Josh Withers

“I don’t think in the case of COVID we’re in a position to be mandating because, one, we don’t have enough of them yet and you can’t mandate something that you’re not ready to deliver equitably. And I also think mandating something right now, where I think publics are really at their wits’ end with the amount of externally imposed controls—even when you know it’s meant to be a good thing, there’s a limit. And I think right now, one more thing that’s mandated by government will not be well tolerated.”

Heidi Larsen, anthropologist, interviewed on Slate

I’ll be honest, I knew alcohol isn’t good for me, but in moderation I love a beer or a whisky.

I think I could slow down on the drinks though after reading this article.

”For those awash in anxiety and alienation, who feel that everything is spinning out of control, conspiracy theories are extremely effective emotional tools. For those in low status groups, they provide a sense of superiority: I possess important information most people do not have. For those who feel powerless, they provide agency: I have the power to reject “experts” and expose hidden cabals. As Cass Sunstein of Harvard Law School points out, they provide liberation: If I imagine my foes are completely malevolent, then I can use any tactic I want.”

Another piece from that NYT article

Would the world be a better place if public comment functions were outlawed on the internet?

Imagine exactly the same internet, and social media, we know and love/hate today - the only difference being that you cannot comment on posts in a public manner.

You can still engage in private conversation with people, maybe even in groups up to 5 or 10. But above a certain number even group chats are banned.

The incentive is to split the broadcast of information, news, and opinion to either the masses, or micro-community.

Freedom of speech and freedom of broadcast is maintained, it’s just the comments section that is doomed.

Thoughts? Feel free to privately contact me or your friends about it.

What to do? You can’t argue people out of paranoia. If you try to point out factual errors, you only entrench false belief. The only solution is to reduce the distrust and anxiety that is the seedbed of this thinking. That can only be done first by contact, reducing the social chasm between the members of the epistemic regime and those who feel so alienated from it. And second, it can be done by policy, by making life more secure for those without a college degree.

David Brooks in the NYT

Are you tired of your boring 9-to-5 job? Wouldn’t you rather be in Thailand toasting on the beach with your nomad homies?

Start a Ponzi scheme!

I dropped Pixelmator’s machine learning “zoom, enhance” feature called “ML Super Resolution” onto an 11 year old iPhone photo of two whales off the beach, along with all the machine learning colour grading options.

It’s still a low-fi photo, but now it’s a high-res low-fi photo.

Here’s the 35kb original. And here’s the 11mb machine learnt super res version.

Much has been written and podcasted about how terrible the iOS apps running on Apple Silicon situation has been a pretty poor show. But my experience has been above average.

I thought I’d showcase the apps I’d installed and used that were pretty good considering they weren’t developed for use with a keyboard and mouse/touchpad.

Instagram

Despite being disallowed by the developers, a little .ipa workaround saw Instagram’s iOS app easily install on the Mac. The app is flawless from my using, scrolling, posting, and clicking around. The two glaring issues with this experience are that iPadOS’s dealing with iPhone-only apps is dismal, and that Instagram’s developers have a deep need to keep Insta off the desktop and tablet.

LumaFusion

The iPad’s and iPhone’s best linear video editor just works simply and beautifully on the Mac now.

Air Hockey (the OG)

When the App Store launched on the iPhone there was an intial blood rush of apps that took advantage of being able to develop applications on a colourful mutlitouch pocket computer. Air Hockey was one of the early releases and I remember showing it to a mesmerised friend. It plays beautifully!

DJI Go 4

I haven’t flown with it yet, but I’m excited by the idea of using my MacBook as a monitor for the DJI Mavic 2 Pro remote.

Qantas

My airline of choice has so far allowed it’s booking and account management app, and it’s inflight entertainment app to be installed on Mac and it’s mostly fine.

Overcast

The iOS apps that will shine on Apple Silicon Macs are the ones developed to the very spec of Apple’s Huamn Interface Guidelines and everything else ever preached at a WWDC session. So of course Marco Arment’s Overcast app works flawlessly, with a resizeable window, and it’s just a joy to use.

AirBnb

I don’t know if an app will be better than a website, but hey, AirBnb works.

Skip

My local coffee shop’s coffee ordering and line skipping platform of choice, Skip, works a beaut.

Cowbell

Sometimes you just need to be able to announce to people in the same room as you that more cowbell is required.

On top of this list I’ll add Good Sodoku, my little girl’s kindy social network - Storypark - and Lumy.

This is a black magic machine that is fast and beautiful and literally what I want in a computer.

The reviews are all true and accurate. Even for the bottom tier of Apple’s computer lineup, this is the speediest, most responsive Mac I’ve ever owned or used. Early in the year I moved to a Macbook Pro 16” to get the speed and responsiveness I’m getting from this MacBook Air, and the 16” feels like a dinosaur.

It’s whimiscal to be running iOS/iPadOS apps right on my Mac. It makes me wonder why it’s such a terrible user experience for iPadOS to run iPhone apps when it’s downright lovely on a MacBook Air.

The slow onward progression of security makes my audio apps by Rogue Amoeba feel like I’m hacking a mainframe, but we got there in the end.

The only thing to wait for now is for developers to move their apps from Intel to Universal architetures so they run even faster, and to see what on earth more professional, progressive, and well cooled Apple computers can look like.

I’ve gone from the highest spec’d portable Apple portable computer running an Intel processor, to what will undoubtedly become the slowest Apple Silicon Mac ever released, and it’s like I’ve gone from crawling to walking.

The future is bright for Apple computers.