Jon Udell

Patron saint of trailing-edge technologies, grateful resident of the nation-state of California.

web: https://jonudell.info
blog: https://blog.jonudell.net/2023/01/30/verification/

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[email protected]

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nprofile1qqswqvw4guwess0zl8tnct5m3twekvtp4u0dduz2fx6jesv90curskqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsulpdsu

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nos.lol

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npub1uqca23canpq797wh8shfhzkanvckrtc76mcy5jd49nqc2l3c8pvqh6q3au

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Last Notes

2026-07-09 13:39:51 UTC

"As a geopolitical actor, the United States has become a kind of lumbering zombie — a beast that can be startled into reflexive actions but lacks higher functions."
"Everybody who believes in freedom and democracy and the dignity of the person and the right of nations to self-determination should be working toward the destruction of the United States’ capacity to project power — to end the strange hold it has over the world so we can all move on. So far, no one is helping more than the United States itself."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/opinion/america-world-us-isolation.html

2026-06-12 17:49:22 UTC

A million deaths are already attributed to the USAID chainsaw, according to one recent estimate. When I read "world's first trillionaire" I mentally transpose to "mass murderer".
#polpot #holocaust #elonmusk

2026-02-11 21:34:48 UTC

A human lifetime is not long enough to comprehend all that git and github can do, and become maximally capable of using these tools.
I don't want to live forever but I do want to wield that full capability while I'm here, and now I can.
#git #github #agents

2025-11-05 02:00:06 UTC

Speaking from personal experience, it hurts like hell when a publisher kills a great magazine you poured your heart into.
But BYTE's fate wasn't political, as Teen Vogue's almost surely was.
Sorry folks, I really do feel your pain. You will be missed.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/what-we-lost-when-conde-nast-unceremoniously-shuttered-teen-vogue

2025-10-21 14:39:15 UTC

"Success depends on convincing people that opposing tyranny is just the first step in a program dedicated to changing the fact that some of us live too well while many others cannot live well at all." https://mastodon.online/@xankarn/115412582784682138

2025-07-19 20:49:50 UTC

The project I joined in January just went public. XMLUI aims to empower developers who aren't React and CSS pros to create and maintain effective browser-based user interfaces.
#XMLUI #React #CSS
https://blog.jonudell.net/2025/07/18/introducing-xmlui/

2025-07-14 01:17:28 UTC

At the end of a long ride, low on energy, those blackberries really hit the spot.
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/114/848/946/300/549/561/original/a6250dfb205d98f4.jpeg

2025-06-26 11:57:31 UTC

"It’s not freedom if it requires you to be perfect, sighted, fluent in C, and emotionally bulletproof." https://dragonscave.space/@fireborn/114748601542434856

2025-06-26 00:14:20 UTC

A former neighbor is exactly my age. She has spent her life in a wheelchair because while the polio vaccine was available to me as a child in the US, it was not available to her as a child in Mexico.
I would like a congressional committee to introduce her to RFKjr.
#vaccine #polio

2025-06-23 22:43:54 UTC

"The men smashing your car window, grinding your face into the asphalt, yanking away your family members — these are not human beings in any legible way, because they have no faces. You cannot engage with them as one person to another, you cannot even know which agency they represent or what authority they are acting under. They are pure instruments of power."
https://paulwaldman.substack.com/p/masked-men-with-guns-are-there-to

2025-06-20 04:09:16 UTC

ICE agents getting doxxed is a reason for masks?
Ok, let's paint opaque IDs on their masks for authentication and accountability.
Now it's undeniable what they are for: domestic terrorism.

2025-06-15 17:36:40 UTC

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It is amazing though. Try searching both NYT and WAPO for NoKings.
NYT: Wordles
WAPO: Protests
I unsubbed WAPO over the endorsement debacle and gave NYT another chance. Ugh.

