It really crosses people's wires at cocktail parties when I tell them that I believe Covid was a conspiracy by the Chinese to force the West to finally adopt the use of QR codes.

My Onkyo receiver just turned itself off. I turned it back on and it ran a diagnostic on each of its amps, before landing at a message that says "Check Sp[eaker?] Wire."

Neat.

Instead of my usual tradition of making predictable predictions before Apple Events, I'm going to go on the record saying I'd pay $10,000 for a 12" MacBook Pro that weighed 2 pounds or less.

Won't happen, but should. Especially with the Vision Pro, developers are going to want as small a Mac as possible to screen share from when they travel.

I don't know why it took me so long to think to do this, but I finally started a playlist of some of my favorite TV theme songs and title tracks. Too bad how many aren't available on streaming services at all. Apple Music: music.apple.com/us/playlist/theme-songs/pl.u-e2RvqtVKP3B

Raycast's AI assistant is such a low-friction operation (command-space, type a thing, then hit tab), I've gotten in the habit of asking for keyboard shortcuts.

It's so much faster and clearer than Googling that I do this several times per day and have gotten way faster at using the apps I depend on. raycast.com/pro

My name is Justin and I'm a Timeline Addict. Give me a pull-to-refresh UI and I'll pull it all day long in the hopes of one more like or reply. I've tried moderating, but at the end of the day… the juice just ain't worth the squeeze.

Instead of posting to Twitter-like services, I'm going to post to my blog and syndicate elsewhere. Want me to see your reply? Email me! ✉️ justin@searls.co

Are Truth Social users called Truthers? 🫠

Just cracked a beer while saying "it's 5'oclock somewhere" before realizing that it was 5:11pm and the place was here. 🍻

There's a reason I exported my Twitter archive the day Elon took over. theverge.com/2023/8/20/23838823/twitter-x-deleted-pictures-links-2014-metadata-t-co-shortener

The iTunes revolution of selling individual songs for 99¢ was something I fought
against at the time, because I conceived of my favorite albums as complete,
integrated works. I worried decoupling the song from the album would optimize
the industry to pump out ever-more-saccharine pop hooks.

It's interesting now, looking back and seeing the thread connecting the 99¢ song
to infinitely-scrolling algorithmic video feeds as the logical endgame. Back
then, I could never understand why someone would want to buy a single song ala
carte, and today I can't get my head around the appeal of TikTok or Instagram
Reels. 🤷‍♂️

The iPad's relative uselessness for getting real work done is probably one reason I get so much value out of it. When I'm on my iPad, there's not much I can do but think through, sketch out, and plan my work—whether that's with the Pencil in Notes or organizing my to-do items in Things.

I rarely do these things as diligently on my Mac, because it's so much easier to stick my head in the digital sand and just bury my head in whatever work is right in front of me.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of iPad, but it is genuinely useful.

I'm staying at a hotel with an (onsen-style) public bath and so I wore the provided yukata and slippers to the bath. But when I got out, someone had taken my slippers.

So then I had to decide if I was going to be the gaijin that steals some other person's slippers or the gaijin that walks through the hotel lobby barefoot like some kind of animal.

No good option.

I had too much to drink last night so I immediately checked my phone upon waking to make sure I stayed out of trouble and realized that all I did was write a (5-star!) review on ProductHunt for buttondown.email

What the hell's wrong with me.

Heading to Japan this morning to undertake my first field report as a Test Double foreign correspondent.

My Uber arrived early, we encountered no traffic, and I breezed through security. Even the Delta lounge was empty. So with my luck, that means my flight is sure to disappear over the Pacific.

Nice knowing you!

Fun fact: this Apple Support document is just flat-out wrong. It says: "you can identify [a fast charging] cable from other chargers by the USB-C connector and the aluminum around the magnetic charger", but the very short 0.3m USB-C cable Apple started selling in 2018 and has since discontinued meets these criteria and, wouldn't you know it—can't fast charge an Apple Watch.

As someone who travels light, I figured I'd bring my 0.3m cable if I could. Because the Internet provided zero help here, I figured I'd feed the web to mention that as of 2023, the only Apple Watch chargers that support fast charging are 1 meter long. Oh well.

My cousin just contacted me for the first time in a decade to ask for advice on planning her first trip to Japan. As if to punish her, I turned around 3000 words in under two hours. That'll teach her!

(Maybe I can salvage a blog post from it, at least…)

I was getting free Paramount+ through my T-Mobile account, but that promotion
ended, so now I get it through my American Express Platinum card, which offers a
free Walmart+ subscription (via statement credits), which in turn includes a
free Paramount+ subscription. walmart.com/partner/plus/amexplatinum

Ok good talk.