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More Avatar? Bring it on.
Listen, I know there's a loud group of people who think the Avatar movies are dumb spectacles, but I think they're genuinely great films that tell touching, human stories that just hit different than most other films you'll see. I can't wait to see this new one
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The Mac-ification of iPadOS
Harry McCracken writing for Fast Company: iPadOS 26 Is Way More Mac-Like. Where Does That Lead?
However, as someone who’s used an iPad as my main computer for almost 14 years, I can’t join the chorus of unbridled enthusiasm for iPadOS 26’s embrace of Mac conventions such as floating, overlapping windows
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Insanity is trying the same thing over again expecting a different result
Megan Brenan writing for Gallup: Independents Drive Trump's Approval to 37% Second-Term Low
Six months into his second term, President Donald Trump’s job approval rating has dipped to 37%, the lowest of this term and just slightly higher than his all-time worst rating of 34% at the end of his
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Switch 2 vs Steam Deck OLED
I thought this video from Digital Foundry was a really good comparison of the Nintendo Switch 2 and Valve Steam Deck OLED.
iOS and Android are heading in completely opposite design directions
I'll just say it: liquid glass is a quintessential example of form over function. There are some UI changes as well to the OS 26 platforms, but the core visual design is clearly optimized for "it looks cool most of the time" rather than how practical it is to use.
Meanwhile,
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📘 I recommend Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company
Finally, another book review!
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"Not everyone can become a great developer, but a great developer can come from anywhere"
As someone who works in a professional software development environment every day, and who has brought those practices into my
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Another Predator movie is coming this fall and I'm psyched
I just watched the excellent Predator: Killer of Killers over the weekend and said "Dan Tractenberg is low key one of the best directors working today." Little did I know, Dan had another Predator film in the works for this year. This appears to be more of a direct sequel to the also-
Mario Kart 64 has been ported to PC and Linux (and Mac eventually)
The great minds behind the Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Star Fox 64 are back at it with a native port of Mario Kart 64. I love these projects, and really adore being able to play games from my youth on modern hardware and at insane resolutions and frame rates.
The original
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Another good study with questionable reporting on LLMs
Siôn Geschwindt writing for The Next Web: ChatGPT advises women to ask for lower salaries, study finds
They prompted each model with user profiles that differed only by gender but included the same education, experience, and job role. Then they asked the models to suggest a target salary for an upcoming negotiation.
In one example,
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Vibe coding away the production database like it’s…2017?
This is a wild story about a junior developer who destroyed his company’s production database with vibe coding:
Then from my understanding that the tests add fake data, and clear existing data between test runs which basically cleared all the data from the production database. Honestly i had no idea what i did and
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I may have gotten this one wrong
Parker Molloy writing for The New Republic: Stephen Colbert’s Cancellation Is Exactly What It Looks Like
This is the same CBS News that has already seen a wave of resignations over editorial independence. 60 Minutes showrunner Bill Owens quit earlier this year, saying he no longer had the ability “to make independent decisions based
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+ Inside the world of vibe coders turning on the tools they rely on
Costs are getting out of hand, a few companies are tightening their limits, and users are not happy.
Mastodon housekeeping
Since the start of 2023, I've been using my own Mastodon server, isfeeling.social, but today I've migrated my account back to the "default" mastodon.social server (where I'm @matt_birchler. A reasonable question is "why" and "why now"? In short, I don&
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Apple leaker gets sued
Joe Rossignol for MacRumors: Apple Sues Jon Prosser Over iOS 26 Leaks
Apple's complaint outlines what it claims is the series of events that led to the leaks, which centered around a development iPhone in the possession of Ramacciotti's friend and Apple employee Ethan Lipnik. According to Apple, Prosser and Ramacciotti
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A new video game website rises
This Week in Videogames is a new video game publication spearheaded by YouTube's Ralph Panebianco (aka SkillUp). From their about us page:
We believe in a no-nonsense approach to videogame coverage that respects your time and intelligence. News and announcements should be curated and concise. Reviews and long-form writing should be
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CBS gives Colbert the boot
Brian Steinberg: CBS to Cancel ‘Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ Citing ‘Financial Decision’
“We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire ‘The Late Show’ franchise” in May of 2026, CBS executives said in a statement. “We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats
