I’ve been meaning to do a “nuke and pave” of my Mac mini for a couple of years now. Enough little things seem to take too long or are glitchy — image previews that won’t show in Messages, favorited folders that won’t stick around in iA Writer, apps that take tens of bounces in the dock to open — things that shouldn’t be slow or glitchy on an M1-powered Mac. I think I have, as they say, built up some cruft. I’ve migrated this system from an iMac to a MacBook to a Mac mini, so all my tweaks to the system and overlapping app features have been growing their roots for 10+ years. The best way forward, I think, is to do a total erase of the system and then set it up completely fresh.

And since the idea of this endeavor is to start completely over and set it up as a “new” Mac, I won’t be using Migration Assistant and my Time Machine backup to get me back up and going. Because, then, what would be the point?¹ But, oh boy, do I have Time Machine backups just in case. I’ve been hitting that backup button all day.

Instead, I plan to use the ‘Set Up a New Mac’ checklist I keep in Apple Notes and that I’ve spent the last hour or so updating. I’ve noted all of the crucial applications and settings that I’ll need to install and configure for my Mac to feel like mine again. That has entailed taking a lot of screenshots of preference panes and picking through my applications folder, menu bar, Safari extensions, and Setapp installations. Not that I’ll be reinstalling everything again. Part of the goal of this is to leave behind the apps that aren’t serving their purpose any longer.

One thing that I’m a little nervous about, however, is what will happen to my legacy Time Machine backups after setting up the new system. I assume I’ll be able to access files from them by using its encryption password, but I’ve never tried using Time Machine from a user account that isn’t linked to an active backup chain. And when I set it up to start making new backups, I’m curious about how it’ll treat those two backup histories.

Further complicating this restoration process is the fact that my wife has her own user login on this machine. Her files are all saved to iCloud Drive and are likewise backed up to that Time Machine drive. But, again, I’m not completely sure about how setting up all her stuff sans-Migration Assistant will go. And not knowing gives me pause.

The worst case scenario, I suppose, is that it all goes poorly and then I just do a second ‘Erase All Content and Settings…’ and use Migration Assistant with my existing backups to get back to where I started. And I haven’t seen any widespread catastrophic recountings of setting up a Mac as new in my cursory web searches. I guess there’s only one way to find out…

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1. Don’t let this shy you away from Migration Assistant, though. It’s come a long way from its old buggy slowness and is now quite quick and reliable to get all your old Mac’s stuff onto your new Mac. It’s just that, in this case, it would necessarily mean that the cruft and bugs from my old backup would be coming along for the ride.↩︎

Chance Miller, writing for 9to5Mac:

Using the My Porsche app, drivers can adjust settings, including audio preferences, radio stations, climate control, and ambient lighting. The app will also let users access Porsche’s wellness modes via quick actions, including things like “relax,” “warm up,” and “refresh.” The app also ties in with Siri control for controlling these vehicle features.

I don’t think I knew that manufacturers could customize CarPlay to this degree using an app. Just look at the picture Porsche provided in their announcement.

Chance continues:

The elephant in the room is Apple’s next-generation CarPlay platform, which will expand CarPlay with incredibly deep integration with in-car features. This includes things like climate control, gauge clusters, and more. Today’s announcement from Porsche, however, indicates that it is not imminently planning to adopt next-generation CarPlay.

Without a peep from Apple about next-generation CarPlay at WWDC this year and all the recent CarPlay consternation, I worry that it may go the way of AirPower. That is to say, nowhere.

Linked

For the PenPals project this month, I’ll be corresponding with Jason Becker, the instigator of this whole series of Letters projects around the web. You’ll be able to follow along with our conversation both here and on his site at json.blog.

Here’s a summary of our first exchange by ChatGPT:

Jason initiates the letter exchange, explaining his motivation for starting the project and introducing himself as the Chief Product Officer at an education-finance technology company. He provides insights into his professional background, life in Baltimore, love for volleyball, and interests in reading, travel, and urban hiking. Jason praises Jarrod’s HeyDingus blog and inquires about its success. In response, Jarrod acknowledges the eloquence of Jason’s letter and introduces himself as a mountain guide and gear shop specialist with a tech enthusiast side. He expresses a desire to bridge his outdoor experiences with technology writing, sharing thoughts on his blogging journey and current interests. Jarrod delves into Jason’s work, his urban hiking travel style, and the joy of volleyball. The letter also touches on pets and condolences for Gracie’s health decline. Jarrod concludes with gratitude for the Letters project.

