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
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 the pros and…
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 is a newfound…
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 comments, and added…
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, but post it…
Sridhar Ramaswamy: We believe online ads should be better. That’s why we joined the Coalition for Better Ads, an industry group dedicated to improving online ads. The group’s recently announced Better Ads Standards provide clear, public, data-driven guidance for how the industry can improve ads for consumers, and today I’d like to share how we plan to support…
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 use Apple products…
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, with all of…
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 see a boom…
Coney Island Lunch, Scranton, PA – December 2016
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 for long stretches…
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 in his hands.
Penn Avenue Parking Garage, Scranton, PA – January 2017
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 formats like my…
Northern Light Espresso Bar & Cafe, Scranton, PA – January 2017
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 maps so that…
Boardwalk Resort, Disney World, Florida – March 2017
Philadelphia from across the Delaware – May 2017
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 photos on days…
Me, doing my best Neil deGrasse Tyson. Photo credit: Richard Baldovin/Misericordia University. In early April I had the privilege of speaking to the Social Media Gurus class (or COM 485) at Misericordia University. My friend Dan Kimbrough is the Assistant Professor of Communications in the Mass Communication and Design Department at the university and he invited me to…
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.
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 few new creatures…
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 use JSON everywhere…
Manton Reece and Brent Simmons have created a new specification for creating feeds using JSON. They write: We — Manton Reece and Brent Simmons — have noticed that JSON has become the developers’ choice for APIs, and that developers will often go out of their way to avoid XML. JSON is simpler to read and write, and it’s less prone…
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 linking to. The…