Thanks @numericcitizen for a new YouTube video about what's new in Micro.blog! Covers updates to newsletter updates, Bluesky support, AI setting, blogrolls, and more.
Wish I could permanently remove that red dot from the Threads favicon. Life is better with most app icon badges and notifications hidden, and this one is really glaring.
When I find myself questioning whether I'm on the right side of an issue, it can be a little comforting to realize that there is no right side. Some things are just a mess. Humans are imperfect, but we're trying our best. ❤️
It was going to be confusing for DMA-required changes on iOS to not also apply to iPadOS, especially for developers with universal apps. I assume syncing them up won't be a major problem for Apple, hopefully for iOS 18. MacStories has the latest EU news on this.
Watched the first episode of Fallout last night. Really good. I never played the game, so no idea how closely the show is inspired by it, but I like what they've done so far. 📺
Recorded a new video to release tomorrow, with a walkthrough of what is possible with photos and AI. Just a first step, nothing earth-shattering you haven't seen before, but I really like how it's coming together in Micro.blog. Our robot overlords made me post this. 🤖
I feel like MKBHD is trolling us now with the clickbait video titles. R1 review is overall pretty fair, doesn’t change my expectations much.
Great effort from the Lakers. That was a good one. Looking forward to Nuggets vs. Timberwolves! 🏀
Got derailed looking at electric bikes (again!) and now I want this: eeyo.bike. I'm not super picky about bikes, but the cheap one I got a few years ago is busted and it's impossible to find a new battery. This seems a common problem for many brands. 🚴
I posted a video on YouTube today with where we're going in Micro.blog to use AI in a limited way to help with search and accessibility.
Great blog post from Om Malik on the current AI hardware from Humane and Rabbit, and where things are going.
AI hesitancy
I'm 48 years old. If you start counting with my paid internship in college, I've had a roughly 30-year career in the software industry, give or take a year. I feel extremely lucky that the web came along just as I was getting my feet wet as a developer. World-changing technologies are rare.
Timing matters. This is part of what Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers is about.
As I get older, I'm increasingly aware of how easy it is to become bitter and set in my ways. There are many episodes of Core Intuition where I complain about Swift or SwiftUI. Why do we need a new programming language when the old one is still perfectly fine? 🤪
The tech and startup world has had no shortage of over-hyped sidetracks. Blockchain is the most recent flop. Just because a technology is novel, doesn't mean a practical purpose and business model will emerge.
I almost never jump on trends because you can waste so much time chasing productivity gains that you actually end up going backwards. I run my servers with old tech. I use tried and true programming languages and frameworks. I am not cutting edge.
Some people think generative AI is in the same line as other problematic new technologies, fads that come and go, leaving a string of wrecked businesses and broken apps in their wake. I understand the hesitation. We have been inundated with tech companies that don't care about data privacy, don't care about how energy use affects the climate, and don't care as much about user control as they do about profit.
It is with this backdrop that I get to the point: this AI shit is real. It will change almost everything. I'm not expecting to see another truly game-changing technology for the rest of my career. This is the one.
That doesn't mean we should move fast and break things. I'm trying to be thoughtful about this. The new photos search and accessibility feature we introduced in Micro.blog today is a first step, and perhaps we won't take the next step for another year or longer. It's useful today, as a tool to help people do more with their time, and that's enough for now.
Neat video from Brandon Sanderson at C2E2. I'm tempted to go to Salt Lake City for the Wind and Truth release. None of the books I'm reading are hitting... I'm pushing through, but part of me wants to just start re-reading all of The Stormlight Archive.
Saw this poster the other day and was fascinated by it. I'm posting it to capture the time we live in. It also inspired me to read a few random articles about horses in the Middle East, including this one from 2016 in The New York Times:
Palestinians and Israelis in the business, as well as foreign trainers and judges who know the region, say that Arabian horses have another effect that is almost magical: They coax Israelis and Palestinians into the same arenas, where the conflict briefly melts away and everyone admires the horses as they strut, dance, gallop and compete for trophies.
Grand opening of the new Chuy’s in Mueller.
Patrick Rhone has a new book: For You:
This book was written for my daughter Beatrix in honor of her 16th Birthday. It is inspired by many events and conversations we’ve had over the years.
This book is for you, too. Because these lessons are universal.
The "it should've been an app" arguments would resonate with me more if Apple let you replace Siri. There's just no way to get enough integration on iOS. It is hard to innovate around Apple and Google, but I'm glad some developers are trying to, because that's how we get new things.
The API folks at OpenAI continue to do great work. You can just tell when developers have their act together. Felt the same way the first time I used Stripe. The latest improvement is vision models in the batch API (Twitter X link), which should eventually bring down my costs.
