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An Unexpected Side of the Pandemic
The pandemic gave me more time and opportunities to create, write and publish. I donāt want to lose these when itās all over. My creativity-related activities helped me go through all of this.
#covid19 #creativity
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Feeling the COVID-19 Fatigue
š Weāre approaching two years of this COVID-19 pandemic. Weāre entering a phase where people no longer feel the need to care about COVID-19. I feel that way. I donāt care anymore. I donāt feel guilty about it. When I look at the news, more and more signs of people being fed up are popping up. Our collective energy is now directed at saying out loud how weāre tired of all this instead of making concessions about our liberties to fight some invisible virus. I certainly hope that no other major variant will come to life, requiring another six months of confinement, sanitary rules, and de-confinement. But, unfortunately, I am afraid people are going to resist this time. š
#covid19
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Engage
šš» If there is something that I have learned in recent months is this: the more you engage with a community, the better and the most rewarding it is. Most of the time. š
#socialnetwork
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Please, don’t think that because I’m now subscribing to write.as that I’m leaving Micro.blog. It couldn’t be farther than the truth. You’re pretty much stuck with me here, for as long as I can see! āŗļø
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The Inspiration Killer
Iām sad that Iām rarely doing photography these daysā¦ the pandemic and COVID-19 killed my inspiration.
#covid19 #photography #creativity
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Bonus Content
I like the idea of selectively cross-posting some of the posts here to Twitter or Ghost, but not that many. Each cross-posting is some sort of blips or advertisement on the web. People who pay attention or are simply curious in nature hitting the source link will be in for a treat. Unpublicized posts would act like bonus content for the reader to discover.
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TGIF
Time flies; I didnāt see the week. Where did it go? On the eves of the weekend, Iām thinking about possible subjects for participation in the Micro.camp conference, this coming March. The one topic that seems to stick as Iām writing this: coffee shops and creative work.
#musing
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I'm in perpetual experimentation mode
I’m still thinking about the possibility of subscribing to this service. I’m trying to find a specific use case for it. Even though I might not find one, I could consider my subscription as a vote for the service’s mission. It would be a sign of appreciation. Three dollars a month for five years is less than many of the much-less valuable services that I’m already subscribing to. Six days left for the promotion.
I got my inspiration from this post.
This post will be cross-posted to https://numericcitizen-introspection.blog.
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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.
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What am I doing here?
Here I am, on write.as. What am I doing here? Am I going to subscribe to this service? Do I really need it?
Micro.blog being linked with @Apple_Observer, Typefully being linked to Apple_Observer, write.as could be behind @NumericCitizen. I could use it for my Numeric Citizen Twitter account and cross-post to Ghost? It probably doesn’t matter much if there is no native application for Write.as.
I’m still thinking about it. Wishing for a final call before the end of the five-year subscription deal, ending this coming Feb. 16th.
This was my very first post on write.as.
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On Sideloading on iPhone ā Itās OK, Iām Changing My Mind numericcitizen.me
I’d love to get feedback on this subject, from this community, here on MB…
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Only 3$ a Month
I’m getting ready to pull the trigger on write.as. For a mere 3$ a month, it won’t be an expensive experience. I think I can do it without going bankrupt. šØš»āš»
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Write.as. Why am I looking at Write.as now? Aren’t WordPress, Micro.blog, Ghost and Blot enough already? Is this a disease? I like the concept of Write.as, but the lack of any native apps bugs me a lot. There is a deal right now running through Feb 16th. Gosh.
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Apple is clearly crossing the red line here IMHO. They are being disingenuous.
These guidelines from Apple about external payments are even worse than I expected. So many hoops to jump through, and a ridiculous 27% fee. No one is going to go along with this, which means it doesnāt relieve any regulatory pressure on Apple. Burning more developer trust.
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For (more) personal stories of mine, here is the place to go.
Friday Notes #61 ā Knowing Our Parents numericcitizen-introspection.blog
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I’m mostly done with my love letter to Cleanshot, a screen grabber utility for the Mac. I’m close to 500 words. I should be paid for doing this. Oh well… what passion can make us do…
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On December 18th of 2019, Here’s what I wrote on Micro.blog:
Now that Iām closing my account here on micro.blog Iām starting to get more interactions š¤·š»āāļø.
The responses I got were so enlightening, I changed my mind. What a great community. š
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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.
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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.
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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.
