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Brent Simmons on Apple:
Apple has just provided us all with a reminder. Just like the sixth finger in an AI-rendered hand, Apple’s policies for Distributing apps in the U.S. that provide an external purchase link are startlingly graceless and a jarring, but not surprising, reminder that Apple is not a real person and not worthy of your love. Source: inessential: Corporations Are Not To Be Loved
I do get the point, but if my dedication to Apple in the last 40 years isn’t love, is it “passion” without love?
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My Micro.blog timeline being a bit too busy to my liking, I decided to disable replies from people I don’t follow. It’s much better now. I might turn it back on eventually. This option shouldn’t be in the account section but should be more easily accessible. Would like to get a static toolbar at the bottom.
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So, is Notion Calendar essentially a Google Calendar frontend? This is what Cron was? Is that right? What am I missing from my experiment? The first thing the app asks is to authenticate to my Google account. 😳
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One more yearly subscription to my website1 and one more subscriber to The Craft Bible2. It’s a good day for me. I don’t have thousands of subscribers (yet), and they all count as if they were my first one. 😻
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9to5Mac reporting about WhatsApp usage in the US:
The fact that more people in the US have been using WhatsApp recently is definitely intriguing. Source: WhatsApp has been getting more attention in the US
iMessage usage in Canada is probably similar to that in the US. I started using WhatsApp when I went to Morocco last summer. I also have a friend who moved from Canada to Mexico, and he switched to WhatsApp, so now I have to use WhatsApp to reach him. I must say that I like it. I also follow some news channels, just for fun. I like the messaging app format to get news; that’s why I also use Telegram for the same purpose: to follow news from Ukraine.
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Here’s another reason to be sad this morning. 😔 Over the past two years, I’ve invested much of my time and effort in building my digital space and presence in Craft. I spend numerous hours posting things and answering questions in the user community. I’ve become a Craft enthusiast or ambassador. One day, someone even asked me if I was working for Craft. I’m not. I don’t want to be paid. But what I want is a better collaboration with the team over there. I’d like to create videos about new releases that would be shared simultaneously as they come out. I’ve asked them, and they didn’t accept my offer. I’ve built The Craft Bible. I’ve created The Craft Feature Request Board. I’ve created content that best exemplifies Craft use cases. I get no real support from the Craft team. They fail to take advantage of me being this sort of Craft ambassador, and they could “use me” to help spread the Craft message out there1. I don’t understand why they pass over this opportunity. Capacities, a direct competitor to Craft, is doing the opposite. They have this woman who creates tutorials and other types of content and gets referenced in the Capacities release notes! That’s cool and useful for the community. But not Craft. Is this a corporate culture issue? Maybe. I just don’t get it. It’s frustrating. Maybe I should let it go and move on.
Sorry for the rant this morning.
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They used to have a community manager but he barely shows up in the community. ↩︎
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Made a tweak to this blog: using the Footer field of the Design section (on a Micro.blog feature), I added a footer to each individual post that adds links to my other websites and my Mastodon handle. It’s a mixture of HTML and CSS. I took advantage of MacGPT to learn what was needed. I know a bit about HTML but not enough about CSS. My “assistant” helped me, again.
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Finished my work day in Microsoft Loop because one of my colleagues insisted on using it for a special project. Boy, this thing sucks. After many months of availability, Loop feels more like a proof of concept than a productivity tool. I guess Microsoft will iterate on it, but so far, as a Notion user, meh.👎🏻 Sorry for the rant.
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This morning, at work, I had the idea of creating a GPT that would act as a virtual resume for me. Colleagues would prompt this GPT about my professional journey with usual questions about my past experience, projects, certifications, abilities, etc. I uploaded a few files, including my resume and some other professional stuff, to try it out. It took me 15 minutes to create this virtual representation of myself. Tested many prompts against it. I’m blown away. The future is here, ladies and gentlemen.
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Google announcement regarding egress fees:
Starting today, Google Cloud customers who wish to stop using Google Cloud and migrate their data to another cloud provider and/or on premises, can take advantage of free network data transfer to migrate their data out of Google Cloud. This applies to all customers globally. Source: Eliminating data transfer fees when migrating off Google Cloud | Google Cloud Blog
This is major. I often see clients forget to consider the exit costs of any hyper-scaler in the TCO calculation. Getting into the cloud isn’t cheap. And up until today, getting out of the cloud wasn’t either. Now, for those on GCP, it is. I expect the others (looking at you, AWS, and Azure) to follow, maybe not this year, but they will, either by their choice or they will be forced. This is an anti-competitive measure to charge for egress fees.