2025-06-15 17:25:53 UTC

If you only read the NYT you would not know that #NoKings happened.
That's OK. Nobody who saw the turnouts everywhere, and felt the energy, needs validation from the "paper of record" and maybe it's better this way. We are building a movement that doesn't depend on them.

2025-04-17 20:59:56 UTC

It is tragic that https://disappeared.us/ must exist. Thank, you, codeberg.org/reed/, for creating it.
#AmericanGulag

2025-04-06 18:40:16 UTC

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When the list is more complete, I'll want to see how various locations track the oft-cited 3.5% rule. My neighboring town of Sonoma overperformed while my hometown of Philly underperformed. (Maybe because those folks joined the NYC or DC crowds?)
We are all in this together. The more we can see and feel that, the more effective we will be.
Let's also find a way paint the same picture for the various boycotts that will powerfully complement live events like yesterday's #HandsOff.
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/114/292/440/067/833/750/original/917f439cad947aa4.png

2025-04-06 17:49:30 UTC

@npub16dj…2jp4 wants a clearer picture of the scope of yesterday's #HandsOff gatherings, and I do too. Please reply to her with published estimates for your town, and/or show us where additional info has been compiled.
A key aspect of yesterday's events was the sense of shared engagement in many places. There are ~1000 rows to complete in her spreadsheet, let's see how it all adds up.
https://bsky.app/profile/sashajwright.bsky.social/post/3lm5muep2ak2q

2025-04-06 00:01:16 UTC

The Handmaids won the Santa Rosa #HandsOff.
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/114/288/077/995/966/758/original/0c8297930f96854a.jpeg

2025-04-03 04:26:30 UTC

"The societies that survived authoritarian threats didn’t just rely on internal solidarity within the press, the courts, or academia. They succeeded because those institutions linked arms across sectors — forming a broad, popular front that transcended professional and even political boundaries."
https://www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/why-collective-action-is-the-only

2025-03-28 03:26:16 UTC

"remove improper ideology from such properties"
Only proper ideologies allowed. https://weatherishappening.network/@ColesStreetPothole/114237441947296241

2025-03-15 04:00:02 UTC

This doesn't end in the courts, it ends in the streets. 11 million people mobilized? It could happen.
1. George Floyd | 2020 | 50,000,000
2. Earth Day | 1970 | 20,000,000
3. Women's March | 2017 | 3,300,000–5,600,000
4. March for Our Lives | 1,200,000-2,000,000
5. Women's March | 2018 | 1,500,000
"No democracy movement has ever failed when it was able to mobilize at least 3.5 percent of the population to protest over a sustained period."
#mobilization
https://bigthink.com/the-present/the-3-5-percent-solution/

2025-03-12 04:39:20 UTC

I've updated the DEI tracker. Not many new sources, media's attention span is short. But I did validate a Reddit list of companies holding the line.
We see the effect the #Tesla boycott is having. Let's not only punish companies backing away from diversity but also reward those courageously upholding it.
From what I found there are more #heroes than #cowards. If true, that's an unreported story!
Some, of course, like Walgreens, are bending but not breaking.
#DEI
https://judell.github.io/dei-tracker/
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/114/147/601/363/896/294/original/faf090a4428bf6db.png

2025-02-28 21:37:20 UTC

I've refrained from joining the "Dems should..." chorus because I haven't had a crystal-clear recommendation.
But here's one: organize and publicize a mass exodus from Twitter to Bluesky (ideally with accounts that opt in to the Fediverse bridge).
Explain that you'll crosspost to Twitter but only interact on Bluesky because you can no longer support Twitter's toxicity.
Announce a day and do it with journos who are looking for a way to make the same move.
#twitter #resistance #bluesky

2025-02-18 17:41:16 UTC

I was looking for a concise guide to determine which companies to support or avoid based on diversity stance. Here's a starting point, subject to enhancement and correction. It's a "remixable artifact" so it should be easy to do that with AI and/or hands-on adjustments. Adding citations would of course be helpful.
#diversity #companies
https://claude.site/artifacts/851b7410-ef9f-4351-9f67-c07818630fbb
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/114/026/100/665/838/688/original/7d6f9ced1b6faeef.png

2025-02-11 03:35:34 UTC

“The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.”
#GeorgeOrwell #1984
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/983/152/606/627/697/original/ba107af04c58c7bd.png

2025-02-05 02:14:46 UTC

The ageism is really starting to bug me. Just because someone is only 22 doesn't mean they can't do a perfectly good job of looting the treasury.

