Linked
Links to items elsewhere that I’ve found worthwhile sharing.
Monday, December 29, 2025
More than 20% of YouTube’s feed is now “AI slop,” report finds | TechSpot
Not only are more than half the articles on the web created by AI, but over 21% of YouTube videos being shown to new users is “AI Slop.” That’s according to a new report, which also found that the US is in third place when it comes to consumption of these low-quality generated videos.
I am not surprised by this. As a long-time YouTube viewer I’m seeing a good amount of AI slop myself. But this is what worries me most about the rise of AI; people and/or companies wanting to make a quick buck with the least amount of effort possible are going to increasingly generate low-quality content with AI-based tools…
It’s estimated that the Three Minutes Wisdom channel, which accounts for almost a quarter of the country’s view count, earns around $4 million annually from ad income.
That’s easy money…
I believe this will spill over into software development. I’m confident it already has. Companies that care more about the bottom line than they do bug-free applications will hire inexperienced developers to create enterprise apps using AI tools, leading to major security flaws.
I think we’ll start seeing more reports of data breaches as novice “developers” increasingly copy and paste AI-generated code without fully understanding what it does, much less vetting it for accuracy.
Lazy is as lazy does, and some developers I’ve known over the years have been very lazy…
Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Save 50 percent on a Walmart Plus membership until December 2nd | The Verge
If you have a mountain of holiday shopping to tackle over the next few weeks, Walmart is offering a great deal on Walmart Plus. New subscribers can snag an annual Walmart Plus membership for half off through December 2nd.
We’ve had a Walmart+ membership for just a little under a year and saved more than $270 so far. I’ve been able to find just about anything I would have on that other big site named for the river. All in all, I’d say it’s been worth the cost.
Disclaimer: I am a VIZIO employee, which is now owned by Walmart. I do not get a discount on Walmart+ membership as a perk. My wife and I still agree it’s worth what it costs us.
Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Introducing iPhone Pocket: a beautiful way to wear and carry iPhone - Apple
iPhone Pocket is a limited-edition release. The short strap design is available in lemon, mandarin, purple, pink, peacock, sapphire, cinnamon, and black; the long strap design is available in sapphire, cinnamon, and black. iPhone Pocket in the short strap design retails at $149.95 (U.S.), and the long strap design at $229.95 (U.S.).
I understand limited-edition accessories and all, but seriously, $150 to $230 for a fancy knitted sock with a name attached to it?
Hmm… I don’t think so.
Monday, September 29, 2025
LinkedIn will use your data to train AI – how to opt out | Proton
On November 3, LinkedIn will begin sharing your data with Microsoft and its affiliates for AI training. You’re opted in by default, but there’s still time to do something about it.
As I’m gearing up to return to work, I’m catching up on my professional networks, including opting out of AI related stuff where ever possible.
A setting like this should never be opt-in by default…
Sunday, September 7, 2025
Paying for the indie/small-web | Forking Mad+
Just because you don’t hand over any of your hard-earned cash, doesn’t technically mean it is free. People have given a huge amount of their time to make your life more pleasant.
There are two kinds of people on the internet; those who appreciate the efforts of indie bloggers & developers and choose to support them, and those who feel because it’s offered “free” it’s theirs for the taking without giving any credit whatsoever.
I choose to be the former.
Friday, September 5, 2025
an aroma that speaks of the changing seasons - things
“You know the smell. It’s there every time the first fat raindrops hit the ground—a distinctive, earthy scent that suffuses the air, an aroma that speaks of the changing seasons and promises relief from stifling summer heat. There’s a name for the smell of rain, too: “petrichor,” a poetic portmanteau of the Greek words “petros” (stone) and “ichor” (the blood of the gods in Greek mythology).”
I never knew there was a word for the smell of fresh rain on the ground. When it happens, I stop, close my eyes, take a deep inhale, and let the fragrance of nature move my soul.
Friday, August 22, 2025
Centering | Seth’s Blog
The most effective way to change an organization, a company or a relationship is to identify the invisible centering forces and address them.
As I start ramping up my return to work, I’m giving deep thought to how I can better approach the challenges in front of me with a minimum of stress.
A big part of that is going to be centered around asking the right questions in the moment instead of just reacting to them.
Thursday, May 8, 2025
Introducing Mac Themes Garden! | damien’s zone
It is a website showcasing more than 3,000 (and counting) Kaleidoscope from the Classic Mac era, ready to be seen, downloaded and explored! Check it out!
Nostalgia corner…
If you’re a Mac user from the ’80s and/or ’90s, you might remember Kaleidoscope. If memory serves me, it was installed as a system extension.
I spent hours looking for the perfect theme to apply to my system setup on the Performa I had at the time.
Most of all, I love the design of the Mac Themes Garden site itself. I coded a site or two myself back then that looked really similar.
Thursday, April 24, 2025
On Laws of Nature, Excel and Word - Nitor
Every piece of enterprise software eventually evolves into either reading or writing Excel files.
In my nearly 30 years of enterprise software development, I can confirm this law has held true in 100% of the projects I’ve ever worked on.
