Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026It is a good place to take a short coastal walk and meditate on the ephemerality of all things. 000
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Both ends of the former Gleason Beach, on the now-bypassed stretch of highway 1. In the dozen years I've been here, homes in the middle fell off the crumbling edge of the continent and those in both photos were abandoned. 100
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I've finally completed the first screencast demo of Bram. It took a while because I had to use Bram to create Bram Studio, a screencast editor that finally works the way I've always wanted! judell.github.io/bramjudell.github.ioBramBram is a desktop app that embeds Claude Code and/or Codex. It makes agentic software development legible, orderly, accountable, and collaborative. 000
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Sonoma ("West") County PSA: The waters from Bodega Bay to Duncan's Landing are full of feeding humpbacks, multiple pods up and down that stretch. The heat seems to be a factor and that is predicted to continue tomorrow. #whales 020
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026#bram #screencast #annotation #editorVideo: social.coop/@judell/117369686198768…social.coopJon Udell (@judell@social.coop)Attached: 1 video People have been asking for a video demo of Bram. The struggle was lack of tool support for a Heavy Metal Umlaut style of recording that overlays narration and edits on a playable base layer. So I'm building Bram Studio. Here it is (sound up) testing some new features it just added to itself. #bram #screencast #annotation #editor 010
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026So it's not just me thinking headlights have become a huge problem. There's a fix that will eventually make its way to underdeveloped countries like the U.S. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/business… 000
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 26/09/2026This is what Bruce Schneier has been saying for a long time: the insurance industry will (or should) govern cybersecurity. cosocial.ca/@mhoye/1173385756056369…cosocial.camhoye (@mhoye@cosocial.ca)I feel like we've collectively forgotten how much safer food and cars and basically everything else gets, and how fast that happens, as soon as there's real liability involved. Because strict liability is how you align the incentives of corporate behaviour with the general public good, and aligned incentives are magic. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/technology/openais-ai-us-government-websites.html 000
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026It feels counter-cyclical, the conversations I see are mostly about agents talking to agents, not teams of people and agents collaborating in shared online spaces where all can conveniently read and write. Nevertheless, it is wildly productive and I persist :-) 100
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026www.infoworld.com/article/4224587/t…infoworld.comThe agent coordination protocol hiding in plain sight: GitHub issuesUse GitHub issues to manage teamwork with agents across machines, projects, and AI platforms. 100
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026If you are from Philly you'll love this story about the Rocky statue. pocketcasts.com/podcast/99-invisibl… 000
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 23/09/2026"(in 2025) electricity generated through distributed solar was equivalent to nearly 46% of the electricity supplied through the national grid during the same period." nukta.com/pakistans-grid-generation…nukta.comPakistan’s grid power generation falls as rooftop solar boom drives record total outputThink tank report says distributed solar reached 51 GW by March 2026, reshaping demand and reducing reliance on the national grid 000
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 23/09/2026www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/climate/… Meanwhile in Pakistan: 100
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Ours takes many forms, theirs does too, I value both the differences and the alignment. 020
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 20/09/2026This was beautifully built, I wish I could see it in action. 010
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Passing through Bend, Oregon, I took a walk along the river and met a coven of vampires who asked me to capture a photo of them on one of their phones. Then they returned the favor. #vampire 110
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Today I learned that Lake Siskiyou is basically a big flood control bucket that empties and fills seasonally. Weird to walk there when empty. 010
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 12/09/2026The p(doom) calculation flows from a premise that science fiction has thoroughly explored. Has scifi imagined p(salvation)? Skynet wakes up benevolent, heals civilization and the planet. 020
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 08/09/2026I like doing yoga with a group but I love doing it outdoors with a commanding view. Maybe I should start a group to do that. openbenches.org/bench/45272openbenches.orgAnya Turndavi Hike Everywhere Ears Flap In The Anya Turndavi Hike Everywhere Ears Flap In The 000
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 08/09/2026I just added bench 45,272. It is one of my growing collection of places to do outdoor yoga-like calisthenics: stretching, balancing. The view from Taylor Mountain takes in Sonoma Mountain, Mount Hood, Mount St. Helena, Geyser Mountain, and Cobb Mountain. 121
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 03/09/2026"Nope. It's my writing, I know what I am doing. Just show me the typos, bad markup, and obvious errors." 010
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 03/09/2026"Please proofread this article." "I kept your voice and argument intact, fixing typos, grammar, a few awkward constructions, and malformed link markup. I also tightened a handful of sentences where the meaning was getting obscured." 110
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 01/09/2026And now another noble spirit gone: Wendell Berry. More than his poetry and fiction, it was The Unsettling of America that made an indelible impression on me. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unsettlin… 131
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 30/08/2026How long before we can wield this magic without depending on evil overlords? That day will come soon, I hope. Meanwhile we learn what we will need to know. 000
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Is Rust the language I'd choose for that job? No. Does that matter? No. I am not writing the code, only directing the agents who do it. For them, programming languages are fungible. #bram #python #rust 100
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Today was a good day for both Bram and XMLUI. The two projects are helping each other effectively. I don't yet see how to illustrate with a screencast, but this raw storyboard has the ingredients. gist.github.com/judell/663ac00adf36…gist.github.combram-xmlui-stress-test.mdbram-xmlui-stress-test.md. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets. 000
