Iain McLaren
@imclaren.bsky.social
Technology, IP, and privacy and data protection lawyer, director, and manager. Golang, iOS, and macOS developer. github.com/calmdocs. calmdocs.com. iainmclaren.com.
New most common prompt:
You compacted halfway through. Please do a git diff, check the changes, and compare with our following original instructions:
...
You compacted halfway through. Please do a git diff, check the changes, and compare with our following original instructions:
...
November 3, 2025 at 7:26 AM
New most common prompt:
You compacted halfway through. Please do a git diff, check the changes, and compare with our following original instructions:
...
You compacted halfway through. Please do a git diff, check the changes, and compare with our following original instructions:
...
Wow. I submitted an app to the Apple App Store and it was accepted for distribution without a single rejection. One and done.
That has never happened before.
It's like a magical unicorn.
That has never happened before.
It's like a magical unicorn.
September 5, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Wow. I submitted an app to the Apple App Store and it was accepted for distribution without a single rejection. One and done.
That has never happened before.
It's like a magical unicorn.
That has never happened before.
It's like a magical unicorn.
The future is already here — it's just not evenly distributed.
– William Gibson
– William Gibson
The Real Future of AI Is Ordering Mid Chicken at Bojangles
This month I ordered a meal at the Bojangles drive-thru in South Carolina, which is now using AI. This is how AI becomes the background noise of the world.
www.404media.co
July 17, 2025 at 1:00 AM
The future is already here — it's just not evenly distributed.
– William Gibson
– William Gibson
Waiting for Godot is waiting for the claude usage limit to reset
July 5, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Waiting for Godot is waiting for the claude usage limit to reset
Current status. Using two claude instances to update two projects using two programming languages at the same time while listening to an audiobook and posting to social media.
What could possibly go wrong?
What could possibly go wrong?
July 3, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Current status. Using two claude instances to update two projects using two programming languages at the same time while listening to an audiobook and posting to social media.
What could possibly go wrong?
What could possibly go wrong?
"Quitting programming as a career right now because of LLMs would be like quitting carpentry as a career thanks to the invention of the table saw."
Table saws
Quitting programming as a career right now because of LLMs would be like quitting carpentry as a career thanks to the invention of the table saw.
simonwillison.net
July 3, 2025 at 4:25 AM
"Quitting programming as a career right now because of LLMs would be like quitting carpentry as a career thanks to the invention of the table saw."
When you take a nice photo of your garden but can't post it because of #geoguesser
June 13, 2025 at 9:22 AM
When you take a nice photo of your garden but can't post it because of #geoguesser
Reposted by Iain McLaren
The wait is over. You can squeeze coffee out of a tube onto your toast now. shop.uncrate.com/products/non...
No Normal Coffee
Making coffee in the great outdoors can be a challenge. No Normal is a tube-contained coffee paste that delivers the caffeine hit you want in a variety of manners. For a cup of coffee, just squeeze so...
shop.uncrate.com
June 13, 2025 at 3:54 AM
The wait is over. You can squeeze coffee out of a tube onto your toast now. shop.uncrate.com/products/non...
#golang just leaving error handling be is possibly the most golang move ever and I am here for it.
https://go.dev/blog/error-syntax
https://go.dev/blog/error-syntax
[ On | No ] syntactic support for error handling - The Go Programming Language
Go team plans around error handling support
go.dev
June 5, 2025 at 1:25 AM
#golang just leaving error handling be is possibly the most golang move ever and I am here for it.
https://go.dev/blog/error-syntax
https://go.dev/blog/error-syntax
If you add "Regards" as your email signature then I assume that we are at war?
June 2, 2025 at 7:02 AM
If you add "Regards" as your email signature then I assume that we are at war?
Oh agile | Iain McLaren
iainmclaren.com
May 25, 2025 at 10:39 AM
#s3 best practices:
simonwillison.net/2025/May/14/...
"- Ideally never mutate an object in S3, add a new version instead."
I agree but would go further:
- s3 versions are an antipattern. Always create a new s3 object with a new name.
Too extreme?
simonwillison.net/2025/May/14/...
"- Ideally never mutate an object in S3, add a new version instead."
I agree but would go further:
- s3 versions are an antipattern. Always create a new s3 object with a new name.
Too extreme?
Archive for May 2025
You also mentioned the whole Chatbot Arena thing, which I think is interesting and points to the challenge around how you do benchmarking. How do you know what models are good for which things?
simonwillison.net
May 14, 2025 at 9:20 AM
#s3 best practices:
simonwillison.net/2025/May/14/...
"- Ideally never mutate an object in S3, add a new version instead."
I agree but would go further:
- s3 versions are an antipattern. Always create a new s3 object with a new name.
