Doug Whitfield [Minneapolis]

@musicman
213 Followers
159 Following
8.2K Posts

Lead shenaniganizer at @jjj and @friendsofccmusic

One of the owners of blocsonic.com

I'm not a particularly hard person to find online. I'm on Diaspora (maybe haven't logged in in a while), pump.io (maybe haven't logged in in a while), soundcloud, libre.fm, last.fm, ccMixter, and tons of other places.

My dog's name is T'Challa. He is joined a family of cats, is black (mostly), and is African (not completely, he's a mutt).

My labelhttp://blocsonic.com
Stravahttps://www.strava.com/athletes/40503008
Friends of CC Musichttp://friendsofccmusic.org
PronounsHe/him/GOAT

"I used AI. It worked. I hated it." by @mttaggart https://taggart-tech.com/reckoning/

This is a really good blogpost. And I"m sure it'll make some people unhappy to read whether they're pro or anti genAI. What's good about @mttaggart's blogpost is he talks honestly about how using Claude Code did actually solve the problem he set out to do. It needed various guardrails, but they were possible to set up, and the project worked. But the post is also completely clear and honest about how miserable it was:

- It removed the joy from the process
- If you aim to do the right thing and carefully evaluate the output, your job ends up eventually becoming "tapping the Y key"
- Ramifications on people learning things
- Plenty of other ethical analysis
- And the nagging wonder whether to use it next time, despite it being miserable.

I think this is important, because it *is* true that these tools are getting to the point where they can accomplish a lot of tasks, but the caveat space is very large (cotd)

I used AI. It worked. I hated it.

I used Claude Code to build a tool I needed. It worked great, but I was miserable. I need to reckon with what it means.

The Epstein Spectrum

A moral exercise in a moral desert

The Atlantic

"When Carsie Blanton and The Burning Hell got together to make a record in a little cabin in Ireland, they brought out the silliest and most diabolical sides of each other."

The sillier stuff I could do without, but still worth a listen.

https://carsieblanton.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-great

https://genius.com/Carsie-blanton-and-the-burning-hell-everything-is-great-lyrics

#ccmusic #indiepop

Everything is Great, by Carsie Blanton & The Burning Hell

14 track album

Carsie Blanton
The FCC effectively banned all new routers from being sold in the U.S. last week. We've analyzed the situation and have some good news for #OpenWrt, and the #OpenWrtOne! We also discuss how security actually works, and what we're doing to make sure that OpenWrt continues to lead on that front. Check it out at https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2026/apr/02/fcc-router-ban/
What the FCC router ban means for FOSS

Last week, the Federal Communications Commission in the United States (the FCC) banned the sale of all new models of home routers not made in the U.S., which is ... all of them. The stated reason for this is that routers

Software Freedom Conservancy

Thrifty Traveler is great: https://shortyawards.com/category/18th/other-podcast

Sadly, you have to have an account to vote...but also, how else would you not make it a botfest?

Other Podcast Genres in Social Media - Shorty Awards

The nominees for the Best Other Podcast Genres in Social Media Shorty Award

Different album, but Mahorka also made Bandcamp Daily today! https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-electronic/the-best-electronic-music-on-bandcamp-march-2026
The Best Electronic Music on Bandcamp, March 2026

Our guide to the month’s crucial electronic music.

Bandcamp Daily
Alexander the Great of Mastodonia
GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

Updated: Letting Copilot alter others' PRs was the wrong judgment call, says product manager

The Register
Intriguing, but daunting...
are there any (visual) abstract landscape artists on mastodon?