Blog (in English)

New year, new theme

I was working on a revision of the Manual WordPress theme to coincide with our upcoming migration from WordPress to ClassicPress. I couldn't resist and implemented it here on the blog while still on WordPress. (ClassicPress is scheduled to come into play in March.)

One of the new features is this behind-the-scenes "mini-blog" separate from the main blog's front page. For those who follow via RSS feed, nothing changes. The distinction is purely structural and only valid for the pt_BR version — in English, all posts appear on blog’s homepage.

The new version of the dez theme, 4.0, brings other cool new features that I intend to explore thoroughly. (I follow the "pride versioning" approach, which calls for major releases when the person is proud of what they've done.)

Of what is noticeable to readers in dez 4.0, I highlight three things:

  • A new post format, link, which I will use to comment on texts by other authors. The inspiration for this is Jim Nielsen's blog notes. I will suspend the holiday break on next Monday (5th) and publish the first of this kind.
  • Now, all of the cool links posts appear on the home page. Until yesterday, only the last one published was displayed, and to see the others, you had to access the archive.
  • Several minor adjustments to the layout in order to simplify it. For example, the main menu has been vanished in the English version. The margins and spacing between elements are now more consistent, and I have made greater use of dashed borders to separate them visually.

In addition to more granular behind-the-scenes information about the site, which was previously restricted to the newsletter log, I will also replicate the news from the PC Manual here, our public FOSS apps server.

The first of the year, in fact, is the Readeck test, a free and modern FOSS alternative to the late Pocket, Instapaper, ReadWise Reader, and the like — a “read it later” type app. If you are a paying subscriber, send an email requesting your access credentials.

The drawing for Brazil’s largest lottery prize ever — BRL 1 billion (USD 180 million) — was postponed due to the volume of bets, which reached 125,000 per second, 120,000 of them via digital channels. The draw, originally scheduled for 10 PM on Wednesday (31st), was moved to this morning. I hope they actually make it this time.

Via O Globo (pt_BR).

Mozilla said Firefox will have a “kill switch” that disables all AI features in the browser. Someone witty quipped it will be the “Uninstall” button.

The iPhone 16e is good, actually

MKBHD gave the “Burst of the Year” award to the iPhone 16e, Apple’s entry-level phone released in the first half of 2025 to replace the tired (but beloved) iPhone SE. The Basic Apple Guy, in his annual Apple product releases tier list, placed the iPhone 16e in tier C.

Those two examples show the “cheap” iPhone didn’t have the impact people expected because… well, it’s not that cheap. (And it has no MagSafe. Fix this on the 17e, Apple?)

The iPhone 16e’s pricing is odd. It costs USD 599, which is only about 25% cheaper than the much better iPhone 17 at USD 799. (Or −27.7% if you consider the unlocked price of USD 829.)

Note that most of the criticism of the iPhone 16e comes from US-based outlets and commentators. The 16e doesn’t really feel like a product designed for that market.

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Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition — the open alternative to Alexa and Siri for controlling smart homes

by James Pond

When it comes to smart speakers, Amazon has Alexa, Apple has the HomePod, and Google has Nest. If you want something private — that runs locally — to control your home, there weren’t many alternatives.

Or there weren’t until now. To fill that gap, Nabu Casa, the sponsor of the Home Assistant open source project, released the Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition.

I bought six of these to replace six HomePods I had scattered around the house. After using them for a while, the question is: can you trust this for everyday use, or is it better to wait for a release without “preview” in the name?

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It’s possible that Time magazine’s Person of the Year selection — which in this issue named “the AI architects” (i.e., big-tech AI CEOs) — was chosen by an AI. First clue: calling several people the otherwise singular “Person” of the Year. Second and stronger clue: only something as dumb as an AI would pick that bunch of clowns as Person(s) of the Year.

How to get found by recruiters on LinkedIn

Editor’s note: Job openings are a recurring topic in the Manual supporters’ WhatsApp group. In a recent conversation there were so many useful LinkedIn tips that we ended up with a kind of playbook for doing well on the platform. Thanks to everyone who contributed, especially Marcia who steered the discussion, Caique who saved the thread, and Paulo, who condensed many messages into this concise text.

Nobody likes LinkedIn, but a lot of people need to be there to apply for roles at companies that, if you’re lucky, will send an automatic message telling you they decided to move forward with another candidate. Even so, it’s worth trying to understand how this corporate theme park works and how it can (yes, it’s possible) help you land a less miserable job.

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Is “green AI” even possible?

Ecosia, the search engine that directs its profits to climate action, asks whether there’s a “green” alternative for generative AI in the title of this post — and in the same post’s headline answers that “the world’s greenest AI is here.”

