macOS Ventura

Stage Manager
- Arranges unused windows on the side, arranged by app
- You can see these windows on the left side of the screen
- Group apps so that they all activate at the same time
- Click on Desktop to hide active app and see Desktop
- Drag files from Desktop to any app in Stage Manager
- (Will I be able to group an app's windows in two stacks?)

Spotlight
- Use Quick Look to preview found files
- Search for Photos in Photo Library, on your Mac, and on the Web
- Search for text in Photos
- Run Shortcuts
- More information shown for each result

Mail
- Undo Send
- Schedule Send - send email later
- Follow Up - flags emails where you haven't received a response
- Remind Me - surface emails you want to read later
- Search overhaul

Safari
- Shared Tab Groups - share tabs with other people and see what page they're reading
- Passkeys - passwords replacement, can't be phished or leaked, sync'd, fido Alliance

Metal 3
- MetalFX Upscaling - render smaller frames then scale them up to full screen size
- Fast resource loading API
- Resident Evil Village demo

FaceTime
- Now supports Handoff to any device

Continuity Camera
- use an iPhone as a web cam for your Mac
- supports Center Stage
- Studio Light: simulates a ring light (brightens person, darkens background)
- DeskView: uses iPhone ultra-wide camera to show desk as if you have a second camera
- Continuity Camera can be used with any conferencing app


I'm still on Big Sur (macOS 11) and I need to figure out how to get a discrete install of our VPN software because that's what breaks after every major OS release until the VPN client is updated.

Stage Manager is a feature people have talked about the most. On my Mac I'm already fairly good using Spaces so not sure I'll move over. If this goes to iPad it might be more useful since iPad has poor multi-window support (or rather too many apps want full-screen and don't support half-window mode or popout window mode).

Continuity Camera is a bit weird since all Apple notebooks and displays have a FaceTime camera so you'd use it if you want an even better camera, especially for streaming I think since office Zoom calls don't require a high-end camera. The DeskView part is really quite clever. Wide angle must pick up a very skewed picture of your desktop but with AI it corrects it to look mostly normal.

After listening to half of Chris Delay's interview on Designer Notes I went to Steam and saw that the Introversion Complete Bundle is on sale 90% off. Since I already have Darwinia, DEFCON, Multiwinia and Uplink getting Scanner Somber was just 59 cents.

Also, not related to the Steam sale, Humble Bundle has Talisman: The Complete Collection for $11 which is Talisman: Digital Edition and all DLC released to date (besides expansions and Legendary decks every non-base character is a DLC so there's a lot). Also Talisman: Origins and its three expansions (regular Talisman adapted to solo play). Pretty nice.

Now on to see if there is any cheap stuff I'd buy this Steam sale.

Vampire Survivors ($3 early access) Not on sale but I've seen Streamers playing this 8-bit twin-stick-like shooter. Hordes of monsters coming in waves from all sides of the screen. Kill them, get gold, level up, get cooler weapons. Rinse and repeat.

TinyFolks ($4) Another game that's not on sale. Gameboy graphics side-view strategy RPG where you can build up the town and train your party before sending them out into dungeons. Looks cute.

Radio Commander ($5 with DLC, 80% off) Vietnam wargame but you are the battalion commander back in the firebase directing your units via the radio (and only receiving reports via radio). Interesting concept that seems would be hard to replicate on a board wargame.

Sat Jun 18 2022

Sleep 0500 to 1000. Naps 1 hour. (6 hours)

• Carpool to parents. Arroz con pollo for lunch. Wonton soup for dinner.
• Worked a couple of hours.

Sun Jun 19 2022

Sleep 0330 to 1230. Nap 1 hour. (10 hours)

• Steamed fish and spare ribs for lunch. We left about 1430.
• Worked another couple of hours.

Mon Jun 20 2022

Sleep 0130 to 1130. (10 hours)

• Juneteenth holiday. Determined not to work today.
• Figured out that Deadlands Hell on the High Plains KS PDF rewards are linked from the order page, not the downloads page. Guess because the KS order is still pending.

Tue Jun 21 2022

Sleep 0300 to 1100. (8 hours)

• Closed my Bank of America (BofA) checking account. A lot easier than I expected. Called and no pressure to keep it open or open a different account.
• Columbia Games shopping cart needs cookies enabled. Every other shopping cart can handle my browser security settings.

