Martin Kleppmann

If AI is a weapon, why don't we regulate it like one? Thoughts on the fight between Anthropic and the Department of War.

Once governments start seeing it as a national security concern, tighter regulation seems likely www.noahpinion.blog/p/if-ai-is-a...

I see firsthand how quickly AI is getting better at working with code, and I find it plausible that this could become a self-reinforcing feedback loop. The potential effects of this on society would be pure speculation.

The Making of the Atomic Bomb Here for the first time, in rich, human, political, and…

The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes seems to be well-reviewed? www.goodreads.com/book/show/16...

Does anyone have a favourite book on the history of nuclear weapons? I'm particularly interested in how the physicists grappled with the ethics of what they were unleashing on the world. I fear computer scientists might be the next to have such a reckoning.

I’m afraid I have no control over pricing, sorry. Maybe you could ask your library if they will get a copy, then you can borrow it?

There are lots of edits throughout the book, so the diff (at a textual level) would be almost as long as the book itself

Thanks! It’s an Indian Wild Boar

BahnBet — Bet on German Train Delays Predict Deutsche Bahn delays and win. Real-time prediction markets on ICE, IC & EC train delays.

Oh wow, German train delays are now so bad that someone made a website where you can bet on them (train data is real, the money is fake, but the whole thing is hilarious) bahn.bet

Glad you enjoyed it!

Sorry about that! We had announced it all over the place, so we weren't hiding the fact that the 2nd edition is coming

No, AFAIK O'Reilly never lets their authors pick the animal themselves

A while ago I used to sell signed copies, but it's a bit of hassle to do the shipping and I'm afraid I don't have the bandwidth for that at the moment. So I'm afraid you'll need to find me at a conference or something like that

A print copy of Designing Data-Intensive Applications, 2nd edition

Just received my author copies of the second edition of DDIA! After years of seeing it only on-screen, holding the final print book in hand is very special. @chris.blue

Supermarket shelves labelled “breakfast favourites”, and the shelves contain bottles of whisky and gin

Oh, is *that* your favourite breakfast, dear Waitrose?

Ah, good! I was misled by the big “request pricing” button at the top of the SPARK web page 😆

It’s definitely too verbose. But I think it does make some reasonable points

www.ivanturkovic.com/2026/02/25/a...

🤣

Received an email containing the literal text “[Insert specific compliment example]”.

I don't know much about it, and the blog post was not intended as a comprehensive overview of all verification tools available (there are many more besides SPARK that are unmentioned). It's a commercial tool, isn't it? I guess I naturally gravitate towards tools that are free and open source

happy birthday! 🎂

Those guys are probably running the country by now

Eton Style (Gangnam Style Parody) - (강남스타일) M/V YouTube video by Rather Rum

Our 3-year-old has discovered Gangnam Style and keeps asking me to sing it for him. My Korean is not up to scratch though, so I’ve been singing the lyrics from the Eton Style parody version, which I somehow memorised in 2012 and still remember. Anyone else remember this gem? youtu.be/9FtZkVRkusQ?...

Discworld QOTD, from Going Postal

Permissioned Data Diary 2: Buckets The second in a series of posts building up a solution to permissioned data on atproto. We introduce buckets: a new protocol primitive for creating a shared social context.

new blog post on permissioned data in atproto! this one introduces "buckets", the protocol-level primitive for shared access control. I walk through two approaches that don't quite work and land on something that I think does

let me know your thoughts!

Yes, they’re important questions, and different projects are answering them in different ways. I suspect there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.

I'll be giving a keynote at Local-First Conf, and lots of great people will be there. Love the thematic broadening of the conference (technology in support of user agency) this year. Grab your ticket!

QCon London 2026 | Mitigating Geopolitical Risks with Local-First Software and atproto Get practical inspiration and best practices on emerging software trends directly from senior software developers at early adopter companies.

I'll be giving a keynote at QCon London next month, combining both local-first software and atproto into a common narrative of reducing risk by making it easy to switch providers without losing your data. qconlondon.com/keynote/mar2...

Pricy conference, but SPEAKER60QUK26 gives a small discount

LoFi/34 (Local-First) Meetup -- Tuesday Feb 24, 2026 YouTube video by Local First (LoFi.so)

Yesterday I gave a talk at the local-first online meetup in which I explore how local-first can help support technological sovereignty in an age of geopolitical tensions youtu.be/81rQgLLxnGU?...

We should legislate identity portability for email addresses.

We have it for phone numbers, where the technical challenge was much greater. We should have it for email, too.