jadespace

Bird boned and tiny wristed or not, #AppleWatch 10 big screen allure was irresistible, also Best Buy Total Upsell Membership stacks rewards and adds AppleCare! If, like me, you are consumering the planet’s future today, you can’t go wrong. As long as you die before the Ecopocalypse, of course.


Little Ernie and Big Ernie (my wife thinks raccoon faces are shaped like Ernie and possum faces like Burt) snuffling around the deck for spilled seed last night. I have to take the bird feeder in every night to keep them from knocking it off the pole.


Carolina mantis enjoying a longer, warmer, wetter summer into fall, not so much the biped who took the picture, one of many responsible for accelerated climate change.


Tinting to the tone of Frank Lloyd Wright wallpaper with iOS 18 looks nice but feels unfinished as a feature. It doesn’t adjust for day and night, no accommodation for badges fading into the background, and Calendar doesn’t change the date—dealbreaker!


Evolutionary tradition has the first Camellia bloom signaling the beginning of Autumn. Unfortunately, evolution didn’t get the memo regarding climate change, at least in my front yard, where it will be 85°F/29.4°C today. Still, pretty though.


As of WatchOS 11, the Siri face is no more. No doubt its many fans–all five or so of us–will be disappointed. It has been replaced by Smart Stack, but this is a feature, not a face, requiring action beyond a glance. Perhaps Apple Intelligence will bring a smarter Siri back next year.


From Hell to Purgatory

Jean-Paul Sartre troubleshoots my printing problem.


I returned the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. Hefty and awkward in the lap, cantilever design engineered with a millimeter of its tipping point, it’s too little magic for too much money. I mourn for the Smart Keyboard Folio.


Placing a late bet on the beta of #iPadOS 18 had an immediate payoff, a more whimsical home screen of textless icons arranged to allow the wallpaper to peek out. The beta is solid on my M4 #iPadPro, so much so I’m thinking of trying 18.1 for a (very) little #Apple Intelligence.


Bambi stopped by the backyard, posing for about three seconds before realizing its mother was more than fifty feet away and ran off.


The new iPad Pro in All Its Splendor​ has made my top five #Apple devices.

  • Nano Edition iPad Pro
  • Unibody MacBook
  • OG iPhone​
  • Sunflower iMac
  • ​Apple IIGS ​

Five years ago I bet on a root canal over tooth extraction, odds 6 to 1 in my favor of it lasting ten years. Today, I lost, so I’m looking forward to a long and intermittently painful and costly process: extraction, buildup, screw insertion, implant, crown.


59½

You can’t fight The System.


Butter chicken tacos with pico de gallo and fries at Urban Turban combine Indian, Mexican, and French cuisine into a sublime lunch!


A last vestigial limb of the Steve Ballmer era at Microsoft has withered a bit more. Surface division reported another YOY sales drop, despite the last best hope of new ARM chips–next quarter for sure! If not, the Restless Eye of Nadella may finally focus on Surface. Like a laser.

#Microsoft


Fox and Raccoon was not quite the Disney short I expected.


Downy woodpecker is not well pleased with me watching her eat.


The bird feeder seemed a bit “light” in the mornings recently, but overnight footage from the security camera showed nothing, so, logically, I thought it ghosts. It was not. Upon flipping the outdoor light on before stepping out to bring the feeder in, I spied the culprit.


Hot and dry for weeks, three of ten or so birds were bathing and drinking from the lawn sprinkler this morning. I usually give up in July and reseed in September, but this year I may water for the birds. Unless drought is declared. Sorry, birds.


A squirrel at rest, possibily pondering the record temperature in the Raleigh metro area of 103 °F (39.44 °C), but luckily low humidity meant the (lethal) heat index was only 105 °F (40.56 °C). Squirrel gets this. Why don’t we?


Two weeks since I scrounged my last six pack of Pepsi Made with Real Sugar, I find Pepsi-Cola Soda Shop. It’s probably just a rebrand, but it tastes a bit less sweet to me, though still 90 calories. Either way, hurray for sugar soda! And now I know how the Chicago Tribune felt in 1948.


Challenge rejected, as Pepsi-Cola Made with Real Sugar follows Coca-Cola Life into the recycling bin of cola history. A little sugar in a little can, 7.5 oz. (222 mL), tastes sweeter and less chemically to me than whatever zero calorie soda everyone else drinks. Pour one out for Pepsi RS.


My wife likes counting rabbits on walks in the neighborhood. I like walking as little as possible. What makes a good walk for us both? The Bunny Satisfaction Index divides the number of rabbits sighted by distance, thus 1 mile and 7 rabbits (7) is superior to 2 miles and 12 rabbits (6).


A dear deer friend stopped by for dinner.


Fearless Hummingbird Moth on a Butterfly Bush would make a decent kaiju if it were 10,000 times or so bigger.