#Apple support termination

[creativemedianews]

Apple devices are now obsolete, leaving users without assistance if they break

Apple devices are now obsolete, leaving users without assistance if they break #Appleobsoleteproducts

[stellophiliac]

how to build a digital music collection and stuff

spotify sucks aaaass. so start downloading shit!!

file format glossary

.wav is highest quality and biggest

.mp3 is very small, but uses lossy compression which means it's lower quality

.flac is smaller than .wav, but uses lossless compression so it's high quality

.m4a is an audio file format that apple uses. that's all i really know

downloading the music

doubledouble.top is a life saver. you can download from a variety of services including but not limited to apple music, spotify, soundcloud, tidal, deezer, etc.

i'd recommend ripping your music from tidal or apple music since they're the best quality (i think apple music gives you lossless audio anyway. .m4a can be both lossy and lossless, but from the text on doubledouble i assume they're ripping HQ files off apple music)

i also love love love cobalt.tools for ripping audio/video from youtube (they support a lot of other platforms too!)

of course, many artists have their music on bandcamp — purchase or download directly from them if you can. bandcamp offers a variety of file formats for download

file conversion

if you're downloading from apple music with doubledouble, it spits out an .m4a file.

.m4a is ok for some people but if you prefer .flac, you may wanna convert it. ffmpeg is a CLI (terminal) tool to help with media conversion

if you're on linux or macOS, you can use parameter expansion to batch convert all files in a folder. put the files in one place first, then with your terminal, cd into the directory and run:

for i in *.m4a; do ffmpeg -i "$i" "${i%.*}.flac"; done

this converts from .m4a to .flac — change the file extensions if needed.

soulseek

another way to get music is through soulseek. soulseek is a peer-to-peer file sharing network which is mainly used for music. nicotine+ is a pretty intuitive (and open-source) client if you don't like the official one.

you can probably find a better tutorial on soulseek somewhere else. just wanted to make this option known

it's bad etiquette to download from people without sharing files of your own, so make sure you've got something shared. also try to avoid queuing up more than 1-2 albums from one person in a row

tagging & organizing your music

tagging: adding metadata to a music file (eg. song name, artist name, album) that music players can recognize and display

if you've ripped music from a streaming platform, chances are it's already tagged. i've gotten files with slightly incorrect tags from doubledouble though, so if you care about that then you might wanna look into it

i use musicbrainz picard for my tagging. they've got pretty extensive documentation, which will probably be more useful than me

basically, you can look up album data from an online database into the program, and then match each track with its file. the program will tag each file correctly for you (there's also options for renaming the file according to a certain structure if you're into that!)

there's also beets, which is a CLI tool for... a lot of music collection management stuff. i haven't really used it myself, but if you feel up to it then they've got extensive documentation too. for most people, though, it's not really a necessity

how you wanna organize your music is completely up to you. my preferred filestructure is:

artist > album > track # track

using a music player

the options for this are pretty expansive. commonly used players i see include VLC, foobar2000, clementine (or a fork of it called strawberry), and cmus (for the terminal)

you can also totally use iTunes or something. i don't know what audio players other systems come with

i personally use dopamine. it's a little bit slow, but it's got a nice UI and is themeable plus has last.fm support (!!!)

don't let the github page fool you, you don't have to build from source. you can find the releases here

click the "assets" dropdown on the most recent release, and download whichever one is compatible with your OS

syncing

if you're fine with your files just being on one device (perhaps your computer, but perhaps also an USB drive or an mp3 player), you don't have to do this

you can sync with something like google drive, but i hate google more than i hate spotify

you can get a free nextcloud account from one of their providers with 2GB of free storage. you can use webDAV to access your files from an app on your phone or other device (documents by readdle has webDAV support, which is what i use)

disroot and blahaj.land are a couple providers i know that offer other services as well as nextcloud (so you get more with your account), but accounts are manually approved. do give them a look though!!

if you're tech-savvy and have an unused machine lying around, look into self-hosting your own nextcloud, or better yet, your own media server. i've heard that navidrome is a pretty good audio server. i unfortunately don't have experience with self-hosting at the moment so i have like zero advice to give here. yunohost seems to be a really easy way to manage a server

afterword

i don't know if any of this is helpful, but i just wanted to consolidate my personal advice in one place. fuck big tech. own your media, they could take it away from you at any moment

[campaign-spotlight]

On Location at OrcaCon (Part 1) [S3F5]

In this week's Flashlight, we head to the OrcaCon tabletop games convention in Seattle! We hear about a bunch of cool projects, we spot a prominent state official, and Jake is flummoxed by the concept of 24-hour livestreams. This convention was honestly so much fun, and we're already scheming to get to more tabletop gaming events.

Here's everyone we spoke with in this episode. Some of these were booths at the con, and some were people who saw us with a mic and wanted to let our listeners know what they were working on. We're really grateful to everyone who took the time to speak with us!

Rainbow Roll Network features actual plays by LGBTQIA+ creators and runs Rainbow Roll Fest, which is an online TTRPG festival

Legends of Gadia is a fantasy card game with an active Kickstarter based on an upcoming fantasy novel series

Game On Youth is a gaming group for neurodivergent youth in Seattle

Extra Life is a peer-to-peer fundraising organization that supports Children's Miracle Network hospitals through gaming

Brush Wielders Union is a community with a bunch of cool resources for miniatures gamers including a podcast

Terminal City Tabletop Convention is coming up in Vancouver next month

Chance Encounter Games offers TTRPG workshops, games, and accessories in Seattle

Outsider Comics is a cozy and inclusive comic book store in Seattle

Goblin Society Games is an independent developer and publisher of board, card, and tabletop roleplaying games

Around the Table is a local game store, cafe, and pub in Lynnwood

Green Ronin Publishing, a roleplaying game company that's producing a Fifth Season TTRPG we're really excited about

Cay Fletcher is an independent author and artist in Portland

Also, thanks to everyone from the Oppegaard Meadery episode who recommended OrcaCon to us!

If you like the music on the show, go check out more of Reilly's music.

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. You can also get episodes right from the source at our RSS feed. If you enjoy Campaign Spotlight, consider subscribing to our Patreon. For more on the show, including links to all our social media, visit our website.   