Read the entire conversation →

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If you’d like to be a penpal for this project, please reach out! I’d love to get you on the schedule.

PenPals

Kyle Bradshaw, writing for 9to5Google:

To address that, the latest Threads beta update [for Android] prepares a brief Q&A explainer of what the fediverse is and how to find your friends on it. In a helpful analogy, Meta likens the fediverse to using e-mail. Just as someone who uses Gmail can send messages to someone who prefers Outlook, people on Threads should be able to interact with people on Mastodon.

This is great news for the open social web! Meta might be inching their way back to some credibility. It has to start somewhere, right?

There are some other worthwhile tidbits gleaned from the beta app’s code about how profiles will supposedly interact with ActivityPub, so go read the rest of Bradshaw’s article.

Linked

A little meta¹ post tonight. Earlier today, I created a /feeds page that (1) lists all the ways you can subscribe² to new posts from this site, and (2) explains quite a bit about what RSS is and how to use it.

I’ve had the one-liner in the footer about subscribing to HeyDingus for a while now, but I thought they could use some explanation and a more permanent home as I continue to tweak the site’s design. I like the idea of standardizing around some common sub-pages like /feeds, /now, /projects, /uses, and a few others. Well, now I’ve got one more crossed off that list.

But the RSS explainer was something that I’ve long thought was an important bit missing from my site. It’s one thing to advertise an RSS feed, but how many of the people stumbling across my posts have any idea about what RSS is or why it’d make their internet browsing better? I know that I love using RSS to keep up with the sites I like, and I really think it’s the best way to read the web. But I also recognize that it’s a pretty opaque concept if you’ve never had it explained. So much that I’m not sure how you’d get started using RSS if you’re at all intimidated by computers or the internet, even though it’s precisely one of those tools that make the internet more approachable.

So I wrote the explainer in — I hope — clear, relatable terms comparing RSS sync services to your email provider and RSS reader apps to email clients like Apple Mail, Spark, or Outlook. I also recommended some sync services and reader apps that I’ve tried over the years. If you’re curious about RSS, I hope you’ll take a look.

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1. Not that one this time.↩︎

2. I realized after making the page that it could equally be a /subscribe page. So that URL redirects there, too.↩︎

Blogging

A weekly list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.

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1️⃣ Victoria Song makes a compelling argument for why we should approach Apple’s ML-powered Journal prompts with extreme skepticism that they will suggest helpful topics. [🔗 Victoria Song // theverge.com]

2️⃣ I totally forgot that Apple TV+ scored a deal with Nathan Pyle for a Strange Planet series and I’m so excited! [🔗 Andrew Webster // theverge.com]

3️⃣ If you’re in Canada, watch out with your emoji because they can be used to “sign” a legally binding contract. [🔗 Nick Heer // pxlnv.com]

4️⃣ A new (beta) podcast player has entered the ring. I really some of the UX here. Go check out its settings screen! [🔗 @rishimody // threads.net]

5️⃣ I thought this interview with Instragram/Threads’ Adam Mosseri on Hard Fork was a lot more down-to-earth and (hopefully) honest than I had expected from a Meta executive. It gives me some hope. (If you’d rather read a text version, The Verge got an interview too and it covers a lot of the same ground.) [🔗 Hard Fork // overcast.fm]

6️⃣ Want to be wowed and horrified at the same time? This website will tell you all kinds of stats about your age including how many times your heart has probably beat, how many people who were born on your birthday are still living, and lots of notable things from history during your lifetime. Here’s mine. [🔗 you.regettingold.com]

7️⃣ The English language is dumb. Here’s a list that Dictionary.com put together of examples where every letter of the alphabet is silent within the word. [🔗 dictionary.com]

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Take a Chance

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Thanks for reading 7 Things. If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know.

