Watched Forrest Gump for the first time in 20 odd years this evening. Watching it again with an adult brain...Jenny is a real bitch! Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
I’m advising this new Kickstarter that you should check out if you care about AI risks and regulation. My AI posts over the last couple of years have advocated for taking AI risks seriously by enacting strong AI regulation, especially to mitigate the potential of significant job market disruption. If that resonates with you, then this project should too. It will create a microsite game titled GAME OVER to help people better understand AI risks. I’ve been advising the parent organization, School of Thought , for over a decade, who are focused generally on increasing critical thinking in society and have a particular knack for making viral educational microsites. Most recently they made a similar site on conspiracy theories , which you can use to get a sense of how it might be adapted for AI risks. And of course there is a lot more info on the Kickstarter page itself . (Their pages on biases and fallacies are also great.) This new project was obviously in the works well before the recent news cycle on AI existential risks. The School of Thought’s approach here offers the potential to inject critical thinking about AI risks into the mainstream, which is clearly needed right now. Please join me in supporting the project .
Completely unrelated to software, but sometimes stepping outside is what’s needed to develop perspective and find creative solutions – this is Practical Engineering’s video about the many electrical plugs and sockets in America : = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/i-love-it-because-its-a-bit-messy-and-not-everything-lines-up-perfectly/yt1-play.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/i-love-it-because-its-a-bit-messy-and-not-everything-lines-up-perfectly/yt1-play.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> There are a lot more socket kinds than I expected, and sprinkled in between are some useful observations about system design, change management, power users, backwards compatibility, and consistency vs. inconsistency – in my head, that last part puts this video right next to the previous post in my brain, even if they seem nothing alike. Also, that early video snippet from the 1920s? Jesus Christ. What a UI.
In a recent post , Jim Nielsen used the term “bulldozing of an interface”: I’ve found this to be true a lot as of late. Lots of tiny details that were meticulously crafted over years with specific rationales tied to real-world use cases, all completely bulldozed in a giant refactor. I liked that term and a description, but I didn’t expect I’ll put it to use so soon. Unfortunately, mere months after praising CleanShot’s settings , the new version 5 update bulldozed them into something much worse. Let me show you first. In the following screenshots, version 4 design is followed by its version 5 equivalent. Quick recording settings: = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/cleanshots-bulldozed-settings/1.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/cleanshots-bulldozed-settings/1.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/cleanshots-bulldozed-settings/2.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/cleanshots-bulldozed-settings/2.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> General: = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/cleanshots-bulldozed-settings/3.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/cleanshots-bulldozed-settings/3.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/cleanshots-bulldozed-settings/4.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/cleanshots-bulldozed-settings/4.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> Recording: = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/cleanshots-bulldozed-settings/5.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/cleanshots-bulldozed-settings/5.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/cleanshots-bulldozed-settings/6.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/cleanshots-bulldozed-settings/6.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> Advanced: = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/cleanshots-bulldozed-settings/7.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/cleanshots-bulldozed-settings/7.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/cleanshots-bulldozed-settings/8.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/cleanshots-bulldozed-settings/8.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> The other panels follow the same pattern. (The screenshots are from macOS Sequoia, but I checked in Tahoe, and things are not materially different there.) I was taken aback by this – a feeling exacerbated by the fact that the quick settings on a dark background looked even worse – so I shared an early reaction with CleanShot’s support team, and asked how to downgrade to version 4, which luckily remains possible. The support team member said that they actually liked the previous settings themselves, but conveyed they shipped the redesign in order to feel more consistent with the operating system, and more modern. I followed up with a longer response, which I’m sharing below. I am hoping this can be valuable to others facing a similar situation in the future, or give some specific observations to latch onto – for me, it allowed to put in words the feelings I’ve had about the Ventura Settings redesign that were rattling in my brain since 2022: I don’t think you have to follow the OS if its own designers are making bad decisions – I gather it’s even our responsibility as designers not to – and we know they are bad, if only from how people reacted to the macOS Ventura System Settings redesign. Here are the problems I see that CleanShot 5 settings now inherit from Apple: It’s not too late to undo this. This reminds me of city planning in the 1970s , where enchanted by the notions of modernism we remade city downtowns to be all identical-looking, clad in concrete, and surrounded by freeways. We look at it with shame and regret today, realizing we made previously alive places basically inhospitable. You could still keep the modern left nav – that indeed didn’t age well, as screens are wider today – and perhaps left align the version 4 labels to make the gestalt hold better. It’s definitely more work, which I sympathize with; it’s hard when the operating system cedes its responsibilities to provide good design patterns. But you had something really wonderful before, crafted and signposted with care, both a great welcome mat for new CleanShot users and – important here more than for many other apps! – fantastic in repeated use. (I know this is kind of an intense reply and I hope it doesn’t arrive feeling like concentrated condescension. Part of it is that I am x-posting it to my blog, as I believe it might be helpful for other designers.) The two-pane settings layout was originally designed for the first iPhone with its 320px screen width. macOS Settings stretches it to 460px, and in your app you went with 550px. As a result, the settings panes start registering, gestalt-wise, as “left column first, right column second” rather than “first option first, second option second, etc.” This requires eyes to dart around a lot more, as the labels are disconnected from their controls. The shading and lines help, but they’re just a crutch – and they also reduce density. In version 4, your eyes could follow the solitary center spine with more ease. The second column is right-aligned, which makes visual processing harder – not just because it further separates the label from the control, but also right alignment is harder to process in a left-to-right language. (In the previous layout, sure, the labels were right aligned, but they were still near the common spine. Plus, the labels are short and simpler visually than Ventura-style right-aligned UI controls.) This also creates attendant problems, like Options… buttons being on the “wrong side,” or Options… and Choose… buttons needing to be in inconsistent positions. In version 5, every panel looks much more alike. This doesn’t feel like helpful consistency, as it makes it harder to recognize where you are. Version 4 had a nice variety of silhouettes that felt cohesive as a whole, but still allowed for shape coding to help you orient yourself. We’re all pattern matchers, and varying shapes enter our brains on a deeper level, freeing us from having to consciously process the environment (or even read labels) over and over again, slowing us down. Ventura’s settings design does not really allow for radio buttons and struggles with sliders, forcing pop-up buttons for every one-of-many option, which further reduces shape coding, but also is worse for orientation as you can’t see everything – if you just want to find an option like “Plain color” in Wallpaper, it’s no longer immediately visible. You might never, as a matter of fact, learn it’s there. CleanShot 4 really nicely knew when to choose radio buttons and when to reach for pop-up buttons, depending on the importance of the control. (A smaller, but similar argument could be made for subtabs and streamlined checkboxes, both used to a good effect in 4, but missing in 5.) The new layout is also less usable as you can no longer click on long labels next to switches to toggle them, which was possible with checkboxes. The pop-up buttons are more narrow, too. This means you have to be a lot more precise in clicking, which adds up over time. The previous layout had a nice consistent feeling of “things that are actionable and I can click on are white, everything else is gray.” It was yet another way that aided in scannability and orientation. In the new system, pull-down menus look like (inactive) labels. The switches themselves have visibility and contrast problems. This might be particularly prominent in my setup with graphite as the accent color, but I believe it’s not unique to that, as I continue seeing feedback from many people who are always confused about “reading” the switches, whose both states look similar to one another. (The checkbox’s shape doesn’t have that problem.)