[postroesociety]

hey yall!

i know that this is just an advocacy account but i still want to boost this artist i love. her name is Hannah Wicklund and I highly encourage you check her out!

the following is her latest post from instagram <3

“Tonight at midnight ‘Mama Said’ from my upcoming Live record ‘Live at the Troubadour’ will be released.

The timing is not lost on me, considering I wrote this song as a 16/17 year old girl about the “relationship” I had with a 34 year old manchild named Anthony. I did not know at that time how much damage was being caused by that person or circumstance, but I wish I could just give that little girl a hug today.

I wrote and then recorded the original version of ‘Mama Said’ at 17 years old, after my brother learned about what was going on and swooped into protection mode. I wasn’t grateful then, but I am so, so grateful now. Thank you Luke.

The relationship took a long pause, but ultimately picked back up after I had recorded that album and at 18 I found myself pregnant with that man’s child.

I would not be a shred of the woman I am today had I not had the choice to terminate that pregnancy.

At that time as a society, abortion was not a hot topic. It wasn’t being discussed and analyzed in the news every day. I was able to go through that process without this added level of shame some people want us as women to feel. I was able to continue on with my life.

To hear the phrase “your body, my choice”, and to know boys in schools were taunting girls with it this week literally sickens me. I spent yesterday sobbing in the van on the way home from playing an event centered around supporting women. I sobbed for the little girls at school hearing that phrase and I sobbed for the 12 year old boys who have no idea the level of hate they are perpetuating.

To all of you good men out there, please, please, please support the women in your lives. We need you now more than ever."

Here are her socials if you would to go support her.

instagram

spotify

apple music

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Sean Durns

A United Nations agency has been caught helping Hamas. The Washington Post, however, is here to help both the genocidal terrorist group and the corrupt organization that shares its ultimate objective: the destruction of the Jewish state.

A Jan. 30, 2024 Post column entitled “Biden’s cutoff of Palestinian aid is inhumane and strategically stupid” was a veritable whitewash of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), whose employees took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion of Israel, the largest massacre of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust.

On Jan. 26, Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, acknowledged that Israeli authorities had provided the organization with “information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA employees in the horrific attacks on Israel.” Lazzarini stated that he had “immediately terminated the contracts of these staff members.”

Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin noted that “12 U.N. employees in Gaza” allegedly participated in the attack, noting that, “if found guilty” they “deserve no sanctuary and no mercy.” He also said that “UNRWA has big questions to answer about this and other instances of some of its 13,000 employees seeming support for violence against Israelis.”

But Rogin declined to elaborate on what some of these “other instances” were. No additional facts were given. Instead, Rogin devoted most of his column to calling Biden administration cuts to UNRWA “cruel” and counterproductive. Cuts to UNRWA, he warned, “will have ripple effects that will make solving all of the Middle East’s problems more difficult.”

It is far from certain whether solving “all of the Middle East’s problems” should be a US objective, let alone whether that is obtainable.

However, what it is certain is that eight decades after the end of World War II, UN employees helped carry out the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. And far from being outliers, their behavior is reflective of UNRWA itself. The UN agency’s support for murdering Jews is endemic. It is also extensively documented. And Rogin declined to provide examples that were already in the public domain.

Indeed, as The Wall Street Journal reported before Rogin’s column ran, intelligence reports indicate that no fewer than a dozen UNRWA employees “had connections” to the Oct. 7 massacre, and at least six took part in the attack. At least two others helped kidnap Israelis, and others “were tracked to sites where Jewish civilians were shot and killed.” The Journal also noted that “others coordinated logistics for the assault, including procuring weapons.” UNRWA vehicles and facilities were also used.

Far from a case of “a few bad apples,” as both UNRWA and its apologists in the press would have the world believe, UNRWA’s complicity is extensive. Intelligence estimates shared with the Journal indicate that no fewer than 1,200 of its employees in Gaza “have links to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, about half have close relative who belong” to these US-designated terror groups.

Put another way: how many UN employees aiding and abetting the systemic slaughter of Jews is too many before US taxpayers quit the footing the bill?

[theshipsong]

If neovim is what you want to talk about, then please pick three items from the ask game that you like the most and tell me about it ^_^

(fic writer asks)

this is a can of worms you’ve opened but i choose to understand your self-described tech monkey-ness as you probably know a thing or two already so for my other victims reading!!!:

16. favorite place to write

17. talk about your writing and editing process

i fully realize this ask game probably meant a real world location like a coffee shop or a couch but i am interpreting it as software!!!

vi/vim/neovim are a succession of terminal UI text editors that date back to the 70s. its main feature is probably that it’s modal, meaning you switch between editing/preview/select/other functions with a keyboard command. i write my fic in markdown format, not rich text like in google docs or word, so if i want to italicize text i type asterisks around it *like this* instead of having to select “italic” from a formatting bar or worse, highlighting the text after the fact

ALL THIS MEANS is i can write an entire fic draft without touching a mouse!!! which i know isn’t cool/with these touchscreen times but i have mechanical keyboards and a sexy sexy thinkpad that are a joy to type on, so any opportunity to use them, i will take. neo/vim is also highly customizable with plugins (relevant here is probably a wordcounter), and i use my own colorscheme named after my beautiful girlfriend PERONA:

the other thing about “modal” editing is it is so painless to manipulate text, like move entire 10s of paragraphs up and down a chapter draft without touching a mouse and easily undoing it, which i tend to do if i’m fucking with linear time, seeing what it’d look like starting in media res, etc. in terms of proofreading, i tend to proofread in either the tumblr editor (godless) or in obsidian, viewing the same file in rendered markdown, probably in a serif font.

and THE LAST THING is it’s such a lightweight piece of software that i can use it on any device under the sun. actually. there’s no compromises of folding to what the android app store has available. i have the exact same writing experience on my laptop, desktop, ipad, and if i’m crazy, by attaching a keyboard to my phone.

