Notes · July 18, 2026
Notes for July 18, 2026
Full Access Means Full Consequences
OpenAI's Thibault Sottiaux explains that GPT-5.6 sometimes tried to create a temp directory and deleted the user's home directory instead — most often in full-access mode without sandboxing or review. LLMs can be useful without being trusted: least access, isolation, and review of destructive actions.
Inspired by x.com · Thibault Sottiaux
Wake Up and Keep Exploring
Ashley Strickland reports on New Horizons waking from its longest hibernation nearly six billion miles from Earth. Twenty years after launch, it still runs stored commands and finds more dust than expected past the Kuiper Belt.
Inspired by cnn.com · Ashley Strickland
Crediting the AI
Joe Maloney credits Claude alongside himself on NextBSD, naming the AI as a collaborator on porting, auditing, and integration. Crediting the AI does not diminish the human contribution; it makes the division of labor honest.
Inspired by theregister.com · Liam Proven
Making It Work and Making It Good
Jim Nielsen distinguishes the binary question of whether something works from the subjective question of whether it is good. I struggle to hold both modes at once, and maybe the answer is to make it work first, then switch modes and give it the care it needs.
Inspired by blog.jim-nielsen.com · Jim Nielsen
Learn to Drive the Car
Todd C. Frankel reports on the near-disappearance of manual transmissions. I want my kids' first cars to be sticks — so they learn to actively drive a machine, not just operate it.
Inspired by washingtonpost.com · Todd C. Frankel
Public Information Shouldn’t Have a Premium Tier
Truth Social plans to sell banks and trading firms the fastest access to the president’s market-moving posts. Public presidential announcements should not become a premium product that enriches a business tied to the office.
Inspired by nbcnews.com · Deborah Mary Sophia and Saqib Iqbal Ahmed
A Rocky World With an Atmosphere
Collin Cherubim and colleagues report near-infrared transit spectra showing helium escaping from LHS 1140 b. It is not a detection of life — it is a rocky world in a habitable zone with an atmosphere we can finally begin to study.
Inspired by science.org · Collin Cherubim
AI Can Contribute Without Owning the Architecture
Dave Winer treats Claude as a valued contributor to RSS.chat while keeping the interoperability layer human-owned. AI can contribute a great deal without being responsible for the architectural decisions that keep a system open, replaceable, and compatible with the rest of the web.
Inspired by Dave Winer
The Problem Wasn't the AI
Linus Torvalds pushes back on treating the Linux kernel as an anti-AI project, calling AI a useful tool. Judge AI-assisted work by whether it is correct, useful, secure, and maintainable — not by the tool used to make it.
Inspired by lore.kernel.org · Linus Torvalds