I wish that everyone could win
It means a lot, because it's hard and cruel to be a professional cyclist, you suffer a lot in preparations. You sacrifice your life, your family. You do everything you can to get here ready, and then after a couple of days you realize that everyone is just so incredibly strong...I don't often win because I'm not as strong as the others, but I can keep cool and focus in the crucial moments...the whole day, I just wanted to give my best...every single rider at this moment would deserve a win...I wish that everyone could win a Tour de France stage, but it's just not possible, and that's cruel, no?
With the 2025 Tour de France in the rearview mirror, an emotional interview with Matej Mohorič after winning Stage 19 of the 2023 Tour de France. We looked for him in the paddock at Stage 17 in 2024 (Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux à Superdévoluy) but it was so blistering hot and humid that the riders stayed in the busses until it was time to race. The level of performance in professional cycling is off the charts, but the empathy and honesty of Matej are hard to come by – definitely one for Gino Mäder!
I am Account Number
Frustration with computers may be familiar to us now, but in the late 1960s and early 1970s it had already reached a new level.
The general public was aware that computers, or “mainframes,” were impacting their lives, but they had little recourse and no access to their own information within computerized systems. Which isn’t far removed from the present, actually, considering search engines, social media, and AI.
It’s interesting that the man wielding the sledgehammer doesn’t give his name – he’s simply a number in the eyes of the computer.1
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Cartoon by Henry Martin, The New Yorker, November 11, 1970. Listed in The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker, by Robert Mankoff and David Remnick, 2004. ↩︎
This crowd!
Such great energy at the final stage of the 2025 Tour de France!
This Instagram post really captures the connection between the riders and the crowd at The Basilica of Sacré Cœur de Montmartre.
POV: Watching the Tour de France in Paris (the sound is great)
"Stop me if you've already seen this"
The famously secretive iPhone maker has zero — and we mean zero — patience with product leaks.1
I was listening to The Talk Show with John Gruber and guest Jason Snell, and they mentioned the recent news about Jon Prosser being sued by Apple for the alleged theft of trade secrets related to iOS 26.
This reminded me of the 2017 news story about an Apple engineer’s daughter filming the iPhone X on a visit to Apple Park in Cupertino.
And of course, there was also the 2010 scandal of a prototype iPhone 4 being left in a bar:
In his 2010 WWDC keynote address, Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 4 and remarked, “Now…stop me if you’ve already seen this,” to which the audience knowingly laughed.
Even with Apple's renewed focus on preventing leaks, they still seem to be in the ether. I wonder if Apple's expansion of production to other countries will make preventing leaks more difficult. At times, however, some of the info seems to be streaming from in and around Cupertino. Personally, I just like to wait and see what Apple announces (and actually ships) before making a decision to upgrade.
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Theodore Schleifer, “An Apple Engineer showed his daughter the new iPhone X. Now, she says, he’s fired." Vox, October 29, 2017. (Apple News). ↩︎
Shudder at "AI" in 1964
Many researchers shudder at the phrase “artificial intelligence.” Its anthropomorphic overtones, they say, often arouse irrelevant emotional responses – i.e., in people who think it sacrilegious to try to imitate the brain.1
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Gilbert Burck, “Will the Computer Outwit Man?”, The Boundless Age of the Computer, Part VI, Fortune, Vol. LXX, No. 4, October 1964. Quote in footnote on page 120. Cartoon on page 121 by Nicholas Solovioff. ↩︎
"Did I just do it again???"
Instagram post with great photos from Thymen Arensman, after his Stage 19 win at the 2025 Tour de France.
Almost Aliens
Another great ride by Thymen Arensman today! It’s his second stage win in the 2025 Tour de France.
And such a heartfelt post-race interview:
It's Tadej and Jonas, and everybody knows they are the strongest in the world -- they are like, almost aliens. And just as a human, I still want to try and beat them. I just can't believe I beat them today.
Academic Digital Presence
I created the infographic below for a Canvas certification course, “Humanizing Learning in Canvas.”
The course was part of the Canvas Certified Educator for Higher Education pathway.
New Apple Displays on the Horizon
A new Apple Pro Display XDR is being rumored. I hope the price comes down, for the display and its accessories.
I remember watching the Apple WWDC Keynote in 2019, and there were some “boos” when the pricing for the display’s semi-optional Pro Stand was announced ($999 just for the stand). In my memory, I feel like the boos were louder during the live-streamed event than in the recorded version (the applause seems the same). John Ternus even pauses at the live audience’s reaction.
I have a Studio Display, which I love, but the camera quality and audio is a bit lacking. I use an Insta360 Link 2 instead of the built-in webcam.
A new Studio Display is also rumored, and hopefully the camera quality will be upgraded. A higher refresh rate would be a welcome addition too, especially for gaming.
What would also be nice, would be a lower-tier Apple display, designed for those with Mac minis and general computing needs. This would be like the 15-inch MacBook Air, filling a need (for quality displays – no more creaky plastic monitors), and also introducing more folks to Apple’s integration between software and hardware.
Coyote Time and Empathetic Design
“Failure is a path, not an immediate result.”1
I was listening to ATP podcast, and John Siracusa discussed “Coyote Time.”
The idea of Coyote Time comes from Wile E. Coyote cartoons, and it’s rooted in video game design.
In the Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoons, Wile E. Coyote tends to end up just off the edge of a cliff, but he doesn’t fall until he realizes his dire situation.
At a glance, it would appear that Coyote Time is a moment of realization, a sinking feeling of impending doom. However, in video game design, Coyote Time is more about forgiveness and empathetic design choices. Coyote Time is about designing features into a game that provide a sense of reality apart from the harsh mechanics of the game itself.
In, “Coyote Time: What Games can Teach Us About Forgiveness in Learning,” Eva Grouling Snider describes Coyote Time as providing “wiggle room” and reducing frustration, which helps to “minimize the consequences of errors, mistakes, and imperfections.”
In educational design and video game design, Coyote Time can be relied on for applying both reality and unreality, a sense of authenticity or inauthenticity, with the end goal of providing engaging experiences where the student, or player, is able to perform at their best.
For example, in video games, this is often a bit of lag introduced purposefully to enable the player to perform an action, such as jumping over a difficult object. In teaching, this could be a low-stakes formative assessment, or perhaps a quiz that can be taken multiple times but only saving the highest score. In lower division courses, Coyote Time may be increased, and then gradually designed out of the course for upper division or graduate level work.
In teaching, Coyote Time can be explicit, for example, allowing drafts to be submitted for comments prior to the formal essay. Coyote Time can also be implicit, in that it’s designed into the course and woven through the educational pathways, providing layers of support while not necessarily stating the design choices.
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Eva Grouling Snider, “Coyote Time: What Games can Teach Us About Forgiveness in Learning,” The Teaching Innovation Blog, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, November 15, 2023. ↩︎