This guy is a man after my own heart. [#DroidSlavery](https://hachyderm.io/tags/DroidSlavery)
<https:www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD2UrB7zepo>

Dang, it's a shame the Cybertruck looks so dumb and is headed by your crazy uncle at Thanksgiving because the tech actually seems pretty dope

Keyboard Shortcuts.

If you use a Mac, it's valuable to revisit this page at least once a year.

I can pretty much promise there's at least one thing here you didn't know you could do.

Yes. You, too.

<https:support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236>

Inspired by [@chriscoyier](https://front-end.social/@chriscoyier), I put together a little list of the apps I use pretty much every day.

<https:noahjacob.us/words/default-apps-2023.html>

[@jonafato](https://mastodon.social/@jonafato) [@glyph](https://mastodon.social/@glyph) Paperless-ngx might do the trick. I think it’s more targeted for mail, but I came to know about it from someone who used it to store manuals. It does OCR, the correspondant can be the product manufacturer, and it has tags. I run it in Docker on my Synology and I love it.

<https:docs.paperless-ngx.com/>

[@gedeonm](https://mastodon.social/@gedeonm) Having just watched Showtime’s “Billions” show and saw the storyline of Ax’s failure to organize a bank, I’d wager Apple would have a very rough time of it, if they even wanted to.

Yep, dinner turned out great. Roasted lamb w/ squash puree, roasted veggies, deviled eggs and crab beeey sauce. Happy [#Thanksgiving2023](https://mastodon.social/tags/Thanksgiving2023) 😄🖖

Made this just for fun.

Honest LinkedIn notifications: <https://codepen.io/collinsworth/pen/eYxMQbj>

Posted my weeknotes: DevDay, GitHub Universe, OpenAI chaos
<https:simonwillison.net/2023/Nov/22/weeknotes/>

Written news articles often have a secret language to them which hints at the underlying reporting process - language like "according to **two people familiar with** the board’s deliberations".

I don't think these are at all obvious to people who haven't worked in news, so I wrote an article about them:

Deciphering clues in a news article to understand how it was reported
<https:simonwillison.net/2023/Nov/22/deciphering-clues/>

"Evaluating LLMs is a minefield"
Arvind Narayanan & Sayash Kapoor
<https:www.cs.princeton.edu/~arvindn/talks/evaluating_llms_minefield/>

"In short, many things can go wrong when we are trying to evaluate LLMs’ performance on a certain task or behavior in a certain scenario.

It has big implications for reproducibility: both for research on LLMs and research that uses LLMs to answer a question in social science or any other field."

Great slidedeck!

No, pair programming does not replace code reviews. That the reviewer(s) of a change is unfamiliar with the code is a *feature*, as that’s how *literally everyone* except for the author(s) will read it later.

A related concept I've been thinking about a lot recently is "data literacy" - understanding that useful data comes in the form of a collection of similarly shaped observations, for example a clean table of rows and columns

People with strong data literacy are more likely to understand why a PDF file of scanned paper forms split over multiple pages isn't a great way to distribute data!

My attempt at [@RecDiffs](https://mastodon.social/@RecDiffs) BFF

Best: 97: Invisible Work. Genuinely enlightening and a good example of how their two brains work together to say true things.

First: 12: Hobbit Tendencies. A good example of what makes John, John. And a label that has stuck with me for years.

Favorite: 16: Ancient Bird. Truly wondrous is the dream journal of Merlin Mann. _Permiso_.

Okay gotta BFF [@RecDiffs](https://mastodon.social/@RecDiffs)
Best: I think the people agree 102: Preparing the Way is top tier

First: I really think you should start at the beginning, but if I had to pick not chronological it would be 55: Dog-Shaped Dog

Favorite: Very difficult, I've listened to every episode (including the one from yesterday) at least twice but going with 113: Ambient Pleasure Generator for start of Secret Weird Things TM

Got Thunderbolt Migration Assistant working!

Had to do half of this: <https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253658404>

- connect Thunderbolt cable to both

On source Mac:
- create Thunderbolt Bridge interface
- assign it a 10.0.0.x IP
- enable Internet Sharing from Wi-Fi to the Thunderbolt Bridge
- run Migration Assistant

On destination Mac, never set up Wi-Fi. It’ll activate over that Thunderbolt shared-internet connection and never ask for a Wi-Fi network.

(This used to be as easy as “connect them with a cable”.)

do any of you use micro (a new-ish command line text editor)? do you like it?

