“Life is short, like Joe Pesci.”
— Chance, the rapper
Tasmanian Devil time
Emu
Wombats
Galah
Luna vs Kangaroo
“One of the most significant facts about us may finally be that we all begin with the natural equipment to live a thousand kinds of life but end in the end having lived only one.”
🐧
How to spot a good fish and chip shop.
- it has the word ‘shack’ in its name
- there are lobster pots hanging for styling
- it’s near the ocean
- it’s located at a wharf
- Chico Rolls aren’t on the menu
- there’s a grumpy fisherman on premises
Bonus points for the shack being a seafood type of shack, for example this one is called ‘The Lobster Shack’
All I want for all of you is to enjoy life as much as Luna enjoys ice cream
I don’t like to boast on here, but I wanted to silence all the haters and the non-believers.
Yes, I totally can fit nine potato chips in my mouth at the same time.
So it sounds like MONA is celebrating being open again, this is the view from Dodges Ferry.
Nothing to see here, just an Independence Day-alien-ship-style laser beam going into Hobart …
Hello Coles, it’s modern news media here,
I hope you’re keeping well.
It’s the 26th of December, and now they’re ringing the last bells …
Dodges Ferry.
With a fake sunset.
This is the first photo I’ve ever published with a synthetic element like a sky. But I’ve been colour-grading and removing things in the edit for years, and somehow this feels worse.
Who knows?
Proud to be racing in the Salamanca Place to Hobart pram race today. Photographed is my First Mate taking us over the starting line.
Bloke at the pharmacy tells me that this is the second highest selling fragrance in Australia this Christmas
My personal answer to this thought is that I’m barely “on Facebook.” I publish any and all thoughts, opinions, photos, et cetera, to my personal blog which is managed and published here on Micro.Blog, a social network that is beautiful in nature and inherently keeps my data personal. It’s business model isn’t sharing my personal data, it’s business model is to be a social networ, and it costs $5 a month, because if something is free you’re not the customer, you’re the product being sold.
The Damage Has Been Proven, So Why Are We Still on Facebook?
“If a host of reports, studies, articles, commissions of inquiry, books and films were produced about the dangers inherent in the use of a certain product – let’s say a medication or an automobile – the likely result would be a public outcry demanding the elimination of said product. But that’s not the case with Facebook. Why?”
— Haaretz
Quote I’m pondering thanks to Tim Ferriss’ pondering it …
“If we can forgive what’s been done to us… If we can forgive what we’ve done to others… If we can leave our stories behind. Our being victims and villains. Only then can we maybe rescue the world.”
— Chuck Palahniuk
Spending Christmas in the Switzerland of Australia’s south
Shop inside a regional Tasmanian town’s local shopping centre. The professional life coach on staff on Christmas Eve is wearing knock-off AirPods.
Our li’l traveller
I’ve just watched an episode of The Wiggles where they’re singing about, and boating in, The Big Red Boat. In this episode Anthony is assuming the position of captain, which is confusing, because for the first time in the entire show this is clearly a place where Captain Feathersword was the most qualified person for the job.
Why is Captain Feathersword landlocked even when The Wiggles go on the seven seas?
What’s the real story with Captain Feathersword?
✈️
Santa forgot a DHL sleigh at BNE
A Christmas wish list from, and to, the wedding industry. Give the gift of algorithmic love this Christmas, to your favourite wedding vendors.
Ballin’
Me at age 2: has never heard of sushi. 1993: first sushi train comes to Queensland Luna at age 2:
Welcome, newcomers. The tradition of #Festivus begins with the airing of grievances. I got a lot of problems with you, 2020! And now you’re gonna hear about it.
Australia's NBN declared finished, not because it is, but because we need to say it's finished
Politics, infrastructure, and the national broadband network, known as the National Broadband Network is an absolute joke.
“The Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts has made a formal declaration under section 48 of the National Broadband Network Companies Act 2011 that the National Broadband Network should be ‘treated as built and fully operational.’”
“Under the Act the Minister must make such a declaration by 31 December 2020 – or formally extend the period within which such a declaration can be made.”
So even though 35,000 properties aren’t connected, thus the network is not ‘built’, we’ll declare it built, otherwise that’s a bit too much work.
When are you publishing an update to The Frustrated State, Renai?
A South Australian Christmas
How the people of Kuitpo, outside of Adelaide, celebrate Christmas.
