JB

Ad Infinitum · Matthias Ott

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 07:36:36 -0500

One approach, proposed by Google Research, is what you might call a “token auction.” In this model, advertisers don’t buy ad slots on a page. Instead, they bid, token by token, on the actual text the model generates. Each advertiser brings their own LLM, and an auction mechanism decides whose model gets to influence the next word. The output is a weighted blend of competing interests, shaped by who’s willing to pay more.
Another approach – also from Google researchers – fits the new “Search” much more precisely. It’s called “prominence allocation.” Here, when a user submits a query with commercial intent, the system runs an auction that doesn’t just decide which ads appear, but how prominently the LLM writes about each one. The auction outputs a prominence score for each advertiser, essentially telling the model: give this product 35 words, that one 20, and this one zero. The ad isn’t next to the answer. The ad is the answer. Or rather, it shapes how much space and enthusiasm each product gets within the answer.

This is terrible. I’m glad I signed up for Kagi a while back.

It’s Time to Dismantle the Technopoly | The New Yorker

Mon, 25 May 2026 06:48:57 -0500

It’s Time to Dismantle the Technopoly | The New Yorker:

In a world where a tool like TikTok can, seemingly out of nowhere, suddenly convince untold thousands of users that maybe Osama bin Laden wasn’t so bad, or in which new A.I. models can, in the span of only a year, introduce a distressingly human-like intelligence into the daily lives of millions, we have no other reasonable choice but to reassert autonomy over the role of technology in shaping our shared story. This requires a shift in thinking. Decades of living in a technopoly have taught us to feel shame in ever proposing to step back from the cutting edge. But, as in nature, productive evolution here depends as much on subtraction as addition.

It's difficult to understand the influence of technology on your own mind. I think I keep looking for the straw that breaks the camel's back, and I'm strongly suspecting AI is it for me.

How to reverse AI brain rot — A note to myself

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 07:48:25 -0500

How to reverse AI brain rot — A note to myself:

Keep skills alive that a machine could easily replace, even if it's inefficient. Cooking, writing, repairing, designing etc. Automate everything else if you don't see value in it. But don't just over-automate for the sake of it.
Examples include:
— Try to fix things when they break, sewing, wrenching, have fun with it
— Write long form articles just for the sake of it, it helps you think better
— Edit photos yourself instead of using presets, train your eye and mind
— Write code or design by hand even if AI could do it for you. If you find a task that you actually enjoy, do it manually even if it takes longer.

It’s good to see reminders that what we actually need more of are ways to remain human, and practice human skills. I’m increasingly of the mind that sitting at a computer for 8+ hours a day is decidedly not human.

How to usher in an era of abundant donuts • Buttondown

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 07:28:40 -0500

How to usher in an era of abundant donuts • Buttondown:

What would you say to someone who proclaims, “I want to be a donut maker,” but has never actually made a single donut in their life?

You say “That’s awesome. What can I do to help?”

This is a beautiful essay.

Team Mirai and Democracy - Schneier on Security

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 10:10:09 -0500

Team Mirai and Democracy - Schneier on Security:

Japan’s election last month and the rise of the country’s newest and most innovative political party, Team Mirai, illustrates the viability of a different way to do politics.
In this model, technology is used to make democratic processes stronger, instead of undermining them. It is harnessed to root out corruption, instead of serving as a cash cow for campaign donations.

This is fascinating. I don't know enough about it yet, or have thought through it enough yet to say if it's good, but it is fascinating.

I’m OK being left behind, thanks! – Terence Eden’s Blog

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 08:49:02 -0500

I’m OK being left behind, thanks! – Terence Eden’s Blog:

There are a 16,000 new lives being born every hour. They're all starting with a fairly blank slate. Are you genuinely saying that they'll all be left behind because they didn't learn your technology in utero? No. That's obviously nonsense. It is 100% OK to wait and see if something is actually useful.

Seconded.

