I've been trying to articulate why the fawning, complimentary responses from AI chatbots feel so insidious to me. I've finally figured out how to explain it.

Wrote a long piece on how current model training and design choices threaten our critical thinking skills: maggieappleton.com/ai-enlighten...

Welcome to Bluesky @automerge.org

I'm glad you're consistent and not conflicted.

Want to hear about the latest in Automerge? Come join the Community Call Kickoff on August 20 (and sign up for the calendar while you're at it!) lu.ma/zv6tpuu4

One more week to submit to LIVE, one of my favourite conferences!

Let's see your "new user interfaces that improve the immediacy, usability, and learnability of programming"

liveprog.org

Automerge 3 is here: the heart transplant is complete! Huge improvements in memory usage and (in most cases) correspondingly big performance improvements too. Backwards compatible on disk and the network so there's no reason not to upgrade today: automerge.org/blog/automer...

Know anyone applying to this? 👀

Are you sync curious?

lu.ma/sync-london

syncconf.dev

We had @geoffreylitt.com join us in Toronto back in 2023.

Today he’s releasing the Malleable Software essay with the @inkandswitch.com team.

New longform @inkandswitch.com essay! 📜

Malleable Software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps

by me, @joshuahhh.com, @pvh.ca and @seaofclouds.com

inkandswitch.com/essay/mallea...

It's about why people need agency over their software tools, and how to make that happen.

As a kid, I learned to program in HyperCard, a fantastic thing from Apple in the 1990s which empowered normal people to make homemade software. Last fall @pontus.granstrom.me started exploring and reinterpreting these ideas for 2025. Excited to share our writeup: pontus.granstrom.me/scrappy/

New thing! @jrcpl.us and I have been exploring home-made software. We made a prototype of a tool for making scrappy little apps for you and your friends.

pontus.granstrom.me/scrappy/

If you’re in NYC and curious about checking out Folk Computer we’re having another open house event Saturday, May 31!

lu.ma/ydi03zax

Check out the first of @grjte.sh posts about combining #localfirst software - using @inkandswitch.com’s Automerge + Tiny Essay Editor - with ATProto for Lexicon data typing and public distribution.

I’m excited to read all the write ups about the Groundmist project!

if you'll be in Berlin for @localfirstconf.com and are sticking around after...

the Userandagents.com community is hosting a casual space for #localfirst people to hang / hack / chat for the Thurs/Fri after the conference!

registration and more info: lu.ma/v457jxp2

Our new research track is called Universal Version Control and it's about exploring how to bring the power of version control to every person, on every kind of document and every kind of collaboration.
www.inkandswitch.com/universal-ve...

For anyone going to @localfirstconf.com, don’t forget about the pre-conference Localfirst community day lu.ma/v8ggp0u9?tk=...

ONE WEEK UNTIL THE LONDON ALGORAVE

You can buy a ticket here for an early bird price before it goes up tomorrow

lu.ma/ig4y8mii

- Ticket revenue goes towards venue and artists
- Event is listed in two places for maximum reach and inclusion! please only buy in one place :)
- The night will be good

Excited to share this blogpost with y'all!
expertofobsolescence.substack.com/p/the-hard-t...

Notes from the Lab - March 2025

Custom HTML attributes, space transforms, peer-to-peer WebRTC + DOM sync, and much more!

github.com/folk-systems...

This is the logo for a new Ink & Switch research track. What are your guesses for the name of this research area?

I recently had a great chat with @rebeccahiscott.bsky.social at the Creative Independent. You can read the interview here…

The first Sync SF is happening on Monday, March 17th <a href="https://lu.ma/sync-sf" class="hover:underline text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400 no-card-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link="bsky">https://lu.ma/sync-sf

​Kyle Mathews - Electric, Gatsby
​Sam Bhagwat - Mastra, Gatsby
​J Chris Anderson - Fireproof, Couchbase
​Natalie Vais - Google Firestore, Spark Capital
​Jack McCloy - Snowflake
​Yonatan Feleke - Vella, <a href="https://lofi.software" class="hover:underline text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400 no-card-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link="bsky">lofi.software

What if hypertext were zoomable? Then you could zoom forever, in circles... I made this the other day and came up with a data structure that allows the coordinate origin to move through the graph, to keep memory fixed and avoid floating point precision limits.
folk.systems/canvas/space...

There are folks in the @causalislands.com orbit that have been talking about this for several years.

Here’s a presentation by @geoffreylitt.com who is exploring malleable software

youtu.be/bJ3i4K3hefI