During the pandemic I realized I am never going to subscribe to a streaming music service. At 38 I am spending less time discovering new music, and more time listening to the music I already own.

I listen to albums, and own physical copies of most of my music. The COVID19 lockdown gave me the opportunity I needed to replace the digital albums I previously purchased with physical CDs, and re-rip my entire music collection in a lossless format.

With the help of my Kabylake powered PC, MacBook Pro, and four 32× optical drives, I was ready to rip my 500 album CD collection. I choose to rip my CDs using iTunes because I wanted my collection in Apple’s Lossless Audio Codec. For most people the popular FLAC format is more compatible and easier to error-check, but I still listen to music on older iPods and operating systems that require a format compatible with retro Apple hardware.

iTunes can’t import CDs from multiple optical drives simultaneously, but it will automatically import the next new audio CD it finds; ejecting the previously imported disc in the process. As long as I kept all four of my optical drives feed, iTunes would rip a new album every two to three minutes; automatically including track metadata and album art with no user intervention required.¹

After about twenty hours, or two weeks of off and on importing, I had my music collection ripped to Apple lossless. I consolidated the effort from both computers to a single master collection I keep on a cloud accessible server; checking out the albums I want to listen to at any time from my myriad of devices.

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1. Just remember to check “Use error correction when reading Audio CDs” for the best possible rip. ↩︎

I got my first iPod in 2003. It was the second generation model; the first iPod to include a capacitive touch wheel. I bought the 10 GB model with the included inline remote control, not only because it was cheaper at $399, but because it was thinner at 0.72 inches¹.

All through out high school I listened to my music collection via mini discs I mixed myself, using my CD collection and the family DVD player. Each mini disc could only hold an albums worth of music, and mastering them was a tedious process of swapping CDs and waiting for each track to playback in real time.²

It took me months to save up for my first iPod, but the reward was worth it. With over 2,000 songs in my pocket, my iPod was the first time I could listen to all of my music without changing discs. Thanks to FireWire I could transfer my whole music collection to my iPod in a matter of minutes instead of wasting hours swapping discs. Most importantly though, my iPod allowed me to make the most of the music I already owned. Transferring the handcrafted playlists I made on my Mac using iTunes, while simultaneously reintroducing me to my seldom played songs via shuffle. Thanks to my first iPod my music playing experience would never be the same.

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1. Back in those days the smaller capacity iPods were also the thinnest. ↩︎

2. Thanks TOSLINK ↩︎

Video games were a big part of my adolescence. And although my memories of playing these games as a child will never die, far too often the chance to replay these games is tied to obsolete hardware that is both hard to come by and difficult to preserve.

Not true for source ports!

Source ports are projects derived from a original game’s source code, designed to extend the game’s capabilities while providing compatibility with modern hardware like Apple Silicon.

For example, id Software released Quake III: Arena in 1999. In 2005, after the game and engine’s commercial life was over, they released the source code freely under an open source license. Shortly thereafter the ioquake3 project was born and has been maintained ever since.

In this case, Quake III: Arena is the game, and ioquake3 is the source port. Although the original executables for Quake III: Arena have long since stopped working on modern Macs, source ports like ioquake3 have seen constant maintenance so they allow you to continue to play on modern Macs.

Mac Source Ports is a new website by Tom Kidd, designed to make playing popular source ports on modern Macs easier. He does this by curating a growing list of popular source ports, optimizing them for Intel and Apple Silicon Macs, and signing/notarizing the code when necessary to provide a near seamless Macintosh gaming experience.

In some cases source port projects make their own builds and we link to those here as well, but oftentimes the projects don’t have the resources to do it themselves. Code signing is relatively new and sort of tedious, notarization requires a paid account which not everyone is interested in obtaining, and not everyone even has a Mac in the first place. Windows machines are everywhere and Linux can be installed on anything but you have to buy a Mac to have macOS. And every so often Apple changes things, like the recent shift to Apple Silicon, so even people who do have a Mac have to buy new stuff.

Right now the number of source ports is small, just a single page of first person shooters based on game engines developed by id Software and 3D Realms. But Tom hopes to expand the Mac Source Ports collection soon.

