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"The failures are the curriculum"

AI equips the layperson to impersonate an expert, producing output that has all the hallmarks of expert judgement—except for the judgement itself. I have several family members in academia, so the phenomenon being discussed in this piece was already familiar to me, but Dr. Karamanis paints an evocative picture of the underlying structural problem. I see a lot of parallels in the tech industry, and I’m trying to quash any nascent tendencies toward this in my own life. Well-meaning workers are trying their best to be useful as they watch their colleagues fall away around them. They’re inheriting roles and responsibilities they may not be qualified for or equipped to do justice to. Thanks to the same AI that’s bedazzled their leaders, these folks can produce work…but not substantiate it. Unable to understand the model’s output enough to polish it into worthiness, they lean too much on the model’s expertise....

📡✨ Deleted

This morning, after 16 years on Vimeo, I deleted my account because I wasn't using it anymore. Honestly, beyond very niche visual and video domains, I cannot see how someone can expect to thrive on Vimeo these days. YouTube probably killed Vimeo.

I liked Pep Guardiola’s leaving statement as he departs Man City at the end of the season. He barely mentions football at all instead talking mostly about work, friendship, family, community, love and fun.

Marked 3 Is the Markdown Companion a Lot of Mac Writers Have Been Waiting For

Brett Terpstra has released Marked 3, and this is not just a routine update. It’s one of those releases that makes you stop and think about where a tool actually fits in your workflow. If you write in Markdown on a Mac, there’s a very good chance Marked has been the missing piece all along. For years, I lived in Microsoft Word for anything that wasn’t email. That was the EdTech world: Word was the standard, `.doc` and `.docx` were the expected formats, and no one wanted to hear about alternatives. Never mind the huge app footprint, the licensing mess, the cost, or the absurdity of the entire Office suite when all you really needed was a word processor. And whenever someone in tech tried to suggest something leaner — OpenOffice, Google Docs, anything that didn’t come with Microsoft baggage — the pushback was immediate and emotional. In 2015, we were...

"Technology changes. Human nature does not."

Sahaj Garg, co-founder & CTO of Wispr, recently shared his thoughts on The Displacement of Cognitive Labor and What Comes After. They’re worth a read. The crisis of meaning he talks about is something that worries me, especially at global scale. Then again, the tendency to associate identity with work is a 20th-century, North American thing. It’s a bubble I’m immersed in, and my creative background doesn’t help. Still, we’re going to see a lot of people with a lot of extra time on their hands. And chances are, I’ll end up among them. What I do definitely falls into the broad category of “cognitive labour”, so I’ve been thinking: what part of that would AI replace? Cognitive labour can be measured in terms of volume (how many projects), or impact (how successful the projects are). Garg’s vision seems rooted in the idea that AI can help a company making...

The Burden of Possessions

There is a Buddhist story about an monk (or an old woman depending you source) that tells a story about being careful what you let into your life: “A monk lived very simply in a small hut with only a robe and a few possessions. One day he discovered that rats were chewing holes in his robe. He went to town and asked the villages for a solution. The villagers said, “You should get a cat.” So the monk got a cat. But the cat needed milk. After several trips to town to get milk for the cat, the monk asked the villages for a solution. The villagers said, “You should get a cow.” So the monk got a cow. But the cow needed care and feeding. Soon the monk was spending much of his day tending the animal instead of meditating. The villagers suggested, “You should hire a field...

今月に入ってからアマゾンプライムのボーイズ、インビンシブル。ネットフリックスのチェスナットマン、地獄に堕ちるわよ。刺激の強い作品を立て続けて観ていた。U-NEXTとディズニープラスはサブスク終了した。いまのところは観たいシリーズもないし。次はネットフリックスの自由研究には向かない殺人のシーズン2を観る予定。配信まで1週間あるけど。それまでマーダーミステリーを読む。人が死ぬ作品ばっかりだな。

いま気づいたけどPLAMO翻訳のサブスクリプションが期限切れになっていた。どのカードで支払うことになっているかわからなかったので一旦終了させたんだっけ。最近は英語のサイトを見なくなったので再開しなくてもいいかもしれない。多少文章的に変なのを我慢したらGoogle翻訳でもいいし。うーんどうしよう。　

📡✨ Auto-completion

IDE brought code auto-completion. AI brings app auto-completion.

