My son was home for spring break this past week, and today I walked him to the subway on his way back to school. I haven’t recovered from it.
Mrs. Bob said that was the reason she didn’t go on the walk. She could have told me that before I left.
I asked a friend for some pics of her kids (she has a brand-new one!) and wow are they adorable. I shared two pics back of my kids (from long, long ago).
While I have tens of thousands of photos, I only have two photos on my Mac easily accessible via Finder.
Sharing my two back somehow made me think of my dad (gone 32 years now). When he died, he lived alone, and the only pictures he had of his short married life were contained in a plastic cube that held a total of six square pictures. He never asked for any updated ones (despite never seeing us).
I’m glad my brain took a nice thing and made me sad. Sigh.
Feelin’ Good Friday, #7: Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
How long before other countries see the U.S. as a threat to contend with?
Ha! Schumer cancels (“postpones”) his book tour. Just like the GOP, he doesn’t want to have to face voters for his actions.
Most fast and break things Cut wildly and hurt many.
Not being an expert about the tech industry, AI, or, in fact, anything, I think being a white guy gives me the privilege to weigh in on Apple’s AI debacle1.
Seeing as Apple is clearly behind in this AI nonsense, I suggest they punt to ChatGPT and focus on Swift Assist2. It’s something they should be experts in (Swift) and would directly help developers make apps. I hope Apple talks among itself and comes to a good solution.
Check this out: Not only do I have a crap mayor and crap governor, but I also have crap senators.
Feelin’ Good Friday, #6: I can’t wait for the day when I don’t have to clean exhaust residue from my window sills. I live along a busy-during-the-day road, and while heavy trucks aren’t supposed to use it, there are tons (literally) using it all day long.
Well, while I don’t really think I’ll live along enough for that to happen, perhaps that’s coming sooner rather than later: “The world has probably passed ‘peak air pollution’.”
I find it interesting that “everyone is welcome” is divisive. I mean, I know it’s because people want to be racist, but don’t want to have to say it out loud.
I can’t imagine being a public school teacher. I know folks who say, over and over again, “Pretty good pay, actually” when they themselves have never worn those shoes. Shoes that have to deal with constant budget cuts, be blamed for society’s ills, and are literally in the line of gunfire because our legislative body won’t do a single thing to reduce access to weapons made solely for killing others.
My personal klaxon is my knees popping when I squat down.
Thumbs up to the teams at Apple who make the Notes and Weather apps.
If you want good school lunches, the superintendent should be eating them. If you want good public transportation, the mayor and their entire department should be taking the bus and the train to work. If you want good, safe bike lanes, the head of the roads department should ride a bike to work.
For the vast, vast majority of those scenarios, they aren’t happening. Yet we subject our children to them. I’m amazed the kids haven’t risen up and ended all the people making these decisions.
Instead, we get: USDA cuts over $1 billion in funding for schools, local food purchases.
Night in the Library
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
On Saturday, March 8, 2025, we attended Night in the Library at the Central Branch of the public library. I love libraries and think they are one of the best ideas we’ve come up with, and boy do I love the Central Branch (and not just because it’s so close to me). Despite all of that, I have very mixed feelings about this event. While I 100% believe it should be free, they need to limit the number of people attending.
A Review of Battle Hill Tavern
Monday, March 10, 2025
This is a review of the Battle Hill Tavern1 restaurant in Brooklyn. I am of a mixed mind about this. If I write how I really feel about this restaurant, I fear I will no longer get a table, but if I don’t tell folks about it, I will feel like I’m letting my reader down. Atmosphere We went to Battle Hill Tavern on Friday March 7, 2025, at about 6:50 p.
I’m still seeing so many articles about how expensive all Apple products are. I’m not saying they’re wrong, but it really does feel overblown.
Yes, you can spec up a Mac Studio to $14,000. There is no question it is a lot of money. But when the Mac Pro (Intel version) first came out in 2019, you could spec it up to $56,000 (around $69,000 in Jan 2025 dollars). And the M4 Ultra Mac Studio is faster. Heck, even the $599 M4 Mac mini is faster for many tasks (graphics aside).
When the pandemic hit and we stopped spending money, I got it into my head that I needed a 16” MacBook Pro, so I bought a refurbished (from Apple): i9, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD. It was $3,339. Not brand new, mind you. It was refurbished. Today, an M4 MacBook Air with 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD is $2,400. About $1,000 cheaper. I’m aware the screen is likely better on the Pro.
So, yes, Macs can be very expensive. But these headlines about cost are just to have articles to throw ads around.
I hate corporate apps. Every time I read, “In this release, we’ve made some minor enhancements…” I just want to say, “No, you didn’t.”
Feelin’ Good Friday, #5
I am so glad what so many expected to happen is actually happening. I’ve only been to Manhattan a handful of times since Congestion Pricing has gone into effect, but it’s noticeable. There are fewer cars, and it really feels less dangerous.
Now, I know that it won’t seem that way to folks not familiar with the city because there are still a fuckton of cars in Midtown, but it’s noticeable to people who are there every day.
I’m not anti-car, but in cities? Come on! This country, overall, needs better public transportation, but when there’s a city with good public transportation, why do we have to mess it up with cars, cars, cars?
I was in an Apple Store recently (Apple Grand Central) and I was still quite taken with the Mac mini. It’s remarkable how small it is. And what’s even more remarkable is how comically large the Mac Studio looks. I remember when that first came out and everyone (myself included) was blown away by how small the Mac Studio was compared to the Mac Pro1.
Now, when I see the models next to each other, all I can think of is how ’roided out the Mac Studio looks2.
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The what? ↩︎
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Maybe a better way to explain it is it looks like Terence from Angry Birds. ↩︎
The M4 Airs seem like a great spec bump. Apple even lowered the price by $100 (despite the concern over tariffs).
I’ve already seen so many posts complaining about the upgrade pricing and while I agree the prices to upgrade are high, I fully spec’d MacBook Air is just north of $2,000.1
That’s the same as I paid 32 years ago for my first new Mac laptop (a PowerBook 1802, no color, that was too expensive) back in 1993. Of course, that’s around $4,400 with inflation. I don’t really remember the specs of that PowerBook at this point, but I don’t recall having it upgraded (I see on EveryMac I could have up’d the RAM and HD, but I bet I didn’t… I am pretty sure I bought a stock unit from MacWAREHOUSE—the catalog with the lady representative in the lower right corner).
Anyway, $2,200 doesn’t seem so bad to me. Plus the M4 MacBook Air will most surely have a longer useful life than the PowerBook 180 did.