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Kirk McElhearn

@kirkville.com
658 followers 296 following 339 posts

Lapsed New Yorker in Shakespeare's home town. I write and podcast about Apple, Scrivener, computer security, music, and photography. kirkville.com

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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 14h
No. I don't want to use AI to talk to characters. Just, no.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 14h
This thread ignores so many realities about what these sites do. They want your email to send you newsletters but also to sell your data and track you and then you get spammed and profiled. Ads suck, and even if you do subscribe - I pay for two daily newspapers - they still show you crappy ads.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 14h
@ianbetteridge.com
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 15h
Man who could order a nuclear attack. From Eric Cortellessa TIME interview. time.com/article/2026... H/t @katzish.bsky.social
Do you trust Sam Altman?

I like him. Do I trust him? Who do I trust? I like Sam Altman. Smart. Dario's smart. They're all smart. We're dealing with a very high level of IQ. Very very high level. That's a good thing. I like that. I like it. Did you see the story about my uncle?

The one who taught at MIT?

I have the highest of IQs. I have the highest. I'm fine, and I understand that stuff. You know, my uncle was at MIT for 41 years, and you know, I'm a—I believe in genetics, frankly, and I understand. I understand it much more than I think any president would, because I do have an ability on this. I have an ability on those things that were the new frontiers. 

