Micro.blog Question Challenge

Jim Mitchell, on his blog:

As is customary after posting my own, I’m extending the challenge to Numeric Citizen (@numericcitizen) and David Johnson (@crossingthethreshold) to answer the same questions:

Here are my answers!

  1. Why did you start a blog in the first place? It was when Apple had iWeb, part of MobileMe. It was a family thing only. iWeb died, so did my blog. Eventually, I returned to blogging on Blogger, now part of Google, while developing iPhone apps in 2009. It lasted until 2013. Then it all died. I returned to blogging in 2015, using WordPress, then migrated to Ghost and Micro.blog; both serve different purposes. The rest is history.
  2. Have you blogged on other platforms before? Yes, all in all, I experimented with iWeb, Blogger, WordPress, Micro.blog, Write.as, Substack, Medium. Am I missing one? Oh yeah, Scribble.pages! Sorry, Vincent!
  3. Why did you choose Micro.blog? Back in 2018, when it launched. Initially, I wasn’t sure about it and viewed it as an experiment (I shared some thoughts about this). I went all in during COVID. Couldn’t be happier.
  4. Do you write your posts directly in the editor or in another application? It depends. Most of the time, I wrote on the web editor, but with recent updates to the Mac app, I do it more and more on the Mac app. Oh, MarsEdit is also one app that I use, from time to time.
  5. When do you feel most inspired to write? All the time, mainly in the mornings when my head is still pristine (can’t tell if this is something we can write!)
  6. Do you publish immediately after writing or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft? Most of the time, I write and then publish, especially on Micro.blog. For longer posts, I let it simmer for a while.
  7. What’s your favorite post on your blog? So hard to tell because what I write is so short. The whole thing is what I’m most proud of: having the time and the gut to think and write about anything away from big platforms, it’s something to be proud of IMO.
  8. Any future plans for your blog? Since last year, I decided to focus more on what I already have. I don’t see that changing anytime soon. So, Micro.blog forever! For now. I recently launched “Who Is Numeric Citizen?” website with the idea to replace another website built using Craft. 🤭

Thanks for calling me out on that, @jimmitchell ! How about @abc ? Will he catch the call?

I’m eagerly anticipating the release of beta 2 of iPadOS 26 and macOS 26 from Apple this week. I’m particularly interested in seeing how much the Liquid Glass feature will be toned down, if at all. I won’t lose faith until the public beta is available.

I prefer Apple to build a partnership with Perplexity instead of buying them outright. By partnering with them, Perplexity would join ChaptGPT as a third-party source of AI, helping Apple remain AI agnostic. If they buy Perplexity, they would close the loop, which is bad in the long term for them. I want Apple to remain open and bring as many AI partners as possible.

Unpopular opinion: The Browser Company should have made Dia a part of the Arc Browser. I don’t see the need for a new paradigm to achieve what Dia is trying to do as a stand-alone app. Plus, how come a browser company rely on someone else’s browser engine to do its thing? My understanding is that Dia is built on Chromium, just like the Arc Browser.

It’s funny how I treat my online assets like my websites. I think of these like software or apps. That is why I maintain change logs for them, just like app release notes. You can find one here, and one there. It’s fun.

Is this a plain website? Is this a digital garden? Is this a landing page? No, it’s "Who Is Numeric Citizen?" A newly launched personal landing page where you can learn about him and his creative journey. Learn all the details (what, why, how) by visiting the website! I’ll meet you there.

Today, I placed my order to have my face processed through Iconfactory’s pixelated portrait service. I’m eager to see what they come up with. Maybe I’ll update my avatar that I’ve been using for so many years?

Because of iPadOS 26, I can see a future where I could get rid of my Macs and focus on the iPad as the main computer beside my iPhone. Of course, I would probably switch to a larger size if that was the case. Using an iPad with an external monitor now makes much more sense and no longer a gimmicky thing.