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→ Links 🔗 Pascal

Great memories: one of the first high-level and fun programming languages I learned was Pascal. Knowing that a text editor and compiler are self-contained in such a small package is simply mind-blowing. We need more software like this in today's memory-constrained world. https://simonwillison.net/2026/Mar/20/turbo-pascal/#atom-everythingOne of the first high-level and fun programming languages I learned was Pascal.

The prototyping mindset

I used to develop new products bottom-up. I'd come up with a perfect, complicated plan, think thoroughly every phase and wouldn't move to the next one until it was perfect. I would think really hard what I wanted and what it should look like. Then I'd figure out what tools I needed to 3D print. Next, I'd sit down and model everything, 3D print, test, aaand it didn't work. So I threw it away and started all over again. Usually I went through many iterations, before I was able to simplify it enough, so that it sort of resembled what I was trying to achieve, but by the time I got there I was too exhausted to finish it. The problem was that I was thinking too big and wanted to get everything right from the beginning. Instead of focusing on whether my idea even worked, I stressed over all...

This. David Graeber Institute

“Hope is fear in disguise.” — Sam Harris

Good morning.

📡✨ Remember?

Remember ChatGPT Atlas? Dia Browser? Sora?

Octarine: Powerful, Sophisticated and Easy to Use

I’ve been hearing about Octarine for a while. It’s one of those apps that people whose opinions I respect talk about with a certain level of admiration. After testing it as thoroughly as I’ve tested any app in a long time, I understand why. Octarine is a tool for creating, editing, and organizing text-based information using connected but independent documents: Markdown files. Without relying on plugins, it supports images, video, PDFs, and files created by other productivity apps. Those files can be linked inside Octarine but still open in their native applications. Octarine isn’t designed for a single purpose. It’s more like a flexible Markdown workspace you can adapt to several overlapping uses: • Journaling • Task management • Writing and long-form drafting • Math or science reference notes • Documentation • Personal knowledge management (PKM) • Project planning Setup Octarine is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS, but it’s not a heavy Electron app....

From observing the people I work with, so many of them appear to be beset by a constant stream of excessive overreaction to the smallest of ordinary, everyday events: a change in the weather, a pen running out, a door that doesn’t open first time, a bump in the road, a stiff handle, a dead battery, a cup of tea slightly too hot or too cold, a wobbly chair… One tiny catastrophe after another. All seem to be interpreted as hurdles or roadblocks impeding progress to…what? Where? Presumably a day, a week, a life without friction. But friction, obstacles are where most of life lives. Where we truly make contact with what is, not what we want. It’s just one of life’s great ironies and paradoxes that the more we resist and challenge life the more it sticks. If we can open, allow and accept all of life, particularly its...

Good morning.

As is often the case whenever I try express a thought, there’s always someone who’s done it so much better… From The Shoelace by Charles Bukowski, Mockingbird Wish Me Luck (1972). “it’s not the large things that send a man to the madhouse. death he’s ready for, or murder, incest, robbery, fire, flood… no, it’s the continuing series of small tragedies that send a man to the madhouse… not the death of his love but a shoelace that snaps with no time left …”

Rewatched The Firm last night for the first time in about 30 years. The director Alan Clarke was an absolute genius. His film Elephant changed my life.

Is blogging still worth it?

Periodically this kind of question blows up in my mind for a few moments. But I always end with a positive answer. Yes, it's worth it. A blog is like a Swiss Army Knife: you can create a public journal, a professional space, an hobby corner or just a mix of them.

Good morning.

