Alasdair Allan
@alasdairallan.com
Scientist, author, hacker, maker, and journalist. Writes, speaks, and builds. An accidental privacy advocate.
AI is an assistive technology. It'll be a long time, if ever, before it's anything more than that. Anyone that tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something.
AI agents tried to do graphic design, video editing, game development, and administrative chores like scraping data. "Even the best could perform less than 3 percent of the work, earning $1,810 out of a possible $143,991," writes @willknight.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/ai-age...
AI Agents Are Terrible Freelance Workers
A new benchmark measures how well AI agents can automate economically valuable chores. Human-level AI is still some ways off.
www.wired.com
October 29, 2025 at 11:34 PM
AI is an assistive technology. It'll be a long time, if ever, before it's anything more than that. Anyone that tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something.
Resurfacing something I wrote for Hackster.io last year, "Dividing the Stack into Thirds," talking about the ongoing trade wars the splintering of our global approach to technology. www.hackster.io/news/dividin...
Hackster.io - The community dedicated to learning hardware.
Hackster is a community dedicated to learning hardware, from beginner to pro. Share your projects and learn from other developers. Come build awesome hardware!
Hackster.io
October 29, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Resurfacing something I wrote for Hackster.io last year, "Dividing the Stack into Thirds," talking about the ongoing trade wars the splintering of our global approach to technology. www.hackster.io/news/dividin...
"Don’t build platforms, solve problems," by me for @negroniventurestudios.com. It turns out that #AI will commoditize the mediocre and automated, but amplify the value of the obsessive and hand-crafted. negroniventurestudios.com/2025/10/29/d...
negroniventurestudios.com
October 29, 2025 at 10:03 PM
"Don’t build platforms, solve problems," by me for @negroniventurestudios.com. It turns out that #AI will commoditize the mediocre and automated, but amplify the value of the obsessive and hand-crafted. negroniventurestudios.com/2025/10/29/d...
On this day in 1971, the U.K. successful reached orbit using the Black Arrow launch vehicle lifting the Prospero satellite to orbit from Woomera, Australia. The U.K. remains the only country to reach orbit after already cancelling their launch programme. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_A...
Black Arrow - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
October 28, 2025 at 8:16 PM
On this day in 1971, the U.K. successful reached orbit using the Black Arrow launch vehicle lifting the Prospero satellite to orbit from Woomera, Australia. The U.K. remains the only country to reach orbit after already cancelling their launch programme. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_A...
Anyone else getting nostalgia for the Nokia 3650? www.theverge.com/news/793136/...
Google Japan’s concept keyboard is inspired by rotary phones
Speedy touch typists might want to look away.
www.theverge.com
October 7, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Anyone else getting nostalgia for the Nokia 3650? www.theverge.com/news/793136/...
In Amsterdam for this year’s #thethingsconference. It’s fascinating to see how things have evolved in the LPWAN space over the last few years. It’s a very different conference than their first which one I keynoted in 2018. aallan.medium.com/teaching-a-n...
Teaching a new dog old tricks
What the history of the Internet can teach the Internet of Things
aallan.medium.com
September 23, 2025 at 5:05 PM
In Amsterdam for this year’s #thethingsconference. It’s fascinating to see how things have evolved in the LPWAN space over the last few years. It’s a very different conference than their first which one I keynoted in 2018. aallan.medium.com/teaching-a-n...
Oh! Now I'm interested, ericmigi.com/blog/pebble-.... I far preferred the design of the Pebble Time to the original #Pebble. Always considered the death of Pebble as a real waste of potential. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcPz...
Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal!
YouTube video by Tick Talk w/ Eric Migicovsky
www.youtube.com
August 13, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Oh! Now I'm interested, ericmigi.com/blog/pebble-.... I far preferred the design of the Pebble Time to the original #Pebble. Always considered the death of Pebble as a real waste of potential. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcPz...
"Commercial fusion is now just 20 years away…" yes, for about the last 50 years. 🤦♂️ hackaday.com/2025/03/05/c...
