcasts. I'd very much appreciate it if people could spread the word 🙂

https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2026/out-of-the-ai-crisis-halloween-sale-and-launch/

“Selling Stories” ...

2026-10-29T09:51:05Z

“Selling Stories”

https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/selling-stories/

> Our society has decided that all investment in the future should be directed to technology -- that that's how you "fix" things. It has decided that the wealthiest companies and the wealthiest individuals need not pay taxes. We can allocate the world's resources differently.

To help keep the newsletter going, I've launched a Premium ...

2026-10-28T18:15:38Z

To help keep the newsletter going, I've launched a Premium Newsletter that should go out at least once a week.

And, since the launch is happening at the end of October, I figured I might as well do it as a Halloween sale.

So, you can buy a year's membership to the Premium Newsletter for €25 EUR (50% off) with this link:

https://payhip.baldurbjarnason.com/b/BMsyT

But wait, there's more...

Meanwhile I cackle with joy whenever I see a video of a foreigner ...

2026-10-28T15:45:14Z

Meanwhile I cackle with joy whenever I see a video of a foreigner suffering through “traditional” Icelandic food or go pale after ingesting a candy coated in ammonium chloride.

Or when they video a waterfall go sideways in a storm all “wtf!”

“Iceland not among 2027 Eurovision participants - RÚV.is” ...

2026-10-28T15:36:37Z

“Iceland not among 2027 Eurovision participants - RÚV.is”

https://www.ruv.is/english/2026-10-28-iceland-not-among-2027-eurovision-participants-491136

Good.

“Signal your virtues | Go Make Things” ...

2026-10-28T15:13:17Z

“Signal your virtues | Go Make Things”

https://gomakethings.com/articles/signal-your-virtues/

Wow. Zencastr's built-in transcription is quite possibly the ...

2026-10-28T14:39:57Z

Wow. Zencastr's built-in transcription is quite possibly the worst I've tested. Filled with fabrications in a 10m test recording.

It would have helped if there was an obvious way to:

1. Set the language.
2. Turn off automatic translation.

But I get the feeling the implementation is so vibed they might not be aware of what it's doing at all

Is there an alternative to Zencastr with a free tier that ...

2026-10-28T12:21:30Z

Is there an alternative to Zencastr with a free tier that doesn't have that horrendous mess of an UI?

(At least it's comforting to know that proprietary software is at least as badly designed these days as Free/Open Source. Progress!)

Why is “congrats! your software updated without you asking, so ...

2026-10-28T12:03:26Z

Why is “congrats! your software updated without you asking, so now your core workflows are now very, very broken. Aren’t you grateful?” such a routine event these days?

And why dont developers and vendors care?

Ugh.

(Anyway. Rhetorical questions. No reply needed.)

Out of the ‘AI’ Crisis – Premium Newsletter launch and ...

2026-10-28T10:53:59Z

Out of the ‘AI’ Crisis – Premium Newsletter launch and Halloween Sale

I'm trying a new thing and launching a premium newsletter in addition to the regular one.

I'm hoping this will help pay for the work that goes into the newsletter, videos, and podcasts, and times are genuinely a bit rough these days, so I'd very much appreciate it if people could spread the word 🙂

https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2026/out-of-the-ai-crisis-halloween-sale-and-launch/

Out of the ‘AI’ Crisis – Premium Newsletter launch and ...

2026-10-28T10:42:23Z

Out of the ‘AI’ Crisis – Premium Newsletter launch and Halloween Sale: https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2026/out-of-the-ai-crisis-halloween-sale-and-launch/

“Anthropic files its ‘IPO’ — but all the key numbers are ...

2026-10-28T09:18:14Z

“Anthropic files its ‘IPO’ — but all the key numbers are missing – Pivot to AI”

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/10/27/anthropic-files-its-ipo-but-all-the-key-numbers-are-missing/

> As a serious business proposition, you’d be nuts to go for this.

What he said.

“Wabbit Eternal – News From ME” ...

2026-10-27T15:08:47Z

“Wabbit Eternal – News From ME”

https://www.newsfromme.com/2026/10/27/wabbit-eternal/

Genuinely impressive how in a fairly short period of time, the ...

2026-10-27T11:03:16Z

Genuinely impressive how in a fairly short period of time, the Windows install I have on my dual-boot desktop for the occasional testing and graphics work has become much buggier, less usable, and less reliable than Desktop Gnome, which hasn't improved one iota in about a decade.