Photographed December 21, 2020.
Even at the age of six I was a media tart, I just whanted you to know about me.
South Australia is literally issuing tickets for admission to the state. (Not a joke, you get a ticket for answering the border questions correctly)
Every airline’s business class is just an upper class hostel in the sky, and the frequent flyer lounge is just an upper class hostel kitchen, free to those who frequent the hostel.
Convince me otherwise.
Thirty years of the World Wide Web
Thirty years ago today the first website, recreated at http://info.cern.ch, was born.
Thirty years earlier than that, the internet - the global system of interconnected computer networks - was conceived, but it wasn’t until the hypertext markup languag, HTML, lead the way to a HTML viewer - a web browser - and the first website became viewable on the 20th of December 1990.
Almost a century earlier we started realising the power of machine as a computer, and thirty years after we started connecting them in a network, we gave birth to a method of publishing and sharing knowledge, stories, information, on “the web.”
We’ve never been more connected, and more divided. Who knew that when we smelt so much of each other that it all wouldn’t be like roses.
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone”
Collection of my favourite photos of 2020 // 🖼 Cactus Country // The closest I got to a desert this year, regional Victoria’s Cactus Country. It’s one of the framed prints I’ve made available in my online store
A storm is brewin’
Berrrd
“Facebook’s argument is along the lines of arguing that the police shouldn’t crack down on burglaries because it might hurt pawn shops.”
You’ve got to read this LA Times report on how toxic jet engine fumes have been making their way into airplane’s air supplies FOR DECADES AND THE AVIATION INDUSTRY KNEW?! wtf.
For decades, the airline industry and its regulators have known about these incidents — called fume events — and have maintained that they are rare and that the toxic chemical levels are too low to pose serious health risks.
If you’re flying into Gold Coast from today expect to stand in the sun for a while as they screen everyone entering.
🦅
🍄
I never knew I wanted a Trump Presedntial Christmas Address deep fake for Christmas but here we are.
On Thursday’s we fly in the rain
Collection of my favourite photos of 2020 // 🖼 Blue Mountains // I’m going here today, one of my favourite places in Australia. It’s one of the framed prints I’ve made available in my online store
I don’t know what crime Remember The Milk committed to be left off this App Store list, but it must’ve been bad
Collection of my favourite photos of 2020 // 🖼 Birds on a wire // I think this is how the internet worked before computers. It’s one of the framed prints I’ve made available in my online store
Kinda feel embarrassed about my previous 38 Decembers where I’ve proclaimed something stupid about how it’s been a “big year” or something philosophical about how next year’s “our year.”
If I worked at a newspaper in the buy, swap, and sell section, I would tell people my job was classified.
“Flight capacity into Gold Coast Airport has soared, with Melbourne to Gold Coast gaining traction as the busiest route in Australia for Jetstar and Virgin Australia. Sydney to Gold Coast also tops Jetstar’s two busiest routes in the country.” - Destination Gold Coast
Collection of my favourite photos of 2020 // 🖼 Olive // Olive this photo of an olive tree. It’s one of the framed prints I’ve made available in my online store
Search on the web is a broken system
Search is broken.
When a local doctors surgery needs to run ads on its home page so Google is incentivised to rank that page higher - because Google makes money from displaying ads - then the whole thing is broken.
I understand the how and why of how and why were here. And the rankings on Google’s homepage are precious and meaningful to so many businesses, including mine, but what is the fix? It’s not like the Yellowpages were any better, if anything, the somewhat democratic algorithmic management of search rankings is better for the world.
But this is broken.
The only fix is possibly just walking down the street and asking for a appointment at reception.
Collection of my favourite photos of 2020 // 🖼 Cows // This photo is one of Luna’s favourites, because she loved seeing cows so close. It’s one of the framed prints I’ve made available in my online store
Collection of my favourite photos of 2020 // 🖼 Surfing // My classic favourite photo is a top down of a surfer. This one’s at Palm Beach. It’s one of the framed prints I’ve made available in my online store
It’s almost a crime how good Instagram works on a Mac (Apple Silicon + Big Sur) considering Instagram doesn’t allow it to be installed without a bit of hard work. You can just drag and drop an image onto the Dock icon to post.
