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NC #880 Apple Lost Simplicity, Steve’s NosillaCastaway Shanty, Eschenbach Foldable Magnifier, Bonocle Braille Mouse, Security Bits

Hi, this is Allison Sheridan of the NosillaCast Apple Podcast, hosted at Podfeet.com, a technology geek podcast with an EVER so slight Apple bias. Today is Sunday, March 20, 2022, and this is show number 880.

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Last week I told the story about how I created an Apple Shortcut with an embedded shell script that tests to see if my NAS is on the same network as my Mac, and if so, to mount a share volume. In my tests for whether the server was on the same network, I copied an alert that would say the server is “pining for the fjords” it it wasn’t there. Listener Jill wrote in an explanation of that term that I didn’t remember: Jill wrote:

Just in case you didn’t know, “pining for the fjords” is from one the most famous Monty Python sketches ever, the parrot sketch. The shopkeeper describes the eponymous parrot as “pining for the fjords”, when it is, in fact dead. Hence, “pining for the fjords” is a euphemism for being dead. Do yourself a favor: Go watch or listen to the parrot sketch. You won’t regret it.

I know that sketch but I hadn’t seen it in ages so I went back to watch it again. She’s right, it’s one of the great pieces of comedy of our time. It also gives me a chance to tell the best story (probably again) about my dad.

When I was growing up, my dad was a huge influence on me in studying and excelling in school. Education was the number one thing to him. He was an engineer and groomed me in his own image (since my three older brothers pursued different paths, much to his chagrin.)

One day while I was studying, he hollered down to my room to tell me to come see something on TV. I told him I couldn’t watch TV with him, because I was studying for a Chemistry exam. He insisted I come see it. I again argued with him that this test was a mid-term and I really need to study. He replied, “I promise you will remember this much more than anything you ever learn in Chemistry.”

And of course you’ve probably guessed, it was the first time he ever saw Monty Python. My father had a wonderful sense of humor to go with his work eithic, and I think his appreciation of Monty Python proves it. Thanks, Jill for explaining the joke I had entirely missed. I will always use “pining for the fjords” in my error messages from now on.

CCATP #719 – Bart Busschots on PBS Tidbits 3 of Y

Blog Posts

Has Apple Lost Steve Jobs’s Vision of the Simple 2×2 Matrix? – More Diagrams

NosillaCastAway Shanty

CSUN AT 2022: Eschenbach Foldable Video Magnifier Unit

CSUN AT 2022: Bonocle Braille Mouse

Support the Show

You know who I’m a big fan of? William Oesterheld. He just raised his pledge by 70% on Patreon. He’s been supporting the show for a little while now but he decided he wanted to do more. How could William not be my hero? If you want to be a hero and help keep the NosillaCast and all the shows we do here ad-free, please head over to podfeet.com/patreon and pick a dollar (or euro or rupee or crown) amount that’s shows the value you get out of the show. Thank you William for being our hero of the week.

Security Bits — 20 March 2022

That’s going to wind this up for this week. Did you know you can email me at [email protected] any time you like? If you have a question or a suggestion just send it on over. You can follow me on Twitter at @podfeet. If you want to join the conversation, you can join our Slack community at podfeet.com/slack where you can talk to me and all of the other lovely NosillaCastaways. Remember, everything good starts with podfeet.com. You can support the show at podfeet.com/patreon like William did, or with a one-time donation at podfeet.com/paypal.  And if you want to join in the fun of the live show, head on over to podfeet.com/live on Sunday nights at 5pm Pacific Time and join the friendly and enthusiastic NosillaCastaways.   Thanks for listening, and stay subscribed.

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