7 Things

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you probably know that Instagram (AKA Meta, AKA Facebook) launched Threads a few days ago. It’s another social network for microblogging and is pretty much a clone of a non-bloated Twitter. I’ve been kicking its tires for a few days, and I’ve got some thoughts™:

• Great name! I’m sure Meta’s glad they held onto it after the last iteration.
  • That icon is pretty great too. It’s, well, iconic in a way that Bluesky’s isn’t.
• I hate that people I don’t follow are back in my timeline. I’d forgotten how much that bothers me.
  • A few days later, I’m less angry about it. I’ve found a few worthwhile accounts to follow because of it.
    • I said a few though. Don’t get yourself too excited, I still wish I could turn it off.
    • If I had to, I’d settle for seeing non-followed accounts only if it were to give context to a reply made by some I do follow. But I’d still want the option to turn those off completely.
• It’s so easy to fall back into liking posts willy-nilly after not having them on Micro.blog.
  • But I appreciate more than ever Micro.blog’s steadfast commitment to no “like” button in favor of more thoughtful replies.

    • I do like Gruber’s observation about what the name implies:

      I don’t think thread is going to take off as a verb for Threads, but it’s a great noun for posts, and it reinforces the notion that you’re supposed to engage with posts by replying.

• No ActivityPub support at launch is a bummer and it gives me doubt that it’ll ever come to fruition.
  • Also, I’m wary to engage much using my threads.net account if I’m just going to ask folks to follow my one true micro.blog account later.
  • I’ll say that the interviews Adam Mosseri gave to Hard Fork and The Verge rekindle some hope in their commitment to ActivityPub.
• Way more friends I know in real life are already on Threads. Many who never crossed over into the Fediverse from Twitter, and many more who had never used a microblogging service before (other than Facebook, which I don’t count because its posts aren’t on the open web).
  • And more are joining every day. I’m sure I’m gonna have to turn off these notifications.
    • I’m not sure why I turned them on in the first place.
• I’ve been searching for a metaphor for help explain the feel of Threads so far, and I think I’ve got it: The exodus from Twitter kind of felt like the start of the Covid pandemic in that my timeline was suddenly a ghost town. Everybody migrated to their own bubbles in Mastodon or Bluesky. With Threads, it’s like when the gathering restrictions were lifted: one big party because seemingly everyone has a Threads-compatible Instagram account. Everyone’s back together once more. It’s chaotic, a little overwhelming, but still pretty fun.
  • That being said, I may retreat back to my bubble for a while until some norms shake out.
• Is Threads not simply a return to text-first Facebook, but on the open web instead of locked behind a login screen?
  • I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Facebook could have been the go-to blogging service that I think everyone should have, had everything been available on the open web instead of closed within its own silo.
    • Granted, a privacy-abhorrent blogging service, but people don’t seem to care about that anyway.
    • For most of its billions of users, that’s what their Facebook profile amounts to: their personal blog - although, I’m sure they don’t think of it using that term. But without the ability to take their content elsewhere, or put it behind a personal domain name, I’ll never think of it as a true blog.
      • In Threads’ case, audience portability and being mostly publicly available on web are built in. That gets it closer to my idea of a personal blog, but still not quite there.
• Om Malik makes a good point about how Threads’ success will make it a go-to playbook, and how if Instagram had used it to launch Reels as a separate app it might have similarly taken off like a rocket ship.
• Meta could have made Threads a tab in Instagram, but it’s definitely a more Apple-y approach to have many apps powered by the same login (think Apple ID), than one monster app with oodles of tabs.
• Word on the street is that Threads may overcome ChatGPT’s record as the fastest to reach 100 million users. That means they’ll have (potentially) expanded the Fediverse by two orders of magnitude in a matter of days.
  • There will be repercussions for ActivityPub, I’m sure of it.
• It’s been very cool to see some people discover microblogging for the first time.
• The lack of a Mac app, web client, or iPad app is a huge bummer. Hopefully they’re coming, but I’m not holding my breath.
• A few more feature requests:
  • Alt text for more accessible images.
  • They’re really gonna have to fix that thing where it loads a bunch of new posts on launch and you lose your spot. Instagram does the same thing and it’s infuriating.
  • Shortcuts actions to enable at least some form of automated posting.
  • Fix the “too many redirects” error when trying to open a Threads link on the web.
  • I’d like to be able to crop a photo as I post it.
  • A Following-only view.
  • Ability to search for post contents, not just usernames.
  • A little clearer notifications tab, and bigger touch targets for post actions buttons to reply, like, quote, etc. (via @mattbirchler)
  • Include the user’s handle in post URLs. (via @gruber)
  • Edit posts, please. I make too many typos.
  • ActivityPub support, of course.
• I’ve already had a friend text me to ask “What are Instagram Threads?” I can assure you that never happened with Mastodon. This thing is going somewhere.

