The Punisher: One Last Kill is going to be released as a “Special Presentation” on May 12 on Disney+, right after the end of the second season of Daredevil: Born Again (which starts tonight).

‘A Marvel Television Special Presentation: The Punisher: One Last Kill’ Release Date Revealed

Check out the teaser poster for ‘A Marvel Television Special Presentation: The Punisher: One Last Kill,’ streaming May 12, 2026 exclusively on Disney+.

www.marvel.com

Apple will soon bring advertisements to its Maps app on mobile and the web, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The ads, which Apple could reportedly announce this month before rolling them out in the summer, could allow businesses to pay for the highest spot in search results on Apple Maps.

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.

Apple could put ads in Maps as soon as this summer

Another Apple app is getting ads.

www.theverge.com

“Pfizer Lyme vaccine shows more than 70% efficacy but misses key statistical goal”

NBC News:

Pfizer and Valneva said Monday their Lyme disease vaccine showed more than 70% efficacy in a late-stage study, even as it missed its main goal.

I hope this gets approval. Every season, I find ticks on me after mountain biking. After the first time, you learn to do a full body check after the ride. I wouldn’t stop that check, but a vaccine sure would be a nice second layer of defense, and some peace of mind. It’s crazy that we had a vaccine for Lyme so long ago, but have just let people suffer the disease instead.

Pfizer Lyme vaccine shows more than 70% efficacy but misses key statistical goal

There hasn’t been an approved Lyme disease vaccine for more than 20 years, after GSK pulled its shot because of a lack of demand.

www.nbcnews.com

Finally Finishing Our Cord-Cutting Project

Last time on…

You might remember my post from a couple years ago about “cutting the cord”, but needing a source for watching Jeopardy!, which is a non-negotiable for our household. Since then, Jeopardy! has started being streamed on Hulu and Peacock, although the episodes are only available the day after they air, and they only keep a week’s worth of shows available. Being a completionist, this is, of course, unacceptable.

I left that previous post having purchased an antenna and HDHomeRun, which is a four-tuner receiver that takes over-the-air broadcast signals, decodes them, and makes them available on a network. I also use Plex, which provides a channel guide, live TV capability, and which can record those broadcasts like a completely digital DVR. Plex has apps for the Apple TV and other Apple devices, which is what we primarily use at home.

An incomplete installation leads to tears

After that, I failed to make a good, permanent antenna installation, and the whole thing was too flaky to count on. We live just below the top of a decent hill, but unfortunately on the wrong side of it, as far as reaching our local station goes. We recently had a shed/office built in our backyard, and it is positioned as far up that hill as is possible. As part of the shed project, I ran cat 6a cable to the shed, connected to our home network, so there was now connectivity up there. To top it off (no pun intended), a friend who knew of my antenna project donated an antenna mast that he no longer needed to the cause.

A mast on a hill, PoE, and joy

Finally, a couple of weeks ago, we installed the mast and antenna on the new structure. While there is power available in the shed, the network switches in question provide power-over-ethernet (PoE), which I wanted to use; it’s just one less thing exposed to the elements if I could eliminate the HDHomeRun’s power plug. Unfortunately, the HDHomeRun doesn’t accept PoE as a power source, so I found an appropriate PoE splitter on Amazon. The splitter takes ethernet in, splits the data and power, providing a data-only ethernet cable and a separate DC output. There was a minor issue of the barrel plug not being quite right, which a small adapter took care of.

And it finally works reliably! We now get a much more stable signal, have a clean installation with the fewest cables I could muster, and as much Jeopardy! (and other shows, of course!) as we can record, all stored on my network-attached storage. Now we can not only continue enjoying our cable-free situation, and are not beholden to whatever service does or does not carry our favorite dinner-time game show.

Now that I have that mast…

This has sparked a couple of other projects that can take advantage of that mast. First, a friend has started experimenting with MeshCore, a chat layer implemented on a mesh radio system. She gave me a receiver (I’m stmpjmpr on there, if you want to say hi), and I now have some parts coming to build a repeater that I’ll hang up on that mast. After that, I need to pick back up on a weather station in bought awhile back. It’s still in its box…that will need to change. More to come!

According to Tim Cook, posting on X (sorry, I don’t link to X):

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”. Sure, there were other Macs launched too (and of course, we don’t get any details on the metrics behind Cook’s statement), but I doubt a ton of “first-time Mac customers” are flocking to the spec-bumped MacBook Pros. As a fan of the Mac, I’m happy to hear that the Neo is finding such a positive welcome!

Mac

MacBook Pro with M5 Max (Early 2026)

IMG_1337.jpeg

As I mentioned earlier, I ended up ordering a new MacBook Pro. I got the 14″ model with the M5 Max, 64GB RAM, and 2TB storage. I’d have loved to go to 128GB and/or 4TB, but I just had to draw the line somewhere—this was $4300 as it was. But never mind that: This machine is a beast.

