Matisyahu's Blog

Today was rather uneventful, had some good calls although I had a few who wanted to talk to the supervisor – nothing I could do and the call was unrelated to me. It is funny how sometimes you can have a quiet day then suddenly a day filled with people wanting to speak to a supervisor and it isn’t worth my while trying to deal with something given that I don’t have the magic title therefore my words, no matter how correct they are, don’t carry the weight of ‘the office’ associated with being a supervisor..

My Mac Studio was meant to be delivered today but unfortunately I didn’t hear them knock on the door so I’ve organised them to deliver it tomorrow. They normally deliver in the afternoon but I’ll get up early just in case they end up delivering it earlier because normally the deliveries work is that they’ll do business deliveries in the morning and then residential deliveries in the afternoon – I guess because businesses pay a premium for overnight delivery with the expectation it is available at the start of the day on the next business day.

Apple has released the release candidates for their platforms with the expectation that, based on years prior, that it’ll be released next week sometime (normally Wednesday or Thursday), assuming there are no show stopper bugs. Most of the reports have noted that it addresses quite a few ‘fit and finish’ issues along with improved responsiveness etc. but for me the interesting part will be the improvements that Safari 26.2 will bring and how many of the improvements that appear in the current Technology Preview release make it into the main stream release of Safari (on the Web Platform Test website Safari is currently sitting at 99% thus inching very close to completing the goals set out at the beginning of this year).

I have to admit, the new look and feel has really grown on me – it is the small things such as the ‘bounciness’ and ‘wobbliness’ that really takes me back to a time when technology had some whimsy and fun before it turned into the stark minimalism that we’ve been living under for the last decade and a bit (along with the whole ‘sad beige mum’ aesthetic that has made everything boring and monotone). Maybe we’re going to see a new aesthetic in response to 10 years of minimalism but I only hope that with this correction that there isn’t an over correction resulting in something that is just as bad but at the other end of the spectrum.

On a side note, it is always funny how the term ‘liberation’ is distorted these days into the idea of rather than getting rid of the system but rather expanding who is included in the system resulting in the system being maintained and perpetuated. Bringing more women and minorities into the top echelons of the system doesn’t undermine it but rather it further legitimises it in the eyes of the very people who are being oppressed by it by convincing large numbers that since a few have made it that those opportunities are available for all. Through incorporating women and minorities into the power structure it perpetuates the illusion of a meritocracy which in turn justifies those at the top vs those at the bottom.

This is much the same sort of justification that the capitalist class like to use in regards to the meritocratic argument because it provides them with ready to use moral justification for the status quo (a secular version of ‘the divine order of world’)- “I got to the top through hard work, the world is just and people are rewarded for how much hard work they’re willing to put into it”. True liberation is achieved not through perpetuating the the existing power structure with a few tweaks but rather tearing it down and replacing it so that all people have a say in regards to what as society are considered the priorities rather than a privileged few. A democratisation of the economy where we the people choose the direction of society rather than it being in the hands of a small number who are far removed from every day realities – insulated from the consequences of their decisions through their proximity to power and being able to leverage relationships.