7. your preferred writing fonts

the other vim thing is because it’s in the terminal, you will be stuck with whatever monospace (hacker-looking) font your terminal emulator uses. now i set this to be either Iosevka or JetBrains Mono (in above screenshot) if i have that freedom, two open source programming fonts with pretty italics and broad language support, but my ipad shell app only lets me use apple’s Menlo, which is…. fine.

this is a similar liberatory resriction to using Times New Roman for academic writing. all the time i would spend fucking around formatting fonts is gone (and instead went into configuring neovim plugins). the serif font i have in obsidian for proofreading rn is Crimson Pro

[thehiddencontroller]

Fortnite Removed from iOS Worldwide as Epic vs. Apple Battle Escalates 📱

Epic Games has officially pulled the plug on Fortnite for iOS, ending support for the app across all regions—including the EU, where a comeback once seemed possible.

The move comes after Apple terminated Epic’s developer account, blocking any attempt to reintroduce Fortnite to iPhones and iPads. Without updates, support, or access, the game is now completely unavailable on iOS devices.

This is the latest chapter in the years-long standoff between Epic and Apple, centered on app store policies, developer freedom, and platform control. For millions of mobile players, it’s the end of an era—and a major shakeup in the mobile gaming world.

📖 Full story here: https://shorturl.at/m00S3

[juniornguessan]

Votre hub d’inspiration marketing !

Découvrez des idées innovantes, des stratégies créatives et des réflexions percutantes pour propulser vos projets au sommet. Que vous soyez entrepreneur, marketeur ou simplement curieux, plongez dans l’univers des tendances digitales et marketing.

3 astuces pour booster votre stratégie marketing en 2024

Dans le monde du marketing digital, rester à jour est essentiel. Voici trois astuces incontournables pour maximiser votre impact en 2024 :

1.Misez sur les contenus interactifs

Les quiz, sondages et vidéos interactives captivent votre audience et augmentent l’engagement. Testez les formats qui encouragent la participation.

Exemples de contenus interactifs :

• Quiz : Posez des questions personnalisées pour évaluer les besoins ou intérêts de votre audience. Exemple : « Quel produit correspond le mieux à votre style de vie ? ».

• Sondages : Utilisez des sondages pour recueillir des avis ou engager votre communauté sur les réseaux sociaux.

• Calculatrices personnalisées : Par exemple, une calculatrice pour estimer le coût d’un service ou une économie potentielle.

• Jeux simples : Proposez des jeux en ligne comme des puzzles ou des concours pour renforcer la fidélité de votre marque.

Pourquoi ça fonctionne ?

• Les utilisateurs passent plus de temps sur vos pages.

• Cela génère des partages, augmentant ainsi votre portée organique.

• Ces contenus fournissent des données précieuses pour ajuster vos stratégies.

Exemple pratique :

Un site e-commerce peut créer un quiz interactif qui recommande des produits en fonction des réponses des utilisateurs.

2. Utilisez l’intelligence artificielle (IA).

L’IA est devenue un outil indispensable pour optimiser les campagnes marketing. Elle permet d’améliorer la personnalisation, d’augmenter l’efficacité, et de réduire les coûts.

Applications de l’IA dans le marketing :

• Automatisation des emails : Envoyez des messages personnalisés en fonction des comportements des clients (clics, achats, abandon de panier).

• Analyse prédictive : Identifiez les comportements futurs des clients et adaptez vos offres.

• Chatbots : Améliorez le support client 24/7 avec des réponses instantanées et personnalisée

CROISSANCE DES REVENUS

Tellement plus qu’un simple chatbot FAQ

Apportez une nouvelle dimension à vos efforts en matière d’up-sell, cross-sell et génération de leads. Aidez vos clients avec un véritable assistant virtuel, capable de tenir de vraies conversations, et même de terminer des transactions en intégralité.

PORTÉE ÉTENDUE

De très nombreux canaux de contact

Aidez vos clients en mettant à leur disposition un chatbot sur tous leurs canaux de communication préférés, dont WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Apple Messages for Business, Viber, Instagram Messages, Twitter Direct Messages, Telegram, LINE, Live Chat, SMS, RCS et Google Business Messages.

Exemple pratique :

• Création de contenu : Utilisez des outils d’IA pour générer des articles, des descriptions de produits ou des publications sur les réseaux sociaux.

• Publicité ciblée : Maximisez votre retour sur investissement grâce à des campagnes publicitaires intelligentes qui ciblent les bons utilisateurs au bon moment.

Pourquoi ça fonctionne ?

• L’IA offre une précision et une rapidité inégalées.

• Elle réduit la charge de travail pour votre équipe.

• Les campagnes deviennent plus efficaces, augmentant le taux de conversion.

Exemple pratique :

Un chatbot peut être utilisé sur votre site pour répondre instantanément aux questions des visiteurs, augmentant ainsi les chances de conversion.

3. Optimisez pour la recherche vocal

Avec la popularité croissante des assistants vocaux comme Alexa, Google Assistant et Siri, la recherche vocale transforme la façon dont les gens recherchent des informations en ligne.

Comment adapter votre stratégie ?

• Utilisez des phrases naturelles : Les requêtes vocales sont souvent des phrases complètes, comme « Où trouver une pizzeria ouverte près de chez moi ? ». Intégrez ces expressions dans votre contenu.

• Questions fréquentes (FAQ) : Ajoutez une section FAQ structurée sur votre site pour répondre aux questions typiques.

• SEO local : Optimisez votre présence pour les recherches locales avec des mots-clés spécifiques à votre région.

• Vitesse de chargement : Les recherches vocales favorisent les sites rapides et bien optimisés pour mobile.

Pourquoi ça fonctionne ?

• Les assistants vocaux favorisent les réponses directes et concises, ce qui renforce la nécessité d’un contenu clair et optimisé.

• Les recherches vocales augmentent rapidement, particulièrement pour les achats et les recherches locales.

Exemple pratique :

Si vous êtes une boulangerie, optimiser pour des mots-clés comme « Où trouver du pain artisanal près de moi ? » peut augmenter votre trafic local.

En suivant ces trois étapes, vous serez bien positionné pour maximiser vos résultats en 2024. Si vous souhaitez approfondir une de ces étapes ou découvrir des outils spécifiques contactez nous au + 225 0151600402 ou 👉 en cliquant sur ce lien

[retailnightmarespodcast]

http://www.doublesided.com/podcasts/media/2025-04-20_retail_nightmares_episode_366_graham_clark.mp3

The co-ghosts team up with hilarious comedian and friend Graham Clark to discuss horse lasers, Terminator 2, and gender affirming care! SUPPORT JAY'S FUNDRAISER! RSS Spotify Apple Podcasts Listen / Download

Patreon

Store

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (2-8 Mar 2025)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society (C.M. Waggoner, author; Cindy Piller, narrator) - extremely entertaining read! recced by my friend door. billed as a 'riotous mix of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Murder, She Wrote' and surprisingly those comps are extremely accurate. Love the conceit. also really liked what it said about never being too old/cool for whimsy.