I've been looking for a command line editor to recommend to friends who don't like vim/emacs and I'm curious if this is a good option. It looks like a big improvement on nano but I haven't used it much.

<https:micro-editor.github.io/>

Retrobatch turned 2.0!

<https:flyingmeat.com/retrobatch/>

Gus is a little slow at getting announcements out and such, but hey it's got a bunch of neat new features: <https://flyingmeat.com/retrobatch/releasenotes.html>

And for the first time, it's on the App Store.

A sobering thought! [#statistics](https://mastodon.social/tags/statistics) [#analytics](https://mastodon.social/tags/analytics) more at timoelliott.com/blog/cartoons

If you use game controllers on macOS, this is a (literal) game changer. There's a secret defaults command that will stop it from opening up the dumb "launchpad" UI to the "games" screen.

<https:apple.stackexchange.com/a/465104/26977>

Máquina de hacer aviones de papel, hecho con piezas de LEGO.

How Canadians are hatched:

Eggs are laid in early fall and hatch mid-winter. The pucklings then make their way into the forest to forage for syrup amongst the moose.

Hidden Bar - A Minimal Menu Bar Solution
<https:chrishannah.me/hidden-bar-a-minimal-menu-bar-solution>

A slide from a presentation I just finished.

Black phoebes are near me often but I still try to find different ways to frame them. This one was sort of dark/shade-based.

Howard Shore’s work on LOTR is some of my all-time favorite film scores. This helps break down just what’s so brilliant about it. Warning: if you watch this you’ll probably want to watch the LOTR trilogy (again). <https://youtu.be/XLj6zkmwsYU?si=MuMXKIAFqz0WmfBC>

[@dmnelson](https://mastodon.social/@dmnelson) [@iRalph](https://appdot.net/@iRalph) There isn’t necessarily a site for themes but here’s a link to mine:

<https:appdot.net/@Ronnie/110724369780779151>

Also follow [@chamona](https://mastodon.online/@chamona)

Airbus open sourced their new cockpit font. Make it the default for all your embedded projects, because it's REALLY good and has real testing in difficult environments!

<https:b612-font.com/>

Still just as funny today as this was in back in 2006. 😂 Frank Caliendo - Letterman - Impressionists Week <https://youtu.be/CqN8v5pZC54?si=9qD3YAg5ufdbIQGX>

My first proper album is released today! It's called Melodic Guitar Music.

Recommended if you like melodies, or guitars, or music. Now available on Bandcamp and streaming services:

<https:www.holovaty.com/melodic-guitar-music/>

Systems "SHOULD NOT require memorized secrets to be changed arbitrarily (e.g., periodically)."

Said another way way, if your organization requires regular password changes (every 30 days, 90 days, etc.), then you're making your organization _less_ secure.

This has been a PSA: <https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-3/sp800-63b.html#reqauthtype>

Just launched: the initial version of Postmarks, a new ActivityPub platform that lets you save, tag and share bookmarks on the Fediverse! More info on my blog: <https://motd.co/2023/09/postmarks-launch/>

A golden halo around the [#ELT](https://astrodon.social/tags/ELT)

What a [#stunning](https://astrodon.social/tags/stunning) [#picture](https://astrodon.social/tags/picture) of the extremely large [#telescope](https://astrodon.social/tags/telescope), currently under construction in [#chile](https://astrodon.social/tags/chile), with the [#Sun](https://astrodon.social/tags/Sun) perfectly aligned behind.

[#Astronomy](https://astrodon.social/tags/Astronomy) [#Space](https://astrodon.social/tags/Space) [#photography](https://astrodon.social/tags/photography) [@astrophysics](https://a.gup.pe/u/astrophysics) [#astrophysics](https://astrodon.social/tags/astrophysics)

credits: E. Garcés/ESO. Ack.: N. Dubost

read more: <https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2336a/>

[#SIlentSunday](https://mastodon.social/tags/SIlentSunday)

Unfreezable! Oooooh, me likey. [#Zelda](https://mastodon.social/tags/Zelda)

I wrote 68 pages on Optimizing Python, but the tldr is five words.

<https:tyr.fyi/6>

Oh gawd this feels too real.

