iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Manton Reece @manton.org · 2h

There’s lots of new stuff in Wavelength 2.1. My favorite is an easier way to add audio narration to existing blog posts. In the Posts tab, you can tap to show the post text while you record reading it. Gives a little extra human touc... www.manton.org/2026/09/30/theres-lo…

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Manton Reece @manton.org · 2h

OpenAI’s Dots product is pretty interesting. Soon after I configured my dot and gave it a name, it suggested something it could help with. It already had a connection to GitHub and memory of all the things ChatGPT knew about my work.

A conversation with a bot investigating and fixing a Search Page plug-in's compatibility issue with Hugo, testing the fix, preparing a pull request, and passing test builds across multiple Hugo versions.

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Manton Reece @manton.org · 15h

Casey Newton writing about Dots for Platformer: "As someone who plans to use Dots for work, though, paying for the product builds my trust in it. Zuckerberg says Meta plans to fund Muse by taking a cut of transactions, which ... www.manton.org/2026/09/29/casey-new…

Manton Reece @manton.org · 15h

Catching up on the White House meeting and related video with AI company leaders. Something odd about seeing these folks together instead of individually on a stage. I can’t tell yet who is the most annoyed about having to say SI instead of AI in front of Trump.

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Manton Reece @manton.org · 18h

We had quite the Micro.blog server meltdown tonight. So sorry to everyone. We’ve had some blips this year, but it’s been a long time since there has been this bad of an outage. I think everything is good now. 🤞

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Manton Reece @manton.org · 23h

OpenAI really did pack a lot into DevDay. The most interesting features for me are Dots and the Jev-like Decisions API. That will be super useful.

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Watching the DevDay livestream. There is nothing like a live demo. Even when things are slow or go slightly wrong, it feels so much more real. For a live presentation, everyone in the audience is rooting for the speaker. For a pre-recorded video, everyone is just waiting for it to be over.

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John Voorhees (@johnvoorhees) on X

John Voorhees is live-tweeting DevDay over on X. Nice look inside the venue. We need to make it more appealing to do this kind of coverage from indie microblogs, not silos.

x.com

Managing Editor, https://t.co/6fz8iL84Pz Social media: @johnvoorhees everywhere

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Mark Gurman has a blog post about John Ternus attempting to streamline Apple: "The early ideas under consideration include relying less on traditional spring and fall product release schedules… […] Ternus wants the company to introduc... www.manton.org/2026/09/29/mark-gurm…

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Reuters on Anthropic’s IPO filing: "Anthropic plans to caution potential investors in its IPO that advanced AI could pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity,” an extraordinary warning by a company seeking to pro... www.manton.org/2026/09/29/reuters-o…

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Bummed to hear that Brightline is filing for bankruptcy: "For months, the company has been grappling with an unsustainable $5.5 billion debt load even while the passenger operations have become profitable. Now, a restructuring... www.manton.org/2026/09/29/bummed-to…

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Micro.blog - @danielpunkass

After a reminder from @danielpunkass, I’m playing with Automattic’s Spacefast again. Honestly don’t love the name, but what they’ve created is fascinating. Agent-first publishing, very complete API too. Clever onboarding that I could learn from.

micro.blog

Michael Tsai blogging about Grok Bot and agents generally: "I don’t trust xAI (or Meta) with my data, but it doesn’t seem like Siri AI can do all that much. So far, I’ve been too busy to do much with agents, even on a test M... www.manton.org/2026/09/28/michael-t…

Manton Reece - Michael Tsai blogging about Grok Bot and...

In the latest Connected Places fediverse news, this improvement in Mastodon 4.7 stood out to me: "Mastodon 4.7.0 can now recognise a remote account that changes its handle by using its underlying ActivityPub identifier. This d... www.manton.org/2026/09/28/in-the-la…

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If the future is more agents and fewer traditional apps, it’s a threat to the App Store business, so Apple will resist it. The company that was willing to obsolete its own product (the iPod) to make a great phone… That company doesn’t exist anymore.

Ben Thompson writing about how the future will be on-demand UIs and agents that bypass needing an app at all: "…no one wants to use apps because they are apps, apps were just the vehicle for people to accomplish something or e... www.manton.org/2026/09/28/ben-thomp…

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The iPad update to Epilogue that I blogged about this weekend is now available. Apple review time: 22 hours. Not bad, except… Google review: 30 minutes.

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The App Store review process needs fixing

Lex Friedman has a blog post about how broken the App Store review process is. He summarizes a few of the long-standing issues and a potential solution to at least whitelist trusted apps: "Apple’s “guilty until proven innocent” policy is offensive to the developers it claims to embrace."

lexontech.org

As is, it’s bad for developers and users alike.

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John Gruber followed up about Alexandr Wang’s Muse post on X: "Wang wrote that Muse “Clears the way and solves all the problems it can until the human part, the wanting and the dreaming, is all that’s left.” That’s dystopic, no... www.manton.org/2026/09/27/john-grub…

Crazy last few minutes of Ravens / Cowboys. 1 second! Sigh. 🏈

Dario Amodei will have a private dinner with Trump tonight, according to Axios: "Months ago, when Anthropic first started talking about having a one-on-one with Trump, some advised against it because “Dario’s a little too weird” for Trump, one senior official told Axios." This is gonna be awkward.

Mark Gurman compares the Apple Vision Pro to the Meta VR Glasses, and adds some notes about new development: "Apple’s Vision team is now working on a completely revamped headset under the code name N224. Company engineers are ... www.manton.org/2026/09/27/mark-gurm…

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Worked on Epilogue this weekend, adding a new layout for the iPad. This also gets it a step closer to iPhone Duo support.

