Author: Colin Devroe
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Liam Dempsey on vacationing in Germany
Liam Dempsey: Walking through cities that trace their history back to the 1200s and to churches that reach back to 800 AD is deeply moving. The connection to the past is palpable and gripping. I felt this very same feeling when in Ireland. You realize the pub you’re in is nearly a thousand years old…
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Observations on Apple Music
I switched from a paid Spotify account to a paid Apple Music family plan earlier this month. Since doing so I’ve used the service nearly every single day via my Mac desktop, my iPhone, and my iPad. I’ve created playlists, downloaded tracks, loved and disliked albums, followed artists, used Siri’s built-in "What’s this song?" feature,…
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After reading and listening to so many favorable reviews I’m installing the iOS 11 public beta on my iPad.
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Colin Walker on the IndieWeb
Colin Walker: Yet there is still a problem, and that is the apparent insistence on the implementation of specific technologies as implied by the guides and documentation. Go read his entire post. There are all sorts of "problems" with the IndieWeb and Walker lays some of them out nicely. (Remember, I told you to subscribe…
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VR180
Frank Rodriguez: VR180 video focuses on what’s in front of you, are high resolution, and look great on desktop and on mobile. I think this looks like an excellent format. As I’ve mentioned in the past, 360 video is very difficult to follow if there is a narrative. While 360 might be good to virtually…
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Colin Walker on blogrolls
Colin Walker: Part of the problem with people based following models on social networks is that you follow the whole person so see everything they post whether it is relevant to you or not. There is no filtering system. He goes on to mention that blogrolls that also supply an OPML file make it quick…
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What I saw this week #44: June 21, 2017
First day of summer! I’m off my schedule. I know. Sorry. Video: Mixed Reality – THEORIZ – RnD test 002 – Realtime AR used to create art. We’ll be seeing a lot more of this. Rafter – A group of turkeys is called a rafter. Putting the social in social media – A nice write-up…
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Goslings, Aylesworth – June 2017
Goslings, Aylesworth Park – June 2017
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Gravel pile, Archbald, PA – June 2017
Gravel pile, Archbald, PA – June 2017
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Should I start a blogroll?
Dave Winer: I’m thinking of restarting my blogroll. Remember those! I’ve been thinking about that too. I have a list already created of what blogs I would add to it. But I find linking to individual posts with some context provides more value than just a list of URLs.
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Electric City Building, Scranton, PA – January 2017
Electric City Building, Scranton, PA – January 2017
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Podcasts 2017
Three years ago I was tagged to make a list of the podcasts I was currently listening to. A year before that I did something similar. So, now I’m back this year to provide a current list. In no particular order: Criminal The West Wing Weekly The Joe Rogan Experience* The Tim Ferriss Show* tecBRIDGE…
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Pano – South of Aylesworth – June 2017
Pano – South of Aylesworth Park – June 2017
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Social Thoughts
Me, in 2011: I believe the blog format is ready for disruption. Perhaps there doesn’t need to be “the next” WordPress, Tumblr, or Blogger for this to happen. Maybe all we really need is a few pioneers to spearhead an effort to change the way blogs are laid-out on the screen. I still feel that…
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WWDC 2017 recap
I wanted to take a few moments to jot down a comparison between my wish list for this year’s WWDC and what was announced. Also, towards the end, some quick thoughts on the surprises that were announced. Here are my wishes, in order from the previous post, and whether or not we got them. Shared…
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I’m testing out the Micro.blog iOS app. Looks nice.
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Epcot – March 2017
Epcot – March 2017 It was great to visit Epcot during the Flower & Garden Festival this year.
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Benmarl Winery – April 2017
Benmarl Winery – April 2017 This winery has a beautiful view over the Hudson River valley.
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Intro to Micro.blog
Noah Read: Micro.blog is a social timeline, similar to Twitter, where you can post short snippets of text with links and photos, and converse with others. The biggest difference from most other social networks is where these short posts come from. They come from people’s own websites, where they control the content and can do…
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What I saw this week #43: June 9, 2017
I know, I know. I’ve missed a few. You’ll get over it. Paleobiology Navigator – "PBDB Navigator allows users to explore the Paleobiology Database through space, time, and taxonomy." If you know me at all you know that this literally burns hours and hours and hours of my time. In a good way. The Stratolaunch…
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Back to Apple, again
Each year WWDC week gives us new and updated Apple software that is easier to use and more tightly integrated. As a result, each year I find myself wishing that I used Apple software exclusively instead of using third-party applications. Forgive me, but I’m about to quote an entire post that I wrote in June 2014 as to…
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Claim Chowder: The Talk Show live at WWDC 2017 video
John Gruber: This year we are not going to attempt to stream live video. Instead we’re going to work hard to get edited video of the event up on the web as soon as possible after the show is over. If you just can’t wait, listen to the live audio. If you want to see…
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rss.js
With all of the JSON Feed hubbub recently I thought it was interesting to read Dave Winer’s post re: how he had created a JSON spec based on RSS in 2012 called rss.js: I wanted to see if there was interest among developers for a JSON version of RSS. I put up a website, with…
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The Daily 360
The New York Times describes The Daily 360: Times journalists around the world bring you a new 360 video every day. I’ve watched a few of these and they are pretty cool. I found this via Dan Kimbrough who adds: The New York Times is doing a lot of cool things with 360 storytelling. 360…
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I’ve been using Apple Music today. There is a bit of a learning curve but it is far, far better than when I tried it when it was released.
