Categories
life

Work

Last year I took a leave of absence from my job teaching grade five. This year I quit outright. I was a little back and forth about the idea knowing that I was leaving a permanent contract but ultimately what sealed the deal was that my hours were fluctuating every year and over the past few years had been shrinking and were now down to half time. When I asked my principal if there was any hope for me at the school she gave the most telling answer possible. She said nothing. It was a kick in the face.

Will I land on my feet? I guess it doesn’t matter too much when before I was just crawling through the mud anyway. I’m enjoying the flexibility of subbing and although the paycheque is weak we are doing fine.

Categories
games

Gisnep!

David Friedman recently created a daily word puzzle called Gisnep! I’ve been hooked on it ever since I discovered it last week. As a non-coder, he created it using a form of guess-and-check programming with ChatGPT and other AI large language models.

Years ago I was inspired by his 50 States in 10 Minutes game and made my own copycats.

Categories
family life travel

The Claw

The kids played the claw machine today in downtown Whitehorse, Yukon. When I saw Andrea getting her $5 changed into tokens, I thought it was a total waste of money. Andrea’s $5 gave them each five tries to capture a stuffy. By some fluke of nature, my daughter Nesslin actually succeeded on her third try.

The two of them used up the rest of the tokens and, of course, Ian had nothing. He begged and cried for just one more go but we were insistent that there was no way we were dropping more cash on this thing. The kind little old lady who was running the machine volunteered one last token for Ian. I just shook my head thinking we’re only delaying the inevitable. I gave him a pep-talk that if he doesn’t win, that he’s going to accept the loss and move on.

Quite a few people had gathered around watching as Ian went for it, then a Christmas miracle happened. The crowd cheered as he dropped the exact stuffy he had been going for the whole time. The lady who gave him the token gave him a big hug and I have to admit, I was wrong: that $5 was money well spent.

Categories
bad review revue

The Bad Review Revue

Despicable Me 4: “Talk about despicable.” — Zaki Hasan, San Francisco Chronicle

Doctor Jekyll: “You don’t call a movie Doctor Jekyll and expect that we won’t know what’s going in it.” — Mark Dujsik, Mark Reviews Movies

The Instigators: “Cannot live up to the Ocean’s movies of which Matt Damon and Casey Affleck are two of the 11. Perhaps they should not attempt heists without Brad Pitt or George Clooney.” — Fred Topel, United Press International

Harold and the Purple Crayon: “A film that pays lip service to the importance of creativity without ever displaying a demonstrable shred of it during its seemingly interminable run time.” — Peter Sobczynski, RogerEbert.com

Trap: “Trap is crap.” — David Poland, Hot Button

Categories
Apple finance

Apple Earnings Q3 2024

From Apple News:

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2024 third quarter ended June 29, 2024. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $85.8 billion, up 5 percent year over year, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.40, up 11 percent year over year.

Quarterly revenue of $85.8 billion sets a new record for a third quarter reporting. The third quarter is traditionally Apple’s quietest time of year for earnings.

Throughout the call the executives hailed “Apple Intelligence” as an exciting headwind moving into future earnings reports.

iPhone $39,296 million up 1%
Mac $7,009 million up 2%
iPad $7,162 million up 24%
Wearables, Home and Accessories $8,097 million down 2%
Services $24,213 million up 14%
Total Net Sales $85,777 million up 5%

Here are the Six Color Charts.

Categories
Apple

Apple Maps on the Web

From Apple Newsroom:

Today, Apple Maps on the web is available in public beta, allowing users around the world to access Maps directly from their browser.

Now, users can get driving and walking directions; find great places and useful information including photos, hours, ratings, and reviews; take actions like ordering food directly from the Maps place card; and browse curated Guides to discover places to eat, shop, and explore in cities around the world. Additional features, including Look Around, will be available in the coming months.

I think it’s worthy of saying “finally”!

Apple doesn’t hesitate taking the slow and steady approach when it comes to incremental improvements. If you’re still jaded by the less than stellar performance when Apple Maps premiered on iOS, it’s high time you start using the app. And starting now, if you’re wanting to share links to various locations or directions, you can do it on the web. It’s by far my favourite maps app.

