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The Looming Demise of the iPhone mini - MacSparky:

The part that gets me is that they really shouldn’t be forced to make a decision. Isn’t Apple selling enough iPhones that they could afford to sell small, medium, and large versions of the pro and non-pro phones? You’d think they could make that work, but, for whatever reason, they are choosing not to.

David Sparks take the customer-centric Apple question, but the answer is business-centric.

I’m an owner of an iPhone 13 mini who is also currently reading The Paradox of Profit by Jan Eeckhout. As well as being a fascinating book in general, it also provides an excellent framework to answer the question about why there won’t be an iPhone 14 mini, posed by MacSparky, despite the fact they could.

Apple is a company that has market power. A company with market power will produce less, in the interest of profit.

If Apple were to produce more iPhones (and the mini, specifically) it would result in lower profit margins. iPhone minis have been sold at a lower price than other iPhones. What incentive does Apple have to continue selling something that doesn’t boost their margin? Companies continue to be incentivised to deliver profit; not the best market outcomes. They also wear the cost burden of another manufacturing line to maintain, for little benefit to the business.

As much as we Apple fans like to deify Apple Inc., they remain a corporation with shareholders who look to quarterly earnings reports and admire the gross margin the company delivers, which flows through to the bottom line, and thus dividends.

Producing an iPhone 14 mini might please a few million customers, but the economic incentives at play are perverse. Therefore, they will not make an iPhone 14 mini, and be rewarded for this action with greater profit margins.

Apple has sufficient market power such that would-be buyers of iPhone minis will not depart the iPhone brand in favour of Android, or another option (which there really isn’t, which introduces a whole other problem of there being a platform duopoly). What the customer will do is buy a higher priced iPhone that delivers better margins to Apple.

Therefore, Apple will be rewarded for producing less, at higher prices.

I highly recommend The Paradox of Profit to others who have an interest in macroeconomic theory.

This article was originally written for the November 2021 edition of Hemispheric News, delivered as part of the Hemispheric Views podcast member bonus program, One Prime Plus

Since it’s Nostalgic November, I figured I should write something that fits the theme for the November issue of Hemispheric News.

What is nostalgia, however? According to Apple’s dictionary, nostalgia is defined as:

a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past.

According to Wikipedia, it is:

a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.

Nostalgia is associated with a yearning for the past, its personalities, possibilities, and events, especially the “good ol' days” or a “warm childhood”.

Ah, yes, the good old days. As the elder statesman of the Hemispheric Views triumvirate, my good ol' days are certainly better than the others, especially that whippersnapper Feld. He may speak like an old man, but don’t be fooled. He never saw the 1970s.

What am I nostalgic for, then? In many ways, my life now is the best it has ever been. I am as wealthy as I’ve ever been, I’ve got sufficient social status and I’m engaging in hobbies I genuinely enjoy.

Perhaps playing basketball - when I was athletic and could jump, dunk and score with confidence? No. I miss that, for sure, but I’m not nostalgic for it. I’m proud of myself but there is no strong yearning to go back.

How about school and education? No way am I nostalgic for that. School was hard. Not the lessons, study or exams. They were easy. No major issues there. But dealing with the ups and downs of school friendships, politics and teenage angst? Hard pass.

There must be something I hold nostalgia for!

If I sit and think about it now, I feel nostalgia for the time when I was young in my career. I had few responsibilities other than keeping myself alive and paying the rent. I had independence. I could come home, sit in my La-Z-Boy recliner chair, watch the “Attitude Era” of WWE Raw and let the hours flow by.

The Internet was in its infancy. I had a computer that was connected but my mobile phone was purely a “feature phone”. There was no expectation to document my days, or justify how I spent my hours. Leisure was a primary element of what I did. Yet there was no guilt, because I worked full hours in a proper job. But come evening time, that was mine to do with as I wished.

And with that time, I didn’t do much and that was kind of perfect. Going back to that time now is of course impossible. It would also mean giving up all the things that give me meaning and value now: my wife, my children. I can’t go back.

Sometimes, though, I want another night where I sit on the couch and watch wrestling - without having to make sure anybody besides myself brushes their teeth before bed.

This article was originally written for the October 2021 edition of Hemispheric News, delivered as part of the Hemispheric Views podcast member bonus program, One Prime Plus

The Australian Consumer Law (ACL) is an unsung hero for the everyday Australian citizen. In 2011 it was introduced and replaced a bunch of outdated legislation, notably the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth). That piece of 1974 legislation was a foundation block of my university degree and I think s.52 is still seared into my brain.

