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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

43:46

All My Segues Are Broken

Abstractions ·

2026/01/08

Anna’s Archive backs up all of Spotify, users are vexed by icons in MacOS 26 Tahoe menu items, email-based authentication is on the rise, and Microsoft wants you to stop saying “slop”.🔗 Links 2025 but depicted in gingerbread Enclose.horse game Robot kicks human (video) DuckDuckGo without “AI” answers Anna’s Archive backs up all of Spotify Hide the notification badge on the iOS Settings app Last Year on My Mac: Look back in disbelief It’s hard to justify Tahoe icons You can find Justin Mayer on

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33:52

You Are to Blame and Thank You

Abstractions ·

2025/12/24

Mozilla has a new CEO, Olmo 3 open-source LLM is released, Justin switches to Kagi for web searches, and Dan installs Unraid for network-attached storage.🔗 Links Scooter: Interactive find-and-replace in the terminal SlopStop: Community-driven AI slop detection in Kagi Search Mozilla’s new CEO is doubling down on an AI future for Firefox Olmo 3 open-source LLM Unraid 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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47:43

Aerodynamic Turkey

Abstractions ·

2025/12/18

RAM prices rise precipitously, the “open source” moniker continues to be abused, Omarchy Linux reviews are in, and we take a first look at the Asus ProArt 6K display.🔗 Links Size of Life The RAM Shortage Comes for Us All Sam Altman’s Dirty DRAM Deal ’Source available’ is not open source (and that’s okay) A Word on Omarchy DHH and Omarchy: Midlife crisis Asus ProArt Display 6K PA32QCV You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan

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44:35

Ramparts of Dissatisfaction

Abstractions ·

2025/12/11

Apple UI head Alan Dye leaves for Facebook, Apple removes our control over update notifications, and evidence leaks that OpenAI is planning to put ads in ChatGPT.🔗 Links Losing Confidence (in Tech) This Time It’s Not Fatigue, But Disconnection OpenAI Preparing to Stuff Ads Into ChatGPT 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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49:01

Will It Into Existence

Abstractions ·

2025/12/04

Apple Intelligence uptake, needy programs, Google breaks YouTube links, solid-state drives slowly lose data, and mounting criticism of generative software.🔗 Links Take on Me by A-ha turns 40 Song Exploder podcast episode 301: “Take on Me” Article on backstory behind “Take on Me” Take On Me music video (4K, YouTube) LibrePods: AirPods liberated from Apple’s ecosystem Needy Programs The unpowered SSDs in your drawer are slowly losing your data Microsoft Exec Asks: Why Aren’t More People

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37:16

Time-Traveling Ads

Abstractions ·

2025/11/26

Justin has a new toy, the creator of Mastodon steps down as CEO, Apple Podcasts now generates chapters, dynamic ad insertion plagues podcasts, and misguided folks force links to open in new browser tabs.🔗 Links BTXETUEL 4-Key Mechanical Keyboard The “Vibe Coding Keyboard”: How I Made My Walk-and-Talk Setup Even More Awesome Helium web browser My next chapter with Mastodon The Peaceful Transfer of Power in Open Source Projects Chapters on Apple Podcasts Transcripts on Apple Podcasts Timed Links

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55:17

Charmingly Antiquated

Abstractions ·

2025/11/20

Valve announces new Steam video game hardware, Plex neglects its core user base, Canva makes Affinity Suite free, Nisus Writer may be moribund, and Nike announces robot shoes.🔗 Links TextSniper I Hate Screenshots of Text Valve announces Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller Affinity Suite is now free Acorn is a great image editor for MacOS Graphite is an open-source, cross-platform, image editor (alpha) Nike unveils Amplify: world’s first powered footwear for running and

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45:50

An Era in Middle Earth

Abstractions ·

2025/11/13

Large language models and command-line coding agents can expand programming horizons, and Bazzite Linux puts the fun back into playing video games on PCs.🔗 Links The Art of Interacting Incorrectly (via Gina Trapani) Writing code with LLM agents OpenCode OpenHands Claude Code VibeTunnel Jeff Triplett’s List of Default Apps 2025 Games on Bazzite Linux Bazzite Proton DB Nvidia Shield Pro Sunshine Moonlight Fueran HDMI headless adapter / dummy plug WJESOG DisplayPort to USB-C cable (works with

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39:52

Into the Disintegration Chambers

Abstractions ·

2025/11/06

Whispering is an open-source dictation/transcription desktop app, Neo puts the “human” in humanoid robots, and OpenAI stuffs ChatGPT into a web browser.🔗 Links Dictation / transcription desktop apps Whispering Epicenter MacWhisper Atlas LLM-powered web browser ChatGPT’S Atlas: The Browser That’s Anti-Web AI Browsers: Living on the Frontier of Security 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

