Abstractions

Justin Mayer & Dan Jacobson

Abstractions is a podcast about technology, software, hardware, and the Internet, and the way the ever-increasing layers of these technologies permeate every aspect of our everyday lives.

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20 episodes
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Avg 45 min
English

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#70
September 3 · 47 min
Quad-Die Thruples
Apple announces M6 & M5 Ultra processors along with new Mac Mini and Mac Studio computers, Walmart finally caves and will support Apple Pay, and France bans unsolicited marketing phone calls. 🔗 Links Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra Apple M6 and M5 Pro Mac mini Apple introduces Mac Studio with M5 Max & Ultra Walmart finally caves, will support Apple Pay France bans unsolicited telemarketing calls You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#69
August 20 · 38 min
Next-Level Countermeasures
A promotional video for new AirPods appears to have been leaked, BMW shows ads to drivers on its car dashboard screens, and there is a correct orientation when putting down your case-less phone. Mario meets Pareto MacOS 26.7 Tahoe Release Candidate Contains a Video Demonstrating Camera-Equipped AirPods in Action BMW Has Put a Spider-Man Ad on the Dashboard Display of Owners’ Cars iDrive Ads You Don’t Need to Worry About Scratching Your iPhone Camera Lenses You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#68
August 13 · 47 min
That Starship Has Sailed
Safari has one major advantage over Chrome, Hugging Face fends off a cyberattack by a rogue language model, and OpenAI will reportedly ship a ChatGPT device replete with speaker, microphone, and camera. 🔗 Links Ray Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains” is set today (2026-08-04) There Will Come Soft Rains (PDF) Timeline of Fictional Future Events Neonomicon by Alan Moore Chrome’s glaring lack of window/tab session isolation Safari’s support for web platform features is… not great Chrome is bad Google settled a class-action lawsuit for $5 billion in which it was accused of collecting user data in Chrome’s incognito mode Helium web browser Request for session/storage/cookie isolation in Chromium in… 2013 StopTheScript Scorched Earth, video game classic Language model breaks out of sandbox and breaks into Hugging Face OpenAI’s accidental cyberattack against Hugging Face is science fiction that happened Security incident disclosure — July 2026 Anatomy of a Frontier Lab Agent Intrusion: A Technical Timeline of the July 2026 Incident OpenAI and Hugging Face partner to address security incident during model evaluation OpenAI’s New Device Will Be Hockey Puck-Sized and Cost Over $300 You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#67
August 6 · 50 min
Long on Schadenfreude
MacOS upgrade shenanigans continue, SpaceX loses billions in first “earnings” report, LLMs are surprisingly good at financial advice, and Dan describes his new high-fidelity audio system. 🔗 Links LLM2Human Clinic Iris Photos app for MacOS MacOS Safari standalone installer downloads from Apple SpaceX’s first-ever earnings report comes as stock hits new all-time low AI debt orgy can’t last forever, while hidden borrowing has exploded to $1.65 trillion AI Economics for Dummies AI financial advice is surprisingly good LLMs reward expertise Arcam A25 integrated amplifier Dali Sonik 5 floor-standing speakers You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#66
July 23 · 44 min
Bubbles Don’t Really Give Way
Apple might be building servers powered by M7 Ultra processors, S&P downgrades Oracle’s debt, and open-weights large language models narrow the gap with frontier models. 🔗 Links Why Oracle’s recent credit downgrade could be a warning sign for stocks Moonshot and Alibaba unveil models they claim rival OpenAI and Anthropic You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#65
July 16 · 43 min
Caesar Debt Salad