I previously had a Mac Studio with M1 Ultra and, purely subjectively, this MacBook Pro beats it hands down. The only thing the Mac Studio did better was keep quiet—the fans on this one do spin up when I’m building and running the test suite on my app in Xcode. But remember how I said that the Xcode work was kicking my MacBook Air’s ass? Well, while the MBP does spin up its fans and get all of its cores going at 100%, it does so for just a few moments, whereas the MBA took minutes at 100%. The MBA is a great machine—more than enough for just about anything, really—but this machine trounces it when the going gets rough.

I just read Antonio G. Di Benedetto’s review of the MacBook Pro at The Verge, and came away a little confused. The report card is almost all “A”s, and the review itself is very positive, but the review score is an 8. Based on my week of owning it and putting it through its paces, I’d call it a 9. If they allowed fractional reviews, I’d probably even go to 9.5.

The new MacBook Pro is still fast as hell

How big of an upgrade is it for M1 Pro / M1 Max owners?

www.theverge.com

The only dings I’ve come up with are the cost, which is significant, especially once you really start to get to the top spec in RAM and storage. But this machine really is at the top of its class. And I don’t mean that just as a Mac, but compared to anything out there: there’s not a Windows- or Linux-based machine I’ve come across at any price that matches this quality of this thing physically, with its Retina display, its dare I say perfect rtrackpad, the excellent keyboard, and solid, tank-like aluminum unibody. And the performance is up there with the absolute best as well. So, of course it commands a premium. Still, I’d be willing to knock some tenths of a point off for its eyebrow-raising price tag.

The fan noise and heat are likewise worth a minor deduction, but the machine stays cool and quiet until you’re really pushing it to its limits, so I find it acceptable. The higher-end Windows machines I’ve used spin up their fans way more quickly and loudly than the MBP does, and they just don’t feel nearly as solid or premium.

I might argue, if I were picking nits, that the design is getting a little long in the tooth, and there’s a rumored redesign coming with the M6 generation, that might bring an OLED-based screen among other changes. That would be a welcome update, but this current form has been refined to near perfection, and I can’t bring myself to even consider deducting any credit due to it.

And that’s about it for the cons list. I don’t have a ten-point ratings scale, and I don’t give fractional stars, so I have to call it five stars. It’s truly the best Mac I’ve ever used (and I’ve used a lot of Macs), and there’s a strong argument to be made that it’s the best laptop ever made, period.

Andrew J. Hawkins, writing at The Verge:

Consider the Cybertruck, widely considered to be the most hated car in the world. Cybertruck sales fell 48 percent in 2025, compared to the previous year, according to Kelley Blue Book’s annual electric vehicle sales reports. A more merciful automaker would drive the angular truck out to the desert and put one right between the headlights. But not Elon Musk. He may not have much interest in running a car company anymore, but he seems more than happy to continue to peddle his ugly, dumb truck. Fortunately, there aren’t many takers anymore.

Two years ago, I made a bet with a Tesla-stan friend of mine that the Cybertruck would get canceled (or very materially redesigned) in three years. I’ve got my fingers crossed that it finds itself on the chopping block soon. Down 48% YoY! 🤞

All the wrong EVs are getting canceled

The Cybertruck death watch starts now.

www.theverge.com

“Hundreds of Millions of iPhones Can Be Hacked With a New Tool Found in the Wild”

Andy Greenberg, writing at WIRED:

Researchers at Google and cybersecurity firms iVerify and Lookout on Wednesday jointly revealed the discovery of a sophisticated iPhone hacking technique known as DarkSword that they’ve seen in use on infected websites, capable of instantly and silently hacking iOS devices that visit those sites. While the technique doesn’t affect the latest, updated versions of iOS, it does work against iOS devices running versions of Apple’s previous operating system release, iOS 18, which as of last month still accounted for close to a quarter of iPhones, according to Apple’s own count.

… Both Apple itself and StatCounter, which tracks operating system adoption, released numbers last month showing that close to a quarter of iPhone users remain on iOS 18. To update your iPhone, tap Settings, then General, then Software Update. (And you can find steps for limiting liquid glass here.) Both iVerify and Lookout say their security apps also can detect if a phone is compromised with DarkSword in the form they’ve observed it.

Time to upgrade if you haven’t already.

Hundreds of Millions of iPhones Can Be Hacked With a New Tool Found in the Wild

A powerful iPhone-hacking technique known as DarkSword has been discovered in use by Russian hackers. It can take over devices running iOS 18 that simply visit infected websites.

www.wired.com

“The Shingles Virus May Be Aging You More Quickly”

David Cox, writing at WIRED:

Evidence suggests reactivations of the varicella-zoster virus may accelerate aging and raise dementia risk. Now scientists want to know if vaccines and antivirals could help protect the brain.