😊 His Roommate's Pleasure (Lana McGregor) - enjoyable, short (30K) jock/nerd college roommates erotic romance, delivers precisely what it advertises

💖💖 +158K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

Consensual Catfishing (foresthearts) - Stranger Things: Steddie, 32K - reread. modern AU, told via social media, absolutely delightful. Great art & great execution of the set up.

Broken Bird's Wing (sheafrotherdon) - The Old Guard: Kaysanova, 14K - reread. A 'The Repair Shop' AU, lovely & warm & gentle

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

The Shots You Take Virtual Event (with Rachel Reid & KD Casey)

Handsome - Leslie Jones gives Handsome a happy ending

Doctor Odyssey - s1, e9

Make Some Noise - s3, e19

Smartypants - s2, e1

Death in Paradise - s14, e3

Tech Support | WIRED - Dungeon Master Brennan Lee Mulligan Answers DnD Questions

One Song Podcast - Madonna's "Into the Groove" with Guillermo Díaz

Harley Quinn - s5, e5-8

D20: A Court of Fey and Flowers - "The Rule of Sneakery" (s15, e8)

D20: Adventuring Party - "Doctor Green Hunter" (s10, e8)

D20: A Court of Fey and Flowers - "Theater of War" (s15, e9)

D20: Adventuring Party - "Do Clothes Die?" (s10, e9)

D20: A Court of Fey and Flowers - "You Will Never Know a Lonely Day Again" (s15, e10)

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Our 2025 Oscars Recap

The Sporkful - Eggs, Raw Milk, And Tariffs, Oh My!

Welcome to Night Vale #263 - Hysteria Land

⭐ Rebel Ever After - Trans identity & polyamory in romance with TJ Alexander

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Arizona’s Big, Big Souvenir

Shedunnit - The Mystery Short Story

Vibe Check - Modern Scriptures at On Air Fest

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Favorite SNL Musical Moments

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - This Dog Stole Madrid’s Heart

Switched on Pop - Playing "Hide and Seek" with Imogen Heap

99% Invisible - A Beetle By Any Other Name

Off Menu - Ep 281: David Tennant

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Mickey 17 And What's Making Us Happy

It's Been a Minute - Is Hollywood soft censoring Palestinian art?

Today, Explained - The Zizian "death cult"

Handsome - Pretty Little Episode #29

⭐ The Atlas Obscura Podcast - McAtlas with Gary He

Endless Thread - Terminally Online

⭐ Imaginary Worlds - Fantasy Through a Muslim Lens

⭐ Twenty Thousand Hertz+ - “The Autumn, She’s Been Hit!” The wish that changed Halo forever

Strong Songs - "Fast As You Can" by Fiona Apple

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

True Metal Warriors

'80s Prom Dance

Letters to Cleo

MAYHEM [Lady Gaga] {2025}

Relaxing '80s Rock

Presenting Dua Lipa

The Romantics

[greensparty]

Remembering David Johansen and Joey Molland

Sad weekend for music fans as we lost two legends. I'm listening to a ton of New York Dolls and Bandfinger this week! Here is my combined remembrance:

Remembering David Johansen 1950-2025

Sad news that singer / actor David Johansen has died at 75. Just a few weeks ago he announced that he had terminal cancer and needed some financial assistance with medical bills and there was an outpouring of support.

He was the singer for seminal early punk pioneers New York Dolls. If you haven’t listened to the band’s 1973 self-titled album, go listen to it right now! It completely laid the ground work for punk and metal that followed. Saddest of all is that you look at that lineup of NYD and now they are all gone: Johnny Thunders died in 1991, Jerry Nolan died in 1992, Arthur "Killer" Kane died in 2004, Sylvain Sylvain died in 2021 and now Johansen. After the band's initial run until 1975, Johansen began a solo career. He was friends with Aerosmith and Joe Perry played on Johansen's 1978 debut. One song that Steven Tyler was co-writing with Johansen "Sight for Sore Eyes" made its way onto Draw the Line. Great song! They were also intertwined in that Johansen's first wife Cyrinda Fox and he married in 1977 and in 1978, she left him for Steven Tyler (their daughter is Mia Tyler). In the 1980s, Johansen reinvented himself as Buster Poindexter, a swing singer completely different from NYD. He made multiple appearances on SNL and had a hit with "Hot Hot Hot", which gets played at just about ever wedding and bar mitzvah you go to even today, and "Zat You Santa Claus?". In 2004, NYD reunited to the surprise of fans everywhere. In 2004, I attended Little Steven’s Underground Garage Festival at Randall’s Island in NYC and the newly reunited New York Dolls were one of the headliners. It was about two months after bassist Arthur “Killer” Kane had died (check out the documentary about him New York Doll if you haven’t seen it), but the band sounded great. Glad I got to see them with Johansen and Sylvain when I did. The NYD actually put out more albums from the 00s to 10s than they did in the 70s. Kind of cool to see they had a second act.

Johansen and Scorsese in 2023

In the mid-80s, Johansen began a long acting career as well. Beginning with an appearance on Miami Vice, as the Priest in Jonathan Demme's Married to the Mob, the Ghost of Christmas Past in Scrooged, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (I can never un-see his final scene in the Cat from Hell segment), 200 Cigarettes, and on A Very Murray Christmas. In 2023, Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi did an excellent documentary about Johansen Personality Crisis: One Night Only, which I included in my Best Documentaries of 2023 list.

The link above is the obit from Hollywood Reporter.

Remembering Joey Molland 1947-2025

Musician Joey Molland has died at 77. He was the singer / guitarist / keyboardist for Badfinger. Much like Johansen and the New York Dolls, Molland was the last of the classic early 70s lineup.

