Being old and nerdy, I have many memories around Apple. I remember my cousin’s neighbors getting an Apple IIC for Christmas and being so jealous I almost literally died. Even the monitor stand was cool as hell. I got over it, but the longing never went away. And then when this ad for the Apple IIc came out… No kid’s bedroom was ever cooler.

I also have a distinct Apple memory from visiting the Menlo Park Mall in Edison, NJ. There down in the lower level of the Macy’s store was the computer room. I remember going down there, alone, to look at the Apple computers. My memory gets fuzzy, but I think I remember the room being all black with down lights illuminating pedestals that held plexiglass cases in which different Apple computers were displayed. You couldn’t touch them at all. I was a messy kid from a not-really middle-class family and there would simply be no way for my single mom to afford anything in that room. We weren’t even at the mall for Macy’s. There was a Woolworth’s (which was a five and dime) that mom shopped at.

Years later, in high school, I remember using a Macintosh for the first time and it completely changed everything. It was as clear to me then as when I first saw the iPhone in 2007. In 1985, I saved up all my paper route money to buy a Macintosh for $1,1001 from a guy who dropped out of Drexel. Then I had to have it repaired. Then I had it upgraded to 512k. Then I bought an ImageWriter printer. Then I bought a Paradise Mac10 hard drive. Then the Mac finally died and I couldn’t afford a Mac for many years (until 1991).

But I think my most favorite memory was a trip to a Macworld conference in Boston in the summer of 1997. Mrs. Bob knew how much I wanted to go to a live keynote but also knew I didn’t feel worthy enough to buy a ticket to go, so she arranged it all. And, wow, what a keynote. Steve Jobs was back (although not yet CEO) and, as always, knocked it out of the ballpark. He even had Bill Gates up on the screen. One Steve Jobs quote has stuck with me (along with lots of others) to this day, “We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose.” I used to be embarrassed to admit that I booed at Bill Gates, but given his friendship with Epstein I’m over booing that guy.

I look forward to more years of nerding and I suspect I’ll always be using something from Apple.

  1. That’s around $3,300 in 2026 dollarydoos. ↩︎

At least 1,000 US troops from 82nd Airborne set to deploy to Mideast, AP sources say

The U.S. military is preparing to deploy at least 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East in the coming days, according to three people with knowledge of the plans.

I bet FIFA’s feeling pretty dang silly right about now.

Sure, some countries are better suited to deal with higher energy prices, so what? -Trump, presumably

From: Jeff Bezos just announced plans for a third megaconstellation—this one for data centers:

…a filing to the Federal Communications Commission of his own, proposing a constellation of up to 51,600 satellites operating in Sun-synchronous orbits…

So the plan is to just go full Wall*E, yeah?

I will never, ever forgive the people who voted for (and who applaud) this malignance.

Trump also told NBC News in an interview published Saturday that U.S. strikes on Iran’s Kharg Island “totally demolished” most of the island but that “we may hit it a few more times just for fun.”

And the media for putting this in the eighth graf.

This is what sustainability looks like: The Most Repairable Mac Yet?

I’ve written so many times in the past that our (the U.S.) media will be our downfall. To be more precise, I mean, once our media stops believing in the truth and reduces accurate reporting, all will be lost. It’s not only continuing, it’s increasing.

The subhead on this Media Matters for America article about CBS Evening News says it all:

CBS reported that less that 14% of people in ICE custody have charges or convictions for violent criminal conduct, but CBS Evening News distorted the data to suggest the opposite

For years I’ve complained about the mess of roads at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn. First of all, plaza1? Just try getting to the plaza part of Grand Army Plaza. You have to cross an incredibly wide road and then you are literally surrounded by cars that fill you with exhaust fumes. I joke, to this day, that the folks who designed this area were so ashamed, they likely moved away so they’d not have to see what they’d done.

Today I was listening to ATP, Episode 675: Open, Retrieve, Expand, Load and Marco said how Alan Dye and his team “Doge’d” Apple. He’s totally right. They ran roughshod all over the interface and then left! I hope Apple execs are able to undo what’s been done.2

Meanwhile, I’ve been spending time reading the 1992 version of Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines and I’m finding it a very fun read.

  1. Plaza redirects to this page. ↩︎

  2. These are the same executives who allowed this to happen, so that’s a concern. ↩︎

Some milestones are worthy of celebration, and some simply worth noting. I’m going with the latter. Today, I’m now the longest-lived person from my little nuclear family. I’m trying to cope as their voices grow distant and my memories of them continue to fade. Tonight, I’ll take a pause to remember the past and then look to the future.

I’m so old I remember when a tan suit wasn’t appropriate. Auto worker meets Trump and his finger.

It feels like tech writers are more upset with Apple for not banning the app X than for X creating all these gross deepfake images in the first place. Of course, Apple and Google should ban the app based on the rules they wrote for their stores, but sheesh, these writers make it seem like Apple and Google are worse here than X.

Well, 2026 has started off poorly. Let’s distract ourselves:

Mac-focused Podcasters: Here’s a list of all the things Apple has done wrong, and we’ll even get mad now at things Apple might do later.

Ah, I’ll read some blogs:

Mac-focused Bloggers: Top ten ways Apple has messed up (insert topic here).

Let’s check out YouTube:

YouTubers: You will have no idea what I’m going to say because it’s a 50-50 shot that my title will be the opposite of what I actually say. Unless it’s “Apple sucks,” and then they actually say it.

OK, I’ll switch to watching some TV:

Favorite streaming show: We hope you enjoyed our nine episodes. See you in two to three years.

