-
Don't Call Them Soldiers
Each time I get news from the war in Ukraine, and I read or hear the expression āRussian soldiers,ā I want to puke. These guys arenāt soldiers; they arenāt part of an army but a gang. They are criminals, rapists, cowards, looters, stealers, hypocrites, dumb, and stupid, to name a few adjectives. They are everything but soldiers or, even worse, humans.
-
Ask Me Something
Friday is coming. Fast. Each Friday, I publish a new edition of the Friday Notes Series. As Iām writing this, I donāt have a subject for this weekās edition, but I have this simple idea: ask me something, and Iāll try to answer in the next edition. Donāt be shy. Time is running up. š
#writing
-
Smoke & Mirrors
If I summarize what we saw today from Moscow, it was a smoke & mirrors show. Even Putinās speech was a letdown, and I felt uninspired. He used fake news to justify the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. He didnāt do what the West was afraid of declaring conscription or a full-out war with Ukraine. He didnāt because he probably knew that he couldnāt. Declaring a war would have been a sign of failure of the āspecial military opsā. Conscription wouldnāt bring combat-effective resources soon enough anyway. Russia is simply failing at so many levels.
Again, for me, and probably for many military pundits, Russia is showing a pale version of its past. We shouldnāt be afraid of them. And we must keep the pressure on them so that when they lose, they will remember their losses for a long time.
-
My Reading Workflow Is in a State of Flux
First, I got back to Pocket and paid for the subscription. Then I added Readwise. Then I found Matter, and fell in love with it. Iām not sure why. Iām still waiting for Readwise Reader application. While waiting for it, whatās the point of Readwise, again? News Explorer is my go-to application for most of my readings via RSS feeds; I can save links as favourites, but I never do so. My reading workflow is in a total state of flux.
Which application or service should I use to bookmark articles that I want to read later? What should I prioritize in such application: organization of links or the reading experience? How is that fact that I collect more than I read should change my application selection? Comparing applications like Matter, Pocket, and Raindrop.io, I find many common features, which brings confusion to me. Matter seems better for reading, but Raindrop.io more complete at organizing links collections. Why canāt I have both in the same application? Craft is my goto application for drafting and writing my articles, but can save links with nice previews. Craft is lacking tags to organize objects and doesnāt offer a reading experience as it doesnāt save content from a link. Craft is of no help here in my reading workflow. And what about highlights, how do I create them and make use of them later? Matter is good at creating highlights, Raindrop.io recently added highlight support too, but thatās it. Oh, and RSS readers like Reeder or News Explorer can save links and add tags too. Finally, I wish I could find a great text highlighting extension for Safari, after all, itās my goto browser.
To some degree, read later applications or services are still maturing, no solution is complete. This explains that, I guess.
Help, please. š«
Photo by Javier Esteban on Unsplash
-
I Should Read More Books
š Today, after opening Apple Books on my Mac, I concluded that Iām not reading enough books. Why is it so hard for me to sit down regularly and read a book is beyond me? I do read a lot during the day, but only fragments of things like articles, tweets, and RSS items. I started to read The Phoenix Project a long time ago but didnāt finish it. However, it was amusing and in line with my job!
A friend of mine shared a draft of a book she is writing; Iām only halfway into it. I cannot finish it. Pathetic. š
Am I alone with this?
#reading #musing
-
Giving
šŗš¦ Today, I gave 100 US$ to the just recently crowdfunding platform United24. I chose to donate to the defence and demining of Ukraine. This comes after giving 200 CAN$ in the first few weeks of the war. What did you do today? š¤
-
Some Facts About Engagement
š” Interesting facts: about 5%-10% of visitors to my blogs will click on outbound links (links pointing to the stuff on the internet). Less than 1% will drop a comment on a blog post.
#blogging #musing #writer
-
On Returning on Telegram
Iām back on Telegram, after closing my account about a year ago. I wrote about the reasons why on my story published on Micro.blog. Since the start of the criminal invasion of Ukraine by the Russian, I found out quickly that a lot of information about the conflict is being published on Telegram. I decided to come back and open a new account.
I read on Mr. Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram. Some compare him to Elon Musk. He’s opinionated, just like Musk. He has his views on Apple and technology. He seems to advocate user privacy protection. Furthermore, he flew from Russia because he refused to cooperate with the government, which was asking to leak information from Telegram users.
A few words on Telegram, my usage, its design and the application. Itās available on most of the Apple platforms, including the Mac. I like its design a lot. I donāt use it for chatting, only to receive messages from channels where comments arenāt enabled.
Only fools donāt change their mind.
