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I invented him and he invented that

Mischa Richter, Time, September 19, 1960

In 1966, “Roberta,” also known as “the housewife of tomorrow,” appeared at Macy’s in New York to demonstrate Hamilton Beach appliances.[1]

A New York Times article, noting that “she can be turned on and off at will,” also highlighted a divide between men and women viewing the robotic spectacle.

When women see Roberta perform at Macy's, their usual comment is "harumph." Men, on the other hand, often express a desire to take her home.

[1] Klemesrud, Judy. “Housewife of Tomorrow: She Can Be Turned Off,” The New York Times, November 17, 1966.

Speaking of people in robot costumes, this British Pathé video shows “Miss Honeywell” in 1968. (via Paleofuture)

An article on Vox, This is AI's Actual Endgame, (Apple News) referenced the person-in-a-robot-suit demo at Tesla in 2021:

It’s still embarrassing to watch the part of the Tesla AI Day presentation in 2021 when a human person dressed in a robot costume appears on stage dancing to dubstep music.

Dubstep, awesome! People in robot costumes, representing a company about to make robots, not so much.

And I don't think that was dubstep either.

Yep, Shazam tells me it's Destroying Teams by Hotschedules.

Some notes on personality changes in OpenAI’s ChatGPT:

Regarding the “her” tweet for GPT-4o, or whatever a post in X is:

Some users may be repelled by them. But many will come to love and appreciate the new breed of A.I. assistants — and some will inevitably fall in love, as Theodore does.
May 14, 2024 - The New York Times, A.I.'s 'Her' Era Has Arrived

On the backlash of GPT-5, now more HAL than Her:

For others, though, the loss felt personal. They developed an affinity for the GPT-4o persona, or the o3 persona, and suddenly felt bereft. That the loss came without warning, and with seemingly no recourse, only worsened the sting.
August 11, 2025 - Platformer, Three big lessons from the GPT-5 backlash

On GPT-5.1:

The release follows complaints earlier this year that its previous models were excessively cheerful and sycophantic, along with an opposing controversy among users over how OpenAI modified the default GPT-5 output style after several suicide lawsuits.
...the company is offering eight preset options, including Professional, Friendly, Candid, Quirky, Efficient, Cynical, and Nerdy, alongside a Default setting.
November 12, 2025 - Ars Technica, OpenAI walks a tricky tightrope with GPT-5.1’s eight new personalities

The GPT-5.1 Efficient setting seems to be the most HAL-esque:

...which is just tell me what you want to tell me. And you don't have to pretend you're being nice to me. You don't have to compliment me.
November 18, 2025 - Dan Frommer on The Talk Show with John Gruber podcast, #434: 'Knee-Jerk Contrarian,' with Dan Frommer (1:21:45)

There seems to be a consistent problem with “glaze." It seems, though, that glaze is a purposeful attribute – the problem isn’t that there is glaze, it’s that it glazes “too much.”

Dan Frommer also mentions in the podcast (1:25:43), “I try to use the default settings for almost everything, just so I feel like I’m experiencing technology the way that, like, most people are experiencing it.” And I agree, the default setting, the vanilla, can be really interesting. Vanilla might seem basic, but it’s a very difficult thing to do just right.

I came across this post at kottke.org, Silicon Doodles & Microchip Art. It’s quite the meeting of analog and digital!

The Wile E. Coyote image caught my eye, especially in reference to my previous post, Coyote Time and Empathetic Design.

References from the kottke.org link above:

• NYT: Hidden Inside Our Electronics, Tiny Doodles From Another Era
• NPR: A new generation is uncovering the tiny doodles left by engineers on old microchips

Welcome once again — once again...your shell repayment is coming up.

I never played the 1990s Marathon video game on Apple, but the new Marathon game (which is delayed) looks promising.

Even better than the gameplay trailer, is the cinematic trailer below. It’s mesmerizing visually, and philosophically complex.

It means a lot, because it's hard and cruel to be a professional cyclist, you suffer a lot in preparations. You sacrifice your life, your family. You do everything you can to get here ready, and then after a couple of days you realize that everyone is just so incredibly strong...I don't often win because I'm not as strong as the others, but I can keep cool and focus in the crucial moments...the whole day, I just wanted to give my best...every single rider at this moment would deserve a win...I wish that everyone could win a Tour de France stage, but it's just not possible, and that's cruel, no?

With the 2025 Tour de France in the rearview mirror, an emotional interview with Matej Mohorič after winning Stage 19 of the 2023 Tour de France. We looked for him in the paddock at Stage 17 in 2024 (Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux à Superdévoluy) but it was so blistering hot and humid that the riders stayed in the busses until it was time to race. The level of performance in professional cycling is off the charts, but the empathy and honesty of Matej are hard to come by – definitely one for Gino Mäder!

I am Account No. 327-94-33AT, and I would like a word with your computer.

Frustration with computers may be familiar to us now, but in the late 1960s and early 1970s it reached a new level.

The general public was aware that computers, or “mainframes,” were impacting their lives, but they had little recourse and no access to their own information within computerized systems. Which isn’t far removed from the present, actually, considering search engines, social media, and AI.

