NEW: Since October 2023, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit has released dozens of 3D animations illustrating alleged Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian sites
The style is now unmistakable: satellite zoom-ins, black & white wireframes, and red-textured houses - a new visual language of war
some interesting stuff happening lately with the truth machines
as.ft.com/r/40518eb1-4...
Almost exactly ten years ago @henrymance.ft.com had lunch with Nigel Farage www.ft.com/content/864c.... It remains legend. Quite a lot has happened over the subsequent decade so we sent him back in. as.ft.com/r/edeac2c6-0...
electricity maybe?
has there ever been a technology that's as widely-used/poorly-understood as the internet/web?
it's wild that the vast majority of people don't even have the most basic mental model of what happens when they visit a website in their browser or open an app on a phone (obv not saying it's their fault)
yeah, and not trying to be too gatekeeper-y. I think it's great people can vibe-code some software for themselves, but there are a lot of "unknown unknowns" when people vibe-code things that they don't understand under the hood and that can bubble up in a many ways
I'd say it's both. it's about the person's understanding of what it has produced vs. what it has actually produced not matching
accessibility is an example here, but not limited to that at all. can be auth/security issues, performance, etc
"looks good at a glance, actually riddled with little problems" is something that people can see really easily on an AI-generated blueprint, but refuse to believe that it does the same thing with software
it won't always matter, but I promise you don't want an internet full of websites like this
not trying to be annoying, but *every* website in 2026 should be intended for mobile use
it's how the vast majority of people access websites and not accommodating that is a significant design flaw. the concerns she's raising are relevant and the kind of mistakes these AI code tools make a lot
Tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has all but stopped since yesterday.
Read the @financialtimes.com Economics editor, Sam Fleming's analysis of what the impact the war in Iran will have on the global economy
www.ft.com/content/31bf...
here's a random account whose only bet is (incorrectly) buying 167k shares that the US would strike Iran two weeks ago at 1.2¢
that's the exact kind of thing that would look like an obvious signal in retrospect if they were right, but they weren't. how could you know the difference beforehand?
I don't think that's right. people start new accounts and place big bets all of the time. the things that makes the trades suspicious (the timing, the accuracy) are things that are only apparent in retrospect
ICYMI, FT Alphaville now has a Substack, which doesn’t cost a thing.
Yes, there are a LOT of newsletters these days. But if you appreciate stupidly detailed explorations of finance and economics, judicious shitposting and killer charts, then please sign up? ftav.substack.com
at some point in the next few years, I hope people eventually understand that the clunky code these LLMs write is:
- great for replacing common/low-complexity/low-risk programming tasks (a lot of those!)
- not so good for unusual/difficult/high-risk stuff (replacing legacy COBOL)
file this one away for a few months from now, lol
I've got the A1 too! but without the combo, so can't really do multi-color printing (which I think I need for lithophanes)
was looking at getting the AMS for it, but recently I've been considering just reselling my A1 and getting a P1S
then finally designed/printed this stand to allow the frame to sit upright and the power cord to run up the side frame to power the lights
printed these little corner spacers to keep the aluminum sheet in place on the back of the. they have "wings" on two sides that slide into the groove of the frame and a glued-in bolt that threads through the aluminum sheet. worked out in a pretty nifty way that didn't require gluing the spacers
I glued the models onto a picture frame and replaced the back with an aluminum sheet that I stuck these LED strips onto. after a bunch of soldering, I had the lights set up and wired to a little switch on the side of the frame
I 3D printed the models in a matte white PLA, which made the elevations show up in this pretty cool way when backlit
after that, I brought the files into Blender, where I added some labels, and a sea-level border on the models and then into BambuStudio to prep them for printing
first thing I did was grab topobathymetric tiles from the USGS, stitch them together, crop them to the state boundaries for Rhode Island, and then export an .stl file that I could edit for a print
wanted to share a little about a 3D printing/electronics project that I finished recently as a gift: this light-up relief map of Rhode Island and its Salt Ponds
I have some suspicions about why prediction markets are striking deals with newsrooms. www.theverge.com/business/881...
one of the world's largest smuggling networks has accidentally exposed itself because of a stupid e-mail configuration blunder, which has revealed around 50 apparently unconnected companies are all sharing back-office functions: www.ft.com/content/4310...
Mitigating factor: bro kind of sucked at insurrecting
in the context of whether "AI tools are replacing developers", we shouldn’t care that two CNBC reporters built some working version of an app that there are a thousand forkable versions of
there are some differences for sure. but at a basic level, there seem to be some misunderstandings over what the difficult parts of software development are and what we should be impressed by that are leading people to some wrong conclusions about what these AI tools can/are replacing
also to be clear, I am kind of subtweeting this anecdote
I don't care at all about monday.com, but it seems very silly that their stock would tank over this "vibe coding", but not tank when I clone any of the 1000+ public repos here: github.com/topics/kanba...
what's the difference, practically?
tbh, it's less a "credit" thing and more the inability to discern what is impressive/novel while writing about how impressive the tools are
it's like being impressed that the "auto-painting machine" can make you Bob Ross paintings. you could've painted those yourself already!