How to do the work • Buttondown

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 11:44:23 -0500

How to do the work • Buttondown:

The cruelest thing the tech industry ever did was to tell you that they cared about you. They built you nice campuses, they called you family, they gave you clothes with their name on it. They fed you, they washed your clothes, they got you to ride in their Pride floats. They made you feel like you had not just a job, but a community. And yes, they paid you well. The stupidest thing we ever did—and I say this with nothing but love for you in my heart—but the stupidest thing we ever did was to believe it. IT was neither true, nor never-ending.
The same industry that once called you family is now using the fruits of your labor to commit war crimes. The same industry whose leaders once posted front-page missives to their sites about doing a better job in terms of diversity and inclusion are now selling their technology to fascists who use it to bomb schools.
The industry has decided what it wants to be.

Why I Love FreeBSD - IT Notes

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 07:50:38 -0500

Why I Love FreeBSD - IT Notes:

Which is one of the reasons why every time I attend a BSD conference, I come home even more in love with the project: the vibe of the community, the dedication of the developers, the presence of a Foundation that is strong and effective without being domineering or self-important - which, compared to the foundations of other major Open Source projects, makes it genuinely remarkable. Faces that have been part of this project for over twenty years, and still light up the moment they find their friends and start talking about what they've been working on. That positivity is contagious - and it flows directly into the code, the project, the vision for what comes next. Because that's the heart of it. FreeBSD has always been an operating system written by humans, for humans: built to serve and to be useful, with a consistency, documentation, pragmatism, and craftsmanship that most other projects - particularly mainstream Linux distributions - simply don't have.

I too have been a fan of FreeBSD, and its cousin OpenBSD, for a long time. When I got my start in the tech industry back in the very early 2000's (after a few years working in radio communications and encryption in the Navy), one of the first things we did was start building web servers, firewalls, and proxies out of OpenBSD and FreeBSD. It was far more difficult to do back then, and we used to beg our boss, the Senior Chief, to let us use Linux. He wisely refused and insisted we learn the system from the ground up. I owe my career to those early decisions and the obsession it sparked in me to know the machine as much as I could from the inside out.

Unfortunately, Linux won the popularity contest, so it's Linux that runs every major cloud provider and service in the world. Linux is amazing, don't get me wrong, but it'll never hold the place in my heart that FreeBSD does.

In fact, one of the things that drew me to the Mac was knowing that underneath that beautiful and functional UI was a FreeBSD Unix core. So… maybe BSD did win the popularity contest after all.

I still day dream about leaving the cloud and running a datacenter again, with the host OS of every server is FreeBSD, and the guests are all running either in bhyve or hosted in jails. It'd be reliable, functional, and secure. Beautiful.

New ways to learn math and science in ChatGPT | OpenAI

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 10:51:08 -0500

New ways to learn math and science in ChatGPT | OpenAI:

Shot:

In early testing, college and high school age students said the interactive experience helped them better understand how variables relate to one another. Parents said it gave them a more dynamic way to walk through problems alongside their children. Educators said tools like this could help students understand how concepts work, instead of simply memorizing formulas.

Chaser:

Altman said, “We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter,”

Sam Altman Says Intelligence Will Be a Utility, and He’s Just the Man to Collect the Bills

Putting computers in schools to begin with wasn't a great idea. Putting computers with AI into our schools is a disaster.

Daring Fireball: 'Grief and the AI Split'

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 10:45:04 -0500

Daring Fireball: 'Grief and the AI Split':

Orchard’s fine essay examines a philosophical divide within the ranks of talented, considerate craftsperson developers. The divide that I’m talking about has been present ever since the demand for programmers exploded, but AI code generation tooling is turning it into an expansive gulf. The best programmers are more clearly the best than ever before. The worst programmers have gone from laying a few turds a day to spewing veritable mountains of hot steaming stinky shit, while beaming with pride at their increased productivity.

Productivity and craftsmanship aside, there are still lots, and lots of ethical, moral, and environmental issues with our current iteration of AI. The companies ~~shoving down our throats~~ providing AI aren't making money, and there's research ongoing showing that skills atrophy when using AI. I can see the argument that it depends on how you use it, but even in my own limited use when considering a problem I can feel the pull to go to AI first instead of digging in myself. That's not a pull I want to feel.

