Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️
It’s been a pretty typical week around the Fahrni household, except for my brain. I’ve been struggling recently. I’m on edge, a little depressed. Overall I’m not in a good place. This is my disorder reminding me it exists even though I mostly keep it at bay with medication. My wife would say I’m oversharing, that a fair point, but sometimes I just need to get things out to help me feel better. I know it’s my brain fighting me and I understand the condition but that doesn’t stop me from going to that dark place I hate to visit. Thankfully knowing what it is does help. I don’t dwell on what’s wrong with me anymore. I know what’s wrong which allows me to move on. When I’d dwell on why I felt the way I felt it just got worse until I’d isolate myself from the world. I was feeling that way late Wednesday and parts of Thursday.
I’m doing quite a bit better now. I’m thankful I didn’t go deeper and it didn’t last longer. 🙏🏼
Anyway. That’s how my week kind of went. Today I’m writing, that always makes me feel a bit better.
In other news. I’ve been using Stream for Mac for a long time and it’s starting to feel much better to me. I have a few bugs to fix, thank you Lucien and John, and I hope to kick it out the door. I think I’ll go ahead and build it with Xcode 27 and wait to toss it out into the world after macOS 27 ships. I can be convinced otherwise since this release doesn’t need or require macOS 27 to work. It’s a tiny, very niche, app.
Have a great weekend and I hope you enjoy the links!
Frank Beard, the longtime, hard-shuffling drummer for Texas rock greats ZZ Top, died on Monday. He was 77.
R.I.P Mr. Beard and thanks for all the wonderful music through the years.
If you’re able to catch ZZ Top: That Little ‘Ol Band from Texas it’s a must watch. The band plays in Gruene Hall which really sets the tone of the entire documentary and we get to see them driving a classic coupe (I don’t recall the year or model, but it’s topless, and beautiful!)
The IndieWeb works the same way. Nobody’s waiting for permission to have a website. You don’t need a “content strategy.” You don’t need a niche. You need a place that’s yours, and the nerve to hit publish.
Sign me up! I agree with this. First this blog, then a stint with I am Fahrni, then back here, where I belong. I’ve had a blog continuously since February 2001. It’s had dry spells due to Twitter use starting in 2008 but I’ve always had one and I hope to continue this one until I drop dead. I don’t need an audience, and don’t really have one truth be told, and that’s absolutely fine. Unfortunately I do have a lot of terrible opinions I’m not afraid to blast into the ether. 🤣
If we felt MacStories could avoid a substantial segment of its audience and continue as a viable business, we would. But that’s just not the case in an age where online businesses are under increasing pressure due to changes such as Google’s increasing use of AI summaries. Competition from other subscription services has substantially cut into our Club membership, too. We wish this weren’t the case, but it’s the hand we’ve been dealt, and returning to X is one of several changes we’re making in response.
This has been a huge topic of conversation from folks in my social media feeds and blogs. To return to X feels like a knife in the face to many. Space Karen buying Twitter and turning it into X was a sad day for many and devastating to some. I have friends who lost entire streams of revenue because Space Karen doesn’t give two shits about others.
It took me a couple months to completely abandon Twitter for greener pastures. I already had my own Mastodon instance so when I left, I left. I deleted my account — @fahrni — which I’d had since 2008 and walked away. Some yahoo has the account now, I don’t even think they’re a Fahrni. 😀
Anywho, the pure derisiveness, misogyny, cruelty, and outright narcissism displayed by Space Karen daily will mean I will never return to the platform. I don’t even know if I would return if someone with a sense of morality took the company over and returned to a “normal” social media site given all the destruction that’s been done.
Also, why doesn’t Elon sell off the Twitter name? He’s not really using it for anything. It would make for an excellent Mastodon instance. 🐘
So I guess it’s platform over principles? Leaving Twitter was always the right move. Returning to X when the things that made you leave Twitter in the first place are all still present (and actively thriving) is nothing short of complicity. Pathetic.
Adam kind of sums it up. I see it the same way I see otherwise reasonable, moral, people using Substack when it’s a Nazi bar. They’re there for the almighty dollar because it’s easier than working hard for it. Sure, they want to write their best, but they don’t want to suffer to do it. Nope. They want to be paid for it. I can’t blame them for wanting to be paid. Maybe you could work for someone else who’d pay you and you can run your personal writing gig on the side?
I know, I know, you don’t want to do that. I’d rather make a living off my software too, but the reality is, I can’t. Maybe you can’t run your writing business in this environment either?
Props for trying but I bet this does more damage than you’d expect it to. You’re gonna lose subscribers, that very thing you wanted to avoid. Will the folks who remain on X buy subscriptions? Guess we’ll find out.
Ned Resnikoff • Public Comment
The moral and political case for quitting X is so obvious that it scarcely bears repeating, but I’ll briefly recap it anyway. The guy who owns X—the person to whom you are personally donating if you pay for a blue checkmark—is Elon Musk, an out and out white supremacist who uses X to spread Nazi ideas like Great Replacement theory. He is a major backer, in both money and propaganda, of the global far right. During his brief tenure inside Trump’s Administration, he spearheaded the destruction of USAID, which, according to recent estimates, may result in 14 million deaths between 2025 and 2030.