What I've done is I've created, for instance, these massive plants have no—We have no electricity in our grid. These massive plants now are allowed to make their own electric—
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 15h
Kitty toes.
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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 18h
I'm down to the last nine copies of this ISS Cat print, so if you want one, please order soon. It's in my shop along with other prints, badges and a zine: www.tomgauld.com/
A view of the International Space Station floating in the stars above the earth. A cat in a space suit floats outside. An astronaut within the station looks out of a window and says "In? But I just let you out."
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 19h
Today’s Loaf: Foricher T80 Stoneground Flour A tasty loaf with some French T80 flour.
imperfect-loaf.com
Today’s Loaf: Foricher T80 Stoneground Flour
A tasty loaf with some French T80 flour.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 20h
Yes, if you can trust your copy editor that helps.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 21h
For things like punctuation, I've always trusted copy editors. Maybe blindly, but I've never wanted to argue about commas and hyphens. This said, I have found plenty of things to disagree with regarding rephrasings. And I don't write fiction, where it's more important to retain your voice.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 22h
Unless there is a global system that can validate original photos, photo contests will have to disappear. (In this case, it was a video, but same problem.) petapixel.com/2026/10/01/n...
petapixel.com
Nikon 'Re-Reviewing' Winner of Small World in Motion Contest After AI Accusation
The winner is under intense scrutiny.
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Rex Huppke @rexhuppke.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I’ve been a media witness to two federal executions. One was Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. The other, a week later, was a drug kingpin named Juan Raul Garza. My conclusion after watching both men die: The death penalty should not exist. Period. It fixes nothing, and it erodes our souls.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 23h
You've got new terms in your posts two days in a row, but no explanation.
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Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
How do Cornell students tolerat this, and how do parents send their kids there? Ban frats everywhere www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/n...
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Semafor @semafor.com · 30/09/2026
Visitors to the US are on track to drop by almost two million year-on-year. “We’re the only major country in the world losing visitation,” the head of the US Travel Association said. “It’s mind-boggling.” www.semafor.com/article/09/2...
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Hoodlum 🇺🇸 @nothoodlum.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
NEW: Meta found a way to turn massive data centers into “pilot models” and cash in on a 1980s tax credit. The result? Meta avoided nearly $4 billion in taxes last year alone. Gift link. 👇 www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/t...
nytimes.com
How Meta Uses A.I. Data Centers to Avoid Billions in Federal Taxes (Gift Article)
Meta is exploiting a lucrative tax break intended to support research and experimentation. Its own accountants say the gambit is risky.
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
🔴 We asked Tony Blair's think tank about charging businesses £500k for political access at party conferences and why one of its sponsor's logos disappeared after our reporting last week on TBI's alleged cash for access scheme This is what they said
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Four-byline alert: “.. Meta claimed that $4.1 billion of stock options exercised by Mr. Zuckerberg counted as a research expense ..” @nytimes.com $META www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/t...
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 30/09/2026
I’d never read anything by Rose Tremain before, but this book was a joy from beginning to end. I shall read more her novels. www.amazon.co.uk/Restoration-...
amazon.co.uk
Amazon.co.uk
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 30/09/2026
Good to know. I very much liked the first season and so many second seasons are disappointing that I’ve hesitated.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 30/09/2026
I just got End Times Fascism from my local library which expect to do things to my brain, not all positive.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 30/09/2026
newrepublic.com/post/216016/...
newrepublic.com
Trump Reprograms Government AI Chatbot to Stop Fact-Checking His Lies
Trump officials seem to have realized their AI chatbot was correcting the president’s biggest lies.
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Radical Graffiti @radicalgraffiti.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"Nuclear War is Bad for Kittens" Poster spotted in York University in Toronto, Ontario
"Nuclear War is Bad for Kittens"
Poster
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ScrivenerApp @scrivenerapp.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
While much of what you do in Scrivener is in one window, the app has a number of other windows that can help make working on your projects easier. . Our blog post takes you through using Bookmarks, Quick Reference windows and much more: buff.ly/acqzhy2
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 30/09/2026
I totally agree that more money should also be given to those in poverty. It's the same: that money gets spent, then gets compounded through the economy. But there are also a lot of pensioners in poverty. Any mass reduction of "welfare" ignores the economic effect of people spending less.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 30/09/2026
They're more likely to spend it if their middle income. And I wouldn't call it a lot of money; the state pension is so low, lower than any other advanced country, that it's not like they're just throwing money at people.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 30/09/2026
What I don't understand is why no one talks about how valuable increasing pensions is to the overall economy. That money is not wasted; it's mostly spent, and not invested. Lower income retirees will spend it all, middle income maybe give it to their children. That money multiplies in the economy.
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Failbetter Games | Wishlist Mandrake on Steam! @failbettergames.com · 30/09/2026
We're hiring! We're looking for a Writer and Narrative Designer to join the Fallen London team at a senior or mid level. This position is permanent, remote, and full time, which for us means 35 hours a week. #GamesJobs
Night. The House of Chimes - a tower which you might immediately think of as Big Ben - is adrift in the River Thames. It still seems to be keeping time. In the background, a large, alien building looms over the city of London.
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Gaby Hinsliff @gabyhinsliff.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
if your marketing pitch is 'AI may be about to end humanity! but first, we will kill music' then i feel superintelligence may be a way off
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 30/09/2026
