george kaplan

Seeing the reference to the G4 Cube made me feel both old and sad. 

It was there last night. Used it. Grateful for the option when watching Dune, since it means the soundtrack didn’t wake me up when I fell asleep in the dreariest movie of the year. Visually stunning, and nobody to care about. 

For Apple to be this bad at damage control is very off-brand.

Just about everything Maher said was incorrect, but it will be passed around as gospel because Apple has done such a poor job getting the fact of the case out. It is time for full-page ads and volunteering to be on shows like 60 Minutes where it can broadcast the details of this feature which (A) has to be opted-in, and (B) which is to be used by parents who have minor children on their same family account. Nothing here about “snooping in the private photos” of adult users.

It is no small amount of irony that misinformation about Apple’s plan will be spread on Facebook, where privacy is an abstract concept and personal information has long since been mined and sold for profit. But that same person will have white knuckles from clutching the pearls so tightly.

To appreciate what Third Street Promenade once looked like, watch Pee Wee’s Big Adventure for the exterior scenes around his store. The shops on the street were very Middle America back then, before the street was reimagined as a pedestrian shopping experience, a walkable outdoor version of the then-current shopping malls.

Amazing how so many people who see this as a political exorcism can’t see the simple numbers. The staffing is maybe down to 900 people from about 4x that amount just weeks ago. Even if 30% of the original amount were superfluous, organizations don’t get gutted like this and still prosper. Witness the fact that some of those originally laid off had to be hired back because the reduction in headcount was overzealous and indiscriminate. And hiring skilled replacements is impossible when the workplace is publicly seen as unstable. 

seanboy81 said:

I must say I really enjoy Foundation, and also the Morning Show, my favorite series is For all Mankind, though.
Most of the shows really don’t speak to me (yet), except Ted Lasso, of course!

My take on Foundation is they should have released the first 5 episodes at once because it has taken that long to understand the time jumps, locations and plot threads. I think this is sizing up to be a very effective long-term dramatic story in the way it is presented, but the viewer buy-in is at least 4 episodes and 5 would have been better.  Being able to binge 4 or 5 would have helped tremendously. 

I bought a 4-pack of them, had the custom icons/letters placed on them before they shipped. All four were placed into service at more or less the same time. 

8thman said:

This is risky in the current financial environment.
Inflation is taking a toll on consumers and some will start defaulting on payments. Timing of this is not good.

No, this is a move to snare a sector of the market which can’t/won’t get a credit card like the Apple Card to make the purchase of the next accessory or iPad. With transactions capped at $1K, Apple takes little risk on defaults, while building relationships with customers who may grow into Apple Card customers, expanding their creditworthiness into iPhone to MacBook Pro range.

All of this builds transactions which don’t cost Apple 3% to 6% in processing fees from the credit card companies. While that may seem trivial, scale that up to tens of millions of dollars in transactions and the savings become significant. It also gives additional experience and data to Apple as it continues to build out a fintech division—one that might be responsible for car sales/leasing in a few years.

I first tried the Meross unit, thinking I would both save money and have HomeKit control. I couldn’t get it working to save my life (my LiftMaster is a yellow button model).

Then I got the MyQ unit for HomeKit. It took me a couple of reboots of both the bridge and the eero router, but it has worked with zero downtime for the past 8 months, and it still almost makes me cry when I’m two blocks from home and the CarPlay button appears on the screen, offering to raise the door.  One of my goals was to get the door-opener remote out of the car for security reasons, and the MyQ got me to that goal.  

For those making the trek to the Spectrum store, the parking structure has a healthy number of EV charging stations. If you come in a non-Tesla EV (superchargers are elsewhere), you can get some miles put back while you shop.