Lists are stories. Even To Do lists. Stories attempt to impose order on apparent chaos. Meaning over incoherence.

Is Anything in Its Prime Right Now?

I've noticed that the TV shows I'm watching the most lately are from the late 90s through 2015-ish. The same goes with video games. Heck, a lot of the new games I play are remasters of games that were made in that era. Recently, I was reading up on the new X-Files TV show, and from what I'm reading, it looks like this will be an eight- or ten-episode series, not a season of twenty or more episodes, which to me defeats the purpose. I like spending time getting to know the characters and experiencing filler episodes, but I guess that is a thing of the past. It got me thinking, is there anything in its prime right now? I look around at video games, television, movies, sports, comic books, and even the internet, and it seems like we are on the tail end of everything great. Is there anything...

Slow Down

This morning, I found myself a little overwhelmed at work. It's been a busy week thus far, and I've noticed the effect its had on me. Yesterday, when I got home from work, I rushed around in a miserable state attempting to complete all of the things I wanted/needed to do. I found no joy in working out, cooking dinner, or even eating dinner. Everything was just a task to complete as soon as possible. Typically, when I find myself in this state, I take ten minutes to meditate. Last night, I did not offer myself that reprieve, and although I found a little stillness as the night wore on, this morning I feel like my stress has multipled as work continued to pile up. If you pay close enough attention, your body will let you know when its being mistreated. Maybe it's an ache in your chest or maybe...

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” — Mike Tyson

“Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve.” — Erich Fromm

📡✨ Extensions

And just like that, I realized it's easy to build a Chrome extension to serve as a front end for my bookmark manager web app. It's super easy to do... according to Claude AI. Filed in my small projects bin. 💪🏻

🗂️ Microsoft Forms – Admin Guide: Form Ownership Transfer

Source: Microsoft Learn – Admin information for Microsoft Forms 📋 OverviewWhen an employee leaves your organization, their Microsoft Forms don't automatically transfer to someone else. This article explains how administrators can take ownership of those forms using a dedicated delegation URL — and what requirements and limitations apply. 🔐 Who Can Transfer Form Ownership?Only the following roles can perform a form ownership transfer: • ✅ Global Administrator • ✅ Office Application Administrator (with a valid Microsoft Forms license) “⚠️ Regular users and standard admins cannot perform this action.” ✅ Requirements Before You TransferAll of the following conditions must be met before a transfer is possible: # Requirement 1️⃣ You are the Office Application Administrator with a valid Forms license 2️⃣ The employee's account has been deleted or disabled in Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) 3️⃣ (If account was deleted) The transfer happens within 30 days of account deletion “💡 Note:...

AI Isn't Black and White

People of all ages and backgrounds come together outdoors, connecting ideas and technology to illuminate the diverse and collaborative nature of AI innovation. Okay, this will probably sound controversial, but that's not my intent. I'm just sharing my thoughts because AI is everywhere right now, especially on social media and in blog posts. These views range from fairly neutral:1 • Manton Reece • Tom Casavant • Paul Thurrott • Richard Campbell To fairly positive, with the idea that you need to learn or use AI because... • Jim Mitchell • Numeric Citizen • Leo Laporte • Hey Loura • Ricardo Mendes To more negative views, often focused on whether AI's value proposition can actually justify the money being spent: • Ed Zitron People tend to frame the debate as two opposing camps: camp 1 wants nothing to do with AI, and camp 2 wants to hand it control over everything....

