-
Peek Performance, Low Interest
Itās now official. Apple will host another virtual event next week, on March 8th. Itās the first Apple event of 2022, but itās far from being the first real event of 2022. Current events happening in Ukraine are troubling and make me pause on a lot of things. Apple-related stuff is one of these. Iām not in the mood for that. My thoughts and energy are diverted, seized. I donāt care if itās a new iPhone SE, a beefed up Mac mini or whatever else. These look so irrelevant in this incredible and terrible era. Low interest indeed.
-
Apple is Finally Showing Courage
I asked for this since the beginning of the Ukrainian war (on Twitter: first here, then here, then here), and today Apple delivered. Appleās products are no longer being sold through its online store. While the App Store is still working apparently, Iām ok with their decision. On top of that, Apple will donate money, twice the amount that employees will give to help Ukrainians. Itās a good move, the only move, without using real arms, to make an impact. Itās even more powerful when many companies are doing exactly the same.
Yep, finally.
-
Going Downwards
I don’t know about you but I find current events in Ukraine very disturbing and distracting. As much as Iām happy to see Russia being more and more isolated every hour, I can see its leader being more and more pissed off and willing to commit the worst. The world seems to go in a spiralling direction toward even more violence and hard to resolve situations.
-
A Message for Ukrainians
The news of the Russian criminal invasion of its sovereign neighbour, Ukraine, is appalling. Putin and his regime is committing an aggression that shall be punished, at the right time, at the right place with the right means. I cannot believe that weāre seeing such an invasion in Europe, in 2022. Whatās next? Whoās next? Weāre all going to suffer at various degrees from this utterly criminal invasion. I pay no respect to Putin, his government, his propaganda machine and every single Russian who support this aggression. This is an act of war against democracy.
No wonder why Ukraine wanted to stay in NATO camp, because Russia is simply an antidemocratic land. Democratic governments and systems are far from perfect, but they are the least imperfect solution.
For now, Iām sending my positive waves of support to the Ukrainians community of Montreal, Canada. I cannot wait for the next demonstration, so I can show my full support of the Ukrainians.
Hitler must be so proud.
-
On Time Machine Backups Over Network
If you own a desktop Mac, you probably use an external drive for Time Machine. If you use a portable Mac, most likely not, and according to the Tidbits article, youāre not alone. The portability of the Mac is hindered by having an external drive hooked permanently. I, personally, have a different strategy: I use a Synology NAS DS720+ with Time Machine enabled to do my backups over the wireless network. It works perfectly, but I donāt do a full backup of my MacBook Air. Files that are part of iCloud Drive are excluded (read more here, youāll find out why itās a good idea). In fact, most of the files are excluded, except a few critical folders, outside the scope of any cloud syncing services. Applications arenāt backed up either (easy to recover in case of lost). Backups are small but are just what I need to protect my work.
-
Still Mystified by ProRAW
Even after reading this excellent article by the guy behind Halide, Iām still mystified by Appleās ProRAW format. The question that keeps popping up in my mind is: if computational photography processing is involved in creating the ProRAW file (in DNG format), how can we still call this a variant of a RAW image?
Photo credit: Jason Strull on Unsplash
-
Dune Movie - Woah!
Today, I finally saw the Dune movie, by the Canadian director, Denis Villeneuve. As a Canadian myself Iām so proud of him! Itās not a movie review, far from it. Let me just say that when I think about this movie, the word āequilibriumā comes to my mind. The movie is well balanced: storyline, intrigue, visual effects (visual effects serving the story), music, Duneās world imaginary world. But the best for me were those āornithoptersā. Wow, they were sooooo cool! Canāt wait for the next part.
Have you seen the movie? What do you think of it?
-
Old Computer-Related Memories
From 1993 to 1994, I owned a PowerBook Duo 210 sporting a trackball, a low-profile keyboard and a grayscale screen. I didnāt like the trackball as the pointing device. The keyboard wasnāt that great either. But, it was small, highly portable. Coupled with the Duo Dock and an external monitor, it was a cool and novel setup. Itās been a long time ago. This article was written using a M1 MacBook Air, in a coffee shop.