Collection of my favourite photos of 2020 // 🖼 Valley // Particles that have travelled at the speed of light for 8 minutes and 20 seconds, just to fall here. It’s one of the framed prints I’ve made available in my online store
Collection of my favourite photos of 2020 // 🖼 Lorikeet 🌈🦜 // Hungry li’l Rainbow Lorikeets. It’s one of the framed prints I’ve made available in my online store
Collection of my favourite photos of 2020 // 🖼 Dunedin // The only international travel I made this year was to New Zealand. On a day off in between elopements Harley and I went to Dunedin and found this gem. It’s one of the framed prints I’ve made available in my online store
Currumbin Foam
If you’re not onboard with a password manager already, then you’re leaving yourself at risk using the same password or password-ish for every website. I mention this because there’s a deal right now for 10 months free for 1Password for Families. Do it!
Collection of my favourite photos of 2020 // 🖼 Burnt // Literally hours before rushing back to Queensland before the border closed, I made this photo from one of the regions affected by bushfires at the start of the year. It’s one of the framed prints I’ve made available in my online store
Collection of my favourite photos of 2020 // 🖼 All of Brighton // Well before @karenfrombrighton3186 did all of Brighton, back on the 5th day of March this year, I was in Melbourne making a photograph of all of Brighton Beach. It’s one of the framed prints I’ve made available in my online store
Palm Beach at high tide this morning, no wonder it’s closed
Finally convinced the Apple Silicon (fanless) MacBook Air to heat up. 45 minutes of 4K video render in Final Cut Pro in an Australian summer.
I’d like to say that I’m doing this due to popular demand, but the truth is, only 3 people asked. So based on that small cohort I’ve assumed that everyone would like to purchase on of my favourite photos I made from 2020
Next month I’m talking at the Wedding Business CEO Summit. But because I can’t be there in person, I recorded it today. Start saving your pennies though, I’ll post about it when there’s tickets available to attend online.
Is the @remarkable the best tablet for a wedding celebrant? Here’s my Celebrant Institute review.
Best Australian TV ad of 2020 has to be this banger from BCF
🌖
When Melbourne threw the kitchen sink at a coronavirus
The Age looks at the 2020 Melbourne lockdown with a modicum of hindsight.
‘‘No one had done lockdown before coronavirus. Maybe we wouldn’t have even thought of it had Wuhan not done it. There are still enormous gaps in the science – how much do you need to do, what is redundant and what really makes a difference? It is a very murky scientific area because most places, including us, threw everything at it at the same time.’’
“They try to get their users to do things that their advertisers want them to do, because that’s how you sell advertising”
Matt Stoller in ‘We can have Facebook, or we can have democracy, but we can’t have both’
Just Britt and Luna two years ago breastfeeding mid-walk on the Venice Pier as Britt mothers our two month old daughter in Los Angeles as if it’s her twentieth child. You’re a wizard, Britt, I’m so proud of you.
the difference between a wedding and an elopement and why that’s important
Call me biased, but I’m really proud of what Britt has created in The Elopement Collective. Not just because she’s my wife or because I’m her celebrant for her elopements.
I’m proud of what she creates because it has heart, soul, and purpose. Tune in below for a hot take on elopements.
2020’s really been the year for eloping, and I’ve watched on as everyone in the wedding industry has a go. It’s been interesting seeing what people have made, and how couples have gotten married.
Here is the thing. An elopement is purely and only about two people getting married. It’s not a small wedding, it’s not a micro wedding, it’s not a pop up wedding. Elopements aren’t a photo shoot with a ceremony at the start, they aren’t a styled shoot with some vows, they aren’t about catering, styling, furniture, photos, film, florals, dresses, or venues. An elopement can have witnesses, but it’s not about them, it’s not about entertaining them, feeding them, occupying them, or hosting them.
An elopement is 100% and only about two people transitioning into marriage. If someone sees it, that’s cream. If it happens somewhere lovey, that looks pretty, what a bonus. If we get a photo or two, and a film, we’re in luck.
A wedding is about your guests, family and friends. An elopement is about the two of you.
I’ll selfishly and proudly say that because The Elopement Collective was born out of a strong belief in the power of marriage and ceremony, we make the best elopements.
I’m proud of you Britt, you’re my rockstar.
There are two types of Australian online stores. The first doesn’t ship to PO Boxes and doesn’t take American Express. The second is everyone else.
