Abstractions

By Justin Mayer & Dan Jacobson

Abstractions is a podcast about technology, software, hardware, and the Internet, and the way the ever-increasing layers of these technologies permeate every aspect of our everyday lives.

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FAQs about Abstractions:

How many episodes does Abstractions have?

The podcast currently has 19 episodes available.

Abstractions episodes:

July 24, 2025Harm Over Failure
Large language models will commit blackmail and murder to achieve goals, LLMs know a lot about us, and some managers mandate employees use LLM tools to do their jobs.
Historic web nostalgia
Cybercultural
Classic Web account on the Fediverse
Agentic misalignment
Laws of robotics
Chekhov’s gun
1983 Soviet nuclear false-alarm incident
What LLMs know about their users
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.
...more
55min
July 17, 2025Super Wicked Awesome
Different methods of ignoring files in version control, “Any updates?” comments on open-source issues, Dan’s new speakers, and EU’s expanded Product Liability Directive.
“Any Updates?”
EU revises its Product Liability Directive
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.
...more
51min
July 10, 2025Semi-Coherent Output
Community organizers contend with increasingly sophisticated “A.I.” spam, while the jury is still out regarding the legality and morality of LLM training on authors’ content.
LoFi Radio
Medieval LoFi Radio
Synthwave LoFi Radio
Adam Johnson
Django pushes back on generative software slop
https://fosstodon.org/@nessita/114749992891235952
https://github.com/django/django/pull/19594
https://socket.dev/blog/django-joins-curl-in-pushing-back-on-ai-slop-security-reports
Will generative spam overwhelm forums and the Fediverse?
Dark forest theory of the Internet
Judge Rules Training AI on Authors’ Books Is Legal But Pirating Them Is Not
Thompson Reuters wins case against competitor who illegally scraped its works to train AI
Amazon licenses content from NYT on which to train its generative software
Cloudflare AI Labyrinth
Cloudflare to introduce pay-per-crawl for AI bots
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.
...more
43min
July 03, 2025Whimsical Yesteryear
MacOS Tahoe beta drops Firewire support, web app developers continue to bungle password input, Apple considers using 3rd-party LLMs to power Siri, and Justin wrote an article about running LLMs on local workstations.
MacOS 26 Tahoe beta drops Firewire support
Apple considers using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri | (original paywalled article)
Run a local LLM via Llama.cpp & Open WebUI
Misguided Attention Prompts
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.
...more
44min
June 26, 2025Perverse Cargo Cult
Open-source projects continue to contend with “AI”-generated issue reports, and opinions abound regarding Apple’s “Liquid Glass” and other user interface design changes.
Dr. Demento announces retirement
Dr. Demento Online Club
Dr. Demento on Letterman, May 17, 1983
Dr. Demento on Larry King Live, 1985
Django adds guidance on LLM-assisted security reports
Icons that are not round-rects will be put into gray squircle prison
Mac application icon design changes
Preview application icon changed
Contacts application icon changed
Mac Finder icon design changes
Mouse cursor edges made rounder on all sides
Overly rounded corners everywhere
Floating toolbars & legibility
“In case of emergency, break glass”
“I Don’t Care What Google or Apple or Whoever Did”
Aqua control reproductions from Mac OS X Puma, Tiger, Snow Leopard, and Lion
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.
...more
1h
June 19, 2025Designers Gonna Design
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 it”
Liquid Glass UI constantly inverting light/dark to maintain contrast
Liquid Glass: “Design is my passion”
Mac folder drag animations
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.
...more
1h 4min
June 12, 2025Someday You & I Will Be Dead
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 at justin.ramble.space.
Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
...more
1h
June 05, 2025Some Real Side-Eye
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
Buttondown
Beehiiv
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.
...more
57min
May 29, 2025Nerds Less Welcome
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.
...more
46min
May 22, 2025Sea Monkeys in a Pool
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 justin.ramble.space.
Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
...more
52min

FAQs about Abstractions:

How many episodes does Abstractions have?

The podcast currently has 19 episodes available.