This is a fascinating article about how the shingles vaccine might be much more beneficial than most of us think. I signed up to get mine soon after a friend got shingles in his eye, which I had never heard of. It permanently affected his vision, and was quite a fight to get under control. I couldn’t immediately get the vaccine—they only give it to people over 50, and I wasn’t quite that age at the time—but have now gotten it. This article suggests that the age guidance needs to be revisited, and there are benefits to getting it earlier in life.

The Shingles Virus May Be Aging You More Quickly

Evidence suggests reactivations of the varicella-zoster virus may accelerate aging and raise dementia risk. Now scientists want to know if vaccines and antivirals could help protect the brain.

www.wired.com

“Codegen is not productivity”

In other—worse—words, programming is not about writing code that makes the computer do a specific thing, or at least not exclusively or primarily about that. Programming is an exercise in representing abstract ideas and managing complexity while doing that. Programming is as often an exploration of these things as it is an implementation of them.

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. Yes, LLM output might effectively be a high-fidelity prototype, but I think that’s not a bad thing. If it gets to production without the proper refinement into working software, then that’s probably bad, and I’m sure it will happen a lot. But if LLMs make refining that prototype into something that does the job, I’m here for it.

Holly Rusch, at the San Mateo Daily Journal:

Last December, the project, dubbed the El Camino Real renewal, began in earnest. It includes fixing failing sections of the road, repairing sidewalks and perhaps most notably for the Burlingame community, removing 418 trees, a majority of which are eucalyptus, and planting 460 new trees in their stead. Now that the tree removal has begun, what does it actually take to extricate a decades-old eucalyptus whose branches soar far above houses, apartments and buildings? The answer involves at least a day of work, blocks of fully-closed road, a crew of around seven people and a fair amount of noise.

I am happy to see these trees go. They’ve done so much damage to El Camino Real, and are a nuisance.

How are Burlingame’s storied eucalyptus trees being safely removed along El Camino Real? 

Along El Camino Real in Burlingame, residents have discussed, debated and argued for years over the impact of taking down the diseased, elderly or otherwise unsafe eucalyptus trees that line

www.smdailyjournal.com

Troubleshooting Hangs and Lag in a Native Mac App

As I’ve written, I’ve been creating a Mac app to create and manage this site, and I’ve been dogfooding it here for about a week. Because, of course there’s nothing better than using your own software day-to-day to find out exactly what needs to be done to make it better. I’m an experienced developer, but a relative novice at making Mac apps. I’ve been having places where the UI lags or hangs for a bit, and I’ve not used Instruments, Apple’s profiler, before. I asked Codex to walk me through how to troubleshoot these, and thought I’d write some notes in case it would help anyone else out (and I’m sure I’ll come back to these notes myself).

The general process is: initial set up of the build, running for profiling, recording a run of the behavior in question, and giving that run result to Codex (or whatever, including looking at it yourself, of course) to improve. Here’s more detail:

Setup

  1. In Xcode, select the scheme for your project.
  2. Go to Product -> Scheme -> Edit Scheme….
  3. Select Profile on the left.
  4. In Info, make sure Build Configuration is Release.
  5. Close the scheme editor.
  6. Save any work and quit any extra copies of the app.

Start a Trace

  1. In Xcode, choose Product -> Profile.
  2. Instruments will open and show a template chooser.
  3. Pick Time Profiler.
  4. Click Choose.
  5. Click the red record button in Instruments.
  6. Instruments will launch your app.
  7. Reproduce the lag or hang behavior in your app.
  8. Stop recording.

Read the Trace

  1. Optionally, use the Hangs track to identify Hangs by severity and focus on one, or a region.
  2. In the main Instruments window, click the Time Profiler track.
  3. Open the bottom pane if needed so you can see the call tree.
  4. Turn on these options in the call tree area:
    1. Invert Call Tree
    2. Hide System Libraries
    3. Separate by Thread
  5. Click the Main Thread row.
  6. Look at the hottest entries by Self Weight and Weight.

Round Trip With Your Favorite LLM

Or do it yourself, of course! In my case, I started giving screenshots of the Instruments window with the Main Thread row details revealed to Codex. Codex has been doing a great job of identifying and eliminating hangs, and getting the app feeling snappy again. I had one time where a session went through too many back-and-forths and I had to abandon and start over, but I’d learned enough from the first session to guide Codex more effectively the second time, and got to the bottom of the issue.

Conclusion

Doing this with me driving the loop is time consuming, but illustrative. I’ve learned from Codex as I’ve been driving Instruments and my app, closing in on the next hang or lag, one after another. It’s been a great way to get to the bottom of those things that make the difference between a frustrating interaction and a delightfully quick one.