Abstractions

Impressions of Apple WWDC 2025 announcements: “Liquid Glass” UI design unified across all 26-series operating systems, Messages & Phone app enhancements, and new Apple Intelligence APIs for app developers. Pre-show: Croonify karaoke song builder Croonify Article about Croonify by V Buckenham Two-minute WWDC 2025 announcement summary video from Apple Liquid Glass: “ok that’s fun now get rid of...

Web sites try to thwart “A.I.” bot scrapers, Stack Overflow is almost dead, bot slop may soon plague GitHub, and Apple may need a new CEO in order to change. Neal.fun Internet Artifacts Deep Sea Stack Overflow is almost dead My new hobby: watching AI slowly drive Microsoft employees insane Apple Turnover Apple Turnaround You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse...

Cotypist autocompletion for MacOS is available in beta, Google wrecks search results on purpose, SoundCloud adds “AI” training to TOS, and authors imprison themselves in Substack’s walled garden. Cotypist: Local LLM-powered autocompletion on MacOS Google made search results worse on purpose SoundCloud claims the right to train AI on your songs Don’t call it a Substack Substack alternatives: Ghost...

Redis is open source again, Synology wants to restrict you to their own branded disks, and someday the “A” in “A.I.” may stand for “advertising”. Redis is open source again Synology drive lock-in Alternative storage drive arrays You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space . Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca .

Facebook tries to convince us that we love ads and that their new name is about the “metaverse” instead of an attempt at whitewashing their toxic brand, while Google’s “AI Mode” confabulates wildly. Five Songs Daily Facebook expands ads in Threads app The real reason Facebook rebranded Google’s “AI Mode” meaning slop You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at j...

The Humane “AI” pin is a $700 brick of e-waste, everything is an app now, and the Hyperspace Mac application has interesting pricing options. Floor 796 The Humane AI Pin: A $700 Brick of E-Waste Archived article Original article (probably paywalled) Hyperspace Mac application You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space . Dan Jacobson’s homest...

iPhone may lose its USB-C port, and Tesla sales in Europe go off a cliff. Hostile government takeover song Know Your Meme Original song by @AGiftFromTodd EDM remix by @VeryVeryVinny Link Unshortener Mac Application Link Unshortener Link Unshortener announcement post Future iPhones might ditch the USB-C port Tesla sales are down in Europe You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and...

WordPress and WP Engine lock horns in a drama-filled dispute, and open source projects experiment with various monetization models. WordPress drama explained Automattic is doing open source dirty , by David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg’s response to DHH post You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space . Dan Jacobson’...

Justin engages in “yak shaving” with varying degrees of success, and open-source enthusiasts grapple with what to do when projects are abandoned. Definition of “yak shaving” Yak shaving comic by David Revoy Home Assistant : Open-source home automation framework Pelican static site generator AutoPub : Python package release automation Justin’s article on Converting reStructuredText to Markdown Micr...

The Bartender Mac app changes ownership in an abrupt and unnerving manner, and renting software continues to feel very different from buying software. Bartender app’s new owner burnt years of goodwill due to lack of transparency Original Bartender developer responds to furor Open-source Mac menu bar organizer (Bartender alternative) You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on th...

Large language models (LLMs) and other generative “A.I.” software are based on text, images, and videos created by humans. Should they be? And what impact does this have on artists and creators? Systematic Approaches to Learning Algorithms and Machine Inferences (SALAMI) Stop Calling Everything A.I. The Chinese room argument by John Searle You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com an...

Mozilla adds ad tracking to its Firefox web browser, while the Kagi search engine eschews ads in favor of a paid search business model. Mozilla announces Firefox ad tracking on their blog Mozilla knowledge base entry on “Privacy-Preserving Attribution” Browser market share over last decade Kagi search engine Why pay for search? Kagi Lenses Kagi personalized results Kagi URL re-direction feature Ot...

Justin has a new toy, everything runs software now, and the Overcast podcast app has been significantly re-written . You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space . Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca .

We start with an introduction to Abstractions and a little bit about its hosts before diving into today’s topics: Google killing its URL obfuscator and automatic passkey upgrades. Google kills its goo.gl URL obfuscator Killed by Google, AKA the Google Graveyard Apple WWDC video on automatic passkey upgrades You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramb...