Joshua Rothman writing at The New Yorker about writers creating spaces to focus and inspire: "Having access to these spaces and resources has been a privilege. There’s no question that they’ve helped me write. And yet, if I look back over my career as a writer, the value I’ve derived from carefully controlling my environment has paled in comparison to my main source of motivation: scary e-mails from editors." I would get nothing done without deadlines.

The New Yorker

The Myth of the Perfect Writer’s Room

For aspiring writers, the rooms of literary figures—Virginia Woolf, Maya Angelou, Joan Didion—are talismanic sites. But the quest to find the i...

I use dark mode on my phone, but light mode on my Mac. So when I’m developing an app that will mostly be used from a computer, dark mode is unfortunately an afterthought. I came up with a theme system for the new RSS thing, but now considering throwing it out and just having good defaults.

FediForum position paper

Manton Reece - FediForum position paper

The new RSS reader is mostly done. A few bug fixes and polish to finish. I think for a 1.0 it’s very good. It does a few new things that I’ve never seen in a feed reader before.

Watched: Song Sung Blue. Good movie for a lazy Sunday night. Enjoyed it. 🍿

The Movie Database

Song Sung Blue

Based on a true story, two down-on-their-luck musicians form a joyous Neil Diamond tribute band, proving it's never too late to find love and follo...

OpenClaw and OpenAI

Manton Reece - OpenClaw and OpenAI

Good first game at the all-star game(s). Wemby upset! He wanted that one. I had to root for World too. 🏀

Simon Willison blogs about Adam Leventhal coining “deep blue” to refer to programmers who are feeling a loss of purpose with new AI coding agents.

Simon Willison’s Weblog

Deep Blue

We coined a new term on the Oxide and Friends podcast last month (primary credit to Adam Leventhal) covering the sense of psychological ennui leadi...

Shoutout to Tower version 2.6.7 which is still solid even though it hasn’t been updated in years. I decided not to update to the newer subscription-based versions, even when they sponsored @coreint, because “if it ain’t broke”… So rare to have an app that just works nearly forever.

Micro.blog - @coreint

Watched the 3-point contest and dunk contest. Carter Bryant had the best dunk of the night, just couldn’t quite finish the last dunk. Can’t wait for the season to resume! 🏀

Hope folks are having a nice Valentine’s Day. A big thank-you to everyone who hosts their blog on Micro.blog or participates in the community. ❤️

Dave Winer blogs about not hiding RSS feeds from users: "I always objected to browsers trying to hide the feeds. I come from NYC and rode the subway to school every day in high school. The things you see! It’s all out there for the looking and breathing." When you click on an RSS feed, your browser should preview it and offer a list of apps and services to subscribe to the feed in. I don’t think we’ve made much progress on this in 20 years.

Scripting News

Scripting News: Saturday, February 14, 2026

Dave Winer, OG blogger, podcaster, developed first apps in many categories. Old enough to know better. It

Austin skyline with the Capitol.

Usually my Git branches are for a specific feature or bug fix, but sometimes it’s a mood. Just created branch fix/rainy-saturday-changes to work on a few things. 🌧️

Now that I’ve been living with the new RSS reader for a while, I’m itching to post a screenshot or video preview. Still thinking through the best way to roll it out. I had considered making it independent of Micro.blog, but it relies on too much of the plumbing we already have set up.

Stunning quote in this report from The New York Times about Meta’s plans to add facial recognition to their Ray-Bans: "We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns." https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/technology/meta-facial-recognition-smart-glasses.html

Spark is indeed fast. I don’t think I’ll use it often. I’m not usually in a hurry. I’d rather AI be more thorough. I talked to a couple friends last night at Clawstin about the frenetic pace of AI-assisted development. We should probably slow down. It’s harder to be thoughtful at this pace. https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-5-3-codex-spark/

This stuffed animal is my favorite thing to come out of the Mastodon project. Adorable. I want to order one but we already have too much stuff.

Mastodon

Mastodon plushie 35cm - Plushtodon

Deliberately friend-sized and friend-shaped, with a soft surface material and soft, squishy stuffing, the toy is perfect as a travel companion you ...

Trailing narrative

Manton Reece - Trailing narrative

Om Malik: "Some of us are hopeful. Some of us are terrified. Most of us are both, often in the same hour. And into that vacuum of uncertainty there is a torrent of speculation dressed up as prophecy."

Living in the Petri Dish of the Future – On my Om