Here’s something we argue about. What constitutes ‘visiting’ a country? Do you have to leave the airport? Stay overnight? Or what. I think we’d all agree that just flying over a country doesn’t count, you at least have to LAND. But what if you’re only in the airport? I am firmly on the side of “Landing at the airport counts, because you are on the ground…
I got the sad news yesterday that Vern Kennedy, trumpeter, composer, singer, backbone of the Argonotes trumpet section, and all around wonderful guy, passed away this week. This hurts. I have been wanting to organize an Argonotes reunion ever since the band folded (nine years ago today, as it turns out) and I wanted to play with Vern one more time. Vern was in Argonotes for 20 years and was just…
Back in the day at NeXT, everybody was encouraged to work on little side projects. Even us field engineer folks would hack up different things in Objective-C with Interface Builder to try to impress each other. One that I whipped up, called Open Sesame , eventually shipped in NeXTSTEP. Here’s the icon. And I hope some day I can find a photo of Steve Jobs with Open Sesame’s icon on the…
A few months ago I blogged about the upcoming book , Steve Jobs in Exile . This week, the Computer History Museum hosted author Geoffrey Cain and a panel discussion to kick off the book. I had mentioned I was excited about this book—as I had worked for NeXT from 1991 to 1996 and was there for the merger with Apple, and remained at Apple for another three decades. I also wrote The book probably…
It’s 1996. Steve Jobs was still at NeXT with the merger with Apple still a few months away. I was a Systems Engineer for NeXT, working alongside a Sales Executive, and our little team covered customers in a part of the East Region. We brought a customer out to Redwood City for a meeting. They asked Steve what he thought of their industry. And he sure told them. NeXT's headquarters in Redwood…
Look. I like high speed trains. I’ve been on the TGV in France and the Shinkansen in Japan. A high speed train in Canada would be a dream come true. About to board a TGV high speed train in France Our Shinkansken train in Kyoto I even like the existing VIA trains, while wishing they were faster and more reliable. I’ve ridden VIA and Amtrak across North America and GO here in Toronto. I…
We were discussing wills and other important documents and honestly could not remember if there was a copy of our will in the safety deposit box we’ve had at the bank for quite a while. So, off to the bank we went today. (Minor victory: we knew where the key was.) Ushered into the back for the safety deposit box opening ceremony, and our box was presented to us, and we opened it as…
that was then Shop class. Grade 8. I made this bowl. I’m still kind of weirded out that they let 12 year olds play with a lathe back in the day, but my bowl turned out pretty nicely. Thank you, shop teacher at Ryerson Public School! That was the first and until recently last time I ever touched a lathe, but I’ve always wanted to try it again. this is now Lee Valley Tools, Turn a Pen…
There’s a goat in the backyard! Ever since my kids were born, I have attempted, each April 1, to persuade them that there’s a goat in the backyard. Strangely, this never works, and somehow it works even less every year. But I keep trying. You know, the kids today, what with the emojis, you’d think just sending this to the family chat would do it - ‼️🏡🐐 Daughter-in-law,…
David Pogue is a famous author of science and technology books, a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning and a one time Broadway pit band leader. I am none of those things. Well, I have led non-Broadway pit bands a couple of times, and I have read a lot of science and technology books, and Cathy and I always watch CBS Sunday Morning because we are now in that coveted Old People Who Drug Companies Make…
rationale Cathy doesn’t like going to the movies. I like going to the movies. So for years, we compromised, by not going to the movies. But a few years ago, she bravely got out of her comfort zone and gave me a delightful Christmas gift whereupon she agreed to go to the movies with me , occasionally, with veto power over which movie it was, etc. Last Christmas it was my turn, and I agreed to…
THE SYMPTOM THE HISTORY I’m a big fan of Brother laser printers. I have a monochrome MFC-8840D that’s been pretty much trouble-free for probably 25 years, and a colour MFC-L8850CDW that’s been equally great, but only for maybe 15 years. Printed Christmas cards, travel agent invoices, documentation, and a mountain of band music over the years, all without complaint. We’ve…
It was a thrill to give a presentation today at the Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair , on “Where Emoji Come From”, with great thanks to Apple for conveniently shipping the trombone emoji in 26.4 beta 4 this week, which let me change the thrilling conclusion from Coming Soon, the Trombone Emoji to OMG It’s Finally Here, Are You As Excited As I Am? At least two of the…
Welcome U+1FA8A ! Today, Apple released iOS 26.4 beta 4, which includes a Trombone emoji. wait… today? just where do emoji come from? Glad you asked. There’s actually a committee - the Emoji Subcommittee of the Unicode Consortium - that meets every year to review proposals and vote on which ones should be included. Every year a new version of the Unicode standard is released, usually…
The University of Wisconsin in Madison was always one of my favourite places to visit - I’d show up to do a demonstration of some cutting-edge-at-the-time thing like AppleScript or Automator or Apple Remote Desktop or Dashcode or Writing Apps with Objective-C, and there’s always be a fun, smart, creative and clever audience on hand. Students, network admin, faculty, always a great…
I bought a new AirTag at the store a couple of weeks ago. I brought it home. I haven’t opened the box and paired it to my phone, though. Now I can’t find it. Perhaps AirTags should have AirTags attached.
