Cocoa Switch

GOG GALAXY drops support for Intel Macs

Boris Yurkevich — Sun, 30 Aug 2026 17:09:51 +0100

GOG GALAXY 2.1 now supports Apple Silicon natively and doesn’t run on Intel anymore, raising the dependency target to Sonoma. Sadly, I noticed that the app now takes twice the disk space. What happened? SSD price is not cheap; I wish management gave some priority to optimising for disk space.

No issues running on Golden Gate. I had to delete the old version before I could update to 2.1. I am happy it’s a modern build now and will be supported on macOS 28. Although a major GOG GALAXY appeal is game preservation, it doesn’t mean it needs to preserve itself and run on obsolete macOS versions. I am quite happy with this update; despite the increase in disk space, it’s still a step in the right direction.

Boris Yurkevich — Sun, 30 Aug 2026 16:46:16 +0100

A hotel rooftop, Bulgaria

Stop buying digital games now

Boris Yurkevich — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 07:09:36 +0100

As reported by Verge on 1 July, Sony is killing all physical discs after January 2028

This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.

That’s an interesting statement, and that’s not my preference at all, I think. So! I decided to check the actual numbers.

My Amazon order history:

RoboCop: Rogue City Collection (PS5) £22 29 Jan 2026
Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition (PS5) £30 14 Oct 2025
Grand Theft Auto V (PS5) £27 26 September 2024
The Last Of Us Part II (Remastered) £22 1 Jun 2025
LEGO Horizon Adventures £28 1 Jun 2025
ASTRO BOT £44 15 December 2024
No Man’s Sky Beyond (PS4) £21.40 28 February 2023

Total: £194.40

PSN store:

Far Cry 3, Dead Space, Doom Eternal £24
Snow Runner £20
Batman Arkham Knight £3
CONTROL Ultimate Edition £7
Patapon Remastered £12
Goat Simulator 3 £18
Toy Story 2 £5

Total: £89.00

Even with an additional £68 worth of digital PSVR2 games I never can play because the headset makes me feel sick, it’s still £37 less than what I spend on brand-new physical games ordered from Amazon.

I have not counted many physical games I ordered second-hand from CeX. Prices rounded.

Boris Yurkevich — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 18:14:04 +0100

Running my 5K on a beach in Bulgaria

Boris Yurkevich — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 18:45:37 +0100

South London, 18:45

Boris Yurkevich — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 19:03:50 +0100

South London, Tuesday 19:00
Halide, Scarlet

Running Settlers IV on Mac

Boris Yurkevich — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 12:45:51 +0100

What did I use

Apple computer with M1 or newer CPU
UTM 4.7.5 (18)
Windows 11 ARM ISO from Microsoft (CrystalFetch build was crashing during installation), refer to UTM documentation
The Settlers® 4: Gold Edition from gog.com (often on discount, my version cost me just less than £3)

What doesn’t work

There’s an issue with the main game menu scaling; the game is hard-coded to run in full screen, but the UI elements do not align with the pointer position. This is not a blocker and just a quality-of-life issue; after I was able to get through the menu, the game itself had correct click areas.

What do we need to do

Install Windows; we should not see any errors during installation.
Windows 11 finally added a setting to use macOS-like “Natural Scrolling”; I recommend enabling it straight away.
Install UTM Guest Tools; test that copy and paste works; I used Notepad.exe. Note: use control + V in Windows to paste. We might need to restart the VM for UTM Guest Tools to start working.
Unmount Windows ISO and Guest Tools; this will save us from errors after we eventually need to restart the VM
In the Windows VM download the GOG Galaxy client from gog.com, log in and install the game.

At this point, we should see the following error, which curiously also happens in CrossOver and PortingKit.

Image taken from GitHub

You might attempt a patch from the repo above; it didn’t fix the issue for me. Thanks to zocker-160 from Germany, for saving my holiday, there’s another patch which solves the issue, and this is the only patch we need.

The game will launch now, and we should see pre-rendered intro videos running with no reasonable frame drops. I tested this on a stock MacBook Air M3. Now we need to get through the menu and I realised that the game is unplayable; I could hear the music but the game appears to be frozen. Windows even detected a hang; this is helpful, but it only worked once. Future hangs required force quitting the executable manually.¹

This is where Windows “Compatibility” options helped me; there are multiple flags and options Redmond gives us. Eventually I found what’s was working for me; I am not claiming this is the minimum change we need to make; I likely enabled more than was needed.

