Disqus - Latest Comments for WaltFrench

Re: macOS Sequoia 15.5 brings only a few tweaks

Walt French — Mon, 12 May 2025 16:38:45 -0000

I've experienced an acknowledged bug on my Watch—it caused my log of running distance to be busted just as I was going for a half-marathon trial run—and odd workings w my Mac and iPhone (including a BigCo app crashing on me today) so these “minor” bug fixes are more significant to me

Re: Apple could launch a smart home IP camera in 2026

Walt French — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 16:09:07 -0000

The absolute best, #1 thing Apple could do to enhance the health features of AirPods would be to re-engineer them so they don't fall out of my ears when I'm doing Apple Fitness work in front of my TV (and my wife is busy enjoying HER life). I already have a pretty good heart rate sensor on my watch.

And of course, if they stayed in while I'm doing jumping jacks, squats and thrusts in my living room, they'd probably ALSO stay in my ears when I'm cycling around town. And running my 5K around Lake Merritt, listening to podcasts from my watch

I'm doing all this now with some costly but very high-fidelity and noise-isolating Etymotic drivers plugged in to a cheapo Bluetooth cable with MMCX connectors, but sure would love the listening assistance and other features of AirPods

Re: Google and Apple: The Future

Walt French — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 13:52:24 -0000

So it seems that because Google is paying so much that competitors can't gain access, Google would have to pay more in a revised deal

The only solution that limits Google-not-Apple and makes *any* sense (not necessarily “good” sense) is to force divestiture of the search business to one that would contract with Apple, and supply a mix of various search engines' services to OEMs and browser suppliers.

As your fine article implies, the whole topic makes my head hurt

Re: Forecast for Apple’s Earnings for Fiscal Fourth Quarter 2023

Walt French — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 15:52:36 -0000

Very smart, very helpful to start w Apple's last call to frame what expectations might be

Re: Royal Egyptian food truck chef serves up love with lunch

Walt French — Wed, 19 Jul 2023 01:08:50 -0000

Every superlative here is well-earned. I don’t usually drive on Thursdays but when I do, I come down to Folger Ave for a plate

I only wish it was a bit more clear when he’s open

Re: Clone of Monthly Update: COVID Death Rates by Partisan Lean & Vaccination Rate

Walt French — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 13:27:32 -0000

Umm, sorta

Only sorta because essentially EVERY person who got sick from COVID, contracted it from a neighbor or co-worker who didn't realize they were infectious. Vaccines are NOT perfect; they're much less useful for people with tired immune systems, on immune-suppressive drugs, having problem with autoimmune diseases like diabetes, etc etc

Those people are the victims of the politician- and antivaxxer-driven low vaccine uptake, low masking adherence and general social indifference

Of course, younger, healthy people get sick & die from COVID, too. *Much*better*odds* if you're vaxxed and boosted, if you're less than 50. But it's not perfect

Anyway, much as the GQP has done its damnedest to plow ahead regardless of the consequences, voting Republican should not be a capital offense

So no schadenfreude from me. This is a tragedy all around, even if the bad guys are easy to identify

Re: Apple shows off AR/VR headset to board of directors

Walt French — Fri, 20 May 2022 00:21:15 -0000

Readers might want to be especially careful how “supposedly underwent engineering validation” magically becomes “this showed…”—the qualification is lost in just a few words

Likewise, “could unveil the headset as early as…” quickly links to “demoing the product”—MAYBE Apple has a “product” all ready to go that has escaped the supplier network spies but more likely there is a concept implementation that’s nowhere ready for the market

Boards of Directors can be tremendously valuable resources in many ways but their sense of the cool factor wouldn’t seem to be one of them. If the Board *IS* involved, it MUST be because Cook et al want feedback about how an AR/VR project impacts Apple’s posture on privacy, on social status, on Apple reinventing gaming or some other major decision

Re: Apple AirTag: What a difference a year makes [Review]

Walt French — Tue, 03 May 2022 21:27:29 -0000

I think the glaring oversight in safety is that people who don't own iPhones are so much more at risk of being stalked.

Apple should have an easy way for ANY user to alert people a device is moving with them. Perhaps, the AirTag could beep when the phone user can't be notified. The idea that stalking is possible with these MUST end, asap.

Also, if I detect a Tag on my person/car/bat/etc, relying on police to get the owner's info is a barrier too high. Apple could require tag owners' info to be disclosed under some circumstances, to prevent abuse.

I have a couple little oddities—why does my bike's AirTag beep when I take my bike off the garage wall mount & it bounces? But mostly, they have provided me valuable peace of mind. Including finding our freaked-out kitty.

