Notices by Harry McCracken (harrymccracken@mastodon.social)

All TRS-80 Videotex users were white men, and a surprising percentage were thoughtfully stroking their chins.

I am certainly enjoying the Byte Shop 50th anniversary event here in San Jose, an incredible industry reunion. Among other things, I chatted with two of Apple’s cofounders tonight at the opening cocktail party. (Here I am with Ron Wayne; I didn’t get a photo with Woz, but he was in fine form.)

This is shocking to me. Then again, I’m not sure when I last bought a RAM upgrade.

(In the 90s, Micron made some good PCs.) https://www.theverge.com/news/837594/crucial-ram-ssd-micron-ai

Sometimes our memories of movies are really memories of this guy’s remarkable posters. RIP. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/drew-struzan-dies-movie-posters-1236400361/

This company has been a blight on the profession of public relations forever, and is apparently using AI to scale up its awfulness.

(It’s not just UK media they bombard, though I’ve long tried to block all contact from them.) https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/automated-pr-tool-is-bombarding-uk-media-with-ai-generated-content/

I am intrigued.

More bad news for Elizabeth Holmes: She’s aging faster than her husband.

This is utterly appalling, and in a just world would result in everyone involved facing a lifetime ban on owning anything anyone cares about. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/james-dolan-david-zaslav-characters-sphere-wizard-of-oz-1236356200/

It’s disrespectful to fixate on him playing General Zod, but it was a memorable role that has grown only more resonant in recent years. Life is full of General Zods. RIP. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/movies/terence-stamp-dead.html

It’s International Left Handers Day, so here’s a story I wrote in 2012 about the trials and tribulations of using technology designed for the right-handed majority. https://techland.time.com/2012/08/27/left-handed-technology/

There’s a case to be made that AI assistants should be programmed to be completely anodyne information utilities, devoid of chattiness. Relatedly, I’ve been trying Figma Make and noticed that—unlike Replit—it makes no attempt to be my pal or praise my ideas. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/technology/ai-chatbots-delusions-chatgpt.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ck8.FEwL.MLb9ajaocyTx&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Silicon Valley’s strangest current billboard.

Big news! Thanks to an enterprising programmer, my 1981 BASIC adventure game is available in a new version for Radio Shack’s TRS-80 MC-10 computer, which I barely remember existing. But you can play it in your browser. https://www.arctic81.com/arctic-adventure-mc10.html

My vast bitcoin holdings are up 85%. To $38.

VF coulda just rerun this cover this month, no?

WHICH ONE IS IT, BEST BUY?!?

Trying to parse this, and failing.

@ChuckMcManis @harrymccracken I *think* the big type is reminding you that if you’ve got a case, it needs to support magnetic charging. And the small type means to remove the plastic that the message is printed on before you use the charger.

After the employee disruptions at Microsoft’s recent events, I was surprised that Google’s I/O keynote didn’t involve anything similar. https://www.theverge.com/tech/672312/microsoft-block-palestine-gaza-email

Pichai is showing how Gmail composed an email to his friend offering vacation advice he didn’t have time to assemble himself. This whole oft-cited example of using AI for friendly personal correspondence still seems off to me. I’d rather get a brief note I knew was really from Sundar!