Simon Willison
@simonwillison.net
Independent AI researcher, creator of datasette.io and llm.datasette.io, building open source tools for data journalism, writing about a lot of stuff at https://simonwillison.net/
Probably, but that's not great for the authors who now have a ton of broken links to their content making it harder for regular people to find
January 10, 2026 at 10:31 PM
Probably, but that's not great for the authors who now have a ton of broken links to their content making it harder for regular people to find
Stork, not a pelican, but I do like storks too
January 10, 2026 at 10:13 PM
Stork, not a pelican, but I do like storks too
Ouch! Oh that's really depressing - dealing with takedown requests is a genuine expense
January 10, 2026 at 6:57 PM
Ouch! Oh that's really depressing - dealing with takedown requests is a genuine expense
Yeah I've seen some horrible crawler behavior recently
I serve my static sites through Cloudflare which somehow still doesn't charge me any money at all for bandwidth
I serve my static sites through Cloudflare which somehow still doesn't charge me any money at all for bandwidth
January 10, 2026 at 6:57 PM
Yeah I've seen some horrible crawler behavior recently
I serve my static sites through Cloudflare which somehow still doesn't charge me any money at all for bandwidth
I serve my static sites through Cloudflare which somehow still doesn't charge me any money at all for bandwidth
I will never understand the decision making process that leads to a company throwing away their archives like this, like how far gone from understanding anything about how the internet works do you have to be in order to make a decision like this?
What, you think old pages are /expensive/?
What, you think old pages are /expensive/?
Welp, looks like Uproxx finally nuked their archives. 16 years of my work, now invisible for someone who wanted to find it. From the bottom of my heart, fuck these guys forever.
January 10, 2026 at 6:14 PM
I will never understand the decision making process that leads to a company throwing away their archives like this, like how far gone from understanding anything about how the internet works do you have to be in order to make a decision like this?
What, you think old pages are /expensive/?
What, you think old pages are /expensive/?
I'm about to explore an option of sticking them in an orphan branch on the git repository itself, similar to how gh-pages can work
January 10, 2026 at 4:51 AM
I'm about to explore an option of sticking them in an orphan branch on the git repository itself, similar to how gh-pages can work
Yeah I'm sticking them in Gists at the moment - github.com/simonw/claud...
January 10, 2026 at 4:46 AM
Yeah I'm sticking them in Gists at the moment - github.com/simonw/claud...
Reposted by Simon Willison
Thanks @simonwillison.net, always enjoy your content. I also really like HTML tools. Thank you for all the resources!
Was inspired to share them:
www.briangershon.com/blog/make-to...
Was inspired to share them:
www.briangershon.com/blog/make-to...
Make the Tool You Wish Existed (with Your LLM) | Brian Gershon
Build custom HTML tools that fit your exact workflow using LLMs. No extensive programming knowledge required. Turn workflow problems into practical tools in hours.
www.briangershon.com
January 9, 2026 at 10:53 PM
Thanks @simonwillison.net, always enjoy your content. I also really like HTML tools. Thank you for all the resources!
Was inspired to share them:
www.briangershon.com/blog/make-to...
Was inspired to share them:
www.briangershon.com/blog/make-to...
I've gone a step further than that now, I include commit messages that link to hosted HTML formatted versions of the transcripts
eg github.com/simonw/micro... links to gistpreview.github.io?95713acead2a...
eg github.com/simonw/micro... links to gistpreview.github.io?95713acead2a...
January 10, 2026 at 4:19 AM
I've gone a step further than that now, I include commit messages that link to hosted HTML formatted versions of the transcripts
eg github.com/simonw/micro... links to gistpreview.github.io?95713acead2a...
eg github.com/simonw/micro... links to gistpreview.github.io?95713acead2a...
Sprites.dev by @fly.io is a very cool new thing: it solves two of my pet problems at once, developer sandbox environments for coding agents and a JSON API for executing untrusted code
I wrote more here: simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/9/s...
I wrote more here: simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/9/s...
Fly’s new Sprites.dev addresses both developer sandboxes and API sandboxes at the same time
New from Fly.io today: Sprites.dev. Here’s their blog post and YouTube demo. It’s an interesting new product that’s quite difficult to explain—Fly call it “Stateful sandbox environments with checkpoin...
simonwillison.net
January 10, 2026 at 12:32 AM
Sprites.dev by @fly.io is a very cool new thing: it solves two of my pet problems at once, developer sandbox environments for coding agents and a JSON API for executing untrusted code
I wrote more here: simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/9/s...
I wrote more here: simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/9/s...