Content warning: Mention of suicide, grooming methods, child sexual abuse. In between all the social media bans and age-verification discussions, I think back to my online time as a child. My parents' household got internet when I was about 9 years old, and we had a family computer everyone used. At age 12, I got my own PC in my room. What the internet gave me was important and definitely shaped who I am today, for the better even. It offered me a way to journal that was inaccessible to my parent, who was always searching through all my stuff, reading my paper journals, and digging through my trash. Getting access to my PC, and then finding a specific website and logging in there was a big hurdle back then. 1 It gave me a way to connect with others who were also having problems. We could vent to each other about school issues, parental abuse, self-image and more. It was my form of therapy before I could access any care. It helped me gain perspective, feel understood and learn what is and isn't normal behavior from a parent. It was great that I could finally find others I could connect to and help them with their issues as well, when I was mostly a loner at school. Thanks to the internet, there were opportunities to socialize for me that real life couldn't give me - in chats, in forums, via blogging, early social media, or games. It also shaped my political views and values in ways that school or parents simply lacked. My parents aren't very politically literate or in any way academic. There were no intellectual discussions ever at my home. To be quite honest, there weren't any discussions aside from household-centered stuff. School is... school. Surface level, limited by the skills and views of each teacher, very centrist, very mellow, very exam-focused, and very local. Places like Tumblr opened up a whole world full of political discourse for me. I learned so much theory there, was exposed to a lot of discussions, both heated and respectful back-and-forth, walls of text with sources, and a much more of a global view. Following a discussion chain and seeing so many arguments and their proof, just to change my mind with the answer that follows, gave me more than any staged, weird discussion table at school could give, where no one even seriously held any of the views they were forced to read from a paper. I think without discussion culture online back then in forums or places like Tumblr, I wouldn't have learned to write the way I do, which both helped me in school as well as paved the way to write things like the tech utopia fantasy is over . On top of that, it made me a more empathetic and understanding person. I grew up with bigotry; thankfully, my parents weren't outright or proudly racist or xenophobic, but still unknowingly kept using terms that are actually slurs, or said things that were well-meaning or with neutral intentions, but ultimately ignorant and offensive either way. They used to be homophobic, and always had something to point out about someone on TV or on the street; slutshaming, fatphobia, being ignorant of disabled people if it wasn't the stereotypical person in a wheelchair, never trying to understand where the other person might come from or that they have a different experience than them. They always uncritically reproduced some bullshit and saw the worst in people, or saw them as caricatures of themselves. Without the internet, I would have become like them, or stayed that way for far longer at least. The internet gave me a way to push back on these ideas as much as was safe for me to do so, or just keep quiet while having a more favorable and understanding view of people in my head. Slightly related to the former point, but it also helped me with my queerness. When I grew up (and where I grew up), queerness just wasn't discussed. Maybe it came up one day what a gay or lesbian person is, and that's it. It wasn't discussed in sex education, no one at any school I went to was out, we had no queer student couples, no teachers who were openly queer, not even a fellow student where it was known that their parents were queer. Nothing. It was like queer people theoretically existed, but it's irrelevant, or an adult thing, maybe a porn thing. Trans people were not discussed at all when I was growing up. While you can surely list some movies or shows from before 2008 that had some queer character, it weren't popular ones, or many. It wasn't like nowadays, where it feels like most shows or movies have a queer character or multiple, intentionally, with good writing, and not just to add drama, make fun of them or kill them off. Especially kids shows even! When I watched TV, no queer person was seen. Online, I could learn about different sexualities and gender identities without an adult person policing it, restricting or censoring it, deciding what is or isn't "valid", or deciding how "age appropriate" it is. I remember scrolling Autostraddle in 2010/2011 and onwards, which helped me a lot with coming to terms with being a lesbian. It also broadened my interests a lot! I got into games because other people invited me to play, or because I saw fanart or screenshots of the game that I liked. Sometimes I saw people all reading, watching or playing the same thing just after it released, liveblogging their experience, and it made me wanna get in on that and bond with people about it. Tumblr is the reason I got into Dragon Age and Mass Effect, for example, and I still love them today. Same with trying other hobbies, like photography, or 3D modeling, and digital drawing. Seeing people online do them not only made me aware they exist or is something I could do, but they were also encouraging others to try, and had helpful guides at hand or even made them. These are the top things on my mind when I think about how the internet shaped me positively. There are many, many more I could list. I want to acknowledge that the internet has changed since then, and there are new challenges that I never had to deal with. But it doesn't mean that I didn't have my fair share of problems that still exist today, and that are often used together with addiction and other issues to justify a ban. When I grew up with the internet, there were very few, basically no resources on how to help kids with it or how to prepare them for it. We were the trial generation, I guess. No one knew better, or knew of the potential dangers much. I remember that some time, it made the news that kids were groomed on the platform Knuddels , and that parents should make sure their kids stay away. What did this lead to? I was told Knuddels was a bad website, and I was forbidden from using it. That's it. And of course, to never give out my address or real name. My peers got the same short talk. The result was that Knuddels was very interesting to them because it was forbidden and dangerous. I didn't participate, but only because my child mind heard " The website is bad and dangerous. " and thought that if I went on it, the police would come to my house and arrest me, or some stranger would instantly know where I live and come to my house and kidnap me. What would have been better for my peers and me? An explanation of why this website is bad. What are groomers or pedophiles? What do they want to do to me? Why is that bad? What might they use or say to convince me to send pictures, or give out my address, or meet with me? When someone says these things to me, I should notify a trusted adult and stop responding. What can I do if I send something and regret it? What if they start blackmailing me with it? Know that you will not get in trouble for telling anyone what happened to you, even if you think it's your fault. Instead of having these conversations, parents and news chose the easy path and just designated a website the bad spot. This didn't save me from