30 years of date
Published on November 12, 2026
Greetings from an Amsterdam hotel room. I am writing this intro while stuffed with yummy Suriname food, cuisine you only really find in the Netherlands (in Europe I mean!). This newsletter is also stuffed (see what I did there?), with fallout in two large open source projects, wonderous new musical instrument simulators, poor lonely single tech bros, and more.
PS. RIP Patrick Stewart, who also appears in this newsletter. But not how you might think. I highly recommend his autobiography, “Making it so”.
xx Chinch
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Why No One Wants to Date Tech Bros
https://www.wired.com/story/tech-bros-dating-palantir-tesla/I remember a time when attending tech meetups to find fairly intelligent and wealthy single men to date was a good idea. Now, the tech backlash finds its way everywhere. Good job I am married…
Apple Changes How You Grant AI Agents Full Disk Access In macOS 27.3
https://www.macobserver.com/news/apple-changes-how-you-grant-ai-agents-full-disk-access-in-macos-27-3/The general consensus was that the current model for data security used and abused on macOS by agents wasn't sustainable. I am not sure this change will make many improvements, but maybe it is a step in the right direction.
Goldman Sachs is pulling Claude Code from its bankers and traders
https://www.thestateofai.com/news/goldman-sachs-claude-code-traders-bankersAI, it turns out, isn't for everyone.
When a language's creator and its owners strongly disagree (P4454R0)
https://isocpp.org/files/papers/P4454R0.pdfThe creator of C++ and most of the members of its steering committee have had a difference of opinion. Does that matter?
Chimera Vocal Synth
https://chimera-vocal-synth.vercel.app/A vocal simulator that works by actually simulating how the internals of a human mouth work.
Heimstaden is changing residential real estate management with AI
https://openai.com/index/heimstadenHeimstaden is our landlord. I know what I'd rather they spent our rent money on, but apparently automating management is more important than actually doing any.
OpenAI to acquire Pierre Computer Company Inc.
https://openai.com/index/openai-to-acquire-pierreThe Pierre Computer Company is one of a handful of groups creating alternative agent-first GitHub alternatives. I heard of them a couple of weeks ago, and now OpenAI has acquired them. I don't think the two are related…
The SEC Should Block Anthropic's IPO to Protect the Public
https://www.techpolicy.press/the-sec-should-block-anthropics-ipo-to-protect-the-public/While I personally find it odd that Anthropic keeps repeating that "someone should regulate them" when they could just stop doing what they are doing, maybe financial authorities could end up being the bodies that actually do? I doubt it, but still.
Polyend releases the Tracker firmware source code
https://polyend.com/whats-up/tracker-the-biggest-update-yet/I saw some of Polyend’s hardware at Superbooth in Berlin, and the programmable guitar pedal, especially, caught my eye. Now they have open-sourced the firmware for the Tracker, a portable synthesizer and recorder. I love it when open hardware and software come together.
Sneaking into the auditorium for the Windows 2000 launch rehearsal
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20261102-00/?p=112818/Ahhh, Windows 2000 was such a moment in history. I think. It sticks in my vague and loose memory of Windows, anyway, at least. But still, Patrick Stewart was part of the launch, so this article combines two of my favourite things. Computing history and British actors, so there you go.
Ex-GitHub CEO launches a GitHub rival that reinvents the pull request - The New Stack
https://thenewstack.io/entire-trails-agentic-code-review/The GitHub alternatives keep coming… This time, from one of GitHub's original founders. Is it me or does GitHUb seem to have a lot of ex founders?
Were looking at a 30-year run: UK pair aim to complete worlds most complex board game | Board games | The Guardian
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Nixpkgs core team disbands, citing governance dysfunction
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The Tragedy of Having a Wikipedia Pageand Then Losing It
https://www.wired.com/story/the-tragedy-of-losing-your-wikipedia-page/Yeah… Been there…
AlpineBSD
https://wiki.alpinebsd.orgA NetBSD fork inspired by Alpine Linux, which is commonly used in container images. I am not completely sure what its intent is, but with a mission statement of "Any software whose code, documentation, binaries, or other assets include, in any part, the output of a generative AI tool such as an LLM, is considered “tainted” for our purposes" certainly makes its intentions clear.
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