#gruver.tech

[groovybry]

# occasionally everybody shits themselves


I've decided what I'm saving for.

Early 2021 iMac M1, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, blue. Renewed. Around $900 on Amazon.

That will eliminate the constraints of doing all this on my iPhone and iPad. I'll be able to connect my iPhone via cable and run apps directly on it for testing. Claude is now integrated into the developer tools on the Mac. I'll be a real programmer again. Lol

I'm going to see the wizard. The wonderful wizard of Mac. Lol

Check this thing out. It's gorgeous.

## Nerds Rule the World

This whole war situation has me thinking about something: the most valuable commodity in the world isn't gold anymore. It's processors.

What Apple is doing with their M-series chips is incredible. Google is making its own chips now. Then of course you've got NVIDIA, the company that basically prints money by making GPUs for AI.

But here's what really scares me: China trying to take back Taiwan.

Taiwan wasn't always separate from China. When the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949, the previous government—a democracy—fled to Taiwan Island. That's where it's been ever since. And that's where all these chips are made. The most advanced chips in the world come from one place: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, TSMC.

We actually have an agreement to defend Taiwan if China tries to take it back. That's how important those chips are.

TSMC makes about 90% of the world's most advanced semiconductors. Apple's chips. NVIDIA's AI processors. The chips in your iPhone. All made in Taiwan.

During the pandemic, when shipping shut down, Ford couldn't build cars because they didn't have enough chips. We learned real fast how dependent we are on this supply chain.

We're trying to solve the problem. And some people are going to hate to hear this, but it was Democrats and the CHIPS Act that are responsible for us actually doing something about it. That was the senile old man who apparently occasionally shit himself. Lol Look, I've had three strokes. I was in diapers for a while. Occasionally I don't make it to the bathroom. Sometimes I have to change underwear. Sometimes I shit myself too. Lol So I'm not judging. Actually, give the Democrats credit in general. It was all of them. And the progressives, thank you.

TSMC is building factories in Arizona—a massive $165 billion investment with plans for six fabrication plants. Intel is trying to catch up. But it's not going well. TSMC's Arizona factory is years behind schedule, costs four to five times more to build than an identical plant in Taiwan, and they're struggling to find enough skilled workers. The first plant just started production in 2025, years late. The second won't be ready until 2027 or 2028 at the earliest.

Yes, we spend a lot of money. The world is expensive. Lol

Chips are like oil now. But even more valuable. And we don't control the supply.

## iOS 26 Is Ready

If you have an iPhone, I'm sure you've been getting bugged about upgrading to iOS 26. It's safe now. They've got most of the bugs worked out.

The visual design—something called Liquid Glass—can make things hard to read for some people. It's a new transparent, frosted look throughout the interface. Some people love it. Some people hate it.

If you're having readability issues, here's how to fix it:

1. Open **Settings**

2. Go to **Display & Brightness**

3. Tap **Liquid Glass**

4. Choose **Tinted** instead of **Clear**

Tinted increases the opacity and adds more contrast, making text easier to read while keeping the Liquid Glass aesthetic. Clear is the full transparent effect that shipped with iOS 26.

If you've been avoiding the update and want to install iOS 26 manually:

1. Open **Settings**

2. Go to **General**

3. Tap **Software Update**

4. Follow the prompts

That's it. You're updated.

Originally written by Bryan Scott Gruver on March 11, 2026. Edited by Claude. Title by the human, Bryan Scott Gruver. Lol

Blog | Gruver.tech

[groovybry]

GruverCast.episode.6

[groovybry]

# The Cost of Being Seen


Something interesting happened recently. Facebook told me I could start making money from my posts. I've been creating content for years, and suddenly Meta decided I was worth paying. I checked my earnings. Six cents. I had made six cents.

The same day I noticed my six cents, I also noticed something else. My account had been restricted somehow. I'm not entirely sure what triggered it or what the restriction actually limits. But the timing was hard to ignore. The same platform that just handed me a nickel and a penny also quietly put some kind of flag on my account.


That's Facebook in 2026. They'll pay you to post. They'll also restrict you while they do it. Welcome to the deal.

Then there's X.


If you want your posts to actually be seen on X, you need to pay $50 a month for a premium account. I've noticed something telling when I scroll through my feed — almost everyone I see is verified. That little checkmark used to mean something. Now it means someone opened their wallet. The people who aren't paying aren't really showing up. They're posting into the void.

So here's where we are. On Facebook, they pay you to post — and then restrict you. On X, you pay them to post — and if you don't, nobody sees you. The game is the same either way. Money flows, content gets surfaced, and everyone else gets buried.

Everything you read on social media, everything you watch, is being shaped by this. The posts you see aren't necessarily the most honest or the most useful. They're the ones connected to a financial arrangement of some kind. Someone got paid to post it, or someone paid to boost it, or someone is chasing an algorithm that rewards engagement over truth. That's not conspiracy thinking. That's just how the economics work now.

I think this is a bad direction. Here's a simple example of why it matters. Imagine someone trying to share genuinely useful health information — a caregiver, a patient advocate, someone who figured something out the hard way. No budget. No monetization deal. No $50 subscription. Their post disappears. Meanwhile, a sponsored post from a supplement company with a verified badge and a paid boost sits at the top of your feed. The quality of the information has nothing to do with who sees it.

That's why I built gruver.tech.

There are no ads on my website. None. Everything I write about, every tool I mention, every product I reference — it's something I actually use personally. Nobody is paying me to say anything. I'm not chasing an algorithm. I'm not trying to hit some engagement threshold so a platform keeps sending me a check.

I pay for my website myself. I pay for the hosting, the domain, the infrastructure. That cost is what buys me the ability to say whatever I want, whenever I want, without asking anyone's permission. Facebook can't restrict me here. X can't bury me here. There's no monetization deal to revoke.

I genuinely don't know how many people have ever visited gruver.tech. I don't track it closely and honestly I don't care. I'm not building traffic. I'm building a record. I believe that showing up consistently, saying true things, and not selling my voice to anyone will matter eventually. Maybe not today. Maybe not soon. But the internet has a long memory, and so does integrity.

The platforms are going to keep changing the rules. The prices are going to keep going up. The restrictions are going to keep appearing without explanation. That's the deal when you build on someone else's land.

I'd rather own my corner of it.

Originally written by Bryan Scott Gruver on March 6, 2026. Edited by Claude.

Blog | Gruver.tech