The Many Windows of Scrivener and How to Use Them While much of what you do in Scrivener is in one window, the app has a number of other windows that can help make working on your projects easier.
kirkville.com
The Many Windows of Scrivener and How to Use Them
While much of what you do in Scrivener is in one window, the app has a number of other windows that can help make working on your projects easier.
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New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Great moments in Scottish engineering history: James Watt tries to work out how his phone attaches to his selfie stick.
Statue of James Watt. In his right hand he holds a telescopic stick with a frame at the top; in his left he holds a flat object about the size of a large smartphone. He is scowling at the possibly-not-a-smartphone as if he is tempted to yeet it into the sea. On that basis, it probably _is_ a phone.
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Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 29/09/2026
52-54% of welfare recipients in Arkansas are white, which is why the ad should have featured a black woman
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Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 29/09/2026
I love this picture of Macfadyen as Smiley. (It’s pretty much the first one I’ve seen, by the way - we’re all in this together!) www.bbc.com/mediacentre/...
bbc.com
Matthew Macfadyen and Charlie Hunnam revealed in first-look images from Legacy Of Spies
Filming has wrapped on the highly anticipated espionage thriller, which will launch exclusively on BBC iPlayer and BBC One in the UK
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David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Nothing but super intelligence all around at the White House.
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 29/09/2026
Oh look. More things that makes sense happening in these United States.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Was interviewed by a US journalist today who asked if we were all panicking about terrorists at Fairford, which ended with me trying to explain dogging.
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William Gibson @greatdismal.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
lol
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Stephen King @stephenking.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Reading has become an endangered species. Which is half the problem with American political life. Maybe more than half. If you can't read, you can't think. Then you can fall for anything. The idea, for instance, that the truth is fake news.
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Dan Moren @dmoren.com · 29/09/2026
I get these incessantly and the funniest part to me is that I am a writer and I have no money for them to scam me out of.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 29/09/2026
I think debit cards are just not accepted. Any reason why you don't have a credit card? If only to have purchase protection, which you don't get with a debit card, it's worth it, even if you don't use it often. I pay mine off at the end of the month so don't pay interest.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 29/09/2026
Yeah, um, no... I guess I was a "content creator" when I set up my first website in, let's see, 1995. He set up an information website. Kudos to him, but he was not a "pioneer" of self-publishing or content creation.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 29/09/2026
They've never asked me for age verification for knives or alcohol. However, it's up to the delivery driver to check your age if you look like you're under 25.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 29/09/2026
Why do they want to do age verification? 
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Kate Bevan @katebevan.com · 29/09/2026
AI companies can't access encrypted messages on your device. Which is a reminder to always use end-to-end encrypted apps - Signal, WhatsApp - when you're messaging others. Messenger can do encrypted messages but I think it's still off by default. If you use Messenger, turn on encryption there.
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David Simon @audacityofdespair.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Everything is bigger in Texas, including assholes and the sheer number of rubes willing to shitkick their way into a voting booth and pull a lever for them. Can't fence them in.
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ScrivenerApp @scrivenerapp.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
#Scrivener 3 on Mac Tip of the Day: Holding down the Option/Alt key while dragging in the binder or outliner will disallow drop-ons, making dropping between items easier.
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 29/09/2026
1.12 million doesn't seem like a lot. I wonder what percentage of freelancers and creatives are still working after state pension age. (Raises hand.)
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com · 29/09/2026
I company is suggesting that I pay a fee for something that they are responsible for. I have the option of buying this item directly from the company or from Amazon; I will choose the latter.
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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 29/09/2026
Reuters got some of the IPO docs. Anthropic is a total dog of a company. Spent $12.6bn to make $4.6bn in revenue in 2025, $7.33bn of which was compute costs. Operating loss of $8bn. Losses getting worse year over year. Amazing stuff www.reuters.com/business/fin...
Summary
Companies
• Anthropic IPO could value the company at more than $2
trillion
• Anthropic lost $42 billion in 2025
• Al lab spent $7.33 billion on compute and infrastructure last year
• Operating loss widened to $8.06 billion in 2025 from $2.98 billion in 2024
• Execs, industry analysts have expressed concerns over harms of Al tech
Sept 28 (Reuters) - Anthropic is making a massive bet that Al will transform the global economy more profoundly than industrialization, electricity and the internet, according to its IPO prospectus seen by Reuters.
But the cost to get there will be staggering. Anthropic reported a net loss of $42 billion in 2025, and plans to spend $518 billion on cloud, computing and infrastructure obligations in coming year, according to the
prospectus.
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I've reported first-hand on steel mills in Korea, China, Japan, Illinois, and Mississippi. This is 100% not going to happen. Disagree? Bet me. (Though I'm against online betting. It's just not going to happen.)
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Six Colors @sixcolors.com · 28/09/2026
Why Stolen Device Protection makes Passwords safer
sixcolors.com
Why Stolen Device Protection makes Passwords safer
After my massive article on migrating your passwords, passkeys, and other secrets from third-party password managers to Apple’s Passwords, Wallet, Safari, and general ecosystem—potentially with help from another app—reader Scott asked whether I was directing people into weaker security. He wrote: If someone manages to steal my device and its passcode, they have access to the contents of my phone, including all of the information stored in Apple Passwords. This is not the case if I use a third-party password manager and have set a separate password for access, as the thief will not have access to my other passwords…I’m...
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