← 2023 June 2023

  • Temple of Valadier: Refuge for sinners
  • Rate my desk (June 2023 edition)

  • Is the future of TV, radio? Or the future of radio is TV? Either way, it's almost 7pm and this is what Italians are watching on TV?

  • The number one indicator that you're an old dad is when your cables and leads company emails "Let's Catch Up!" and "We miss you!" as if you're high school buddies.

  • My (IMHO aweome) international travel charging situation

  • Tonight we sojourn at the Tavignano Estate in Cingoli, Italy.

  • Apple Vision has been 'in development' for 28 years

  • Was just driving and stopped at a red traffic light in a small Italian village and a civilian car drives up being me, looks around, and just overtakes me and runs the red light. I love Italy.

  • South Carolina, you go grrl

  • Does Apple Vision mean 360 content is finally going to have its moment?

  • I just want to go on the record for being totally cool and not scared at all by the demonic kitten sound coming from the vineyard outside our Airbnb in Northern Italy. I am a big brave man and not scared by the feline calling out in the pitch black night.

  • Apple Reminders in iOS 17 is finally getting pretty useful

  • How Italians know whether to walk around shirtless or not

  • Our Italian Airbnb’s TV made me feel all nostalgic

  • I’m back baby!

    Listening to an investor on a podcast today reminded me of how and why I do what I do. He was talking about advice that he had been given regarding his investment portfolio, and the person giving the advice said how well does that pie chart of what you’ve invested in reflect or match your interests, talents, and skills? The advice being that you should invest in what you know, invest in what you are passionate about.

    So, after a solid sabbatical that has taken us through Mexico, the United States of America, and so much of Europe, I am proud to say that we’re coming back to Australia in August and I’m coming back to work as a celebrant.

    It’s been a wild couple of years where I didn’t know if I’d ever want to create weddings anymore, but it turns out I just needed a few months off and some quality time with my girls.

    I say all of that, to say this. There's a book, and a principle, called the proximity principle, and it's a simple principle. The idea is that the people that are around you, the people that are your community, are the people most likely to be able to help you.

    So there are two things I would love some help with. Number one, when we get home we have to buy some cars, and buying a car today is terrible. If you or someone you know is selling your car, let a brother know. Secondly, we're coming back to work and my calendar is wide open. So if you know someone getting married, anywhere in the world, let them know that your mate Josh is a pretty good celebrant.

    Normally I’d say I’m looking forward to catching up with you when I’m home for a beer, but it turns - and I’ve researched this extensively on myself during this sabbatical - that beers make me fat and bloated and sick.

    So instead I’m looking forward to an old-fashioned or red wine when I’m home.

    See you soon!

  • Is there an AI tool around yet to help manage customer journeys? New client comes in, and the AI can take that journey on the pre-set rails we decide on in the business. Automation, but with intelligence?

  • Made our way into Italy today and caught the sun at it's grandest, just before it goes to sleep.

  • I accidentally installed the developer beta of iOS 17. It’s mostly fine with a handful of annoying bugs you’d expect to see three months away from launch, but I’m so grateful for offline Apple Maps. Get me some offline Apple Translate and I’ll be set!

  • Whenever someone sees a photo of mine and asks me what iPhone I used my 25kg full ThinkTank camera bag weeps.

  • The thing that’s extremely visible throughout Europe is that there was a time that buildings weren’t just built but they were created, and created beautifully.

    How did that art get lost?

  • A 360 view of the sunset on our last night in Liechtenstein from the Fürstin-Gina-Weg, or in English, Princess Gina memorial trail on the Sareis mountain ridge overlooking the village of Malbun which has been our home for the last week.

  • Snuck over the border to Switzerland to watch the sun set today

  • Striking images at the Lichtenstein national museum of a medieval Liechtensteiner teenager using his early-model iPhone

  • Weirdest thing I've seen in Liechtenstein award goes to ...

  • How all men bathe

  • Hey, Europe. Why?

  • Despite being 450km from an ocean or sea, summer has hit Lichtenstein and the country’s beach is open!

  • It's normally pretty hard to try and fit an entire nation in one photo. It's a little bit easier if you're making a 360 panoramic photo. But still, most nations don't fit.

    So I can proudly say I think I got almost all of Liechtenstein in this photo.

