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Al Sweigart

@alsweigart.bsky.social
3.4K followers 395 following 349 posts

Author of "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python" and other books. Mostly harmless. Last name rhymes with "why dirt." he/him

PostsRepliesMedia
Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 3h
We already have public executions. They're called police body cams. But for fascists, it's never enough...
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Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 13h
Sharing this because NYers who are unenthusiastic about casting a vote for Kathy Hochul need to know that the alternative, Bruce Blakeman, is a genuinely evil piece of shit. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/12/n...
nytimes.com
Blakeman Launches Graphic Attack on Mamdani in Meeting With Hasidic Jews (Gift Article)
While seeking support from Hasidic leaders, the Republican candidate for governor, Bruce Blakeman, said Mayor Zohran Mamdani would not act if riots hit their community.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 21h
Uhg, I was too late and you got to make this joke first.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 22h
Anyone have direct experience with burning out their GPU from running stuff like Folding@home? I want to contribute, but I don't want to ruin my NVIDIA GeForce card.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Thinking back a few weeks ago how this guy on here corrected me about the difference a podium and a lectern and instead of replying I blocked him and man it still feels great.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
I put some nice velcro strips to the 2 TB usb drive and my desktop so it can be a semipermanent storage archive, and I feel very clever and cyberpunk.
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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
I love taking the train between San Diego and Los Angeles since it's such a gorgeous view but there's just no way it'll still exist on the same track a generation from now. www.instagram.com/reels/DeSCAh...
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Apparently I was a Prime member. Not sure for how long. I always set a cancel reminder in my phone, but maybe I missed it? Or didn't fill out the cancel form all the way? "That's how they getcha."
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Today is the last day to get 30% off cybersecurity books and ebooks from No Starch Press with code STAYSHARP. nostarch.com/catalog/secu...
nostarch.com
Taxonomy term
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I think @doctorow.pluralistic.net might find my latest scrolling ascii art piece, "Enshittification" kind of fun. Or horrifying. scrollart.org/artwork/ensh...
scrollart.org
Enshittification — ScrAM - The Scroll Art Museum
Al Sweigart, 2026. A steadily escalating catalog of hostile product and interface decisions is typed one character at a time.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
If you had a 512 GB sd card to store "useful" ebooks to share with the public, what books would you put on it? I'd have "the classics", sure. But also contemporary popular books? Nolo legal guides? Probably not graphic novels, they take up too much disk space. What else? What would you put?
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
See what Amazon knows about you (or what it's willing to say it knows about you): www.amazon.com/slc/hub?useA...
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 09/10/2026
Susan Collins claims that our reporting about CEO Martin Kao’s bribery allegations took him at his word. That’s not true. We reviewed a trove of FBI evidence and legal records. Here’s how we independently corroborated much of Kao’s account.
propublica.org
Watch: We Uncovered Bribery Allegations Involving Susan Collins
In late 2024, FBI investigators had enough evidence to launch a sweeping bribery probe of politicians including Sen. Susan Collins — until Trump gutted the unit in charge. ProPublica has revealed the ...
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
A reminder that the people who ban books NEVER actually read the books they ban. It's always done based on their bigoted vibes.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Sold 9 tickets to my programming class for absolute beginners at NYC Resistor in Brooklyn for Sun Oct 11. Tickets sales are picking up, but some are still available. www.eventbrite.com/e/computer-p...
eventbrite.com
Computer Programming for Absolute Beginners (in Python)
This tutorial for absolute beginners goes through basic programming concepts, Python syntax, and a few fun programs along the way.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
The two 32 GB DDR4 memory I bought for my desktop last summer for $100 is currently selling for $560 on Amazon right now.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I'll admit that having AI find the "cancel order" or "cancel subscription" page on a website for me so I can just go directly to it is nice.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Never let them tell you "there's no money for that". We can afford housing, health, education, food, and infrastructure for everyone. (Everyone! Even the children, the elderly, the disabled, the sick, the homeless, the addicted.) We can't afford billionaires.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I'm trying to come up with a term for small free & open software apps, often generated by AI, that is not enshittified (no ads, subscriptions, nag screens, dark ui patterns). What do you think of "Just Software", as in justice but also "just does the thing you want".
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Eli Whitney's cotton gin *increased* the demand for enslaved Black workers. Technology is a rising tide that only lifts mega yachts. Better living standards only come from political organization that deliver actual economic gains for the 99%.
Forbes headline: Jeff Bezos Claims AI Could Allow For 3-Day Workweeks And One-Income Families
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
"...feels like using a program from the 90s that hasn’t been updated" In 2026, it's literally impossible to tell if this is meant in a positive or negative way.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 08/10/2026
Vote early and in person, folks. If you're in a "vote by mail" state and can deliver your mail-in vote directly rather than relying on USPS this year, do it. Otherwise get it into the mail at the earliest possible date. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
democracydocket.com
The Postal Service is slowing delivery. Will your mail ballot be affected?
Democracy Docket mapped the affected zip codes.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
"Robot, experience this dramatic irony for me."
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
What if... what if virtual reality became so real, that we couldn't tell the real world from the video game? What if we couldn't break free of the virtual world, leaving our bodies to deteriorate to thirst?
On bottom, a cactus in a video game. On top, a man in a VR headset holding his arms up like a cactus.On bottom, a cactus in a video game. On top, a man in a VR headset holding his arms up like a cactus. It is dark in his room and also night time in the game.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I can't stress this enough when you are asking people for computer or programming help.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Python developers are anxious. Their jobs, their craft, their world — AI is impacting all of it. So we launched Satyrn AI: a project, a community, deliverables. From us, for us. Today: a Python 3.15 model, an eval harness with a Pi extension, a conversation, a home. satyrn.ai
