Indie iOS / Mac developer from Glasgow, Scotland. Maker of the PCalc scientific calculator, and a cool dice app. Occasional writer, conference speaker, D&D player, and podcast pundit.
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2026-06-09T00:21:29Z Event JSON
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Last Notes npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson PCalc 4.12.2 is out now, and you can finally create multiple calculators (again), each with their own state and settings. https://pcalc.com/store/pcalcmac https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/117/526/668/419/786/826/original/b0e970e85ee78db3.png npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Guess who’s got two thumbs and shipped two tvOS apps that crash at startup on tvOS 27.0 because they don’t use UIScenes. Also, as an additional clue, that same person had accidentally only been running them against the tvOS 26.0 simulator in all their testing. It’s me, I’m the overworked person. But somewhat in my defence, App Review also approved two apps that crash at start up on tvOS 27.0. Sigh… npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I have released updates to all my apps adding support for the 27 OS releases and the iPhone Duo. PCalc got a lot of Duo-specific UI work, a bunch of features, and some pretty cool underlying maths engine improvements. The others are more “It technically works ok on a Duo!™” but that’s what you get for giving us less than six weeks, Apple. iOS: https://pcalc.com/store/pcalc https://pcalc.com/store/dice https://pcalc.com/store/about Mac: https://pcalc.com/store/pcalcmac https://pcalc.com/store/dicemac https://pcalc.com/store/aboutmac https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/117/468/123/323/702/697/original/2ec6729be66c447f.png https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/117/468/123/325/159/493/original/4bece1155f02206a.png https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/117/468/123/422/173/861/original/383ab597a042c640.png https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/117/468/123/415/622/175/original/9a5d9bcfcd2aec2d.png npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson The release of the single “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-a-Lot is closer to the launch of Sputnik I, than it is to today. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson NSOvertonWindow npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I don’t think the bar analogy is particularly helpful at this point. But if any of your friends say that they’ve had a shitty time in a particular bar, and you go “nah, it’s fine actually, I’ve had no problems there”, rather than “sorry, I didn’t know, let’s go somewhere else”, then you are a bad friend. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson “The culture on X today is remarkably friendly and inclusive. It is a cheerful place.” is probably the single most breathtakingly tone deaf and wildly inaccurate line I have read in tech journalism in literally decades. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I’m increasingly of the opinion that AI is the One Ring, and you absolutely shouldn’t touch the thing. "A mortal who keeps one of the Great Rings, does not die, but he does not grow or obtain more life, he merely continues, until at last every minute is a weariness. And if he often uses the Ring to make himself invisible, he fades: He becomes in the end invisible permanently, and walks in the twilight under the eye of the dark power that rules the Rings.” npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson PCalc on iPhone Duo Day 2, moving the buttons to avoid the hinge area. I am using the UIHingeInteraction API to get notified when the phone is being partially folded, and then the UIViewReservedRegion API to find out where the hinge area is, then rearranging the buttons around it. https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/117/315/706/675/986/144/original/98e24c24ca3980cc.mp4 npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Strangely enough, I do actively want to know who in my friend group has terrible political views. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Tim Cook's new photo on the Apple Leadership page looks like a charismatic Bond villain about to reveal his whole plan to you. https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/117/195/781/078/598/517/original/a7984bd3a8e9008a.jpeg npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…0f5x I mean, no, but for a much wider variety of reasons! npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I have nothing of use to add to the discourse, I'm just sad. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson So, my dad died the week after WWDC, and I’ve not been making much progress for September’s OS releases. I’ll get there eventually, but it might take me a while. Thankfully most stuff seems to work fine, other than the PCalc widget on macOS, but I think that’s Apple’s bug. No need to reply with condolences - I’m okay, as much as one can be, just tired. This is just your regular reminder that people are going through stuff you don’t know about. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…0f5x @nprofile…y6h3 You are both so kind!! npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Did you know you can just do stuff in the character creator screen if you want to? https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/935/192/462/850/742/original/ff42240dda86fd5f.jpeg npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…0f5x They are playing a gig five minutes walk away from my apartment later this year, so I had to get a ticket! npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…0f5x Good thing that album didn’t come out 34 years ago. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…0f5x That implies terrible things about my age! npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…75c7 @nprofile…5rls I was on the At Ease team! npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…0f5x I was trying to parse the 17-colour pride flag I saw in the thumbnail. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…0f5x Speaking of, I saw Marina in concert last month, and she was _awesome_. https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/775/693/915/079/651/original/ba9730715c5c2186.jpeg npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I apologise for my lack of hot takes today, I know you were crushed. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I'm currently feel-it-in-my-bones stressed out by personal stuff, so of course I start my day by looking at the news and social media. Strangely, doesn't seem to be helping. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Important updates to your Torment Nexus subscription plan. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson The existence of John Romero, George Romero, and Paul Romero implies the existence of a Ringo Romero. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Have reached the “fuck it, just dye your hair purple, why not?” stage of it all. https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/612/530/291/981/668/original/15bf186710d2bf91.jpeg npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson With the release of About by PCalc 1.2 for visionOS, I have finally updated all my apps for the current OS releases - just in time for June. Would have happened a lot sooner, if I hadn't been sick for basically the whole last month! https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/579/435/438/632/727/original/42d8ad6395b561bc.png npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson If your cookie dialog doesn’t have a “reject all” button at the top level, or worse, doesn't even have the button at all and makes me uncheck 200 options of “legitimate use” manually, I consider you of highly dubious moral character. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Apparently, the Artemis II has 260 Mbps internet via lasers, I guess technology has improved a little bit since the last time we were visiting the moon. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Apple Music just added a thing in iOS 26.4 where they look at your favourite musicians and tell you about concerts nearby, and it has cost me £80 already. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Dice by PCalc 2.9 is out now! My #ttrpg dice rolling app now fully supports all the 26 OS updates and has a shiny Liquid Glass redesign. I've also reworked the reroll function, so it remembers the starting state of the last dice roll, including advantage, disadvantage, and any dice functions. Exploding dice now work properly too, and actually explode! iOS: https://pcalc.com/store/dice Mac: https://pcalc.com/store/dicemac https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/746/569/789/235/645/original/b89bab0d275dd150.jpeg https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/746/570/058/264/488/original/a98eb984d5dc0d6d.jpeg npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Me: I really hate the advert when you search on the App Store, I wish Apple would change that. Apple: Wish granted! https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/743/268/465/312/123/original/71358fa55ea958cc.jpeg npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…cacx My picnic table was attacked by these fearsome giant beasts! (I suspect our wild animals are a bit less wild than yours) https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/714/862/156/067/854/original/3cf60d797a992c28.jpeg npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I feel there should be an equivalent to the earthquake magnitude scale for internet outages, so we can come on here and be like “was that a 3.1?”. Measure it in Flares or something. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson You spend years wanting more colour in Apple products, and then they run out of dye. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Thought I had a Liquid Glass rendering bug, _actually_ had water on my phone screen. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I don’t think cats would love sitting in boxes quite so much if they knew what Schrödinger had been up to. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Computers didn’t pass the Turing Test, humans failed it. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson The biggest leap ever is that they let the pro phones actually have colours. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Gah, as always, I really want that camera. It does look very cool. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson "If you don't have an Apple Watch you will die" is quite the marketing campaign. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson "Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation." npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…ee4l Those are lovely! npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Finally got a couple of the pride t-shirts I made for Dice by PCalc, and the designs turned out pretty nice in person! http://pcalc.fun https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/953/489/437/161/895/original/5a0a048abb33c8a5.jpeg https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/953/489/746/491/157/original/c26c8fb1bc3eecaa.jpeg npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson This is the least important thing happening in the world right now, but I am still getting followed by tons of bots a day on Mastodon, that all fit the same pattern of having zero followers, and following exactly 40 people. Usually the same combination of people, including @nprofile…4057, @nprofile…md38, @nprofile…sdm7, and sometimes @nprofile…g8jv himself. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson It takes great skill to produce a cool new graphics effect. It takes great wisdom to dial it down a bit. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I've added some new Dice by PCalc t-shirt designs to the PCalc merch store! All my profits from them will go to local queer charities. http://pcalc.fun https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/659/487/947/070/964/original/f09e2b884b8a2879.png https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/659/488/263/069/705/original/4c2c8aab45ef9189.png https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/659/488/578/953/965/original/87426f7fe8d49911.png https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/659/488/882/345/317/original/7bd787cc8a60c5c8.png npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…lv6z When we asked Apple for more transparency, this is not what we meant. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…83c6 I know it well! npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson To me, the main thing Apple needed to fix this WWDC was their relationship with developers, and this keynote suggests they think otherwise. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson This "all the captions are made of glass" thing really confirms the reason we don't make signs out of glass in real life. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I do not need a machine faking being excited at my workouts. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I'm not doing well at closing my "be less snarky" rings. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson It's called iOS 26 because it will take 26 months to explain to your parents how to use their phone again. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I am sure that Sony and Microsoft are terrified. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Live lyric translation is also _super_ useful. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I am going to try and be less snarky today, but the slick keynote format feels so tone deaf given the state of developer relations at the moment, and it is definitely rubbing me the wrong way. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson The all clear icon look feels like the see-though glass screens from sci-fi movies (this is not intended as a compliment). npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Glass is more of an amorphous solid. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I am going to spend my day mostly dealing with a hospital, a care home, and an emergency plumber. Hopefully I’ll at least be able to watch the keynote live and provide the requisite hot takes, but no guarantees alas. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Amongst all the other great things than Bill Atkinson made, I wouldn't have met my wife if it wasn't for Hypercard! https://sixcolors.com/link/2025/06/4-bill-atkinson-dies-at-74/ npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I like that when I spend points on the Kobo website, I get an email entitled "Congratulations on your redemption!”. If I had known it was that easy… npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson You can tell it’s nearly WWDC time because the discourse is already annoying. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Dear Apple, most of the time when I am talking about Time Machines I am not talking about your backup technology, so please stop capitalising the words. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…zsaa Was it Final Cut where some ex-Apple folks ended up back at Apple? npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Yes, definitely make the OS version numbers “26” rather than “2026”. That’ll show those engineers in a hundred years. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson It would be ironic if Apple acquires the Sky team. https://www.macstories.net/stories/sky-for-mac-preview/ npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Could we maybe stop talking about LLMs like they are becoming sentient? Amongst other stolen data, they have been trained on a whole bunch of text from science fiction stories about computers becoming sentient, and statistically know how to write that kind of thing. You're not creating Skynet here, it's just seen The Terminator a hundred times and is quoting your favourite lines at you. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I’m not saying they've delayed this to strip out all the out-of-date satire of the US, but I’m not not saying that. https://www.theverge.com/news/660057/grand-theft-auto-6-release-date-delay-may-2026 npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…kftc I like to think the distant future will view our work through a vast turducken of emulators within emulators. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson If you are in the UK please consider signing this petition to get the UK parliament to at least debate making things easier for trans folks. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/701159 npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Well, I guess I won’t be filing any more bugs then. I can see some _maybe_ semi-legitimate uses for training an LLM on developer content - like _potentially_ on dev forums or something like that. But not on my sysdiagnose logs that in the same dialog it says might contain sensitive information, and with apparently no opt-out. https://hachyderm.io/@cocoafrog/114355281286615868 npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson TERF island really outdoing itself I see. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…nrqy From my perspective, you are doing multiple projects that I wouldn’t even know where to begin with, and it gives _me_ hope in being able to learn and understand! Whenever I poke around with 3D stuff, it’s not because I’m going to write the next Assassin’s Creed, it’s fun to see a small part of the picture. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson All my retirement funds might be on fire, and western civilisation feels like it is crumbling around me, but at least I have Chappell Roan tickets. https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/307/401/372/160/305/original/9f1dc6bb8431bc37.png npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…z7vu I’m sure that’s all for the author payouts. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson “Updating all your devices” is the new “setting all your clocks”. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Dice by PCalc 2.8 is out now (finally)! This release of my #ttrpg dice rolling app adds support for iOS 18 and macOS 15, including Control Center buttons for quick rolling, and dark and tinted icons. As well as four new themes, there’s also a new picker which makes it easier to see all the visual options for dice in one place. iOS: https://pcalc.com/store/dice Mac: https://pcalc.com/store/dicemac https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/235/224/718/348/373/original/93412708298cc6a3.png https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/235/225/801/490/246/original/089945b61aca7047.png https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/235/226/348/473/793/original/73d1dcf36d10d031.png npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Anti-AI wheelie bins at the park. https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/087/818/037/550/724/original/5c058ccbda5b4162.jpeg npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Love to have the left wing UK government set everything up nicely for when the real fash take over here too. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I would bet a non-trivial amount of money that Apple will also switch off Advanced Data Protection in the US within the year, because they just handed a blueprint to every government around the world that wants to spy on their citizens. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I'm a big fan of @nprofile…zxqq’s writing, but she's been going through a rough time recently. If you have some spare funds, and want to do something nice for someone who writes excellent and inclusive sf/fantasy, Paul Cornell has set up a GoFundMe to help her: https://gofund.me/f70348bd "The Red Scholar's Wake" was my favourite book from a few years back too, and I can thoroughly recommend it. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Tried out the new and popular “Deepseek” LLM with my standard “tell me facts about the author of PCalc” query. At least half were misleading or straight up hallucinations. LLMs are not a suitable technology for looking up facts, and anybody who tells you otherwise is… probably trying to sell you a LLM. https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/899/805/589/625/935/original/dd48abe609b48fe1.jpeg https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/899/805/857/087/327/original/a722fd0f61e517dd.jpeg https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/899/806/117/129/500/original/40fb70e64f565991.jpeg https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/899/806/364/077/953/original/81f1ac729b1e116d.jpeg npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Finally bit the bullet and deleted every single account I had on Twitter. I already had them set to private, and wasn't posting, but turns out a literal nazi salute was my line for having anything whatsoever to do with that place or that odious man. Yes, I should have done it years ago. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I dreamed I was back at Apple (stress dreams again), attended an internal rehearsal for WWDC, and watched the entire keynote. So, I just want to say that if SwiftUI for Windows is announced in June, I'm some kind of witch and should be burned at the stake. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Most of our PCalc merch is on sale today - if you use the code FLASHSALEFRIDAY at checkout, you'll get 20% off everything (except pins). Cotton Bureau tells me this is a Severance-related promotion, so uh, buy some for your waffle party? I don't know. http://pcalc.fun npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I am starting to suspect that the sites actually know that I'm not a robot, and just want to me to train their self-driving cars for free. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I wrote up the 25th anniversary of the unveiling of the Mac OS X Dock at Macworld Expo, from the perspective of a scared twenty-something engineer. It's me. I'm the engineer. https://tla.systems/blog/2025/01/04/i-live-my-life-a-quarter-century-at-a-time/ npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Time to update all those copyright strings. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson Can’t tell if this sale price in Lidl is a really good deal or a really bad deal. https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/724/615/750/324/323/original/7dd091982c4ef964.jpeg npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…7fmf They always do badly in very specific domains. Sorry, I meant to say “every specific domain”. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…md38 Ok, what did you do to me? https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/652/639/980/482/636/original/d6219d88b7f50533.png npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…md38 Finally got a Spacey Finder. npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson This was not what I wanted when trying to find out about the new Raspberry Pi 500. https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/623/733/304/312/528/original/8f2ba5235a9ed356.jpeg npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson It's the last day for my Black Friday sales - everything is 50% off today! 🧬 PCalc, my highly configurable scientific calculator with #RPN support, is only $4.99 USD. iOS / iPadOS / watchOS / visionOS: https://pcalc.com/store/pcalc macOS: https://pcalc.com/store/pcalcmac 🎲 Dice by PCalc, my 3D physics based #TTRPG dice app, is only $0.99 USD. iOS / iPadOS / watchOS: https://pcalc.com/store/dice macOS: https://pcalc.com/store/dicemac Note that I actually say what my apps do, unlike my previous posts! #marketing https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/584/013/763/714/612/original/1aeb6fdd9ea20ced.png https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/584/014/132/102/328/original/ffa365434ddefe45.png npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…48vs Oh no! Maybe you can cancel the order, and redo it? npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…48vs Originally, it was “Programmers”! Now, probably “Panda" :) npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson @nprofile…qf9g Thank you, that is very kind and also too much! npub1kcfw4tugzm5m7fh5pcr3qjpku4xehd9lmv80xpkr290lwtschfmqct6xux James Thomson I've mentioned it before, but I've been dealing with a serious family health thing for the last eight months, and I haven't really had the brain power to do very much outside of that, hence the lack of updates. And, family comes first, I know. But income this year has not been exactly stellar as a result, so I could do with a little holiday bonus. Any help in boosting my Black Friday sales posts is appreciated. Is this emotional blackmail? Yes. Am I going to shamelessly do it anyway? Also yes.