iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

GPT-5.5 isn't the best coding companion by a long way, but I do love the banter. "That’s macOS Bash being ancient." Yes, shiny new machine, talk down your elders.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

OMG, Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler is totally real, just with kebabs. Kebab firm fined £500k for selling lamb that was mostly skin and fat - and sometimes goat. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Kebab firm fined £500k for selling lamb that was mostly skin and fat

Kismet Kebabs are found to have engaged in "considerable dishonesty", Swansea Crown Court finds.

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Reposted by Phillip de Wet

Sarah Wild @sarahemilywild.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

CALL FOR SOURCES: Have you been through a multi-stage interview recently? Have you hired someone after a multi-stage interview? I'd love to speak to you for a story I'm working on for Nature Careers. Please share and DM if you'd like to chat.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

I suspect the phrase "globalise the intifada" will be hotly debated in the United Kingdom next week. And the heat may be worth it. South Africa kept a lid on "kill the Boer" by going legal rather than political. That avoided trouble, but also resolution. sigstat.substack.com/p/south-afri...

sigstat.substack.com

South Africa went legal on its version of "globalise the intifada". Political debate is better. Maybe.

The chant Julius Malema adopted had South Africa look deeply at its rules rather than its collective navel.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Random AP at what is effectively public wifi at the AWS Summit London. I'm trying to pretend I'm not impressed.

A speed test result page showing 105Mbps down and 142Mbps up.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

And it succeeds. I've already used it as a definition, in a fraught discussion, in the last hour. Didn't know how badly we needed that kind of good-provenance baseline until it existed.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

That's a really good definition, and a worthwhile scheme. The problem is the implied adversary: a tech type who games the system and self-publishes a hundred LLM-generated books ~legitimately carrying the logo, just to crow about it. Trolls gonna troll.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Give me enough data and I can split out the cohort that will never subscribe, so you might as well hit the with a per-article offer. (It would require systemic, ambient, and inescapable surveillance of every web user, but that's a small price to pay for freedom of choice.)

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I will happily campaign for a carve-out in competition regulations if necessary. Anti-competitive behaviour can destroy the economy, but messing with the way I get my brain in gear every morning is the worse evil.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I feel like @nytimes.com and LinkedIn need to have a games coordination council. A numeric CrossClimb is nice, a graphic Connections is interesting. Both on the same day is just discombobulating.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

I'm curious to see who gets it right. Big vendors can swallow inference costs, challengers can be more flexible kinda thing. But AI economics are just different.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Collective nouns default to singular, unless you are emphasising individuals within the group. If that means the world must burn, so be it.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Given that kind of speed, what happens if Iran exploits the massive market leverage that gives it? The opportunities to make money, never mind just sow chaos, are endless. It's a whole new manifested epistemic security risk that flows from not being able to take the US at its word.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Amazing to see how fast the markets swing when Donald Trump says "good and productive conversations" with Iran – without a breath of counterparty confirmation. In theory the there is pre-verification risk (of the US just plain lying) built into the *pricing*, but it sure doesn't show as *lag*.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

In SaaS, it means customers look for ways to roll their own solutions. In train tickets, the customers set up a grey market. In both, it means the system is very badly broken.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

As it happens, I'm watching the pricing-strategy freak-out in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) space right now. Vendors are selling AI that means customers need fewer users, while the vendors charge by the user. But customers don't like usage-based pricing, which is way more unpredictable.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Advance train tickets tacitly rely on dropouts: the earlier they are bought, the less likely they are to be used, hence the cheaper you can make 'em. It's a close relative to airlines overselling planes. If the delta gets too big, though, you get the genteel, peer-to-peer equivalent of scalping.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

When users revolt against your pricing strategy: "... more than 300 regular travellers trade tickets for trains between Folkestone and London, often ones purchased well in advance—to secure the very cheapest fares—but which are no longer needed." folkestonedispatch.substack.com/p/commuters-...

folkestonedispatch.substack.com

🚄 Commuters bemoan ‘eye-wateringly expensive’ fares for packed Folkestone trains

Plus: Car park's ANPR cameras to be scrapped after unsuccessful trial, and lorry driver charged with dangerous driving after crash