‘50 Years of Thinking Different’ — Curb Cuts

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 10:36:39 -0500

‘50 Years of Thinking Different’ — Curb Cuts:

As a lifelong disabled person and longtime Apple fan, never mind an objective technology journalist, improved lives obviously resonates deeply with me.
Apple’s accessibility efforts is an exemplar of its “make the world better” ethos.

Credit where due.

AI Slop: A Slack API Rate Limiting Disaster – code.dblock.org | tech blog

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 10:34:38 -0500

AI Slop: A Slack API Rate Limiting Disaster – code.dblock.org | tech blog:

For now, human oversight of A.I. assistants remains critical.

More and more I’m seeing reasons to avoid AI.

Michael Stipe Took The Stage | Stephen Clark (sgclark.com)

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 08:24:11 -0500

Michael Stipe Took The Stage | Stephen Clark (sgclark.com):

Last night at Brooklyn Steel, a concert venue in the Williamsburg section of the NYC borough, Michael Stipe – former lead singer of R.E.M. (one of my favorite bands) – took the stage with Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy to sing “These Days” and “The Great Beyond”. This was the first time he has sung these songs on stage in about 18 years. I happened to be at this show with friends – all of us hoping this would happen. The show itself was fantastic. Having Michael Stipe make a cameo took it to another level. I took a video of the performance from the back of the room that I would have posted, but I then found the above video on YouTube that was far better than mine.

What a gift.

How to start a record collection • Buttondown

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 11:17:17 -0500

How to start a record collection • Buttondown:

I tried to talk everyone out of buying vinyl not too long ago. It’s expensive. It’s a pain in the ass if you move. It takes up way too much space in your home. It warps in the heat. You’ll forget you already have something and buy it multiple times. People write about it when they’re trying to avoid writing about all the terrible things happening in the world. Worst of all, it introduces terrible people into your life: audiophiles. We covered all of these things. And yet, you did it anyway.
Congrats. I’m sorry.

Well, as long as you already bought all the equipment, it’d be a sin to see it going unused, so let’s go buy some records.

Pretty much the only thing I personally like on this list is Madonna’s Like a Prayer, and even that’s a stretch. I should probably post my own top ten albums, I always enjoy reading other folks' list and reasoning. Like he says, musical taste is very subjective.

Daring Fireball: Thoughts and Observations on the MacBook Neo

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 17:29:51 -0500

Daring Fireball: Thoughts and Observations on the MacBook Neo:

And the PC world should take note. One of my briefings today included a side-by-side comparison between a MacBook Neo and an HP 14-inch laptop “in the same price category”. It was something like this one, with an Intel Core 5 chip, which costs $550. The HP’s screen sucks (very dim, way lower resolution), the speakers suck, the keyboard sucks, and the trackpad sucks. It’s a thick, heavy, plasticky piece of junk. I didn’t put my nose to it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it smells bad.

Damn, John… tell me how you really feel!

I think he's right about this new MacBook Neo, Apple is going to sell boatloads of these, and my bet is that they'll get great reviews.

Have We Forgotten How to Design?

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 11:16:44 -0500

Have We Forgotten How to Design?:

It is ironic, isn’t it? The premise of Waymo is to automate moving a human being on a road, but in reality, it cannot function without a human being’s intervention. I don’t even want this technology to begin with. I think it’s dangerous and reckless and unethical. But I can’t help but laugh at this “solution” because it reminds me of how scooter companies need to redistribute the scooters around a city when they all end up consolidated in a single spot.
If only they thought of ways to move people collectively instead of the vehicles.

Like a train.

Chart: US to overwhelmingly build clean power in 2026 | Canary Media

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 11:11:18 -0500

Chart: US to overwhelmingly build clean power in 2026 | Canary Media:

This year, solar will provide 51% of the new utility-scale electricity capacity slated to come online, batteries will deliver 28%, and wind will add 14%, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Fossil gas, one of the polluting fuels most supported by the Trump administration, makes up only 7% of that new capacity. Coal, the other polluting fuel favored by the White House, does not appear in the ranks of power plants under construction.

