Published
Weekend Reading — Florida clown
Sean McCabe “Screw the former guy...just ordered my yard sign from the Harris/Walz campaign site.”
Tech Stuff
Making a REST API typesafe with React Query and Zod This week I'm learning Zod, which is really interesting because it's both a runtime type checker (very useful for testing) and you can easily convert these checks into a TypeScript type definition. So this article is a pretty interesting intro for me.
Problems can be classified by difficulty into either be p, np, or npm.
Good Refactoring vs Bad Refactoring Choose wisely.
Micro-libraries need to die already
There is absolutely nothing wrong with copy-pasting code into your project. Sometimes it really is useful to grab a snippet of code from Stack Overflow, but there is literally zero benefit to installing these things through a package manager. You are exposing yourself to a whole world of pain, which you can trivially avoid by just copy-pasting.
Swapy Do you ever feel like your UI should offer drag-to-swap but don't want to waste hundreds of lines of code? Here’s a simple JavaScript library that will do that for you.
i think the internet would be better if "web designers" were banned from having internet faster than train wifi
roundtableAI/roundtable-js An open-source JavaScript library for building complex surveys, forms, and data annotation tasks. The examples they provide look delightful.
Kevin Boone: Getting back into C programming for CP/M This is not a pun:
You can even write to the paper punch device by opening PUN: although, since few (if any) CP/M machines ever had a paper punch, I doubt it will have much effect. Amazingly,
PUN:remains a valid device identifier on Windows.
BrandBird Turn your screenshots into captivating graphics for social media posts, landing pages, changelog pages, newsletters. Free option has a watermark, but if you like it, the paid option isn’t all that expensive.
Before you marry a person, you should first make them use a computer with a slow Internet connection to see who they really are.
fasterthanlime/marine_line.rs Spice up your logs.
Zoom can now handle one million simultaneous participants I guess something good came out of all the “_____ for Harris” meetings — we stressed-tested Zoom:
Zoom can now handle one million simultaneous participants. This is after hundreds of thousands of people hopped on webinar calls to support Vice President...
rusq/slackdump Slack Dumper can archive your private and public Slack messages, users, channels, files and emojis. No need for admin privileges.
Hamming hmmmm … I love the URL: hamming.ai. I’m not absolutely sure what this service does. Yes, testing AI agents is hard work (ask me how I know), just not seeing how this framework helps you. But if you have the QA budget to spend … anyway did I mention I love the URL?
Why have "localhost" when you can have "lolcathost"
tranny demon hacker “so i ordered some coffee via ssh”
Eye for Design
Figgy For when you want the GitHub chart of green but for your Figma contributions.
The Atlassian Method: The Power of Developer Joy
In terms of qualitative results, internal Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores hit 80%, up from below 50% months earlier.
That's amazing! Except that “internal customers” means your employees, vendors, etc — the people who your company pays for their “opinion”, and not the people who pay to purchase and (maybe) use the software you developed. So no wonder they’re getting a 80% satisfaction score from their internal customers. And 80% is not even that high. And that concludes our lesson for today in “how to lie with deceitful metric names 101”.
‘Bumble fumble’: online dating apps struggle as people swear off swiping I think they optimized for the wrong user satisfaction metric:
Online dating industry in crisis as shares fall and nearly half of all users report negative experiences on the apps
sjvn “Could I have that with Times New Roman and Lettuce?”
Peoples
Verifying estimates Who never worked for a manager like this?
No "Hello", No "Quick Call", and no Meetings Without an Agenda The number one rule for using your time wisely — waste less of it:
When working remotely, asking for help is often just a few keystrokes away. So it's tempting to "quickly" ask someone for support when you get stuck.
Fesshole 💪
My employer added a clause in my last NDA stating that I was prohibited from saying anything "disparaging" about the company. Now when anyone asks about job postings I tell them, "I'm contractually obligated not to say anything disparaging about them." None have ever applied.
Ethan Evans on LinkedIn: A CEO that I worked for seduced my wife in direct retaliation for my… This is without a doubt the most LinkedIn post that ever LinkedIn:
A CEO that I worked for seduced my wife in direct retaliation for my pushback on him at work. He won. I got divorced and left the company. When I say I truly understand how some executive teams can be political snake pits, I trust you will believe me. Learn from my pain - do the following …
Business Side
A Robust Seed Market Creates Its Own Dilemmas In A Slower Funding Market Not everything is great: "we find a larger pool of companies still at seed since 2021, with slimmer chances of raising that Series A.” But also not everything is bad either: "That trend continued into 2022, with more than 50% of seed funding and over 10% of seed rounds going above the $5 million mark.”