Had to spend an hour after a recent update "helping" Windows find a display it's been finding perfectly well for several years.

Kind of worrying to see how many people have fallen hard into the ...

2026-10-27T10:42:18Z

Kind of worrying to see how many people have fallen hard into the “imminent AGI” delusion.

“Don't think | deadSimpleTech” ...

2026-10-27T09:36:59Z

“Don't think | deadSimpleTech”

https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/dont-think

> It's a show trial of thought: pre-determined conclusions, pre-determined axioms and premises, and all that's left for our thought leader to do is to apply the package to whatever particular issue they're curious about and do just enough casuistry to make everything hold together.

When I see somebody post on how useful they find generative ...

2026-10-26T23:41:10Z

When I see somebody post on how useful they find generative "AI", an angry, defensive post is sure to follow like clockwork

Any circulation of a pro-"AI" post on a site with artists, writers, illustrators or the like, will reach the ears of somebody whose life has been severely hurt by the tech

Given the scale of the harm being done, angry responses are basically inevitable.

And kinda fair, tbh

“Support Pivot to AI — and join the supporter name read for ...

2026-10-26T14:56:21Z

“Support Pivot to AI — and join the supporter name read for October – Pivot to AI”

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/10/26/support-pivot-to-ai-and-join-the-supporter-name-read-for-october/

>

Dialling down the noise (or, bookmarks post schedule change) ...

2026-10-26T14:44:19Z

Dialling down the noise (or, bookmarks post schedule change)

https://www.patreon.com/baldurbjarnason/posts/dialling-down-or-173456783

Shifting the schedule of the suggested reading posts for paid members to once a week. Same number of links, just less of a noisy schedule.

I've basically all but talked myself into the idea that I ...

2026-10-26T14:02:13Z

I've basically all but talked myself into the idea that I should rename the podcast/newsletter to more accurately reflect the theme I've shifted to lately

"Out of the 'AI' Crisis"

Bad idea? Yes? No? Maybe?

Pretty sure it would clear out a bunch of subscribers to both the podcast and the newsletter but might make up for it afterwards with new subscribers.

Looking into Patreon community tools and not finding much that ...

2026-10-26T11:27:52Z

Looking into Patreon community tools and not finding much that looks great, to be honest.

Do any of you have suggestions for community/discussion tools that offer direct integration with Patreon?

The ones I can find that seem to offer the most direct integration are Discourse and Discord and neither seems ideal.

Also I don't use either of them so setting one or the other up would involve a learning curve (also Discourse hosting seems quiet expensive).

“We cannot under any circumstances let AI firms govern the ...

2026-10-26T09:44:19Z

“We cannot under any circumstances let AI firms govern the future”

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/we-cannot-under-any-circumstances

> It’s an effort to enshrine into law a standard in which AI models are explicitly legally permitted to carry the risk of killing dozens of people at a time and cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damages without penalty.

“Eric Bauza Dead: Modern Voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck & ...

2026-10-26T09:38:16Z

“Eric Bauza Dead: Modern Voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck & Looney Tunes”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/eric-bauza-dead-voice-bugs-bunny-daffy-duck-looney-tunes-1236739767/?link_source=ta_bluesky_link&taid=6adede61af38c50001634e41&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky

Aw, man. Huge loss. Here he is on the Two Amigos podcast recently doing a “Porky Pig does Taken” scene. https://youtube.com/shorts/EWMOROqfQJU?is=_GbVAQb9CktQ0S5j

He was a big reason why the Looney Tunes voices were still great

As you all know, I'm a big fan of a good "AI sucks" ...

2026-10-25T11:12:40Z

As you all know, I'm a big fan of a good "AI sucks" argument but—no shade on Nolan intended here, I see where he’s coming from—I don't think this is it. At least, not for Hollywood

"AI" has hit a bunch of sectors pretty hard, but movie and sound currently have more problems than just new tech

The collapse of US media is more down to financial looting (e.g. scrapping movies for tax purposes), studio self-immolation, and shitty streamer economics than "AI"

Also…

“No Signs of AI Payoff Outside the Tech Sector | The Daily ...

2026-10-25T09:41:46Z

“No Signs of AI Payoff Outside the Tech Sector | The Daily Spark”

https://www.apollo.com/wealth/insights-news/insights/daily-spark/no-signs-of-ai-payoff-outside-the-tech-sector?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

> Despite massive investments and widespread hype around artificial intelligence, the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech.

“Slouching towards Bethlehem | deadSimpleTech” ...

