I write code, blog, take photos, talk nonsense, drink Guinness, and try to skateboard without injuring myself.
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2024-05-03 06:10:53
I just watched Perfect Days (2023). I haven't yet fully understood the effect it's had on me. But I think it's one of the best films I've ever seen.
2024-04-28 06:38:50
I've been creating a list of what I use my iPhone for, and what would happen if I switched to Android.
For most cases, it wouldn't make any difference. For example, for things like Notes, Email, Photos, etc. I use standard Apple apps, so I'd just as happily use Google apps.
For social networking, entertainment, and all the third-party stuff, everything is available on Android.
However, there are a few minor hurdles that could annoy me. They wouldn't necessarily stop me switching though. But they are things like iCloud Drive, Apple Photo sync, Universal Clipboard, AirPlay, etc.
All of those I can live without. However, even though all of my group chats are on iMessage, most private chats are on iMessage. So that would definitely cause some friction.
Therefore, when iOS gains support for RCS, and you can send photos across much easier between the platforms, there would be nothing major holding me to the iOS platform.
That's not to say I'd switch immediately, and never go back. But I'd certainly feel less locked in.
I do sometimes use a Pixel 6 as my main phone. But it's only ever been for a short period of time. So most annoyances don't really matter as I've usually still got my iPhone near me anyway.
But for a long-term switch. That's not only tempting, but also looking more possible by the day.
2024-04-27 06:04:10
For years, CAPTCHAs have helped separate bots from humans. But sometimes, more subtle distinctions are needed.
No surprise that I passed this one!
2024-04-26 08:30:36
If I ever switch away from using an iPhone, it would cause a massive cascading effect on nearly every part of my digital (and some physical) life.
Simply because, if I could ever bring myself to break out of Apple's walled garden, I would want to steer clear of anything similar. I wouldn't want to just replace everything Apple with everything Google, for example.
And yet, as much as I can imagine this would be hard work, I wouldn't say it's a major part in why I still use an iPhone. And if I'm honest, the list of reasons is slowly getting smaller and smaller.
2024-04-23 04:45:42
Last year I decided to upgrade to the big iPhone 15 Pro Max, after two years of the iPhone 13 Pro. And while there are definitely benefits of a larger phone, (and I've definitely enjoyed having it at times) there have been quite a few times where I've been frustrated that it's not really usable with a single hand.
Not sure what that means for my next phone though. Because at times, I thought the 13 Pro was too small for me.
2024-04-23 03:59:40
I've been writing more and more bash scripts recently (GitHub repo). It started when I was playing around with a script called tmux-sessionizer from The Primeagen, that uses fzf to search for directories in a preset location, and then open the selected directory in a tmux session.
The first three I came up with were all mainly some sort of selector-style tools powered by fzf:
(they may seem like odd names, but I wanted to be able to use these scripts really quickly)
I also made another one that replaces my existing alias for quickly committing and pushing my local changes with Git, and makes the flow a bit more interactive.
Previously I had an alias gacp, which basically meant (to me) "git add commit
push", and did the following:
git add --all
git commit -m "$input"
git push
And I'd use it like this:
gacp "my wonderful code change"
But now with my (aptly) named tool, gt, I just need to type those two letters, and it then lets me quickly run through the process of pushing my latest changes.
First of all, it asks if I want to stage all my current changes (defaults to yes), then it asks what type of commit it is (using conventional commit style), asks for a commit message, and then if I want to push to my remote repo.
So a pretty simple process, but just a bit faster thanks to this little script.
As you can see, I'm clearly having a bit of fun writing these scripts, so don't be surprised when I start uploading even more.
Although my next script/tool will definitely have to be making blog posts easier to start writing. I have a half-baked bash script that creates a basic template, but I think I want to make one with a bit more power, that can be flexible for multiple types of posts. Let's see.
2024-04-06 07:18:29
I've been working on a small command line tool recently. It's essentially a simple way to write a short post on Micro.blog from the command line, called pst.
It's probably not the typical place people tend to do their microblogging. But I did it for a few reasons:
So, now you know the reasons, I'll explain a bit more about pst, how to install it, configure your blog, and also how to use it.
First of all, you can install pst from crates.io or homebrew:
crates.io
cargo install pst
homebrew
brew tap chrishannah/pst
brew install pst
To configure pst, all you need to do is to generate an app token from Micro.blog
(find that in your Account settings), and then store that in a JSON file under
~/.config/pst/config.json. The specific format is in the README.
Using pst is pretty simple, you have the pst command, followed by the type
(post or draft), and then your content. Examples:
pst draft "don't show this to anyone"
pst post "hello, losers!"
After that, you'll see some handy links in the terminal for where you can view, preview, or edit the post on Micro.blog.
