Living out my fantasy of sliding on sand dunes and becoming a beachcomber. Where last we left our intrepid hero, he (I) had enjoyed a series of fabulous camping stays in the Cascades and high desert of Central Oregon, surrounded by Ponderosa pines, Juniper trees, rock formations, and a “grand canyon” carved by the Deschutes and Crooked rivers. Now that I had arrived back in the more familiar territory of the Willamette Valley, my adventures just kept on…adventuring. The time: early Apri...| Jared White
“They’re deploying troops into American cities like it’s a war zone. Peaceful protest is being wrongly criminalized,” said Naveed Shah, US Army veteran and Political Director, Common Defense. “They’re smearing veterans, teachers, and everyday Americans who dare to speak out—just so they can justify a ‘crackdown.’ As veterans who have deployed across the world, we’ve seen this playbook before. Authoritarians don’t want debate; they want obedience and nothing more from us....| Jared White
We believe that these kinds of user-generated, curated collections [starter packs] could help people to find their tribe more quickly when they join the Fediverse. At the same time, envisioning a similar feature that prioritises user consent, and works across a constellation of independent servers, is no small feat. It’s cool that Mastodon is intentionally working on technical design concepts for “starter packs” and seeking user feedback. I have a very specific opinion about this, so I ...| Jared White
The drama never ends, but I am here to take a stand and do something about it. Two disclaimers before I continue: (a) I normally post on programming-related topics elsewhere and not on my personal blog, but because this is such a personal issue for me and not about the technical aspects, I’ve decided to post here. (b) I am the lead maintainer of the Bridgetown Ruby web framework, but any views expressed here are my own and I don’t claim to represent Bridgetown as a whole in writing this. ...| Jared White
“SAG-AFTRA condemns the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! Our society depends on freedom of expression. Suppression of free speech and retaliation for speaking out on significant issues of public concern run counter to the fundamental rights we all rely on. Democracy thrives when diverse points of view are expressed. The decision to suspend airing Jimmy Kimmel Live! is the type of suppression and retaliation that endangers everyone’s freedoms. SAG-AFTRA stands with all media artists and de...| Jared White
After she made a grand entrance by emerging from a manhole in the stage, the princess of lyrical sexual innuendos sang and danced onstage alongside a cast of backup dancers that seemingly included drag performers, mirroring the song’s music video that featured Colman Domingo in drag. Before heading into a second round of the chorus, the performers pulled out picket signs with messages such as “protect trans rights,” “Dolls dolls dolls,” “In trans we trust” and “If you hate you...| Jared White
Flanked by Silicon Valley’s most powerful executives in the White House last week, Melania Trump hailed artificial intelligence as potentially “the greatest engine of progress in the history of the United States of America.” Less than a mile from the first lady, in a hotel ballroom packed with MAGA faithful, top Republican Josh Hawley had a different message. AI “threatens the common man’s liberty” and could even undermine the Republic itself, the senior US senator from Missouri s...| Jared White
Most disappointing film of the year for me so far; Splitsville is a project which looks absolutely incredible on paper. The “bones” of the story are certainly compelling. And what’s not to love about seeing Dakota Johnson AND Adria Arjona on screen at the same time?! In a madcap screwball comedy about the confusing complexities of modern love, hard breakups, and “open relationships” no less! Unfortunately, while the execution of the filmmaking is generally quite good (direction, act...| Jared White
Emmy-winning creator Noah Hawley carved out a bold new nightmare that exists in parallel rather than a continuation of the film franchise. For production designer Andy Nicholson, it meant diving headfirst into the archives to craft fresh, striking motifs that didn’t just nod to the past but expanded the iconic universe. The goal? To make it feel unmistakably Alien with a few surprises lurking in the shadows – all this while shooting in Thailand. I almost didn’t bother with this show. I...| Jared White
The Apple TV+ version of Foundation, Season 3, has finally revealed the Mule, as played by Pilou Asbæk. “He’s probably one of the best-written villains if you ask me,” Asbæk tells Inverse. “He’s right up there next to Voldemort.” But, with Season 3, specifically, Episode 7, Foundation is twisting the Asimovian origin of the Mule. Or is it? I never read the Foundation books by Issac Asimov, but ahead of season 3 of the Apple TV+ show I’d been hearing all the chatter about bring...| Jared White