2026-10-25T09:26:58Z

“Slouching towards Bethlehem | deadSimpleTech”

https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/slouching-to-bethlehem

> What's happening to tech, and to the wider world in our current tech-infested era, is a collapse of our model of the world.

A downside to researching the current mood and morale among ...

2026-10-24T15:43:31Z

A downside to researching the current mood and morale among software developers is the frequent sudden onset Nazi praise.

Like, you're watching somebody's kinda half-baked ideas on how the software economy works on YouTube, but it's all from their perspective so still useful information about their experience, and suddenly you get a spiel about how DHH or some other outright fascist is great.

Dude. You had me sympathising with you for a couple of minutes there.

“Multiple Reports Say Nvidia Manufactured the Gaming GPU Crisis ...

2026-10-24T11:06:55Z

“Multiple Reports Say Nvidia Manufactured the Gaming GPU Crisis by Forcing Big Tech to Stockpile Unused AI Hardware”

https://respawnfirst.com/multiple-reports-say-nvidia-manufactured-the-gaming-gpu-crisis-by-forcing-big-tech-to-stockpile-unused-ai-hardware/

> the problem comes from Nvidia reallocating manufacturing capacity to force-feed enterprise clients AI hardware that they don’t have the capacity to use

Because of course.

“On the Death of Amazon’s Writing Culture” ...

2026-10-24T10:27:50Z

“On the Death of Amazon’s Writing Culture”

https://alifeengineered.substack.com/p/on-the-death-of-amazons-writing-culture

> Thirty minutes into a recent review meeting at Amazon, an L7 principal product manager began a discussion on a six-page document. Two minutes into his presentation, it was blindingly obvious to everybody in the room that he was reading the document for the first time.

It's going to take tech years to unwind this damage, if it's at all possible. Amazingly, the author is still an "AI" true believer, that it's "here to stay".

“Dreaming Big” https://lmnt.me/blog/dreaming-big.html > ...

2026-10-24T09:33:31Z

“Dreaming Big”

https://lmnt.me/blog/dreaming-big.html

> What is this? Who are we building for now? Who is that app—generated entirely with AI—actually for? How can someone who “makes” such an app dare to think the value of what a computer merely farted out could possibly be worth a $10/month subscription fee?

The eternal struggle of trying to maintain an appropriate facial ...

2026-10-23T17:43:14Z

The eternal struggle of trying to maintain an appropriate facial expression throughout a conversation based on heuristics and context clues and having the lag become the main problem

“Oh, no! Sudden tone shift. Abort smiling! Abort! Abort!”

While thinking about Tweets as a genre or form, with its own ...

2026-10-23T17:19:06Z

While thinking about Tweets as a genre or form, with its own exemplars ("miette" and "I will face god and walk backwards into hell" being my favourites) is started to think about what TikTok's exemplars are.

Lots of comedy sketches, of course. The format's good for that.

But, as somebody who's never favoured poetry, this short poem by OddPride sticks with you, I think

https://www.tiktok.com/@oddpride/video/7652526695202721037

"The Web Is More Than Enough" ...

2026-10-23T16:48:51Z

"The Web Is More Than Enough"

https://aboard.com/the-web-is-more-than-enough/

> I put maybe twice as much effort into building a web-based office suite as I might normally put into writing a long newsletter post.

This dude is one of the tech intelligentsia's favourite CEOs and he's basically praising vibe-coding and arguing that programming has been completely devalued. This is who your executives and managers are listening to.

More importantly, this is the dude who most "AI" centrists really adore.

“AI & Design Systems Course with Brad Frost, TJ Pitre, and ...

2026-10-23T15:35:49Z

“AI & Design Systems Course with Brad Frost, TJ Pitre, and Ian Frost”

https://aianddesign.systems/

> buy for $1,495

Every dev trainer and educator I know is going out of business. Software dev writers are giving up left, right, and centre. Meanwhile this trend hopping crap is charging $1500 USD. 🤷🏻‍♂️

(Following links on websites is occasionally a big mistake)

Drills, Alarms, and commentary on the PHP Armageddon (Updates, ...

2026-10-23T13:49:49Z

Drills, Alarms, and commentary on the PHP Armageddon (Updates, links, and notes)

https://www.patreon.com/baldurbjarnason/posts/drills-alarms-on-173170564

Decided to make this update free access. Mostly so I can have an example to link to in the future but also because of the sheer scale of the PHP kerfuffle that constitutes most of the links and commentary

Even though I'm technically not hard of hearing—"not ...

