February 2024
Hey all,
This winter finally saw the end of New York City's 700-day snow drought. The sad thing is that it didn't take much: 1.4 inches lightly blanketed Central Park on January 16. We got zero snow last winter, so the last major snowfall was February 13, 2022.
We also got a few additional snows since then. Including this past weekend.
You know what? I'll take it. It's a far cry from when I first moved to New York nearly two decades ago. There could be whole weeks or months in the winter where snow piles sat unmelting on curbs, the source of endless complaints from commuting New Yorkers. Now, any snowfall quickly melts away.
But at least we got snow. I'll just take the W and shut up now.
-Dann
🧙♀️ Have the curse reversed
I was almost ready to give up on The Curse, the Showtime series staring Nathan Fielder, Emma Stone, and Benie Safdie. I'm so glad I made it through to the end.
It's an uncomfortable show to watch, more in line with a Safdie Brothers film (like Uncut Gems or Good Time) rather than a fun parody comedy like Nathan For You.
You'll likely be very uncomfortable through a vast majority of scenes in The Curse. It's unpleasant. But after several episodes, you learn to live with the unpleasantness. Maybe you actually start to find pleasure in it, in the same way you enjoy the sense of terror you feel during a scary movie.
When you make it to the end, and finish that final episode, you'll realize that The Curse is actually art. There's a reason why people are saying it's the best thing on television since Twin Peaks.
You may also realize that there's a ton of interviews with the creators from after different episode screenings at Lincoln Center, and even a Q&A with Benie Safdie and Nathan Fielder moderated by Christopher Nolan. And that content only increases your enjoyment of the series.
Honestly, if you haven't watched The Curse yet, what are you even doing?
✅ Clear-eyed and refreshed
There's been a lot of hype this month about the return of a much beloved To Do app for the iPhone. Clear 2 is an updated and refreshed version of the original Clear app, which was revolutionary when it first launched due to its use of swipes and gestures for controls.
I've been testing the beta version of the app for about a year, so I'm super excited to tell you that you can finally download it for yourself. It's also monetized in a very user-friendly way, with the full app (and all functionality) being free, but themes and other customizations costing small fees.
Honestly, it's also been validating to me to see such love and praise for this app sequel, when I've loved the app from the very beginning. I even interviewed the creator of Clear, Dan Counsell, on my old Novice No Longer podcast back in 2014(!). Now there's a throwback for you.
Unfortunately(?) the app is iPhone only. But if you're using Android, I'm sure you're used to that by now.
🩹 From investigation to feature
Sorry, to all you Android-heads, but here's another section for iPhone users. There's a new feature in iOS 17.3 that you should enable immediately: Stolen Device Protection. Here are some easy instructions for turning it on.
I'm mentioning it here because it's important, but also because the story of how this feature came to exist is super interesting.
Back in February 2023, the Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern and Nicole Nguyen released a damning investigative piece about the tactics thieves used to steal iPhones. It was dead simple: by watching a victim enter their passcode (easier than you might think), thieves could then change their Apple passcode, disable Find My iPhone, and then access a user’s sensitive accounts using the iCloud password keychain. It was a grift that exploited the weakest point in cyber security: the user.
Shortly after the story was published, Apple announced that a new feature was launching in the next iOS beta called Stolen Device Protection. It didn't say that this feature was introduced because of the expose, but it 100% addressed the issue detailed in the piece.
Stolen Device Protection, when enabled:
Requires Face ID or Touch ID authentication for certain actions, such as accessing passwords or credit card info…a passcode alone won’t do it.
Impliments a one-hour wait time, plus more biomarker checks, to change your password when you're away from a familiar place
This feature is out now as of iOS 17.3, and there's literally no reason why you shouldn't enable it immediately if you're an iPhone user.
Oh, and one more thing. Once Apple released this new security feature, the Wall Street Journal published a followup to it's original story that dives into the more sensitive details about the actual tactics that thieves used to social engineer victims into revealing their passcodes and handing over their phones. As I mentioned, it's easier than you might think.
📝 Additional Creative Output
Did you know that in addition to this newsletter, I also create and publish content other places, such as my personal website? In fact, I recently published way too many words about the Apple Vision Pro. The tl;dr? VR is becoming something different than what we originally imagined (ie something akin to The Matrix) and this new implementation is much more compelling.
I also want to take a moment to plug my long-dormant YouTube channel, which now has fresh life given my abundance of newfound free time. I've turned a few of my popular Obsidian blog posts into video tutorials and it's been really rewarding, so I'm going to continue making videos. You should subscribe to me there, too.
🏋️ Me, Myself, and AI
Artificial intelligence has become an integral part of my daily life. I use it all the time. It's not perfect (or even close to perfect) but for certain tasks it's practically a super power. I feel like a lot of people have misconceptions about how AI can fit into someone's workflow, so I wanted to share some details a real world application that I just completed with AI.
Kagi, the Google Search alternative that I love, has this cool product called Universal Summarizer. You feed it a URL (article, blog post, research paper, YouTube video, podcast episode) and get an AI-assisted summary in mere seconds.
I use it all the time. It's especially useful for lengthy video/audio content, where I'd usually just skip consuming it altogether. For articles, it's a good way to decide if I actually want to read the full piece. It's a great tool.
Typically, using Universal Summarizer looks something like this:
Copy the URL of the page you want summarized
Open a new tab, and navigate to Universal Summarizer
Page the URL into the proper field and click summarize
It's not complicated, but is a lot of steps if you're doing it all the time, which I was. I felt like it was an action much better suited for a browser extension. But I've never written a browser extension before.
Enter ChatGPT.
I described the functionality I wanted, and within thirty minutes I had a working browser extension. Each error I got, or modification I wanted to make was quickly answered by AI.
Before ChatGPT, I could have figured out how to make a browser extension on my own. But I probably wouldn't have. Now, I have a useful tool that simplifies a regular workflow of mine, as well as a cool project to show off on Github.
AI is amazing for things like this. Is there anything in your life that you should be automating?
End note
If you've enjoyed this, I'd love it if you shared it with a friend. You can send them here to sign up.
I'll be sending out these emails once per month, and I'm happy you're along for the ride. I'm trying to make it one of the best things that arrives in your inbox each month, so thoughts and feedback are always appreciated. You can just reply to this email.
Also, if you find anything interesting, send it my way.
Thanks for reading. Until next time,
Dann
The Dann Chronicles: February 🧠