The band started out as The Iveys. Then in 1968, they signed to The Beatles’ record label Apple Records. They were pals with The Beatles and Paul McCartney even collaborated on some of their tunes. Molland joined when they became Badfinger in 1969. Between 1969 and 1972, they had a string of power pop hits: “come and get it”, “no matter what”, “day after day” and of course, “baby blue”. Check out No Dice and Straight Up if you haven't. The band broke up following leader Peter Ham’s suicide in 1975. They’ve reunited here and there since then. Molland started Joey Molland's Badfinger in 1981. I'm kinda kicking myself for having missed seeing him live when I had the chance.

It is also worth noting that in addition to Badfinger, Molland was a part of George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh, played acoustic guitar on Harrison's All Things Must Pass album (check out my review of the 2021 reissue), and he also played on John Lennon's Imagine album too. Not too bad to appear on both Harrison and Lennon's best solo albums!

Molland

In 2013, after Badfinger's "Baby Blue" was featured in the finale of Breaking Bad, I wrote a piece (an early blog piece here) praising Badfinger. To my surprise, Badfinger actually liked that on Facebook! In 2021, I got to review Badfinger's No Matter What - Revisiting the Hits, a re-recording of hits with various guests.

The link above is the obit from Ultimate Classic Rock.

[yourreddancer]

Today in Politics, Bulletin 63. 2/3/25

Ron Filipkowski

Feb 4

∙

Paid

… Elon Musk locked USAID staffers out of their building this morning. AP reported that the entrance had yellow police tape with officers blocking entry to the lobby. Musk went on an X spaces in the wee hours of the morning to announce that he was shutting it down: “It became apparent that it’s not just an apple with a worm it in. What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair.”

… Musk claimed that he checked with Trump first and got his approval: “I checked with him a few times. ‘Are you sure?’ Yes, we’re shutting it down. He agreed we should shut it down.”

… USAID’s website was down this morning with no explanation, and staffers told AP they were locked out of the agency’s computer systems.

… A USAID official to NBC: “No one feels safe to go anywhere near the Ronald Reagan building. We just had Elon Musk call us a criminal organization. Our security chief was escorted out. We know we are being surveilled by DOGE.”

… Trump was then asked this morning whether it would take an act of Congress to disband USAID. Trump: “I don't know, I don’t think so. Not when it comes to fraud. These people are lunatics and if it comes to fraud, you wouldn't have to have an act of Congress.”

… Elon Musk’s fans in Russia loved the move. Former President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: “Smart move by Elon Musk trying to plug USAID's Deep Throat. Let's hope notorious Deep State doesn't swallow him whole.”

… Michael McFaul: “In 2012, when I was the US ambassador to Russia, Putin shut down USAID inside Russia. Why? Because their work supported free markets, democracy, human rights —ie causes that threatened Putins dictatorship. Shutting down USAID is exactly what autocrats all over the world want.”

… Independent Ukrainian journalist Jay in Kviv: “Putin never dreamed he could ever dismantle USAID. Musk did it for him in a few days.”

… NBC reports that Musk is seeking to access USAID systems that include personnel files and security systems — including on classified systems beyond the security level of at least some of the DOGE employees. The systems also included security clearance information for agency employees.

… Congressional Democrats immediately called a press conference in front of the USAID building where they angrily denounced that Musk was doing:

… Rep. Jamie Raskin: “This is about termination and obliteration of the major foreign aid programs of the US, all of which together total less than $40 billion. We have a Pentagon budget of $900 billion. The Pentagon budget is where the defense contractor Elon Musk, who became the richest man in the world off of our money, collects his payments from, and now he is trying to shut down USAID. We are not going to allow this to happen. It will not stand.”

… Rep. John Olszewski: “Prison guards overseeing thousands of ISIS combatants in Syria walked off the job after their pay was frozen until a waiver was thrown together after the fact. Let me say that again, prison guards overseeing thousands of ISIS combatants walked off the job.”

… Sen. Chris Murphy: "Let's not pull any punches about why this is happening. Elon Musk makes billions off of his business with China. And China is cheering at this action today. There is no question that the billionaire class trying to take over our govt right now is doing it based on self-interest.”

… Sen. Andy Kim: “As Trump and Musk gut USAID today, I think back to my first day ever working for the US gov at USAID. Shame on them for demonizing Americans who are serving our nation, often in difficult and dangerous places. I worked in USAID/Africa bureau where we helped rehabilitate former child soldiers in Uganda, helped with an emerging famine in Malawi. Trump complains about China’s growing influence in Africa but then shuts down one of our best tools to fight this.”

… More Kim: “USAID helps strengthen our nation’s reputation, showcasing our power and our values. Trump admin is now doing extraordinary damage to our reputation not just in trying to stop USAID’s work but by denigrating the mission of humanitarian and development assistance as a whole. These actions by Trump/Musk show America as a nation trampling the rule of law.

… Kim said it is illegal: “Trump/Musk cannot unilaterally close USAID or transfer under State. USAID is codified by the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, 22 U.S.C. 6501. Any action to shut USAID down would need to go through Congress, and we will fight this. This is all self-inflicted damage. We face real national security threats, and right now our adversaries/competitors are loving what they see — America at war with itself.”

… AOC - “If you want to start with waste, start with Elon’s defense contracts at the Pentagon. In fact, we should start with transparency around defense contracts in general, which take up an enormous sum of public funds. But they won’t do that, will they?”

… Former USAID official Atul Gawande to Fox: “They have turned into a shell overnight from an organization that reaches 100s of millions of people around the world. Our health programs added 6 extra years of life to children by eradicating diseases. That is all being decimated with spurious charges of corruption and mismanagement. It is a playbook coming to an agency near you. This is a gift to our enemies and competitors.”

… Gawande: “We have 21 serious outbreaks worldwide. Three are serious now: an Ebola outbreak in the capital of Uganda. Bird flu has broken out in 49 countries. Our efforts to contain them have all been shut down. We were on the verge of ending HIV, TB, and malaria. We were funding de-mining operations in Vietnam to allow farmers to get back to their fields so people can farm. The insanity and cruelty to break this independent agency. They even took down the USAID Memorial Wall which honored employees killed in the line of duty overseas. Their Memorial torn down.”

