Monthly Mini-Bytes - May 2022

 

Has Technology Really Made Things Better? This hit me while watching the fist new episode of Stranger Things. The current season is set in 1986. There is a sequence where a newspaper lands on a doorstep. An older gentleman steps out the front door, and picks it up. It got me thinking. Back before the internet and 24x7 everything, we consumed news in the morning and evening via a newspaper, or through short thirty minute broadcasts on TV. In between that we lived our lives. We went to work, or school, or the gym, or just about anywhere else and we weren't constantly bombarded by news, texts, alerts, emails, pings, pongs, slacks, zooms, and all the rest of the noise. We had the opportunity to remain in the moment -- to focus on work, or family, or whatever we were doing. Back then if you went to your child's baseball game, you could focus on the game. You did not have a phone going off with texts and alerts to distract. You were there -- in the moment. Now, things are very different. On our morning walks I can't count the number of people who are either on the phone, texting, or looking at their screens instead of walking and enjoying the morning. At restaurants I see tables full of diners who are interacting with their devices instead of each other. And it gets more insidious from here. Now that we have these screens at our fingertips to pump information directly into our brains, content providers and news organizations turn up the sensationalism to 11 so that we click, share, comment, and can't look away. But by not looking away we are instead turning away from living, becoming beholden to our devices, and the online distractions that go from life enhancements to a digital ball and chain. Although, it doesn't have to be this way. Technology is a tool created by us humans to make our lives better. It should not be a new form of handcuffs, but a magic screwdriver that helps us build, thrive, and work more efficiently so that we have time to focus on the joy of living. To wrangle back control it takes discipline. It may mean putting the phone in a drawer during dinner, or even having separate work and personal devices to make the dividing line easier to define. You can also use existing technology to help turn down the digital noise. Here are three tips: Employ the Apple Watch The Apple Watch is an extension of your iPhone. If you have the cellular model, you can easily leave your phone somewhere and venture out watch-only. You will still get calls and texts, but you won't be posting to Instagram or Facebook. It can help be that first step. Try it at your kid's next soccer game or at a dinner with friends. You may enjoy the disconnection and opportunity to remain in the moment. Use Focus on Your iPhone Apple improved their Do Not Disturb feature and now calls it Focus. Here you can customize alerts for when you are at home, or work, or asleep. To learn more about Focus and how to set it up, visit: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212608 Set Limits for Yourself Bad digital behavior is a real thing. You wouldn't want a co-worker to show up at your home at 10:30 PM at night, so how is it okay that they text you for something that could have waited until work hours. Define what is acceptable to you and stick to it. Again, this takes discipline, but you are in a relationship with technology and setting boundaries lays the groundwork for a healthy relationship. So, I guess the answer to my question is a complicated one. Technology has made a lot of things better, but also made other things much worse. But the good news is that we are in control. We don't have to let it take over our lives, but with some tools and discipline, we can turn it into that magic wand that it should be. And I'd much rather be a wizard than a pawn.

Let's Talk About macOS Monterey I get a lot of questions about why macOS Monterey is so buggy. For over twenty years Mac system updates, whether OS X or macOS, have been excellent. There may have been some issues after each's initial release, but most of those problems were usually resolved in a month or two. Monterey, on the other hand, has presented some lingering issues for many, while others have upgraded without incident. But the question is why. Why is it that Monterey is a blemish on Apple's otherwise excellent track record of system updates? It's simple. The development of macOS Monterey was literally "phoned in." Apple had been in remote work mode and Monterey is the child of work-from-home software development. There are so many enhancements in Monterey that trying to do it all away from co-workers must have been very difficult. In fact, considering the difficulty I am impressed on how well it came out. It's not up to Apple standards, in my opinion, but for an OS that was developed "over the phone" it's kinda okay, and gives a bit of perspective on the limitations of working from home -- especially when building something as critical as a system update. Even so, it's still better than Windows 11. I've said this many times: Computers are about people. They are developed by people to be used by people. And people work best when they are together, working alongside each other, and interacting as humans have been designed. So, if you have a new Mac it will come with Monterey, but if you are running Catalina or Big Sur, you can absolutely wait to update when the new system comes out in the Fall. Those versions of macOS are still supported. Apple is back in the office, so whatever will come out in October should hopefully be back to the standards we expect from Cupertino.

Should You Have a Password Manager?

The answer is... maybe. Everybody hates passwords. It's totally okay to hate them, and in fact it is encouraged. Actually I think they just passed a law in Oregon that requires residents to hate their passwords, and to also create art and poetry about it. But hating your passwords is irrelevant. They are here. You need to interact with them. You have to know them, enter them when prompted, and change them when compromised. Before even considering a password manager, you have to be the password manager. Write them down, put them in a spreadsheet, lock them up in a safe, but have a way that you can record, update, and access your passwords. Then, and only then, should you consider a password manager as a second option.  iCloud Keychain is a built-in password manager that Apple allows you to use across your devices. It is very good, and sits within your iCloud ecosystem. To learn more about iCloud Keychain, visit: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204085