I’m getting to it, provided it has source code and an actively maintained source port. If the source port is already doing the work of making the signed and notarized builds, I’ll link to them here, otherwise I’ll see if I can figure out how to do it myself. If a game doesn’t have an actively maintained source port it might require more work. If it doesn’t have source code available I can’t do anything with it (so, for example Quake 4 never released source code so I can’t do anything with it).

Tom takes the hard work out of source ports by maintaining, compiling, signing, and notarizing the available source code. But in order to play the game, source ports need data files like character models, maps, sounds, and background music. Because these data files are copyrighted they cannot be distributed as part of the game’s original source code. Players must acquire these data files elsewhere; either from a physical copy of the game or by purchasing the game from an online retailer like GOG or Steam.

It is because of copyright laws that source ports cannot be distributed in the Mac App Store.

For example, I can’t put the full game of Quake on the Mac App Store because I don’t have the rights to do so. I could conceivably try to put a port of vkQuake on there without data files but anything you put on the App Store has to go through a vetting process and it’s not clear whether the staff has the ability to go through the process of acquiring the game data and running through the process themselves. And it’s unlikely I could call it vkQuake, so I’d have to name it something else and use a different icon which would confuse people.

Thankfully Mac Source Ports makes installing the data files easy, with installation instructions for every game in the collection. Tom is even working on way to extract the data files from a Windows installer without the use of a PC.

Quake, Doom, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein are some of my favorite video games of all time. I have been playing popular source ports like ioquake3, dhewm3, and iortcw since there inception. But compiling all of my favorite source ports for Apple Silicon is beyond my abilities. I am glad to see that Tom Kidd, who has a long history of porting id Software’s back catalog to iOS, turn his expertise towards Macintosh gaming. Here’s hoping the future of Mac Source Ports looks bright in 2022 and includes many more popular source ports like OpenRA, DevilutionX, and Super Mario 64 PC Port just to name a few. Everyone with a Apple Silicon Mac, who likes playing video games should buy Tom Kidd a coffee!

I went to the Apple Store today to pick up a MacBook Air I had repaired under warranty. Apple requires a state ID or passport at time of pickup to prove identity. I am legally blind so I don’t carry a driver’s license, and my state ID had expired during the pandemic. I could prove my identity with my MIT employee photo ID, major credit cards, and a copy of my birth certificate I brought along just in case. Apple would not accept any of my forms of identification; including the repair ticket I was issued when I dropped off my computer.

In my pocket was an iPhone registered to the same Apple ID registered to my MacBook Air. The same Apple ID I used to sign up for my Genius appointment when I dropped off the computer. I know the username and password for this Apple ID, and could prove it with Apple two-factor authentication.

Apple wouldn’t accept their own forms of identification either, and told me the only way they would return my computer to me was if came back to the store with a government issued ID, or called Apple Support and arranged for a person with a government issued ID to pickup my computer.

So that is what I did.

Why is it more secure for me to make an anonymous call to Apple Support and arrange some rando from the food court with a state ID to pick up my computer, than it is for me to prove my identity using the Apple ID and two-factor authentication the computer is registered to?

Mark Gurman writing for Bloomberg:

A major change to the new computers will be how they charge. Over the past five years, Apple has relied on USB-C ports for both power and data transfer on its laptops, making them compatible with other manufacturers’ chargers. But the company is now bringing back MagSafe, the magnetic power adapter that means any accidental yanking of the power cable would simply detach it from the laptop rather than pull down the entire computer. It was a favorite feature of the company’s portable PC lineup that was first introduced in 2006 and most recently revived for its latest lineup of iPhones.

The return of MagSafe with the next MacBook Pros will also allow those laptops to charge at a faster rate, the person said. The connector will be similar to the elongated pill-shape design of the older MagSafe port.

I would be happy to see the return of MagSafe, but not as a replacement for the universal charging USB Type-C provides.

Universal charging means I am less likely to take my laptop charger with me on the go, when I know I can share the same USB Type-C charger/portable batteries as my PC laptop carrying counterparts. That I can choose my own charger from companies like Anker. And when I am at my desk the same dock or USB Type-C monitor that extends the capabilities of my MacBook can also charge it as well. If a proprietary MacSafe cable is the only way to charge my MacBook in the future, count me out.

I made the switch from an iPhone 7 to Android last month. Not for a particular handset, but features like a headphone jack, expandable storage, USB Type-C, and a 128 GBs of storage Apple does not make available on a iPhone; let alone a phone that costs under $229.

