iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 10h

How AI crawlers view your robots.txt file

A mountain overlook with a small metal safety fence at the edge of a vast forested landscape. The landscape is outlined and labeled “Your web properties,” while the tiny fence is labeled “How AI crawlers see your robots.txt file.”

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 10h

e.g. “When you refuse to use `eval()` in your JS code, but still install 1,400 npm dependencies.”

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 10h

Saw this fence while hiking this weekend. Will leave it up to the reader to discern the parallels to security.

Photo of a fence on the edge of the cliff, but it’s only guarding the smallest area of the cliff's edge. You could walk on either edge of it and fall off.

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 02/10/2026

Writing a .md file in a project where I’m undoing some complexity I added in the past. I’m creating the file as a way to document these evolving changes (so I don't redo past mistakes). At the end of the document, I came to this conclusion. Maybe one day I’ll actually learn this lesson.

Screenshot of a markdown document with this text

## What I Learned?

Keep it simple, stupid.

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 01/10/2026

lol bluesky suggested a translation, so i had to click it...

Screenshot of a Bluesky post that says "Uff uff uff" with a link under it saying "Translate"

Screenshot of the text “Uff uff uff” in Google translate, with the suggested translation in Spanish being “Uff uff uff”

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 01/10/2026

Happy birthday! I hope my corner of the web lives to be that old some day ;)

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 01/10/2026

Totally. All I could think about was all the ways people are gonna game and abuse this. And YouTube will say “whoopsie—should’ve thought of that”

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 30/09/2026

📝 I could just share a link to Marques Brownlee’s video and say, “Hey I thought this was good. You might too.” But turns out I had a lot I wanted to say and think through, so it turned into a blog post. blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/dear-so...

blog.jim-nielsen.com

Dear Software Makers

Marques Brownlee just released a video essay titled “Dear YouTube” . I loved it. He talks about how YouTube is going to start shipping this new feature where…

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 29/09/2026

📝 Got nerd-sniped around tagging all my icons with richer metadata for better search. Still not sure how I want to go about it…but I took notes along the way! blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/icon-ga...

blog.jim-nielsen.com

VLM Enhanced Metadata For My Icon Galleries

Confession: I got nerd-sniped by Sam Henri Gold’s request for my icon galleries: I'd like to humbly request artwork-level searching in macosicongallery.com…

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Reposted by Jim Nielsen

Álvaro Montoro @alvaromontoro.com · 29/09/2026

The W3C released a new HTML element out of nowhere. It was the element of <surprise>.

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 28/09/2026

Last: the ones that "got a total overhaul" like Preview, Chess, and Archive Utility. These represent larger changes to the design of the icon. I'll leave it to the reader to decide whether the changes are better or worse :)

Left-to-right comparison of the Preview icon, from 2025 to 2026.

Left-to-right comparison of the Chess icon, from 2025 to 2026.

Left-to-right comparison of the Archive Utility icon, from 2025 to 2026.

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 28/09/2026

Next up: the ones that "got a bit more refined" like System Settings, Mail, and Podcasts. Nothing big changed, just smaller refinements like getting sharper.

Left-to-right comparison of the System Settings icon, from 2025 to 2026.

Left-to-right comparison of the Mail icon, from 2025 to 2026.

Left-to-right comparison of the Podcasts icon, from 2025 to 2026.

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 28/09/2026

Ok so here's my (totally unofficial) classification for how Apple’s icon changed from Tahoe to Golden Gate: 1. Got a bit more glassy 2. Got a bit more refined 3. Got a total overhaul First up: the ones that “got a bit more glassy” like App Store, Maps, and Stocks.

Left-to-right comparison of the App Store icon, from 2025 to 2026.

Left-to-right comparison of the Maps icon, from 2025 to 2026.

Left-to-right comparison of the Stocks icon, from 2025 to 2026.

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 28/09/2026

Hey, thanks for the kind words — and for reading :)

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 28/09/2026

📝 Jef Raskin: > An interface is humane if it is responsive to human needs and considerate of human frailties. That condemns so many modern interfaces because they are designed to take advantage of human frailties. blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/humane-...

blog.jim-nielsen.com

Humane Interfaces

So there I am reading Unsung when I come across this quote from Jef Raskin : An interface is humane if it is responsive to human needs and considerate of human…

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 25/09/2026

My new startup: “OS for Chocolate” (it's a shopify app w/inventory from a 3rd party supplier) Taking angle checks now...

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 25/09/2026

Everyone claiming to be an OS these days: “OS for Logistics” - it’s a dashboard with a map “OS for Restaurants” - it’s a scheduling app “OS for Food” - it’s a smart toaster with an app

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 25/09/2026

Freak. After Bluesky does its compression/etc., that system settings icon is blurry anyway. Compare these if you wanna see: www.macosicongallery.com/icons/system... www.macosicongallery.com/icons/system...

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 24/09/2026

To be fair tho, the change from Tahoe to Golden Gate on the System Settings app icon is much improved. It's so much more clear and crisp. All the Tahoe icons had me feeling like maybe my vision was going blurry, but nope, it was just the icon

Two versions of the System Settings app icon, both featuring interlocking white and gray gears on a dark gray background. The one on the left is blurry compared to the one on the right.

