Watched Dune Part 2 last Friday on a long flight stop-over. I absolutely loved the movie.

While it got a bit slow 2/3rds in, I was enjoying it so much that my real concern was it would end in too much of a cliffhanger.

As I left the theater I kept thinking that if I’d was 10 years old, I’m sure that I’d be more of a Dune fan than a Star Wars one. The Dune universe and the cinematography are superior to most Star Wars films in the last decade¹. We’ll watch it again soon.

Also got me excited about reading the books again — or at least the 3 ones I read originally.

2024-04-15

Barry Hess on Blogger vs Essayist

From I am BARRY HESS:

You don’t need to labor over your posts. You don’t need to have perfect grammar or spelling. You don’t need to leave a post in draft for seven months, pouring over research. (Though you can if you want!) You don’t really need to have an idea.

Just write. Then share.

I keeping hitting myself over the head with this… eventually one of the blows will work.

Better Obsidian macOS Look & Feel

Konstantin, on Headbright Group VOF:

Astute macOS users (and developers ) will be quick to notice that Obsidian is not a native macOS app, but it is in fact a hybrid web application running inside an Electron runtime. This means that the UI look and feel is non-standard on macOS - it doesn’t work like other apps for the Mac. […] To address this, I use a combination of a theme and several plugins to make the app closer to the HIG we all expect.

Nice recommendations. Will revisit when I go too much into my Obsidian customization rabbit hole and need to come back to basics.

Beeper Acquired by Automattic and Available

Eric + Beeper Team, on Beeper Blog:

What we’re announcing today…

• No more waitlist — Beeper is now available to everyone!
• Beeper has been acquired by Automattic
• Our new Android app is out of beta
• We’re renaming Beeper Cloud → Beeper (sorry for the confusion)

Works well. If they start to allow two WhatsApp number on the same app, I see myself using it more. Ability to have WhatApp on iPad also very useful

BOOX Poke5 and Readwise on eink Review

David Kadavy, on kadavy.net:

Apparently these devices have been around long enough for there to be five generations, but Readwise Reader has only been around a couple years. I’ve had my Poke5 for about a month, have read an entire book on Readwise Reader, and have read a bit on the Android Kindle app as well. So, I’d like to share my experience.

Good post review on the Poke5 and using Reader with it. What’s clear is that the Poke5 is faster than my Leaf 2, because Reader is barely usable in my device.

Apple Lays Off 600+ Employees After Canceling Car Project

Juli Clover, on MacRumors:

Apple this week filed a required notice with the state of California, confirming plans to permanently lay off more than 600 employees.

Hopefully they’ll land on their feet. Also looking forward to more details of the failed project.

ChromeOS Now Supports Keyboard Shortcuts and Custom Mouse Buttons

Wes Davis, on The Verge:

The keyboard shortcut feature will work like it does in other operating systems, in which you can assign specific actions to specific key combinations. Google uses the examples of tweaking shortcuts to be easier to carry out one-handed or making them resemble those you’re used to in, say, macOS.

My dreams of using ChromeOS as a backup have completely gone away, but this is required for any real desktop OS.

Casey Liss On Using Tailscale as a Better VPN

Casey Liss, on Liss is More:

Tailscale is a mesh network of all your devices. Each device that is running Tailscale is on your “Tailnet”; every device in your Tailnet can talk to any other device on your Tailnet. This all works by way of fairly common VPN software, extremely clever tricks for poking holes in firewalls, and relay fallbacks when no other approach works.

The net effect is that I’m always able to connect to my Synology. Or my Mac mini. Or my ridiculous assortment of Raspberry Pis. And so on. I can also always connect to my Linode nanode that runs this website. Or a Digital Ocean droplet. I can access any of these devices no matter what network I’m on, and no matter what network the device I’m targeting is on.

Great post. I’m not in a place where I’m ready to rethink my devices networking — they just (barely) work™, and I don’t have time to play with it if I break it. But keeping this in mind for summer time project.

State of Hackintosh

Aleksandar Vacić, on aplus.rs:

It’s true that latest macOS 14 (Sonoma) still supports the latest generations of Intel Macs and it’s very likely that at least one or two major versions will still be compatible. But there’s one particular development that is de-facto killing off the Hackintosh scene.

His original title is Hackintosh is (almost) dead, but it’s a great overview of where hackinstosh stands. It’s also very aware of reality:

I don’t really complain. I had a good run which helped me skip over the worst price/performance Mac lineup that I remember. There’re now plenty good choices within the current crop of M1 / M2 / M3 machines and I’ll be following eBay closely for a good used Mac mini / studio models. Or maybe even splurge on something new.

