Bruce Schneier and David Oppenheimer’s Opinion piece in the June 2025 edition of the CACM journal is a timely reminder that data integrity is required for AI systems to be trustworthy.
It’s a quick read and well worth your time:
Updated June 30th, 2025
A few days ago, I used GitHub Copilot to help create a custom dark theme for a MkDocs Material site.
Copilot did a good job interpreting CSS selectors, but the resulting theme’s accessibility was poor. Even when I nudged it toward better choices, some text ended up barely readable with low contrast to the background.
I've been writing more on LinkedIn lately and use Ulysses to keep a local record of those posts.
Recently, I decided to bring that content into my blog. At first, the idea of adding MkDocs headers, setting titles, organizing categories, cleaning up formatting, and splitting content into multiple files felt like a chore!
But GitHub Copilot, running in agent mode, turned the process into something fast, iterative, and semi-enjoyable.
Note: Copilot’s agent mode allows it to take actions on your behalf like creating project files, applying custom rules, and responding like an assistant to ask for clarification on steps to take. It does much more than code completion or even suggesting blocks of code.
What pleasantly surprised me was that I wasn’t dealing with code at all, and I plan to explore how this might support other documentation workflows, too.
This weekend I took my old Macbook Pro from 2013 and installed Pop!_OS. It was easy, and so far I've been pleased.
This guide will walk you through setting up Pop!_OS on a Mac 11,1, including configuring Wi-Fi. There are also some notes on installing essential tools.
The ability to describe what you want and get it without knowing the implementation details started with Fourth Generation Languages (4GLs) like SQL. SQL emerged in the 1970s and was commercialized alongside other 4GLs in the 1980s.
Not all urgency is useful. Effective leaders pause, stay curious, and prioritize doing the right thing ... even if it takes longer.
As children, we built forts out of pillows and cardboard boxes ... no approvals, no fear of failure, just imagination and play.
Now, as adults, we optimize for uptime and reliability. Production must be stable.
How can we preserve that creative spirit while ensuring safety?
In 1896, Walter Arnold achieved an unusual first: the world's first speeding ticket. He was caught going 8 miles per hour (mph) in a 2 mph zone in Paddockwood, Kent, UK.
This speed limit seems astonishingly low today. Why was it so slow?
“The platform my system runs on is out-of-date.”
It’s a common complaint — but is the real problem “my system” or “the platform”?
Here’s the hard truth: we often blame our tools when the real issue is how we’re using them.
As Pogo famously said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
With modernization efforts, new systems often get the spotlight and celebrating those wins is important.
But beware the “cake in the break area” trap.
If your legacy support team’s main interaction with your modernization effort is a leftover piece of cake, you’ve fallen into that trap.