At the time of its introduction I was working in the business lobby, and I remember the doom and gloom scenarios that companies were painting. “It will destroy us!", “where’s the fairness?” were refrains heard all too often. Really makes the heart bleed. 🤷‍♂️

The legislation was introduced during the 43rd Parliament of Australia, led by The Hon Julia Gillard AC. Yet another achievement of a government that wasn’t thought highly of, but had a history of legislative achievement unlike many others, and certainly any since.

The ACL rebalances the scales in commerce to provide better support to consumers who buy in good faith, but who turn out to have bought items not of merchantable quality. There are a host of provisions, but this is the crux: if a product fails to meet its stated purpose within 12 months of purchase as new, then the buyer is entitled to remedial action, including a full refund. This also can’t be waived by not returning in original packaging, or any other kind of ‘gotcha’.

This is how operation of the ACL can be explained:

When the consumer chooses a refund:

The supplier must repay any money paid by the consumer for the returned goods, and return any other form of payment made by the consumer — for example, a trade-in.

If this is not possible, they must refund the consumer the value of the other form of payment.

A supplier must not:

• offer a credit note, exchange card or replacement goods instead of a refund

• refuse a refund, or reduce the amount, because the goods were not returned in the original packaging or wrapping.

A consumer will usually need to show a receipt or other ‘proof of purchase’.

ACL rendered Apple’s traditional AppleCare product obsolete in Australia. For a period of time there was virtually no point buying AppleCare because it offered no benefit beyond that which the ACL enshrined in law. Now we have AppleCare+ and the benefits of cheap screen repairs, but failing equipment is still no reason to consider buying that particular insurance policy.

I’ve experienced some problems with some wifi routers I bought about 4 months ago from Amazon. Upon a reminder from a Hemispheric Views Patron I found the option to make a call to Amazon. Upon determining that I was in Australia, I was offered 3 options. The first two seemed like weird cruddy deals that people in other countries have to put up with (sending the faulty unit back and waiting for a replacement of that part, or accepting a part refund of $130). The third option was my ACL protection - the ability to send the whole thing back to Amazon for a full refund. That’s what I wanted, and that’s the option I took. The other choices paled in comparison.

You see evidence of the ACL quietly in action (and markedly different to other jurisdictions) in everything you buy in Australia. Vendors are required to insert a printed sheet explaining a consumer’s rights. There is no need to complete those shoddy ‘guarantee’ forms to gain warranty protection from the ACL.

This is an area of governance that the Australian government got right, and I’m so glad that it is in operation. And despite all the clutching of pearls, no businesses seem to have gone bankrupt as a result of the ACL.

I don’t consider myself to be a ‘blogger’. Yet if I think about it, I’ve had some kind of blog actively running for large portions of my life. Just off the top of my head, I’ve had Blogger, Movable Type, Wordpress, Blot and Micro.blog. On the private side of the equation I’ve also got years worth of entries stored away in Day One.

Unfortunately some of those posts are lost to the annals of time - which I am sad about.

But based on the evidence of use, I am a ‘blogger’.

Today has been one of thought and self-reflection.

There are many parts of my self that I’m not entirely happy with. Are we ever happy with ourselves? Probably not. Nevertheless, making an effort to do better must be a form of self-improvement in its own right.

My effort ties in neatly with a new year, but this hasn’t anything to do with New Year’s Resolutions. This is more about me trying to become a better version of myself, irrespective of the time of year. The helpful thing about early January is that I’m not working, which frees up time for self-reflection.

Today I have done some brainstorming. I pulled out my (almost unused) Theme System journal and transitioned my thinking into a theme for the upcoming season — because a year is too long.

I hope that applying focus to my theme will lead to self-improvement. I’m trying to confront my weaknesses head on and deal with them. What weaknesses? Let’s just say that being the son of a father who had mental health challenges, and being the father of a son with autism, mental health is an issue I deal with on the daily.¹

I can’t change who I was yesterday, but I can strive to be a better version of myself tomorrow. Hopefully this time of introspection and thought will lead to personal growth. The good thing is that it certainly can’t make the situation worse.

When I was a young boy who didn’t want to fall asleep, I would listen to talkback radio: specifically 6PR 882 AM. The evening shift featured Perth radio legend Graham Maybury. I even called in to the show a couple of times, as a kid, such was my devotion. Most nights, at midnight when the show came to an end and I had stayed awake listening, Maybury would play the song, One Day at a Time. This song helped soothe my mind. Now, 30 years on, I think it still holds value.

This post was originally written in August 2021 for Hemispheric News; subscribe at the Patreon site One Prime Plus to receive this monthly newsletter and other benefits that are linked to the Hemispheric Views podcast.

