So long and thanks for all the RoundRects
I was so sad to hear of Bill Atkinson’s passing. He was one of the original Macintosh team members, creator of Quickdraw, MacPaint, HyperCard, inventor of the RoundRect, and so much of what makes personal computing enjoyable today.
Most of all, he was a friend. I spent many hours interviewing him. You can find the shows at the TWIT website. He was a deep, warm, and talented human and I will miss him.
So long, Bill, and thanks for all the RoundRects.
Micro.blog Photo Challenge, Day 6: Contrast #mbjune
Micro.blog Photo Challenge, Day 5: Reflection
#mbjune
Micro.blog Photo Challenge, Day 4: Nostalgia
Micro.blog Challenge, Day 3: Shadow
Curve
#mbjune
ceci n’est pas un arbre
#mbjune
🐒📝 “Alas, I monkey dost swing through yon trees, seeking merriment and ripe bananas, huzzah!” ~Sigmo Bana
Test posting this from Obsidian…
You don’t build strength by avoiding discomfort. You build it by seeking it.
It worked. Using the Micro.publish plugin by Otavio Cordeiro.
I use Obsidian, BTW.
Rosy is watching.
Flipboard’s Mike McCue joins us on Intelligent Machines #818 to talk about his new app, Surf, the super social app. twit.tv/im surf.social
Bucket List ✔️
Over 25 years ago a producer on “The Screen Savers” came to me and said “Do you know a Dick DeBartolo?”
“Uh,” I eloquently replied, “THE Dick DeBartolo, MAD Magazine’s maddest writer? Yeah! Why?”
“He wants to be on the show.”
Thus began a quarter-century love fest with one of my childhood heroes. And a chance to be immortalized in the magazine that taught me everything I know about modern culture. Well, the culture of the 60’s, anyway.
From the upcoming MAD Magazine #42…(It’s a best-of so I guess it’s “bucket list ✔️ed again.”)
If only we had made band-aids with pictures of pets on them!
Dick still does his show every week with Chad Johnson over at GizWiz.tv (now over 2000 of them!) and will join me for a special reunion episode Friday 5/23 at 4PM Eastern. I’ll break out all the old GizWiz jingles.
And, of course, every TWiT episode is still available from the archives at twit.tv/dgw. Good times!
DOGE gave Russia access to private government data
A very brave senior DevSecOps architect at the National Labor Relations Board turned whistleblower has evidence that once DOGE infiltrated the NLRB, a 10GB data dump was exfiltrated and, within minutes, a Russian account logged in with DOGE credentials.
The whistleblower was threatened in a note taped to the door of his home featuring drone footage of him. US Cert was informed and has been told to stand down by senior US officials.
The original NPR story that broke the news: www.npr.org/2025/04/1…
The interview with Rachel Maddow:
Security researcher Matt Johansen is following the story: bsky.app/profile/m…
Security breaches don’t get much worse than this. And the cover-up is already under way.
If I Could Turn Back Time
On the 20th Annniversary of the TWiT podcast, I thought it would be interesting to listen to an old show (#187) from March 2009. Turned out to be pretty good company as I did my taxes.
The panel included Kevin Rose, Jason Calacanis, Gina Trapani, Dan Patterson, and David Prager with cameos from Samm Levine, LeVar Burton, and Kevin Pollak.
Highlights:
- Foursquare debuts at South by Southwest
- negative uproar over the brand new Facebook News Feed
- who should replace Steve Jobs
- rumors of an Apple tablet
- early Twitter
and the birth of surveillance capitalism. What a time. In technology sixteen years is a lifetime.
Power to the people.
The Covid lockdown began in California five years ago today. Many of us turned to sourdough baking for consolation.
Not surprisingly I’m back at it.
We may have lost our democracy but at least I’ve gained the perfect sourdough bagel.
Reading Ray Kurzweil’s new book, “The Singularity is Nearer: When we merge with AI,” (I know but it’s great) preparing for our interview today on Intelligent Machines. Watch live at 2p Pacific/5p Eastern/2100 UTC at twit.tv/live or download after the fact. twit.tv/im - so brilliant.
Can someone please tell this orange nitwit that “transgenic” is not “transgender.” No we are not making transgender mice. Scientists are using genetically modified (i.e. transgenic) mice to find cures for human diseases. WTF.