I forgot to also say that it's built with Rust! I'd been wanting to write something in Rust for a while, but it was never the right time, and I also didn't have the correct project. Luckily for me, it's a small project, so I decided to use it to learn some Rust.
Obviously I haven't used it for long (or for much), but I've really enjoyed using the language. And especially for these types of tools, I can see myself using Rust even more in the future. (Especially because I have my Neovim config working perfectly with Rust now.)
2024-03-23 04:45:00
I can't say I'm completely up to date with Apple's various ongoing issues with various government entities, so I can't exactly offer any well thought out opinions. And I also want to say that I'm not exactly that interested in getting into the weeds of it all.
I'm sure in all cases, Apple are right in some areas, and wrong in others. However, what I'm more intruiged in, is the long-term effect that it will have on Apple as a company, and also on the products it builds.
The changes could be related to hardware, software, how Apple's devices interact with devices of other companies, the restrictions they apply to their stores, or it could even affect the company itself. Either way, I'm sure something will end up changing as a result of these various battles.
I'm no longer a die-hard Apple fan, so I'm not going to get overly caught up on any of the arguments for or against them. But there's a reason people talk about Apple's "walled garden". And rightly or wrongly, it seems that more and more people are starting to want to tear down the wall.
2024-02-07 07:07:00
It's been just shy of 2 weeks since I started watching The Walking Dead[1], and I've just finished off the third season. Which puts me around 20% of the way through all 11 seasons (177 episodes).
I've definitely missed out having only just started the show recently, but at least I'm now able to binge it non-stop. I'm watching it at night, in my lunch break, on my commutes, I literally fill any free time with it right now.
One thing's for sure, the next time a show like this comes out, I'm not waiting over 13 years to give it a try.
It's a bit funny that my last post was me getting excited about starting the fourth episode, and right now I'm about to start the fourth series. ↩︎
2024-02-04 06:52:00
I've been following the progress of the upcoming version of System76's Pop!_OS ever since I heard about their idea to write their own desktop environment in Rust. It's going to be a pretty huge update by the looks of it, and it goes by Cosmic.
From what I've read on the blog, and also watched via the episode of Tech Over Tea with YouTuber (Host) Brodie Robertson and System76 founder Carl Richell, I'm 100% going to try it out when it's' available. And I really think there's a chance that if I like it, I could eventually persuade myself into buying a System76 computer in the future.
2024-02-03 21:58:00
I just checked out The Iconfactory's Kickstarter for their Project Tapestry project, which in their words will be a "a universal, chronological timeline for iOS for any data that’s publicly available on the Internet".
It's a nice idea. And reminds me of BlackBerry Hub on my old BlackBerry, which used to combine things like Twitter and Facebook, along with your emails, BBM notifications, etc.
As for myself, I don't plan on backing the project. The only "feeds" that I currently use are Mastodon (via Ivory), RSS feeds for various blogs, and Twitter/X for football updates. And none of those really need to be combined together.
That's not to say it's not for you, so if you're interested, check out the Kickstarter.
2024-02-03 18:45:00
Seeing as I've just recently switched to Firefox, I think it only makes sense that I try out Pocket at the same time. It's already built into Firefox, and when I've used Pocket in the past I've been impressed by it's suggestions. However, I haven't tried it in a long time, so it will be interesting to see how it compares to something like Readwise.
2024-02-03 04:31:04
When I've pictured my "ideal" phone in the past, I've regularly had long battery life as one of the key features. But I've thought about battery life as something that hasn't improved. Because most people have probably been charging their phone every night for quite some time.
However, you could probably argue that battery life has always been increasing. The problem is, so have our demands.
Sure, more powerful chips require more energy to run. So an iPhone 15 will naturally require more resources than an iPhone 5. At the same time, we also weren't expecting an iPhone 15 to record 4K HDR video without affecting the battery life.
It's probably not a big revelation to many. But it's a perspective that might be worth considering when judging the evolution of technology.
2024-01-31 04:31:04
I finally watched the Rabbit R1 announcement video earlier, and while I think it's a really raw product and has a lot to prove, I was definitely wowed by it. Maybe it's the hardware design (which was done in partnership with Teenage Engineering), or the idea that this will actually be able to do things for you, rather than just be another conversational AI. Either way, shortly after watching the video, I decided to pre-order an R1.
The relatively low entry price for the R1 at $199/£160 definitely helped. But I also wanted to put my money where my mouth was. Since products like the Rabbit R1 and others like the Human Ai Pin are examples of the direction that I want technology to move towards.
In my ideal world, technology would be used to help us understand, explore, and experience the world around us. Rather than keep us locked away in digital worlds, cut off from people around us. No matter how "connected" it can make us feel when we've got a screen constantly in front of our face.
