Seems like this could be a good path to a dumb(er) iPhone as well as a potential path for technically inclined parents to manage their kids’ phones. As I’ve become more knowledgeable about MDMs through my job, it has also occurred to me that this could also be a good path for parents.
Winnie’s latest post is a lovely reminder.
The current instability of this world serves as a chronic perpetrator of anxiety for me. It is like we don’t really know if an event would be the trigger that cascades the collapse of civilisation, or is it just another terrible event among the many terrible events happening every day. I feel like we are living in the end times, but we don’t know how dragged out the end is going to be.
I hope her partner makes a swift recovery.
Today would have been my dad’s 80th birthday if he hadn’t died from pancreatic cancer. I was thinking about him a lot today. I was thinking about how he might see the world today and how different it is than February 2007, when he died. I’m certain he would not like what America has become. He would have had a lot to say about the state of the world. I’m certain he would have invested a lot of time in listening to others…to an extent.
He was an exceptional listener, which made him an excellent psychologist. My admiration for him runs deep and I miss him like hell. Still! I wish I remembered more. I wish we had been a family that recorded home movies, but we do have a lot of audio tapes that my brother had digitized. Alas, I haven’t listened to them except when we were all at my brother’s house when my mom died this year. Or was it over the holidays? I was thinking about how he would have been with my mom suffering through Parkinson’s. It made me intensely sad. There was a part of me that was happy he didn’t have to witness her decline. So many what-ifs. Still.
Laura picked up some lemon bars, one of my dad’s favorite desserts, which we enjoyed after dinner. Ozzie wanted to light a candle and sing “Happy Birthday.” It was a sweet gesture, but we didn’t do it. He was dead, after all. We did talk about him though. Cassidy asked what his favorite fruit was. I didn’t really know. I guessed maybe an apple, but as I type this, I know he liked plums a lot. Everyone in my family is pretty sensitive to noises and my dad was a loud eater. He would slurp juicy fruits, slurp his coffee and when he ate open-face lettuce and peanut butter sandwiches, I had to leave the room. The smacking was absolutely dreadful. I would take nails on a chalkboard without hesitation.
I was asked for a favorite story and couldn’t think of just one. “I have so many,” I said quietly, as a lump formed in my throat. It’s difficult for me to talk about him. I talked about him coming to LA to visit me, about hanging out with my friend Michael, whom my kids have still never met. I told them my friend Robert, whom they know well, got to meet him. They asked if Laura had ever met him. She had not.
Earlier today I tried to imagine what he might look like at 80. No doubt he would have been fit. His hair probably would have been completely gone by now. Alas, all I can do is wonder. All I can do is imagine the conversations and wisdom he would impart on anyone who would listen. He would question everyone and everything inquisitively and then listen. We would all do well to be better listeners.
The Turnstile Tiny Desk is absolutely one of the best ever. Their album is also one of the best of the year.
Every year I anxiously await Tycho’s sunrise DJ set from Burning Man.
I’m in a group chat and someone linked to this post on Twitter of maybe the greatest flashmob video I think I’ve ever seen. Thankfully you don’t have to go there to see it. Humans can be wonderful.
If anyone wants to try the Dia browser, you can use my link. I have 5 invites. FCFS.
John Candy was one of the greats. Can’t wait for this one.
I’m not in the market for a wrist wearable. I love my Apple Watch Ultra (and also my Oura ring), but POLAR is a great company and they should be applauded for making a screen-free and subscription-free product in 2025. I hope it’s a wild success for them!
Foil stickers on the web?! COME! ON!
The Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity (what a name!) is creating a museum in Marin County. Can’t wait to be able to visit this!
From tala’s blog post perfectionism is a form of shame.
Finally saw the new Superman on Friday with the family. It was… fine. Not great. Fun in the moment, but that feeling seemed to fade quickly. Definitely James Gunn-y. Kids thought it was fine too, but liked the original better. Go figure.
Spotify added messaging to their app. Awful. It absolutely pains me to pay for it every month. I literally agonize over it and bemoan the fact that despite there being some solutions out there to move playlists from one service to another, each only kinda sorta does it!
Sippy has one of my favorite blogs. I really enjoyed reading about three books dot net, a site he made with Claude Code.
On a related note, while I do listen to Ezra’s podcast and often find the topics interesting and the conversations intelligent, I find his voice irritating. And not just a little irritating, but enough that it gets in the way of enjoying his podcast sometimes. I feel like an asshole saying it, but he just has one of those voices. I can’t explain it. I have often thought that it be nice if you could just change his, or anyone’s voice on a podcast or audiobook, to another voice? I feel like this is entirely in the realm of possibility and will be a feature in the not-so-distant future.
Gruber’s latest post on the macOS 26 Utilitiy Apps icons is absolutely scathing.
If you need a little break today, I recommend Dodge This.
I will know the web is truly dead when I am no longer able to come upon things like Ratfactor’s Illustrated Guide to Folding Fitted Sheets.
I can’t believe Phrack is back. Bringing back all sorts of nostalgia. IYKYK.
In the future, our pocket computers (or glasses or whatever) will have apps that we get from an app store and apps that people “make” for themselves and a very small number of people. Apps like bitrig (great name, btw) will make this more possible.
In the future, our pocket computers (or glasses or whatever) will have apps that we get from an app store and apps that people “make” for themselves and a very small number of people. Apps like bitrig (great name, btw) will make this more possible.
My legendary friend Mark Ghuneim has a new company called Storyboard. Excited for him!
I’ve been in a sort of browser purgatory since the whole Arc thing went down. I have come to appreciate, on occasion, having tab-aware context in my browser and think what The Browser Company is doing with Dia Skills is kinda neat. One of the small things I have come to appreciate about pinned tabs in Dia is that, similar to Arc, when I click on a link in a pinned tab, it creates a new tab. Safari also behaves this way. No command key required. Whereas Perplexity’s Comet browser, by default, opens a link in a pinned tab in that pinned tab! WTAF?! I filed a bug.
