Brad Barrish

Fri, 08 May 2026 21:37:21 -0700

Someone made a desktop Wall of Sound and now I’m contemplating spending $150 on it, which I would probably have done without much thought had I not just spent $19 on a beautiful screensaver of a clock.

Fri, 08 May 2026 21:17:56 -0700

I decided to put together a quick playlist on YouTube of some great songs I’ve been enjoying this week. Too much great music and not enough time!

Thu, 07 May 2026 18:32:21 -0700

Ian penned a great post for tetragammaton. His observation that LLCs essentially create a precedent for AIs to be granted personhood was particularly astute.

Companies can own property, sign contracts, sue, be sued, spend money, and shape elections. But companies cannot be killed nor can they go to jail. They have many of the rights of people. They are not people.

Is it any wonder that we have a loneliness epidemic? Addictive apps and lack of agency over our own attention has created a perfect opening for AI companionship. While I try to maintain a generally optimistic view of the future, I am not optimistic about humanity’s ability to resist AI companionship. Those who can afford to, literally and figuratively, will truly live the richest lives.

Thu, 07 May 2026 18:14:46 -0700

I wish I could just stay completely off Instagram and Threads. The main reason I open Threads (on the web only) is to read Kevin Nealon’s posts 🤣

Sun, 03 May 2026 20:59:49 -0700

Holy shit. The people are trying to buy Spirit Airlines. Please let this happen.

Sun, 03 May 2026 20:50:35 -0700

Some Japanese guy put himself in a bunch of movies using AI. I can’t decide if I hate this or love it. Kinda wholesome?

Sun, 03 May 2026 10:42:51 -0700

I had some abstract awareness of clout-as-a-service, but this post was… something else. (h/t clone.fyi)

Posting from Obsidian

Fri, 01 May 2026 22:58:23 -0700

After some trial and error, I finally have a working version of a personal plug-in that I created for myself that allows me to post directly to my blog without logging into Micro.blog. This post is the first post using the plug-in! The only reason I ever log into Micro.blog is to post. Yes, I know there are native apps, but I prefer to keep things simple and post from where I write.

There are a few other similar plug-ins out there, but only one that seems to be regulalrly updated. And nothing that was simple like mine. I just wanted an Obsidian-native publishing tool with explicit syndication control. So, I spent a few hours with Claude Code and Codex and made something for myself! Been doing that a lot lately. In case it’s useful to someone else, you can grab it from GitHub and give it a whirl. Feel free to submit a PR if there’s anything you’d like to see added and I’m happy to consider it. I did submit it to Obsidian for inclusion in the Community Plug-ins directory.

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 08:34:37 -0700

I enjoyed reading Anil Dash’s post about why Nasa’s Artemis II photos are on Flickr. It was a nice trip down memory lane and a reminder of what a pioneering idea and company Flickr was. I’m glad it’s still around and that SmugMug owns it.

If Obsidian is too complex for you, try Bear or iA Writer

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 21:59:17 -0700

I love Obsidian, but I’ll admit that it can be a bit much for non-nerds, especially if they’re looking to switch from Apple Notes. I made the (minor) mistake of migrating a friend from Apple Notes to Obsidian recently and that lasted less than a day. And really, I couldn’t blame them and I felt bad I had steered them wrong.

The whole thing sent me down this rabbit hole of revisiting a couple of apps I had used in the past—Bear and iA Writer, both of which are exceptionally well-designed and simple to use. Opening them up after so many years was refreshing. They differ a bit in that, similar to Obsidian, iA Writer keeps all notes as individual files and Bear has a database. Practically speaking, this matters if you’re going to use them with AI, but Bear’s recent release is pretty great news for using it with Claude. So, all of this to say that if you are in Apple’s ecosystem, you keep digital notes and you want to use your notes with AI, I recommend checking out Bear and iA Writer.

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 20:35:48 -0700

RIP Craig Venter

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 09:14:32 -0700

Great photo from Patrick.

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 20:56:02 -0700

Saw Project Hail Mary today. Thought it was good but it could have been shorter and the ending was dumb.

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 20:38:35 -0700

Someone bought friendster.com and made a clever app. I like it.

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 20:29:08 -0700

Today’s episode of Decoder is worth a read/watch/listen.

How has it been a year already?

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 12:11:23 -0700

My mom died a year ago today. It’s unbelievable that it’s been a year, but if I’m being honest, it felt like she was kind of gone long before she died. She had Parkinson’s for years. What an insidious and cruel disease. It was even worse for her because of how bright she was. Had she not stopped practicing psychologoy because of Parkinson’s, I’m certain she would have probably never retired. She was such a good listener and I loved her dark sense of humor. My sister told her to send us ladybugs as signs and let me tell you, we all see ladybugs all the time! On my first business trip after she died, a ladybug landed on me IN A PLANE! We all see them everywhere, which is so wonderful. I wish she was still here, but not siffering the way she did from Parkinson’s and dementia. I was so lucky to have her as my mom.

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 23:02:23 -0700

Robert, Angie, Shayna and I hiked Bronson Canyon on Saturday. Too many people with speakers, but some great views of the city and the Hollywood sign. I took the first two photos and Shayna snapped the other one.

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 22:06:18 -0700

Ai-generated punk songs from daughter’s texts to her mom. The whole family was crying.

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 19:49:18 -0700

I too believe headless is going to be a thing (it already is for me).

It turns out that the best place for personal AIs to run is on a computer. Maybe a virtual computer in the cloud, but ideally your computer. That way they can see the docs that you can see, and use the tools that you can use, and so what they want is not APIs (which connect webservers) but little apps they can use directly. CLI tools are the perfect little apps.

From Matt Webb’s latest post, Headless everything for personal AI.

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 17:14:35 -0700

I put up a Birdbuddy in our front yard this weekend. The most difficult part was figuring out where to put it, mostly to avoid squirrels, but I feel like that’s a nearly impossible task.

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 17:08:56 -0700

I’ve had this strong sense we’re nearing a point where physical media and local digital media are going to make a much bigger comeback than anyone expected. There’s going to be lots of talk about local everything. We’re seeing the beginnings of it now.

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 22:40:28 -0700

Praise the Internet gods. You can turn YouTube Shorts off!

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 10:30:12 -0700

Massive Attack x Tom Waits

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 08:54:30 -0700

We watched a few ~~Coachella~~ Couchella performances with the kids over the weekend. I ended up watching the Nine Inch Noize performance before bed last night and WOW! The production was absolutely stunning and the performance is, perhaps, one of the best in Coachella history.

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 16:10:19 -0700

Don’t you just love capitalism?

One company owns Brooks Brothers, Eddie Bauer, Reebok, Champion, Dockers, and 50+ other brands you grew up with. They don’t design anything. They don’t manufacture anything. They buy beloved brands out of bankruptcy, fire the people who made the products, and rent the logo to whoever pays. The stores close. The workers lose their jobs. The brand lives on as a zombie.

Found a great new (to me) newsletter that I instantly subscribed to after coming across this reddit thread.