Questo aneddoto su come Steve Jobs costruì l'interfaccia della prima calcolatrice per il Macintosh del 1984, peraltro già conosciuto, in realtà apre una interessante finestra: Chris Espinoza ancora lavora per Apple (chissà che diavolo fa).

Money quote: "Chris Espinosa started working for Apple at age 14 in 1976 as the company’s youngest employee. By 1981, while studying at UC Berkeley, Jobs convinced Espinosa to drop out and work on the Mac team full time.

Believe it or not, Chris Espinosa still works at Apple as its longest-serving employee. But back in the day, as manager of documentation for the Macintosh, Espinosa decided to write a demo program using Bill Atkinson’s QuickDraw, the Mac’s graphics system, to better understand how it worked. He chose to create a calculator as one of the planned “desk ornaments,” which were small utility programs that would ship with the Mac. They later came to be called “desk accessories.”

Espinosa thought his initial calculator design looked good, but Jobs had other ideas when he saw it. Hertzfeld describes the scene: “‘Well, it’s a start,’ Steve said, ‘but basically, it stinks. The background color is too dark, some lines are the wrong thickness, and the buttons are too big.'”"

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/original-mac-calculators-design-came-from-letting-steve-jobs-play-with-sliders-for-ten-minutes/

L'idea di essere pronti ad andarsene, cioè con tutte le cose a posto, è un modo non solo per essere pronti ad andarsene, ma anche a migliorare la propria qualità del lavoro.

Money quote: "By the time I had the exit interview with HR, it was a formality. When they asked “Is there something we can do to change your mind?” I answered: “You already tried everything. We’ve already talked.”

The conversation was over. We just discussed notice periods and bureaucracy.

Here’s what surprised me: the practices that made my exit smooth weren’t “exit strategies.” They were professional habits I should have built years earlier—habits that made work better even when I was staying."

https://andreacanton.dev/posts/2025-11-08-always-ready-to-leave/

Cos'è l'ufficio virtuale? Una risposta la dà Zed Industries, che utilizza il suo editor collaborativo, Zed, per tutte le operazioni aziendali, comprese le riunioni settimanali. Le funzionalità di collaborazione di Zed, costruite su CRDT, consentono un lavoro di squadra senza soluzione di continuità e a bassa latenza, eliminando la necessità di strumenti esterni. La struttura basata sul canale dell'azienda supporta sia le discussioni a livello aziendale che la collaborazione specifica del progetto, promuovendo un ambiente di ufficio virtuale.

Money quote: "We've been dreaming of building the ultimate collaborative editor for years. The roots of this vision go back to Nathan's early days at Pivotal Labs, where pair programming with two keyboards plugged into the same computer was the standard practice. We set out to recreate that seamless collaboration experience—but for distributed teams.

But wait... doesn't this technology already exist in other editors?

Yes! If you've been a developer long enough, you might recall the teletype package for Atom—both built by Zed's founders. Teletype enabled developers to share "portals" into their workspaces, which was an initial step towards Zed's collaborative vision. Despite attempts to make Atom—an Electron application—more responsive, it never reached the performance standards the team yearned for. Nathan left the Atom team and eventually began work on gpui, Zed's GPU-accelerated UI rendering framework, written in Rust, and Atom would later be sunset by GitHub after. No more Atom, no more Teletype."

https://zed.dev/blog/zed-is-our-office

Vi ricordate Weird Tales? È una rivista pulp statunitense di racconti horror e fantastici, pubblicata per la prima volta nel marzo del 1923. Il periodico fu fondato a Chicago da J. C. Henneberger, un ex giornalista con il gusto per il macabro. Edwin Baird fu il primo direttore del mensile, aiutato da Farnsworth Wright. Qui su Internet Archive li ritrovate praticamente tutti.

Ah, c'è anche una nuova edizione, che è un po' come dire: "noi redivivi e voi redimorti".

Money quote: "From the sewers and swamps of this strange earth come creatures whispered about in alleys and around campfires.

The new Weird Tales is here. Pre-order before it sells out."

https://archive.org/search?query=subject%3A%22weird+tales%22

https://www.weirdtales.com

Yann LeCun ha inventato molti componenti fondamentali dell'AI moderna. È uno bravo, insomma. Adesso è convinto che la maggior parte della ricerca nel suo campo sia stata portata fuori strada dal canto della sirena dei grandi modelli linguistici. Che, insomma, gli LLM siano un vicolo cieco. Ha sempre avuto ragione, negli ultimi 40 anni. Ora che è convinto che tutti si sbaglino, ha ancora ragione?