The current madness of American politics is just a season, an unfortunate one that will soon pass.

Danish government agency to ditch Microsoft software in push for digital independence

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 09:14:14 -0500

Danish government agency to ditch Microsoft software in push for digital independence | The Record from Recorded Future News:

In an interview with the local newspaper Politiken, Danish Minister for Digitalisation Caroline Stage Olsen confirmed that over half of the ministry’s staff will switch from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice next month, with a full transition to open-source software by the end of the year.
“If everything goes as expected, all employees will be on an open-source solution during the autumn,” Politiken reported, quoting Stage. The move would also help the ministry avoid the expense of managing outdated Windows 10 systems, which will lose official support in October.

The Danes are really leading the way here. It'll be interesting to watch how this turns out.

Microsoft's new 10,000-year data storage medium: glass - Ars Technica

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 08:37:01 -0500

Microsoft's new 10,000-year data storage medium: glass - Ars Technica:

There’s been a lot of preliminary work demonstrating different aspects of a glass-based storage system. But in Wednesday’s issue of Nature, Microsoft Research announced Project Silica, a working demonstration of a system that can read and write data into small slabs of glass with a density of over a Gigabit per cubic millimeter.

I’m not a big fan of Microsoft, but this is just flat out cool.

Owning a $5M data center - comma.ai blog

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 08:17:00 -0500

Owning a $5M data center - comma.ai blog:

These days it seems you need a trillion fake dollars, or lunch with politicians to get your own data center. They may help, but they’re not required. At comma we’ve been running our own data center for years. All of our model training, metrics, and data live in our own data center in our own office. Having your own data center is cool, and in this blog post I will describe how ours works, so you can be inspired to have your own data center too.

Things have changed since 2014 when I was last administering a data center.

February 15, 2026 - by Heather Cox Richardson

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 07:29:02 -0500

February 15, 2026 - by Heather Cox Richardson:

Extremist Republicans attacked their opponents as socialists even as their tax cuts and deregulation were moving money dramatically upward: at least $50 trillion moved upward from the bottom 90% to the top 1% between 1975 and 2020. Republican leaders and media figures fed their audiences the story that the middle class was imploding not because of Republican policies but because undeserving Black people, people of color, and feminist women demanded government handouts. This narrative fueled Trump’s political rise. He promised to fix the economic dispossession of those the modern economy left behind, by “draining the swamp,” restoring white men to control, and rebuilding the American middle class.

Day Dreaming

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 13:44:57 -0500

I have a vision of the future that I just can’t shake. It’s shaped my politics and many of the choices that I’ve made. It’s a vision of human experience over corporate profits, a vision of abundance and community. It’s a vision that, sadly, feels farther and farther away, but not yet entirely out of reach. When the future is continuously portrayed as something negative, like The Matrix, Blade Runner, or Fury Road, it can be hard to imagine something better. Something positive. But to build the future, we first must imagine the future. Iowa is a mid-sized Midwestern state, but still similar in size to several European nations. There’s a lot we could do as a state. So, allow me a small indulgence and join me in this daydream of how things could be.

Imagine living in a small Iowa farming town, but it’s not run down and falling apart… it’s vibrant, alive. Imagine walking down to a local railway station, a beautiful, clean, and modern building next to the city square. Inside you’d stop at a coffee shop run by a friend’s daughter for coffee and a pastry, before riding the train to Des Moines, or Ames, or Iowa City in minutes. Imagine looking out the window at the farmland as it passes by, not growing corn for ethanol, but diverse crops of actual, real food. There’s still plenty of sweet corn, of course, we just aren’t growing corn to burn anymore. The smaller farms employ more people, and switching to food production has revitalized the traditional family farm.

You wouldn’t only see the food-growing farms as you pass by; you’d see wind farms as well, generating the clean energy that the state now runs off of. As you pass through the suburbs on the way to the city center, you’d see green lawns and solar panels on every roof, each home generating the electricity it needs and trading the excess to the grid. The transition to clean energy and sustainable farming has cleaned the air and the water; Iowa now has some of the cleanest water in the country, no more worrying about nitrates or other cancer-causing chemicals when you want to fish or swim.

