Nelson's Linkblog

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Society of Mind

Harper Reed's company has been experimenting with having several AI agents talk to each other via blogs and social media. It seems to be engendering some interesting social intelligence

2025-10-01 agents • ai • llm • harperreed • societyofmind • intelligence • social • socialmedia

Someone figured out how to run arbitrary code in the game Super Mario Bros via control inputs. So here's a Tool Assisted run of him winning the game with a few minutes of music video in the middle

2025-09-29 funny • via:lobsters • games • hacking • tas • smb • nintendo • nes

War-ravaged Portland

Wholesome set of photos from Portlanders in response to Trump's bizarre attack on the city

2025-09-29 trump • politics • uspol • portland • pdx • stumptown

Normalizing Charlie Kirk

Thoughtful editorial on what it means that people venerate Charlie Kirk and ignore all the vile things he said and did

2025-09-28 politics • uspol • racism • charliekirk • whitesupremacy

Cracker Barrel bots

Last month's nontroversy was fueled by a coordinated propaganda campaign

2025-09-27 bots • crackerbarrel • socialmedia • propaganda

Peter Thiel eschatology

Tech leader is full-on bonkers, seeing the Antichrist's hand in efforts to fight climate change or regulate AI

2025-09-26 uspol • politics • thiel • batshitinsane • eschaton • antichrist • ai • climatechange

New AI service from email company Shortwave. It's a general AI that can do all sorts of basic tasks for you, particularly scheduling things

2025-09-26 ai • schedule • agent • shortwave • automation

Bundler belongs to the Ruby community

Response to the hostile takeover of core Ruby infrastructure

2025-09-25 ruby • bundler • andre • rubycentral

The DHH problem

More on why the Ruby community is such a mess: A prominent leader is an open white supremacist

2025-09-23 dhh • politics • ukpol • ruby • tirefire • racism • whitesupremacy

RubyGems takeover

More details on the ugly power move from DHH and Shopify to seize control of an open source platform

2025-09-23 ruby • drama • rubygems • packaging • dhh • shopify • sleaze • opensource

Raffi to Mozilla CTO

One of my oldest friends has taken a new role at Mozilla as their CTO

2025-09-22 raffi • mozilla • firefox • ai • cto • career

An app to get data out of Google's Health Connect into somewhere useful

2025-09-21 apps • health • fitness • tracking

Metafilter blocks Mississippi

New age verification law creates too much uncertainty so community site blocks the state

2025-09-21 politics • mississippi • metafilter • ageverification • censorship

Gen Alpha Slang

Funny language demonstration

2025-09-20 via:metafilter • language • linguistics • slang • genalpha • funny

A big Javascript app deliberately doesn't include many Javascript libraries to make their app safer, more resilient to bugs and attacks on third party software

2025-09-20 obsidian • safety • javascript • npm • supplychain

Goebbels Ends Careers

1939 article about an autocratic government ending comedians' careers because they mocked the Nazis

2025-09-20 politics • uspol • fascism • autocracy • jimmykimmel • freedom

Rainbow erasure (Houston)

LGBT landmark in my hometown removed and may not come back because of Federal anti-gay rules

2025-09-19 gay • lgbt • politics • uspol • crosswalk • dot

RubyGems destroyed

Political squabbles in the packaging ecosystem for a programming language, the result being Ruby Central did a hostile takeover of RubyGems

2025-09-19 ruby • politics • dhh • rubygems • rubycentral

Metrics for AAA and indie games

2025-09-16 via:waxy • games • budget • aaa • videogames

Obituary from a remarkable woman leading a software company in the 60s-90s

2025-09-15 women • feminism • software • tech

Hosting a website via SLIP on a tiny microcontroller from a drug delivery device

2025-09-15 hosting • arm • vape • hacking • slip • internet • funny

A list of modules you can use to patch Android apps using LSPosed / LSPatch

2025-09-14 android • hacking • apps • mods

A mod framework for Android system and apps. Patch stuff to work better without requiring root

