Adam Younce
@ary.pub
Ethics in software and technology • Changing the things I can’t accept • Design • Programming • Security • https://ary.pub • https://github.com/aryounce • https://mastodon.social/@aryounce
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Adam Younce
@ary.pub
· Dec 11
What’s a good New Year’s resolution? Consider pushing Big Tech out of your life.
Find alternatives to Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta. Ditch streaming. Delay upgrading.
Don’t go cold turkey. It can be gradual and should be intentional.
Consider this a year in review (slow) thread.
Find alternatives to Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta. Ditch streaming. Delay upgrading.
Don’t go cold turkey. It can be gradual and should be intentional.
Consider this a year in review (slow) thread.
This delightfully balanced take has all the charm of being politically moderate in today’s America.
My take on AI is, essentially, everybody who’s against is too against it and everybody who’s for it is too for it.
May 30, 2026 at 5:55 PM
This delightfully balanced take has all the charm of being politically moderate in today’s America.
Sadly I need to rescind my endorsement of the Wikimedia Foundation as a beneficiary of your (as well as my own) charitable giving. Until their leadership changes and union busting ceases, I will refuse to give. medium.com/@jakeorlowit...
May 28, 2026 at 8:26 PM
Sadly I need to rescind my endorsement of the Wikimedia Foundation as a beneficiary of your (as well as my own) charitable giving. Until their leadership changes and union busting ceases, I will refuse to give. medium.com/@jakeorlowit...
On the one hand, this is good news. On the other hand it has been disseminated so widely that I worry there is a component of deception to it. Perhaps the FBI can’t bypass iOS Lockdown, but who can and why do they want the public to be so aware of Lockdown? www.404media.co/fbi-couldnt-...
FBI Couldn’t Get into WaPo Reporter’s iPhone Because It Had Lockdown Mode Enabled
Lockdown Mode is a sometimes overlooked feature of Apple devices that broadly make them harder to hack. A court record indicates the feature might be effective at stopping third parties unlocking some...
www.404media.co
February 5, 2026 at 5:29 PM
On the one hand, this is good news. On the other hand it has been disseminated so widely that I worry there is a component of deception to it. Perhaps the FBI can’t bypass iOS Lockdown, but who can and why do they want the public to be so aware of Lockdown? www.404media.co/fbi-couldnt-...
Alan Dye is the epitome of a Seagull Manager, and I suspect will fit right in at Meta.
macOS/iOS 26 are absolute disasters. Apple management should be embarrassed.
macOS/iOS 26 are absolute disasters. Apple management should be embarrassed.
January 23, 2026 at 5:56 PM
Alan Dye is the epitome of a Seagull Manager, and I suspect will fit right in at Meta.
macOS/iOS 26 are absolute disasters. Apple management should be embarrassed.
macOS/iOS 26 are absolute disasters. Apple management should be embarrassed.
The Anna Karenina principle of technical docs: All good documentation websites are alike; each bad documentation website is terrible in its own way.
Presently trying to get what I need out of Arm’s decidedly Lovecraftian abomination of a search engine.
Presently trying to get what I need out of Arm’s decidedly Lovecraftian abomination of a search engine.
January 21, 2026 at 6:06 AM
The Anna Karenina principle of technical docs: All good documentation websites are alike; each bad documentation website is terrible in its own way.
Presently trying to get what I need out of Arm’s decidedly Lovecraftian abomination of a search engine.
Presently trying to get what I need out of Arm’s decidedly Lovecraftian abomination of a search engine.
With the selective enforcement boundary established by Grok’s continued operation in the app store duopoly the next, sickening step is wearables. An unofficial app for Meta Glasses with Grok-like image-gen would sadly juice sales, and we now know that means it’s virtually guaranteed to happen.
January 15, 2026 at 5:26 AM
With the selective enforcement boundary established by Grok’s continued operation in the app store duopoly the next, sickening step is wearables. An unofficial app for Meta Glasses with Grok-like image-gen would sadly juice sales, and we now know that means it’s virtually guaranteed to happen.
Were there ever a time for independent software makers to strike while the iron is hot, it’s now. Apple has given into the madness. Stable, affordable creative tools are increasingly going to be in demand. www.theverge.com/news/861279/...
Apple Creator Studio suite is launching to take on Adobe
Six apps for less than a monthly Photoshop sub.
www.theverge.com
January 14, 2026 at 4:33 AM
Were there ever a time for independent software makers to strike while the iron is hot, it’s now. Apple has given into the madness. Stable, affordable creative tools are increasingly going to be in demand. www.theverge.com/news/861279/...