Post Reunion of Ultimatum Queer Love with Tiff Der (YouTube) “I never had my side of the story during the reunion. After consistent allegations post reunion, I am now here to stand up for myself and plenty of other survivors.“ This might just be one of the least relevant links I’ve ever posted…that is, least relevant to subjects I normally talk about. Reality TV dating shows? On-camera relationship drama? 😂 And yet…I got completely sucked into a show on Netflix called The Ultimat...| Jared White
Recently on LinkedIn (🙄), an AI-pilled tech bro accused me of being a hypocrite because the decades I’ve worked as a web developer had been, supposedly, hurting the environment and taking jobs away from other industries. So I took a look at all the clients I’ve had over the last ~15 years. And here’s my estimation: Some projects were what you might call “brochureware”. Websites with public information about the company or non-profit and ways to contact them. Perhaps I took jobs a...| Jared White
“There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into [Signal groups], and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there? “Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and ...| Jared White
We should have placed more trust in our ancestors for whom history was unkind…until now, when perhaps it’s time for a second look. We should have trusted those who feared the advent of what became “conventional” produce & factory farming techniques. The path back to organic produce and sustainable agriculture was long and difficult, and in fact remains a constant challenge. We should have trusted those who were apprehensive of automobile manufacturers causing mayhem in our streets—k...| Jared White
GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke: The evidence is clear: Either you embrace AI, or get out of this career. AI is on track to write 90% of code within the next 2–5 years. [Programming] students must now learn to guide AI, critique its work, and think across disciplines. Assessments should measure collaboration with AI, not isolation from it. That’s it. I won’t be starting any new software projects on GitHub going forward. I’m done with the platform and to the extent that I am able, I am leavin...| Jared White
(Starz, 2022) As the enigmatic British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell faces trial for her role in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, this new documentary special will ask who and what she really is. Like so many ordinary blokes I suppose, I had no clear idea of who Ghislaine Maxwell is other than the bits and pieces of news reports I’d seen over the years. She was mixed up with Jeffrey Epstein and was found to have engaged in sex trafficking. That was the extent of my knowledge, and I didn’t feel ...| Jared White
At Vattenfall we collaborate with others to accelerate our work towards a future without fossil fuels. And now we’ve teamed up with iconic actor and social justice advocate Samuel L. Jackson, who isn’t afraid to tell it like it is. I clicked away the first time I came across this video; thought it was some deepfake. Turns out, that’s really Samuel L. Jackson and he’s really talking about putting up wind farms in Europe like a mofo. 😎 I love it! And green energy (seaweed notwithstan...| Jared White
I posted the following on LinkedIn, so you don’t have to. 😂 Every AI booster on this website is working themselves out of their own livelihood. Think about it. If what they are saying is true, that #generativeAI capabilities are accelerating exponentially and we’re going to reach AGI and even “superintelligence” within our immediate lifetimes, then there’s no future role for them. We’ll have AI CEOs. AI CTOs. AI VPs. AI PMs. AI researchers, designers, developers, marketers, sal...| Jared White
Portlandia not only struck comedy gold, but also quickly established itself as one of the best sketch comedies in recent years. The show holds an impressive 81% audience score and 94% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Verne Gay wrote for Newsday that the series [leads] “Brownstein and Armisen move so effortlessly between characters, then execute their riffs, tics, styles and voices with such skilled abandon that before long this doesn’t seem like satire any longer but a fun house mirror ...| Jared White
I just did something I haven’t done in a very long time: I started a new app repo, set up a database, wrote a feature, and it works. 🤯 (And of course I’m using my Bridgetown framework to write it in—that is, the 2.0 version currently in beta which has new functionality for app devs). The reason I was able to get to an MVP state (for me at least) in only a few hours is because I’ve spent literally months thinking about what I wanted to write, how I wanted to write it, and I had done...| Jared White
