One of my favorite parts of the fall is driving through OU’s campus on my way to work on the day before a football game.

There are tents set up for tailgating, TV crews filming segments for local news, and an extra buzz and energy in the air. It is hard to beat the beginning of football season in a college town.

If you need some extra help getting motivated, here is a video chronicling Oklahoma’s 2000 National Championship run. I watch this video every year and it never gets old.

As Lincoln Riley enters his second year as head coach, it is worth remembering that our last National Championship came in a new head coach’s second year.

Boomer!

Dev Stahlkopf on the Microsoft blog:

Over the next 12 months we will work with our U.S. suppliers to implement this new paid parental leave policy. It will require that suppliers offer their employees a minimum of 12 weeks paid parental leave, up to $1,000 per week. This change applies to all parents employed by our suppliers who take time off for the birth or adoption of a child. The new policy applies to suppliers with more than 50 employees and covers supplier employees who perform substantial work for Microsoft. This minimum threshold applies to all of our suppliers across the U.S. and is not intended to supplant a state law that is more generous. Many of our suppliers already offer strong benefits packages to their employees, and suppliers are of course welcome to offer more expansive leave benefits to their employees.

This is a great idea by Microsoft. I hope other big tech companies copy Microsoft on this. Apple similarly requires their suppliers to meet certain environmental thresholds, but I would love to see them adopt a policy like this too.

(Via Morning Brew)

Today marks ten years of RadarScope being on the iOS App Store. I have been working on it for the last six and think we have enough ideas for it to make it another 10 years.

To celebrate, we added some custom app icons and iMessage Stickers. My favorite of the new icons is Dual Pane, although Retro comes pretty close.

It is available now on the App Store.

Based on this tweet and the invite image, I think Apple could launch a new unrumored product (a ring?) next month.

While I would love this, it would sure throw a wrench in my budget. I got permission from Carissa for a phone, watch, and new AirPods. Not sure I could get permission to get something else too.

Or maybe it will just be a round Apple watch that would still fit the budget.

Or more likely, it does not mean anything and it will the expected normal product launch.

Ollie: Why did you do that?

Me: Because I’m the boss.

Ollie: No, Michael is the boss.

Y’all, I have ruined my kid.

I am pumped to be able to show people what I have been working on this summer. This is one of the coolest projects we have ever done. Getting close!

Gave Ollie a blueberry muffin and cake back to find this.

The Bronco’s window quit working again and this time hammering it didn’t fix it.

So today’s todo list consists of buying a new motor for it and checking the forecast for rain.

Obligatory “I Voted” sticker.

For the rest of the night it will be me, a glass of whisky, and 15 Safari tabs about the interpretation of 2001.

2001 in IMAX. Pumped.

Andrew Knowlton of Bon Appétit:

I was halfway through a ten-course tasting menu in a 22-seat restaurant in a city I’d never set foot in before. It was Thursday, prime time, and the place was all but empty. Dried wild spinach and juniper hung from the wood rafters. Pickles and other jarred kitchen experiments lined the shelves. Car Seat Headrest played on the speakers. There was a host, a server, three chefs, and no menu. I was head over heels but utterly confused. Who cooked this dish? And what the hell was this place?

It had been three months since I’d set off on my annual cross-country search for the year’s best new restaurants. I’d checked out most of the places I was “supposed” to. You know, those buzzy spots run by pedigreed chefs or by cooks who used to work for those pedigreed chefs. I’d visited San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and the other noted food cities. I’d checked out the vibrant restaurant scenes in smaller towns like Charleston, South Carolina, and Portland (both of them). But Oklahoma City? In two decades of covering restaurants, it had never popped onto my radar. And the chefs? Never heard of them.

I never get tired of reading about places like this in OKC (or Oklahoma in general). The stories always end up being as much about OKC as they are about their actual subject. It is cool to see OKC’s national reputation slowly get better and better.

On another note, it looks like Carissa and I have a new date night restaurant to try out. Or more accurately, we will when they are not booked for weeks due to being named the best new restaurant in America.

Me: Files a bug.

Apple: Please send logs.

Me: Downloads profile to phone. Records and sends logs.

Apple: Should be fixed. Please verify.

Me: Not fixed.

Apple: Please send system diagnostics.

Me: Records and send system diagnostics.

Apple: Marked as dupe.

Me: 😡

Loveworks is an after-school program for at-risk middle school students here in Norman.

From their about page:

Since our inception in 2011, we have reached over 10,000 students, ages 11-14 years old from a wide range of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. Our programs are designed to empower the creativity, resourcefulness, and potential within each student in an effort to develop their character, academic, and leadership abilities to ensure future success. Hundreds of volunteers and community professionals help facilitate initiatives that include: experiential leadership projects, community outreach, personal character development, career components, and mentorship.

My wife and I volunteered there for a couple of years in college and we both remain very close with the people that run it, so we know firsthand how much they impact the community.

Last week, Loveworks abruptly lost their main source of funding. Programming for the next semester is still scheduled to start on August 27th. In order to start the semester, they need to raise $16,000 by August 30th. To make it through they year, they need $124,000.

If you have any extra money to spare, I can’t think of a more deserving place to give it than to Loveworks.

Please consider donating to keep the doors open for this wonderful program.

I would not be happy with Netflix killing iTunes billing. I use it to easily turn my subscription on and off depending on what we are currently watching.

That being said, I would happily trade iTunes billing for TV App support.