Analytics dashboard with Tinylytics

If you're using Tinylytics for your blog, Scribbles now surface this data straight in your dashboard. It's all automatic and you don't have to do anything extra — just add your Tinylytics code to your blog, write, gain some visitors and the analytics will flow straight in. It's super simple and it allows you to filter by date, using quick filter, or custom dates. Additionally you can filter by path or country. If you need more, you can head on over to the main Tinylytics dashboard. Whilst Tinylytics is powerful I kept everything minimal for now. If there are requests to bring more data across, let me know and I'll make it happen. With everything enabled, you can also see a small analytics pill on your post edit screen. Clicking on it will show you a proper graph as on the main dashboard. If you have any Kudos, it'll also...

📡✨ Features

Similarly, for Steve Jobs, Dropbox was a feature rather than a full product. That's when Dropbox approached Apple for a buyout. He would probably suggest that AI is also a feature, not a standalone product.

And so the attempt to rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic of British governance begins…

re: Who Knows You Blog

JTR recently shared his thoughts on this question that has been making the rounds over the past few weeks, and I thought I'd share mine. Its complicated when I think about it. I've been blogging for quite some time, and its come up to most of the people in my life that I'm close with (family and a few friends), but its not something that any of them follow. Sure, they've dabble with reading for a few weeks here and there, especially if I've been in a bad place, but I'm almost 100% confident that if you were to ask anyone in my life what my domain name or even blog title, they couldn't tell you. It's not something that gets asked about, and years ago it used to bother me that folks in my real life didn't bother to visit, but those days have long passed. When I'm not...

Airspace: A Polished Fix for a macOS Friction Point

Airspace, an app I downloaded today, has a lot going for it. It removes a classic Apple friction point by letting you name your virtual desktops, customize their appearance, and assign keyboard shortcuts to jump between them. It also helps me illustrate a point. Making a decision about the right price for an app has to be one of the hardest parts of releasing something new. Some of the most versatile and useful apps in the Mac ecosystem are priced absurdly low. I am looking at you, BetterTouchTool. On the other hand, we have all seen apps with plenty of competitors that still carry what I consider an absurdly high price. My favorite example is the clipboard manager, Paste. In reality, every software purchase comes down to what we value. Some people have strict requirements around aesthetics and would rather pay for polish than use something more functional. I think...

A Few Good Things - Vol. 21

Trail Out UpdateA couple of years ago, I wrote about Trail Out, a spiritual successor to Flatout. The game was definitely a lower-budget release, but the gameplay was a lot of fun. I didn't mind the game being so unpolished, but I did grow frustrated as I tried to complete the story mode but fell short due to a lack of races and the expectation of perfection in every race. So, eventually I gave up on it. Well, Trail Out was recently released on PS5 and I guess they made some updates. The game has been cleaned up quite a bit, it looks better and the glitches are gone. It feels more like a proper release and they even added new events to make completion easier. I've put fourteen hours into this game, so I obviously like it, and I'm excited to finish it up. Second Oldest Footage from an...

DockDoor Pro - The Dock Apple Wouldn't Build

When the free app DockDoor was released in 2024, it was the first time I had seen a developer add window previews to the Mac Dock in much the same way that other operating system from Redmond handles them. For kicks, it also included a Windows-style application switcher, also free. I have been updating some older reviews, so I went back to check on DockDoor. Not only does the original free version still exist, but the developer has also added a paid Pro version with a much larger feature set. The splash page for DockDoor Pro puts its claim front and center: DockDoor Pro - The Dock macOS Deserves The official native Mac dock replacement with profiles, live window previews, media controls, a file tray, magnification, and everything Apple left out. That is bold, but defensible. What It DoesThe real question with any Dock utility is whether it replaces the...

📡✨ Trails

I just had a clear idea for my next web application: a site to share, in chronological order, the places visited during a trip. It will be named Numeric Citizen Trails. My next trip is to France in June. I should have enough time to develop this application by then. I can't wait to get started. First step, writing the set of queries for Claude AI. 🗺️

→ Links 🔗 iOS Version Releases History

This website was not functioning or being updated for some time until recently. I'm glad to see it back and active. Although I don't want another beta for iOS 26.6, it seems the trend is unlikely to favor my preference. https://www.thinkybits.com/blog/ios-versions/

