Thoughts on Technology

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.

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.

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.

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!

★★★★★ 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.

I agree with Manton here: I don’t want the rest of that stuff in the Codex app, which has been getting solid improvements over time. Crowding it with the other stuff sounds bad.

Time to upgrade if you haven’t already.

I enjoyed this post, and I think it’s got some really good observations. I do think it underestimates the power of having working software that really does something, gives you a sense of what you wish it did instead, etc.

I’ve been working on a native Mac app, and here are some details of some recent sessions, troubleshooting hangs and lag with Instruments and Codex.

What a great essay masquerading as a review of the new MacBook Neo.

This is a good, basic primer on why 800V architecture matters in EVs. We’ve dealt with a similar topic in RVs. The Volta system in our Storyteller Overland MODE4x4 has a 58V architecture, while many similar RVs run at 12 or 24V systems, with similar rationale.

As I wrote earlier, I agree with this sentiment. Hopefully our Pro Display XDRs last a long time, time enough for something better to come along.

I’m with Drang and Snell on this one.

John Higgins at The Verge has written the best review of the new Studio Display XDR I’ve read.

This look into the creative process behind Apple’s spatial environments in the Vision Pro was fun. Most of the article focuses on the process behind bringing Jupiter to the platform as an enviroment, and is worth a read.