How is it May already? Reminder that Micro Camp is coming up in just a little over two weeks! We'll get the full schedule up later, but the plan is to start at noon Pacific. It's free. We'll have a livestream and chat. micro.camp
Admittedly I'm not a subscriber so haven't read the full text for M.G. Siegler's Vision Pro article this week, but the opening paragraph is not fooling around:
Arguing about the shipment projections for Apple's Vision Pro is sort of like arguing about how many tickets were sold on the fateful Hindenburg journey. For one thing, we're going to find out the number one way or another, eventually. For another, we're sort of overlooking the massive airship exploding in the sky.
I’ve been working on a Gaza-related blog post off and on for months, mostly threw it out and rewrote it this week. Sometimes I draft a post and it feels good to write it down, so I never actually post it. Other times I can’t let a topic go until it’s published.
There's a redesigned version of Lillihub for Micro.blog available. I'm amazed by how many features it supports. Check it out if you're looking for a different take on the user experience or text editing UI.
Recorded another very short video for YouTube about how we're starting to use the auto-generated photo descriptions in the new post screen. As you can see in the video, it's still a little clunky. I'll improve the timing and UI flow as we use it more.
Great teardown video from iFixit on the Rabbit and Humane devices. The closing line also highlights why these need to be standalone devices:
Both at best should've been an app. But that might have more to do with the restrictions on Apple and Android's app stores than anything else.
Easy to access, simple hardware is not only fun but also the only way to really push anything forward at the moment. We wouldn't say that because the iPhone can run games the Nintendo Switch shouldn't exist.
Finally checked out the Carpenter Hotel’s coffee shop yesterday. Nice place. Had a little break from the rain outside.
New episode of Core Intuition about this week's tweaks to the CTF, plus a discussion of how Micro.blog is using AI. We talk about my decision to have a global AI setting and how some customers feel very strongly that AI use should be limited.
I’m still doing this because the world is flooded with overpriced, crappy, subpar software. It hurts people and it hurts the economy.
Reminds me of when 37signals would redesign popular sites like FedEx. Part of it was a way to get attention for what they could do, but I bet it was also because Jason couldn't stand how bad some websites were.
Ordered another Jackery. This one is so tiny.
Good trouble
In college in the 1990s, I joined the socialist student organization. I saw every issue in stark contrast — a measure of fairness and justice. If I was young on campus today, I might be protesting the war in Gaza. But even in college, truthfully I wasn’t a great activist. I remember our organization leader calling me about a protest for workers’ rights and I was too lazy that day to go.
I'm still for peace and equality today, but now I know that the world is fucking complicated. I'm less certain about things I felt so strongly about before.
Seeing everything in black and white is a mixed blessing. Seeing only the extremes leads to passion and action. But it can also blind us to more nuanced arguments. It can make us more susceptible to manipulation, caught up with TikToks and retweets that reinforce what we already believe.
Taking a step back from the protests specifically, liberals advocate for the less fortunate. We want people of all backgrounds to be treated with respect. We push back against laws that further redistribute wealth to those who don’t need it.
I think this instinct has run into problems in Gaza. War is terrible. More humanitarian aid is needed, and more military restraint. Palestinians have been struggling for decades, now they’ve been forced from their homes, children have died in bombings, and there’s a risk of famine. We want to side with them because we always default to supporting the people who most need support.
And yet polarization has twisted everything. On social media, we use the worst words possible. No words on any topic seem to go far enough, because everyone is angry about everything. Innocent people dying in war — it just doesn't sound terrible enough for our outrage. So we reach for even more extreme words, calling to mind atrocities that have rightly been judged by history as indefensible.
Pick a side, protest, use all the hashtags, get angry, go viral. In a social bubble, everything is amplified.
I’m going to be honest, the brutality of the Hamas attack on October 7th changed my opinion on the Middle East, possibly forever. Hamas cannot stay in power. But how to remove Hamas without risking innocent life and creating a new generation of terrorists is an impossible challenge that I don’t have a solution for.
Peaceful protests are an important part of a democracy. Most of the protests have been peaceful. Unfortunately some of the protesters at a few campuses like Columbia University and UCLA have lost the plot, seeing injustice everywhere, creating chaos, justifying vandalism. I hope we haven’t become so tribal that we support that.
There is a bit of hope in the news. Earlier this week, Antony Blinken said:
Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel. And at the moment, the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a cease-fire is Hamas.
I hope Hamas accepts it. The hostages need to be released and even a temporary ceasefire will make it easier to ramp up more aid.
Amplified by social media outrage, it has become difficult to see the war clearly. I’m not sure how as a society we get through this. All I know for sure is that it’s going to take a long time, and we need social platforms that don’t feed on division.
✌️
Garden Cafe in Dallas.
Sort of spontaneously went to see The Fall Guy. Really fun movie. 🍿
It’s hard to tell when a blog post is first published if it’s any good. A few days later, a year later, then you know.
Finished reading: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. It didn’t quite work for me, lots of interesting characters but very little story. Still enjoyed it, just not as much as her recent novellas. 📚
