I guess we all knew this was coming. Apple released operating system updates ending in 27.0.1 (as well as for OS 26 and macOS 15) today for iPhones, iPads, and Macs, bringing something it looks like most will have to get used to, spending more time while devices reindex Siri AI.
There’s no telling if this will happen every time there’s an OS update, but Apple last year said that it will be speeding up the pace of security updates going forward in response to the risks now visited upon us from AI-powered hacking. Certainly the pace of AI development continues to rapidly increase, which can only mean the same for AI hacking.
Defending against hacks, fixing bugs, and updating operating systems are facts of life these days. Always have been. Even so, when something new, or a needed bug fix is eagerly anticipated it’s largely viewed as an inconvenient chore by most. Adding time to the process for reindexing the info on a device certainly makes it more of a chore.
There’s already a sour taste in many users’ mouths about AI in general. If this is an ongoing and every OS update type of thing, I’m betting this might just increase the pucker over time as the price users pay for using Apple’s on device brand of AI.
For what it’s worth, and for what it means, I’m seeing the Optimizing for Search and Siri notification on an iPhone and iPad, but not on a Mac after updating. It will be interesting to see how long the process takes after the updates compared to the initial process when the OS’s 27 were first released.
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.
In some weird way another Sunday has rolled around and pulled into the station that signals the end of another week. I say weird because it’s one of those weeks where you lose track of where you are day by day, and have to keep reminding yourself which day that ends in “y” you’ve landed on. It’s complicated. In a way to avoid my momentary confusion, here’s some Sunday Morning Reading to share. If I’m sharing it, it must be Sunday, right?
Artificial Intelligence continues to complicate the news with more and more problems predictably arising daily out of that tempestuous soup we called technology. Ian Duncan has a more than interesting essay on the matter titled Sex, AI, And The Apocalypse that’s worth your time. Whether you’re buying what anyone, including Duncan, is selling, it’s worth examining the merchandise.
Meanwhile, David Todd McCarty takes a look at An Uncomplicated Life. Easier said than done. Better done than not.
JA Westenberg says Outrage Is Our Last Campfire. Any piece that begins with examining a bit of Anton Chekov is worth your time in my view. I’m not sure if outrage is the last or not, but it sure is consuming us more than keeping us warm.
I miss good sports writing. Chicago is a crazy sports town, and at the moment, with both major league baseball teams in the playoffs and the NFL season underway emotions are running rampant. The stakes are high, but the odds are fading with the Chicago Bear’s star quarterback and thus that team’s hopes injured. Most of the hopes and baseball dreams will come to naught in my opinion, but it makes for an uncomplicated way to while away some time between commercial breaks for online betting. Matt Lombardo’s has a good piece of sports writing in The Official Quarterback Hell Travel Guide worth checking out if you’re into such things.
To close out, give a read to Timothy Snyder’s piece A Medidation On Train Stations. The things we know, and the things we just set aside to deal with so many other things are enough to complicate countless lifetimes.
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.
I always look at everyone when we’re on the street and think, ‘We’re like sheep or ants.’ – Lee Ryan
The stock we place in leaders to change the course of countries and companies is more times than not an illusion. The bigger the organization the greater the illusion. For the moment at least these organizations are still made up of humans, and in most cases to think humans march in lockstep you’ve got a hitch in your step.
We watch presidents and dictators and CEOs and heads of this and that issue orders, decrees, mission statements, warnings, social media posts, and what have you, and it’s easy to put whatever statement they make to bed and move on whether it’s a problem solved, problem created, or a promise made. Yes, leaders set a tone and an agenda. But leaders don’t do the dirty work down under that make the trains run on time.
Often it’s underlings who think they’re doing what’s called for. They can sometimes twist and turn the agenda to their own purposes. Occasionally they turn their own zeal into a tempest that laps the original intent of whatever they’ve been ordered to accomplish.
And then there are those not in the mix that follow. Seize the agenda. Jump on the bandwagon and try to turn it into the permission slip they’ve always wanted to do now that they feel justified. Or perhaps just because it’s possible. They and the curious who sit on the sidelines can also upend any agenda.
Wealth certainly doesn’t trickle down, but bad motivations do. Strike that. The gravity occasionally runs the other way. Permission slips open up a plethora of permissive possibilities that even the strongest hand of the strongest boss can’t control. That’s human nature. Like Mother Nature, it’s a delusion we can control either.
