iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Truly just a bunch of features in a turf war with zero respect for the user trying to listen to music caught in the middle.

Oh and that if you tap a playlist or a radio station, both of which are rendered to look exactly the same type of tile with no distinction, two completely different things occur… one of which of course also wipes your now playing state. Truly thoughtless design.

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Oh… and the only thing worse than Apple Music’s app interface in this respect is trying to use it via Siri. I still don’t know how to ask Siri to play something in Music without it murdering the state of whatever’s currently playing the majority of the time. And you’re always one misfire away.

It’s an interface that decided to do both Pandora and Spotify and does a poor job at both. Everyone involved would likely say the behavior is the result of some different team’s decision or that consent not to be launched randomly into another playlist is an edge case. Fuck that noise.

Just because I did something else in between doesn’t mean I don’t want to continue what I was listening to last time. That playlist was one I was working through. Now my only choice is starting over, trying to remember where I was, (I don’t, why would I?) or giving up on what I was listening to.

iOS I just want you to play what I was listening to before. From the place I was listening to it. I’ll tell you if I want you to start something else. Stop trying to help me listen to music you think I’ll like and play the music I already decided to listen to.

Apple Music continues to be an otherwise fine service with an infuriating interface. The number of ways iOS has of throwing away what I’m currently listening to and deciding play something else is immense. Worse: this automated and careless destruction of the user’s state is irrevocable.

I will say that all day interview gauntlets in tech are mostly humane affairs and wildly different from much shorter interviews in most fields, or the all day interview gauntlets in my current position. (Flight attendant interviews make tech hiring look straightforward, casual, and lightweight.)

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You have a drink already? Nice. Previous interviewer did their job. You brought your own? Prepared, I like it. It won’t really change whether you get the job but cool beans, nice work. So… need anything else before we start?

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You want an iced coffee? Let’s go, we can talk on the way. But not too serious, we’ll save the actual questions for later. I’ll introduce myself and tell you where I’m coming from while we walk. You can wait to tell me about yourself after coffee or when you’re ready.

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djc @haltandcatchflight.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I can’t believe we’re dunking on Kai of all people and I think this conversation is silly, but I’ll say that drinks did come up during interviews I was involved in. Because tradition was to start by checking a candidate had one or offer to go get one with them because they might be thirsty.

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Woah, first time seeing that gradient. I didn’t know the UAS ones have a different design.

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djc @haltandcatchflight.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I guess many of us did some time in a ring.

djc @haltandcatchflight.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Maybe this is just my background but given Apple has done this globally for its data centers since 2014, including those in the United States I’m not sure why this is such a radical idea? Renewable power is cheaper a lot of the time anyway… even here.

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djc @haltandcatchflight.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I’ve been trying to figure out what the balance of this looks like. Being lost is when I’ve learned some of the most, but at the same time… it’s also when I need the most help to get unlost.

djc @haltandcatchflight.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

That one I’m pretty sure comes from Mountain California, up near Nevada in the Sierras where my dad worked as a ranch hand and I was taught how to catch them. First step is learning to how to find a good crawdading stick. Second step is filling the bucket.

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djc @haltandcatchflight.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

As much as it tries, living in the city can never truly erase my upbringing. (I am not from Nevada, but I grew up far enough outside of urban California that I take this assessment as a compliment.) My dialect continues to drift over the years but I’ll give up “crawdad” after hell freezes over.

A dialect map saying I talk most like someone from Nevada

Screenshot: What gave you away
Answers that point most strongly to Nevada.

Q: What do you call a traffic situation in which several roads meet in a circle and you have to get off at a certain point?
A: roundabout

Q: What do you call the miniature lobster that one finds in lakes and streams for example (a crustacean of the family Astacidae)?
A: crawdad

Q: What is your *general* term for a big road that you drive relatively fast on?
A: a freeway has limited access (no stop lights, no intersections), whereas a highway can have stop lights and intersections

Q: Do you say "frosting" or "icing" for the sweet spread one puts on a cake?
A: icing is thinner than frosting, white, and/or made of powdered sugar and milk or lemon juice

djc @haltandcatchflight.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Ah. Thursdays. They can get a little wild.

