I needed to get my glasses repaired, but I couldn’t remember what you call the person who does that. I came up with “optimist.”

📷 Good morning! Here’s something I see on my walk every day.

She says she has been a good dog and would like a treat now.

Black buff-colored dog with a long nose, looking at the camera from the end of a leash. The dog is wearing a safety-yellow harness. Black buff-colored dog with a long nose, looking away from the camera and making a squinty face. The dog is wearing a safety-yellow harness. Black buff-colored dog with a long nose, coming in to boop the camera.

Overheard: “My teacher told me years ago not to worry about spelling because in the future there will be autocorrect. And for that I am eternally grapefruit.”

Death and typos: Writer/musician David Safran describes his six strange years screening online obituary comments. His job was overwhelming and rich in errors. And it drove home one message: we’re always on the clock. [theguardian.com]

Elon Musk has fully bought into the ‘great replacement.’ Musk thinks Democrats are using immigration to bolster a favorable voting demographic. But that’s not how immigration works. [theverge.com] — It is, at most, a short step from “great replacement” to “The Jews will not replace us.”

Margaret Atwood on Stephen King’s “Carrie,” which turns 50 and is still relevant today. Like much of King, it’s about the white underlcass in America. [nytimes.com]

First impressions of my new MacBook Air, after using it just a few minutes

  • Holy cow, this thing is fast compared with my 2018 MacBook Pro. I did a thing where I open 30+ tabs simultaneously. Took a couple of minutes on the MBP, but is virtually instantaneous on the MBA.
  • Migration Assistant seems to have worked flawlessly. I had to authenticate and give permission for a few things, but that only took about a minute.
  • Unexpected benefit: With a 15" built-in display, I now have a usable second display for my desk. My previous 13" display wasn’t usable when the MBP was on my desktop attached to the external Cinema Display, keyboard and trackball, except under limited circumstances. I hadn’t considered that when I decided on 15".
  • Hmmm… I hope this thing fits into my favorite computer bag. If not—MOAR shopping!
  • I can switch back to Safari from Vivaldi now, but I don’t know if I will. I’ve come to like Vivaldi.

Before upgrading to my new MacBook Air, I am being responsible, updating the operating systems and making sure my backups are all up-to-date. But really I just want to hold-my-beer this bitch and let Migration Assistant rip.

My new MacBook Air is here!

My current machine is a 2018 MacBook Pro. It works fine,although of course it’s slow. But I have to reboot several times a week—twice in one morning last week—and this suggests to me that it’s going to die on me at any moment and leave me possibly unable to meet deadlines. Better to arrange the transition on a schedule more under my control. So I pulled the trigger on an upgrade last week.

The old Mac has just 8 GB of memory and a 13" screen. The new machine is 15"/24GB/2TB. I’m looking forward to having that bigger screen to spread out on when I take the MB off my desk and use it elsewhere.

But now I’m on deadline and don’t even have time to open the box!