Intermittently-beloved technology journalist and pundit. Tech contributor to WGBH Boston Public Radio. Podcaster (MacBreak Weekly on
TWiT.tv and Material on
Relay.fm). Former Chicago Sun-Times and Macworld columnist. Opera riff-raff. He/Him.
I'm very sad about it. I usually get to talk to my friend
@alexlindsay.bsky.social a minimum of three hours a week. Do you have any idea how much that would cost, at his usual hourly consulting rate?
@alexlindsay.bsky.social I’m conflicted. Elated for you, but also in mourning! You’ve been a regular voice in my life and a household name for fifteen years. Thank you. No more sugar water. Change the world!
@leolaporte.me,
@snell.zone &
@ihnatko.bsky.social must be experiencing all the feelings.
Wishing a Very Messy Kindle to all of those who observe the holiday and who tap "Send" before realizing that autocorrect screwed up the greeting.
TAKE DOWN THE ILLEGITIMATE REGIME THAT DROVE OUR BELOVED BULLWINKLE BALLOON INTO UNDERSERVED EXILE
About to record EPISODE 1000 of the MacBreak Weekly podcast on
@twit.tv ! Does this mean we have tenure, and can never be thrown out of this institution no matter what we do or say? LET'S FIND OUT SHALL WE YES I THINK WE SHOULD
Business idea: a service that will go around at the start of Autumn and replace all of a client property's high-visibility orange cones with high-visibility green ones, in the interests of higher visibility when all the leaves are orange.
And every customer is a repeat customer. They're all going to want orange cones again when the leaves turn green after winter.
Ok, I admit that the password to the security cameras on _my_ crown jewel collection is "LOUVRE," too. So maybe I shouldn't be so judgy.
But in my defense, I don't have that word literally on a big sign on my front door. It's a much more oblique choice.
I think this exhibit was some sort of art piece. Therefore, I chose to project my perceptions and preconceptions into it.
@museumofscience.bsky.socialQ: Is there anything more cool than a two-story-tall working Van de Graaff generator?
A: Possibly a two-story-tall working Van de Graaff generator with Elvis Costello performing selections from "My Aim ls True" inside the safety birdcage. Otherwise...no.
Nice guy. Kept asking me if I needed a place to hang up my hat. Big hockey fan.
It's the obligation of an artist to be patient and thoughtful, rather than accept the first furtive flash of inspiration.
(Also, that
@museumofscience.bsky.social exhibit is so large that a selfie with my hand up one of the nostrils wasn't really possible. So, to hell with it: I went with "arty.")
Excellent talk and you presented technology very well.
The debut of Apple's big "Great ideas start on Mac" campaign happened during the same week as the demolition of the East Wing and the disclosure of Apple's financial contribution supporting it.
I wonder if Apple Marketing regards this as Bad Timing, or _Perfect_ Timing?
My panel/talk at the
@museumofscience.bsky.social went great! Why, I felt as though I had the whole world at my back...
Boston peeps! I'm speaking at the Museum of Science Wednesday night. It's a neat event about technology and loneliness, and the panel features some folks I'm keen to speak with.
Admission is free! Reserve a seat here:
www.mos.org/events/subsp...The Loneliness Epidemic: Big Tech’s Role and Responsibility
Why are we lonelier than ever in a hyper-connected world? Join us for a timely talk on how tech shapes our social lives.
In legal terms, this mini basketball hoop up on a phone pole is the very definition of an "attractive nuisance." Any sensible person walking by would stop underneath it and pretend to be a Catholic saint. If I'd been hit by a car, the hoop's owner would be held liable for my medical expenses.
Wow. This was another of those times then I gave Gemini a prompt and was so pleased with the result that I uttered a grateful profanity.
(This was definitely the first time I've said "I'm very happy with my speaker headshot.")
"Convert this photo to a 1-bit bitmap, using Atkinson-style dithering."
Today's writing output, so far:
2500 word draft to explain a nuanced interplay between technology, government policy, and freedom (roughly two hours)
150 word author bio (roughly an hour)
If you know, you know. And if you know, you know that this indicates I've had a spicy week.
FINE I GIVE IN
I'M MIDDLE-AGED AND I CAN READ WHAT'S ON MY MACBOOK SCREEN MUCH MORE CLEARLY NOW THAT I'VE GOT THE "DISPLAYS" SETTING AT ITS "SLIGHTLY LARGER TEXT" OPTION
But I'm still young enough that I only use caps-lock for dramatic effect
Also I can still eat spicy foods after 6 pm
ive been living a lie for the past three or four years and i gotta say i feel much better now that ive gotten that off my chest
A Sunday when there's a "Charlie Brown kicks the football" strip in the funnies is a Very Good day…
www.gocomics.com/peanuts/2025...
