R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 14hSiri AI is a bit hit-and-miss. One thing it does well is when I say "Add this to my calendar" and it creates the event for whatever is on my screen. I've done it with a hotel reservation and a JPEG of an event at my library, and it got it right the first time. Just don't have it change the event.😬 100
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 28/09/2026I was big into UI interface theming on MacOS 9 and the early versions of OSX. It was thrilling, time consuming, and exhausting. I think that phase smacked the desire to tweak right out of me, hence why agents don’t appeal to me. (I also have the most vanilla smart home. Home Assistant is a pain) 120
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 27/09/2026I just love it when a person has a very specific hammer, unique to them, and they are just whacking every single nail-shaped thing with it. 140
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 26/09/2026I’m just not convinced that I need an agent to help run my digital life. It’s got such a small interface with my irl life, and I’m not doing that much with my digital life to warrant an agent. It’s just not appealing to me to have a computer telling me what to do and doing things on my behalf. 051
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 26/09/2026I've been working on the same spaceship game for the past 6 years (and I was working on its predecessor for 4 years before that). Seeing it finally starting to come together is incredibly gratifying. Doing big things for a long time is great. 0120
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 21/09/2026Everything I thought I knew about creating original musical compositions is wrong. 000
Reposted by R. Alex AndersonHugo @hugorcd.com · 20/09/2026For me, that means taking more photos, spending time in museums, becoming curious about unfamiliar subjects and genuinely pursuing the things that move me. It also means continuing to treat code as art: choosing what I build and giving it the time and care to become something I’m proud of. 1122
Reposted by R. Alex Andersondanielroe @danielroe.dev · 19/09/2026don't be nice.roe.devDon't be niceSometimes, it's more important to be good than it is to be nice. 41734243
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 16/09/2026I just love the disk image background for my spaceship game. Warms my heart every time I see it. 051
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 10/09/2026This notion has been noodling in my head for a while. It’s a good one. 030
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 10/09/2026“A URL is technical, a link is cultural.“ What a Pitch Perfect sentiment 071
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 10/09/2026My child has a onesie with long pants and 11 buttons, which is perfect for teaching her how to count from 0 to 10 as I button them. Except I fear I am cursing her to live with a 0 indexed mindset. 000
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 09/09/2026I dunno, I kinda want to be the kind of person with less phone, not more phone. 160
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 31/08/2026This was fun to research and write. A nice, thick problem to sink my teeth into. 000
Reposted by R. Alex AndersonRemix @remix.run · 31/08/2026Today we published the first release candidate for Remix 3! - 350+ commits since beta - Full-stack HMR - Database tooling - Safer routing - Improved assets serving - More components - SPA support - One remix package Try it: npx remix@next new my-appremix.runRemix 3 Release CandidateRemix 3 RC is available now. A full-stack JavaScript framework built on web primitives and shipped as a single dependency. 2357
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 23/08/2026Sleepytime Tea Ice Cream Heat 1 cup of milk — I used almond milk. Steep 4 sachets of tea for 6 minutes Remove tea bags, add ¾ cup of sugar if you want it really sweet, or adjust to taste. Refrigerate. Mix in 2 cups of cream. Churn for 15 minutes. Freeze. Delicious, floral, botanical. 100
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 23/08/2026Much like sync and async functions, apps built with AI have a color. Humans can try to untangle their codebase, but it's far easier to just send an AI to understand the other codebase and pull the pieces you want into your own. So maybe developers should care if it's vibe coded. 120
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 21/08/2026A trip to the children's indoor playground yielded this new profile picture. 020
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 17/08/2026Just made and ate the most amazing roasted pumpkin soup from pumpkins and sage from my garden. Creamy, savory, full of flavor — positively delicious. Having dirt to grow stuff in is a real treat. 000
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 17/08/2026It's unnerving how much of physics is just "statistics and probability". Thermodynamics? Statistics and probability. Chemical reactions? Statistics and probability. Quantum mechanics? Believe it or not, statistics and probability! 160
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 16/08/2026There's a certain satisfaction that comes from taking three things that are similar, determining the dimensions that define their differences, putting them into a 2x2 grid, and discovering a secret, likely daft, fourth thing that is distinct from the other three. 130
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 16/08/2026While still true, this is becoming less relevant as AI models are able to pull in more and more context. There's definitely something novel and powerful about a tool that has orders of magnitude more memory than I do. I want to like it more... but... davidepiffer.com/p/ai-isnt-ou...davidepiffer.comAI Isn’t Outthinking Mathematicians. It’s Out-Remembering Them.The key advantage may not be superior reasoning, but a virtually unlimited symbolic working memory. 110
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 16/08/2026What sucks about being a "makes fancy websites" guy is that any time I work in the real world, like with a residential sprinkler system, I get so frustrated by the constraints of corporeal reality. We've got it sooooooo easy. Anyway, gonna epoxy some PVC joints that were just a little too shallow. 000