2026-10-23T10:50:54Z

Even though I'm technically not hard of hearing—"not yet!" 😝—my hearing is damaged and I have audio processing issues to boot, so I'm a heavy user of captions and subtitles. This decline in captions has been obvious and frustrating to witness

The worst offenders IMO are automatic dubs because often they don't offer even the auto-generated captions even though they are clearly somewhere in the system (otherwise the automatic dub wouldn't exist)

Also the automatic dub voices are all horrible

“AI will HACK ALL THE TVs by the end of 2026! Or not – Pivot ...

2026-10-23T09:08:09Z

“AI will HACK ALL THE TVs by the end of 2026! Or not – Pivot to AI”

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/10/22/ai-will-hack-all-the-tvs-by-the-end-of-2026-or-not/

The idea that they're about to create self-replicating LLMs that run on TVs and similar devices is just plain nonsense

People continue to have a tendency to imagine that I wrote ...

2026-10-22T11:44:34Z

People continue to have a tendency to imagine that I wrote something I didn't and get angry about claims I didn't make. 🤷‍♂️

If the original is as hard to exploit as some of the experts have ...

2026-10-22T10:45:12Z

If the original is as hard to exploit as some of the experts have been saying, it's entirely possible that the fix for yesterday's PHP bug might cause more active exploits than the original bug, because the fix is on the order of, what, 12k lines of code? A patch of that size, touching so many parts of the codebase is quite likely to introduce a ton of bugs on its own

The reason why the way many have been talking—describing ...

2026-10-22T10:28:45Z

The reason why the way many have been talking—describing “AI”-written exploits popping up require heroic defence—smells like bullshit is that, so far, all of the exploits seem to require pre-existing second vulnerabilities so bad that any site with them would have been hacked months ago already.

That can change any time, which is why you should patch PHP ASAP, but many of the responses smack of madness of crowds

“There isn't an easy exploit for this PHP vulnerability · ...

2026-10-22T10:07:45Z

“There isn't an easy exploit for this PHP vulnerability · Elias Taylor”

https://eliastaylor.com/noexploit/

> One really amusing thing in common with most of these "PoC"s is that they lean on "LFI", or local-file-inclusion, to make the vulnerability. In non-php terms, their exploit chain requires the server to already have a severe code-level vulnerability.

“Sean Allen on X: "🚨 Going out of business sale 🚨” ...

2026-10-22T09:45:38Z

“Sean Allen on X: "🚨 Going out of business sale 🚨”

https://x.com/seanallen_dev/status/2112167799132979389

> iOS dev course sales plummeted due to AI. It costs a lot of money to host my courses online and with sales at basically $0, I've cancelled that hosting.

More evidence of the complete destruction of the developer training industry. (Via my feed reader. And, ick. Are all the X mirrors really all gone?)

“Forcing and detouring - A Working Library” ...

2026-10-21T19:14:56Z

“Forcing and detouring - A Working Library”

https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/forcing-and-detouring

> But I’ll go a step further: if one of the outcomes of pyramid-shaped hierarchical systems is a group of losers who may, out of desperation, be recruited into doing harm in order to save face or provide for their family, then maybe that system has to go.

Autumn comfort cat photos: ...

2026-10-21T17:16:53Z

Autumn comfort cat photos: https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/notes/photos/autumn-comfort-cat-photos-2026/

Given the state of, well, everything, I figure the best thing to ...

2026-10-21T17:09:00Z

Given the state of, well, everything, I figure the best thing to do at the moment is to post a few old cat photos. These are two-year-old photos of a couple of my neighbour cats. They're still around these days, just two years older, so a bit quieter. #cats #photos

The 'AI' Software Crisis: Software Developers have been ...

2026-10-21T16:33:10Z

The 'AI' Software Crisis: Software Developers have been promoted into incompetence (YouTube edition)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlh0U2aHUA4

Largely through no fault of their own software developers have been pushed into dysfunction by management through the misguided and excessive adoption of "AI" coding

The 'AI' Software Crisis: Software Developers have been ...

2026-10-21T16:30:53Z

The 'AI' Software Crisis: Software Developers have been promoted into incompetence

https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2026/07-promoted-into-incompetence/

Largely through no fault of their own, many software developers have been pushed into dysfunction by management through the misguided and excessive adoption of "AI" coding

The 'AI' Software Crisis: Software Developers have been ...