… But then Sec of State Marco Rubio gave a press conference later in the morning and announced that the decision had been reversed and USAID was not going to be shut down after all, it was just doing to be put under supervision of the State Department - in other words, him. Rubio said he “delegated the authority” to run it to someone else. He did not say who that person was: “It’s supposed to respond to policy directives of the State Department, and it refuses to do so.”

… Rubio took a different position about it than Musk: “There are things that USAID, that we do through USAID, that we should continue to do, and we will continue to do. But everything they do has to be in alignment with the national interest and the foreign policy of the United States.”

… More chaos caused by Musk, the Trump Admin has to scramble and try to put out the ensuing firestorm, then they walk it all back but come up with a BS excuse to justify their incompetence.

… Another example of that played out today with tariffs, but this one was all Trump.

… Today was Trump Tariff Theater Day as he announced tariffs over the weekend, causing the markets to take a nose dive and Republican Senators to beg and plead for exemptions. With panic setting in, Trump caves but has to save face. So then he miraculously lifts the tariffs for 30 days after Mexico and Canada agreed to basically do the same things they have been doing for years.

… Then Trump declares victory despite looking like a fool to the entire world. All very predicable. The most common MAGA cultist post I saw on social media today: “Art of the Deal!”

… Canada PM Justin Trudeau: “Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plan — reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl. Canada is making new commitments to appoint a Fentanyl Czar, we will list cartels as terrorists, ensure 24/7 eyes on the border, launch a Canada-U.S. Joint Strike Force to combat organized crime, fentanyl and money laundering.”

… Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum: “We reached a series of agreements: 1. Mexico will immediately reinforce the northern border with 10,000 members of the National Guard to prevent drug trafficking from Mexico to the US, particularly fentanyl. 2. The US is committed to working to prevent the trafficking of high-powered weapons to Mexico. 3. Our teams will begin working today on two fronts: security and trade.”

… But on April 12, 2021, Mexico also announced that it was sending 10,000 members of the National Guard to the border at the request of the Biden Administration. They didn’t have to go through all the tariff drama to make that happen either.

… One Trump fan on X complained that he folded: “I don't like this at all. It shows no commitment or backbone from our President. It shows he can be manipulated, and they called his bluff. Why not demand results first and then we remove the tariffs? Now the whole world knows he's bluffing. Nothing will change. SAD DAY.”

… Rep. Claudia Tenney was panicking on Fox before Trump backed down: “One of the concerns I have with upstate NY is that one of my cities, the copper city from NY, we produce a lot of the copper. And the commodities and the ability of our country, and particularly our state and a lot of our long time manufacturing companies, many for over 100 years, to be able to react to this. I worry a little bit about some of the carnage with some of the small businesses in upstate NY who are going to have to react because Canada is our greatest trading partner.”

… Sen. Chuck Grassley: “I plead with President Trump to exempt potash from the tariff because family farmers in Iowa get most of our potash from Canada.”

… Sen. Ron Johnson to Newsmax: "Tariffs are a tax. When you tax something, you get less of it, so we'll probably get fewer imports, but then with retaliation, fewer experts. Smoot-Hawley was not particularly successful and helped sparked the Depression, so I share the markets' concern."

… Sen. Mitch McConnell to CBS: “It will drive the cost of everything up. In other words, it will be paid for by American consumers. I mean, why would you want to get in a fight with your allies over this?”

… Rep. Nancy Mace: “Quite frankly, as an American, I don’t care what Justin Trudeau and Canada has to say about this. If this is the tool that Trump says that he believes is going to work, then we have to try it. This is short term pain for long term gain. They made their bed and now they can lie in it. We have to play hardball with these countries who know where the meth labs are.”

… Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV) also wasn’t worried: “We have plenty of lumber here. We have wonderful energy products here. Trump is a negotiator - and he is going to take care of us just as he promised to do.”

… CNN Contributor Bakari Sellers: “Understanding Musk’s fascination with USAID also requires you to recall its role in dissembling apartheid South Africa.”

… Trump added South Africa to our enemies’ list: “South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY. It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t want to so much as mention. A massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see. The US won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”

… Musk deleted a post and suspended the account of a user on X who listed the names of the 6 people working for his DOGE office. Before nuking them, he responded to them: “You have committed a crime.” WIRED reported they are all between ages of 19-24. Musk reposted this comment from one of his fans about the incident: 

… Trump’s US Attorney for DC Ed Martin told Musk that he is ready to take action: “I recognized that some of the staff at DOGE has been targeted publicly. I ask that you utilize me and my staff to assist in protecting DOGE work and DOGE workers. Any threats, confrontations, or other actions in any way that impact their work may break numerous laws. Let me assure you of this: we will pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes your work.”

… CNN reports that DOGE official Edward Coristine requested and is being granted “access to all Small Business Administration systems, which includes HR, contract and payment systems.”

… Musk also made it clear that if they even suspect someone in the government is talking to the media, they will be fired: “With regard to leakers: If in doubt, they are out.”

… Right-wing podcast and attorney Tom Renz: “I like what DOGE is doing but am not convinced it’s legal and hate the precedent. What happens when we have the next Democrat presidency and they invite George Soros and Bill Gates in to do what DOGE is doing? Why aren’t conservatives concerned about the precedent? What’s the plan to keep this from being misused in the future?”

 NPR identified dozens of J6 defendants that Trump pardoned who had prior convictions or pending charges for rape, sexual abuse of a minor, domestic violence,manslaughter, production of child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking.

… Marge Greene then announced she is launching on investigation of NPR and PBS with her DOGE Committee: “PBS and NPR receive the tax dollars of hard-working Americans to stay on the air. Their coverage should serve every single American, not just a narrow slice of like-minded individuals and ideological interest groups. Notably, NPR refused to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story in an attempt to protect then-candidate Joe Biden leading up to the 2020 presidential election.

… Greene: “PBS falsely implied that Elon Musk made a fascist salute at the President’s inaugural rally. This kind of one-sided reporting, which attacks over half the country to protect and promote its own political interests, doesn’t deserve a single cent of American taxpayers’ money. I look forward to bringing the president of each of these so-called ‘media’ outlets before my brand-new DOGE Subcommittee to explain to me—and to the American people—why they deserve to continue receiving public funding.”

