Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

Resilience Is Our Strength But Also Our Weakness

Time to break a few things

There are two big conversations popping around the political universe these days. Both seem to miss not only the larger point, but the stakes.

The first is how the Democratic Party is trying to still figure out what it wants to be in the wake of progressive victories in recent primaries. The centrists are appalled. The progressives are ecstatic. The people are pissed off. The politicians are clueless. This post isn’t really about that fight, only to say that it provides some context to the second.

The second conversation takes place on the larger battleground heading into the midterms and beyond. No, that’s not the inevitable mud fight between what was once the Republican Party and the clueless Democrats. It’s yet another intra-party scrap on the Dem side.

There are those who think we need to restore to what we had before. Achieve some sort of balance again. There are those, like me, that think playing that game is not only equally clueless, but is trying to pretend we can put all of the dismantling and destruction aside and find some sort of way forward in some semblance of what we used to call unity. As I said, I’m not buying into that myth. Reconstruction didn’t work the first time around. It won’t this time either.

The reconstruction and balance crowd makes a sadly profound observation about the electorate. As pissed off as most people are, the movers and shakers are counting on the resilience of the American people. Sad fact, the bad guys now in power and trying to desperately hang on to it out of fear of retribution, continue to count on that same resilience.

Resilience doesn’t always mean a stiffer spine. Many times it means hanging in and taking care of the immediate business of living day to day. When that daily struggle is the focus, it’s no surprise the bigger picture gets lost, or muddled up over passionate issues that in the larger scheme of things mean less than those that take advantage of them push like dope.

Yes, we are a resilient people. We can withstand a lot. But that resilience also makes us far too compliant, hoping that the next election, or some court decision will change things the way they always have in American politics. Those legal and civilized ways of bringing change have often, albeit slowly worked, but we’re finding that given everything that is broken, those same legal and civilized tools can be used to quash that progress at a quicker pace.

While we haven’t yet launched into a full-blown shooting Civil War, the damage that has been done since the Confederacy rose again and took over the federal government under the leadership of a Queens, New York conman and pedophile (something that strikes me as ironic and on the surface just damn funny) is in many ways just as damaging as was the end of the first Civil War, if not more so, because many of the institutions and norms that helped the Union survive have been and continue to be dismantled.

At the conclusion of that war in 1865 there was a great debate about how to handle the states and its leaders that formed the Confederacy. One side wanted retribution and punishment, the other not so much. Equal to our resilience is our capacity for compassion and our compunction to think that dark hearts can be changed. The compassionate side largely won out in an attempt to heal the nation’s wounds. Sad to say, here we are again.

The difference this time around is that on top of the fight for freedom, civil rights, and equality, we’re fighting a government that’s largely owned by a handful of billionaires. Many of which were on the other side of things not too long ago. Money talks and bullshit walks. They’ve largely made their haul, so the only reason I can see for them to continue what they’r doing is they’re also afraid of retribution.

In a brief conversation earlier today with friend David Todd McCarty after reading a new piece of his called The Quiet Truth, I remarked that his citing of the quote from Confucius about a willow that bends being stronger than the mighty oak that breaks in the storm, got me thinking. Those willows are indeed resilient. That same story appears in many cultures, proving its own resilience. But I’ve come to believe the only way out of this mess we’ve allowed ourselves to be in is going to require some breakage. Breakage that must require building something new, not restoring the old.

We made that mistake after the American Civil War. The country literally broke in two. In attempting to heal it, we proved our resilience as a people, but unfortunately left two many places for the losers to hide and lurk in the resilient reeds. They have resurfaced a few times since in our history, but have always been beaten back. Each time accepted back into the fold with that same practical compassion and resilience.

They’ve been openly enjoying breaking things. We might not enjoy it, but we need to break a few things with equal desperation and energy, before too much more is broken.

(Image from Halinskyi Max on Shutterstock)

Thanks for reading. You can subscribe to this blog if you care to. You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. This site does not use affilate links.

Sunday Morning Reading

Comings and goings as life goes on.

It’s a Sunday, so it’s time for a little Sunday Morning Reading. As usual, I’m sharing a collection of links and once again they somehow touch one upon another. Funny how that happens. Some point to big issues. Some about the comings and goings of life. Some about its shifts. Take a look. Take a read. Happiness is a choice.

a bronze statue depicting a young boy sitting on a stone ledge and reading a book. He sits cross-legged, leaning slightly forward, with a large open book resting on his lap. Perched on the open page of the book is a small, detailed bronze bird looking back toward him. The boy's right arm rests on a stack of four large bronze books piled beside him on the stone ledge.

David Todd McCarty’s On Being Good At Life talks about abandoning the quest of success, fame, fortune, and just being better at life. Deciding how one defines life is always the first obstacle.

