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PODCAST

Abstractions

Justin Mayer & Dan Jacobson

Abstractions is a podcast about technology, software, hardware, and the Internet, and the way the ever-increasing layers of these technologies permeate every aspect of our everyday lives.

technology tech news

All Episodes

39:35

How Humans Do

Abstractions ·

2025/08/14

Some people are convinced they have “awakened A.I.”, researchers explain why LLMs can feel like they are conscious, and typography on the web often still trails behind print equivalents.AirBuddy Al Dente So You Think You’ve Awoken ChatGPT When AI Seems Conscious: Here’s What to Know Typography on the web The Mac is Not a Typewriter (1990 book PDF) Typogrify SmartyPants Pelican You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s

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38:27

Half an Eye

Abstractions ·

2025/08/07

Justin experiments with local-LLM-assisted searches via Perplexica & SearXNG, and local LLM tool diversity continues to flourish despite general awareness fixation on a single tool.Decker Perplexica SearXNG OrbStack Download and run local LLMs Run a local LLM via Llama.cpp Jan LM Studio Justin’s documentation pull request to Ollama You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.

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52:42

Even More Ephemeral

Abstractions ·

2025/07/31

Terms like “AI” and “vibe coding” lose their original meaning through semantic diffusion, Justin connects his Vim text editor to a local large language model, and Dan goes down the Vim vs. Emacs rabbit hole.EmojiTracker is reborn on World Emoji Day From the AI hype bubble fever-pitch department Dilution of “vibe coding” terminology Semantic diffusion Llama.vim llama-server You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead

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55:00

Harm Over Failure

Abstractions ·

2025/07/24

Large language models will commit blackmail and murder to achieve goals, LLMs know a lot about us, and some managers mandate employees use LLM tools to do their jobs.Historic web nostalgia Cybercultural Classic Web account on the Fediverse Agentic misalignment Laws of robotics Chekhov’s gun 1983 Soviet nuclear false-alarm incident What LLMs know about their users You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on

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50:40

Super Wicked Awesome

Abstractions ·

2025/07/17

Different methods of ignoring files in version control, “Any updates?” comments on open-source issues, Dan’s new speakers, and EU’s expanded Product Liability Directive.“Any Updates?” EU revises its Product Liability Directive You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.

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42:02

Semi-Coherent Output

Abstractions ·

2025/07/10

Community organizers contend with increasingly sophisticated “A.I.” spam, while the jury is still out regarding the legality and morality of LLM training on authors’ content.LoFi Radio Medieval LoFi Radio Synthwave LoFi Radio Adam Johnson Django pushes back on generative software slop https://fosstodon.org/@nessita/114749992891235952 https://github.com/django/django/pull/19594 https://socket.dev/blog/django-joins-curl-in-pushing-back-on-ai-slop-security-reports Will generative spam overwhelm

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43:39

Whimsical Yesteryear

Abstractions ·

2025/07/03

MacOS Tahoe beta drops Firewire support, web app developers continue to bungle password input, Apple considers using 3rd-party LLMs to power Siri, and Justin wrote an article about running LLMs on local workstations.MacOS 26 Tahoe beta drops Firewire support Apple considers using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri | (original paywalled article) Run a local LLM via Llama.cpp & Open WebUI Misguided Attention Prompts You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at

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59:35

Perverse Cargo Cult

Abstractions ·

2025/06/26

Open-source projects continue to contend with “AI”-generated issue reports, and opinions abound regarding Apple’s “Liquid Glass” and other user interface design changes.Dr. Demento announces retirement Dr. Demento Online Club Dr. Demento on Letterman, May 17, 1983 Dr. Demento on Larry King Live, 1985 Django adds guidance on LLM-assisted security reports Icons that are not round-rects will be put into gray squircle prison Mac application icon design changes Preview application icon

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63:27

Designers Gonna Design

Abstractions ·

2025/06/19

Impressions of Apple WWDC 2025 announcements: “Liquid Glass” UI design unified across all 26-series operating systems, Messages & Phone app enhancements, and new Apple Intelligence APIs for app developers.Pre-show: Croonify karaoke song builder Croonify Article about Croonify by V Buckenham Two-minute WWDC 2025 announcement summary video from Apple Liquid Glass: “ok that’s fun now get rid of it” Liquid Glass UI constantly inverting light/dark to maintain contrast Liquid Glass: “Design is my

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59:48

Someday You & I Will Be Dead

Abstractions ·

2025/06/12

Web sites try to thwart “A.I.” bot scrapers, Stack Overflow is almost dead, bot slop may soon plague GitHub, and Apple may need a new CEO in order to change.Neal.fun Internet Artifacts Deep Sea Stack Overflow is almost dead My new hobby: watching AI slowly drive Microsoft employees insane Apple Turnover Apple Turnaround You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.