Money quote: "LeCun, by his choice, has taken a different direction. He has been telling anyone who asks that he thinks large language models, or LLMs, are a dead end in the pursuit of computers that can truly outthink humans. He’s fond of comparing the current start-of-the-art models to the mind of a cat—and he believes the cat to be smarter. Several years ago, he stepped back from managing his AI division at Meta, called FAIR, in favor of a role as an individual contributor doing long-term research."

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/yann-lecun-ai-meta-0058b13c

archivio: https://archive.is/sEEP0

Letture per la domenica

La ricostruzione della verginità di William, principe senza cognome (come i tutti i suoi parenti).

Money quote: "At a time when the British royal family has been convulsed by drama, infighting and a tendency by some royals to over-share, Prince William has remained largely aloof — loath to reveal the kinds of details found in “Spare,” the memoir by his estranged brother, Prince Harry.

Yet William, too, has lifted the veil in recent weeks, in his own carefully managed way. Appearing with the Canadian comic actor, Eugene Levy, on an episode of his travel series, and later with a woman who lost her husband to suicide, William has shown a more personal side, speaking about his desire to change the monarchy after he becomes king and tearing up over another family’s tragedy.

The two glimpses of William, 43, have hardly remade the public image of the eldest son of King Charles III. But they have filled in some blanks in the portrait of a man who has carefully cultivated the profile of a middle-aged husband and father, determined to shield himself and his family from undue scrutiny."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/world/europe/prince-william-interviews-mental-health-monarchy.html

archivio: https://archive.is/evM7g

I browser lanciati dai produttori di AI, che tipicamente sono versioni customizzate di Chrome/Chromium, sono molto poco sicuri. Non è una sorpresa, ma dovrebbe essere un monito.

Money quote: "Building on our previous disclosure of the Perplexity Comet vulnerability, we’ve continued our security research across the agentic browser landscape. What we’ve found confirms our initial concerns: indirect prompt injection is not an isolated issue, but a systemic challenge facing the entire category of AI-powered browsers. This post examines additional attack vectors we’ve identified and tested across different implementations.

On request, we are withholding one additional vulnerability found in another browser for now. We plan on providing more details next week."

https://brave.com/blog/unseeable-prompt-injections/

E poi i dettagli:

https://brave.com/blog/prompt-injection-flaw-opera-neon/

Lo sapevate che nella Silicon Valley si usa sempre più spesso l'AI open source cinese? Costa meno e funziona meglio, per questo Airbnb e Thinking Machines Lab la usano nei loro prodotti. Il modello low cost cinese è molto efficiente e rischia di mettere in crisi il faraonico sistema americano.

Money quote: "Data from Hugging Face’s platform compiled by the ATOM Project, a US coalition in support of open-source AI, confirmed that. Chinese models have overtaken the US in terms of cumulative downloads by developers. The shift happened slowly, then all at once: In early 2024, Meta Platforms Inc.’s Llama had 10.6 million downloads to Alibaba Qwen’s meager half a million. By last month, Qwen had had 385.3 million cumulative downloads compared to Llama’s 346.2 million. And derivative systems built on Qwen now account for more than 40% of new language models posted on Hugging Face, while Meta’s share has fallen to 15%."

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-11-09/how-much-of-silicon-valley-is-built-on-chinese-ai

archivio: https://archive.is/PZJYo

La globalizzazione prometteva un mondo senza confini, ma gli algoritmi digitali hanno frammentato le persone in bolle di pensiero simili, rafforzando l'omofilia e la polarizzazione. Anche se la diversità è a portata di mano, molti preferiscono la sicurezza emotiva delle comunità chiuse, il che aumenta la sfiducia nei confronti del diverso. Questa tendenza, guidata dalla preferenza degli algoritmi per contenuti emotivi e polarizzanti, minaccia la capacità di dialogo e consenso nella società. Tradotto: sono cazzi.

Money quote: "Internet anunció el fin de las fronteras, pero el algoritmo nos fragmenta en una infinidad de burbujas, islotes que nos confirman en nuestros sesgos; ¿han nacido nuevos límites que separan más que los geográficos?"

https://www.lanacion.com.ar/ideas/de-vuelta-al-calor-de-la-tribu-en-un-mundo-globalizado-nid08112025/

Era talmente ovvio che quasi non c'era bisogno di dirlo. I ricchi si sposano tra loro (e i poveri? Anche).

