Numeric Citizen Blog Posts Monthly Digest
Numeric Citizen Blog
As a Canadian who will face unjust tariffs thanks to the small clique of rich and famous people in the White House, I will reconsider each of my subscriptions that originate from the United States, including Apple One. It starts now.
2025-02-02 ∞In my latest edition of The Ephemeral Scrapbook: "Got a keyboard. I took a break because of work. I’m skipping DeepSeek. The iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy 25 Ultra. Who wins? Marking the start of a dark era."
2025-02-02 ∞For once, I'm really proud of him, of us. This is Canada's Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. Justin Trudeau, announcing retaliatory actions against the White House absurd and unjustified tariffs. The first four minutes entirely reflect who we are. So well said and quite moving, actually. 🇨🇦 💪🏻
2025-02-02 ∞Apparently, the EU get porn apps, but we get Apple Intelligence. 🤷🏻♂️
2025-02-03 ∞Using ChatGPT to analyze anonymized resumes1 and match them with a set of requirements is quite an impressive experience. I'm mind blown.
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It's mandatory for privacy protection. ↩
Quite positive experience with Apple Invites so far. I feel they move the needle and bring a much more enjoyable experience compared to other similar offerings. Nice user interface visual language. It feels new and very Apple. I like it. Is it something that preclude what is coming up with iOS 19?
2025-02-04 ∞Non-Optimized for the iPad
Apple told the developers that building an iPad was a matter of clicking a checkbox (more or less). Now, why is Apple Sports, Apple Journal and more recently, Apple Invites are not optimized for the iPad? 🤨🤷🏻♂️
2025-02-04 ∞I’ve been experiencing crashes in the Mac App Store and iOS App Store in recent times like never before. Right after an app update finishes, the store quit unexpectedly or just by looking at the list of available updates. Surprising.
2025-02-06 ∞With a secret request by the UK government for a backdoor in iCloud, can you imagine if it was to be granted and then later down the line something like what's happening in the US is taking over the government and institutions happen? It is hard to comprehend what is happening every day these days.
2025-02-07 ∞I detest the feeling of discovering that I’ve shared a photo more than once. I yearn for a foolproof method to distinguish between the photos that have been posted and those that haven’t. I’m not always using the same method or same device for posting photos online.
2025-02-07 ∞And the Winner Is...
Three apps, three different designs. On the left, Tapestry, in the middle Reeder (new), on the right Reeder (old). For me, the winner is the new Reeder which offers a much cleaner design. I'll keep an eye on Tapestry, but I don't see how its design could change much. 
Just finished some subscriptions cleaning on YouTube. I was following way too many channels, many of which are dead. I came to do this this morning because I was looking for low-volume channels to add to Reeder. Low volume streams are the best to add to an app like Reeder. The sum of low volume content channels eventually lead to high-volume content to look at.
2025-02-09 ∞There is something that I wish was different with blogs hosted on WordPress: commenting and liking. I never comment on those blogs because I don't like Gravatar or I don't want to create a WordPress.com account just to write a comment. Again this morning, I clicked on "Like" on a blog post and for some reason, my email prefix was displayed, and I don't remember having a Gravatar account still active. In fact, it didn't have one, after some checks. I prefer to log in using something like my Mastodon-friendly identity or Sign in with Apple. I want the blog to give me more choices than their own authentication service (and I don't want to use my Google account, nor Facebook login). In fact, I want an identity provider that doesn't build a social graph or bases his business model on where I'm headed on the web.
Am I alone with this thinking?
2025-02-10 ∞It's Time to Vote With My Money
DHH at 37 Signals praising Musk for his business (and now) government spending management is yet another red flag and a no-go for me. I won't link to this post. I'm going to vote with my money and cancel my HEY Mail subscription this fall when my subscription is expiring. If Musk buys ChatGPT, I'll again vote with my money and cancel my ChatGPT subscription in due time. As Trump is imposing 25% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, I'll vote with my money and cancel my yearly business trip to the US this fall. Some of these changes are a pain to implement but resisting is never an easy thing.
2025-02-11 ∞First, Tim gives his money to this orange clown and dictator and assist the presidential circus inauguration and now Apple resumes advertising on X? This is not the Apple that I want. 😡
2025-02-12 ∞The Rotten Side of Tim Cook’s Apple: Should I write a take 2 to this piece published in 2020? I think so.
2025-02-12 ∞In these troubled times, the worst is to depend on social networks for anything.
2025-02-13 ∞As reported by Engadget and many others:
According to researchers, anyone who knows where to look can spray digital graffiti on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) website. Two web development experts said the site doesn’t seem to be hosted on government servers and that the database it pulls from can be modified by those who locate it. At the time of writing, a message reading “these ‘experts’ left their database open - roro” is still visible on the DOGE site.
Thanks, I feel much more confident now.
2025-02-14 ∞Netflix vs Apple: Who's the Dumbest?