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Bless you, Which magazine and @harryrose.bsky.social, for answering the call and going hard on hot cross buns. Clearly 'tis the weekend the major bun buying begins.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

I spend a lot of time in rooms where deeply serious people have deeply serious conversations about the future of serious journalism. Which is important, absolutely. But popular journalism is important too. Don't underestimate the joy a review of hot cross buns can spark.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

It takes guts to lead you (news-site) newsletter with a hot cross bun taste test. And editorial leadership more open-minded than the average. But if you follow the data, that is what some audiences want. They won't say it when asked, but their clicks speak for them, eloquently.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

If you are watching for signs of AI recursive self-improvement, take note of OpenAI's latest claim on #FirstProof. It's been messy, and the proofs are still not validated, but it points to genuine novel discovery, potentially fully automated. www.thestack.technology/openai-tease...

thestack.technology

OpenAI teases new model with "chaotic" First Proof test

After "chaotic sprint" attempts with rule-breaking human prompting, OpenAI believes it can now beat First Proof type challenges with a simple prompting strategy.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

We always knew AI would take over. We never knew it would be lobster themed. #OpenClaw

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

First government-level partnership deal in Africa for @anthropic.com it is is with... Rwanda. South Africa and Nigeria have a lot to learn from Rwanda's approach. It should be at a reputation disadvantage, but somehow it keeps getting the Western outreach. www.anthropic.com/news/anthrop...

anthropic.com

Anthropic and the Government of Rwanda sign MOU for AI in health and education

Anthropic is an AI safety and research company that's working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Okay, so the dark side of this from the SaaS perspective, from @johan.hal.se.web.brid.gy today: "Listen: every idea you've ever had, every single one, some cocaine-addled sales critter has had too. And they're better than you at SEO." johan.hal.se/wrote/2026/0...

johan.hal.se

The Sideprocalypse - Johan Halse

You can't open a feed today without having AI boosters fling word salad like "agentic engineering" or "openclaw" into your beautiful but disapproving face. I'm terrible at ...

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

The OpenClaw news today reminds me of this ancient* post by @commaok.xyz on building an app while shopping. The sub-head has haunted me ever since: "Creating is faster than searching". The realisation hasn't really broken beyond devs yet, but any day now commaok.xyz/ai/just-in-t... * 2-month-old

commaok.xyz

Just in time software

I didn’t plan to write software in the grocery store last night. I was tired and hungry, kids in tow. My long shopping list sat in a text message. I wished I could check items off as I found them. Ide...

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

I love ads. Not only because they have largely paid my bills all my life, also at a philosophical level. But those damn Anthropic ads about AI and ads are living in my head. I may have to switch from ChatGPT to Claude for language work just to avoid thinking about the big picture a little longer.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

In the late 90s, the CIA World #Factbook was indispensable. There weren't many comprehensive reference works freely available, and it came with rock-solid provenance. Now the source is untrustworthy, with the US going post-truth, meh, no big loss. www.cia.gov/stories/stor...

cia.gov

Spotlighting The World Factbook as We Bid a Fond Farewell - CIA

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

This is why writing columns rules. "Nobody was in an armchair, nobody was smoking a pipe, and I was probably the person closest to having a beard, but it works better if you imagine everyone sitting around in armchairs, smoking pipes, and stroking their beards." www.news24.com/opinions/col...

news24.com

Phillip de Wet | How do you solve a problem like democracy? | News24

UK liberals are trying to pre-empt Reform UK taking control of the BBC, and find themselves facing a fundamental problem, writes Phillip de Wet.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Wow. Talk about real economic evil. The amount of value destroyed – and the tiny relative size of the gain for the wrongdoer – is mind-blowing.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

The first world is so weird. In Johannesburg, buildings are hijacked on an enterprise basis, with (non-owner) slumlords using violence and threats as a profit driver. London's equivalent is "rental arbitrageurs", who unlawfully sub-let and don't pay the rent. www.the-londoner.co.uk/claudio-is-s...

the-londoner.co.uk

'Claudio is Scamming'

How an Italian charmer is duping the owners of London’s priciest properties

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Gaining traction in Japan this week: some eye-popping results for LLMs on the Common Test for University Admissions. Lifeprompt has been running the experiment for four years. Gemini and Claude did pretty well, but look at GPT! Red means a perfect score. lifeprompt.net/news/w-j19fvl

