Numeric Citizen Blog Posts Monthly Digest
Numeric Citizen Blog
It's Sunday, and it's time for the new edition of my weekly creative summary, available now directly from Craft, later by email, for those who subscribe. Enjoy the ride.
2023-10-01 ∞I just realized the upcoming weekend is a long one. I should have enough free time to produce another podcast! And a YouTube video about my Craft super-template for research and writing.
2023-10-03 ∞Got an email this morning from Mailbrew about an issue (resolved since then) of logging into the service. So, there is life, apparently! They said they have a "team" working on the next features... 🤔 I would love to see this service thrive instead of being an abandonware. 🙏🏻
2023-10-03 ∞I spent the early morning on Gumroad to set up something... 👀
2023-10-04 ∞👉🏻 I'm ready to share my first digital product: a Craft template to support the process of research and writing on a specific subject. See the introduction post on Gumroad. Special introductory price: 5$ or about the price of a latte at Starbucks. Think about it! 🤣
2023-10-04 ∞I'm going to the office by bike today. 🚴🏻♂️ With this splendid weather1, probably the last such beautiful and warm day of this fall, I'm really looking forward to this half-hour ride downtown Montreal.
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We've been in a very long streak of warm and sunny weather, something like 10 days of sunshine. ↩
Yesterday at work, I was directed to listen to a podcast hosted on Podbean. I remembered that in 2019 I was sharing my podcast episodes over there, too, in addition to Apple's Podcasts directory1. I spent some time this morning to refresh my setup. Boy, this service is "dull" to use. I wonder if it really makes a difference to post my content there.
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In 2019, I experimented with podcasting but in French. It wasn't very successful. ↩
The "new" Microsoft Teams is now available on Mac. Gosh, that is not ready for prime time, at least on macOS Sonoma. Going back to the Classic version.
2023-10-06 ∞Ghost offers a new default theme: Source. 👀 And I kind of digg it a lot! Will have to investigate further this weekend.
2023-10-06 ∞I made discoveries today while doing some much-needed cleanup in my home office. Here, this is what could be the first Apple dongle1. More to come soon... 👀 
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This box was an AppleTalk network junction box. The smaller beige piece was for connecting two AppleTalk cables. ↩
I'm still in my early phase with my iPhone 15 Pro Max 📸📱. Taking photos with this phone offers more possibilities, asking for more thoughts while shooting a scene. Am I the only one who wished Apple had created a profiling questionnaire during the iPhone setup, asking questions to determine our general experience level with photography? Depending on our answers, parameters would be set accordingly. ☝🏻
2023-10-07 ∞Another creative week is mostly completed, it's time for a new edition of the Weekly Creative Summary, now available as a Craft shared document, later by email for my subscribers! Buckle up! 😊
2023-10-08 ∞Who remembers this? Countless moments were spent looking at this back in 1984 and 1985. It's one of Apple's best and most timeless designs, even if it's beige1. 
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Taken out of a copy of an Apple Dealer Guide circa 1985. ↩
👉🏻 What an entertaining story by @basicappleguy about Apple's controversial cases, with beautiful imagery, as always. I do have a case for one of my AitTag. 😳
2023-10-09 ∞Sometimes, a website doesn't work well (or at all), and the problem is that my NextDNS client blocks some traffic. When that happens, I turn it off... and forget about it, only to find out a few days later that I forgot to reenable it. This makes me angry—all the time.
2023-10-10 ∞I love Omnivore more and more. There, I said it.☝🏻
2023-10-10 ∞Thought of the day: read-later services or applications are a consequence of facing or having too much content available and a lack of time for consuming that content in a timely matter. ☝🏻
2023-10-10 ∞I just received my Nomad leather case for my iPhone 15 Pro Max. Best case I ever used on an iPhone. Better than Apple's leather case. It complements the Peak Design one for use with my bike. Another great case, btw. Not cheap but well worth it. 👌🏻
hey, bloggers and writers on WordPress1, enable the Fediverse plugin and share your blog “handle” with the world so we can follow you right from here! Can’t wait!
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I left WordPress.com a while back, but I’m happy to see them adopt Fediverse! ↩
I went to the Apple Store yesterday. Surprisingly, in the front of the store only has letters printed on the front windows. Pretty lame. I spent some time looking at other shades for the 15 Pro line. The natural titanium definitively reminds me of the iPhone 4 contour design, which I love very much. I'm still happy with my black iPhone 15 Pro Max, but...
2023-10-13 ∞Discovery of the day: I can use Audio Hijack with ScreenFlow to record the Mac audio from the Finch Pixel USB-C1,2 mic and the Mac screen. Why use Audio Hijack? Well, so that it can use the macOS Voice Isolation feature and output the results to the Mac audio, which the special audio driver of ScreenFlow, in turn, picks up. Without this, ScreenFlow 10.0.9, with direct voice isolation, creates distorted sound.
