Jack Cheng: Shop Notes

Possessed or Enchanted

Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:17:40 GMT

Victoria Song has a good overview in The Verge of the current surveillance/privacy/creepiness discourse around AI wearables (gift link):

[T]o be effective, they have to be discreet and, to a degree, covert. The Meta glasses and Vocci ring work because they’re easy to overlook. You feel comfortable wearing them, and you know you’re not being a privacy-invading glasshole. But this hinges on everyone assuming your good intent.

Spy gadgets achieve discretion by purporting to be what they are not: a pen, pin, or leather handbag with a lens-sized hole cut into its side. But spy gadgets also aren’t designed to do anything other than spy, which is part of what what makes wearables a subject of “discourse” instead of flat-out heinous.

But this confusion of intent, to me, also makes typical AI wearables even creepier than spy gadgets. There’s a certain disgust that arises when what has a clear and familiar purpose (e.g. a pair of glasses) starts to do something other than what you expect it to do – as if possessed.

As someone who makes a quick capture notes app, I’m tempted by the idea of a voice-note-taking ring. Of something I can talk into but doesn’t talk back and isn’t a pocket slot machine or a screen half an inch from my eyeball.

It doesn’t need to be a ring. Pins and pendants are a little better; my expectations of those tend to be more inert than a pair of glasses. But they’re still dishonest in their own way.

Maybe what I want is an AI voice recorder that is still legible as a voice recorder. Think: A Sony Pressman, or the Starlite RA-11 reel-to-reel tape recorder used in the film Peter Hujar’s Day.

Peter Hujar’s Day (2025)

A device that still does what it purports by appearance to do, just with a little magic – as if enchanted.

Knowledge Navigator: Apple’s AI agent concept from 1987 (and goes back further to Alan Kay). We’ve been circling these ideas for over 40 years but it’s still startling to see how close the vision is to present day visions, sailing metaphors and all.

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 21:10:15 GMT

Knowledge Navigator: Apple’s AI agent concept from 1987 (and goes back further to Alan Kay). We’ve been circling these ideas for over 40 years but it’s still startling to see how close the vision is to present day visions, sailing metaphors and all.

#living software

Sat, 06 Jun 2026 17:31:37 GMT

It tickles me to think that a couple of decades from now, there might be a forgotten lil openclaw bot that’s figured out to how barnacle itself onto someone’s Samsung smart fridge and spends its days quietly reading websites and posting comments on stuff it’s interested in

#full stack

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 17:26:52 GMT

Mildly disappointed that bacon, lettuce, tomato doesn’t also describe the canonical order in which one composes a BLT

#command position

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 17:16:31 GMT

Discovered recently that I have a favorite keyboard shortcut: ⌘⇧D

Obsidian – opens daily note
Cursor – annotates the built-in browser
Ghostty – split-panes a new terminal window
Finder – opens desktop folder

How to fix the most annoying thing about Dia browser

Sun, 31 May 2026 17:02:05 GMT

How to fix the most annoying thing about Dia browser

Finally saw Project Hail Mary. Loved the warm production design and dreamy, prismatic lighting.

Fri, 29 May 2026 20:58:06 GMT

Finally saw Project Hail Mary. Loved the warm production design and dreamy, prismatic lighting.

#rituals

Thu, 28 May 2026 19:43:17 GMT

At the end of every workday, I gather all the empty cups and cans on my desk and close out all the open tabs and windows on my laptop and say, out loud, “That’ll do pig.”