Sitting in my OmniFocus task list, and my SkedPal task list, both for two long, has been one item:

I have been intending to give myself two hours to do some new stuff with my Stream Deck that has been sitting in front of me for about a year.

After an initial foray upon purchase, it has mostly sat unloved and unused. Plugged in and active, but I would forget it is there, and never use any of its little buttons.

No more! Clearly if I wasn’t using it, I hadn’t configured it appropriately for my workflow. Hence, the project assignment to review it. Despite that project I let it sit idle. Defer, defer, defer.

Now, today, I made progress. New buttons have been configured. The test will be seeing if I stick with it. I crafted some buttons for OmniFocus to apply various stages of kanban process to my tasks, as per this example from Omni Automation. Perhaps this will both establish a use for the Stream Deck and rebuild my love of OmniFocus which I’ve found to be on the wane in recent times (another story for another day).

On other screens, I have some nice buttons setup to construct my desktop in ways for different podcasting setups. Unfortunately, I forget to use these, and I even forget what exactly they do and how I have them configured. If I were to start today, they would trigger a Bunch script - but I don’t think they do that at the moment!

The best way I have found to leverage the Stream Deck is in partnership with Keyboard Maestro. Having a script in KM is the best and easiest way to build automations which can be triggered via a button press. Don’t use the native/developer created integration though. The KM-link plugin that is available through the Stream Deck app store (for free) is a much more versatile option.

So, enough reading, let’s look at some pictures of my current bizarro eternal work-in-progress Stream Deck.

• This is my default page. It needs work. The IFTTT button isn’t connected anymore. I never use Pomodoros but I have a button for them. Sigh. The happy calendar is good, though. It is a calendar reminder system that changes colour and has a countdown timer as the meeting draws near. I got this from TJ Luoma over at the Mac Power Users forum.

• My “media” folder has some music controls and playlist icons. I need one for my Favourites mix. Half the Zoom stuff doesn’t work properly. I gave up bothering to connect my dSLR as a webcam.

• My podcasts setup page. Maybe I did use Bunch!

• My OmniFocus kanban management page that I’ve set up over the last couple of days. Right as I’m considering switching from OmniFocus to Things. Nice one, Andrew.

Looking at these pages, it’s quite clear I need to dedicate more time to my Stream Deck. It remains an under-utilised asset.

Do any readers own a Stream Deck? Do you have any great ideas about how to use it? Let me know in the Discord chat room, because any inspiration is helpful.

These last two days in Perth have broken records for heat. Both Christmas Day and Boxing Day were several degrees over 40ºC. I am immensely thankful that this year, for the first time in my home ownership history, we have a swimming pool. With weather like this, it’s a complete game changer. A benefit of the heat is that upon emerging from the pool, it takes only minutes to be completely dry from the hot air. At which point you are warmed up enough to want to get back in.

I’ve previously explained on Hemispheric Views Episode 032: It’ll Blow the Roof Off Your House! that our house has evaporative - not refrigerated - air conditioning. On dry heat days like we’ve had, it’s worked well. It keeps the house pleasantly cool.

So, despite these two days setting December heat records for Perth, I’ve felt more cool than I have in previous years.

Tomorrow, the forecast is for a mild 39ºC.

For the end of 2020 I wrote a retrospective looking at the main events and happenings of the year, broken down by month.

I figured it would fun to do the same thing again for 2021. I didn’t take copious notes over the course of the year, so I’m piecing this list together from calendar notes.

Year Notes

• Throughout the year I worked on two podcasts, NBL Pocket Podcast and Hemispheric Views. There is no doubt that podcasting has become an integral part of my life.
• Managing a child with autism means the year is peppered with visits to medical professionals, school meetings, and a whole bunch of other supportive activities. This becomes part of the tapestry of my life, but it is a burden, no doubt.
• Work events hardly rated a mention, because after many years of doing the same thing it was hard to build enthusiasm for the job this year. It’s importance to me has slid down the totem pole.
• Western Australia was fortunate in that it was isolated from COVID-19. Our State has had zero community transmission and life within our State-sized bubble has been quite normal.

January

• I was still going strong (pardon the pun) with my strength and fitness training.
• Attended EPW Reawakening 19 wrestling show.

February

• Sold my Kia Sorrento.
• Final touches of our backyard renovation were being completed.
• Closing in on the WA State Election, in which my wife was a candidate.
• Stopped going to the gym due to injury.

March

• Hannah won her Seat in the State Election, becoming a Member of WA Parliament, representing the electorate of Victoria Park as part of the McGowan Labor Government.
• Celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary.
• Sold our Ford Territory.

April

• Visited my friend at his house in Bridgetown.
• Test drove a Nissan Leaf. I did not like it.

