Abstractions

Abstractions

By Justin Mayer & Dan JacobsonNewsTechnologyTech News
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Abstractions episodes

  • Into the Disintegration Chambers

    Whispering is an open-source dictation/transcription desktop app, Neo puts the “human” in humanoid robots, and OpenAI stuffs ChatGPT into a web browser.

    🔗 Links

    • Dictation / transcription desktop apps
      • Whispering
      • Epicenter
      • MacWhisper
      • Atlas LLM-powered web browser
        • ChatGPT’S Atlas: The Browser That’s Anti-Web
        • AI Browsers: Living on the Frontier of Security

          • 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.

          40 min
        • Following Our Own Path

          Whether it’s Mac vs. Windows, Git vs. Mercurial, Fish shell vs. Bash/Zsh, or QWERTY vs. alternative keyboard layouts, one must decide when to move with the herd and when to follow your own path.

          • Space Elevator
          • Fish shell

            • 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.

            33 min
          • Generative Software Serfdom

            Apple announces the M5 processor and new MacBook Pro and iPad Pro models, Nabu Casa retires its Home Assistant Yellow appliance, and OpenAI announces the GPT Store.

            • Dog spinner
            • EFF Opt-Out October
            • Facebook Tells Workers Building Metaverse to Use AI to “Go 5x Faster” (archive)
            • Apple announces its M5 processor
            • Ending production of Home Assistant Yellow
              • Home Assistant Green
              • Alternative ways to run Home Assistant
              • Geekom line of mini PCs
              • OpenAI announces GPT store

                • 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.

                37 min
              • Pleasantly Whimsical

                Discord was hacked and user government photo IDs were stolen, Synology walks back drive restrictions in their NAS enclosures, Dan shares his initial impressions of iOS & MacOS 26, and concerns grow about a possible investment bubble in generative AI software companies.

                • Discord users suffer first high-profile age-verification hack
                • Synology reverses policy banning third-party HDDs after NAS sales plummet
                  • Synology drive compatibility policy
                  • Benjamin Button Reviews MacOS
                  • AI bubble is 17 times the size of the dot-com frenzy and four times bigger than 2008 subprime real estate crisis
                  • OpenAI, Nvidia fuel $1T AI market with web of circular deals
                  • Circular AI Deals Among OpenAI, Nvidia, AMD Are Raising Eyebrows

                    • 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.

                    49 min
                  • Faraday Cage Log Cabin

                    Archive.org archives its trillionth web page, LLMs power more fast-food drive-thru windows, Spotify responds to generated music slop complaints, and Samsung captures more of the market for both high-fidelity stereo equipment and advertising-powered refrigerators.

                    • Archive.org: Celebrating 1 Trillion Web Pages Archived
                    • Taco Bell’s Attempt to Replace Drive-Thru Employees With AI Is Not Going Well
                    • Spotify’s Attempt to Fight AI Slop Falls on Its Face
                    • LinkedIn: Disable generative “AI” training on your personal data and content you create
                    • Samsung now owns Denon, Marantz, Polk, Harman Kardon, Bang & Olufsen, Bowers & Wilkins, JBL, and more audio brands
                    • Samsung confirms its $1,800+ fridges will start showing you ads

                      • 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.

                      43 min
                    • Our Shared Fantasy

                      Raspberry Pi releases a new all-in-one keyboard PC, and Apple announces iPhone 17 models, new watches, and the AirPods Pro 3.

                      • Raspberry Pi 500+ all-in-one keyboard PC
                      • Apple announcements: “Design is how it works” opening quote

                        • 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.

                        42 min
                      • Nerd Harder

                        AOL discontinues dial-up service, governments pursue age verification laws, and Spotify publishes new music from dead artists.

                        • Email is easy
                        • Oh YAML
                        • Updated article about llama-server
                        • GPT-OSS via Llama.cpp
                        • UK Online Safety Act
                        • “Privacy preserving age verification” is BS
                        • Spotify Is Forcing Users to Undergo Face Scanning to Access Explicit Content
                        • Spotify Publishes AI-Generated Songs From Dead Artists Without Permission
                        • Spotify Downloader
                        • Spotify-DL

                          • 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.

                          45 min
                        • Neckbeards of Yesteryear

                          Pelican’s 15-year anniversary, trash vs. rm -rf terminal commands, and alternatives to a less-independent GitHub.

                          • Historical Tech Tree
                          • MacBook Pro Insomnia
                          • Sleep Aid
                          • DrawAFish.com Postmortem
                          • Pelican 1.1 release on 8/19/2010
                          • Justin’s post on trash vs. rm -rf
                          • Cross-platform trash command (Python)
                          • trash command for MacOS
                          • Give Up GitHub
                          • Forgejo
                          • Codeberg
                          • ForgeFed
                          • Radicle

                            • 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.

                            51 min
                          • Distrust and Verify

                            Substack sent a push alert promoting racist content, and ChatGPT confabulated a SoundSlice feature that developers subsequently decided to implement.

                            • Using Fortune to Reinforce Habits
                            • Substack sent a push alert promoting a Nazi blog
                            • Leave Substack
                            • ChatGPT Hallucinated a SoundSlice Feature, Forcing Human Developers to Add It
                              • Original article link (login required)

                                • 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.

                                37 min
                              • You Just Have to Eat It

                                Goo.gl link obfuscator shutdown, digital sovereignty & self-hosting, and computers that sleepwalk instead of sleeping.

                                • Draw a fish
                                • Five Songs Daily
                                • Hostile Government Takeover (EDM remix)
                                  • Official release
                                  • Same version on YouTube
                                  • Original version on YouTube
                                  • Do not download the app — use the web site
                                  • Goo.gl link obfuscator shutdown
                                  • The future is not self-hosted
                                  • The future is not self-hosted, but self-sovereign
                                  • Mac sleep degradation

                                    • 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.

                                    41 min

                                  About Abstractions

                                  From the publisher's feed

                                  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.