Where I’m at with frameworks (of any kind): lower level abstractions are better than high level abstractions because fewer people understand the lower level concepts thus there is far less bike shedding which means far less change.
Low: C compilers.
High: Javascript
Low: C compilers.
High: Javascript
January 11, 2026 at 9:35 PM
Where I’m at with frameworks (of any kind): lower level abstractions are better than high level abstractions because fewer people understand the lower level concepts thus there is far less bike shedding which means far less change.
Low: C compilers.
High: Javascript
Low: C compilers.
High: Javascript
After trying to cope with how insanely bad Apple’s Liquid Glass UI is for the last few months, I’ve come to appreciate its terribleness on two levels. 1) It is just inherently “pretty demo” ugly, and 2) because it interacts with third party content all the time it’s also “unkept zoo” ugly.
January 11, 2026 at 6:38 PM
After trying to cope with how insanely bad Apple’s Liquid Glass UI is for the last few months, I’ve come to appreciate its terribleness on two levels. 1) It is just inherently “pretty demo” ugly, and 2) because it interacts with third party content all the time it’s also “unkept zoo” ugly.
When people cynically claim that being honest is prohibitively expensive remember that there are counter examples.
We are strict about the background policy because I want our readers to know where information comes from and who is accountable for it, and I have zero interest in pretending we have magical insight into anyone’s thinking. Read more here: www.theverge.com/press-room/2...
December 17, 2025 at 4:17 AM
When people cynically claim that being honest is prohibitively expensive remember that there are counter examples.
Reposted by Adam Younce
How people perceive their colleagues who produce workslop.
October 21, 2025 at 10:04 AM
How people perceive their colleagues who produce workslop.
What’s a good New Year’s resolution? Consider pushing Big Tech out of your life.
Find alternatives to Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta. Ditch streaming. Delay upgrading.
Don’t go cold turkey. It can be gradual and should be intentional.
Consider this a year in review (slow) thread.
Find alternatives to Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta. Ditch streaming. Delay upgrading.
Don’t go cold turkey. It can be gradual and should be intentional.
Consider this a year in review (slow) thread.
December 11, 2025 at 5:52 AM
What’s a good New Year’s resolution? Consider pushing Big Tech out of your life.
Find alternatives to Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta. Ditch streaming. Delay upgrading.
Don’t go cold turkey. It can be gradual and should be intentional.
Consider this a year in review (slow) thread.
Find alternatives to Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta. Ditch streaming. Delay upgrading.
Don’t go cold turkey. It can be gradual and should be intentional.
Consider this a year in review (slow) thread.
Here’s your periodic reminder that, if you’re gainfully employed in the tech industry, you can afford to donate (the equivalent of a monthly streaming service fee) to the load bearing infrastructure of the Internet/web.
November 1, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Here’s your periodic reminder that, if you’re gainfully employed in the tech industry, you can afford to donate (the equivalent of a monthly streaming service fee) to the load bearing infrastructure of the Internet/web.
First overall impression: Accessibility tweaks make iOS 26 usable, but your choices are “Ugly” and “Usably Ugly”.
iOS 26 is available and I pre-regret installing what is basically a Dribbble show piece masquerading as a UI design framework. Glad those of you at Apple who have inflicted this upon the world got your bonuses.
September 15, 2025 at 9:14 PM
First overall impression: Accessibility tweaks make iOS 26 usable, but your choices are “Ugly” and “Usably Ugly”.
iOS 26 is available and I pre-regret installing what is basically a Dribbble show piece masquerading as a UI design framework. Glad those of you at Apple who have inflicted this upon the world got your bonuses.
September 15, 2025 at 6:39 PM
iOS 26 is available and I pre-regret installing what is basically a Dribbble show piece masquerading as a UI design framework. Glad those of you at Apple who have inflicted this upon the world got your bonuses.
Reposted by Adam Younce
I Made a Floppy Disk from Scratch. “The magnetic film itself is measured in microns. It’s going to be quite the feat in order to figure out how to apply something that thin.” This is great. [kottke.org]
I Made a Floppy Disk from Scratch
Polymatt decided he was going to make a 3.5” floppy disk from scratch — and actually did.
I’m not sure how many of you have actually cracked one of these things open and taken a look inside, but it’s actually a little
kottke.org
August 21, 2025 at 8:36 PM
I Made a Floppy Disk from Scratch. “The magnetic film itself is measured in microns. It’s going to be quite the feat in order to figure out how to apply something that thin.” This is great. [kottke.org]
@oxide.computer is the new Cray. They make computers I want to toy around with but don’t (yet) have a legitimate reason to use.