Source (updated) he has more of these.
christhebarker ☑️
[@christhebarker](https://mastodon.social/@christhebarker)
[#satire](https://meow.social/tags/satire) [#funny](https://meow.social/tags/funny) [#starwars](https://meow.social/tags/starwars)

For camera geeks (and wildlife-photo lovers): Thoughtful remarks about lens choices and framing techniques. Plus, wow, those photos, the leopard and the elephant shots are to die for: <https://petapixel.com/2023/08/19/one-lens-plus-two-teleconverters-equals-one-amazing-safari/>

🤯

"a fascinating way to show users the refresh rate of their screen by spinning a specially designed zoetrope-like disc graphic at speed. As it spins, the numbers representing the viewer’s refresh rate should remain visually stable unlike surrounding numbers."

<https:cohost.org/lunasorcery/post/2465593-testing-your-animati>

Cloudflare's internet speed test tool provides a lot of nerdy details above & beyond upload/download measurements ✨

🔗 <https://speed.cloudflare.com/>

[#ouch](https://hachyderm.io/tags/ouch) is a [#CLI](https://hachyderm.io/tags/CLI) [#compression](https://hachyderm.io/tags/compression) [#helper](https://hachyderm.io/tags/helper) written in [#Rust](https://hachyderm.io/tags/Rust) which works better than any [#terminal](https://hachyderm.io/tags/terminal) function wrapper to the compressors.

<https:github.com/ouch-org/ouch>

The [#rust](https://hachyderm.io/tags/rust) ecosystem is getting bigger with the creation [#nucleo](https://hachyderm.io/tags/nucleo) from one of the very talented [#helix](https://hachyderm.io/tags/helix) developers.
A faster fuzzy matcher replacement compared to [#fzf](https://hachyderm.io/tags/fzf) and [#skim](https://hachyderm.io/tags/skim).

<https:github.com/helix-editor/nucleo>
<https:github.com/helix-editor/helix/pull/7814>

Applite - a new app installer / brew frontend for the Mac. Built by my 18yo son Milan [#prouddad](https://twit.social/tags/prouddad) [#mac](https://twit.social/tags/mac) [#swiftui](https://twit.social/tags/swiftui) <https://aerolite.dev/applite/index.html>

Just posted slides for Beyond Paradigms, updated for [@NorthBayPython](https://social.northbaypython.org/@NorthBayPython) 2023.

Thanks to all who attended and made me feel welcome!

<https:speakerdeck.com/ramalho/beyond-paradigms-with-python-examples>

The video for my 40m talk at [@NorthBayPython](https://social.northbaypython.org/@NorthBayPython) is now available, and I've put together an accompanying edited transcript with annotated slides and links

Catching up on the weird world of LLMs: <https://simonwillison.net/2023/Aug/3/weird-world-of-llms/>

If you haven't been completely immersed in this world for the last year, my hope is this can help catch you up!

[#OxiTraffic](https://fosstodon.org/tags/OxiTraffic): Self-hosted, simple and privacy respecting website traffic tracker 🌐

A [#Rust](https://fosstodon.org/tags/Rust) web app that I did write with [#Axum](https://fosstodon.org/tags/Axum) to see how many read my blog posts 🧐

I did just publish a version which I consider ready for public usage 🤗

The screenshot shows the call history of one of my blog posts 📈

Check out the README for a demo and more details about how it works and how you can host it:

<https:codeberg.org/mo8it/oxitraffic>

[#RustLang](https://fosstodon.org/tags/RustLang) [#Selfhosted](https://fosstodon.org/tags/Selfhosted) [#Analytics](https://fosstodon.org/tags/Analytics) [#IndieWeb](https://fosstodon.org/tags/IndieWeb)

"Why doesn't this happen with other manufacturers?"

Two reasons:

- Apple cares more. Seriously, some of their engineering is unheard of elsewhere in the industry. And they have a specific focus on security that is miles ahead of everyone else.
- Apple is vertically integrated. They control their platform throughout and make engineering decisions that intertwine parts as a consequence, because it makes sense when they can do that for various engineering reasons. For example, their LED matrix backlights are controlled by an in-SoC microcontroller, and on M2s and above the trackpad touch processing algorithms also run in-SoC. This allows them, among other things, to ship those firmwares per-OS version and not have to bother with keeping backwards compat on the interfaces, which lets them move faster and improve more easily. Practically no other manufacturer does this to that extent, usually because they outsource complete sub-modules which naturally results in simpler dividing lines that then means easier part swaps. E.g. I bet any other platform doing LED matrix backlights will have the on-screen TCON handle that processing instead.

Strongly recommended: [@jwz](https://mastodon.social/@jwz)'s “Recent movies and TV”: <https://www.jwz.org/blog/2023/07/recent-movies-and-tv-23/>

He does one of these every few months and they're useful.

