technology – Page 5 – Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

Change Is Hard

Why hasn’t AI figured this out yet?

Change may be inevitable but change is hard. Change becomes harder when those making the change, for whatever reasons, don’t remember change is hard. The only thing that doesn’t change is how easily we forget that change is hard.

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OpenAI met with some real friction after announcing its big changes last week. Apple is going to meet some when it doles out its new operating systems with Liquid Glass next month. HBO changes its name so often it can’t even get it right in press releases. The list is as long as history. Every company faces this. Some do it well. Others not so.

As M.G. Siegler points out in this column if you’ve been around long enough you learn to recognize the patterns. You have to be willfully blind or consumed by ego not to. In fact, the problems with instituting change are so predictable it makes one wonder why these AI engines, endlessly regurgitating whatever human wisdom they can scrape and scrounge, don’t caution against it. I’m sure somewhere in all the words and wisdom created by humans “change is hard” has been said before.

If we’re marching towards an advanced AGI with PhD level knowledge that can reason better than humans, I think the masters of the AI universe need to solve that problem before anyone can make a claim that we might someday get there.

Call me when that happens.

It’s like watching a new edition to the Alien franchise hoping one actually turns out to be more than a repeat. Or watching an American football team with a bad offensive line try to run the ball up the middle over and over again. Or thinking that once inflation retreats that prices will come down. Or thinking humans will one day be smart enough not to fall for obvious con games.

The unsolvable riddle about change involves the variables and vagaries of human nature. That’s a constant that will never change.

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.

(Image from Linus Nylund on Unsplash)

Bending Over Backwards To Bend The Knee

These suck-ups suck.

The idiomatic phrase, “bending the knee” is defined something like this:

“To swear fealty or allegiance to another person. To submit to or show reverence toward a divine power. To show undue deference, obedience, or support for someone or something.”

Focus for a moment on the word “undue” above. It’s the key.

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“Undue” is defined as not appropriate, warranted, or justified; excessive or overextended.

There’s no point really in being duly or unduly outraged any longer by cowardly corporate titans, academic institutions, legal firms, media mavens, and politicians bending the knee to the child rapist and convicted felon Donald Trump. Capitulation and public humiliation has become the name of the game for those who’ve lost any sense of honor and dignity. It appears now that the game has moved into a different quarter, to see who can be the most unduly outrageous in bootlicking and ass kissing.

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When CEOs like Apple’s Tim Cook start bearing ostentatious gifts featuring his company’s treasured and expensively protected branding on a glass plaque, mounted on gold, you have to wonder just how little self-respect these once corporate giants have for themselves, much less their companies.

Sure, they will say it is to protect the business, market share, and their stock holders. That’s largely true. When threatened with a corporate beheading, I’m sure most would prefer keeping their corporate head on their corporate shoulders, shrinking and cowering that they may be. I guess in the circles they travel in, it’s cooler to be a part of the cruel and vulgar crowd that’s grabbed them by the short hairs and made them squeal like so many pigs in a pen, than it is to stand for what’s right.

I’ve given up being shocked, disappointed, and pissed off when things like this happen. It’s become so routine. I look forward to the day when I may run into some of these cowards by chance and laughing in their face, after I spit in it. They may deserver their bonuses after keeping the profits rolling in, but they more than deserve public derision.

I’ve had to swallow some shit in my lifetime catering to donors in the not-for-profit arts game. I get the impulse, and I get the desperation. I’m proud to say I’ve turned away some donations. I’m also ashamed to say I had to accept a few with conditions I didn’t like. So, I get it. I will say that as personally demeaning as the latter instances were, they never jeopardized the image of the company I was working for. I’ll carry my indignity and the tasted of that shit from those instances to my grave.

If this chapter in the decline of humanity ever turns around the only thing certain is that the the shame these corporate, academic, legal, media, and political dwarves have earned will forever stain them and the brands they represent. They will be duly branded.

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.

AI Customer Support Devalues Customers And The Company That Adopts It

AI customer support isn’t all that intelligent or supporting

I noticed an article on MacRumors that Apple is getting ready to roll out it’s “AI-powered Support Assistant.” Apparently Apple’s only willing to take the risk with tech support and not customer support. That’s where money might exchange bank accounts.