I'm hopeful that we're moving in the right direction.
2024-01-27 07:48:43
I can't believe it took this long, but as of tonight I've finally started watching The Walking Dead. I don't know what I was doing in 2010 when it first started, but somehow I let it completely pass me by.
I'm just about to start the fourth episode, and I'm already hooked. 🧟♂️
There's a total of 177 episodes, which seems a lot, but at this rate I'll be getting through them pretty quickly.
2024-01-27 02:20:00
DHH:
The App Store dispute can be boiled down to one big question: Is the iPhone a computer or not? If it’s a computer, we ought to have the right to compute. Like consumers have won the right to repair. If it’s a computer, it ought to be yours, and you ought to have the right to install whatever software you should so choose.
I mean, is he wrong?
2024-01-27 02:00:00
Microsoft is laying off 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox this week.
Just as World of Warcraft (and Blizzard) starting looking like it was on the up.
I'm hoping this won't affect their existing games, such as WoW. But since Mike Ybarra (Blizzard President) is leaving, and the survival game that was in development has been cancelled, it's not looking great.
2024-01-22 04:37:35
I have a weird relationship with my iPad. I can go months without using it all, and then suddenly something switches in me, and I want to use it for everything.
While I'm not trying to blame anyone, I think a lot of this comes from me falling for the "what is a real computer" or the "everyone can work from an iPad" hype that used to be quite common on the internet.
Now I'm not saying either those are objectively true or false, or that I want to try and change anyone else's opinions on the iPad. But whenever I pick up my iPad Pro, without any case or keyboard attached, it feels magical to me. It feels like I'm using a computer from a science fiction show[1].
It's because of that feeling, coupled with the conversations around it having the ability to be your only computer, I start wanting to do more things with it. I attach the Magic Keyboard because then it looks like a laptop, and that's a real computer, so it must mean it becomes better. I also then occasionally connect a mouse, or even play around with the Apple Pencil, because this clearly makes it a more capable computer.
Yet every time, it leads me to getting irritated with the quirks/drawbacks of the iPad and then avoiding it for another month (or few). Instead of just letting the iPad be the magical device that it can be for me.
I need to learn how to just enjoy things for what they are, and not try to dream up weird and wonderful scenarios that add needless complexities and friction in my life.
Don't take this as me thinking the iPad is a perfect computer. But that's not important right now. ↩︎
2024-01-13 20:00:00
The Artifact team announcing the news via their Medium blog:
We’ve made the decision to wind down operations of the Artifact app. We launched a year ago and since then we’ve been working tirelessly to build a great product. We have built something that a core group of users love, but we have concluded that the market opportunity isn’t big enough to warrant continued investment in this way. It’s easy for startups to ignore this reality, but often making the tough call earlier is better for everyone involved. The biggest opportunity cost is time working on newer, bigger and better things that have the ability to reach many millions of people. I am personally excited to continue building new things, though only time will tell what that might be. We live in an exciting time where artificial intelligence is changing just about everything we touch, and the opportunities for new ideas seem limitless.
On one hand I'm dissapointed that an app that I enjoy to use will soon be no more. On the other hand, it's not really surprising. I found it to be a great way to surface content that I was interested in (although the quality did drop in recent times), however the reading experience in the app wasn't the greatest. Even so, it still made my "Software I’ve Enjoyed in 2023" list last year.
I assume this is the case for other people as well, but at least for myself, I would have used the service a lot more if it had some form of web interface.
Also, isn't it a bit weird that this news was posted on a Medium blog? I can understand wanting it in a more permanent place outside of the actual Artifact app, since that will soon stop working. But Medium? Not their own artifact.news domain, or even just a blogging platform with a better reading experience than something like Medium. Maybe that sort of decision shows why the app was like it was.
2024-01-08 20:38:39
It's only been just a week, and I've already "completed" my first project of the year. Well, it's not really completed, but it's functional and it already completely addresses a personal need.
The project is a simple plugin for Neovim that helps me generate the initial frontmatter I need for my blog posts. It's called blogutils.nvim, so you can imagine it may grow in the future. But right now, it has three pieces of functionality:
Here's a short video showing me generating the frontmatter from an example title:
I may improve it in the future, but right now that's all I need it for. And with how smoothly the development went, I'm really interested in the idea of making more plugins in the future.
Additionally, the act of learning how to write a Neovim plugin has made me much more comfortable using Neovim generally. It's weird to think that just months ago I could barely even use vim motions.
I've also created a new page for my 2024 projects, which now has just a single entry. I plan on using this page to document the projects I work on (big and small) throughout the year, grouped by week. You can also find in the menu bar the top, titled "2024".
I wanted to group by week because I wanted to visualise my work over the year in more granularity. I just hope I build enough things to make it an interesting list.