The Daily Parker

Two of my favorite writers took on the same topic from different directions this morning. The first to hit was Matthew Inman, who released a (very) long cartoon digging into the artist's relationship with the collection of technologies we call "AI." It starts with his observation that "even if you don't work in the arts, you have to admit you fee it too — that disappointment when you find out something is AI-generated." (Since it's a web comic, you'll just have to read it to get his full essay.)

Author John Scalzi also had some thoughts about AI, especially the volume of AI slop that consumes more and more of our attention online:

I think there’s a long conversation to be had about at what point the use of software means that something is less about the human creation and more about the machine generation, where someone scratching words onto paper with a fountain pen is on one end of that line, and someone dropping a short prompt into an LLM is on the other, and I strongly suspect that point is a technological moving target, and is probably not on a single axis. That said, for Whatever, I’m pretty satisfied that what we do here is significantly human-forward. The Internet may yet be inundated with “AI” slop, but Whatever is and will remain a small island of human activity.

The same is true for The Daily Parker.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I've started working with LLMs as well. I have now used GitHub Copilot models Chat GPT 4.1, Chat GPT 5, and Claude Sonnet 4 to fix several bugs that have frustrated me for months. And to both Inman's and Scalzi's points, the LLMs help because I'm already a seasoned professional, and this just puts a couple more tools in my belt.

But as Inman points out, the AI slop we see today looks great to people who don't have skills. In my case, the bug fixes and performance optimizations that the LLMs suggested didn't work right out of the chat window, and I had to ask the models several follow-up questions before I got to working code. Even then, I had to carefully fit the models' outputs into my existing style and architecture, which on more than one occasion required taking a model's idea and doing something completely different with it.

So yes, keep using AI-driven productivity tools. Just don't call it art, and don't call it coding.

I haven't regularly used an Apple product in over 30 years when my college newspaper used Mac Classics for compositing. Even by then, I didn't like Apple's closed architecture, having built at least one Windows box from scratch. If you agree with Freddie DeBoer, turns out my instincts were right:

There exists, in the digital ether and in the physical world, a peculiar kind of human organization that has no name, no leader, and no stated charter, yet which operates with the ideological precision of the most passionate and conformist political groups. I am speaking, of course, about the unthinking, unwavering supporters of Apple. These are the people who (by their own account!) are not simply consumers, but rather members of what has long been accurately labeled the Apple Cult. They are the iSheep, to use an earlier pejorative, the fanboys. Their devotion is a fascinating and disturbing case study in the dynamics of modern brand loyalty, a phenomenon where rational thought and technical specification are subordinate to an emotional, almost spiritual, attachment to a corporate logo.

What follows is not, obviously, a neutral analysis of product history, but a pedantic walk down memory lane for the faithful, coming from a lifelong Apple hater, a polemical catalog of intellectual contortions and breathtaking ideological pivots, demonstrating that the most impressive product Apple has ever created is not a piece of hardware but a collective psychology. This psychology allows its adherents to embrace the very things they once mocked and dismissed as inelegant, superfluous, or a matter of feature creep. To truly appreciate the breathtaking scope of these mental gymnastics, we must observe the various contradictions.

Remember the one-button mouse? Small iPhones? Motorola chips? Yeah, neither do Apple's customers.

Cassie got another two hours of walkies yesterday, and we're planning another few hours tomorrow. Today, though, I really need to finish the project I started in June, and I'm digesting half a rack of ribs. So Cassie will only get an hour or so today.

If you have half an hour, listen to this talk Cory Doctorow gave in April, which explains why you hate all of the tech you use regularly (except the Daily Parker):

This weekend, I expect to finish a major personal (non-technical) project I started on June 15th, walk 20 km (without Cassie), and thanks to the desperation of the minor-league team on the South Side of Chicago, attend a Yankees game. It helps that the forecast looks exactly like one would want for the last weekend of summer: highs in the mid-20s and partly cloudy skies.

I might have time to read all of these things as well:

• Jeff Maurer, who watched (some of) this week's televised cabinet meeting so we didn't have to, really hates this season of The Apprentice.
• Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich (D) thinks the OAFPOTUS's "fascist capitalism" will ultimately bring down his regime.
• Jennifer Rubin asks, why is the OAFPOTUS administration trying to kill everyone?
• Paul Krugman likens our current economic situation to Wile E. Coyote not noticing he's run off the cliff.
• The Chicago Sun-Times has a map of all the lead pipes in the city. (I'm happy to learn that all of the water lines leading to my house are lead-free.)
• Rachel Janfaza wants to change the conversation around how the kids today use AI. Kyla Scanlon also dug into attitudes towards AI in the workplace.

Meanwhile, my birthday ribs order got delayed. One of the assistant butchers backed into a meat grinder, so they got behind in their work. He was the biggest ass in the shop until he recently got unseated, so I don't feel too bad for making him the butt of my jokes.