The “greenest AI,” that paradox, is the one Ecosia just launched integrated into its search. The implementation mirrors Google’s: a summary (“AI Overviews”) above results and a one‑click away chatbot. The obvious difference is a button to disable AI. The less obvious — and crucial — claim is that:

As a not-for-profit company, we can afford to do things differently. AI Search uses smaller, more efficient models, and we avoid energy-heavy features like video generation altogether.

Details are missing (which “smaller, more efficient models”?) and the example is odd (no search engine with AI currently offers video generation).

I’m not against generative AI — that would be hypocritical, since I use it occasionally. (And on another search engine, DuckDuckGo’s.)

That’s why headlines like this and Mozilla pouring everything into AI for Firefox leave me uneasy. No matter the appeal, it seems odd for a service whose raison d’être is climate action to jump on a wave so energy‑hungry it’s reviving nuclear plants and prompting big techs to drop carbon‑reduction promises.

The “greener AI,” ultimately, is not having AI at all. Ignoring it — at least until adoption stabilizes and environmental impacts are better understood — would be coherent and even a differentiator in a sea of companies adding AI for the sake of it.

I tried to build a WhatsApp bot. Meta banned me before it left the drawing board

by Alessandro Feitosa Jr

Part of most people’s learning curve when they start coding is trying projects that, with luck, might become useful to themselves and others. In May I wanted to get a better handle on the WhatsApp API. I set up my local environment, logged into Meta’s developer platform and started poking around.

I grabbed a test number the platform provided, sent a “Hello World” and tried a few basic commands for the architecture I was sketching. A few weeks later I had to set the project aside.

When I tried to pick it up again a few weeks ago, I was alarmed by the message on Meta’s developer page:

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The fact that people are unimpressed that we can have a fluent conversation with a super smart AI that can generate any image/video is mindblowing to me.

A picture of Mustafa Suleyman.Mustafa Suleyman
CEO da Microsoft AI

Mustafa Suleyman’s outburst is a reaction to Windows 11 users’ criticism of another Microsoft exec, Pavan Davuluri, who said Windows is evolving into an “agentic” operating system.

“Agentic” is a euphemism tech execs use for “AI‑stuffed software that doesn’t work properly.” In the case of Windows 11, for example, Microsoft warns that AI “agents” can, among other things, install malware and expose private data. Yay…?

Reply to Anil Dash, re: I know you don’t want them to want AI, but

I was flattered to get a reply from Anil Dash to my post about the backlash Mozilla faces for its plan to add AI to Firefox. I’ve read Anil for a long time and admire his work.

That said, I respectfully disagree with his arguments — here’s why.

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I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla

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Mozilla is developing a built‑in AI assistant for Firefox that will be offered as a third browsing mode alongside Normal and Private tabs. They’re calling it “Window AI.”

Details are still scarce. Based on Mozilla’s official announcement on Thursday (13th), it looks like a deeper implementation than the existing sidebar that gives access to third‑party chatbots (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, etc.). The post stresses the feature will be opt-in and that the user “is in control.”

There’s a waitlist to try the feature and a Mozilla forum thread inviting people to “help shape” the initiative.

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How should open source software projects handle AI‑generated code?

The excellent KeePassXC, an offline, open‑source password manager, is at the center of a controversy over the use of AI‑generated code after the project’s collaboration policy and README added this paragraph:

Generative AI is fast becoming a first-party feature in most development environments, including GitHub itself. If the majority of a code submission is made using Generative AI (e.g., agent-based or vibe coding) then we will document that in the pull request. All code submissions go through a rigorous review process regardless of the development workflow or submitter.

Users and critics backlash was so intense that on Sunday (9the) one of the project maintainers, Janek Bevendorff, published a post on the official blog detailing their stance on AI‑generated code.

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Facebook and Instagram are paradises for scammers, reveal Meta’s internal documents

Reuters shed light on Meta’s lucrative business built on selling fraudulent ads on its platforms — Facebook and Instagram. Internal company documents obtained by the news agency show that 10.1% of Meta’s 2024 revenue, or US$ 16 billion, came from fraudulent/scam ads.

A December 2024 document shows Meta running an average of 15 billion fraudulent ads per day. Those add to 22 billion pieces of suspicious “organic” content (unpaid) — from hacked profiles offering crypto schemes to promises of miracle cures in groups, and fake listings on Facebook Marketplace.

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A few months ago, youtubers reported unsolicited interventions by Google to “improve” their videos with generative AI. It appeared to be a test; now it’s official.

Channel owners can disable this feature in Studio: go to Settings, Channel, Advanced settings and uncheck the two options under Video quality enhancements. For viewers, Google’s suggested workaround is to change the resolution in the player’s settings.