Favorites: Windowed iPad, Leave Waymo Alone
June 12th 2025: F-16 downs a Russian SU-35, Musk and Trump trade threats, and first-gen immigrants shift right on immigration.
This is a real product, I actually checked just to be sure.
iPad finally has a full windowing system. It still doesn't run MacOS or Mac apps, but it sure looks a lot like a mac. Dan Moren has a rundown of highlights and lowlights for each of Apple's platforms from WWDC via gruber.
If you're looking for a more detailed explanation, check out the full article he linked.
Here's an explanation (cached) of the key problems with Apples new academic paper purporting to show serious limitations of llm reasoning models. I could have guessed without even opening it that a one issue is that they don't let it use python. Here's another explanation (cached). Some folks have interpreted this as folks reading this paper and misinterpreting it, but the title is pretty direct, "The Illusion of Thinking" is a pretty bold title!
It really seems like he's about to just fall right out of the park there.
Flotsam and Jetsam
– The protestors in LA are not doing anything that will help the causes they purport to favor. Wally Nowinski discusses protest dynamics, arguing (cached) that waving a Mexican or American flag at an anti-ICE protest is a pro-Trump act. But definitely don't torch Waymos! Many people were upset about that (cached): "The Waymos, animated ex nihilo, capable only of driving, are without sin. Please spare them as you would spare a child". Another posted a version of the reaper/good doggie (cached). Armand Domalewski reminds folks (cached) that the goal of protest is not to convince those directly opposing you but to influence the observers. Optics are everything. The No Kings protests are trying (cached) to hew to this line. Ideally though, you want to bring discussions of immigration back to Trump's actual weak issues, like the spending bill. Here's Chris Murphy doing it seamlessly in a single sentence (cached). (src)(cached)
– Explanation of the key problems with Apple’s new academic paper purporting to show serious limitations of llm reasoning models. I could have guessed without even opening it that one issue is that they don't let it use python. (src)(cached)
– For the first time, an F-16 shot down a Russian SU-35. (Over Ukraine Obviously) (src)(cached)
– JD Vance threatened the famed menswear guy who regularly mocks Vance‘s suits (src)(cached)
– Trump is talking about arresting Newsom, you better believe that's exactly what Newsom wants for his political prospects, he's pushing hard for a conflict with Trump (cached). None of this endears the crowds to him, they still hate him (cached) (src)(cached)
– Wild polling stat: the group of voters who’ve turned most towards Trump on immigration are first generation immigrants themselves. (src)(cached)
– Lyman Stone noticed an interesting piece of info from a study of AI use in tech companies, "Once AI is writing 30% of your code, your productivity [measured in terms of number of commits] only rises 2.4%". (src)(cached)
– There are people who say violent protests are good, because nonviolence has failed by not protecting protestors from injury at the hands of police. But Those people misunderstand nonviolent protests. There is no expectation that nonviolence will protect against brutality, and often that’s a big part of the goal. (src)(cached)
– Apple is pushing back on Gruber's 'Something Rotten in Cupertino' article, arguing their demo last year of personalized siri "wasn't vaporware". But he's not backing down, and has a detailed explanation of why. (src)
– Spaceballs sequel is on the way. They're implying the title will be "The Schwartz Awakens" (src)(cached)