From RDR2 to GTA VI: when collector’s boxes trade game-world props for streetwear
Both boxes omit the game. Why does GTA VI’s cost $399.99 when RDR2’s was $99.99? A look at four collector’s boxes and how their focus changed.
MACWORKS · TECHNOLOGY & TOOLS
Less noise. More perspective.
Technology worth using. How to get started, and where its limits are.
Recent articles
From game collectibles to developer tools
Read the article
Safari 27 MCP: Let an agent use your browser—but can it replace ego-browser?
Connect Claude Code or Codex, compare it with Chrome DevTools MCP, and understand why operating webpages is not the same as taking over your everyday browser.
Quick Takes
A link. A brief take.
Links worth sharing, with a few words of perspective.
Rogue Pilots Are a Growing Safety Threat—and No One Knows How to Stop Them
WSJ examines confirmed or suspected deliberate crashes and the tension between pilot authority and automated safeguards. First, guard against bad actors outside the cockpit; then, against those inside. This is the Byzantine Generals Problem in real life!
John Urschel left the NFL for mathematics — and just made a big breakthrough
A group of John Urschel’s students wore his Ravens jerseys to their linear algebra final. The former NFL player is now an MIT mathematics professor. He truly gives new meaning to “math taught by a PE teacher.”
Changpeng Zhao: Inside a Billionaire’s Paradise With Crypto’s Most Powerful Ex-Convict
A New York Times profile of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ), his jurisdictional arbitrage and life after prison. Now that’s the art of the deal.
Rockstar’s Florida fieldwork for GTA VI
Rockstar’s team researched GTA VI first-hand in Miami and South Florida. Writers should experience life firsthand!
A 16-year-old student finds a Microsoft authentication flaw with AI
16-year-old Faav worked with Antares, an AI tool, to find and report a Microsoft vulnerability. If you want to do it, AI can amplify your abilities—even if you’re a student.
Reddit to shut down RSS feeds and public API access
RSS support ends November 13; public API access ends by March 2027. Guard against fire, theft, and bots.
The New York Times’ 100 best TV shows of the 21st century
- Breaking Bad; 3. Mad Men; 6. Game of Thrones; 48. House of Cards; 72. Squid Game. My favorite, Boston Legal, didn’t make the list.
The DeepSeek thesis: what does Liang Wenfeng want?
Commentary on the leaked minutes of Liang Wenfeng’s investor meeting.
Jia Yueting’s robotics business plans a separate listing at a $200 million valuation
FF plans a separate listing for its robotics business through a $200 million deal with AIxC, subject to final agreements and approvals. Boss Jia really is winning at life.
ChromeOS to retire in 2034 as Google shifts to Googlebook OS
cnBeta reports ChromeOS support will end in mid-2034, with a transition to Googlebook OS and a new licensing system. What enterprise users need is stability.
Nvidia adds $150 billion to its share buyback program
Nvidia authorizes another $150 billion in share buybacks, on top of May’s $80 billion plan. Just keep buying
Lauren Tan’s pstack: verify first, then parallelize
Verification comes first; Cloud Agents offer a way to parallelize beyond local git worktrees. These capabilities should be built into agent harnesses.
2026 in LLMs (so far)
Simon Willison surveys the year in LLMs so far in a keynote video with annotated slides. A must-read.
Teaching programming when AI can finish the exercises
AI can solve beginner exercises, so Jane Street is shifting intern training toward design, testing, and code review. Exactly right.
Coding agents make software engineering harder?
Doing anything well is hard. What counts as good is relative, and everyone has access to the same tools.
AWS security defaults still need fixing on our end
When AWS gets a default wrong, it’s hard for even AWS to change it. We have to fix it ourselves.
Samsung smart fridge update failure: reliability and rollback matter
Above all, software needs to be reliable. When something goes seriously wrong, there needs to be a way to roll back.
Opus 5.5 max over-thinks; GPT-6 Luna is worth a try
Max isn’t cost-effective unless the model can avoid over-thinking on its own. GPT-6 Luna is worth a try.
Mathematicians form an independent advisory group on AI
Terence Tao has long been at the forefront of AI in mathematics. I hope other fields establish independent groups like this, rather than letting the labs have the only say.
GCP agent workspaces: compute on demand, files that persist
Start and suspend compute as needed while workspace files persist independently. This is quite useful for enterprises.
US auto industry calls for keeping the door shut to Chinese automakers
They really are scared! Who would have thought that, when it comes to electric vehicles, no country in the world could outcompete China anymore?