And while Apple can be vindictive, I agree with his closing thought:

Just to clarify one thing, to preempt someone saying Apple did this on purpose to kill off Hackintosh: they didn’t. Apple never cared about Hackintosh scene, it’s entirely irrelevant to their business. They did what they should be doing, improving the macOS codebase.

iPulse for iOS Released

Craig Hockenberry, on Iconfactory Blog:

An app that can monitor your device is a great thing to have when you need it, but can get in the way when you don’t. On iOS we solved this problem by using Picture in Picture technology. iPulse for iOS/iPadOS literally creates a movie of what’s going on inside your device and updates it every second. You can resize the display to fit well on your screen, or slide it out of the way completely. We were careful to use minimal system resources, such as CPU (3% usage) and memory (only 1 MB in size), while making the video.

Sweet solution to use a PiP movie to display stats. In the Apple Silicone era, I’ve almost never need to question where my resources are going, so almost never open iPulse for Mac anymore. Still, this was an instabuy. Some interesting stats, but it did seem to give me an incorrect storage number.

Paul Campbell On the Noisy Web

Paul Campbell, on vi.to:

It wasn’t necessarily better in the past. Videos were the size of postage stamps. Everything took a long time to load. Being able to jump into YouTube these days and learn anything about anything. That was just a dream in 1997. But when, oh when did it all get so noisy? There’s just so much noise. Noise in every sense.

This resonated. The web has changed and it doesn’t fit as it used to. Maybe those of us that experienced it since 90’s are getting old and just shouting at a cloud. Question is: should we push for the pendulum to return to a more boring web?

FDA Clears Over-the-Counter Continuous Glucose Monitor

Office of the Commissioner, on FDA:

The Stelo Glucose Biosensor System uses a wearable sensor, paired with an application installed on a user’s smartphone or other smart device, to continuously measure, record, analyze and display glucose values in people 18 years and older that are not on insulin and who do not have problematic hypoglycemia. Users can wear each sensor up to 15 days before replacing with a new sensor. The device presents blood glucose measurements and trends every 15 minutes in the accompanying app.

On Amazon Pharmacy, a month of Dexcom G7 Sensor/Transmitter shows as $50 with insurance and $377 without. Once the monthly price gets to $100, this is something we’re considering testing on our household.

I hope this is something the Apple Watch will have eventually, but it’s likely a long way off.

The Heroes of Web Standards

James on jamesg.blog:

Web standards are a game of compromise over technical details in service of the exchange of information across the globe via the World Wide Web. Web standards are often long; hundreds of thousands of words across hundreds of documents. The job is relatively thankless. You may never have met someone who works in web standards, but if you are reading this page you are using the work of those who work in web standards

Great post on the complexity of keeping web standards open. It’s not only a technical challenge, but a huge UN level exercise in politics and compromise. Huge not worthy bow to these unsung heroes.

Kagi Now Uses Wolfram Alpha

Vladimir Prelovac, on blog.kagi.com:

To further enhance our search capabilities and address the issue of potentially misleading AI-generated answers, we have partnered with Wolfram|Alpha, a well-respected computational knowledge engine. By integrating Wolfram Alpha’s extensive knowledge base and robust algorithms into Kagi’s search platform, we aim to deliver more precise, reliable, and comprehensive search results to our users.

This is great news. Kagi keeps getting better, and is now my default search on the desktop. I’d be more bullish it weren’t with how much I now user Arc Search on iOS. Not sure what search will look like in year at this point.

In addition, we are very pleased to welcome Stephen Wolfram to Kagi’s board of advisors.

Someone I’d love to have on my board of advisors without a doubt.

Supernotes New SN Pro Font Family

Tobias Whetton, on Supernotes:

Over the past few months we’ve been designing a friendly new typeface called SN Pro. You can experience it in Supernotes and beyond — it’s open-source and free to use for all your personal and commercial projects. Read on to explore our journey with type and our design considerations, or download here.

I never change the font on Obsidian, but this new font really looks nice. For sure I’m taking a look around Supernotes when I get a chace.

Ming-Chi Kuo on Color Kindles and reMarkable3

郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo), on Medium:

Amazon (the world’s largest e-reader brand) will likely use E Ink’s color e-paper, Advanced Color ePaper (ACeP), starting in 2025 and launch about 7” and 10” color Kindle e-readers.