  • Showed the kids what the early iPhones looked like at the Liechtenstein National Museum

  • Can you spot which country FIFA left off the list of countries that play football/soccer in the FIFA exhibit at the Lichtenstein national museum?

  • I have a confession to make.

    I didn't know "The Alps" were a thing. I thought people referred to "the alps" when they referred to alpine areas.

    This probably explains why I nerded out pretty hard when I got to the Alps and kept on typing the alps and all my computing devices would autocorrect to The Alps.

    Anyway, here's a 360 photo of a part of the Alps from Kufstein in Austria.

    And another from Lake Wolfgang

  • You should not open a door and see someone pooping. Srsly.

  • From the University of Berkshire Hathaway by Daniel Pecaut, Corey Wrenn:

    Buffett also shared some of his classic bits of wisdom about growing wealth. Spend less than what you make. Know and stay within your circle of competence. The only businesses that matter are the ones you put your money in. Keep learning over time. Don’t lose. Insist on a margin of safety.

  • AI and I just published a children's book: The Mountain Princess
  • Lichtenstein 3D

  • Be curious, not judgmental.

    – Walt Whitman

  • From Apple IIe to AI: Embrace the Wave or Risk Irrelevance

  • I'll always remember the day I met the late Gold Coast Mayor, Ron Clarke, and he called me Red Dog for no apparent reason.

  • In 2012 I was newly married. Britt and I had decided to take our wedding business somewhere bigger than 1-2 weddings a year, so we started marketing and building out content.

    Every day was so exciting, going from nothing to something.

    It feels the same at the moment, after having essentially dropped off the wedding industry map for a year, coming back in I feel like a newcomer.

    So getting these kinds of emails is weird and beautiful and terrible and amazing.

    Never change, wedding industry.

  • The fascinating story of Castle Itter and the last European WWII battle

  • We're taking the girls to one of the smallest countries in the world tomorrow, somewhere I've known about since I was a very young boy. My aunt lived in Liechtenstein and would send me books, toys, and Lienchtenstein paraphernalia every year for my birthday, I loved it! So, I thought I'd prepare for the trip by asking ChatGPT questions about the country and the journey.

    Steve Jobs once described computers as a bicycle for the mind, and ChatGPT is the most powerful example of that so far.

  • Retiring now

  • It's so pleasurable to read lovely and persuasive writing like this

  • I know that we have ye olde internet, but I think I'd still like to have a physical encyclopaedia at home for our kids. Check out this Ars Technica review, and the cost of a new set!

  • Watched the sun set into Germany across the German/Austrian border tonight.

  • There’s no kangaroos in Austria.

    You know what’s funny about our time in Austria is that I knew nothing about the country a few weeks ago, my main exposure being when I would be in America or Mexico, introducing myself a an Australian and they’d think I said Austrian and make some stupid comments about how they have always wanted to visit Europe. But thanks to a tip from a friend who recommended renting a car in Vienna because it’s cheaper than Italy, we’re exploring Austria and loving it!

    Two more sleeps til Liechtenstein!!

  • Travelling with children advice

  • Cuddling Goldie after a late night diaper change and I was contemplating how she and Luna have slept under almost 37 roofs since we left home in September and we have seven left. Some kids won’t go to the bathroom outside of home, but these kids just take it all in their stride. I’m a proud dad.

  • Driving through Mondsee (Moon Lake)

  • Blue skies and tailwinds makes for a good day in the office/Mavic 3 at Drachenwand (in English, Dragon Wall).

  • I’m not sure I’ll ever feel an emotion stronger than what I felt when I saw this #iykyk

  • There's a campaign to update the Australian Marriage Act of 1961 and every letter to a Federal Member of Parliament helps move the needle on getting the legislation changed and updated.

    Your help is welcomed/begged-for.

    www.marriageact.plus

  • Views of and from and above Lake Wolfgang, near Salzburg, Austria

  • David Cain in Everything Must Be Paid for Twice:

    If you look around your home, you might notice many possessions for which you’ve paid the first price but not the second. Unused memberships, unread books, unplayed games, unknitted yarns.

  • I’m at a cafe in Pöggstall, middle of nowhere, Austria, and next to me are two elderly couples loudly discussing the issues of the world in German.