If you read one piece among those shared this week, read Josh Marshall’s Google, AI, Oligarchy and the End of the ‘Open Web’. I’ve been writing about Google’s recent moves and how they will change the web as we know it. Josh nails it better than I ever did. Some think we’re ready for this. I’m not one of those.

We lost a one of the good ones this week when Om Malik died. By all accounts a great human being and a giant in tech for so many years in so many spheres. Om’s writing has been featured in this column many times. As a human he was so much more than just his achievements. Two great pieces about Om that you should take the time to read. John Gruber’s simply titled Om, and Mathew Ingram’s Om Malik 1966-2026. Sail on, good sir.

Tom Wellborn takes a look at The Art of the Fail. You can guess his target. You should read his piece.

JA Westenberg takes on the pursuit of optimization and the cult of the extreme in The Extreme Is The Easy Way Out. Choosing a middle path is also not necessarily easy.

Mike Masnick tells us How The Internet Became A Tool For Domination and Control Instead of Liberation. Joke’s on us. I’m not laughing.

Ken White’s not laughing either. Or maybe he is. There’s always some kind of fracas happening in social media, regardless of the platform. When you step back, it’s weird that we designed something to explode and exploit that kind of chaos. Weirder still that we think we can control what people say or social media or anywhere else by banning them. Ken White of PopeHat fame was recently suspended from Bluesky and writes about his thoughts in A Bit of Tedious Drama At Bluesky. The piece is much more than just about those circumstances and worth your time. You are what you think and say. Ken defines it well.

A tip of the hat to Dwight Silverman who’s retiring (again) after a terrfic career writing about tech. I have always enjoyed Dwight’s work because he kept the focus of his tech adventures on the user, while having a firm grasp of the bigger picture. Check out The Grand Finale (for real this time): My 30+ year column ends, It’s exit heralded by AI, and also his thoughts about his retiring on his personal blog. I’m guessing (and hoping) we haven’t seen the last of what Dwight has to say.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to subscribe if you want. It’s free. If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. If you’d like more click on the Sunday Morning Reading link in the category column to check out what’s been shared on Sunday’s past. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. This site does not use affilate links.

More Thoughts On Apple’s Price Increases: The AI Tax

The AI Tax is about more than the cost of a computer

Now that the dust is settling a bit after Apple unsurprisingly announced price increases across its hardware lineup, I have to say that I’m quite bemused to see the pocket book hit being called the AI Tax.

I wasn’t clever enough to use that descriptor when I posted about the news shortly after the announcement, but I had been paying enough attention to immediately point the finger of blame at the costs associated with Artificial Intelligence. I think Jonny Evans was the first to coin the phrase AI Tax. For what it’s worth, I hope the phrase AI Tax sticks. Sticks hard and deep. And twists the knife. Because it’s going to affect much more than just the cost of MacBooks, iPads, Apple TVs, and other gear designed in California.

While other tech companies had already started raising prices due to the AI Tax, (talk to anyone in the gaming market) Apple’s announcement is one that brought real shivers and shakes to consumers, the stock market, and boardrooms around the globe. Whether mostly myth or prescient business practices, Apple’s reputation for being ahead of the curve when it comes to purchasing large supplies of chips to withstand market pressures is and was such that tech companies in other sectors often found themselves facing sold out inventories or higher prices when it came time to make their orders. The “Apple Tax” extended far beyond the high cost of Apple products.

That rep and Apple’s stock took a dive on the news. Apple recorded its second biggest market drop in its history, dragging the NASDAQ down with it. Heading into the weekend there’s consternation brewing about all of the chip releated businesses going forward. (Hint: that’s most businesses these days.) But then again, the stock market is not much more than a wild ride in an aging prediction market, so who knows how that will unfold as a holiday week begins on Monday.

Word came via The Financial Times Friday night that Tim Cook was calling in some chits on chips with the Trump administration, attempting to circumvent chip bans balled up in the trade war to and fro with China. If successful, that would allow Apple to buy banned chips that the Pentagon is hesitant about, given that they are built by state controlled Chinese companies. According to the report this lobbying had been going on for a month or so prior to Cook’s first warning a week before the price hike announcement on Thursday.

The timing hints at a bit of public hardball lobbying from Apple. (Note that the price increase announcement wasn’t a Friday news dump after the market closed. However, The Financial Times article came after no known action from the administration post Apple’s announcement.) Shake the markets and try to wrest the attention of the administration fighting losing battles of its own making with bodies of water in the Middle East and in its own backyard. I’m almost surprised Apple hasn’t been called a vandal yet.

As I said earlier, this is going to have far reaching implications beyond the consumer gadget markets. Chip capacity has to increase, or the demand for higher bandwidth memory has to decrease before any of the predictions that this will subside in a few years. (There’s a good read on this from Imran Valiani here.) On the current trajectory, fueled by still increasing hype to combat building blowback, I don’t see that timeline materializing. This news might bobble the bubble, but I don’t think it’s ready to pop.