While Netflix is sorry for making their product too convenient by showing up on Apple TV app for a few hours to a few users, Apple is making Apple TV app available anywhere, including Android more recently. Netflix seems run by stupid guys. Apple? I prefer not to answer that one. It's tricky and complicated when looking at the big picture (pun intended).
2025-02-15 ∞I'm not too fond of text quotes shared as beautiful pictures (coming from Readwise, for example), especially if they don't come with ALT text description. They look pretty, though. Here's an example. I don't like them because they hinder content indexing in some ways.
I can’t count the number of times I wish I had maintained an archive of all my screenshots over the years, even going back to the earliest days when we could take screenshots of screens. 🤦🏻♂️😔
2025-02-15 ∞Putin and Trump negotiating the end of the war (or something that looks like it) without Ukraine is like a couple who is about to divorce, but the husband is negotiating with a not-so-random guy, leaving his wife aside, how to split the couple's assets. This is beyond ridiculous and utterly outrageous.
2025-02-15 ∞After skipping a week, here is the latest edition of the Ephemeral Scrapbook newsletter. This edition is the one shared from Craft as a published document. The Ghost web-hosted version is coming later today.
2025-02-16 ∞I wrote this about Apple's Aperture more than five years ago. Now we have something to talk about.
2025-02-16 ∞How Do You Feel About That?
I don't know how many Americans will read this post, but I feel the need to get the message out by amplifying this post from a Ukrainian soldier. How do you feel about Trump wanting to talk to the enemy, because this is exactly what he is? I find the link with 9/11 especially right on. The only difference, there as been hundreds if not thousands of 9/11 in Ukraine since February 2022. And it goes on, and on, and on. Wake the fuck up.
I don't care if Reddit offers a paywall option for Subreddits. Unless I'm missing something: I could create and built a community over there and at some point ask for a paid subscription, right? What is the difference then compared with Substack or Ghost?
2025-02-17 ∞Musing About Journaling Goals
I maintain a daily journal at work where I jot down the day’s highlights. I write about what went well, the current challenges I’m facing, and any opportunities to do something different. I also note the clients I spoke to and the reasons behind it. I’ve been doing this for a while now, but I never refer to the journal once it’s written. It’s just a dump of my thoughts.
I wonder why I’m doing this. I think the act of writing it down is the ultimate goal, not the end results. It’s the same with my personal journal. I rarely write in it, but I do occasionally. I rarely, if ever, refer to it. Why is that?
Now, let’s talk about blogging. Why is all that? Is there a pattern here?
2025-02-17 ∞Witnessing, albeit from a distance, the daily dismantling of the United States is quite a spectacle. I never imagined I would witness this.
2025-02-18 ∞Mostly Unexcited
Tomorrow, Apple is introducing a new family member. It's not expected to be a new HomePod with a screen, nor a lower-priced version of the Apple Vision Pro. It's rather a low-but-wisely-priced iPhone. It's the next iPhone trick to keep the money printing machine humming. The only thing that I'm curious about is the future cellular modem benchmarks. Supposedly made by Apple to eventually kick out Qualcomm, this modem will be under the microscope of many to see how it performs.
The other thing maybe that we could see at the same time: the next round of betas for iOS 18.4 and Apple Intelligence. But I'm not holding my breath for that one. I prefer to set my expectations very low, near zero actually, just to be sure.
2025-02-18 ∞What? HP is buying Humane remains? HP? The leader in generative AI looking for a modern, lightweight and nifty dedicated AI device to hum along their AI backend services? Silicon Valley is hard to decipher at times.
2025-02-18 ∞Paying Attention
I’m likely spending an excessive amount of time reading the news through various channels and sources. However, given the numerous events unfolding right now that will significantly shape our lives over the next few decades, I believe it’s crucial to pay close attention to them. Regardless of the method, one day, these events will undoubtedly have a clear and immediate impact on me and my loved ones.
2025-02-19 ∞I find it amusing that Apple releases a new iPhone member with Tim Cook and keep pitching Apple Intelligence as a breakthrough. Are VPs at Apple aware that Apple Intelligence is far behind everybody else and that it still in early beta? Do the engineering teams ever get poked by VPs as to where they are in their journey to bring real generative AI to Apple users? 🤭
2025-02-19 ∞I headed to the office this morning and brought both my iPad Pro and my MacBook Pro. I had to install the latest updates on my MBP, so I started working on my iPad with an external monitor. I’m pretty sure I’ll be using that setup for the rest of the day. I’m being pretty patient with iPadOS paper cuts.
2025-02-20 ∞Best call from Apple. They had no choice but to leave, otherwise their credibility would have been questioned.
2025-02-21 ∞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?
2025-02-24 ∞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.
2025-02-25 ∞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.
2025-02-26 ∞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.
2025-02-27 ∞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.
2025-02-28 ∞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.
2025-02-28 ∞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.
2025-02-28 ∞More than ever, the USA is isolated. More than ever, I’m convinced that the US government is siding with Putin.
2025-02-28 ∞