I am not an iOS power user. I don’t use Apple services like iCloud, Photos, Apple Music, or Shortcuts. Many of the third-party services I do use, like Slack, Outlook, Nike+, Instapaper, Foobar2000, and Brave offer native Android apps that are just as good if not better than their iOS equivalents. While Twitter, Reddit, RSS feeds, podcasts, and weather are available on Android, I will always miss the polish of my favorite third-party iOS apps; Twitterrific, Apollo, Unread, Castro, and Dark Sky.

There is however one Apple service I thought I would have to leave behind after making the switch to Android. Like many of you, I have been using iMessage — Apple’s blue bubble messaging service — since it debuted in October, 2011. I feared my move to Android meant missing messages from friends and family during the pandemic. Luckily I found an alternative to Apple’s proprietary messaging app that works on Android.

AirMessage brings the blue bubble messages of Apple’s proprietary iMessage communication protocol to my Android phone. It does this with an easy to install Android app, and a service running on my always-on, Internet connected Mac mini. I have been using AirMessage alongside my iPhone 7 for over a month now, and I have not missed a single iMessage. The best part is friends and family who have become accustom to my blue bubble messages over the last eight years don’t know I am using an Android phone.

One downside of AirMessage is that the service requires an always-on Internet connected Mac. AirMessage can not send or receive new iMessages if my Mac mini is shut down or put to sleep. AirMessage requires access to the Internet and a port forwarded through my router’s firewall. Even though my Mac mini stores my entire iMessage archive, AirMessage’s conversation history is limited to correspondence sent through my Android phone..

Since all of your messages are first routed through your Mac computer, it may simply be best to think of AirMessage as of extension of this computer.

And because AirMessage is an extension of Messages for Mac, it does not include include all of the modern features of Messages for iOS; including somescreen  effects, stickers, Memoji and iMessage apps.

AirMessage is not a service I would recommend to long time Android user’s, but a crutch to allow long time iPhone users like myself  the chance to try out Android without missing out on the iMessages from the people who matter most.

I first heard about OutRun from Bradley Chambers, writing for 9to5Mac.

OutRun is exactly what you’d want from a simple iPhone run tracker. It fits in nicely with a great iOS 13 design, is 100% private, and syncs with Apple Health. The syncing with Apple Health is optional as well. Settings wise, you can change your energy unit, weight unit, GPS accuracy settings, create data backups, and enable syncing. There is no friends list, ads to dismiss, or subscriptions to sign up for bonus features. It has one simple goal, and that is to track your runs.

I have run with a dedicated GPS watch in the past, but these days I only take my iPhone with me on most workouts. Apple offers a great running app for Apple Watch, but when it comes to iPhone-only runners like myself we are forced to download third-party apps that come with their own accounts, privacy policies, advertisements, and social networks. I don’t want any of that stuff when I run, and I don’t want to pay $199 for an Apple Watch and the privilege of keeping my workout data safe. All I want to do is run, and have my iPhone announce my progress while I am out on the road and track my miles after the race.

I have been using OutRun for five days and it does a good job of tracking my miles average speed, location, and time. I trust OutRun and Apple Health to keep my workout data safe, but in order for me to adopt OutRun as my full time running app, I need it to do more for me while I am running.

• Spoken notifications for elapsed time, distance, and current pace every kilometer. The Nike Run Club app does this, and as a legally blind runner I rely on these regular audible notifications to keep my eyes on the road.
• Split tracking so that after the race is finished I can see how I performed every kilometer along the way.
• Auto pause for when I stop running, because obstacles and intersections shouldn’t get in my way of my goal pace during workouts.

OutRun is still a 1.0, so there is plenty or time for improvement. I can’t wait to contribute to this app again when the developer has added more of my desired features. Maybe we will see a version 2.0 in time for fall marathon season?

Last week Apple announced a new MacBook Air and not only is it good — for most people it’s the Mac to get. The new 2020 MacBook Air costs less, comes with twice the storage, more performance, all while ditching the unreliable butterfly keyboard. If I was buying a 2020 MacBook Air today, this is the configuration I would get.

