Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
My feed, My Way | Prime Minister of Australia
Social media platforms will be required to send a notification to new and existing users offering them a choice over their default feed. Users can choose to opt in to having their default feed include personalised content recommended by the algorithm. Alternatively, users can opt out of personally recommended content in their default feed and see the friends and creators they choose to follow. This will give Australians greater choice over their platforms and what they see.
Why getting your hands dirty is good for you
This diversity is important for the health of our skin. Increasing the diversity of bacteria on the skin can prevent disease-causing bacteria from becoming dominant, keeping the microbial community in balance, Roslund says. “Disease is like a dictator, and healthy skin is like a democracy.”
Geek Week — Central Eastside Industrial Council
From there, more than 100 unique events and over 200 partners take over small businesses citywide, spanning tabletop and video games, parties and tours, live shows and movies, literary events, trivia, art and crafts, and cosplay. Whatever corner of geek culture you claim, there’s something here for you.
How well do agents use test/verification techniques?
We previously noted that, while it’s easier than ever to hit a particular quality bar by having coding agents use effective test techniques, software quality seems to be getting worse, indicating that whatever defaults developers are using may not work very well. Here, we test if simple instructions to agents to use particular techniques or libraries improve implementation correctness, as a kind of test to see how effective agents are when guided by someone with no expertise in testing who’s maybe heard that you should apply certain techniques or use certain libraries.
Four Questions About AGI – THE VOICE IN THE MACHINE
I have spent my working life among people who build things and among people who write about the people who build things, and, alas, among people who write about people who write about people who build things. In this process I became suspicious of any word that everyone is sure of and no one can define exactly, or too many people define in different ways; in my experience a word like that has little to do with description and a great deal to do with persuasion.
(2014) Startup PDX Challenge and Oregon Story Board both reveal companies
Fall is always an exciting time in the world of Portland startups. Well okay. It’s always an exciting time. But go with me here. The summer vacations are wrapping up. And folks are desperately sprinting to complete efforts before the holiday slowdown hits. So it’s a good time to get a little help from the community, like the Startup PDX Challenge and Oregon Story Board. Both of whom announced new classes, last week.
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Mentorship is a Growth Strategy: Why Entrepreneurs Shouldn’t Go It Alone – Elevate Capital
Scaling a business often feels like a series of educated guesses. Recently, Elevate Capital evolved its mentorship approach to address the specific, difficult gap between the daily grind of running a business and the high-level strategy required to scale a company.
Weekly Review: Move It Upstream – by Sam Keen
Welcome back to Altered Craft’s weekly AI review for developers, and thank you for reading along each week. This edition keeps pointing in one direction, upstream. Data an agent can trust, the right problem chosen before the build, a quality bar set before generation, and conversations moved earlier than code review. On the tools side, the new releases hand you an effort dial. The interesting work now sits before the first line of code.
Hillsboro/Beaverton | Claude Code | Builders Night with Jim · Luma
This is a casual evening for Portland’s AI builders to experiment, ship, and hang out — no pressure, no pitch decks, no judging. Just a room full of people who want to build things with AI and see what’s possible.
Hasaan Still Hates Portland, and He’s Making a Movie About It
“What I really wanted to do was make something on my own,” he says. Now he’s gathering most of the team that made the web series and self-producing a movie. In addition to “a retirement fund that I had,” Webley says a mix of grants, private donations and an ongoing Kickstarter campaign (which runs through Sept. 18) will supply the movie’s modest budget, which he says is in the low six figures. A 16-day shoot is planned to wrap in October, with postproduction running through the winter. Webley says he hopes to premiere the film in 2027.
90 Days to Cashflow Positive (in Big Pink, 5th Floor) · Luma
Sign up here, come to the first event Monday 21st September and then, if you choose, commit to the full 90 day experience meeting in person every Monday morning at 8:30am in-person and every Wednesday 8:30am online.
Archer Aviation to send its air taxi on tour in 3 states | Smart Cities Dive
Archer was named last year as the official air taxi provider for the 2028 Olympic Games to be held in Southern California. The company acquired Hawthorne Municipal Airport in Los Angeles County to serve as its central operation hub for the region and is developing a vertiport in downtown Los Angeles in conjunction with AEG, the sports and entertainment company that owns and operates L.A. Live.