-
On Keeping a Seperate Computer for Creative Work
In a recent article from Josh Ginter for The Newsprint, If found the idea of having a separate computer for work and one for creative activities interesting and Iām close to feeling the same about my personal and work life. I do most of my work on an M1 Mac mini, while my creative work is done on an M1 MacBook Air. My iPad is used as a second screen on my Mac mini or for some photo processing stuff with Adobe Lightroom. The distinction between two worlds gets blurry when you consider how the cloud brings those two worlds closer to each other. If you are like me and use a single Apple ID for all your Apple services, as soon as you set up iCloud on both computers, youāll get access to the same āvirtual space and digital contentā on both machines. This is where the idea of two separate computers becomes blurry and probably more of a theory.
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash
-
Notes of interest from Apple’s Q2 2022 earnings report and conference call | AppleInsider
The last seven quarters have been the best ever for Mac
What a difference a few years make on the Mac. I’m happy to see the Mac thrive like this.
-
Now more than ever, it seems it is the perfect time for @manton to welcome people on Micro.blog who want to quit Twitter because… you know… Elon Musk. Just saying.
-
Interesting Ideas for iPadOS 16
I recently wrote an article about where the iPad should go from here. On the subject of iPadOS, looking at this article on Behance from Parker Ortolani, here are the few interesting ideas that caught my attention:
- The updated Dock with the ability to move an application window to an external display.
- Still on the Dock, the frequently used applications replaced with standard folders (like downloaded items).
- Stacks in the Dock, just like on macOS.
- Home Screen icon placements can include things like Shortcuts, or files.
- Studio Mode for external display full support. My number one request.
- Addition of Preview from macOS would be super useful for more pro-like workflows. Same with the addition of Dictionary. It would be super useful for content creators like me.
WWDC 2022 is around the corner, starting another round of updates for iPadOs over the coming year.
-
When Uber is Being Rude
I recently came back from a one-week vacation in Cancun, Mexico. The first thing I did before leaving the airport to go home was to call an Uber taxi. My last experience with Uber went well, but it was quite a while. Boy, this time it was a surprising and unexpected experience. After ordering the car, I was met with a plethora of notifications and ads within the application and via Uber Eat to order food on the go or before arriving at home. Those ads took the form of notifications, but also big popups taking the whole screen within the application. It was so intrusive, it wasnāt always clear how to dismiss the ad to return to the actual trip details.
I understand the idea of integrating two different services from the same company, but doing so at the expense of a great user experience with the basic feature of the application is not the way to go with me. Even Apple sometimes seems to be going in that direction. Not good.
-
Russia, GTFO of my blogs
š«š·šŗāIf I could block any IP addresses from Russia from visiting my blogs, I would do it.
-
Doing Some Cleanup in My Home Office
After spending some time cleanup my office this today, I found these in my drawers and other places. I no longer use these. Do you? I know some people here on Micro.blog do. I donāt which I find fascinating because I did a lot in my younger times. Before the computers.
-
Wondering About Returning to Podcasting
Now that Iām finally having my dedicated room in the house for working, Iām wondering about returning to podcasting (I used to have a podcast, in French) or even testing the YouTuber world (even though I wrote in the past that Iāll never be a YouTuber). Why is that?
First, a dedicated room is mandatory to be able to record without being disrupted too much. Second, sound quality would probably be much better than recording in an open space. Third, I could create a better background because my room is decorated to my personal tastes.
But is this enough to convince myself to seriously consider getting back to audio or video content creation? I have all the tools: a great MacBook Air, a Mac mini, an Apple Studio Display, a good microphone, a NAS for archiving purposes, etc. Yet, Iām not really good at audio or video production, and itās very time-consuming for me. I would certainly learn a lot while working hard at this. Moreover, should I do this in my native language which is French or do it in English, which Iām not perfectly fluent with? Maybe I could try to do it together with other podcasters (I know a few of them). Too many questions, not many answers.
Photo credit: Will Francis on Unsplash.
-
War Games
šŗš¦ Itās fascinating how the war in Ukraine makes me think about many video games. Let me explain. Looking at some Telegram channels feeding the results of attacks with anti-tank missiles or other means. Youāll find many short video clips with music and animation while a tank is destroyed. It makes things look like they arenāt real, only a game, which is far from the case for obvious reasons. Yet, there is the gamification of some aspects of what is filtering out of this ugly and devastating war. š
BTW, many tidbits flowing on Telegram are utterly disgusting. Is this the first war to feel so close to the action?
When the coalition attacked Iraq during the Gulf War, I remember people saying it was the first war to be televised. The war in Ukraine is probably the first one made public on social media.
-
I’m not writing my Friday Notes edition this week, and I feel guilty. I had a hectic week at work after returning from a one-week vacation. Writing weekly series comes with its challenges. š
-
Taking a break of many things
If you are wondering whatās up with me, Iām on vacation for a week. Iām not only taking a break from work, my office, but also from blogging. Expect a return to normal programming next week.
Written on my iPad, somewhere on a sandy beach in Mexico šš
