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"Truly, whoever can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." — Voltaire, Questions sur les Miracles, 1765

The current political climate in the United States is certainly stress testing this axiom.

#philosophy #politics #opinion

Mar 8, 2023

The iOS-ification of macOS

Apple's decision to make #macOS look and feel more like #iOS is aspirational, certainly. If users could seamlessly switch between operating systems and retain muscle memory it would be a big win. It's no wonder that #Apple decided to do this with macOS 13 #Ventura.

But in practice, Apple's zeal for consolidation has created some real problems for users. In many cases it feels like one step forward and two steps back. I can see how iOS power users may welcome most of the changes to macOS, but that position smacks of Stockholm Syndrome to me.

One of the best examples of this is the redesigned System Settings, which is a mess. I've given it months to “grow on me” and it has… like a fungal infection. The settings are (dis)organized into a single column of top-level categories in a seemingly random order. Devices running macOS have wide screens, so restricting the top-level categories to a single narrow column is an artificial limitation. And it can’t be remedied by resizing the System Settings window because only its height can be changed.

And the organization? macOS has a much deeper and more broad collection of settings than iOS. So as difficult as specific iOS settings can be to find on an iPhone, it’s near impossible on a Mac. And making it worse is the fact that some settings have been organized out of existence, spread out into disparate, counterintuitive categories. Want to tune all your power and sleep settings? You may have to explore a dozen settings categories to find them when they could have been put into an “Energy” category or something similar. Luckily there is a search feature. Without it I’m sure users would be surrounding the Apple Campus with pitchforks and torches.

Also part of this convergence initiative is the Apple decision to make physical keyboards work more like the iOS virtual keyboard, which changes contextually. The difference is that the iOS keyboard changes in appearance so you can infer what's expected. This means that, for example, sometimes you can use the delete key to remove characters to the right of your cursor, and sometimes you can't. It's like an infuriating game. And now when you press and hold an alphanumeric key it no longer repeats, in favor of a popup with extended characters (e.g. foreign characters with accents and ligatures). I suppose that’s handy for people who write in a foreign language. But you would assume that it would be an option, not a change to the original default key behavior. Your keyboard isn’t broken. Apple made it better #YOUREWELCOME.

#tech #opinion

Mar 7, 2023

How will narrow AI technologies like #ChatGPT, #StableDiffusion, and others, affect jobs in the next decade and beyond? Will it replace human workers? No. It's more likely that humans using narrow #AI tools will replace other humans who do not.

#tech #opinion

Feb 27, 2023

My teenager loves to tell me how she works around the parental controls I’ve set up on our home network and mobile devices. I should be pissed but I’m weirdly proud.

#family #tech #humor #chloe

Feb 26, 2023

Microsoft now officially supports running Arm versions of Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise on macOS with Parallels Desktop version 18. So it appears that any contractual obligation for running these Arm versions of #Windows only on specific hardware using #Qualcomm chips has officially expired.

Options for using Windows 11 with Mac® computers with Apple® M1® and M2™ chips  - Microsoft Support
Options for using Windows 11 with Mac® computers with Apple® M1® and M2™ chips - Microsoft Support

support.microsoft.com

#microsoft #apple #macos #tech #software

Feb 18, 2023

Another amazing life observation by The Oatmeal. Please get this in front of everyone you know.

You're not going to believe what I'm about to tell you - The Oatmeal
You're not going to believe what I'm about to tell you - The Oatmeal

theoatmeal.com

#family #politics #philosophy #science

Feb 14, 2023

Every tech company is trying to come up with an AI strategy for 2023. We already know the answer: tack “AI powered” next to every existing product feature or service offering name.

#ai #tech #opinion

Jan 26, 2023

Twitter's revocation of third party app access to its APIs, without notice or explanation, is another nail in the coffin for #ElonMusk's favorite toy. On a brighter note, the makers of my favorite #Twitter app, #Tweetbot, are already working on a new Mastodon iOS app named #Ivory.

Ivory for iOS
Ivory for iOS

tapbots.com

#tech #opinion

Jan 19, 2023

StackOverflow is toxic. Their posting policies are like EULAs and most of the time their moderation policies only bar future participation or reward negative engagements. The result is a community of trolls who appear to be looking to either insult people or to find any policy loophole to justify a refusal to help.

