iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 29/09/2026

Hello everyone from the Southern-most tip of Africa! (L'Agulhas, Western Cape, South Africa)

Photo of poster standing at beacon at southern-most tip of Africa

Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 27/09/2026

Caveat emptor! I also used to love WebP, until I discovered that by design it has no support for any kind of HDR. In contrast, AVIF supports HDR both through higher bit depth, e.g. 10 bpp, and also through gain maps, and compresses at least as well as WebP. cpbotha.net/2025/12/25/w...

cpbotha.net

Weekly Head Voices #263: High Dynamic Life

Well will you look at that date… Merry Christmas everyone! I would also like to welcome you to the 263d edition of the Weekly Head Voices, a surprise even to me that it managed to get this far! ...

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Ingvar Stepanyan @rreverser.com · 26/09/2026

I love this so much. Basically: do whatever you want, use whatever you want, but as a maintainer I must not be able to tell it wasn't written by a human.

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 26/09/2026

Rammstein for kids, and I mean that in the most positive way!

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 23/09/2026

I'm thinking specifically of (new?) PLs that define both 2 and 3 and are able to keep them in sync. AI generates 2 based on 1, human converses with AI via domain of 3. My searches have not yielded much, so I think my terms are wrong. Can you perhaps point me at any related resources?

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 23/09/2026

Thank you for this write-up! As a non-PL (only an enthusiast) computer scientist, I have been thinking about the diff representations of a program: 1. intended spec 2. code and 3. current state. Pre-AI, 3 was often mental model. Now AI does 2. We need a better 3 for humans. Can a PL include 2 and 3?

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 19/09/2026

A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Reposted by Charl P. Botha

Elle Cordova @ellecordova.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Back on my literary bullshit #SylviaPlath

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 16/09/2026

Aaah ok! Without quotes or other hints, it looks like you yourself are proud of your release of homebrew. :)

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 15/09/2026

Sorry I have to ask: Why not just repost the announcement post of Mike McQuaid, current project leader and principal maintainer of Homebrew?https://bsky.app/profile/mikemcquaid.com/post/3mvf6y5l47n2z

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 14/09/2026

(in my excitement lost ability to read. I meant "Upgrade Now". Have just clicked...)

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 14/09/2026

#macOS 27 is available now! BRB, just clicking that shiny shiny "Update Now" button...

Screenshot of the macOS software update screen showing macOS 27 being available. 26.81GB download...

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Reposted by Charl P. Botha

Bryan Cantrill @bcantrill.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

The contagion of fear bcantrill.dtrace.org/2026/09/13/t...

bcantrill.dtrace.org

The contagion of fear | The Observation Deck

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Bryan Cantrill @bcantrill.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

Your intellectual fly is open bcantrill.dtrace.org/2025/12/05/y...

bcantrill.dtrace.org

Your intellectual fly is open | The Observation Deck

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 05/09/2026

Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify. Henry David Thoreau

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 03/09/2026

It's a beautiful specimen indeed! bsky.app/profile/char...

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 16/08/2026

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself. Henry Miller

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 12/08/2026

I have in my ~/.config/uv/uv.toml the following line: preview-features = ["centralized-project-envs"] 🤩

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 12/08/2026

I used to have to setup direnv with a UV_PROJECT_ENVIRONMENT .envrc hook in every #Python project [1]. Today I am so grateful that we now have the #uv preview feature centralized-project-environments! [2] to configure... (contd) [1] vxlabs.com/2024/10/10/u... [2] docs.astral.sh/uv/concepts/...

vxlabs.com

Use direnv for uv with out-of-source virtual environments

The new Python package and project manager uv is in fact amazing. I say that, because it’s really fast, but more importantly because this single tool does a whole lot, really fast: Installing Python b...

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 11/08/2026

"The Greeks sprinted in their Olympics, though they had, long before, domesticated the horse. Maybe we too will come to value the sport of understanding with our own brains." -- Harvey Lederman (Professor of Philosophy, UT Austin) in "ChatGPT and the Meaning of Life" scottaaronson.blog?p=9030

scottaaronson.blog

ChatGPT and the Meaning of Life: Guest Post by Harvey Lederman

Scott Aaronson’s Brief Foreword: Harvey Lederman is a distinguished analytic philosopher who moved from Princeton to UT Austin a few years ago. Since his arrival, he’s become one of my …

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Reposted by Charl P. Botha

Naomi Saphra @nsaphra.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I've been unsettled lately when reading messages and papers. It feels like I'm dissociating. Everything seems a bit alien, even if it's completely human. I've had a realization: When our simulations finally exited the Uncanny Valley, they brought the Uncanny with them.

nsaphra.net

Life on the Uncanny Precipice | Naomi Saphra

We were wrong about the Uncanny Valley.

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Reposted by Charl P. Botha

Jennifer Shin - WTAF @jennifershin.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Researchers at the Statens Serum Institut in Denmark have conducted multiple landmark, population-wide studies tracking hundreds of thousands to over 1.2 million children using national health registries to examine potential links between vaccines and autism. Every major study found no connection.

en.ssi.dk

Large Danish Study: No link between vaccines and autism or 49 other health conditions

A new Danish study finds no association between aluminum in childhood vaccines and 50 different health conditions, including autism, asthma, and autoimmune diseases. The findings reaffirm the safety o...

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 09/08/2026

After years of #kindle devices, I got the Boox Go 6 gen1 in July of 2025. This is a fine device, but it can get cripplingly slow due to only 2G RAM. However, thanks mostly to the fantastic #koreader but also to OLauncher, disabling Google sync, 2 day power-off timeout, the #boox is now snappy!