… The Trump administration hyped the arrest of 8,000 immigrants since he took office, which is still a slower pace than the Biden Admin deportations. But NBC reports that many of those have already been released back into the US on an ankle or wrist monitor program that has been used for over a decade. This is something Trump criticized Biden for constantly.

… ICE Spokesperson to NBC: “The agency’s federal law enforcement officers do everything they can to keep our communities safe. In some cases, ICE is required to release certain arrested aliens from custody.”

… Politico reported that nearly 100 employees of the Department of Education could be placed on administrative leave for previously attending a diversity training. They attended a voluntary two day training called, “Diversity Change Agents,” and were trained to serve as role models to educate and train the workforce on diversity and inclusion. Trump’s own former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos recommended the program to them.

… NYT reports that the Trump administration sent an email to 1,100 Environmental Protection Agency employees who work on climate change, reducing air pollution, enforcing environmental laws and other programs that they could be fired at any time.

… Michelle Roos, Executive Director of Environmental Protection Network told DNYUZ: “EPA is at the center of the bullseye for Trump’s vindictive purge of public servants. This is the most chaotic and vindictive transition in the history of the Environmental Protection Agency.”

… Trump signed an executive order to start the process of creating an American Sovereign Wealth Fund. A small handful of countries who typically run budget surpluses like Norway and Saudi Arabia invest their excess revenue in long-term investment funds. But the US has a massive deficit. So, I’m not exactly sure what the deal is here - are we going borrow more money and then invest it? Who decides where this money is going to go?

… Trump at his press conference with his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce nominee Howard Lutnick: “The Saudi Arabia fund is on the large side but eventually we'll catch it." Lutnick: "I think Scott and I will create an amazing sovereign wealth fund for you, sir."

… “For you”. Interesting choice of words.

… Norman said the $500 billion proposal in cuts is “laughable,” and said conservatives were “shocked it was that low.” He wants a budget which cuts spending $2-5 trillion: “We’ve got a math problem. We’ve got to get a resolution we need which has a number which can get through committee and get through the floor.”

… Speaker Mike Johnson is complaining that NY Gov. Kathy Hochul has been dragging her feet on setting a special election to fill Elise Stefanik's seat, which is keeping their majority very slim: “This is open political corruption by state officials in NY. This seat should be filled within 90 days of Stefanik moving over to be UN Ambassador. But they're trying to delay this maybe to late Summer, maybe even to Fall. It's just it's corruption on open display. It's unconscionable.”

… The Senate Intelligence Committee will vote tomorrow at 2:00 ET in closed session on Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination. Gabbard must get the vote of every single Republican since they only have a one seat majority on the Committee. Todd Young and Susan Collins were considered the big question marks, but Collins told CNN that she will vote to confirm Gabbard. Musk threatened Young yesterday and said he locked down his vote. She will likely be voted out of committee now, but still has a floor vote to overcome.

… Semafor reports that right-wing white nationalist Darren Beattie is being appointed as a senior Spokesperson for the State Department under Rubio. Beattie is the first one who launched conspiracies that the FBI instigated J6 and claimed that Kamala Harris was somehow involved with the pipe bomber. Here are some of Beattie’s posts on X:

“Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work. Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities, and demoralizing competent white men.”

“Remember when the US allied with Ukranian neo-Nazis to destabilize Russian interests in Ukraine?”

“Imagine the whining from the Globalist American Empire if Putin ‘invades’ Ukraine. I love it when our national security bureaucrats fail!”

“Taiwan will inevitably belong to China, it’s not worth expending any capital to prevent.”

… Beattie also made several posts suggesting that Tom Cotton, Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham are gay. “They all have something in common …” And then: “For people like Graham and Cotton, foreign policy is one big leather clad BDSM fantasy.” I’m not arguing with him on this particular point, I’m just noting that Trump appointed him despite the fact that he said all this. Maybe because of it.

… Nancy Mace selling ‘Gulf of America’ gear now.

… Rep. Andy Biggs just introduced a bill to abolish OSHA, which would completely eliminate workplace safety protections for tens of millions of Americans.

… AZ AG Kris Mayes said she is looking to hire DOJ officials fired by Trump: “My message to all FBI agents and federal prosecutors who are being wrongfully fired by Trump: come see me about a job. We are hiring at the AZ Attorney General’s office and we actually support law enforcement.”

… Fox WH Correspondent Jennifer Griffin: “President Trump again said he ‘turned the water on’ in CA and that water could have been used to fight the wildfires. A few facts: The water released by the Army Corps of Engineers from 2 dams in Central CA has no way to reach Southern CA. The sudden rush alarmed local farmers whose land was nearly flooded. The water is usually kept in reserve to help farmers in Central CA during summer drought months. There are no crops that need the water right now. They are dormant.”

… Trump was asked about Rubio’s trip to the Panama Canal: “We’re gonna take it back, or something very powerful is going to happen.”

… Despite all this madness, we can rest easy tonight knowing that Kristi Noem was keeping us all safe today down on the southern border.

[mariacallous]

The U.S. will not deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in Eastern Europe to help Ukraine intercept Russian missiles and drones as it is being done in Israel, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said during an Oct. 15 press briefing.

According to her, “the commitments to Israel and Ukraine are different, different wars, different regions” that require “different capabilities.”

“It is a little bit of apples and oranges here,” she said, without providing any clarification, emphasizing U.S. President Joe Biden's commitment to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes and to continue to support Ukraine in what it needs on the battlefield.

“I don't want to go down the whole list of everything that we're providing Ukraine to everything that we're providing to Israel. But what I can tell you is this administration, this department continues to support both in the different needs that they need.”

Over the weekend, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin authorized the deployment of a THAAD battery and associated U.S. military personnel to bolster Israel's air defenses  following Iran's attacks against Israel.