Yes, I’ve linked ot a lot of stuff bagging on X this morning. As we all should. That place needs to be 86’d from the internet. (No, 86 doesn’t mean do something violent. It means it needs to be removed.)
A 404 Media investigation was able to reveal Amazon’s book buying operation, which hasn’t been previously reported, by placing a tracking device in a rare book we suspected would be acquired by an AI company for training data, and following it around the country to its final destination.
That final destination was an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas, Nevada. Amazon employees who work at this location say all they do is receive massive shipments of printed books which they then cut the bindings off in order to scan the books more quickly. The printed book is destroyed in the process. The logo of the Amazon team that works at this warehouse, called VGT3, is a dinosaur, brandishing its teeth and with a book in its hands.
My wife reads a lot of books. They’re kind of sacred to her no matter the type of book. It could be a Stephen King horror novel or a history text book — yeah, we have a few of those types of books — they’re not to be destroyed. We have shelves and shelves of books in our home and boxes and boxes of them in storage. Yeah, it’s a “problem.” 😁
Anyway, I’ve been told they shred the books after they’ve scanned them. Why not give them to libraries or do something else with them? Sell them on the open market? I dunno. They’re still worth something to somebody, aren’t they? I think so. 🙏🏼
As a retired career officer in the United States Navy, I have strong opinions about what’s going on in our nation’s military today. In the past, I have often shared them here. Today, it’s harder to do so.
Not because I worry about retribution or anything like that. It’s because those opinions are accompanied by powerful emotions, and it’s often difficult to write when there is a storm going on.
Again, Dave writing from his perspective as a longtime United States Navy officer. He’s disgusted with the Marmalade Messiah and his treatment of our military men and women. Hegseth and his ilk have this weird “WE NEED WARRIORS AT ANY COST” mentality and it’s just wrong. Some of our best “warriors” have long lasting effects from their service and we just cast them aside like garbage after we’re responsible for making them. It’s wrong on so many levels. These are human beings who need care and support just like everyone else, even if their job is protecting our nation.
So I get that there’s (yet again) a big debate going on about AI on Bluesky. I am turning off replies to this post because I don’t want to have notifications flooded one way or the other on this one. I just want to share what I’ve heard multiple times in just the past two weeks.
It sounds like Bluesky is losing people to X because folks on X apprently love AI, or something like that? I guess Bluesky and Mastodon are full of granola eaters and X is full of Elonm tech bro stans, right? 😂
We are definitely more divided than ever. I’m a granola eater, if that matters to you.
Karis Caddell • The Sun Gazette
The Tulare County Board of Supervisors put a temporary ban on data centers entering the county on Aug. 18 as they work to figure out a regulatory framework that aims to protect the community from negative environmental impacts. The supervisors voted 4-1, with Supervisor Dennis Townsend voting against the item, to keep unincorporated areas free of data centers for the next 45 days.
Tulare County, California, is the county my beloved little hometown of Exeter is a part of. In turn that county is part of what’s known as the San Joaquin valley, or Great Valley. It’s the largest agricultural producer in the world. Be it fruits, vegetables, or livestock you’ve more than likely had something on your table from the San Joaquin Valley. That valley is starved for water and constantly battling drought conditions. To have data centers in California is akin to a natural disaster. Water in the valley is needed for people and for growing crops. Data centers, get stuffed.
Bryan Aguiar • Daily Downforcej
Hendrick Motorsports announced Monday morning that 20-year-old Connor Zilisch will take over the No. 48 Chevrolet in 2028, replacing Alex Bowman after his planned retirement from full-time competition.
Good for Connor! It’s a bummer to see Alex Bowman walk away from the sport but I understand where he’s coming from. He’s had some big health issues to deal with and his health is way more important that driving a race car. Although a lot of these guys would probably rather die than give up their seat. It’s like getting a football player to understand concussions are bad for them. 😁
The numbers back this up. The first episode of Season 7 garnered 17 million viewers. The next episode? Only 12 million. That precipitous drop signaled a falloff from more casual fans that would continue dramatically in the following years. Shows like “The Walking Dead” are built on shock value and heart-wrenching rug-pulls to some degree, but even so, the murder of Glenn was simply too much for many viewers, marking a clear before and after point in the history of the show.
TV Line is a definite clickbait site but this little blurb about Glenn’s death on The Walking Dead is absolutely accurate. I was a devoted fan of the show, until that moment. I stopped watching after that episode. I tried to pick it back up later and never really could. Now that the series has come to a conclusion maybe I should give it another try?
Walmart has announced that it will finally begin rolling out Apple Pay support next week. This comes after years of pressure from consumers.
Well, miracles do happen! 😂 It’s never really been that important to me. I either pull out my phone and tap or pull out my card and tap. Meh.
Jordan Bianchi • The New York Times
Meet the newest member of 23XI Racing, a mixed-breed puppy who was recently found on the streets and whose home is now the headquarters for the NASCAR team co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin.
I love stories like this and I hope you enjoy it too.