groomers everywhere else. There were the adult men who noticed I was vulnerable because I was extremely young (12-16) and abused by my parents, and listened to my problems, reassured me, played friend, just to slowly shift the conversation towards their own "problems". The lack of sex they had (with or without partner), and what they could do to get more sex, or how lonely they felt. They'd first discuss their sex life, and then pry about yours. Did you already masturbate? How did it feel? And as a very young girl feeling unloved and growing up oversexualized in our society, you slowly learn that sexualizing yourself and trying to be sexually available or interesting to people will earn you love, attention, and care, especially when you otherwise don't get it. And if the price for reassuring conversations with an older friend is that... you pay. And they always say they will feel better if you send them a picture. Just of your face at first. Then more. And if you said no, they'd act hurt. They'd either remind you that they listened to all your problems so you better do as they say else it's "unfair" and you were "just using them", or they outright threaten to kill themselves. This didn't only happen once. It happened with multiple men, different ages, in slightly different ways, and almost everyone I know has a similar story, especially when they are women. What I would have needed to hear as a child or teen in these cases, before any of it happened, would have been: Why is it so hard to have these conversations and teach children and teens that? Why do we once again try to paint with a broad brush about how this or that game or platform is bad, but we don't actually do everything in our power to demand that these platforms are improved not just for kids and teens, but for everyone? Why don't we still not put a lot of time and effort into helping kids and teens spot predators, scams, propaganda, manipulated content, ragebait, purposefully addictive content and the like? Why can we not teach them how to be responsible with porn and how to judge its content? How are we still not really discussing safe sexting when we know teens will do it? How are we still so behind on teaching them about privacy, data protection, and how their data will be used? We don't give children and teens enough competency, media literacy and knowledge to decide for themselves and truly understand the consequences, and then watch them bumble around cluelessly or be preyed on, and use that as an excuse to take away their agency and rights. Age changes absolutely nothing about these platforms or the risk of falling prey to someone or something. Becoming older doesn't automatically flip a switch and enables the knowledge on how to properly assess your screen time and your media habits or tastes and take the appropriate action. It doesn't automatically teach you when something is wrong and what to do. It doesn't immediately give you good media literacy. It doesn't just install good habits around online sexuality and porn. It doesn't safeguard you from emotionally manipulative content, effects of advertising, false promises of influencers, and how to spot unattainable beauty standards. It doesn't protect you from love scams or being blackmailed with nudes. If you are not taught about these things, and are shielded from the danger until you are 16-18, you will just make these experiences later, with absolutely no support. The same things that harm kids harm adults! The same stuff kids fall for, your grandma falls for too! Social media bans and severe age restrictions and verification enables everyone to shrug and throw their hands up as if they had no clue on how to help this. Platform owners can continue their platforms as before with no changes needed, which is great for them because things like engagement metrics, infinite scroll, ragebait, and the like keep the platform afloat and they don't have to adjust their predatory and unethical business model. Parents and schools are allowed to bury their heads in the sand, shifting blame between each other as both parties are too stressed, overwhelmed and have no time to deal with this. Giving into all of this with bans and handing over sensitive data to companies selling to data brokers is a declaration of bankruptcy of our willingness to raise children to be capable and responsible adults with the necessary freedoms and support. You are abandoning and neglecting your children. I read the Datenschutzberater , a magazine dedicated to data protection law in Germany. In the edition DSB-07-08/2026, in her article " Neue Anforderungen an den Kinderdatenschutz - Praxisfolgen aktueller Behördenpositionen ", author Anna-Lena Eswein explains the current state of child data protection law and uses a fictional example of a child-friendly app to illustrate them. One feature of this fictional app is: Specific presets for minor accounts. A private profile, the inability to be found via search or recommended profiles, comments and DMs are only possible with pre-approved contacts. Changes to these settings require a "conscious decision". The author doesn't write that, but I assume this decision needs to be made by the parent, or at least with parental approval. I think approaches like these are highly problematic! This restricts online interactions to merely real life connections, approved by their parents, exchanged in person. Likely just accounts by family members, some people from school, and of the club(s) the child is in, and that's it. That is not enough! Referencing back to what I wrote above about what the internet gave me, the ability to interact with people all over the world gave me so much. The option to seek out whomever I wanted, or be approached by people with similar interests, was important. I needed a space online where I could be visible to others, showcase me and my interests, explore how I wanted to act and present myself, and where I could talk about my problems removed from the watchful eye of parents or real life peers that didn't understand me. I had contact with much older adults in forums that was helpful, kind, respectful, informative and helped me grow, like another parental figure or an online aunt or uncle. I am still very grateful for them. If my mother would have had the option to control my online life like parents nowadays have, it would have shielded me so much from good and necessary online content and interactions, and would have purposefully prevented me from speaking about my abuse to others online. She would have been even more successful in separating myself from others and being able to gaslight me about her behavior and what is normal in a family. It would have reduced my online presence to a second channel for abuse and limited real life connections, plus maybe a feed (algorithmic or not) that merely makes me a silent spectator and consumer to whatever is on it (maybe even pre-approved, too). How are queer kids supposed to find each other like this, when not every area, every school, is safe in real life or where not everyone is visibly out? How are disabled or neurodivergent kids find each other, when they are often one of the only ones in their class or school, and want to speak to someone they can relate to? We can't make up for social contact with some TV shows or infographics or watching a YouTube video about it. How are teens supposed to learn about sexuality or politics or the genocide in Gaza when their feed is scrubbed clean and their parents will instantly find out if they recently searched "gay sex" in the app search? Everything will instantly be a shameful conversation brought up at the next dinner before the child is even ready to bring it up themselves. Yes, a setup like this during my time as a teen would have meant those men would have never found or contacted