February 11, 2022 8:05am

Numeric Citizen

Time flies; I didn’t see the week. Where did it go? On the eves of the weekend, I’m thinking about possible subjects for participation in the Micro.camp conference, this coming March. The one topic that seems to stick as I’m writing this: coffee shops and creative work.

#musing

February 10, 2022 6:22pm

Numeric Citizen

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.

February 10, 2022 8:50am

Numeric Citizen

According to this year’s Six Colors Report Card, relationships between Apple and its developers’ community is in terrible shape. The trend isn’t looking good either.

Marco Arment said, “Apple’s tightening grip on App Store fees, attempts to reach into other parts of businesses that they don’t 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.”

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 Microsoft’s leadership.

February 9, 2022 4:29pm

Numeric Citizen

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.

February 9, 2022 1:29pm

Numeric Citizen

On Sideloading on iPhone — It’s OK, I’m Changing My Mind numericcitizen.me

I’d love to get feedback on this subject, from this community, here on MB…

February 9, 2022 10:39am

Numeric Citizen

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. 👨🏻‍💻

February 8, 2022 7:32pm

Numeric Citizen

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.

February 4, 2022 12:06pm

Numeric Citizen

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 doesn’t relieve any regulatory pressure on Apple. Burning more developer trust.

February 4, 2022 11:07am

Numeric Citizen

For (more) personal stories of mine, here is the place to go.

Friday Notes #61 — Knowing Our Parents numericcitizen-introspection.blog

February 2, 2022 8:31am

Numeric Citizen

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…

February 1, 2022 9:06pm

Numeric Citizen

On December 18th of 2019, Here’s what I wrote on Micro.blog:

Now that I’m closing my account here on micro.blog I’m starting to get more interactions 🤷🏻‍♂️.

The responses I got were so enlightening, I changed my mind. What a great community. 😀

January 30, 2022 9:01pm

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Numeric Citizen

As reported in my previous blog post, I had a chance to perform a “tech refresh” of my sister’s 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. It’s 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. It’s 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.

January 30, 2022 10:25am

Numeric Citizen

In mid-2020, I wrote about my experience of replacing an aging Apple AirPort Extreme with an Ubiquiti’s Dream Machine. Today, I’m kind of repeating the experience, but this time with the Amplify HD router, also from Ubiquiti, for my sister. Don’t 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. I’ll be taking measure before and after to see if it brings meaningful improvements in her big house. Stay tuned.

January 27, 2022 10:36pm

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Numeric Citizen

I’m a big fan of Apple’s 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 Apple’s 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 I’m 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. It’s 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. It’s absolutely clever.

I can see myself using Craft on the MacBook Air and Ulysses on the iPad Pro, all using the MacBook’s keyboard and trackpad. Or vice versa. Clever. Really.

I’m considering updating my M1 MacBook Air and my iPad Pro to this beta.

January 26, 2022 8:37am

Numeric Citizen

Consider this recent article from 9to5Mac: Concept: How Apple could turn HomePod mini into a delightful and adorable smart display - 9to5Mac.

Please, stop thinking that a screen on the HomePod mini makes sense because it just doesn’t. Why? Well, by looking at where we put these devices in our house, most of the time, you wouldn’t be able to see the screen from a distance. What Apple really wishes is that you buy an iPad mini with a Smart Folio cover for that purpose.

January 23, 2022 4:02pm

Numeric Citizen

I find it surprisingly hard to find a simple MP3 player for an iPhone these days. I mean, just a simple application capable of downloading an MP3 file locally on the device with good playback controls, simple library management, nothing fancy. Readdle’s Documents (which I know very well) and EverMusic seem to be popular options. Documents offers a good user experience, albeit its multipurpose mission with documents management.

(I’m a moderate consumer of Soundcloud (paid subscription) and use Downie to download files from the service. Those files are stored on my DS720+ Synology NAS.)

What’s your experience in playing MP3 files on your iPhone? I’m curious.

January 23, 2022 10:15am

Numeric Citizen

Well, it’s the time of the month where I start to work on the next edition of my monthly newsletter (it’s free BTW). I spend about ten to fifteen hours each month to put this together using my past readings and discoveries, Craft and Ulysses. Each time, it’s a pleasure to create. I think I should put together an article about the workflow I use to create each newsletter. Would you find this interesting?

January 22, 2022 10:53pm

Numeric Citizen

I’m nearly done with my Notion to Craft migration. I know I’ve been lazy; I’ve been using Craft for many months while my old content was still sitting there in Notion. While doing the migration, I realized, again, that I don’t really like Notion’s handling of a document. It just feels unnatural and quirky. Export options are very limited, which makes my job much harder. I’m also losing some metadata along the way (and database content too). I don’t have high hopes for a Craft eXtension to support Notion’s API to help users do this kind of rich content migration. I expect to finish the migration in the coming days.

January 22, 2022 10:33am

Numeric Citizen

…and I’ll move out of 1Password. It’s on my to-do list for 2022. Gruber’s article is a reminder that time is ticking. I’m just being too lazy to move my stuff out of 1Password and put that in Apple’s Keychain. It takes time, which is a rare resource for me.

I don’t like 1Password’s direction. It seems to me that going the enterprise way is counterproductive for the average users. Corporations and individuals don’t share the same objectives. Why do you think Microsoft is making Teams for personal use?

January 22, 2022 9:25am

Numeric Citizen

I want this so much. We have to voice our desire to get back the Dashboard on macOS. As explained by 512px a long time ago:

Jobs pitched widgets as mini-apps that let you look up a quick bit of information without ruining your workflow or train of thought. They allowed for quick interactions. They were present when you needed them, and disappeared when you didn’t.

Why try to imagine new solutions to fix the widgets conundrum on macOS? The Dashboard was the only good solution where you could put widgets anywhere on the screen, then invoke them as needed. Dear Apple, are you reading this? 🥺🙏🏻

Let’s enjoy one more time the Dashboard in its full glory.