Choose your subdomain name1. 2) Create a CNAME pointing to it2. 3) Switch to your full custom domain. 4) Write content3. 5) Install a few plugins4. 6) Create pages in the navigation structure to organize content5. 7) Create page footer6. Voilà. 🔥 abc.micro.blog (must be unique to Micro.blog). ↩︎ Done on your Domain name provider, not on Micro.blog. Must point to abc.micro.blog. ↩︎ Markdown supported. Insert images using Uploads and “Copy HTML” option, then paste into page. Continue reading →

Numerous applications and services now incorporate AI features. For instance, consider Notion Q&A or Raycast AI. Companies view this as an opportunity to boost revenue by offering these additional features for a fee. However, I recently pondered the possibility that if Apple integrates generative AI into Siri, as rumored for iOS 18, they may not charge for it. This could give Apple a significant advantage, as the revenue from iPhone sales could cover the associated costs. Continue reading →

The notion of “avoiding vendors lock-in” in information technology is interesting. I would argue that it’s impossible to completely be without some sort of vendor lock-in1. At some point, there is always a required commitment level. You commit to open-source software. You commit to a cloud vendor. You commit to a platform. I often give the example of a company building an application internally with a team of developers. In that scenario, the company is committing to something: the application, the data tied to it and its operational model. Continue reading →

Following the publication of “What If” by Maique, an avid blogger on Micro.blog, his post prompted me to write my own. But before, here’s a summary of his post (thanks ChatGPT): Micro.blog has been hosting maique.eu for years, but there have been some technical issues. Despite some annoyances, the community and features make it worth the cost. However, there are also cons such as lack of proper notifications and support. Continue reading →

I just visited the photography challenge site GuruShots, where I used to play quite a lot a few years ago. I even wrote a few articles about this game ("GuruShots Tips, Tricks and Cheat Sheet","Tips & Tricks 2021 Edition, Part 1", “Tips & Tricks 2021 Edition, Part 2” and “How to Become a Guru at GuruShots”). I had a friend who was playing with me. He still does. Apparently, he is so advanced that there is only one explanation: he has a serious addiction. Continue reading →

If Mark Gurman is correct, the rumored sale process for the Apple Vision Pro is rather complex and lengthy. Watching a 20-minute video to learn about a product indicates many things: Apple is nervous, and the product has a novel approach requiring potential customers’ education or training so that they fully “get the experience” before deciding to put the money on the table. Also, I guess someone willing to pay the high price merits some special attention, too. Continue reading →

As reported by MacRumors, Apple will have 80K Apple Vision Pro available on day one. Now, how many scheduled demos can Apple provide to customers in the first ten days of the availability of the Apple Vision Pro? Let’s try to find out. 243 Apple Store will have the headset. Let’s say there are 6 six guys in the store dedicated to supervising scheduled demonstrations. Could be more, could be less and might vary from store to store. Continue reading →

I’ve extensively used Apple TV (the physical device), Apple TV+ and the Apple TV app during the holidays to play music, videos, movies and series. One thing is clear: tvOS 17 is a regression in terms of usability, for me anyway. I especially don’t like the new left sidebar in the TV app. Navigating back to the home screen is cumbersome, requiring too many “<” back clicks. I often wonder if I’m in the Apple TV app or the Apple TV+ service. Continue reading →

HEY Calendar is being rolled out to a limited set of users. It will be free, and a separate app will be released for the Calendar in the near future. It’s not as controversial a take as the email counterpart. Day view and week view only, by design1. I’m not sure if this is a deal-breaker for many. Time tracking seems limited and cannot replace Toggl / Timery in my workflow. Continue reading →

Just like Steve Jobs once said that Dropbox is not a product but a feature, I wonder if the way we consume GenAI today makes it look like a product, but it’s actually a feature. Don’t get me wrong, GenAI is utterly important and a game changer, but I feel that in the future, there will be something bigger that will encompass GenAI that will actually be THE product. Continue reading →