2026-10-21T16:29:38Z

The 'AI' Software Crisis: Software Developers have been promoted into incompetence: https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2026/07-promoted-into-incompetence/

“Atvinnuleysi meðal tölvunarfræðinga aukist um 70% á ...

2026-10-21T09:53:25Z

“Atvinnuleysi meðal tölvunarfræðinga aukist um 70% á tveimur árum - RÚV.is”

https://www.ruv.is/frettir/innlent/2026-10-20-atvinnuleysi-medal-tolvunarfraedinga-aukist-um-70-a-tveimur-arum-490122

Bit of Icelandic news. The relevant part is in the headline which translates as "unemployment among those with computer scientist degrees increased by 70% in two years"

These numbers don't include the numerous developers who worked without a CS degree.

It's going to be a struggle to keep this next video under 30 ...

2026-10-21T09:49:01Z

It's going to be a struggle to keep this next video under 30 minutes without, y'know, just talking faster. 😝

Though, since the topic is the software industry's competency crisis, it might end up being on the relevant side of current events.

“Facebook tries to grab all news publisher website content for ...

2026-10-21T09:15:05Z

“Facebook tries to grab all news publisher website content for training for free – Pivot to AI”

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/10/20/facebook-tries-to-grab-all-news-publisher-website-content-for-training-for-free/

Because of course they're trying

Every time there's a new study on the negative impact of LLM ...

2026-10-21T09:11:20Z

Every time there's a new study on the negative impact of LLM tools on education, work, communications, and media, at least half the commentariat will always go "but you shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater, 'AI' has constructive uses!" even as they pretend to be 'critics'.

How bad do the effects have to get before they finally go "okay, yeah, maybe it is more bad than good"?

Ugh. Why is writing for voice harder than writing just for text? ...

2026-10-20T13:21:03Z

Ugh. Why is writing for voice harder than writing just for text? What do you mean I need to think about breathing, pauses, cadence, and length?

So annoying. Bleh. 😝

Figured I might as well accept the fact that the video series has ...

2026-10-20T11:07:25Z

Figured I might as well accept the fact that the video series has become a show with a set format and topic

"Out of the Software Crisis: How do we get out of the political, economic, cultural, and societal crises caused by our current software industry?"

https://www.youtube.com/show/VLPLDfnxkzHhN1Y?sbp=QAE%253D

One of the things I'm doing for the Patreon are regular ...

2026-10-20T10:25:40Z

One of the things I'm doing for the Patreon are regular updates

https://www.patreon.com/collection/2444653

These collect the links I post and some of the notes, all with additional commentary and context. So far I've been doing them roughly every other day.

“Why I Resist Generative “AI” – Esther Weidauer” ...

2026-10-20T09:39:00Z

“Why I Resist Generative “AI” – Esther Weidauer”

https://estherweidauer.com/articles/why-resist-generative-ai.html

> No technology fully vanishes again once it has been developed. That doesn’t mean though that it remains widely adopted, nor that it’s even a net good.

The entire piece is well worth your time

Because the automation paradox came up in a thread today, I ...

2026-10-19T16:24:24Z

Because the automation paradox came up in a thread today, I figured I might revisit the original paper that outlined the paradox, "Ironies of Automation" by Lisanne Bainbridge. It's easily found on the internet and worth the hassle

Once automation is good enough for the human to switch into monitoring, outcomes can paradoxically get worse. The original paper outlined a few reasons but one of them is participation is easier than vigilance, so we will miss errors we were supposed to catch

“The crime of winning while African Many a time when I take to ...

2026-10-19T15:18:38Z

“The crime of winning while African Many a time when I take to the stage to talk about AI, I talk about the paralles that I see between contemporary AI production and the colonial and racial project… | Adio-Adet Dinika, Ph.D | 23 comments”

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/adiodinika_the-crime-of-winning-while-african-many-a-share-7516155369568751616-AkJO/

> My gripe with products such as Pangram is how they now give cover to every vile racist and their grandmother to sic lynch mobs on brilliant writers of colour under the guise of "the neutral tool."

“Pangram is not an oracle • Buttondown” ...

2026-10-19T15:15:53Z

“Pangram is not an oracle • Buttondown”

https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/pangram-is-not-an-oracle/

> But as always, we have to be wary of any proposed technical solutions and evaluate them with care (including asking whether a technical solution is called for at all). This is again one of those cases where machine learning can easily create something that looks like a solution, but isn't, because it's easy to make a machine that gives “scores” for how likely some text is to be synthetic/authentic.

New patreon update post "The crimes start now (links and ...

