Robert Smallshire
@robert.smallshire.no
Founding Tubetrain 🚀. Building Demonstrable® at Sixty North. Director for lithium explorer Transition Elements. "utterly competent". Geoscience PhD. 330 ppm CO₂. Caver. 🇳🇴🇬🇧
Reposted by Robert Smallshire
Finally, finally getting off my butt and getting off all possible US goods and services. Some will just take longer than others! www.goeuropean.org
Go European — Discover European products and services
Go European is a community-driven directory bringing you European products and services from across the continent.
www.goeuropean.org
January 20, 2026 at 7:45 AM
Finally, finally getting off my butt and getting off all possible US goods and services. Some will just take longer than others! www.goeuropean.org
Reposted by Robert Smallshire
First US tech company/service dropped from my life, long overdue: Backblaze. Lets go for Norwegian company Jottcloud instead.
10 minutes work to change my rclone backup script over to use Jotta instead for backups, and hey - a waaay nicer UX in their web console, to boot 🙂🪄
10 minutes work to change my rclone backup script over to use Jotta instead for backups, and hey - a waaay nicer UX in their web console, to boot 🙂🪄
January 20, 2026 at 9:37 AM
First US tech company/service dropped from my life, long overdue: Backblaze. Lets go for Norwegian company Jottcloud instead.
10 minutes work to change my rclone backup script over to use Jotta instead for backups, and hey - a waaay nicer UX in their web console, to boot 🙂🪄
10 minutes work to change my rclone backup script over to use Jotta instead for backups, and hey - a waaay nicer UX in their web console, to boot 🙂🪄
The best use of American AI today would be to help Europe build its own sovereign technologies: operating systems, social media, communications, semiconductors, defence, and yes, more AI. While the subsidies are flowing, let them underwrite a future of genuine technological independence.
January 17, 2026 at 7:22 PM
The best use of American AI today would be to help Europe build its own sovereign technologies: operating systems, social media, communications, semiconductors, defence, and yes, more AI. While the subsidies are flowing, let them underwrite a future of genuine technological independence.
I worked in C++ from 1995 to 2010, then in Python from 2010 to 2025. I've been building complex native application in C++ again recently, almost entirely mediated by AI. It's hard to leave a 100x performance gain on the table when the dev- experience of interpreted versus native code is eliminated.
January 10, 2026 at 11:29 AM
I worked in C++ from 1995 to 2010, then in Python from 2010 to 2025. I've been building complex native application in C++ again recently, almost entirely mediated by AI. It's hard to leave a 100x performance gain on the table when the dev- experience of interpreted versus native code is eliminated.
One Earth radius of cycling in 2025 achieved. For the other geo-pedants out there, a distance slightly greater than that from the summit of Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador, which at 6384.4 km is the furthest point from the centre of the Earth. 🌍 🚴♂️
December 29, 2025 at 2:45 PM
One Earth radius of cycling in 2025 achieved. For the other geo-pedants out there, a distance slightly greater than that from the summit of Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador, which at 6384.4 km is the furthest point from the centre of the Earth. 🌍 🚴♂️
This misses what’s happening: a categorical shift from specifying program representations in ever higher-level languages, to delegation. I’m no longer expressing programs; I’m directing an agent that expresses and manipulates programs. The directions themselves are ephemeral.
The entire history of software engineering is one of rising levels of abstraction.
This is as it was, is now, and always shall be.
x.com/karpathy/sta...
This is as it was, is now, and always shall be.
x.com/karpathy/sta...
Andrej Karpathy on X: "I've never felt this much behind as a programmer. The profession is being dramatically refactored as the bits contributed by the programmer are increasingly sparse and between. I have a sense that I could be 10X more powerful if I just properly string together what has become" / X
I've never felt this much behind as a programmer. The profession is being dramatically refactored as the bits contributed by the programmer are increasingly sparse and between. I have a sense that I could be 10X more powerful if I just properly string together what has become
x.com
December 28, 2025 at 9:04 PM
This misses what’s happening: a categorical shift from specifying program representations in ever higher-level languages, to delegation. I’m no longer expressing programs; I’m directing an agent that expresses and manipulates programs. The directions themselves are ephemeral.