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission @cpsc.gov · 29/08/2026

Reposted by djc

What do I look like US Fish and Wildlife?

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KEXP just put on Dolly Parton’s version of Stairway To Heaven and my face appears to be precipitating a bit while driving. May her memory continue to empower the many she fought to help.

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I dunno man I think it’s also possible you mighta missed some other pieces of it. But I think that one is good enough for a “you may not have gotten the whole nuance on this before posting” comment. And to maybe not accuse other people of “minimizing” when they point it out?

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I don’t know how quite to put it. It’s like: “Okay I was polar opposite to reality in my assessment about whether this ruling was operative or material to the conditions at all, but is that the only detail I missed?”

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For one: ‘"Injunction was lifted" means the EO is executable.’

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And this balance is not actually aided by immediately reacting to an otherwise infuriating but not particularly impactful development.

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There is a huge harm in telling everyone that if they drop their ballot in the mail their vote won’t be counted. Getting this messaging right is tricky.

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We don’t disagree on that point but I think exactly what I wrote at the beginning of all of this is true. We are waiting to learn exactly how hostile the USPS will be this election before engaging in what will be a very tricky balancing of harms messaging.

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You are posting things that do not match the facts of the cases involved. So either you know they’re not accurate or you are not aware of the nuance. I assumed the latter. Should I have assumed the former?

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Look. Either you believe injunctions matter or they don’t. If injunctions matter: there’s still one in effect. Yesterday’s changes are not yet effective. If they don’t: Yesterday changed almost nothing. You can’t argue that injunctions don’t matter but SCOTUS throwing one out is a huge deal.

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If you don’t want to hear from me when I see this I can go ahead and just not follow you anymore. We can still be friends but if we’re following each other here… yeah if I see this I’m gonna tell you about it.

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You are freaking out not when the order was issued, but when one injunction against it was overturned. You didn’t know there was still an injunction still in effect. You are in fact panicking without nuance or the facts.

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And yes, I’ve been keeping track broadly about a lot of the injunctions that they are and aren’t complying with. Their rate is neither 100% or 0%, I understand your concern but please there is a lot of noise in this world and so many different risks we do have to triage the ones most risky.

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Stop telling me I’m minimizing this for bothering to have known more about the nuance before sounding off on social media than you did. It’s annoying. If you don’t think injunctions matter than it shouldn’t matter that they overturned one out. If you do, then there’s still another in effect.

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No. The injunction that was lifted was lifted the other injunction in another case is not.

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Now if someone has time and space to drop a ballot off at a drop box instead? Hell yeah. Do it. That advice has been good advice since they started slowing things down ahead of 2020 and is still good advice today.

And most importantly all of the people who otherwise wouldn’t manage to end up getting their ballot in if there’s more friction in the process or feel like they have to go seek out a drop box but won’t make it there when there’s not one nearby should also just vote the ballot they have.

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Anyone who would not otherwise be able to vote another way should take that risk. Anyone who can vote early and lives in a state that gives positive confirmation of ballot receipt can take that risk if they like, so long as they plan to follow up.

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Again. There were two injunctions in effect prior to Monday, now there is only one. The final rule is out which restarts the fight on the second.

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It has either already fallen or it is still falling but it has not just fallen yesterday.

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People are taking is seriously. It is of course also completely fucked that we have a corrupt court. But telling people they can’t mail their ballots in for the election is going too far at this specific moment in time. It may come to that, we’re not there yet.

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(Two days, since it was only yesterday but like come on man this is yesterday’s news and people have had time to actually think about whether the sky is falling yet.)

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Is this really the first time you’ve heard about this ruling? I’ve been reading up on it for days now and have read the actual damn SCOTUS opinion. Stop panicking and read more before telling others what’s going on here, would you?

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And again even if you don’t trust the USPS to comply everyone working in this space is monitoring the situation closely and we will know if they start doing this.

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No, one of the two injunctions was temporarily lifted but the order was not ruled on.

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