This is a video about YouTube thumbnails, and why they all look so dang similar these days. It’s easy to want to blame Mr. Beast, but is it really his fault? Or is he just a victim of a relentless algorithm that will do anything it can to suck as much of our precious watchtime out of us as humanly possible, ultimately forcing creators to game the system as best as they can in order to stay on top… wait a minute… no it’s definitely his fault. I’m a massive fan of Ryan George (and so ...| Jared White
Literally read this quote on some goofbrained dude’s LinkedIn post about his high-flying CTO buddy’s claim that: “Anyone can move from Bootstrap to React now” and that “Technical debt cleanup is going to India for pennies on the dollar” thanks to #GenerativeAI and I truly believe the industry I have worked in for the last 30 years has become fucking untethered from any semblance of sanity and reality. And as a commenter put it, wow this sure is insulting against Indian developers!...| Jared White
Brian Merchant: “My general sense here is that ‘let’s use AI for stuff!’ is something bosses love saying but then the rank and file workers can’t actually figure out good uses for,” one journalist who works for an Axel Springer outlet told me at the time of the Business Insider layoffs. “Which I suspect is happening in lots of industries. Bosses panicking that if they don’t lean into AI they’ll be left behind, but AI not actually being particular useful for workers.” As I ...| Jared White
I didn’t notice when this happened recently, but continuing the trend of my #Fediverse powered social profiles being more successful than I ever was in corporate silos, my Pixelfed account now has more followers than I ever had back in the day on Instagram. 🙌 Not only that, because of the blessings of federation, I can boost posts I publish on Pixelfed through my Mastodon profile(s), thus increasing reach even more. That’s as if back in ye olde days I could have “retweeted” my Inst...| Jared White
This is who Superman was always meant to be. He’s supposed to be one of us…like a guy that’s one of us but he actually has power and he actually cares for other people. He’s not there for power for power’s sake because he doesn’t need it. (YouTube) Confession time: I haven’t though much of any of the Superman #movies made in the last 20 years. (And I actually never saw the originals with Christopher Reeve.) Honestly, the character has never made a whole lot of sense to me. Maybe...| Jared White
At long last, my years-long dream of exploring and sleeping in the wilderness comes to pass. At this point in my nomadic journey, I’d spent a whole month (March 2025) on the road…yet I felt like I didn’t have much to show for it in terms of the kinds of experiences (and let’s face it, photographs!) you can only get when you truly live as a cross-country nomad. For the most part I’d stayed near major urban centers in Oregon & Washington, and while I’d enjoyed a fair degree of natur...| Jared White
I meant to comment on this on or right after July 1st and then got side-tracked. So here we go: January-June 2025 was the best half-year of my entire life. 🙌 It’s possible if I think really really hard, and comb through lots of diary entries, and try to piece together various timelines in my mind, I might come up with an even better half-year I could point to. But it’d be a challenge. Certainly I can say with full confidence this has been the best half-year since before Covid times. No...| Jared White
Welp, I dood it. It’s possible Developer Beta 3 will end up as a Public Beta shortly, but I just couldn’t wait. Despite previously saying I’d hold out until the Public Beta cycle to upgrade my #iPhonePro, I decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it. Look, I find the iOS 17 UI to be supremely boring at this point (and I never went for v18 because it sucked). #Apple may still have a laundry list of tweaks to do before they get Liquid Glass dialed in just right…but I’m so ther...| Jared White
I suppose it’s fitting that the first day since last year (in early December!) I truly skipped a day in my daily-blogging challenge is July 4th, also known here in the U.S. as Independence Day. 🇺🇸 🎆 I hereby declare my independence from #writing every day! 😆 OK, this wasn’t entirely an accident. I recently talked about how much I’d been enjoying this challenge over all yet I wish I’d given myself an “out” from having to do it without fail, without any breaks, every sin...| Jared White
