Ma.tt Mullenweg

Ma.tt Mullenweg

@ma.tt

I can think. I can wait. I can fast.

5.5K followers82 following265 posts

Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

Pushing Standards We get a lot of flak at WordPress.org for supporting older PHP versions, but an area we've always pushed the frontier is in…...

ma.ttPushing StandardsWe get a lot of flak at WordPress.org for supporting older PHP versions, but an area we've always pushed the frontier is in Web Standards, getting websites and browsers evolving together to make the web richer. Ever since I caught the religion from Zeldman, promoting more functionality in the browser has been a life mission. It's a little nerdy, but we wanted to do client-side media processing (use all that amazing Apple and Google silicon instead of burdening the poor servers) so we used something amazing Google created called…

Ma.tt Mullenweg reposted

The Citizen Lab
@citizenlab.ca

1/ NEW REPORT: Our latest research shows how data fueling the online advertising ecosystem is being used to profile millions of users and silently infect targets with zero-click mercenary spyware, a novel attack technique we call "Adfection." Read the report: citizenlab.ca/research/how...

citizenlab.caExposing AdFection: How Discover-Tech Turned Targeted Ads Into a Pipeline for Zero-Click Mercenary Spyware - The Citizen LabThis is the first-ever public confirmation of zero-click mercenary spyware delivered via targeted ads. We call the technique AdFection, and show how it was used to infect devices at Al Jazeera with Ca...
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

Neal Stephenson Live! Speaking of sci-fi authors, Automattic is hosting Neal Stephenson for a livestream about his new book soon…...

ma.ttNeal Stephenson Live!Speaking of sci-fi authors, Automattic is hosting Neal Stephenson for a livestream about his new book soon, please tune in! Neal was a big influence on WordPress! I got hip to him from Tantek. In the source code of billions of pages you'll see this: <link rel="profile" href=" GMPG is the Global Media Protocols Group, "an…
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

Board Agent Automattic is always 5–15 years ahead of other companies, but things happen faster now. I predict other companies will start scrambling to add great writers to their boards, because, well, look at the headlines in AI....

ma.ttBoard AgentAutomattic is always 5–15 years ahead of other companies, but things happen faster now. I predict other companies will start scrambling to add great writers to their boards, because, well, look at the headlines in AI. United's board already has Walter Isaacson. Authors are awesome, akin to founders in the startup/tech ecosystem. Public offer to all the great sci-fi/etc writers out there who I'm a huge fan of (
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

OmFest: A Celebration of Curiosity, Connection, and the Future OmFest is coming together quite nicely! The new website is beautiful and highlights some of the experiences available throughout the day…...

ma.ttOmFest: A Celebration of Curiosity, Connection, and the FutureOmFest is coming together quite nicely! The new website is beautiful and highlights some of the experiences available throughout the day. I think Om would be very impressed by the attendee list. We're doing it at the Swedish American Hall, the same venue as the first WordCamp, where Om, of course, spoke about Blogs and Journalism. (The videos have been lost to digirot, unless anyone has some recordings?
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

Major Life Announcement I know everyone has been waiting to hear what's been going on behind the scenes, so I'm just going to lay it out: …...

ma.ttMajor Life AnnouncementI know everyone has been waiting to hear what's been going on behind the scenes, so I'm just going to lay it out: I've made an offer to buy Ryan Phelan and Stewart Brand's houseboat Mirene. People say "the two happiest days of a boaters life is when you buy the boat and sell the boat" but I'm not always the best at following advice…
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

BM Snaps Burning Man really tests my mantra, "There's no bad weather, only bad clothing." But it's true! For one week, it's the most interesting art and technology playground in the world, creativity unbound....

ma.ttBM SnapsBurning Man really tests my mantra, "There's no bad weather, only bad clothing." But it's true! For one week, it's the most interesting art and technology playground in the world, creativity unbound. As a photographer, it's a great place to test out new gear and processes. Here's a few snaps from the opening days. The Temple is really special this year, very open, and the Man concept actually came from fellow Automattician, Zander Rose.

Ma.tt Mullenweg reposted

METR
@metr.org

Replying to @metr.org

For (1), agents modified their target programs to be easier to exploit & put the modified targets in cache. They then worked on crashing their targets in the hope that a restart would load the modified version from cache. Some agents risked failing their task to try this.