Demos for the ACeP technology are very impressive — but looked very R&Dish 2 years ago. If Amazon is taking it to Kindle, it must be ready for prime-time.

The main drivers of shipments will be the launch of new color e-reader models by Kobo (mass production in 1Q24) and reMarkable (mass production in 3Q24). It is worth noting that reMarkable will also adopt about 12” ACeP color e-paper with a high unit price.

Some nice spoilers here regarding reMarkable3. My frustration with the remarkable2 are less with regards to the hardware, and mostly with the software. But I can see the appeal of the color version, specially if they keep it as thin.

The market share of color e-readers will increase significantly in 2024, being one of the main reasons why Amazon will aggressively use color e-paper in 2025.

W00t, there’s something very PalmPilot about this category, and I’m happy that it’s not going the way of the MP3 player, but finding the niche were it can grow.

Allen Pike On Doing Once a Month

Allen Pike:

This is true, in my experience. I would say, further: the best way to start actually doing something is to try doing it once a month.

While monthly is not frequent enough for most work habits, it can be unreasonably effective when the activity is atelic — that is, for its own sake. Something you enjoy and find worthwhile, but don’t yet do regularly.

He has some great examples that go beyond writing, really made me think.

However, it also brought me to writing on this blog, for which a quick data dump and visualization showed:

5typos.net posts by month

I can see my children being born, getting married and international moves in the data. But overall, not terrible — and a nice upward trend. Also fun to look at the posts by year:

5typos.net posts by year

William Gibson's Neuromancer Coming to Apple TV+

Apple, on Apple TV+ Press:

Apple TV+ announced today that it will expand its acclaimed slate of science fiction offerings with “Neuromancer,” a new 10-episode drama based on the award-winning novel of the same name by William Gibson.

Acclaimed Sci-Fi slate indeed: Foundation, Silo, upcoming Murderbot. I never got into For All Mankind, but I appreciate that they let it go for 4 Seasons.

2024 Coffee Daily Driver

A bunch of stuff arrived of the past few months to justify sharing a new coffee daily driver setup. I’ve been looking forward to these for most of last year, and I’m very happy with the results.

TIMEMORE Sculptor 064 Grinder

Finally arrived earlier this year after a long Kickstarter wait. Was worried for a while after using my Dad’s Fellow Opus, but those concerns are now gone. I really love the design and build quality. For my AeroPress, Pour Over and (no press) French Press needs, it works great. Big quality of life improvement from my manual 1Zpresso JX

NanoFoamer PRO

Another delayed and recently received Kickstarter. I’ve had all Subminimal NanoFoamer products, and this one finally delivers of the promise of amazing milk foam without much fuzz. I’m very curious about the upcoming Meticulous Milk Steamer, but for now, I think this is the best you can get — save for the the real thing.

AeroPress Clear

Meh. Got his for the novelty of the clear AeroPress and because my original AeroPress lettering was all gone. Works fine, but the details are a bit off, and it’s more expensive.

AeroPress Flow Control Filter Cap (original)

Crap. Only reason I use it is because the Clear AeroPress doesn’t fit the Fellow Prismo, but it’s worst in every way. Looks like there’s an updated version which fixes most of the complaints, I’ll give a try at some point.

PYREX Heavy Duty Griffin 1003 400mL Beaker

The best carafe for AeroPress hands-down. Cheap, tough, small — been using it for years, and still have no better alternative. Get a nicer one for when you have people over, but this is your daily driver.

Fino 1L Kettle

It has almost doubled in price in the 6 years I’ve had it (still a reasonable $40), but every time I attempt to replace it, I end coming back to it. It’s minimal has survived daily use without one spot of rust. Size is perfect for our use. I widened the hole a bit an use a Target thermometer.

RACK for AeroPress

Build quality is atrocious (it leans to a side), but extremely convenient way to store the AeroPress when not in use.

Monty Milk Art Cups Latte 11 oz.

Got this at on a sale, and enjoy them. Sadly Ana is not crazy about the weight, so she prefers our brown glass set, which — even sadder — only one cup is left.

Astropad Updates Rock Paper Pencil Kit

Juli Clover, on MacRumors:

Rock Paper Pencil combines a screen protector and a unique Apple Pencil tip so that writing on the ‌iPad‌ feels like writing on a piece of paper. The new version of Rock Paper Pencil has a NanoCling Screen Protector that attaches to an ‌iPad‌ using static cling rather than a magnetic edge like the prior version.