Click “Apply”, twice,² then the game is running and playable. 🎉

What did I learn

You might want to play with resolution settings, don’t!** Keep them as default 1024px by 768px. It led to an issue where I couldn’t see any of the UI, couldn’t revert the settings and had to wipe the GOG installation and reapply the patch.

To fix the menu issue, I attempted to force the exe to run in a window using DxWnd, it does fix the menu, but it doesn’t work with Windows emulation unfortunately. And it has a pretty bad UI, first thing we have to do to intercept an .exe launch is to right-click on an empty space.

I have experimented with Windows XP builds, which I do not recommend, but if you need to, this ISO from the Internet Archive already has a pre-installed build, so there’s no waiting. However, we can’t access the internet on Windows XP, and UTM Guest Tools do not work either. I ended up creating my own ISO image using macOS Disk Utility and a single Terminal command, thanks to this article. Disk Utility > New Image > Image from Folder. Choose the “DVD/CD master” option. Then run hdiutil makehybrid -iso -joliet -o FILE.iso FILE.dvd.cdr.

I also attempted PortingKit and even the CrossOver free trial; I attempted both patches mentioned above to manually override the files inside the Exe folder, but nothing worked.

UTM has many options for GPU emulations; none of the options I tried helped me to work around the 3D issue.

Inside the VM, I have been experimenting with some emulation which has Voodoo in its name; this fixes the 3D error, but performance is unplayable. Essentially, it forwards all GPU calls to the CPU, and unsurprisingly it works but with FPS below 1.

The last time I used Windows was XP, control + option + delete no longer shows the Task Manager. Use control + shift + esc; I have not tested this yet, thanks for CCleaner the info. ↩︎
With the exception of iTunes, I have never seen an “Apply” button in any of the settings windows on OS X. I hope Windows 12 can copy this UX too, and I am optimistic. ↩︎

Boris Yurkevich — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 17:43:50 +0100

Wandsworth council, Sunday 5:40 pm

Safari speed on Golden Gate

Boris Yurkevich — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 12:53:55 +0100

I took JetStream Safari measurement on Sequoia on 6 June this year. Results disappointed me. Safari was lagging behind Chrome 161 to 288 (higher is better). I have used the latest Safari version, so the OS (Tahoe/Sequoia) was not a factor.

I am not sure what is happening on Golden Gate, but at least on Public Beta 2 Safari is ahead again. It’s 302 to 264.

Measured on MacBook Pro M1 Max with 32 GB of RAM.

Tested on Safari Version 27.0 (22625.1.24.11.2) and Chrome Version 143.0.7499.110 (Official Build) (arm64), but also on Version 150.0.7871.182 (Official Build) (arm64) which showed higher results 288.17 comparing to ~252

Boris Yurkevich — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 16:24:37 +0100

London, Friday 4pm

Boris Yurkevich — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 09:15:47 +0100

Old Street 9am, Halide Valencia

Boris Yurkevich — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 12:24:05 +0100

A sign post, Halide Process Zero 2 iPhone 16 Pro Fusion Camera

Boris Yurkevich — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 06:01:06 +0100

London skyline, 5PM Halide, ProcessZero 2 iPhone 16 Pro 2x

Boris Yurkevich — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 07:59:07 +0100

Sunday morning in a park. 8 AM.

Boris Yurkevich — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 17:08:50 +0100

Something up with iMessage today. I had issue with messages coming in late. Now I can’t send any messages from Mac and my iPhone. Apple’s system status is green. Is this just me?

Update restarting my iPhone fixed the issue. But Mac still can’t do it and I am not loosing my 11 days uptime. 🙂

Update 2: Now starting to see the messages from Mac getting delivered. But the Mac app doesn’t displays the “Delivered” footer.

Toy Story 5

Boris Yurkevich — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 07:02:26 +0100

It’s an excellent sequel. The Pixar team didn’t do anything they wouldn’t do if they were on their own. It has heart; it made me feel something multiple times. It wasn’t complicated—the plot was a bit simple and felt slightly spaced out—but the core story and emotional arc are still there, with a heart-warming ending and a few delightful surprises. ¹

One of the many reasons I like Toy Story is that it’s a great measure of how far we’ve come, using computers to create full-length motion movies. This release didn’t disappoint. The film is incredibly sharp in IMAX, with good depth of focus. The colours are balanced and not over-saturated. The animation feels movie-like—like 24 FPS with some blur during motion—but just enough to make it feel real. Pixar made a great choice using a brand-new rendering style for the play bits. ² The sound isn’t loud or overwhelming, but warm. Almost no music is used; it’s like a faint spirit of the great past, which was excellent and added to the seriousness and real-life feeling of the film.

