Month: October 2024

Hooray! 

With the installation of MacOS 15.1 I can move large files and miracle of miracles TimeMachine is operational again. (I grumble that TimeMachine after their security patch 15.0.1 was so screwed up that I lost the past year of backups but hey, it’s only important data right???)

On the plus side I can get back to working on a Photo Project I started for a friend and had to suspend because when I moved huge blocks of files the OS would start truncating the transfer at random intervals and damaging files in the process. Bet you didn’t see that coming!

All the Apple devices have been updated. It’s as yet unclear if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

One of the improvements, is built in writing tools and some interesting summary tools for things like email. 

One of the down sides may be built in writing tools. I’m saying this tongue in cheek.

For the past few years or so, Apple has had a form of predictive text and autocorrect running on Mac OS. It was a lot like the predictive text you’d get on your iPhone and iPad. Sometimes it would get really confused and autocorrect what you were saying into something completely opposite of what you meant.

Other times, the predictions would be pretty darn good and you’d forget the system was running at all.

Often I’d find myself at odds with the system because apparently I use language a little differently than the “Norm”.

Apple Intelligence is a bit more beefed up at this point. It will no doubt get smarter and push deeper into more applications. It has the potential to be really helpful. I wonder though how much my writing style will be influenced and indeed the writing style of everyone else by this tool. Will the tool homogenize writing styles so much that written words become boring?

Writing this, the writing tool has been very helpful without being a pain in the butt. I don’t know if that because it’s not fully online, or if it’s learning from me right now. We’ll see.

Microsoft is experimenting with similar systems, so I could see a convergence wherein every news article, term paper, letter, or email, read as though they were written by the same person.

If that were to happen, I suspect we’d see a resurgence of IBM Selectric typewriters. Both for their nostalgic “Hip” qualities and so that writers could put their thoughts on paper without those thoughts being filtered by an AI. They came in a lot of interesting 60’s & 70’s colors.

In another 5 -10 years maybe there’ll be a market for old fossils like me who know how to fix mechanical devices. That’d be funny as hell. Selectrics were pretty bulletproof but they do need regular maintenance.

$350 an hour seems about fair!  Maybe I should start searching eBay for the specialized tools now.

I haven’t worked with the “New Improved” Siri enough to make a determination about it yet.

The “Old” Siri and I would get into arguments. It was embarrassing, Siri wouldn’t understand what I wanted but rather than admit that, Siri would go off and do something completely, sometimes horribly incorrect.

I’d ask for the latest Dave Rubin podcast, and Siri would start playing Metallica. How did Siri get to Metallica from that starting point?

Then as I’m telling Siri to cancel, stop playing, make it quiet!!!! Siri would not respond. Siri would decide to respond when I was creatively swearing in ways that would make friends of mine, who happened to be Marines laugh & applaud, by opening a text message to my mother and dutifully transcribing every obscenity into the message.

Thank goodness for unsend!

If I’m ever able to change Siri’s “Attention” word, I’m going to rename Siri to “Bitch!”

Then again, with Siri being more intelligent I might not have to rename it. Time will tell on that front.

I like the changes to the WatchOS. The smart stack seems a bit more useful. I like the latest scores or weather conditions popping up the way they do. The iPhone and iPad IOS changes are also pretty nice and with the addition of Apple intelligence baked in as it is, I could see my phone becoming more useful as a multifunctional device.

I’ll make an admission here. I mostly use my phone for actual phone calls, text messages, and photos. I often forget that I can get directions and other stuff. I’ve only in the past year or two gotten into the habit of using my phone, or watch to pay for things.

The number of applications on my phone only takes up 2 pages. I don’t tend to keep apps on my phone that serve no purpose, nor do I download apps with abandon. 

The less apps I have, the less accounts I have. The less accounts, the less exposure to data breaches. There’s a logic, it’s not just that I’m old.

That being said, if in fact the new Siri can be helpful like an actual assistant, I could see perhaps becoming more interested in the convenience offered by some apps.

Part of the issue is that I live away from the city. The further you get outside city limits the less useful apps for all the city things become.

Delivery? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! 

It took 20 days to get a new pair of hiking boots delivered. Really, those boots have more transportation miles on them, than I’m likely to put on them over their useful lifespan as hiking boots. Watching them come across the country, I honestly thought about just driving to one of the FedEx locations they were bouncing between, and picking them up.

Delivery… I got your Delivery right here!