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This is the way the world is spinning at the moment. My prediction is that companies will ratchet back these cost saving moves but not until the realize what it costs in customer loyalty. We have to go through the suck, before we get to the less suck.

I base that prediciton on my experiences spending the better part of this Summer and past Spring helping clients and a few relatives, some elderly, work to cut back on expenses and take care of some warranty repairs for appliances. (Hint: Ditiching warranty services is one way to cut montly costs.)

Timing is everything. My efforts coincided with several of these companies caught in the process of switching to AI solutions for customer and tech support. To be direct, it was a mess. For me, the customer, and also for the employees left holding the bag on the other end of these crazy corporate strategies.

No one would argue that most customer and technical support systems were in good shape previous to these kind of moves. They were indeed ripe for re-inventing and they have always been easy marks for the bean counters to cut corners.

Chatbots had already begun to proliferate, descended from automated phone trees like some form of inverted evolution that only a sadist could love. No one would ever conclude that they had been intelligently designed. My previous experiences were always hit and miss, but at least I understood that if I followed the steps I could eventually reach someone on a phone or live chat. During these transitons that became nigh on near impossible.

Prior to one of the companies I worked making the switch, it had become obvious that they had abandoned call centers and let their agents work from home. I kid you not, I spent one phone call with a barking dog in the background of whatever small quarters this rep was in, and another with two small children fighting with each other in the background of another call.

Let me give you one example from my recent experience with one company undergoing a transiton to AI tech and customer support.

Sears Home Services

Sears Home Services has been a popular home warranty service for many throughout the years. It’s been apparent for a while that services like these have lost their luster and some have devolved into scams. But for folks of certain generations they were always in the monthly budget. In my experience with one of my clients, prior to their switchover, it worked about as well as it was advertised to work. You made a call, talked with an agent, set up an appointment, a technician arrived to check things out, ordered parts if necessary, rescheduled the appointment, and then came back to effect the repair or replacement.

The first repair I assisted with happened just like I described above. The entire process from first call to final signoff on the repair took 10 days.

The second call not so much.

I guessed things were in trouble when the phone number prominently displayed on the webpage would not yield a method of speaking with an agent, but kept pushing me to their chatbot. The chatbot had limited options that you could select. It did not have a way to enter any request beyond those options. My guess is the company didn’t want customers speaking to an agent.

Undaunted, I did the usual online searching for phone numbers and finally stumbled on to a Reddit thread where users experiencing the same problems were reporting phone numbers that worked. Until they didn’t. It was a cat and mouse game of dialing a phone number before it was changed or taken out of service. That lasted about a week.

Finally I succumbed and scheduled an appointment via the chatbot. That chatbot sure was happy. I was told the support technician would contact me the night before to schedule a more specific appointment window. Things were looking up. That call never came. The morning of the appointment I got a text telling me the appointment was scheduled between 8 and 5pm. In my previous experiences these appointments were scheduled in four hour windows.

On the afternoon of the repair, at 5:30pm I got a phone call from a support person saying he would be their in a half-hour. He showed up 45 minutes later. He diagnosed the issue, said he would order parts and they would be shipped directly to me. This was a change I’ll describe later. He then said he needed to go sit in his truck and work with the system to get the parts ordered and that would take a half-hour or so becuase the system was constantly kicking him out mid-order and he would have to start over.

When he came back to finalize everything for that appointment he reiterated that this new system was screwed up. I told him I wasn’t a fan either. We had a good conversation.

Previously, according to him, each night technicians like him would get a list of their appointments for the next day. They would go to a drop ship pickup location for any parts for that day’s appointments, head out and do the work. Now the system sent parts directly to the address of the repair and required the customer to reschedule the next appointment once the parts arrived. Because customers were not receiving notifications of these part shipments, the parts would just show up, often get returned, delaying the inevitable service.

