It won’t even matter that robots can’t do the jobs.
As long as CEOs believe they can, we will see mass layoffs anyway.
Posts by Chris Bennetts
I really don't get "spec-based development," which is nothing but a fancy way to describe a phase-gated "waterfall." An upfront specification is never correct, at least if our goal is to develop software people actually want to use. The more detailed and larger the spec, the less correct it is.
1/5
I’m not sure how that’s necessary for them to do their job. I’d personally be very troubled by that kind of request.
I’d argue that the Retina display alone made every other phone obsolete.
How does heritage listing anything ever built benefit humanity?
Apple is a flawed, sometimes quite problematic company. But I don’t know any other that has shaped consumer technology so much. /end
The iTunes Store in the early 2000s effectively quashed music piracy by creating a platform that was easier than piracy and competitively priced. Record companies that had been resisting online distribution finally had a workable channel and physical media became much less important. 7/n
The iPhone 4 introduced the retina screen to the wide market. Quadrupling the display resolution of the device instantly made screens much sharper and clearer. Bog-average screens became obsolete overnight and were much better for their loss. 6/n
The QuickTake camera of the mid-90s wasn’t fantastic, but it showed the possibilities and convenience of digital photography. Photography changed forever, and film cameras became hobbyist artifacts within a decade. 5/n
Also on the iMac, very few makers had shipped a successful PC that wasn’t a beige box for over a decade. While the iMac’s brightness has muted since, the beige plague is gone and it’s mostly because of Apple breaking the rut. 4/n
USB had just started to enter the market on Windows when the iMac came out, but almost every PC stuck to PS/2 ports by default. The iMac’s aggressive legacy-free statement created a clear market for third party USB devices and other PC makers the confidence to drop legacy support. 3/n
Until about 2010, Flash was widely used for creating interactive web content and playing videos. The runtime had chronic security issues and used too much power. Apple never allowed it on the iPhone or iPad, which led to the web platform getting better so Flash could finally be retired. 2/n
I’m a bit late to the #Apple50 thing, but there are a few big things that people don’t seem to remember that they shaped. 1/n
The best bit of daylight savings finishing is getting to watch the spring classics cycling races at a reasonable hour. Settling in for a long evening with the Tour of Flanders.
This is so, so well-articulated.
Young people are taking extraordinary steps to deal with the fuel crisis, including cutting back on work because the cost of fuel to get there is now higher than the money they will earn for the shift.
Bluesky might be a bit quiet, but the quality is fantastic.
The NRL may as well just give the premiership trophy to Penrith now. Nobody’s beating them this year.
It feels good to have a good “hard” public holiday once in a while. Everything just stops for a day. Proper rest and peace.
Rule of life: install patches the moment they come out, within 12 hours at worst. Don’t run systems that no longer get updates.
It’s crap, but it’s the price of living in 2026.
The machine may be more eloquent, it may generate far more dazzling images than we could ever draw, but it will never experience human truths. And so in art, literature and all other creative processes it is a cuckoo, pushing out the human to consume resources and generate hoarded wealth
The importance of accuracy and the weight of human authorship are two key deciders in if to accept the use of generative AI in publishing. As it stands, it is not reputable practice
After a heated argument, I discovered that the current magic incantation to get a HomePod to play ABC radio Sydney is “Play ABC 702 Sydney”.
Other similar attempts got ABC Classic, ABC News, a history podcast, and Peter Gabriel. Voice UIs suck more than anything humans have invented.
I can’t say I understand the appeal of giant cars. 90+% of us aren’t farmers, tradies, off road enthusiasts, horse haulers, boaters, or caravanists. Why do we buy those silly things?
Fun fact: plastic recycling basically doesn't exist.
Only about 9% of all plastic ever made has been recycled, and only 1% more than once.
www.npr.org/2022/10/24/1...
“Discovery died and curation replaced it.” Brilliant read this.
What I always hear: “We can’t afford to pay our workers more than $15 an hour.”
What I never hear: “We can’t afford to pay our CEO millions of dollars a year.”
Funny how that works.
Why are delayed telecasts of football matches still a thing? Either show it live or don’t show it at all.