Always link to posts that cite “Programming as Theory Building”.
And that is going to turn all of the easy software development problems into hard problems.
“Rogue Amoeba - Under the Microscope » Blog Archive » A Word of Caution on MacOS Updates”
I just published “On code smell and gut feeling”
It’s an extract from the Uncluttered web-book/course.
At the very least, you can’t accuse me of not having opinions. 🙂️
“OpenAI’s Custom Chatbots Are Leaking Their Secrets | WIRED UK”
So, as you might guess, I think generative models are both less functional than claimed and harmful where they are functional.
But I also specifically distrust OpenAI and Microsoft as companies.
“siderea | Up the Slope: On Mastodon and What Social Engineering Should Be”
“CSS { In Real Life } | Hide and Debug Empty Elements with CSS”
This is a neat feature.
“The Bluffer’s Guide to A Spiral Model of Software Development and Enhancement – Codemanship’s Blog”
This seems suboptimal.
“Unity Software with a ‘company reset’ walks away from film VFX and the Wētā Deal. – fxguide”
Announce a strategy. Buy a product and its large team. Have a panic attack when your stock price dips, abandon said strategy, and fire everybody. All in the space of a couple of years.
Default apps for 2023
This is a thing people are doing. Decided to complete the list to see what I use.
- 📨 Mail Client: Thunderbird. Mail on iOS/iPadOS
- 📮 Mail Server: Easymail and Gmail
- 📝 Notes: text files in folders and whatever text editor I like at the time
- ✅ To-Do: text files in folders and whatever text editor I like at the time
- 📷 iPhone Photo Shooting: Apple Camera or Halide
- 🌅 Photo Management: Apple Photos, Lightroom, Capture One
- 📆 Calendar: Google Calendar
- 📁 Cloud File Storage: Dropbox or GitHub (for the text files)
- 📖 RSS: NetNewsWire and Feedly. Working to get rid of Feedly.
- 🙍🏻♂️ Contacts: Whatever is built into the messaging, email, or phone app I’m using
- 🌐 Browser: Firefox. Safari on iOS/iPad ‘cause forced to.
- 💬 Chat: Messages and Slack. Hate Slack, though.
- 🔖 Bookmarks: Micro.blog and Pinboard. Kind of hate them both.
- 📑 Read It Later: Nothing. If I haven’t read it by the time I close the browser tab I’m never going to read it.
- 📜 Word Processing: Google Docs, but only if I’m forced to for collaboration. Otherwise avoid them all. They’re all bad.
- 📈 Spreadsheets: Google Sheets. Ick.
- 📊 Presentations: Whatever HTML presentation format pandoc supports. So text files in folders again.
- 🛒 Shopping Lists: Text files in folders
- 🍴 Meal Planning: Text files in folders
- 💰 Budgeting and Personal Finance: Whatever comes with my online banking.
- 📰 News: Browser and NetNewWire
- 🎵 Music: Apple Music
- 🎙️ Podcasts: don’t listen to podcasts any more
- 🔐 Password Management: 1Password
- 🤖 Code Editing: VS Code. Occasionally Sublime.
- 📚 Books: Kindle and, y’know, printed books.
- 🌎 Blogging: Micro.blog or Hugo.
“How to Use Responsive HTML Video (…and Audio!)”
This looks useful.
I got several reports yesterday of people not being able to buy the bundle. I think Teachable had issues due to Cyber Monday traffic. So I’ve extended the bundle sale by a day
This is the only reminder I’m posting about it, though 🙂️
“Some Google Drive for Desktop users are missing months of files - The Verge”
Like I said when the mass layoffs were first announced: software companies that do mass layoffs run a high risk of critically compromising the reliability and quality of the software they make
“Doctor Who | Writers reportedly not receiving residuals after move to Disney+ | Film Stories”
Like I said, media is in a race to the bottom.
“After 151 years, Popular Science will no longer offer a magazine - The Verge”
Between VCs/hedge funds, generative models, and Google not caring what happens to its search engine, large parts of the media industry seem to be in a race to the bottom
“Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI-Generated Writers”
That these sites don’t seem to get penalised by Google tells us something about Google’s search engine priorities.
The view from my living room window this morning.
“Pluralistic: The real AI fight (27 Nov 2023) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow”
Where I found the link to Red Jacket’s defence.
“LukeW | Until the Right Design Emerges…”
Your first design, while it may seem like a solution, is usually just an early definition of the problem you are trying to solve.
I don’t think I’ve ever worked on a project where management let the design process actually finish.
“Why I Don’t Dig the Singularity”
Eight years old but still relevant.
Reminder: Black Friday Bundle 2023, everything I have made for only $49
Tomorrow will be the last day. Two ebooks. A web-book/course. And a bonus video series. All on various aspects of software dev. (Tho, one is on the business risks of generative “AI”.)