Most striking in his telling was the fact that he no longer received the next day’s list of appointment the night before. Only the first one for the day. Once that was completed he would receive his next appointment. Again, according to him, the previous system in place for dispatching personnel was pretty good at scheduling the next day’s appointments with minimal travel time between appointments. Now with the new system, he would find himself traveling between appointments, often located far apart, more than he would working the repairs.

To begin to bring this ancedote about this repair to a close, suffice it to say that the entire episode from first call to eventual repair has not yet been completed. It begin on May 20. Once it was determined that the appliance needed to be replaced, not repaired (that took two appointments,) a new one was ordered. Then canceled by Sears Home Repair’s system. Then re-ordered.

On the night before the scheduled delivery I got a call that it would be delivered the next day. That morning I got a call saying the delivery would take place that morning. Ten minutes later I got a call saying that the appliance had not been delivered to the delivery driver. (It was too large for a home delivery.) This necessitated canceling the order, re-ordering and a repeat of the process.

Somewhere in the middle of the process phone calls with agents became possible again. Progress? Not quite.

After several discussions with several agents I discovered that they were as challenged as their customers were by the new system. I’m sure you’ve played the escalation game to get to a supervisor and I played that game here as well. At last count I’m waiting on approximately 7 phone calls from supervisors that never came in.

Eventually the appliance was delivered to the delivery person. But there was no record in the system of an appointment to install the new one and remove the old one as per the warranty.

It took a month and two more canceled appointments for installation before Sears finally gave up and said a check would be forthcoming to cover the installation costs. That check has yet to arrive. (That’s why I consider the transaction not completed.) We did get the appliance installed on our own.

But of course, we did receive the usual survey request asking us to rate how well Sears Home Repair Services performed. Once the check arrives and clears the bank, my client will be cancelling that warranty. That will be our response.

Xfinity

One bill I was working on reducing for another client was Xfinity. I probably don’t need to say more if you’ve ever dealt with that company. But I will. I simply wanted to call and discuss plan options for reducing the bill.

No where was I able to get through to a live person. I was sent links to chatbots that would promise a live person, if I followed along, but those calls never connected.

I eventually took a trip to an Xfinity store and got the info and made adjustments to my client’s bill in person. The staff member at that store told me that they were seeing more foot traffic because the online and phone systems were such a mess.

Back to Apple

Now, I began this post mentioning Apple’s move to a generative AI based technical support system. I find this greatly disappointing. In general, because I believe this type of cost cutting move represents a decline in how I value a company because it represents a decline in how these companies view their customers. And in Apple’s case, I have typically found Apple’s tech support to be better than most companies. Not perfect. Still flawed. But better than most.

I’ve had to work through some tricky issues over the years with Apple’s technical support. Some easily resolved. Some not so. One of those issues required several months worth of conversations, eventually reaching up the chain to Craig Federeghi, before getting the issue resovled. I can’t imagine any tech support system being able to measure up to what Apple has currently, even with flaws and failures that require steadfast persistence and often negotiation.

In my attempts to aid my clients I’ve tried some of the AI chatbots that aren’t part of the specific company I’m working with. Typically they spit out much of what I imagine is in the documentation most phone bank customer service reps use to begin a diagnostic process. (Yes, the device or appliance is plugged in.)

I imagine that Apple will use this new system to handle those rudimentary requests that come in that I’m sure fill up the tech support queues and can be resolved easily. I can only hope Apple then passes more difficult issues to an actual human being who can do the type of intervention necessary to reach a resolution. Heaven help us all, and Apple, if they ever automate the degree of support that requires screen sharing over to a robot.

I have yet to meet anyone in the real world that thinks AI on any level is going to fulfill anything close to the promises made by those pushing it. Folks have already seen and felt the results of these early efforts and have turned sour on the entire concept. I think of this like I imagine the last century’s transition to the automobile. Regardless of how some felt upon seeing the first automobiles on the same streets as pedestrian and horse traffic, everyone knew, for better or worse, it was a future they would have to adapt to.

I have encountered a few business owners who think AI will help them create efficiency and reduce costs, but their discussions about what is possible demonstrate a real hype-fed ignorance and hoped for way of cutting costs. I have one client who is smitten with the promise, but is constantly getting bitten by the results.