me. But it would have stolen far more from me; my safe space, my therapy, my online friends, my education and my interests. My negative online experiences were completely preventable without taking away the good, or running 24/7 surveillance on all my devices. It would have just been more effort, and would have required adults to talk to me, and treat me like an autonomous human being who can learn and make good decisions, instead of a sentient pet rock that doesn't have any rights. I would never, ever trade in the good to avoid the bad. I would have rather gone through the bad than miss out on the person the good parts made me. The bad has never been more preventable while still allowing kids and teens their own spaces and platforms for emotional support, to explore who they are, and learn more than their parents and school teach them. Without bans or age verification. It requires educational resources, time and willingness to sit down and discuss, humanizing children and teens and hearing them out, and holding platforms accountable for the bad they level against all of us , not just children. The sad reason the latter doesn't happen is because the EU has made itself so reliant on US tech that any real threat or consequences to US platforms has become a burden too great to bare. And they'd rather give the fascist US empire more money and install more surveillance and control over us all than actually give a fuck about your children. Children and teen's isolation and loss of resources, spaces and friendships is an okay price to pay for these fossils and their addiction to Microslop. Fuck them! Published 19 Sep, 2026 When I think about what tools parents have nowadays to control their child - live tracking, a report on everything the child did on a device, access to all accounts and DMs, a camera in the child's room... I get sick to my stomach. That tech was made for parents like mine, and there are reasons why they will die alone. ↩ When they see a picture of you and tell you you seem much older, or say the way you write is so mature for your age, it's not a compliment. They want you to feel flattered and like you are special for deserving adult attention, but they say it to hook you. They are also lying to themselves about how you don't "really count as a child" when it's total bullshit. No adult needs a child friend. No adult needs to cry on a child's shoulder. They have other adult friends and their own parents and other resources to help them out. They only say these things so you will feel bad for them and not cut contact, or do as they say. They use your sympathy and willingness to help against you. They will not kill themselves. They just threaten that so you comply. If you are not sure or concerned, call the police on them. When you take the pictures and videos they ask of you, or do things in front of a webcam in a video call, you are producing child sexual abuse material. That's not only illegal, but this will haunt you, and be traded between the perpetrators forever. When I think about what tools parents have nowadays to control their child - live tracking, a report on everything the child did on a device, access to all accounts and DMs, a camera in the child's room... I get sick to my stomach. That tech was made for parents like mine, and there are reasons why they will die alone. ↩
Yesterday, I had the pleasure to give a talk for the local Kotlin community on creativity in software engineering and the impact generative AI has on our ability to be creative. KTConf took place in an iconic venue, the M museum in Leuven, so I felt obliged to include a slide about a painting. To my dismay, nobody in the room knew anything about art history or could identify the painting (Manet’s Bundle of Asparagus ). That allowed me to demonstrate you’ll likely find something like Manet’s painting very creative if some expert tells you it is. In the context of coding, the same concepts apply: you’ll need to have some technical background in order to judge whether something is creative—during both the process (the code) and the end product (the thing that hopefully makes your end users happy). Thus, technical knowledge is one of the prerequisites for being a creative programmer. The talk, entitled A Critique On AI-Assisted ‘Creative’ Programming , predictably included a summary of my book The Creative Programmer . Here’s the executive summary of the talk: Nobody will dispute that creativity is essential to being a successful programmer. With the rise of LLM systems, we lazy coders are even more allured to take the shortcut and by handing out the most mundane aspects of our everyday jobs. Yet what we do not know is that by doing so, we are also seriously hampering our happy, silly, and joyful side of programming, or in other words, the creative aspects of programming. In this talk, we’ll explore why AI-assisted tools are not beneficial but detrimental to our creative side—that very side that is sorely needed when facing complex issues that require coming up with a new and unique approach. Be inspired by what makes creative geniuses tick. Stop being a prompt engineer. (Re)start that critical thinking brain. Fulfil your Homo Faber destiny! The slides are also available in PDF format, although being the nerd I am, I did write them in Markdown and used Marp to present. Besides the idea of the Creative Programmer, the second takeaway I wanted everyone to think about was the fact that we’re so eager to off-load “mundane” work to our new LLM-based assistant. But without that 90% of “boring” transpiration, the 10% of interesting illumination will never occur. We, as inherently lazy humans, are yet again thinking only of the short-term wins. Yes, we can now push a story to production in three days instead of a week. But those days we’ve won now will most certainly come back to haunt is later in the maintenance phase. An example slide, zooming in on creative domain #6: the creative state of mind, and the dangers of off-loading the transpiration to an LLM agent. If you’re interested in a bit more background behind the main ideas that were touched on, here are the related posts where I based the slides on: James’ interesting choice of words: In the spectrum of problems in SE, coding has never really been a big one. The places where there are problems are in like testing. […] So I view AI in part asstealing the fun and making the torture worse. - James Gosling Stealing the fun and making the torture worse . His words, not mine. If you have any questions or concerns related to what I might or might not have said yesterday, you’re welcome to reach out ! For those who couldn’t make it, unfortunately there’s no recording available. Perhaps next year? Related topics: / talk / By Wouter Groeneveld on 19 September 2026. Reply via email . My book The Creative Programmer ; The Creative Programming Problem Solving Test (don’t forget to press that I’m Feeling Lucky button); The most important slide, the mind map summarising the seven domains of creative programming in software engineering, is explained in the article what is creativity for software engineers ; The critique on genAI found its roots in my commentary on genAI through different lenses that summarises the papers I’ve mentioned; Bert Hubert’s AI Train talk that inspired me to include a warning for ecologists and economists; Dan North’s Programming is not a craft blog post from 2011 that caused quite a stir back in the day but is ever so relevant nowadays. 95% of the people in the room claimed to be code craftsmen, yet we’re increasingly telling someone else to craft something. Why? To create something is to be human (or the other way around). The dangers of a depressing professional existence lurk around the corner. James Gosling’s interview on the Telusko YouTube channel (see below).
