Blog
Writing helps me think more clearly. This archive is longer posts; quick updates now live in notes.
Topics: AI, blogging, photography, programming, projects, Signboard
đ Brent Simmons: Any time someone writes that they âstill use an RSS reader,â I think to myself: I still use a web browser. I still use email and still send text messages. I still make sentences out of words. I still wear shoes. No need for the âstillâ word. See other reposts.
Apple pre-announcing something: "We're excited to get this in customer's hands late next year". My interpretation: "We never pre-announce things. Why are we doing this? We're terrible at it. In fact, we make fun of other companies for doing it! Steve Jobs would never allow this! (mostly) We must be doing this because some group of people is…
Chris Coleman, on precedent for Darth Sidious making an appearance in Episode IX: That doesnât mean that Dark Side users are completely out of luck. The Dark Side is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural. There are at least two recent examples where followers of the Dark Side were able to have some limited…
Brent Simmons has been reminiscing about blog search engines and writing down some ideas for how one could be made today. Something he wrote sparked a memory. Instead of having it crawl blogs, Iâd have it download and index RSS feeds. This should be cheaper than crawling pages, and it ensures that it skips indexing page junk (navigation…
Darice de Cuba, who recently wrote about inclusiveness in design, has now been interviewed by my former workmate at 9rules Matthew Oliphant about inclusiveness in the real world. She writes on her blog: The interview is very casual, we talk about real life examples and how to get people and companies to be more inclusive. The only thing…
Chris Coleman, writing about a site he built in the 90s on GeoCities: I still have two more or less complete versions of the site, along with lots of spare parts from earlier iterations. Today Iâm sharing the 1998 and 1999 designs of the site. The content isnât significantly different between the two, but each one is a…
Happy Tools: Distributed teams, changing business needs, and complex dynamics are redefining the workday. Happy Tools makes it possible for your office to run smoothly, no matter what it looks like or who makes it go. A suite of tools specifically built for the remote team by Automattic, a completely distributed company. I'd be very surprised if these…
Go read it. It is actually shorter than his recent Facebook post on privacy. This part was… umm, interesting? Finally, regulation should guarantee the principle of data portability. If you share data with one service, you should be able to move it to another. This gives people choice and enables developers to innovate and compete. This is important…
I wish I had kept a fishing diary. I didn't. But I might start. Either way, here are some quick observations before they leave my memory: rushing and frustration only compound issues don't assume success was a result of technique if distracted, simply stop and wait for distraction to pass take cues from local environment to determine tactic…
I use the term "boring" here to describe that which isn't brand new. Sometimes we're only excited about the new. The new car! The new house! Rather than being content with what we have, because it works or is paid off or we're familiar with every nook and cranny, we sometimes can get wrapped up in the excitement…
I'm writing this for posterity's sake. For my own recollection. So please feel free to skip the reading of this post. Apple News+ : Given that Apple News is serving enormous amounts of traffic I have little doubt that News+ will be a big enough hit to boost Apple's Services revenue. I doubt it will be for me…
Jerod Santo: I do believe thereâs a money problem in open source. If you listen to our shows you know I believe that. Itâs just that in open source that problem doesnât manifest until much later in the process. It waits until the software has matured, the value has been proven, the community has been built. Then, it…
Chris Coleman, on his 17-year-old and recently unearthed personal blog: I want my platform back. I donât want algorithms or the cacophony to drown it out. If nobodyâs going to see what I write, itâs going to be on my terms. Chris was vital part of my career though he likely doesn't know it. The first time I…
Here are some things I've seen recently: Ethical Killing: What about fish? I'm fishing again. And I am going to try to go about it as ethically as possible. Video: Shopify profiles Huit Denim – Excellent video about a small company in Wales making jeans. Strange Planet – New comic from Nathan Pyle. Polarr raises $ – I…
Black Dirt Region, New York – April 2017 The bottom of an ancient glacial lake, this region's soil is jet black. Gorgeous area.
There is a lot to love about Firefox lately (especially the last 20 or so releases) and 66 is no different. Dan Thorp-Lancaster for Windows Central: Firefox version 66 includes support for Windows Hello for web authentication, allowing you to log in to websites that support the latest FIDO2 standards for passwordless logins. Very cool and a feature…
No matter your profession, industry jargon can quickly become laden with acronyms, buzz-words, and other gibberish. I was reminded of this today when I read the abstract from this scientific paper re: mammoth cells showing some signs of activity in mouse cells. The 28,000-year-old remains of a woolly mammoth, named âYukaâ, were found in Siberian permafrost. Here we…
Carbondale, Pennsylvania – April 2017
Iâm always pleased when my photos can be put to good use. It is why I license my photos the way that I do. A few months ago the Lackawanna County Visitors Bureau reached out and asked if they could use one of my photos (with credit) in their Spring Visitors Guide. Complete with credit Of course they…
Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify: Itâs why, after careful consideration, Spotify has filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission (EC), the regulatory body responsible for keeping competition fair and nondiscriminatory. Good. After reading through his post and their website – especially if it all is true – they have quite a good case. I've been complaining,…
I could quote the entire piece, so I urge that you read it. Nathan Barry: Focus is where I thrive. Focus is where I get results. Focus is everything. On choosing a niche: Choosing a niche is the easiest advice to give and the hardest advice to take. When you donât have traction, it feels like choosing a…
Brett Terpstra: The search syntax is very similar to Googleâs, so if youâre familiar with that you wonât need to learn much. Obviously you can just search a bunch of words, but there are a few additional syntaxes you can use to refine results. Duck.com (as I like to call it now) is my search engine of choice…
Mark Zuckerberg published a note on Facebook last night outlining his thoughts around privacy and social networking. I find it a fascinating read for several reasons. It reads like an internal memo – or even a draft of an internal memo – in that he repeats himself (sometimes verbatim) several times within the note. The realizations he's come…
Microsoft: Today, weâre excited to announce that we are open sourcing Windows Calculator on GitHub under the MIT License. This includes the source code, build system, unit tests, and product roadmap. Our goal is to build an even better user experience in partnership with the community. We are encouraging your fresh perspectives and increased participation to help define…