It’s a hot Sunday here in South Jersey. We were going to steam some crabs, but they’re still pricey this early in the season, so it’s chicken thighs on the grill with rice and broccoli any minute now.

Joey and Sorayah are going on a trip to Kentucky for her work, so we’ll be a three-person household for the week. I am thinking about using Joe’s car to get around while I get some necessary repairs done on the Mustang. I was sorely tempted to test drive both a Subaru BRZ and a Mazda MX-5 Miata, as the old girl is not only getting up there in years, and requires some maintenance. But I don’t think I want to part with the Mustang, and a comparable replacement would be a tad rich. But then he slashed his own tire driving today, so I’ll have to get that replaced, too. Sheesh.

Designed in California: An Apple History Podcast

Jason Snell and Myke Hurley launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a podcast covering Apple’s history:

The two of us, Myke Hurley and Jason Snell, have been discussing Apple in depth every week for more than a decade on the Upgrade podcast. We want to go further, creating a podcast series that’s dedicated to telling stories from across all five decades of Apple history.

Jason has done some amazing work since leaving MacWorld; his “20 Macs for 2020” series was a blast, and I’ve been a longtime listener and subscriber of his Six Colors newsletter and podcast. He’s a great voice on MacBreak Weekly, too, which I’ve been listening to since its inception.

One of the things I appreciate about his coverage of Apple is that his Mac usage has traverses the same trajectory as mine: he’s been using a Mac since the early days, and has seen the evolution of the Mac from the classic OS through the transition to Mac OS X, and then the move from PowerPC to Intel, to the introduction of the iPhone, and more. He’s an enthusiast but to a fanboy..

There’s every reason to expect that Designed in California is going to be great.

More BetterTouchTool

I mentioned BetterTouchTool in my last Sunday Serial, and I’ve been using it since to learn more about it. I set up a couple of actions:
– Toggle Mission Control: command-option-mouse wheel scroll up/down
– Two-finger rotate right/left: adjust volume

I had always looked at BetterTouchTool as a way to hack the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar, and also a way to add gestures to the Magic Trackpad. I don’t generally use a trackpad with my Mac at home or in the office, because I plug into a Thunderbolt dock at both locations and use an external display, keyboard, and mouse. (I do like using it instead of a mouse with my iPad, though.) If I’m at home, I don’t use my laptop that much after dinner, which is more iPad time. And I am a Logi MX Master mouse user.

The announcement of the new launcher feature, a la Apple’s Spotlight, was a nice surprise and made me peek at this tool again. I realized how many features are included, and how it’s a competitor to another deep and complex utility, Keyboard Maestro. BTT can do everything BetterSnapTool can do, and then adds a ton of customization options. You can effectively replace text expansion utilities like TextExpander with BTT–as you can (and I have) with Keyboard Maestro.

Bellview Winery’s Gemini Blend

Described on their site as “a light dry white blend of Caygua, Gruner and Traminette.” It’s bright and crisp, less velvety than the outgoing Viognier we’ve been drinking. Perfect on a hot summer day.