Baldur Bjarnason

I figure since there's been a recent influx of people here on Bluesky, it might be worthwhile to do "highlights reels" of sorts for my newsletter, which is at www.baldurbjarnason.com The biggest topic on my newsletter is software and web development, usually from a bit of a systemic perspective.

“Wabbit Eternal – News From ME” https://www.newsfromme.com/2026/10/27/wabbit-eternal/

The last paragraph in this piece deserves an award. www.rockpapershotgun.com/steams-ai-di...

Academics, students, anyone. Let authors know that you enjoyed reading their work. It matters.

Listening to a report about Google chopping down a quarter of a million trees in Finland to build a data centre while washing out yoghurt pots for the recycling

I love being reminded that the audience really doesn’t give a shit about the developers. Like, forget that one of the most influential studios in our industry was just executed by its publisher, just make sure the product continues on the assembly lines!

Kind of worrying to see how many people have fallen hard into the “imminent AGI” delusion.

“Don't think | deadSimpleTech” https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/dont-think > The end result is that we live in a world that's deeply hostile to people who insist on thinking while demanding that they pretend to think.

it is so unspeakably grim

Get ready for all your Microsoft products to get even worse. We need to find ways to move off of all billionaire-owned internet services and software. A practical consumer issue as well as a critical political necessity.

RIP to an incredible actor, Alfred Bester is one of my all time favorite Lawful Evil villains

Anthropic AI safety bill: let us kill 50 people — but not 51 or pay one MILLION dollars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgV2dxqdJfo&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20261026-anthropic-ai-safety-bill-let-us-kill-50-people-but-not-51 - podcast time: 6 min 52 sec

“Microsoft offers buyouts to around 60,000 employees to contain costs | Reuters” www.reuters.com/technology/m... Free cash flow's doing great I see.

Autumn colours. #Iceland #Reykjavik #photography #naturephotography #nature #landscape #abandoned #decay #autumn

I’m uploading the Ugly Reykjavik videos to YouTube. I try to take short videos when I remember, mostly for myself to remember the sights and sounds. I will now be dumping them on YouTube for those interested in ugly little videos from Iceland 😄 The first one is last week's abandoned farmhouse.

Stumbling upon this abandoned farm was definitely a happy accident. #Iceland #photography #naturephotography #nature #landscape #landscapephotography #countryside #rural #abandoned #decay #rust

“Support Pivot to AI — and join the supporter name read for October – Pivot to AI” https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/10/26/support-pivot-to-ai-and-join-the-supporter-name-read-for-october/

Dialling down the noise (or, bookmarks post schedule change) www.patreon.com/baldurbjarna... Shifting the schedule of the suggested reading posts for paid members to once a week. Same number of links, just less of a noisy schedule.

Totally forgot that Bluesky can't handle PNGs with alpha channels

RIP to this man. This is a really powerful 62 seconds of video.

quick prototyping just pushes the yard full of rakes into the final build process

Something I try to illustrate with these annoying threads is that design is not business, but business is a constraint on design. The responses "it can be an advantage to be faster" are not unexpected. It's the implication that they are *part of* design that is incorrect.

and in terms of comparing to sex ed, please do not... > How we talk about generative AI refusal matters. I think it’s wrong to compare generative AI refusal to an authoritarian, anti-science, anti-LGBTQ+, sexist framework for teaching young people about sex.

reading: "Why I don't use generative AI" futurehorizondesign.net.au/posts/2026-1...

during the 2023 WGA strike. a real one.

Unbelievable loss. An amazing talent, and just a really, really good person. www.instagram.com/p/De8RFy4pyov/

Aw, man. Huge loss. Here he is on the Two Amigos podcast recently doing a “Porky Pig does Taken” scene. https://youtube.com/shorts/EWMOROqfQJU?is=_GbVAQb9CktQ0S5j

I am really interested to know why before this final round it felt / was reported like a given that Bolsonaro would win? Just one of those quirks of polling that can never really reflect reality?

Your monthly reminder that if you're using ChatGPT to do your science, you're failing your colleagues, community, and all of us. Here, ChatGPT makes up data and presents it as the real thing — then apologizes when confronted.

Jaron Lanier wrote in like 2018 that AI products are not labour-saving, they’re labour-concealing, and I have been shouting that from the rooftops ever since

you can't automate prototyping because you can't automate design because you can't automate invention

Today @dairinstitute.bsky.social is releasing the Luddite Lab Resource Hub. The hub hosts case studies, resources, and political education for unions, labor organizations, and workers who want to fight “AI” and automation at work. labor.dair-institute.org