メールを整理する

またHey Mailの話だ。 このサービスについて検索すると出てくるのは、主にリリース開始当初の記事か、試用期間の後に継続するのをやめた理由を説明する個人ブログになる。 継続しなかった理由のほとんどは「私には必要なかった」「悪くないけど高額すぎる」の2つしかなかった。 先日見つけたブログはより具体的に自分に必要がない理由を書いていた。 要約すると”自分のメール管理は完璧なので、Hey Mailのスクリーナーは不要だった”とするものだ。 そういえば僕もHey Mailに移行する前はGMailをSparkというメールアプリで使っていた。Sparkにもメールの振り分け機能があったから、メールマガジンや企業からのPRは別フォルダに振り分けるようにして受信箱は常に空けてあった。 驚くことにHey Mailの使い方を分かってなかった！ ChatGPTに日本語であらためてHey Mailの使用方法を説明して欲しいと頼んだ。 ・重要なのは人間との会話 ・それ以外は見えないようにする 最初に受信を許可するところから始まって、メールの内容により自動でフォルダ分けをする。常時目に見えるのはImbox(imはinの誤字ではなく重要という意味のimportant）だけになる。 メルマガや企業からのPRはThe Feed。 決済時のレシートはPaper Trailに入る。 Feedは自分で読みたければ読む。僕は映画のチケット予約確認のメールもこちらに送っている。設定した日数が経過すると自動で消去される。メールが溜まっていかないようになっている。 Paper Trailは文字どうり記録の追跡だ。単に記録と言っていい。Apple Payで決済した時の通知とか、Micro.Blogの毎月の引き落としの通知とか届いていればいいだけのメールだ。こちらは自動消去はされない。あとで必要な時にいつでも探せるようするためだ。経費の計上の際に必要な時とか。 The FeedとPaper Trailの自動振り分けが上手く機能していれば、Imboxには自分が読みたいメールだけになるはず。自動で送られてくる企業からのメッセージや買い物のレシートは別に分けて、重要な人間同士のやり取りだけが残ることになる。なんてクールなんだろう。 自動で送られて来ているか、そうではないかを判別することが重要な点だった。 僕は自動振り分け設定をしないまま使っていたので、何が何だかわからない状態に陥っていただけだった。 ChatGPTに設定方法を確認しながら残していた全てのメールに振り分けのルールを課した。結果的にImboxにはメールが一通もない状態になった。 ・・・人間とメールのやり取りなんてもう何年もしていない。 親しい人とはメッセージアプリでやり取りをするだけだし。これは仕事相手でも同じだ。何年か前まで自分の事業を持っていたから、その頃だったらきっと役に立っただろうけど、今となっては必要なかった。 Heyの基礎的な理念を理解してから気づくことになるとはね。 いよいよApple Mailに戻る時が来た。と思ったのも束の間で、Safariの使いにくさを実感した今となっては、Appleのエコシステムに戻っていいのかと再び疑問が湧いて出て来ている。 メールの受信箱がごちゃごちゃになるくらいならSparkを使うべきなのかもしれない。AppleのMailが前より進化してくれてたらいいんだけど。

ブラウザ問題とその他いろいろ

iPhone版のComet Browserが使い物にならないので削除した。Mac版と同期するとアプリが終了する他にも多くの不具合があったからだ。AppStoreで確認したら公開予定日が3月18日になっていた。一旦延期したのだろう。当日に確認したら19日とさらに延期されていた。開発側はだいぶ慌てているようだ。 このブラウザには期待をしていなかったが、今日になって少し事情が変わってきた。 昨日書いたようにiPhoneとMacの使用環境をSafariを始めとするアップル製品に戻そうと考えていた。でもMicro.BlogはSafariから投稿しようとするとエンターキーを押すたびに改行されてしまう。この不具合がまだ残っていたことに驚いた。CometBrowserなら問題は起こらなかった（ちなみにScribblesはどのブラウザでも日本語入力に問題は起こらない）。 英語を翻訳する時も、いちいち別のタブで開いたウェブアプリに文章をコピーすることになる。Safariに翻訳させるとそこまで酷くはないんだけど、読みにくい日本語にされてしまう。 Safari、Apple password、標準のMailの組み合わせに戻すのはよく考えたほうがいいのかもしれない。

RSS is my jam

As of writing I subscribe to approximately 100 or so RSS feeds, 70ish of which are personal blogs and the rest are a mix of news and social. I only do social to the extent that I follow the RSS feeds of a select few Bluesky and Fediverse accounts in an RSS reader. So how I read those feeds is kind of important to me. I’m interested whenever new RSS readers pop up and currently there is some renewed activity in this space. Historically I have spent the most time using either Unread or new Reeder. Both different but both great in different ways. Some time ago I stumbled across Sublime Feed. A delightful web app that puts actual reading back into feed reading. A beautifully designed stream/ river of posts and an equally considered reading mode provides a wonderfully calm reading experience. No unread count. No notifications. No inbox-style...