Costs are going to rise across the board. It’s not just consumers that purchase computers who will take the hit. And it’s not just the purchase of computers that will drive an inflationary spiral. Yep, that’s the I-word that no one likes to hear, especially politicians. Everything is a computer these days, or at least has some form of chip in it. And, in my opinion, too many companies have jumped on the AI bandwagon far too soon to understand the long term ramificatinos. All of those costs will be passed down the line to consumer pocket books.

I also don’t think we’re going to see these price pressures subside to pre-AI Tax levels. I’m old enough to remember when new cars used to have price ranges well below $5,000. That obviously makes me prehistoric, but I can remember watching The Price is Right featuring cars as the grand prize with contestants guaranteeing at least their first guess was accurate by chosing the number two for cars that would be priced at $2995. That’s a memory that doesn’t require a chip. Although streaming those old shows does.

Like it or not, Apple’s success since the launch of the iPhone, has been a key piece of U.S and global economic growth with much of the tech sector following along and prospering in its wake. Apple’s recent announcements are probably one day going to be viewed as just as big a marker going forward as the release of that first iPhone.

It feels to me that we’re entering into a price curve trajectory for computing on all levels that will follow a similar trajectory as the automobile market. The financial markets will find ways to love it as financing will become a key driver to cover costs while the markets get used to price points for signature hardware starting much higher than the $1000 price point today. There’s got to be a way for the bankers to cover all of the borrowing associated with the build out of data centers.

Over the years the myths of Apple being doomed have largely been just that. Myths. Apple always found a way. This turbulence probably won’t change that. But the AI Tax will change things for all of us in ways that we’re just beginning to understand. Inept global political and corporate leadership easily taken advantage of by hype-masters and hucksters have paved the way to this moment.

And all of this for a still largely unproven technology.

Social Media Influencers Left Adrift With The Odyssey

Perhaps this starts a new trend

I find this move by movie maker Christopher Nolan to be quite fascinating. Prior to the opening of his next film, The Odyssey, Nolan is skipping the now usual round of screenings for social media influencers. In and of itself, it’s a great way to generate the same kind of annoying buzz that typically follows social media screenings. In the bigger picture, perhaps it’s the start of a healthier trend.

A Christopher Nolan film is going to generate its own momentum one way or the other these days, regardless of what critics and influencers say early on. So, you can argue that it’s a shrewd move for a movie that’s already generated quite a bit of social media furor over casting and other issues. That said, I hope this move starts a trend that has nothing to do with this particular movie.

Social media influencers, like critics, are by and large out for themselves, more than whatever they’re covering. They were born that way. Critics evolved into that mutation. What we used to call critics will say they are there for their readers, relying on that trope far too often. Social media influencers don’t even try to fall back on that concept as an excuse. It’s a hit and run business.

Those days when criticism on any level was an opinion to measure your own against are largely gone. The world wants others to form their opinions for them. Everyone’s just too busy. Taking the time to think on your own is too hard and time consuming. Heck, in that context, I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t eventually see early takes on new films, books, theatre, etc… generated by Artificial Intelligence.

In my opinion, we’d all be better off forming our own opinions, but that’s not how the world works. I’ve often derided the Siskel and Ebertization of thumbs up, thumbs down movie criticism. The move to creating another substrate of quick hit takes via social media was both a logical and illogical extension of critics as personalities pleading for attention.

The equation is a simple one that falls back on the cliché that any mention, good or bad, is good for business as long as the name is spelled correctly. That’s still largely true, thus my opinion that this is a shrewd move on Nolan’s part as long as this game continues. Since any level of criticism has become a sport, that cliché has opened the doors to rooms empty of thought, nuance, and dare I say, substance.

When criticism becomes a contact sport for attention it’s no longer criticism, no matter the form.

That’s my critical opinion.

No Surprise. Apple Raises Prices Due To Memory Woes

No hallucination. AI puts the squeeze on memory prices.

Don’t be surprised. Don’t be shocked. Apple is raising prices. Outgoing CEO Tim Cook said a week ago that Apple couldn’t withstand the price pressure brought on by memory chip shortages, likening it a 100 year flood. Put on your waders John Ternus.

Translating that a bit, what Cook was saying is that Apple doesn’t want to cut into its historic profit margins.

Bloomberg has the report. As does everybody else. You’ll see lots of screaming, hair pulling, and much gnashing of teeth about this in the next few days. But again, this shouldn’t come as a surprise given all we’ve heard for so long about the pressures AI is putting on the chip business.

Just remember, every time you’ve talked to that chatbot, you’ve helped make this happen.

Here’s a statement from Apple to the Wall Street Journal.