Processor

Unless you are only using your MacBook Air for web browsing and word processing, get the Intel Core i5 processor upgrade. Not only do you get double the cores, but a faster 3.5 GHz Turbo Boost for only $100 more. I wouldn’t bother with the Intel Core i7 processor upgrade for another $150. If you need more performance than an Intel Core i5 you shouldn’t be buying a MacBook Air.

Memory

I have been using a 2018 MacBook Air with 8 GBs of RAM for a little over a year and never suffered from a lack of memory. I don’t use my MacBook Air for video editing, virtualization, or 3D graphics. If you do maybe 16 GBs of RAM makes sense, but at an additional $200 I’ll pass.

Storage

Luckily this year a measly 128 GB SSD is no longer an option. The biggest problem I have with my 2018 MacBook Air is running out of storage. If a MacBook Air is your only computer spring for more storage, otherwise the $200 512 GB SSD upgrade is more than enough for most people.

AppleCare+

I don’t buy AppleCare+ for my computers, and you shouldn’t either. Unless you need the 247 expert technical support from Apple there are better extended warranties out there.

Dongles

You are going to need a USB-C to USB Adapter, but you can do better than Apple’s $19.00 option with a single port. Personally I like AmazonBasics USB 3.1 Type-C to 3 Port USB Hub with Ethernet Adapter, but other models with more ports, SD card slots, and video out are also available.

Regrets

If there is anything I wish this new MacBook Air had it would be removable storage. As much as I love Apple, their storage prices are outrageous. By soldering down their SSDs, Apple is making data recovery more difficult for their customers.

Price

Dongles aside my custom MacBook Air would cost $1,299.00, and is available at most Apple Store as a standard configuration. Just don’t forget about the $100 off educational discount.

I have been a regular podcast listener since at least April 17, 2005. Over the last 14 years I have tried a lot of podcast apps. Switching podcatchers has always been easy thanks to the freedom of the open web (RSS) and the transparency of XML (OPML).

For the last couple of years I have been using Apple’s Podcasts app exclusively, but that all changed when I learned about the latest sideloading features coming to Castro.

Castro now lets you send audio from your favorite YouTube videos into your podcast queue! Just browse to the video you want to hear and “Sideload to Castro” using the iOS sharesheet. Once the YouTube audio have been downloaded into the app, you can use all of your favorite Castro features like Trim Silence, Voice Boost and variable playback speed to enhance your listening experience.

I listen to a lot of content on YouTube, but I don’t always need to watch the video. Sideload to Castro works great with talking head videos, documentaries, or any content I want to listen to later; even without an Internet connection!

The only thing that could make Sideload to Castro better is if Castro could automatically sideload audio from my favorite YouTube channels in the background using RSS.

I did not consider an iPad. The only aspects of an iPad that interest me are its integrated LTE, and a long lasting battery life. As a systems administrator iOS’s App Store puts restrictions on the kind of applications I need to get my work done.

If you are looking for a low-cost Apple portable with all of the possibilities of a Macintosh, and none of the compromises of iOS, the MacBook Air is the one to get.

Here are a couple of my thoughts and recommendations if a new MacBook Air is in your future.

$1,299 is too much

Do not pay $1,299.00 for a new 2019 MacBook Air with 256 GB of storage. There are better offers out there. Buy the 2018 model, they are essentially the same computer. If you have to get a MacBook Air from Apple take advantage of Educational pricing or buy refurbished.

128 GB is not enough

Do not purchase a 2019 MacBook Air with only 128 GB of solid state storage. The solid state storage on all of Apple’s current portable computers is soldered to the logic board and cannot be upgraded later. You can get by using an external hard drive or saving to the cloud, but you will regret it. Apple should be ashamed for putting a 128 GB SSD in a Macintosh in 2020.

Don’t eat over your keyboard

Over the last year I lived in fear. Not that I would lose data or that I would drop my computer in a puddle, but that I would get a crumb under my MacBook Air’s keyboard. Reliability issues with Apple’s MacBook butterfly keyboards are well documented, and the 2019 MacBook Air is no exception. I learned to accept my MacBook Air’s short key travel and new keyboard layout, but I never got over the fact that the next piece of dust could do it in. Try the MacBook Air butterfly keyboard before you buy, but whatever you do don’t eat over it.