We lost our favourite chicken last night. I know, just a chicken, right? Big deal. It's not like we lost a pet. But that's the thing, Amelia was more than just a chicken . She was a pet. She was very tame and would often come into the house to sit with one of us. She would scratch around the kitchen while we were eating breakfast then quietly cluck at one of us to be picked up for cuddle. We named her after Amelia Earhart because she was always the first of all our chickens to go exploring. Right from the moment we got our first 6 chickens, Amelia came up to us while the others hid. Often posing for photos. Amelia on day 1, posing for a photo It's very sad when you lose a pet, and although this won't hit us as hard as when we inevitably lose one of our dogs, it's still really sad. Both my wife and I have shed a few tears for Amelia this morning. We'll miss you, girl. x Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
One day when we were in China we had to spend a few hours in an appliance store with the kids. Asking my 4-year old to sit still and learn the ins and outs of ductless AC units obviously wasn't going to happen. He quickly took to running around the store, whizzing in and out of washers, refrigerators and automatic toilets that would raise their lids in a salute to his craziness. He played hide and seek among the displays, laughing all the while. As an American parent, it stressed me the hell out. Not because I thought he would get hurt or cause damage, there was very little chance of that. Rather, it was my expectation of being yelled at. Having some elderly shopper give a lecture, or a sales associate call a manager to deal with us. In the USA, a kid being allowed to run around and have fun in a store just isn't something that's allowed to happen. It's too disruptive, too "dangerous", too filled with "what ifs". Later that day he fell asleep at a bike shop, having spent all his energy in the appliance store My wife told me to chill out and said "nobody here gives a shit". And sure enough, my son was completely ignored. At one point, another kid joined in while his parents reviewed refrigerators. The only time employees got involved was when my son got so bored he started throwing a fit. Suddenly 4 associates descended on him, each offering various sweets and snacks to cheer him up. That day has been stuck in my mind since returning home. America is filled to the brim with rules to be followed, least you risk being told off. Not to say China is without rules, far from it, but there's a strong culture "who gives a shit" when it comes to small things.
by Kevin Wammer Kevin talks about some of the stuff he's figured out in his life now that he's turned 35. Read post ➡ Really enjoyed this post because it's honest, level headed, and real. Since stepping down in work myself , I too have realised that good enough is... good enough . Funny, huh? Kevin talks about a lot more than just his career, but I won't ruin a great read for you. Go check it out. Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .
Axe-con ’27 : The world’s largest digital accessibility event. At your computer. February 23-27, 2027 Me! I’m a keynote speaker along with Jennison Asuncion , Co-Founder of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). There will be 70+ other amazing presenters as well I’m sure that will be announced soon. Because it matters.
What’s going on, Internet? Today just seems like one of those days. It’s Friday evening and I’m standing here at my desk with a beer, messing with the blog. Placeholding some later posts that I meant to write but time got away on me. Listening to new music, playing new computer games, and watching new favourite old TV shows. Kids are in bed, and asleep. New golf clubs arrived. I got to have a swing at the range. New Miley Cyrus album. I was onto something , wasn’t I? Check out Bass Persuades , and the second single Let’s Get Married . Blizzcon was last weekend. New Warcraft III expansion, Forsaken Kingdom . Which sets the story for the new World Of Warcraft game; Forever . New South Park, with a new intro song . Let’s hope it’s less whatshisface this year. And don’t mind those blank posts you’ve seen pop up in the feed, I’m staging them as a encouragement for me to finish writing them. Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.
What’s going on, Internet? Later post. Write me. Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.
What’s going on, Internet? If you don’t folllow my Bookmarks through the feed , then here’s the bookmarks from August. Enjoy. For more, check out the bookmarks archive, and subscribe to the feeds if you want these as they happen. Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website. MOUSELING.net - Hyper Text Muck-up Language Solid tips for budding webmasters Welcome to the web we lost Sacha Judd tracing the good internet through X-Files fandom and webrings, and it’s still out there in the corners. How to Fix the Internet Not everything is fine on the Internet, but there’s an opportunity, and it starts with choosing what you pay attention to yourself. How I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard - Joel Hawksley Definitely keen to build one of these for our home! So cool! Conceived in a secure military facility, this Jedi Knight fansite has been running consistently for almost 30 years: ‘It looks really close to what it did back in 1998’ | PC Gamer A community site for Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, still active and still looking like 1998. It’s just a website The humble website 😃 I Wonder How Many is Too Many When it Comes to Adding Pages – The Land Where Turbie Posts How many pages is too many? As many as you want 😃 owls’ guide to webshrines A sweeet practical guide for creating your own “shrines”, mini sites for any one of your interests. Creating a Successful Fansite: A Comprehensive Guide A comprehensive guide for getting started creating your own fansite. Go build one.
“Artificial” things can get a bad rap next to their counterparts, but they have their place. For example, artificial light (i.e. not from the sun)? Super useful, especially at night. And when it comes to skiing, I’ll take artificial snow if I have to. Beats no snow. Artificial isn’t necessarily inferior in all cases, everywhere, all the time. But it is optimized for different values. For example: Artificial is an alternative. It’s understood as a trade-off, not a substitute. You trade the real for the artificial when you’re concerned about attributes like cost, convenience, and availability. Which brings me to “artificial” intelligence: surely a trade-off, not a substitute. Ain’t nothing like the real thing. These labs should consider ripping off (cause they’re good at that) Mastercard’s old tagline : “There’s some intelligence money can’t buy; for everything else, there’s Claude.” Reply via: Email · Mastodon · Bluesky Artificial grass (i.e. turf) is great for certain contexts, but I don’t want a golf course of artificial grass. Artificial flowers are great for certain scenarios, but I don’t want them at my wedding. Artificial flavoring is yummy (love me some peach rings), but I’d prefer a real peach pie over one with artificially flavored filling.