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 09/08/2026

Thanks for this pointer! I have read and loved a bunch of Egan's, but not yet Schild's Ladder. I have just bought the epub and will start it right after I finish with Behemoth (Peter Watts).

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 03/08/2026

Sweet! The migration seems to have gone smoothly and very transparently. I can even see the fastmail web-app queries going through ams.api.fastmail.com/jmap/api/ in Amsterdam!

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 03/08/2026

Thank you very much for this option #fastmail! I'm moving my primary data residency to the EU, because from here in Somerset West (close to Cape Town) the average ping to your servers will improve from 211ms to 176ms.

average ping time comparison between fastmail us and eu. Note that eu also has much lower variance.

Screenshot of fastmail UI to confirm data residency setting

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 02/08/2026

For @obsidian.md on my iPhone, I had unison + fsmonitor running between gdrive and icloud on macbook for a few months. Worked well, except that macbook needs to be up. Decided to get an Obsidian Sync subscription a few weeks ago. Works fantastically, thanks @stephango.com you and team are amazing ❤️

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Obsidian @obsidian.md · 30/07/2026

Obsidian 1.13 is now available to everyone on desktop and mobile! - Added search and keyboard navigation to settings - Images are easier to resize and zoom - iOS share sheet lets you save content from other apps without opening Obsidian - Many bug fixes and performance improvements

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AI Firehose @ai-firehose.column.social · 28/07/2026

A study reveals how blind and low-vision users use agentic programming to create personalized assistive technologies, producing 37 bespoke tools to address unmet needs. This approach democratizes technology creation and empowers users to envision tailored solutions. arxiv.org/abs/2607.21760

arxiv.org

Bespoke Visual Assistance: What and How do Blind and Low-Vision People Create with Agentic Programming?

ArXiv link for Bespoke Visual Assistance: What and How do Blind and Low-Vision People Create with Agentic Programming?

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 28/07/2026

Is there a photo and/or video you could share on this thread?

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 28/07/2026

Today during our meeting walk to the beach, @enginerd.co.za and I ran into a Cape dune mole-rat! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_du...

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 18/07/2026

"How We Built Our Knowledge Base" - fascinating post by Cerebras www.cerebras.ai/blog/how-we-...

cerebras.ai

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 16/07/2026

This is really very exciting, an **open weights** model at this size (2.8T) that scores 57 on Artificial Analysis's combined intelligence index. Congratulations MoonshotAI with the release of #Kimi #K3 and... WHOOOHOOOO!

screenshot of artificial analysis's tweet showing Kimi K3 scoring 57 on their intelligence index.

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 05/07/2026

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... "... health-conscious population, moderate egg consumption was associated with a significantly lower risk of Alzheimer's disease. These findings suggest a potential neuroprotective benefit of nutrients found in eggs when consumed as part of a balanced diet."

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Egg Intake and the Incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease in the Adventist Health Study-2 Cohort Linked with Medicare Data

A substantial knowledge gap remains regarding the relationship between modifiable dietary factors and Alzheimer’s disease risk. Eggs are a source of key nutrients that support brain health. The aim of...

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 04/07/2026

Dan Luu is one of my favourite current practitioners of the scientific method in software and tech. His pieces are often built on a core of measurements and experiments, a form I really enjoy!

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 04/07/2026

The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled. -- Plutarch

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 04/07/2026

Silver lining: It did remind me to remove Edge and all related cache + data files from my #macbook using the amazing and free #AppCleaner app!

Screenshot of AppCleaner finding and removing all files associated with Microsoft Edge on my MacBook

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 04/07/2026

#microsoft is really going through a sad phase. Here I am trying to report the same outlook.com spam that I've reported 5 times over the past weeks (the spammer just does not stop) via their website. Guess what: It force-opens #Edge from my Chrome browser and then, adding insult to injury, fails!

screenshot of microsoft failing at receiving an outlook spam report

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 28/06/2026

TelePi rendering in the Telegram Web app is really pretty!

screenshot of new rich message markdown in the telegram web app

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Reposted by Charl P. Botha

antirez @antirez.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Based on what I'm saying with GLM 5.2 implementation inside DwarfStar, there is 90% of probability I'll merge the branch I'm developing. Right now it is probably the best model available to run on a 512GB Mac Studio system.

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 19/06/2026

Ok ok since so many of you¹ have been asking, I finally started tying my #shoelaces with a reef #knot instead of a granny knot, and it is in fact a giant improvement! See youtube.com/shorts/q05M4... Footnotes ---------- ¹ Absolutely nobody

youtube.com

Reef Knot vs Granny Knot #TheRunnies #ReefKnot #GrannyKnot #HowTo

YouTube video by The Runnies

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 18/06/2026

If you know you know... It only took me half a century and some change. 🥹 Thank you friends.

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Charl P. Botha @charlbotha.com · 18/06/2026

Look, I really love #databricks but I'm finding it hard to deal with the fact that they shipped Lakebase apparently without the ability to control which workspace users can or can't create 💰-guzzling Lakebase compute instances! community.databricks.com/t5/lakebase-... #dataengineering

community.databricks.com

How to prevent users from creating Lakebase compute?

Dear community, According to [1] and other sources, all workspace users are assigned `CAN_CREATE` on lakebase projects, and this permission "can't be revoked". The problem is that such a project comes...

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Reposted by Charl P. Botha

Eurosky Social @eurosky.social · 11/06/2026

Muve to the beat. Muve the conversation. Muve mountains. Today @eurosky.social announces mu.social, a new microblogging app to experiment with the future of social! 🪩💖

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