Would love to be proven wrong here, but it sure seems like Apple has finally made it impossible to take a disk image of a Mac (not even bootable, just a compressed DMG file), given two ARM Macs and a cable.

Well, this is a terrible workflow that Apple steers people through when replacing a damaged phone:

1. Apple Support app tells you to disable Find My before sending an Express Replacement iPhone
2. You receive phone and set it up with Direct Transfer from damaged phone
3. You realize a week later that replacement phone has Find My (and Activation Lock) disabled because it copied the setting from the damaged phone.

Seems bad.

Playing with some local AI stuff this afternoon, and let me just comment on how unfortunate it is that the modern language with the worst packaging and dependency experience happens to be the one everyone uses for AI/ML.

TIL that in recent versions of macOS, most stock apps can’t be deleted by the user. Want to delete News? LaunchPad won’t let you. Command-Delete ain’t it. It’ll bounce right off the trash.

What gives? It’s because they’re not really in /Applications anymore. They’re installed in /System/Applications and that’s a read-only APFS partition. Neat.

This month's essay may be the single truest thing I've ever written about myself. If you're interested in understanding me or what the heck I plan to do with the rest of my life, sign up and you'll receive it. justin.searls.co/newsletter/

Evidence I've changed as a person: someone just stopped me on the street to say, "I'm sorry I just wanted to say you have an incredible energy and I wanted to hand you my card. Your chi is beautiful." And she clearly meant what she was saying. And seemed to be of sound mind.

First time for everything.

Possibly TMI: just me, or do socks and shoes fit more comfortably after trimming your toenails?

I'm not talking massive lengths here—even just a few millimeters and walking around in socks feels way more comfortable. Can’t tell if this is just me having some hypersensitivity disorder.

Does anyone even work at Peloton anymore? On hold for what seems like forever listening to the same muzak loop endlessly.

Reactivating their shitty bike resulted in their backend creating two concurrent subscriptions on a single account. What a garbage product.

Train fare in Japan isn't cheap, but one way Japan gets people to choose it anyway is by directly exposing drivers to road infrastructure costs through steep highway fees.

In 8 days I drove 613 miles and racked up about $130 in highway tolls. Would have been more expensive to take trains, but just barely.

Currently recruiting friends for the Pokémon card game on iOS. Wish it wasn't so well made but here we are 1320731700089555

Japanese media has taken to calling Trump's election "またトラ" (mata tora), as shorthand for またトランプ (mata toranpu), meaning "Trump again".
草

Spoiler alert: Gladiator II is very good.

PSA: the "GO" app (prev. JapanTaxi) finally added support last November for account registration with foreign phone numbers, which they'd previously been using to gate the service to Japanese residents.

Strongly recommend using GO over Uber for taxi dispatch in Japan—far better coverage and availability goinc.jp/news/pr/2023/11/10/4zow9wentngt9gjmlsebyn/

My friend Nick has had a truly terrible year. First, he got kicked out of his brass band. Then they repossessed his instrument because he started missing loan payments. And now his wife is leaving him—says she doesn't want to be in a saxless marriage.

Next election, pollsters should just ask their sample to show them the top 20 items in whatever For You feed they look at first every morning.

I was extremely skeptical about GM dumping CarPlay and hiring Baris Cetinok from Apple, and after listening to this interview I am almost certain it was a mistake. Dude can barely string together several concepts in a row in comprehensible English. Can't imagine him running a complex software organization theverge.com/24285581/gm-software-baris-cetinok-apple-carplay-android-auto-google-cars-evs-decoder-podcast

Whose brilliant idea was it to base carrier activation of eSIM on scanning QR codes that need to be loaded on a screen of a second device?

Really nice interview on IndieRails with my better half about her Build with Becky product. Was fun to compare and contrast her recap of year we spent building this thing with my own perspective.

Aside: Becky's got such a great speaking voice that it's a crime that I'm the one with a podcast. Maybe she'll remedy that someday. indierails.com/47

There’s a device in my office closet that makes a pairing beep every few days. No idea what causes it. Could be any of two hundred devices spread across thirty bins and cubbies.

I will die not knowing.

One of the skills I've improved most over the course of my career is Dreading.

I used to dread work that'd actually turn out to be easy or otherwise let a a crushing slog catch me off guard. But now my sense of dread is finely tuned! I was really dreading editing this video and boy was that the correct reaction.