Adding AI the right way
Three of my favorite tools, BBEdit, Drafts, and iTerm, have added support for ChatGPT-style AI interactions. They’ve each done it in ways that respect me and my wishes. Their AI add-ons are standalone features off to the side. If I want to use the features, they’re there. If I don’t want to, I don’t launch them. None of my existing workflows have changed one iota: the AI is an addition, not a change.
This is how all tools should add AI features. I enjoy experimenting with AI tools to check out the current state of things. I’m not allergic to them and I don’t try to avoid them. It’s more that I have no interest in building my daily processes to depend on having them.
In which I try frying turnips for the first time.
I seriously love Oakland. It’s my kinda grimy.
I set my pillows on the floor to make the bed. Keeva had burrowed in by the time I got back around to that side. I didn’t have the heart to move her. Within moments she was snoring away.
I am not exaggerating this:
I created a new hostname in DNS, then added it to my existing webserver config.
It was online for 3 seconds – 3! – before getting a 404 request for /.git/config.
If you’re relying on obscurity to protect your services, get that right out your fool head today. You have about 3 seconds to get your act together.
In the time it took me to type this, I got another 62 requests:
30 "/"
3 "/.git/config"
2 "/.vscode/sftp.json"
2 "/v2/_catalog"
2 "/telescope/requests"
2 "/server-status"
2 "/server"
2 "/s/431323e2230323e2134323e2239313/_/;/META-INF/maven/com.atlassian.jira/jira-webapp-dist/pom.properties"
2 "/?rest_route=/wp/v2/users/"
2 "/login.action"
2 "/.env"
2 "/ecp/Current/exporttool/microsoft.exchange.ediscovery.exporttool.application"
2 "/.DS_Store"
2 "/debug/default/view?panel=config"
2 "/config.json"
2 "/_all_dbs"
2 "/about"
Justice Department takes 'major step' toward rescheduling marijuana:
The Justice Department took a significant step toward rescheduling marijuana Thursday, formalizing its process to reclassify the drug as lower-risk and remove it from a category in which it has been treated as more dangerous than fentanyl and meth.[...]
“Look folks, no one should be in jail for merely using or possessing marijuana. Period,” Biden said in Thursday’s video, his third time speaking extensively on the topic since his directive two years ago.
At last. Let’s put an end to this nonsense.
I have an IKEA Dirigera hub connected to my HomeKit setup. I also have a bunch of Nanoleaf Matter A19 bulbs in my house. I bought a new $8 IKEA Vallhorn motion sensor, paired it with the Dirigera, then set up a HomeKit automation to control my living room lights. It worked right on the first try. Yay, compatibility!
Python 3.13 is removing more Amiga “dead batteries” modules, like chunk:
The chunk module provides support for reading and writing Electronic Arts’ Interchange File Format. IFF is an old audio file format originally introduced for Commodore and Amiga. The format is no longer relevant.
I’m sure that’s the right thing to do. It still saddens me.
We bought a flower kit from Costco. It had some potting soil, pre-planted seeds, and a pot — just add water. It looked fun and easy.
That thing delivered. Wow, it delivered. It’s thick with new growth and buds.
I lost my Diablo 4 level 71 hardcore rogue today. Although I was momentarily bummed, I feel good that I got my first ever hardcore D4 character that high.
And no, it wasn’t to a Butcher. I took 6 of them down before the end.
My buddy picked us all up to go rollin’.
How I’m working right now. I couldn’t move if I had to.
I’m dying to know the story here.
Apple: "What's a professional?"
Apple announced their new iPad Pro and I couldn’t care less. The hardware itself is brilliant, yet Apple insists on artificially limiting what you can do with it for reasons I don’t understand. A “pro” device would let me run Mac-style apps like Nova and a real local terminal. It would let me compile and run the software I write when Shortcuts scripting isn’t good enough. It would be more like a hyper-portable MacBook for doing things that don’t require a heavier and more powerful computer, and less like a giant iPhone that gives me free rein of a walled garden.
I bought a 2018 iPad Pro 13" when they were released and used it constantly. It was overpowered for the software available to run on it, to the point that my kid in college still uses it for classwork today. The hardware was never the limiting factor in what I could do with it. I finally replaced it last summer with a MacBook Air that’s worse for my wants and needs in every way but one: Apple’s OS for Macs lets me do the professional things that the as-powerful iPad can’t do. Apple ran an ad when that iPad Pro came out, asking “what’s a computer?” I wish Apple would ask themselves, “what’s a professional?”
My vision for the iPad doesn’t align with Apple’s. That’s OK. They know their target market. They’ll still sell a gazillion of these.
Just not to me.
You know how sometimes you come to decide that an entire niche market is so filled with awful and overpriced alternatives that you’d rather just write your own and give it away for free?
My toes are on the precipice.
Gigi turns 15 today. We’re celebrating with lots of cuddles and ancient dog appropriate treats.
Demand that car companies respect your privacy
How to escape Honda’s privacy hell:
With sensors, microphones, and cameras, cars collect way more data than needed to operate the vehicle. They also share and sell that information to third parties, something many Americans don’t realize they’re opting into when they buy these cars. Companies are quick to flaunt their privacy policies, but those amount to pages upon pages of legalese that leave even professionals stumped about what exactly car companies collect and where that information might go.
So what can they collect?
“Pretty much everything,” said Misha Rykov, a research associate at the Mozilla Foundation, who worked on the car-privacy report. “Sex-life data, biometric data, demographic, race, sexual orientation, gender — everything.”
That’s despicable. Shame on you, Honda. Mozilla’s privacy report says their competitors are all pretty bad, too.
If you live in a state with a privacy law, you can and should write to your car’s manufacturer and demand that they show you all the information they collect about you, that they delete it all, that they not share it with anyone else, and that they limit how they use your data only to provide the services you’ve requested from them. These are your legal rights and manufacturers are legally obligated to respect them, even if it’s inconvenient and expensive for them. In fact, I think it’s our duty as citizens to make it cost companies more to process millions of our opt-out requests than they make selling our personal information.
Previous lock picking sets having been sneaked out of my possession by various household children, I’ve now bought my own nice meant-to-be-permanent set that I’ll keep safely tucked away.
Very fancy electronic badges at BSidesSF this year.
