Jonathan Anderson

That game in all the Duolingo ads where a hole in the ground eats things, gets bigger, eats bigger things, etc.

my most pessimistic take on ai codegen is that it automates the production of tech debt

Funding boost for Ontario postsecondary schools should provide stability, minister says Associations representing universities, colleges estimate they’ve lost more than $3-billion in revenue since international study permits were cut

Ontario’s investing in its future… a good example for other provinces (ahem)!

What a thing of beauty
github.com/dspinellis/u...

😳

Is This Crypto’s Fimbulwinter? Political power may not be enough to save the crypto cult

From @pkrugman.bsky.social:

“Analyzing crypto prices isn’t like, say, analyzing housing prices in the Naughties, where you could compare prices with fundamentals — because with crypto there are no fundamentals, it’s vibes all the way down.”

open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

Groundhog Day 2026: Canadian groundhogs predict an early spring | Globalnews.ca It's Groundhog Day across Canada. Will it be an early spring or six more weeks of winter?

Early Spring? Only six more weeks of winter!

globalnews.ca/news/1164817...

I am clearly going to the wrong conferences… cruisecon.com

Building secure messaging is hard: A nuanced take on the Bitchat security debate The release of Bitchat last week was met with a mixture of glowing praise and sharp criticism. Both extremes bear some truth, but they also miss the mark and reveal gaps in how we discuss security in ...

Yes, though it’s not exactly new: blog.trailofbits.com/2025/07/18/b...

You can test new tech ideas using the Seinfeld Test

Would the product eliminate the plot of an episode? (Google maps, cell phones, paypal, battery packs)

Good tech.

Would the product inspire new Seinfeld plots? (NFTs, AI chatbots, crypto currency, blindboxes, metaverse land sales)

Bad tech.

Second prong of the Seinfeld Test: tech invented after Seinfeld finished its run is probably bad.

"Would Kramer be convinced he should get in on it"

Now ask whose cuts kicked off the whole crazy cycle… 🤔

Finally checked out @ltratt.bsky.social's pizauth for OAuth2 authentication with background mbsync and msmtp... where has this tool been all my life?

(answer: doing its thing quietly and without making a big splash)

A dialog box that says an app called JSON Viewer can't open JSON files

Great work, everyone.

A little icon of a road work warning sign with the text, “This page is under construction”

Hey kids: there was a time when the whole Web looked like this (but with a grey background instead of white). It was glorious.

“OK, grandpa”, etc.

www.sce.carleton.ca/netmanage/to...

This is too funny: every time I try to renew, ieee.org seems to work but then it stops immediately when I validate my card details. It can't actually be me breaking ieee.org, right? Right?

downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ieee.org

Sorry guys

downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ieee.org

Exploits of a Mom

Also, xkcd.com/327/

Sorry guys, looks like I broke the IEEE.

Tried to renew my IEEE membership, and it didn't like the characters in my city (St. John's, NL). Now when I visit ieee.org:

"The requested URL was rejected. Please consult with your administrator."

And, of course:

"Instead of regarding the obligation to use formal symbols as a burden, we should regard the convenience of using them as a privilege" (Dijkstra)

"If every user of an application needs to write the same code, your API is wrong. If you abstract away the boilerplate and reuse that abstraction, you’ve made the world better. If you create a tool that generates the boilerplate, you’ve made the world more fragile." (Chisnall)

Elegant thoughts about "programming" in natural language and why formal representations (like programming languages) aren't going anywhere:

"Formal languages empower us with precision, gifting us a more perfect command over our subjects." (Alejandre)

alexalejandre.com/languages/en...

Are you someone who cares about privacy in Newfoundland and Labrador? We'd love to see your proposal for a presentation, panel or workshop at APSIM 2026!

Also, save the date for November 26–27...

It’s hard to justify Tahoe icons Looking at the first principles of icon design—and how Apple failed to apply all of them in macOS Tahoe

New blog post! A close look at Tahoe menu icons https://tonsky.me/blog/tahoe-icons/

An extension cord with the female end chopped off, leaving bare leads exposed

Shoveling accident…

These should not be made, they must not be made, etc.

YouTube video by Thermosion Cows With Guns - The Original Animation

High-steaks puns

youtu.be/FQMbXvn2RNI?...

Remember 9/11 when cnn.com disabled the fancy stuff so people could get the news with less than 1 kB of HTML and, like, 2–3 kB low-res images?

This is like the entire justice system failed a phishing test.