Ben Werdmüller / is on Nostr

I built one of the first open source social networking platforms. Now I lead technology at ProPublica. This is a purely personal account.

Last Notes

2024-09-09 14:30:02

The most magical part of the AirPods design is how when you drop the case they scatter to the wind and you spend the next ten minutes on a scavenger hunt.

2024-09-06 13:30:02

My son is not a penguin that I stole from the zoo two years ago. But hypothetically, if he was, could I use the Google Pixel 9 Reimagine AI to make him seem like a real human boy?

2024-07-23 15:30:03

If you're posting nine screenshots of text to your profile, you might need a blog.

2024-07-22 20:30:02

I’d love to see a lot more people talking about JD Vance’s support for Curtis Yarvin, who believes in the reinstatement of slavery, in replacing the democratically elected government with a CEO king, and that Hitler was acting in self defense.

2024-07-21 18:30:02

For all kinds of reasons, I think it should very clearly be Harris.

2024-07-20 13:30:02

I think America is way too worried about these sorts of food safety rules tbh. The butter will be fine.
RE: https://www.threads.net/@ashleyhappened/post/C9n0duVyII5

2024-07-18 16:30:03

There’s quite a bit you can do with money and time. The trick is getting money and time

2024-07-18 16:30:03

There’s quite a bit you can do with money and time. The trick is getting money and time

2024-07-13 22:30:03

I have nothing nice to say about Trump, but whatever the candidate, firearms and political violence are never the answer.

2024-07-12 23:30:03

As others have said: this is fascism.
On another note, I've been in the same room as JD Vance, as part of a closed-door tech event in San Francisco where lots of tech execs were singing his praises. (I was not.) I'd say I wonder how they feel now, but I'm not convinced it will have changed much for most of them.
RE: https://www.threads.net/@mrmartye/post/C9VNEcGuyCL

2024-07-07 09:30:03

A characteristically lovely 26 minutes on pixel fonts from one of my favorite people. Even if you don't think you care about pixel fonts, I promise you that Marcin's infectious energy will carry you along. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDI8ubVZi7w

2024-06-28 08:30:02

Democrats: your goal must be to prevent a fascist theocracy, not defend the institutional status quo.

2024-06-28 01:30:02

There are a bunch of old-school Democrat advisors who need to be fired. Let them go off into the sunset. Hire the people who understand what media looks like today, stop using phone polls, and understand the cultural landscape you're actually in. You can't run an election like it's 2008. It's simply not.

2024-06-10 16:30:02

"There’s an ocean of problems with journalism, but the idea that there’s just too damn much woke progressivism is utter delusion. U.S. journalism generally tilts center right on the political spectrum." Media https://werd.io/2024/former-politico-owner-launches-new-journalism-finishing-school-to-try

2024-06-06 01:30:03

No, I don’t want my email client to draft emails for me.
Particularly not “in my own voice”, meaning you’ve taken all my private messages and trained a model on them.
Stop it.

2024-05-22 19:30:02

Neat shortcut for AI-free Google searches: https://udm14.com/

2024-05-09 13:30:03

On the eve of the broadcast of the new season of DoctorWho, here's what I would say to Russell T Davies if I could. https://werd.io/2024/a-letter-to-russell-t-davies

2024-03-23 13:30:03

I started building my first open source social networking platform in 2003 and released it in 2004. Even back then, federation was exactly what we hoped to get to. We even created a data format, the Open Data Definition, to try and help push it along. The work folks did with ActivityStreams was a step closer, and ActivityPub got us there. It feels like a 20 year hope is being fulfilled.