Even so, we like to think there’s a world out there where we’re all pulling with the same purpose towards the same goals. That’s the illusion.
What prompted this little bit of an essay, beyond watching the always on/off political posing these days, was watching Meta’s new attempt to conquer the world, Muse, rocket up to the top of the app charts with surprising speed. Given all that we know about Zuckerberg’s machinations and maniuplations I don’t believe there was a public out there thirsting for this next move. But it’s being devoured and guzzled in gulps not seen since votes were secured with beer and a sandwich in Chicago taverns back in the day.
Humans are an evolved species that can reason. Perhaps that’s the illusion. Insects that revolve around queens like ants and bees don’t reason. The irony of the gender difference of bosses between the insect world and our technologically driven one is amusing, but the willingness of the drones that follow the leader is depressing.
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.
You want to laugh. But eventually the ludicrousness of it all just makes you want to throw a brick at a data server. For all the good that will do.
In a scripted speech before the United Nations yesterday, America’s renamer-of-everything-in-chief, declared that we’re no longer calling Artificial Intelligence Artificial Intelligence. Heretofore it will be called Super Intelligence. Say the magic words, wave the magic wand and poof. The world’s your oyster.
Given the tech world’s penchant for naming things I’m guessing if any of the obeisant lords of the tech world take him up on this we’ll be seeing names like Super Intelligence ++ and Super Intelligence Ultra in the future.
Like I said, it’s all a bit ridiculous. The reality is this is the one name change that no one will pay attention to but the administration flunkies lacking in any intelligence whatsoever, and the remaining yet reportedly diminishing cadre of supporters who still wear their red hats and slop up his Truth Socials like gravy.
It’s one thing to be puffed up with so much ego that you think you can change the course of history just by opening your mouth. It’s another when you open it so wide you can’t see the entire world laughing at you from behind your gums.
I’m just surprised he didn’t call it Trump Intelligence.
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.
It’s a Sunday. Yes, and it’s raining. Yes, and it was darker than I prefer when I sat down to write this edition of Sunday Morning Reading. The content feels darker too. Sign of the times? Or just a look inside what’s caught my attention? You read. You try to figure it out. I don’t think I can. Neither can anyone else it seems. Game on.
AI safety is all over the news, which means it has become practically a dead horse of a topic. Is it scam or a real threat? No one knows. Funny. I think that’s how the scammers prefer it. Especially if there’s a there there. Juliette Kayyem says Destroying Humanity Is Against The Law. Is it?
Anyone who didn’t think The Kennedy Center was going to be just another in a long list of casualties that would take a miraculous act of resurrection after Trump spoiled all the parties was deluding themselves. Everyone knew the lies going in. Janay Kingsberry reveals the financial ones for the few who pay attention in What The Kennedy Center’s Tax Returns Reveal.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the improv technique “Yes, and…” Dennis Hogan asks “What was Improv?” in his piece No, But. If you know, you know. If you read, you’ll find out.
Justin Neuman says we are most human when we play freely, imaginatively, and pointlessly. There’s wisdom there. There’s also wisdom in what he offers about this era when everything is gamified in More Nothing Now.
Neil Steinberg brightens the morning by suggesting that sometimes all we need is a kitten in Farm Kitten.
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.
Artificial Intelligence may or may not destroy human existence by 2030 or sometime in the next decade. Why waste the computing cycles and tokens when we’re doing a damn good job of beating it to the punch?
After some dangerous confessions and warnings, along with continuing news of AI engines escaping their sandboxes, the leaders are calling out to slow things down, saying that they need to be regulated before what they are spending so much money on creating can become uncontrollable. Of course that spurs debate between those who love the technology and are making money off it, those who despise it—harbinger of doom it may or may not be, and now the millions who are stirring on the sidelines they usually sit on.
Some believe this is just another in a long line of overhyping the technology to improve bottom lines. Some see it as a timely move to try and influence the upcoming talks with the always-feared Chinese. Some, including those who have been working and studying the technology for quite some time, see AI as a real threat.
If we want to wipe the last two camps out of the memory banks and the debate, then either take them at their word or call the AI leaders’ bluff. Take them at their word that their brain children are too dangerous and put systems in place to regulate and slow things down. Or demand they pull the plug. They’ve exhausted the use of hyperbole in hyping the promises of their tech and most fell for it along the way. Why not take them at their word now?
