Last week I posted a link to a news aggregator website, which collects links to all different kinds of news articles and blog posts. It was brought to my attention that one of the links on this site pointed to a post titled "Stop Making TUIs", which advocates for abandoning text-based user interfaces in favour of vibe-coded GUIs.
Needless to say, I am deeply horrified by this inexcusable oversight of mine, and I owe a massive apology to anybody who was rightfully offended by me linking to a site linking to such obscene content. In no way do the ideas expressed in this article represent my own views, and I want to make it very clear that I fully understand the impact of what I've done here and how wrong it was. I make no excuses for this type of carelessness and I take full responsibility for the consequences of my actions. Most of all I want to apologise to everyone using text-based interfaces to do their daily work. I understand how hurtful this has been to you and I need to take accountability for my actions. The only way for me to regain your trust is through action, and I promise to choose my links more carefully in the future. I know better now, and you have my word that this kind of thing will never, ever happen again. 1
Articles
- Microsoft built a dedicated app that forces Bing everywhere on Windows 11, including Chrome, Firefox, and Brave
Microsoft doing Microsoft things… if they invested half as much energy into making their products actually good as they do into locking their customers into their crappy OS, Windows would be amazing. - How Much of the Internet Is Written With AI? | Pew Research Center
Some interesting numbers and graphs about how many websites these days are at least partially written with the help of AI. (via Raffaele) - 'Security by antiquity': Why older tech is sometimes safer from hackers
Who would have thought? Using outdated or obscure software has it's advantages. "'The vast majority of attackers are criminals trying to make money and it doesn't make any sense for them to target systems being run by 50 people,' he explains." Downgrading to Windows XP is probably still not a good idea... (via Jake) - AliExpress was silently running audio in your browser to fingerprint and track your device | TechSpot
I don't know if I'm more impressed by how innovative of an idea that is or more horrified by how far these companies are willing to go to invade our privacy… - How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs
The EU is now requiring sellers to take responsibility for the packaging waste they create. Good idea, but: "A business selling directly to customers across the EU must register and fulfil its obligations separately in every Member State where its packaging becomes waste. For large companies, this is part of the cost of doing business; for micro-businesses selling only a handful of products into each country, the cost and administrative burden can be wildly disproportionate to the amount of packaging involved." This has the potential to kill small businesses en masse. There's a petition to change this legislation if you'd like to sign.
Software/Services
- GitHub - reHackable/awesome-reMarkable: A curated list of projects related to the reMarkable tablet · GitHub
I don't have a reMarkable tablet, but apparently these things are surprisingly (remarkably!) hackable, which is great. Maybe I'll get one at some point, I find e-Ink tablets fascinating. (related: Reviving a four year old reMarkable 2 | Oskari Mantere)
Hardware Projects
- I ran Photoshop on a £0.60 computer chip - some thoughts about simpler computers
Emulating a classic Macintosh on a tiny Raspberry Pi microcontroller. I keep being amazed by what some people in the retro space are doing.
Videos
- What's inside a digital caliper - YouTube
I never knew how digital calipers worked and how they could be so precise - this guy takes one apart and looks into it. - AI Isn’t “Out of Control” — The AI Companies Are - YouTube
Cal Newport has a look at the recent news that AI systems are going rogue and are attacking services on the internet, and unsurprisingly comes to the conclusion that it's not the AI that's acting irresponsibly here, but the companies who are carelessly letting their AI agents loose on the open web without supervising what's going on. If you're interested in the technical details of what's behind these reports, this video is for you.
Around the Small Web
- Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need | Geeky Schmidt
Nick teaches you some essential German :) It means trying to make something better but making it worse instead. That's what pretty much everything in tech feels like these days... - Your Superpower Is Obvious to Everyone But You
"Most people believe their opportunity is somewhere outside themselves. They study what successful people are doing. They adopt their systems. They copy their content. They compare their careers, businesses and lives to people who appear to have everything figured out. Then they wonder why they don’t stand out. [...] The very things we are tempted to remove may be the things people remember most."
Thanks to this guy for providing some inspiration for this nonsense :) Obviously this is a joke and I'm just having some fun at my own expense here. I do think the post is crap though, because TUIs are awesome.