2025-02-03 23:25:11 UTC

I've been looking for the soundbite that could break through to all Americans and I just heard it from Lindsay Owens:
"Elon Musk wants to pay for his tax cut with your social security."
Don't talk about democracy, or justice, or the rule of law, or values, or humanitarian aid.
Appeal to the self-interest of every American across the ideological spectrum.
Land on the right bumper-sticker message and pound it out everywhere, repeatedly and relentlessly.

2025-02-03 00:05:54 UTC

The brain drain will be just one of many ways America will become the opposite of great again. https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina/113912531230082517

2025-02-01 20:19:35 UTC

Remember how Twitter was supposed to be, despite its tragic debasement, a valuable source of breaking news?
Try searching both Twitter and Mastodon for info on yesterday's digital #coup. You can learn as much, if not more, here.
Nothing from any MSM outlet except Reuters which broke the news. If you didn't get it from there or Wired or TPM, as most won't have, you'll have no idea about the illegal shenanigans that make Nixon's crimes look like child's play.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-aides-lock-government-workers-out-computer-systems-us-agency-sources-say-2025-01-31/

2025-01-22 22:13:39 UTC

Wow.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/22/us/politics/pamela-hemphill-trump-jan-6-pardon-rejection.html
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/874/296/853/254/773/original/1d17bf8735ffbeb7.png

2025-01-17 21:50:33 UTC

@npub1e9x…msz2 reminds us that the Fediverse could (and should) inherit traditions going back to blogrings/webrings and before that to the mothership: Usenet. Decentralized social spaces for like-minded folks have worked well in the past and could again.
https://elk.zone/social.coop/@npub1e9x…msz2/113845863191011139

2024-12-01 17:39:11 UTC

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The buttons are there but greyed out. Does it work for you?

2024-12-01 01:19:43 UTC

@npub1ck9…va0n My iPhone upgraded to 18-something-something and now I can't rotate photos which is a fundamental thing I have always been able to do.
Can this really be happening? Am I missing something?

2024-10-12 17:49:05 UTC

I don't know what's more astonishing: the new typesetting language José Reyes explains here, or the depth and quality of the explanation.
https://blog.jreyesr.com/posts/typst/
#typst #latex

2024-09-22 23:16:59 UTC

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The first time I heard about UDP I thought it was a joke. Who would want an unreliable protocol? But it has appropriate uses, and LLMs do too. Avoiding them for inappropriate uses isn't Luddism, it's wisdom.

2024-08-31 18:03:51 UTC

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Agreed. Fewer cycles spent on boilerplate code leaves more available to think about, and evolve, fitness for purpose.

2024-08-31 16:33:09 UTC

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FWIW I am getting good results having them help me build vanilla web stuff. The fact that "the industry" doesn't value that is a separate issue. LLMs can assist with learning and applying the basics.

2024-08-23 04:48:13 UTC

The endorsement we haven't seen yet, but that could move the needle more than any other: Taylor Swift.
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/009/523/996/546/533/original/4a9b347a75304f91.jpeg

2024-08-15 15:12:47 UTC

"The only influence X has left is the influence journalists and politicians give it. For the good of all of us, it’s time for them all to unplug."
Journos and poIs I know many of you feel your brands require you to be there. I was once in a similar position, no longer am, so leaving was easier for me than it would be for you. I'm not telling you that you should, only that if you do, many of us will honor the decision.
#twitter #journalism #choices
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/the-brain-wormed-fantasies-of-elon-musks-twitter-graveyard-keep-seeping-into-real-life-its/article_bafc3f66-5a6b-11ef-8d60-cb71b76fc97e.html

