Greg would’ve been 41 today. Instead he’s forever 18. Here we are about age 4 or 5.
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Atoms – A Shoe Company Story
I try not to pay too much attention to advertising in general but this shoe ad at Daring Fireball caught my eye tonight:
Hey Daring Fireball readers, many of you are familiar with Atoms, and a lot of you wear our shoes and the comfortable masks we make. We are currently sold out of almost all of our shoes because Humans of New York did an in depth story on our co-founder Sidra’s personal journey. So this week, instead of ordering with Atoms, we would encourage you to support relief efforts in Texas.
So I checked out the Humans of New York story and found it very inspiring. I think you should read it too.
Now I want to buy their sold out shoes.
Frederico Viticci has a handy shortcut that allows one to take his or her screenshots from iOS and watchOS and automatically superimpose them onto a template mock-up of the Apple device they were taken on.
Like this:
(Via macstories)
My brother-in-law has a security camera mounted on his house in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan that caught a few seconds of this meteor flying over Canada yesterday.
People all over Alberta and Saskatchewan are reporting their experiences catching glimpses of the celestial boulder.
Categories
The Man Who Kept House
From the 2nd grade reader, “More Friends and Neighbours” comes a classic tale of a husband biting off more than he could chew. He learns an important lesson along the way.
I’m not sure where the book came from, but I’ve been reading it to my kids lately. I enjoy reading the old fashioned style as well the gender norms of a bygone era are also interesting. I remember my mom (or possibly grandma) used to tell me this same story at bedtime. Enjoy:
Once there was a farmer who thought his work in the fields was too hard.
Every night when he came to his house on the hillside, he was very, very tired. Then he would say to his wife, “What do you do all day while I am working hard in the fields?”
“I keep house,” said his wife.
“Pooh, pooh! That’s so easy,” he said. “I wish I had nothing to do but churn and boil porridge and keep the house clean.”
One night the man’s wife said to him, “Tomorrow I will change work with you. I will go to the fields to work, and you shall keep house and watch the baby.”
“Pooh, pooh!” he said. “That’s easy. Boiling porridge and churning will be a pleasant change for me.”
From Main Street USA to Galaxy’s Edge The Sounds of Disneyland has all the music from the Walt’s California based theme parks (Disneyland and California Adventure).
A lot of the music only works as a short diversion in nostalgia but I particularly like playing the song Rancho Del Zocalo (from Frontierland) as background music when I’ve cooked a Hello Fresh recipe for the family. There’s something about the mandolin and guitar duet that simulates the restaurant experience.
Categories
Trump Acquitted
The US Senate has voted to acquit Donald Trump.
In theory he could run again in 2024.
After the vote finished, Mitch McConnell, who voted to acquit, got up and spoke at length about how Trump was directly responsible for the riot. He justified his not guilty vote by saying it was too late now that Trump is out of office.
The Twitterverse had opinions:
Apple released their first quarter earnings today and it was great news for the Cupertino lifestyle company1.
The company posted all time record revenue of $111.4 billion, up 21% year-over-year, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.68, up 35%.
Net sales by category in the three months ending December 26, 2020 compared with the three months ending on December 28, 2019:
- iPhone $ 65 597 000 up $9 640 000 (17% growth year over year with an all-time high of 1 billion devices activated)
- Mac $8 675 000 up $1 515 000 (Up 21% compared to last year)
- iPad $8 435 000 up $2 458 000 (Surveys measure iPad users with 94% satisfaction)
- Wearables, Home and Accessories $12 971 000 up $2 961 000 (75% of customers this quarter are new)
- Services $15 761 000 up $3 046 000 (New services are all helping this category)
- Total Net sales $111 439 000 — Up $19 620 000
This is fantastic news for shareholders. Apple continues to show strong growth in all of it’s categories. The details of their earnings can be found in their First Quarter Results.
Update: As always Jason Snell has the graphs.
1. Poor Intel
With the new M1 MacBook Air comes the need to once again figure out how to get a modern, highly secure, 64-bit operating system to communicate with a device made in the early 2000s. The device in question being a Dell 1100 Laser Printer.
After some searching online, a little trial and error, some attempts at using an old driver from an old computer (nope) and a little more searching online I finally came up with the solution. I’m posting it here in the hopes that it will help someone else save some trouble and probably for my future self at some point.
Before I even started, I knew I would need a USB-C to USB-A adapter.
I’ll save you the trouble of going through all my trial and error and just say that the solution to get Andrea’s MacBook Air (M1, 2020) running Big Sur 11.0 to work with the Dell 1100 Laser Printer was to download this collection of drivers:
Open it and when it’s done installing head to the System Preferences Printer icon (with the printer plugged in and turned on) and add a new printer.
When selecting software, choose Samsung ML-2160 Series.
Albeit there was an error the first time I printed (or maybe it was just a warning) but then it began its typical whirling sound and out popped the printed page. It continues to work every time without issue.
I’m going to mirror the Samsung drivers for safe keeping.
Update: And after a new version of MacOS, this no longer works. I guess it’s time to retire the old laser printer. Too bad, we just bought a new drum after 15 years on the old one.
A slew of recent articles1 claim that Apple is creating a new paid subscription service providing premium podcasts. According to these reports, Apple thinks they need to start shelling out cash for big name podcasts in order to compete with Amazon and Spotify. This is the same Spotify that was recently downgraded from neutral to sell by financial group Citi because Spotify hasn’t seen the kind of returns they would like on the hundreds of millions they spent locking down premium podcast providers such as Gimlet Media, Joe Rogan, and others.
From fortune.com:
Apple has been the dominant distributor of podcasts in the U.S. for more than a decade, offering the programs for free. […] But the company now faces significant competition from two of its biggest rivals: Spotify and Amazon.com Inc.
So let me get this straight, Apple has been offering podcasts for free for almost 20 years and NOW they suddenly face significant competition to their FREE offering?
It’s not crazy that Apple may feel they are leaving money on the table. It’s not uncommon for Apple to discuss ways it could improve growth and it makes sense to explore the idea of bringing in top tier podcasts as an additional draw to Apple Music, but Apple does not care one iota about Spotify’s attempt to monetize podcasts. If anything they chalk it up as a win when people use their hardware more often regardless of the service they are using.
From The Information:
“Apple—long considered the sleeping giant in the podcast space—is waking up. The company, which runs the most widely used podcasting app in the industry, is discussing launching a new subscription service that would charge people to listen to podcasts, according to people familiar with the matter.”
Apple has plenty of “discussions” about all kinds of ideas. Don’t go to print until at least there is a hint that they’ve decided on something.
Here’s my Claim Chowder: There will be no premium podcast subscription service from Apple. If there is any truth to these rumours, it’s about Apple giving a little more love to their Podcast app (which has also been rumoured). If Apple were to offer “high quality”, “paid” podcasts, it will be tied into users’ existing subscriptions to Apple Music.
Update: They did it. Apple is now offering subscription podcasts. What I didn’t understand when I called down the idea was that they wouldn’t pay upfront for finished shows or personalities but would facilitate podcasts adding a subscription and then take a cut of the proceeds.
1. Apple Is Ready to Invest in Its Own Original Podcasts, Apple Developing Podcast Subscription Service to Better Compete With Spotify, Apple Plans Podcasting Subscription Service in Threat to Spotify, Apple Mulls Podcast Subscription Push Amid Spotify’s Land Grab.