-
On Carrot Weather ā Is It That Cool?
Why is Carrot Weather so popular? Iām a weather enthusiast and I like trying new weather-related applications. I use many all year long, but Carrot Weather is not part of my application arsenal. They recently introduced updated weather maps, but to get a sense of them, I would need to subscribe for a year subscription. Most of the interesting features are available in the premium tier. I like the maps feature, but I wonder how better they will get compared to the ones that Iām already using in MyRadar. iOS 15 brought a significant update to the weather too, but I find the maps lacking radar resolution.
If there are users of Carrot Weather subscription, tell me more, tell my why it is so nice?
-
My Oldest Post
Going back in time on previously published content can be the source of a few smiles. My oldest post on my main blog is about Micro.blog. Here is an excerpt:
This morning I found out the existence of a blogging platform called Micro.blog. Something very special. Very lean. Very light. Without ads. Leaner than WordPress. Yet capable. Close to Twitter but with less clutter.
Itās funny. Itās not about introducing my blog or something like āhelloā world.
-
Challenge of the day: exporting posts from WordPress to Ghost
Well, well, well, it seems that data portability among CMS is an issue. Who knew! I’m trying to find an easy way to move a few posts from my WordPress blog into my Ghost website. Exporting data from WordPress seems like an all-or-nothing situation. There are a few plugins available for this. The problem is that the content isn’t easily imported into Ghost. The latter does have a plugin, but it doesn’t support selecting posts. I don’t want to do this manually.
Any idea or suggestions?
Update 2022-02-16: There is a follow-up to my quest, read all the details here
-
Health of Developer Relations with Apple in Free Fall
According to this yearās Six Colors Report Card, relationships between Apple and its developers’ community is in terrible shape. The trend isnāt looking good either.
Marco Arment said, āAppleās tightening grip on App Store fees, attempts to reach into other parts of businesses that they donāt deserve, and extremely entitled and galling statements on the matter continue to be distasteful and extremely damaging to their reputation. It seems like a huge strategic blunder to inflame developer relations, generate bad PR, invite more regulatory scrutiny, and risk governments imposing much worse changes for such a small percentage of their revenue.ā
Is Apple still able to read the room temperature, or it is blind because of its financial successes? For once, I think Apple should copy Microsoftās leadership.
-
From Appleās AirPort Exterme to Ubiquitiās Amplify HD
As reported in my previous blog post, I had a chance to perform a ātech refreshā of my sisterās WiFi installation at her house. As a satisfied user of Ubiquiti product, the Dream Machine, I suggested to go with a lower end model, the Amplify HD. She has a big two levels home, with numerous rooms that poses a challenge for good wireless connectivity. It was a delightful experience, from the unpacking to final configuration. Itās a beautiful device with an informative display.
The setup was simple. Turning off the AirPort Express after taking note of the SSID, so I could reuse it with the same password. This prevents the reconfiguration of every device connecting to the WiFi with an already known SSID-password combination. After the initial power up sequence, the router will ask the user to download the configuration application from the App Store. An account has to be created with Ubiquity. Thankfully, Sign In with Apple is available.
The next phase happens on the iPhone with an initial discovery over Bluetooth. The setup process is quick and flawless. As expected, a firmware update was waiting to be applied. During the update process, it was the right rime to deploy the two WiFi extenders, in strategic places where the WiFi signals used to be weak. Once completed, I could name each devices with a more meaningful name, to represent where were each device. All in all, the process took less than 30 minutes. Itās a very Apple-like experience. The following table shows the situation before and after the new router. Numbers speaks for themselves.
Mission accomplished. Another happy customer. I came back with the old AirPort Extreme. No idea what to do with it.