Re: Significant proportions of people admitted to hospital, or dying from covid-19 in England are vaccinated—this doesn’t mean the vaccines don’t work

Walt French — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 02:12:32 -0000

I hear your argument that we have no long-term data but cannot imagine that the answer to that should be to wait another 20 years

Since the obvious action plan is intellectually bankrupt, perhaps you can suggest other ways of advising individuals and public health officials at the best way to protect our nations’ well-being

If I may say: a specific & perfectly-accurate projection about individual I on Day D in arm A with BMI B is utterly impossible. All judgements are made by bridging from experience with related diseases, etc. A useful answer would seem to rely on something other than what you demand

Re: Six-Month Effectiveness of Bnt162b2 Mrna Covid-19 Vaccine in a Large Us Integrated Health System: A Retrospective Cohort Study by Sara Y. Tartof, Jeff M. Slezak, Heidi Fischer, Vennis Hong, Bradley...

Walt French — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 18:16:12 -0000

I'm not an immunologist or virologist but from the little I know, it is natural for antibody levels to wane, so our bodies don't have the immediate response to microbes that they do immediately after an infection or vaccination

But also, that the attack points for microbes are remembered by our immune system, and antibodies can be more quickly produced once a new infection hits.

If the COVID virus comes on strong & fast, it can get a foothold before the appropriate antibodies again get to strength.

This explains the good reduction in how often the COVID virus infects us at all, and the even-better reduction in whether we get severe COVID, after vaccination.

I'm glad to see this real-world information; it's reassuring. It'd be even easier to appreciate with a (much more!) informed discussion of how our adaptive immune system reacts to a known virus, versus one we're naïve about

Re: From aptX to AAC: What You Need to Know About Bluetooth Audio

Walt French — Mon, 24 May 2021 16:56:45 -0000

Apple does not own AAC. They appear to have been the first major consumer product company to license and use it; they were forward-looking enough to lock in a somewhat more computer-intensive format for the higher quality (at a given bitrate) it produced.

Music players were originally very low-fidelity devices with tiny CPUs and minuscule storage; those are no longer significant limiting factors but very-low-cost devices still avoid higher complexity & storage/bandwidth requirements. That, and the fact that most listeners don't come close to caring about the differences, mean that AAC is often overkill, or at least, a “don't care” feature.

Re: What do you add to the smartwatch that has everything? An Apple Watch Series 6 wish list.

Walt French — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 20:09:23 -0000

#3, matching materials' colors to the displays is more difficult than it sounds. A LOT more difficult

For example fluorescent lamps have very sharp emission spikes—green color doesn't match the green of OLEDs and LCDs—so a material that doesn't reflect all green equal will naturally look different.

If a band reflected only a given wavelength of yellow, the screen, which shows it as a mix of green+red lights, would have to know the level of that band's specific wavelength in the surrounding area. The Watch would need dozens of color-specific sensors, each narrowly measuring a specific slice of the rainbow.

Then the displays could match against the very specific reflections from a given band.

Re: Where to buy cloth masks and face coverings in Berkeley

Walt French — Sun, 10 May 2020 21:29:11 -0000

Here in the Bay Area, there's maybe a one-in-a-thousand chance that person is infectious. I wouldn't worry too much, but neither can you assume there's no risk or nothing you can do.

I suggest that you work w your office manager on distancing, air circulation and maybe shift times to minimize the risk of one of those 30-infection outbreaks. None of you want that, amirite?

Stay safe!

Re: Covid-19 US Dashboard May 5th; Now with Deaths Data

Walt French — Fri, 08 May 2020 17:15:04 -0000

Horace, you're doing great work here but putting the cases & fatality lines on different timelines—“asynchronous comparisons”—is NOT what “AsymCo” ought to represent.

The timing from peak of cases to peak fatalities is an important signal. Why not preserve it?

Re: The Pivot

Walt French — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 14:49:32 -0000

Curious what conclusions you draw from your different perspective. Do they mean that Apple SHOULD trade at a discount to market, i.e., that its earnings/business future is not as rosy as other companies that are more process- or product-defined?

Re: Using One Password is Dumb, Using 1Password is Smart

Walt French — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 15:54:09 -0000

Our son (who works on websites) recommended 1Password to my wife, while I used a simple formula like CementSalm0n that I applied to each site. Then Apple upped its game with a KeyChain app that shared automagically among my laptop, phone & iPod, and I let it choose the angle-bargle that could never be randomly guessed or backed out of a hacker getting a hashed list.

Now my wife constantly finds updating her passwords in 1Pass a hassle. Fr'instance, the mutual fund Fidelity.Com no longer supports the exact login page she used, and we couldn't find a way to change the 1Pass entry without duplicating it.

Apple's keychain isn't exactly perfect, but it is EXTREMELY convenient for me.

Neither of us uses any hardware that isn't supported. Why shouldn't I move her off 1Pass?

Re: iPhone 11 Pro Diary: I’ll be buying one, for exactly the reason I expected

Walt French — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 14:03:29 -0000

Ben, the 13mm focal length is already a 35mm-equivalent length. (You can see that called out in the presentation video when Phil S calls out the new lens.)

