This is the best @fafo.fm episode for a while, really enjoyed the storytelling format.

As we head into the new year, I want to share an article by Andy Warfield called "A little bit uncomfortable". It touches on a topic we don't talk about nearly enough--vulnerability and the relationship between fear and growth. allthingsdistributed.com/2025/12/a-little-bit-uncomfortable.html

Let's build hyper-personalized AI-powered software that avoids the attention hijacking anti-patterns that defined so much of the last decade of software design - here's our manifesto with principles on how we can do that - more thoughts on my blog: simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/5/r...

A few years ago at a smart home event I asked the audience about using connected baby monitors or cameras to watch their babies. I asked who was using them and a bunch of hands shot up. Then I started asking people to put their hands down when I reached the age when they would take the monitor away.

Your intellectual fly is open bcantrill.dtrace.org/2025/12/05/y...

[blog] Milo cancer diary part 21 – CHOP #4 A scan has found inflamed lymph nodes, so Milo's starting chemo again with his 4th (modified) CHOP protocol.

icymi my company @redmonk.com is hosting drinks tonight at reinvent with duckbill and heavybit. we're getting away from the strip, having a chill time with nice people at Atomic Liquors, a storied drinking establishment. It has an excellent beer list and immaculate vibes. 7pm onwards atomic.vegas

I'm starting to wonder if compilers targeting mainstream PC architectures like x86/Arm might be far better at optimising than those for (older?) MCUs. Today's Advent of Compiler Optimisations xania.org/202512/03-mo... is the antithesis of blog.thestateofme.com/2013/10/12/t...

[blog] the usual pupdate and solar diary along with music, comedy, and worn out old boots. Plus some retro computer stuff (where I finally assemble my RC2014 Picasso), and signs that VR practice isn't improving my real world clays shooting :(

[blog] Clocking on at the Outrage Factory Our online discourse is the victim of industrial scale pollution, and the incentives are being aligned in the wrong direction. Rather than polluters being penalised there's now an entire industry that's paid to pollute.

If you’re going to and from rail stations in TfL’s Oystercard area, the contactless fare for the EXACT SAME journey can be dramatically cheaper than if you pay for a rail ticket

Been sketching out four things we need to build collective knowledge systems that are interoperable: permanence, provenance, permissions and placement. Very much enjoying implementing these via initiatives like @rogue-scholar.bsky.social and @tangled.org as well! anil.recoil.org/notes/princi...

So much "oof" in this article.

I don't understand how anyone can watch how blatantly Grok is manipulated to answer the way ownership desires it to and then act like the other LLM chatbots couldn't possibly be similarly but less obviously compromised to produce responses in whatever way corporate interests and priorities dictate.

My work on counterpublics and related topics demos.co.uk/research/ver...

You can't force the pace of change. The pace of change is determined by the amount of psychological safety. #BVSSH

Everyone is arguing about AI Safety vs. Acceleration. I’m looking at the Skeptics—the ones arguing about the math. They argue the $1 trillion value equation isn't balancing out. Here is why: www.jsnover.com/blog/2025/11... #AI

Today we're publishing our list of recommendations on how to build long-lived IoT devices. We're trying to address the factors that lead to your smart thermostat losing functionality or even dying altogether when the manufacturer decides to stop supporting it. It doesn't have to be this way.

#uksnow RH16 3/10

At #KubeCon 2025 I was struck by what a huge concern networking remains within the @cncf.bsky.social & Kubernetes ecosystem. For this @redmonk.com post, I reflect on my takeaways redmonk.com/kholterhoff/...

[blog] it can take some time for less popular architectures (like RISC-V) to find their way into Docker official image manifests, so some extra testing is needed to avoid breaking Continuous Delivery pipelines by merging Dependabot PRs for incomplete images.

Curious about what happened between @python.org & the National Science Foundation? Me too, so I asked PSF executive director @eximious.bsky.social onto @redmonk.com's MonkCast to discuss the situation & share her perspective redmonk.com/blog/2025/11... youtube.com/shorts/_DDWk...

Good morning 😊 Yes, Sir Clive hated that the Spectrum was popular because of the games and a C5 could never go this fast, but I had a lot of fun making this tribute to Sir Clive Sinclair ZX Spectrum 👍 Animation made in Blender, sountrack made in Studio one #zxspectrum #retrogaming #8bitgaming

"If the Greens overtake Labour in the polls, it will become harder for Labour to make the case that a vote for Polanski is a vote for Farage." www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

[blog] Agentic systems are the latest thing being used to solve IT integration issues, becoming the glue squirted into the gaps between systems. But the use of natural language means that the distinction between 'data' and 'code' is almost impossible to make, causing many security concerns.