The National Flag of Canada Act defines the Maple Leaf as our national flag, and the government clearly and unambiguously defines what the flag should look like - its colour and dimensions. Like this. Similarly, the National Anthem Act defines the music and lyrics of O Canada . This is how it goes - this sheet music image is part of the National Anthem Act: (The eagle eyed will notice a notation…
I’m excited to see this post from author Geoffrey Cain announcing his new book, Steve Jobs in Exile. Instantly pre-ordered. Jobs left Apple in 1985, founded NeXT, hired me , bought Pixar, and came back to Apple in 1996 at its historic low point, when Apple was near-death, and orchestrated the turnaround we’ve all heard about. I’ve bought most of the Steve Jobs books, and seen the…
O Canada at the Olympics Here at the National Anthem Key Signature Research Bureau, we maintain our commitment to observing minute errors in O Canada . You might recall that we have previously discovered Bugs in the National Anthem , including in the National Anthem Act, which have at least been partially fixed . Today though, as the 2026 Winter Olympics get underway, we have a new irritant. For…
So, our friends who own a bowling alley… Cathy and I would frequently drop this tidbit in conversation. I thought it made us seem pretty cool. Come on, we have friends that own a bowling alley! This must be what it’s like knowing a celebrity. oh you’re from Canada? so are we. In 2016 we did a cruise on the Disney Magic and somewhere in the middle of the North Atlantic, another…
I found this sheet of paper the other day. In September of 1991 I travelled from my then-home of Bloomington, Indiana out to visit NeXT at their headquarters in Redwood City, California, for two days of job interviews for an SE position in Toronto. Here’s the agenda. Back in 1990, proud new owner of a NeXT Cube at Indiana University, which was probably the first privately-purchased NeXT Cube…
“round, balanced and comforting” … “a lot of interesting characteristics” We bought this 2025 Coffee Advent Calendar from TheRoastersPack.com , which gave us 25 individual packs of coffee beans, each of which had been roasted by a different Canadian coffee roastery from coast to coast. Fun! Every day in December we ground up and brewed and debated a different coffee,…
This was always one of my favourite commercials. An air passenger starts to panic after realizing he’s checked his notebook and it’s rattling around in the cargo hold. I think about this guy every time I’m flying. This commercial won a well-deserved 1995 Clio Award. It’s also an interesting look at not only Toronto Pearson Airport Terminal 3, but also what the laptop…
Somehow this was the top request in my recent survey about “what should I blog next?” So … One time in about 2006 or so in Niagara Falls, Al Gore introduced me to a billionaire - Jim Pattison . I suppose I should include a few more details. The People Al Gore You might remember the 45th Vice President of the United States who also wrote a book, An Inconvenient Truth , later…
I asked my friends on Mastodon what mindless story I should write about next. Here are the results - Post by [@shayman@cosocial.ca](https://micro.blog/shayman@cosocial.ca) View on Mastodon And if that link doesn’t work… Not gonna lie, I was hoping the story of Steve and the Christmas Cops would rank a little higher. Hmm. Well I’ll just have to write about all four. update…