Brad Barrish

I don’t typically install macOS developer betas outside of the big releases, but I decided to install the 27.3 developer beta to check out Safari’s vertical tabs. I don’t know how much they will be building them out, but I don’t like their implementation so far. For one, I don’t like them being persistent. I love the auto-hiding capabilities that Arc and Dia have. I keep A LOT of tabs open at all times and while I would love to use Safari as my main browser, the inability to hide tabs is a deal breaker for me. So I’m not sure where that leaves me.

I was a big fan of Arc, which is being put out to pasture next month. I’ve been using Dia and like it ok, but I’ve come to the point where I don’t want a browser with AI built-in. if I’m going to use AI in a browser (and sometimes I do), I want to use Claude or ChatGPT, both of which I pay for and use daily. Seems like my choices are Zen (Firefox), which I have tried and don’t like and Vivaldi, which everyone seems mention, is way too bloated. Might just have to stick with Dia if I’m set on using a Chromium-based browser as my daily driver.

I finally finished Vigil by George Saunders today. Feels like I’ve been reading it for a long time. Even though it took me longer than expected to read it, I liked it. Didn’t love it, but liked it enough to finish it.

I think I’d like to finish Dungeon Crawler Carl and start reading The Topeka School, which a friend generously surprised me with after a conversation about Transcription, which is one of the best books I’ve read in a while.

This was a really good read on passkeys. I generally don’t recommend them, but in my experience many people, especially seniors, are unwilling or unable to use a password manager and an authenticator app.

After seventeen years, I finally deleted my Foursquare account, but not before exporting all of my data. I’ll do something with it at some point. I was already uncomfortable with the pivot Foursquare made and had largely stopped checking in on Swarm, but when the company recently got acquired by Infillion, an ad tech company, I decided to peace out. It was a good run and used to be an awesome app and service. Swarm has largely stayed the same and while it’s useful, I don’t want that data to be available to anyone but me at this point.

It was a rainy Halloween in Los Angeles, but that didn’t stop everyone from descending on the Cheviot Hills neighborhood.

Proof of life. Went to the Lucas Museum today and it was stunning. Absolutely blown away. Even if you have to wait months, I cannot recommend it enough. I’m buying tickets again so I can go a second time.

I grabbed coffee with someone in DTLA yesterday. Walking almost anywhere in DTLA is awful, so I took a Waymo. On my way back to the office my ride was one of the Ojai vans. A first! The doors slide open, which is pretty neat. I’ve taken them a handful of times and the novelty hasn’t worn off yet. It’s just such a superior experience to having a human driver, which I feel kinda gross saying, but there it is.

While everyone is talking about the Duo, I’ve had my 18 Pro for a couple of weeks (upgraded from a 16 Pro). I bought a case, but have been enjoying it caseless so much, I might return the case.

Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard is really awesome. Love the idea and the execution is wonderful. More of this in the world, please.

Here are some albums I’ve been listening to a lot lately. Hope you find something you like. They are all exceptional.