satyrn.ai
AI Our Way
A human-centric home for Python developers to do AI Our Way. Trusted, from us, for us. Conversation, sharing, innovation, and building software tools.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
LIFE HACK - You can benchpress 250 lbs if you bring a fork lift to the gym.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
‘Boneless’ chicken wings can have bones, the Ohio Supreme Court says www.npr.org/2024/07/25/n...
npr.org
‘Boneless’ chicken wings can have bones, the Ohio Supreme Court says
In a 4-3 verdict against a patron who sued a restaurant after swallowing a bone from a “boneless wing,” the court ruled that “boneless” doesn’t guarantee that there will be no bones in a chicken wing.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Paris, 1968: "Be realistic, demand the impossible."
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
People often say documentation is a good place to start when getting involved with an open source project. I wonder if "focus group" or "tourist" would be better. What do you, an outsider, think of the project? The code? The docs? Do you understand what the aim and tradeoffs of the project are?
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"If only the Führer knew!" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_the_... > An idiom describing a political phenomenon wherein many Germans at the time believed that Nazi Party officials were deliberately concealing evidence of atrocities from Adolf Hitler, who was oblivious and would have put an end to them.
en.wikipedia.org
If the Führer knew - Wikipedia
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"If only the Führer knew!" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_the_... > An idiom describing a political phenomenon wherein many Germans at the time believed that Nazi Party officials were deliberately concealing evidence of atrocities from Adolf Hitler, who was oblivious and would have put an end to them.
en.wikipedia.org
If the Führer knew - Wikipedia
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"If only the Führer knew!" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_the_... > An idiom describing a political phenomenon wherein many Germans at the time believed that Nazi Party officials were deliberately concealing evidence of atrocities from Adolf Hitler, who was oblivious and would have put an end to them.
en.wikipedia.org
If the Führer knew - Wikipedia
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Hey, anyone on a linux laptop w/ Python install want to test my new package? Or any computer. pip install inventwithpython.com/files/laptop... import laptop_battery_status as lbs lbs.battery_level() lbs.battery_life() lbs.battery_present() lbs.is_charging() lbs.is_plugged_in()
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
So my current book is on learning to program in the era of AI, and teaches how to connect Python scripts to local LLMs. I figure Automate the Boring Stuff would be a great follow up book. I'm beginning to think that this book would also make a great follow up to Automate the Boring Stuff.
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Rex Huppke @rexhuppke.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I don't mean to make waves or anything, but as a journalist, I am definitely opposed to the president talking about arresting journalists.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Funny animal pictures. www.comedywildlifephoto.com/gallery/fina...
comedywildlifephoto.com
These images are for viewing only and must not be copied :: Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards - Conservation through Competition
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I cackled reading this. Oh god... yep...
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Looking at a slide from an old talk where I mentioned the adage, "Luck favors the prepared."
"Luck Favors the Supported"
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
James is a friend, so it's okay. But I know it does look like an internet rando busting my balls.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Hmmm... so I have a ton of AI-generated apps that are actually kind of nice. But I don't want to register a new domain for each one because that'd be too expensive. Should I just set up subdomains? Like markdown.inventwithpython.com for my markdown editor? Would that look more professional?
markdown.inventwithpython.com
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
If you're in Brooklyn and have been meaning to learn to code, it's about a week until my Python tutorial at NYC Resistor on Sun, Oct 11: www.eventbrite.com/e/computer-p...
eventbrite.com
Computer Programming for Absolute Beginners (in Python)
This tutorial for absolute beginners goes through basic programming concepts, Python syntax, and a few fun programs along the way.
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Reposted by Al Sweigart
Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
Saying that chatgpt can be used as a disability aid for ADHD is pretty much saying you have no idea what the fuck you are talking about, and don't particularly give a shit whether people get harmed.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Lord of the Rings has racism and the movies meant you don't have to actually read the books, but did LotR have an extensive fanfic community of Chosen One wannabe philosopher kings? Yeah, I'd put my money on LotR and Palantir, et al.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
My friend and his husband just launched their independent publishing company Labradillo Co. The children's book "Chonky the Chocolate Lab and the Trick to Treating Others Kindly" comes out later this month! labradillo.com
labradillo.com
Chonky the Chocolate Lab
What happens when a Chocolate Lab can't enjoy what Halloween is famous for? He takes matters into his own paws!
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I love these classic video games.
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Brad Lander @bradlander.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yehonatan Ovadia – a Hasidic Jew and Israeli citizen who has lived in the U.S. on a visa since 2022 – is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center (a notorious federal prison) and facing deportation … for his criticism of Israel on religious grounds.
nytimes.com
A Hasidic Jew Protested Against an Israeli Flag. He May Be Deported.
Yehonatan Ovadia, who opposed the mounting of the flag in a small New York town, belongs to a Hasidic branch that is anti-Zionist. He is now in ICE custody.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I generated a Flip Dot Display visualizer tool. I plan on making some programming tutorials where you write programs to generate sequences for it. The tool itself has over 50 transitions (each dot flips exactly once) built in: inventwithpython.com/flipdotart/
inventwithpython.com
FlipDotArtDisplay Demo
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This guy is 63 years old and this is the first time politics has had an impact on him. I'm going to think about this whenever people react strongly against being told they have privilege.
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