Your system has run out of application memory HUR HUR HUR

Screenshot of the macOS dialog saying "Your system has run out of application memory"

I hate this dialog with the fire of a thousand suns. When this appears, it basically means one (or both) of two things: Quitting any of the listed applications is rarely the correct move.  It’s often enough the case that none of them are the root cause, and you can kill all of them if you… Read more

Apple Maps actually follows up on corrections

I was highly surprised to find the Apple Maps actually does fix errors that are reported by users – at least sometimes. I was even more surprised to see that there’s actually a predesigned interface within Apple Maps, on iOS, for notifying reporters that the issue they reported has been fixed.  First on the lock… Read more

iOS Family Sharing users cannot mix authentication schemes

Apple supports two styles of two-factor authentication, that they call (and distinguish as) “two-step” vs “two-factor”.  “Two-step” is their older method, though functionally they’re basically equivalent. If you have multiple accounts on a Family Sharing arrangement, and some use “two-factor” while others use “two-step”, you’re in for a bag of hurt. For example, any time you change… Read more

Keyboard autocompletes

Apparently if you get bored enough you start just playing with the keyboards installed on your iPad.  Those that have the suggestion bar at the top can make some interesting ‘poetry’.  You just keep tapping in the same place, or in some simple pattern across the N suggestions.  Some are just bemusing drunk gibberish, but… Read more

Silent data corruption

Alternate title:  Apple’s file system engineers are sadly naive. I was quite disappointed to see that APFS isn’t even trying to provide data integrity.  Data integrity is kind of step 0 of any file system, and checksums or use of ECC is pretty much standard in modern & leading-edge file systems.  APFS doesn’t want to… Read more

Lightroom’s flaws & limitations

I’m attempting to switch to Lightroom, from Aperture, given lack of better alternatives. I’ve attempted this switch a couple of times before, without success. I’m finding that it’s still kind of annoying.  Here’s the start of my laundry list against it: It’s very slow.  I am already so very tired of seeing that blasted “Loading…”… Read more

Why I cancelled Backblaze

This is the feedback I sent to Backblaze shortly before I cancelled my account with them. For the additional context – the restore failure I alluded to was basically that: So, the departing ‘support’ ticket I filed with them (#167833): Maybe this’ll help your future would-be customers. The main reason is that when I tried… Read more