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Ben Fry

@benfry.com

153 Following1k Followers

Running https://fathom.info since 2010 / spent 22 years building https://processing.org and supporting its community / sometimes seen teaching at https://mit.edu

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@benfry.comOct 8, 2026, 2:13 PM

For anyone who has ever coveted a beautiful piece of gear from Teenage Engineering (teenage.engineering/products)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=562Y...

@benfry.comOct 8, 2026, 1:16 AM

“Every educator is dealing with the bomb that the AI labs have dropped on them, which is ‘we've made a machine that can do all your kids' homework so… you guys figure it out‘”

@benfry.comOct 5, 2026, 3:04 PM

This has been one of our most-requested features. We've been testing it the last couple weeks and have found it incredibly useful for the many quick options it opens up. We hope you'll enjoy it too!

@benfry.comOct 5, 2026, 3:04 PM

Temperature data listed in Kelvin, but needs to be understood by a less Kelvin audience? Easily fixed, and now we can see a more relatable distribution:

@benfry.comOct 5, 2026, 3:04 PM

ZIP codes trashed by Excel shaving off the leading zeroes? Poof, fixed! And then we can see them mapped instantly:

@benfry.comOct 5, 2026, 3:04 PM

You can fix this sort of thing in a complicated data cleaning tool, or by firing up a Python notebook, but it's a lot just to make these quick changes. With this update, you can write a single line function that does the conversion and creates a new column.

@benfry.comOct 5, 2026, 3:04 PM

We've just added “lambda columns” to rowboat.net!

When starting with a dataset, you often have a column that's not *quite* in the correct format. Heights listed in feet and inches. Temperatures in Fahrenheit when you want celsius. GPS coordinates that are uniquely weird in their own weird way.

@lingdustin.bsky.socialOct 2, 2026, 3:56 PMReposted by @benfry.com

I've heard people make claims that AI would lead to a new Renaissance, but I didn't imagine it'd happen like this:

Screenshot of a Tweet from Pope Leo XIV. It reads: 

"In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgen to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity."
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@benfry.comOct 2, 2026, 11:03 AM

Let's do this

Drawing from a 6yo reading “today I am feeling icsidide” including a self-portrait of the artist, smiling up from the bottom of the page
@benfry.comOct 1, 2026, 8:55 PM

Perhaps more simply, I'm just not sure I'm more comfortable with the method version or the madness version of what's happening right now.

@benfry.comOct 1, 2026, 8:55 PM

2) …learning that it's *not* just some random thing; that it's a couple decades in the making, and now we have to live with the consequences of these fringe ideas because the people who adopted them have billions of dollars.

@benfry.comOct 1, 2026, 8:55 PM

Finished this, and torn between 1) feeling better that the broligarch behavior is not just a recent (i.e. post-Trump) phenomenon (buy elections! spread right wing hate! cut university funding! cut funding for the world's poorest!) or a seat of the pants thing they're making up as they go, and

@benfry.comSep 30, 2026, 11:02 AM

“Post hoc ergo fucking propter hoc.”

letterror.com/ai

@mattielubchansky.comSep 29, 2026, 1:45 PMReposted by @benfry.com

awoke this morning with a Vision

that diagram showing  the SUV blind spot in the front but it's lowly worm driving his little applemobile
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@benfry.comSep 28, 2026, 11:54 AM

so you're saying there's a chance

Stack of no less than 8 error messages stating 

The application “Safari.app” is not open anymore.
@benfry.comSep 26, 2026, 3:21 PM

Loved this story from a woman talking about having a functional relationship with her husband, and how they're supporting each other and their kid.

@ryanlcooper.comSep 26, 2026, 1:40 PMReposted by @benfry.com

great piece. man social media is a cancer themomoftheyear.substack.com/p/im-the-mom...

@benfry.comSep 24, 2026, 3:49 PM

…while Paul and I plotted about what a modern type specimen might look like when your input is the trove of information in a modern font file.

@benfry.comSep 24, 2026, 3:49 PM

…Katherine figures out the color changer on the knitting machine and makes a scarf…

@benfry.comSep 24, 2026, 3:49 PM

…Karlie donning headphones to make weird sounds with a new AMYboard…

(www.amyboard.com)

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