I’m betting Apple’s move will take a bite out of its customer satisfacton numbers as well.

(Image from Munthia on Shutterstock)

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.

The Quest for the Unicorn AI Device

Hyping a tech war that won’t ever happen

Reporters love to declare war, crown winners and dismiss losers. Except of course when it comes to shooting wars and the rhetoric that often leads to them. But that’s not what this post is about. Tim Higgins of The Wall Street Journal, and his headline writers, are declaring that Mark Zuckerberg Just Declared War on the iPhone.

I usually expect this kind of nonsense from the half-a-gazillion blogs and social media accounts out there that like to ginny up controversy to generate clicks. With AI glasses will clicks become blinks?

Now that I think about it, I’m wrong in my expectations because the WSJ, like most of the mainstream media is trying hard (too hard) to follow that pattern these days. It’s an easy game to play in the short term, but then so is the game of companies and governments making big announcements about the future. Remember the “pivot to video?” Remember “virtual reality?” The faux legs went out from underneath that pretty quick.

Higgins does and mentions those failures to capture marketshare beyond the initial hype and funding fevers. Nevertheless, he forgets a few simple things during his embedded tour on this march to the promise of “Personal Super Intelligence.” (That’s this fiscal quarter’s new label.) Zuckerberg might indeed be banging the war drums by propagandizing AI glasses as the latest form factor of mass destruction, but it’s too much hype without enough rhythm to marshall the troops. And to be fair, most of Higgins’ column is just regurgitating old news (AI summary?) that has been bouncing around in what passes for new news these days, tacking Zuckerberg’s recent announcement on as the headline war cry.

Bottom line in my opinion, we’re not going to see any new form factor take down iPhones, smartphones as a category, or computers, as the way we live, work and play in any near future. Folks have been waiting for all kinds of second comings for quite awhile now. I love how even the coming of advanced AI is now referred to as “near emergence.”

One day perhaps. Long after most of us interested in what this technological moment might eventually yield will have forgotten what Medicare and Medicaid were actually about. If and when that day arrives, the real clicks (blinks?) will be in tutorials on how to turn off all of the notifications and other distractions and keep the tech from tracking you.

I’m old enough to remember when FourSquare came on the scene. The promise was you’d walk down the street and receive a notification from the coffee shop you just passed about the daily special. That never really materialized, but the tech was different then. Google and Waze later tried that and just annoyed any driver who stopped at stoplights looking for their next turn.

When the marketing survelllance mavens can figure out how not to send me ads for something I just bought I think there might actually be a chance for that kind of thing to work. A small chance, but a chance. But they’re not even close to that on the backend, let alone integrating them into some device that might pinch your nostrils after wearing them for too long.

Don’t get me wrong. I think it is indeed cool when companies create niche products that give some people joys and hobbies. Bits and pieces of that kind of innovation often creep into bigger things that do help our lives somewhere down the road. Even if they become creepy. Obviously I’d prefer they not become creepy, but that’s where the money is and the creeps always follow the money.

I’d much prefer to see the money and the hype meisters follow something like this that could probably actually help humanity. But even that kind of innovation can attract the creep factor.

Call me when a reporter can research, write, and submit for editing a column like this one I’m complaining about with a pair of AI glasses, an Alexa device, or a pendant, or any other smart device currently in the works.

Call me again, when the AI summary machines can actually deliver an accurate summarization of that article.

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.

Mark Zuckerberg Says We All Need AI Glasses

The blind leading the blind-to-be

Mark Zuckerberg, trying to see his way clear to dominating the Artificial Intelligence race, is now saying that those of us who don’t use AI glasses will be at a disadvantage in the future. Reminds me of the X-Ray glasses hype from my childhood.

When you consider Zuckerberg’s checkered legend with starting what would eventually become Facebook, after running a college website called FaceSmash to rate girls, the comparison to the come on for X-Ray glasses does have a prurient parallel to many an adolescent boy’s fantasies.

