Etak: The first automotive navitation system

12 Map Happenings that Rocked our World: Part 9: A Curious Phenomenon Called ‘Etak’
James Killick, April 11, 2024

Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. Or so said Steve Jobs when he announced iPhone in 2007.

But I’m talking about a different revolutionary product. A foundational product that forever changed how everyone on this planet gets to where they need to be.

Today, I’d like to tell you about the Etak Navigator, a truly revolutionary product and the world’s first practical vehicle navigation system.

The Etak system encapsulated most of what modern navigation systems use today, and it did it with 1980's technology.

h/t Daring Fireball

Federalist: Daylight Savings Is A Scam

Daylight Savings Is A Scam
By: Nathan Stone, March 11, 2024

Americans don’t get more daylight. Plants don’t enjoy an extra hour of sunshine. The only difference it makes is to harm our health.

A great summary about the origin of Daylight Saving time, what people claim it accomplishes, and references to the inconvenient truth that is doesn't accomplish anything, but does significantly impact our health an well-being.

Apple's magic sound-file renaming

This is based on a discussion thread I just started on TidBits Talk.

For those who are unaware, in macOS 11 (aka "Big Sur"), Apple changed all of the standard system sounds. If you compare the system sounds preferences of it (or newer) releases with prior releases, you'll see that the standard set changed:

Old (pre- Big Sur) macOS system sounds	New (Big Sur and later) macOS system sounds
Basso	Mezzo
Blow	Breeze
Bottle	Pebble
Frog	Jump
Funk	Funky
Glass	Crystal
Hero	Heroine
Morse	Pong
Ping	Sonar
Pop	Bubble
Purr	Pluck
Sosumi	Sonumi
Submarine	Sumberge
Tink	Boop

Disabling an iPod's headphone volume alerts

This is a cross-posting of a thread I started on TidBITS Talk

Yesterday, while taking a short road trip, my iPod Touch (running iOS 15.8.1) stared giving me "headphone safety" notifications, complaining that I’m subjecting myself to dangerous volume levels for an extended period of time.

Yes, the iPod was running at maximum volume for three hours. But not into headphones. The headphone jack was connected to a cable to the car’s AUX audio input, for playback over the car's speakers.

I’ve been doing this for years, but something must have changed recently because I never got these warnings before today. (And they even propagated through iCloud into my phone’s Health app - just to rub it in, apparently).

I eventually found the location to disable this, but contrary to expectation, it’s not located in the "Sounds → Headphone Safety" page of system settings (where the option to "Reduce Loud Sounds" is located), but is instead, in the Accesibility section, for some strange reason. Accessibility → Hearing → Audio/Visual → Headphone Notifications.

I've turned it off. I’ll see if it does anything on my next road trip, where I'll be playing music at 100% volume out the headphone jack into the car stereo for six hours.

h/t: iPhone Life: How to Turn Off Headphone Safety Notifications on iPhone (iOS 17)