Usually I'd like to theme the final *7 Things* of the year in some way, but I'm feeling pretty under the weather, so I'm keeping it casual to close out 2024. I hope you're all feeling better than me and have a happy new year! 🎊
🆕📝 Grading my 24 Apple predictions for 2024
Did I make good bets? Bad bets? You bet I did! 🛎️
🍿 Just watched: Carry-On (2024)
Best Buy is out before upgrading anyone's laptop (LOL), Apple isn't offering their own MacBook Upgrade Program, but maybe Upgraded is good?
Not only is using Apple Intelligence for automation more accessible (in every sense) than writing a programming script or creating a Shortcut, it’s also something we’re all much more likely to do for a one-time task. I often create scripts, shortcuts, and macros to automate tasks that recur with some frequency; I seldom do for tasks that I’m only going to do once. But why not use Apple Intelligence and ChatGPT to save a few minutes of tedium?
I do often make shortcuts for one-off tasks—either for accuracy or cause it’s the only way I can connect the dots. AI could disrupt this.
Since Jimmy Carter left the white house, his basic goodness and humanity has never, ever wavered. He has represented the US admirably and performed with unmatched wisdom in advocating for world health improvements that have saved millions of lives. The pictures of him volunteering for Habitat for Humanity into his 90s are famous.
I’m sad tonight to know that I’m going to be on a planet without Jimmy Carter on it for the first time ever.
📺 Restarted Severance tonight, too, in anticipation of its second season. S1E1 is such good television! Mystery after mystery. So compelling.
📺 Just finished: Shrinking (Season 2)
Waiting till Christmas morning to put up the ornaments wasn’t necessarily the plan, but it might be a fun new tradition! The day was too beautiful not to get out for a little ski on the rail trail. Happy Holidays from us to you!
Calling all ADK ice (and ice-curious) climbers! Thursday night ice climbing is back in session. Meet the crew at Pitchoff Quarry at 6pm for a couple of hours of fun and fellowship. Some extra climbing boots (select sizes), crampons, and ice tools will be available (free of charge) courtesy of @onwardguides. Bring your own harness, helmet, and warm beverage. See you there!
(Note this is not a guided experience. Climb at your own risk.)
A new Very Good Tweet™ has landed:
The great and terrible thing about humankind is simply this: we will always do what we are capable of.
— Ray Nayler, The Mountain in the Sea
Jason Koebler: ‘I Went to the Premiere of the First Commercially Streaming AI-Generated Movies’
“The Best Day of My Life” is a mountaineering documentary in which a real man talks about an avalanche that nearly killed him and led to his leg being amputated, with his narrated story being animated with AI.
This example is the only one that feels okay to me.
Gosh, I wish my screen reader could use the excellent digital voices that Apple already offers to authors to create audiobooks out of their works.
🔗 These emoji and acronyms are no longer cool, says study:
Overuse is a common theme to other emoji and acronyms now considered to be past their sell-by date, reports Becextech, which commissioned the study. Here’s the rest of the top 10 least cool […]
LOL
New iOS volume-control tips, a stark statistic on pregnancy and homicide, a Genmoji collection, a call for dedicated journalism ownership, WordPress reflections, a creative About-page feature, and an app for comparing movie and TV credits.
A new Very Good Tweet™ has landed:
Artemis, the calm web reader by James, got some great updates. Here’s just one:
- You can create a public version of your feed that you can share with others from your account settings (like this one).
I like this trend of being able to publicly share your personal reading list.
Loura has a fascinating idea for her blog:
The other theme idea I’ve been thinking on, is how to make my blog more interactive. I have the beginnings of an old school RPG plan where you explore my blog (as a character) and “find” the post. It’s still in the very beginning stages. Something on the lines of using the URL as an identifier that can then be used to seed a level. You can wander around, face little monsters, and go on the hunt to find the blog post. Lots of different angles to consider.
I love the weird and wonderful web.
Nick Heer last year:
The problem with the free market is that it rarely rewards artistic integrity, and that maximizing revenue often means trying to appease the widest possible audience. If a studio want to include a market of a billion people where personal expression is not seen with the same standards as in the U.S., it may need to make some changes. That is especially true for Apple as it risks losing access to its manufacturing engine. The problem these lawmakers have is with capitalism, not Apple specifically, but that is not really something they are able to admit.
Other wonderful adult privileges I appreciate to this day or deciding when I want to go to sleep and when I wish to wake up. […] I love to read, and being able to continue a book at night in a dark house while everyone else is sleeping is just divine. […]
Oh – there’s food too. I grew up in one of those “you have to eat everything on your plate” houses. There were only a few things I didn’t care for, but my Mom made them anyway. I haven’t had to eat a serving of green English peas since 1979. I’ll never eat them again, either.
Co-signed. Adult freedom is the best.
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, theverge.com:
If you’re considering adding smart features to your front door, 2025 is shaping up to be an excellent year to do so.
It me! Ultra-wideband support, better battery life, wider smart home interoperability, and more is all coming next year. Sounds promising.
I enjoy dipping into Micro.blog and Mastodon, and I’ve gotten to meet and interact with people I wouldn’t have encountered otherwise.
But I think we’re putting an undue amount of pressure on the fediverse to provide community for us. No platform can build or provide community. People are the only ones who can build community, and we do it by nurturing individual connections with each other.
We can use the fediverse as a tool for this, just like we can use our own blogs, and email, messaging, phone conversations, video calls, streaming interactions, and in-person visits.
Hey @micr0@fuzzies.wtf, @altbot@fuzzies.wtf is amazing. I built a shortcut to generate descriptions for images before I post them online, and I’m curious if you have a prompt that you feed to Gemini along with each image that you’d be willing to share? Just hoping to further improve my tool. Thanks!