May

• Finalised the execution of my Dad’s will.
• Had an eye test and discovered that for the first time in my life, bifocals were required.
• Visited Parliament House as the husband of a Member.

June

• Celebrated my 44th birthday in a minimal way. In fact, I went to the doctor and filled a skip bin.
• Attended the NBL Grand Final, featuring my Perth Wildcats losing to Melbourne United.
• Our swimming pool was commissioned, smack bang in the middle of winter.

July

• Watched the Olympics - mainly the basketball tournament.
• Had a consultation for surgery on my eyelids, becauase of a genetic condition.
• Had my first vaccination shot. I got Pfizer.

August

• Saw the Boomers win an Olympic medal for the first time.
• Traveled to Bunbury for an overnight stay as part of a work event.
• Had my second Pfizer shot, to be maxxinated.
• Attended Perth Redbacks finals games in NBL1.

September

• Had surgery to repair my eyelids.
• Started building a friendship with Nick.
• Dropped Hannah at the AFL Grand Final at Optus Stadium. I didn’t get a ticket.
• Enjoyed a family vacation in Albany.

October

• Upgraded our home solar system from 3kW to 5kW.
• Hosted the Hemispheric Views live watch event of Crocodile Dundee.
• Roamed the streets for Trick or Treat Halloween. I was Patrick Bateman of American Psycho.

November

• Had to drain and restart the pool setup because our contracted maintenance company put the wrong chemicals into the water. This was the event that caused the most anger and anxiety to me throughout this year.
• Attended EPW Reawakening XX wrestling event.
• Successfully obtained NBL media accreditation for NBL Pocket Podcast for the 2021/22 season.
• Did a crossover podcast with The Sport Blokes.

December

• Attended West Tech Fest. Too much crypto.
• Started some light gym work, trying to avoid the injury problems from last time - even though my shoulders still hurt.

Looking Forward to 2022

Reflecting on these notes for 2021, my life had few highlights. Most of the time was taken with household management and caring for our young kids. There’s not much to look back on that was fun or exciting, and that’s probably why I have struggled a bit with my mental health this year. With no tentpole events through the year, it became a grind of sameness.

Next year I need to be better at identifying and taking action around doing some things that are for me.

If I’m particularly brave, I should review my career path as well, because that has stagnated. I’m probably due for a new challenge, or else my mind may risk atrophy.

This post was originally written in July 2021 for Hemispheric News; subscribe at the Patreon site One Prime Plus to receive this monthly newsletter and other benefits that are linked to the Hemispheric Views podcast.

I am a father of two boys. One is 9 (almost 10!) and the other is 5 ½. I work in a fairly flexible capacity whereas my wife has a highly demanding job that has significant variability. Our time as a family is precious, but sometimes difficult to co-ordinate. So when we do have good quality time together, we want to make it count.

It’s a challenge to find things to do with as a family that meets all the necessary criteria:

1. Entertaining to the children individually.
2. Entertaining to the children mutually.
3. Entertaining for us as parents.
4. Engaging for all of us (ideally).

You might think this would be easy. You might have lovely ideas of joyous, considerate play. No. And no.

This is (to coin an Australianism) bloody hard.

While the easy answer is electronic, iPads, Nintendo Switch, Netflix, this isn’t necessarily the most appropriate answer. I do have a need to find entertainment that incorporate activity and engagement with all the family members.

An extra challenge to throw into the mix is that my eldest has autism. This can make him cantankerous and difficult to get to engage in things that he hasn’t done before or that he doesn’t have confidence in his own ability to do (well, immediately).

Recently we have gone to a couple of old classics, and some newer classics. We have played some rounds of Uno. The great thing about this is that our 5 year old can play - and sometimes win - with no skill required. He knows colours and numbers and can understand the concept of matching. Sure, Draw Two and Reverse are beyond him, but that’s okay with a bit of parental support.

We’ve also played Skip-Bo. To be fair, Hannah and I have enjoyed this more than the kids.

Other board games have included Settlers of Catan (Junior) and Cards Against Humanity (Family Edition), and Clue-Do (Harry Potter Edition).

Co-host Jason Burk has also suggested Society of Curiosities. This I am yet to try, but I am keen to give it a go.

Can you recommend any entertainment options that might suit my family and get them away from their screens for a while longer? I’d appreciate your suggestions. Fire them back to me via the Discord so that others can benefit too! In no time at all, Martin will be having these sort of challenges with Mac. He’s a baby now, but that won’t last long!

Either I’m an old man who is shaking his fist at the clouds, or I’m a rational person that isn’t easily bedazzled and deluded by the madness of crowds. I prefer to think I’m the latter. Crypto has captivated the masses, and delivered opportunity to the financial grifters who portray themselves as disciples of a new financial world order.

