Steve Farrugia
@fasterandworse.com
Experienced user
Australian In Amsterdam
I talk about product design and I'm quite critical
open to work, open to talks
Words: https://fasterandworse.com
Videos: https://youtube.com/@fasterandworse
Audios: https://pnc.st/s/faster-and-worse
Australian In Amsterdam
I talk about product design and I'm quite critical
open to work, open to talks
Words: https://fasterandworse.com
Videos: https://youtube.com/@fasterandworse
Audios: https://pnc.st/s/faster-and-worse
Pinned
Steve Farrugia
@fasterandworse.com
· Sep 24
Dispatch #31: Anti-Design
YouTube video by Faster and Worse
www.youtube.com
Dispatch #31: Anti-Design
Design to compensate for a lack of design
Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3eL...
Audio: pnc.st/s/faster-and...
1/x
Design to compensate for a lack of design
Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3eL...
Audio: pnc.st/s/faster-and...
1/x
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
Going to start a thread of things I’m doing that are helping me get out of autistic (auDHD possibly, we’ll see) burnout. TW mental health
January 7, 2026 at 1:20 PM
Going to start a thread of things I’m doing that are helping me get out of autistic (auDHD possibly, we’ll see) burnout. TW mental health
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
Too good not to share - "I panicked with research" 😂😭🤣
January 8, 2026 at 5:39 PM
Too good not to share - "I panicked with research" 😂😭🤣
marketing people aren't prepared for people asking the ads questions
And then here he answers my second question, after the panel. I don't think he liked me!
January 8, 2026 at 5:35 PM
marketing people aren't prepared for people asking the ads questions
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
And then here he answers my second question, after the panel. I don't think he liked me!
January 8, 2026 at 4:54 PM
And then here he answers my second question, after the panel. I don't think he liked me!
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
As promised, audio of Intuit CMO Thomas Ranese answering my questions is in today's episode of It Could Happen Here.
You can also listen to him admit he has no idea what happens when your financial data gets stolen here.
You can also listen to him admit he has no idea what happens when your financial data gets stolen here.
January 8, 2026 at 4:53 PM
As promised, audio of Intuit CMO Thomas Ranese answering my questions is in today's episode of It Could Happen Here.
You can also listen to him admit he has no idea what happens when your financial data gets stolen here.
You can also listen to him admit he has no idea what happens when your financial data gets stolen here.
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
The era of "platforms are neutral" is long behind us (or rather it was never really true, but now it's much more obvious).
If you're active on X, it may be worth asking yourself if you're just chasing a dopamine hit that evaporated several years ago.
If you're active on X, it may be worth asking yourself if you're just chasing a dopamine hit that evaporated several years ago.
I wrote this in April 2024, about why people were refusing to leave X as it became undeniably a pro-white-supremacist site
But holy hell could I not have predicted that by 2026, it would be a child abuse material production site and THAT TOO is not enough to get people to leave the fucking place
But holy hell could I not have predicted that by 2026, it would be a child abuse material production site and THAT TOO is not enough to get people to leave the fucking place
You are the fuel that energises Elon Musk’s hate machine
X is something entirely new: it has the clout and influence of Twitter, blended with the hate of 4chan and the lies of TruthSocial. And it lingers because its users don’t see themselves as th…
ketanjoshi.co
January 8, 2026 at 3:18 PM
The era of "platforms are neutral" is long behind us (or rather it was never really true, but now it's much more obvious).
If you're active on X, it may be worth asking yourself if you're just chasing a dopamine hit that evaporated several years ago.
If you're active on X, it may be worth asking yourself if you're just chasing a dopamine hit that evaporated several years ago.
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
US voters hate AI — and politicians are noticing
Everybody hates data centres
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCK5... - video
pivottoai.libsyn.com/20260107-us-... - podcast
time: 4 min 34 sec
Everybody hates data centres
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCK5... - video
pivottoai.libsyn.com/20260107-us-... - podcast
time: 4 min 34 sec
January 7, 2026 at 10:42 PM
US voters hate AI — and politicians are noticing
Everybody hates data centres
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCK5... - video
pivottoai.libsyn.com/20260107-us-... - podcast
time: 4 min 34 sec
Everybody hates data centres
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCK5... - video
pivottoai.libsyn.com/20260107-us-... - podcast
time: 4 min 34 sec
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
The Mozilla plan is to win people over to Firefox with AI features while ignoring the feedback from people who use it because it's not running on the chromium engine. This makes the Gecko engine a liability for the company's mission. It's not unthinkable that they'll switch to chromium soon.
