All Hope was Not Lost...Apple Released AirPort Base Station Firmware 7.6.7 for 3+ Year Old Devices!

While at a Memorial Day gathering yesterday, the host mentioned that an update just became available for his Airport devices, the Express, Extreme, and Time Capsule. I thought he had to have been mistaken and maybe I’d missed updating his hardware on a previous visit. No update had been mentioned in the Apple press, but I knew my AirPort Utility automatic update checking was off, I’d lost hope Apple would ever send out any updates for my aging Time Capsule. Maybe Apple did send out an update…

Sure enough Apple released AirPort Base Station Firmware 7.6.7! The prior version was 7.6.4  released in August 2013. That immediately got my mind racing. Were internal 7.6.5 and 7.6.6 releases created that didn’t make it public? Could more bug fixes be bundled up into this update than just those mentioned in the support article? We’re fixes made during a development cycle for new AirPort Base Stations or to comply with the FCC and back ported to 2 generation old hardware?

I guess we’ll never know, but WWDC is right around the corner, I’m not immune to rampant speculation 😬

TL;DR Wil Shipley: Keep Calm and Swift On

I couldn’t agree more with Wil Shipley’s post on Swift and Dynamism. All the likes, stars, favs, or hearts wouldn’t be enough. 

You should read it for the entertainment value alone.

In Chris Lattner I Trust!

Is ABI compatibility missing Swift 3.0 annoying? Absolutely.

Is Swift 3.0 source compatibility going to be a time sink with chicken and egg library problems? Yep.

I’m sure dynamism is coming to Swift 3.x or 4 and I’m confident the teams and the community will improve on what Cocoa's had since 1988. Swift is the next 30+ years of Apple developer tooling and platforms. It’s almost insulting to the teams to suggest they aren’t being thoughtful.

Hapuna Matata, because in the coming on 2 years I’ve been using Swift it's saved me so much time with fewer bugs and easier to read code.

Let's Talk About What Chewie Does in Star Wars The Force Awaken

SPOILERS	Ahead for Star Wars The Force Awakens

I’ve read a lot of theories about what every character does in Star Wars The Force Awakens…except Chewbacca.
The first thing you have to admit about Chewy in The Force Awakens is that he’s awesome. The Force Awakens is the best Chewbacca movie yet. He’s physical, played in large part not by original actor Peter Mayhew, but by newcomer Joonas Suotamo and the result is a more action oriented Wookie. He’s also funny and expressive. With just a head move or grunt, Mayhew and Suotamo communicate as much information as any actor playing humans do in the movie.
That’s not what I want to talk about though. I want to know what Chewie knows. Given what we see in The Force Awakens, Chewie knows:

• Kylo Ren is Ben Solo
• Rey's lineage
• Who Supreme Leader Snoke is (not Darth Plagueis)

If you believe that Kylo Ren has completed his fall to the Dark Side by killing Han Solo...

• Why doesn’t Chewy go for the kill shot?
• Why doesn’t Chewy’s bowcaster knock Kylo off the platform?
• Why does Chewy go with Rey without comment?

However, there is another possibility. Watch this video by Movies with Mikey:

Mikey’s theory is that while Kylo and Rey fight, Kylo is not using the Dark Side, but Rey does. The theory is that Ren and Rey will flip Force sides by the end of the trilogy and Kylo Ren is in deep cover.
If you think this theory has any credence, then I’d propose that Chewy shoots Kylo Ren with a lower power, non-fatal bowcaster shot on purpose. Through The Force Awakens, we see Han and Chewy blow foes away with impunity using the bowcaster, catapulting them several feet upon impact. Yet Kylo Ren doesn’t move.
Of course Kylo’s force abilities could explain him being able to absorb the energy of the blaster bolt without moving. However, we see Kylo able to stop blaster fire in mid-air after being fired. If he was using his powers, he wouldn’t simply diminish the energy, he’d stop it.
On the other hand, if Chewie doesn’t miss a Kylo Ren kill shot on purpose, he’s responsible for allowing one of the galaxies greatest evils to escape justice just after his best friend of all time was killed.
Or Chewbacca is relieved his life debt is over, but feels he must take some kind of shot to keep up appearances that he actually liked Han Solo 😉