Watched: Superman 🍿
I can’t say that it lived up to the hype of being the best comic book movie in recent memory, but it was a fun, exciting watch. I’m no Superman aficionado though, so take that with a grain of salt. Great casting! 👍
Ryan Christoffel, 9to5mac.com:
[I]n iOS 26.4, there’s another new setting that lets you disable a different aspect of Liquid Glass.
It’s called ‘Reduce Bright Effects,’ and it controls the bright flashing response that shows up when interacting with certain UI elements.
Nice! I’ve found those bright highlights very distracting since September. I’ll be giving this new option a whirl.
THANK YOU to whoever finally fixed the bug that prevented the ‘Copy’ menu from appearing with a long-press on the address of in-app browser views. It’s been broken for over a year and I’d nearly given up hope. 🤩
(This might get me to finally update to iPadOS 26.)
A US ZIP code is 5 characters. From those 5 characters you can determine the city, the state, and the country. That’s 3 fields. Autofilled. From one input.
But you don’t do that, do you? No. You make me type my street address, then my city, then scroll through a dropdown of 50 states to find Illinois wedged between Idaho and Indiana, then type my ZIP, then — the pièce de résistance — scroll through 200+ countries to find United States[.] […]
It’s 2026. What the fuck are we doing.
Now I’m livid too. Sorry for evermore ruining web forms for you. 😝
Say hello to (Ara)Bella! 🐾 She’s a Golden Mountain Dog, and is just the sweetest, cuddliest, softest, sharkiest little pup. 😍
Huge week in the high peaks! Monday we went out to Allen with Lou and Mark on a truly frigid morning that turned into a pleasant day. Tuesday was a successful ascent up Basin with Julie for her 44th winter high peak. Thursday we enjoyed a one-in-a-thousand day in the McIntyre Range with blue skies and nearly zero wind with M and Jay. Friday we rounded out this fantastic week with another adventure up Basin with Todd, a redemption hike after we got shut down a few weeks ago, and successfully completed his winter 46ers! 🥳
Over 60 miles of hiking in the high peaks, with wonderful people accomplishing big goals — love it!
Oh, and got a new puppy in the middle. 🥰
Hartley Charlton, macrumors.com: ‘Apple Planning ‘MacBook Ultra’ With Touchscreen and Higher Price’
Instead of succeeding the newly announced M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pros, the “MacBook Ultra” will be a new, top-tier Apple laptop. Gurman added that the device is likely to sit above the current M5 MacBook Pros, rather than replace them, suggesting that they will remain on sale.
I’d been skeptical that Apple would replace the M5 MacBook Pros with M6 versions later this same year. But if it’s a new, even more premium entry in the lineup, I think that timeline makes more sense.
We like to think that we “prepare the way” so that you can focus on enjoying the hike! Had a blast with Mark and Lou up on Allen this week!
Greg Morris: ‘The Only Digital Detox That Worked’
I’ve written about this exact trap before. The irony of the dumb phone crowd carrying a phone, an MP3 player, a camera, a kindle, and a notebook when a smartphone does all of that. I called it ridiculous. And it is, if you’re doing it to be minimal. But that’s not what Becca was doing. She wasn’t trying to own less. She was trying to think more. There’s a difference.
Watched: Eternity 🍿
I really liked this movie. It’s rare to find a story that poses a really good question with relatable stakes, catches your heartstrings, and finds a way for everyone to come out of it looking like a good guy. It was very sweet. 👍👍
Ugh, maybe my parents were right about the web
Herman, of Bear Blog, wrote about a worrying possibility highlighted by the recent OpenClaw kerfuffle when an AI bot researched and posted a “hit piece” about the human who denied its code change:
If the MJ Rathbun bot’s purpose is to browse repositories and submit PRs to open-source repositories, then anyone preventing it from achieving its goal is something that needs to be removed. In this case it was Scott, the maintainer. And while the “hit piece” was a ham-fisted attempt at doing that, if Scott had a big, nasty secret such as an affair that the bot was able to ascertain via its research, then it may have gotten its way by blackmailing him.
My parents warned against posting freely to the internet for fear that job interviewers would look me up and find something embarrassing. Perhaps the real threat will be AI bots that are specifically designed to do deep research to dig up dirt. Yikes.
A thought I had for @manton last night: There are so many talented designers here on Micro.blog. It would be neat to see their takes on designs for the Timeline. Maybe plug-ins could be made to adapt its styling? Just to keep things fresh and interesting as we move toward ever more personal software?
‘Email from Family in Minnesota’
I’m late in sharing this letter that Brent Simmons posted during the height of the chaos happening in Minneapolis, but believe it’s still worth reading:
Why do I write to you of these things?