I may be missing out on ‘easy wins’, trading cryptocurrencies - buying low, selling high. What I know for certain, however, is that I’m missing the opportunity to be the last one holding the hot potato when the music stops and the entire Ponzi scheme comes crashing down.

Wherever there is fervour, I see risk. Where a financial instrument is deigned by “experts” to be capable of changing the world, I see a snake oil salesman wanting to offload empty promises at my expense.

To my mind, a crypto asset has no inherent value beyond the hope that somebody thinks it will be worth more, and so will be willing to pay more, so they can on-sell to the next chump who thinks it will also go up. That’s not a good recipe for sound investing. That’s gambling. Crypto itself has no underlying value. It’s not a commodity with underlying value. It has no intrinsic productive value.

A few days ago I attended the West Tech Fest conference in Perth, and a huge chunk of the day was dedicated to speakers excitedly talking up crypto, memecoins, and other such “financial instruments”. One person was explaining that the younger (current?) generation are more financially aware with a higher tolerance for financial volatility, and therefore willing to ‘take the risks’. I’m calling bollocks on all of this. Of course, these statements were also made by an industry insider - a representative of a business that offers a platform for trading crypto. Now why would they be encouraging profligate “investment” in ridiculous products with no underlying value? As always, this is where I turn to my man, Lester Freamon.

Further Reading

If you’re not convinced that crypto is simply an energy-sapping, hype offering that isn’t going to deliver any of the amazing things it’s zealots say it will, I encourage you to undertake some further reading, and apply some rational economic thought.

We’ve seen bubbles before. They always work the same way. Sure, some people get rich. Some do okay. But many are hurt, and left holding an, ahem, “asset” that isn’t worth jack. Just because this is a digital item riding the Web3 hype train doesn’t mean it’s going to end any differently.

I suggest you read the brilliant work of Stephen Diehl. He has published a number of excellent, considered articles on this topic. Read his work, follow the links and maintain an open mind.

There are a number of great quotes in his articles; below I’ve extracted just a few of my favourites. Everything Stephen writes is so good though, I encourage you to follow the links and read the full articles.

On memecoins:

Memecoins are pure greater fool investments, they’re basically a hot potato that people trade hoping to offload it on someone dumber than them who will pay more for it. And the implicit assumption behind the terminal value of these assets is that there’s an infinite chain of fools who will keep doing this forever. Nassim Taleb deconstructed this concept from a quantitative finance perspective in his whitepaper but nevertheless these assets persist because people behave economically irrationally and like lighting money on fire and dumping it into memes regardless of financial sanity. Meme coins like dogecoin exist simply for people to gamble on a fantasy about talking dogs, and bitcoin is a meme token for gambling on a fantasy about living in a cyberpunk dystopia. At the end of the day, memecoins are not that economically distinguishable from Ponzi schemes.¹

On the value of crypto as a valuable commodity:

After twelve years of these technologies existing (roughly the same age as the iPhone) there is basically only one type of successful crypto business: exchanges which exist to trade more crypto. ¹

Unlike a gallon of petrol which can be burned for energy, or a kilo of wheat which can be made into bread, or a[n] ounce of gold which can made into jewelery, there is no intrinsic use of a bitcoin. There is nothing inside of a bitcoin that can be used for anything other than to offload it on someone else who will buy it for more than what you paid for it. It is nothing more than a pure greater fool-seeking asset.²

On crypto as a Ponzi scheme:

Crypto assets are the synthesis of a speculative mania and a financial scam built around an opaque technology, phoney populism, with a tolerance for intellectual incoherence at its core. And it is a novel type of a scam, one that we don’t have a precise term of art for. They share the obscured and circular payouts of Ponzi schemes, the cult-like recruiting of multilevel marketing schemes, the ephemeral nature of high-yield investment fraud, and payout mechanics of pyramid schemes but strictly speaking they aren’t exactly like any of the classical scams. ²

Last night our family and and some friends attended Explosive Pro Wrestling’s Reawakening XX show. This is EPW’s showcase annual event. Their Wrestlemania, if you are searching for a comparator.

At a sold-out theatre the company put on an amazing show.

I’ve always enjoyed wrestling and nothing beats being in a venue where everybody who is there “gets it”. No need to put up with the naysayers who talk about wrestling being fake, or silly, or whatever other negative comment they want to throw at it for some reason.

Make no mistake though, EPW is high-quality. These performers know what they are doing, are well-trained, and take it seriously.