Wed Jun 22 2022

Sleep 0400 to 1115. 1 hour nap. (8-1/4 hours)

• Been kind of hot this week. I think low 90's yesterday and low 80's today and tomorrow. Luckily I'm not on the sun-side of the building (I get direct sunlight in the morning to late morning when it's coolest). On the other hand it does get cold in the winter but I'd rather deal with cold than hot.

Thu Jun 23 2022

Sleep 0530 to 1200. (6-1/2 hours)

• Rice cooker died. Siblings don't have a spare. From The Wirecutter bought their top recommendation, Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy NS-ZCC10.

Fri Jun 24 2022

Sleep 0030 to 0230, 0900 to 1000, 1100 to 1330. (6-1/2 hours)

• The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade 6-3. I am both angry at the decision and angry at majority's basis for overturning.

Mac

Apple M2 Chip
- focus on power-efficient performance
- second generation 5nm technology, 20B transistors
- 100 GB/s unified memory bandwidth (+50% compared to M1)
- max 24 GB unified memory
- 8-core CPU (4 high performance, 4 efficiency)
- 18% improved performance per watt compared to M1, x2 compared to PCs
- 90% of performance of PC chip while using 1/4th the power
- 10-core GPU
- 25% better graphics performance at same power level as M1, x2.3 compared to PC using 1/5th power
- Secure Enclave
- Neuron Engine
- Media Engine

MacBook Air
- 20% less volume than previous MBA, 2.7 pounds
- 4 finishes: silver, gray, starlight, gold
- MagSafe for power
- Two Thunderbolt ports
- Audio jack supports high-impedance headphones
- Liquid Retina Display, 13.6", 25% brighter, 1B colors
- 1080p FaceTime camera
- 3-mic array, 4-speaker sound system
- Spatial Audio
- Keyboard has full-height function row
- 20% faster than M1 MBA, 40% on many tasks
- 18 hours video playback
- Power Adapter with 2 USB-C ports
- Fast Charge, 50% in 30 minutes
- up to 2 TB SSD
- starts at $1200

MacBook Pro 13"
- 40% faster than M1 MBP 13"
- Active cooling system (MBA has no fans so can get thermally throttled)
- 20 hours video playback
- up to 2 TB SSD
- starts at $1300
- (2 Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, no MagSafe so one of the Thunderbolts is power and maybe connection to a Display)


I love new hardware. 13" MBP with 24 GB memory and 2 TB SSD is $2500. MBA with 24 GB/2TB is also $2500.

MBA: 13.6" display vs 13.3", 2.7 pounds vs 3.0 pounds, 1080p camera vs 720p, 4 speakers vs 2, Function Keys vs Touch Bar, MagSafe port

MBP 13": 20 hours battery vs 18 hours, Active cooling vs no fans

For the same price MBA seems to have all the advantages though no fan can be a problem. If I had to choose between the two I guess MBA if that's all I had and MBP if I had an external KB and Display.

Aces & Eights bundle presents this American Old West, non-fantasy RPG. For $26 you get:

K&C-5005 Rustlers & Townsfolk (208 pp, 2010) - 100 NPCs
K&C-5007 Shootist Guide (83 pp, 2013) - target silhouettes.
K&C-5008 Trouble on the Sequoyah Star (107 pp, 2015) - 48-page adventure, 32-page NPCs, maps
K&C-5009A Fool's Gold (95 pp, 2010) - adventure, this is the expanded version
K&C-5010 Judas Crossing (114 pp, 2009) - frontier mining town, 100+ detailed buildings
K&C-5011 Rustlers & Townsfolk: Judas Crossing (211 pp, 2010) - 100 NPCs from Judas Crossing

Bad Day at Buena Roca (21 pp, 2010) - solo adventure
Ghost Town (15 pp, 2011) - adventure

K&C-5100 Aces & Eights Reloaded (393 pp, 2018) - second edition RPG

Harshaw Creek (33 pp, 2018) - location sourcebook

This is mostly first edition stuff though maybe second edition isn't that different. It's most of the stuff published for Aces & Eights minus some free, mini-supplement, and adventure PDFs.

I guess the biggest problem is that combat features using a Shot Clock, a transparent circular grid you overlay over a target silhouette so you can determine exactly where your shot hit. Reminds me of an old RPG that also used a transparent overlay with a grid.

I guess it wouldn't matter much to me since I'd run it with GURPS. In which case is there enough source material? Maybe not so I think I'll skip this bundle.