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 25/08/2026#bram #codex #claude_code #sqlite #fts5 #SoftwareArcheology 000
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Bram now indexes and searches: - Claude Code and Codex session files - Bram's own worklist history - GitHub issues - GitHub commits 110
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 20/08/2026China: <laughs all the way to the bank> ecoevo.social/@noamross/11712942401… 010
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 18/08/2026"The reason the Mitch McConnell saga is so disturbing isn’t because McConnell may be dead, but because the Senate is." sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/ghost-…sarahkendzior.substack.comGhost SenateThe vanishing of Mitch McConnell. 021
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 18/08/2026Imagine being a person whose job it is to carry out these orders. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-inte…theguardian.comTrump 2.0 has deleted or altered nearly 400 US datasets, endangering public health, education and moreHealth data appears to be most affected by administration’s attempt to wipe findings that don’t align with its priorities, tracker shows 000
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 17/08/2026A sentence that begins with "you can't underestimate" or "you can't overstate" is quite likely to mean the opposite of what the speaker or writer intended. I think I know why: the extra layer of negation is a cognitive challenge. What would be simpler and clear forms of these common tropes? 000
Reposted by Jon Udelljessamyn @librarian.bsky.social · 31/07/2026I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful 193126127999
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Very close to my original estimate comparing three notable mass murderers: Hitler, Pol Pot, and Musk. www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/a… 010
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 11/08/2026A friend found my name (almost, John not Jon) carved into a rock at El Morro, New Mexico. I looked it up, he was a well-known "diarist of the American frontier". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Udell 010
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 07/08/2026I once wrote to John McPhee hoping to interview him about the bespoke writing tool that was created for him so long ago and powered his entire career. I respect that he declined but wow, a lot of people would love to know more about that. jsomers.net/blog/the-mcphee-method 100
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 07/08/2026"Lest you think that McPhee is a product of a bygone era, working with paper, binders, scissors and pen, he actually switched early to computers. The software he has been using since the mid-1980s is in fact more sophisticated and tailored to his needs than that of almost any writer working today." 100
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 05/08/2026"When I added the search feature I was thinking mainly of my own need to find things scattered across these buckets. But of course agents can use this unified search too!" blog.jonudell.net/2026/08/01/make-a…blog.jonudell.netMake agent memory searchableThe Bram binary now embeds SQLite with its FTS5 fulltext indexer and search engine. When you run Bram in a local GitHub (or GitLab) repo, here is what it indexes: – the JSONL session files wr… 000
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 31/07/2026“You’re only getting out deported or dead.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2…theguardian.comDon’t call them ICE detention centers. Call them camps | John WashingtonI’ve spent a decade reporting on immigration enforcement. The word ‘camp’ best captures the political function of these facilities 001
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 27/07/2026received and thus explained why he received that email. He examined the visualization and understood his role in the process." Thanks for finding the swimlane paper! mastodon.social/@mostalive/11699165…mastodon.socialWillem Van den Ende - Writing (@mostalive@mastodon.social)cc @sf105@mastodonapp.uk resurrecting swimlanes in blog post form. With nods to @judell@social.coop , @marick@mstdn.social and, very tangientially @sue@glasgow.social - a comment on Jon's blog about 'view source' and Sue's writing on it brought that together. 000
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 23/07/2026Agents that narrate their work are the best team players: blog.jonudell.net/2026/07/23/agents… #claude_code #codex #bram #narrationblog.jonudell.netAgents that narrate their work are the best team playersAgents like Claude Codex and Codex run in your terminal. From that strategic vantage point they can wield system tools (awk, bash, curl, git, python) as well as MCP tools. Here’s how that loo… 000
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 23/07/2026"In a talk at the Open Education Conference I cited open source software development as a model for observable work. Because the processes and products yield digital artifacts, anyone can learn how the work is done and — if motivated — become a participant. 110
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 22/07/2026www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2… "He's dead, Jim."theguardian.comThree speeches on a single day signaled a dying American democracy | Robert ShpinerStephen Miller warned of a leftwing ‘cancer’ threatening civilization. As a critical care doctor, I have a response to his diagnosis 000
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 22/07/2026"My family left Russia in 1917. My relatives left Germany in 1933. In both generations, leaving was called excessive; staying was the reasonable position. But an alarm that was right both times it sounded is not overcaution. On Thursday, it sounded a third time." 110
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 16/07/2026When I publish a blog post, a growing flock of idiotic bots pile on instantly. Fastmail's filters aren't smart enough to recognize this slop and route it to spam. There are so many useless AI features that nobody wants, that's one I would welcome. 000
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 13/07/2026Encouraging agents to be prolific writers and readers of trace logs is a strategy that keeps paying dividends. blog.jonudell.net/2026/07/08/dont-i… #claude_code #codex #logging #debuggingblog.jonudell.netDon’t infer behavior from code, observe it in logsAgents are hardwired to be prolific writers and readers of code. As my work on Bram progressed I found that their code-first instinct wasn’t serving me well. So I began pushing them to be, al… 010
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 12/07/2026blog.jonudell.net/2026/07/12/small-…blog.jonudell.netSmall models can solve big problemsIn this snapshot of the Bloomington calendar you can see that events are neatly categorized. This was an intractable problem a dozen years ago. Should the county fair land in community / social or … 000
Jon Udell @jonudell.bsky.social · 12/07/2026"In the Before Time you could imagine a function that takes in event titles and descriptions and uses regexes and word lists to map an event to a category. But that was unsustainable. What we always needed, and now can have, is a function that requires no procedural code to effect that mapping." 100