This is an overly harsh view of my home and native land but it is mostly fair. In the most recent news, we have serious issues with our treatment of the Wet’suwet’en Indigenous people and their territorial sovereignty.
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The Dalrymple Report: Fold phones, fingernails and Amazing Stories
Fold phones are still breaking, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. Apple TV+ is releasing Amazing Stories and an Amazon vendor scams the system.
How ‘The Mandalorian’ and ILM invisibly reinvented film and TV production
I’ll be the first to admit I found The Mandalorian boring and juvenile but the effects and visuals are spectacular.
Odd Job: What’s it like to be a real-life Disney princess?
I’ve never had any interest in going to Disney theme parks but I’m always fascinated by stories of the behind the scenes workings of the facilities.
BBEdit updated, merch, and in the Mac App Store
Many thanks to BBEdit for sponsoring The Loop this week. Bare Bones Software, makers of BBEdit, is one of my favorite software companies — in fact, I’ve been using BBEdit for more than 20 years. BBEdit has been updated to version 13, and is available in the Mac App Store as a subscription! Same great features. Same user experience. You can subscribe in the Mac App Store or purchase perpetual licenses directly from Bare Bones Software. Also, you can still get great merch, including Classic and Rebus T-shirts, enamel pins, and more in their merch store!
There are enough good RPGs to fit on a 20-sided die
While I’m a big fan of D&D and would play again in a heartbeat, I’m completely unfamiliar with any other board game RPGs mentioned in this piece.
Hawkeye Access for Mac: Control your Mac using head movements
I played around with this today. Easy to set up, easy to use. Would take practice to get the movement down cold. I showed it to my wife who is an Occupational Therapist working with kids who have varying levels of disabilities and sh can see how this would be a real use to some of them.
New on Twitter: Turn most recent tweet into a thread, add new tweets to past threads
Follow the link for details, but try this one simple thing to get a sense of what’s new:
- Launch the official iOS Twitter client
- Start a new, blank tweet
- In the new tweet, pull down (as if to refresh)
Your most recent tweet will appear, with the option to turn it into a thread. Useful!
The city of Nashville built a full-scale replica of the Parthenon in 1897, and it’s still standing today
When I moved to Nashville in 2002, many people made a point to tell me to visit this site. It seemed kind of silly to me (I’ve been to the actual Parthenon in Athens) but once I visited, I really loved and appreciated it and the beautiful park it was in.
Frontline: “Amazon Empire: The Rise And Reign of Jeff Bezos”
This PBS Frontline documentary is available on Youtube but only for US viewers.
Futuro houses, the UFO-shaped tiny homes in the Late 1960s and early 1970s
What an odd, silly looking design for a house.
Patient plays violin as surgeons remove brain tumor
This is simultaneously really creepy and utterly amazing.
The 100 most-spoken languages in the world
This is a fascinating look at the top 100 languages and their origins from other languages. I figured Japanse wouldn’t have any branches but I was surprised to see Hungarian didn’t either.
The Ultimate Mac User book
I’ve been a big fan of Setapp since it launched. If you know of a new(ish) user of a Mac, this would make a great gift to help them navigate the ins and outs of their new computer. And even if you’re an old hand, at only $10 for the Kindle version, it’s not a bad thing to have on hand as reference material.
Defining CSS 4
We do seem to agree that this is purely about “the marketing effect.” And for some, that’s a dismissive admission. They see that marketing is not core to defining or implementing technology. Some folks the CSSWG have argued this would take up a lot of time to figure out, and add little value to CSS itself.
On the other hand, if web developers are hesitant to adopt new technology, defining and implementing it is wasted time. How Authors perceive change, and judge when is the best moment to invest time to learn new technology — this has a huge impact on adoption.
SpaceX and Space Adventures offer tourist trips to orbit
If you had the money, would you go? I would in a New York minute.
Happy birthday, Photoshop!
Love it or hate it (there are arguments for both), there’s no denying Photoshop is one of the most powerful pieces of software many of us will ever use. But it’s also one of the most complicated and dense. I’ve been using Photoshop since v1 (Adobe used to give it away for free when you bought a scanner) and, while I’ve never been an expert at it, I’m always amazed by its possibilities.
A woman’s class ring that she lost in Maine in 1973 was just found buried in a forest in Finland
They never figured out how the ring got to Finland. Wish it had some sort of GPS to track its journey. Curious story.
How to deal with running out of iCloud, Google, and Dropbox space
As the tech guy for our family of 12 macOS and iOS connected devices, I’m the one charged with managing all the storage, backup, and maintenance details. What a PITA.
The iPhone at the deathbed
Many of us have complicated feelings about death and dead bodies. Personally, I wouldn’t want to do this but I understand why some would.
“Fake Bakes” have millions of views on YouTube but don’t actually work
I’m a “beginner cook” so I love little tips and tricks of cooking and baking. I’ve seen these “food hacks” all over Facebook and Twitter and many of them seemed suspect to me.
BBEdit updated, merch, and in the Mac App Store [Sponsor]
Bare Bones Software, makers of BBEdit, is one of my favorite software companies — in fact, I’ve been using BBEdit for more than 20 years. BBEdit has been updated to version 13, and is available in the Mac App Store as a subscription! Same great features. Same user experience. You can subscribe in the Mac App Store or purchase perpetual licenses directly from Bare Bones Software. Also, you can still get great merch, including Classic and Rebus T-shirts, enamel pins, and more in their merch store!
Apple’s “Investor update on quarterly guidance”
Bad news for Apple but not completely unexpected. The company will undoubtedly bounce back.
The interface of Kai Krause’s software
Krause’s software was simultaneously the most interesting and the most frustrating user interface I’ve ever experienced.
A definitive guide to reclining your seat on an airplane
This whole “to recline or not to recline” issue has popped up again. For the record, as a guy who is 6’3″ tall with bad knees, you not only can’t recline your seat in front of me (the seat ends up slamming into my knees), I won’t let you, going so far as to physically prevent your seat from moving back. But, keep in mind, instead of blaming each other, we should get angry at the airlines who jam us into coach with seats so tiny even the average-sized person can’t fit in some of them.
This animation shows what would happen if leap years didn’t exist
Good explainer of leap years.
2000 iPhones doled out to quarantined cruise ship passengers
Trying to make a bad situation a little bit better.
Apple on hook for millions for off-the-clock bag searches
This case is an excellent example of the fact that, while Apple appears customer friendly, they have some very employee unfriendly policies.
The 50 greatest breakup songs of all time
There are some great songs on this list. Glad my favourite artist made number one.
Inglourious Basterds “camera angel” clapper
This was a lot funnier than you would have expected it to be.