Sat Jun 11 2022

Sleep 0230 to 0930. 1 hour nap. (8 hours)

• Nemo finished her 7 rounds in the Open. She ended up 3.5/7. Maybe she could have gotten to 4.5/7 but after the first day the tournament sections are 2 games a day and she had opponents that wanted to grind it out for five hours which then makes you tired for the second game.

Sun Jun 12 2022

Sleep 0700 to 1330. (6-1/2 hours)

• GM Daniel Naroditsky will have a New York Times Games page daily chess puzzle starting tomorrow.
• It's a little weird that I go to PayPal, Activity tab, then click a download image link to get to the monthly transactions download page. When I click on a download icon I expect it to immediately want to download the page contents.

Mon Jun 13 2022

Sleep 0030 to 0330, 0600 to 1000. (7 hours)

• Warriors win at home, now leading 3-2 vs Celtics. Next game in Boston.

Tue Jun 14 2022

Sleep 0330 to 1130. (8 hours)

• Apple announced a 10-year deal with Major League Soccer (the tier 1 league in the US) to stream all games. This will be an add-on service for all the games (price to be announced), a "broad selection" of games for Apple TV+ subscribers, and a "limited number" of games free to anyone. I'm not interested in watching every game but if it's say two games a week like Friday Night Baseball that will be quite good enough for me.
• Received my Roth IRA excess contribution transfer. That took a couple of months, about twice as long as the estimate.

Wed Jun 15 2022

Sleep 0330 to 1130. (8 hours)

• Scheduled car service for Friday. When I tried to contact Christopher, my usual rep, he left a voicemail saying he had stroke last September and he's still convalescing.

Thu Jun 16 2022

Sleep ???

• Warriors win in Boston and win the series 4-2.

Fri Jun 17 2022

Sleep 0000 to 0700. (7 hours)

• Car Service at Toyota Walnut Creek
• Lunch at Butternut Cafe, was kind of full of no-mask old people (I didn't have a mask either so...)
• I had not heard of MLB's Ghost Runner rule until tonight (in extra innings each team starts with a runner on second base). I can appreciate it as a way to prevent epic extra inning games.

iOS 16 (continued)

Home
- Matter: cross-platform standard
- Apple can't see data or how you use Home app
- Redesigned Home app
++ more categories
++ multi-camera view (4 cameras)

Car Play
- supports all car screens including instrument cluster
- widgets in gauge cluster (in front of driver)
- adapts to any car screen layout
- custom layouts with themes and styles

WatchOS 9

- Four new watch faces
- Banner notifications
- New Share Sheet and Photos Picker APIs

Fitness
- New running metrics: vertical oscillation, stride length, ground contact time
- Heart Rate Zones
- Custom workouts
- Multi-sport workout type that can tell when you switch to different activity
- Fitness app will be added to iPhone using its sensors

Health
- Sleep Stages
- Apple Heart & Movement Study (voluntary participation)
- AFib History (Atrial Fibrillation)
- Medications app: track medications and vitamins, receive notifications
++ Drug-drug interaction warnings


Home app has not been that useful to me even though I only have Philips Hue lights in three rooms. I did download Controller for HomeKit (3rd party app) but never used it. Maybe the new Home app will be easier for me to use.

It's nice that Fitness app will now be on iPhone. Also all the Fitness and Health features are neat and I can see why an Apple Watch would be nice to have.

For Free League Publishing's RPG there are two bundles, Mutant Year Zero ($22) and Mutant Year Zero 2 ($20) where the second bundle doesn't have a second tier.

Mutant Year Zero

Mutant: Year Zero (269 pp, 2014)
Zone Sector 1: The Doom Sphere (7 pp, 2015) - scenario location
Zone Sector 2: Denizens of the Sink Hole (10 pp, 2015) - scenario location
Mutant: Year Zero Gamemaster Screen (8 pp, 2016)

Genlab Alpha (240 pp, 2016) - mutant animals splatbook + campaign
Zone Compendium 1: Lair of the Saurians (32 pp, 2015) - three scenario locations
Zone Compendium 2: Dead Blue Sea (44 pp, 2015) - sea-going expansion with two scenario locations
Zone Compendium 3: Die, Meat Eaters, Die! (36 pp, 2016) - five mutant animal smaller scenario locations

Based on Twilight 2K RPG, scenario locations are less than 10 pages containing a map, NPC descriptions and motivations, a couple of plots and a timeline. Kind of a sandbox one-session adventure.

