← 2021 October 2021

  • People across the liberated democracy of Australia celebrate as they are now liberated to visit other countries muted cheers as everyone realises they've got to go through LAX customs in a few hours

  • “I just want to fucking make it one more day.”

    – Dave Grohl on Foo Fighters, His Memoir, Life After Nirvana in Vulture

  • Chinghee Creek on a Saturday Night for Travis & Christie

  • “Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75.”

    Benjamin Franklin

  • Rob Bell on the comments section

  • Happy 50th Sea World

  • Not in a million years could I of imagined Miley Cyrus, Elton John, WATT, Yo-Yo Ma, Metallica’s own Robert Trujillo on bass + Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith on drums covering Nothing Else Matters - and that I’d love it.

  • Remember that time that the Black Eyed Peas hadn't hit the big time yet, but when they did they had to re-record one of their songs? I'm prepping for a wedding I’m DJing tonight and wondering how people would react if I pulled out the OG.

  • On @danilic's prompting I've installed DaVinci Resolve and am trying it for the first time this morning. I don't know what this does but I am frightened at how it could edit me.

  • My favourite macOS Monterey feature is the bug when you spread your four fingers to expose (Mission Control) the Desktop but the Desktop isn't usable to drag and drop onto, or into folders.

  • Luna’s learning the ancient story of Saint Vincent de Paul, the mysterious saint that roams the homes of naughty children taking their favourite toys to sell them for a gold coin.

  • The most fascinating grave in Hollywood

  • Friday sunrise at Snapper Rocks

  • Corporate headshots don’t have to look like you were just dragged in front of a photographer to get a photo for the website.

    Created for Lightning Broadband.

  • One story out of many on how the Sydney Covid lockdown currently ending has cost me so much money

  • Zuckerberg chose Meta over Oasis?! That’s $100 to the bookies I’ll never get back.

  • Dreading the day that I see in VR a friend commit real-life suicide in the middle of a metaverse flame-war because they’re antivax or think pineapple on pizza is important.

  • It’s super cute when people talk about national debt like it’s not a completely made up concept, not a scientific force of nature like gravity.

  • Sunrise elopement at The Calile Hotel this morning

  • Sorry sir, I am all out of way

  • It’s hot, damn hot. If you're getting married when it's hot: 1) Bring cold water, so much flipping water, 2) Get married as late in the day as your venue and photographer will let you, 3) find the shade, for the love of god put us in the shade.

  • All of my Apple devices are upgraded and now there's a openthread.thread.home.arpa on my network. Nest Smoke Alarms, or HomePod Minis?

  • FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8. 20 years of Windows XP #neverforget

  • Monday afternoon in Burleigh Heads

  • Luna’s birthday week comes to a close. Now we have 51 weeks of mourning until her fourth birthday celebrations can begin.

  • When Apple started using the phrase “there’s an app for that” in 2009, they were definitely not thinking of an app that simulates a cat purring on your lap being released today.

  • Uh, oh, watch out petrol cars, the Chief Health Officer is coming for ya!

  • Two iPods are some of my favourite computers of all time

  • Panic’s Cabel Sasser shares a prototype original iPod on the iPod’s 20th birthday.

  • Steve Jobs’s resume:

    “I’m looking for a fixer-upper with a solid foundation. Am willing to tear down walls, build bridges, and light fires. I have great experience, lots of energy, a bit of that ‘vision thing’ and I’m not afraid to start from the beginning.”

  • My Kindle Oasis is starting to get a bit long in the tooth, almost four years old and it’s battery barely lasts a day or two.

    Is there a new Oasis on the cards or do I just replace it, considering the battery is non-replaceable?

  • “I’ve long thought that the destruction of time in which to think – and do nothing else – is a much more massive problem than anyone cares to think about, nor has time to.”

    M.G. Siegler in his email today, and then links to his 2015 piece: The Death of Thought.

