692: A Thinking Hitch

What It Covers

Accidental Tech Podcast episode 692 covers public sentiment toward AI through Pew Research and Gallup data showing majority American opposition, Apple Vision Pro immersive video progress via a Real Madrid documentary, terminal emulator configuration deep dives, iOS 26.5 Reminders snooze label fixes, Marco's in-progress reminder app development, and the cultural backlash against AI at university commencement ceremonies.

Key Questions Answered

• •Public AI Sentiment Shift: Pew Research data shows 50% of US adults are more concerned than excited about AI in daily life, up from 37% in 2021. Among Gen Z specifically, only 18% express hopefulness about AI technology, down from 27% the prior year, and only 22% report excitement, down from 36%. The sharpest concern centers on cognitive deskilling — roughly half of adults surveyed believe AI will worsen creative thinking and meaningful relationship formation over time.
• •Data Center Opposition Exceeds Nuclear: A March Gallup survey finds 71% of Americans oppose AI data center construction in their local area, with 48% strongly opposed. This surpasses opposition to nuclear power plants, which peaked at 63% in 25 years of Gallup polling on that question. Only 7% strongly favor local data center construction. The primary drivers of opposition include noise pollution, water usage, and natural gas generator emissions used to meet rapid power demands.
• •iOS 26.5 Reminders Snooze Fix: Apple updated snooze option labels in iOS 26.5 to display concrete times rather than vague descriptors. Previously, options read "remind me this morning" or "remind me this afternoon" with no indication of the actual time. The new labels show specific times such as "remind me at 3PM" or "remind me tomorrow at 9AM." The prior system mapped morning to 9AM, afternoon to 3PM, and evening to 6PM — information Apple never surfaced to users.
• •Reminders API Limitation for Third-Party Apps: The EventKit Reminders API does not expose alarm-style reminder data. Any third-party app that edits a reminder's alarm objects will silently destroy the alarm reminder configuration entirely. Developers building reminder apps must account for this gap by either avoiding edits to alarm objects or warning users. Apple's alarm reminders, which break through Do Not Disturb, are invisible to the API and cannot be detected, created, or preserved by third-party tools.
• •Dropbox Ignore Rules Limitation: Dropbox's rules file system for excluding directories like node_modules does not prevent the sync client from processing those files — it only prevents actual upload. The client still consumes FS events for each file, shows a progress bar, and competes with legitimate sync operations. The xattr extended attribute approach offers an alternative, but requires setting attributes on each new node_modules directory manually. Switching to PNPM reduces this problem by replacing most node_modules files with symlinks to a central content-addressable store.
• •Terminal State Restoration in TCSH: Restoring working directory state across Apple Terminal sessions in TCSH requires placing VT escape sequence code in the CSHRC file that reports the current directory before each command. In Terminal preferences, all automatic window and tab title options must be unchecked — including both the tab and window preference panes — to prevent conflicts. The escape sequences embed directory data into the scrollback buffer, which Terminal reads on relaunch to restore working directories per tab.
• •Immersive Video Directorial Progress: The Real Madrid documentary on Apple Vision Pro demonstrates measurable improvement in immersive video direction. Rather than cutting away when the ball moved across the field, the production allowed viewers to turn their heads and track the ball naturally — a technique that distinguishes immersive from flat video. Subtitles were implemented as a floating panel that follows gaze orientation. A time-lapse sequence showing the stadium's retractable pitch mechanism, rising approximately 100 feet, illustrates the format's strength in conveying physical scale.