2025-02-21 11:23:47
I’m working remote today, so I tried somewhere new. The coffee shop/roastery smells amazing, and has bar chairs and a long, thin table overlooking the street and surrounding landscape. It’s lovely!
Though let’s just say I’m glad I brought an umbrella in case.
By Ruben Schade in Sydney, 2025-02-21.
2025-02-21 06:02:58
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
14:22 – Bit of a weirder one today; talking about the time last week when the trolls won! But I got some amazing feedback and some help, so maybe there are lessons here I can pass on. Have you heard of this thing called the block button? I should do that! Thanks again, will be a more normal episode next time.
Recorded in Sydney, Australia. Licence for this track: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0. Attribution: Ruben Schade.
Released February 2025 on The Overnightscape Underground, an Internet talk radio channel focusing on a freeform monologue style, with diverse and fascinating hosts; this one notwithstanding. Hosted graciously by the Internet Archive.
Subscribe with iTunes, Pocket Casts, Overcast or add this feed to your podcast client.
By Ruben Schade in Sydney, 2025-02-21.
2025-02-21 05:51:54
You know the feature I wish LibreOffice Calc and others would implement from Google Sheets? Or from database views, in a matter of speaking? Being able to delete columns and rows.
To be clear, I don’t mean:
I mean, delete colums. Remove them, not just from view, but completely. Have them gone!
Maybe it’s a mild OCD thing (yes, I’m allowed to use that term!), but for all the things I dislike about Google Sheets, I love that I can have a tab with five columns, and that’s it. It looks cleaner, I don’t have this endless sea of cells, I don’t accidentally teleport into the void by invoking the wrong key combination, it’s great! It’s as though I’ve bound my sheet to those columns.
In the case of Google Sheets et.al., being able to delete rows and cells is a way to conserve memory. These tools often have limits to how many cells one can have in a workbook, so being able to delete unused ones makes sense. But they’re also nicer to use in that one respect as a side effect.
Is it just me? It probably is, if I have to ask the question.
By Ruben Schade in Sydney, 2025-02-21.
2025-02-20 10:40:25
The Fruit Company launched the iPhone SE in 2016, a handset with the same form factor as the iPhone 5. It offered people a more affordable, smaller alternative to the iPhone 6 and 6s, with the same access to software updates, and the company’s ecosystem of hardware, accessories, and the App Store.
It was an interesting move from the company at the time. They’d sold prior versions of iPhones alongside the new hotness for a while, downgrading the former in price to attract more buyers. But the SE was the first iPhone designed from the outset to not be a flagship (technically the 5c wasn’t either, but this was released at the same time as the 5s, and could be thought of as part of the same family. The SE was its own product line).
Two more iPhone SEs would come out in 2020 and 2022 respectively, both based on the external design of the iPhone 8, and designed around the same ethos. This was to be an entry-level smartphone to get one’s foot in the proverbial Apple door, and was marketed and priced accordingly.
Save for its unusual position in Apple’s device lineup, the SE itself wasn’t an interesting phone. But that was the point. Being cutting edge, exciting, and conspicuous was the job of the flagship iPhones, just as Samsung, Google, and others have their expensive and midrange tiers. You could certainly buy a cheaper Android handset, but if you wanted an affordable iPhone—relatively speaking—this was it.
For someone who just wanted a phone that that worked, and with regular security and software updates, the SE was perfectly serviceable. One might say it was boring, and mean it positively! I can say from experience that being an SE owner for years was… oddly liberating. There was no push to jump on the annual upgrade treadmill, because the phones themselves were so rarely updated. It was the Mac Mini of iPhones, in that an update may come sometimes with improved features, but the company wasn’t fussed about ignoring it for stretches at a time.
A lot was made about how the SE was Apple’s attempt at targeting “emerging markets” or “The Global South”, but I was surprised at just how many SEs I saw and continue to see in the business world. They’re a popular choice for corporate fleets, and seem to have found a niche as a second or work phone. They can all be managed remotely, they’re reliable, have great battery life, and are far less expensive than the laptop-priced phones the company otherwise releases.
The new iPhone 16e is not an SE, despite what the pundits and Apple themselves may claim. Where the iPhone SE was a budget(ish), entry-level device, the 16e is not. It’s the iPod Touch to the iPod Classic, if the Touch was twice the price.
As far as I’m concerned, the analysis basically stops there. The SE is no longer on offer from Apple. If you’re after a (more) budget iPhone, your best bet is the second-hand market. They probably won’t support AI either, which is a bonus!
By Ruben Schade in Sydney, 2025-02-20.
2025-02-20 06:39:10
This was such a fun video! Teachers that can explain abstract or difficult concepts using relatable analogies are worth their weight in linear power supplies.
By Ruben Schade in Sydney, 2025-02-20.
2025-02-20 06:20:49
Yesterday I made this throwaway comment:
Forget about it, as my beloved New York friends would say in an accent I can’t muster, but it doesn’t stop me trying.
That public troll earlier this week must be infuriated that once again I’m quoting someone, only this time it’s… myself! On my own blog, no less! The absolute hide of some people. Hyde? Is Hyde Park where you go not to be seen? Wait, Hyde Park is London. Also, every Australian city for some reason.
Along with whaddyawant? and ey, does this train go to Seacawwwwcuss?, my favourite New Yorkism has to be fuhgeddaboudit. Clara and I took our first international holiday together to New York back in the day, and it remains one of my favourite trips ever. The accents were, unashamedly, a big part of the appeal.
Still, I didn’t know it had an article!
Pronunciation spelling of forget about it, representing New York City and New Jersey English.
Thanks to Michał Sapka for linking this to me. It made my morning.
By Ruben Schade in Sydney, 2025-02-20.
