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Paul Williams

@defiantsloth.bsky.social
38 followers 90 following 387 posts

pairing fine dining with dive bars and ripping through pull tabs wherever ✱ defiantsloth.com • MN

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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 19h
Discovered: Decoy Font, a TTF font that "attempts" to conceal what's written to AI. Clever idea, though I agree with Anthony Feint (original blogger by which I found this), who admits AI can be trained to read this, but… here we are, in 2026, wishing something like this could work.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Why the hell are things the way they are.
A list of trending news stories includes topics on aging, garage hacks, frugal living tips, and a planetary-scale weather event heading for California. (Trending News articles in Apple News, Sept 28)
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Jeff Atwood sharing an email response his piece on not being able to vibe code love, asserts some wisdom: "Perhaps the LLMs are a reminder that we should make an extra effort to cultivate relationships with each other and form... defiantsloth.com/2026/09/26/jeff-at…
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Cyan Worlds @cyan.com · 25/09/2026
33 years ago today, the Stranger stepped onto the dock of Myst Island for the first time. We can still hear the water splashing against the pilings.
The dock of Myst Island from the original version of the game. A wooden dock ends at a spiral staircase that leads up to giant gears on a hillside. A ship is sunk in the water on the right, and parts of buildings are visible on the left.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Neat new writing software NEO from the author Hugh Howey (Wool/Silo trilogy). His philosophy of hitting ‘Enter’ to move through text context formatting is super simple: "Hit ENTER once for a new paragraph. Hit it again for a new section break. A third ENTER gets you a new chapter."
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Heard about Andrew W.K.’s new album (allegedly we’re calling this jazz-noir) in, of all places, a marketing email from Blackwing. Darcy Smyth describes it perfectly: "This is lounge music for a room that might not exist, all smo... defiantsloth.com/2026/09/23/heard-a…
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
✱ Reading is Important: defiantsloth.com/2026/09/22/reading…
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Nice episode of the Version History podcast, with a focus on The Oregon Trail videogame (from which I learned started as a text adventure game first). It was fun playing this at school growing up. I have no idea if they do anything like this in school these days, but it felt educational back then.
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Bernoid @bernoid.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The False Chanterelle are popping up now. Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca. They look so pretty when they’re young… all fluffy and bright. 🧡 #MushroomMonday #FungiFriends
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This candy store in Jordan, MN (allegedly the largest in the state, no way I’d argue against it), was a roadside spectacle. What’s in the dome? You could never guess.
A large yellow spherical structure with a red decorative dinosaur and red flags positioned in front of it against a clear blue sky.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The fusion of some of my favorite things: typography and Super Metroid. Incredible find by Marcin Wichary, in a topical piece on the challenges of fully justified text columns. (A mad genius wrote a 17k word guide to the game by simply selecting the right words to be perfectly justified on-page.)
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Really appreciate Cyan doing another print run of their Myst trilogy. Without hesitation, I’ll be backing this.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
A 45.7 percent jump in CD sales (year over year) joins the chorus of steaming backlash — the revenge of physical media continues.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Our outings to the MN State Fair were more subdued this year, but still great food at the classic spots (Baba and Midway Men’s Club forever), and this piece in the Fine Arts building really stuck with me.
A colorful abstract painting features several cups and a tall striped container set against geometric shapes and bold areas of blue, orange, green, and black.
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Neven Mrgan @mrgan.com · 05/09/2026
These days, apps just casually have completely insane wording
Dialog saying 

Show more 
Discover more on for you 
Go to for you
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Racket @racketmn.com · 04/09/2026
The Minnesota State Fair, running now through Monday, is the greatest place on earth. We sent the reliably excellent BUMP OPERA to capture photographic evidence of that fact✨
racketmn.com
Enjoy 43 Lovely Portraits of Minnesotans Thriving at the 2026 MN State Fair - Racket
At the Great Minnesota Get-Together, humanity shines as bright as the midday Midway sun.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Great exercise in de-enshittification of journalistic integrity: modify the headlines so they aren't engineered for click bait and intellectual malaise.
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dave.linkblog.org @dave.linkblog.org · 27/08/2026
Brent Simmons has the big bugs fixed in Net News Wire, and is thinking about new features. inessential.com
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
The Fair opens today, and so it’s only right to link to an article about the Giant Slide’s family legacy. It also has their lemonade recipe, with the secret ingredient (the “entire lemon, rind and all”), which is used at their Fresh Lemonade stand on the west side of Nelson Street at Dan Patch Ave.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Clouds, mushrooms, trees. Vantage point: biking.