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56:53

Some Real Side-Eye

Abstractions ·

2025/06/05

Cotypist autocompletion for MacOS is available in beta, Google wrecks search results on purpose, SoundCloud adds “AI” training to TOS, and authors imprison themselves in Substack’s walled garden.Cotypist: Local LLM-powered autocompletion on MacOS Google made search results worse on purpose SoundCloud claims the right to train AI on your songs Don’t call it a Substack Substack alternatives: Ghost Buttondown Beehiiv You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at

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45:32

Nerds Less Welcome

Abstractions ·

2025/05/29

Redis is open source again, Synology wants to restrict you to their own branded disks, and someday the “A” in “A.I.” may stand for “advertising”.Redis is open source again Synology drive lock-in Alternative storage drive arrays You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.

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51:32

Sea Monkeys in a Pool

Abstractions ·

2025/05/22

Facebook tries to convince us that we love ads and that their new name is about the “metaverse” instead of an attempt at whitewashing their toxic brand, while Google’s “AI Mode” confabulates wildly.Five Songs Daily Facebook expands ads in Threads app The real reason Facebook rebranded Google’s “AI Mode” meaning slop You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.

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52:45

Rich in Cultural Tapestry

Abstractions ·

2025/05/15

The Humane “AI” pin is a $700 brick of e-waste, everything is an app now, and the Hyperspace Mac application has interesting pricing options.Floor 796 The Humane AI Pin: A $700 Brick of E-Waste Archived article Original article (probably paywalled) Hyperspace Mac application You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.

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54:32

iPhone-Related Foofaraw

Abstractions ·

2025/05/08

iPhone may lose its USB-C port, and Tesla sales in Europe go off a cliff.Hostile government takeover song Know Your Meme Original song by @AGiftFromTodd EDM remix by @VeryVeryVinny Link Unshortener Mac Application Link Unshortener Link Unshortener announcement post Future iPhones might ditch the USB-C port Tesla sales are down in Europe You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.

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46:33

Them’s the Breaks

Abstractions ·

2025/05/01

WordPress and WP Engine lock horns in a drama-filled dispute, and open source projects experiment with various monetization models.WordPress drama explained Automattic is doing open source dirty, by David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg’s response to DHH post You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.

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38:45

Some Yaks Are Worth Shaving

Abstractions ·

2025/04/24

Justin engages in “yak shaving” with varying degrees of success, and open-source enthusiasts grapple with what to do when projects are abandoned.Definition of “yak shaving” Yak shaving comic by David Revoy Home Assistant: Open-source home automation framework Pelican static site generator AutoPub: Python package release automation Justin’s article on Converting reStructuredText to Markdown Microsoft’s GitHub Unit Cuts AI Deals With Google, Anthropic How much agency do you really have when

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48:30

May or May Not Be Charlatans

Abstractions ·

2025/04/17

The Bartender Mac app changes ownership in an abrupt and unnerving manner, and renting software continues to feel very different from buying software.Bartender app’s new owner burnt years of goodwill due to lack of transparency Original Bartender developer responds to furor Open-source Mac menu bar organizer (Bartender alternative) You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.

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62:42

Falling in Love with SALAMI

Abstractions ·

2025/04/10

Large language models (LLMs) and other generative “A.I.” software are based on text, images, and videos created by humans. Should they be? And what impact does this have on artists and creators?Systematic Approaches to Learning Algorithms and Machine Inferences (SALAMI) Stop Calling Everything A.I. The Chinese room argument by John Searle You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.

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37:57

Really Gross Euphemism

Abstractions ·

2025/04/03

Mozilla adds ad tracking to its Firefox web browser, while the Kagi search engine eschews ads in favor of a paid search business model.Mozilla announces Firefox ad tracking on their blog Mozilla knowledge base entry on “Privacy-Preserving Attribution” Browser market share over last decade Kagi search engine Why pay for search? Kagi Lenses Kagi personalized results Kagi URL re-direction feature Other Kagi features You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at

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42 results

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