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
How to Respect the American Flag - National Flag Foundation
The American Flag is a representation of our country, our people, and our devotion to our nation. Respecting the American Flag and the principles that it symbolizes requires us to treat it with a high level of care at all times. The United States Flag Code sets forth key guidelines for properly handling the American Flag.
There are a lot of self-proclaimed “patriots” out there who need to familiarize themselves with these rules. I’ve knocked on the doors of strangers I’ve seen flying the American flag wrong more than once.
Friday, October 18, 2024
Hell Yeah or No | Derek Sivers
If you feel anything less than “hell yeah!” about something, say no.
A Derek Sivers classic…
This is something I wrestle with because I have a “people pleaser” personality. When someone asks something of me, I immediately feel like I have to do it to make them happy, even when my gut screams at me it’s not a good idea.
The struggle is real, people.
Thursday, October 17, 2024
Employees Describe an Environment of Paranoia and Fear Inside Automattic Over WordPress Chaos
“We were unaware that Matt redirected sign-up emails until current Automattic employees contacted our support team,” a spokesperson for Blind told me, adding that they’d “never seen a CEO or executive try to limit their employees from signing up for Blind by redirecting emails.”
Having Slack access, as do all WordPress.org plugin and theme authors, I can confirm community moral is in decline. Many developers have been banned from Slack for their dissension.
Related: Here’s an interesting read I came across this morning in three parts. Having interviewed with Automattic once myself nearly 15 years ago, I can confirm the interview process was somewhat lacking even back then.
The whole drama is like a freeway pileup I just can’t look away from…
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
The deep-sea ‘emergency service’ that keeps the internet running
Ninety-nine percent of the world’s digital communications rely on subsea cables. When they break, it could spell disaster for a whole country’s internet. How do you fix a fault at the bottom of the ocean?
Most people don’t realize just what it takes to keep global communications running. This is a fascinating read about what goes into to repairing and maintaining the 870,000 miles of undersea cables so Granny can post cute cat memes on Facebook uninterrupted.
Monday, October 14, 2024
A List Of Text-Only & Minimalist News Sites - GreyCoder
Text-only websites are quite useful, especially today, because web pages are increasingly filled with ads, videos, and bandwidth-heavy content.
This may have been posted elsewhere not too long ago, but I’m posting here for my own benefit.
Monday, October 14, 2024
WordPress.org’s latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin - The Verge
It’s not clear what security problem Mullenweg is referring to in the post. He writes that he’s “invoking point 18 of the plugin directory guidelines,” in which the WordPress team reserves several rights, including removing a plugin, or changing it “without developer consent.” Mullenweg explains that the move has to do with WP Engine’s recently-filed lawsuit against him and Automattic.
To me, Mullenweg is totally abusing his power as the “sole owner” of WordPress.org here, and (as others point out) has forced a hostile takeover of the work of other developers. If he can do it for one, he can do it for all. I want no part of this kind of “open source” drama. It was the final straw in me abandoning the WordPress platform completely.
Though I have a couple of plugins of my own in the repository, I’ll only be maintaining them for security reasons. I considered pulling them altogether, but I don’t want to leave any users who may be using them stranded.
Friday, October 11, 2024
Soft-Wrap Text in BBEdit - Uncorrected
An oldie but goodie from John Gruber that I just discovered while looking for ways to soft-wrap text in BBEdit:
This is a handy AppleScript. I don’t like to soft wrap my text in BBEdit by default, but always seem to end up wrapping it anyway. I launch this using Fastscripts by Daniel Jalkut with just a keystroke.
tell application "BBEdit"
tell window 1
if not (soft wrap text) then
set soft wrap text to true
set soft wrap mode to page guide
set show page guide to true
else if (soft wrap mode is page guide) then
set soft wrap mode to window width
set show page guide to false
else
set soft wrap text to false
end if
end tell
end tell
Tuesday, September 3, 2024
Apple’s rumored Mac mini redesign may ditch the USB-A port - The Verge
Is it time to say goodbye to USB-A? Maybe. Probably. But no matter how you feel about that, it’s absolutely time something new happened with the Mac Mini, the longest-in-the-tooth Apple computer design.
We portable users have been living with dongles forever. I would agree it’s time for USB-A to be sunset on the Mac mini, especially if the form factor is about the size of an Apple TV device.
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Google to delete search data of millions who used ‘incognito’ mode : NPR
For years, Google simply informed users of Chrome’s internet browser that “you’ve gone Incognito” and “now you can browse privately,” when the supposedly untraceable browsing option was turned on — without saying what bits of data the company has been harvesting.
One of the many reasons I’ve switched to Safari for personal browsing…
Wednesday, November 15, 2023
Underwater Data Centers: Servers Beneath the Surface - Dgtl Infra
Since 2015, several data centers have been submerged underwater in both the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. The first underwater data center was deployed by Microsoft into the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California, through an experiment called Project Natick, with Phase 1 being a vessel carrying 1 rack, containing 24 servers.
How is it I’ve never heard about this until now?
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
The Ten Rules of Being Human - kottke.org
“There” is no better than “here”. When your “there” has become a “here”, you will simply obtain a “there” that will look better to you than your present “here”.
Yes, I’m on a bit of a posting tear today, but this one’s too good not to share. My favorite rule is #6, which I’ve only recently truly learned…