@robf.bsky.social
Technologist, repeat founder, investor, dad, music and comedy lover. Currently giving another start-up my all.
Goddamnit Donut!
Goddamnit Donut!
Reposted
I've been getting a lot of value using coding agents for code research tasks recently - I have a dedicated simonw/research GitHub repo and I frequently have them run detailed experiments and write up the results. Here's how I'm doing that + some examples:
simonwillison.net/2025/Nov/6/a...
simonwillison.net/2025/Nov/6/a...
Code research projects with async coding agents like Claude Code and Codex
I’ve been experimenting with a pattern for LLM usage recently that’s working out really well: asynchronous code research tasks. Pick a research question, spin up an asynchronous coding agent and …
simonwillison.net
November 6, 2025 at 3:56 PM
I've been getting a lot of value using coding agents for code research tasks recently - I have a dedicated simonw/research GitHub repo and I frequently have them run detailed experiments and write up the results. Here's how I'm doing that + some examples:
simonwillison.net/2025/Nov/6/a...
simonwillison.net/2025/Nov/6/a...
Reposted
Scoop: FBI ousts senior official after Kash Patel’s fury over news of his use of government jet to see girlfriend perform. The removed head of critical incident response group was 27-year FBI veteran who oversaw aviation sections.
news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/fbi-o...
news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/fbi-o...
FBI Ousts Leader as Patel Fumes Over Attention to Agency Jet Use
The FBI forced out a senior official overseeing aviation shortly after Director Kash Patel grew outraged about revelations of his publicly-available jet logs indicating he’d flown to see his musician ...
news.bloomberglaw.com
November 1, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Scoop: FBI ousts senior official after Kash Patel’s fury over news of his use of government jet to see girlfriend perform. The removed head of critical incident response group was 27-year FBI veteran who oversaw aviation sections.
news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/fbi-o...
news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/fbi-o...
Reposted
First Trump administration story in a while that genuinely shocked me:
Rubio promised to betray U.S. informants to get Trump’s El Salvador prison deal
To secure U.S. access to President Nayib Bukele’s notorious CECOT prison, Rubio agreed to turn over several MS-13 leaders central to a long-running Justice Department investigation.
www.washingtonpost.com
October 19, 2025 at 1:00 PM
First Trump administration story in a while that genuinely shocked me:
Reposted
There are basically only two positions in the debate about AI.
1. I’ve barely invested any time in learning how to use it effectively. AI sucks.
2. I’ve invested in learning how to use this tool. Holy cow, it’s transformational.
Position #1 has lower barriers to entry.
1. I’ve barely invested any time in learning how to use it effectively. AI sucks.
2. I’ve invested in learning how to use this tool. Holy cow, it’s transformational.
Position #1 has lower barriers to entry.
October 17, 2025 at 12:12 AM
There are basically only two positions in the debate about AI.
1. I’ve barely invested any time in learning how to use it effectively. AI sucks.
2. I’ve invested in learning how to use this tool. Holy cow, it’s transformational.
Position #1 has lower barriers to entry.
1. I’ve barely invested any time in learning how to use it effectively. AI sucks.
2. I’ve invested in learning how to use this tool. Holy cow, it’s transformational.
Position #1 has lower barriers to entry.
Reposted
As a parent with a kid who’s starting to play games on the iPad, I’m so pissed at the predatory state of kid’s games.
1. I pay $7 to remove all ads from this game. Yet catch my kid watching ads - even after paying they are offered to watch for in-game rewards. WTH
2. (cont’d)
1. I pay $7 to remove all ads from this game. Yet catch my kid watching ads - even after paying they are offered to watch for in-game rewards. WTH
2. (cont’d)
October 9, 2025 at 9:05 AM
As a parent with a kid who’s starting to play games on the iPad, I’m so pissed at the predatory state of kid’s games.
1. I pay $7 to remove all ads from this game. Yet catch my kid watching ads - even after paying they are offered to watch for in-game rewards. WTH
2. (cont’d)
1. I pay $7 to remove all ads from this game. Yet catch my kid watching ads - even after paying they are offered to watch for in-game rewards. WTH
2. (cont’d)
Reposted
I liked the breakdown from Pragmatic Engineer about ways that companies measure agentic coding usage:
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-tech-c...
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-tech-c...
How tech companies measure the impact of AI on software development
How do GitHub, Google, Dropbox, Monzo, Atlassian, and 13 other companies know how well AI tools work for devs? A deepdive sharing exclusive details, with CTO Laura Tacho
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com
September 24, 2025 at 6:07 AM
I liked the breakdown from Pragmatic Engineer about ways that companies measure agentic coding usage:
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-tech-c...
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-tech-c...
Reposted
Some notes on the new CodingBench benchmark which scores LLMs on how well they can accomplish gnarly code compilation challenges, including digging into the Go source code to figure out how its agentic loop works simonwillison.net/2025/Sep/22/...
CompileBench: Can AI Compile 22-year-old Code?
