Way back in 2013, I joked about an assortment of ’90s bands being a bit passé. That list included post-grunge stars Sponge, who are apparently still rocking even now. Lead singer Vinnie Dombroski may be the only original member left, but he and the other, newer members have continued to put out new music.

The band is out on tour right now with fellow ’90s-era act Candlebox, a lineup that could only be more perfect if Silverchair were added to the bill. Alas, it’s not all good times. After a recent show in Maryland, someone broke into Sponge’s trailer and stole a half-dozen guitars. That’s not cool, man. Not cool.

If you know anything about this heinous crime, please reach out to Bobafrog@aol.com. Yes, really.

The Boston area has a severe shortage of housing, leading to very high rents. Despite that, over in Brookline, there’s a two-bedroom house in the dead center of town that’s found no takers for several months.

My pal Ethan Marcotte is tired of recommendation engines. You can be sure I share in his distaste.

I’ve previously noted that Tesla’s claimed “Full Self-Driving” isn’t, and that the name ought to be illegal. Over in Europe, the name is no more.

Tesla’s driver-assistance package is now called “Tesla Assisted Driving” in Europe. The company’s German website no longer mentions “Full Self-Driving,” and the old address now redirects to a new “Tesla Assisted Driving” page.

As Electrek noted in their piece, this should be the feature’s name around the world, not just in Europe. Elsewhere, though, it continues to be referred to by the ridiculous “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” moniker.

For several decades, long before Apple Stores existed, Tekserve in New York City specialized in repairs for Apple products. Their employee handbook contained a simple but profound instruction: “If you are ever in doubt, do the right thing”.¹ I think about it often, and I’ve shared it with the support staff at my Mac software company.

Given that, I was beyond delighted by a recent Planet Money episode. It features my pal Cabel Sasser, the CEO at Panic, another long-time Mac software company. In recent years, Panic has expanded to producing physical hardware, specifically the Playdate handheld gaming console. Last year, they began charging a specific tariff fee to purchasers of the device. When those tariffs were eventually ruled illegal, Panic faced a choice: Keep the money, or return it to their customers. Unlike seemingly every other company, they did the right thing.

NPR provides an (imperfect) transcript of the episode, but with the full audio, you’ll get to enjoy Cabel’s dramatization.²

Footnotes:

1. Credit to Tamara Shopsin’s “Laserwriter II”, which is where I first learned of this maxim. ↩︎

2. Cabel was previously linked on this site for his excellent 2024 XOXO talk, which remains worth your time as well. ↩︎

If not for the whims of a penny, there would be a Boston, Oregon, to go along with Boston, Massachusetts. Instead, Oregon’s largest city is named Portland, after Francis Pettygrove’s hometown of Portland, Maine.

A couple centuries later, that fact resulted in ads about Maine’s Senate race being incorrectly shown to hundreds of thousands of Oregon residents, who were no doubt bemused and/or amused.

My recent stop in Kristiansund was the jumping off point for an extended road trip around Norway. When selecting a rental car for the adventure, I opted for an electric vehicle. I’ve rented them before in the United States, where the experience has been acceptable, though not great. In Norway, I expected better, because EVs are unbelievably popular. In 2025, an astonishing 96% of Norway’s new car sales were electric.

Given that, you would expect the charging infrastructure to be outstanding, and it is. Slower overnight chargers were quite common at hotels, while ultra high-speed chargers were accessible whenever I wanted one. Once I got the lay of the land, I never had a moment of range anxiety.

It’s also worth noting that Norway’s hydroelectrically-produced power is cheap, while their gasoline very much is not. At present, gas is nearing the eye-watering price of $12 per gallon. When the trip ended, my calculations showed that the EV saved hundreds of dollars on fuel compared to a gas vehicle.¹ On top of that, EVs are also privileged with lower toll rates and discounts on ferries, which are an essential part of Norway’s infrastructure. There are just so very many fjords to traverse.

Sadly, in America, we’re going backwards when it comes to clean cars. It’s an incredibly depressing state of affairs, and the contrast against a place like Norway reveals how badly the United States is lagging.

Previously in EV advancements outside the US: The Future Is Elsewhere

Footnotes:

1. The journey covered 1,557 kilometers, or 967 miles, and EV charging totaled $158.41.² If this had been a gas-powered vehicle at a very charitable 40 MPG, it would have needed over 24 gallons of gas, costing more than $280. At a still generous 30 MPG, it would have needed more than 32 gallons, at a cost over $380. ↩︎

2. Yes, I did keep diligent notes about all this. Why, what do you do for fun on a vacation? ↩︎

What began as a project for MIT’s “Product Engineering Processes” class has become a product patients with tremors have described as life-changing. That’s pretty great.