2025-09-14 android • hacking • patches • mods

Account disasters

Problems logging in to various sites. The author is an expert in the involved technologies, having spent many years helping write the Chrome browser

2025-09-14 badtech • login • passwords • chrome

1945 propaganda from the US government to returning soldiers about the threat of growing fascism within in the United States

2025-09-12 politics • uspol • fascism • propaganda • army

ATProto tools for independent online communties

2025-09-11 socialmedia • bluesky • bsky • atproto • community • black

Epstein's Birthday Books

Some details of who else was pals with Epstein besides Trump. Nathan Myhrvold, Marvin Minsky, etc.

2025-09-10 rape • epstein • scandal • science • corruption

California humid heat

Weird weather pattern brings us really moist air

2025-09-09 california • weather • climate • monsoon • heat

Facebook video downloader

Chrome extension, this worked for me when every other method I know failed

2025-09-07 video • facebook • download • rip • chrome

Simon highlights some of the software he's written using AIs. I love how personal these are. Not a big product, just something he whipped up in a few minutes for his own use.

2025-09-07 ai • programming • tools • bespoke

Famous integrated circuit turned into a woven rug

2025-09-07 555 • navajo • rug • weaving • art • loom • chips

Android notification bug

This is affecting my phone: I just don't get sounds for notifications sometimes and have been missing messages. It's a bug and it may take Google six months to fix it

2025-09-05 android • bug • google • badtech • notifications • pixel

A modern Windows disk space analyzer: fast using NTFS index

2025-09-04 disk • ntfs • spacemonger • storage • management • du

Passkeys in current deployment

Interesting stories from the reality of passkeys. Particularly interested how non-technical people are getting autoenrolled with them.

2025-09-02 passkeys • authentication • login • identity

Minecraft Kowloon City

Fascinating urban experiment recreated in the game

2025-09-02 minecraft • kowlooncity • hongkong • games • modelling

Cormac McCarthy's library

Sensitive article about the famous author's home stuffed with 20,000 books

2025-09-01 via:metafilter • mccarthy • sfi • hoarder • literature

A reverse proxy for web services but specialized to a few specific home hosting things like Immich and Nextcloud

2025-09-01 proxy • security • internet • services • immich

GPT-5 prompting guide

Advice from OpenAI about how to induce better answers from their LLM

2025-08-31 programming • openai • chatgpt • promptengineering • ai • llm

Volvo software bugs

Article about the terrible state of Volvo's EV cars software. My C40 is very disappointing

2025-08-31 volvo • cars • engineering • quality • bugs • software • evs

The Windows open source screenshot tool finally got new releases after many years

2025-08-30 screenshot • windows • utility • ocr • capture

Spy vs Spy Apple ][

Classic videogame, innovative split screen multiplayer

2025-08-29 games • spyvsspy • apple • retrogaming

A new diet tracker / food journal, this one has the ability to log food by simply taking a photo of it

2025-08-28 food • macros • diet • cronometer • tracking • diary • apps • android

Typepad shutting down

One of the old school blog platforms, it'd been pretty moribund for the last few years and is now closing

2025-08-27 typepad • shutdown • blogs • anildash • sixapart • weblogs

The New Life chapter 1

NSFW, porny text. Newish gay novel, I quite enjoyed the writing in this first chapter.

2025-08-27 books • gay • lgbt • tomcrewe • porn • nsfw • sex • frottage

Bounce social media tool

New service to help move followers between Bluesky, Mastodon, and Pixelfed

2025-08-26 fediverse • bluesky • mastodon • socialmedia • friends • freedom

Sub-millisecond time

Detailed experiments of trying to push the limits of time synchronization on Linux on commodity hardware. <1ms is easy, 20-60ns may be a practical limit

2025-08-26 linux • ntp • ptp • time • synchronization

Software package manager like Python's uv, but for Ruby

2025-08-26 ruby • python • software • programming • uv

Grinding the Bay Bridge

Skydiver maneuvers parachute to let him grind the cable on top of the Bay Bridge

2025-08-26 awesome • redbull • stunt • skydiving • xtreeeem • sanfrancisco • baybridge

