This is not the news I was expecting (or wanting) to see this morning while checking my RSS feeds. I’m in complete shock.
I first read Charles’ “Enterprise Mac Administrators Guide” upon its release around 2015. This book helped tremendously in my path to managing Apple devices at VICE.
I first met Charles at MacSysAdmin in 2019. It’s here we discovered each other’s deep interest in computing history. We spent a good chunk late into the night at “The Bash” event talking. A few days later I offloaded a massive list of books via email I’ve read to help in his “History of Computing” project.
Since then we would keep in touch, emailing when finding anything of interest be it video, web snippets or more books about early technology. Even though, in theory, we barely knew each other, he reached out and approached me as if we had been long time friends. Seeing him again this past October, nearly three years later in-person at MacSysAdmin, it was like time had never passed.
Looking in the MacAdmins Slack and other Apple-centric sites/blogs, it’s amazing to see how many lives he’s touched.
You will be missed!
Tagged: #Apple
Found via Waxy
Benj Edwards goes spelunking in CD-ROM clip art collections, and you can too now that DISCMASTER is back online
This really was the 90’s… I remember my mom handling their churches weekly bulletin and always scouting new clip art CD-ROMs for this process.
The pervasive nature of music paralysis across generations suggests that the phenomenon’s roots go beyond technology, likely stemming from developmental factors. So what changes as we age, and when does open-eardness decline?
Survey research from European streaming service Deezer indicates that music discovery peaks at 24, with survey respondents reporting increased variety in their music rotation during this time. However, after this age, our ability to keep up with music trends typically declines…
Charles Arthur ponders via The Overspill:
I wonder if it depends on the radio stations you listen to? Being exposed to different (new) musical styles makes a big difference.
While the internet has democratized (or enshitiffied) a lot of our media, there is an onslaught of cruft amongst the true gems and (for better or worse) we no longer gather around the metaphorical “water cooler” having all tuned into the same channel. I remember when my parents had to be home at a specific time on a specific day to see the latest episode of whatever they were into. Otherwise they would “video tape” it.
Streaming services aren’t easy to “discover” because they force feed you based on their algorithms. One of my larger gripes with these is the need to give them a few genres and bands as starting points. I’d much prefer a “leave me along” option as I’m often “recommended” obvious artists.
It also depends on one’s overall relationship to music. I’m a musician and still writing and recording my own music. Most people are either quite boring or simply have other interests and want to “just put something on” to go about other business. I think if you’re a curious person in general, you will always be finding something new. Whether it’s music, film, websites, software, gardening tips, books…
Take Radiohead’s “Kid A,” for example. I bought that CD on a whim when it came out not knowing anything about them. It was a bizarre album based on my tastes at that time but little did I know it was subliminally introducing me to the likes of Miles Davies (jazz) and Krautrock (two genres I had no relationship to at that point). Car trips were long and the iPod did not exist, so there I was, stuck with that disc. I listened over and over to that album discovering it layer by layer and really taking to it. Streaming services create a passivity and endlessness where you’re more likely to miss out on something great because it didn’t immediately “click.”
It’s hard to say what the future holds for Bandcamp, but as of now they are still giving me interesting recommendations in their weekly newsletter based on my purchases. With Bandcamp I can also use their similar albums or find digital labels to which I can explore their other offerings.
Tagged: #Music #Streaming #Discovery #Rants #Links
Rakuten Kobo is launching its first color e-readers, the Kobo Libra Colour and the Kobo Clara Colour. Both use E Ink’s latest Kaleido color screen technology, which has subtle, pastel-like hues and drops from a 300ppi grayscale resolution to 150ppi when you view content in color.
…
The $219.99 Kobo Libra Colour retains all of those features but is also now compatible with the Kobo Stylus 2, just like the Kobo Elipsa 2E. However, it’s $30 more expensive than the Kobo Libra 2, and you’ll have to buy the stylus separately for $69.99.