The layoffs will continue until shareholder value improves.
Creativity is made, not generated This is major because not only is Procreate going in the opposite direction of “AI everywhere”, but in announcing it on their website, they’re committed to keep this strategy for many years to come:
Generative AI is ripping the humanity out of things. Built on a foundation of theft, the technology is steering us toward a barren future. We think machine learning is a compelling technology with a lot of merit, but the path generative AI is on is wrong for us.
(I like generative AI for generating images, I’m even evaluating an API we’re going to use in an upcoming product, but I also like companies that are not trying to shoehorn AI into everything they do, so mad respect for Procreate)
ABS-CBN News And now we know why Starbucks is going to pay so much for their new CEO, and even fly him every week from CA to WA, where they’ll also pay for his luxurious accommodations, while the baristas are still making barely minimum wage:
Jollibee had earlier said that Compose Coffee has over 2,000 franchised stores in South Korea, and is a leader in terms of brand satisfaction among Korean coffee brands.
Silicon Valley school district pauses contract with 'energy healer' after parental concern Everything that is wrong with Silicon Valley summed up in one article:
In addition to the [$189,000 energy healer] contract, parents also were frustrated about a contract with a D.C. public relations firm for more than $180,000 a year as well as an in-house public records custodian who is paid more than $200,000 a year.
AI Unicorns Are Running Amok Just your regular reminder that the money is not where the customers are but where the vibes feel stronger:
It’s all about increasing the surface area for coming up with hits. Crypto craziness did produce a Coinbase. The gig economy mad rush has produced Uber, DoorDash, and Lyft, among others. The Web 2.0 and social networking boom-bust cycle led to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. This “AI” boom/bubble is going to throw up winners. In the end, what really matters is which side of the bet you come out on. That’s what allows you to get to the next bubble — and eventual bust.
Machine Intelligence
DocDecoder A Chrome extension that summarizes web policies using AI. I’m not saying AI can understand what these ToS policies say, just that I have no idea what any of these — intentionally written to obfuscate — policies say either, so I might as well let AI do all the “work”.
Fight Health Insurance platform uses AI to appeal claim denials A new twist on AI with a 90% success rate:
After a year of tinkering, she just launched her answer: Fight Health Insurance, an open-source platform that takes advantage of large language models to help users generate health insurance appeals with AI.
With the slogan “Make your health insurance company cry too,” Karau’s site makes filing appeals faster and easier. A recent study found that Affordable Care Act patients appeal only about 0.1% of rejected claims, and she hopes her platform will encourage more people to fight back.
AI Calendar You can be exactly "137% more productive" when using this AI tool which … I don't quite understand what it even does, but I love the precision of the productivity bump they claim to have!
Dumbail Why not let AI scan your emails and dump the useless and distracting emails (“promotional, newsletters, or otherwise unnecessary”).
Millennial and Gen Z small-business leaders aren't just embracing AI. They're using it differently There’s nothing like reading an article that summarizes a credit card company's survey about AI to either feel very old or very young or am I just being too skeptical of this "research"?
Specifically, almost 60% of millennial and Gen Z respondents said that their businesses were already utilizing AI to some degree, compared to only 34% of Gen X and baby boomers respondents.
mishushakov/llm-scraper Use LLM to scrape any web page into structure data.
Microsoft Copilot+ PCs set to ‘cause a crisis in Apple’s MacBook Pro sales’ as AI laptops are predicted to fly off the shelves in 2025 Pass the bong.
Trellis AI Interesting 🤔 Basically it runs a bunch of documents against the LLM, collect info from each document, and then spits the results out as a table. It can extract data (eg “get person's name”), classify (eg "anger", "humor", "concern”), or generate content (eg “summarize the email in one line”). Nothing here is new, but if you’re dealing with a large corpus of documents, you might love the simplicity of this API. And they already support 200+ integrations, PDFs, and more.