What made Airbnb, Airbnb
“As a money-making scheme, this was pretty lousy: a year’s work and all they had to show for it was a binder full of maxed-out credit cards. So why were they still working on this startup? Because of the experience they’d had as the first hosts.”
I’m pretending like everything is fine, please hold your applause til the end of the performance.
Palmy Army
Light and cameras explained in the most technical but easily understood way. If you want to actually understand how a camera works, read this through.
I could watch this YouTube channel all night long
Finally mapped out my talk for next month’s wedding business summit, now I just need to find a quiet place to film it
Just received an awkward phone call from someone contracted by a real estate agent, to wish me a Merry Christmas “on behalf of” the agent.
I’m not as well financed as the agent, so can I ask each of you to randomly dial a phone number and wish that person a Merry Christmas on my behalf please.
I’m forecasting that within 12 months the remaining non-greys will be turned to the grey-side as we embark upon what will be our busiest and most taxing year ever. 2021 sees Britt and I with a newborn, a toddler, new 2021 weddings and elopements, and also most of 2020’s couples.
My friend Geoff at Motion Art Cinema said we should take before and after photos to see how 2021 ages us.
Bring it on 2021!
Whatever your wedding photographer is charging you, Luna will beat their packages by 10%.
Wedding has to start after her midday nap and she’ll need a never ending supply of Smarties.
Nashua
If AirPods Max offend you, that is the correct response ... for you
An aspect of Apple’s strategy - marketing and business growth/sustainability - that is often forgotten when they launch products is this: filtering.
Not all of Apple’s products are for everyone. They’re for some people. If the AirPods Max as a device, or at that price, offend you - you’re being filtered out. Your response is the correct and desired response Apple wants you to have. If these were headphones for everyone they’d be $20 at a service station.
Honestly, it’s a good reminder for anyone and everyone. You can’t be the person, the service, the product for everyone. Even the world’s most popular drink, or social network, or car, or phone, cannot reach the entire addresable market.
It’s ok to be unpopular. In fact I would argue that being unpopular is the only way to happiness, financial sustainability, and the ability to sleep peacefully at night.
Popularity is eventually depressing, and mostly, a myth.
and roundabouts
🌸
Report: Humanity not ready for aliens to be ready for humanity to be ready to find out that aliens have told the USA and Israel that humanity’s not ready for aliens.
In honour of my birthday today, please make a donation in my name to the Human Fund, money for people.
Photo by human, Jason Corroto.
Three weeks into taking a shot on Qoin, an Australian crypto currency launched by Batercard that you can actually use in retail and for services, and although I have not spent money yet, I’ve sold a few second hand things and from that injection of AUD I’m 12% up on Aussie dollar valuation over three weeks.
I wish I knew more about crypto currencies, but then whenever I look I feel like I know everything there is to know, so maybe it’s just all Wild West?
The reports of my 39th birthday are greatly exaggerated. I’m actually only 12.
A story about an Aussie athelete who posted himself in a crate from the UK to Australia, disappeared from Adelaide after he was charged with conspiracy to import cocaine, sentenced to death for drugs offences in Sri Lanka, but only spent five years in jail in Australia.
I’d neglected to mention weight/size in my reMarkable 2 review - so it’s been updated. The reMarkable is 18% smaller than the iPad Pro and weighs 15% less. When you’re talking about gadgets held in hands, that’s a difference.
I’m starting to focus on self portraits
Can the reMarkable 2 replace my iPad Pro?
When the first generation iPad Pro was released I saw two opportunities for my personal workflow. One was the easy, and simply beautiful, method for my couples to sign their Australian marriage paperwork electronically. The other was for me to leave my Mac at home with my heavy travel schedule and make the iPad the computer I took away from the house.
The iPad served both of those roles quite adequately, even more so as I upgraded to the 11" iPad Pro and the second generation Apple Pencil.
The niggling feeling I’ve had for the past year though, has been that I was too closely involved with the iPad, so much so that I couldn’t see it’s flaws, and the unhealthy relationship we’d developed.
Things like: finding peace with transferring a 4K video off an SD card into the iPad and there being no status update as to how much of the file has transferred or how much longer it will take; struggling with the multi-tasking two-three apps open at once strategy called Split View and how it never really worked that well; how so many developers seemingly don’t actually use an iPad despite developing apps for it, displayed usually by the lack of iPad feature support, or forcing us to use it in portrait mode when there’s a keyboard attached and it’s in landscape mode; and finally, so many developers just refusing to develop for the iPad, Instagram most notably.