Dongletown

Buy a USB Type-C to USB adapter and carry it with you at all times. If you are in the habit of presenting get a USB Type-C to HDMI adapter too. You can buy a USB Type-C adapter for every peripheral you own, or upgrade every peripheral you own to USB Type-C like I did. Dongletown is a real place, but you don’t have to live there. I only visit when I am working with other people.

Pick your power supply

The MacBook Air was my first laptop with USB Type-C charging, and I am never going back. The beauty of USB Type-C charging is that you can choose your own charger. You are no longer beholden to the white power brick Apple shipped with your MacBook.

If you want a smaller power adapter, get a smaller power adapter. If you want a power adapter with extra USB ports and more power, get that one too. Heck, you can even get a USB Type-C monitor that charges your laptop, displays 1080p video, and provides a USB hub all over one cable. No need for a docking station!

Thunderbolt 3

I never found a need for Thunderbolt 3 on a entry level computer like the MacBook Air. I would gladly take more USB Type-C ports in exchange for Thunderbolt especially if it meant I could have the convenience of charging my computer from either side.

Battery Life

Battery life isn’t a problem on the new MacBook Air; mine can go all day without charging. I would welcome the additional performance a quad core processor would introduce, but only if battery life remains the same and my MacBook remains whisper quiet. Did I mention I almost never hear the fan on this computer?

Force Touch Trackpad

The quality of Apple’s Force Touch trackpads are legendary, but so are their size. It would be hard to go back to a PC laptop without one, but I don’t need to see the Force Touch trackpad get any larger. The size of the Force Touch trackpad on the 13 inch MacBook Pro is ridiculous.

Touch ID

Touch ID is another nice to have. I would miss it if it was gone, but it is not nearly as important on a computer that has a keyboard compared to iPhone or iPad that require you to enter long complex passwords on a touchscreen.

Watching Stupid

Have you ever visited YouTube in a new browser without logging into Google first? If you have, you probably watched a lot of stupid videos on YouTube.

The problem is the algorithm. YouTube’s algorithm works by showing you videos you are likely to watch. The algorithm does this by remembering you, which videos you watch, and which videos you skip. Google makes money each time you watch a YouTube video with an embedded ad. The more videos you watch the more money Google makes.

But what if the algorithm can’t remember you or the kind of videos you like to watch? What if you don’t have a Google account and don’t want one? What will YouTube show you then?

In an effort to keep you watching videos with embedded ads, the algorithm defaults to showing you videos designed to steal your attention. Even if those videos are some of the stupidest content on YouTube. I watched a lot of stupid videos on YouTube in 2019.

For most people watching the occasional stupid video isn’t that big of a problem because people tell Google who they are and the algorithm shows them what they want to watch. They do this by letting the Google track their browsers or by logging into Google services. But I browse the web with tracking protection turned on and never log into Google. The algorithm remembers nothing about me, and as a result I am always shown stupid videos.

Watching Less Stupid

In 2020 I am watching less stupid on YouTube by skipping the algorithm. Instead of letting the YouTube decide which videos it wants to show me, I am watching only the videos I want to see by subscribing to my favorite content creators via RSS.

1. First I find a YouTube channel I want to watch.
2. View its source code in my browser
3. Search for “channelid”
4. And append the Channel ID to the end of this URL https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=

The combined URL + Channel ID is the Feed URL of that YouTube channel, and can be added to my feed reader. For instance the Feed URL for the 512 Pixels YouTube channel is:

https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCZzXBTOSdtmOz9_VMYffr4g

YouTube used to make its videos more accessible to visitors by publishing the channel RSS feeds, but ever since the algorithm took over YouTube has obfuscated RSS in an effort to control content delivery and drive advertisement revenue. Don’t be a victim to the algorithm in 2020, subscribe to RSS feeds on YouTube and support the Open Web.

It is a shame that some of the best and brightest technology journalists to ever cover the Apple beat, have been hired away by their favorite fruit company and reduced to farming cultivated stories from within the high walls of a private orchard.

I don’t blame them for following the money, and I certainly don’t blame them for wanting to work behind the curtain of the muse that has fascinated them for so many years. (Given the same opportunity, I too might have surrendered to the mothership.)

But because I remain outside the ring, or because I don’t lean on the App Store to deliver my technology news, I will never read any editorial from these virtuosos ever again.

Technology reporting and the Open Web as a whole has suffered at Apple’s insistence to lock them away.

