Tag: Apple

Status: Boy, that Billie Holiday can sing.

So AIM is shutting down on Dec 15: And read that FAQ. "Why?" "We know there are loyal fans". That's not an answer, AOL/Oath!

But fine. I have iMessage and a .Mac @mac.com address, right? I'm a blue bubble, I'm somebody.

Huh. Well, I can send and receive messages, but can't set my status anymore. No IM, no status. My very specific but subtle mood messaging is gone! Why isn't this in iMessage?

IM status

  • Boy, that Billie Holiday can sing.: From WHY I HATE SATURN, by Kyle Baker, which expresses like 75% of my moods.
  • Fuck Xcode: I'm working in Xcode.
  • GL_ANGER_MANAGEMENT: Look, I made a triangle appear! No, wait, it's the wrong side of the triangle and now everything is broken and the GPU is on fire.
  • Hates the Cloud: Networks are shit, databases are shit, so let's put our databases on the network!
  • is a Pepper: Last and only time I joined a movement.
  • Jon Postel Has a Posse: Postel's Law and Andre the Giant Has a Posse, but also in the sense that I am a semi-qualified angry mob who will string you up for breaking the Internet.
  • Pretentious Mac Bastard: Been called this so many time by jealous Windorks I ain't even mad.
  • [REDACTED]: I could tell you about [REDACTED], but then Apple would kill you.
  • Turns coffee into code: Working
  • Will Xcode for food: Wants to work
  • Wielder of the black sword: And even more so the books. If you know what happened at Quarzhasaat, that's what I mean by this.
  • Where are my pants?: I just got up. Don't look at me.
  • Bananaphone5: This I don't recall. Was there a song from the '60s about a bananaphone?

Anyway, my point is someone at Apple needs to add statuses to iMessage.

iMac Pro first review

Very nice! For all that I'm not the biggest fan of Apple's software choices these days, Mac continues to be the only UNIX® workstation worth buying.

The specs on this are actually top of the line, it has sufficient max RAM (128GB!), the AMD Vega card is a great choice. We'd have to wait to see benchmarks between the 10-core, 14-core, and 18-core models for ideal multi-core vs single-core performance.

That said, this isn't the machine I want. Non-expandability is a massive problem for these machines. Wrapping a high-end CPU inside a tight thermal enclosure like the iMac is not great, no matter how much ventilation you put out back; and fans running right behind your screen and speakers is awful, it needs to be on the floor or far end of a desk. When I'm doing anything with audio, I have to use the headphones not just because they're better than speakers, but to isolate the fans.

So I'm still waiting for the Mac Pro next year, and will limp along in my old iMac 5K Amateur, with its ridiculous "little" 3TB fusion drive I can't easily replace, 16GB RAM (which is replaceable, but it hasn't been a priority this year).

The Twelve South HiRise Pro is amusing/insane, it's $150 for a different paint job and reversible door from the $80 HiRise, of which there are plenty of $30 equivalents, and spray paint costs $1. That's, like, half a RAM doubling for an aluminum box. #ZerothWorldProblems.

Photos "Just Works"

"Just works", my shiny metal ass. I have a bunch of photos on my iPhone, go into Photos, select, action, wait… Airdrop doesn't show up. Aggravating, where's Dropbox action? Missing. Have to switch over to Dropbox app. At this point I'm shocked that works.

Rocky Mountain High not Sierra

Currently I won't upgrade, I have a Fusion Drive which isn't supported by APFS yet. I'm not desperate to upgrade for that, HPFS+ has never hurt me yet, I keep a reasonable backup schedule, my source control is backed up.

I waited until last month to upgrade to Sierra, I was working just fine on Mavericks, and only upgraded because Xcode (UGH!) required it. So my advice is usually very conservative: Wait until you absolutely have to.

That said, there's new stuff that is interesting in High Sierra: VR and new image file formats. So I'll likely upgrade sooner, once I see fusion drives supported and hear no more horror stories.

On a side & musical note, I'm already super tired of the California theme. The other 49 states and hundreds of other countries don't like you that much, Cali.

Spatial Xcode

Checking my projects for building against iOS 11/iPhone X, and wanting to ship a new utility app (more on that later), I had to use Xcode again. And I screamed in rage, and cried, and this is why Mark drinks.

Filed a "suggestion" in Radar:

Open a project in Xcode. Double-click a file in the Project Navigator to open it in a window, resize & place it somewhere to work, then close. Repeat. Note that sometimes it'll keep the same size, but never the same position as previously, but after a few files it returns to a window sized like the main project window, randomly placed.

There's a concept called "spatial memory", which both the Finder and Xcode actively sabotage now, an old but still valid complaint: About the Finder…, by John Siracusa

Suggestion: Record the position & size of each file's window, and reuse that when opening a window. When switching to an alternate file, change the window size & position, do not destroy the current file's position. Maybe make this a preference setting, called "Project Builder Mode".