Substrate

The author reflects on the phrase "Thought for 2,682,000,000s" and notes it would make a fitting epitaph on their tombstone. They used AI imagery for this note, which they rarely do, because the opportunity was too good to pass up.

The note argues that the term "AI slop" is imprecise and unproductive, as it conflates distinct phenomena and shifts blame onto technology rather than the societal structures that enable low-quality content. It agrees with Manoel Horta Ribeiro that critiques should be more specific, noting that many pre-AI content forms already exhibited similar traits like superficial competence and mass producibility.

co/core is a cooperative where people share their own compute power to run AI for each other, instead of renting from large providers. The key innovation is an open standard for making inference requests and recording job results, allowing anyone to build their own exchange on top of it. This idea mirrors an earlier attempt to create a shared resource platform through WebRTC.

The note highlights Ryan Mather's advice on identifying and living by personal values, starting with understanding them as core principles even when unseen. It emphasizes setting small monthly goals aligned with those values and measuring daily progress, noting that values are what ultimately matter given life's inevitable end.

Bo Burnham discusses how corporations colonize our minds by capitalizing on every free second through social media and technology. The note reflects on the intense and insightful nature of his commentary on self-esteem and the effects of phones on kids and society.

Headphones like AirPods create a personal "bubble" that can be comforting but also isolating, reducing spontaneous social interactions and increasing loneliness. Research indicates heavy headphone use makes people feel lonelier and less likely to engage in meaningful conversations, while also causing listeners to perceive audio content as more intimate and persuasive.

Google introduced v0.1 of the Open Knowledge Format (OKF), a standard that represents knowledge as a directory of markdown files with YAML frontmatter and a minimal set of conventions for interoperability. OKF is minimally opinionated, separates knowledge producers from consumers, and is not tied to any platform or proprietary system. The author found it a natural fit for their Substrate tool and implemented support immediately.

Apple's Vehicle Motion Cues, introduced in 2024, use the device's accelerometer and gyroscope to display moving dots on the screen that correspond to the vehicle's motion, reducing or eliminating motion sickness. The feature is designed to resolve the sensory conflict between a static display and the inner ear's detection of movement.

Cory Doctorow argues that Elon Musk's wealth has grown despite his failures since 2020, driven by memes and vibes rather than productivity. The true "dead economy" risk is that capital shifts from productive activities into memestocks, vibes, and bubbles, exemplified by defunding cancer research to build data centers for Musk's benefit. This misallocation threatens to create an economy that harms everyone.

The note discusses apocryphal biblical stories, such as Jesus making sparrows come to life and St. Paul baptizing a lion. The author rejects the "deleted scenes" analogy, instead comparing them to the conflicting narratives in Rashomon. The apocrypha originated from Jerome's fourth-century Latin Bible translation, where he labeled extra Greek books as unverified.

Tom Watson presented at TechNExt using MarkDeck 3D for the first time since leaving Mozilla. The presentation covered TechFreedom and marked the debut of the 3D web presentation tool at the event.

folk.zone is a collection of free, open-source internet services run by one person on four machines, inspired by omg.lol and rooted in the IndieWeb. The author applauds the initiative but notes concerns about governance and burnout, though they acknowledge that initial individual effort can lead to a self-sustaining community.

This note argues that extreme wealth, exemplified by trillionaires, represents a systemic failure rather than success, and that the rich are oppressors, not role models. It quotes the article to highlight how capitalism rewards ownership over social contribution, creating dangerous illusions that lead workers to identify with billionaires instead of their own class interests.

The note announces that the author, now in a good workflow on Substrate, will begin sharing some or all posts to their LinkedIn, Mastodon, and Bluesky accounts. It includes a Peanuts cartoon with the quote, "the price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it."