What’s going on, Internet? Later post. Write me. Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.
Welcome back to This Week in Stratechery! As a reminder, each week, every Friday, we’re sending out this overview of content in the Stratechery bundle; highlighted links are free for everyone . Additionally, you have complete control over what we send to you. If you don’t want to receive This Week in Stratechery emails (there is no podcast), please uncheck the box in your delivery settings . On that note, here were a few of our favorites this week. This week’s Stratechery video is on Write Things Down . The View From Anywhere But San Francisco . It is exciting to talk about AI because there are so many unknowns; it is incredibly frustrating to talk about AI doom…because there are so many unknowns. Indeed, that’s the pushback I had on Stratechery and Sharp Tech to the debates of the last week: viewpoints that don’t harbor dissent inevitably lead to bad outcomes. The best read on the matter, however, was Andrew’s Sharp Text article Some of All Fears , that had a simple request: let’s actually solve real problems when they are, in fact, real. — Ben Thompson The Limited Potential for a Pacing Deal. After a week of speculation over whether China would ever agree to a deal with the U.S. to slow down AI development, Bill and I discussed that question at length on this week’s episode of Sharp China , as well as why the CCP’s past successes controlling technology (they did in fact nail jello to the wall ) may inform its apparent confidence in its ability to manage AI risk. At the end, I also found it interesting to learn that rising discontent across Chinese social media is not necessarily a reflection of the limits of that aforementioned censorship, but possibly a window into how the Party manages social malaise. — AS The Salesforce Zag. We didn’t get a chance to discuss this on Sharp Tech this week (we had too much existential dread to address), but I loved Wednesday’s Update on Dreamforce and Salesforce’s integration with Anthropic. In what appears to be a climbdown from his colorful commitment to AgentForce in 2024 , CEO Marc Benioff is now going the opposite direction from other enterprise AI players and leaning into Anthropic and OpenAI chatbots as the preferred UI of his customers. Rather than fight the AI tide, Salesforce will swim with it and charge a premium for it (with the caveat that these particular currents may lead to a world in which the SaaS beachhead is eroded for everyone). — Andrew Sharp Pacing the Frontier, AI’s Digital Limits, AI Commissars — Dario Amodei wants to pace the frontier; it’s an unrealistic proposal that seems mostly geared to political control of AI. OpenAI Ads, Amazon Ads in ChatGPT, Walmart to Accept Apple Pay — ChatGPT ads are working, and solve Amazon’s biggest problem with chatbots. Then, Walmart finally gives in to Apple Pay, because fighting the status quo is hard. Salesforce AI Force, Agents as UI, The Race to Headless — Salesforce is abandoning UI as a moat, which is a very smart move because it’s disappearing for everyone. An Interview with Joanna Stern About the iPhone Duo and AI for Normal People Some of All Fears — AI anxiety is rational, but the conversation over the past 10 days has been absurd and irresponsible. Football and the Frontier iPhone 18 Pro Silicon Valley’s Got That Energy (But No Compute) Exxon’s Office Fling The Limited Potential for a Pacing Deal; MSS on PRC AI Risks; Distillation and Data Security; The Party’s Approach to Social Media Searching for the 2026 Protagonists, The Six Most Confusing Teams This Season, Surveying the Southwest Division Doom Debates Go Mainstream, AI Religion and the Economic Future, Several Vectors of the China Question
The relationship between keyboard manufacturers and standards bodies in various countries is so complex I barely understand a snippet of it. The most famous example must be the 1990s PowerBooks, which had a beige variant for Germany and Germany only, to conform with local laws that prescribed and enforced specific color and contrast combinations for keyboards, in order to avoid glare and attendant ergonomic problems for terminal operators in the decades before. (It wasn’t just Apple. ThinkPads did the same .) (I know. Jump scare!) But you’ll understand that what caught more of my attention was an obscure variant of keyboards for (parts of?) Canada in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The white 2003 keyboard might be my favourite of Apple’s keyboard design, instantly recognizable in either the American version (more words), or the European one (more symbols): There was also the Japanese JIS standard keyboard, which famously kept Control where older terminals had it – to, no doubt, delight of Japan’s programmers: = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/5.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/5.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> These are the three well-known layout standards . The one for Canada followed Europe, but only to a point. The layout was the same, but the symbols weren’t: = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/6.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/6.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> Here’s an alternate view of the European and Canadian keyboards, and you can see that the latter one introduces different, unique symbols for Ctrl, Alt, Tab, Caps Lock… …and even goes as far as Esc. (The Esc symbol is roughly the same you see worldwide, but for some reason, Apple always shied away from putting it on even symbol-friendly keyboards – even though frustratingly it’s being used in macOS menus in all the locales.) The story repeats itself in the middle of the keyboard. Here are, again, the US and European editions… Canada, with its abundance of icons, makes Europe feel like America: Even the arrows are different – here’s America vs. Canada: Even the Enter arrow – here’s Europe vs. Canada: And numeric Enter/Return gets a different shape, too: I don’t really know what is the full story here. I imagine the government exerted some pressure and Apple relented, creating a unique set of keyboards with some really ugly icons. I know the previous two models were affected also – here’s AppleDesign keyboard from the second half of the 1990s: = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/19.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/19.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> You can see all the same symbols… = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/20.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/20.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/21.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/21.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> …and even the extra glyph for Num Lock I imagine was prescribed for the PC side, too: = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/22.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/22.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> And, closed to the present, I have seen examples of the first metal keyboard from the late 2000s, too. But I don’t believe these symbols are used today. Even in their heyday, I’m not sure whether they were sold in the whole of Canada, or just its French-speaking portion – if you know, please share. It’s my understanding this is called the CSA or ACNOR keyboard. And, just like before , these symbols are in Unicode – ⇬⇭⎆⎈⇱⇲⎗⎘ – looking just as gorgeous. That was me being sarcastic.I can imagine the pain inside Apple of someone having to put the ugly symbols coming from above, alongside otherwise generally thoughtful and refined typography. Sure, Apple did good here compared to other keyboard makers , but still, it must have hurt. This is what makes these keyboards so interesting to me. But there’s one more symbol that might be interesting to talk about, and perhaps you already spotted it above. It’s here, on the Japanese keyboard: = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/23.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/23.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> This time around no standard was involved; I believe that the pencil on the Control key is solely Apple’s invention. = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/24.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/24.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/25.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/25.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> What is it for, and why was it there just in Japan? Typing in Japanese might be among the most complex, requiring switching between a few writing systems – katakana, hiragana, kanji, and also Western letters – as fluently as possible. To help with that, Apple used a system called Kotoeri , and added a new alternative symbol for Control that was also present onscreen, in the relevant typing menus: = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/26.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/26.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/27.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="https://unsung.aresluna.org/_media/key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side/27.1600w.avif" type="image/avif"> The system was there in the waning years of classic Mac OS and early years of Mac OS X. Just like with the Canadian symbols, I don’t fully know what happened to Kotoeri. I’m reading that it was gone from Mac OS X by 2014 – but even already in the years before, Apple removed the slightly pixellated symbol from their keyboards, and switched back to a standard ⌃ Control symbol in the UI. Of course, if in the 1990s it was people in Japan who had to switch between various keyboards all time, today, thanks to emoji, it is everyone . If the Kotoeri pencil reminds you of something, Apple came back to the same well more recently with the 🌐/Fn key – but I already wrote how much I hate that .