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 24/09/2026

Apple did the Directory Utility app icon dirty

Two versions of an app icon: a globe with a compass on the left (rich in detail), and an abstract map with three blue location markers on the right (poor in detail).

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Reposted by Jim Nielsen

Danny Smith @danny.is · 24/09/2026

I just added a calendar view to my website. I still find it amazing how little code was needed to do this. Modern browsers are awesome. danny.is/notes/calend...

danny.is

A calendar view for my writing

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 24/09/2026

love this! better executed than mine too, i'm gonna have to go the no-JS route like you did. also love how you handled the smaller/bigger dots to indicate volume. very nice

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 24/09/2026

I think you're right. I love it, we're iterating in the open here.

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 24/09/2026

Will shirt #5 be another company “that burned fast and bright [and] gained eternal life”?

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 24/09/2026

I love everything about this post! Disclosure: from the headline alone, I thought it was gonna be a fishing post. In hindsight, idk why I thought that lol

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 23/09/2026

Always enjoyed your posts showing up in my feed, thank you! And while I'll miss your writing and individual voice, I also appreciate the willingness to announce “the end” in a post — and a very well written one at that!

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 23/09/2026

thought you were going to say "tabs v. spaces" lol

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 23/09/2026

Well I'm late to the party. These launched back in July, but somehow didn't get turned on for me until today? But at least I got to go down a clippy/AI meme rabbit hole and that was funny while it lasted

Depictions of all the old office assistants, like clippy, along with the text "My first AI assistants"

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 23/09/2026

Everything old is new again

Codex pet with a clippy chat bubble message saying "Hi, I'm your AI assistant. What would you like to do today?"

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 23/09/2026

Oh, they're called "Pets". I’m probably late to the party...but looks like you can turn it off Settings → Pets → Hide Pet

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 23/09/2026

lol wait wut? codex has a clippy now? what is this thing?

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 22/09/2026

📝 Quite enjoyed this story from @bcantrill.bsky.social on “Oxide and Friends” about AI gaslighting him and saying that his turn of phrase was, in fact, first spoken by Sideshow Bob. Feels like a microcosm of being online these days. blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/online-...

blog.jim-nielsen.com

A Great Story Capturing the Essence of Being Online in 2026

I made a note of it , but Bryan Cantrill wrote a post about the ex-Anthropic employee who pegged the probability of AI killing humanity in the next decade at…

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 22/09/2026

High school Jim feels uncomfortable with this label. But adult Jim relishes it

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 21/09/2026

ChatGPT referred to my websites as a "weird constellation of personal web projects". Um, thanks...?

Screenshot from ChatGPT that says "Jim-Nielsen.com / Blog / Notes — Your weird constellation of personal web projects."

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 21/09/2026

I remember playing this bad boy on my jailbroken phone before the app store. great game. loved it. 5/5 stars www.macworld.com/article/1933...

macworld.com

Review: iCopter for iPhone

iCopter isn’t the most sophisticated game in the App Store, but it is a fun—and addictive—way to pass the time.

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 21/09/2026

Had a fun time going back down memory lane thinking about jailbreaking, cydia, etc. fun times.

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 19/09/2026

sorry you're right. some of those things are gone, but the blue/gray icons (which change if you move them between groupings) are still there

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 18/09/2026

if you can't have fun with this kind of minutiae, why are you even doing computers? lol

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 18/09/2026

i'm sorry, can't help myself. error messages can be a lot of fun when taken out of context

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 18/09/2026

“Body has already been consumed” Is this: 1) My cat when asked about that mouse I saw him with 2) Node talking about a Response()

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 18/09/2026

If I were in charge, I would make the primary CTA here (“Convert”) open a browser window to the Rick Astley video.

macOS dialog that says "Convert this message to rich text format?" with two CTAs. The primary one says "Convert" and the secondary one says "Keep Plain"

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 18/09/2026

i mean, idk what i'm expecting here? not perfection. but also, the deeper i look, the more inconsistency i find lol. i need to stop — sorry, but this thread was the best place to dump my rabbit hole thoughts

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 18/09/2026

but 2) deeper source lists, like this dialog within system settings, keep the blue background / white text on selection, but doesn't use the bold font

Screenshot of a Wifi details dialog in system settings where the source list has a nav item selected with a blue background and white text (but it's not bolded text)

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 18/09/2026

oh man, i'm going down a rabbit hole. apparently these controls are called "source lists" in macOS and they include things like: 1) the navigation pane in system settings, which in golden gate _does_ do the inversion (blue background /white text) on state selection (with bold font).

Screenshot of system settings in macOS where the source list navigation pane has "General" selected with a blue background and white text

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Jim Nielsen @jim-nielsen.com · 18/09/2026

kinda interesting because even within the OS this isn't consistent. Music app does what finder does (light background, bolded text) while the podcasts app inverts the selection old macOS style

Screenshot of the Music app on macOS where the active selection sidebar item has a light gray background highlight and the text is bolded

Screenshot of the Podcast app on macOS where the active selection sidebar item has a dark purple background with white text.

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