G'nite.

I have a chunk of work to do this afternoon, but I'm hoping I can sneak in some time to read all of these:

• Dan Rather cheers on the Democratic Party for finally finding the fight.
• Francis Fukuyama says: move over Berlusconi; the Clown Prince of X has done considerably more to harm Western civilization than you ever did.
• David Daley puts responsibility for the exploding fight over Congressional maps squarely on US Chief Justice John Roberts.
• Jennifer Rubin wants us to stop using the word "guarantee" when we don't mean it—which would include every single time the OAFPOTUS utters it, obviously.
• Matthew Yglesias points out that mothers leaving the workforce has very little to do with "tradwives" and everything to do with "the economy."
• Rick Harnish and Theo Anderson argue that Illinois needs to expand and improve Metra if it wants to lead the quantum computing revolution: "Converting Metra to electrified regional rail is the key."
• Yascha Mounk asks "how we got the Internet all wrong."
• Meghan Daum looks on with some amusement at the new feud between New Yorker culture critic Doreen St Félix and conservative activist Christopher Rufo.
• Ellen Steinke, writing for Streetsblog Chicago, argues while that getting former Chicago Transportation Authority president Dorval Carter, Jr., out of the agency ended his reign of incompetence, the impending $771 million shortfall in State funds will keep his successor from fixing the damage.
• Paul Krugman argues that consumers are paying more because data centers are demanding so much more electricity than even a couple of years ago, to the point of creating the giant pin that will burst the AI investment bubble without regulation.

Finally, after complaints up and down the lakefront that the US Air Force Thunderbirds caused a sonic boom during Chicago Air and Water Show practice on Friday, University of Illinois aeronautics professor Matthew Clarke says that while none of the F-16s appear to have exceeded Mach 1, he is confident that part of one of the planes did. “Even though the global flow may not be faster than the speed of sound, there are places locally faster than the speed of sound, creating shock waves,” he said. “While I can’t say that the whole plane went supersonic, I can say — from the video — shock waves [were created] from parts of the aircraft.” The mini-sonic boom broke the lobby windows of four Lakeview high-rises but caused no significant injuries.

Also: I am beyond overjoyed that the National Weather Service predicts dewpoints below 18°C by Wednesday and below 15°C by Saturday. We have had the most uncomfortable summer that I can remember, with dewpoints at Inner Drive Technology WHQ lingering above 20°C since 10:30 Friday morning after a very brief respite on Thursday. If I have time this week, I'm going to analyze the data to see exactly how humid it's been here lately. But this prediction is delightful:

Short lifespans have plagued tech more in the last 25 years than at any point in the past. I particularly hate when a bit of tech goes obsolete for no reason other than the manufacturer decided it doesn't want to support it anymore. I want to take the CEO by the lapels and remind them that they sold these products and they had better support them for a while.

Belkin has become the latest company to exit a product line that I have used practically since it came out. They announced today that they will cease all support for their Wemo brand of smart switches, a product line they launched less than 15 years ago. Their email to me this morning sounds about as corporate and bullshitty as you'd expect:

After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to end technical support for older Wemo products, effective January 31, 2026.

This decision was not made lightly. Over the last decade, since Belkin first launched Wemo in 2011, we’ve been committed to providing consumers with innovative, simple-to-use accessories for a seamless smart home experience. However, as technology evolves, we must focus our resources on different parts of the Belkin business.

We acknowledge and deeply appreciate the support and enthusiasm for Wemo over the last several years. We are proud of what we’ve accomplished in the smart home space and are grateful to our customers for welcoming Wemo into their homes. 

We understand this change may disrupt your routines, and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

I have nine of the little bastards. "Disrupt your routines" means I have to replace the nine Wemo plugs with some other brand that works with Google Home. Fortunately I already have two Gosund switches (which I should point out have never disappeared from my Google Home app), and a 4-pack of 5G plugs from the same company will only set me back $42.

I thought this might happen when Google Home could no longer reach any Wemo switches through its app or voice commands last month. The outage lasted two weeks or so, during which time I had to hope that the automation I set up could turn them on and off, else I would have to reach under furniture in the dark until I could replace them.

Of course, the economics have to be a problem. There are probably a few million Wemo devices around the world, all of which have independent connections to the Internet and thus to Wemo's back end. That probably cost them tens of thousands of dollars per month to operate. How much does that cost per device, given that people likely keep their $29 smart plugs for years?

Gosund doesn't have that overhead as their products connect directly to Google Home. And Google has a pretty good likelihood of supporting its software for more than 15 years.

Still, I'm quite annoyed. At least the new switches will probably stay connected to my automation more reliably.

The OAFPOTUS threatened to kill an adversary's head of state today, showing the world not only how reckless and stupid he is, but also that he has never actually seen the movie he clearly wants to emulate:

Lebanon, desperately wanting to stay out of this one, has warned the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah not to attack Israel. No word yet from our allies, who I'm sure did not want our village idiot to go rogue on this one. But, hey, he's the Inciter in Chief back home, so why would we expect any measured diplomacy from him abroad?