The year is 2026, and you are a hyperscaler CEO. You zip up your Patagonia vest, type UPDATE ME ON CALENDOR TOODAY into ChatGPT, and see that you have a meeting with your CFO. They tell you that while they love all those GPUs you’re buying for those data centers that will absolutely get built and totally agree that you should buy more , your company cannot actually afford to buy them at the current pace. “But we’re one of the single-largest cash-generating companies in the world!” you scream so hard that your horribly-trained Shiba Inu starts chewing on the side of your Aeron chair. “We’ve been doing AI for years! Where is the money?” The CFO furrows their brow. “Well, that’s the thing. We’re not actually generating that much cash from it , and actually appear to be losing money. Why do we want to buy more GPUs? We still haven’t installed most of the ones we bought -” You begin to shake uncontrollably. “To. Do. Artificial. Intelligence. What. Is. It. You. Don’t. Understand. Why. More. GPUs. Now.” The Shiba Inu is now tearing into your Eames chair, but you’re too angry to notice. Your CFO, thankful that there’s a Microsoft Teams window between the two of you, seeks to calm you down, and asks ChatGPT to give them a script to calm you down. “I understand that you didn’t like what I said — and that’s on me. I have a really great solution for you that I think will solve the problem — we’ve got great credit, and we’d be able to raise in all sorts of ways. It’s not just a solution — it’s a strategy.” You stop shaking. Your idiot Chief Financial Officer had a great idea. You ask ChatGPT to vibe code a dashboard of potential options and it crashes your Chrome browser. “I just ran the numbers. You’re right.” Your CFO smiles as they see your Shiba Inu empty its bladder in the background. While I’m editorializing a little, this is the current state of the largest tech companies in the world, with Oracle , Google and Amazon going cashflow negative ( with Meta not far behind ) in pursuit of an indeterminately-large opportunity to sell AI software or rent AI chips (bought from either NVIDIA or Broadcom, see my hater’s guides for more) to either Anthropic and OpenAI or, in Google’s case, Meta . To reiterate what I’ve been saying for a while, big tech has a few issues with the AI buildout: Hyperscalers have traditionally run relatively-lean operations with operating expenses that didn't necessarily scale with revenues, along with low capital expenditures (IE: long term investments in the business) that meant that even Oracle’s effectively-flat revenues didn’t stop it from printing cash every quarter. All of that changed thanks to the incredible cost of AI data centers. Capital expenditures are becoming a dramatic share of operating cashflow — as in the total money the company brings in and spend on a quarterly basis — with chart looking relatively-sleepy outside of Amazon’s massive expansion of its logistics network in 2021 and 2022 and Meta’s abominable investments in the Metaverse until the AI bubble began to eat away at every available dollar of cashflow. Their argument would be that they’re “building the infrastructure of the future,” but that doesn’t appear to have A) shown up in revenues or B) eased up the strain on cashflow. While Google, Oracle, Microsoft, and Amazon have added over a trillion dollars to their revenue backlogs from Anthropic and OpenAI alone , the money they’re adding doesn’t seem to be helping with the burn. Here’s a chart to illustrate the point. An easy way to view the calculation is that this is a percentage of the incoming dollars to the company being eaten up by capital expenditures — and as you can see, that equates to almost every dollar that big tech is making. Meanwhile, as the AI bubble inflated, a new breed of company emerged — the “neocloud,” a company that raises money to buy AI chips and build data centers. These companies are usually either a brand new entity conjured up through the dark magic of Jensen Huang or cryptocurrency miners (who already have access to power, though often not enough) converting their Bitcoin/Ethereum operations into AI data centers. In some cases, the neoclouds rent capacity from colocation firms like Core Scientific and Applied Digital who, in turn, raise debt to build the data centers and secure the power, leaving the neoclouds to buy all of the IT gear to go inside. Much like the hyperscalers, neoclouds have committed to build gigawatts of data center capacity, which means they’ve had to raise massive amounts of debt. And while their capital expenditures rival the biggest companies in the world, their revenues are a footnote to the amount of cash going out the door, and it’s only getting worse every quarter: As I’ve said before, while everybody wants to make the AI bubble really complex , it’s actually super simple: hundreds of billions of dollars are being invested to make single-digit billions of dollars maybe, some day, if AI data centers actually get built at scale and OpenAI and Anthropic can afford to pay for their compute. The unbelievable cost of building AI data centers is such that everyone that does so only appears to lose money, to the point that the richest companies in the world are running a deficit, and the AI compute specialists are hemorrhaging billions of dollars a quarter on the off chance that they might make it back by the year 2030. Not to worry, though. The combined might of private credit , investment banks and global bond markets have funded over $500 billion in AI-related debt issuance in 2026 alone, across a combination of regular bonds, convoluted special purpose vehicles, convertible notes (IE: loans that convert into stock), delayed-drawn term loans, and direct lending, with a worrying amount of the same names — such as asset managers like Blackrock and Blackstone and Japanese banks MUFJ and SMBC — popping up across a vast majority of the deals. Yet the problem isn’t just that it’s very expensive , but that everyone I’ve mentioned has made