2026-10-19T14:45:17Z

New patreon update post

"The crimes start now (links and reading for 19 October 2026)"

https://www.patreon.com/baldurbjarnason/posts/crimes-start-now-172801970

I'm collecting my links and bookmarks with additional commentary in Patreon updates for supporters

Never post before you've finished your morning coffee if you ...

2026-10-19T10:54:15Z

Never post before you've finished your morning coffee if you care about spelling errors and the like. 😑

“The Many Ways Trump Is Kneecapping White-Collar Crime ...

2026-10-19T10:34:57Z

“The Many Ways Trump Is Kneecapping White-Collar Crime Enforcement – Mother Jones”

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/10/white-collar-crime-enforcement-trump-white-house-sec-doj-cftc/

> Longer term, though, drops in corporate crime enforcement and regulation have often preceded some of the country’s biggest financial crises

“The MAGA Cult Is All Feelings and No Facts” ...

2026-10-19T10:00:55Z

“The MAGA Cult Is All Feelings and No Facts”

https://lucasbean.substack.com/p/the-maga-cult-is-all-feelings-and

> The relationship between emotional intensity and the affect heuristic creates a feedback loop that is almost impossible to break from the outside.

Every time I see a vibe coder say something along the lines of ...

2026-10-19T09:21:22Z

Every time I see a vibe coder say something along the lines of "if you haven't used these tools over the past five minutes, you don't know what they're capable of, because everything's different now!" I get a little bit perplexed.

You do know that we can see the output without using it ourself, right? Some of us are still reviewing pull requests and reading through code repositories, y’know?

Now, I'm generally quite bad at keeping track of the ...

2026-10-18T19:57:48Z

Now, I'm generally quite bad at keeping track of the responses to my essays or videos, let alone reply to the replies, but as far as I can tell, the responses to my last video/newsletter, "It's not our job to fix our employers" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtAtWK0VcB4), fall into only a few types

The first, obvious type of reply, comes from different values. They disagree with the notion that tech companies need fixing. 🤷🏻‍♂️

1/5?

Apropos of nothing in particular, having terms to describe your ...

2026-10-18T10:18:05Z

Apropos of nothing in particular, having terms to describe your behaviours increases your awareness of them.

"Autistic polling" is a good example. Having a label for the tendency to ask more questions to make up for the inability to read cues from the environment both helps you understand yourself and lets you give context to others

But it also helps you recognise a handicap. Like realising that my tendency to "dolphin" in conversations is a liability in debates.

"Sound design, banned books, "AI" nonsense, and other ...

2026-10-16T16:38:05Z

"Sound design, banned books, "AI" nonsense, and other links (16 October 2026)"

Today's collections of links and reading for Patreon patrons.

You can also find all of these links in my social media. These posts collect the links with additional commentary

https://www.patreon.com/baldurbjarnason/posts/links-16-october-172541421

“More on Anthropic's Scion ripping off Mononoke · ...

2026-10-16T11:05:02Z

“More on Anthropic's Scion ripping off Mononoke · sunshowers”

https://sunshowers.io/posts/anthropic-mononoke-2/

> However, after publishing the post I privately received confirmation that Scion intentionally and blatantly ripped off Mononoke, and in particular that there was overlap in personnel. There is no chance that this was an unintentional homage.

“Matt Mullenweg Orders Accessibility Revert, Tells Core ...

2026-10-16T10:43:17Z

“Matt Mullenweg Orders Accessibility Revert, Tells Core Committer to “Contribute Your Talents to Another Project” - The Repository”

https://www.therepository.email/matt-mullenweg-orders-accessibility-revert-tells-core-committer-to-contribute-your-talents-to-another-project

> Days after six years of accessibility work finally landed in core, Matt Mullenweg ordered it reverted, and Andrea Fercia’s WordPress.org account was briefly banned.

I haven’t gone to Frankfurt Book Fair in over a decade, but ...

2026-10-16T10:38:39Z

I haven’t gone to Frankfurt Book Fair in over a decade, but what I’m hearing from people who went this year is that “AI” use is now rampant on the publishing side?

Kind of hoping that my acquaintances just got a skewed sample this year but this would fit with what I’ve been hearing elsewhere.

“Epic Games goes full vibe code: MAXIMUM AI ACCELERATION – ...

2026-10-16T10:11:15Z

“Epic Games goes full vibe code: MAXIMUM AI ACCELERATION – Pivot to AI”

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/10/15/epic-games-goes-full-vibe-code-maximum-ai-acceleration/

“In Which I Decline to Let an AI Company Experiment on My Kid ...