My family were really enjoying themselves, and for a little while I felt like a kid again. I had one hysterical laugh. ³ We all become kids at heart, and we forget how important it is to play and do something just for the fun of it. That’s why Toy Story has a special place in my heart. Does the story need to be retold when the world has changed so much around us? I think, yes. It could be a different film with different characters, because this one—more than the previous parts—focuses on issues we have as humans: growing up, raising kids, making friends, struggling to be socially accepted, and rebelling against evil, even when it takes the form of people you know who aren’t your family. Add some animals, too, and highlight the important role pets play in our lives—they’re not just for play; they help keep us humane and alive.

I’ll watch this again, unlike Part 4, which I only rewatched once as background. Part 4 was one I didn’t like so much, and Part 5 was worth my time, attention, and money. Go take your family to the theatre and have a great time. Or watch it at home—but make sure you aren’t interrupted by the gadgets we rely on so much.

I didn’t watch any trailers. You shouldn’t, either. ↩︎
Watch the film and you’ll know what I mean. But if you want to know now: in the past, imagination sequences would use the same rendering, so you wouldn’t know it was only in a kid’s head. In Toy Story 5, it has more of a magic daydream look, and it’s refreshing and delightful. ↩︎
Hey, Lilly! ↩︎

Boris Yurkevich — Sun, 31 May 2026 08:12:05 +0100

iOS violating its own Human Interface Guidlines (HIG) for modal alert button placement.

Boris Yurkevich — Sat, 23 May 2026 12:14:19 +0100

Boris Yurkevich — Fri, 01 May 2026 08:21:19 +0100

Anthropic silently installed a spyware bridge on my machine

Paper books

Boris Yurkevich — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 17:37:43 +0100

I have gone back to reading physical books. It all started from a holiday when I decided to take nothing with me except my iPhone, Nintendo 3DS with the Phoenix Attorney Trilogy, and a Stephen King paperback I bought a few moments before boarding my plane. I didn’t miss any of my devices; I had amazing sleep and I enjoyed time playing the game I wanted to finish for a long time, and reading a paper book — something I never thought I would do again. I switched to digital books after I got my PocketPC computer, and since then have been using e-readers, Kindle, and lately just reading from my iPhone. But it all changed since I realised that I can’t decide what I should take with me on holiday. It was just taking too much of my energy. I had this idea to only take a book with me.

Lately I’ve been seriously working on my sleep routine. One of the important steps is a rule I have. No screens after 8 p.m. These evenings I find myself reading a paperback, and I hope it’s good for me. It is certainly enjoyable although I do miss watching TV with my wife after the kids are asleep. My behaviour sets a good example for my kids; subconsciously they started to copy me and are spending more time with a book than usual. This rule — no more screens after 8 — worked better than Screen Time restrictions. Perhaps I could use my Kindle, but something tells me that an act of physical owning and reading a book is a superior experience.

Boris Yurkevich — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 08:11:33 +0100

Another iOS dialog alert with buttons in a wrong order.

Safari. iOS 18.7.3

Boris Yurkevich — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 11:48:15 +0100

Finished reading: The Institute by Stephen King 📚

During the winter holiday, this was the only piece of entertainment I decided to take with me for a winter break. Not counting the Nintendo 3DS and iPhone. I also opted for a paper version.

Overall, this was the fastest read since high school. I went through the first half while on holiday, forcing myself to focus on the book. I read somewhere that reading from a paper medium shows higher brain activity. It’s a concern considering how much time I spent writing and reading in a digital environment.

In terms of the book, it can be called a classic, and if you like King, you will love this one. This book literally gave me a nightmare where I felt like a prisoner at the Institute.

By the way, they are making a TV show about it. Read the book first, and do not watch the trailer, which spoils the finale, of course.

Written in LinkEdit and Posted from Vision Pro.

Boris Yurkevich — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 18:22:46 +0100

Synth Riders on visionOS is really fun.

Boris Yurkevich — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 14:37:14 +0100

You don’t have to update to iOS 26 just for security reasons. There’s a way to install 18.7.3 with a beta profiler.

Boris Yurkevich — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 16:54:19 +0100

Playing Half-Life 1 on Mac, using Mac Virtual Display is awesome in Vision Pro. It’s feels immersive. You can’t run it from Steam, but there’s a workaround.