I almost got the original one, but the comments of the separation between the screen and the protection held me back. New version seems to address this.

New Apple Sports App

Apple, on Apple Newsroom:

Apple today introduced Apple Sports, a free app for iPhone that gives sports fans access to real-time scores, stats, and more. Designed for speed and simplicity, the app’s personalized experience puts users’ favorite leagues and teams front and center, featuring an easy-to-use interface designed by Apple.

Looks nice, it’s really fast but … no tennis.

Responding Using Your Blog

Nitin Khanna, on nitinkhanna.com:

My blog sits idle most of the time, until I have something I want to write. This may be private or public. But writing goes here. (Journaling, of course, goes into Day One.)

Absolutely love the phrase: but writing goes here. Will try to practice this over the next few days.

COSMIC Desktop Environment Approaching Alpha

The Team at System76 Blog:

We’re on approach towards an alpha version of the new COSMIC desktop environment for Pop!_OS and other distros. Meanwhile, COSMIC testing has expanded to more users around the office. This month, we’re providing updates to the checklist we published in January on remaining tasks for releasing the alpha.

This is looking better and better. I don’t see myself switching to a Linux distro anytime soon, but I do hope this starts a new crop of apps or features for macOS.

Please Apple, give developers public APIs for Stage Manager and let them do their magic.

Tim Urban Thoughts on the Vision Pro

Tim Urban, on Wait But Why:

I’m writing this on a 30-foot screen on top of a 10,000-foot mountain in Hawaii, at a table in an Austin coffee shop where I’m pretty sure other people are taking photos of me to send to their friends so they can all call me a piece of shit. In the last week, life has gotten weird.

Of all the Apple Vision Pro reviews, this one has tempted me the most to do something stupid.

I’m gonna do a demo for sure the next time I visit the US but I feel fairly certain I’ll be able to hold off until v3… but not much longer.

Summary of macOS VM Apple Silicone Performance

hoakley, on The Eclectic Light Company:

Lightweight virtualisation of macOS on Apple silicon does deliver performance that’s impressively close to that of the host

I’m seriously considering setting up a virtual Mac in my work MacBook Air to separate my personal time at the end of the day.

Tried Bunch as a way to more clearly break within the same desktop, but without success.

Before virtualizing, I should try creating separate users. However, that feels inefficient. Or at least more inefficient.

Castro Podcast App New Owner

Posted by Castro Team, on castro.fm:

We are excited to announce Castro has been purchased by Bluck Apps. Castro is a great app with a long history on iOS and many passionate fans, and it will continue to operate in its current form. This is a return to its independent roots.

I really hope this works out. Been hoping around podcast apps¹ since for a month or so, but nothing follows my mental model like Castro.

Day One Introduces Shared Journals

The Day One Team, on Day One | Your Journal for Life:

Today we’re excited to introduce Shared Journals in Day One, a new way for you to safely share life’s moments with friends and family, while upholding the privacy and security you trust.

They’ve been testing [[[snippets]/2023-09-28 Shared Journals Waitlist|for a while]], and I’m happy to start using it. First use is a Kids shared journal with Ana… of stuff only a parent would find fascinating.

I already had a personal journal for this, and copying all the notes wasn’t flawless — it gave an error on media attached, but I don’t know which ones didn’t make it.

Shared Journals are available with Day One Premium. Those you invite can access your Shared Journal with a free account.

Great a approach, I feel confortable suggesting we use this for family trips this way.

Apple Vision Get Ready

I’d like anything that starts with Gene Wilder yelling get ready. And with iPhone Hello commercial vibes from 16 years ago, this reaches back into my geek nostalgia like nothing else:

Right now I’m enjoying the introduction of a new category. I do think the Apple Vision is going to be something. Rational me clearly states publicly: I’ll wait for the Apple Vision Air, or whatever the Gen 3(?) at $1.999 of this will be.

Still 16 years ago, I basically said the same thing while holding my Sprint Palm Treo 650, and less than I month later, I had an iPhone in my pocket.

32 Items Limit in Find My on iOS 17

From Apple Support:

You can add up to 32 items in Find My. In addition to AirTag and the third-party Find My network accessories in the Items tab, AirPods Max count as one item, AirPods and AirPods Pro (1st generation) count as two items, and AirPods Pro (2nd generation) count as three items.

Good to know. This will put a tamper in my current obsession with getting Find My devices every time there’s a sale.

