Whelp. I refuse to be distraught until it’s officially called, but suffice to say I’m wildly disappointed in so many—a bit over half, it seems—of my fellow citizens for refusing to see what’s in front of their eyes: a man who threatens our right to vote at all—you know, the whole point of the USA. 💔
Maybe kicking off Onward Mountain Guides' Instagram page on election night wasn’t the best idea. But at least it’s out there now. 🤷♂️ If you want to watch me try to be more social-savvy, or keep up with my adventures, give it a follow! I’d be just tickled. 🫶
Had a lovely day out in the mountains today hiking with my first client for my own guide service. 10/10 would recommend going offline for most of Election Day. (Also, I love these new workout share cards from Pedometer++!)
So, uh, I just realized that I’ve sat down for dinner to eat my Factor meal while wearing my Mack Weldon slippers and Cortex Subtle Sweater. 🙈 I’m a good @relay@relayfm.social podcast boy?
Jason Becker: Campaigns and tactics are not the story
I think if she wins the popular vote, but loses the electoral college, it will be about how our system doesn’t work when we have partisan, geographic sorting.
If she loses outright, it will be about how we failed to convey the danger of Trump. It will be about how we have lost a shared notion of truth. It will be about how we’ve lost a common information architecture and with it, our common reality.
Well said.
Oh no! 😧 @adam@social.lol what have you done!?
The anxiety multiplier. https://election.omg.lol
Glad to see Micro.blog praised in (a footnote of) John Gruber’s post about the art of hypertext:
Mastodon technically allows web-style hyperlinks on words, but few instances support it, and thus almost no client apps support it in their editors for writing posts. Micro.blog is an exception.
It’s one of my very favorite features of Micro.blog that I can make social network posts (they’re just blog posts!) with hyperlinks, and I hope more clients will support it.
I did some redecorating for the occasion!
But now I’ve really got to go to bed because—what’s that?—oh yes, I have my very first client hike for Onward Mountain Guides tomorrow! 😁
🆕📝 Vote for Kamala Harris & Tim Walz
Kamala is the only choice—but also the right choice—for our free and democratic values, and basic human rights, to be upheld. And it's well past time that we ask a woman to lead us. 🇺🇸
This has me rethinking some things on my lock screen…
Always enjoy reading @nashp and I like this idea of the Lock Screen being the Home Screen. https://nashp.com/134
My 1-hour review of this silicone cover for AirPods Max: I was skeptical pulling it out of the package, but so far so good! It’s totally fixed my problem with the all-stretched-out headband fabric. Way more comfy again. Plus the red color pops and feels like an homage to my beloved red iPhone mini!
Wes Davis at The Verge tallies up his Apple product usage, comparing to Tim Cook’s routine:
Final count: 15 devices, nine services, 26 apps, and eight accessories.
Describing all of that made me feel like I’ve stared into the abyss only to find it staring back at me. But it still leaves out countless other Apple apps, non-Pro iPads, the iMac, and the Mac Pro. How would someone, even the CEO of Apple, fit those in?
I rarely stop to consider just how many Apple devices and services augment my daily life. It’s a high number, to be sure, but I’m not sad about it.
Jason Kottke, maker of “fine hypertext products”, points out how hyperlinks bring the receipts:
What makes this piece so effective is its plain language and its information density. This density is a real strength of hypertext that is often overlooked and taken for granted. Only 110 words in that paragraph but it contains 27 links to other NYT opinion pieces published over the last several months that expand on each linked statement or argument. If you were inclined to follow these links, you could spend hours reading about how unfit Trump is for office.
It struck me reading that piece too.
Happy to see The New York Times Editorial Board’s succinct urging to vote against a Trump presidency:
Mr. Trump’s corruption and lawlessness go beyond elections: It’s his whole ethos. He lies without limit. If he’s re-elected, the G.O.P. won’t restrain him. Mr. Trump will use the government to go after opponents. He will pursue a cruel policy of mass deportations. He will wreak havoc on the poor, the middle class and employers. Another Trump term will damage the climate, shatter alliances and strengthen autocrats. Americans should demand better. Vote.
They endorsed Harris in September. 🇺🇸
Choosing the Share Item Location option creates a link that allows someone to see the location of a lost item when they open the link. The link can be opened on a non-Apple device, so people without an iPhone or Mac can help you find something that’s lost. Find My links that you share expire after a week and you can see how many people visited the link.
It remains to be seen if an airline employee will do anything with that link to try to find your lost luggage.
🔗
This means that if you want a trio of color-matched Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad, you’re simply out of luck.
Buying a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad separately will limit you to the standard black and white color options. Thus, your accessories won’t match.
Boo! 👎
👀 Amazon’s got the M2 MacBook Air with the new 16GB RAM and 256GB storage standard at $200 off (down to $799). That’s quite the deal. (Via MacRumors)
Just ran across this Verge article from October 2023 in my reading queue:
SpaceX has published a new webpage to promote its upcoming “Starlink Direct to Cell” service that plans to offer cellular connectivity to “existing LTE phones” via satellite. The website, which PCMag reports went live earlier this week, notes that the service will initially be limited to texting services in 2024, with voice and data functionality following in 2025, alongside support for IoT devices.
This would be a big leap for connectivity, but 2024 is running out. Beware Musk timelines. ⏳
📺 Agatha All Along was really good (if not great) and I’m excited to see where they go with the story next.
Matt Birchler, in a member post, points out that Call of Duty has both massive computing requirements and a complex interface, and still “normal” folks figure it out just fine:
None of this is to say that good user interfaces don’t matter, of course they do. I do think it’s a good reminder of two things:
- The “average user” is more capable than we give them credit for
- People will tolerate a bad UI if they enjoy the product as a whole
A good reminder for all of us pontificating about the average user.