Too extreme?
simonwillison.net/2025/May/14/...
"- Ideally never mutate an object in S3, add a new version instead."
I agree but would go further:
- s3 versions are an antipattern. Always create a new s3 object with a new name.
Too extreme?
Oh nice. A very clever css only image placeholder hack:
Minimal CSS-only blurry image placeholders
Absolutely brilliant piece of CSS ingenuity by Lean Rada, who describes a way to implement blurry placeholder images using just CSS, with syntax like this: <pre><span class="pl-kos"><</span><span class="pl-ent">img</span> <span class="pl-c1">src</span>="<span …
simonwillison.net
April 3, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Oh nice. A very clever css only image placeholder hack:
Request to #golang devs. When creating a library, a go.dev link is great, but please also add at least one example, at least one test, or a detailed README.
Also, please provide real installation instructions instead of, or in addition to, a Docker instance.
Thanks!
Also, please provide real installation instructions instead of, or in addition to, a Docker instance.
Thanks!
March 28, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Request to #golang devs. When creating a library, a go.dev link is great, but please also add at least one example, at least one test, or a detailed README.
Also, please provide real installation instructions instead of, or in addition to, a Docker instance.
Thanks!
Also, please provide real installation instructions instead of, or in addition to, a Docker instance.
Thanks!
Thanks again to @[email protected] for running the infosec.exchange empire.
I am enjoying using pixel.infosec.exchange. I really like how easy it is to create a simple html gallery of images using the pixel feed:
gist.github.com/imclaren/c4c...
iainmclaren.com/photos/
I am enjoying using pixel.infosec.exchange. I really like how easy it is to create a simple html gallery of images using the pixel feed:
gist.github.com/imclaren/c4c...
iainmclaren.com/photos/
Infosec Exchange
A Mastodon instance for info/cyber security-minded people.
infosec.exchange
March 9, 2025 at 5:05 AM
Thanks again to @[email protected] for running the infosec.exchange empire.
I am enjoying using pixel.infosec.exchange. I really like how easy it is to create a simple html gallery of images using the pixel feed:
gist.github.com/imclaren/c4c...
iainmclaren.com/photos/
I am enjoying using pixel.infosec.exchange. I really like how easy it is to create a simple html gallery of images using the pixel feed:
gist.github.com/imclaren/c4c...
iainmclaren.com/photos/
Would you rather be a wizard, ninja, or knight?
Please respond if you don't think wizard.
Please respond if you don't think wizard.
February 22, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Would you rather be a wizard, ninja, or knight?
Please respond if you don't think wizard.
Please respond if you don't think wizard.
Ha! Updating to macOS Sequoia didn't break any of my apps. First time this has happened since the Intel OSes. I hope that this is a trend now we are well into the Apple Silicon era.
February 20, 2025 at 7:17 AM
Ha! Updating to macOS Sequoia didn't break any of my apps. First time this has happened since the Intel OSes. I hope that this is a trend now we are well into the Apple Silicon era.
Is there any better feeling than typing top and top be the top hit for both cpu and memory?
February 12, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Is there any better feeling than typing top and top be the top hit for both cpu and memory?
A shoutout to one of my favourite bits of tech. My old UniFi Edgerouter X.
Fiddly to set up. Now just runs and runs. Networking issues are never this appliance. The internet connection is slow so its bandwidth limits make no difference. Never needs rebooting.
This thing brings me joy.
Fiddly to set up. Now just runs and runs. Networking issues are never this appliance. The internet connection is slow so its bandwidth limits make no difference. Never needs rebooting.
This thing brings me joy.
February 3, 2025 at 12:05 AM
A shoutout to one of my favourite bits of tech. My old UniFi Edgerouter X.
Fiddly to set up. Now just runs and runs. Networking issues are never this appliance. The internet connection is slow so its bandwidth limits make no difference. Never needs rebooting.
This thing brings me joy.
Fiddly to set up. Now just runs and runs. Networking issues are never this appliance. The internet connection is slow so its bandwidth limits make no difference. Never needs rebooting.
This thing brings me joy.
https://github.com/dnhkng/GlaDOS
I can't recall. Was it do or don't create the torment nexus?
I can't recall. Was it do or don't create the torment nexus?
January 16, 2025 at 2:41 AM
https://github.com/dnhkng/GlaDOS
I can't recall. Was it do or don't create the torment nexus?
I can't recall. Was it do or don't create the torment nexus?
Reposted by Iain McLaren
New Orleans out here innovating in bread shapes. Say hello to the challigator.
November 27, 2024 at 6:04 PM
New Orleans out here innovating in bread shapes. Say hello to the challigator.