Apparently some football team did something or other

Posted by William Gallagher

I think it was football. Is Chelsea a football team or a goldfish? I’m sure it’s one or the other and I’m certain that what it or they do is massively important to them. But I was just watching Community on my iPad when TuneIn Radio popped up a notification telling me this breaking news that, frankly, I’ve already forgotten.

As notifications go, this was stylish enough and more importantly as notifications go, this one went. But in what algorithm did TuneIn Radio see I’d tuned in to the Today programme on Radio 4, heard that it was in the middle of its Thought for the Day, sigh and say aloud “at least it isn’t the sport” before switching it off, and conclude that I must want sport and/or goldfish news.

It’s bugging me now. Hang on.

No, I can’t get the notification back to check what it was about.

Maybe I’m just narked at being so interrupted by something so trivial – to me, anyway. I could blame TuneIn Radio for notifiying me when I hadn’t said I wanted to but, let’s be fair, maybe I allowed notifications back when I installed it a few years ago. That this is the first-ever is a little suspicious but it could be my fault, it could be finger trouble.

But I don’t think an app with such a broad use as TuneIn Radio should do this. It’s not like I’ve elected to install a Wimbledon Cricket app, then I would think it reasonable that it send notifications, especially if I’ve said okay. TuneIn Radio is a quick way of tuning in to pretty much any radio station anywhere in the world. It’s nicer on the iPad than BBC’s own iPlayer Radio, I use a fair bit.

I could’ve got the answer wrong if it asked me to allow notifications. But if it had ever asked whether I wanted sport or goldfish news, there is no question but that I would’ve said no.

So I’m narked that TuneIn does this.

Living in metaphor

Posted by William Gallagher

I’ve just been talking with someone who uses the word ‘manifest’ a lot. She says and she believes that if you do this thing, you will manifest what you want.

I stuck my hand out and said “And I just want a million dollars”. (It’s a Friends quote.) Still waiting.

But this is real to her. Think of something and you will manifest it. Don’t think of something and you won’t. This works for her every time, she says, without fail. It’s very important that you think of this thing you want and then you put it out of your mind and don’t think of it again.

Now, I offered that there might just be a touch of confirmation bias there: if you do what she says, then the only time you think again of something you wanted is when you get it. So you only remember the successes.

That kills the every-time-without-fail point for me. And you can tell that I’m not sold on this concept. But I agree with the thinking of it and it will come lark: if you don’t think of something, you can’t do anything toward getting it or being it or achieving it.

But I see that as having the idea and then working to achieve it. I see it as work. I reduce that whole chain to the one word. Whereas she reduces it to metaphor.

It is bollocks that if you think of it, it will manifest. (Still waiting.) But it is true that you can’t do anything without thinking of it first. I like that. I’m happy with that. I don’t need and really I don’t want magic. She doesn’t have magic, she just has the label, the term manifest.

It’s a shorthand, it’s a metaphor, and that’s fine. Metaphor compares and contrasts, it helps us grasp, it comments on reality, it is a connector. But it definitely sits in that area between us and what we don’t yet understand or maybe don’t yet have. If you treat the metaphor as the reality, then the metaphor becomes your aim. You’re no longer thinking of things to do or what you want to improve at, you’re thinking of the word manifest.

I think that’s like ignoring the bottle of pills and instead believing that the bit that says “Read directions carefully” is what you need.

Sorry, is that a metaphor?

Pet peeve rant here. Nothing to see. Move along, move along

Posted by William Gallagher

Look, I think there’s a spectrum of interest to do with Apple and things like the company’s WWDC. Most people are in the ‘never heard of it’ category, a great proportion are in the ‘and don’t care anyway’ set. If it does affect you or you are ever going to benefit from it or be even remotely interested, the smart money says you’ll look when you next buy a Mac or an iPhone. Or maybe you’ll just get these new features when they’re here and you’ll decide then if you’re interested.

That’s not only sensible, it is intelligent and only the teeniest bit dull.

Way over here in the not sensible, not necessarily all that intelligent but definitely bright and shiny category, you join me in watching the WWDC announcements and enjoy it.

But there is another set.

It’s the set of people who are quite interested. I have no criticism of this set. I have every criticism of the kind of technology journalism that tries to snare them. It’s the same kind of technology journalism that tries to snare us shiny interested people too. And it got me.

I read a headline today that ran: “Here’s one major new Yosemite and iOS 8 feature that got overlooked”. I am not even going to apologise for how that got me and I read it while waiting for the kettle to boil.

What I am going to do is boil in harmony because this major overlooked feature was Spotlight. This is broadly a search thing that Macs have had for ages and it is very good, it finds stuff including some answers to questions: I used it two minutes ago to add up some figures. Usually it’s how I find anything on my Mac. That script I wrote somewhere between 2005 and 2008, the one with a musical number in it, I wrote it in Final Draft, I think I emailed it to Bert that time, with just that kind of head-scratching detail, Spotlight will find the script pretty much instantly. Spotlight is Good.

And Spotlight is improved in the new OS X Yosemite. But the WWDC announcement included it. It fair belaboured it. First Apple told us what was new and showed some screenshots of it in action. Then it demonstrated these same features in action. (Just as an aside, the one thing I’d lose from an Apple announcement is the demo of what we’ve learnt about two seconds ago. Sometimes it’s good, I appreciate that it helps fix the details in one’s mind, but often enough I’m looking at my watch.)

We’re not done yet.

Having told us about it in detail and then demonstrated Spotlight in detail, Apple moved on to many, many other things – and kept using Spotlight throughout. They explicitly spoke of how it was built in to various other features.

There is only one way in which this can be regarded as Spotlight being ‘overlooked’ and that’s if the website running that stupid click-bait title was admitting that they forgot to cover it before.

You’ll notice there’s no link to the article. I’ve wasted enough of your time steaming away here, I’m not sending you their way.

My name is William, and I am a journalist. Hello, William.