The Main Event for this show was a no-DQ situation, so it was more intense than one would normally see, and did push the boundaries. Full credit to the wrestlers because there is no way I would put myself through that kind of pain. Julian Ward defeated Mikey Nicholls for the EPW Championship belt and the kids were very excited to meet him at the conclusion of the event.

This is the other great thing about EPW - it’s approachability. Kids getting photos with heroes is totally possible. The venue is a great size so you have an awesome view wherever you sit. It’s brilliant.

This post originally appeared on the Hemispheric Views blog for the month of Nostalgic November. You can also read the accompanying posts by Martin Feld and Jason Burk.

I was in Year 5 at a new school. I didn’t know anybody. My previous school didn’t have a formal uniform and I’d worn velcro shoes everyday. Now at this new school I had to wear leather lace-ups, and I didn’t know how to tie laces.

Fair to say, I was nervous and apprehensive.

Until I discovered Stratego. Our Year 5 classroom had a bunch of games, but Stratego was epic. I made a good friend playing Stratego. I found my place. I loved the game. Before classes started in the morning, we’d play Stratego. During rainy lunchtimes when outside play was impossible, we’d play Stratego. The winner kept the board, the loser had to shuffle back to the end of the queue of players wanting a turn.

Stratego helped me assimilate into the school and become safe and secure.

In the early 2000’s I found a rudimentary online version of Stratego but it didn’t have the same experience as using a real board and pieces.

Fast-forward to now. A few months ago we were on holiday in Albany, Western Australia and we were exploring a toy store in town. On their shelves were boxes of Stratego.

I looked at the games. I looked at my 10 year old son. I looked back at the games and grabbed a box. Was I buying this game for me, him, or both of us? I like to think the latter, but it was probably the former.

Now, here we are. Nostalgia has delivered an experience in the present.

This post was originally written in June 2021 for Hemispheric News; subscribe at the Patreon site One Prime Plus to receive this monthly newsletter and other benefits that are linked to the Hemispheric Views podcast.

On 28 May, I posted to my micro.blog:

My kingdom for a good mouse that works with macOS. Logitech MX Master 3 - garbage drivers cause lag all over the place. Razer Viper Ultimate - doesn’t work with macOS. Apple Magic Mouse - ergonomic hell. Why is this so hard?

Despite Apple sales being higher than ever third party vendors aren’t willing to come to the party to develop decent macOS drivers for their products. So a person can spend a lot of money on new hardware but still struggle to aim a pointer with precision.

Less than a year ago I bought a Logitech MX Master 3. It is promoted as the most ergonomic, fully-featured non-gaming mouse on the market. From a hardware standpoint it is beautiful. Contoured edges, metallic construction and magnetic resistance make it move beautifully. Until you have to use the Logitech Options software on a Mac. I have tried the Bluetooth connection, I have tried the RF dongle. It doesn’t matter. Either option results in random pointer stutters, entire pauses for seconds and other random tomfoolery. It undermines everything that is good about the mouse.

It all got too much for me recently so after speaking to my money spending enabler, Jason Burk, I purchased a Razer Viper Ultimate gaming mouse with docking station. Being a gaming mouse it has multi-coloured LEDs and high frequency tracking, so surely it will be good.

The hardware is good. The software? Not so much as dire, but rather non-existent. Razer do not make a version of the software for macOS. So all the goodness is wasted unless you’re on a PC. That being said, I booted into Windows via Boot Camp and the Windows software is a terrible mess as well. It was hundreds of megabytes in size with a UX that made no sense.

I had packed the mouse back into its box and was ready to return it, when a final search and another discussion with Jason led me down a macOS software rabbit-hole. It turns out there is an open-source community that develops drivers and software for the Razer on mac.

This led me to discover the FruityRazer project and Razer macOS - software drivers to control not just the mouse performance but most importantly, the LEDs!

There are also two shareware software options, USB Overdrive and SteerMouse. To be honest, I haven’t figured out the best combination of all these software options yet.

What I do know, however, is that now the Razer mouse is rock solid. I have a feeling that if I trade out Logi Options for USB Overdrive or SteerMouse that the MX Master 3 will probably be stable as well.

What does this say about the ability or willingness or large corporations to develop decent macOS software? It says they are terrible. What does it say about Apple not being able to develop a good hardware mouse that doesn’t deliver immediate RSI? It says that they are terrible.

In all instances, the end-user - us, lose out.

How’s that for customer sat, Tim?

Today has been a great day.

It started with an outdoor walk on a beautiful Perth day.

I could walk all day with Stephen Fry talking to me. This was the most enjoyable “Time to Walk” episode I’ve listened to.

Then I made some new connections with people, which might have some awesome ramifications for @HemisphericViews episodes in the future.