2026-10-16T09:52:12Z

“In Which I Decline to Let an AI Company Experiment on My Kid at School”

https://www.coyotemedia.org/sfusd-ai-amira-salesforce/?ref=coyote-weekly-newsletter

> “Most of the parents I’ve spoken to are not experts in data privacy, but they immediately understand how fucking creepy it is that their kid has been talking to an AI character all year in school, and the first time they’re learning about it is from… an interview I’ve done,” says Ozoma, who built a website to help parents organize and speak out about the company.

via Audrey Watters' newsletter

“How AI replaced me” ...

2026-10-16T09:39:27Z

“How AI replaced me”

https://www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/how-ai-replaced-me/?ref=articles-newsletter

> An hour after I was laid off, my former CEO held a seven-minute all-hands meeting to read a Claude-generated script about how leadership had “made some hard decisions but are ultimately replacing these roles with AI.”

That's a big yikes right out of the gate. (Via Audrey Watters)

“Georgia’s Building Boom for Data Centers Comes With a Cost ...

2026-10-16T09:29:01Z

“Georgia’s Building Boom for Data Centers Comes With a Cost for Schools: $300M – The 74”

https://www.the74million.org/article/georgias-building-boom-for-data-centers-comes-with-a-cost-for-schools-300m/?ref=2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com

> The organization estimates that the losses in some of the state’s school districts would range from $3.6 million in Newton County to $35.5 million in Gwinnett County, the state’s largest district.

“Make Shift” ...

2026-10-16T09:23:41Z

“Make Shift”

https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/mis-shift/

> What ed-tech has forgotten to prepare students for: their present lives. Their humanity.

“Why Lightsabers Sound Like a blueprint, Sightless Scribbles” ...

2026-10-15T09:30:14Z

“Why Lightsabers Sound Like a blueprint, Sightless Scribbles”

https://sightlessscribbles.com/posts/why-lightsabers-sound-like-a-blueprint/

> If I held a lightsaber, I wouldn't need to see the blade to know where it was. The sound design tells me exactly where the danger ends and the safety begins. When you wave it, the pitch constantly fluctuates. That pitch shift gives me precise data on the speed and arc of the swing. I can map the blade’s position in 3D space purely by the rise and fall of that magnetic hum.

“macOS Golden Gate is a buggy mess” ...

2026-10-15T09:26:37Z

“macOS Golden Gate is a buggy mess”

https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2026/10/5.html

> How does Apple mess up something as fundamental as keyboard focus?

“The freedom to read doesn’t exist without the freedom to ...

2026-10-15T09:21:55Z

“The freedom to read doesn’t exist without the freedom to write — Malinda Lo”

https://www.malindalo.com/blog/2026/10/14/the-freedom-to-read

> The "freedom to read" implies that reading exists completely separately from writing, when in fact there would be nothing to read if authors didn't have the freedom to write.

(Last week was Banned Books Week, and some of the talks are now dropping as blog posts)

“AI Is a Book Ban — Sonja Drimmer” ...

2026-10-15T09:11:45Z

“AI Is a Book Ban — Sonja Drimmer”

https://sonjadrimmer.com/blog-1/2026/10/14/ai-is-a-book-ban

> For one, the ease now with which information is availed to people by summary means that there is a screen between people and the actual sources of information they seek. That's the obvious part, and that's a kind of low-hanging-fruit argument about how generative AI has mounted barriers between people and information.

“'You are not fragile. You are outnumbered.' | BPS” ...

2026-10-14T15:42:59Z

“'You are not fragile. You are outnumbered.' | BPS”

https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/you-are-not-fragile-you-are-outnumbered

> So, if I could leave you with one thought, it would be this: please don't assume that the difficulties you are experiencing now define who you are or what you may become. And don't accept the idea that needing support makes you weak. We all become who we are partly through the understanding, kindness and opportunities that other people make available to us.

It’s not our job to fix our employers This broken industry is ...

2026-10-14T14:44:29Z

It’s not our job to fix our employers

This broken industry is too big of a problem for software developers to solve alone with unions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtAtWK0VcB4

Yesterday's essay: It’s not our job to fix our employers ...

2026-10-14T14:43:04Z

Yesterday's essay:

It’s not our job to fix our employers

https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2026/06-its-not-our-job-to-fix-our-employers/#this-broken-industry-is-too-big-of-a-problem-for-us-to-solve

Publishing links with commentary over on the patreon: ...