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 09/08/2026> > Even if models are good at producing real results, they’re much better at producing results that look real but are misleading. > Something that looks real, but isn’t quite? > We have a word for that: artificial. Holy crap. It's obvious in hindsight. notes.jim-nielsen.com/n/2026-08-09...notes.jim-nielsen.comSome thoughts about Anthropic’s new cryptanalysis results | Jim Nielsen’s Notes 051
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 07/08/2026It's true — fetching authenticated data directly from a PDS is a pain in the butt. And it's totally worth it.alexanderson.leaflet.pubMaking Websites is More Complicated These Days - And That's a Good ThingIt's gonna get worse before it gets better... but once it gets better, it gets really good. 150
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 01/08/2026I still love how prescient and ironically anti-capitalist The Lego Movie is. Like, they have a literal room where the output of all the creative people is funneled into robots to create the most boring, mundane, cookie-cutter stuff imaginable. Sounds familiar in 2026... 030
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 25/07/2026TIL: the 1812 overture by Tchaikovsky commemorates the Russian military victory, not the American. 010
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 25/07/2026Not gonna lie, I can see the appeal of using agents and LLMs to make my vision a reality much faster with fewer mistakes. But does that leave any room for happy little accidents? alexanderson.leaflet.pubThe Joy of Programming 3121
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 21/07/2026I remembered something about trying to do something even though I didn't think it would work. alexanderson.leaflet.pubHubris 030
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 19/07/2026Isn’t this the guy who said the primary purpose of business is to maximize shareholder value? 🤦♂️ 100
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 16/07/2026You know what's nice about Factorio? Is it gives the feeling of being productive and solving problems without actually being productive and solving problems. Which is nice — for some reason, I'd much rather play a game about solving problems than actually solve problems. Why is that? 130
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 13/07/2026Three novel JavaScript runtimes that I've seen pop up recently: antjs.org pocketjs.dev www.perryts.com Notable that all three of them have an AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md Say what you will, but I doubt any of these projects would exist if it weren't for LLMs and coding agents. 253
Reposted by R. Alex Andersondan @danabra.mov · 13/07/2026i want to do a little ✨ ama about atproto ✨ in this thread. no question is too simple if you’ve been curious about atproto but don’t know much (anything?) about it, ask any question and i’ll try to explain it in my own words. (+ would love to hear from friends who aren’t very active on bsky) 11236683
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 09/07/2026My glasses are thick on the edges, and I have astigmatism. The correction produces a very strong chromatic aberration. Looks trippy if I’m paying attention. 000
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 08/07/2026I've found LLMs are really good at that first 90%. The problem is they make the second 90% even harder. Probably better to keep that first 90% as small as possible... 1160
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 05/07/2026Just some noodling on fractals and looking deeply at things.alexanderson.leaflet.pubReality is Fractal 1203
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 30/06/2026Uh oh. The Octocat has made @enclose.horse into a ghost! 👻 020
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 30/06/2026I should add, this is in addition to the small side yard garden we started this year. It used to be a dog run, complete with turf and soil saturated with dog urine. Fortunately, the soil isn’t too salty for things to grow! 040
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 29/06/2026Next yard project is underway: replacing this very sad patch of grass with a vegetable garden. First step: KILL EVERYTHING! Black plastic sheets will create an oven that should take care of the grass roots, weeds, and even ungerminated seeds. Next spring, it will be ready for tilling and planting. 1100
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 25/06/2026I'm stealing music, but not in the Limewire/Napster sense. In the "The only way I'll learn to compose myself is by copying other musicians" way.alexanderson.leaflet.pubStealing 230
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 24/06/2026That space between conviction and humility, between standing up for what you believe in and changing your mind when presented with new data, between saying and doing things that might annoy people and cautiously tiptoeing around issues to avoid rocking the already shaky boat. 010
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 22/06/2026The yellowish cast of the sky, ash raining down, smoke filling the air… that’s probably as good an excuse as any for why I don’t feel like doing anything, right? 000
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 21/06/2026An offhand comment gave me a lot to think about stories, specifically the stories we tell ourselves.alexanderson.leaflet.pubStorytelling 020
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 18/06/2026I had a lot of fun summarizing this thread for my 5 year old. We just love learning science stuff! 010
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 10/06/2026Just a few first-draft thoughts on React, Remix, and raw HTML sprinkled with JavaScript, inspired by this excellent piece: mohkohn.co.uk/writing/html-firstalexanderson.leaflet.pubAdditive Ideas vs Paradigm Shifts 000
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 09/06/2026Part of the reason why making a spaceship game with realistic sizes and distances is such a pain. To make travel fast enough for fun gameplay, I have to crank the speed up to 200,000 C - that’s 200,000 times the speed of light! And it still takes about 5 minutes to get to Proxima Centauri! 130
R. Alex Anderson @ralexanderson.com · 03/06/2026Last weekend I did something I haven't done in over 15 years — put on a silly costume and played a silly acting part for a starship bridge simulation game. And I had a blast.alexanderson.leaflet.pubPlaying Spaceship 0100