blog.jim-nielsen.com — No Need for Retirement When Utopia Is Around the Corner
I’ve mentioned before my interest in the history and development of nuclear weapons. Currently, I’m reading The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — No More Icons In Every Menu By Default
Have you heard the good news? I bemoaned the approach of putting an icon in every menu item by default which shipped with macOS Tahoe — but now it’s gone in...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — We Need All the Disciplines
From where I sit, figuring out what to build, building it, and shipping it are all part of the art of making software. Many disciplines have emerged through...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — The Dock on Mac, From OS 10 to macOS 27
I wrote the chapter on app icon history for The iOS App Icon Book. The other day I found an old note stashed away where I had started researching the macOS...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — The Fascinating World of Domains
Pete Millspaugh has a lovely article over on WIRED that peers into the world of domains. (If you’re as interested in the esoteric details of domains as I am,...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — “Getting off the Modernization Treadmill”
My notes from this talk by Alexander Petros at Big Sky DevCon 2026. Alex starts by noting how “modernize” used to mean something along the lines of “update...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — Apple’s App Icon HOA
Louie Mantia has a great post about how app icons are converging towards the squircle on iOS and macOS. His post reads like a history. If you’re wondering,...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — “I’m Embarrassed on Behalf of the Tech Industry”
That’s something Ben Thompson said a recent episode of Dithering. He was referring to how he felt while trying to help his mom get control of her digital...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — Dear Software Makers
Marques Brownlee just released a video essay titled “Dear YouTube”. I loved it. He talks about how YouTube is going to start shipping this new feature where...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — VLM Enhanced Metadata For My Icon Galleries
Confession: I got nerd-sniped by Sam Henri Gold’s request for my icon galleries: I'd like to humbly request artwork-level searching in macosicongallery.com...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — Humane Interfaces
So there I am reading Unsung when I come across this quote from Jef Raskin: An interface is humane if it is responsive to human needs and considerate of...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — Using an LLM to Automate the Process of Archiving New macOS App Icons
Whenever a new version of macOS drops, I find myself archiving the new app icons for my macOS icon gallery. In the past, the work to do this was a bit...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — Make Money to Make More Websites
I was listening to the episode “Make Your Own Thing” from the Off Protocol podcast where Jim Ray interviews John Gruber. They cover a variety of topics,...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — A Great Story Capturing the Essence of Being Online in 2026
I made a note of it, but Bryan Cantrill wrote a post about the ex-Anthropic employee who pegged the probability of AI killing humanity in the next decade at...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — The iPhone Model Hall of Fame
John Gruber makes his picks for the iPhone Hall of Fame: iPhone (original) iPhone 4 iPhone 5S iPhone X iPhone 17 Pro Ok, my turn. Here’s my iPhone Hall of...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — Do You Prefer Artificial?
“Artificial” things can get a bad rap next to their counterparts, but they have their place. For example, artificial light (i.e. not from the sun)? Super...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — Bottlenecks Get a Bad Rap
Poor bottlenecks. Always seen as problematic, antithetical to efficiency. But bottlenecks aren’t universally bad. Think about it: a bottle’s neck is designed...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — Preserving Netlify Analytics Data Beyond 30 Days
I’ve got Netlify Analytics turned on for a few of my websites. I use it send myself a little daily digest that alerts me when folks link to my writing, be it...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — An Ode to Links
A URL is a technical thing: a hostname, a path, a port, an origin, some query parameters, etc. But a link is a cultural thing: an invitation, a citation, a...
blog.jim-nielsen.com — Don’t Let Anyone Take Away Your Big Box of Cables
Speaking of being on the internet and finding things that make you go, “Hey! It’s not just me!” I scrolled across this skeet from Tyler Gaw: I just dug to...