On zero-sum thinking. www.ft.com/content/30a4...
December 19, 2025 at 1:14 PM
On zero-sum thinking. www.ft.com/content/30a4...
Reposted by Robert Smallshire
Favorite so far
Initial conditions:
m1=82.9 m2=2.7 m3=8.2 (solar masses)
v1x=-6.105 v1y=6.072 v2x=-3.054 v2y=1.677 v3x=-2.638 v3y=-3.927 (km/s)
x1=2.0 y1=-7.0 x2=-5.0 y2=31.0 x3=32.0 y3=10.0 (AU from center)
Music: The Blue Danube Waltz – Strauss
m1=82.9 m2=2.7 m3=8.2 (solar masses)
v1x=-6.105 v1y=6.072 v2x=-3.054 v2y=1.677 v3x=-2.638 v3y=-3.927 (km/s)
x1=2.0 y1=-7.0 x2=-5.0 y2=31.0 x3=32.0 y3=10.0 (AU from center)
Music: The Blue Danube Waltz – Strauss
December 17, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Favorite so far
Reposted by Robert Smallshire
December 13, 2025 at 4:59 AM
Reposted by Robert Smallshire
"I hate AI because it states blatantly wrong things confidently sometimes. And also because it uses 50 gajillion gallons of water per query."
December 10, 2025 at 8:56 PM
"I hate AI because it states blatantly wrong things confidently sometimes. And also because it uses 50 gajillion gallons of water per query."
Slop in, slop out.
December 11, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Slop in, slop out.
Why are Apple emulating failing eyesight with their new Liquid Glass app icon filter?
December 10, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Why are Apple emulating failing eyesight with their new Liquid Glass app icon filter?
Empire of AI by @karenhao.bsky.social contains serious errors regarding data centre water use. I thought it was an important book which I’ve recommended to folks, but I won’t be recommending it further unless a heavily revised second edition is published. andymasley.substack.com/p/empire-of-...
Empire of AI is wildly misleading on AI water use
And the media environment that didn't catch this is getting this issue wrong
andymasley.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Empire of AI by @karenhao.bsky.social contains serious errors regarding data centre water use. I thought it was an important book which I’ve recommended to folks, but I won’t be recommending it further unless a heavily revised second edition is published. andymasley.substack.com/p/empire-of-...
The people making a pig’s ear of programming _with_ AI are mostly the same ones who made a pig’s ear of it _without_ AI. Still talking only about features, still ignoring system qualities. Same mindset, new tools, same outcome.
December 9, 2025 at 11:33 PM
The people making a pig’s ear of programming _with_ AI are mostly the same ones who made a pig’s ear of it _without_ AI. Still talking only about features, still ignoring system qualities. Same mindset, new tools, same outcome.
When you realise that the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect applies to all of Wikipedia.
Status: Fixing Human Slop on Wikipedia.
December 8, 2025 at 3:49 PM
When you realise that the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect applies to all of Wikipedia.
Status: Fixing Human Slop on Wikipedia.
December 7, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Status: Fixing Human Slop on Wikipedia.
From 1998: “An [SGI] Octane system featuring 250-MHz R10000 processor, meanwhile, will drop from $38,995 to $24,995.”
I was coding on systems like this around the turn of the millennium. There’s a huge upside in how much money we’ll be prepared to pay for AI tooling. $200/month is nothing.
I was coding on systems like this around the turn of the millennium. There’s a huge upside in how much money we’ll be prepared to pay for AI tooling. $200/month is nothing.
November 30, 2025 at 8:27 AM
From 1998: “An [SGI] Octane system featuring 250-MHz R10000 processor, meanwhile, will drop from $38,995 to $24,995.”