Oh, wait. Whether the danger or is real or a bluff to be called there is a problem. The folks who would do the regulating belong to an institution that no longer exists called Congress. The president could do so, but then so could a dead fish for all it would matter. Funny, not funny that he joked about banning fishing just yesterday.
To think these ultra-competitive tech titans will slow themselves down in some selfless act of altruism to save the human race is folly. As much folly as hoping some governmental set of regulations or committees or dictates would. As much folly as pretending the conversation hasn’t been poisoned a million ways from Sunday to the point that no one knows what to believe.
At one point in our recent history the powers that be came to accept that the banks were too big to fail. We’ve sort of reached that point again with AI. It may not be too big to fail, but those who’ve created it, and those who have financed it, have already failed the rest of us. The rest of us who they need to pay for and feed their robots and robot-like artificial brains.
Call their bluff.
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.
A key piece of the Mac experience is broken for now.
Whenever Apple or any of the other major platforms release their annual operating system updates there’s always a period of adjustment for users and developers. Developers have to contend with the changes and sometimes that leaves users fumbling around trying to get back to what they were used to prior to the OS update.
Thaw splash screen
That’s certainly the case with Menu Bar Managers on the Mac.
For some time Apple has been trying to steer developers away from placing apps in the Menu Bar. That hasn’t worked. In large part that has to do with just how problematic a large number of Menu Bar apps can appear (or disappear) on Macs with a notch. Most recently Apple tried to encourage app developers to use the Control Panel to provide users with quick access, but that seems to have been mostly another vain plea.
Menu Bar Managers have allowed users to fill up their Menu Bar with apps and choose to hide apps they mostly access once in a while or don’t want to see.
As an example I don’t need to see the Time Machine menu bar app all of the time, but want it handy to check on the progress of a backup if needed. Having it hidden, one click on the Menu Bar reveals it for me to check that progress.
Bartender web page banner
Prior to macOS 26 there were a few Menu Bar management apps that worked well, Bartender and Hidden Bar being seen as favorites among many. After Bartender was sold, creating some ill will among users, a few others popped up including Ice. That developer stopped work on the utility, but it was taken up by Jordan Baird who built on it and created Thaw, which when it debuted looked like a good alternative. I’m still rooting for the Jordan to get things worked out.
In my experimentation none of the Menu Bar Managers currently work or work well enough with macOS 27 Golden Gate, and most are still in various states of disrepair on macOS 26.
You can blame the developers of these apps. To an extent that’s warranted. But they are trying. In my opinion it feels like they are swimming upstream because the fault lies with Apple. The frameworks, if that’s what they’re called, are obviously out of whack in whatever state of change Apple is trying to introduce. Apple tried what amounted to tweaks in macOS 26 that largely didn’t work, and has tried again in macOS 27. What’s there in the latest tweak is indeed cleaner, but it is still woefully insufficient, pointing to a serious lack of attention to what, for some, is a key part of the Mac experience.
Hidden Bar Settings screen
Like other aspects of Apple computing you can see and feel the tension and the conflict. You could argue Apple has created an environment of too much of a good thing, that eventually tips over to problematic. On iPhones and iPads, app discovery became such a pain that Apple eventually created the App Library and many users simply resorted to searching for their apps in Spotlight. Settings on Macs and mobile devices have proliferated and become so unwieldy that I doubt anyone or any AI attempt will ever be able to create something coherent. Likewise, Notifications still and probably always will be a mess.
I do have some smidgen of sympathy for Apple. These are systems with APIs that Apple created, opening the door for developers to rush in, starting a party that quickly became overcrowded and out of control. It’s like a small town police force trying to arrest all of the out-of-control and overflowing partygoers, but having insufficient cell space to put them. It’s been out of control for so long that any major change to try and correct the issues would result in significant problems in and of themselves.
Apple is no small town, though. A lot of things were cleaned up in Golden Gate. That’s good. Going further, cleaning up the Menu Bar app mess, even if that leads to unpopular decisions, needs to happen. Otherwise it’s a messy smear on the look, feel, and functionality of the Mac.
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.
This is a wacky era for many when it comes to computing, regardless of platform. The rapid pace of change is letting up, propelled by Artificial Intelligence and a cascading series of factors. Another is users’ distaste with some companies and/or their leaders’ decisions in the political and social climate meltdown we are all living through. Too often it feels like we’re choosing the least worst of bad options in the same way it often does in politics.