January 7, 2026 at 9:51 PM
The Mozilla plan is to win people over to Firefox with AI features while ignoring the feedback from people who use it because it's not running on the chromium engine. This makes the Gecko engine a liability for the company's mission. It's not unthinkable that they'll switch to chromium soon.
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
OK this probably doesn't count as a "good" product, but it's the kind of ridiculous vision I love seeing at CES. One man said, "no longer will I go two separate places for water and a modest breeze" and by God he made his dream a reality
January 7, 2026 at 9:28 PM
OK this probably doesn't count as a "good" product, but it's the kind of ridiculous vision I love seeing at CES. One man said, "no longer will I go two separate places for water and a modest breeze" and by God he made his dream a reality
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
it's unfortunate that we've ceded everything that uses machine learning to the "AI" category. A pen with a mic that connects to your phone and can do automatic translation, record and transcribe meetings is NOT the same thing as a chatbot tech bros think they can turn into God.
January 7, 2026 at 8:43 PM
it's unfortunate that we've ceded everything that uses machine learning to the "AI" category. A pen with a mic that connects to your phone and can do automatic translation, record and transcribe meetings is NOT the same thing as a chatbot tech bros think they can turn into God.
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
Color E-Ink phone cases and picture frames. You can connect the case to your phone and change the pictures, so you aren't stuck with a Waifu if you don't want one.
I was mostly just surprised at the resolution in the picture frames.
I was mostly just surprised at the resolution in the picture frames.
January 7, 2026 at 8:31 PM
Color E-Ink phone cases and picture frames. You can connect the case to your phone and change the pictures, so you aren't stuck with a Waifu if you don't want one.
I was mostly just surprised at the resolution in the picture frames.
I was mostly just surprised at the resolution in the picture frames.
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
in case you're wondering about the futility of it all, here's two job openings for the Firefox team
www.mozilla.org/en-US/career...
www.mozilla.org/en-US/career...
January 7, 2026 at 8:14 PM
in case you're wondering about the futility of it all, here's two job openings for the Firefox team
www.mozilla.org/en-US/career...
www.mozilla.org/en-US/career...
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
This is my CES 2026 thread of AI slop.
First off: astrologers, prepare to be out of a job! This bold new company is bringing AI to the world of Horoscopes and for some reason merging that with a visibly unwell Furby.
Bonus: borderline illegal claims that it can "cure" certain behaviors.
First off: astrologers, prepare to be out of a job! This bold new company is bringing AI to the world of Horoscopes and for some reason merging that with a visibly unwell Furby.
Bonus: borderline illegal claims that it can "cure" certain behaviors.
January 7, 2026 at 8:16 PM
This is my CES 2026 thread of AI slop.
First off: astrologers, prepare to be out of a job! This bold new company is bringing AI to the world of Horoscopes and for some reason merging that with a visibly unwell Furby.
Bonus: borderline illegal claims that it can "cure" certain behaviors.
First off: astrologers, prepare to be out of a job! This bold new company is bringing AI to the world of Horoscopes and for some reason merging that with a visibly unwell Furby.
Bonus: borderline illegal claims that it can "cure" certain behaviors.
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
This is probably OpenAI’s most dangerous product, and that’s saying something
OpenAI “makes sure to mention in the blog post that ChatGPT Health is ‘not intended for diagnosis or treatment,’ but it can’t fully control how people end up using AI when they leave the chat.”
