Feeling Tired of Apple Keynote?

Since I started making YouTube videos, I’ve used Apple Keynote to design all my thumbnails because I found it approachable, easy to work with, and capable of helping me quickly create acceptable designs. However, this morning I feel that my approach needs reevaluation. I briefly tried Canva, but the free version is too restrictive, and I dislike software with constant subscription prompts, as if I’m using a demo. I also thought about Acorn, but it never really resonated with me. For now, I plan to stick with Keynote unless someone suggests a better alternative I haven’t considered.

While reviewing my list of potential tech purchases, I found that the Rodecaster Video now has a new variant: the S model. It is more affordable but still retains most features, with fewer inputs and outputs that are still sufficient for my potential needs. The key question is: do I actually need it? Would purchasing this device allow me to resume producing YouTube videos?

CIOs ready for another role-change as AI becomes agent of chaos — The Register

As software generates software and autonomous agents execute work, the CIO’s center of gravity shifts from building systems to governing outcomes.

We’ve been delegating so much stuff in the last 10-15 years… like moving the on-prem data centers to cloud providers… transforming manager’s roles from hardware acquisition and planning to contractual surveillance, FinOps, etc. AI will accelerate this but in a new direction.

Each month, I look at my web analytics, and the downward trend continues. Is this another AI side effect? Or maybe I’m becoming irrelevant. Let’s start a new month, shall we?

LinkedIn scans for 6,278 extensions and encrypts the results into every request — Hacker News

When LinkedIn’s extension scan runs on your browser, it is not building a device profile for an unknown visitor. It is appending a detailed software inventory to a profile that already contains your verified professional identity.

Wow, now I know why visiting LinkedIn on my work computer is so slow. Is it time for me to close my LinkedIn account? I did close Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for much less than this. 😳😤

All bloggers eventually want to build their own blog software. All feed reader developers want their own sync platform. All blog hosts want a feed reader.

In 2026, I predict approximately thousands of niche open web apps, each with a small number of users who wouldn’t want to use anything else.

I can attest that, as a blogger, unsatisfied with the current RSS readers1 or bookmark managers’2 offerings, I had to build mine. I don’t plan to share any of it, though. I do see a trend among builders of putting together apps for their personal use, and I find this fantastic. Building software is hard, and seeing people able to put things together that fit their needs is really cool.

  1. I like Inoreader as a service, but less as an RSS reader. ↩︎

  2. I tried many of them, but settled on building mine, very focused on helping me to maintain a newsletter. ↩︎

Manton Reece writing about Software brain:

Maybe our belief in new technology has been warped by cynicism. We’ve been beaten down by ad platforms, manipulated by algorithms. We’ve grown weary of the relentless pace of Silicon Valley. We assume every CEO must be a liar and that even good intentions are corrupted by money.

Memory Is the Machine:

Apple did not win an AI race. Apple made a memory-architecture decision in 2020 that turned out to be the AI race, five years before there was an AI race.

Maybe we should stop focusing on Siri failures and, like Om Malik said, on the real story where Apple has a five year lead… which happens to make a big difference in an AI-distributed world.