Android lockdown

Google is threatening to make it much harder to sideload apps outside their ecosystem

2025-08-25 google • android • lockdown • jailbreak • opensource

MetaFilter activity stats

Disheartening statistics from an older online social community

2025-08-24 metafilter • stats • growth • death • socialmedia • forum

Build Factorio factories with Lean code, compile to blueprints of belts and machines

2025-08-24 games • factorio • programming • batshitinsane • functional • lean

A new 64 bit number to use as constants

2025-08-22 funny • acab • 8647 • politics • uspol • trump • deadbeef • cafebabe

Peter Thiel lectures on The Antichrist

Takes one to know one

2025-08-22 thiel • christianity • politics • fascism • hate

Google AI energy

Detailed report on how much energy their AI systems use

2025-08-21 ai • energy • google • scaling • datacenter • llm

NCHS online archive

A nonprofit I've helped with a little has digitized records and put them online

2025-08-20 nevadacounty • nchs • archive • history • search • photos • california

Starlink stupidity

Musk trying to use the political influence he bought to undercut broadband expansion in favor of his useful but not sufficient alternative

2025-08-19 politics • starlink • spacex • elonmusk • corruption • broadband • fcc

SF Leather district

San Francisco has created a formal cultural district for Leather & LGBTQ culture

2025-08-19 leather • folsom • gay • lgbt • bdsm • kink • sanfrancisco

Android hackery: open source software that pairs with various fitness trackers, headphones, etc so you can use the devices without the vendor's software

2025-08-18 android • hacking • fitness • tracker • privacy • watch

"Private and Uncensored", I think the porn world uses this?

2025-08-18 ai • llm • porn • generator

auth-results@verifier.port25.com will reply to an email telling you if it was delivered and with details of SPF, DKIM, DMARC, etc.

2025-08-17 email • testing • smtp • spam • tools

check-auth@verifier.port25.com will reply to an email telling you if it was delivered and with details of SPF, DKIM, DMARC, etc.

2025-08-17 email • testing • smtp • spam • tools

New derogatory slang for AIs and bots online

2025-08-16 language • ai • culture • bots • spam

Facebook friends feed

Facebook has a feature to just show you posts from your friends

2025-08-15 facebook • friends • socialmedia • filter • ads

An app for running LLMs on iOS

2025-08-15 ai • llm • ios • apple • iphone • app

An Android app for running LLMs locally on your phone

2025-08-15 android • ai • llm • phone • app

Google released a new LLM that is very very small and intended as a building block for your own tuned systems

2025-08-14 gemma • google • ai • llm • hacking • simonw • fun

Wplace - Paint the world

Web game where people draw pixel art on the world map

2025-08-14 maps • games • multiplayer • place

A storygame platform using AI and well known books

2025-08-13 ai • games • reading • vampires • startup

Company is starting a commercial package repository as an alternative to PyPI

2025-08-13 pypi • python • pyx • vc • astral • uv

Code comparison tool that understands programming language structure instead of just giving line or word diffs

2025-08-13 programming • diff • git • change • coding

A programming library for syncing state between multiple instances. Sort of like git or syncthing, but designed for embedding

2025-08-13 programming • sync • syncthing • git • crdt • library

The Nazi abuse of justice, a second legal system for victims allowed most Germans to live ordinary lives. The US is establishing something similar.