China Claims Commercial Nuclear Fusion By 2050 As Germany Goes Stellarator
Things are heating up in the world of nuclear fusion research, with most fundamental issues resolved and an increasing rate of announcements being made regarding commercial fusion power. China̵…
hackaday.com
March 5, 2025 at 12:34 PM
"Commercial fusion is now just 20 years away…" yes, for about the last 50 years. 🤦♂️ hackaday.com/2025/03/05/c...
[Alexa] will know "almost [everything] in your life — your schedule, your smart home, your preferences, the devices you’re using, the people you’re connected [to and] the entertainment you [enjoy]…" they understand that most people don't think that's a *good* thing? techcrunch.com/2025/02/26/a...
Amazon unveils a new and improved Alexa, Alexa+ | TechCrunch
At an event in NYC, Amazon announced an upgraded Alexa experienced powered by generative AI tech.
techcrunch.com
February 27, 2025 at 9:53 AM
[Alexa] will know "almost [everything] in your life — your schedule, your smart home, your preferences, the devices you’re using, the people you’re connected [to and] the entertainment you [enjoy]…" they understand that most people don't think that's a *good* thing? techcrunch.com/2025/02/26/a...
The RP2040 has now been certified to run at a system clock of 200Mhz! See github.com/raspberrypi/....
Release 2.1.1 · raspberrypi/pico-sdk
This is a minor release of the SDK with many bug fixes and documentation improvements, along with some new features.
Highlights are listed below, or you can see the full list of individual commits ...
github.com
February 19, 2025 at 12:05 PM
The RP2040 has now been certified to run at a system clock of 200Mhz! See github.com/raspberrypi/....
The only shocking thing here is that the dead carcass of the company was worth $116 million. techcrunch.com/2025/02/18/h...
Humane's AI Pin is dead, as HP buys startup's assets for $116M | TechCrunch
Humane announced on Tuesday that most of its assets have been acquired by HP for $116 million. The hardware startup is immediately discontinuing sales of
techcrunch.com
February 19, 2025 at 11:34 AM
The only shocking thing here is that the dead carcass of the company was worth $116 million. techcrunch.com/2025/02/18/h...
By me for @hacksterio.bsky.social, “The return of Pebble: you can’t keep a good watch down!” Some thoughts on @ericmigi.com’s announcement and the return of #Pebble. www.hackster.io/news/the-ret...
The Return of Pebble: You Can't Keep a Good Watch Down!
Eight years after the demise of the both the watch, and the company behind it, the Pebble smart watch is coming back from the dead.
www.hackster.io
February 18, 2025 at 10:10 AM
By me for @hacksterio.bsky.social, “The return of Pebble: you can’t keep a good watch down!” Some thoughts on @ericmigi.com’s announcement and the return of #Pebble. www.hackster.io/news/the-ret...
I genuinely sorta scared about what Apple is going to do to my favourite image editor. The precedent of the Dark Sky weather app fiasco looms large. www.macrumors.com/2025/02/11/a...
Apple Completes Pixelmator Acquisition
Pixelmator last year announced that it was being acquired by Apple, and today the company confirmed that the acquisition has been completed after...
www.macrumors.com
February 11, 2025 at 9:00 PM
I genuinely sorta scared about what Apple is going to do to my favourite image editor. The precedent of the Dark Sky weather app fiasco looms large. www.macrumors.com/2025/02/11/a...
About a decade ago I talked about what I called at the time capable computing, that is to say, computing that is “good enough," aallan.medium.com/capable-comp....
Capable Computing
Computing that is good enough.
aallan.medium.com
February 11, 2025 at 8:53 PM
About a decade ago I talked about what I called at the time capable computing, that is to say, computing that is “good enough," aallan.medium.com/capable-comp....
The problem with asking successful people about how to get to where they are now is that how to get where they are has inevitably changed since they did it. You almost certainly can't do what they did, and end up in the same place. That's just not how the world works any more.
