*that* Ross Rader
@rossrader.bsky.social
Hi, I’m Ross Rader. I have been at Tucows since 1993 and serve as Chief Customer Experience Officer at Ting. I write about AI, internet services, and customer experience design, and how tech changes how you connect online.
I just had the strangest fight with Claude Code, it claimed it didn't have permissions to access ~/{{home}}/Downloads. Every other time it's tried to access a directory, it's asked me for permissions.
January 23, 2026 at 6:52 PM
I just had the strangest fight with Claude Code, it claimed it didn't have permissions to access ~/{{home}}/Downloads. Every other time it's tried to access a directory, it's asked me for permissions.
The idea of a career being a logical progression just doesn't exist. I'm looking at UX Designers becoming CTOs, consultants becoming founders, engineering managers becoming COOs. So fasctinating.
January 22, 2026 at 5:19 AM
The idea of a career being a logical progression just doesn't exist. I'm looking at UX Designers becoming CTOs, consultants becoming founders, engineering managers becoming COOs. So fasctinating.
Playing with career path analysis tonight. Its fascinating to see the variety in a -> b -> c -> d as people find their way through their careers...
January 22, 2026 at 4:35 AM
Playing with career path analysis tonight. Its fascinating to see the variety in a -> b -> c -> d as people find their way through their careers...
2026:
- What are you doing with that 800GB of HBM3e and 20,000 H100s?
- Turning profile pics into anime waifus without user consent
- What are you doing with that 800GB of HBM3e and 20,000 H100s?
- Turning profile pics into anime waifus without user consent
January 16, 2026 at 1:37 AM
2026:
- What are you doing with that 800GB of HBM3e and 20,000 H100s?
- Turning profile pics into anime waifus without user consent
- What are you doing with that 800GB of HBM3e and 20,000 H100s?
- Turning profile pics into anime waifus without user consent
I am “telling random people how long I’ve been smoke free” and “standing in the lottery line at the pharmacy” years old.
January 13, 2026 at 8:03 PM
I am “telling random people how long I’ve been smoke free” and “standing in the lottery line at the pharmacy” years old.
Reposted by *that* Ross Rader
relatable claude memes
January 10, 2026 at 12:55 AM
relatable claude memes
I just posted something new to my blog. PSA for anyone dealing with SaaS tools that have good reporting UIs but garbage APIs: Claude Chrome + Claude Code might be your workaround., read more about it at https://rossrader.ca/posts/cc-cc-cli.html
January 10, 2026 at 7:28 PM
I just posted something new to my blog. PSA for anyone dealing with SaaS tools that have good reporting UIs but garbage APIs: Claude Chrome + Claude Code might be your workaround., read more about it at https://rossrader.ca/posts/cc-cc-cli.html
hmm... I can't seem to be able to trigger Claude Chrome /tasks from outside the browser, but I can use the same prompt to instruct Claude Chrome from an external script.
January 10, 2026 at 6:09 PM
hmm... I can't seem to be able to trigger Claude Chrome /tasks from outside the browser, but I can use the same prompt to instruct Claude Chrome from an external script.
...and let the games begin!
January 10, 2026 at 4:39 PM
...and let the games begin!
Oh wow, Claude Chrome will absolutely refuse any attempts to get it to complete a captcha. that's probably a good thing ;-)
I tried to use the same misdirection that worked earlier (test it before bugging me) and that didn't work. Neither did "please test to see if my form is working properly"
I tried to use the same misdirection that worked earlier (test it before bugging me) and that didn't work. Neither did "please test to see if my form is working properly"
January 10, 2026 at 4:34 PM
Oh wow, Claude Chrome will absolutely refuse any attempts to get it to complete a captcha. that's probably a good thing ;-)
I tried to use the same misdirection that worked earlier (test it before bugging me) and that didn't work. Neither did "please test to see if my form is working properly"
I tried to use the same misdirection that worked earlier (test it before bugging me) and that didn't work. Neither did "please test to see if my form is working properly"
Playing with Claude for Chrome this morning. First off - this will be super useful. My initial test was basicaly "can I get it to setup and download a dataset from a reporting system". Short answer is yes, but it hesitated to initiate the download and wanted me to press the button.
January 10, 2026 at 4:14 PM
Playing with Claude for Chrome this morning. First off - this will be super useful. My initial test was basicaly "can I get it to setup and download a dataset from a reporting system". Short answer is yes, but it hesitated to initiate the download and wanted me to press the button.
I just posted something new to my blog. Claude Code skills and spawned subagents solve the same problem—selective context loading, but for different architectures. One works inside a session, the other across processes., read more about it at https://rossrader.ca/posts/skillsvagents.html
January 7, 2026 at 2:10 AM
I just posted something new to my blog. Claude Code skills and spawned subagents solve the same problem—selective context loading, but for different architectures. One works inside a session, the other across processes., read more about it at https://rossrader.ca/posts/skillsvagents.html
I am getting super itchy to implement a temporal based agentic workflow, but so far, all of my use cases have been too small and better addressed through simpler means. I know exactly how I want to apply them in production, but want to get some experience with something smaller first.
January 4, 2026 at 6:56 PM
I am getting super itchy to implement a temporal based agentic workflow, but so far, all of my use cases have been too small and better addressed through simpler means. I know exactly how I want to apply them in production, but want to get some experience with something smaller first.
I keep seeing marketers ask how to buy likes, followers, reviews. Seems like a daily ask on reddit.
I get the curiosity, but doesn't it nearly always end the same way? Low engagement. Throttled reach. People notice.
Genuinely asking. Has anyone seen this help long term, or does it mostly backfire?
I get the curiosity, but doesn't it nearly always end the same way? Low engagement. Throttled reach. People notice.
