Links, October 18, 2025

§Why NetNewsWire Is Not a Web App

My computer is not a terminal. It’s a world I get to control, and I can use — and, especially, make — whatever I want. I’m not stuck using just what’s provided to me on some other machines elsewhere: I’m not dialing into a mainframe or doing the modern equivalent of using only websites that other people control.

Continuing last week’s bit about local software, Brent Simmons discusses several reasons why I don’t like persisting state remotely when it could feasibly be done locally. “It’s hard to do in a web browser” is not a feasibility reason.

§The Great Software Quality Collapse: How We Normalized Catastrophe

We’ve normalized software catastrophes to the point where a Calculator leaking 32GB of RAM barely makes the news. This isn’t about AI. The quality crisis started years before ChatGPT existed. AI just weaponized existing incompetence.

On the flip side, when you’re running software on a server, you pay attention to these things because they affect your operational costs.

§Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

It’s so bad, I actually wiped my phone and reinstalled iOS 17. I lost my 2000+ win tally for Fortune’s Foundation by Zachtronics in the process, but it was worth it – iOS 26 is that bad. This is a great rundown on why it’s bad:

The interface is restless, needy, less predictable, less legible, and constantly pulling focus rather than supporting seamless access to content. Instead of smoothing the path for everyday tasks, iOS 26 makes users relearn basics while enduring a constant parade of visual stunts.

§It’s Not Just You: Music Streaming Is Broken Now

I don’t recommend videos often, but if you care about music, this piece from Cameron (aka Venus Theory) is a must-watch, even if at x1.25 speed. Similar to the “software supply chain” problems being worked out from ecosystem designs that were rushed, all of the issues Cameron mentions are the result of choosing “ship it, we’ll sort it out later” in the design of streaming platforms and then never sorting it out. Except, instead of application developers getting screwed over it’s musicians.

§Cynicism is a cop out

I think there’s reason enough to be cynical about, well, everything, given the current political climate.

I’ve noticed an increasing trend among my network of falling towards cynicism: a loss of hope, a refusal to do anything because what’s the point? This piece was written in 2019 and I believe its message is just as important today.

Mind you, there’s a difference between cynicism and healthy skepticism. The latter likely means that you’re willing to at least consider a scenario, not blow it off and refuse to engage.

§choosing friction

Good art is inefficient. Good community is inefficient, too

A great meditation about the nature of tools, technology, intentional choices, their consequences, and the nature of community:

no matter how much you try to remove yourself from the inconvenient needs of others, you are still a person. I am still a person. The friction inside our own brains is the one thing you cannot escape from, and in a thousand ways big and small we need other people, and you might as well start practicing how to be needed by them, too.

§It’s time for game developers to bring back the cheat code

there’s a recognition that some players might want to explore a game’s world—to experience the characters, art, and dialogue that the developers worked so hard to craft—without struggling through mechanical reflex tests or grindy, repetitive challenges. Even players who enjoy the “intended” difficulty most of the time might want to treat the game like a giant sandbox on subsequent playthroughs, or quickly skip to their favorite part when revisiting years later.

I have some thoughts brewing on this, but my take on the indie game scene lately is that the scene is like people who challenge each other to make/eat the hottest hot sauce, but for game difficulty. Meanwhile, my digestive system doesn’t like capsaicin, and my frustration threshold for games has become very low. I’ve lost count of the number of games I gave up on because of either poor design for the intended difficulty or that intended difficulty itself felt too masochistic for me. There’s more than a few highly regarded games I’ve skipped on because the developer doesn’t offer lower difficulty settings; on the other hand, I quite enjoyed Celeste thanks to some menu tweaks to make it just a bit easier.