Archive

January 2025

Good Friends and Dead Websites: Iโ€™m really not qualified to own and manage a website. ๐Ÿคท In attempting to tweak a few things last night I broke everything. The site was down and dead. ๐Ÿ’€ I was stuck. I couldnโ€™t fix it. ๐Ÿ˜ฌ Enter my pal @Burk. While I slept in my Australian timezone, he worked to fix it in his US one. ๐Ÿค– Also enter โ€ฆ

Blog Question Challenge 2025: Thanks for the tag, Gabz. Why did you start blogging in the first place? It is so long ago, itโ€™s hard to remember why. Was there even a why? I was a nerd interested in technology, and blogs were the hot new thing. There was a cool platform called Movable Type and I wanted to try it out. So I started โ€ฆ

I couldnโ€™t be bothered walking back from the pub where I had dinner.

My 9-year old is asking how consoles work. This is testing my ability to teach computing hardware principles based on my knowledge that was established 30 years ago. Do I still talk CPU, GPU, RAM/ROM? HDD v SSD?

Our @hemisphericviews with a Tight 45 on the button for 2024.

Kung Fury, 2015 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Funnier now than when I watched it on release.

Paddington in Peru, 2024 - โ˜…โ˜…: Lacked the charm of the earlier two. Perhaps it was the different Director.

Robot Dreams, 2023 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: Enjoy love where you find it and accept that things may change.

I had a foot massage today. I think it’s the first one I’ve ever had. It was nice - even the painful bits!

I See You, 2019 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: I chatted throughout, which might make it seem like I wasnโ€™t into it, but I was into it! Although what has Helen Hunt done to her face?

My New Yearโ€™s resolution is not to change my PKM app stack for 12 months. OmniFocus plus Obsidian (work), DevonThink (home).

These are lovely words from Tim Klapdor about my podcast Hemispheric Views. A Year in Podcasts: Hemispheric Views: This is the only “guys having a chat” podcast in my feed. I really enjoy the dynamic of these guys and the community they’ve built around them. Recommend: The Battle โ€ฆ

December 2024

The Lighthouse, 2019 - โ˜…โ˜…: What the fuck did I just watch?

It’s not everyday that you see a home perfectly framed by a rainbow.

Happy Birthday Booji! 9 years old today. My, how time flies!

Norwegians FTW: Norwegians are the best. Listeners of Hemispheric Views will already know of the esteem in which I hold fรผrstenberg; who is essentially Norwegian me. We have many similarities across our respective histories; itโ€™s quite fun! Now, Iโ€™ve got another Norwegian to thank: Erland. I discovered Erland โ€ฆ

Defaults (2024): It has been more than a year since Episode 097 of my podcast Hemispheric Views, where we held a Duel of the Defaults! competition. Others have been updating their lists, one year on. It seems appropriate that I should do the same. If there is a change from my list last year, Iโ€™ve indicated it with a โ€ฆ

November 2024

I’ve re-established the Pi-Hole on the home network. Ads be gone.

My crappy Dell monitor has died. Long live the crappy Lenovo monitor that shall replace it!

I’ve turned on cross-posting from my micro.blog account to my bluesky one. Not sure I’ll keep it, but may as well give it a try.

Notetaking app update: my experiment with Notebooks.app is over and Iโ€™m back to DevonThink, and for work, Iโ€™ve bought a monthโ€™s subscription to Obsidian Sync and will likely get it for a year.

Commiserations USA.

October 2024

Inside Out 2, 2024 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: A good rendering of anxiety, especially towards the end. Overall, though, this movie didnโ€™t do it for me like the first.

Over 15,000 steps recorded by my Apple Watch before 2pm today. Well over my normal pace. That’s what gardening and packing a house ready to move will do for you.

Lonely Planet, 2024 - โ˜…: I watched this 48 hours ago and have already forgotten it. Did not enjoy; it felt like a throwaway Hallmark movie.

๐Ÿ”— Scripting News: Monday, October 7, 2024 interviews with star athletes saying the same predictable bullshit after being asked how it felt to do whatever heroic thing they just did. All of TV and news is like that, none of it is news, all of it is predictable bullshit. News is no longer news, itโ€™s โ€ฆ

Itโ€™s weird to think that globally there are millions of businesses using Teams. This is the best that the giant Microsoft can build? Is all of corporate society playing a game of โ€œThe Emperor Has No Clothesโ€? Teams is shit software and we all deserve better.

I borrowed a book using Libby from my local library. On comparing it with the Kindle sample of another book with the same name, itโ€™s some kind of scammy AI-rewritten scam book. Fascinating. I think I will just buy the legitimate one.

