Thoughts on Technology

Ugh, Nextdoor

I just went there to read a post on a topic I care about, and immediately regretted it. It’s disappointing not only for the same reasons that social media in general can be toxic, but even moreso because these people are actually my neighbors.

Cook/Ternus

I’m beyond ready for everyone to move on from all of the talk about the upcoming Cook/Ternus transition.

“If You Need a Laptop, Buy It Now”

I’ll take the analyst assessment with a grain of salt, but RAM prices are certain to have interesting (bad) second-order effects aside from just more expensive computers. Hopefully my new one will last a while.

Thanks, Mom & Dad

Apple’s 50th has stoked nostalgia about the early days of personal computing, which made me want to take a moment to thank my mom and dad for recognizing and investing in my love of computing.

“Apple Announces Ads Are Coming to Apple Maps”

I was super disappointed to read about ads coming to Apple Maps. Ads are cancer for products that, once introduced, only get worse over time. I wish being an Apple One member would include an ad-free experience as a benefit.

“Xcode 26.4 Release Notes”

Xcode 26.4 is out. There’s a long list of fixed issues and improvements, but my favorite fixes the issue with Codex I posted the workaround for earlier.

“Apple could put ads in Maps as soon as this summer”

Oof, this is bad news. I remember when Apple sold hardware and made excellent software that people wanted to use because it was in service of selling their hardware. Ads are a path to enshittification—there just aren’t many companies who can pull off ads without being user hostile.

Finally Finishing Our Cord-Cutting Project

A couple years after cutting the cord, I finally fixed our flaky over-the-air TV and now have a reliable, free(ish) source for our nightly Jeopardy! habit. Hopefully this post can help anyone wanting to run their tuner on power-over-ethernet like I did.

“Best launch week ever”

According to Tim Cook, “Mac just had its best launch week ever for first-time Mac customers. We love seeing the enthusiasm!” It’s hard to not read that as, “The MacBook Neo launch has been a huge success”. As a fan of the Mac, I’m happy to hear that the Neo is finding such a positive welcome!

MacBook Pro with M5 Max (Early 2026)

★★★★★ This machine is a beast. The Verge is being stingy giving it an 8/10. It’s objectively the best Mac I’ve ever used (and I’ve used a lot of Macs), and there’s a strong argument that it’s the best laptop ever made, period.