So two products were launched this year that had a real shot at replacing the iPad and my entire computing setup.
The first was the MacBook running on Apple Silicon. It runs iOS-only apps better than an iPad, and it brings the responsiveness and the speed of the iPad, to the Mac, rendering my 16" MacBook Pro with an Intel chip, obsolete. The only thing the MacBook Air with Apple Silicon did not do was give me touch and stylus.
Enter, reMarkable 2.
So I gave in and ordered a reMarkable.
First looks
The reMarkable 2, or the Remarkable as I’ll refer to it from here on out, is a beautiful product, packaged beautifully.
Set up
The Remarkable syncs with the propriety cloud service, reMarkable Cloud.
And is supported by desktop and mobile apps.
Files can be uploaded to the cloud, and when the device connects to wifi, it synchronises back and forth.
Using reMarkable
The device is beautiful to use. It’s a simple, single-use, device. It displays documents and allows you to mark them up. Imagine a regular paper notebook married to that stack of documents on your desk.
The handwriting detection is pretty amazing well, considering my handwriting is more like a scrawl.
The unit also dabbles as a PDF reader and eBook reader, a task it handles well despite not being a Kindle. I’d love to have access to my Kindle library!
Compared to the iPad Pro 11"?
The Remarkable is 100% a nicer device to hold in your hand, and to write on. I’m using the stylus that has an eraser in the head of the stylus, and the screen is what Paperlike has been trying to bring to the Apple tablet family.
I find the Remarkable easier to write on, annotate with, and hold in my hand - with or without the leather case - the only problem is that it’s not running iPadOS and it doesn’t have an LTE modem.
If you’re trying to imagine what it feels like, imagine a large and thin Kindle you can draw on.
Size and weight
The Remarkable 2 is 187mm wide, 246mm high x 4.7 mm thick, compared to an A4 piece of paper, 210mm wide, 297mm high, and you know how thick it is. Compared to the iPad Pro 11", which is 179mm wide, 248mm high, and 5.9 mm thick.
The iPad Pro 11" is actually the thinnest Apple computer ever made, but it feels like a brick after holding the Remarkable in your hand.
The Remarkable weighs 404 grams, and the iPad is 473 grams, 69 grams heavier, a 17% increase in weight as you weigh them up in your hands.
It’s certianly nicer to hold the Remarkable, and especially when you factor in covers, cases, or keyboards. The Smart Keyboard really bulks out the iPad, whilst the Remarkable’s leather folio is still quite slim and lovely to hold.
Problems
The reMarkable 2 will only connect to “regular” wifi networks, not public wifi networks requiring authentication through a website, like the Qantas Free Wifi.
And the Mac software is the slightest bit buggy, but the developers have promised fix.
Will it do the job?
The reMarkable 2 is replacing my iPad Pro. It might not have a 4G modem, Dropbox sync, or the Kindle app, but it is the best electronic ink tablet with a stylus money can buy right now.
If the reMarkable guys are reading this, I’ll throw in a last minute request for a Safari extension as well, not all of us use Chrome :).
Luna, teaching bubba to swim
Bullish on Airbnb in a post-Covid world
Airbnb’s strength today and in a post-covid travel world is in it’s flexibility to offering a different kind of travel.
“Airbnb’s “gross daily rate” was pretty flat at the end of last year, hovering around $110. This, too, declined in April. But by June, it had increased to $146, and has since settled to a rate around 20% higher than last year — $128 in September.”
Airbnb in 2020 would be one of the least affected-by-Covid companies on the planet.
“One of my favorite taglines in recent memory was Airbnb’s “Live There,” a campaign it launched in 2017 with the agency TBWA. It’s as cheesy as any earnest brand campaign. But it feels true. A real representation of the Airbnb spirit, something its frequent customers can appreciate. Airbnb-ing isn’t remotely the same as staying in a lame chain hotel in a tourist quarter.”
And he shares an interesting story about why Airbnb probably isn’t the best and biggest travel content creator today:
“In late 2012, Airbnb launched a product called “Neighborhoods”,” he wrote, “which offered users incredibly rich and unique content about individual neighborhoods around the world. Visitors loved it. Almost too much. It turned out the content was so interesting that it distracted visitors from actually booking. When the team removed it from the home page, bookings went up.”