I was coding on systems like this around the turn of the millennium. There’s a huge upside in how much money we’ll be prepared to pay for AI tooling. $200/month is nothing.
I was coding on systems like this around the turn of the millennium. There’s a huge upside in how much money we’ll be prepared to pay for AI tooling. $200/month is nothing.
I can't help but wonder if this post would have got more attention on his platform if I had omitted the word 'vibe'.
I became interested in a space-filling foam called the Weaire-Phelan structure. I struggled to build intuition from static pictures, so I vibe-coded a geometry generator in Python and a custom visualiser in ThreeJS. From idea to realisation in 90 minutes.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG1E...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG1E...
Visualising the Weaire-Phelan Structure
YouTube video by Robert Smallshire
www.youtube.com
November 29, 2025 at 9:01 PM
I can't help but wonder if this post would have got more attention on his platform if I had omitted the word 'vibe'.
I became interested in a space-filling foam called the Weaire-Phelan structure. I struggled to build intuition from static pictures, so I vibe-coded a geometry generator in Python and a custom visualiser in ThreeJS. From idea to realisation in 90 minutes.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG1E...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG1E...
Visualising the Weaire-Phelan Structure
YouTube video by Robert Smallshire
www.youtube.com
November 29, 2025 at 2:46 PM
I became interested in a space-filling foam called the Weaire-Phelan structure. I struggled to build intuition from static pictures, so I vibe-coded a geometry generator in Python and a custom visualiser in ThreeJS. From idea to realisation in 90 minutes.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG1E...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG1E...
Prediction (10 years) : The revolution currently underway in coding will be almost complete.
Prediction (10 years) : There will be more programming than ever, but primarily in English, not in high-level programming languages like Python, C# or Java.
English: HL-PLLs :: HL-PLLs : assembly
Prediction (10 years) : There will be more programming than ever, but primarily in English, not in high-level programming languages like Python, C# or Java.
English: HL-PLLs :: HL-PLLs : assembly
November 29, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Prediction (10 years) : The revolution currently underway in coding will be almost complete.
Prediction (10 years) : There will be more programming than ever, but primarily in English, not in high-level programming languages like Python, C# or Java.
English: HL-PLLs :: HL-PLLs : assembly
Prediction (10 years) : There will be more programming than ever, but primarily in English, not in high-level programming languages like Python, C# or Java.
English: HL-PLLs :: HL-PLLs : assembly
Computing finally produces phenomena that demand the scientific method to understand and leverage, only to reveal that Computer Scientists were never taught how to do science.
November 26, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Computing finally produces phenomena that demand the scientific method to understand and leverage, only to reveal that Computer Scientists were never taught how to do science.
To all the programmers out there, TIL that the number of centiseconds in a day is divisible by 256.
November 24, 2025 at 9:06 PM
To all the programmers out there, TIL that the number of centiseconds in a day is divisible by 256.
Fractal yak shaving status: Annotating the disassembly of an operating system at well past my bedtime.
November 5, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Fractal yak shaving status: Annotating the disassembly of an operating system at well past my bedtime.
"I apologize - I made a mistake. When I did git stash drop, I permanently deleted your uncommitted changes."
Thanks, Claude. 🤦
Thanks, Claude. 🤦
October 28, 2025 at 1:29 PM
"I apologize - I made a mistake. When I did git stash drop, I permanently deleted your uncommitted changes."
Thanks, Claude. 🤦
Thanks, Claude. 🤦
Convinced the crisis of app UX is a result of a generation of designers who have never experienced computers being used (and needed!) for serious work.
A fucking avalanche of triviality.
A fucking avalanche of triviality.
October 24, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Convinced the crisis of app UX is a result of a generation of designers who have never experienced computers being used (and needed!) for serious work.
A fucking avalanche of triviality.
A fucking avalanche of triviality.