I guess Zuckerberg needs to justify all of the money he’s spent building out AI infrastructure and wooing talent but it also is very reminiscent of the days he mucked up the media by declaring text was out and the pivot to video was in. In fact, much of this AI race feels very much like that. Sure, some of that stuck, but it mostly just made a mess and the legacy of that pivot left more than a few scars.

This entire AI race feels like that to me at the moment. I believe some of it is going to stick around and actually be useful. But mostly it’s just messing things up at the moment as everyone jumps into the deep end of a pool hoping to learn a new way to swim.

I’ve dealt with a few different companies of late trying to help some elder clients cut down on bills and solve some issues. Several of those companies have been switching much of their customer service to AI chatbots and the like. In those transitions they’ve more than made a mess of things for their customers and their employees who are left trying to clean up the mess.

I’m not completely down on Artificial Intelligence. I can see some benefits from the technology. At this point in the game it’s tough to sort out what that might be from the hype that seems to be authored by the folks who keep promising self-driving cars and those that promised X-Ray glasses.

You’d think by now someone would have developed an AI platform for investors and corporations that could see through the hype.

You can 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.

Hang On Commodore 64 Nostalgia Nerds. Legal Trouble Is Brewing

Jumping the gun?

It seems longer, but it was just a week ago that there was lots of excitement in tech nostalgia circles over an announcement that YouTuber Christian ‘Peri Fractic’ Simpson was taking pre-orders for a “new” Commodore 64.

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As if we all don’t have enough to keep up with, the news generated quite a bit of buzz. No word on if it generated actual pre-orders.

Well, for those thinking about joining the Commodore 64 nostalgia parade, there might be some legal hurdles on the parade route ahead.

Commodore Industries, S.r.l, is out with a press release claiming they still own what’s own-able regarding the Commodore 64 and offering documents and evidence. After all of the hype surrounding Simpson’s announcement Commodore Industries claims it is now time to “intervene” to set the record straight.

Quoting from the press release:

Mr. Christian Simpson (alias ‘Peri Fractic’) recently made statements on his YouTube channel, at different times, which were picked up by numerous media outlets and various newspapers, aimed at undermining our position, claiming to have ‘bought Commodore’ and describing our use of the trademark as ‘illegitimate’.

None of the initiatives launched in the United States give Mr Simpson the right and/or power to cancel or revoke our legitimate rights to the above trademarks.

Such claims are not only legally unfounded, but also compromise the truth and unjustifiably discredit a business project that has invested time, resources and expertise in relaunching the Commodore brand in a modern and technologically advanced way.

In closing the press release states:

Our goal remains the same: to continue to create real value for the brand and for the entire Commodore ecosystem. For this reason, we are ready to dialogue and collaborate with anyone who demonstrates, through their actions, a constructive spirit and respect for both the rules and the community.

#WeAreCommodore

The hashtag and bold typeface concluded the press release.

Sounds like some lawyers are going to make some money. No one ever gets nostalgic over that happening.

You can 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.

Through A Glass Darkly: Apple’s Liquid Glass Future Isn’t Clear

Continuing to watch Apple’s Betas from the sidelines.

Apple’s adventures with its new Liquid Glass design language reminds me of the title of a terrific, yet gloomy, Ingmar Bergman film, Through a Glass Darkly. Keep in mind that I’m not running the beta and living vicariously through the reactions of those whose opinions I trust. That said, based on some of those opinions of the recently released 4th developer beta, the future of Apple’s new design approach appears less than clear.

From most accounts it’s a battle between legibility and the “coolness” of the design’s featured transparency that overlays content with the intent for the content below to bleed through. The challenge seems to be finding the right amount of bleed through that also allows users to easily read a notification or a control.

In my view, the challenge with that challenge seems to be one of fighting things you can’t control. Holding liquid in your bare hands without spilling a drop might be easier. Every website and app designer has their own preference and approach. Even Apple apparently has difficulty as some of their own apps with background bleed through obscuring text.

Since Apple announced Liquid Glass there have been three iterations of the approach. In a sort of Goldilocks and the Three Bears adventure with Apple dialing transparency features back and forth. Now in the 4th version of the developer beta reengaging more transparency. Searching for a “just right” solution doesn’t yet seem to be yielding any clear direction. But then, Apple’s ambitions, perhaps by design, have created a lose-lose short term future. The eventual product will never please everyone with this design change. But to be fair, that’s always the case with design changes and the folks at Apple knew that going in.

