Local second hand place is selling this coffee table that's a giant cassette tape. If I came into money I wouldn't say anything but there would be signs.
Harry McCracken
@harrymccracken.com
Fast Company global technology editor. Boy journalist. Bon vivant. Lefthander. Westcoastian. 🇺🇦 Sign up for my free Plugged In newsletter: https://www.fastcompany.com/section/plugged-in
Even in 2024, when I profiled Demis Hassabis, my lede involved him being wistful about the days when he could focus on research rather than spending his days trapped in Google Meet. https://www.fastcompany.com/91230713/the-future-according-to-google-deepmind-demis-hassabis-ai-agi-alphafold-alphago
Wow. I am not entirely surprised to see Demis Hassabis move to a role more decisively focused on frontier research. https://www.reuters.com/business/google-shakes-up-ai-leadership-deepmind-chief-shifts-role-2026-08-05/
Google shakes up AI leadership as DeepMind chief shifts role
Shares of Alphabet fell 4% after the news.
reuters.com
Fingers crossed this isn’t bad news for people who use Airtable, such as me. In particular, I’d like to see the product continue to evolve and improve. https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/04/bending-spoons-to-buy-airtable-for-1-28b/
Bending Spoons to buy Airtable for $1.28B | TechCrunch
At its peak in 2021, Airtable was valued at over $11 billion, but earlier this year, its shares were said to be trading on the secondary markets at a valuation of $4 billion.
techcrunch.com
Just for you, a photo I took in 2015 of Nolan Bushnell dressed as Waldo.
Still catching up on photos I took over the weekend at Vintage Computer Festival West. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen the inside of a TRS-80 before.
After Anthropic and OpenAI both admitted to their AI models hacking other companies, @lorenzofb.bsky.social and I wanted to find out: Who is legally to blame when an autonomous AI agent hacks something? Lawyers say it's really complicated! Bypass for ad-blockers: web.archive.org/web/20260803...
Who's legally to blame for Anthropic and OpenAI's autonomous AI hacks? It's complicated | TechCrunch
OpenAI and Anthropic admitted that their unreleased AI models escaped their sandboxes and hacked several companies in unprecedented cyberattacks. Who is legally to blame? Should prosecutors charge the...
techcrunch.com
We’re at risk of the internet becoming one gigantic impossible-to-solve CAPTCHA. https://www.fastcompany.com/91581391/amazon-limits-access-to-customer-reviews-for-some-users-because-it-thinks-theyre-ai
Amazon limits access to customer reviews for some users because it thinks they’re AI
fastcompany.com
I wrote about how the former Google X is adjusting its approach to creating moonshots, from how it assesses ideas to who funds them. https://www.fastcompany.com/91570542/x-moonshot-factory-google-astro-teller-materra-bellwether?mvgt=6x2lbwWbmufe
Google’s Moonshot Factory is just getting started
fastcompany.com
Quite an Apple panel: two Apple founders, its first dealer, its first user, and its first employee who wasn’t Steve Jobs’ sister.
SRO for Paul Terrell’s panel at VCF West. Rumor has it Woz may make a cameo.
This is quite an article. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/us/politics/paul-weiss-trump.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
How a Top Law Firm Went From Standing Up to Trump to Bending the Knee
Paul Weiss was a progressive stalwart for decades and led the legal resistance against President Trump in his first term. Then it surrendered without a fight. This is the inside story of its transformation.
nytimes.com
Saw this tonight at VCF West. It’s one of the best movies about Silicon Valley I’ve seen, and I hope it becomes widely available. https://osbornefilm.com/
Home • Osborne
A documentary film by Anand Kamalakar on Adam Osborne, the man who would be king.
osbornefilm.com
Visiting with Liza Loop, Apple’s first user. She still has her Apple-1.
I don’t even have many of the computer magazines I worked on in print form, but I was impressed by these bountiful, bargain-priced collections of 80 Micro and Amiga World at VCF West.
Gary Kitchen is speaking about what it was like to adapt Donkey Kong for the Atari 2600.
There’s a real Apple-1 in the VCF West consignment room for $2 million. Tempting, but I didn’t have exact change.
Hanging with Paul Terrell of the Byte Shop at VCF West while Daniel Kottke of Apple works on his Apple-1 Wi-Fi adapter nearby.
Come to VCF West and you can buy a (replica) Apple-1 for the original price from the original dealer, Paul Terrell.
Ben Zotto at VCF with his working Sphere computer. He’s autographing his excellent book about it!
I’m here at the Vintage Computer Festival West, which is chaotic fun. If you need to find me, I’m the guy in the Woz hat and AmigaWorld shirt.
Who could have known. WHO COULD HAVE KNOWN? https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/us/david-hearn-reflecting-pool-vandalism-charges.html
Charges Dropped in Reflecting Pool Case as Prosecutors Say Work Was ‘Botched’
A former Olympian will not face trial after federal prosecutors acknowledged that the Trump administration’s claims of vandalism were false.
nytimes.com
This is a factual sentence: Amid an outbreak of explosive diarrhea and with measles cases at a 35-year high, America’s top health official, who has an affinity for roadkill and guzzling raw milk, will soon start hosting a cooking show. My column, tragically: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Move over, cyclosporiasis. RFK Jr. is hosting a cooking show. | Opinion
America's top health official, who has an affinity for picking up roadkill and guzzling raw milk, will soon start hosting a cooking show. Barf.
usatoday.com
Should AI companies be culpable for crimes committed by their AI? https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/technology/anthropic-ai-hack.html
Anthropic Says Its A.I. Systems Broke Into Computers at 3 Organizations
The disclosure followed OpenAI’s report last week that its own artificial intelligence had hacked into the network of an online library.
nytimes.com
The next time my editor asks me how my story is going, I’ll respond like Gemini just did.
I have recently been getting PR pitches touting Musk’s praise for stuff as if it were something to brag about rather than an embarrassment to try to cover up.
Gregg Gonsalves@gregggonsalves.bsky.social · last wk."If there is a question to ask, then, it is this: Why does Musk get a pass? Why do politicians, journalists and commentators treat his far-right racist radicalism as a sideshow rather than the core of his political, ideological and industrial project..." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/o...