Mac software developers find a way to get out of “squircle jail”, there is growing opposition to data center over-construction, and bankers warn about risks associated with growing debt and shrinking cash flow related to generative software infrastructure investment. 🔗 Links Train melodies on Tokyo’s Yamanote line Ride voxel Tokyo Yamanote train while studying Japanese Thaw: Mac menu item organizer, Ice fork, and alternative to Bartender Escape from Squircle Jail Resist the Squircle Jail NSDockTilePlugIn Iris Photos: A Native MacOS photo library Iris launch announcement post Data center construction backlash Backlash as Utah approves datacenter twice the size of Manhattan Data centers are guzzling California’s water — We have no idea how much Data Centers Now Consume 6% of U.S. Electricity — and the Backlash Has Begun Generative software debt risk Banks seek to offload risk to avoid “choking” on data center debt Hyperscaler Debt Flood Brings Derivatives Bonanza Big Tech’s $2.7 trillion AI bill comes due: Chart of the Day AI boom risks global financial crash, warn central bankers You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#64
July 9 · 51 min
Footgun Cavalcade
Claude Fable & Mythos models are once again available, Sony kills PlayStation physical game discs, Xbox fires thousands of employees, commencement speakers are surprised by “AI” backlash, and Allbirds pivots from shoes to data centers. 🔗 Links “Bring Me to Life” cover: Gregorian “Bring Me to Life” cover: Otamatone Fable 5 & Mythos 5 are now available again ChatGPT can’t believe RAM prices Sony kills PlayStation video game discs Physical disc production ending in January 2028 for new games releasing on PlayStation consoles Sony announces end of PlayStation discs Xbox fires thousands of employees Clueless commencement speeches about “AI” Related comic Allbirds abandons clothes, pivots to “AI compute infrastructure” Money Stuff: AIbirds You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#63
July 2 · 47 min
Sulfuric Acid Shark Tank
Video game summer sales commence, we remember Om Malik, Apple raises prices, Apple Silicon servers could power Apple Intelligence, and Facebook and Amazon foist generative software onto their employees. 🔗 Links Free The Icons: Apple should end their prohibition on shapes in MacOS app icons Remembering Om Malik Om Malik, 1966-2026 – On my Om Matt Mullenweg: All Roads Lead to Om Daring Fireball: Om Glass: Remembering Om More Om Links Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads as memory costs skyrocket Apple Reportedly Building M2 Ultra and M4-Powered AI Servers Apple M5 Max vs. Nvidia DGX SPARK: Can Apple Dethrone CUDA? Facebook Embrace of A.I. Is Making Its Employees Miserable Facebook to pause internal mouse-tracking tech while examining data security issues Amazon workers pressured to up AI use, making up extraneous tasks You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#62
June 25 · 44 min
Martian Human Vats
SpaceX stock price plummets, Llama.cpp and LlamaBarn are now “Llama”, and Microsoft hopes to make people addicted to its software. 🔗 Links Are you in the weights? Steam Machine launches Llama Microsoft Wants to “Make People Addicted” to its New AI Assistant Original paywalled article You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#61
June 18 · 1 hr 1 min
Operating System Boomer
Apple II retro-gaming, small wins in Apple OS 27, Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 & Mythos 5, and the SpaceX IPO. You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#60
June 11 · 44 min
Tickets to a Cat Museum
At its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple announces Siri AI and other improvements to its upcoming OS 27 line of operating system software. 🔗 Links WWDC26 highlights: Apple Intelligence, Siri AI, and more Apple introduces Siri AI You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#59
June 4 · 47 min
Existential Horror of Existence
Google kills its search product after 25 years and announces its Gemini-LLM-centric “Googlebook” notebook, while Plex triples its lifetime pass price to $750. 🔗 Links The Virtual OS Museum Is AI Profitable? Google kills its search product after 25 years On Google declaring war on the Web Ad Infinitum Search alternatives: Kagi DuckDuckGo Ecosia Startpage Googlebook Official Reddit announcement post Dropover: wiggle cursor to open a “shelf” (MacOS) Plex lifetime pass to jump from $250 to $750 Jellyfin Jellify music app for Jellyfin Awesome Jellyfin You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#58