Money quote: "La clase social atraviesa todos los aspectos de la vida y el amoroso no iba a ser menos. En España las parejas no se forman al azar, sino que suelen estar determinadas por cuestiones socioeconómicas, lo que se traduce en que una persona se junta con quien más se parece a sí misma en términos de ingresos y riqueza. En la parte alta de la tabla, la tendencia se dispara. Quienes más ganan y más tienen se encuentran con una intensidad que triplica lo que ocurriría en una sociedad en la que los enlaces se produjeran de manera completamente aleatoria."

https://elpais.com/economia/2025-11-16/los-ricos-se-casan-con-los-ricos-como-el-amor-perpetua-la-desigualdad.html

archivio: https://archive.is/PVS1L

Il film Legend of Zelda, tirato fuori dal'omonimo videogioco, arriverà tra un po', ma forse ne vale davvero la pena

Money quote: "Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, who is producing the film, revealed the casting of Link and Zelda over the summer, writing in a social media post: “I am pleased to announce that for the live-action film of ‘The Legend of Zelda,’ Zelda will be played by Bo Bragason-san, and Link by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth-san. I am very much looking forward to seeing both of them on the big screen.”

English actor Bragason is known for her roles in the BBC One series “Three Girls” and “The Jetty,” as well as Disney+’s “Renegade Nell.” Last year, she starred in Euros Lyn’s vampire comedy film “The Radleys.” Ainsworth, who is also English, was the voice of Pinocchio in Robert Zemeckis’ live-action “Pinocchio” and played Miles in the Netflix series “The Haunting of Bly Manor.” He also stars in the Canadian comedy series “Son of a Critch” and appeared in an episode of Netflix’s “The Sandman.”"

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/legend-of-zelda-movie-first-look-link-zelda-live-action-1236583595/

E se molti super-centenari (quelli con più di 110 anni) in realtà fossero dei fake?

Money quote: "Tutto è cominciato a gennaio, quando la rivista scientifica Rejuvenation Research ha pubblicato un articolo del matematico russo Nikolay Zak secondo cui alla morte della madre, nel 1934, Yvonne Calment ne avrebbe preso l’identità per evitare di pagare una gran quantità di tasse di successione. L’argomentazione di Zak si basa sul confronto tra le fotografie disponibili di Yvonne e quelle di Jeanne Calment prima e dopo la morte della figlia, su varie incongruenze nelle interviste rilasciate da Calment da anziana, oltre che su un’analisi statistica secondo cui sarebbe poco plausibile che nel 1997 una persona abbia raggiunto i 122 anni di vita."

https://www.ilpost.it/2019/09/28/scetticismi-supercentenari-jeanne-calment/

Anteprima di Mostly Weekly 355 con il 2026 che bussa alla porta: tra l'AI che scava nel passato, la Disney che cambia pelle e Kubrick cospiratore, c'è il web che si risveglia artigiano

https://antoniodini.com/weekly/355/

Letture per la domenica.

Secondo il sociologo francese Jean-François Bayart, gli ideali politici della generazione Z sono molto ambivalenti e facilmente recuperabili. In un'intervista a "Le Monde" il sociologo ha spiegato il fatto che, secondo lui, la recente ondata di mobilitazione dei giovani è una reazione alla rivoluzione conservatrice, a sua volta un misto di autoritarismo e predazione economica praticata da molti Stati. Questa reazione però non è esente da varie ambiguità ideologiche.

Money quote: "Depuis l’échec des « printemps arabes » de 2011, nous sommes entrés dans un âge de révolution conservatrice à l’échelle mondiale : Donald Trump aux Etats-Unis, Vladimir Poutine en Russie, Recep Tayyip Erdogan en Turquie, Narendra Modi en Inde… Il s’agit de phénomènes de restauration – ou d’instauration – de l’autoritarisme, à l’interface de l’exaltation de valeurs dites « traditionnelles » et de la célébration de la technologie. Les vieilles démocraties européennes n’en sont pas à l’abri. Les coups d’Etat au Sahel ou l’élection présidentielle au Sénégal en portent aussi la marque."

https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2025/11/09/jean-francois-bayart-sociologue-les-ideaux-politiques-de-la-generation-z-sont-tres-ambivalents-et-facilement-recuperables_6652825_3210.html

Il concetto è semplice: chi fa una vita attiva è sano, chi fa una vita sedentaria è malato. Il conto prima o poi arriva.