From Dan Frommer’s New Consumer newsletter
This is Maddie and Casey’s elopement, with me creating the marriage ceremony, photographed by Bec Zacher Photography for The Elopement Collective on the Sunshine Coast.
What do I actually do?
I lead my whole life in preparation to be your celebrant. Living the joy in my own marriage, leading my family, enjoying my friendships, travelling, living, drinking, sleeping, and eating, preparing for this succinct and breathtaking moment in your wedding. We’ll have meetings, breakfasts, lunches, dinners, coffees and beers. We email, talk, text, and DM, over months and years.
You walk down this aisle, everyone cheers, and then the crowd hushes.
You’re standing here, holding hands, and everyone waits for me to start talking.
What do I say? How do I say it? What vibe do I leave? How long do I speak for? Will it be too long or too short? Do I say and pronounce your name correctly? Will my PA speaker system actually work? How will everyone feel? Will I do anything awkward or weird? Do you trust me? What kind of marriage are we talking about?
It all comes down to that moment where I bring the microphone to my mouth and starting dropping syllables.
Someone watching me create a ceremony recently said that I just “ad-libbed” the ceremony because I didn’t read from a script. It’s so much more than that. I have to stand there confident about what I’m going to say after asking myself all those questions I just mentioned, and do it with a calm and happy demeanour, without burying my face and voice in a script.
I arrive an hour or more early, and I wait while you’re late, then stay around after to help with group photos or to help your Nanna to the reception.
I live an entire life preparing for these 18-minute-long moments we call a marriage ceremony. And it’s amazing, I’m so grateful I get to be that guy. Thank you for inviting me in.
Looks like a glasshouse …
Aircraft doing hard time
Do you think the COVID-19 vaccine should be mandatory?
“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.”
Feels good to be back, standing outside the Gold Coast Qantas Club with a bunch of other members moments before it opens, as each new person who would imagine the lounge to be open by now, stridently - almost aggressively - walks past the congregation, gets to the automatic sliding door and their face sinks as it doesn’t open.
It’s been nine months, I miss you Qantas frequent flyers, you bring me joy.
Sunset from Mooloolaba to the Glasshouse Mountains
Ok, it’s competition time, let’s do this.
Best palindromes, go!
The first rule of drone club is don’t take your drone swimming.
Today we find out if my iPad Pro is for sale
Did you know alcohol is a carcinogen?
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.
🥭 ❤️
On being woke with conspiracy theory
”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
What if we banned the comments section of the internet?
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.
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.
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.
– Issac Asimov
Start a Ponzi scheme!
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?
Zoom slaughters the Apple Silicon Macs' batteries. Every time I jump off a Zoom call I’m surprised at how much it’s dropped compared to regular usage. The circled part of this screenshot was a 25 minute Zoom call.
🍦❤️🐢
Pixelmator made my 11 year whale photo look a little bit better, about 10mb better
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.
Not all iOS apps are terrible on macOS running Apple Silicon
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.
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.
I’m only speaking for myself, but 2020 was going ok until I found out that when I think I’m putting wasabi on my sushi I’m almost totally actually putting horseradish and mustard with food colouring in it.
Instagramception #AppleSilicon
Stellar little Black Friday deal from Aussie Broadband: 250mbps down and 25 upstream for the price of 100/40 for a few months.
In a year where it’s been closed off to wasteful-on-holiday interstate and international tourists, Tasmania has declared itself 100% powered by renewable energy.
24 hours with a MacBook Air sporting an M1 Apple Silicon chipset
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.
Brisbane
The 2019 marriage statistics have been released and there’s been a bit of a drop ...
The latest Australian marriage statistics have been released, strap in for some nerdiness! Thanks to my Celebrant Institute colleague, Sarah for her help deciphering these numbers.
Saturday October 19, 2019 - that was the most popular day to be married in Australia last year. In the most popular season, whilst March was the most popular month, and all marriages were down 4.5% from 2018 to 2019.
The big change was that marriages by civil celebrants continue to increase, with 80.3% of all marriage ceremonies in 2019 created by a civil celebrant.
And the early data from the ABS shows an almost 32% drop in marriages for the first half of this year.
When comparing counts of marriages between April and June with averages for the same period over the past five years (2015-2019), in 2020 marriages were down 62%.