Torture, Abuse, and Cruelty. Katie Phang on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s new lawsuit that documents the disgusting treatment he experienced at CECOT and how the Trump Administration continues to violate his due process rights. (YouTube) I know there’s so much to be horrified by in U.S. #politics right now, but a story I’ve been following very closely for some while now has been the plight of Kilmar Abrego Garcia; husband, father, union worker, and perhaps most importantly, a man with no crimi...| Jared White
I’ve decided as soon as the first Public Beta of iOS 26 is released, I will be installing it on my #iPhonePro. I’ve been running the Developer Betas on my iPad Pro since right after WWDC, and despite all the usual visual glitchiness and springboard crashes you get with early betas, it’s been absolutely worth it. iPadOS feels like a productivity workhorse in a way it never has before—especially when plugged into an external monitor—and I’ve really been enjoying Liquid Glass. 🤩 i...| Jared White
Your favorite podcasts are better in a Podcasting 2.0 app, letting you show your support, see dynamic content, engage in the community, and more! For quite some time, it felt like the things a “podcast” can do (that is, a real one, as in distributed via RSS) hadn’t really changed in a long time. The medium was good, but it was…stagnant. That seems to be changing! I’m just starting to wrap my head around some of the aspects of the Podcasting 2.0 initiative, but there’s lots of exci...| Jared White
I’m in the process of really shaking up the JCU (Jared Content Universe) this summer, and one aspect of that which has become clear to me is I need to find a new podcast hosting platform. Historically, my Fresh Fusion podcast has been a hodgepodge of techniques: the MP3 files themselves are hosted on Amazon S3 (ugh, not a service I want to support anymore), the RSS feed and pages are hosted here on my static site, and I use a proxy in front of the S3 URLs in the form of Blubrry for analytic...| Jared White
For the first time ever, Seattle has officially surpassed the 800,000 population mark. The state Office of Financial Management (OFM) pegged Seattle at 816,600 residents in April 1, 2025 population estimates released Friday. This year marks the fifth straight that Seattle’s growth rate has exceeded 2%, making Seattle one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. As of April 2024, OFM estimated Seattle’s population was 797,700. The new estimates would indicate that Seattle added 18,900...| Jared White
I really wanted to make sure I got a chance to see Ballerina before it left the theaters, and I’m glad I did. I’d heard a bit of mixed early reactions to the film, so I wasn’t sure going into it if I’d really enjoy it or if I’d be disappointed. In particular, some folks thought the first act of the film was slow and there was way too much setup. I have no idea what they’re talking about! I’m always a sucker for a good training montage, and this was one hell of a training montage...| Jared White
Revolution was one of those #TVShows which came along in that awkward phase post-LOST when every traditional network wanted to come out with their own high-concept binge-watch drama destined for streaming. Unfortunately we weren’t yet in the thick of the streaming wars, and it didn’t fare well in “primetime” and was canceled after two seasons. I can’t help but wonder how a Revolution might have fared if it’d been a fully-funded Apple TV+ or HBO Max production.| Jared White
I linked to this article from 2019 not because there’s anything particularly noteworthy about it but because it represents a certain viewpoint in vogue only a few short years ago. I can’t believe how often I heard this same refrain repeated over and over and over again, this idea that Millennials valued authenticity above all else (and Gen Z just as much if not more so). The absolute worst thing you could do as a brand trying to reach “the youngs” would be to come across as fake. As a...| Jared White
There have been a handful of truly terrifying things I have read in my life. 1984 was one of those things…a book I read once decades ago which still feels seared into my brain as one of the most horrendously frightening stories I have ever engaged with.| Jared White
My kids are with me every other weekend. My youngest sort of just tunes out anything news-related, but my teen is a news junkie and always wants me to “spill the tea”. And let me tell you: the top stories being covered by DNN (Daddy News Network) these days are friggin’ nuts. 😵💫| Jared White
This entire essay by Benj Edwards over at Vintage Computing and Gaming is fantastic, but that section in particular stood out to me because I’ve been making the exact same analogy. #GenerativeAI companies are treating all human creative output on the Internet like it’s merely raw material to extract out of the environment and repurpose for their paying* customers. Who cares if the overall quality of software keeps decreasing and frequent #enshittification is the new normal? Gotta keep the...| Jared White