I’ve been reevaluating my use of 1Password for some time. The app has served me well across multiple devices and multiple platforms. When Apple first released its Apple Passwords app in 2022 I thought of switching, but held off to see how the app would evolve, and because the cross platform and other features were still of use. But I’ve felt the tug several times since 2022, and at the moment, now feels like the time.
I say at the moment for several reasons. In a couple of months it will be time to renew my 1Password subscription. Apple Passwords keeps improving, even though it still doesn’t match 1Password’s feature set. Lastly, the ownership of 1Password has made one of those political decisions that doesn’t sit right with me and many others.
I won’t get into the political parts of that in this post. The Verge has a good summary of the issue at this link.
What I will do though is link to two excellent articles for those who might be interested in switching from 1Password to Apple Passwords.
The first is from Ricky Mondello who actually works at Apple in the password management and app/website authentication spaces.
The second is from Glenn Fleishman on Six Colors, also on how to migrate from 1Password to Apple Passwords.
Ricky’s piece is more of a broad overview. Glenn’s piece is quite thorough and covers a number of do’s and don’ts.
For whatever reason you might be thinking of migrating from 1Password to Apple Passwords both are excellent resources that you might want to keep handy.
The good news is it is possible to make such a switch, even though changing horses in midstream might lead to some new challenges and habit changing.
The bad news that keeps accumulating more than I think most want is that too often it feels like we’re in a situation when we might be choosing between lesser evils.
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.
Time for a little Sunday Morning Reading. But reader beware. Some think reading might be in danger. Read on. If you choose to.
Like a lot of folks who write I’ve been recently writing about writing in this AI age. But writing is only one side of the page writers want readers to turn. Readers don’t turn pages if they don’t like what they read. Bryan Cantrill thinks readers might be slowing their roll in his piece The Revolt of the Reader. I’d give it a read whether you write, or simply read the words of others.
Perhaps you’ve heard that there’s a 10% chance AI will destroy humanity in the next decade? Over the weekend Anthropic’s Dario Amodei penned a large piece (or maybe he just had Claude generate it-who knows?) titled We Must Pace The Frontier. In the race he’s running he’s calling for things to slow down and governments to step in because there’s danger out there. It’s caused quite a stir. Fellow race participants, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and SpaceXAI’s Elon Musk, have quickly jumped in to agree. Either these guys are seeing the writing on the wall from folks who just aren’t buying their overhyped promises, or one of their AIs cracked into something we don’t know about yet. Or it could just be more hype. Or it could just be an attempt to push their agenda in upcoming talks the US is to have with China. Given that no one trusts anything they say, who knows? I’d say who cares, but there is that whole future thing that Albert Buneko was writing about.
Speaking of writing on the wall, apparently the gold rush for vibe coding apps isn’t what it looked like it might be. Paul Ford asks A.I. Was Supposed To Give Us Killer Apps. What Happened? The world only needs so many task management apps.
In the political realm folks are turning their attention to January 3, 2027 as a possible next January 6th coup. Michael Luttig lays it all out in The Final Battle For America’s Democracy. It’s a scary read. I think what he lays out is indeed possible. That said, if there is such a thing as a final battle, I think it was lost with the last presidential election.
And if you’re not going to be doing any reading this Sunday, perhaps go out and take a walk. Before you do, read David Todd McCarty’sLife On Goshen Landing Road.
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.
BetterTouchTool is an excellent Mac utility that I’ve been using almost as long as I’ve been using Macs. It lets you customize your Mac’s keyboards, trackpads, or mouse by adding actions to keyboard combinations, gestures, and mouse moves. And so much more. Believe me when I say the combinations of what you can do with this utility seem endless.
The developer, Andreas Hegenberg, is constantly taking feedback from the BTT community and cranking out updates with something new. The most recent addition is something that I’ve always thought should have been a part of macOS from the get go.
The control, which you can turn on in BTT settings, is called Focus Follows Mouse. It also works with trackpads. Simply put, as you move your pointer over a window, that window pops into focus under your pointer. You can configure the setting a number of ways including the timing of when the action occurs. If you use multiple displays it also helps shift focus between those displays as you move your mouse over a windows on each of the displays.
It’s just another in a long list of automation capabilities that BetterTouchTool offers. Given that there’s a very generous 45 day free trial, if you’re a Mac user you owe it to yourself to check it out.
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.
