The scale of getting things done:

  1. Urgent and important.
  2. Urgent but not important.
  3. Not urgent but important.
  4. Not urgent and not important.
Or for a visual que let’s borrow one from Wikipedia:
While it took me a long time to learn about the connection to president Eisenhower, I’ve generally found this decision matrix a pretty good way for classifying things. It works really well. Because urgency controls attention, and importance determines making sure it happens, which leads to much doing.
And then there’s what I call The Class 5 Full Roaming Vapor–something that is not urgent, but is important, and that makes you feel like having a shot of whiskey in the mean time. These kinds of things: you can kinda picture smack dab in the middle of the chart, lol.

There are times when I get up, and think it’s almost sad to disturb such a comfortable goonie bird with fur.

Basically spent the night with Willow where my leg goes, Corky by my opposite hip, and Misty in her spot to my left. Which she had to vacate as part of getting up. But comfortable Willow was moving for no body, lol.

And then there are times when I think I ought to dispense treats after breakfast: less I someday meet my death at their paws, lol.

I Tried to Live Without the Tech Giants. It Was Impossible.

Most people don’t go to such an extent to avoid the big tech companies, even for an experiment it is a bit super thorough. But makes a solid point.
Critics of the big tech companies are often told, “If you don’t like the company, don’t use its products.” My takeaway from the experiment was that it’s not possible to do that. It’s not just the products and services branded with the big tech giant’s name. It’s that these companies control a thicket of more obscure products and services that are hard to untangle from tools we rely on for everything we do, from work to getting from point A to point B.”
Perhaps the question we really should be asking ourselves is whether or not these companies are a necessary evil.
Would such services exist, or be anywhere near as good without the help of such companies? Miss Hill points out the dominance of Google Maps and the interaction with things like Uber, and I think that’s kind of key. We had GPS navigation long before we had Google Maps and smart phones, but which would you rather use? Part of what made Google Maps what it is today is the insane investment: sending people and hardware off into the wild blue yonder to build a better dataset than simply importing maps and satellite photos could. Who the hell has that much money? Well, Google did. Some clown in their parents garage might be able to kick start the next Apple or Amazon, but they’re not going to be able to afford to run Google Streetview without monopolistic funding.
As things worked out, I’d say Amazon turned out to be a pretty great idea. But twenty six years ago: we’d probably forgive you for thinking Bezos was crazy instead of anticipating he would become several times richer than God, building one of the world’s most well known enterprises along the way.
See, we build our success upon the success of others—and our success is often in enabling others to succeed. The question is can we do that without the ginormous bankrolls and the infrastructure that entails.
I’d like to think we have yet to see the last great American tech company. But without a governmental strongarm, I don’t think we will ever see these empires displaced. Not until landmark paradigm shifts cause them to exit a market, or for profitability sake they choose to exit or destroy one. You’re not going to beat Google Maps unless they’re incompetent and you’re hyper lucky and clever at just the right time: or they choose to shutter the entire operation. That’s just how it works at scale.
Yes, I’m pretty sure that we should refer to them as monopolies. But are they ones we need, or are they ones we can ill afford? As someone who long resisted Google and Facebook, I find that a very intriguing question.

ARM-Based 12-inch MacBook Specs Include A14X Bionic SoC, up to 16GB RAM, 20-Hour Battery Life & More

To me it would make sense if the first Macintosh to sport Apple’s ARM system on a chip was the basic MacBook. It’s entry level enough to support up selling more powerful machines, and down low enough to write it off if the horse power cells to wow everyone’s eyes out of their sockets.
“Looking at these rumored specs, it honestly looks like Apple wants to repurpose the discontinued 12-inch MacBook to sport its own A14X Bionic SoC. Since the A14X Bionic is expected to be made on the 5nm process and not have a ridiculously high TDP, the 12-inch MacBook’s chassis should be sufficient to cool the chip“
Which would also be inline with modern Apple and Samsung devices. Not to mention, if it’s not busted: why fix it?

It’s probably telling that with my laptop less than three meters away, and my tablet’s keyboard/mouse more like seven meters away; I opted to go with the tablet approach.

For sitting on my couch: tablets are generally an ideal formfactor. For being at a desk often the lure of a large keyboard and an even larger display is hard to pass out. But there are times where I’d rather be at my couch just like there are times I would rather be at my desk.
Generally, I’ve found that my laptop and desktop aren’t devices I reach for as often for their form factor as I do for the ease of using an X-Terminal, or simply doing things on it through a glorified X-Terminal and associated trappings. Or for very specialized tasks: because good luck cramming a massive GTX into a tablet, lol.