Worth Sharing #37

May 5, 2017

Happy Friday.

About a month ago I began a new job as a software engineer at CardFlight. So far I am loving it. After spending almost my entire professional career in software quality assurance I’m excited to start building software every day.

MacBook Pro with TouchBar: Some Thoughts

At my new job I’ve been using the new 15" MacBook Pro with TouchBar for over a month. For reference, my personal laptop is a mid-2014 15" MacBook Pro. Overall I’m a bit disappointed with the Touch Bar. I find it gimicky with no real-world use.

What I Like

The option to unlock using Touch ID is easily my favorite feature.

The new Space Grey color option is great. Certainly a welcome option I’ll order when the time comes to replace my personal MacBook Pro.

I actually like the keyboard more than my mid-2014 MacBook Pro. There's less key travel but the keys have a pleasant clicky-ness to them, including some nice aural feedback. More akin to a mechanical keyboard.

What I Dislike

I haven’t gotten used to not having a physical Escape key.

I miss physical volume controls.

The addition of Touch ID unfortunately comes with an unwelcome change. The keyboard shortcut Control+Shift+Power/Eject for putting macOS into sleep mode and thus locking your session no longer works.

I also miss the MagSafe connector.

“Elegy for the Arctic” by Ludovico Einaudi

Beautiful piece.

Misc

What I’m enjoying —

I enjoyed learning about Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush’s friendship through this tweet. The socks go back at least as far as this other tweet from 2013.

What I’m reading -

I haven’t yet watched The Fate of the Furious and I don’t intend to while it’s still in theaters. But I enjoyed reading Polygon’s ranking of the eight movies thus far.

I agree with their top four as a group: 4) Fast and Furious 6, 3) Fast Five, 2) The Fast and the Furious, 1) The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. But on any given day Fast Five could be my top pick.

Furious 7 was atrocious.