Paul Ford
@ftrain.com
Aboard.com and Ftrain.com. Not steadily here. If you need me: [email protected].
Pinned
Paul Ford
@ftrain.com
· Oct 21
Do a teamwork, not a screamwork.
Unsolicited recommendation: The @beta.nyc Civic Tech newsletter is a really good news roundup—if you live here and work around the sector you definitely want to look into it. www.beta.nyc/category/new...
Newsletter - BetaNYC
www.beta.nyc
September 17, 2026 at 4:22 PM
Unsolicited recommendation: The @beta.nyc Civic Tech newsletter is a really good news roundup—if you live here and work around the sector you definitely want to look into it. www.beta.nyc/category/new...
hey I heard you like sankey diagrams that show huge populations making terrible decisions
September 16, 2026 at 3:22 AM
hey I heard you like sankey diagrams that show huge populations making terrible decisions
R train late night trifecta: guy going home with a double bass, guy on here with a whole CitiBike, and someone pulled the emergency brake.
September 16, 2026 at 2:05 AM
R train late night trifecta: guy going home with a double bass, guy on here with a whole CitiBike, and someone pulled the emergency brake.
Huh. I've been thinking about what makes great software for a while. medium.com/message/the-...
The Great Works of Software
Is it possible to propose a software canon? To enumerate great works of software that are deeply influential—that changed the nature of the code that followed? Canons emerge over time, as certain …
medium.com
September 12, 2026 at 10:38 PM
Huh. I've been thinking about what makes great software for a while. medium.com/message/the-...
I feel like I am constantly inventing new ways to convince my kids to do the laundry, eat lunch, or leave the house, endless variations on the same things like some sort of stochastic parent.
September 12, 2026 at 7:31 PM
I feel like I am constantly inventing new ways to convince my kids to do the laundry, eat lunch, or leave the house, endless variations on the same things like some sort of stochastic parent.
You know the Milgram experiment where people hit a button and heard people screaming in the other room but they kept doing it because they felt they had to? That’s actually how posting works on here.
September 12, 2026 at 5:20 PM
You know the Milgram experiment where people hit a button and heard people screaming in the other room but they kept doing it because they felt they had to? That’s actually how posting works on here.
Everyone else is worried about the AI apocalypse but I’ve been hearing about that for 30 years and I can’t get very worked up any more. For me the question is: If these things can code (and they can!) then why aren’t we seeing any great software?
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/12/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/12/o...
Opinion | A.I. Was Supposed to Give Us New Killer Apps. What Happened? (Gift Article)
Just because A.I. is revolutionizing coding, doesn’t mean it will automatically revolutionize our apps.
www.nytimes.com
September 12, 2026 at 12:59 PM
Everyone else is worried about the AI apocalypse but I’ve been hearing about that for 30 years and I can’t get very worked up any more. For me the question is: If these things can code (and they can!) then why aren’t we seeing any great software?
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/12/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/12/o...
Reposted by Paul Ford
Nation’s Smart Toilets Begin Counting Down https://theonion.com/nations-smart-toilets-begin-counting-down/
September 11, 2026 at 5:16 PM
looks like the singularity is here folks
September 11, 2026 at 5:14 PM
looks like the singularity is here folks
I wish David Bowie was alive to narrate this moment back to us. I just think he'd have it nailed.
September 11, 2026 at 5:10 PM
I wish David Bowie was alive to narrate this moment back to us. I just think he'd have it nailed.
On the bright side, if the robots kill us all, it means that your sworn enemies are in for it too.
Over Labor Day weekend, as I watched the AI industry freak the hell out, I decided I’d call up @ftrain.bsky.social to ask him what in the world is going on. slate.com/podcasts/wha...
A.I-pocalypse Now?
Growing pains, sure, but not necessarily growing into a superintelligent overlord.
slate.com
September 11, 2026 at 4:38 PM
On the bright side, if the robots kill us all, it means that your sworn enemies are in for it too.
I vibed up a weird music screensaver a month ago, but I kept thinking, “What if it was an imaginary failed 90s arranger keyboard called the Stellate that generated music in 500 genres?” So this is an imaginary web port of that. It's a mess, but I keep laughing at it. Exports to Ableton. stellate.app
Stellate
Infinite remixable music in many genres for free.
stellate.app
September 8, 2026 at 11:25 PM
I vibed up a weird music screensaver a month ago, but I kept thinking, “What if it was an imaginary failed 90s arranger keyboard called the Stellate that generated music in 500 genres?” So this is an imaginary web port of that. It's a mess, but I keep laughing at it. Exports to Ableton. stellate.app
The Library Innovation Lab at Harvard University: “Binoc is a command-line tool and library that, given two snapshots of a dataset, efficiently summarizes the differences between the two snapshots in a human-readable changelog.” lil.law.harvard.edu/blog/2026/07...
Binoc: A Field Guide
| Library Innovation Lab
The Library Innovation Lab is growing knowledge and community by bringing library principles to technological frontiers.
lil.law.harvard.edu
September 8, 2026 at 7:44 PM
The Library Innovation Lab at Harvard University: “Binoc is a command-line tool and library that, given two snapshots of a dataset, efficiently summarizes the differences between the two snapshots in a human-readable changelog.” lil.law.harvard.edu/blog/2026/07...