It’s interesting that the man wielding the sledgehammer doesn’t give his name – he’s simply a number in the eyes of the computer.

The cartoon is from the book (with accompanying CDs of image files), The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker, by Robert Mankoff and David Remnick, 2004.

Such great energy at the final stage of the 2025 Tour de France!

This Instagram post really captures the connection between the riders and the crowd at The Basilica of Sacré Cœur de Montmartre.

POV: Watching the Tour de France in Paris (the sound is great)

The famously secretive iPhone maker has zero — and we mean zero — patience with product leaks. (1)

I was listening to The Talk Show with John Gruber and guest Jason Snell, and they mentioned the recent news about Jon Prosser being sued by Apple for the alleged theft of trade secrets related to iOS 26.

This reminded me of the 2017 news story about an Apple engineer’s daughter filming the iPhone X on a visit to Apple Park in Cupertino.

And of course, there was also the 2010 scandal of a prototype iPhone 4 being left in a bar:

• How Apple Lost the iPhone 4
• Lost iPhone 4 prototype sellers escape jail

In his 2010 WWDC keynote address, Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 4 and remarked, “Now…stop me if you’ve already seen this,” to which the audience knowingly laughed.

Even with Apple’s renewed focus on preventing leaks, they still seem to be in the ether. I wonder if Apple’s expansion of production to other countries will make preventing leaks more difficult. At times, however, some of the info seems to be streaming from in and around Cupertino. Personally, I just like to wait and see what Apple announces (and actually ships) before making a decision to upgrade.

(1) Theodore Schleifer, An Apple Engineer showed his daughter the new iPhone X. Now, she says, he's fired. Vox, October 29, 2017. Apple News link

Many researchers shudder at the phrase "artificial intelligence." Its anthropomorphic overtones, they say, often arouse irrelevant emotional responses -- i.e., in people who think it sacrilegious to try to imitate the brain.

Reference: “Will the Computer Outwit Man?”, Gilbert Burck, The Boundless Age of the Computer, Part VI, Fortune, Vol. LXX, No. 4, October 1964. Quote in footnote on page 120. Cartoon on page 121 by Nicholas Solovioff.

Instagram post with great photos from Thymen Arensman, after his Stage 19 win at the 2025 Tour de France.

Another great ride by Thymen Arensman today! It’s his second stage win in the 2025 Tour de France.

And such a heartfelt post-race interview:

It's Tadej and Jonas, and everybody knows they are the strongest in the world -- they are like, almost aliens. And just as a human, I still want to try and beat them. I just can't believe I beat them today.

A new Apple Pro Display XDR is being rumored. I hope the price comes down, for the display and its accessories.

I remember watching the Apple WWDC Keynote in 2019, and there were some “boos” when the pricing for the display’s semi-optional Pro Stand was announced ($999 just for the stand). In my memory, I feel like the boos were louder during the live-streamed event than in the recorded version (the applause seems the same). John Ternus even pauses at the live audience’s reaction.

I have a Studio Display, which I love, but the camera quality and audio is a bit lacking. I use an Insta360 Link 2 instead of the built-in webcam.

A new Studio Display is also rumored, and hopefully the camera quality will be upgraded. A higher refresh rate would be a welcome addition too, especially for gaming.

What would also be nice, would be a lower-tier Apple display, designed for those with Mac minis and general computing needs. This would be like the 15-inch MacBook Air, filling a need (for quality displays – no more creaky plastic monitors), and also introducing more folks to Apple’s integration between software and hardware.

Man and Computer: A Perspective, IBM, 1967 (Computer History Museum).

“In studying the principals, the first point is that a computer is quite dead. It can do nothing without someone to give instructions.” (4:05)

“But computers have no originality, no initiative.” (19:15)

“I’ve had it explained to me, but I still don’t understand it.” (The New Yorker, cartoon by Alan Dunn, 1957).

The “mop and pail” in the computer room were a constant theme for mainframes in the late 1950s and 1960s. In this cartoon the “it” is unclear, which is part of the humor. Is the “it” referencing computing in general, the fixation of people with computers, or an attempt to converse with the machine, or other possibilities?

The cartoon is from the book (with accompanying CDs of image files), The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker, by Robert Mankoff and David Remnick, 2004.

“No dialogue ever, except “Beep-Beep!”

I took this photo at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York, eleven years ago. This was just before being told by a docent that photography was not allowed in the exhibit space (sorry!). The exhibition was titled, “What’s Up, Doc? The Animation Art of Chuck Jones.”

Jason Kottke also posted “The Rules of Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote Cartoons” around the same time, in 2012 (a vintage post). The two versions are pretty close!

As Chuck Jones says in Chuck Amuck, “The rules and disciplines are properly difficult to identify. But there are – there must be – rules. Without them, comedy slops over the edges. Identity is lost.” (1)

This reminds me of Claude Shannon’s notion: “The rules of a game provide a sharply limited environment in which a machine may operate, with a clearly defined dial for its activities."(2)

When thinking of AI, it seems there are no rules at the moment. The game is being played while the rules are being made.