If you’re interested, I’m @heyjb.me over there. For now, you’ll get the same microposts there that go on my microblog.

Oh, and if you’re seeing a bunch of people post links to their Threads profile and you’d like to follow them, there’s nothing easier than using Federico Viticci’s Threader shortcut. Honestly, I have no idea how he whipped this up and wrote the excellent introduction blog post within hours of Threads’ launch. Years of practice, I suppose.

Others’ Thoughts on Threads

Threads // John Gruber

A Threads Thread Blog Post // Robb Knight

Threads // Stephen Hackett

Meta Threads a Needle // M.G. Siegler

My Thread hot takes (and why Bluesky might be toast) // Matt Birchler

(I’ve got way too few women and bloggers of color in my RSS reader. I’m trying to fix that and would gladly accept suggestions if you’ve got suggestions on who to follow!)

Alex Cranz, writing for The Verge:

But you know what other word you can say in polite company without explanation? Tweet. Just say tweet! It has a definition in multiple dictionaries directly related to posting online. It’s a word that immediately connotes the specific kind of posting every microblog including Twitter has tended toward. Tweet is the perfect word to describe a quick short post published to a feed.

Cranz brings passion to her argument, but I just can’t abide. I can’t give Musk the satisfaction of having the brand name for a microblog post, and I guarantee it would confuse folks in conversation. “Tweet” as a verb and noun made it too far into public discourse as those things on Twitter to go back now.

I’ll go with the more generic “posts” everywhere before I call them “tweets”.

Linked

I know they’re not the new hotness this week, but an update from the team at Bluesky reminded me about a feature that I love about their social network:

We believe that there must be better strategies to sustain social networks that don’t require selling user data for ads. Our first step in another direction is paid services, and we’re starting with custom domains. While setting up a custom domain to use with Bluesky and the AT Protocol is fairly straightforward, it does require some familiarity with domain registrars and DNS settings. Yet, over 13,000 users have already either repurposed domains they already owned to use as handles, or purchased a domain solely because of Bluesky. Domains have so much potential as a personalized way to customize identities and as a decentralized way to verify reputation that builds off the existing web. For example, U.S. Senators have used the senate.gov domain to verify their identity on Bluesky without our involvement, and a third-party developer built a web extension that checks if websites are linked to an AT Protocol identity. The possibilities are wide in the domain-as-a-handle space.

I’m a big fan of the domain-as-a-handle idea that Bluesky is spearheading here at scale. The “regular” users can pick up a handle using the service’s domain (e.g. @jarrod.bsky.social), but folks who care and want to truly own their username can buy and hook up a custom domain (e.g. @heyjarrod.net). I, like Gruber, think it’s a smart and genuinely useful way for a social network to make some money by facilitating that domain purchase, too.

But the real advantage, apart from name recognition, is that it would eliminate the land rush that comes with every new social service launch as people scramble to secure their preferred handle. If you already owned a domain name and we’re able to use it as your handle across every service, you could rest easy knowing your personal internet identity would always be there for you to use.

Finally, with domain name redirects and forwarding, it would be so easy to point that canonical domain like heyjarrod.net to one of those Linktree-like sites that are so popular these days to list all your social accounts.

Bluesky is getting the username part right, at least, and it’s a model that I wish my beloved Micro.blog and newcomer Threads would follow.

UPDATE 2023-07-08: According to Micro.blog’s Manton Reece, he’s on board with implementing domain names as usernames! 🎉

Linked

Stephen Hackett, with the most realistic Threads take so far:

So as Twitter continues to evolve into the Internet’s silliest island, Meta is ready to come in and build a mansion right on the beach. I don’t often root for Meta to win, but I think if anyone could replace Twitter for the masses, it’s going to be them with Threads.

Linked