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

In the year 2026, a pretty serious organisation – with support staff and consultants and a tall leadership pyramid – took the better part of 3 working days to realise the statement "We do not use AI" is false. For the sake of clarity, if they touch a computer, your people use AI.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Holy frigging hell. Chief Constable: [offers hallucinated intelligence] MPs: Is this AI? CC: Nope, Google. MPs: Google AI? CC: "We do not use AI." /time passes/ CC: ... but we do use "Microsoft Co Pilot" thing.... Erm, sorry? www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3...

bbc.co.uk

Police chief admits misleading MPs after AI used in justification for banning Maccabi Tel Aviv fans

An intelligence report referred to a football game that never existed - Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will make a statement later today.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Today, for the first time ever, I seriously considered buying a small inflatable boat from a supermarket in order to use what was, as recently as Wednesday, a footpath. European weather is weird.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

What should South Africa – specifically the GNU – do about Venezuela? Mpumelelo Mkhabela has nuanced thinking about that. I don't think the rest of the world cares about anything other than what comes out Cyril Ramaphosa's mouth. @news24southafrica.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/6Mqi...

open.spotify.com

Spotify – Web Player

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

It's not just me, right? I feel if you mean human models on a runway, you need to specify, otherwise you mean LLM.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

On this day in 1965, Britain introduced the 70mph (call it 110kph) speed limit, to the outrage of sports car drivers. Which, judging by this BBC report at the time, skewed heavily towards women. Quite amazing to watch now, given today's social norms. www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-e...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Rewind: Anger at 'dawdling' 70mph speed limit

Drivers protest over the introduction of speed limits on motorways, which were trialled from 1965.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

If going back to X is "the biggest arbitrage opportunity" of my career, then I have but truly messed up.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Some of the best fast food, supermarket, and car companies do everything they can to guarantee franchisees get a great return. Because that is provably good for everyone. If you have to defend allegations you caused their suicide, you've fucked up. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

theguardian.com

New laws to be considered after ‘harrowing stories’ from ex-Vodafone franchisees

Concerns about power imbalance in franchise agreements amid claims over firm’s treatment of small-business owners

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

My media literacy message remains "the media: not as bad as you think!" Simultaneously, we we need to arrange some field trips to Rwanda for editors. I'd go so far as to say it should be a statutory requirement.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

I still firmly believe we're witnessing the end of American hegemony, first political and then cultural. But I could still spot three out of four famous Los Angeles street names in NYT Connections earlier this week.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Most of 2025: CENSORED BY ORDER OF GRU The paper version has a complete key that shows those are the "unconfirmed" attacks with preliminary classification. Even that, though, undermines excellent copy that makes a powerful point, before the chart makes it look like thumb-suck scaremongering.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

By that logic people *would* trust a no-filter politician who.... Oh, never mind.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

There are problems with the open source supply chain, and yes, sustainability is a problem. And don't get me sorted on phone apps. But imagine going back to the 90s and telling them that paying for software would be a deprecated business model within decades.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

I still remember the arguments that you can't make money from free software, that open source is inherently unsustainable. (With a lot of that coming from Microsoft...) After Confluent, IBM will have spent well over $50 billion on OSS acquisitions since 2018 www.thestack.technology/ibm-to-buy-c...

thestack.technology

IBM to buy Confluent – and treat it like Red Hat?

More than $50 billion on OSS acquisitions later, some in the Kafka community hope IBM brings stability, others worry about the impact.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

This turned into the hook for today's @news24southafrica.bsky.social column. The apparent involvement of a South African legislative party in sending mercenaries to fight for Russia is no big deal in Washington, but you'd better believe Brussels is watching. www.news24.com/opinions/col...

news24.com

Phillip de Wet | Just as well for SA that the US and Russia are allies right now. But Europe… | News24

Once upon a time, the deployment of South African mercenaries to Russia’s front line would have exploded the US-SA relationship, but it will hurt SA in Europe, writes Phillip de Wet.

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Phillip de Wet @phillipdewet.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

If they set up a party HQ at a Nando's in order to remain close to the people, I might take them more seriously than the OG at this rate.

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