Engineer Brains

Once you've got rid of the silly Glass, replaced the icons with sane versions, restored the small corner radii and generally de-bling'd the macOS Golden Gate UI to something far more aesthetically pleasing, you're still going to want a desktop background to match, aren't you. Try this on for size:

@straczynski.bsky.social posted a beautiful write up about him as well. "From the stars we came, to the stars we return, from now until the end of time. We therefore commit these bodies to the deep." www.patreon.com/TheJoePage/p...

Oh, joy. FruitCo (that's Apple, Inc to anyone who hasn't seen 'Forrest Gump') is apparently entering an "everything is blue now" phase, under the mistaken belief that it looks cool. Why change the .pkg icon from the good ol' brown cardboard flatpak to a Gelatinous Cube in a white IKEA box?

Why didn't you reply to my text message?

Old school CarPlay.

Got a (so-called) smart TV? Doesn't matter what brand, you HAVE to disconnect it from the internet. New research shows every brand reports what you watch, or worse. Vizio (Walmart) & LG were worst offenders, Sony the least. More here: watchingthewatchers.github.io/watchingthew...

Today's linguistics truthiness:

When "Because I say so" carries absolutely no weight.

Opening day of the New England RetroFest!!!

Toy time! Want to know if an image. video or some other media on a web-page is AI-generated slop or not? Check its C2PA Content Credentials with this plug-in: chromewebstore.google.com/detail/adobe... [ Learn more about C2PA here: c2pa.org ]

A reminder that as of August this year, EA is owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners (Jared Kushner’s investment group) In case anybody had forgotten.

Outta my sight, scrub

... oops. Dutch authorities following a terrorism money trail discovered Trump's son-in-law Kushner was a key player. A hack of his iPhone let them watch as he transferred millions from a Saudi prince to hit-men & mercs. www.vanityfair.com/story/jared-...

Nowadays, the internet sometimes feels like a once well-to-do neighbourhood that became a slum after an industrial park & motorway were built through it. And I'm the lifelong resident who refuses to leave, unable to accept that the decaying, now unsafe area will never regain its former grandeur.

Random thought: Meta Muse sounds like the digestion antacid product Metamucil.

EA just killed Bioware and the next Mass Effect, in development since at least six years. "Around 50 staff had been working on a new Mass Effect that is now canceled." This period is a never-ending nightmare.

The EU has had non-Apple App Stores for a while now. Now Aussies will get them too.

Well, I've been trying to figure out my new toy for the last year. A Celestron Origin, a smart telescope. Here are a few pics I'm really happy with.

*me trying to get out of a meeting* “i have to go patch my php”

IYKYK. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

PSA, Please Repost. eBay has just roped *EVERY* account-holder into their generative AI training system. Not good, but at least they do have an opt-out switch in the settings. Log onto eBay, go to Account settings, find the Opt-out & flip that switch to 'Off'. [some direct links in ALT] #NoAI

PSA, Please Repost. eBay has just roped *EVERY* account-holder into their generative AI training system. Not good, but at least they do have an opt-out switch in the settings. Log onto eBay, go to Account settings, find the Opt-out & flip that switch to 'Off'. [some direct links in ALT] #NoAI

Under Anthropic's AI-safety legislation draft send to US lawmakers this week, AI companies can only be held liable if less than 50 people die or US$1 billion or more of assets is under threat. Don't let them get away with this. #NoAI www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/...

The perfect metaphor for Apple design these days

Running a business? Does it have an account on Facebook, Instagram or Whatsapp? Come Oct 30, Meta will scrape EVERYTHING linked to that account, inc. your company website, to train their LLM. You have 10 days to fill your site with AI tarpit-traps, or quit Meta for good. #NoAI

opening twitter in 2026

This had made many people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.

also what did Bluesky do to the alt-text field, you can't edit in the field because it keeps bouncing your cursor to the end

Art by Don Ivan Punchatz for Doom (ID Software, 1993)

“The internet is a store but it used to be a library” hits me like a slug to the chest

Today's fiscal truthiness:

"America worst!" – someone who thinks they run the country.

Every now and then... we get it just right. #StarTrek #memes #caturday

I have the opposite problem, people doing things too fast freaks me out.

Data that exists only once is data you don't actually want to keep. Once you've made your backup, TEST your backup. The 'net is rife with stories of how data was irrevocably lost because the backup didn't work.

I love Zelenskyy's little not-quite-hidden arc-reactor in his chest. I can just hear him saying into the microphone, "The truth is ... I am Iron Man."

And if you believe *ANYTHING* Goldman Sachs says, you're a bloody idiot. It's all spin.

OMG. I am sooo Canadian it hurts. But it's a good hurt.

A programmer I knew got the job because he knew the product so well from being a long-time customer. First day - the first hour - with the product team, he fixed a bug that had been annoying him for years, then resigned & left. Total tenure: 38 minutes.

When you get around to watching Terminator 2 with your [grand]kids, be prepared to explain what a phone booth is ... and what a landline is.