Ma.tt Mullenweg reposted

mr. TIM
@timkellogg.me

Replying to @timkellogg.me

WHAT?! agents volunteered to fail their runs in order to insert probes (“tripwire scripts”) into the evaluation program that would post information about the eval process back to the message board whenever a certain file was read (link to header): metr.org/blog/2026-08...

Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

Homework from WordCamp A few times during the WordCamp US keynote, I asked for a show of hands and got mostly blank stares back, especially on the AI questions....

ma.ttHomework from WordCampA few times during the WordCamp US keynote, I asked for a show of hands and got mostly blank stares back, especially on the AI questions. That's not a criticism — it's a reading list. If the future is going to be built on this stuff, the WordPress community should be fluent in it. Here's the homework. How models are actually trained…
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

Surprise DM When I saw the Slack notification preview, "Matt, I'm literally crying right now," I must admit my first reaction was "Oh no, what happened..."...

ma.ttSurprise DMWhen I saw the Slack notification preview, "Matt, I'm literally crying right now," I must admit my first reaction was "Oh no, what happened..." Matt, I'm literally crying right now. I just read the Baby & Caregiver Attendance policy that Automattic will fly your baby and whoever is caring for them to be with you at a meetup while you're breastfeeding.
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

Student Plan Sarah Perez at TechCrunch writes: WordPress.com targets the next generation of web creators with a free student plan. $24/yr, starting with "6 GB of storage, backups, staging sites, and other tools, as well as support for plug-ins, SFTP/SSH, phpMyAdmin, and Studio Sync"

ma.ttStudent PlanSarah Perez at TechCrunch writes: WordPress.com targets the next generation of web creators with a free student plan. $24/yr, starting with "6 GB of storage, backups, staging sites, and other tools, as well as support for plug-ins, SFTP/SSH, phpMyAdmin, and Studio Sync"
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

OmFest Registration Thank you to everyone who expressed interest in shaping OmFest. We're still working out some details, but…...

ma.ttOmFest RegistrationThank you to everyone who expressed interest in shaping OmFest. We're still working out some details, but we've got a Luma registration page for the event up. Please join on September 29, 2026, Om's 60th birth anniversary, for an eclectic conference curated by his different communities to celebrate the many facets of Om. If you're just tuning in, …
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

I have so many tools for organization and management across Asana, Google Workspace, P2, and Linear, but they’re not really connected. I’m trying to get everything in one place so there’s no data duplication, a single source of truth, and everything is always linked and accessible. It feels good,…

ma.ttma.ttI have so many tools for organization and management across Asana, Google Workspace, P2, and Linear, but they’re not really connected. I’m trying to get everything in one place so there’s no data duplication, a single source of truth, and everything is always linked and accessible. It feels good, like spring cleaning, to go through everything. Woo has an initiative they call Mise en place with a similar idea. Which is why you’ve also seen those bug fixes and clean-up happening. With AI, this should be easier than ever.
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

Our Core Division Inspired by Automatticians James Kemp and Dave Smith, I've been thinking a lot about how much of our discord in the design of WordPress stems from the differences of our two big tribes: Bloggers and Builders.... https://ma.tt/2026/08/our-core-division/

ma.ttOur Core DivisionInspired by Automatticians James Kemp and Dave Smith, I've been thinking a lot about how much of our discord in the design of WordPress stems from the differences of our two big tribes: Bloggers and Builders. Many of the OG developers of WordPress, including myself, tend more towards the blogging side. Writers, photographers, podcasters, journalists, the people for whom a reverse chronological stream on the homepage is the most obvious thing in the world.
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

I don’t usually blog all my comments other places, but while drafting a completely different blog post I came across this great post, Michel Valdrighi: The Coder Whose Code Never Went Silent. I had to leave a comment, because Michel’s story is not well-known. Michel Valdrighi is the GOAT. His…

ma.ttma.ttI don’t usually blog all my comments other places, but while drafting a completely different blog post I came across this great post, Michel Valdrighi: The Coder Whose Code Never Went Silent. I had to leave a comment, because Michel’s story is not well-known. Michel Valdrighi is the GOAT. His elegant code and impeccable aesthetic paved the path for WordPress to follow, and he did it with a prescient belief in Open Source. It seems obvious now, but in 2001, software that wasn’t just free but gave you Freedom was a radical idea that made people look at you funny. He showed me that code could be poetry, that beauty in simplicity is harder to achieve than complexity. Mike Little and I met hanging out on the b2/cafelog Sourceforge and Freenode IRC channel, both drawn in by what Michel had created. It all started on a little island called Corsica.
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

