Bitsplitting.org

My friend John Gruber is incensed by the idea that AI watermarking schemes adjust the output of a given LLM so that the output can later be assessed as likely coming from it in particular: They say “imperceptible” and “doesn’t change the meaning, quality,…

If you ever travel to other countries, particularly to the same ones repeatedly, register an Apple Account for each country with an easy to remember format.

Today marks the 30 year anniversary of my becoming a full-time employee of Apple Computer, Inc.

In the wake of AI coding assistants like Claude and Codex, which can seemingly perform the equivalent of a day’s work in a matter of minutes, many of us are wondering if the human role of “computer programmer” is coming to an end.

Once, in 1994 or so, I was sitting in a cafe with friends, and I had the crazy idea that I was going to write my own web browser.

Three years ago, when I abandoned FogBugz after having used it for nearly 20 years, I landed on Help Scout, a fantastic support system offered by a company that seems to have a positive spirit and, cherry on top, is based locally to me in Boston.

As WWDC draws near, anticipation of Apple’s long-rumored VR headset is high.

On the latest Accidental Tech Podcast, John reminisced about the early days of the Mac, when a single 3.5″ floppy disk drive was typically used not only to boot a Mac, but also to run any applications, and to save any user data.

Since the earliest days of Mac OS X, Apple has complied with the licenses for the dozens of open source components it includes in the OS by posting (sometimes a little belatedly) updated versions of the source code to its Open Source at Apple web page.

Apple’s macOS 13 “Ventura” beta features a major redesign of the System Preferences application.

Once upon a time, there was a fabulous service called FogBugz.

For months now, I have been scratching my head over a small but persistent number of “crash reports” affecting a few of my apps.

Nearly ten years ago, inspired by Apple’s removal of the “RSS” button from Safari 6, I released a standalone Safari extension called Subscribe to Feed.

I had a blast chatting with John Gruber on the latest episode of The Talk Show.

I’ve been wanting to create my own crossword puzzles since I was a kid, but never quite got around to it.

When Apple News debuted, I was intrigued to learn that virtually anybody can submit their own blogs for inclusion in the service.

Long-time Mac users will remember an app called “Key Caps”, which later become “Keyboard Viewer”, a feature of the Mac that is now accessible via the menu bar’s “Input Methods” item.

Update: Since I first published this article, feedback from folks at Apple who should know has led me to believe the issue is not as dire as I laid it out below.

For a long time I have admired the WordPress project, for developing such a robust blogging platform that is ultimately open, and free, and anybody can contribute improvements to it.

Over on Twitter today, I was inspired to ask people to write “just one blog post” today: Everybody, join me in writing just one blog post today, to get that independent feeling back. https://t.co/bDFpxiVfqO — Daniel Jalkut (@danielpunkass) May 24, 2019 La…