Phil Kast
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philkast.com
Phil Kast
@philkast.com
iOS, Swift and Elixir developer, indie software creator and toddler dad in Portland, OR.

📱 yearofcode.com/steps
🌐 philkast.com
Reposted by Phil Kast
I've seen enough.

Congratulations, Mayor-elect Katie Wilson!
Seattle's mayor race update:

Katie Wilson's lead grows to 1,346 votes over and incumbent corporate-Democrat Bruce Harrell.

Kate Wilson won 61.23% of the 6,121 ballots counted today.

Overall total:

Katie Wilson 50.08% 137,217
Bruce Harrell 49.59% 135,871
Write-in 0.33% 908
November 12, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Does anyone know if it’s good for DOJ’s case when the judge starts by reading a complete Carl Sandburg poem?
November 6, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Whether we get NG on the streets of Portland comes down to a Trump appointed judge who didn't say much in this hearing.
Harder to get a read on Judge Bade, who was singularly focused on whether the FPS diversion of forces is enough to justify federalizing under prong 3 (inability to execute the laws).
October 9, 2025 at 5:20 PM
This seems like the crux of Oregon's argument. If events on the ground here in Portland fly as a "rebellion," then the president can federalize any Nat'l Guard at more or less any time.
Oregon: On subject of whether events in Portland constitute a "rebellion," I think basically any crime or protest would qualify under DOJ's view, makes statutory provision meaningless.
October 3, 2025 at 6:54 PM
“War ravaged” Portland earlier today. Less than a mile from the ICE facility you’re seeing pictures of.
September 27, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Inside you are two wolves
September 1, 2025 at 12:24 AM
They're saying they dropped per prompt energy use by 33x in the last year. To me that's more important than the current energy usage. The industry is getting better at serving these models efficiently and it's happening fast.
Google says the median Gemini app text prompt consumes 0.24Wh of energy, about the same as running a microwave for a second, and emits 0.03g of CO2 equivalent (Casey Crownhart/MIT Technology Review)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
August 21, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Come on, the Streisand Effect is NOT supposed to be a marketing manual!
Tea, which claims to make dating safer for women, is the #2 app in the US App Store, despite multiple security flaws exposing private chats, photo IDs, and more (Ben Lovejoy/9to5Mac)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
July 29, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Reposted by Phil Kast
few outcomes, except for 99% of FDA-approved drugs, 174 recipients of 104 Nobel Prizes, training ~30K MDs and ~10K PhDs per year to enter the workforce, and a 34% reduction in age-adjusted cancer deaths since 1990 -- the largest decrease in history
Now do the Department of Defense budget, Andrew.

“Washington has thrown billions at NIH for decades with little accountability and few measurable outcomes,” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement to Future Pulse.

www.politico.com/newsletters/...
NIH spending battle’s ripple effect
www.politico.com
July 29, 2025 at 3:26 AM
July 24, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Moving across the point where the sheet goes from glass to opaque in Stocks in b4

Looks ready to me, ship it!
July 22, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Well I certainly agree that these years were not credible.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino says that "after two incredible years, I've decided to step down"; X hired Yaccarino in 2023 after running NBCUniversal's ad business (Sara Fischer/Axios)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
July 9, 2025 at 8:03 PM
I’m really liking the Preview and Games icons in the latest iOS beta
July 7, 2025 at 9:02 PM
I saw this and started thinking about Neuromancer for the first time in a long time. Some parts translate so easily to 2025 reality.
the "maybe this time will be different" theory of finance
June 30, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by Phil Kast
This rules!! I just want to say, we did this last Nov in Portland and it WORKED.

A bunch of acceptable candidates and one dude who really sucks is a scenario where ranked choice can really help.
May 24, 2025 at 5:57 AM
Strange to feel… hope?
June 25, 2025 at 2:02 AM
The iOS 26 contact card is really challenging my understanding of how layering is supposed to work in the new design system.
June 20, 2025 at 6:58 PM
This is so so sad
Mike, who died after being struck by a MAX train on Wednesday, was a true one-of-a-kind whose DIY activism focused on helping people in need. His work spanned more than a half-century and impacted many lives.

bikeportland.org/2025/06/20/m...
'Mayor Mike' O'Callaghan was 'living example of kindness and generosity'
"He was a living example of kindness and generosity."
bikeportland.org
June 20, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Yeah, but *which* patterns?
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
June 19, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Interesting paper. But I'm surprised to see this in the Time article about it. They clearly state they required gpt-4o in their experimental design section!
June 19, 2025 at 5:00 PM
No exaggeration to say if this land sells, it's the end of the American West as we know it.
🚨 There’s a lot of horrific news out of Washington right now—but you might have missed this: Senate Republicans just introduced a plan to sell off 120 million acres of our public lands.

Let me break down what’s in the bill and why it’s a full-scale land grab. 🧵
June 17, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Playing with glass effects on type, like the iOS 26 Lock Screen clock.
June 13, 2025 at 8:29 PM
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🕯 new tab button 🕯

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June 10, 2025 at 2:51 PM