Working Through the Uncomfortableness

This past Saturday, I decided to work out for the first time in a year. I haven't been completely sedentary, but I have grown soft and lazy. I jumped back into a workout program, and I took it rather easy. I wanted to slowly wake up my muscles, not destroy them. I knew that if I tried to lift too much, I'd either injure myself, or I'd be so sore I wouldn't want to work out again. So, I worked out smart, and I made sure my first new workout was enjoyable. Despite dialing back the weight, the next morning I woke up and my quads were extremely sore. Not so sore I couldn't walk, but sore enough that the stairs made me mutter cuss words. As I hobbled around all day Sunday, I worried what Monday would bring. I'm always sorest on the second day, and sure enough Monday...

re: radio is cool, actually

Last week, I read a post by Stephen which was a response to gb's post: radio is cool. I recommend you check out both posts, and Stephen's post particularly because he works in the radio industry and obviously has more to say on the subject than I would. However, I wanted to use this post as a jumping-off point for my thoughts on radio. I recently posted that I began listening to the radio again, and it's been a delight. I would say I stopped listening to the radio probably sometime around 2002-2003. I had a six-disc CD changer in my Miata, what did I need the radio for? I loved burning CDs and controlling my own music, so the thought of listening to ads, stupid morning shows, and music I didn't like really turned me off. So, I spent the next twenty years only hearing the radio in the...

Bartender Enters a New Era with Top Shelf

For the past few weeks, I’ve been beta testing a new release of Bartender; an app with an interesting, and at times slightly controversial, history. Despite that, it’s a utility I’ve relied on for years. I recently did a deep dive into the problems macOS changes have created for menu bar managers and what those changes mean going forward. Even with a few lingering issues in the category, I still came away viewing Bartender as the best overall option for serious Mac users. The new release, called Bartender Pro, expands beyond traditional menu bar management with a feature called Top Shelf. The idea is simple: turn the MacBook notch into something genuinely useful instead of leaving it as dead space. The developers are entering an increasingly crowded area occupied by apps like Droppy and DynamicLake Pro, both of which are also trying to claim that piece of Mac interface real estate. Top Shelf supports temporary file storage,...

New Droppy Release is a Full Featured Utility Suite

An update to Droppy by developer Jordy Spruit dropped this weekend. What started as a free notch app has evolved into a paid, but still inexpensive, suite of Mac productivity tools. The licensing recently changed so that Droppy’s one-time payment now gets you a license for two Macs instead of one. The change is retroactive and applies to all users. From now until May 31st, the price is €6.99. After that, it will be €9.99. Both prices include lifetime updates, including major version releases. Droppy is written in native Swift. It’s signed and notarized by Apple, runs on macOS 14 and later, and ships without analytics or third-party trackers. Spruit says, “v14 contains more than 100 user-visible bug fixes and dozens of performance improvements, all driven by feedback from the Discord testers I’ve been working with daily for months.” My Personal Use CasesIn previous versions of Droppy, I’ve used the notch based...

• 💅 Tweaked the colouring of the pager in the default theme (version 2) to match the blog accent colour.

The Assembly

Season 2 of my favourite TV show has just dropped. If you haven’t watched The Assembly on ITV, do it now. It’s unmitigated joy and heart from start to finish. (Possibly UK only 😕).

There’s a difference between being condemned to suffer and being free to suffer.

“It doesn’t matter who you are or how much practice you’ve done: right now, there is just what's noticed without a noticer.” — Just what’s noticed

A Tinkering Day

Late last night, I discovered Walmart was selling a 6 TB hard drive for $125. It's not the greatest deal in the world, but with today's pricing I'll take it. Having a second drive gives me the space I need to make some changes. The drive was delivered from my local store this morning, so I got to work on finishing up some mini-tech projects I had sitting around. First, I went to work on my new budget emulation machine. I moved some more games over and then compressed the games with a built-in compressor. That saved me even more space, so now I can keep expanding my PS2 library which already sits at over fifty games. I also watched a few YouTube videos so I could learn how to make adjustments to improve the graphics. My first attempt went quite well, although I am experiencing some slow down in...