Interesting new LLM benchmark from Piotr Grabowski and Piotr Migdał: how well can different models handle compilation challenges such as cross-compiling gucr for ARM64 architecture? This is one of my ...
simonwillison.net
September 22, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Some notes on the new CodingBench benchmark which scores LLMs on how well they can accomplish gnarly code compilation challenges, including digging into the Go source code to figure out how its agentic loop works simonwillison.net/2025/Sep/22/...
Reposted
More than that. "The FBI ***recorded*** Tom Homan taking the money "after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration."
Tom Homan was investigated for accepting $50,000 from undercover FBI agents. Trump's DOJ shut it down.
The FBI and Justice officials closed the investigation, which a Justice Department appointee had called a “deep state” probe in early 2025.
www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...
The FBI and Justice officials closed the investigation, which a Justice Department appointee had called a “deep state” probe in early 2025.
www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...
Tom Homan was investigated for accepting $50,000 from undercover FBI agents. Trump's DOJ shut it down.
The FBI and Justice officials closed the investigation, which a Justice Department appointee had called a “deep state” probe in early 2025.
www.msnbc.com
September 20, 2025 at 8:19 PM
More than that. "The FBI ***recorded*** Tom Homan taking the money "after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration."
Reposted
I always love those lists of "35 under 35," but as I get older, I find that I would love to know about innovations/art from people over 65. "65 over 65" please. Elders have incredible ideas that are the result of having seen the full lifecycle of previous ideas and learned from it.
September 8, 2025 at 11:09 PM
I always love those lists of "35 under 35," but as I get older, I find that I would love to know about innovations/art from people over 65. "65 over 65" please. Elders have incredible ideas that are the result of having seen the full lifecycle of previous ideas and learned from it.
Reposted
The No. 2 at NIH repeatedly insisted vaccines are unnecessary in a healthy society even when presented evidence healthy children died of flu, according to whistleblower complaints.
@carolynyjohnson.bsky.social reports www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
@carolynyjohnson.bsky.social reports www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
September 5, 2025 at 12:35 PM
The No. 2 at NIH repeatedly insisted vaccines are unnecessary in a healthy society even when presented evidence healthy children died of flu, according to whistleblower complaints.
@carolynyjohnson.bsky.social reports www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
@carolynyjohnson.bsky.social reports www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...
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Welcome to the Golden Age of Weaponization... 🫥 @mmasnick.bsky.social: 'Now...we’re getting to see what actual censorship looks like—and surprise, surprise, it’s coming from the very people who complained the loudest about being silenced.' www.techdirt.com/2025/09/03/t... @noupside.bsky.social
The Censorship Crybabies Are Now The Censors: FDA’s Vinay Prasad Uses Copyright Claims To Silence Critic
It’s always fascinating to watch supposed “free speech warriors” reveal their true colors the moment they get a tiny bit of power. We’ve been covering the ongoing saga of va…
www.techdirt.com
September 4, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Welcome to the Golden Age of Weaponization... 🫥 @mmasnick.bsky.social: 'Now...we’re getting to see what actual censorship looks like—and surprise, surprise, it’s coming from the very people who complained the loudest about being silenced.' www.techdirt.com/2025/09/03/t... @noupside.bsky.social
Reposted
Bringing BASIC back: Microsoft’s 6502 BASIC is now Open Source opensource.microsoft.com/blog/2025/09...
Microsoft Releases Historic 6502 BASIC - Microsoft Open Source Blog
Explore the original 6502 BASIC—now open source! Dive into retro code, history, and emulators. Fork it, run it, and relive computing's roots.
opensource.microsoft.com
September 3, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Bringing BASIC back: Microsoft’s 6502 BASIC is now Open Source opensource.microsoft.com/blog/2025/09...
Reposted
Every reputable expert I know considers mRNA vaccine technology to be one of the most revolutionary advances in medicine in our lifetimes. Its inventors won the Nobel Prize in 2023. Shutting it down now is pointless self-harm to humanity.
Release from HHS: HHS will wind down its development of the mRNA vaccine development activities under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
August 5, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Every reputable expert I know considers mRNA vaccine technology to be one of the most revolutionary advances in medicine in our lifetimes. Its inventors won the Nobel Prize in 2023. Shutting it down now is pointless self-harm to humanity.
Reposted
With Tom Lehrer's passing, I suppose this is a moment to share the story of the prank he played on the National Security Agency, and how it went undiscovered for nearly 60 years.
July 27, 2025 at 9:01 PM
With Tom Lehrer's passing, I suppose this is a moment to share the story of the prank he played on the National Security Agency, and how it went undiscovered for nearly 60 years.
Reposted
I've had this headline rattling around in my brain since January and I finally wrote it. Been hearing too many people in the startup world buying into the neoractionary nonsense that maybe a little light fascism is good for silicon valley. It's not. It's very, very bad.