(Previously: Apple’s New Map, Expansion #10 Canada)

Categories
Apple games

Delta 1.6 Adds iPad Support

The video game emulator Delta lets one play NES, SNES, N64, Game Boy, GBA, and Nintendo DS ROMs (which are easy enough to find online) on your iOS device. The newest version now supports iPadOS features such as full screen and runs multiple games at once. Thanks to airplay, the games can be streamed straight to your AppleTV or other supported device.

Trying to play old Nintendo titles with touch screen controls proved less than ideal but after I hooked up a bluetooth Xbox controller, I found the experience to be like I remembered. It gave me quite the dose of nostalgia. I still died on that very first Goomba in Super Mario Bros, though.

Categories
Apple

Jon Stewart on the Moment Things Went Bad with Apple

Jon Stewart, speaking in an interview on the The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast, reveals the moment he realized his relationship with the iPhone maker was destined for failure.

Categories
family life

Oh, the Places They Go

Yesterday, our six year old daughter along with our four year old son went on an adventure they had arranged for themselves.

My wife had just given them an old digital camera and they shot a few selfies with it. They also got new backpacks which they were quite excited about.

Two young children sit on a sofa with a digital camera set up on self timer mode takes their photo.
My sneaky kids excited about their (new to them) digital camera just before they went AWOL.

As I was getting ready for work I noticed they were up to something by the way they were whispering to each other with their new backpacks on and then kept quiet as I passed by them. I told them whatever they were up to, to cut it out and I headed out the door. I got a text from Andrea about a 10 minutes later on my commute to work:

The kids are just wandering around the neighbourhood somewhere. I’m about to get on my bike to go find them. I caught them at the corner walking away from our house with their backpacks on and yelled at them to come home and have breakfast now and they just kept walking like I didn’t even say anything. And they heard me because they turned around and looked at me while I was saying come home right now for breakfast

After contacting friends and neighbours and talking to everyone she ran into looking for them she even contacted the police to keep an eye out for them. I was getting updates by text and it was pretty stressful — even my co-workers who I was keeping updated about the search were bothered. I got a text an hour and a half later that our friend Chelsea found Nesslin (still in her pajamas) walking alone heading back to the house about two blocks from home. It turns out they had decided Nesslin would walk Ian to preschool (about 2km away) without parent permission or notification. They knew the way from the many times that Andrea had taken them by bike in the Chariot bike wagon.

I was annoyed that the preschool didn’t call immediately when they arrived. Ian’s preschool teacher claims that when Ian arrived at school she asked him where his mom was to sign him in and he told her that she was in the parking lot and said you [the teacher] would sign him in yourself. Sounds pretty conniving and atypical of my son to say the least.

Ian claims that’s not what he said because he was actually excited to tell the teacher that they had walked by themselves. My co-worker thinks I’m silly to believe my son over his teacher but I know what he’s like and he was pretty annoyed that his story and her story didn’t line up. When I asked him if he had been worried about getting in trouble as he walked to school he said they talked about that but decided that their teacher would be proud of them for walking on their own. I don’t want to accuse they teacher of anything but I am still annoyed that I will probably never know for sure.

The kids knew that their mom would be mad but they were surprised at the lecture they got from me when I got home from work. We are strickly a no hitting family but I told them that a co-worker of mine suggested I give them each a spanking for what they did. I was relieved to see them take this suggestion really hard and as they both broke into tears, I felt like the message was well received.

Categories
Apple finance

Apple Earnings Report Q2 2024

Thursday’s press release from Apple Newsroom:

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2024 second quarter ended March 30, 2024. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $90.8 billion, down 4 percent year over year, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.53.

The three month year over year from Apple’s consolidated statement:

iPhone $45,963 million down 10%
Mac $7,451 million up 4%
iPad $5,559 million down 17%
Wearables, Home and Accessories $7,913 million down 10%
Services $23,867 million up 14%
Total Net Sales $90,753 million down 4%

Despite earning less, the stock price jumped 6% on the news.

See the Six Color Charts.