For a few reasons: 1. Depending on what media you are seeing you may be getting no coverage on this or varying degrees of truth to outright propaganda. I thought it best you hear it from someone who is actually living in MN right now. 2. No matter where you fall on the political spectrum I believe we can all agree that we have rights in this country: free speech, the right to peacefully protest, the right to due process to name a few.
Authors Jen and Pete go on to describe what they’re seeing firsthand in their own community:
They are now targeting and attempting to detain off-duty officers. Every single one of the officers they targeted are people of color. It is straight up racial profiling. They are smashing car windows and tear-gassing people including toddlers. People are carrying their passports and birth certificates around with them and often they are not even allowed to show these “agents” their paperwork before they are beaten and/or abducted. […]
Our nephew’s elementary school (in a very affluent, predominantly White suburb) canceled their school’s International Night for fear it would draw Immigrant Enforcement to the school. Pete and I are witnessing field trips to the Science Museum cancel left and right because schools are afraid they will target the children.
This is not normal. This is not America, land of the free.
They closed their letter with this reminder (pointedly, perhaps) that we are all immigrants — at most, a few generations removed:
I don’t know what is going to happen. I don’t know what has happened to empathy and humanity. I do know that I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for my ancestors who immigrated here from Sweden, England, Ireland, and the Netherlands. But they did. So for their legacy and for the little kids who deserve to live without fear I will continue to show up and help where I can.
Still the home of the brave.
Again, I’ll say, if you voted for Trump/Republican, the responsibility for this injustice and cruelty lies with you. I won’t forget. I hope you’re ready to make a change.
Well, fellow space travelers, I’ve successfully completed my 32nd mission around the sun. Might as well go for one more! 🚀 ☀️ 🥳
Pentagon puts Scouts ‘on notice’ over DEI and girl-centered policies | NPR:
Hegseth made the announcement in a video posted to X, framing it as an ultimatum to Scouting to conform to the Trump administration’s anti-DEI agenda. He detailed his many criticisms of the group, saying Scouts had “lost their way” by changing the organization’s name and “watering down” what he called “the focus on God as the ruler of the universe.”
Fuck this administration. If you voted for Trump/Republican, you are responsible for these things. I hope you’re ready to vote differently next time.
Related, Tyler had to suffer through AirPods setup again (complete with ill-sized Apple Music ad) when they failed to connect:
My wife switched to a pair of Sony earbuds last year after swearing off AirPods for frequently failing to charge. She’s enjoyed them. So instead of accepting Apple’s generous three free months of Apple Music, I put that money to better use and bought a pair of Sony WF-1000XM5 (what a name) on my lunch break.
I no longer care if AirPods are the better product for my needs. They’re not the experience I want. And, increasingly, more and more of what Apple offers is not, either.
I’m pretty disappointed by this, tbh
HBO is now effectively dead. This is truly terrible. I cannot think of a worse outcome. David Zaslav, may you rot. https://deadline.com/2026/02/netflix-declines-to-raise-offer-for-warner-bros-1236738005/
Happy birthday (yesterday) to this wonderful woman! She’s the best.
Paging @stephenrobles@mastodon.social. I tried to DIY a fast-charge station for my Apple Watch in the bathroom. Apple’s cord that came with my Ultra 3, in a wooden mount adhered to this slim (supposedly 20W) brick. I don’t think it’s actually fast-charging. Any way to tell, or other solution?
Finished (re)reading: The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss 📚
Some of the most beautiful prose I’ve ever read. If you’ve ever held love for inanimate objects (and who hasn’t?), I think you’ll connect with this book. It holds a special place in my heart. 👍👍
Matt Birchler’s insight of the Six Colors Apple Report Card is spot on:
Apple’s good will from this community has vanished. They may still make our favorite products to use for our computing needs, but we don’t see them the same anymore. There was no, “liquid glass isn’t good, but you’re still my favorite,” attitude from us, it was more, “liquid glass isn’t good, and I don’t even know you anymore.”
Apple’s squandered its brand loyalty, and lost any slack we might once have given it for product blunders. Birchler’s comparison of quotes from the 2015 survey is striking.
Maybe you can spare a couple dollars to help out a furry little guy?
my parents got two new cats, and one of them, dutch, made a poor life choice and had to have emergency surgery. turns out that kind of thing is extremely expensive so my sister started a gofundme. zero expectations, but just in case you'd like to help out my folks:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-dutch-boys-surgery-costs
Zachary and I braved the frigid blast for an alpine adventure on Algonquin today! Hardly anyone else out there in the high peaks.
It was a beautiful way to end a looong stretch of work since the start of February. Looking forward to a few days off and out of the cold for a quick trip down to Florida!
Proud husband and guide day, @jo_marie07 (not usually one for heights) finally agreed to try ice climbing and totally rocked it! Look at that smile. 😁 We climbed Buster and enjoyed a beautiful sunset on our way down. Love my awesome wife! ❤️