Visitors to blog.numericcitizen.me increased significantly compared to the previous year. Leaving Twitter at the end of 2022 probably explains why. Embracing the POSSE model and my adoption of Mastodon and Bluesky also explains why more people visited my blog. It’s been a great year on Micro.blog, and I’m really looking forward to 2024! Continue reading →

My main blog stats show a slight increase in visitors, especially in the last three months of 20231. The switch from WordPress.com to Ghost.org positively influenced the trend. The next post will be about the “blog.numericcitizen.me” site where the story is quite different. It’s related to the launch of my weekly creative summary. ↩︎ Continue reading →

It’s time to wrap up 2023! In this last podcast episode for the year😌, I reflect on twelve months of creative work. It was a busy year😅👨🏻‍💻, and I’m grateful for all of it.🙏🏻 Links to some of the things I’m referring to: Bye Bye WordPress — Hello (Again) Ghost My Creator Workflow My Creator toolset Craft templates for sale on Gumroad Celebrating and Reflecting on my 30 Years Career in IT Transcript Continue reading →

After publishing more than 70 YouTube videos on my channel, today I got my first content violation warning for sharing a review about Play 2.0, a video manager for YouTube that facilitates downloading YouTube content for free. Oopsy.🫥 I did the highly recommended training by Google. If you are a serious YouTube video consumer, consider using Play 2.0. That is all.🤫1 I wonder if I could make my video available elsewhere…🤔 ↩︎ Continue reading →

As a paying subscriber to HEY mail, I find it strange that the newsletter consumption feature has never been updated since its initial release1. A product is rarely perfect on its first try. For example: newsletters are presented in a semi-expanded form, but I wish I could display them as “newsletter titles only”. Also, there is no integration whatsoever with third-party read-later service to easily send a newsletter to Omnivore, for example2. Continue reading →

Here is a quick recount of my “Ah ah moment” this morning, involving generative AI in a simple workflow. I’m still in awe about it. If I stumble on a long and chatty YouTube video that might be interesting, I’ll use this workflow to quickly get the gist out of it. First, I use Downie (a Mac utility) to download it on my M2 MacBook Air. Then, I use the Whisper Transcription Mac app to transcribe the spoken discussion into text that I export in a PDF1. Continue reading →

A recently published article on The Verge discusses POSSE and the Fediverse: “Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere.” This content strategy emphasizes the importance of owning the content you create by publishing it on your own platform, like a personal blog or website, and then syndicating or sharing that content on other platforms, such as social media or content aggregators. The main idea behind POSSE is to ensure that creators maintain control over their content. Continue reading →

I don’t know if Apple is working on LLM stuff; they probably do, they probably do work on improving Siri, too, if such a thing is possible in the current incarnation of its fundamentals. But, judging by the rapidity of other companies introducing AI features mainly based on LLM models, I don’t expect it would be so hard for Apple to do the same with Siri. But only if Apple accepts to work with CharGPT-back end for a short-term solution. Continue reading →

I’ve been working with Apple Shortcuts editor recently1, on my iPhone and on my iPad, and boy, what a shocking experience! This editor is nearly unworkable, thanks to scrolling sluggishness, object ordering bugs, object variables becoming empty, constant freezes, keyboard masking input fields, changes not being saved and plain and simple editor crashes. 😤 What is happening with this, Apple?2 I can’t believe Viticci is able to endure this for all his work around shortcuts. Continue reading →

I’m working on something related to using AI in my creative work. I came up with this. AI is used through these front-end clients within my creative workflows: - ChatGPT website - Raycast AI Chat - MidJourney - Whisper - Micro.blog podcast episode transcription - Audio Hijack Transcription block - Kagi Summarize Results, Summary Document, Ask Questions - Craft Assistant - Grammarly And I expect this list to grow in the coming months. Continue reading →