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32:03

Following Our Own Path

Abstractions ·

2025/10/30

Whether it’s Mac vs. Windows, Git vs. Mercurial, Fish shell vs. Bash/Zsh, or QWERTY vs. alternative keyboard layouts, one must decide when to move with the herd and when to follow your own path.Space Elevator Fish shell 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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36:40

Generative Software Serfdom

Abstractions ·

2025/10/23

Apple announces the M5 processor and new MacBook Pro and iPad Pro models, Nabu Casa retires its Home Assistant Yellow appliance, and OpenAI announces the GPT Store.Dog spinner EFF Opt-Out October Facebook Tells Workers Building Metaverse to Use AI to “Go 5x Faster” (archive) Apple announces its M5 processor Ending production of Home Assistant Yellow Home Assistant Green Alternative ways to run Home Assistant Geekom line of mini PCs OpenAI announces GPT store You can find Justin Mayer on the

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48:13

Pleasantly Whimsical

Abstractions ·

2025/10/16

Discord was hacked and user government photo IDs were stolen, Synology walks back drive restrictions in their NAS enclosures, Dan shares his initial impressions of iOS & MacOS 26, and concerns grow about a possible investment bubble in generative AI software companies.Discord users suffer first high-profile age-verification hack Synology reverses policy banning third-party HDDs after NAS sales plummet Synology drive compatibility policy Benjamin Button Reviews MacOS AI bubble is 17 times

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42:04

Faraday Cage Log Cabin

Abstractions ·

2025/10/09

Archive.org archives its trillionth web page, LLMs power more fast-food drive-thru windows, Spotify responds to generated music slop complaints, and Samsung captures more of the market for both high-fidelity stereo equipment and advertising-powered refrigerators.Archive.org: Celebrating 1 Trillion Web Pages Archived Taco Bell’s Attempt to Replace Drive-Thru Employees With AI Is Not Going Well Spotify’s Attempt to Fight AI Slop Falls on Its Face LinkedIn: Disable generative “AI” training on your

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41:21

Our Shared Fantasy

Abstractions ·

2025/10/02

Raspberry Pi releases a new all-in-one keyboard PC, and Apple announces iPhone 17 models, new watches, and the AirPods Pro 3.Raspberry Pi 500+ all-in-one keyboard PC Apple announcements: “Design is how it works” opening quote 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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44:49

Nerd Harder

Abstractions ·

2025/09/25

AOL discontinues dial-up service, governments pursue age verification laws, and Spotify publishes new music from dead artists.Email is easy Oh YAML Updated article about llama-server GPT-OSS via Llama.cpp UK Online Safety Act “Privacy preserving age verification” is BS Spotify Is Forcing Users to Undergo Face Scanning to Access Explicit Content Spotify Publishes AI-Generated Songs From Dead Artists Without Permission Spotify Downloader Spotify-DL You can find Justin Mayer on the web at

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50:30

Neckbeards of Yesteryear

Abstractions ·

2025/09/18

Pelican’s 15-year anniversary, trash vs. rm -rf terminal commands, and alternatives to a less-independent GitHub.Historical Tech Tree MacBook Pro Insomnia Sleep Aid DrawAFish.com Postmortem Pelican 1.1 release on 8/19/2010 Justin’s post on trash vs. rm -rf Cross-platform trash command (Python) trash command for MacOS Give Up GitHub Forgejo Codeberg ForgeFed Radicle 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

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36:36

Distrust and Verify

Abstractions ·

2025/09/11

Substack sent a push alert promoting racist content, and ChatGPT confabulated a SoundSlice feature that developers subsequently decided to implement.Using Fortune to Reinforce Habits Substack sent a push alert promoting a Nazi blog Leave Substack ChatGPT Hallucinated a SoundSlice Feature, Forcing Human Developers to Add It Original article link (login required) 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

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40:55

You Just Have to Eat It

Abstractions ·

2025/08/28

Goo.gl link obfuscator shutdown, digital sovereignty & self-hosting, and computers that sleepwalk instead of sleeping.Draw a fish Five Songs Daily Hostile Government Takeover (EDM remix) Official release Same version on YouTube Original version on YouTube Do not download the app — use the web site Goo.gl link obfuscator shutdown The future is not self-hosted The future is not self-hosted, but self-sovereign Mac sleep degradation You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and

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41:12

Neurospicy Automaton

Abstractions ·

2025/08/21

An employee recounts code-generation software mandates at their company, and a chicken restaurant chain experiments with taking customer orders via LLM-powered software.“I am now being required by my day job to use an AI assistant to write code.” LLM completion joke animation (hover cursor on image to play) The Real Future of AI Is Ordering Mid Chicken at Bojangles 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

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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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41 results

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