Quick side note, queer marriages were thought to have boomed in 2018 and settled down in number in 2019, but they’ve stayed about the same, from 5.5% in 2018 to 4.9% in 2019.
This is Olly and Emily and me in Port Macquarie on the 19th of October 2019, photographed by Mitch Pohl and you really ought to see their li’l motion picture by Bottle Brush Films
If you really wanted to take issue with macOS Big Sur you should be protesting on the streets regarding the external drive eject icon #wethepeople
Takeaway
Who’s house? Run’s house!
This afternoon I sold my 16” MacBook Pro so I could buy a MacBook with an M1 CPU. I prayed to the ghost of Steve Jobs and said “please don’t let me buy the wrong computer” as I struggled whether to buy an Air or a Pro and now the Apple Store is down, so if that’s not a sign …
Parking lot
Heard it on the wire
As John Gruber said when he linked to this page of vintage Soviet control rooms, these would make for some cool Zoom backgrounds
🏄♀️
Today’s office: Byron Bay Airport.
🌊
The Gig Economy Is White People Discovering Servants
“The core functionality of these apps — despite all their fancy technology — is not significantly different than having a servant. What the technology has done is pool the servants, make them available to more people, make it easier to communicate tasks, and — most importantly — make it possible to not think of them as servants at all.”
🌉
Fire on the water, a smoke in the sky
Someone asked me recently what my personal brand strategy was.
I just see go to places, see cool things, make photos of them, and post the photos online where they get 2-3 likes.
I’m not very good at being strategically cool.
Instead of calling a parmigiana a parmi or a parma, let’s call it a parmo #worldpeacesolved
Sunset over what we call Summer Bay, despite the map saying Palm Beach.
One of my oddest hobbies is cloud watching. I can spend whole flights just staring out the window. These are some odd clouds over Scott’s Head this afternoon. I probably should read a book on clouds so I can give a better descriptor other than “clouds”.
Two daughters and a wife
I think the book is about marijuana
Inuit / v. / kartz-sih-loo-nih – Sitting together in the darkness, perhaps expectantly (e.g., waiting for something to happen or to ‘burst forth’); the strange quiet before a momentous event.
Privacy and free can’t co-exist online
The USA military buys your data from all three free apps we love. Nothing is free. Pay for your apps.
“The U.S. military is buying the granular movement data of people around the world, harvested from innocuous-seeming apps, Motherboard has learned. The most popular app among a group Motherboard analyzed connected to this sort of data sale is a Muslim prayer and Quran app that has more than 98 million downloads worldwide. Others include a Muslim dating app, a popular Craigslist app, an app for following storms, and a “level” app that can be used to help, for example, install shelves in a bedroom.”
Houseporn
Woman, circa 2020
🐝
Poncho time
Self-portrait
Victorian and South Australian COVID outbreaks have both been linked to problems with security guards at quarantine hotels.
Australia could be travelling around Australia today if the hotel quarantine program was managed better and the guards were paid well.
Apple Photos’ Memories feature is getting a bit desperate when it’s like, “remember that time you crossed the border into NSW?”
Tony Damn is my favourite person to receive emails from
Mullockdown
Are there any nerd-like people that can point me in the direction of how to upload an image to micro.blog from a macOS automator action, and an iOS Shortcut. I’m nerd smart but not code smart, but figure I can learn. I’d love to be able to right click and upload an image/images.
Happy 100 year birthday, Qantas
If you see me dancing in an Instagram Reel or on TikTok, know that this is a call for help because I will have been taken hostage and I need to be rescued. Please screenshot this and put it on your fridge as a reminder.
Scrolling through our wedding photos and remembered a time when people had pocket computers with physical keyboards …
This little photo I made two years ago in Burleigh has gone gangbusters on Unsplash! Over 10,000 downlaods, and over 1 million views!
Created with a DJI Mavic Pro (the OG)
Which country do you think this photo was made in?
“How many fingers am I holding up?” Before every ceremony I conduct a quick and easy eyesight with your guests. It’s all part of the #marriedbyjosh service.
Me at Alex and Laura’s wedding in Adelaide, photographed by Mike Hemus.
The Macstories macOS Big Sur long read review
“There will always be and should be differences between the Mac and an iPhone or iPad because the hardware and input methods are different. Still, for the Mac to remain a healthy, important part of Apple’s lineup, it needs to adapt to the computing landscape of 2020 and change while remaining true to what makes the Mac uniquely suited to specific tasks. That, in a nutshell, is Big Sur’s objective.”
