241
Intel's Immiseration
The long, seemingly inevitable decline of an icon
242
Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage
A short policy memo recently posted on the Federation of American Scientists’ (FAS) website argues that “mass timber can help solve the housing shortage.” It was posted as part of the Housing Ideas Challenge, a collaboration between FAS, Matt Yglesias and a few other organizations to generate new, innovative ideas for…
243
Juno for YouTube has been removed from the App Store
For those not aware, a few months ago after reaching out to me, YouTube contacted the App Store stating that Juno does not adhere to YouTube guidelines and modifies the website in a way they don’t approve of, and alludes to their trademarks and iconography. I don’t personally agree with this, as Juno is just a web…
244
Data will not tell you what to do
How disappointing it is to learn that the best ideas rarely come from data after 15 years of working in the field.
245
The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons
Above: Many small business figured out the hard way why coupon sites generate worse users
246
It's Time to Nationalize and Then Break Up Boeing
If America wants to make civilian airplanes here, the government must step in, take over Boeing, and then design a competitive industry.
247
Gemini and Google's Culture
The Google Gemini fiasco shows that the biggest challenge for Google in AI is not business model but rather company culture; change is needed from the top down.
248
How Alexa dropped the ball on being the top conversational system
I discuss why Alexa missed the opportunity to take the lead and become the dominant player in the conversational AI market.
249
How to save $13.27 on your SaaS bill
Vercel has a decent entry level analytics product which I cannot afford so I am going to build my own.
250
Why new hires often get paid more than existing employees
Last Updated: January 24, 2026One of the most enlightening moments in my career was when I discovered a…
251
Ribbonfarm Is Retiring
After several years of keeping it going in semi-retired, keep-the-lights-on (KTLO) mode, I've decided to officially fully retire this blog. The ribbonfarm.com…
252
253
Response to DHH
I’ve taken this post down. I’ve been attacked so much the past few days; the most vicious, personal, hateful words poisoned my brain, and the original version of this post was mean. I am so sorry. …
254
Scale Ruins Everything
Your Startup Could Destroy Society
255
256
Democratising publishing
Thoughts on open source governance and how to create trust within technology, communities, and media.
257
UI is a function of your organization
The Domino’s “Pizza Tracker” is an intriguing piece of UI. As an end user, it provides the precision of detail you want in tracking your order: Your order has…
258
Predicting the Future of Distributed Systems
There are significant changes happening in distributed systems.
259
Of Psion and Symbian
Mobile before iOS and Android
260
I joined landlord groups to persuade them to be better people to their tenants
1 sites already link to thisisalot.com, after 2 years online. Listed at $195 — keep the equity.
261
People spend more when prices end in .99 (2018)
I once worked at a company that priced everything with a .95 ending. The bestselling software package was $999.95. Add-on products were $9.95, or $19.95, or $49.95. Everything ended with a .95. It had been this way for more than twenty years. One day, one of the VPs suggested we change all prices to end […]
262
Answering Legal Questions with LLMs
Blog post: Answering Legal Questions with LLMs
263
How to make Product give a shit about your architecture proposal
I had a plumber over the other day. I was worried that my water service line might be leaking. There was a wet patch in the yard and I noticed that one of my sink’s water pressure seemed to be lowe…
264
The Vision Pro is a flop
The product’s failure should further dispel the myth of tech inevitability
265
Thoughts on tech employment
The Washington Post writes The U.S. economy is booming. So why are tech companies laying off workers? This article has some good data, but I think misses the point with sub-heads like “Shine has co…
266
Working Title (Insurance)
Title insurance is grossly overpriced relative to actual risks involved. Why is that?
267
The Disappointing Tea.xyz
I got a pull request from "tea.xyz" related individual and unraveled a mess of a disappointing project.
268
Open Source on its own is no alternative to Big Tech
Now that we’re increasingly concerned about the dominance of ‘big tech’, Open Source is often mentioned as an alternative, especially since our governments are carrying out a Total Migration to Microsoft. This is the English version of this Dutch piece. In Dutch we say you can’t compare apples and pears, but that’s…
269
Silos are fine, as long as there is an API between them
"Destroying silos" is a clumsy solution to team isolation
270
Why the CrowdStrike bug hit banks hard
Regulation-induced monocultures meet unfortunate but explicable engineering decisions.