  • Just some personal news, I’ve decided that I know about the same amount about epidemiology, public health policy, firearms, the movie industry, bushfires, human rights, sexuality, religion, climate, and nuclear submarines.

    But if you want any ideas on which MacBook to buy 🤙🏼

  • Facebook’s algorithm automatically sent a bot “full-on Qanon” within 48 hours.

    One day I’ll write an essay about how the Facebook algorithm’s tendency to send people this way has made my life rather painful.

  • Life status: my three year old lives on my shoulders.

  • I’ve got 99 problems and they could all be solved with a new MacBook Pro, a DJI Mavic 3, and maybe a new 35mm lens I think.

  • Seeing as though my social media influence is waning on the daily I have some personal news, I’m starting a Withers Media & Technology Group. You’re going to love it.

  • How do you know things?

    I think all day every day about the world I want to leave Luna and Goldie in.

    I spend so much time wondering how to teach them how to know things. What they know will forever by growing and changing, but how they know things. How they learn, and how they research, and experiment, that’s so important to me.

    So I’ve decided to create email accounts for them and to start writing to them. Because my words matter to them.

    Your words matter.

    Share them, with anyone, everyone, with me.

    I don’t really care about fitting in with cool buzzwords and virtue signalling. But tell me how you lived in a tense moment today and how it was weird or awkward, but we learned more about each other.

    Tell me about how you didn’t know something and you said you didn’t know.

    Tell me about how you were scared and you said you were scared.

    Life’s too short for platitudes and fitting in. Let’s be scared, daft, vulnerable, and authentic together. I don’t care what you know, but I’d love to know how you know it.

  • “The committee recommends that the Australian Government establish a new Decentralised Autonomous Organisation company structure.”

    In the Australian Financial Review: Senate report proposes model to regulate the crypto economy

  • Every day I wonder when the day will arrive when it’s the last time I ever pick Luna up. What I mean is that when she’s 35 I’m probably not going to pick her up and throw her on my shoulders. So when, between three and thirty five will that day be?

  • “You always know when you’re doing something for the first time, and you almost never know when you’re doing something for the last time.”

    Via The Last Time Always Happens Now

  • Explaining stocks to NFT kids

    “I collect shares of businesses … I use a certain type of non fungible token called a stock certificate for this.

  • Speedtest’s quarterly Australian internet report shows that Aussie Broadband outperforms everyone else, including Telstra. I’m an Aussie customer, I’m getting about 900mbps down, if you signup using my refer-a-friend code we both get a kick off our next bill: 5272836.

  • The most annoying position anyone can take through this season is a religious devotion to vaccines, or anti-vax, or lockdown, or open up, or whatever fucking position you think is correct.

    We’re all mostly wrong and have no idea.

    Screenshot from today’s NYT email.

  • GG

  • Guy on the phone with me right now from Australia Post is trying to convince me that Australia Post does other things on top of delivering mail, I’m like “just deliver me my mail, mate” and he’s not too sure what to do with that information.

  • Ben Sherpherd’s “The Commercial Experience 21.11: Programming the news media” dissects how the news has changed over the last three years

    “My view is news media was more like SVOD, but COVID has made it more like TV.”

    It really has been a blockbuster season of tiring news.

  • A walking disappointment to his mother

  • The Gold Coast gets one case of Covid, the first in 15 days in Queensland, and the whole state breathes in through its teeth.

  • “An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.”

    Charles Bukowski, click through for 94 more

  • “The stated mission of a company worth almost two trillion dollars is to “organize the world’s information” and yet the Internet remains poorly organized.”

    – Re-Organizing the World’s Information: Why we need more Boutique Search Engines

  • Happy third birthday Lu, I’m so proud to be your dad

  • Me, telling friends about the Hamilton soundtrack being re-released in spatial audio

  • What the actual? The notification takes you to the iCloud Backup section of settings to make sure you’re backed up before you switch to a new iPad?!