February 11, 2025 at 12:46 PM
The problem with asking successful people about how to get to where they are now is that how to get where they are has inevitably changed since they did it. You almost certainly can't do what they did, and end up in the same place. That's just not how the world works any more.
Stumbled across this piece by Wil Schroter. Was absolutely fascinated, because he's right. Doesn't matter whether you're working a job, freelancing, or building a startup. Plenty of people will encourage you to start, nobody will tell you when to stop. fortune.com/2025/02/03/s...
I had a VC-funded unicorn-in-the-making and I messed it up—here's how
I was humiliated. I had nothing but success in my previous ventures, and this was a very public failure. Now I barely remember it.
fortune.com
February 4, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Stumbled across this piece by Wil Schroter. Was absolutely fascinated, because he's right. Doesn't matter whether you're working a job, freelancing, or building a startup. Plenty of people will encourage you to start, nobody will tell you when to stop. fortune.com/2025/02/03/s...
So $NVDA is down 11%. What do people think Deepseek-r1 was trained on? It was trained on GPUs, probably grey market unacknowledged NVIDIA GPU. 🙄
January 27, 2025 at 3:00 PM
So $NVDA is down 11%. What do people think Deepseek-r1 was trained on? It was trained on GPUs, probably grey market unacknowledged NVIDIA GPU. 🙄
In the queue for the kick off keynote of #CES2025. The experience reminds me of a Jobs era keynote at WWDC. It seems Jensen Huang is the new Jobs, and NVIDIA is the new Apple?
January 7, 2025 at 1:08 AM
In the queue for the kick off keynote of #CES2025. The experience reminds me of a Jobs era keynote at WWDC. It seems Jensen Huang is the new Jobs, and NVIDIA is the new Apple?
One of my favourite demos from CES Unveiled last night at #CES2025 was the Holobox by Holoconnects, www.holoconnects.com. Using a live video feed that is projected onto a transparent screen and a light box, giving the illusion that the person in the feed is three dimensional.
January 6, 2025 at 6:45 PM
One of my favourite demos from CES Unveiled last night at #CES2025 was the Holobox by Holoconnects, www.holoconnects.com. Using a live video feed that is projected onto a transparent screen and a light box, giving the illusion that the person in the feed is three dimensional.
Fascinating to see evolution for the humble robotic vacuum. I think we're going to see people trying to hack this one pretty soon after it's generally available, there's a lot of use cases for a relatively cheap robot platform with an arm. #CES2025 techcrunch.com/2025/01/05/r...
Roborock's Roomba competitor gets a robot arm | TechCrunch
iRobot’s ongoing financial crisis aside, the world of robot vacuums is still humming along. At CES Sunday, Roborock announced the Saros Z70. The Roomba
techcrunch.com
January 5, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Fascinating to see evolution for the humble robotic vacuum. I think we're going to see people trying to hack this one pretty soon after it's generally available, there's a lot of use cases for a relatively cheap robot platform with an arm. #CES2025 techcrunch.com/2025/01/05/r...
Platform problem. This is the platform problem all over. 🙄
It's wild to me how much expertise you need to engage successfully with these new AI systems
Quick: what sort of prompts should you run against GPT-4o vs Gemini 1.5 Flash vs o1 vs o1-pro vs gemini-2.0-flash-thinking-exp?
Quick: what sort of prompts should you run against GPT-4o vs Gemini 1.5 Flash vs o1 vs o1-pro vs gemini-2.0-flash-thinking-exp?
December 20, 2024 at 2:20 AM
Platform problem. This is the platform problem all over. 🙄
This👇. The other 50% is telling people not to reuse their passwords between sites.
50% of cybersecurity is endlessly explaining that consumer VPNs don’t address any real cybersecurity issues. They are basically only useful for bypassing geofences and making money telling people they need to buy a VPN
December 19, 2024 at 10:30 PM
This👇. The other 50% is telling people not to reuse their passwords between sites.
You have to love the architecture of downtown Chicago.
December 18, 2024 at 6:28 PM
You have to love the architecture of downtown Chicago.