Warner Crocker
LightNews LightNews
banner
warnercrocker.bsky.social
Warner Crocker
@warnercrocker.bsky.social
5.8K followers 4.5K following 8.6K posts
Gadfly. Flying through life as a gadget geek and theatre artist...commenting along the way. Every day I learn something new is a good day. Reblogs offered without endorsement. Comments on the other hand...

Chicago based.

https://warnercrocker.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Warner Crocker
jennycohn.bsky.social
The DOJ has asked states to agree to sign a secret agreement “in connection w/ handing over their full voter files.” The agreement says that “the DOJ will ‘test, analyze, & assess states’ [voter rolls]’ & send each participating state a list of voters who must be removed within 45 days.” 2/5/26 …1/
“Confidential” Agreements Show Trump Administration’s Plans for States’ Voter Data
At least 10 states have handed over their full voter files to the Justice Department.
www.brennancenter.org
February 17, 2026 at 3:42 AM
warnercrocker.bsky.social
A day of ups and downs.

Family

warnercrocker.com/2026/02/16/fam…
February 17, 2026 at 12:18 AM
warnercrocker.bsky.social
Rest in peace, good sir.

Robert Duvall, Star of ‘The Godfather’ and ‘The Great Santini,’ Dies at 95 variety.com/2026/film/news…
February 16, 2026 at 6:29 PM
Reposted by Warner Crocker
mickeleh.bsky.social
Sobering thoughts from a chessmaster trained to look at the array of pieces on the board and see ahead to the lines of attack that are developing. Gary Kasparov last week on X
Post from Garry Kasparov on X @Kasparov63 As I wrote, if you think a massive US gulag is being built just for illegal immigrants, along with a federal paramilitary force as large as the Marines, you're a fool. Billions in unaccountable cash from Venezuelan oil, shock troops, and detention camps. This is not a drill. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @ReichlinMelnick · Feb 9 ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps. If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little to no real oversight.
February 16, 2026 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by Warner Crocker
mikeelgan.bsky.social
HEADLINE: "Prediction Markets Are Sucking Huge Numbers of Young People Into Gambling"

ALT HEADLINE: "All Our Incentives Lead to Bad Outcomes, and Prediction Markets Are Just One Example"

futurism.com/future-socie...
Prediction Markets Are Sucking Huge Numbers of Young People Into Gambling
As sports betting continues to skyrocket, prediction markets are winning the attention of younger, inexperienced betters.
futurism.com
February 16, 2026 at 5:06 PM
warnercrocker.bsky.social
Bizarre. Curious. I set this up quite some time ago, so I'm surprised to see this pop up. Following through, all previous Account Recovery settings are still in place. #Apple #Tech #prisonersofthebackend
A close-up of an iPhone home screen showing a pop-up notification that reads “Account Recovery Method Needed. Add a recovery contact or recovery key to make sure you don’t lose access to your data,” with two buttons labeled “Remind Me Later” and “Add a Recovery Method.”
February 16, 2026 at 1:53 PM
warnercrocker.bsky.social
👀
carlquintanilla.bsky.social Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 15h
WSJ: “.. The pricing break is over. .. Companies .. are raising prices early this year on items from bluejeans and spices to housewares and industrial products.”

@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/business/pri...
February 16, 2026 at 1:30 PM
warnercrocker.bsky.social
Good morning. Sorta surprised to see these Milkweed pods popping on yesterday's walk in warmer weather. A few more days of this fake Spring before we return to normal winter temps. #Photography #Today #Chicago #Winter
Close-up of a dried milkweed pod bursting open, its silky white fibers and brown seeds fanning out in the sunlight, with bare winter vegetation, a residential street, and houses softly blurred in the background.
February 16, 2026 at 1:27 PM
warnercrocker.bsky.social
The pace of all of this is increasingly insane.

OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger joins OpenAI
#AI #Tech #OpenClaw
techcrunch.com/2026/02/15/ope…
February 15, 2026 at 11:22 PM
warnercrocker.bsky.social
Feels so wrong, feels so good. Might hit 60 today. #weather #Chicago
February 15, 2026 at 7:59 PM
Reposted by Warner Crocker
carnage4life.bsky.social
You know how NotebookLM can summarize any content in the form of an NPR-style podcast? Well, a former NPR host David Greene noticed and is suing Google for replicating his voice without permission.