This post was inspired by this tweet and this link that I can”t open on my Mac. As it turns out it was my fault for running an incompatible two year old version of Apple’s Macintosh operating system.

Does anyone remember a story from the early 2000’s where a guy was trying to make a business of selling Apple Power Mac G4 repair parts in a custom molded pizza box case?

Long story short Apple Legal stepped in and persuaded the chap that he couldn’t use Apple repair parts for this purpose. I remember reading about this story while I was in college, but I can’t find an article anywhere.

Personally I would love to purchase a Mac Pro logic board and outfit it with a CPU, RAM, and and off the shelf AMD graphics card. But even if I got an Apple Certified Repair Center to see me one hooking it up to a conventional ATX power supply would be the greatest challenge.

As for a case and cooling, i am pretty sure I would just wing it, using commodity third party PC parts. Nothing elegant like an Apple Mac Pro case, but I think Apple’s professional desktop logic board would look really great on an open air test bench under tempered glass.

Obviously there are all kinds of hardware incompatibilities and economic obstacles I am not even considering at this point. But as soon as I hit up one of my ACMT friends and figure out the stock price for a 2019 Mac Pro motherboard I will let you know.

With the SeaMonkey 2.49.5 release the 2.49.x line comes to an end. Unless a catastrophic bug is discovered 2.49.5 will be the last ESR 52 based version. Backporting security fixes and at the same time working on the next, already overdue, major release is not possible with the few remaining developers.n

Plans are to do further interim 2.53 versions based on a much enhanced Gecko 56 base while working on bringing you the next ESR 60 based 2.57 version. After 2.57 we will decide about the future. The current Mozilla Gecko codebase has seen a flow of constant major changes and api removals in the last 2 years and is no longer really usable for our needs. By the end of the year the SeaMonkey project is expected to be completely independent of Mozilla. We will see how this pans out but we are doing our best and already have a new infrastructure in place where we do builds and website hosting.n

We would also like to remind everyone again that this a community project independent of Mozilla. So if you want to continue seeing future SeaMonkey releases please help by either donating money or even better help out with development. We are still committed and hope you are too. n

I first dialed into the Internet during the Summer of 1995 and Netscape 2.0 was my browser.nBesides being a great browser, Netscape 2.0 also included a full mail reader called Netscape Mail,nmaking it one of the first Internet Suites.

Since the demise of Netscape Communications and the advent of Mac OS X,nI have switched browsers several times (Camino, Safari, SeaMonkey, then Firefox),nbut the idea of a Internet Suite — a one click stop for email, RSS, newsgroups, and the Web — still sounds appealing.

I am sorry to hear SeaMonkey is suffering,nbut hopefully new sponsors and a few generous donations will turn the fate of the Internet Suite around for the few of us who still browse different.

Stephen Hackett, writing for 512 Pixels, outlines some of the differences between the entry level 2019 MacBook Air and entry level 2019 MacBook Pro.

With today’s revisions to the Mac notebook line, choosing between a new MacBook Air and a new MacBook Pro has gotten a little more interesting.

The machines are similar in many ways. They both come with two Thunderbolt 3 ports, Touch ID, 8 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD. Both can be stepped up to 16 GB of memory … [but] once you start poking around, you can see some differences.

I have been a 2018 MacBook Air owner for the better part of a year, and I can agree with Stephen’s assessment; “for almost everyone, the MacBook Air is the right notebook.” If you are willing to pay for more power and plus sacrifice some battery life, get the MacBook Pro.

That being said there are great deals to be had on last year’s MacBook Air. Microcenter is offering 2018’s MacBook Air with 128 GBs of storage for $799. Not only that, but you can get it in gold!

After reading about some of the new features available in macOS Catalina it became clear to me Apple is working towards an immutable design.

Dedicated system volume
nmacOS Catalina runs in a dedicated, read-only system volume — which means it is completely separate from all other data, and nothing can overwrite your critical operating system files.

By enforcing a read-only system volume, Apple can ensure that every installation of macOS Catalina is immutable.nThat means that every installation of macOS Catalina is identical to every other installation of the same version,nand the operating system on your Mac’s hard disk is exactly the same as the operating system on the hard disks in the Macs at Apple Park.

An immutable design comes with some big advantages. macOS Catalina should be more stable, less prone to bugs, and easier to test and develop for than previous versions of Mac OS.nSystem updates can be installed faster.nNo need to wait for patches to be applied; simply reboot to the newest version.

