
417: ‘Nothing Is Possible’, With Paul Kafasis
The Talk Show With John Gruber
02/24/25
•120m
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Special guest: Paul Kafasis. Special topics: Siri/Super Bowl nonsense, “Gulf of Mexico/America” nonsense, the iPhone 16e gets announced, and a veritable Bond villain buys the rights to the James Bond movie franchise.
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Unofficial but surprisingly good transcripts.
Links:
- Super Bowl nonsense:
- Every play featured in the 1977 CBS "NFL Today" opening credits would be a severe penalty for violence in today's NFL. Video on YouTube; story on Awful Announcing.
- Apple in 2017, [encouraged people to ask Siri questions about the Super Bowl]( https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2017/01/hey-siri-whos-going-to-win-the-super-bowl/ ).
- Paul's post at One Foot Tsunami: "Not So Super, Apple".
- My post: "Siri Is Super Dumb and Getting Dumber".
- "Gulf of Mexico" nonsense:
- Daring Fireball: "Golfo del Gringo Loco".
- Paul, thoughtfully: "Do Not Obey in Advance".
- "Thoughts and Observations on Today’s iPhone 16e Announcement".
- Rogue Amoeba: "The Developers Who Came in From the Cold".
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
Previous Episode

416: ‘A Professional Internet User’, With Vlad Prelovac
December 24, 2024
•152m
Kagi founder and CEO Vlad Prelovac joins the show to talk about the business of web search, the thinking behind Kagi’s own amazing search engine, and their upstart WebKit-based browser Orion.
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Unofficial but surprisingly good transcripts.
Links:
- Kagi.
- Kagi Blog.
- Kagi Search Stats.
- Kagi Feedback, the Kagi Search issue tracker.
- Orion — Kagi’s lightweight WebKit-based native browser for Mac and iOS.
- Vladimir Prelovac’s homepage.
- Apple’s 1987 “Knowledge Navigator” concept video, which supposedly took place in the “future” of 2011.
- Wikipedia entry.
- Daring Fireball, 2011: “The Type of Companies That Publish Future Concept Videos”.
- Wikipedia: “Essential facilities doctrine”.
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
Next Episode

418: ‘Putting a Stink on the Letter X’, With Craig Hockenberry
March 8, 2025
•162m
Craig Hockenberry returns to the show. Topics include Apple’s new hardware this week — M3 iPad Airs, A16 regular iPads, M4 MacBook Airs, and the M4 Max and surprising M3 Ultra Mac Studios. And we go deep on The Iconfactory’s years-in-the-making new app, Tapestry — a universal timeline for the Internet.
Exclusively sponsored by:
- Google Gemini: Chat to supercharge your ideas.
Unofficial but surprisingly good transcripts.
Links:
- Daring Fireball posts of note:
- “Apple Updates iPad Air (M2→M3) and Regular iPad (A14→A16), and Revamps Magic Keyboard for iPad Air”.
- “Apple Announces, With Little Surprise, M4 MacBook Airs”.
- “Apple Announces, With Much Surprise, Mac Studios With M4 Max and M3 Ultra (!) Chips”.
- From January: “Openvibe, a Multi-Social-Network App for Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads (Supposedly), and Nostr”.
- Tapestry: “Weaving your favorite blogs, social media, and more into a unified and chronological timeline.”
- Craig, on the Iconfactory blog: “Enter Tapestry”.
- Cheryl Cicha, also on the Iconfactory blog: “Tapestry: Past, Present, and Future”.
- Tapestry Connectors — an open, easy (documented!) extensions API.
- Fefes Blog — you’ll have to listen to the show to understand how this is a Tapestry-related link. But trust me, it’s a good story. It starts with this thread on Mastodon, which begins like a great novel: “It’s becoming clear that XML in RSS is the preferred tool of sociopaths.”
- Molly White: “POSSE” (“Publish [on your] Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere”).
- Technology Connections on YouTube: “Algorithms Are Breaking How We Think”.
- The Iconfactory:
- Linea Sketch — “a lightweight digital sketchpad for your iPad”.
- Wallaroo — fun new wallpapers every week, for iOS and Mac.
- Tot — we didn’t mention this brilliant little notes app on the show, but I use it every day.
- iPulse — a nerdy system monitor, with Iconfactory fit and finish. Runs in the background even on iOS.
- Project Tapestry’s year-ago successful Kickstarter campaign.
- Andre Torrez’s Tyke, the inspiration for Tot.
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
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