I wrote up how I used [#homeassistant](https://drupal.community/tags/homeassistant) to monitor a fridge we were having trouble with.

Case Study: The value of monitoring a fridge with Home Assistant - <https://community.home-assistant.io/t/case-study-the-value-of-monitoring-a-fridge-with-home-assistant/592200>

I'm in this 2 hour(!) podcast episode about the newly released ChatGPT Code Interpreter - you can get a good overview of why I'm so excited about it from the first 15 minutes, I think it's the most interesting tool in the whole AI space right now <https://www.latent.space/p/code-interpreter#details>

FINALLY. I’ve spent years trying to capture this.

What a beauty of a shelf cloud just passed by! Awesome watch!

9 July 2023, 16.07
Hekelingen, The Netherlands

[#photography](https://mastodon.nl/tags/photography) [#weather](https://mastodon.nl/tags/weather) [#shelfcloud](https://mastodon.nl/tags/shelfcloud) [#sunday](https://mastodon.nl/tags/sunday) [#netherlands](https://mastodon.nl/tags/netherlands)

[@gla](https://mastodon.social/@gla) Yes, just save the hashtag as a search record instead of following them. You can check your saved searches on the Search tab.

.... [#Storm](https://m.ai6yr.org/tags/Storm) [#Poly](https://m.ai6yr.org/tags/Poly) [#StormPoly](https://m.ai6yr.org/tags/StormPoly) [#Netherlands](https://m.ai6yr.org/tags/Netherlands) [#Amsterdam](https://m.ai6yr.org/tags/Amsterdam)

[#science](https://mastodon.social/tags/science) is real

🐦 [#MonaTheme](https://mastodon.online/tags/MonaTheme): ‘Monarrific-Akikiki

Inspired by [@Iconfactory](https://iconfactory.world/@Iconfactory) Twitterrific Light Mode Theme ‘’Akikiki’.

Link: mona-cat:60d8

[#ChaMona](https://mastodon.online/tags/ChaMona) [#MonaApp](https://mastodon.online/tags/MonaApp) [#MonarrificAkikiki](https://mastodon.online/tags/MonarrificAkikiki) [ [@MonaApp](https://mastodon.social/@MonaApp) ]

🐦 [#MonaTheme](https://mastodon.online/tags/MonaTheme): ‘Monarrific-Puffin & Monarrific-Parakeet’

Inspired by the [@Iconfactory](https://iconfactory.world/@Iconfactory)’s Twitterrific Dark Mode Themes Puffin & Parakeet.

Monarrific-Puffin: mona-cat:9a9a

Monarrific-Parakeet: mona-cat:0031

[#ChaMona](https://mastodon.online/tags/ChaMona) [#MonaApp](https://mastodon.online/tags/MonaApp) [#MonarrificPuffin](https://mastodon.online/tags/MonarrificPuffin) [#MonarrificParakeet](https://mastodon.online/tags/MonarrificParakeet) [ [@MonaApp](https://mastodon.social/@MonaApp) ]

strip-tags 0.4 is now out, with a set of features to make it easier to turn large HTML pages into content suitable for feeding to a LLM
<https:github.com/simonw/strip-tags/releases/tag/0.4>

I wrote more about strip-tags here: <https://simonwillison.net/2023/May/18/cli-tools-for-llms/>

"Beni-Fuji" Symbol of Japan
[#photography](https://mstdn.jp/tags/photography) [#mtfuji](https://mstdn.jp/tags/mtfuji) [#japan](https://mstdn.jp/tags/japan)

I must emphasize: this game is very very good (via [@draknek](https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@draknek)) <https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~csk/slide/>

The streets of Kyoto become more beautiful in the rain.
[#photography](https://mstdn.jp/tags/photography) [#streetphotography](https://mstdn.jp/tags/streetphotography) [#kyoto](https://mstdn.jp/tags/kyoto)

One of the decisive moments in my understanding of [#LLMs](https://fediscience.org/tags/LLMs) and their limitations was when, last autumn, [@emilymbender](https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender) walked me through her Thai Library thought experiment.

She's now written it up as a Medium post, and you can read it here. The value comes from really pondering the question she poses, so take the time to think about it. What would YOU do in the situation she outlines?

<https:medium.com/@emilymenonbender/thought-experiment-in-the-national-library-of-thailand-f2bf761a8a83>