There are other usability issues as well, including things like making it easy to tell which tab or control is in focus, and having to tap multiple times to perform a function that used to be one tap to name a couple I see repeatedly mentioned.

But the clear focus of complaints (and some praise) is Liquid Glass. I would venture that for users it’s still too early to judge, but supposedly the Public Beta is due soon and the consensus is that what we see there will be pretty close to what we see in the Fall. Developers on the other hand are increasingly worried about Apple’s search for a “just right” solution while they try to find a path forward to have their own apps ready for the big release alongside or close to the release of this new wave of operating systems.

The problem becomes magnified when designing for the lowest common denominator with so many users. From my perspective of supporting clients and family members, most folks just want to pick up their devices and do what they want or need to do. They don’t want a new learning curve getting in the way. They certainly don’t want legibility issues to get in the way. There’s a real tension between what Apple needs to do to keep the cash registers ringing and the familiarity users want that I don’t think the folks in Cupertino understand given the annual pace they seem locked into.

The Bigger Picture

From where I sit on the sidelines, I think Apple has also created some real and perhaps less transparent problems beyond how Liquid Glass eventually rolls out.

Coming on the heels, and at least somewhat intended as a distraction from last year’s Apple Intelligence and Siri woes, Apple needs to create a clear narrative surrounding Liquid Glass in order to sell this year’s new crop of iPhones. (I imagine the commercials have already been scripted if not filmed.)

That already seemed like quite a challenge given that the only big hardware news this year is the rumored introduction of a smaller, lighter, apparently with less features iPhone Air. I don’t imagine that Apple’s traditional iPhone lineup is going to have new features to tout that makes those familiar device form factors must haves or must upgrades.

If you’re counting on a flashy UI design change as the distraction that gets criticized as much as the issue you’re trying to distract from you’re magnifying your problems. Unless of course, you bank on criticism of the distraction further distracting from bigger issues.

Adding to that, the larger narrative has somewhat already passed by this year’s iPhones to what comes next year, with just about everyone assuming Apple’s version of folding iPhones will be the new focus.

Sum all of that up and this is starting to feel potentially like a lost year for Apple. Sure, Apple will sell lots of iPhones, but if it can’t capture the imagination the way Apple usually does, much of the narrative will be wait ’til next year. Apple historically takes a long view. Time will tell if they have lost control of the visible horizon.

iPadOS 26

That said, somewhat under the radar, iPad beta users continue to trumpet the success of changes made in iPadOS 26. I’m looking forward to seeing that myself. That said, as much as those potential changes will be welcome, I can’t imagine that’s the tentpole Apple wants to rely on to create excitement this year.

I mentioned the film Through A Glass Darkly in the opening of this post. The story of that classic film is about a family that gathers to try and heal after a member diagnosed with schizophrenia is released from an asylum. If you ask me, the challenges we’re seeing at Apple with design changes, Apple Intelligence and Siri among other things demonstrate that there are multiple personalities exhibiting control at various times within Apple, at a time when some turnover at the top is already underway, with quite a few calling for more.

As always, I recommend Michael Tsai’s Blog as a good source to keep track of how all of this continues to develop.

And with that, I’ll leave this update from the sidelines with this.

Update: The public betas for all of Apple’s new operating systems were released shortly after this post was originally published.

You can 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.

Commodore 64 Nostalgia Nerds

Count me as a Commodore 64 nerd back in the day.

The older you get, nostalgic moments can be fun, even if fleeting. If nothing else they jog a few memories to the front of your brain for a bit. When they involve bits and bytes they also help you remember just how much things have changed. One of those fun memories for me is of my first computer, The Commodore 64.

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Recently, news hit that Christian ‘Peri Fractic’ Simpson, who has been trying to revive the Commodore 64 for some time now, has finally put enough of whatever he needs to start taking pre-orders for a “new” Commodore 64.

