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 5 episodes available.

Abstractions episodes:

April 17, 2025May or May Not Be Charlatans
The Bartender Mac app changes ownership in an abrupt and unnerving manner, and renting software continues to feel very different from buying software.
Bartender app’s new owner burnt years of goodwill due to lack of transparency
Original Bartender developer responds to furor
Open-source Mac menu bar organizer (Bartender alternative)
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.
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49min
April 10, 2025Falling in Love with SALAMI
Large language models (LLMs) and other generative “A.I.” software are based on text, images, and videos created by humans. Should they be? And what impact does this have on artists and creators?
Systematic Approaches to Learning Algorithms and Machine Inferences (SALAMI)
Stop Calling Everything A.I.
The Chinese room argument by John Searle
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 3min
April 03, 2025Really Gross Euphemism
Mozilla adds ad tracking to its Firefox web browser, while the Kagi search engine eschews ads in favor of a paid search business model.
Mozilla announces Firefox ad tracking on their blog
Mozilla knowledge base entry on “Privacy-Preserving Attribution”
Browser market share over last decade
Kagi search engine
Why pay for search?
Kagi Lenses
Kagi personalized results
Kagi URL re-direction feature
Other Kagi features
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
38min
March 27, 2025 Perfectly Cromulent Hardware
Justin has a new toy, everything runs software now, and the Overcast podcast app has been significantly re-written.
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 25min
March 20, 2025The Rubber Never Hits the Road
We start with an introduction to Abstractions and a little bit about its hosts before diving into today’s topics: Google killing its URL obfuscator and automatic passkey upgrades.
Google kills its goo.gl URL obfuscator
Killed by Google, AKA the Google Graveyard
Apple WWDC video on automatic passkey upgrades
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 10min

FAQs about Abstractions:

How many episodes does Abstractions have?

The podcast currently has 5 episodes available.