Mac OS Catalina’s immutable design should also be more secure.nLending itself towards the deployment of containerized apps that are kept separate from system software.nEvidence of which be seen in another one of macOS Catalina’s published features.

DriverKit and user space system extensions
nPreviously many hardware peripherals and sophisticated features needed to run their code directly within macOS using kernel extensions, or kexts. Now these programs run separately from the operating system, just like any other app, so they can’t affect macOS if something goes wrong.

Of course should anything go wrong, macOS Catalina’s immutable design makes recovery easy.

Restore from snapshot
nIf your third-party software is incompatible with an update you just installed, use macOS Recovery to restore from a snapshot of your computer taken right before the installation. macOS and all your apps will work just as they did before you installed the update.

The ability to restore your Mac’s system software from a snapshot is made even more efficient when the state of that snapshot is not only predictable, but no longer unique to your Macintosh.

Of course an immutable design comes with some drawbacks.nDeveloper’s who rely on modifying Catalina’s underlying UNIX environment will need to move to container-based software development.nAt first this may seem like a burden, but developer’s have been supplementing the Mac’s outdated UNIX userland tools for years.nDeveloping on macOS Catalina should be no different, except these tools will need to be kept separate from the system volume, increasing consistency, reliability, and security during the development process.

As a system administrator, macOS Catalina’s dedicated system volume, immutable design, and subsequent features, promise to be the most important advancements in the next version of the Macintosh operating system.

Update:

As Steve Troughton-Smith points out:

macOS Catalina still respects your System Integrity Protection setting and lets you write to to the hard disk root if SIP is off.

I don’t know if this liberty will make its way into the final version, but if it does most of the benefits of macOS Catalina’s immutable design will be lost.

Last week Apple announced the 2019 MacBook Pro, and the word keyboard did not appear in the press release.

Apple is not talking about MacBook keyboard reliability because the problem is fixed. They are not talking about MacBook keyboard reliability because they want the problem to go away.

It will take times for us to learn if the ‘new materials‘ Apple has added to the 2019 MacBook Pro keyboards will solve the reliability problems, but even Apple has their doubts. The “Keyboard Service Program for MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro“has been extended to cover not just the 2018 models, but the keyboards in last week’s 2019 MacBook Pro’s as well.

If you are aware of the risks, new materials or not, now is a good time to buy a new MacBook. Should things go wrong, Apple will cover the replacement of your keyboard for up to four years from the data of purchase. If you have already been burned by Apple’s keyboard reliability problems or want to wait, don’t expect MacBooks with a new keyboard design until at least 2020.

Seven years ago this blog post by Mark O’Connor changed my life.

On September 19th, I said goodbye to my trusty MacBook Pro and started developing exclusively on an iPad + Linode 512. This is the surprising story of a month spent working in the cloud.

Mark went from working locally on his MacBook to working in the cloud using his iPad.nWith a reliable network connection Mark could take his work with him anywhere.nFrom the office to the coffee shop, Mark’s mobility was made possible by the portability of Vim.

Perhaps the only reason this transition has been so smooth was because my favourite editor IDE looks and feels almost exactly the same running on an iSSH console as it did running locally on my Macbook. iSSH supports xterm-256color, which means you can still have pleasant colour schemes despite working in a terminal. All my plugins are there, my code-completion, quick navigation and so on.

Seven years ago I started work at MIT.nI needed to work on dozens of different systems running a variety of operating systems.nI could no longer rely on BBEdit — my text editor of choice for over a decade — to be availablenBefore long VIM became integrated into my workflow.nToday VIM is not only the best text editor available, it is my favorite text editor.

I ran my first marathon in 3:34:31 (Boston Marathon 2009), my second marathon in 3:24:34 ( Boston Marathon 2010), and my fifth marathon in 3:05:43 (San Francisco 2013). But it would take me five more years, and over a dozen races before I would reach my goal of running a sub three hour marathon.

My problem? I wasn’t running all 26.2 miles at a consistent pace I would start off too fast, and burn out before crossing the finish line. It wasn’t until last year that I realized I needed to run a 6:52 mile, every mile, if I ever hoped to finish a marathon in under three hours.