“We have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices,” [Apple] said in the statement. “We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly.”

Note that there’s no mention of AI is the root cause. Rationalizations and spin will replace AI hallucinations and eventually absorbed into the corpus of knowledge about this.

So what costs more?

Even Apple’s latest big hardware success story, the MacBook Neo, originally priced at $599 is going up to $699. That has to sting. But so too will the sting for price increases for iPads and Macs.

Here’s a list of some of what’s more expensive.

MacBook Neo entry $599 increasing to $699
MacBook Air 512GB $1099 increasing to $1299
MacBook Pro 1T $1699 increasing to $1999
iPad Air 128GB $599 increasing to $749
iPad Pro Wifi 256GB $999 increasing to $1199
iPad mini $499 increasing to $599
iMac $1299 increasing to $1499
Apple TV 4K $129 increasing to $199
HomePod mini $99 increasing to $129
Vision Pro $3499 increasing to $3699

At the moment iPhone prices remain the same. Expect that to change come this fall. You’d be a fool not to.

I think this is the beginning of a cycle that is going to see most consumer hardware become more costly, eventually reducing the number of units sold. Somebody thinks that will even out. I’m not so sure.

All because of an overhyped technology that is being forced into consumer hardware and the much hated data centers that are required to run it. Less units will be sold. But if your eye is on the price per unit margin, you’re missing the larger point. Math is hard. But it’s not that hard. Sell less, make less.

Simply put, we’re at the beginning of a nasty cycle. Ask your chatbot therapist how you should handle it.

iMessages Bug in macOS 26.5.1

Affects sending messages via RCS or SMS

Discovered a frustrating macOS 26.5.1 in iMessages. While I can send and receive SMS and RCS messages to Android users on my iPhone, I can only receive them on a Mac or iPad.

I’m not alone in this as I’ve seen several reports. Most point to the same timing of the bug appearing after macOS 26.5.1 was released, although some as early as 26.5. There is talk of it being possibly corrected in 26.6.

Given all the attention and focus on the OS 27 releases, here’s hoping that’s correct and 26.6 rolls out soon. Because I’ve tried all of the usual and recommended steps to try and correct the issue to no avail. The issue also seems to fall in that small minority of users circle of hell.

I’ll write more as I discover more on this. But I guess since I only discovered this today, it tells me how few messages I’ve exchanged with Android users of late.

Moments Captured and Not Captured

Sometimes a camera isn’t necessary to capture a moment in your heart.

There was a lasting moment last weekend after my wife’s performance in Hope Summer Rep’s production of Always Patsy Cline. The memory of the occasion will last even though there’s only a few dark and blurry photographs of the moments immedieatly after.

A bevy of family members had come into town for the show from several points on the compass. They included our grandchildren, eager to see Grandma T on stage. After the show the family fan club waited for my wife to appear and when she exited the theatre from the backstage door she was about a block away.

Our grandson saw her, and holding a bouquet of flowers took off running at a full gallop to greet her. As speedy as he was, the run seemed to last forever.

Now every adult had a camera on hand. But no one captured the run. Afterwards we all admitted that the length and speed of his running had us all holding our breath, afraid our sprinting grandson would take a tumble before he reached his grandma.

He made it. In high style. The photo above shows him and his sister, (who eventually caught up at a slightly safer pace) giving their Grandma T big hugs.

It’s a moment we all captured in our hearts, if not on video. It’s also one none of us will ever forget, but always share.

Today I Climbed Trees

Spending the day with the grandkids. And today my grandson and I decided to climb a few trees.

Actually he decided to climb a few trees. I just snapped the pictures.

And it was good.

Sunday Morning Reading

Taking a breath

It’s been a crazy whirlwind of emotions lately. A death in the family. Keeping up with the grandkids. Celebrating my wife’s latest theatre gig. With that, Sunday Morning Reading is on hiatus this week.

Enjoy your Sunday, while I enjoy time with the grandkids. (If they don’t wear me out!)

Thanks for reading. Feel free to subscribe if you want. It’s free. If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. If you’d like more click on the Sunday Morning Reading link in the category column to check out what’s been shared on Sunday’s past. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. This site does not use affilate links.

What A Day! What A Night!

That was some humdinger of a day and night yesterday. First up, we celebrated the grandson’s graduation from pre-school.

We followed that up by taking the grandkids across the state of Michigan to see Hope Summer Repertory’s production of Always Patsy Cline, featuring their “Grandma T” playing Louise. We weren’t the only family there for that evening’s fun and celebrations, as others made their way in from Chicago.

Watching two youngsters (4 and 2) watch their grandma on stage was a delight for this cynical SOB of a grandpa, let me tell you.

It was quite a day. And in many ways, the weekend and the crazy week ahead is just beginning.