J.E. Tobal

I'm sorry. As a technology writer, I'm supposed to be telling you that this bet will some day pay off, because one day we will have shoveled so many words into the word-guessing program that it wakes up and learns how to actually do the jobs it is failing spectacularly at today. This is a proposition akin to the idea that if we keep breeding horses to run faster and faster, one of them will give birth to a locomotive. Humans possess intelligence, and machines do not. The difference between a human and a word-guessing program isn't how many words the human knows. I'm sorry. I know that when we talk about "digital sovereignty," we're obliged to talk about how we can build more data-centres that we can fill up with money-losing chips from American silicon monopolists in the hopes of destroying as many jobs as possible while blowing through our clean energy goals and enshittifying as much of our potable water as possible.

Córy Doctorow with another verbal bullseye: pluralistic.net/2026/01/13/n...

Beastie Boys - License to Ill

Boomers: No one wants to work anymore.

Also boomers: I will use a piece of software that is wrong with every other sentence it creates to do my job rather than do my own work.

Also also boomers: I will pay triple for this software than I would pay an actual person.

I like that the guy who said "trade wars are easy to win" has never won a trade war.

New restaurant idea: A Greek restaurant with live acoustic music. Call it Guitar Gyro.

Nice reference to classic sci-fi, Alex. Solid work here.

"He's very patient with you. You must really know how to pull his strings."

*rim shot*

I've been driving over the Triborough for years to go visit my daughter who's been in school in NJ. This is how I know traffic on the bridge is worse.

So, just FYI, you don't have to be a condescending prick to strangers on the Internet. It's not a prerequisite.

Traffic outside the zone being "not worse" is a cartoonish lie. It takes 30 min to go over the Triborough.

These people shouldn't be allowed to use indoor toilets.

*chef's kiss*

Let's even set aside the fact that these Snyder dudes have never read a comic and this Krypto is comic accurate, but why on Earth would Superman have a 'roided out Pitbull? Do they think Superman moonlights as an ICE agent?

without downloading any new pictures, what is your mental state?

Touchdown Pope!

"Da new Pope is the now officially da greatest man to ever come out of Chicago....second only to, of course, da great Mike Ditka."

SNL, you've got an easy layup this weekend. Don't blow it.

I mean this exists with novels in spades. When my novel came out, I got solicited by so many paid review services and I'd check their reviews and nothing was below a 3/5. I always passed on them.

Hey @zoethorogood.bsky.social you've got two books on this list, just FYI

I'm thinking his vision of teaching civic values in schools looks very similar to a Hitler Youth organization.

See? You get it

Danny DeVito in a full scale action role; but more like Die Hard where he just has a lot of guns and gets the shit kicked out of him, not like something where he needs to be athletic.

I also think there's a really good, super heinous villain role for Dan Levy out there somewhere.

Did they learn nothing from what happened with Ruth Bader Ginsburg? If you don't pass on the torch, you risk destroying everything you spent your life working for. The arrogance of "no one can do this job but me" when they're in their 80s is batshit.

I dream of the day when the court cases are finally over and LLMs are sued into oblivion.

I mean, obviously. Just like how everyone knows that California barbecue is way better than anything from the South or Midwest.

Clem Fandango remains one of the best fictional names ever conceived of.

I'd like to go on the record and say that "the algorithm" in all its forms (social media, music apps, television, etc) is the single worst technological development of the last 40 years. The amount of destruction that it's caused is going to take decades for civilization to understand and undo.

I've been arguing exactly this for years. I think there's a great episodic, Firefly-esque series to be made about a crew just pulling odd jobs in the outer planets for money.

Lucas built a big sandbox. Disney's gotta leave the Skywalker corner alone and go play in the rest of it.

I am far from perfect, but I'm happy to say I've never used Spotify and just so buy albums like I did for the first 20+ years of my life.

Jim Henson died at 53 from bacterial pneumonia. He was perfectly healthy before he wasn't.