(Most) Microsoft’s Keyboards and Mice Will Live On

Tom Warren, on The Verge:

Microsoft-designed mice will continue to be available too, including the Bluetooth Ergonomic Mouse and the Modern Mobile Mouse. Incase will also offer Microsoft-designed speakers, audio docks, headsets, and the Modern Webcam. There are 23 products in total that will be available later this year.

Sadly, my Microsoft Precision Mouse doesn’t appear to have survived the transition.

Running Ubuntu in Work MacBook

Mike Rockwell, on initialcharge.net:

This is actually a screenshot of a virtual machine running Ubuntu 22.04. The MacBook is primarily a work machine and I had previously setup a separate user account on it for personal stuff. This year I decided to move that to a virtual machine instead, which makes it easier to switch back and forth for quick breaks throughout my work day.

Basically a note-to-self post. Currently I only have my work MacBook Air M2 — although I’m thinking of purchasing an used M1/M2 MacBook Pro 14in sometime this year.

I found this concept by Mike worth considering. Even as a way to segment my work and personal workspaces.

A Farewell to (my) Cable Bags

Many years ago, a young man bought three Muji mesh pouches: white, black and greenish.

Being an Apple fanatic, the man filled the white pouch with cables of the newish Lighting connector. Still, many 30 pin cables were also added to the bag, because well, he had many around. The prize possession of this pouch was a chimera: an Apple micro USB to lightning adapter¹.

Then came the black bag, for which black cables were the natural occupants. Surprisingly, the color of the cables wasn’t really what conditioned their brotherhood. No, this bag was filled with two different yet similarly common connectors: micro and mini-USB.

Lastly, the green bag. This held a special place in the man’s heart. He was actually proud of having to even need a bag for this sort of cables: audio cables. It included everything from adapters to extensions, and even replacement earplugs².

The man collection grew over the years. He moved countries. Met people. Started a family, and it also grew. This required even more cables. But still, the three pouches remained a useful constant in his life.

Things were good. The man could satisfy all cable requests done under his roof. But then, things started to change. A newcomer cable started to show up. Occasionally at first, a Wifi router here or a smart speaker there. But suddenly, it invaded his domain. The man’s wife’s iPad started to use this new USB-C cable — and then his beloved Mac laptop. The man couldn’t visit the Muji store, so he bought some cheap mesh bags. But his heart was not in it: “I’ll sort it out soon” he said, but it never happened.

Now the time has come for the man to face his bag’s obsolesce. Two new iPhone 15 devices await under the Christmas Tree, and the realization hit him that they’re filled with antiquities.

He won’t be able to use any of the cables in his faithful 3 pouches with his new everyday device.

Yes, there’s his trustee AirPods and his young daughter old iPad. But the time has come to decide: are the bags themselves tied to their contents fate? or is it a time for inner-renewal? Or … should the man just visit Muji again and shut-up about it?

These are the struggles of this post-modern man.

Yawman Arrow Handheld Flight Controller Launching in January

Yawman team, on Yawman News:

The Yawman Arrow is the fusion of a traditional handheld gaming controller and the unique flight controls found on aircraft of all sizes. Designed for precision and versatility, the Arrow brings together a traditional joystick, desktop throttle quadrant and rudder pedal capability — and more — all into a handheld form factor that has never been available for flight simulators before

I still haven’t figured out how to plan how to play Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 with needing to buy a new computer or console, but when/if I do, this $249 seems like a great option.

The Arrow is fully compatible with Microsoft Flight Simulator on PC, Infinite Flight for Android, Laminar Research X-Plane on PC and macOS, Lockheed Martin Prepar3D, DCS World – and more — as well as non-simulation games that support joystick controls.

This will be in my 2024 wishlist for sure.

Matt Mullenweg 2023 Bag

Matt, on Matt Mullenweg:

I’m not going to label it all, just posting for posterity.

I enjoy these sort of post, especially from someone known to travel a lot. Didn’t add anything immediately to my wishlist, but did bookmark for future reference.

Apple is Adapting Murderbot

Andrew Liptak, on Transfer Orbit:

Apple has announced that it will be adapting Martha Wells’ acclaimed Murderbot stories for its streaming platform, Apple TV+. Directors Chris and Paul Weitz have been tapped to helm the 10-episode adaptation, with Alexander Skarsgård set to star and produce. David Goyer will also be producing.

Apple’s streaming corner is looking pretty-good Sci-Fi wise. Silo and Foundation Season 2 were two of my favorite TV shows this year.

I haven’t read all of Murderbot books (will do now), but the few I have were funny and very TV action friendly.