Mutant Year Zero 2

Mechatron (240 pp, 2018) - creating robot PCs + campaign
Elysium (272 pp, 2019) - an enclave (underground pre-fall city a la Paranoia or Fallout) + campaign
Compendium 4: Eternal War (33 pp, 2018) - three robot scenario locations
Compendium 5: Hotel Imperator (36 pp, 2018) - four scenario locations
The Gray Death (104 pp, 2019) - a campaign that ties in Year Zero, Genlab Alpha, Mechatron, Elyium

I think this is most everything that came out for Mutant Year Zero except for card decks, maps and dice, though possibly decks and maps are included but not mentioned (addendum after buying: maps I think included, not decks). I like the idea of a campaign to tie in the four main books so I think I'll buy these bundles.

Sat Jun 04 2022

Sleep 0600 to 1200. 1900 to 2000. (7 hours)

• Last night in DDO we did Acid Wit on R4 and it was a bit rough. I died 17 times and the others 9 and 7 times. Did like the challenge.
• Tonight we did the first part of Sharn at R1 and sped through it.

Sun Jun 05 2022

Sleep 0545 to 1230. (6-2/4 hours)

• Warriors win to tie the series 1-1.

Mon Jun 06 2022

Sleep 0200 to 0300. 0930 to 1300. (4-1/2 hours)

• Couldn't go to sleep. By the time I was sleepy about 0800 I had to stay awake for a 0930 conf call. But at ten minutes before start it was rescheduled for tonight. F me.
• You can watch WWDC Keynote on AppleTV+ but only on iOS and it's hard to find -- go to App Store's Today View for a direct link. On a Mac you're supposed to use Developer app and the latest version requires MacOS 12 which I'm not using yet. Luckily the fallback is the Apple Events podcast which has the keynote replay a bit later in the day.

Tue Jun 07 2022

Sleep 2200 to 0900. (11 hours)

• Received Call of Cthulhu 2E, 40th Anniversary boxed set. 2" deep boxed set is packed. All excellent quality except for the GM Screen which is 1980's softcover book quality and was hand folded so mine is a bit crooked.

Wed Jun 08 2022

Sleep 0700 to 1300. (6 hours)

• Celtics win at home, up 2-1.
• Las Vegas International Chess Festival, National Open starts today

Thu Jun 09 2022

Sleep 0130 to 0330. 1 hour nap. (3 hours)

• Just noticed that Humble Bundle allows you to adjust donation targets again. So now you can give more to charity. Only sliders though so nigh improbably getting it to three round numbers.

Fri Jun 10 2022

Sleep 0130 to 1130. (10 hours)

• Warriors win to tie it back up 2-2.

iOS 16 (continued)

Wallet
- digital driver's license: TSA support, in-app ID verification
- keys (home, office, hotel): share keys via Mail, Messages, selected apps
- Apple Pay: Tap to Pay (iPhone to iPhone payments)
- Apple Pay Later: Four payments, every 2 weeks, first payment at time of purchase, no interest
- Apple Pay Order Tracking: e.g. shipping status

Maps
- 11 more countries
- City Experience: 3D generated views of cities
- Multistop routing: 15 stops, recent routes, create on Mac and send to iPhone
- Transit: see fares, add transit card to Wallet, reload transit card from Transit
- City Experience API
- Look Around API

Sports
- Live Activities
- Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+
- Apple News: My Sports section (US, UK, Canada, Australia)

Family Sharing
- easier to manage accounts for kids
- Quick Start to setup new device for child
- child requests in Messages
- Family Checklist: reminders on changing settings as child grows

Photo Sharing
- photo albums are disjointed between people
- iCloud Shared Photo Library
++ separate library everyone can contribute to (five people max)
++ filters for what to share
++ can shoot pictures directly into library
++ automatic sharing if taking pictures with family members
++ everyone has equal permissions for library

Privacy
- Safety Check
++ use case: abusive relationship
++ review and reset access granted to others
++++ stops sharing your location, resets app privacy permissions, protects access to your messages
++ review sharing with people
++ review app access


Apple is moving into the short-term lending market. I've always thought that's for people who can't use a credit card for a purchase, which usually means you don't have a credit card or are living paycheck to paycheck. So to me a bit of a stigma to it.

I haven't heard of City Experience although it's an outgrowth of the 3D views that Apple Maps has had for a few years now. The generated buildings get more and more detailed and you get enough of an idea that you will be able to recognize nearby buildings by shape as you travel.