2026-10-14T14:42:14Z

Publishing links with commentary over on the patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/baldurbjarnason/posts/tech-is-again-14-172334419

The must-read link is above the fold, links with commentary below it.

Though, you can find all of the links in my profile here. I post them all as I find them.

Apparently, over on Bluesky, worrying about the mental health ...

2026-10-14T11:44:48Z

Apparently, over on Bluesky, worrying about the mental health effects of chatbots means I'm discriminating against people with mental illness

Sometimes I wonder why I bother. Retail or tourism is starting to look good in comparison 😑

I keep a few pro-"AI" blogs in my feed reader to keep ...

2026-10-14T09:45:13Z

I keep a few pro-"AI" blogs in my feed reader to keep tabs on the rhetoric and some days it's just genuinely exhausting. One of the latest outlines how it thinks that anti-"AI" sentiment is a psyop designed to sabotage the golden age of open source and the democratisation of software (apparently, Russia, China, and 'big IP' are the likeliest conspirators)

Four years ago the blog in question was writing about functional programming and cross-compilation

“The AI Photoshop clones: interface mockups that don’t work ...

2026-10-14T09:13:21Z

“The AI Photoshop clones: interface mockups that don’t work – Pivot to AI”

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/10/13/the-ai-photoshop-clones-interface-mockups-that-dont-work/

> You end up with something that looks like Photoshop, and it works a bit, until you try anything beyond what Microsoft Paint does. Or maybe curves. Or editing a 10,000 by 10,000 pixel image. Or cut-and-pasting without the app hanging.

“Alerts | Icelandic Meteorological office” ...

2026-10-14T09:00:04Z

“Alerts | Icelandic Meteorological office”

https://en.vedur.is/alerts

> East and northeast 18-28 m/s with windgusts locally over 40 m/s, strongest wind in the southernmost part. Considerable rain in lowland ares. Travelling is not advised. Loose objects outside can be blown away.

Glad I did my best to tie things down outside. 😬

It’s not our job to fix our employers: ...

2026-10-13T13:50:17Z

It’s not our job to fix our employers: https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2026/06-its-not-our-job-to-fix-our-employers/

Ravens and churches: ...

2026-10-13T13:50:10Z

Ravens and churches: https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/notes/photos/the-raven-and-the-church/

It’s not our job to fix our employers ...

2026-10-13T13:49:41Z

It’s not our job to fix our employers

https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2026/06-its-not-our-job-to-fix-our-employers/

This broken industry is too big of a problem for software developers to solve alone

(And a Patreon launch)

A couple of years ago I noticed that one of the local ravens was ...

2026-10-13T13:06:04Z

A couple of years ago I noticed that one of the local ravens was perching on the town's church steeple and serenading the surrounding area with the song of their people. The photos have ended up being one of my favourite sequences of images I've taken here in Hveragerði #iceland #raven #birds

Always kind of interesting how people often don't interpret ...

2026-10-13T12:29:38Z

Always kind of interesting how people often don't interpret qualifiers in sentences literally, but instead see them as evasiveness.

When I say "maybe" I actually mean maybe. As in "indicating a lack of certainty". Anybody interpreting it as evasiveness is misinterpreting my general tendency towards literal-mindedness

Pretty sure my upcoming video is going to slough off some of ...

2026-10-13T11:26:30Z

Pretty sure my upcoming video is going to slough off some of those new YouTube followers.😆

This means that Iceland’s former VC/private equity investor ...

2026-10-13T10:04:48Z

This means that Iceland’s former VC/private equity investor president chose the absolute best time to do an interview where she promotes the idea that Iceland should go all-in on “AI”

Let’s bet the country on an obvious bubble. Five minutes before it pops. 😬

“Leggur til að Ísland skapi sér sérstöðu á sviði gervigreindar - RÚV.is”

https://www.ruv.is/frettir/innlent/2026-10-13-leggur-til-ad-island-skapi-ser-serstodu-a-svidi-gervigreindar-489632

“AI” boosters calling themselves “AI critics” or claiming ...

2026-10-13T09:13:17Z

“AI” boosters calling themselves “AI critics” or claiming to be critical of the technology seems to be such a common thing to do.

No doubt they believe it themselves, but what’s worrying is that so many people concerned about the tech then accept their position unexamined and assume anything more critical is unfounded extremism

It’s frustrating to watch so many fall for this

and having that label get widely accepted as true