Who remember Motorola 68000 Assembly? I do. (#apple #history #macintosh)

I dug out my ancient Inside Macintosh reference books from storage. Remember when Apple’s developer documentation came as paper books? Volumes I-III on the original Mac APIs, IV on Mac Plus, V on color Macs, and the truly massive volume VI on System 7. 📚

Inside Macintosh reference books

Inside Macintosh reference books

Inside Macintosh reference books

Inside Macintosh reference books

Inside Macintosh reference books

I did some 68000 assembly using my 512Ke Mac back in the days. Can't remember what was the development environment, though. And I remember these Inside Apple Macintosh books so well. That was a lot of stuff to learn. Time flies.

Looking for Micro.blog friends (#microblog #socialnetwork)

Yes, the title says it all: I’m looking for new friends to follow on Micro.blog. After my big Twitter cleanup, the noise in my numeric life has dramatically decreased. I feel zen and I think this is what Micro.blog is all about: a zen place to meet virtual friends sharing the same passions.

So, I’m looking for friend suggestions. Let’s call this “the community-fed referrals day!”. To help you make such referrals, please do remember about my passions: Apple, photography, privacy protection and climate change.

This brings me to something that I’d like to see improved about Micro.blog: discoverability. When looking to discover new people to follow, we do see a posts count on each user profile, but we don’t know « how recent » the last post is. We know about stale accounts on Twitter, I don’t want to follow stale accounts here. Next, I’d like to see some kind of « behind the scene » analysis of how someone could be interesting for me. I do understand that this is entering a dangerous territory of « algorithm fed reality ». I guess it is har to strike a balance in that respect. Finally, the categories are lacking a bit of breath. Where is “Tech” or “Privacy” or “Climate”?

So, I’m waiting for your referrals. Thanks for taking some of your time to do so. 🙂

On Apple’s rumoured VR headset (#apple #rumours)

A mockup of Apple’s VR headset based of rumours

Here is a simple one: Apple, please, no.

I don’t get the idea of such product. The audience for this seems to be too small for Apple. I do understand that Apple research in VR can have broader ramifications, but to build such a limited appeal product for the mass, I don’t get it.

I think Apple’s interests has much more potential in augmented reality products, services or features. Their work is already bearing fruit with AirPods spatial audio and transparency mode. These are much more appealing to the mass than a VR headset.

Mapping Apple’s mapping efforts (#apple #maps)

Apple Maps is so much better than it was when it first launched back in 2012. It’s my go-to apps when in comes to finding my way. I never use Google Maps. Over the years, Apple upped its game. Recently, Apple added the detailed mapping and the look around feature for Canada, and it made such a big difference. But how much different? Well, look no further than Justino Beirne’s latest essay: “WHY DOESN’T “LOOK AROUND” COVER MORE AREAS?”. It is a massive piece of work detailing Apple’s every advances regarding its mapping efforts. I wonder if anyone at Apple ever looked at his work. It’s just mind blowing how much details and analysis goes into this essay.

Writing, like so many creative acts, is hard. Sitting there, staring, mad at yourself, mad at the material because it doesn’t seem good enough and you don’t seem good enough. (Ryan Holiday, Ego Is the Enemy)

I know this feeling really really well.

Giving without asking in return (#bloggerlife #blogging #writing)

Greg Morris recently on his blog about trying hard as a blogger to make something out of all this:

“I asked, I’m giving, and I am still blogging — now more than ever.”

Strangely, pure coincidence I guess, I wrote this last week-end “The journey is the Reward” in which I said:

“It doesn’t really matter if nobody comes and reads my stuff here or there. What matters is the process and the thinking that took place behind my writing. It’s all the small moments where I had to pause, think, read, learn and write. It’s about feeling creative. Alive. The rest is just another tiny drop in the numeric ocean. A few will taste it, and most won’t. That’s the life of a blogger and a writer in a sea of abundance. So, I’ll keep doing it, no matter what.”

The journey is really the reward for me.

The look of desperation (#intel #benchmark #m1chip #apple)

I think Intel could have done better than this in a world without the M1 chip. But the problem is that the M1 chip is among us. Obviously, the carefully selected benchmarks results are published to people who doesn’t know about Apple. It’s an issue of perception manipulation. Apple is only getting started. Intel is freaking out and look desperate. 2021 will make matters even worse.

Another one with a look of desperation: Facebook because of iOS 14.4 tracking exposure to the users.