Apple News My Sports sounds a little interesting. Although currently the sports news I see on Apple News tends to be from click-bait sites rather than good news sources since I don't have Apple News+.

Family Sharing I don't use so iCloud Shared Photo Library I probably won't use.

GOG's Summer 2022 Sale

They're giving away five games throughout the sale. The first one was Sanitarium, a point and click horror adventure game.

1980's Games - discounts will not be high because the games are already fairly low-priced.

• The Zork Anthology ($3.90, 35% off, Windows) - old Infocom games, also includes Beyond Zork, Zork Zero, and Planetfall. I once played maybe a third of Zork.
• Search for the Titanic ($3.25, 35% off, Windows) - a different sort of game involving a grid-based search for sunken wrecks.
• Sword of Aragon ($3.50, 50% off, Windows) - an early 4X fantasy wargame.
• Space Rogue Classic (($2.10, 65% off) - kind of like Elite + surface action, has a Mac version though possibly 32-bit only

Sat May 28 2022

Sleep 0545 to 1445. (9 hours)

• Yesterday also received Mongoose Traveller 2E Core Rules 2022 Update. I was expecting Call of Cthulhu KS package but I guess that hasn't shipped yet. I'll trust that "order processing" really means that it hasn't shipped.

Sun May 29 2022

Sleep 0530 to 1130. (6 hours)

• Boston Celtics defeat Miami Heat to win the series 4-3. Head to NBA Finals vs Golden State Warriors.

Mon May 30 2022

Sleep 0400 to 1200. (8 hours)

• Memorial Day.
• Worked half days Sat to Mon. Kind of nice and quiet.

Tue May 31 2022

Sleep 0500 to 1200. (7 hours)

• DriveThruComics has a Valiant Comics sale. 50% off but fairly limited selection, mostly volume 1 graphic novel of many of their series. Will probably buy a couple to fill in my collection of comics covered by the Valiant Universe RPG.

Wed Jun 01 2022

Sleep 0415 to 0900. (4-3/4 hours)

• Got Moderna booster #2.
• Went to office afterwards.
• Afterwards got Popeyes. Mobile as special offers so price was competitive with KFC (i.e. a bit cheaper since KFC is very popular versus quite a bit more expensive than KFC).

Thu Jun 02 2022

Sleep 0030 to 0300, 0530 to 1200. 1800 to 1930. (10-1/2 hours)

• Last night was rough and today I was feeling somewhat sick and tired, which I guess shows my body is concentrating on creating anti-bodies. After the evening nap I felt a lot better and clear-headed enough to work.
• Boston wins game 1, 120-108.
• Diablo Immortal released for iOS. It's a clan-based free-to-play model. It's like 3.5 GB initial download and over 10 GB of assets that will download as you get near to needing them.

Fri Jun 03 2022

Sleep 0800 to 1100. 1430 to 1800. (6-1/2 hours)

• Played Diablo Immortal for an hour. A bit better with a controller though it has good design for mobile (it's not a twin-stick game).

iOS 16

Lock Screen
- machine learning so that elements are behind picture subject
- font and color
- widgets
- multiple lock screens
- lock screen gallery
- animated backgrounds

Notifications
- Live Activities: notification messages that update or that can show more info when selected

Focus
- each focus can have its own lock screen
- Focus Filters: e.g. only show work tabs in Safari

Messages
- Edit sent messages
- Undo Send
- mark thread Unread

Shared With You
- Shared With You API

FaceTime Share Play
- gallery of apps that support Share Play
- Share Play from Messages

Dictation
- Combine touch and dictation
- Select text then dictate replacement text
- Automatic punctuation

Siri
- App Intents API so that Shortcuts work for users with zero setup

Live Text
- video support: pause video and interact with text
- quick actions
- translate camera to translate a whole page of text
- Live Text API

Visual Lookup
- auto crop image from a photo


Focus is one of those features I haven't gotten to work exactly like I want. I want Sleep focus to allow Twitch notifications but even if I add Twitch it I don't get the going live notification. Also in the lock screen it doesn't show anything. I guess I want Sleep Focus to just turn off audio alerts for everything except Twitch and Phone calls from contacts, but otherwise behave the same.

iOS 16 is not supported on my old iPhone SE which is fine as it is quite old. I will upgrade to an SE when the next model comes out.