May 28 · 38 min
Boy Oh Boy Does It Show
Friends don’t let friends use Ollama, local software needs to be the norm, and why it’s not fun to read what LLMs write. 🔗 Links Since You Arrived Friends Don’t Let Friends Use Ollama Local AI needs to be the norm Local-first software: You own your data, in spite of the cloud Local-first Software Directory Sinceerly Your AI Use Is Breaking My Brain original 404 Media link (paywalled) You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#57
May 14 · 47 min
Chaotic Flowers Bloom
Apple has a new CEO, Mac windows still have proxy icons, and Anthropic finds a clever way to increase the price for Claude without increasing prices. 🔗 Links Pelican 4.12 released Bubbles.town Window proxy icons in Mac OS 8.5 Human Interface Guidelines (1998) Window proxy icons in Neovide Claude 4.7 increased token usage You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#56
May 1 · 42 min
Delusional Fever Dream
We discuss a tool for comparing coding fonts, GitHub announces support for stacked pull requests, and Facebook kills its “metaverse”. 🔗 Links Abstractions episode title truncated CodingFont.com GitHub stacked PRs Native instant space switching on MacOS AeroSpace tiling window manager for MacOS Open-source design stack Facebook kills its metaverse You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#55
April 23 · 49 min
Rather Accurate Quip
Little Snitch is now available for Linux, OpenAI buys a podcast, web sites hijack the browser back button, and a bundle of 30 WordPress plugins were hacked. 🔗 Links MacOS scroll-to-zoom Little Snitch for Linux Little Snitch for Linux — Because Nothing Else Came Close OpenAI buys TBPN Om Malik and Ben Thompson’s take Sometimes powerful people just do dumb s–t A new spam policy for “back button hijacking” StopTheMadness browser plugin Someone Bought 30 WordPress Plugins and Planted a Backdoor in All of Them You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#54
April 16 · 43 min
Professional Laserologist
Claude Code leaks its source code, GitHub uptime woes continue, people may become dependent on LLMs, and local LLMs are getting faster. 🔗 Links Idiocracy Proximity Index Claude Code Unpacked The Missing GitHub Status Page GitHub’s Historic Uptime Gemma 4 LLM — Unsloth Gemma 4 on iPhone: Google AI Edge Gallery LlamaBarn You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#53
April 9 · 43 min
Modern Tech Cockroach
CoPilot puts Microsoft ads in GitHub pull requests, Apple discontinues the Mac Pro, and Anthropic stands by its values and forgoes a government contract. 🔗 Links CBonsai Meow.camera Purrrr cat feeder Purrrr iPhone app Neko House cat desk Custom Cat Aquarium Copilot Edited an Ad Into My PR GitHub kills Copilot PR ads after backlash CoPilot training opt-out settings LinkedIn feed view settings Apple discontinues the Mac Pro Wired headphone sales on the rise You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#52
April 2 · 43 min
They Deserve the Dunks
Apple puts ads in Maps, ARM will fab its own CPUs, and Python darling Astral is acquired by OpenAI. 🔗 Links Unstream Flighty Airports GG desktop GUI app for Jujutsu Introducing Apple Business Apple confirms that its Maps app will begin showing ads to users Alternative map apps OpenStreetMap Organic Maps CoMaps ARM announces its own CPUs Astral acquired by OpenAI You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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#51
March 26 · 44 min
Great Dog Uprising
Human.json helps create a web of trust for human-created content, Justin builds a Pelican plugin to support it, and Nvidia DLSS 5 aims to “enhance” first-person game realism. 🔗 Links Human.json human.json Human plugin for Pelican Justin’s human.json file Nvidia DLSS 5 Nvidia CEO responds to DLSS 5 backlash Gamers are right to be disgusted by NVIDIA’s DLSS 5 39 DLSS 5 Memes That Made Gamers Fear The Beauty Filter You can find Justin Mayer on the web at justinmayer.com and on the Fediverse at justin.ramble.space. Dan Jacobson’s homestead on the web is at danj.ca.
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