276: Interview with Dr. Howard Oakley of The Eclectic Light Company
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This week we are very excited to welcome Dr. Howard Oakley of The Eclectic Light Company blog. Howard describes himself as a Former MacUser writer, RN doctor, survival medicine specialist; now blogger and painter.
-Howard has a long history with the Mac community
-When Mac User folded, Howard had a lot of completed writings and decided to start Eclectic Light Company to explore all things Mac, art, and life in general.
-Each day, Howard tries to publish at least one article about Mac and works to talk about topics that aren't well documented. He also likes to publish articles predominantly about art history.
-Joe makes a personal request for a deep dive on /var/folders as it has been a continual topic for us on the show
-Howard notes that Apple used to be exemplary in its documentation for technicians. When Sierra was released and Console was completely re-written, it inspired him to write an app to help review the data. Thus, Consolation was born and now he has a whole stable of apps for macOS: https://eclecticlight.co/downloads/
-The play on words is something that reminds Joe about when he is using "Console" or "Terminal" in front of a client
-Dr. Oakley spends some time discussing the current state of logs and changes in recent operating systems
-Jerry wonders about Howard's motivation for the creation of the vast amount of tools he has made available. Howard notes that apps like this don't make money so that is not his motivation but rather giving back to the community.
-As Dr. Oakley discusses the current state of affairs, he talks about the fact that although Apple doesn't need Mac to pay its bills, there is still so much to offer including a superb development platform for iOS.