September 2024

At work I get barraged with email. I want to be able to compose an email without seeing my inbox. Itโ€™s an Outlook on PC situation. Let me guess, this is a whacky idea for normies and thus there is no way to achieve it. Am I correct?

As I recover from pneumonia, I cough, then hear my lungs crackle and pop as the airways pop open. It’s weird but kind of enticing. Like having a built-in bowl of rice bubbles.

Finished reading: The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape ๐Ÿ“šAs a long-term envelope (YNAB/Actual Budget) disciple, I found some of this too non-specific. Although it has some good thoughts on longer-term financial planning.

Itโ€™s a couch, wine and music night.

Finished reading: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami ๐Ÿ“š A slow-moving story that kept me engaged, but Iโ€™m not sure what I come away with at the end.

I’ve spent this week watching all the Indiana Jones movies in sequence with my 8-year old kid. A nice way to spend evenings. ๐Ÿฟ

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, 2023 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Silly fun but way too long.

Benji solved a Rubikโ€™s cube using an app and showed it to me. I scrambled it. โ€œWell, that was a cool few seconds,โ€ he said, as he looked at the messed up toy.

Hemispheric Views E119: Hemispheric Views E119: We kick things off at an odd time for everyone this time. How many Counter Chatsโ„ข are allowed in a single episode? Remember Pzizz? How many countries have you listened to the show in? I am Gratitudinal for all the basketballs in the run sheet this week.

At work Iโ€™m almost at the point where I couldnโ€™t live without Obsidian. At home I donโ€™t use it because now itโ€™s embedded in my brain as โ€œwork softwareโ€.

August 2024

I sold my Toyota Camry SL Hybrid 2021 today. It served me well for 40,000km. A lean manufacturing success story!

It would appear that I did not win the $100 million lottery. This weekโ€ฆ

It’s been a big day. Listed my house for sale and agreed to a sale on my Toyota Camry. All change at the station!

Iโ€™m trialling the new micro.blog post editor in the browser on iOS. My goodness, @manton, this is so much better! Thank you!โ€‹

Lucky Extension: Launch: Lucky - And a Dinosaur: Lucky not only removes the clutter from the Google search results but also removes tracking, lets you block spammy domains, and fixes some of the annoyances with Google search. Another cool Safari extension from And a Dinosaur.

Recorded another episode of @HemisphericViews with @martinfeld and @Burk.

Jarrod Blundy @jarrod created a shortcut that allows the creation of a meme library and subsequent selection from it, then the creation of a markdown reference to it. This is how I imagine Jarrod during its creation.

Why does every day have a morning I have to deal with? ๐Ÿ˜ด

Cat guy.

Signed on for anotherr year of Micro.blog Premium. The best blog host Iโ€™ve ever had, by far. @manton

I held a 4-month old baby today and had it chuckle as I zoomed her around. So cute!

Iโ€™m about 30 years late but it turns out shoegaze is the name of the music genre I like.

The Dark Knight, 2008 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: The best Joker.

Perhaps Iโ€™m getting reasonably good at this audio editing caper.

๐Ÿ”— Hey, it’s Jason! // Arcadia June 2024 So, what is everyone playing for? Fame, bragging rights, LinkedIn endorsements? Sure, all of those, but if they are honest, itโ€™s for the COVETED bespoke yearly Arcadia June Trophy! Obviously. Jason has taken Hemispheric Views Arcadia June trophies to a โ€ฆ

July 2024

Discovered the band The Boxer Rebellion tonight. I like. ๐ŸŽต

Australia Day, 2017 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: A gritty film that is more honest about parts of Australia than weโ€™d probably like to admit.

I finally finished the full run of The Walking Dead. ๐Ÿ“บ

Double Rainbow. ๐ŸŒˆ ๐ŸŒˆ

My glasses are not in the same locationn as me. How annoying. ๐Ÿ‘“

I needed a spreadsheet solution but couldn’t be bothered to design and build it myself. No problem, I’ll spend $5 on an Etsy solution. Pay the money; now waiting 72 hours for payment clearance. Awesome. That time-saving idea didn’t quite pan out.

A Family Affair, 2024 - โ˜…ยฝ: A couple of funny lines and lots of Zac Efron muscle shots. Why the hell did I watch this?

Those shockwaves you just heard? Yes, that was me deleting my YNAB account. Iโ€™m now all-in on Actual Budget hosted on Pikapods.

You know you are back from holidays because once again the weekend is filled with laundry.

I hate getting sick while on holiday. ๐Ÿค’

Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

With YNAB leaning into a new branding of Yet Another Price Increase or YAPIโ„ข, I’m trialing Actual Budget running on PikaPods. Early in my testing, but this could be good enough. Being in Australia I don’t get any of the fancy YNAB automation anyway.