My new Eero Pro 6 wifi units arrived, so I suffer the ignominy of the D-Link wifi no more.

And I look forward to a dinner event this evening!

Facebook is a terrible company and I’ve felt much better about myself since deleting their products: notably Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. When ditching use of the apps, there is a withdrawal period of 5-8 days, then after that, it’s fine. Life goes on. Time is returned to your life. You miss nothing of import. I’m still waiting for my “Facebook friends” to check in and see how I’m doing and note they miss my absence…

At what point do we acknowledge that a company is a net negative, and facilitate its end?

Corey Doctorow has written a great article about the latest horrible news arising from Facebook. It’s hard to pull a single quote, but this stood out:

Pluralistic: 22 Sep 2021:

Everybody hates Facebook, especially FB users. The point of high switching costs, after all, is to increase the pain of leaving so that FB can dole out more abuse to its users without fearing that they’ll quit the whole enterprise.

FB’s mission is to increase the size of the shit-sandwich they can force you to eat before you walk away. But they’re not mere sadists: shit-sandwiches have a business model: the more hostages they take, the more they can extract from advertisers – their true customers.

Thanks to @fahrni for bringing the Doctorow post to my attention.

It seems there are an explosion of book tracking platforms all of a sudden, after years of it being a Goodreads monoculture.

This is good, because competition.

This is bad, because now I’m having to update my reading stats on a bunch of sites as I try to figure out which is the ‘good’ one.

By my account, there is:

• Goodreads - nice because it automatically syncs with Kindle, but bad because the website is an early 2000’s horror show.
• Literal - the newest kid on the block with a clean look and nice shelf management.
• The StoryGraph - has an interesting recommendation engine.
• Micro.blog - has a rudimentary bookshelf system but can conveniently create micro blog posts from them.

Some weeks ago I bought a wireless CarPlay adaptor for my new 2021 Toyota Camry. The Camry support CarPlay but only when connected with a lightning cable.

My experience with it to date has been mostly positive, with some caveats. The largest issue I have is its “Chinese knock-off” software interface. I don’t quite know how they are making this whole thing work, and not having had CarPlay before I don’t know what earlier generations of the software were like. However, the version that is installed on the CarPlay device has a “bootleg” feel. For example, native CarPlay has iconography for buttons. The CPlay device has icons within button borders and some of these seem slightly misaligned. I also notice on my podcast app that not all the interface elements seem quite the same, such as the speed of playback.

The other weird thing I notice is when playing back voice messages and other interactions with Siri. The volume is much lower than any other audio making it hard to hear. However, I’m reticent to blame this solely on the CPlay device. I think it may have something to do with the configuration of the audio in my car system? I don’t know, and I’m still trying to figure it out.

All that being said, the thing works. I keep waiting for it not to work and partly expecting it to fail, or drop the connection, but it works everytime. It supports multiple devices as well, with both my phone and my wife’s connected to it. It auto-switches based on last use and whichever device is available.

For short trips, I think this thing is great. If I’m travelling a longer distance, I’m still going to use the lightning cable. Would I buy it again? Yes, I would.

I also bought a custom-fit Chi charging pad. It’s not that great, but is necessary if you want to use the CPlay for a length of time and not kill your phone battery. I have found my phone slips off it too easily unless I put the phone in a case. As these things are designed differently to fit each kind of car, your mileage may vary.

I despise Electron apps. What is the point of having a superior operating system (macOS) if every app that resides on it is nobbled by not supporting basic elements of the underpinning system?

I see the short-term reason that developers must use: standardised code, cheaper for development, most users don’t know/care.

I also caution about the long-term losses: the damage to brand reputation, the disappointment of ‘power users’ and the risks that can occur from alienating this group.

It’s also hard not to see that this switch to Electron came shortly after 1Password accepted a huge venture capital stake. Investors want their returns.

Users who do care, such as myself, are the proselytising acolytes, however. I’ve recommended 1Password many times over the years, as well as being a paying subscriber of their Families edition more recently, after having bought multiple versions of their earlier standalone apps.

Rui Carmo at The Tao of Mac echoes my sentiments:

This shift away from fully native apps and the fact that they are removing iCloud support from version 8 in order to enforce the use of their cloud sync service (in an obvious lock-in ploy) was the last straw, so I just downloaded Secrets, paid for the Premium version ($19.99 for each platform) and imported all my 1Password data into it.

I have access to Secrets for macOS through my Setapp subscription. So I can try this out for a while, and if I like it I’m happy to buy the iOS version.

My current 1Password subscription is valid through to April next year so there’s no immediate pressure for me to shut down the 1Password account.

This article originally appeared in the May 2021 Hemispheric News as part of One Prime Plus for the Hemispheric Views podcast. Become a member today!