[shibarot]

hi everyone, i'm in need of some help. i hate asking others for anything, but this is different. as it concerns my babygirl of 13 years, apple. this cat has been with me thru everything. my parent's divorce, horrendous bullying throughout junior high, a couple breakups, a svicide attempt, loss, and much more. she is my rock and i wouldn't be here today without her. she got diagnosed with "kidney failure" by a vet on friday, and they swarmed my boyfriend in the clinic and urged us to put her down. that she wouldn't make it a week. i wanted some more time with her, so i took her home that day. when we got home, i started to panic because i was scared she was suffering, and got my boyfriend to contact his family vet to put her down that same day instead. to spare her from suffering. however, as we were in the patient room, about to sedate her to put her down, the doctor came in and looked at the bloodwork we received from the other vet. he immediately stopped the euthanasia-procedure and explained to me that she was not in kidney failure. that she was about in stage 2 of chronic kidney disease, and that she did not need to be put down. apparently some vets refuse to help cats with CKD and insist that there is no hope and that they should be put down upon diagnosis. but he didn't want to do that. so now here we are, she's back home with me and being just-about her usual self. however, CKD is common in senior cats and apple has it. it cannot be cured, and it is terminal, but cats with CKD can live happy, normal lives if they are given treatment and special care. (i've done lots of reading since thursday-friday.) of course though, vet bills and special food for apple is going to be expensive. so i would like to ask, if you can afford to commission me, or if you would like to donate at all, please check out my ko-fi. it would mean the absolute world to me, my boyfriend, my family, and apple. thank you so very much for reading ♥. please don't feel obligated to do anything, just keep her in your thoughts for me.

[eugenemindend]

the consequences of the Outsider's mark

I just came to the realization of the price of magic given by the Outsider. It all started with that hand of Granny Rags (Vera Moray), which Paolo had in the second game. This hand started to "run" along the protagonist, and also the Outsider ones commented "Sometimes pieces of us linger long after we're gone", and I thought about the fact that magic, starting from the improvement of regeneration, gives the marked person true immortality. Granny Rags lived about 73 years, according to the artbook, records and dialogues, but aged very much and lost the condition, but continued to live until Corvo eventually canonically killed her. Corvo himself feels very good for his 54. I've come to the conclusion that magic permeates the marked one at the cellular level and the entire state of a person depends on it. ChatGPT have supported my idea that magic maintains life in the body, unless the carrier is killed or gets sick with something incurable. so in the first case the hand continued to live even without the body (as if the marked hand is a point of maximum connection with the Void, like its source marked on the body), and in the second case the mark will slow down the dying process caused by illness, thereby causing severe pain and suffering to the person, as it was with Daud. the Chat formulated the description very well: "it does not relieve the weaknesses of the body, it just postpones their consequences". Corvo is visually old, but still capable, precisely because magic maintains his health and internal processes. the aging process does not stop, but its negative impact is slowed down, but if Corvo had become terminally ill, then the mark would most likely prolong his torment, but would not relieve him of it. moreover, if magic does not affect the psyche, it still could cause internal conflicts on the background of psychological exhaustion.

well, also I looked at one of the unreleased scenes for the first part, in which Daud was supposed to cut off Corvo's hand with the mark, and thereby breaking the connection with the Void, so obviously Corvo would be weakened. even mentioning the prologue to the second game, when Delilah tore off the mark, Corvo fell to his knees completely exhausted. as a result, I remembered about amulets and suggested that it would be possible to additionally use amulets that improve regenerative abilities, and I came up with the idea that such an amulet could really be created like the cameo of Granny Rags. it means that Corvo would really live even longer and, perhaps, would age more slowly, but there is a big BUT… but if such a thing is made, he will become a hostage of magic (I mean even more than without such an amulet), he would have to cherish this thing as the apple of eye. and if some villain found out about this and took it as a target, then Corvo would have a hard time. if such an amulet could be destroyed, then Corvo would be overtaken by everything that magic was holding back. he could, for example, instantly go old and suffer, because magic has been supported everything in him and slowed down all processes as much as possible. actually, how did it happen with Vera Moray - she became vulnerable to death without cameo. I also discussed (with the ChatGPT) the fact of aging in eternal life. so even assuming the absence of violent death or diseases, the body would gradually deteriorate from oldness until… what? until only a skeleton remained? until the marked person became completely feeble? this would bring suffering and a desire to finally die. or the body would completely stop moving, and then the person would slowly die of hunger and dehydration. horrible. it's hard to call such immortality a life. Granny Rags was already weak, and all she could do was use magic against the bandits. this is simply the most terrible side of the coin that I discovered, and the marked ones simply do not suspect this, because the Outsider calls it a gift, without naming a price, and no one has returned from the Void to reveal such consequences (excluding Jessamine's soul, it's another interesting story. or maybe Billie Lurk). moreover, the marked souls are forever stuck in the Void and suffer from eternal wandering. I don't know if anyone has dug so deep into philosophy. and yeah, I took Corvo as an example bc I'm addicted of him having a power and rescuing Emily in the D2 against the canon.

[princess-viola]

MacCharlie advertisement, 1985, scan sourced from vintagecomputing.com

Manufactured and released by Dayna Communications in 1985, the MacCharlie was a hardware add-on for the original Macintosh 128K and the Macintosh 512K that enabled users to run DOS software designed for the IBM PC on their Macintosh.

It did so by literally being an entire IBM PC compatible with an 8088 microprocessor, 256 KB RAM, and a 360 KB floppy disk drive. The RAM was upgradeable to 640 KB and a second disk drive was also available, with the MacCharlie Plus including 640 KB RAM and two floppy drives as standard.

The MacCharlie also included a keyboard extension that added a number pad and function keys, as the Macintosh keyboard lacked a numpad, function keys, or arrow keys (a deliberate choice by Apple who thought that developers would just port their old software to the Macintosh rather than developing software around the GUI paradigm if they had included those keys).

The MacCharlie connected to the Macintosh via a 9-pin serial cable and performed all DOS operations itself (obviously), with the Macintosh serving as a terminal for the MacCharlie. This required you to run the MacCharlie application software that was included on a 3.5 inch floppy disk for your Macintosh along with MS-DOS, which was also (naturally) included on a 5.25 inch floppy disk for the MacCharlie.

While the MacCharlie software included the ability to transfer files from itself to the Macintosh (and vice versa), you could not run a DOS program and a Macintosh program simultaneously (the System Software, later renamed to Mac OS, for the Macintosh did not support the running of multiple programs simultaneously until the release of the MultiFinder extension in 1987, with the feature eventually becoming integrating into the operating system with System 7 in 1991).

The MacCharlie software was also limited to running text-based DOS software only.

(Oh and if you're curious about the name 'MacCharlie', it was in reference to the advertising campaign for the IBM PC featuring Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp character)