§ It was this week last year that I harvested our first garlic bulb. The garlic growing in the garden now doesn’t look quite ready to pull yet. I suppose that answers my question from back in October: planting garlic earlier in the fall didn’t allow for an appreciably earlier harvest. Weird.
On the other hand, it seems like the entire garden might just be a few weeks behind where it normally would be by this time of year. In previous years I would be harvesting our first raspberries, snap peas, and cherry tomatoes by now.
§ Apple’s WWDC keynote was on Monday.
At first blush, the new “Liquid Glass” design landed entirely flat for me. It was somehow both too similar to the previous iOS7-era design while still packed with too many unnecessary changes.
However, after giving it some time and digging into the details it started to grow on me. I think Brendon Bigley put it best: “even if it looks a little bit shitty, at least it’s opinionated.”
I’m going to try my hardest to resist installing the iOS 26 beta, at least until I’m back from my trip overseas later this summer.
§ Real-time follow-up: I installed the iOS 26 beta on Tuesday. Oops. It was super stuttery and laggy for the first few hours but everything smoothed out considerably after that. It really is surprisingly stable.
The new super-transparent design language is more readable, in practice, than I feared from screenshots although there is definitely plenty of weirdness, which is to be expected this early in the beta process.
§ In planning for my Ireland trip I stumbled across a genuinely useful—and, I think, pretty novel—application for LLMs.
No, it is not travel itinerary planning which is a weirdly common demo but basically pointless in practice.
Instead, Claude built a bespoke web app with an interactive map detailing interesting locations that are all a short train ride or drive from Dublin. Is it 100% accurate? Almost certainly not, but it gave me a great jumping off point to start my own research elsewhere.
§ On Saturday I bought my first physical paperback book in at least five years. The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgård. Maybe it will help with my perennial struggle with actually finishing a book after starting it. Maybe. We will see.
§ I missed that Deerhoof put out a new album at the end of April. It doesn’t top my favorite album of theirs. Nevertheless, it’s as strange and playful and inventive as always.
§ I’ve been happy to see Myke Hurley start blogging. It is refreshing to read someone so enthusiastic and positive about technology and design.
§ Temperatures rose into the 80s on Thursday. After work I took a long walk through my favorite nature reserve finding it almost empty, lush and silent, save for the deer and the occasional woodpecker. Beautiful.