    I have not purchased a new iPad, do not intend to, nor do I need to, this one is months old.

    I know that ultimately this is a tech error inside Apple, but damn you’re looking creepy Apple.

  • "The measure of a commercially successful newspaper is not simply how well it reports the big events, but what it does when there are no dying statesmen, bloodthirsty desperadoes, or heinous crimes to write about. Hearst succeeded in New York not only because he knew how to report the big stories, but because he was a master at constructing news from nothing.”

    From The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst, via David Perell’s email.

    David goes on to say,

    “Newspapers aren’t any shorter on a slow news day. People need to stay busy. Advertisements still need to be fulfilled. The revenue needs to keep rolling in.

    To that end, the biggest source of bias in the media industry isn’t the perspective a newspaper takes on a story, but its decision to report on a story in the first place. Knowing that, Hearst was a master at taking inconsequential stories and turning them into must-reads. He knew that events only become news once journalists and editors commit to publicizing them.

    Are things any different today?”

  • Avis Car Rental brings “car as a subscription” to Australia.

  • Have you ever wondered who coined the term “Content is King”? The year was 1996, and Bill Gates published an essay.

  • Apple Prediction in October 2021: the Apple Music Voice/Siri plan lasts no more than two years.

    Going down market never looks good on Apple. “Here’s a cheaper crappier version of our thing if money’s really important to you, whatever, we don’t care”.

  • The year is 2061, @Anthony_Wiggle with a long grey beard is sitting on a large wooden throne in Wiggle Town making an announcement of a new Wiggle coming & an old Wiggle leaving; people in virtual reality are booing and slapping the elderly Wiggle, screaming for good ol days.

  • I’ve just finished the seven episode podcast, 9/12, which tells the story of a post 9/11 America, and crescendoes to a beautiful finale. It’s a valuable story to engage with, not just what happened on 11 September 2001, but how the world responded, and why we “never forget”.

  • Sunday was a doozy. Over the past few months we’ve shared photos on social media from trips when travel was allowed and legal, in a time when it wasn’t allowed. So the Queensland Police received an anonymous tip to Crimestoppers, and that was the start of the day. Luckily I keep great photo and travel records and we didn’t actually breach travel restrictions. So thanks, anonymous.

    To end the day last night’s groom got aggressive and threatening because as his wedding celebrant, MC, DJ, I played songs not on his playlist, as he called it “my standard list”. My music selection had people dancing. I guess he wanted his wedding to be a show of his music taste instead of the red flag he kept on waving: “it’s her day.”

    If you’re ever curious why late night activities that include drinking alcohol are more expensive, it’s because life’s too short to deal with irrational drunk people.

  • Ben Shepherd is asked a question that I think about often:

    "If you were to start a media company right now, what would it look like?"

    And he shares his insightful answer (that I really liked) on his Substack: The Commercial Experience

  • “I find it hard to understand in my mind what it means to love you after you are dead — but I still want to comfort and take care of you — and I want you to love me and care for me.”

    – I adore you sweetheart - by Shaun Usher - Letters of Note

  • “The human race is likely to be wiped out by a doomsday virus before this millennium is out unless it starts to colonize space, top British scientist Stephen Hawking warned on Tuesday.”

    – Stephen Hawking, 15 October 2001

  • “We are born with only one obligation – to be completely who we are.”

    – Mark Nepo

  • Turns out that in 2005 I was the 312th person to register for an account on the new website, Reddit, and today I’m one of 30 of that 312 still registered users.

    This is what old age looks like.

    In 2055 I’ll be interviewed on 60 Minutes for the 50th anniversary of Reddit.

  • I’m that insecure the password to my heart is my first daughter’s first name, capital first letter, followed by the number 1 and an exclamation mark.

  • Please tell me there are more than 30 people that have been on Reddit for more than 16 years?! I

  • Hey, I don’t like to discuss medical freedoms on here, but what is Apple TV+’s insistence on viewers watching the show’s credits to the end? Every other streamer shows the “watch next” selection straight away.