Go to https://stackoverflow.com and ask a reasonable question to see for yourself.

#tech #software #opinion

Jan 11, 2023

Here's an interesting #CSS method for styling an adjacent element based on whether an <input> is empty or not.

input[type="search"]:placeholder-shown + i {
    /* input is empty */
    display: none;
}

input[type="search"]:not(:placeholder-shown) + i {
    /* input is not empty */
    display: inline-block;
}

In this case I'm hiding and showing a clickable icon that clears the search text if there is any. No JavaScript needed other than the click event 😃.

#code

Dec 21, 2022

My company #Fynydd just updated SQribe to .NET 7. SQribe is a cross-platform #opensource tool to backup/restore SQL Server databases. It generates T-SQL scripts so you can version your database in git and copy databases across VPNs.

SQribe: Backup and Restore SQL Server Databases on Mac OS, Windows, and Linux
SQribe: Backup and Restore SQL Server Databases on Mac OS, Windows, and Linux

sqribe.app

#tech #software #recommendation #dotnet #csharp #code

Dec 20, 2022

Chip transistor density is currently measured in nanometers. A human hair is 100,000 nanometers wide. By 2025 we’ll be talking about chip transistor density in angstroms. A human hair is 1,000,000 angstroms wide.

Imec Presents Sub-1nm Process and Transistor Roadmap Until 2036: From Nanometers to the Angstrom Era
Imec Presents Sub-1nm Process and Transistor Roadmap Until 2036: From Nanometers to the Angstrom Era

www.tomshardware.com

#science #tech

Dec 18, 2022

For those interested in the #ElonMusk clown car crashing into the dumpster fire that is #twitter, I highly recommend this website to keep up on the #tech disaster.

Twitter is Going Great!
Twitter is Going Great!

twitterisgoinggreat.com

Dec 16, 2022

I know I know, another terminal #recommendation. But this one is different in that the input area is more of a text editor, and it isolates the output per command. It also uses AI to help you complete commands much like Github Copilot does for your #code. VERY cool #software #tech. Available for #Apple #Mac now. Will be available for #Windows and #Linux soon.

Warp: Your terminal, reimagined
Warp: Your terminal, reimagined

www.warp.dev

Dec 15, 2022

People feel that #ElonMusk is destroying their #twitter, so they're fighting to get it back. The problem is that it was never theirs in the first place. Even if it were restored to its glory it could be corrupted again in the future. The only way to stop this cycle is for the masses to adopt a federated platform owned by no one. That's why I moved to #mastodon.

Follow me at @argentini@universeodon.com

Dec 14, 2022

This is traditional family values? Standing between your mom and the woman your dad cheated on your mom with who is standing next to your half sister whose mom your dad cheated on with your mom.

#trump #politics

Nov 16, 2022

Perhaps #Trump allowing so many older Americans to die of #COVID really did make a difference in future elections.

#politics

Nov 13, 2022

MAGA Republicans and #Trump are pushing @HerschelWalker because they see him as a rubber stamp who represents every bullshit black stereotype they hold dear. They think the black community is a credulous monolith. The truth is that #MAGA #Republicans are the credulous monolith.

#politics

Nov 12, 2022

Republicans are upset with #Trump for losing them midterm elections, not for seditious conspiracy or six-digit #COVID deaths. So much for the “party of law and order”, “family values”, and “country before party”.

#GOP #politics

Nov 11, 2022

Funny that #ElonMusk fired top executives at #twitter for mismanaging the company and now he says that “bankruptcy is not out of the question”.

Nov 11, 2022

Voting for Republicans because you’re impatient? Power swings only prolong inaction and political agony.

#GOP #politics

Nov 11, 2022

That @DineshDSouza dumpster fire of a movie #2000Mules is such obvious bullshit that you’d have to suffer from #MAGA confirmation bias or sheer stupidity to believe any of it.

#politics

Nov 7, 2022

Twitter CEO #ElonMusk retweet of conspiracy theories about the attack on Paul Pelosi shows us exactly where Twitter is going under his leadership. It will become an even worse cesspool hellscape suitable only for the credulous shit asses on the #MAGA right.

#twitter #politics

Oct 30, 2022

I’m still struggling with how someone can be pro-life and pro-death-penalty, and why those two positions tend to go together in the #GOP.

#politics

Oct 29, 2022

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