Link: Zoom out
To get around this terrible imposition on their users, Zoom installed a webserver on their computers without telling them. A webserver that remains present and running, even when the Zoom app is not running. Even if you uninstall the Zoom app.
Ugh. I always had a bad feeling about Zoom.
Link: Gruber on Trump Twitter Blocking news
I can’t see why he even bothers blocking people. But I like to think he’s actually sitting there, wasting time each day poking buttons in the Twitter app, angrily blocking people.
LOL.
Link: No Algorithms
I’m not going to do either. Why? These kinds of algorithms optimize for engagement, and the quickest path to engagement is via the drugs outrage and anger — which require, and generate, bigger and bigger hits.
Glad some people still have principles. I’m really going to have to try NewNewsWire again when it adds support for Feedly.
Link: It’s Time for Sweden to Admit Explosions Are a National Emergency
Sweden has experienced a sharp rise in explosions in recent years, predominantly related to conflicts between warring criminal gangs. The use of explosives in the Nordic country is now at a level that is unique in the world for a state not at war, according to police.
What the fuck is happening in Sweden?
Link: Cheesegraters and crystals
One last thing, which I’m sure delights the metallurgists at Apple. Aluminum has an fcc structure, so the geometry of the grill mimics—in part, at least—the atomic arrangement of the material from which it’s made.
Interesting read about how the new Mac Pro grill is truly “based on a naturally occurring phenomenon in molecular crystal structures.”
Link: The missing ☑️: SwiftWebUI
Beginning of the month Apple announced SwiftUI at the WWDC 2019. A single “cross platform”, “declarative” framework used to build tvOS, macOS, watchOS and iOS UIs. SwiftWebUI is bringing that to the Web
Predictable, but also pretty cool. :-)
Link: China Forcing Tourists to Install Text-Stealing Malware at Border
The Android malware, which is installed by a border guard when they physically seize the phone, also scans the tourist or traveller’s device for a specific set of files, according to multiple expert analyses of the software.
Yikes.
Link: Scrutiny is the prize of success
DHH: Davidson’s point about the ethical trajectory of a company is spot on. But it goes even further than the single company. There’s an ethical trajectory of a whole ecosystem, and the one in Silicon Valley is in need of some serious recalibration. Springing to the defense of appalling privacy abuses with excuses like “well, everyone else does it” only reveals just how dire the need is for that recalibration.
Worth a read. Worth some thought.
I don’t have a Touch Bar but this looks really cool: Pock
Yum yum.
Link: Google Maps detour drops dozens of Colorado vehicles into deep mud
Google Maps promptly showed a detour onto a dirt road near the airport, and many drivers dutifully followed the detour. One problem — recent rains had turned the road into a nearly impassable mud puddle.
LOL. Though I do feel bad for these people.
Link: Jony Ive Is Leaving Apple
Gruber: I don’t worry that Apple is in trouble because Jony Ive is leaving; I worry that Apple is in trouble because he’s not being replaced.
Link: On scripting runtimes and macOS
Considering how integral these runtimes are to my own daily use of my Mac, this is a real annoyance. I’m fully capable of installing them myself, but I still find the decision baffling.
Agree. Seems like an unusual choice. Although if it’s a one-click prompted installer the first time you try and run one of those binaries that wouldn’t be so terrible.
Link: Catalyst vs SwiftUI: Which is better for building a new Mac/iPad app?
Unfortunately the thing SwiftUI does share with Swift 1.0 is that it’s very much a beta technology that is in no way ready for extensive use. … The bigger problem though are the tools and documentation. Compiler errors are useless to the point that it would almost be better that they weren’t shown.
Looks like we might still have a ways to go.
Link: Olympus USB RAW Data Edit
How has this not always been a thing? Makes so much sense. The chips inside our cameras are heavily optimized for these tasks, not our PCs.
Robin Wong: USB RAW Data Edit is activated by connecting the camera to the PC/Laptop via USB cable, and the Truepic VIII Engine in the camera will be utilized to boost the Raw files processing while running Olympus Workspace on the PC/Laptop.
Link: The Popularity of the 4.7″ iPhone
David Smith: People really, really like the 4.7″ iPhone.
Indeed. I’m not really looking forward to getting a larger phone. Hoping Apple might do something different this year with sizing, but I’m not holding my breath.
Link: The Day the Duplicates Died
What a great name for a blog post. LOL. And what nice typography (Chaparral Pro).
Joe Cieplinski: But then, a few moments later, something wonderful happened. All the duplicate tracks disappeared in an instant. It was if Music caught itself making the same old mistake, and then corrected itself.
Link: Raspberry Pi 4 on sale from $35
Highlights:
Looks pretty amazing. They are also selling a Desktop Kit now which is evidently everything you need but the monitor for $120.
Going thru a bunch of old CDs/DVDs to see if there might be anything useful on them… man these things are so slow… spinning platters, meh. Won’t miss ya. #decluttering
Link: The Swarm Strategy (How to Learn about Anything)
Ryan Holiday: So there you have it: the swarm strategy. It’s simple. Find a topic it. Forget the rabbit hole and instead win by utterly overwhelming force. And then of course, it’s time for the final and most important step: moving on. After devouring one subject completely, be sure to find another.
Link: 5 Practices to Put in Place
Sometimes I wonder this a lot about my own photography and whether I should really get back into it more or not.
Carl Newport: At the end of the day, what am I building? A disappearing timeline of trivial events instead of a meaningful body of work or closer friendships. And, the constant capturing pulls me out of the moment and makes me feel compulsive—and act—compulsive.
I didn’t know .gitignore could do this:
# Blacklist everyting in this folder... /* # ...except for... !.gitignore !.gitconfig !.notes/
Link: Some Writing Advice: Don’t Take Others’ Advice
If you’re wanting to write more, this might be worth a quick read.
This is a story. Offered in the hope it intrigues or amuses. It is not a template. I don’t think there are templates for the creative process, beyond the very basic, obvious one: if you don’t do it, it won’t get done. Putting in the hours. Trudging up the hill, metaphorically, when the cool people are still dancing.
Link: Three.js Fundamentals
So amazing what you can do in just the browser these days:
When learning most programming languages the first thing people do is make the computer print “Hello World!”. For 3D one of the most common first things to do is to make a 3D cube. so let’s start with “Hello Cube!”
Some beautiful thoughts/poetry.