The announcement stirred a wave of nostalgia from those, like myself, who owned one of these early personal computers. And like many, those waves felt quite pleasant to surf in for a while. It also has churned up some of the rough waves from back in the day when “what computer is best” was a big part of the discussion.

I owned the Commodore 64, later moved to the Commodore 128 and then an Amiga, before eventually surrendering to the IBM PC/Windows world and later Apple. But I do indeed have fond memories of sprites dancing around on the small TV monitor I had connected to the 64, all of the peripherals I accumulated along the way, and some of the games. Archon and Lode Runner were two of my favorites, and the text adventure version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was my first exposure to Douglas Adams. I was also a fan of the GEOS operating system. And yes, I typed in many a computer program from computer magazines of the day, as well as quite a few words into PaperClip.

Drew Sauer has penned a nice piece on this called The Commodore 64 Made A Difference, continuing the trip down memory lane and also surfacing some of those “what computer is best” feelings, apparently not too deeply buried in some memory banks. Apple bloggers John Gruber and Jason Snell have taken issue with some of Sauer’s comments and recollections.

Frankly, it’s all in good fun, (I hope), I don’t think it matters much for those who hope Simpson can deliver on his promises, and if he does, plop down their money to relive some of those memories. Nostalgia itself also comes in waves.

I’m also sure that memories can falter, become fuzzy, and take on a life of their own. Which is something the Commodore 64 could never do, unlike what so many want their computers to do today.

You can 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.

Random Thoughts and Links Looking Ahead to an Apple Beta Summer

A summer of viewing betas from the sidelines.

We’re already several weeks deep in Apple’s beta season for all of its operating systems. As of this writing the second developer betas have been released. We’re due to see the first public beta this month and that’s when things will really heat up. I’m not a developer and I no longer run betas on any of my Apple hardware, choosing to live vicariously until the official releases this fall.

Apple WWDC25 iPadOS 26 hero 250609.

I have to admit though that I was tempted to pick up another iPad given the changes to iPadOS 26 and the general early positive reactions to it. But I stuck to my guns and will look forward to what some trusted sources have to say over the course of the summer.

Speaking of, if you’re interested in following how the new operating systems develop and evolve over the summer, I’m going to list several links to sources you might want to follow, if you don’t already. That list will come at the end of this post.

As to my random thoughts I have three.

First, it looks like Apple’s big Liquid Glass design change will indeed garner most of the focus this year. That was certainly the intent, and from what I’ve seen Apple is on the way to pulling it off, certainly on the iPhone and the iPad. The jury is still out for the Mac at this early juncture in the beta season. Even so, it appears Apple has managed to add a shiny new coat of paint that won’t confuse most users when it comes to familiar functionality of their devices.

Second, as I said previously I’m excited to see the changes in iPadOS 26. Depending on the job at hand, and whether or not I’m home or away, I jump between Macs and iPads frequently. I’m looking forward to what these changes mean when I’m primarily working on an iPad away from home.

Third, the deeper integration of Shortcuts with Apple Intelligence (whatever that may come to mean) and also with Spotlight has me intrigued. I don’t use a ton of shortcuts and currently rely on Raycast as a launcher for those I do use. If I had two wishes on this I would hope that this plays out the way it proposes to do, and I would hope Apple could finally find a way to keep what happens behind the scenes with Shortcuts from constantly breaking. Giving app developers access to the App Intent Framework and the Foundation Models Framework promises good things, if Apple can avoid the infrastructure hiccups of the past. Although I’m sure that will usher in a different sort of hiccups going forward.

Good Apple, Bad Apple

On another note, I, like many this year, have had a hard time reconciling my views about what I consider wrong moves from Apple the corporation with my preference for Apple hardware and software. I’ve thought long and hard about it and at the bottom of that deep well of thought the decision to stick with my current Apple tool set comes from the fact that I support a lot of friends, family members, and a few small businesses that use Apple products. I have no desire to abandon that part of my life personally, even if Apple’s actions pisses me off to the point where I’m occasionally ready to chuck gear into the trash. Convincing those I support to shift gears would mean saying goodbye to that part of the relationship for the most part (I’ve explored this) and neither they nor I am ready for that.

