If you find yourself in a game of StarCraft, and ahead of your opponent, the worst thing to do is to try to wipe them out. This is counterintuitive. You have a better economy and a stronger army. Why not attack? The first reason is in game theory. StarCraft is…

Oct 24 5 min read Simon Willison

battledrones v14: Compass Rose, a four player map

Release: battledrones v14: Compass Rose, a four player map I added four player online mode to Battledrones - previous maps were limited to two. Here's the initial prompt I used: Add a new map for a four player battle - four way rotational symmetry, up to four…

Oct 23 5 min read Spyglass

A Tale of Two iPhones

Well really, two tales of two different dichotomies between devices...

Oct 23 5 min read Simon Willison

Quick Study

Tool: Quick Study Prompt to Claude Opus 5.5 High: Build an artifact where you open a photo and it rapidly (in a few seconds) paints a version of that photo using a canvas element and simulated paintbrush See also my previous experiment getting Claude Fable to…

Oct 23 5 min read Don't Worry About the Vase

The Hackening

Last week at a small conference, there was talk about a future event referred to as The Hackening.

Oct 23 5 min read Anil Dash

How to install an app on your Commodore 64

It’s time to install an app! But here in 1986, we still call them “programs,” not apps. So, you’ll want to set aside some time to get started installing a program. Since you have a Commodore 64, there are really only two options for getting new programs this m…

Oct 23 5 min read Pluralistic

Pluralistic: Critique and writing (23 Oct 2026)

Today's links Critique and writing: The most important part of a writing workshop is trying to fix other people's stories. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: USPS nukes the mail; Enron Explorer; "Scored"; UAE's international hacker leg…

Oct 23 5 min read Simon Willison

Introducing Kimi K3.1 Pro

Introducing Kimi K3.1 Pro Kimi K3.1 Pro landed on the Kimi API today - it's not yet open weights, but Moonshot promise "Full model weights will be released by Nov 4, 2026". They're also offering a "Highspeed" version that's 2-3x faster, at twice the price (exc…

Oct 23 5 min read FlowingData

Primer for geospatial embeddings

For Development Seed, Kiri Carini and Martha Morrissey explain what embeddings are and… Tags: Development Seed, embeddings, geospatial, guide, training

Oct 23 5 min read Dan Q

[Note] Hide and Seek London

Well, it looks like I've committed to playing this on the wettest imaginable weekend. Wish me luck!

Oct 23 5 min read FlowingData

What happens to math going forward

Terence Tao has become the unofficial spokesperson for the future of mathematics. Elisabeth… Tags: math, New York Times, OpenAI, Terence Tao

Oct 23 5 min read Blood in the Machine

The big tech defectors you’re not hearing about

After Tariq Ra’ouf spoke out about Apple’s treatment of Palestinians, he was fired. He joins a growing legion of overlooked workers protesting big tech, and he hasn’t stopped fighting.

Oct 23 5 min read Platformer

Introducing Machine Gods

Why we're betting on AI realism. PLUS: The hell of PHP2Shell

Oct 23 5 min read Dan Q

[Article] Incognito (Weird Web October)

In another Weird Web October contribution, I'd like to introduce you to Incognito Mode for Wikipedia. Yes, it's stupid.

Oct 23 5 min read Sean Goedecke

Software is slow because of bad design, not slow languages

Oct 22 5 min read Spyglass

The Race for Bond, James Bond

Jack Lowden, Callum Turner... Josh O'Connor? And maybe Richard Madden? Oh my...

Oct 22 5 min read Simon Willison

DE STAAT - FREEDOM (Official Music Video)

DE STAAT - FREEDOM (Official Music Video) OK well this is a first for me... at 00:44 in this new music video by Dutch alternative rock band De Staat: The visual effects are credited to Matties Grooten of Fake it or Leave it. Via flir on Hacker News Tags: music…

Oct 22 5 min read FlowingData

When AI comes for purpose

Mathematician and Cornell professor Steven Strogatz was a guest on NYT’s Daily podcast… Tags: math, New York Times, purpose, Steven Strogatz

Oct 22 5 min read Simon Willison

Donating Agent Skills to the Agentic AI Foundation

Donating Agent Skills to the Agentic AI Foundation News today from Anthropic: We’re committed to keeping Agent Skills open, community-driven, and vendor-neutral. Today, we are donating the standard to the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) under the Linux Foundation…

Oct 22 5 min read Dmitry Kudryavtsev

After 14 years, I finally built my dream personal finance app

It took me more than a decade, but I finally built my DREAM personal finance app. Let me tell you everything about it.

Oct 22 5 min read FlowingData

✚ Avoiding charts by default

This week, we switch the chart defaults to non-defaults. Tags: creativity, default

Oct 22 5 min read Simon Willison

Quoting Armin Ronacher

As fun as AI is, we built so much bad software over the last 30 years, and now the universe is punishing us for our sins. — Armin Ronacher Tags: security, generative-ai, armin-ronacher, ai, ai-security-research, llms

Oct 22 5 min read Don't Worry About the Vase

AI #191: The Hackening Begins

It was the probably worst day in cybersecurity history.

Oct 22 5 min read Ever Not Quite

Humanism and Its Discontents

Essays about technology and the human

Oct 22 5 min read Dan Q

[Repost] There isn't an easy exploit for this PHP vulnerability

Elias's experience of the PHP CVE matches mine: it's real, it's serious... but it's not actually that easy to exploit "in the wild" except in conjunction with OTHER exploits, so it's not by-itself catastrophic. Patch your servers, yeah. But calm the fuck down…