Daniel Jalkut

People who are really serious about hardware should make their own RAM.

Toy Story 5 is good. Kudos Pixar peeps.

Here's a hot tip if you ever travel to other countries, particularly to the same ones repeatedly: register an Apple ID for each country, with an easy to remember format, like joe.uk@example.com. https://bitsplitting.org/2026/07/10/multinational-apple-accounts/

My 14yo started with violin in 3rd grade, switch to saxophone in 4th grade, but took piano lessons on the side. Those only lasted a couple years, but thanks to his commitment to the sax he joined the middle school jazz ensemble. Now he's playing Dave Brubeck riffs on piano while I write this. 😭

AI offers incredible powers to people today who ALREADY know how to do their jobs. The real risk, IMO, is that a whole generation will never learn how to actually do the jobs.

Every American would be basking in luxury, or at least square meals and healthcare, if our government only thought that investing in ourselves was more prudent than destroying everybody else. A country led by self-proclaimed "fiscal conservatives," no less. They're throwing our riches away.

I'm in Raleigh, NC for the North American Rubik's Cube championship. If you have ever been curious about this "sport" they are livestreaming and commenting on key solvers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIv2qQIeKb0

Please, whatever shit deal the US and Iran are about to announce, call it the "TRUMP DEAL" because it's going to be bad and it's going to fail and I want his name on it.

Robert Mueller demonstrated admirable American values.

For years I've been grappling with the problem of maintaining a local archive of all the digital documents that used to naturally archive themselves by showing up on paper. I got Claude to help me orchestrate the whole thing, and it's glorious. Feed this prompt to your LLM of choice: https://gist.github.com/danielpunkass/c4da2c13ee1fb6b0ed6bfce54d8fdcf3

I've always been inspired by Bruce Springsteen, but the fact that, at 76 years old, he's singing for "No Kings" protests is pretty awesome. Coolest grandpa on the block. Also he looks about my age (50).

Amazing, after a year, Hyatt still has $1000+ of my money that I spent on a hotel room I never stayed at, that @bookingcom@mastodon.social ASSURED me was canceled with no fee. These companies trading blame while meanwhile I'm still out $1000 for trusting either of them.

Downtown Raleigh, NC is ALIVE with Rubik's speedcubing. I love talking to locals who had no idea we were coming to town. They always want to know EVERYTHING. And usually they say "it's JUST a pattern, right?" To which I answer "weeeellllllll"

So the best case scenario is that mideast politics will return to where they stood 6 months ago, America leaves shame-faced, and Israel leaves somehow victorious after defying Trump and America. Cool, cool.

As my oldest son gets ready for college, I'm thinking about the fears surrounding going out on one's own. Having to, all at once, pay all the bills while hoping for some relief. He's lucky to have a backstop in me/us, but so many kids don't. College should be universally funded.

My kids have been incredibly successful so far. I'm sure they could have done "better" by somebody's standard, but I never wanted to stress them out. They enjoy doing well, and many times that means getting an A, but sometimes it means getting a B. They are perfect.

Assistant TO the regional CEO.

I "just" got back from the ACPT: America's crossword tournament. It takes a while to sink in, because it's a surreal experience living, eating, drinking, and most importantly SOLVING in the midst of so many amazing crossword enthusiasts. Even the celebrities there are accessible. So cool, so nerdy.

After Zohran Mamdani was elected as Mayor of New York City, you could understand if he wanted to take a break. Recharge. But apparently the way he recharges is by continuing to campaign. Non-stop. It's Mamdani time in New York City. Let's go!

If you want to know when AI is finally coming for your job, just keep an eye on when OpenAI and Anthropic stop hiring for your job.

If Anthropic has really developed an LLM that can suss out security weaknesses better than any other AI, the US government would be foolish to continue shunning them. Oh, right, it is foolish.

AI skeptics often express a fear about how it might do something bad without you knowing. You can't "trust" it. It's absolutely, 100% true. But the question of whether you trust it or not is entirely in your hands. You CAN review every word, code snippet, etc., before it does it. If you choose to.

AI is a tool. When the axe was invented, somebody probably said, "wow, I'm going to use this to cut so much wood!", and somebody else said "I'm going to use this to kill so many people!"

The best tools are hard to judge ethically.

I know I'm fighting against a radicalized anti-AI cadre when I say this, but I believe AI is good, will prevail, and that its positives will make every naysayer sorry that they ever doubted it.

"The Beginning of Programming as We'll Know It." Why I'm confident that embracing AI with a heavy dose of skepticism is the power play for programmers. https://bitsplitting.org/2026/04/01/the-beginning-of-programming-as-well-know-it/

My mom related to me that sometimes she feels “mad” that I solve the Wordle so much faster than she does. Sorry, Mom, it’s not my fault you raised me genius!

Sometimes, when I push back on the AI a lot, I wonder if it thinks I'm smarter than its other customers.

If you're a paying user of Claude, you may or may not have received a message offering an "extra usage" credit equivalent to your monthly plan price. It wasn't working for me for a while, but now it seems fixed. Go get it! https://claude.ai/settings/usage

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Perhaps the most remarkable thing about "America" (the USA) is that people as diametrically opposed as the staunchest conservative, easily labeled a fascist, and the staunchest liberal, easily labeled an anarchist, find common ground declaring the United States as the country they are most loyal to.

Today's NYT puzzle gave me a little more trouble.

The biggest marketing coup in the AI era is Anthropic calling its agentic, command-line tool, "Claude Code." It's a diversely capable model that can be used for ANY matter of tasks, but calling it "code" made it feel like the perfect choice for coders. OpenAI's Codex doesn't hit the same mark.

I just had the idea that some AI company might use The Pixies' "Gigantic" to make an ad called "Agentic," and it horrified me. Anyway this video is cool and does a good job showing how every musician plays their part. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJncHEZ3URs

Just posted MarsEdit 5.4.2 with spell checking options synced to more editing fields, restored Micropost photo button icon, and several bug fixes. https://redsweater.com/blog/4267/marsedit-5-4-2-more-spell-check-syncing

If you're a paying user of Claude, you may or may not have received a message offering an "extra usage" credit equivalent to your monthly plan price. It wasn't working for me for a while, but now it seems fixed. Go get it! https://claude.ai/settings/usage

Such delight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XIOif_Zi8I