Is that a trap? Perhaps, depending on your point of view and I won’t argue against that. Am I talking out of both sides of my mouth? Also, perhaps. But I think using and enjoying products of a company gives you a bigger license to criticize.

So, I’m sticking with things for the moment, but I will say that I’m paying close attention to folks like Denny Henke who’ve made different choices than mine. I admire their approach and am always learning. I’m also paying close attention to how Apple handles things going forward. I despise this dilemma.

Links

I’m going to link to a few specific articles from which you should be able to get back to the homepages of the various sources, some are just the homepage links.

Michael Tsai’s Blog always contains an excellent collection of links to various sources worth following. In fact, it may be the one stop source for quite a bit of Apple News.

Six Colors is an excellent source for information and reviews. This is one source to look to when the first public betas drop for good reviews of what we will know at that time. Jason Snell, Dan Moren, and now with Glenn Fleishman as a contributor, always provide excellent coverage.

Speaking of reviews, MacStories is another go to site when reviews of software drop. While they cover a range of gadget topics beyond Apple, the coverage there is quite good, even if it sometimes is aimed more at advanced users.

Parker Ortolani has recently started blogging and his thoughts are always worth a look.

If you’re looking for a developer’s perspective check out Craig Hockenberry’s furbo.org. Craig is a founder of the iconfactory, which is responsible for a number of apps including, Tapestry, Wallaroo, Linea Sketch, Tot, and more including the original Twitterrific for Macs and iPhones.

Craig Grannell’s blog, Stuff, is also a good source to add to your reading list or RSS reader.

Myke Hurly has also started blogging in addition to his many podcasting chores. Check out his blog, The Enthusiast.

Louie Mantia, Jr. is an artist and designer who lends that perspective to his writings about Apple and its designs.

John Gruber’s Daring Fireball is always a must read.

There are certainly more that are worth your time, but the ones I’ve linked to here continue to provide me with not only good information, but some good and deeper thoughts beyond the surface news. It’s going to be an interesting beta season viewing it from the sidelines.

You can 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.

Sunday Morning Reading

Intelligence or compassion? They both caught my eye this week.

It’s interesting how topics surface throughout a week. I’m not sure if it’s follow-the-leader or hive mind thinking, but from the sources I follow this week it seemed like everyone was thinking and writing, in one way or another, about Artificial Intelligence. Or maybe just about intelligence.

Certainly there was plenty on other topics because there were certainly plenty of other big things happening. Some intelligent, some not so. Some showing the capacity for compassion right along side our capacity for cruelty. I’m sure there will be plenty written in the days ahead about all of those things. These are the posts that stuck with me for this week’s Sunday Morning Reading.

Kicking things off is a short post by Gene Weingarten called A Cat Named Grandpa. It’s about compassion.

Mathew Ingram wonders Is AI Smarter Than We Are or Stupider Than We Are? Read the piece. If you’ve read any of the things I’ve written on AI you’ll know I agree with Mathew’s conclusions.

David Todd McCarty thinks the lack of originality in human consciousness is both appalling and comforting in I Gotta Be Me.

Natasha MH was Seeking God In A Machine.

For those who need to think about end of life issues, this might be a timely, yet frightening from Ashley Belanger. Check out How To Draft A Will To Avoid Becoming an AI Ghost. Apparently, it’s not easy.

Matteo Wong writes about The Newspaper That Hired ChatGPT. It’s mostly an interview, but one worth reading.

Folks can become addicted to and troubled by just about anything, and AI is no different. We’re starting to hear more and more about this, which is somewhat surprising on a number of fronts given how short a time generative AI has been with us. Kashmir Hill writes about a young man whose reality became so distorted it almost killed him in They Asked ChatGPT Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling.

While not about AI in specific, this tech story speaks volumes about the decisions tech bosses make that influence the technology we use to work and play with. Check out Phil McKinney’s I Convinced HP’s Board To Buy Palm for $1.2B. Then I Watched Them Kill It In 49 Days.

And Happy Father’s Day to all. Miss you Dad.

(Image from Rey Seven on Unsplash.)

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. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.