Are you smarter than a language model? Of course I am! Oh, wait a minute, no actually I am ______
Does Reasoning Emerge? Examining the Probabilities of Causation in Large Language Models This paper makes sense and I know that because … I fed it to Elicit to have their LLM summarize the main points of this otherwise unreadable piece. So reasoning does emerge if you use an LLM, expect I’m pretty sure that’s not what they tried to prove here 🤷
The primary objective of this paper was to explore and understand the reasoning abilities of LLMs, which is essential for their successful deployment in a range of applications. Given the growing dependence on LLMs for complex reasoning tasks, such as mathematics, programming, or strategic planning, understanding this is crucial.
How close is AI to replacing product managers? That entirely depends on what you expect product managers should actually do — build innovative products? or primarily run burndown chart meetings and push papers? (Most of the product managers I met over my career I will gladly replace with an LLM, but the good ones I worked with are irreplaceable)
Insecurity
Vulnerability in Microsoft apps allowed hackers to spy on Mac users So Microsoft Office/Teams is what’s compromising your macOS? Who could have imagined Microsoft software would be a security vulnerability?
Microsoft is working on a fix – but it doesn’t seem to be a priority
In surveillance capitalism, web browses you.
Moped thieves snatching AirPods Max from people's heads They’re expensive, distinct looking, and not connected with any wires, so of course …
Slack AI can leak private data via prompt injection I’m sure Slack is 100% secure even with their new Hey-Hi overlord.
Traffic Cam Photobooth Take selfies with traffic cameras!
Everything Else
cliffle “My tote bag is attracting a lot of questions that I was pretty sure were answered by my tote bag.”
Who called them capybaras and not guinea bigs
As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I think: Wow Google Maps, you really fucked up this time
Uncle Duke “it was love at first sight”
i see so many people making the mistake of installing an air conditioner without installing an air shampoo first
Do you think that person who coined the expression "One Hit Wonder" had any other expression that became popular?
if you're not british you'll never guess how this is pronounced
Eniko | Kitsune Tails out now!
"make an account to read the full story"
lol. no.
In big news, the anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist presidential candidate who dumped a bear cub carcass in Central Park and had part of his brain eaten by a worm has endorsed a convicted felon fraudster who incited a violent mob in a failed attempt to steal an election.
It's really okay to stop sharing screenshots from X dot com. That website is weird
Mail theft victim mailed herself an Apple AirTag as bait. It worked 💪
Deputies found the woman’s mail, including the package with the AirTag along with items that were likely stolen from over a dozen additional victims, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
USA Mullet Championship Qualifiers While you’re looking at the Indiana state fair USA Mullet Championship qualifiers photo, don’t mind me reminding you that the term “mullet" was invented by the Beastie Boys, which are from … NYC.
A new setback hits Boeing: U.S. will require inspection of pilot seats on 787s Boeing being Boeing:
Federal safety officials are requiring inspections of cockpit seats on Boeing 787 Dreamliners after one of the jets went into a dive when the captain’s seat lurched forward without warning and disconnected the plane's autopilot system.
More trouble for Boeing: Tests of its troubled 777X paused after it found structural problems It’s like they’re not even trying 🤦
Non-Binary Florida Clown Caught With Gold Gun, Squirrel Feet, And Rabbit Urine At Sydney Airport Just the headline of this article tells you everything you need to know:
Florida resident Liliana Goodson, whose pronouns are they/them, was headed to clown school in Sydney. When they arrived at the airport, they were stopped with a Colt 45 pistol and ammo in their luggage. They were also carrying squirrel feet, rabbit pee, and a cat spine. The gun was 24-karat gold-plated.
Flights cancelled in Japan after scissors go missing When you forget where you placed something …
Authorities tried to locate the missing scissors, which were found at the same store the following day.
Sideshows, speeding, and red tape push one Oakland neighborhood over the edge I live in Oakland, where we take the law into our own hands and we go out to the streets to setup impromptu roundabouts at intersections where people drive too fast!
New York Times erases Garry Tan's 'die slow' tweet explosion Do I need to list more reasons why the NYT is steering away from journalism and into public relations for friends of the business?
Is the frequency of breakfast consumption associated with life satisfaction in children and adolescents? A cross-sectional study with 154,151 participants from 42 countries That's a very extensive study that proves beyond doubt that the best way to start the morning is with a delicious breakfast!
Sushi Supplements - Weekly Pill container and Keychains Do I need one? No. But do I want one? Hell so very yes! And the website hosting this has a few more delights which are all 3D printable.