Screenshot of book tracking application displays various book covers under the Recently Blogged section, along with a sidebar menu featuring options like Bookshelves, Goals, Movies, and Discover.

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Manton Reece @manton.org · 26/09/2026

Weekend Update on SNL: Dario Amodei. “If we can pressure lawmakers to create guardrails, we will be able to stop me.” 🤣

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Got my print copy of The Fires of December. Love the secondary ink color. I started the ebook already and I’m about halfway through it.

Manton Reece @manton.org · 26/09/2026

Updated my Texas state parks page with this week’s visit. Making slow progress, only 32 parks in. It’s gonna take several more years. I think next up I will hit a few near the gulf coast at once.

Manton Reece @manton.org · 26/09/2026

Now people are saying that the OpenAI agent is called simply lowercase “o”? Please tell me this is a placeholder code name or a shortcut command-line tool. Aeon is a good name. Hope OpenAI hasn’t completely lost their mind.

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Rumor is OpenAI is launching a new agent called Aeon next week. I hope they can also finish consolidating Chat, Work, and Codex. More users will switch to Meta’s Muse if ChatGPT’s suite of products remains so disjointed. Muse already has a great, approachable brand.

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Rail and oil in Three Rivers, Texas.

Railroad tracks run alongside an industrial refinery complex with tall distillation towers and several black tanker railcars.

Another update on the new theme editor: I added a “…” context menu with a “Show Locations” item. This will show where a template is coming from, e.g. your custom theme or a plug-in. Still can be confusing, but getting better.

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I filled out the Siri AI class action settlement to get my $25 to $95. But I’m not happy about it, because for these lawsuits all I can think about is how much the lawyers are making. It’s a racket.

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Choke Canyon State Park. Kind of a rough night camping. Pretty much had the place to myself, though, except rabbits and deer.

We’ve got the track list for U2’s next album, coming out in November, including this surprise: "The song connecting the album and two EPs is the final track on the new album, ‘Torn’, a duet between Bono and the late, great Dolly Part... www.manton.org/2026/09/24/weve-got-…

Screenshot of the redesigned theme editor for Micro.blog going live now. It’s better in pretty much every way. Nicer folder and file list, brand new syntax highlighting editor with support for Hugo and HTML, and other improvements.

Screenshot of web text editor showing Hugo and HTML tags, with sidebar of hierarchical file list on the left.

Bad wi-fi today, so I’m tethering, but bad cell signal too… So much of my work depends on the web, even simple coding and testing slows to a crawl. I’m usually spoiled. It’s a weird disconnect when internet in downtown Austin is worse than it was via Starlink in the middle of the ocean.

OutPost for Mac Update — Jim Mitchell

There’s a bug fix update to the OutPost beta for Mac. It’s shaping up to be a nice Micropub client. Good app to have around for Micro.blog blogs.

jimmitchell.org

I released a small update to OutPost for Mac this morning fixing a few niggly things that have been bugging me.

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A couple more thoughts on Meta Connect: Mark Zuckerberg seems pretty happy with the company’s position right now. For the moment, they are ahead of everyone on glasses and personal agents. Meta does a lot, yet in a way they are more focused than OpenAI because Meta doesn’t need to compete on coding.

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Mark Zuckerberg (@zuck) on Threads

Mark Zuckerberg has a short thread on, uhm, Threads that highlights the announcements from Meta Connect today. The no-video glasses look good, and the Muse Charm is fun. I just wish another company was shipping this stuff.

threads.com

Here's everything I announced at Meta Connect today 👇

The iPhone 4 ‘Antennagate’ Press Conference Q&A — Finally

John Gruber linked to this iPhone 4 Antennagate Q&A and it really is extraordinary. A look back into an old version of Apple, sitting somewhere between the classic Mac days of the 1990s and today’s Apple.

daringfireball.net

I don’t know what truck this video fell off the back of, why it took 16 years, or how it came into the hands of “Sir Mix-A-Lot Rare Music”, but I’m sure glad it did.

Manton Reece @manton.org · 23/09/2026

Another trailer for Nathan Fielder’s You Can See Everything. Amazing. I don’t know what kind of story this is going to tell, but it’s obviously going to be a totally different kind of documentary.

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Manton Reece @manton.org · 23/09/2026

First trailer for Ray Gunn is out. Brad Bird had been wanting to make this film for decades. Can’t believe it’s actually happening.

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Manton Reece @manton.org · 23/09/2026

Still settling in to what AI models I should be using. Last month, I was happy with GPT-5.6 Sol (xhigh) and fast mode all the time. Astra blew that up because it’s just more expensive. I think GPT-6 Sol (high) is the right balance for my usage.

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Manton Reece @manton.org · 22/09/2026

Politico quoting Trump’s remarks at the UN: "From this point forward, all United States documents and hopefully the world’s will be changed to use the much more accurate term, super, as opposed to artificial. So it’s super intelligence." No. As usual this is just a distraction. 🇺🇸

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Manton Reece @manton.org · 22/09/2026

Lots of AI news today. Opus 5.5, and GPT-6 Sol and Luna. Luna is very affordable. 1/100th the price of Astra. The only cheaper model from OpenAI is the old GPT-5 Nano, which I’m still using for some server work because of the price.

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Manton Reece @manton.org · 22/09/2026

OutPost is a new Micropub client for Mac, with full compatibility with Micro.blog-hosted blogs. It’s a public beta now. Initial testing looks good! In fact I’m typing this microblog post using it.

jimmitchell.dev

OutPost — a Micropub client for iPhone, iPad and Mac

Publish to your own website with Micropub and IndieAuth. No accounts, no server, no analytics.