I can hear @quinnypig.com reading this article to me. It’s uncanny. With dramatic pauses and everything www.theregister.com/2025/11/04/a...

After reading the Register’s article from today www.theregister.com/2025/11/03/c... I still stand by my article with the same title from 5 years ago justingarrison.com/blog/2020-06...

[blog] Trips to Bath and Barcelona, comedy with John Bishop, lots of wine, first impressions of Real Stock Pro for VR shooting, a new mattress, and the usual pupdate (with new toy) and solar diary.

Sigh. Grim news, but a potential wake up call for small operators and the policymakers who love them. It’s time to [quoting @joshcorman.bsky.social] SOS - get our Shit Off Shodan.

A little while back Thomas Strömberg posted (on LinkedIn) about the surprisingly lack of malware detection tooling running on platforms today.

[blog] SLSA attestations are a great way to show that you care about security, and they're fairly trivial to add to delivery pipelines that produce a single binary or container image. But things get tricky with matrix jobs that build lots of things in parallel...

Yay. Priceless. The right column at the right time. And a gleefully English two fingers to the haters.

It's lovely to see a concrete list like this. It helps others define what they need in their own circumstances.

people playing music/videos on their phone speakers in public is more than just mildly annoying and is instead a leading indicator of the decline of community and empath

Slides for my #taloscon2025 keynote, "The Complexity of Simplicity" (video to come): speakerdeck.com/bcantrill/th...

when I heard about Qualcomm buying Arduino I thought what different relationships they have with developers and then I thought maybe that's why they're buying them? Leendert van Doorn engineering SVP @ qualcomm tells me I've figured it out but @monkchips.com warns me it's going to be a balancing act

it's kinda weird that all the software i am expected to use for work are all written by distributed teams, go, python, postgres, linux, chrome, k8s etc and despite being told "the best teams work in an office together" i don't know of any software i use that's actually written that way

The CRA is rewriting the rules of selling software. After 2027, anything sold in Europe must meet strict security standards. This will reshape how we build, patch, and monetize software, and how we work with open source. I spoke with Mike Milinkovich of the Eclipse Foundation to learn more.

As a leader wanting to optimise outcomes, how should I behave? Align, Act, Reflect, Adapt (AARA) 🎯 Align: be clear on the Why and the direction (measurable outcome hypotheses). Limit Work In Progress.

[blog] September 2025 A scammy octopus, a stay at South Lodge, Torres wine tasting, Marcus Brigstocke comedy, T'Pau, RC2014 Assembly, Clay Hunt VR, and of course the usual pupdate and solar diary.

@openssf.org says the open-source software ecosystem is unsustainable and reaching a breaking point as maintainers struggle with funding, time, and demands from commercial users: openssf.org/blog/2025/09... I wrote about this problem recently: www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/open-so...

having autism is actually fine. the Tylenol and vaccination stuff is bullshit, obvi, but also: it’s okay to have autism. to all my friends and loved ones on the spectrum feeling attacked by this discourse, please remember you are gifts to the world. ❤️❤️

This week, Oracle released Java 25. Several developers have used this release as an opportunity to share their enthusiasm around the JVM and Oracle’s stewardship. This strikes me as noteworthy, and in this @redmonk.com post I discuss why redmonk.com/kholterhoff/...

I was on EPSD's "Velocity's edge" podcast and had a great discussion with Nick Selby and Chris Swan about organisational scar tissue, decision records, writing things down, and "Murders & Acquisitions". open.spotify.com/episode/1HTS...

This is how we get filter failure at the outrage factory; because the 'crazy' gets algorithmic amplification to drive engagement. blog.thestateofme.com/2019/02/13/f...

"AI means no one will pay artists to make art" — a talented young illustrator abandoning her dreams because of GenAI. This conversation led to my investigation for @thenewstack.io about why tech professionals must lead on AI safety. thenewstack.io/why-tech-pro...

You can get a RISC-V tablet from Pine64. GhostWrite was not a general RISC-V issue, it was an issue with a custom T-HEAD extension. You can use a SpacemiT K1/M1 RISC-V chip with vectors without the GhostWrite issue. Google was waiting for RVA23, and RVA23 hardware will arrive in a couple of months.

[blog] RISE did it’s job, and in the past couple of years RISC-V support has found its way into stable releases of key infrastructure software like Debian. So from a software perspective, it’s arguable that RISC-V is now ready for production. Progress has been a little slower on the hardware front..

I will buy this man a pint if I ever see him. More of this please. A proper boy.

[blog} August 2025: A trip to Edinburgh for the Fringe. Replacing TPMS sensors. Plus the usual pupdate and solar diary.