“Trying to awaken is like pulling on a door that’s clearly marked push.” — Barry Magid

tiny desk

Yesterday I was tooting about opening a CrucialTrack profile, or simply share a song I like on my personal spaces. In the meanwhile I evaluate, let me share with you the enjoyment felt listening to this NPR Tiny Desktop performance on youtube, recorded at mid. October 2025 Enjoy !!!

ローカルに戻る

ブラウザやメールをアップル製に戻そうかと考えている。今まで使っていたサードパーティ製品のほうが高性能だけど。だいぶ前に捨ててしまったアップルのエコシステムの中にいる快適さを取り戻したくなっている。 それとは別に、ウェブアプリをブラウザで常に使える状態、第二のOSにしておく必要もないことに気づいた。在宅でMac Bookを仕事に使っているなら話が変わるのかもしれないが。自分にとっては過剰な環境づくりに取り憑かれていたのかもしれない。全てローカルで動作するようにしても何ら問題はないだろう。 Macをクリーンインストールして余計なアプリを全て削除してもいいかと思い始めている。ただし実際にそれをして最後はSNSから遠ざかっていった人も知っているから、あまり極端なことはしないように自制が必要。

I find it extraordinary that the coverage of Apple’s new MacBook Neo has somehow manufactured the myth of ‘the Mac almost anyone can afford.’ Particularly in the current economic climate. Steve’s reality distortion field lives on!

“Plants don’t attend plant improvement seminars.” — Sam Goldfinch, Rebel Spirituality

In debating the nature of LLMs, we may be inadvertently exposing more about the fragility of our self-conception than about the limits of machine cognition.

Elfsight vs Yuzool Widgets: A No‑Nonsense Comparison for Freelancers and Indie Builders

If you’ve ever needed to add reviews, promo bars, or other widgets to a client site, you’ve probably bumped into Elfsight. They’ve done a great job of becoming the default answer: a big catalog of 90‑plus widgets for reviews, social feeds, forms, chats, AI, and more, all bundled behind a single dashboard. For a lot of people, that’s more than enough. But if you’re a freelancer, small studio, or indie founder, the trade‑offs start to show up: bundles of scripts, per‑app view limits, and pricing that nudges you into bigger plans as traffic grows. This guide is a calm comparison of Elfsight vs Yuzool Widgets from an indie perspective: what they actually do, where Elfsight shines, and where a smaller, lighter alternative might fit you better. What Elfsight and Yuzool both doBoth tools solve the same core problem: “I want to add useful blocks—reviews, forms, promos, embeds—to my site without...

Setting Up a New Mac the Easy Way

[M4 Mac Mini]When I bought my last new Mac two years ago, I set it up the way I had been setting up my personal computers for years: plug in a Time Machine drive and run Migration Assistant. On a modern Mac with an SSD, even if you have hundreds of apps installed like I do, the whole process takes about 20 minutes. It recreates your Applications folder, brings over preferences, and generally makes the new machine feel finished almost immediately. Nothing could be easier. There is a downside, though. Migration Assistant faithfully brings over all the accumulated cruft along with the good stuff. That’s how I ended up with Keychain entries for wireless access points I installed in 2014, and references in ~/Library/Application Support to apps I haven’t touched in years. UPS is dropping a Mac mini on my doorstep sometime this morning. For the first time in a long...

Is it time for titles?

I usually write posts here without using titles, maybe it's time to restart using them.

“The meaning of being alive is just being alive.” — Alan Watts

Good morning.