As if that were the only thing going on today:

• The Atlantic's Andrew Ryvkin argues that the OAFPOTUS has become a problem for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
• Philip Bump tells Democrats to quit catastrophizing: protests against the OAFPOTUS do not help him.
• Staff at Le Musée de Louvre went on strike yesterday to protest "untenable" working conditions because of crowding and chronic understaffing.
• As I've warned for years, the United States has fallen behind our peer countries because of our crumbling and obsolete infrastructure.
• Bruce Schneier lays out four ways that AI is actually useful, even though many uses remain problematic.

OK, I'm done for now. Say what you will about President Biden, but we didn't have this kind of chaos every day while he was in office.

Yesterday, the temperature at Inner Drive Technology World HQ scraped along at -11°C early in the morning before "warming" up to -7.5°C around 3pm. Cassie and I got a 22-minute walk around then and she seemed fine. Today the pattern completely inverted. I woke up during the warmest part of the day: 7am, -8°C. Around 8am the temperature started dropping and now hovers around -11°C again—slightly colder than the point where I limit Cassie to 15 minutes outside. She just doesn't feel cold, apparently, and would happily stay outside until she passed out from hypothermia.

So, bottom line, I'm in no hurry to take her for her lunchtime walk.

Besides, I've got a lot of interesting stories to read:

• Former Canadian Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff explains why he's a liberal, and why you should be, too.
• Jesse Wegman and Lee Drutman have some ideas about how to fix the United States' "two-party problem:" proportional representation.
• Block Club Chicago lists 10 of its investigations into the Chicago Transit Authority's mismanagement under its outgoing boss, Dorval Carter.
• Chuck Marohn explains why building tons of new housing in old, dense cities like San Francisco and NYC doesn't work as well as people hope.
• Two Illinois state representatives introduced a bill in the state House to decriminalize sex work, which would dramatically increase their safety and security.
• British computer scientist Peter Kirstein died five years ago, and left behind a delightful essay on the beginnings of the Internet—and the Internet's first-ever password.
• James Poniewozik has a fun history of TV show opening titles that will waste a few minutes of your afternoon (in a good way).

Finally, yet another coyote found his way into a store, this time an Aldi in Humboldt Park. Almost 17 years ago one of his ancestors tried to hide in a Quiznos sandwich shop in the Loop. The result was the same for both: removal and relocation. Block Club says yesterday's incident involved "rescuing" the coyote from the Aldi, but that seems pretty harsh. Like, was the coyote trying to go to Whole Foods instead? They're usually not that bougie.

Somehow it's the 3rd day of 2025, and I still don't have my flying car. Or my reliable high-speed  regional trains. Only a few of these stories help:

• James Carville admits he got the 2024 election wrong.
• Matt Ford thinks "John Roberts is imagining things."
• A new book by Anita Say Chan equates the tech-bro culture with 20th-century eugenics.
• Molly White examines Elon Musk's war on Wikipedia.
• The US Surgeon General has called for adding cancer warnings to alcohol labels.
• Brazil's experiment in abolishing daylight saving time has gone as most of us who understand time zones would have predicted.
• Shayla Love looks into our invisible habits.

I'm also spending some time looking over the Gazetteer that underpins Weather Now. In trying to solve one problem, I discovered another problem, which suggests I may need to re-import the whole thing. At the moment it has fewer than 100,000 rows, and the import code upserts (attempts to update before inserting) by default. More details as the situation warrants.

We have warm (10°C) windy (24 knot gusts) weather in Chicago right now, and even have some sun peeking out from the clouds, making it feel a lot more like late March than mid-December. Winds are blowing elsewhere in the world, too:

• The German government collapsed today after Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in the Bundestag.
• People think the OAFPOTUS transition team are doing a great job for the simple reason that most people don't follow this kind of thing.
• Josh Marshall points out that it makes logical sense that huge corporations would sell out their news divisions in what he calls "the great fluffening" ahead of the OAFPOTUS re-taking office, though it does mean that corruption has already gotten to 1870s levels again.
• Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland (Lib.—University-Rosedale) has resigned in spectacular fashion just hours before the government's fall economic statement, causing embarrassment to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
• LetsEncrypt has rolled out a new service that can update your TLS certificates every 6 days. This means, if your site has a breach, the attackers can do far less damage than they might if they had 90 days to do it.
• Amtrak's $400 million renovation of Chicago's Union Station will begin early next year, with new platforms, new waiting rooms, and many smaller improvements.
• Small towns with deep-sea ports have lost their patience with the ever-larger cruise ships that stop by from time to time.

Finally, the Washington Post says I read 628 stories this year on 22 different topics. That's less than 2 a day. I really need to step up my game.