The $149.99 Kobo Clara Colour is slightly more distinct from its closest sibling, the $139.99 Kobo Clara 2E. It offers the same six-inch display and IPX8 waterproof design but now comes with 16GB of storage, as well as an improved processor. I hope so; the Kobo Clara 2E’s sluggish performance was one of my chief complaints.
This is something I’ve been wanting for a long time. Though it’s a tad pricey when you add on the stylus. Perhaps when my Kobo Clara HD is completely irreparable, the costs will come down and I can either snag an older model or see what the next generation models improve upon. I’d definitely go for the Libra Colour though.
Though I’m basically non-existent on Mastodon, I peeked the other day and was glad to see I’m not the only one who has long gotten over people like a certain Apple pundit and other bourgeois “lifestyle” Apple blogs/podcasts. My FreshRSS used to have a literal “Apple Apologists” category for people that will not call bullshit when bullshit needs called. It’s mostly gone because I know they’re masters in the art of mental gymnastics. They will find some way to justify any stupid design decision or fluff.
There was a comment that summed this up perfectly on Mastodon in another thread:
it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his access and relevance depend on him not understanding it 🤷🏽♂️
Imagine, no special WWDC access or review units. The gestapo can and will oust you, annihilating your income. I feel bad for these people. They’re not official employees, but their “jobs” are attached mainly to this company and Apple can dangle developer account revocation and bar you without hesitation. It’s not like they get any special insight, maybe they have some birdies that whisper to them, but watch any Talk Show Live from WWDC and it’s an awkward hour of non-answers. What’s even the point? It’s like a Russian election.
It’s an alternate reality, the dog in a burning cafe.
via SVT:
A new app to indicate wrongly parked cars has appeared in Uppsala. By tipping about cars that are listed incorrectly, you as a private person can earn money. SVT’s reporter set out to test.
Cities are becoming more isolated and dystopian. To further this, there’s a pilot taking place in Uppsala (a smallish city north of Stockholm) where one can download an app allowing citizens to snitch on each other. This is so Swedish. Why talk to someone when you can directly report them and make a quick buck?
I wonder how this will get abused when it becomes widely available?
I really wanted to take to paper for my journal but I’ve been such a techno kid since my first PC in the early 90’s that it has become an extension of me in some ways. I feel more at home. I do keep paper around for scribbles and lists but my brain dump and thoughts feel much nicer stored in plain text.
I’m fascinated by artists like Eno and Bowie who took to journaling via the computer so early. Especially when everything was much more expensive and volatile (floppies, no cloud storage). Mark Burgess also got a Mac in the late 80’s and started keeping a diary which later became a book on The Chameleons.
Tagged: #Journaling #Reflections
via the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
In a milestone judgment - Podchasov v. Russia - the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that weakening of encryption can lead to general and indiscriminate surveillance of the communications of all users and violates the human right to privacy.
Tagged: #Privacy #Encryption #EU #Links
Occasionally, I want to add an article to my Kobo. Combine the Markdownloader extension with Pandoc1 and we have a stupid simple solution:
pandoc path_to_my_file.md -o path_to_my_file.epub
Pandoc might bitch about the <title>
element, but in my use it always interprets it properly from the article.
Here’s something I haven’t done since… oh… I dunno, 2002…? I purchased a new internal DVDR/RW drive for the PC I salvaged and it was only $33! The prior owner of this PC (definitely a teenager) must have used the drive as a literal cup holder because it’s sticky and will not eject.
Why would you want this, you ask? Mostly to archive albums (or films) I come across on the cheap at second hand stores.
The next upgrade is a new or used (if I can find) chassis, this thing is beyond cleaning (teenagers…) and will be easier to just relocate the internals. However, my initial lazy search has only yielded cases without external drive bays! It’s just fans up, over and behind! Jokes on me I guess…
Tagged: #Salvage #Computing #Updates