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From time to time, while scrolling through my Micro.blog timeline, Iāll pause, read a particular post, peak at someoneās profile and previous posts, remember that this guy exists and wonder why in the first place I was following him or her. Then I sometimes hit the unfollow. Why do I think this is some sort of failure ?
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Migration to Fastmail Going FAST
Spent a few hours in Fastmail to get it ready to fully replace my HEY Mail subscription. Got my new email domain name set up in Cloudflare. The Screener functionality that I liked in HEY is now fully operational and is based on a Contacts Group. The Paper Trail is also set up and based on another Contacts group. Basically, if an email uses a contact not in the Screener, it will be moved in The Screener label. The same happens for the Paper trail. If I want a specific email to go to the Paper Trail, the contact is created and added to the right contacts group. One email account (Gmail) has been configured for Fastmail to pull content from it (no need to use email forwarding, so everything is configured from Fastmail. My Gmail account is a low-volume account so that I can tweak things before connecting my primary email accounts (both are Apple-provided).
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I’m not sure if I’ll actually need to set up a paid subscription to Fastmail, maybe paying for one month will be needed to fully evaluate the capabilities, though, but from my current experiment with this service so far, I must say that I really like what I’m seeing. It’s certainly fast.
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While browsing Substack yesterday and this morning, I stumbled upon a writer from Ukraine that Iām eager to follow. Isnāt it surprising that I canāt subscribe to his content via an RSS feed? Iām quite impressed by how this platform is so tightly controlled. It’s too bad.
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Emails Shuffle
Iām making progress in cleaning up my email mess. I closed my Yahoo Mail account, which I only used for Flickr when the authentication backend moved from Flickr to Yahoo1. I closed two Gmail accounts: one of the two was used when I was developing iPhone apps between 2009 and 2013. This means I have three fewer email redirections for HEY Mail. Most of my newsletter subscriptions are now redirected to Inoreader, which is another dependency removed from HEY Mail.
So, whatās left in HEY Mail? Two email redirections: one .me email account1 and my primary iCloud mail account. These are my biggest email accounts. Of course, I also have my HEY Mail account that I use in a few dozen places. Thatās the last part to move out. The question is: which email account should I use instead of my HEY Mail? Is this where Fastmail comes into play? Or should I merge them into one of my Apple-hosted mail accounts? If I choose the latter, I donāt see the point of using Fastmail unless I want to replicate the Paper Trail functionality of HEY Mail. Even then, Appleās latest updates to Mail offer something similar. I should probably try the latest betas on my Mac and see how well it performs. Stay tuned for the next update on my emails shuffle.
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There is something so satisfying in closing online accounts and deleting data. It’s really hard to explain. This process only happens when moving things around (like moving from one email provider to another).
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I think I found a viable way to replace Readwise with Craft1. The fun thing is that I found this while recording my next video. It’s possible because of a recently launched browser extension that saves an article into Craft. More details in my upcoming video. Here’s a sneak peek.
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I cancelled my Readwise subscription today. ↩︎
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I logged into my Substack account today because Iām working on something and I couldnāt believe how different it is from a few years ago. I donāt even recognize it anymore. Are they trying to become another LinkedIn or Facebook? Or maybe theyāre chasing TikTok or YouTube? What is going on?
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If Only I Had Gen AI Back in the Day
I acquired the skill of programming in Objective-C and developed iPhone applications between 2009 and 2013. Since I had learned programming concepts during my Computer Science degree, I didnāt have to begin from scratch. However, with the advent of generative AI, I canāt help but wonder how my learning experience would have unfolded differently. I think that it would have been significantly expedited while exploring creating different apps beyond the one I was developing.
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Another pricey subscription cancelled: Timing.app. After the initial excitement to learn about how I spend my time on my computer, I think it’s time to conclude: I spend a lot of time on a computer for doing a lot of different things. There is a cheaper alternative called Currentkey, that I plan to test in the near future, though.
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Bye Bye Readwise?
Just got a reminder to close my Readwise account, probably because the subscription renewal is coming soon. Thatās not a cheap one. Beyond serving as a repo for text highlights from Micro.blog and Inoreader, I donāt really have a meaningful use for it. I donāt use the Readwise Reader either. I export highlights into Bear from time to time as markdown files. I almost never search them. Sometimes Iāll read a few highlights with amusement or nostalgia, but nothing more. Why am I doing all this, then? š§š¤·š»āāļø
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More than ever, the USA is isolated. More than ever, Iām convinced that the US government is siding with Putin.
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Even if US gave 100 billions dollars to support Ukraine, that’s nothing to the price Ukraine is paying… it doesn’t give the right to Trump and his clowns to act like they did. They are the ones who are lying to the public. They are the ones who act on bad faith by conducting sneaky negotiations behind closed doors without Ukraine. Not only that, but they are the ones who you shouldn’t trust. Wonder who is bringing us closer to WWIII, that is the US, not Ukraine.
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Fuck Trump, Fuck Vance and fuck their clique. Ukraine, we support you, you are not alone! The US is the one who’s acting like a bully, period. What a disgrace.
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Is Apple about to get another “Apple Silicon moment” with the C1 modem in the iPhone 16e? I think so. A 24% power consumption reduction for the same performance level is significant in my book.
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Beyond ChatGPT And OpenAI
I’m a frequent user of generative AI, primarily for my work, but also to assist with my activities as a blogger and content creator. I subscribe to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and mainly limit my generative AI use to this service. I realize that OpenAI is becoming my new Apple, as I prefer to concentrate on one service to maximize the benefits of my subscription. I appreciate what they offer, including their services and apps.
However, OpenAI is not the only option, and I should explore other services as well. I don’t want to use Meta’s or Google’s offerings. What else is available? Perplexity? I started using it this morning and I like their offerings, but I’m still on a free plan. Do you have any suggestions besides Perplexity? What about Claude? I’m curious about their respective market shares.
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Testing OpenAI Deep Research
I’m currently testing OpenAI Deep Research on two very specific subjects. So far, I’m quite impressed, not only about the end-results but also with the progress status report during the researching phase. It’s a great way to start looking into specific domains, and it gives many hints as to what to look for. Coupled with OpenAI Canvas, this is a powerful tool for a writer like me.
What a great time to be alive to test those things and see how I can take advantage of all this to be a better human.
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Thought of the moment: eliminating the cease in the foldable iPhone is certainly a differentiating factor, but reducing the thickness of any upcoming foldable iPhone is another one, and the solution might reside in the upcoming iPhone 17 Air. All addressed challenge to make the iPhone 17 Air as thin as possible, it’s a step forward to a thinner foldable iPhone.
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More than ever I think that social networks are the worst place to have a sound conversation about politics especially in today’s heated world. I felt in the trap yesterday, had to unfollow someone so that I can stay sane. Will I ever learn?
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Best call from Apple. They had no choice but to leave, otherwise their credibility would have been questioned.