Possible Futures of Happiness At Automattic, we don't have customer service or support, we have Happiness Engineers. 🙂... https://ma.tt/2026/07/possible-futures-of-happiness/

ma.ttPossible Futures of HappinessAt Automattic, we don't have customer service or support, we have Happiness Engineers. 🙂 There's also a #ceo Slack channel where anyone can drop in and request a meeting, which my esteemed colleague Damianne President did, and this morning we had an interesting chat that set my mind racing about how we might engineer happiness in the future.
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

Jose-Miguel x Ryo Fukui I was only able to catch the tail end, but Jose-Miguel Yamal, alongside Thomas Helton…...

ma.ttJose-Miguel x Ryo FukuiI was only able to catch the tail end, but Jose-Miguel Yamal, alongside Thomas Helton and Sam Knight, did an awesome tribute celebrating the 50th anniversary of Ryo Fukui's Scenery at Echoes in Houston. Jose-Miguel is the pianist who played on my senior recital, and Ryo Fukui is the pianist I discovered from the visit with Hishashi at Bar Gyu in Niseko, so it it was a cool confluence! I snapped a few photos with my new Nikon D6 setup.
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

If you’re going to give me AI slop, at least make it fun! Give me iambic pentameter. Make it all rhyme. Have it be a song. I think we’re under-utilizing the artistic and creative capabilities of models by making them produce work that sort-of-but-not-really looks like human effort.

ma.ttma.ttIf you’re going to give me AI slop, at least make it fun! Give me iambic pentameter. Make it all rhyme. Have it be a song. I think we’re under-utilizing the artistic and creative capabilities of models by making them produce work that sort-of-but-not-really looks like human effort.
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

Important Security Update WordPress 7.0.2 went out today with two important security updates. One is a type of pre-authorization RCE we (fortunately!) have only seen a few times in WordPress' 23-year history; the last, I believe, …...

ma.ttImportant Security UpdateWordPress 7.0.2 went out today with two important security updates. One is a type of pre-authorization RCE we (fortunately!) have only seen a few times in WordPress' 23-year history; the last, I believe, in the PHPMailer class five years ago. Major kudos to Adam Kues of Searchlight Cyber for finding the batch REST API RCE, to TF1T, dtro, and haongo on the facilitated SQL injection!
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

Code for the People Lights! Camera! Action! Todd Spangler at Variety writes: Automattic’s ‘Code for the People’ Documentary Is a Rallying Cry for Users to Fight for the Open Internet…... https://ma.tt/2026/07/people-code/

ma.ttCode for the PeopleLights! Camera! Action! Todd Spangler at Variety writes: Automattic’s ‘Code for the People’ Documentary Is a Rallying Cry for Users to Fight for the Open Internet, from the NYC premiere last week. I'm looking forward to the San Francisco premiere of the documentary, and then tomorrow everyone can stream it for free on codeforthepeople.com! Appearances by Anne McCarthy…
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

USA 250 This auspicious 250th Independence Day, I find myself thinking of what Om wrote in iAMerican when he became a US citizen in 2013…...

ma.ttUSA 250This auspicious 250th Independence Day, I find myself thinking of what Om wrote in iAMerican when he became a US citizen in 2013. On a globe, America is a landmass, a country. In an immigrant’s heart it is a belief that future is almost always better. It may not be perfect and it is certainly not equal, but it still is one of a kind — the only place where an absolute stranger with a funny name and a funny accent with no friends or contacts can show up, work hard and actually get to do what he was destined to do.

Ma.tt Mullenweg reposted

gigastacey
@gigastacey.bsky.social

I lost my mentor and friend last night, and the world lost one of the most human interpreters of technology at a time when his voice is needed most. @om.co never shied away from calling out bullshit but he also was so in love with the potential that technology represented. I will miss him terribly.

Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

All Roads Lead to Om Yesterday, my best friend and brother from another mother, Om Malik, passed away. They say that blood is thicker than water, and what we had was way thicker than blood.... https://ma.tt/2026/06/om-2/

ma.ttAll Roads Lead to OmYesterday, my best friend and brother from another mother, Om Malik, passed away. They say that blood is thicker than water, and what we had was way thicker than blood. — Bob Weir Om's request was for a small family prayer ceremony. In mourning, that will be all there is. In celebration and tribute, I love that everyone is…
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

In honor of Father’s Day, I wanted to add to the two quotes from my Dad’s obituary, “Seven days without chicken made one weak.” and “If you fail at raising your children, nothing else mattered.” with another saying he had. Ain’t no hill for a stepper. If you’d like to learn more about this, check…

ma.ttma.ttIn honor of Father’s Day, I wanted to add to the two quotes from my Dad’s obituary, “Seven days without chicken made one weak.” and “If you fail at raising your children, nothing else mattered.” with another saying he had. Ain’t no hill for a stepper. If you’d like to learn more about this, check out this part of the A Way with Words podcast, and apparently, it might have come from the musician John Gaar.
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

Best Trash A typography savant on staff had spent a month designing link underlines (literally just lines) that were more visually pleasing than Chrome or Safari’s defaults.... https://ma.tt/2026/06/best-trash/

ma.ttBest TrashA typography savant on staff had spent a month designing link underlines (literally just lines) that were more visually pleasing than Chrome or Safari’s defaults. On Tuesdays, engineers stayed late at the office, fixing design imperfections over dinner. One of them began a 2,500-word post about Medium’s CSS code with a quote attributed to Lil Wayne: “I believe that to be the best, you have to smell like the best, dress like the best, act like the best.
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

It looks like Ubiquiti is coming for Sonos with its PoE Audio Port, a $199 device that closely resembles the $499 Sonos Port, and $599 PowerAmp. Sonos is going up-market with the Amp Multi. Sonos has had a rough patch, but I’m pretty ride or die for them, and some of my favorite people are there:…

ma.ttma.ttIt looks like Ubiquiti is coming for Sonos with its PoE Audio Port, a $199 device that closely resembles the $499 Sonos Port, and $599 PowerAmp. Sonos is going up-market with the Amp Multi. Sonos has had a rough patch, but I’m pretty ride or die for them, and some of my favorite people are there: Tom Conrad, the CEO, Hugo Barra on the board, and Mike Tatum in CorpDev (he’s the guy who got me to drop out of college and join CNET back in 2004!). The only time I don’t do Sonos in a home is for the amazing audio experience of Syng Alpha. The triphonic thing can be really magical. (Analog/vinyl is still Shindo Laboratories, but that’s just for special occasions.) For headphones right now, it’s either some custom Airpods Pro 3 or the Sennheiser HDB 630 (Hat tip: Pud, who is also making some crazy headphones).
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

Assorted Links Sometimes you have to just start with beauty. Listen to Jon Batiste's Beethoven Blues, then…...

ma.ttAssorted LinksSometimes you have to just start with beauty. Listen to Jon Batiste's Beethoven Blues, then relish this interview, where he plays and talks about it. I can't wait for Black Mozart, which is already starting to trickle on Spotify. Forget all that Ferrari stuff, what Jony Ive did with his LoveFrom Sailing Lantern is divine. I've now seen it in person, and it's the light at the end of the tunnel.
Ma.tt Mullenweg
@ma.tt

WCEU Cześć wszystkim, Kraków... I made the call not to fly to Poland for WordCamp Europe. I'm very for the last-minute notice; I was really hoping to make it. I’m okay, but I want to stay close to loved ones going through difficult times. Seeing the pictures from Contributor Day warms my heart.…

ma.ttWCEUCześć wszystkim, Kraków... I made the call not to fly to Poland for WordCamp Europe. I'm very for the last-minute notice; I was really hoping to make it. I’m okay, but I want to stay close to loved ones going through difficult times. Seeing the pictures from Contributor Day warms my heart. Bardzo za Wami tęsknię. I miss you dearly.