— The Macstories macOS Big Sur review
Troy: “That’s one of my biggest fears.” Abed: “What is?” Troy: “If I ever, like, wake up as a donut…” Abed: “You would eat yourself? Troy: “I wouldn’t even question it.”
I miss Troy and Abed, in the moornning.
If you’re looking for me this weekend, I’m just waiting in my building’s elevator so when people get in it looks like I’m trying to tap to play these videos.
Luna’s upgraded to a big girl bed.
Please don’t tell her that a big girl bed is just a cot with a side taken off. She thinks we bought her a new bed.
How did salt and pepper take pride of place on our tables from all the seasonings available? Another cruel blow from Big Condiment.
Why do you want to end the world?
Q: Why do you want to end the world? A: CAE is devoted to practical, pragmatic solutions. We’re interested in the how, not the why.
— The Centre for Applied Eschatology (CAE)
All of Luna’s friends were getting orange phones so Britt and I buckled and got her an orange phone #badparents
I’m applying for a new Qld/NSW border pass and they’ve somehow made an already complex system, more complex. Oh the joy to live and work around the border this year.
When I’m president I’ll make Ted Lasso president.
“An assertion of will and personality,” much like pro-wrestling. That is the Donald Trump presidency, it’s been a pro-wrestling presidency – @gruber on the November 6 episode of Dithering.
3051 drones in a drone show in China! My bet is that by New Years Eve 2025 the Sydney New Years' Eve fireworks will replace the fireworks with a drone show.
I can confidently tell you that the Apple Leather MagSafe Wallet fits three cards easily, no more, not even three cards and a $20 note folded up.
Apple’s underdogs series is marketing at its best.
April 2019: Apple releases “Apple at Work — The Underdogs”
July 2020: Apple release “The whole working-from-home thing — Apple”
Working on story telling at this height would honestly be so cool!
Golden shower
In other audlting news today, Britt and I just fist-pumped on a baby name subject to certain condtions.
Luna and Dad’s first shakedown
I asked my friend James Day to photograph Luna and I shaking down Jake because he owes me money*. I shook him up and down hoping coins would fall out but his mum said he only uses Apple Pay now so there were no coins.
As far as shakedowns go, I’m proud of Luna and I, we brought a pretty strong game for our first one. James also made lovely photos. 5 out of 5 shakedown.
*by money I mean a cookie.
So, who ever knew that Australian states were kind of a “thing”. It’s like in 2020 we all had a lesson in realising that the “Commonwealth of Australia” is pretty much just a passport issuing and tax collecting authority
🌈 Rainbow, where the bow is actually full of rain.
One of these is an iPhone 12 Pro shot, ones a Canon 5D shot.
Gary Vaynerchuck’s take on the Apple of today and why he thinks they’re leaving money on the table and should buy Target (the US one) - Listen to the whole podcast.
Wanna join Luna and my scooter gang? Aside from terrorising the residents of Palm Beach we also smuggle dogs across the New South Wales border.
There are two things in this world that take no skill, spending other people‘s money, and dismissing an idea.
If you were wondering, I’m a massive advocate for colours and emojis in calendars.
Hypocrisy in conservative politics in Australia
Only a few moons ago here in Australia the conservative and rather religious politicans embodied by the oddly named ‘Liberal Party of Australia’ fought tooth and nail against marriage equality. A former leader of that party, who also once identified as the Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, said on Four Corners:
“There is no question that some of the most trenchant opponents of same sex marriage - all in the name of traditional marriage - were at the same time enthusiast practitioners of traditional adultery. The controversy over same sex marriage was dripping with hypocrisy and the pools were deepest at the feet of the sanctimonious.”
Before this marriage equality debacle, a rabbi who has never made any comments on marriage equality, despite his heavy teachings on so many other topics, commented on these politicans. Originally hailing from Nazareth, Jesus said:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are."
When I grow up I’m going to start a Hall of Fame for band names and the first inductee will be Reel Big Fish.
“Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles”
— Charlie Chaplin
This is a Warning. Mount Warning.
The first issue a Josh Withers presidency will address is this crap with health balls looking like rum balls. These two things need to be kept separate and sacred.
A power full picture