2024-08-14 22:56:02 UTC

The MSM should not take being mainstream for granted. That status must be earned and can change. https://mstdn.social/@Strandjunker/112961684584733473

2024-08-13 15:33:29 UTC

The schizophrenia at the NYTimes is truly weird.
This is online now:
Musk’s Trump Talk: After Glitchy Start, a Two-Hour Ramble
I won't link, but it bears some resemblance to every other report I heard about the event.
The screenshot (with partial alt text) is from the earlier version that my local paper syndicated to its print edition:
Trump's X Return a Victory for Musk
It bears no resemblance to the revised story or to all other accounts.
I am so glad I canceled.
#NYTimes #WTF
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/112/955/438/389/760/475/original/d6e06b4c037942bb.jpeg

2024-08-13 02:46:26 UTC

People are not likely to check their voter registration proactively.
Is there a way to do it for them, by diffing snapshots, and alerting those who have gone missing?
#VoterSuppression

2024-08-10 15:20:40 UTC

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I know, and I shouldn't have let nostalgia cloud my judgment.
Do you think these defections will matter or are they just building a whole different audience at this point?

2024-08-10 05:38:46 UTC

"This is yet another example of how LLMs don’t replace human developers: they augment us."
I so wish Doug Engelbart could be here too see this happening.
https://simonwillison.net/2024/Aug/8/django-http-debug/
#llm #augmentation

2024-08-10 01:43:22 UTC

I remember when the Times published the Pentagon papers, covered Watergate, and honored democracy in many other ways.
This was painful.
#NYTimes #GoodBye
/cc @npub1esh…ggsa, @npub1ry2…ma3q, @npub16e0…egue
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/112/935/165/135/770/842/original/af991efd2415a0ee.png

2024-08-07 05:23:42 UTC

"Almost everything has been done by someone else before. Almost nothing you want to do is truly novel. And language models are exceptionally good at giving you solutions to things they've seen before."
I collect examples of this kind of thing, and this is by far the most exhaustive list of practical LLM uses I've seen.
https://nicholas.carlini.com/writing/2024/how-i-use-ai.html
/ht @npub149q…en5a
#llm #examples

2024-08-05 21:43:55 UTC

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This was particularly egregious I thought.
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/112/911/593/620/419/419/original/dbe93d6661bbb638.png

2024-08-05 19:14:11 UTC

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Related: https://elk.zone/social.coop/@npub1ry2…ma3q/112910326608711366
I think that Molly Roberts article in WaPo is what prompted me to revisit Twitter and get triggered.
Not exactly gentle and empathetic pressure from @dangillmor, and to your point, @glyph, it's worth thinking about what that could look like.

2024-08-05 16:36:45 UTC

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I understand. There was a time when my social media reach was far greater than it is now, and it would have been a much harder decision to leave than it was 2 years ago.
> keep that pressure gentle and empathetic
Yep. Maybe I crossed that line today, I dunno, but seeing what I saw there today really triggered me.

2024-08-05 15:25:37 UTC

I try not to judge people who feel they must remain on Twitter for professional reasons.
But it's getting harder and harder to respect that choice. After a long absence I took a peek at my feed there and this is what I saw.
I'm not naming names. And there are so many of you. How, at this point, do you justify being there?
#Twitter #CognitiveDissonance #SelfRespect
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/112/910/108/938/669/425/original/c949f3be2602eaba.jpeg

2024-04-20 17:59:29 UTC

There's much talk of AI-driven unemployment, not so much about AI-powered employment. Reflecting on a week in which I accomplished a lot more than I could have two years ago, I'm feeling conflicted. It's exhilarating to be empowered by tools that make me a more effective thinker and doer. It's also starting to feel exhausting. As with all forms of augmentation, we need to find balance. Just because we can exercise these new superpowers doesn't mean we always should.