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With the Lightning version, I had no issues with the iPhone 13 Pro, macOS Voice Isolation and Screenflow. The problems come from using USB (A or C) microphone devices. It's a known issue, apparently—no fix in sight. ↩
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I spent way too much time and money trying to fix the sound quality for my recordings. ↩
I’m getting an issue with Short.io where domain name cloaking is no longer available. It used to be just fine. Something has changed recently. To get it back, I have to subscribe to the personal plan costing 250$. Looking for alternatives. Cc @Mtt who uses the same setup as mine.
2023-10-14 ∞It's Sunday, it's the time of the week for another creative summary. Here's another edition of my weekly creative summary directly from my Craft workspace. It's the seventh edition already! 😅 The email version is coming up later today for my subscribers!
2023-10-15 ∞Apparently, Apple is working on a way to upgrade iOS on iPhone still in their box at the Apple Store. This would prevent issues where there is a bug in the final release of iOS that could hinder the upgrade experience of new buyers. I'm still wondering how the GM of iOS is installed at the factory and how long it takes to be installed. Is the USB-C port helping make the operation faster? 🤔
2023-10-15 ∞Who’s reading my weekly creative summary? How could I improve it?
2023-10-15 ∞If Apple is indeed close to releasing the third-generation Apple Pencil with a magnetic pencil tip, I can see that coming with some new trick, enabled with iPadOS 17.1, probably to be launched before October 21st1. What else could this new pencil do? Include an electronic erasure on the other end of the pencil? 👀
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The date was apparently leaked by a French government agency about the reduction of radiation from the iPhone 12, which Apple would indeed fix no later than October 21st. ↩
404 - Page Not Found
I have an issue with Short.io. I want to contact their support to find a solution to something that partially works, but no contact information is available in the /Support section. The /Blog section shows a small "Contact Us" button leading to a page not found error. There is no mail address either. They ask for $ 250 / year for a "Personal" subscription plan. How can I trust them if I cannot contact them for support?1🤔
The problem: not all links are leading to the destination page under the go.numericcitizen.me domain name. Why? This used to work for all links, but it's no longer true. Why? Exhibit one: this link works. This one won't.
Instead of 404 - Page Not Found, this should be 404 - Support Not Available 😔
Update: I got my answer after chatting with tech support through their chatbox on their website, which wasn't initially showing because of content blocking in Safari. 🤦🏻♂️ All is fine now.
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Their Twitter account is a ghost town; the last tweet was posted in 2021. ↩
My favorite Apple Watch face of all time.
Does a foldable iPad = Apple’s Knowledge Navigator? 🤨🤔
2023-10-18 ∞Remember when it was simple to buy an iPad? Now it is getting harder to buy an Apple Pencil, too.
For those on Craft, this is my release analysis for v2.5.18 that just came out.
2023-10-19 ∞There is a Midjourney plugin for Raycast... but man this is hard to configure and make it working. Moving on for now.
2023-10-19 ∞For some reason, I feel the urge to try iA Writer. I must be bored...1
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I'm a satisfied Ulysses user. But, Ulysses feels busier than iA Writer, from what I can see. ↩
My 2018 iPad Pro is starting to show its age. iPadOS 17 might be the last enjoyable version on this device. Stage Manager is disabled. No external monitors support. Great external monitor with my Mac mini, though. 🤔
2023-10-19 ∞Getting mentally ready for a business trip to Las Vegas next week. I'll try to put my 15 Pro Max to the test with night photography🌃. It's been three years since the last travel, thanks to COVID. Can't wait to see this city where everything happening in Las Vegas stays there. It better be1.
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I don't play slot machines. I hate that. ↩
Some Must-Needed Changes to My (Too Many) About Pages
Today, I'm removing my digital garden content. The most valuable parts were moved to my About Page, and the rest has been dropped. Both of these pages are created and maintained in Craft. I like the idea of Digital Gardens, but it's not practical for me to maintain on top of this blog and my other websites. Again, it's time to focus.
Next up, should I get rid of my Linktr.ee page?1,2 🤔 And, why does my Micro.blog about page is empty? 🤨
If you are like me, with macOS Sonoma, you like widgets on the Mac desktop. The Mac experience can become quite busy with many widgets. This is why, more than ever, I depend on HazeOver to reduce the distraction caused by widgets1,2.
Apple’s use of Swift and SwiftUI in iOS 17 by Timac:
Objective-C is still at the core of iOS and is used directly or indirectly by most apps
The adoption of Swift and SwiftUI continues to grow rapidly
The share of Objective-C, C and C++ continues to decrease
It's a must-read for the curious around here.