OK, reading won’t let me down:

My public library: There are 650 people ahead of you waiting for this book.

OK, I’ll just sit down, close my eyes, and breathe.

Apple Watch: Time to stand.

If Trump keeps this up, he’s going to have to give back his soccer peace prize!

I loved Alien: Earth, I loved Ted Lasso, I loved The Pitt. But there hasn’t been a show that’s made me excited for Fridays as Pluribus has.

I legitimately get excited to see what Carol is up to and how she is coping.1 And boy did I feel that hug and cry at the end of The Gap.

  1. And those trees. Yikes! ↩︎

I hadn’t heard of The Mavericks when they first came out, but once I heard the first track from What a Crying Shame, I was hooked. Man, they are so great.

And then Raul Malo had his first solo album Today and, again, I was hooked with the lead track. So good.

I see Raul Malo has passed away. It just doesn’t stop. John, Justin, Raul… I know more will, and I hate it all. RIP, Raul. You will live on through your excellent music.

America, you’re getting a Dell! 1

  1. I was also considering: You’ve got Dell. ↩︎

I was sad to read that David Lerner died. I did not know David, nor did I ever meet him. But I did go to almost every location of his beloved Tekserve in NYC.1

A few choice personal memories of Tekserve: I took my total POS PowerBook 5300cs in for a hinge repair. It was the first time I was in the shop, and I felt nearly every feeling I could have: Awe (what an amazing place!), intimidation (everyone here is smarter than me (the workers), everyone here is more talented than me (customers)), apprehension (how much is this going to cost to fix this terrible, terrible Mac?). When the store moved to… I can’t remember, but I know it was on the second floor of a building, and they had an old deli-style ticket machine that you’d punch yourself to get into the queue to get help, and it’s where I bought my wife’s first iPod for Christmas of 2001. I bought our iMac G4 in that same location right after my daughter was born. I remember having them put in more RAM, too. I also bought something (now mostly forgotten) called the SLIMP3 which let me play MP3s from some little Linux box I had set up. I still have the SLIMP3 sitting around somewhere because it’s an incredibly cool piece of kit.

One stand-out memory was going with a good friend of mine from a Macworld show in NYC to Tekserve (this was before the 23rd Street store), where he just bought a PowerBook G3 Pismo. He paid $3,499 in 2000, and I could not believe he just bought it. I still, 25 years later, can’t bring myself to buy Pringles on an airplane ride because they cost $6.

I know it was a place most people went to buy a new Mac or, more likely, get their Macs repaired, and while that was how the place made its money, there was something more. Until the 23rd Street store, the locations they had were pretty small (at least from the customer’s view), but once the 23rd Street store opened, it became a place where you could browse a lot easier. Heck, it even had a museum in it from earlier Apple IIs and NeXT Cubes, and I am pretty sure Lisas (I don’t think I made that up, but I guess I wouldn’t bet money on it).

But every location was the kind of store you hoped existed. It had handmade signs, it was a little chaotic, and even dramatic with folks desperately needing their Mac fixed. I guess chaotic isn’t really the right word, but you know, think of a really busy place that no matter how disorganized it may have looked, it had what you wanted (either to buy or a way to repair your Mac). Tekserve represented what made New York City New York City. The city is less than without it. Just like the world is less than without David in it (although much better off for him being here).2

  1. The picture on Wikipedia was from their 23rd Street store. I remember being in at least two other locations starting in 1996 or 1997 (when I first moved to NYC). ↩︎

  2. You can read more about the store in Tamara Shopsin’s LaserWriter II. I enjoyed it very much. ↩︎

WHAT ABOUT BIG BALLS?!

I was very fortunate to see Rodney Crowell perform on October 26 at City Winery, where he played the song Song for Life. I knew the song, but I had only heard it from Alison Krauss’s album Too Late to Cry. I hadn’t realized, until he said so, that he had written it.

Once I got home, I asked ChatGPT and I asked Apple’s Private Cloud Compute which other songs has Alison Krauss recorded that Rodney Crowell wrote. ChatGPT got it, but Apple’s PCC… Sigh.

All of the issues surrounding Apple, the one that’s the least consequential yet bugs me the most, is Apple’s lack of caring about music. I am sure there are some folks at Apple who could lay out the business case that Apple Music works just fine for most of the people most of the time, all the while returning a healthy profit. But, man, it’s just not great.

I admit I don’t have the answers, but wow is the service not great. Apple Music should be responsible for too many people getting lost in their day listening to and reading about music. I don’t think I mean reviews1, but I know I do mean biographies. I do mean influences. I do mean collaborations. I do mean which songs were written by X and performed by Y.

I will never use Spotify, but from what I’ve read, it’s supposed to be a better service. I used to think Pandora was pretty good, but for some reason I’ve drifted away from that.

I guess I wish my complaint was that Apple Music was too expensive, not that it’s mid. I really do wish I lost hours from using Apple Music. Instead, I have to ask ChatGPT for answers2 that Apple’s PCC can’t answer. Let me clarify that: Can’t answer correctly. Like all LLMs, it answers. Oh boy does it answer.

Apple has decided it can’t afford3 to make Apple Music the envy of the industry. Or it doesn’t care enough about music to bother with it.

I get it, lots of services we all use are often good enough. Apple deciding that’s a camp it wants to be in is what’s worrying.

  1. But why not? ↩︎

  2. I had to coax more out of ChatGPT, but it eventually got there. I never could get PCC to tell me much of anything factual about the topic. ↩︎

  3. Apple can afford it. It can afford anything if it wants to. ↩︎

The cruelty continues: They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days.

Among the citizens detained are nearly 20 children, including two with cancer.