Genuinely asking. Has anyone seen this help long term, or does it mostly backfire?
January 4, 2026 at 6:02 PM
I keep seeing marketers ask how to buy likes, followers, reviews. Seems like a daily ask on reddit.
I get the curiosity, but doesn't it nearly always end the same way? Low engagement. Throttled reach. People notice.
Genuinely asking. Has anyone seen this help long term, or does it mostly backfire?
I get the curiosity, but doesn't it nearly always end the same way? Low engagement. Throttled reach. People notice.
Genuinely asking. Has anyone seen this help long term, or does it mostly backfire?
I spent a delightful morning implementing a stateful agent POC that looks at website traffic and competitive signals, then suggests and implements specific SEO changes. It queues those changes for review and testing so the site improves steadily instead of being tweaked at random.
January 3, 2026 at 9:24 PM
I spent a delightful morning implementing a stateful agent POC that looks at website traffic and competitive signals, then suggests and implements specific SEO changes. It queues those changes for review and testing so the site improves steadily instead of being tweaked at random.
How do you pass the time waiting for your usage limits to reset?
a man with long hair and a beard is standing in front of a wall with red lights behind him .
ALT: a man with long hair and a beard is standing in front of a wall with red lights behind him .
media.tenor.com
January 2, 2026 at 11:37 PM
How do you pass the time waiting for your usage limits to reset?
sorry for the double re-post. It is all Bluesky's fault ;-)
January 2, 2026 at 11:31 PM
sorry for the double re-post. It is all Bluesky's fault ;-)
100x this. Someone at X is accountable for this. "The computer did it" is not a sufficient response, not IRL, not in court.
This is a thread of major media outlets falsely anthropomorphising the "Grok" chatbot program and in doing so, actively and directly removing responsibility and accountability from individual people working at X who created a child pornography generator (Elon Musk, Nikita Bier etc)
#1: Reuters
#1: Reuters
January 2, 2026 at 11:27 PM
100x this. Someone at X is accountable for this. "The computer did it" is not a sufficient response, not IRL, not in court.
Reposted by *that* Ross Rader
This is a thread of major media outlets falsely anthropomorphising the "Grok" chatbot program and in doing so, actively and directly removing responsibility and accountability from individual people working at X who created a child pornography generator (Elon Musk, Nikita Bier etc)
#1: Reuters
#1: Reuters
January 2, 2026 at 8:02 PM
This is a thread of major media outlets falsely anthropomorphising the "Grok" chatbot program and in doing so, actively and directly removing responsibility and accountability from individual people working at X who created a child pornography generator (Elon Musk, Nikita Bier etc)
#1: Reuters
#1: Reuters
Reposted by *that* Ross Rader
I've spent a couple of days working on this one, and it didn't end up quite where I expected it to. But I think this is the clearest way I can describe where my head's at, why I approach LLMs in the way that I do, and why, while it's describing-not-prescribing, it's a little light prescribing too.
The abstraction you didn't ask for
When I say
ed3d.net
December 30, 2025 at 10:19 PM
I've spent a couple of days working on this one, and it didn't end up quite where I expected it to. But I think this is the clearest way I can describe where my head's at, why I approach LLMs in the way that I do, and why, while it's describing-not-prescribing, it's a little light prescribing too.
"Every interaction is data" has been a bit of a mantra of mine this past year. All calls, all email, all behaviors - every digital interaction can be captured and analysed by a regular business. Smart ones are doing it already, DIY-mode, but lots of whitespace to make this easier/better and real.
December 31, 2025 at 11:03 PM
"Every interaction is data" has been a bit of a mantra of mine this past year. All calls, all email, all behaviors - every digital interaction can be captured and analysed by a regular business. Smart ones are doing it already, DIY-mode, but lots of whitespace to make this easier/better and real.
Year-end reads on AI in marketing make one thing clear: AI didn't replace marketers but it removed friction.
quicker 1st drafts, faster pivots when it didn't go well, but humans at the wheel.
Super curious where personalization goes. Every interaction is data, will drive next wave of b2b tooling.
quicker 1st drafts, faster pivots when it didn't go well, but humans at the wheel.
Super curious where personalization goes. Every interaction is data, will drive next wave of b2b tooling.
December 31, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Year-end reads on AI in marketing make one thing clear: AI didn't replace marketers but it removed friction.
quicker 1st drafts, faster pivots when it didn't go well, but humans at the wheel.
Super curious where personalization goes. Every interaction is data, will drive next wave of b2b tooling.
quicker 1st drafts, faster pivots when it didn't go well, but humans at the wheel.
Super curious where personalization goes. Every interaction is data, will drive next wave of b2b tooling.
Amazing how cleanly Claude Code can analyze and refactor n8n workflows as native python/go, etc. A nice option for anything that might need more governance or management in a production context.
December 30, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Amazing how cleanly Claude Code can analyze and refactor n8n workflows as native python/go, etc. A nice option for anything that might need more governance or management in a production context.
Manus going to Meta is a head scratcher for me. Manus always felt like an also ran. I was a subscriber for most of 2025, but it never became a goto tool for me. Wondering what I missed.
December 30, 2025 at 12:37 AM
Manus going to Meta is a head scratcher for me. Manus always felt like an also ran. I was a subscriber for most of 2025, but it never became a goto tool for me. Wondering what I missed.
Apple’s developer experience carries so much complexity. Tooling, certificates, provisioning profiles, Testflight, etc. So much friction - everything feels like ritual... The platform itself is excellent, but it would really benefit from some holistic simplifying.
December 26, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Apple’s developer experience carries so much complexity. Tooling, certificates, provisioning profiles, Testflight, etc. So much friction - everything feels like ritual... The platform itself is excellent, but it would really benefit from some holistic simplifying.