-
Replacing (Another) Aging AirPort Extreme Withā¦
In mid-2020, I wrote about my experience of replacing an aging Apple AirPort Extreme with an Ubiquitiās Dream Machine. Today, Iām kind of repeating the experience, but this time with the Amplify HD router, also from Ubiquiti, for my sister. Donāt expect a complete review, but expect a post with a few observations. My sister is having weak WiFi issues in her house and I suggested her to get the kit to form a mesh network. Iāll be taking measure before and after to see if it brings meaningful improvements in her big house. Stay tuned.
-
Universal Control ā Finally!
Iām a big fan of Appleās Sidecar. I frequently use it for work. When Apple announced Universal Control at the 2021 WWDC keynote, I was blown away by the technical challenge it might have represented for Appleās engineers. It really makes for great demos. Then, I started to wonder if this feature would enable new workflows, and I failed to find meaningful ones. With Sidecar, the iPad acts like a passive device most of the time, and Iām happy with this configuration. Then, following the release of iOS 15.4b1, videos (like this one from MacRumors) demonstrating Universal Control in action started to pop up. I changed my mind.
Under a Universal Control configuration, the iPad acts like an intelligent extension of the Mac desktop. Itās like Sidecar Pro Max (just kidding here). The iPad becomes a second computing device readily available to the Mac. The user simply and seamlessly can take advantage of this second screen in a matter where the computing power of the device adds up to the Mac, the screen, the system memory. Itās absolutely clever.
I can see myself using Craft on the MacBook Air and Ulysses on the iPad Pro, all using the MacBookās keyboard and trackpad. Or vice versa. Clever. Really.
Iām considering updating my M1 MacBook Air and my iPad Pro to this beta.
-
On HomePod mini with a screen - STOP!
Consider this recent article from 9to5Mac: Concept: How Apple could turn HomePod mini into a delightful and adorable smart display - 9to5Mac.
Please, stop thinking that a screen on the HomePod mini makes sense because it just doesn’t. Why? Well, by looking at where we put these devices in our house, most of the time, you wouldn’t be able to see the screen from a distance. What Apple really wishes is that you buy an iPad mini with a Smart Folio cover for that purpose.
-
MP3 Files and the iPhone ā Harder Than Necessary
I find it surprisingly hard to find a simple MP3 player for an iPhone these days. I mean, just a simple application capable of downloading an MP3 file locally on the device with good playback controls, simple library management, nothing fancy. Readdle’s Documents (which I know very well) and EverMusic seem to be popular options. Documents offers a good user experience, albeit its multipurpose mission with documents management.
(Iām a moderate consumer of Soundcloud (paid subscription) and use Downie to download files from the service. Those files are stored on my DS720+ Synology NAS.)
Whatās your experience in playing MP3 files on your iPhone? Iām curious.
-
Itās the Time of the Month to Start Crafting the Next Edition of My Monthly Newsletter
Well, itās the time of the month where I start to work on the next edition of my monthly newsletter (itās free BTW). I spend about ten to fifteen hours each month to put this together using my past readings and discoveries, Craft and Ulysses. Each time, itās a pleasure to create. I think I should put together an article about the workflow I use to create each newsletter. Would you find this interesting?
-
Yep, Notion is Bad
I’m nearly done with my Notion to Craft migration. I know I’ve been lazy; I’ve been using Craft for many months while my old content was still sitting there in Notion. While doing the migration, I realized, again, that I don’t really like Notion’s handling of a document. It just feels unnatural and quirky. Export options are very limited, which makes my job much harder. I’m also losing some metadata along the way (and database content too). I don’t have high hopes for a Craft eXtension to support Notion’s API to help users do this kind of rich content migration. I expect to finish the migration in the coming days.
-
Give Me Some Time...
…and Iāll move out of 1Password. Itās on my to-do list for 2022. Gruberās article is a reminder that time is ticking. Iām just being too lazy to move my stuff out of 1Password and put that in Appleās Keychain. It takes time, which is a rare resource for me.
I donāt like 1Passwordās direction. It seems to me that going the enterprise way is counterproductive for the average users. Corporations and individuals donāt share the same objectives. Why do you think Microsoft is making Teams for personal use?