When you arrive in the city you either walk, ride a bike, or rent a scooter to your studio. Your work in engineering is in great demand, balancing the economic boom from investments in renewable energy and railways with making the best environmental decisions for everyone. You spend the day engrossed in your work, breaking for lunch at noon, and heading home around four. You pass by thousands of workers who are also working in the clean energy industry, building, maintaining, or managing solar panels, wind turbines, and train components. Iowa’s history of manufacturing and culture of building and making dovetailed nicely with the demands of clean energy that’s not reliant on international suppliers.

You hop on the train and, in 20 minutes or so, get off in your town and walk to the local grocery coop to pick up some fresh produce and dairy for dinner. Passing by the local brewery you think about stopping by later tonight to meet up with friends, but for now dip into the bakery for a loaf of fresh sourdough. Instead of carrying all that home, you borrow one of the city bikes and put your groceries in the basket; they know you’ll ride it back tomorrow. When you get home, your house senses that you’ve arrived and turns on the appropriate lights, opens the windows, and greets you as you walk in the door.

When I envision the future I think about jobs in clean energy, farmland that grows actual food, and a sustainable way of life that doesn’t actively destroy the world we live in. How can anyone argue against a life where everyone benefits? I can understand being skeptical, but I invite you to imagine with me. If you think the best we will ever be as a society is in the past, what hope is there for the future? I think we all want to live well, to feel safe, to be hopeful. There’s a way forward, but we have to choose to go there together, none of us can make the world on our own.

Plans unveiled for Australia's first new city in over 100 years

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 08:55:23 -0500

Plans unveiled for Australia's first new city in over 100 years:

American studio SOM and Australian studio Hassell have revealed plans for Bradfield City, a new, 114-hectare city in western Sydney, which is set to include 10,000 homes, a university campus and a two-hectare park.

What would it take to start building like this in the States?

Morning Coffee and AI

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 08:30:06 -0500

I’ve been reading about, listening to discussions about, and exploring AI tools myself more and more over the past few weeks. While I still don’t think that my assertions were necessarily wrong, I can’t deny the effect the tools are having now and will have on the industry in the future. The conclusion I’ve come to so far is 1. the tools are not going away anytime soon. 2. there’s a very good chance that software development and devops will be forever changed by these tools. 3. If you’re planning on staying in this industry for the foreseeable future, this is one of those waves you either ride or get rolled over by.

I don’t like it, and I still think that craftsmanship, technical knowledge, and ability are extremely important. However, consider what’s being built right now, tools like a software factory by StrongDM where software is being churned out without human interaction at all. If the AI/LLM tools continue to advance and get better, where does this lead in 5 years? In 10? Will all software just be a prompt away? Will we be able to define custom software solutions for each individual or organization with a well designed prompt?

Most organizations move slow, especially the larger ones. Some banks still rely on COBOL and mainframes. The code that’s running in the world right now will continue to need to run for a long time, but things are changing fast.

My biggest complaint against AI is the power requirements, and how these big companies are building massive data centers drinking up all the water and energy in the area. They did that in Des Moines where I live. One of the Microsoft data centers out here required more water than the raccoon river had available. Looks like that trend isn’t going to change anytime soon either. So, from a values point of view, I’m disappointed and worried, from a professional point of view, I see the change as inevitable.

That’s my 2¢ on AI.

I Built the Perfect AI Robot. Then I Pulled the Plug - MacSparky

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 11:01:52 -0500

I Built the Perfect AI Robot. Then I Pulled the Plug - MacSparky:

That’s when it hit me. I’m not a security expert. If I can find these holes, imagine what someone who actually knows what they’re doing could exploit. The fundamental problem is that AI agents need access to work. You have to open doors. But 30 years of computer security has been about keeping those doors locked.

I am a security expert, and this is a time bomb. I'm not sure if they'll ever be trustworthy enough for me to allow them to go rifling through my personal and work data.