2023-10-21 ∞I’m a subscriber of Inoreader, but I read the feeds using Reeder 90% of the time. I only wish that Reeder could update the engagement stats on Inoreader. Is that even possible from a RSS client perspective? I highly doubt it. You’ve got an opinion on this subject? Let me know.
2023-10-21 ∞I'm tempted to only bring my 2018 iPad Pro for this business trip to Las Vegas1. I'll need it to take notes during sessions and do meetings with Teams. That should be enough. I try to travel light2.
2023-10-21 ∞And now is the time for another weekly creative summary. This is edition 2023-42, available as a shared document directly from Craft, later by email for the millions of subscribers!1
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Well, maybe not that many. 😜 ↩
This week, because of this business trip to Las Vegas, I'm taking a "mild" break from my creative hobby. No more time tracking, no urge to look for the next opportunity to write and share. I am just putting myself in a different mood for this business trip to be successful and valuable. 😌
2023-10-22 ∞My 2018 12.9 iPad Pro is old. In technology years, it’s super old. However, it’s my favourite iPad and despite many new versions that Apple has since released, I have not been tempted to replace it. My only issue with this particular iPad is unsurprisingly its battery life. Makes perfect sense. I have used this iPad every day literally for years. In recent months, I could tell it’s not lasting as long. It’s dying within 2 to 3 hours of moderate use. Source: Apple denied my iPad Pro battery replacement
My wife's 2018 iPad Pro battery is around 84%. She booked a diagnostic session with an Apple Store technician a few months ago. Same thing: Apple didn't accept to replace the battery unless it was under 80%. Some cynic people could say that Apple wants customers to be frustrated enough with battery life so they upgrade the whole iPad instead of replacing the battery. Personally, this could be an environmental stance, but the fact that it isn't presented this way opens the door for all sorts of theories.
2023-10-22 ∞Today is a reminder that the internet is probably the worst place to have a debate. You would think that Mastodon or Bluesky or Thread are better than X, Y and Z? Nope. Same. Arguing the contrary is shortsighted. Even arguing in a text message conversation is not a good idea.
2023-10-22 ∞Touch down. I’m back from Las Vegas! What a ride. What a city! I’m not loving everything about this place for sure. 😐
2023-10-26 ∞A recent addition to Mailbrew made me discover Brief.news1. So far, I like what I'm seeing. News briefs are generated with AI (with LLM models, I'm guessing). It's a great use case of AI, right here. The combination with Mailbrew makes perfect sense, too.
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It's a free service for now. I wonder what is their business model? 🤔 ↩
Glass Opens Up a Little Bit More
Glass feels right at home in Capture One. Long adored as one of the best platforms for editing and managing a photography workflow, we're thrilled to include publishing to Glass in Capture One. The final step in the creative process is sharing the work you've made — making that as easy and frictionless as possible is what we're both all about. Source: Capture One x Glass — Glass
I like where Glass is going. The choice of Capture One as the first to take advantage of Glass's APIs is telling and sending a message. How long before Publish to Glass support is added to Adobe Lightroom? Months? Years? Ever? How long before we get Fediverse support?
2023-10-27 ∞Hello, Again, Mac?
Surprised by this late-October Apple event ("Scary Fast"). Could this be about Mac gaming? Is this for the Apple Silicon M3? The timing is weird, in my opinion. What about the iMac with M2 and a new iMac Pro with M3? The latter wouldn't make too much sense as Pros prefer more flexibility than an all-in-one Mac. But using the Mac happy face really points to a Mac-only event. And boy, do I like this animation that I'm including here for my own pleasure1.
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I always found that Apple is not using the Mac happy face enough in their marketing. They could have tied this face to Siri too. ↩
Since iOS 17.1 in Music.app, Favourite 🌟 replaced Love ❤️? What if I love a song but it is not one of my favourites? 🤔
2023-10-29 ∞👉🏻 I just finished updating my complete content creator toolset with recent changes in my workflows. Enjoy the ride!
2023-10-29 ∞So far, I have not felt excited about the upcoming "Scary Fast" event. Maybe tomorrow morning? I'm not thinking of upgrading my Macs. This could explain it.
2023-10-29 ∞Looking for a Useful and Secure Search Engine
I'm fed up of Google's search capabilities and business model. Search results quality has gone downhill in recent years. I don't like the visual design of Google's online products in general, especially Google Search results formatting. What search engine are you using? Are you willing to pay for using one, if yes, which one? 🤔
2023-10-30 ∞Apple to Intel-based Mac users: "It's really the best time to upgrade!"1. 
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Less subtle message: In case you didn't notice, Apple revolutionized personal computers two years ago. Wake-up! ↩
My timeline right now: cynicism^31.
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Using 5x less power. ↩
It's probably my best screenshot of yesterday's Scary Fast event. Happy Halloween, everyone! 👻