OpenAI launches ChatGPT Health, encouraging users to connect their medical records
But it’s “not intended for diagnosis or treatment.”
www.theverge.com
January 7, 2026 at 7:59 PM
This is probably OpenAI’s most dangerous product, and that’s saying something
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
"dell is not pushing AI" story is bollocks
i went looking for anything other than that PCGamer selective quoting, and everything else Kevin Terwilliger said at CES is AI, AI, AI
even the quotes are in the context of Dell pushing local AI really hard and pushing the suitability of their PCs for AI
i went looking for anything other than that PCGamer selective quoting, and everything else Kevin Terwilliger said at CES is AI, AI, AI
even the quotes are in the context of Dell pushing local AI really hard and pushing the suitability of their PCs for AI
January 7, 2026 at 7:37 PM
"dell is not pushing AI" story is bollocks
i went looking for anything other than that PCGamer selective quoting, and everything else Kevin Terwilliger said at CES is AI, AI, AI
even the quotes are in the context of Dell pushing local AI really hard and pushing the suitability of their PCs for AI
i went looking for anything other than that PCGamer selective quoting, and everything else Kevin Terwilliger said at CES is AI, AI, AI
even the quotes are in the context of Dell pushing local AI really hard and pushing the suitability of their PCs for AI
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
“Good tools have roots. Good tools show their age. I wish software did the same.” – Andrew Spittle
andrewspittle.com/2026/01/07/g...
andrewspittle.com/2026/01/07/g...
Good tools age – Andrew Spittle
To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognised need of the human soul. — Simone Weil
andrewspittle.com
January 7, 2026 at 3:33 PM
“Good tools have roots. Good tools show their age. I wish software did the same.” – Andrew Spittle
andrewspittle.com/2026/01/07/g...
andrewspittle.com/2026/01/07/g...
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
It's a sign imo of the kind of recklessness I see at the center of a lot of these products. This is an extremely basic question. Not a 'gotcha' by any means. The fact that it functioned as one means you literally did not consider used security for a second
January 7, 2026 at 8:38 AM
It's a sign imo of the kind of recklessness I see at the center of a lot of these products. This is an extremely basic question. Not a 'gotcha' by any means. The fact that it functioned as one means you literally did not consider used security for a second
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
so the thing that makes it clear the tech world is in a shared delusion is that *even if these things work* they are an incredibly boring, mundane, product offering that tries to domesticate the cubicle farm concept of productivity
“The new devices promise to reduce friction, eliminate note-taking, capture fleeting ideas and surface insights you didn’t think to ask for.”
January 6, 2026 at 11:29 PM
so the thing that makes it clear the tech world is in a shared delusion is that *even if these things work* they are an incredibly boring, mundane, product offering that tries to domesticate the cubicle farm concept of productivity
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
as @fasterandworse.com says, a "use case" is what you put forward when your gadget doesn't have a defined purpose
January 7, 2026 at 1:30 PM
as @fasterandworse.com says, a "use case" is what you put forward when your gadget doesn't have a defined purpose
January 7, 2026 at 1:31 PM
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
oh this looks nice simonrepp.com/faircamp/ proper open source under AGPL too. static site generator for showing off your audio.
Faircamp
Faircamp
simonrepp.com
January 7, 2026 at 1:25 PM
oh this looks nice simonrepp.com/faircamp/ proper open source under AGPL too. static site generator for showing off your audio.
Reposted by Steve Farrugia
amazingly long thread of predominantly unified opinion "keep AI out of Firefox" which @mozilla.org will ignore
mastodon.social/@firefoxwebd...
mastodon.social/@firefoxwebd...
Firefox for Web Developers (@firefoxwebdevs@mastodon.social)
Firefox uses on-device downloaded-on-demand ML models for privacy-preserving translation.
They're not LLMs. They're trained on open data.
Should translation be disabled if the AI 'kill switch' is ac...
mastodon.social
January 7, 2026 at 9:40 AM
amazingly long thread of predominantly unified opinion "keep AI out of Firefox" which @mozilla.org will ignore
mastodon.social/@firefoxwebd...
mastodon.social/@firefoxwebd...
The ultrasonic knife blade sounds silly but it appears to be an actual innovation. I haven't tried it, but the guy who made it explains a solid design purpose and appears to satisfy that purpose really well.
January 7, 2026 at 12:31 PM
The ultrasonic knife blade sounds silly but it appears to be an actual innovation. I haven't tried it, but the guy who made it explains a solid design purpose and appears to satisfy that purpose really well.
inject youtube videos of breathless praise for the weirdest shit at CES directly into my veins
January 7, 2026 at 11:34 AM
inject youtube videos of breathless praise for the weirdest shit at CES directly into my veins