    After an hour or so of me having no idea what they’re on about, one, mid-sentence says “Netflix, Paramount, Disney, Apple, Prime” then sighs.

    Nice to know that monthly costs of streaming TV is a global, multigenerational, problem.

  • We flew into Vienna two days ago and didn’t even go into the city, but straight out into the hills, which despite their beauty, they are not filled with music. Unless I’m deaf?

    But they are filled with the most wonderful little Austrian villages, like Pöggstall.

  • An important note from a local store

  • Tonight’s AirBnb is 770 years in the making: Pöggstall Castle, in Lower Austria.

    Our 35th accomodation since we left home last August. Honestly thinking that Britt and I could bring some value to AirBnb consulting, there’s only a little bit of effort between a great Airbnb and a poor one.

  • Who wins the MS Publisher 2023 wars? Canva? The new Adobe Express? Microsoft Designer?

  • It must be lovely to be proud of where you're from

  • Our pilot wanted to give us the full Heathrow tour. Never go full Heathrow.

  • Adios, Heathrow

  • The Withers family has done London

  • David Whyte:

    The ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self, the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone.

  • Does anyone want to start an Australian airline with me and ChatGPT?

  • Did you know that the Windows XP Bliss wallpaper was photographed in Sonoma? The same Sonoma this year’s macOS is named after.

  • People seeing the iMac, then iPod, MacBook, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, and then Apple Vision, on day one: it's stupid, not for me, too expensive, I'll never buy it.

    People seeing the iMac, then iPod, MacBook, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, and then Apple Vision, five years later: yes, please, shut up and take my money.

  •  Vision Pro

  • London is a fascinating place where Big Tea™️ has convinced an entire population that garbage water is a valid hot drink.

    Everyone speaks in a cute and fake-sounding British accent, whilst real people actually travel on the public transport which accepts the Apple Express Transit Card feature.

    AirBnbs are priced like Paris but unlike Paris, London is in England, which is far less fancy than France. Here, they drive on the left side of the road but walk on the right side of the path, and there’s this forced politeness in the air like if you’re not polite you’ll get stabbed. Who knew Jack The Ripper could have left such a lasting impression on culture.

    The people are quite proud of their flag, so much so that I could definitely imagine them sailing to other countries and giving them free British flags in exchange for the rights to the whole country.

    Despite their global shirt-fronting and general we-think-we’re-cool dispositions, the people of London either commute longer than they actually work, or they live impoverished and close to the famed series of Tubes, spending their final quids on beer or denying that Europe is a cool place.

    Brits have influenced more culture in my life than I’d care to admit, but I’m still not sure it’s better than their penal colony I call home.

    Long live King Chuck, God knows the bunting and signage stockists and manufacturers couldn’t handle the demand for at least another few years.

  • Mum to kid (about 4) trying to get him to do something: … or someone’s going to be very upset with you.

    Kid, loudly, in the sweetest British accent: well someone is a fucking idiot aren’t they?

    Every parent in the playground just bursts out in laughter.

  • I needed help planning the month ahead's travel, having not been off the beaten track too much in Europe, so I engaged everyone's favourite help, ChatGPT. Check out the chat transcript to see how I got to this itinerary.

  • British things

  • Come together, right now

  • Hey Britain, why did you all get so excited about leaving Europe but still walk on the right hand side of the footpath?

  • Everyone’s talking about augmented reality at WWDC but no-one’s talking about sharing bodily liquid movements.

    Come on Apple. Let me share more bodily liquid stats with my friends.

  • I'd like a 2023 version of Piano Man where Paul, the real estate novelist, upskills to writing prompts for ChatGPT, John the bartender starts a TikTok, and Billy Joel is sampling in Serato.

  • 185 million views on Unsplash, 19 million views on Pexels, and I've just sold my first photo from my print store. Don't rush and twist an ankle, there's no queue at https://art.josh.withers.co.

  • Don't tell anyone but the opening of track six on the new Foo Fighters album had me thinking that there was a Taylor Swift collab inside. It's ok, it was Nothing At All.

  • I made a Steve Jobs chatbot based on the book Make Something Wonderful and asked him how he would bring AR glasses to market.

    "... and we're calling it iVision!"

  • Luna’s following in my footsteps!

    By being a radio broadcaster to an unprofitably small audience.