What is there to manage about a wardrobe, I hear you say.

“A lot”, I respond.

You’ve got your hanging section, drawers and maybe some open shelving. What goes where, and how do you manage this space effectively and efficiently?

When I was younger, jocks and socks were thrown relatively haphazardly into the top drawer. Now I’m old with a wife and things can’t be as simple as that anymore. Now, I fold jocks. Left over middle, right over middle, then a fold in half. They become a little square of underpant. Now they tesselate and stack. Perfect. Organise by colour. You know it makes sense.

Socks are folded in half into one another, forming a rectangular shape. I went through a period of high-level sock management; now I’ve reduced it to left-side of the drawer for business, right-side of the drawer for sport.

When does a pair of pants hang, and when is it folded? Do jeans hang? Not in my world. For some reason, jeans are folded and placed on a shelf, but chinos get the hanging treatment. Dress pants? Well, of course they hang. Shorts are folded too.

I’ve grown to almost be able to fold a shirt like they do in the shops. But not quite. They always end up being a little crooked. Then they are placed in a drawer. In piles. However, with my kids clothes I’ve been taking a different approach. For their clothes I’m employing the Noguchi Filing System. This is something I learnt from my work with the Lean Thinking, and deployed in personal clothing management. Apparently, others have already thought about this.

How Should You Organize Your Closet? Exactly Like a Computer Organizes Its Memory

Essentially, clothes get stacked in side-by-side, rather than on top of one another, and always get placed on one side. Naturally, more often used clothing ends up towards one side of the drawer. Eventually, you will know that the kids have grown out of the stuff at the other end of the drawer.

I don’t consider my wardrobe management to be optimal. There is still work to be done. But I think about it. Which is probably more than most people. Of course, I’m not normal.

Recently David Sparks has posted a number of blog entries about his status board creation¹. This takes the form of a kanban board of significant projects that he manually updates, providing a graphical overview of his work and life.

I’m a big fan of tools based around the lean methodologies, so I was immediately taken by his idea. I’ve done similar things in the past, but David inspired me to build one with a new approach.

HyperPlan is my Preferred Software

Whereas David uses OmniGraffle, I have chosen to use HyperPlan. I have previously written about my love of HyperPlan.

What makes HyperPlan great for the construction of a status board is that it is data-driven and dynamic. David takes time each week to edit and change his status board in what is effectively a graphics application. By using HyperPlan, I can change database entries and the software intelligently reconstructs the status board. I have freedom to change the variables I want to ‘pivot’ the table around.

I can create and save ‘views’ of my data, which allow me to construct a status board that has the three key elements of my life: work, family, and me — and elect to view all or some of these. I can focus only on work by hiding the others, or I can view them all together in one kanban board, but still split by these roles.

The following image shows the card layout of a status board displaying key projects across all three of my areas of responsibility:

Whereas this redacted image shows my work projects, and demonstrates how the fields can be shown on each card:

System-based URLs for Contextual Computing

HyperPlan has the ability to add hyperlinks to each card. This enables me to adopt David Sparks' contextual computing linking. I am able to add links to OmniFocus projects, Hook references, or DEVONThink locations all within the relevant card. A right-click on the card allows me to jump straight to any of these locations.

Fun and Engaging

I appreciate David sharing his thoughts and ideas around the construction of a status board.

In building my own, it has been a reminder of how I can make work fun and engaging. The efficiency and pure project-processing of OmniFocus is great, but it doesn’t do visualisation. This status board is nice to look at, easy to update, and allows me to consider how loaded up my life is at any particular point in time.

I’m going to make this a key part of my personal management approach.

I am immensely proud of my wife, Hannah Beazley, who has been duly elected as a Member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, representing the District of Victoria Park. As the WA Labor Party won the State Election, she is now a member of our State Government.

While the result was known on the evening of the official polling day on 13 March 2021, the WA Electoral Commission cannot formally declare a result until it has done a full count and exhausted all the preferences of those candidates who did not win. This is a complex system so counting the complete set takes some time, at which point the election is declared.

For the District of Victoria Park, that time has come and the result has been officially declared and published.

Victoria Park was previously held by the State’s outgoing Treasurer, Ben Wyatt. Before him, the seat was held by Premier Geoff Gallop. Now, my wife, Hannah Beazley, has the opportunity to represent the people of Victoria Park in the State Parliament.

Hannah has worked for many years towards this goal. She has previously fought and lost elections, but never given up. Now, she is a winner, and it’s fantastic!

Result Summaries

• Western Australian Electoral Commission Results: Victoria Park
• ABC News: WA State Election Results: Victoria Park