A lush green landscape with various trees and plants is set against a backdrop of a soft pink cloud under a clear blue sky.A cluster of shelf fungi with white edges grows on a decaying tree stump in a wooded setting.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Incredible growth story for a once-beleaguered toy maker: Lego has seen a 10× increase in revenues over the past 20 years, amid growing changes in its core customers’ attentions (obviously: screens). While I don’t get the new Lego floral arrangements, it’s good to see physical toys still sell well.
Lego's revenue has steadily increased from 2004 to a projected peak of around 12 billion dollars by 2025. (Screenshot copied from linked-to Economist article.)
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
A lot of these cukes just hanging over the edge, hiding in plain site.
A small green cucumber is growing on a vine surrounded by large green leaves.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Ah, a nice morning run around the lake, with a beach stop through the woods before wrapping up. I like to do this pitstop on occasion, as the wooded area offers a welcome sound bath before grinding back into the work day in front of a screen.
A serene lake scene features a sandy shore in the foreground, calm water reflecting the surrounding trees, and a partly cloudy blue sky above.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
The idea of over-optimized everyday life and business, in all facets, has been banging around in my head for years. Fortunately, Daniel Frank put it into words with fifteen theses on what's going on. Just about every point is quotable.
notnottalmud.substack.com
15 theses on the optimization crisis
Everything is optimized now, which includes optimizing for the legible over illegible, optimizing for internal benefits at the expense of any negative externality, and optimizing to remove all slack from the system.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Another reason I don’t want to “upgrade” to fully unlimited Internet data on Comcast by using their router and modem system: they’re remote-activating motion sensing inside of the homes that have their devices. And yes, they cap you at 1.2TB/month if you bring your own system.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Minnesota Reformer posted a retelling of events during Operation Metro Surge (earlier this year) from the experience of Nazra Ahmed, a home care worker and member of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa. "The only way you can win, with the cowards, is by showing them strength"
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
In a thoroughly documented post on building the music app of his dream, Jon Hicks has a well-appointed vision in Jacket. He’s upfront about it being built with Claude, and adamant it’s “just for him”, but it looks like a via... defiantsloth.com/2026/08/13/in-a-th…
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Still thinking about this… watched Resurrection a few months ago, and have been meaning to re-watch Holy Motors. As these churn over in my memory, they feel like cinematic siblings. Also, that last act of Resurrection is in my permanent memory. So beautiful.
Two promotional posters featuring the text Holy Motors and Resurrection are overlapping each other, featuring images of a limousine, various characters, and a silhouette of a person against a multi-colored background.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Love to see a turnout record for the Minnesota primaries yesterday (1.1 million), about a quarter of eligible voters in the state. There also seems to be a collective reckoning that primary polls are terrible.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Neon lighting. We all love it. WSJ with a nice dive into maintaining the format, and reformulating an historically terminated (due to cost effectiveness) color of neon, cyan green. Nice cinematic call-outs to Casablanca and Eyes Wide Shut, too. [Photo mine, unrelated; gift link URL]
A red neon sign is mounted on a wall with a lattice pattern above it.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Ben Thompson and John Gruber discuss immersive sports on the latest Dithering, and I couldn’t agree more: Apple should just try setting up spatial recording in a courtside and/or elite seats in a sports arena for Apple Vision to see if it’s a better experience than the current “broadcast version”.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Keep it coming: the video store resurrection continues. The Video Store Minneapolis kicks off its physical store fundraiser and clinches the base goal in two days Joshua M. Greenberg ponders video stores as a lost third place I recall the iconic Video Update logo adorning my old local spot (’90s)
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Damn this is spot on. It’s a long read and you’ll get the gist a fifth of the way through, but Aeon has a highly astute take down of the technocrats’ misinterpretation of our literary science fiction past, darkly reflecting on their actions and ambitions.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
I didn’t realize regrinding old vinyl records was possible, but in the face of our climate crisis, it’s another trick the resuscitated industry has focused on. Good piece by Kyle Devine — Longreads link here, which is an excerpt from his book.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
I fully support local coffee shops deploying canned brews, giving us a choice against (usually) poorly executed, mass-produced offerings at most grocers. SK Coffee released theirs earlier in the summer, and it’s an excellent first offering; alas, just wish it was more widely available at retail.
