Apple Card business is good enough to attract Visa and maybe even American Express? And, maybe Mastercard is still fighting for the business?
I’m old enough to remember when the Apple Card was bad business.
I’m so old I remember a time when we were hoping to avoid a 1.5°C world. Now we’re just assuming it’ll be at least a 3°C.
Amber Ruffin makes me laugh. I’ve really only known her from her writing and her segment on Late Night with Seth Meyers, but she’s never failed to make me laugh.
I see she’s been booted from the White House Correspondents Association’s bullshit dinner show event. An event where journalists get together to celebrate one another and have a good time is perfectly fine, but to include anyone from the government is absolutely gross (and always has been).
The press and the people they cover are not friends. The press knows better than most (because the press doesn’t print everything they know) how awful some of these people are. Stop yucking it up with them. And talk about obeying in advance, sheesh.
Now, with that out of the way, if Amber has a set to perform of this material, I’d pay to go see that.
I haven’t been to any protests over Tesla. I fully support these protests and hope they have the desired effect.
Based on the news articles and images about the protest, protesters should consider signs with alternatives. There should be signs for the Chevy Bolt, Mustang Mach-E (which is ugly), VW ID.4, and maybe even the more expensive Honda Prologue (based off of the Chevy Blazer EV).
I did a little looking around, and the Tesla Model 3 is still a pretty good deal for folks looking for an EV with decent range for around $40K (it’s a little over that amount).
Folks shopping for a car might not really care that Musk is a fascist or whatever; they might just want an EV that’s not $75K, and offering them an alternative might put other models into their minds that they didn’t know about.
If I were buying a car now, I’d look at the newest Prius. It’s a hybrid (which I’m aware adds a whole lot of complexity) that gets really, really good fuel economy (57 city, 56 highway) at a price that’s pretty good (mid-$30K). For the record, I don’t have my own car or drive one with any regularity thanks to living in NYC.
Feelin’ Good Friday, #8: I was going to post this article about Greenland’s government defying Trump, but it doesn’t feel good, you know? Not really good, anyway. It’s good in that it’s what should be happening, but I am not feeling good that it has to happen at all.
So I looked inward. I feel good because I just cooked up an omelette for Mrs. Bob, and while cooking, I listened to Reverb Deluxe from The Derailers. For a while, I thought I imagined the album because it’s not available on Apple Music. Luckily, past Bob had purchased it on CD, ripped it to his Mac, and, because of iTunes Match, present Bob has access to it. I have no idea if I am supposed to still pay for iTunes Match since Apple claims it’s part of Apple Music, but I don’t believe it. I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.
Anyway, if you like a more traditional honky-tonk sound, this album is a good one (I love Tony Villanueva’s sound).
My wife didn’t even text me about supper.
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. There is no way they can hold that many people safely. Basically, the event was oversold, and no one appeared to have experience managing crowds.
The main room (which used to be where the Circulation desks were) housed DJs and a small stage in addition to a pop-up bookstore. Now, I know I’m a cranky old fart, but if the music is so loud that the bookstore guy has to keep asking me what I said (at least, that’s what I think he said), then something’s not working.
Of course, the library rooms aren’t meant to be staged for lectures requiring a lot of seating. Sure, there are tables and chairs, but we’re talking about tables and chairs for 30 people, not the 2001 that were in the Society, Sciences & Technology room. Same for the 2002 in the History, Biography & Religion room. Folks were standing in the stacks, peering through openings, generally fussing about to be able to hear and get as comfortable as possible.
Media for Workers was the first event I attended. I was, as stated above, relegated to the stacks (along with lots of others), and it was a little hard to hear. And, of course, the room heated up pretty quickly with everyone in there. Summary: Support the media you want to keep enjoying. I’m all for that (see my Washington Post cancellation post), and I pay for as much as I can afford.
I wanted to stay in the room to hear the The Fire This Time: Baldwin & the Essay, but they had us all leave, and there was no way to get back in because the line for that talk was super, super long.
Next, I went to Podcasting & the Future of Democracy. Halima Gikandi was very charming, and I’d like to hear more about what she has to say as I found the talk a bit too light on what I expected her to talk about. I did love that she mentioned the library has resources to help folks out if they want to get started recording their own shows. I did have a seat at a table, although it was to her back, but the audio was generally fine.
I was able to stay in the room to listen to Win Working Class and didn’t even have to give up my seat. Bhaskar Sunkara was likewise charming and funny.
The one talk I am extra disappointed I couldn’t even get into the room for was Jacobin Magazine: Who Owns the Working Class? A Debate
Overall, the idea of event is a 10, but execution was a 6 at best. Look, I am fully aware libraries are always on the brink of being closed and by and large every single person involved did put forth an honest effort. But it was oversold which made it a less-than-fun experience.
What I think I’d do (I’m aware I’m spending money that isn’t mine and likely doesn’t even exist): Make it a weekend event.
Hold the event Friday night to Sunday afternoon. Use the Dweck Center for the talks over the three days. Figure out a better ticketing system and set up the little lobby down there for meet-and-greets and things. The featured speakers could then push folks to their own sites for more information, etc.
I also don’t know why the library itself didn’t have a booth to promote itself. There are so many damned cool things at the library that folks don’t know about3. And maybe this isn’t something that’s allowed4, but the library should make sure folks know who to write to to insist there is funding for the library.
I feel like I dropped a giant turd on this event and I so don’t mean to. The library is the best, the services that are offered there are great, and all of the staff I’ve ever interacted with have been wonderful and helpful.
And the good news is folks want more of this at the library. I hope the folks at the best library system in NYC figure out how to get more folks involved to make this run more smoothly.