They are also not the new Cray, because I think they’ll go the distance.
They are also not the new Cray, because I think they’ll go the distance.
July 14, 2025 at 6:02 AM
@oxide.computer is the new Cray. They make computers I want to toy around with but don’t (yet) have a legitimate reason to use.
They are also not the new Cray, because I think they’ll go the distance.
They are also not the new Cray, because I think they’ll go the distance.
This keyboard costs about as much as an Apple Vision Pro and is probably worth it as you’ll use it far more often. www.theverge.com/tech/686441/...
How to build the best keyboard in the world
You just have to rebuild almost everything about it.
www.theverge.com
June 15, 2025 at 7:23 PM
This keyboard costs about as much as an Apple Vision Pro and is probably worth it as you’ll use it far more often. www.theverge.com/tech/686441/...
The corollary to “don’t meet your heroes” is “don’t get (emotionally, or otherwise) invested in their second act”. www.theverge.com/news/671838/...
OpenAI is buying Jony Ive’s AI hardware company
Ive’s company is called io.
www.theverge.com
May 22, 2025 at 3:57 AM
The corollary to “don’t meet your heroes” is “don’t get (emotionally, or otherwise) invested in their second act”. www.theverge.com/news/671838/...
Reposted by Adam Younce
Just watched Eric Schmidt (former Google CEO) say "We believe as an industry... that within 3-5 years we'll have AGI, which can be defined as a system that is as smart as [big deal voice] the smartest mathematician, physicist, [lesser deal voice] artist, writer, thinker, politician"...
May 11, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Just watched Eric Schmidt (former Google CEO) say "We believe as an industry... that within 3-5 years we'll have AGI, which can be defined as a system that is as smart as [big deal voice] the smartest mathematician, physicist, [lesser deal voice] artist, writer, thinker, politician"...
LLMs as mentalist cons is the Saturday reading I didn’t know I needed. softwarecrisis.dev/letters/llme...
The LLMentalist Effect: how chat-based Large Language Models rep…
The new era of tech seems to be built on superstitious behaviour
softwarecrisis.dev
May 10, 2025 at 4:22 PM
LLMs as mentalist cons is the Saturday reading I didn’t know I needed. softwarecrisis.dev/letters/llme...
We need a @katmabu.bsky.social for Colorado’s 4th district, because our current Rep is a national embarrassment. For now I’m donating to Kat and hoping for the best in Illinois’ 9th.
NEW: Since I launched my congressional campaign a month ago, life has been a whirlwind. That's why today I started a blog to document my campaign, our accomplishments, and life as a candidate.
My first post is a full recap of the last month and you can read it here: medium.com/@katabughaza...
My first post is a full recap of the last month and you can read it here: medium.com/@katabughaza...
My First Month as a Congressional Candidate
My name is Kat Abughazaleh, I’m 26-years-old, and if you’re reading this, you probably know I’m running for Congress in Illinois’ Ninth…
medium.com
April 28, 2025 at 3:54 AM
We need a @katmabu.bsky.social for Colorado’s 4th district, because our current Rep is a national embarrassment. For now I’m donating to Kat and hoping for the best in Illinois’ 9th.
The casting of the Neuromancer adaptation for Apple TV+ seems solid, especially the picks for Armitage and Peter Riviera. m.imdb.com/title/tt3151...
Neuromancer (TV Series) - IMDb
Neuromancer (TV Series) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.
m.imdb.com
March 30, 2025 at 5:41 AM
The casting of the Neuromancer adaptation for Apple TV+ seems solid, especially the picks for Armitage and Peter Riviera. m.imdb.com/title/tt3151...
The one chapter you *must* read in “Careless People” is ‘Myanmar’. It is heart wrenching to read about how absolutely indifferent Facebook leadership was during the unfolding of that atrocity.
The U.N. Human Rights Council report the chapter quotes is horrifying. www.ohchr.org/sites/defaul...
The U.N. Human Rights Council report the chapter quotes is horrifying. www.ohchr.org/sites/defaul...
March 20, 2025 at 4:37 PM
The one chapter you *must* read in “Careless People” is ‘Myanmar’. It is heart wrenching to read about how absolutely indifferent Facebook leadership was during the unfolding of that atrocity.
The U.N. Human Rights Council report the chapter quotes is horrifying. www.ohchr.org/sites/defaul...
The U.N. Human Rights Council report the chapter quotes is horrifying. www.ohchr.org/sites/defaul...