  • "The best business ideas have yet to be tried. The best books have yet to be written. The best relationships have yet to be formed.

    It's not too late. The space of possibilities is endless. The most interesting terrain remains unexplored."

    – James Clear

  • Your top 20 songs by plays says a lot about who you are

  • “We are a revolutionary cloud-based website” says this guy selling virtual staging to real estate agents.

    Why does everything in sales have to be dodgy and buzzwordy.

    Are humans not capable of being sold to without bullshit?

  • Hey nerds, I was not aware of how nerdy we are. Someone in my Certificate IV in Real Estate class right now just asked the trainer “how many people do you think are moving to smartphones”.

  • Lodge

  • Brisbane as the clouds subsided today at sunset

  • JQ940

  • I auditioned to join the Kyle & Jackie O show in 2011 & was flown to Sydney. In the interview the EP asked if it was ok for Kyle to call me a c**t, so him defending Denis Handlin isn’t surprising. I was ok with ‘the name’ but quit radio soon after cause life’s too short.

    I was so excited for the gig and remember walking away thinking that if that was the top of the ladder, I didn’t want to climb the ladder anymore.

  • Buying a property soon? I’m hearing some crazy stats about meth and what it means for your personal health if you live in a house where meth has been used. The trainer is recommending people sign contracts under condition of not only building and pest, but now, also meth.

  • Over the last 18 months of the spicy cough tearing apart the wedding and events industry, confidence has never been lower.

    So I’m in a classroom today studying for a Cert IV in Real Estate.

  • 🌵

  • I think about this daily: Your Professional Peak Is Earlier Than You Think - The Atlantic

  • For the first time in history, Robert Palmer’s Simply Irresistible has been followed in a playlist by Feel Good Inc from the Gorillaz. Attending this real estate course this week has been a wild ride of experiencing the trainer’s playlist tastes.

  • My greatest fear, as recognised in 1947 by ad-man, Bill Bernbach:

    “I'm worried that we're going to worship techniques instead of substance.”

    If there was a vaccine for “sameness, a mental weariness, a mediocrity of ideas” I’d be first in line.

  • Remember that time Sesame Street’s Bert marched with Bin Laden?

  • Bond Can't Take On Beijing

    “No major Hollywood release has portrayed China’s government in a negative light since 1997’s Seven Years in Tibet, as analyst Matt Schrader has shown.”

  • QR898 B777 8 Oct 2021

  • Dear, tonight's hotel, two things.

    Firstly, thank you for taking some of the covidsafe precautions.

    Secondly, 75 emails?!

  • Can you recommend a relationship manager/app that’s very iOS/iPadOS/Mac/internet native.

    In particular, it’d be super cool if a contact was in the CRM and when they called, Phone.app would display the name because it integrated with the CallKit Call Directory app extension.

  • I’m still really proud of this photo. It was my first photo that “went somewhere” … it was printed on the side of a Queensland Rail Citytrain. Taken from what is now @hotagc.

  • Three years ago I pontificated that the future of the iPhone was the Apple Watch, @markgurman lent that way today in his Power On email … should’ve put some cash down on it

  • I’m in training all week this week and it’s fascinating to be reminded that not everyone is all in on the Apple ecosystem. 20+ people, me and 2 others on Apple.

  • You are not an aspirant. You are as complete as you can be today. None of us are finished. All of us are aspiring, so none of us are.

  • A Primer on the Parasocial Economy - Cybernaut

    “One aspect of the creator economy I’ve found curiously under-explored is precisely why fans pay their favorite creators; both indirectly in attention”

  • Revenue generating idea for Facebook: I will pay lots of dollars a month, maybe even $3, for any of your apps to never show me a red dot or notification ever again.

  • Honestly, if you saw Nate become (redacted) in the season two finale of Ted Lasso you’re officially smarter than me.