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Outsourcing your online presence
Joe Cieplinski: Look, I get that I’m the nut who doesn’t want to use Facebook. I’m not even saying don’t post your stuff to Facebook. But if Facebook is the only place you are posting something, know that you are shutting out people like me for no good reason. Go ahead and post to Facebook,…
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Coney Island Lunch, Scranton, PA – December 2016
Coney Island Lunch, Scranton, PA – December 2016
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Is VR overrated?
Kristopher B. Jones, an entrepreneur from near my neck of the woods, weighs in on VR in a recent Forbes piece debating the applicability of the technology: I’m a strong believer that virtual reality is overrated, as it has limited applications outside of very specific industries. Industries like gaming and medical training are likely to…
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JSON Feed to Twitter using PHP
In 2009 I scrawled together a simple PHP script that tweeted links based on an RSS feed. I then updated it to support OAuth and open sourced it on GitHub. I haven’t really touched it since (though I get about 3 emails a month about it). Just a small update here and there. This morning,…
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WWDC 2017 wish list
It has been an exciting year for developers so far. Facebook is making the camera a platform, Microsoft is making cloud computation happen with two clicks of a mouse, and Google is doing everything that everyone else is doing plus a billion more things. WWDC is next week. So what are my wishes? Since I…
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Penn Avenue Parking Garage, Scranton, PA – January 2017
Penn Avenue Parking Garage, Scranton, PA – January 2017
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Pinboard acquires Delicious
Maciej Cegłowski: Do not attempt to compete with Pinboard. This is excellent. I use Unmark daily. Partly because I helped will it into existence. If I didn’t use Unmark I’d use Pinboard (for which I have an account that I’ve paid for). And I’m very happy that Delicious (or, as I knew it del.icio.us) is…
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The drawbacks of scheduling posts
Scheduling posts to my blog has a few drawbacks but I think the most annoying one is that the topics I write about could be out-of-date pretty quickly or the topic could be covered by someone else. I have a personal publishing goal to publish an image and blog post per weekday. Sometimes I go…
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Titleless posts
Dave Winer re: NetNewsWire adding support for titleless items in a RSS or JSON Feed: I got an email from NetNewsWire user Frank Leahy, requesting that I add titles to my feed for items that don’t have titles. This is an issue that is going to continue to grow. With services like Micro.blog and post…
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Boardwalk Resort, Disney World, Florida – March 2017
Boardwalk Resort, Disney World, Florida – March 2017
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mapmywalk
Under Armour has a free app called mapmywalk that I’ve been using to map hikes that I’ve been taking recently. I really like it. It doesn’t rely on street maps but rather exact GPS coordinates to map the route I take. This helps me to map trails that I’m hiking that aren’t on any park…
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Philadelphia from across the Delaware – May 2017
Philadelphia from across the Delaware – May 2017
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Aerial photos of a few wineries
In late April Eliza and I took a weekend day drive to visit some wineries in the tristate area of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. We wanted to visit a few wineries we had never been to before and the beauty of that region alone is worth the drive. We both take tons of…
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JSON Feed WordPress plugin
Manton Reece just released the JSON Feed WordPress plugin into the WordPress directory. Making it mad easy to install and support the new spec. WP Admin → Plugins → Add New, then search for “jsonfeed”. I’ve updated to this version in the directory so that all future updates come from there as well.
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Manton Reece on JSON Feed
Manton Reece, co-author of JSON Feed, in an interview with Ben Brooks: With JSON Feed, it’s not about disrupting RSS exactly. RSS is great and widely deployed; it’s not going anywhere. But we can take what was good about RSS, improve a few things, and maybe jumpstart new tools and apps that work together. Developers…
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Slowing down my hike to see new things
I’ve spent a lot of time outdoors in my area. A lot. Especially when I was younger I was outside more than I was inside. And now that I’m older my main hobbies are hiking, kayaking and photography. All of which force me to explore. This weekend I was pleasantly surprised to have seen a…
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Alpaca. December 2016
Alpaca. December 2016
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Dan Kimbrough’s weekly links
Dan Kimbrough on his own blog: Going to try to share cool stuff I come across weekly. This is the best sentence I’ve read this week.
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Jeremy Keith on JSON Feed
Jeremy Keith: I don’t know if syndication feeds have yet taken on their final form, but they’re the canonical example of 927ing. 🙂 See also.
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John Gruber on JSON Feed
John Gruber: The DF RSS feed isn’t going anywhere, so if you’re already subscribed to it, there’s no need to switch. But JSON Feed’s spec makes it possible for me to specify both a url that points to the post on Daring Fireball (i.e. the permalink) and an external_url that points to the article I’m…