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I went into the office on Tuesday to work for the first time since the operation and it went pretty smoothly (albeit for half a day). I went back in again on Friday and did it again with the same result (again, for half a day). My plan is to keep this twice-a-week schedule going at least until the end of the year. In general, I’ve been feeling able to do more things so that’s good. There is still occasionally pain and discomfort but I’m hoping that fades over time.
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Apple had an ‘evening’ presentation Tuesday morning in Japan (YouTube). Surprisingly, they announced new MacBook Pros sporting the new M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max systems on a chip. They’re decent updates but I was a little disappointed that the raw CPU performance wasn’t more impressive. After similarly paltry CPU improvement from the A17 Pro, I’m in the camp of people concerned that process shrinks no longer can be counted on for large leaps in performance.
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Friday was Culture Day (Wikipedia) in Japan. The unseasonably warm weather continued for the long weekend and although it feels very unnatural, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy strolling around in a t-shirt and shorts. I wish we’d been strolling around in Disneyland as I’d initially planned but John came down with a cold on Thursday and so I took Emma by myself to Hikarigaoka Park (Wikipedia) instead.
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I was among those initially confused at Hamas’ attack on Israel because I couldn’t understand what they hoped to achieve. I later thought that it was something directed by Iran with the goal of disrupting the Israeli-Saudi peace process. That might still be part of it but Tanner Greer offers an alternative hypothesis: it was an attack intended to drive people to the extremes.
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I bought an HDMI to USB-C adapter (Amazon Japan) and Orion (App Store). Orion is an app that uses the USB-C port on modern iPads to essentially take the output from an HDMI connection and show it on the iPad. In short, it allows you to use your iPad as an ultra mobile monitor. I have a small monitor I use on occasion when I need to troubleshoot a problem on one of my Raspberry Pis but the annoying thing about that monitor is that it needs power. Because an iPad has an internal battery, all you need is an HDMI cable. (Orion is free to download but I was impressed enough to pay the $4.99 to unlock it.)
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I strive to be as happy as Paul Davids is in this video where he talks about receiving an e-mail from Paul Simon in response to a breakdown video he made two years ago of Simon’s song ‘50 Ways to Leave Your Lover’ (Wikipedia).
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I’m a few episodes behind but a recent(ish) episode of the podcast Hit Parade was about Outkast (curiously the episode isn’t listed on Slate’s show page but it was the episode for August 2023). The first song I tend to associate with the group is ‘Ms. Jackson’ (a song that always conjures memories of driving my car around in 2001 delivering pizzas), definitely making me one of the Johnny-come-latelys who’d never listened to the duo’s earlier work. And while I should then link to something from ATLiens or Aquemini as penance, I can’t help but direct you to ‘Hey Ya’ (Apple Music). As Paul Davids would say in his delightful Dutch accent: just a truly incredible pop song.
