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Paul McGrane
@pmcg@mastodon.social
mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06Twitter user https://twitter.com/pmcg №4,574,161 April 2007. Not happy to be here, but let's try it out. A hundred thousand tweets over there, for now.
I like Macintosh computers, and airplanes, and politics. Once of NJ and TX, now of NC.
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50 Posts
Joined August 11, 2018
Replying to
@Natasha_Jay@tech.lgbt @purplepadma@beige.party and decorate your house with glue and what is probably not gold
Replying to
@gruber@mastodon.social it calls to mind Jef Raskin’s intriguing book (which i might have around here somewhere), "The Humane Interface" where he rails against "modes”, and rightly so.
Oh no, my own personal mondegreen.
I literally thought the lyrics were " When I'm waiting for a bus”
… iTunes lyrics are either great or heartbreaking …
Replying to
@octothorpe@mastodon.online @CStamp@mastodon.social @macstories@mastodon.macstories.net I am surprised I am in the minority of amateur mac-pundits, or those who listen/read them. I choose to believe Tim Cook is taking one for the team, to continue the (perhaps cynical) Apple he has built, despite fascist dictators.
Replying to
@octothorpe@mastodon.online I'm not saying he's lacking credentials, but he was more of a filler sidekick talker when I wanted to hear more from other guests and he would ramble about going to Zimbabwe all the time. I guess you can tell I don't listen recently.
Replying to
@octothorpe@mastodon.online The self-proclaimed videographer who has been on MacBreakWeekly too much for the past 20 years? I wonder what he will be up to. (i only had the patience to listen/watch that when I was going on very long dog walks …)
Replying to
@finitebaffle @octothorpe it was kinda clever — they fit a full size 3.5” HDD in there diagonally! I did have an old horizontal AirPort Extreme (no drive). It worked well but ran so hot my cat loved to sit his chest or butt on it on a cold winter morn!
Replying to
@finitebaffle @octothorpe the big one with a HDD was called Time Capsule! The final version was a bit of a pillar, which I suspected might be a precursor of a Mac mini, but that never happened!
Replying to
@finitebaffle @octothorpe Does it not? The last I tried both iOS and MacOS could administer it okay. I do have an older Mac running Mojave which might do it if need be, I guess!
Replying to
@octothorpe@mastodon.online When I finally relented and let my cable company provide me with a wifi router (replacing my AirPort Express, which was too slow for modern cable I was paying for), I was relieved I could use their app on my iPhone to rename the network to what it's been for many years — "Setec Astronomy" ! 🥸🤓📡
Mac Pro ⚔️ Ternus … there can only be one
RE: https://mastodon.social/@gwynnion/116427078920531890
literally a video game avatar chooser screen
Prego!
Prego?
Prego.
🍝
Forget making wine in the terlet … how about a jailhouse slushie!
Get it, 777x (during max braking test) 🏋️
Nom nom nom 🛢️🍁
Replying to
@gruber@mastodon.social @ravigupta@mastodon.social @Daytonlowell@mastodon.social Perhaps the last (so far) iProduct was iCloud, announced by Steve Jobs I think just a few months before his death. (a year after iPad)
Met Gala Reviewed By An Irishmun 👗☘️
RE: https://mastodon.online/@9to5Mac/116454546574134097
On the other hand, I sure can tell if something comes up that I downloaded at 128kbps from Napster 25 years ago (obscure stuff or DJ mixes which can't be laundered thru iTunes Match)
Replying to
@counternotions@mastodon.social Fer sure … of course we know they have many data centers now, but certainly not building-out craziness like the rest are. Even just iCloud we know is somewhat self-hosted but also backed by AWS, Azure, etc
Replying to
@viticci @gruber @connected Jerry Seinfeld (and I think George Costanza in his office) had a PowerBook Duo for a couple seasons
Replying to
@foxbasealpha@tech.lgbt May I ask you what this #Totp thing is? Maybe top of the pops? I’d be interested to look at U2 … uh … struggling.
I'm getting a spate of obvious spam calls. (they come from the area code where i lived 10 years ago but I have no business there now) … I picked up and a guy with an Indian accent asks if I have trouble with my AT&T service.
I say, it seems fine now, I answered your call! … call dropped … 🫥📞
RE: https://mastodon.social/@macrumors/116562208809569670
Because of shenanigans like this I stopped using Chrome as a backup browser years ago. Went to Edge (which usually behaved the same) but then it started becoming abusive too.
I think most people will be well suited to Safari with FireFox as a backup or vice versa. I rarely encounter Safari incomparability and when I hear about it on like podcasts, it seems people installed too many ad-blockers (or similar) and forgot about them.
RE: https://mastodon.social/@macrumors/116454031117435266
I didn't have as many problems with brand-new Apple Maps as many complainers I saw. But strangely, it didn't handle frontage roads in Texas very well, which is ironic because Apple even then had a pretty big campus in Austin.
I was trying to get to a friend's new house in San Antonio, and it took me a while to realize the iPhone was just taking me in circles.
RE: https://mastodon.social/@mjtsai/116453907414298820
It might be useful for some, but it's ominous Apple is now (usually) forcing it on during software updates. If I shave my beard and move to a new house am I totally screwed?
Replying to
@cmccullough@polymaths.social @lisamelton@mastodon.social “Luddite” in this case may be true to the original usage of it! A lot of people use that term while only guessing at its meaning, from the context of others using it half-wrong also.
Trump TACO huh?
Replying to
@atpfm@mastodon.social Regarding “AirPods Ultra” possibly having cameras for visual intelligence for turn-by-turn navigation, I wonder if Apple would feel conflicted about that.
Turn-by-turn is certainly useful for walking and biking directions. For driving, there are many jurisdictions (US states, etc) where it is illegal to have earbuds (maybe 2) in while driving. And there's many where it is not illegal!
Replying to
@Sonikku@techhub.social @Drwave@mastodon.social I dunno — in Thailand I recall it's pretty common to put ice in a glass of beer. Although most beer there (especially Chang) is real strong (taste and abv) and often not well refrigerated.
It's f’n gnarly. Let's essentially set the bakes on fire and make sure the rest of the plane doesn't catch on fire! 😼 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3n3el1LE_Pk
Replying to
@counternotions@mastodon.social plausible green-claims because they're not running so many AI data centers? ♻️
Replying to
@octothorpe @finitebaffle I had that as a teenager but it was a bit troublesome — that’s when I got good at dealing with AppleCare on the phone!
Some would say Apple store serial numbers or receipt numbers didn't have enough entropy, but this probably does!
Might've hit too hard 🎌
The Estonians! 🇪🇪📺
i think it was normal good … why did some jerks think it was gen z “let's go” ? https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PdZRplIHbpk
Replying to
@macinthrope@mastodon.social Original iPhone and iPad and AppleWatch were announced with about the same lead time as AirPower was expected to launch with 5-6 ish months. But they'd rather let the cat out of the bag with hardware rather than let regulatory approval documents leak it.
Siri AI or whatever it is, sure is a disappointment.
Replying to
@counternotions@mastodon.social they are building those "apple silicon" servers in houston now, only for self-use (or hired to developers) … although I wish I could find more info about that