I don't know the exact crop factor, but 13mm—the “effective distance” from the optical center of the lens to the sensor—is already much thicker than any iPhone; the actual lens focal length is probably more like 2mm.

Re: Apple Car(d)

Walt French — Tue, 27 Aug 2019 10:42:09 -0000

It’s very easy to imagine 5 years ago, when Apple was wooing banks to support Apple Wallet, that banks AND Apple negotiated the mat Apple would not compete for 5 years

These guys don’t get the big bucks for gullibly going into a deal that enables a new competitor

Re: WSJ Apple Card review: The credit card of the future is no card at all

Walt French — Tue, 13 Aug 2019 21:45:07 -0000

Pro tip: DON'T use the Apple Card when you won't be able to pay off the balance in full at month end.

Another: DON'T use ANY credit card when you won't be able to pay off the balance in full at month end.

You're welcome! ;-)

Re: Apple Wins Invention that ensures your iPhone receives quality Connectivity in Downtown Areas or when Swinging your arms - Patently Apple

Walt French — Tue, 09 Jul 2019 14:47:52 -0000

Does this mean that today's devices DO NOT use Kalman filtering or a similar approach?

(Sounds complex but it was used by NASA as early as the 1950s.)

A pair of 3D accelerometer chips can provide data to compute the exact changes to position & orientation of you phone (or watch, etc) since the last location that was solid, and as I note, a Kalman filter process has been used for decades to do the math.

I recently was walking around Palermo, and its MANY narrow streets. My phone & watch frequently jumped a couple of small blocks, requiring WAAY too much attention & guesswork to get to our destinations. Likewise, I often see Maps think I'm on a frontage road while I'm on a freeway, going at a steady speed & making tiny direction changes. This should be filtered out for many safety & convenience reasons.

I just don't understand why some patent is necessary to use a 60-year-old approach

Re: Should you use the EQ in the iPhone’s Music app?

Walt French — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 15:20:55 -0000

My rules for EQ are a bit different.

(1) It's YOUR music; you should listen to it the way that YOU enjoy the best.

(2) Probably, the band's or studio's engineers knew what they were doing. If you are watching an action movie, the engineers know you're not the only person who wants to experience splosions viscerally. Ditto every genre: you've bought the judgement of people who want you to enjoy the music you chose. The engineers who work for the band/studio regularly and have listened to it closely many times before they released it.

(3) So you should tweak your music wisely. The more you change the frequency response, the relative loudness of some tones versus others, the more likely you'll lose the artists' intent in what you hear. You might miss parts that were meant to be subtle, or feel overload of parts that were meant to carry you along.

(4) If you also listen at high volumes, the more likely too, that overuse of EQ will drive parts of the music into volume levels that your speakers—from cheapo earbuds to ultra-costly systems—past where they perform well, and you'll get crappy sound, distortion that adds phantom sounds not part of ANYBODY'S intent. Few of us are trained to listen for, and back off from, “clipping” that'll cause 3rd-harmonic (e.g., a “440 Hz A” spewing a “1320 Hz E”) junk just on the loud parts.

(5) Silly games with the EQ can make the music sound really weird. Trying to goose up 1kHz, and wipe out 3kHz, can change the sound of an instrument depending on what octave range it's in.

Re: Electric Container Ships Are Stuck on the Horizon

Walt French — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 14:04:28 -0000

You're missing both ends of the electrical conversion issue. Recharging—like all other fixed-point electric usage—will increasingly come from clean sources such as wind.

Don't feel TOO bad: the author of this article ALSO missed the fact that hydrogen is a REMARKABLY dense—it has one of the highest energy density values per mass of 120 and 142 MJ/kg, putting diesel to shame; burning Hydrogen creates pure water as its waste.

There's some energy lost in converting electricity to hydrogen, but in a tanker, hydrogen should be nearly ideal. Curious that this was not discussed.

Re: If Statements Should Cost $10,000 Each

Walt French — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 21:26:35 -0000

If you're going to trust the compiler to do the right thing—e.g., to determine whether to invoke x or y, versus invoking both & discarding the undesired results & hoping no side-effects trashed your bigger effort—you might as well imagine, or take a look at the assembly or other intermediate language. Prolly has a compare statement in there, no? Just like an IF.

Re: If Statements Should Cost $10,000 Each

Walt French — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 21:22:02 -0000

Yes, as a time-sharing tech support guy, I was using a bastardized version of cyclomatic complexity in the early 1980s. Only $1K per control back then. Our implementation language was vectorized, so most loops over 1- and 2-dimensional objects were treated as simple statements.

But while it's NOT new, I think it *IS* exciting to rediscover good ideas.

Re: Traffic Acquisition Costs

Walt French — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 15:45:49 -0000

Consenting adults in an arm's-length transaction, so “worth it” has to be presumed as “better than the alternative” for both parties.