Jeff Johnson

Longtime indie developer of StopTheMadness Pro and other software for Mac and iOS.

Boycott Feedback Assistant!

Personal site: https://lapcatsoftware.com
Business site: https://underpassapp.com
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/developer/jeff-johnson/id1176742298
Location: Madison, Wisconsin, USA

Public Key

npub1nnv0yve7x48kqrmx636kekgh2cuk0ghppd8mmd9vghksvww4k5nq4uschu

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsfek8jxvlr2nmqpandgatvmyt4vwt85tssknaakjkytmgx882m2fsprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuumwdae8gtnnda3kjctvp2pxfm

Publishing to

relay.snort.social

Author Public Key

npub1nnv0yve7x48kqrmx636kekgh2cuk0ghppd8mmd9vghksvww4k5nq4uschu

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Last Notes

2026-06-22 14:33:45 CEST

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The hiring process for software engineers is often a glorified bait-and-switch scheme: employers look for someone who isn't just a clockwatcher, goes above and beyond the bare minimum, genuinely cares about the craft, ideally with personal side projects to demonstrate this, yet after the software engineers are hired, the same employers treat them like code monkeys, ruthlessly measuring performance only by lines of code and dollars added.

2026-06-22 14:23:26 CEST

Employers who believe that AI can replace employees have likely already dehumanized their employees, treated them like machines, automatons, bereft of personal autonomy. With that misanthropic attitude, it’s not much of a stretch to switch from natural to artificial intelligence.
Relentless demands for "efficiency" stifle the most beneficial human qualities such as caring, creativity, and curiosity. In economic terms, the competitive advantage of human workers is actually their humanity.

2026-05-27 18:19:39 CEST

Why is wi-fi wireless fidelity but sci-fi science fiction

2026-05-09 14:24:03 CEST

New blog post: Prevent cross-site tracking in Safari breaks Cloudflare challenges
https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2026/5/1.html
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/544/598/386/019/047/original/9bcc89234115a81f.png

2026-05-08 14:09:40 CEST

Many software engineers have the career plan to work for amoral corporate overlords until they can retire early and then work on meaningful projects.
IMO this plan is questionable:
1) You spend your career serving the interests of amoral corporate overlords
2) The overlords have their own plans that may derail yours, such as mass layoffs and burning you out until you can’t work
I suggest a revised plan: work for amoral corporate overlords only until you can start your own meaningful business.

2026-05-04 18:45:15 CEST

GitHub is a perfect illustration of tech industry monopolization.
They took a tool that was decentralized by design, git, and centralized it, then ultimately enshittified it.

2026-02-09 15:25:12 CET

New blog post:
Why is DuckDuckGo so much worse than Bing?
https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2026/2/3.html
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/041/129/084/134/662/original/d194c666fbe7f264.png

2025-11-21 14:37:54 CET

StopTheMadness Pro, my web browser extension that stops web site annoyances and privacy violations, is on sale in the App Store for the first time!
For the next two weeks, StopTheMadness Pro is $4 USD off the regular price, with comparable savings in other countries and currencies.
https://underpassapp.com/news/2025/11/5.html

2025-04-30 19:05:54 CEST

Google already killed Search. Antitrust enforcement would just give Google Search an official funeral. https://mastodon.social/@verge/114427980107178778

2025-02-10 15:58:51 CET

Every "minor" OS update nowadays is like a major OS update: new bugs every time.
I personally noticed two other new bugs in macOS 15.3: tiff rendering broken (FB16418368) and Safari 18.3 broke iOS web inspector over wifi (FB16423111).
When do we ever get a "stable" version? https://mastodon.social/@lapcatsoftware/113980060197823744

2025-02-10 15:28:15 CET

"after upgrading our machines to macOS 15.3, we have once again noticed that ICMP traffic no longer reaches our network extension, so we cannot show it in Network Monitor nor can we intercept and block it"
https://obdev.at/blog/ping-pong-yet-another-hole-in-the-wall/

2024-10-15 00:28:25 CEST

This is ridiculous. These big tech companies will do anything possible to prevent users from ever actually being able to access their own passkeys.
Export and import should have been extremely simple. Instead, they took years to come up with some convoluted system where the only possibility is to transfer from one vendor lock-in to another vendor lock-in.
Fuck passkeys. You’ll have to pry my passwords from my cold dead hands. https://mastodon.online/@9to5Mac/113308029918888989

2024-09-26 02:59:26 CEST

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Don’t worry, I’ve ensured that Apple hates and would never hire me.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/201/142/965/766/893/original/86527e350e903b3d.mp4

2024-09-09 21:10:44 CEST

It’s interesting that French language Apple Intelligence support has been announced for next year. Of course there are French speakers outside of France (such as the hosers up north), but it doesn’t seem worth making French one of the first non-English languages if Apple Intelligence were not coming to France in the European Union?

2024-08-31 05:30:20 CEST

The performance of TextEdit is really fucking awful now.
How did Apple manage to so badly mangle something that was more or less perfect already? It’s gross incompetence and malpractice. They’ve totally wrecked NSTextView.
Mac hardware is faster than ever, but somehow Mac software is slower than ever. How the hell is that even possible? What the fuck are they even DOING?!?!?

2024-08-12 23:47:46 CEST

The App Store, everyone.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/951/247/877/569/623/original/d3d03b8ca17dc7d2.png

2024-08-09 16:03:19 CEST

Third-party software sells Apple hardware, not just directly to developers but indirectly to consumers who use the software. “Should Apple give away its developer tools for free?” is a dumb, ignorant question. The fundamental developer tool is an Apple Mac, very far from free.
Back when Mac OS X cost $129, Xcode was included among the install discs. Again, not free.
Developer tools are not charity. Apple platforms would never have achieved their current success without 3rd party software.

2024-08-09 02:58:33 CEST

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Yes, consumers “vote with their wallet” in a computing duopoly, just like they vote in a political duopoly. In other words, they vote for the lesser of two evils. That doesn’t mean they endorse all the shit that the politicians pull in office. Mostly they don’t, because the politicians are obedient to their donors rather than to their constituents. It’s all about money in that arena too.

2024-08-09 02:54:36 CEST

The idea that consumers want Apple to restrict their freedom is idiotic. Stockholm Syndrome. Cupertino Complex.
Do consumers want their fridges and ovens to restrict their diet? Do they want their cars to restrict their destination and speed? Do their want their homes to restrict their visitors? Of course not. HELL NO. That would be intolerable.
Do you seriously think farmers want their tractors to be locked down? The manufacturers do it simply because they can, because it’s more profitable.