“There was the most shocking news on TV; Buster Friendly claims that Mercer is a fake. What do you think about that, Rick? Do you think it could be true?” “Everything is true,” he said. “Everything anybody has ever thought.” PKD - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

I assume it’s the weather making everything hurt like hell today?

Just ran across a PDF of the first real conference talk I ever gave, just over 20 years ago.

The number of prominent CEOs clearly in the clutches of irrational religious fervor over a text extrusion model is disconcerting https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/talk-bubble-is-an-insult-ai-says-softbanks-son-2026-06-24/

So much pain in corporate software design & development comes from inheriting an industrial-age management paradigm. “Increase production of widgets per hour” makes no sense when each “widget” requires solving for a nee problem, not just stamping out clones of a repeatable solution.

Amazing archive of cutaway drawings showing the innards of various starships, space bases, and giant robots from the venerable Perry Rhodan franchise. https://www-perrypedia-de.translate.goog/wiki/Risszeichnungen_der_Perry_Rhodan-Serie?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de

FINALLY moving off of Dropbox. Which reduces my total cloud storage accounts to … three 😅

First tomato salad of the season. Now to get some good bread for this.

“Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”

Made a quick mango pico, and put it on top of chips and an off the shelf tex-mex beans thing. Plus some cherry tomatoes. Very pleased.

I recently saw Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride!” and quite enjoyed it. https://boxd.it/eS8hHZ

TIL about “camera bending” which is a subset of “circuit bending” — doing things to electronics to create glitchy aesthetics — resulting at times in kickass stuff like this ❤️ 😎 https://www.reddit.com/r/camerabending/s/CeuGXBokQb

Chris Hayes’ pod has a new episode asking “is AI alive?” and to unpack that thorny philosophical question — a topic rife with intersectional threads & eugenics-inflected biases — his guest is … Michael Pollan? 😑

“She indicated the owl dozing on its perch; it had briefly opened both eyes, yellow slits which healed over as the owl settled back down to resume its slumber. Its chest rose conspicuously and fell, as if the owl, in its hypnagogic state, had sighed.” “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” #writing

This 1970s computer-furniture thing is completely ridiculous and I want it I want it so much — no I don’t care if there’s no room for it and it’s obsolete — I don’t need a bedroom I’ll sleep under the desk https://www.reddit.com/r/70sdesign/s/ZDPeuwx1Gt

Reddit post about how Jack Kirby was a big influence on Masters of the Universe — both the toy line / cartoon and the 80s film. Some stuff I had never heard. https://www.reddit.com/r/KeepMineKirby/s/46UCjNdSIS

I’m old enough to remember when corporations would brag about being “job creators”.

Things I’d forgotten about the 1979 Buck Rogers pilot film: - John Portman may be the reigning king of architects whose buildings are in sci-fi movies - This was the first place I’d encountered the “our future is run by computers who programmed themselves & are wiser than we” 😬 - Twiki was horny

TIL there is a subreddit dedicated specifically to the Casio F91w watch paired with the iconic “NATO” watch band. It gets about 2,000 visitors a week. https://www.reddit.com/r/F91Ws_on_NATOs/s/nsVKkNzsCa

Absolutely delighted that Steve Dildarian — creator of Ten Year Old Tom and The Life & Times of Tim — has a new show coming to YouTube: Fred Has Problems https://youtu.be/zm3oXddCpNg?is=nNGL5aV-BvdEC7OC

I have seen many posts & articles saying a best practice is to have the LLM explain why it generated a given output. But (sincere Q) how can we trust the answer is accurate, if it’s based on a statistical model of what the most likely answer “should” be?

“Human in the loop”

Just looking at “Gentle OS” makes my brain relax. https://github.com/luke8086/gentleos

Finally got round to hearing @andrewhickeywriter’s “See Emily Play” 500 Songs episode. It’s so empathetic, tender, and respectful toward Barrett.The coda is particularly poignant. Not surprised of course. Hickey continues to set the bar for any such work […]