Apple’s pricing this week is interesting to me. Doesn’t matter the size or purpose of a device, everything is the same price: iPhone 17e: $599 iPad Air: $599 MacBook Neo: $599

I had to back the new Brandon Sanderson crowdfunding campaign. Opted for just the new novel. https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/dragonsteel/hoids-storybook-collection

Brent Simmons blogged last week about why Objective-C. I still prefer Objective-C and plan to continue to use it. One change I’m thinking about making, though… Going all code for UI instead of XIBs or Storyboards, to make it easier to diff when working with AI.

inessential: Why Objective-C

Cosmic. Everything would be perfect about this morning except I just opened my AirPods case and… it was empty! Accidentally left them at home. ☕️

MacBook Neo! I love that Apple might be trying a totally new name.

MacRumors

Apple Accidentally Leaks 'MacBook Neo'

Apple appears to have prematurely revealed the name of its rumored lower-cost MacBook model, which is expected to be announced this Wednesday. A re...

Back in Austin, voted this morning. I had meant to early vote last week but too much was going on. James Talarico vs. Jasmine Crockett might end up being close! Very curious how it shakes out and if the party can come together united. 🇺🇸

Ben Thompson’s article about Anthropic and the Pentagon is worth a read, although not everyone is going to be satisfied with it. Anthropic is an interesting company because it feels like they don’t fully believe in their own product. Like Dario Amodei kind of wishes he was working on something else.

Anthropic and Alignment – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

Good morning, Atlanta.

Steve Troughton-Smith blogged about the projects he worked on over the last month with Codex 5.3: "It didn’t just blow away my expectations, it showed me the world has changed: we’ve just undergone a permanent, irreversible abstraction level shift."

High Caffeine Content

A Month With OpenAI

Blazers in Atlanta. 🏀

I cancelled my NYT subscription two years ago in part because it felt like they threw Joe Biden under the bus, but they really do have good reporting most of the time. Some background details on the Anthropic / OpenAI and Pentagon negotiations: "Mr. Michael, who was on a call with Anthropic executives, demanded that the company’s chief executive, Dario Amodei, get on the phone to hash out the language, the people said. But Mr. Michael was told that Dr. Amodei was in a meeting with his executive team and needed more time." https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/01/technology/anthropic-defense-dept-openai-talks.html

Sad to hear about this shooting in Austin. It’s also weird to be out of town when something like this happens: "Three people died, and at least 14 others were injured in a shooting on West Sixth Street overnight Saturday into Sunday, according to Austin-Travis County EMS." East 6th is more crowded and generally a little crazier, although I wouldn’t consider it unsafe, so perhaps this could’ve been worse. Too many guns. https://www.kxan.com/news/crime/people-dead-following-mass-shooting-in-downtown-austin/

Centennial Olympic Park.

Strange juxtaposition with the war in Iran happening at the same time as the controversy around Anthropic, OpenAI, and the Pentagon. OpenAI has a post with the details of their agreement, which also includes red lines on mass surveillance and autonomous weapons: "We think our agreement has more guardrails than any previous agreement for classified AI deployments, including Anthropic’s." I’m confused about how Anthropic’s proposed contract differs from the contract that OpenAI has shared. If the Pentagon offered the same agreement to Anthropic, would they accept it? Lots of questions. https://openai.com/index/our-agreement-with-the-department-of-war/

World of Coca‑Cola. 🥤

Traveling this weekend, going to send details about the RSS beta in the morning. If you signed up on this form, note that I didn’t consider asking for a Micro.blog username… Make sure you use the email address registered on Micro.blog or you won’t be able to access it. https://cdn.forms-content.sg-form.com/ae894071-1333-11f1-a1a9-7abe16f7dc71

Last day of early voting in Texas. Looking at my sample ballot and got super confused for a minute reading the propositions… A few of them are strange, then realized I was accidentally looking at the Republican side. 🤪

I’ve been critical of Instagram forever, and stopped posting on principle 9 years ago, but still it’s good to see Meta’s new work on alerting parents to a teen’s search about self-harm. The way Meta is handling this seems reasonable. Might’ve saved lives if it was in place years ago.

Meta Newsroom

New Alerts to Let Parents Know if Their Teen May Need Support

We'll begin notifying parents if their teen repeatedly tries to search for terms related to self-harm, so they have the information they need ...

Open letter from employees of Google and OpenAI in support of Anthropic: "They’re trying to divide each company with fear that the other will give in. That strategy only works if none of us know where the others stand. This letter serves to create shared understanding and solidarity in the face of this pressure from the Department of War." The leadership of all the AI companies is fascinating to me. Dario Amodei perhaps the most so. I thought his essay Machines of Loving Grace was excellent, but I’ve watched many interviews with him and I sometimes come away kind of depressed about the future.

We Will Not Be Divided

Employees of Google and OpenAI stand together to refuse the Department of War

Dario Amodei — Machines of Loving Grace

How AI Could Transform the World for the Better

Love that feeling when a new feature sort of actually works. All downhill from here to the release.