Ansel Halliburton
@anseljh.com
Law technology & technology law. In-house trademark lawyer. Free Law Project (@free.law) board. Building in #LegalTech since 2006. Making derpy from-scratch robots for fun. @Obsidian.md nerd. DM for Signal.
The "Loyalty" principle says:
"A user agent must serve its user’s interests over its implementer’s interests and over the interests of any other party."
"A user agent must serve its user’s interests over its implementer’s interests and over the interests of any other party."
December 10, 2025 at 4:41 PM
The "Loyalty" principle says:
"A user agent must serve its user’s interests over its implementer’s interests and over the interests of any other party."
"A user agent must serve its user’s interests over its implementer’s interests and over the interests of any other party."
There's a recently-published W3C Editor's Draft titled "Web User Agents", and it is just full of bangers. But the key idea is that web user agents (browsers and other tools we use to access the web) are for their regular, human users, and owe those users *duties*. w3ctag.github.io/user-agents/
December 10, 2025 at 4:41 PM
There's a recently-published W3C Editor's Draft titled "Web User Agents", and it is just full of bangers. But the key idea is that web user agents (browsers and other tools we use to access the web) are for their regular, human users, and owe those users *duties*. w3ctag.github.io/user-agents/
I ran across this W3C Editor's Draft yesterday, and it has some really surprising *bangers* about user agents *owing duties* to their *human* principals. All is not lost! w3ctag.github.io/user-agents/
November 21, 2025 at 2:23 AM
I ran across this W3C Editor's Draft yesterday, and it has some really surprising *bangers* about user agents *owing duties* to their *human* principals. All is not lost! w3ctag.github.io/user-agents/
I decided last week to name my robot Clanker, but there are some other good robo-slurs on this list.
Updated photo:
Updated photo:
October 6, 2025 at 10:09 PM
I decided last week to name my robot Clanker, but there are some other good robo-slurs on this list.
Updated photo:
Updated photo:
The New York Times is ON IT.
This headline is from today, in the year 2025.
This headline is from today, in the year 2025.
September 15, 2025 at 12:29 AM
The New York Times is ON IT.
This headline is from today, in the year 2025.
This headline is from today, in the year 2025.
Bad news, everyone, Polish is hard
September 10, 2025 at 6:07 AM
Bad news, everyone, Polish is hard
History is great, isn't it? You can learn so much.
September 9, 2025 at 3:54 AM
History is great, isn't it? You can learn so much.
I’m a sucker for exotic input devices.
August 29, 2025 at 5:26 PM
I’m a sucker for exotic input devices.
So what are folks doing about the generative AI slop ouroboros? 3 engineers confirmed this post, and likely the entire site, is bullshit. It won’t be long until it’s scraped and ingested into training new models. From there, to code generators. Not great!
August 25, 2025 at 5:00 PM
So what are folks doing about the generative AI slop ouroboros? 3 engineers confirmed this post, and likely the entire site, is bullshit. It won’t be long until it’s scraped and ingested into training new models. From there, to code generators. Not great!
There are no other mentions of “Calvinball” in Supreme Court opinions known to CourtListener.
August 21, 2025 at 10:40 PM
There are no other mentions of “Calvinball” in Supreme Court opinions known to CourtListener.
Have some respect! You are talking to Doctor Manhattan!
August 19, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Have some respect! You are talking to Doctor Manhattan!
The World of Coca-Cola is weirdly nifty.
August 16, 2025 at 7:04 PM
The World of Coca-Cola is weirdly nifty.
Do they not understand that all the chunks come down after the rocket blows up?
August 14, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Do they not understand that all the chunks come down after the rocket blows up?
Here’s a peek at the inside. Still a work in progress. The “brain” of the thing is flopped over on the left. It’s an @adafruit.com QT PY RP2040. Bonus points if you can figure out what’s going on at the top left corner inside the enclosure.
June 22, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Here’s a peek at the inside. Still a work in progress. The “brain” of the thing is flopped over on the left. It’s an @adafruit.com QT PY RP2040. Bonus points if you can figure out what’s going on at the top left corner inside the enclosure.
I’ve been working on the remote control for the robot. Robo-Magellan rules require a remote dead-man’s switch: if you take your finger off a button, the robot must stop. That’s the red button here. The switch above that toggles between manual driving and autonomous modes. Power switch to the right.
June 22, 2025 at 4:04 AM
I’ve been working on the remote control for the robot. Robo-Magellan rules require a remote dead-man’s switch: if you take your finger off a button, the robot must stop. That’s the red button here. The switch above that toggles between manual driving and autonomous modes. Power switch to the right.
Boom! It’s at the top of the RECAP category! 😎
free.law/store
free.law/store
May 15, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Boom! It’s at the top of the RECAP category! 😎
free.law/store
free.law/store
Yeah good point. I’m not great with the taxonomy of power saws. What I have most readily available is this guy, which I think (?) is more like a chop saw. What do you think?
April 29, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Yeah good point. I’m not great with the taxonomy of power saws. What I have most readily available is this guy, which I think (?) is more like a chop saw. What do you think?
Eugenicists building disease registries? Fuck off with that. Now’s a great time for software engineers to have a look at the ACM Code of Ethics. Let it be a tool if you ever need to tell your boss to also fuck off with building something like this. #software #ethics
www.acm.org/code-of-ethics
www.acm.org/code-of-ethics
April 22, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Eugenicists building disease registries? Fuck off with that. Now’s a great time for software engineers to have a look at the ACM Code of Ethics. Let it be a tool if you ever need to tell your boss to also fuck off with building something like this. #software #ethics
www.acm.org/code-of-ethics
www.acm.org/code-of-ethics
Over the weekend, I also attached a few of the tubes together to see what one of the corners would be like. The brackets are kinda questionable, so I’m going to reinforce them with flat ones on the top/bottom sides. Hope that’s enough; we’ll see!
April 22, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Over the weekend, I also attached a few of the tubes together to see what one of the corners would be like. The brackets are kinda questionable, so I’m going to reinforce them with flat ones on the top/bottom sides. Hope that’s enough; we’ll see!
I cut the aluminum tubing down to the right sizes! Well, approximately. I got the hang of it right around the last cut. 🙃
April 19, 2025 at 5:25 AM
I cut the aluminum tubing down to the right sizes! Well, approximately. I got the hang of it right around the last cut. 🙃
I landed on switching to #25 chain because there is also a British equivalent standard (04C) that is denominated in metric. This means I could find sprockets in both metric *and* Imperial units, for which it’s easier to get all the other parts. 📏 See www.usarollerchain.com/04C-Roller-C...
April 18, 2025 at 9:06 AM
I landed on switching to #25 chain because there is also a British equivalent standard (04C) that is denominated in metric. This means I could find sprockets in both metric *and* Imperial units, for which it’s easier to get all the other parts. 📏 See www.usarollerchain.com/04C-Roller-C...
It’s the shell game, but the shells are judicial districts and the ball is your liberty, but actually the ball rolled away down the storm drain and it’s gone, did we mention the sewer is the fourth shell? Oh well, game over. Next!
April 8, 2025 at 4:35 AM
It’s the shell game, but the shells are judicial districts and the ball is your liberty, but actually the ball rolled away down the storm drain and it’s gone, did we mention the sewer is the fourth shell? Oh well, game over. Next!