A four-pack of tall cans labeled Cold Brew Peru, by SK Coffee is placed on a brown leather surface.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
The Economist’s Big Mac index, a PPP analysis hitting its 40th year of kicking ass, demonstrates just how difficult it is to track the timely parity of global currencies. "…for as long as currencies remain unmoored, and the Bi... defiantsloth.com/2026/08/05/the-eco…
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
✱ A Pacific Northwest Jaunt: defiantsloth.com/2026/08/04/a-pacif… We decided to return to the Pacific Northwest for our summer trip, three years after our last excursion… ➔
A tranquil lake is surrounded by dense green forests and towering mountains under a vibrant blue sky with scattered clouds.A forest trail winds through tall trees and moss-covered rocks on a steep hillside.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Thinking back a month and a half about my first attempted pizza in an outdoor oven. Kept it sliding on a mountain of semolina for the launch, it turned out well, and now I’m ripping a few of these every week for us. These pizzas can be elite, and with care, anyone can (probably) do them.
A pizza with melted cheese and slices of pickles on a wooden pizza peel, placed on a black metal mesh table along with a pizza cutter.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
While I should have known, I wasn’t prepared for how much of a summer banger Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo is. I may only be a fourth of the way through this opus, but it’s one of the breeziest 19th century reads I’ve wrangled, and so far, a pitch perfect swashbuckling adventure.
A thick paperback edition of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is resting on a black metal mesh table.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Streaming fatigue continues. The Verge captures the slow, steady movement that is backlashing streaming consolidations and DRM lock-ins. Also, a minor point not often cited, is bandwidth issues: "It’s not just the cos... defiantsloth.com/2026/07/17/streami…
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em cassel @biketrouble.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
i’ve been obsessed with MPLS piecycle club’s posters for years, and i’ve been delighted to see more and more cut-paper collage ride call art from them. i chatted with co-founder levi mills about how AI sucks and making stuff with your hands rules! their next family-friendly ride is this saturday :)
racketmn.com
MPLS Piecycle Club Promotes Group Rides With Adorable Antidotes to AI Art - Racket
Creating community with a little help from cycling squirrels, dancing bears, and anthropomorphic loaves of bread.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Under the lake surface.
Aquatic plants and algae are visible beneath the water's surface.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
✱ AI Financial Market Concerns: defiantsloth.com/2026/07/15/ai-fina… I forgot who linked to this originally, but Groundbreaker has one of the more finely-worded perspectives about what’s happening with AI in the financial markets.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
A very nice MacOS app was released today — Aphera — for photo triaging and editing. Folks behind it: Ryan Carver, Naz Hamid, and Juan Pablo Zambrano, all bringing expertise to the project. Trying it out for a few weeks — and looking forward to using it after an upcoming vacation.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
I hope other cities are seeing a similar trend to that of Minneapolis — we’re seeing a revival of independent physical video rental shops (the latest being a cafe/rental experiment called Saturn Video). So far three have entered the space. Here’s to hoping they stick around and this takes off.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
The Hyland Lake Ski Jump has such an ominous presence.
A ski jump structure extends above a wooded area under a partly cloudy sky.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
✱ Netflix's Confused State of Being: defiantsloth.com/2026/07/09/netflix… …another company pursuing an audience they think they don’t have with content they erroneous think they need.
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dave.linkblog.org @dave.linkblog.org · 08/07/2026
"Ghost, WriteFreely, Micro.blog, Plume, WordPress, and Flipboard didn't all arrive at federation the same way. Some built it in from the first commit. Some bridged it onto a product that already existed. Federation decides how far the writing travels."
federatedmind.com
The Written Fediverse: Where the Words Live
Ghost, WriteFreely, Micro.blog, Plume, WordPress, and Flipboard didn't all arrive at federation the same way. Some built it in from the first commit. Some bridged it onto a product that already existed. Federation decides how far the writing travels.
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Own your own content: "POSSE it, they say. Own your content. Publish once, fork it five times. RSS, Mastodon, Bluesky, webmention, pick your parasite. Fix the typo in two minutes. Already too late. Fossils wearing your name." The author’s footnote is also sage advice: “Length is not depth.”
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Paul Williams @defiantsloth.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
The white line on the right side of US roads. Someone fought the good fight to get these accepted and implemented… who doesn’t love an origin story like this.
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