  • Luna just found out that polar bears and dogs can be friends and it’s like that scene in Ted Lasso when the billionaire tells Banksy and Sam that they both just met a cool person.

  • I’ve been on the job hunt for a while now and I’m open to new roles that might benefit from a set of skills someone like me has. Here’s my resume … I figure that if you follow me here you might have insight into who I am and maybe that’s helpful?

  • Fairlane

  • Thanks

  • Ever since they named me Person of the Year 2006 I knew that this Time magazine thing might go somewhere

  • Why You Should Stop Reading News

  • "The more you create, the more powerful you become. The more you consume, the more powerful others become."

    – James Clear

  • There are two ways of making a living. The familiar, predictable way, and a Pareto style payoff.

    "This Pareto world is extremely competitive, random, and highly unpredictable.”

  • Tyre shop guy: we’ve got tyres in that size from brand blah blah we’ve got the bluh bluhs and from brand ughh we have their gobble gobbles and the crapshoots.

    Me: I’ll take the whatsamacallits from whosiewhatsit, because trust me, I know a lot about tyres.

  • "Either we are the makers of our future or we’re the victims. And if we don’t understand these fundamental components of how the world works, our actions may undermine our goals as well as the people around us.”

    Tools for modern citizens by Seth Godin

  • There needs to be some sort of 1300 Hotline situation for people whose partners and families are antivaxxers. They are dealing with so much bullshit it’s like fighting a bushfire. We need pamphlets people!

  • This website is doing god’s work canyonmid.com ... please enjoy

  • "There is always more surface to a shattered object than a whole.”

    Djuna Barnes to Emily Coleman, 1960, The Book of Repulsive Women and Other Poems.

  • If you’re wondering what it looks like when you take your wife’s keys and they’re on the Find My Network …

  • I would pay at least $5, maybe even $6, to be able to log in to my old ICQ account (49739400), IRC servers, or my old MSN Messenger account, and scroll through those awkward chat logs. I’m barely confident today. Back then I was a hot mess.

  • Why is it called a podcast? I love that the iPod hackers paved the way. Thanks @podnews for compiling everything together,

  • Deconstructing Christianity

  • The Mind Body Prescription is blowing my mind. About to read the book and become "that guy”.

  • 20 years ago in Australian tech news, Australian composers, Nigel Helyer, aka Dr Sonique, and Jon Drummond, copyright every possible phone number as a touch-tone tune. As reported in The Age at the time.

  • I’m no saint, but whenever I get a scam call I’ll lead them on for as long as I can just to annoy the scammer and to waste their time. I also ask them if they tell their mother what they do for work, that’s usually when they hang up. Making the world better one call at a time

  • Ten years on we’re all still bitching about iPhone launches, still looking for that 2007 iPhone feeling

  • Goldie, there’s nothing silver about her.

  • Everything will be hacked, today it’s roaming text messages for the last few years

  • “Take the money and run” is the title of a blank canvas currently being exhibited that cost the museum $84,000 because the artist took the money, and ran

  • Harris Farm: Due to Covid-19 please do not touch the fish. Everyone: Due to everything ever please do not touch the fish until you’re buying it: and

  • The final words of a newspaper man with 8 decades of published words

  • This podcast episode by Rob Bell really helped me understand the antivaxx movement.

  • Palaszczuk, Berejiklian, quarantine. Words I still need to Google to make sure I’ve spelt them right. That will be my Covid legacy.

  • My top played songs ... a peek into who I am

  • For no real reason, here's the top three lunch-time radio station boardroom performances from my time on commercial radio.

    1. Hanson - Mmmm Bop
    2. Russel Morris - The Real Thing
    3. Pete Murray - Beautiful

  • In the name of efficiency, why don’t we turn our Australian corruption bodies to finding politicians that aren’t corrupt and are without sin.

    We could make it a game.

    Australia’s Next Top Model Citizen.

  • My internet speed in 2021