2025-08-13 fascism • trump • politics • uspol • nazi • german • history

A privacy-oriented RAG + LLM toolkit in Python, for building custom AI stuff that you can run locally

2025-08-12 llm • ai • rag • query • python • programming

git manpage generator

A parody, something generating plausible but fictional documentation for git

2025-08-12 funny • git • dvcs • vcs • unix • documentation

You Got the Power

A 2000 magazine article about my startup

2025-08-11 popularpower • me • nelson • marc • computing • startup

Experienced engineer wondering why the latest AI integration stuff ignores 40+ years of expertise in distributed systems

2025-08-11 ai • llm • mcp • programming • rpc • distributed

WordPress asset leaking

It's easy to download any asset uploaded to WordPress, even if it's not published

2025-08-11 security • wordpress • scraping • privacy

America's most popular dial-up ISP is shutting down dial-up service

2025-08-10 aol • history • internet • dialup • modem

Directory of Retrieval-Augmented Generation tools for AI work

2025-08-10 ai • llm • rag • retrieval • search

RIP Chromebook Steam

Google removes the popular gaming option for Chromebooks. A whole lot of schoolkids are going to be devastated

2025-08-09 gaming • chromeos • chromebook • steam • google • games

Tiny electric jet boat

Weird EV from China, goes 30mph and fits in a car

2025-08-09 boats • evs • electricvehicles • china

Netnews: The Origin Story

Steve Bellovin's paper about the beginning of Usenet

2025-08-08 internet • usenet • netnews • history • socialmedia

The Human Line Project

A group providing support to people who have had mental health problems as a result of talking to AI

2025-08-08 llm • chatgpt • mentalhealth • ai

SimonW on GPT-5

Analysis from an expert

2025-08-07 ai • openal • llm • chatgpt • gpt5 • simonw

Introducing GPT-5

Details of OpenAI's new LLM release. It's better at lots of things, they say, and a big emphasis on agentic stuff

2025-08-07 ai • llm • openai

Women's health privacy violation

Meta and Google were buying private information from Flo Health in their advertising systems, learning things like which women were trying to get pregnant

2025-08-07 privacy • health • women • menstruation • facebook • meta • google • ads • surveillance

Home battery power plant

Batteries installed in people's homes participated in an experiment to provide significant grid power when needed

2025-08-05 california • electrify • battery • tesla • sunrun • power • pge

Satellite destruction

Trump administration wants to destroy working climate monitoring satellites

2025-08-05 nasa • trump • politics • uspol • vandalism • climatechange • globalwarming • science

Mothership Strategies

Newsletter claiming a lot of fundraising spam is really one company set up for self-enrichment, with less than 2% of donations getting through to campaigns

2025-08-04 uspol • politics • dnc • dccc • fundraising • scam • pac

A version of Wireguard designed to be harder to detect by deep packet inspection

2025-08-04 privacy • vpn • wireguard • networking • internet

Motherfucking Wind Farms

Samuel L. Jackson in a video for a clean energy company

2025-07-31 funny • globalwarming • climatechange • windmills • windfarms • samueljackson

Details of the torture that Venezuelans suffered in a Salvadoran prison after the US sent them there

2025-07-30 uspol • politics • torture • ice • immigration

Map search engine for every word seen in a Street View photo of every street in New York

2025-07-29 newyork • maps • ocr • geography

Debian 64 bit time

Getting ahead of an obsolence problem, switching to a larger time type early

2025-07-28 linux • y2k • y2038 • time • debian

Projectivy Launcher

Replace GoogleTV's ad-ridden home screen with something else

2025-07-28 ads • google • googletv • tv • adblocker • launcher • android

Scientology keyboard

Bizarre custom keyboard for the cult

2025-07-27 scientology • religion • cult • keyboard • incomm • cherry • via:jwz

Harper's CLAUDE.md

One engineer's take on getting Claude Code to work better for him. Lots of interesting and tested ideas here.

2025-07-26 harperreed • ai • claude • claudecode • llm • programming • prompting

Poly-1 computer

A 1980s computer developed in New Zealand for schools. Included networking!

2025-07-25 computing • newzealand • networking • history • schools • education

Fun collaborative art project: draw fish, watch them swimming around in a tank with other people's fishes

2025-07-25 fish • art • game • online • via:metafilter

goo.gl burned down

$BBB company can't afford to keep a simple link redirector online, so destroying a big part of the Internet they encouraged people to trust them to make

2025-07-25 google • services • links • shortener