Fascism For First Time Founders
Over the last year or so I've seen a disturbing tendency in tech/startup/VC worlds to buy into the neoreactionary view that for startups to be successful they need to get on board the Trump train. Yes, there are the big name folks who everyone knows about and who…
Over the last year or so I've seen a disturbing tendency in tech/startup/VC worlds to buy into the neoreactionary view that for startups to be successful they need to get on board the Trump train. Yes, there are the big name folks who everyone knows about and who…
Fascism For First Time Founders
Over the last year or so I've seen a disturbing tendency in tech/startup/VC worlds to buy into the neoreactionary view that for startups to be successful they need to get on board the Trump train. Yes, there are the big name folks who everyone knows about and who didn't really surprise anyone—Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, David Sacks, Elon Musk (pre-fallout)—but the more troubling trend has been watching younger entrepreneurs and VCs listen to their podcasts, read their posts and books, and slowly nod along to the idea that democracy is holding back innovation.
www.techdirt.com
July 17, 2025 at 7:16 PM
I've had this headline rattling around in my brain since January and I finally wrote it. Been hearing too many people in the startup world buying into the neoractionary nonsense that maybe a little light fascism is good for silicon valley. It's not. It's very, very bad.
Reposted
The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Susan J. Kressly, said "creation of federal immunization policy is ‘no longer a credible process.’”
June 27, 2025 at 1:51 AM
The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Susan J. Kressly, said "creation of federal immunization policy is ‘no longer a credible process.’”
Decision in the Anthropic fair-use case has dropped:
www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
Anthropic wins key ruling on AI in authors' copyright lawsuit
A federal judge in San Francisco ruled late Monday that Anthropic's use of books without permission to train its artificial intelligence system was legal under U.S. copyright law.
www.reuters.com
June 24, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Decision in the Anthropic fair-use case has dropped:
www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
Reposted
In these dark times, it’s great to come together and find something we can all take joy in.
May 17, 2025 at 2:15 AM
In these dark times, it’s great to come together and find something we can all take joy in.
I unabashedly recommend DCC!
i really need everyone on bluesky to start reading Dungeon Crawler Carl and start talking about it on the timeline and making fan art and stuff specifically for me to read and look at
May 15, 2025 at 3:11 PM
I unabashedly recommend DCC!
Reposted
OK, this is wild.
In September 2023, geophysicists across the world started monitoring a very odd signal coming from the ground under them.
It was picked up in the Arctic. And Antarctica. It was detected everywhere, every 90 seconds, as regular as a metronome, for *nine days*.
What the HELL?
1/
In September 2023, geophysicists across the world started monitoring a very odd signal coming from the ground under them.
It was picked up in the Arctic. And Antarctica. It was detected everywhere, every 90 seconds, as regular as a metronome, for *nine days*.
What the HELL?
1/
May 12, 2025 at 3:20 PM
OK, this is wild.
In September 2023, geophysicists across the world started monitoring a very odd signal coming from the ground under them.
It was picked up in the Arctic. And Antarctica. It was detected everywhere, every 90 seconds, as regular as a metronome, for *nine days*.
What the HELL?
1/
In September 2023, geophysicists across the world started monitoring a very odd signal coming from the ground under them.
It was picked up in the Arctic. And Antarctica. It was detected everywhere, every 90 seconds, as regular as a metronome, for *nine days*.
What the HELL?
1/
Reposted
A hill I’ll keep dying on: Whatever your politics, the fact that so many U.S. leaders do not understand basic constitutional law—or willfully distort it—reflects extremely poorly on our country.
May 8, 2025 at 8:15 PM
A hill I’ll keep dying on: Whatever your politics, the fact that so many U.S. leaders do not understand basic constitutional law—or willfully distort it—reflects extremely poorly on our country.
Reposted
I wrote something up for AI people who want to get into bluesky and either couldn't assemble an exciting feed or gave up doomscrolling when their Following feed switched to talking politics 24/7.
The AI Researcher's Guide to a Non-Boring Bluesky Feed | Naomi Saphra
How to migrate to bsky without a boring feed.
nsaphra.net
April 26, 2025 at 1:31 AM
I wrote something up for AI people who want to get into bluesky and either couldn't assemble an exciting feed or gave up doomscrolling when their Following feed switched to talking politics 24/7.
Reposted
Here's my blogpost in support of Krebs. It's different enough from those by @stamos.org or @k8em0.bsky.social that it's worth writing, though the conclusion is much the same.
cybersect.substack.com/p/i-am-speak...
cybersect.substack.com/p/i-am-speak...
I am speaking up in support of Chris Krebs
We all need to
cybersect.substack.com
April 17, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Here's my blogpost in support of Krebs. It's different enough from those by @stamos.org or @k8em0.bsky.social that it's worth writing, though the conclusion is much the same.
cybersect.substack.com/p/i-am-speak...
cybersect.substack.com/p/i-am-speak...
Reposted
How it started // How it’s going
April 12, 2025 at 10:18 PM
How it started // How it’s going
Reposted
Yep! We're working on getting a retrospective page for the talks up. In the mean time you can find all of the talks up in this YouTube playlist: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
ATmosphereConf Seattle 2025 - YouTube
Recorded talks from the ATmosphereConf Seattle conference held in March 2025 https://atprotocol.dev/atmosphereconf/ The ATmosphere Conference was a 2 day eve...
www.youtube.com
April 2, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Yep! We're working on getting a retrospective page for the talks up. In the mean time you can find all of the talks up in this YouTube playlist: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...