Bluesky provides a mobile web view that runs great on my four-year-old phone and never pushes me to download an app. That is special and appreciated and I hope it continues.
September 5, 2026 at 8:45 PM
Bluesky provides a mobile web view that runs great on my four-year-old phone and never pushes me to download an app. That is special and appreciated and I hope it continues.
Reposted by Paul Ford
Feel free to message me: the vibes at this are so delightful and friendly and I learn a lot from nice people and meet more neighbors.
If you’re a Flatbush-area mutual aid type, this self-organizing distro happens every Friday at 5PM across the street from Kings Theatre. If you want to help show up and hand out food or clothes, or just donate via Venmo. Or cook!
September 5, 2026 at 12:29 AM
Feel free to message me: the vibes at this are so delightful and friendly and I learn a lot from nice people and meet more neighbors.
If you’re a Flatbush-area mutual aid type, this self-organizing distro happens every Friday at 5PM across the street from Kings Theatre. If you want to help show up and hand out food or clothes, or just donate via Venmo. Or cook!
September 4, 2026 at 11:33 PM
If you’re a Flatbush-area mutual aid type, this self-organizing distro happens every Friday at 5PM across the street from Kings Theatre. If you want to help show up and hand out food or clothes, or just donate via Venmo. Or cook!
We're doing an event September 15 with the brilliant Julia Stoyanovich of NYU, who is trying to get all these bots under control. NYC, free, snacks! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_S...
luma.com/aboard-qmfz
luma.com/aboard-qmfz
Who’s Responsible for AI? A conversation with Julia Stoyanovich and Paul Ford · Luma
Join Aboard for a conversation with Dr. Julia Stoyanovich, NYU professor and director of the Center for Responsible AI, about what it means to build and use AI…
luma.com
September 4, 2026 at 2:51 AM
We're doing an event September 15 with the brilliant Julia Stoyanovich of NYU, who is trying to get all these bots under control. NYC, free, snacks! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_S...
luma.com/aboard-qmfz
luma.com/aboard-qmfz
A neat project at work: We built an archive for Lapham's Quarterly as part of its (gradual, ongoing) relaunch—full access if you subscribe. It's been nice to see and read it again. Ping if you find bugs. archive.laphamsquarterly.org (they relaunched temporarily at laphamsquarterly.substack.com).
September 3, 2026 at 6:07 PM
A neat project at work: We built an archive for Lapham's Quarterly as part of its (gradual, ongoing) relaunch—full access if you subscribe. It's been nice to see and read it again. Ping if you find bugs. archive.laphamsquarterly.org (they relaunched temporarily at laphamsquarterly.substack.com).
I firmly believe all online discourse reduces to this Perry Bible Fellowship comic. pbfcomics.com/comics/weeab...
September 3, 2026 at 12:29 AM
I firmly believe all online discourse reduces to this Perry Bible Fellowship comic. pbfcomics.com/comics/weeab...
The humans do this ceremony where they enter a dark room and are forced to account to some sort of priest for their past transgressions, and every time they speak they must eat a poison meat that causes them incredible pain. That is how I think an alien would see Hot Ones.
September 2, 2026 at 3:33 AM
The humans do this ceremony where they enter a dark room and are forced to account to some sort of priest for their past transgressions, and every time they speak they must eat a poison meat that causes them incredible pain. That is how I think an alien would see Hot Ones.
Not seeing much mention in the discourse of Hard Candy Christmas, a modern holiday classic. youtu.be/bvK1F6bUrzU?...
Dolly Parton - Hard Candy Christmas
YouTube video by CharmedHourHauntedSong25
youtu.be
August 28, 2026 at 11:52 AM
Not seeing much mention in the discourse of Hard Candy Christmas, a modern holiday classic. youtu.be/bvK1F6bUrzU?...
“Contentbeheerder” is much better job title than “Content Manager.” Once again the Dutch have beat us at words. To anglophone ears it's got a mix of: Herding things; buzzing bees; and comically-mispronounced beheading (“if you miss your deadline I will beherd you”) which makes it accurate.
August 14, 2026 at 7:44 PM
“Contentbeheerder” is much better job title than “Content Manager.” Once again the Dutch have beat us at words. To anglophone ears it's got a mix of: Herding things; buzzing bees; and comically-mispronounced beheading (“if you miss your deadline I will beherd you”) which makes it accurate.
I'm at work emailing people who downloaded a white paper, in order to introduce our company. I'm working through a tranche of publishers so I keep going to their websites and then end up buying books. I'm basically doing marketing backwards.
August 14, 2026 at 7:30 PM
I'm at work emailing people who downloaded a white paper, in order to introduce our company. I'm working through a tranche of publishers so I keep going to their websites and then end up buying books. I'm basically doing marketing backwards.
Wrote meta about Meta in the Aboard newsletter aboard.com/the-shapeshi...
The shapeshifter’s little brother
On Mark Zuckerberg’s AI manifesto—aka nine blog posts in a trenchcoat.
aboard.com
August 12, 2026 at 9:36 PM
Wrote meta about Meta in the Aboard newsletter aboard.com/the-shapeshi...