Peanuts by Charles Schulz for September 28, 2025 | GoComics
Read Peanuts—a comic strip by creator Charles Schulz—for today, September 28, 2025, and check out other great comics, too!
…A Sunday with a "Charlie Brown kicks the football" strip AND a "Calvin and Hobbes play Calvinball" strip is an EXCELLENT day…
(Cartoonist friends: we need a comic where Calvin and Charlie Brown play against Hobbes and Lucy in a Calvinball doubles match.)
www.gocomics.com/calvinandhob...
Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for September 28, 2025 | GoComics
Read Calvin and Hobbes—a comic strip by creator Bill Watterson—for today, September 28, 2025, and check out other great comics, too!
...And when this same Sunday funnies page ALSO happens to have one of those "Pearls Before Swine" strips in which Pig is his awesome self and he puts things into perspective for everybody, that's a hell of a bonus.
www.gocomics.com/pearlsbefore...
Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for September 28, 2025 | GoComics
Read Pearls Before Swine—a comic strip by creator Stephan Pastis—for today, September 28, 2025, and check out other great comics, too!
Postscript: then I move from my
@officialgocomics.bsky.social page to my
@comicskingdom.bsky.social page and am reminded, as usual, that
@danschkade.bsky.social is an absolute topmost-tier graphical storyteller. This stuff needs to be collected into anthologies.
comicskingdom.com/flash-gordon...
Flash Gordon Comic Strip 2025-09-28 | Comics Kingdom
Read the Flash Gordon comic strip from September 28, 2025, and check out other Flash Gordon comics by Dan Schkade.
My first sighting of Roof Racc at night. Just chilling and contemplating his evening plans.
He's been around the neighborhood for months. I'm sure he's clocked the dumpster schedules of all of the restaurants nearby.
Some of them are quite fancy. Roof Racc probably eats way better than I do.
I don't have any kids, so I can't say "I want to live long enough to dance at my grandchild's wedding."
After some thought, I've decided on "I want to live long enough to play that codger in the disaster movie who refuses to obey the evacuation order because he 'ain't scared of no tor-NAY-dey'."
"Futurama" writers' room: "What if Farnsworth and mathematician Georg Cantor are prisoners in Numberland, and they escape by demonstrating that a unique number can exist outside of an infinite set?"
"Family Guy" writers' room: "What if Mrs. Garrett from 'The Facts Of Life' were made out of farts?"
(I, um, _think_ that's what Cantor demonstrated. I'm only enough of a math nerd to recognize that Georg Cantor's signature jam was set theory and infinite numbers.)
This ep ("The Numberland Gap") will smoke out a lot of commenters who know less than they think. ("Futurama stole my 'ℵ½' joke!!!")
In fairness:
It's embarrassing when a product fails during a livestreamed launch event. But IMO Meta and Google send a subtle message of "we're not afraid to perform a live demo."
Apple's stuff always works flawlessly at their events because their launch events are always pre-taped and edited.
JK is often DIRECT about his reactions; I think he goes over the line sometimes. Before I saw the monologue, I was prepared to think "Pulling him is BS, of course. But that line about the murder…*cringe*"
There's nothing in here to justify even _pretend_ outrage.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j3Y...
Trump Grieves By Talking About $200 Million Ballroom, MAGA Hits New Lows & Guillermo at the Emmys
YouTube video by Jimmy Kimmel Live
I'm sure I'm not the first to say this but...
I hope I hope I HOPE that all of the guests for Colbert's show tomorrow are getting text messages informing them that they're all getting bumped to Friday.
And, unrelated, I hope that Jimmy Kimmel is on a plane to NYC tonight…
God...no way to respond to this. Where to begin?
"Isolation" is one of the profound generational differences. In the 80s-90s, you hard to WORK to find "your people."
A show like MST3K, made by people with a POV and outlook you recognized, was VERY BIG. Funny as hell, but also a beacon of sorts.
"It always made me feel less alone." I've heard this said by other MST3K fans, and I think it's just about the most gratifying thing you can hear about something you worked on.
Also: not all communities were wired for cable, not all houses had it, and many cable systems didn't have MST3K's channel. Fans made tapes, and mailed them to strangers on Usenet on request. Fans organized "bot bashes" – renting community centers for all-afternoon watch parties.
Bless MST3K.