Cool weather and a fast course certainly helped, but my Apple Watch is really what made my sub three hour marathon possible. Unlike most fitness watches, my Apple Watch shows me my current pace and average pace together every time I look down at my wrist. Keeping me on track to run a 6:52 mile 26 times!

I almost didn’t make it. The three hour pace group sped passed me with just over a mile to go, and I let my pace slip as I became discouraged. Luckily for me they were just eager to finish the race a head of time, because when I looked down at my Apple Watch I saw I still had a minute to go on the last turn before the finish line.

I finished the race with a time of 2:59:50. or just ten seconds under goal. I can now say I am sub three hour marathoner until next year, when I do it again if only to prove it was not a fluke.

As an Apple fan growing up in the 90’s, Apple’s Infinite Loop headquarters has always been a special place. Not just an office park, but Disneyland. A place where magic happened and new Macs were made. One Infinite Loop is where the Apple faithful would pilgrimage, take self portraits outside the main entrance, and buy “I visited the Mothership” t-shirts from the Company Store. As a east coast kid I could not wait for my chance to go.

Now that I am an adult and Apple’s corporate address reads “One Apple Park Way,” I know Apple’s old HQ has lost some of its magic. But for me and the other Apple kids of the 90’s, Infinite Loop is still a symbol of Apple’s storied resurrection. The place where the Apple we know was born, and where all of our favorite Apple products came to be. If I could choose only one Apple HQ to visit, it would be the icon infested gardens of Infinite Loop on the eve of Steve Job’s return over the rolling hills, magnificent orchards, and curved glass ring of today’s Apple Park.

Unfortunately no time machine exists to take me back to the Apple HQ of lore, but this collection of interviews curated by Stephen Levy may be the next best thing. Here Apple employees past and present tell us the behind scenes stories that helped make Infinite Loop the mecca for so many Apple fans.

For more than a year I’ve been interviewing Apple employees, past and present, about their recollections of Infinite Loop. In their own words, edited for clarity and concision, here is the story of a plot of land in Cupertino, California, that brought us the Mac revival, the iPod, iTunes, the iPhone, and the Steve Jobs legacy.

My two favorite quotes come from Phil Schiller, and Tim Cook on his first day working at Apple.

Schiller: We’re like, “Steve! Newton customers are picketing! What do you want to do? They’re angry.” And Steve said, “They have every right to be angry. They love Newton. It’s a great product, and we have to kill it, and that’s not fun, so we have to get them coffee and doughnuts and send it down to them and tell them we love them and we’re sorry and we support them.”

Cook: At IBM and Compaq, where I had been working, I had been involved in helping with thousands of product introductions and withdrawals—and, I have to say, very few people cared about the withdrawals—and not very many people cared about the intro, either. I had never seen this passion that close up.

Steve Jobs is often criticized for killing the Newton because it was John Sculley’s creation, but I have long believed killing the Newton was a sacrifice Steve had to make to save Apple. Both hypotheses can be true, but these two quotes show a rare glimpse of Steve’s empathy for Apple’s customers and the passion for Apple’s products that made the company worth saving.

Of course I could not share this article without passing on a little Infinite Loop lore of my own.

My tenure at Apple’s Infinite Loop was shorter than most. During my two weeks of Mac Genius training during the summer of 2004 my classmates and I made the trip to Caffè Macs every day for lunch; often spending the remainder of our lunch break touring the halls of Infinite Loop and finding out what doors our employee badges opened (answer: none). During our initial orientation we were told to avoid contact with Apple’s “celebrity CEO,” a warning that played out humorously later in the weak when one of my classmates suddenly stepped out of the Caffè Macs lunch line because Steve was standing behind him waiting to “pay” for his Odwalla.

The highlight of my visit was hearing Steve Jobs speak during an employees only Town Hall meeting at IL4. (We got there early to get good seats; but sat far enough back from the stage as not to stand out in the crowd.) The topic was Microsoft’s entrance into the music business with their new PlaysForSure music service, how they couldn’t leave enough alone, and wanted to rule the world. Steve told us not to worry, Apple had great products in the pipeline, and they did.

After my two week stay in Cupertino, I vowed to return to Infinite Loop as a full-fledged Apple employee, but I never did. Looking back I am grateful to have shared — however small — a tiny bit of Apple’s Infinite Loop’s history.