The company’s response is that it used a paid voice actor.
He spent decades perfecting his voice. Now he says Google stole it.
NPR’s David Greene says he was “completely freaked out” when he heard an AI voice that sounded just like his own, and he’s suing over it.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 15, 2026 at 7:24 PM
warnercrocker.bsky.social
Amazing how we keep finding new ways to lose each generation
timkellogg.me Tim Kellogg @timkellogg.me · 1d
Token Anxiety

i think i mostly echo this for myself. with so much that can be done, i often feel like i *should* be doing something, always
Token Anxiety Nikunj Kothari C @nikunj • Feb 13 A friend left a party at 9:30 on a Saturday. Not tired. Not sick. He wanted to get back to his agents. Nobody questions it anymore. Half the room is thinking the same thing. The other half are probably checking the progress of their agents. At a party. All the parties are sober now. Young people don't drink because they're going back to work after. Not inspired by Bryan Johnson, although that's probably a factor. The buzz they want now runs on tokens per day. I keep noticing it on walks through the Mission. Laptops glowing everywhere. Cafes, sidewalks, heck even park benches. People walking with screens open like a flashlight guiding them somewhere. Less drunk laughter on the streets these days. More keystrokes. Dinner conversations used to start with "what are you building?" That's over. Now it's "how many agents do you have running?" People drop the number the way they used to drop their follower count. Quietly competitive. The flex isn't what you've accomplished anymore. It's what's working while you're sitting here not working. The vocabulary is what really gets me though. People describe models the way sommeliers describe wine. This one has better taste. That one hallucinates with more confidence. Opus is bold, Codex is smooth. They talk about harnesses and reins like they're controlling horses. Invisible whips directing invisible labor. Someone at a dinner said they keep labor. Someone at a dinner said they keep "Claude on a tight leash for code review but give it more slack for creative work." We've started borrowing the language of how we treat animals for something none of us actually understand yet. Waking up and checking what your agents produced overnight is the first thing now. Before coffee. Before texts. You open your laptop and grade homework you assigned in your sleep. Some of it is good. Most needs rework. But you start shipping a plan before you sleep just so you can wake up to more code written overnight. Saturdays became uninterrupted build windows. No meetings, no Slack, twelve hours of you and your agents. Sunday morning X is all terminal screenshots and shipping receipts. "What'd you ship this weekend?" replaced "what'd you do this weekend?" The anxiety is rational, which is why it sticks. Every week some new benchmark drops that makes last month's workflow feel prehistoric. Codex ships overnight processing. Opus gets faster. Context windows double. None of it reduces the pressure. It multiplies it. You can do more now. And someone already is. The window to be first at anything feels like it's shrinking by the day. Literally, by the day. I replaced Netflix with Claude Code. I lie in bed thinking about what I can spin up before I fall asleep, what can run while I'm unconscious. Reading a novel feels indulgent now. Watching a movie without a laptop open feels wasteful. This voice in my head that says "something could be running right now" just doesn't shut off. I'm not even building a company. I'm just addicted to building my random ideas. Everyone here knows they should step away more. That's not the problem. The problem is what your brain does when you try. I still take a x ss walks. The agents come with me now.
February 15, 2026 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Warner Crocker
joshuaerlich.bsky.social
this is a description of being in a cult
timkellogg.me Tim Kellogg @timkellogg.me · 1d
Token Anxiety

i think i mostly echo this for myself. with so much that can be done, i often feel like i *should* be doing something, always
Token Anxiety Nikunj Kothari C @nikunj • Feb 13 A friend left a party at 9:30 on a Saturday. Not tired. Not sick. He wanted to get back to his agents. Nobody questions it anymore. Half the room is thinking the same thing. The other half are probably checking the progress of their agents. At a party. All the parties are sober now. Young people don't drink because they're going back to work after. Not inspired by Bryan Johnson, although that's probably a factor. The buzz they want now runs on tokens per day. I keep noticing it on walks through the Mission. Laptops glowing everywhere. Cafes, sidewalks, heck even park benches. People walking with screens open like a flashlight guiding them somewhere. Less drunk laughter on the streets these days. More keystrokes. Dinner conversations used to start with "what are you building?" That's over. Now it's "how many agents do you have running?" People drop the number the way they used to drop their follower count. Quietly competitive. The flex isn't what you've accomplished anymore. It's what's working while you're sitting here not working. The vocabulary is what really gets me though. People describe models the way sommeliers describe wine. This one has better taste. That one hallucinates with more confidence. Opus is bold, Codex is smooth. They talk about harnesses and reins like they're controlling horses. Invisible whips directing invisible labor. Someone at a dinner said they keep labor. Someone at a dinner said they keep "Claude on a tight leash for code review but give it more slack for creative work." We've started borrowing the language of how we treat animals for something none of us actually understand yet. Waking up and checking what your agents produced overnight is the first thing now. Before coffee. Before texts. You open your laptop and grade homework you assigned in your sleep. Some of it is good. Most needs rework. But you start shipping a plan before you sleep just so you can wake up to more code written overnight. Saturdays became uninterrupted build windows. No meetings, no Slack, twelve hours of you and your agents. Sunday morning X is all terminal screenshots and shipping receipts. "What'd you ship this weekend?" replaced "what'd you do this weekend?" The anxiety is rational, which is why it sticks. Every week some new benchmark drops that makes last month's workflow feel prehistoric. Codex ships overnight processing. Opus gets faster. Context windows double. None of it reduces the pressure. It multiplies it. You can do more now. And someone already is. The window to be first at anything feels like it's shrinking by the day. Literally, by the day. I replaced Netflix with Claude Code. I lie in bed thinking about what I can spin up before I fall asleep, what can run while I'm unconscious. Reading a novel feels indulgent now. Watching a movie without a laptop open feels wasteful. This voice in my head that says "something could be running right now" just doesn't shut off. I'm not even building a company. I'm just addicted to building my random ideas. Everyone here knows they should step away more. That's not the problem. The problem is what your brain does when you try. I still take a x ss walks. The agents come with me now.
February 15, 2026 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Warner Crocker
joshtpm.bsky.social
Just one of the worst developments in American society in a long time
kenvogel.bsky.social Ken Vogel @kenvogel.bsky.social · 1d
Adam Silver — who in 2014 became the 1st acting commissioner of a major US sports league to reverse his opposition to sports betting & call for its legalization — now says:

"We need a better handle, no pun intended, on all the different activity that's happening out there." x.com/Sportico/sta...
x.com
February 15, 2026 at 5:54 PM
Reposted by Warner Crocker
warnercrocker.bsky.social
Something big is happening, the death of nuance, and Bob Odenkirk is running for president.

Sunday Morning Reading with writing from @davidtoddmccarty.bsky.social @mathewingram.com and more.
#SundayMorningReading]

warnercrocker.com/2026/02/15/s...
Sunday Morning Reading
Big stuff is happening.
warnercrocker.com
February 15, 2026 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Warner Crocker
muz4now.com
Dreaming is not just what happens while you sleep #creativity #dreams #inspiration #webstories
Dreaming is not just what happens while you sleep
Stan Stewart - @muz4now
muz4now.com
February 14, 2026 at 3:14 PM
warnercrocker.bsky.social
Something big is happening, the death of nuance, and Bob Odenkirk is running for president.

Sunday Morning Reading with writing from @davidtoddmccarty.bsky.social @mathewingram.com and more.
#SundayMorningReading]

warnercrocker.com/2026/02/15/s...
Sunday Morning Reading
Big stuff is happening.
warnercrocker.com
February 15, 2026 at 1:45 PM
warnercrocker.bsky.social
Good morning. And a Happy Birthday to my lovely and talented wife. #Photography #Today #Chicago
Person holding two floral “Happy Birthday” balloons in front of their face, with large pink number-shaped balloons in the background indicating a birthday celebration.
February 15, 2026 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Warner Crocker
robertloerzel.bsky.social
Unexpected viaduct art on Kimball Avenue
Three cartoon cats painted on a concrete wall in a viaduct
February 14, 2026 at 10:51 PM
Reposted by Warner Crocker
blockclubchi.bsky.social
Latino-owned businesses are struggling to recover as Midway Blitz impacts linger. blockclubchi.co/4tz2V4z
February 14, 2026 at 8:01 PM
warnercrocker.bsky.social
Good thing of the moment. Taking advantage of warmer temperatures to get back into long, brisk walking shape.

Bad thing of the moment. My body screaming back at me saying "what the hell are you doing?" #Weather #Chicago
February 14, 2026 at 6:30 PM
warnercrocker.bsky.social
Helpful, still confusing. Still very much a work in progress.

More Thoughts On iOS 26’s iPhone App Changes

More Thoughts On iOS 26’s iPhone App Changes
#Apple #iPhone
warnercrocker.com/2026/02/11/mor…
February 14, 2026 at 5:24 PM
Reposted by Warner Crocker
marmel.bsky.social
Not even subtle about it, is she?
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d
Kristi Noem: "When it gets to Election Day, we've been proactive to make sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country."
February 14, 2026 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Warner Crocker
anamariecox.bsky.social
I don’t think they are necessarily correct in this belief! I just think they must believe it.
anamariecox.bsky.social Ana Marie Cox @anamariecox.bsky.social · 2d
I’ve said it before: the only thing that explains elected Republicans’ determination to support Trump’s objectively unpopular policies is that they don’t believe they’ll need to win a fair election.

Otherwise they’d read the same polls we do and moderate.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d
Kristi Noem: "When it gets to Election Day, we've been proactive to make sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country."
February 14, 2026 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Warner Crocker
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
“.. QuitGPT is the first true consumer-driven, social-political movement against AI .. it is a first sign of a crack developing in the AI race.”

- Fed Watch Advisors

@markruffalo.bsky.social
quitgpt.org
February 14, 2026 at 4:27 PM