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Someone at work sent me a text to get feedback. After reading it, I had this vague impression that ChatGPT was involved in the process. Out of curiosity, I openly asked the author if it was the case. And sure enough, the answer was yes. 8 out of 10 times, the outcome is the same when I ask that question. Gen AI usage is becoming pervasive in my world at work. Is it the same for you?
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Scrolling through my LinkedIn timeline today. It always gives me weird feelings when I see people I work with announcing their retirement. These posts are reminders that, eventually, everyone will cross that gate. Me included. 😔
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Micro.Blog — How Can I Help?
Following the publication of “What If” by Maique, an avid blogger on Micro.blog, his post prompted me to write my own. But before, here’s a summary of his post (thanks ChatGPT):
Micro.blog has been hosting maique.eu for years, but there have been some technical issues. Despite some annoyances, the community and features make it worth the cost. However, there are also cons such as lack of proper notifications and support. Moving away would be a hassle.
I do share most of his views on the current state of Micro.blog because I did experience some issues with the service myself. I won’t repeat it here. That being said, I love Micro.blog, and I certainly want it to thrive. I’m a believer. I’m a supporter of the ideas behind the service. I subscribe to the premium tier. I love it so much that I created a series of videos about Micro.blog so that others can take full advantage of its features set. But I want to do more. In fact, I can do more. How can I help? Where do I enlist?
As an IT guy for more than 30 years, I know how hard it can be to run such a service. I don’t know the technologies behind it, but Micro.blog seems to need constant nurturing. Sadly, I cannot help here. I’m not a full-stack developer in any way.
But there this help.micro.blog support site. I did tech support in the past. I do pay a visit from time to time to gather the mood and the subjects that people care enough to submit posts. Maybe I could help there? I don’t know. Could I do a first screening of the posts and direct level-2 requests to Manton for further investigation? He would be freed somewhat from glancing at all the incoming requests and focus on the hardest ones. I don’t know. Oh, and this feature requests topic contains more than a hundred of them. I could create a real Micro.blog feature requests board, like this one I built from scratch for Craft?
Then, there is this Discover section: I do pay a visit from time to time. I’m not sure how it is being maintained or how often. Can I help there? I don’t know.
What else? I could do podcasting, too! Maybe I could help Jean to revive the highly respected Micro Monday podcast! I have my own podcast; I’m not too bad because I have eight listeners, according to Podcasts Connect!
As you can probably see, I have many ideas. I’m creative. I do have some time to spare for my passions. Micro.blog is one of them. But, as much as I want to help, it means nothing if the doors are closed. I’m not saying that I received a “no thank you” from Manton or Jean. I didn’t ask, actually. Now, I’m officially asking: how can I help?
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GuruShots Is Still a Thing, Apparently
I just visited the photography challenge site GuruShots, where I used to play quite a lot a few years ago. I even wrote a few articles about this game ("GuruShots Tips, Tricks and Cheat Sheet","Tips & Tricks 2021 Edition, Part 1", “Tips & Tricks 2021 Edition, Part 2” and “How to Become a Guru at GuruShots”). I had a friend who was playing with me. He still does. Apparently, he is so advanced that there is only one explanation: he has a serious addiction. Personally, I stopped playing because it was too time-consuming. I wish I could update my articles because the game evolved quite a bit with new features. But, no, I don’t have that time at my disposal.
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Is Buying a Car Easier Than Buying an Apple Vision Pro?
If Mark Gurman is correct, the rumored sale process for the Apple Vision Pro is rather complex and lengthy. Watching a 20-minute video to learn about a product indicates many things: Apple is nervous, and the product has a novel approach requiring potential customers’ education or training so that they fully “get the experience” before deciding to put the money on the table. Also, I guess someone willing to pay the high price merits some special attention, too.
I’ll have to update my calculations on how many demos can be run in the first 10 days.
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It’s time for the first edition of 2024 of the weekly creative summary newsletter! Lots of stuff related to projects, writing, articles, etc. Fun fact: putting this summary together takes about two hours per week. This version was created in Craft, which offers the best experience, the email version is coming later to my dear subscribers! Past editions are available on my main website by following this link. Enjoy.
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One of the things that is cool with Photomator: the before & after view. If find it helpful from a creative and teaching perspective.