Replace Canva + Notion for creators: ship from one command line

Creators don’t need more features; they need less friction. Replace a scattered tool stack with a calm, local-first dashboard built for shipping client work fast. Product facts: • Calm, local-first creator/freelancer dashboard • Tagline: “Ship client work from one command line.” • Replaces Canva + Notion + Stripe + 5 other tools • Pricing: $39/year or $79 one-time Pro unlock (no subscriptions, no limits) Creators love tools because tools feel like progress. The problem is that progress feels like progress, too — and progress requires shipping, not collecting apps. If you’re juggling Canva for graphics, Notion for project tracking, Stripe for invoices, and “five other tools” for everything else, you already know the truth: Your work is fine. Your workflow is loud. The discipline move: shrink the workCreators obsess over “seamless.” In practice, you want something far more humble: Fewer steps. Here’s what that looks like with intent-driven commands: •...

“If you want to find the treasure, like a pot of jewels at the end of the rainbow, look no further than your normal experience. That everyday experience is the rainbow itself.” — Peter Brown

“I am not quite sure whether I am dreaming or remembering, whether I have lived my life or dreamed it. Just as dreams do, memory makes me profoundly aware of the unreality, the evanescence of the world, a fleeting image in the moving water.” — Eugene Ionesco

Choice and chance are the same thing.

I'm currently giving this cozy space a bit of a makeover. I've changed the domain extension of this website from .me to .it, updated the logo, and made a few changes to the blog appearance. Sorry for the inconvenience.

“The only actuality is here-now, this immediacy or present-ness, this aliveness, this ever-changing present experiencing right now, this one bottomless moment. This is where the juice is.” — Joan Tollifson, The Essentials

The Rose of Nevada

Saw Mark Jenkin’s third feature, The Rose of Nevada last night. A gritty yet dreamy vision, shot on 16mm film with an entirely overdubbed Foley soundtrack. I loved it. The narrative fell away and I found myself almost entirely hypnotised by its other-worldly atmosphere.

Good morning.

Time to pause

I’m taking a real break from social media. Not a “see you next week” kind of break but a longer pause (maybe even up to a year). I’ve been thinking about it for a while and I’m finally choosing to step back and give myself space to breathe. The division and politics doesn’t help with the matter. Social media can be useful. For me, it is pulling my attention in too many directions. Even when I’m not posting, it’s easy to stay mentally plugged in — scrolling, checking and reacting to things not relevant. I don’t want to live in that constant noise anymore. I want more quiet. More focus. More time that actually feels like mine. Along with that, I’m also hitting pause on my blog for now. This isn’t me quitting or disappearing forever. It’s me giving myself permission to stop producing and start taking care of what...

Exploring Stardock's Clairvoyance

A man joyfully adjusts settings on a futuristic interface labeled Analyzing, exploring the possibilities of Stardock's Clairvoyance technology in a cozy, modern workspace. I have been trying out a new app from Stardock called Clairvoyance. It is a nice AI interface that is very powerful and lets you use API keys to interact with large language models and do all kinds of things. It also takes a privacy-first approach and is a bit more user friendly than some other tools I have tried. I will say this has been very compelling and interesting to use. I honestly cannot believe it is free, and I hope it stays free. That said, there are still some bugs and rough edges. For example, it does not always make it clear whether it is actively working or if something has hung. When subagents get stuck there does not seem to be an obvious way...

→ Links 🔗 So Cool!

This "About Me" page is probably the coolest one I've ever seen! I wish I had the same talent to create such a digital artifact. The design seems a celebration of Apple's 50th anniversary. https://www.parkerortolani.com/

📡✨ Memory

With memory chip prices soaring, maybe it's time to focus on building efficient software again, like in the good old days.

Faith in online humanity restored

It didn’t take much. A few minutes surrendering to the serendipity of Kagi.com’s Small Web feature saw to that. No corporations, no algorithms, no enshittification; just extraordinary human beings expressing themselves freely and independently on their own websites and blogs, a world away from the sordid social silos.

→ Links 🔗 Digg is Dead, Long Live Digg!

Well, Internet bots won over humans, for now. It's sad for many reasons. One being that the Internet seems more and more like an evil, out-of-control place. I didn't spend too much time on Digg building my presence there, but I intended to build something, like a share-a-link-with-comment playground. I think I'll stay away from this until further notice. It also means that owning your place on the Internet is salutary. That's the only viable solution for people who are seriously engaged in writing, curating, and sharing. https://digg.com/