it clear they’re going to need more and more money. Goldman Sachs estimates that hyperscalers will raise $400 billion in bonds alone in 2027, and consensus analyst estimates have CoreWeave, Nebius, and IREN spending an aggregate $97 billion, which will be funded almost entirely through debt. Well, okay, there’re way more problems than that. Every hyperscaler, data center SPV, and neocloud will need to raise money during an era of abject chaos and ever-climbing prices: interest rates are spiking for literally everybody , and NVIDIA just raised its prices by 15% as a result of DRAM costs skyrocketing, which has increased the cost of GPUs and basically every other imaginable thing that goes in a data center. Today’s newsletter is the first part in a comprehensive and gruesome exploration of the world of debt propping up the AI bubble, breaking down how the debt works, how it’s raised, who’s funding it, and why the increasing cost of everything threatens to make the AI buildout untenable. I’ve got the charts, numbers and explanations you need to understand how strange and expensive things are about to get. This is the Hater’s Guide To AI Debt, or The KobayAIshi Maru. AI chips are extremely expensive. AI data centers take a great deal of time to build and energize. AI services are expensive to run. AI services do not appear to generate much revenue.
Inspired by a conversation with a friend, I made a mini site that’s an interactive representation of my design bookshelves : I am hoping it becomes a fun reference to browse, or something just enjoyable to play with. I made the interface feel very differently on desktop and mobile, and I hope both are fun. (There’s also a simple list if not.) I wish, just like with a regular bookshelf, you could open any book and check it out – but that’s tricky for many reasons. (I did at least scan some of the covers that weren’t available on the web.)
I’ve been rocking an LG monitor that has noticeable burn-in. The old dog takes a while to flicker into life too. I’ve had it around eight years (the Dell before it lasted ten). I think the monitor is too dumb to be spying on me but I’m due an upgrade anyway. I picked up the BenQ RD280UG — the UG is the new 120Hz model. Was it worth the cost? It’s certainly not the cheapest monitor nor is it the most expensive. If it lasts the best part of a decade I’ll not worry. I didn’t compare many others but I’m guessing the BenQ is a little on the pricier side for the specs. Probably a limited edition because nobody programs anymore! I have no referral link I just think it’s neat. The “programming” marketing is all based on the 3:2 aspect ratio and matt panel. That means a 1920×1280 resolution, so an extra 200 pixels in height (technically 3840×2560 but my brain works in CSS pixels). I feel like I’m coding at an IMAX it’s glorious. It’s physically the exact width of my old monitor so watching 16:9 letterboxed video is no smaller. 120Hz is nice though not a game changer, I don’t think my lazy eyes care beyond 60Hz. The matt panel is amazing I see no glare or reflections. I feel like it’s giving me less eye strain. I’ll report back in a few months. The “Programming dark theme” is a load of bollocks. The monitor has a selection of presets you can cycle through like every other monitor. You can split the screen in half and apply different profiles. I can’t see myself ever bothering to do that (on purpose). I’m not a TV pervert so I can’t judge how accurate the colours are but it looks great to me. Looks better than my old LG. On par with my MacBook screen (this is bait). I’ve always held the belief that designing websites on a perfect colour-accurate monitor is vanity. Few will ever see what the designer sees. Unlike print design, which has a predictable end product, web designers can’t control the final presentation. Therefore, maybe designing on a cheap, factory calibrated monitor is more closely aligned to end user experience? To put it another way, you can tell if a web designer owns a $2000 monitor if their palette has fifty shades of the same grey and gradients that band like an 8-bit game. The BenQ is a decent in between, if not towards the higher end. The monitor has a reasonable variety of ports and KVM switching is possible. My old Mac Mini with Linux installed was too much hassle to use by switching cables. The only issue now is that my MacBook turns off when I switch with the lid closed. Still, it’s more convenient now to share keyboard & mouse. For KVM one machine must use a single USB-C cable, the other must use HDMI or DisplayPort and a USB-A-to-B cable. Why not simply two USB-C cables? There’s three USB-C ports and daisy-chaining is possible but not KVM. My new setup is one USB-C cable from MacBook to monitor without a big dock in the middle. I’m glad to remove the Thunderbolt dock and its massive power brick. I still have an additional tiny 4 port USB-A splitter (900 mA) and an Ethernet to USB-C adapter that all tucks away behind the monitor. A tidy desk makes for a tidy mind. The monitor itself has an internal power brick. That means two less (for a total of zero) paper weights on my desk (unless the Mac Mini remains unused). Power bricks are a nightmare for adjustable standing desks. Good times! The stand does its job. I can lower it to a perfect height which I couldn’t do with my old monitor. I had to buy an adjustable arm which needed space to flex behind my desk. BenQ wants me to download their “Display Pilot 2” spyware. Not a chance! I heard “BetterDisplay Pro” was good and it does stuff but I don’t really need to do stuff. The monitor works out of the box. I don’t think I’m missing functionality. I don’t game on this thing (Mac, lol) but as a “programming” monitor it works nicely despite the gimmick being overhyped. TL;DR: 3:2 aspect ratio is neat. I’ll enjoy the novelty for a while. Thanks for reading! Follow me on Mastodon and Bluesky . Subscribe to my Blog and Notes or Combined feeds.
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