Sprites.dev by @fly.io is a very cool new thing: it solves two of my pet problems at once, developer sandbox environments for coding agents and a JSON API for executing untrusted code
I wrote more here: simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/9/s...
I wrote more here: simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/9/s...
Fly’s new Sprites.dev addresses both developer sandboxes and API sandboxes at the same time
New from Fly.io today: Sprites.dev. Here’s their blog post and YouTube demo. It’s an interesting new product that’s quite difficult to explain—Fly call it “Stateful sandbox environments with checkpoin...
simonwillison.net
January 10, 2026 at 12:29 AM
Sprites.dev by @fly.io is a very cool new thing: it solves two of my pet problems at once, developer sandbox environments for coding agents and a JSON API for executing untrusted code
I wrote more here: simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/9/s...
I wrote more here: simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/9/s...
Is there a human alive who DOES know what they have in their spice collection at anyone time?
I have a fearsome drawer. Having ChatGPT index that for me is actually a pretty great idea, I might try that!
I have a fearsome drawer. Having ChatGPT index that for me is actually a pretty great idea, I might try that!
January 9, 2026 at 7:46 PM
Is there a human alive who DOES know what they have in their spice collection at anyone time?
I have a fearsome drawer. Having ChatGPT index that for me is actually a pretty great idea, I might try that!
I have a fearsome drawer. Having ChatGPT index that for me is actually a pretty great idea, I might try that!
Urgh, got overwhelmed by rude crawlers! Should be back up now
January 9, 2026 at 6:32 PM
Urgh, got overwhelmed by rude crawlers! Should be back up now
Sounds like you don't like fun
(Using AI for this is blatantly absurd, which is why I enjoyed it)
(Using AI for this is blatantly absurd, which is why I enjoyed it)
January 9, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Sounds like you don't like fun
(Using AI for this is blatantly absurd, which is why I enjoyed it)
(Using AI for this is blatantly absurd, which is why I enjoyed it)
An important tip to improve your 2026
January 9, 2026 at 1:58 AM
An important tip to improve your 2026
I touched on that in my three year prediction here - it could go either way, I'm really hoping it makes our skills even more valuable than they were before simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/8/l...
LLM predictions for 2026, shared with Oxide and Friends
I joined a recording of the Oxide and Friends podcast on Tuesday to talk about 1, 3 and 6 year predictions for the tech industry. This is my second appearance …
simonwillison.net
January 8, 2026 at 9:41 PM
I touched on that in my three year prediction here - it could go either way, I'm really hoping it makes our skills even more valuable than they were before simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/8/l...
I think we mostly solved it for web browsers running JavaScript and WebAssembly - and hosting providers have had to solve it for a long time for things like AWS Lambda and VPS shared hosting
I want that for everything else!
I want that for everything else!
January 8, 2026 at 9:39 PM
I think we mostly solved it for web browsers running JavaScript and WebAssembly - and hosting providers have had to solve it for a long time for things like AWS Lambda and VPS shared hosting
I want that for everything else!
I want that for everything else!
Reposted by Simon Willison
It's started! The 2026 #kakapo breeding season is under way, with the first nest found on Whenua Hou today. Pearl is on two eggs. #conservation #parrots #birds
January 8, 2026 at 2:30 AM
It's started! The 2026 #kakapo breeding season is under way, with the first nest found on Whenua Hou today. Pearl is on two eggs. #conservation #parrots #birds
That's more of a prediction that I'm putting out there in the hope that someone is inspired to fulfill it!
January 8, 2026 at 8:15 PM
That's more of a prediction that I'm putting out there in the hope that someone is inspired to fulfill it!
We aren't running as literal root (that was podcast exaggeration in the moment) but we run them with all of the permissions of our regular user accounts, which is pretty close to root to be honest
January 8, 2026 at 8:14 PM
We aren't running as literal root (that was podcast exaggeration in the moment) but we run them with all of the permissions of our regular user accounts, which is pretty close to root to be honest
The episode is also available on YouTube, where it features one of the most appropriate uses of AI-generated imagery I've ever seen www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVDh...
Oxide and Friends 1/5/2026 -- Predictions 2026!!
YouTube video by Oxide Computer Company
www.youtube.com
January 8, 2026 at 7:48 PM
The episode is also available on YouTube, where it features one of the most appropriate uses of AI-generated imagery I've ever seen www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVDh...
It's an absolute highlight of my year, you should definitely come some time! 1,000 people all of whom would instantly understand and want to talk about your FEC skills repo
January 8, 2026 at 7:46 PM
It's an absolute highlight of my year, you should definitely come some time! 1,000 people all of whom would instantly understand and want to talk about your FEC skills repo