Money quote: "We’ve long accepted the idea that someone is “healthy” if their lab results are normal and they’re not taking medication. But what if that’s the wrong measuring stick? What if metabolic illness starts long before your first abnormal blood test?

Most metabolic diseases… type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, fatty liver, etc, are present for more than a decade before a routine physical examination and blood tests will identify the issue. They are area under the curve issues… where the area is time. I discussed this concept at length in my book, Longevity Simplified."

https://howardluksmd.substack.com/p/if-youre-not-active-youre-sick-you

Il mistero della scoperta della penicillina: nel racconto di Alexander Fleming ci sono parecchie cose che non tornano.

Money quote "For decades, scientists and historians have puzzled over inconsistencies in Fleming’s story. For starters, the window to Fleming’s lab was rarely (if ever) left open, precisely to prevent the kind of contamination that supposedly led to penicillin’s discovery. Second, the story is strikingly similar to Fleming’s earlier discovery of lysozyme, another antibacterial substance, which also featured lucky contamination from an open window. Third, Fleming claimed to have discovered the historic culture plate on September 3rd, but the first entry in his lab notebook isn’t dated until October 30th, nearly two months later.

Last, and most important: penicillin only works if it’s present before the staphylococci. Fleming did not know it at the time, but penicillin interferes with bacterial cell wall synthesis, which only happens when bacteria are actively growing. Visible colonies, however, are composed mostly of mature or dead cells. By the time a colony can be seen, it is often too late for penicillin to have any effect. In fact, the Penicillium mold typically won’t even grow on a plate already filled with staphylococcus colonies. For years, scientists have attempted to replicate Fleming’s original discovery. All have met with failure."

https://www.asimov.press/p/penicillin-myth

Alla faccia della privacy. Il colpo gobbo fa crollare le certezze perlomeno in ambito aziendale.

Money quote: "As reported by Android Authority, “Google is rolling out Android RCS Archival on Pixel (and other Android) phones, allowing employers to intercept and archive RCS chats on work-managed devices. In simpler terms, your employer will now be able to read your RCS chats in Google Messages despite end-to-end encryption.”

This applies to work-managed devices and doesn’t affect personal devices. And in certain regulated industries it just adds RCS archiving to existing SMS archiving. But employees in regular organizations view texting as different to emailing, especially given the expectations around end-to-end encryption. That’s no longer the case."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/12/03/google-starts-sharing-all-your-text-messages-with-your-employer/

Sta arrivando... sono 70 anni che il NORAD segue il volo di Santa Claus. Sembrava ieri…

https://techdale.it/la-diretta-per-seguire-babbo-natale-ecco-come-e-nata-la-tradizione-piu-tech-del-natale/

Buon Natale, vi auguro un periodo di serene festività: ce n'è davvero bisogno

Internet come una foresta: la stiamo distruggendo. Un'immagine potente e affascinante nella sua drammaticità.

Money quote: "The story of German scientific forestry transmits a timeless truth: When we simplify complex systems, we destroy them, and the devastating consequences sometimes aren’t obvious until it’s too late.

That impulse to scour away the messiness that makes life resilient is what many conservation biologists call the “pathology of command and control.” Today, the same drive to centralize, control and extract has driven the internet to the same fate as the ravaged forests."

https://www.noemamag.com/we-need-to-rewild-the-internet/

Ieri si parlava della fine di internet come la conosciamo. Ma, mantenendo le analogie vegetali, per fortuna ci sono i giardini digitali che vengono coltivati

Money quote: "The movement might be gaining steam now, but its roots date back to 1998, when Mark Bernstein introduced the idea of the “hypertext garden,” arguing for spaces on the internet that let a person wade into the unknown. “Gardens … lie between farmland and wilderness,” he wrote. “The garden is farmland that delights the senses, designed for delight rather than commodity.” (His digital garden includes a recent review of a Bay Area carbonara dish and reflections on his favorite essays.)

The new wave of digital gardens discuss books and movies, with introspective journal entries; others offer thoughts on philosophy and politics. Some are works of art in themselves, visual masterpieces that invite the viewer to explore; others are simpler and more utilitarian, using Google Docs or Wordpress templates to share intensely personal lists. Avid readers in particular have embraced the concept, sharing creative, beautiful digital bookshelves that illustrate their reading journey"

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/03/1007716/digital-gardens-let-you-cultivate-your-own-little-bit-of-the-internet/