On Monday, Mrs. Bob was scheduled to fly out of Newark, NJ, to somewhere in the Midwest. As is our way, we (me, frankly) added the flight number to our electronic calendars because, on MacOS and iOS, you can easily track by right-clicking or tapping and holding on the flight number.
What I found interesting is that because the plane left the gate, it was considered departed. I know that every person who flies regularly is aware this is how it works, but frankly, that’s horseshit. A flight departs once it takes off. There is no way we’d find other systems working this way as acceptable. You have a deadly infection, and the doctor walks in with the antibiotic… “You’re cured!” And an Amazon warehouse worker picks out your ordered item… “It’s delivered!”
As is Mrs. Bob’s luck, her flight was delayed. After some time, the pilot announced their amended flight plan had been approved, and they’d hopefully be leaving shortly. Yay. Here’s the interesting part: The built-in system on the Mac and iOS showed her plane had taken off, and I could track it on a map. But, of course, it hadn’t taken off at all. It was there, in Newark.
Better still, the system showed me her plane was about to land when she messaged, “We’re headed back to the gate to deplane.”
So that tracking system built into MacOS and iOS is just a fantasy. A computer-enhanced hallucination1. Maybe everyone already knows this, but I thought the built-in tracking was at least a decent approximation of what is going on in the real world.
Gun-related deaths: The death rate for firearm-related homicides and suicides is 13.3 deaths per 100,000 in the U.S. compared to 0.1 per 100,000 in England and Wales. Ninety individuals died from firearm-related causes in England and Wales in 2023 compared to more than 45,000 in the United States.
Motor vehicle crashes: The death rate from motor vehicle crashes in the U.S. is six times greater than the rate in England and Wales—13.3 per 100,000 versus 2.2 per 100,000 in England and Wales.
Guns and giant vehicles define America. We can’t be surprised to reap what we sow. When I was a vehicle-owning person, the ones I purchased weighed around 3,000 pounds (they heaviest, a ’92 Ford F-150 was around 4,000 pounds). In fact, the best-feeling car I ever had was a heavy one at just shy of 3,000 pounds (’98 Saab 900s). Now? EVs are pushing the weight up to well over 5,500 pounds and some topping at over four tons. The amount of energy in an impact is just astounding.
Anyway, all of this will continue because Sandy Hook proved we will never do anything about guns and, as far as driving goes, occupant survival beats everything else (pedestrians be damned).
Feelin’ Good Friday, #16: Solar is taking care of business. One of my never-going-to-happen dreams is to own a bunch of land and have a big solar farm on it. I can imagine the great sense of self satisfaction I’d have just looking at it generating energy without polluting anything.
I recently spent some time in Austria and Italy and now my once good-at-home coffee is suddenly watery and bland. Also, I had my first cappuccino while in Italy and, wow, do people know about these? That was a tasty coffee drink!
It seems selling my iPad (first time not having one since 2010) has cleared the way for Apple to make iPadOS extra awesome. And I don’t seem to be getting the thanks I deserve.
I bought my first Mac in 1985 after using one in high school. and Bill Atkinson was the reason. It’s hard for me to describe properly, but when I used MacPaint it felt like it should have been impossible for such a small machine to do what it was doing.
It was the filled oval that sold me on the Mac. When you selected the filled oval from the palette and clicked on the canvas, it would pin the oval to that starting point and then you could in any direction. The way the oval would disappear into the click-point and then reappear on the other side felt amazing to me.
And the reason it worked is because there was no delay or lag. The Mac made all the other PCs of the time feel like old, antiquated nothings.
I’m not qualified to say Bill Atkinson was a genius or the best, but wow did his program blow me away and I’ve never forgotten it. Or his awesome mustache.
My buddy Tom was right when he said (to my stupid, disbelieving face) that CarPlay Next Gen wasn’t going to come out. And it didn’t. To be more precise, he said it didn’t exist. It was just an Apple fantasy.
And, look, it didn’t come out, so he was right. But now we have CarPlay Ultra and it is out, so there’s that.
I don’t know when or if I’ll ever get to use CarPlay Ultra as I don’t own a car and I’m not likely to ever buy one (being a citybilly). But it’s fun to see. I rent a lot of cars via ZipCar and I was so relieved once they started buying cars with CarPlay. All car interfaces suck. I want to say ‘I don’t totally blame the car makers,’ but I do because they make the cars and those crappy interfaces. I get that it’s not their area of expertise, but, sheesh, hire some people. But if the car maker makes it easy for me to use CarPlay, then I’m good.
I hope we get to find out more about how Apple and manufacturers work together. Does Apple only offer 10 information cluster templates and says to the manufacturer “pick your colors and fonts?” Maybe there aren’t even templates? Could Honda make their cluster look super-close to Aston Martin’s? Can the user change the typeface or is that all controlled by the automaker? I’m assuming you get to choose from a selected series of layouts and apparently tweak the color some. I’m surprised you can tweak the color as color is part of a brand’s identity (or so I thought?).
Props to Aston Martin for including real switches in the car. Changing the cabin’s temperature via a screen is dumb and dangerous. It requires eyes off the road and a far steadier than one (me, I guess) can provide in a moving/bumpy car ride. I have to brace my hand on the dashboard above the screen in order to steady my hand enough to press the right on-screen button(s). Blah.
I can’t even fix the friggin’ toilet that’s right in front of me.
Feelin’ Good Friday, #15: My daughter is graduating college this weekend and I couldn’t be more proud of her. Her high school experience ended during the pandemic so there was no ceremony and her college experience started with remote classes away from home. Yet, she stuck with it. Congratulations, Abbe!
Think about this when you doubt your own ability to do anything:
The HBO service has undergone several rebranding efforts over the years. The first HBO streaming service was known as HBO Go, and it later became HBO Now. HBO Now was rebranded as just HBO, and then it became HBO Max. After that it was just Max, and now we’re back to HBO Max.
I would be willing to bet that each time this rebrand happened, someone’s boss said, “Great idea, Jenkins. You have a big future here. Meanwhile, here’s a bonus.”
I fully expect there to be another rebrand of this to just HBO. It’s the brand everyone knows and is the only one with value.
Feelin’ Good Friday, #14: I am feeling good today because I finally, finally, finally finished The Mountain in the Sea. It took me three tries to get it done.
I have finally moved past feeling bad if a book isn’t clicking for me. Sometimes the book never clicks, but sometimes I’m not ready for it despite it coming up as available from the library. This time I was ready and I gobbled it up in just a few days.
I am so glad I read it and I fully recommend the book. Don’t let the bit about it being in the Science Fiction genre scare you off if that’s not typically your taste. It’s as much science fiction as 1995 would have seemed to 1965.
I’m also feelin' good because I had lunch with a dear friend, and soon we’re all heading out to celebrate the birthday of another friend.
Eddy Cue’s comments yesterday about users using Google less and also saying in 10 years you might not need an iPhone are both really smart takes.
Initially I was like “wut” but he seems to be saying, “AI corps, which one of you wants to write us a check to be default search?” and also, “Hey, DOJ, no reason to break up Apple as we might not even be here in 10 years.”