Oppenheimer, 2023 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: A 4-hour flight was the catalyst needed to watch this marathon movie. I didnโ€™t realise I was signing up for a political thriller. It kept me engaged so it must have been okay.

June 2024

I’m copying Pawel and have set my MarsEdit quick entry to Hyperkey-P. Now I have to internalise the shortcut.

Anyone But You, 2023 - โ˜…: A vehicle for both Sydneyโ€™s and other anorexic women. Bryan Brown must have grabbed the bag.

It was a beautiful day for a walk.

I hired a e-scooter for a bit of dumb fun. ๐Ÿคฃ

I miss dunking on my kid.

I’m genuinely excited by what Apple has put forward in its WWDC24 keynote. xos18’s, Sequoia and Apple Intelligence all look brilliant. I’ve never been so excited for math worksheets.

It doesn’t matter how organised your task list is, you still need to do the task. I’ve procrastinated on my boots for two years!

Under Paris, 2024 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: An environmental warning plus sharks eating people. Whatโ€™s not to love?

๐Ÿ”— ROSS GITTINS: The RBA has squeezed us like a lemon, but it’s still not happy Problems such as higher world petrol prices and higher insurance premiums caused by increased extreme weather events. Iโ€™d like to see Bullock put up a big sign in the Reserveโ€™s office: โ€œIf itโ€™s not coming from โ€ฆ

๐Ÿ”— I really like everyone on my blogroll, but I’m sorry to say that it must die โ€” Keenan And, let me reiterate that I understand this was irrational, driven wholly by anxiety. These were inside thoughts, and inside thoughts are better left alone Keenan has the best lines. I often listen to my โ€ฆ

As They Made Us, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Touching movie with great comedy from Bergen.

Got to love fire pit season.

May 2024

Episode 112 of Hemispheric Views was one of the crazier ones.

The orange one being found guilty has made me so happy. He’s going to be so full of rage now - watch out America.

Slash Guy: On Hemispheric Views it has become a bit of a running gag that when I become interested in something new or different, the phrase, โ€œIโ€™m an insert interest here guy!โ€ is unleashed. Most recently this was raised in Hemispheric Views E112 when it became clear that โ€œIโ€™m a footy guy!โ€. Robb Knight has โ€ฆ

๐Ÿ”— 22.00.0058 Get up early! โ€ข Johnny.Decimal I donโ€™t do much in the way of โ€˜life adviceโ€™, but hereโ€™s one: get up early! As in, 05:00 early. Today I woke up just after 5am. I read this post yesterday. Iโ€™m not pleased with Johnnyโ€™s undesired influence. Iโ€™m not a morning guy.

Dinner Preparation. ๐Ÿ“ท

I wish Apple sold a standalone Touch ID sensor.

Over the past few years I have made some amazing Internet friends. Iโ€™ve met people with whom I have much in common. The only problem is they are distant. How much I would love to find a friend who is local. Whom I could go to the pub with and talk to in person.

I sometimes wonder how other people live. At dinner time, what do they eat? How do they organise their evenings? Do their homes resemble my own? I would love the opportunity to observe a bunch of other lives, in other homes. Are we all the same? Or do we differ wildly? Itโ€™s a curiosity of mine.

The joy of a self-cleaning oven. Pyrolysis for the win.

Job satisfaction.

Iโ€™ve ticked many tasks off the OmniFocus โ€œhousehold cleaningโ€ list. โœ…

Respect our Overlords. A 3x2 submission for @martinfeld and @Burk

๐Ÿ”— slash pages Slash pages are common pages you can add to your website, usually with a standard, root-level slug like /now, /about, or /uses. Iโ€™m particularly partial to /defaults and /save

Iโ€™m proud to be the commentator of the Perth Redbacks NBL1 team who is smashing out these numbers!

๐Ÿ”— My Podcast History โ€ข Robb Knight Now I’m mostly listening to a handful Relay shows like Connected, Rec Diffs, and Ungeniused plus Hemispheric Views, ATP, and Really Specific Stories. Iโ€™m not going to lie. Itโ€™s pretty cool to have my podcast mentioned in the same breath as some of these big โ€ฆ

Everything Everywhere All at Once, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: That was weird but fun, and slightly confusing.

Iโ€™ve woken at 4am and stayed that way. Cool!

Even on the hard days, and facing hard times, itโ€™s healthy to find the fun.

The Talented Mr. Ripley, 1999 - โ˜…ยฝ: After watching the TV series Ripley, this didnโ€™t hold up.

The one thing I want to buy after the announcement of new iPads? A replacement battery for my existing iPad Pro (3rd gen).

Our pal @rknightuk has knocked this one out of the park. We talked albums on Hemispheric Views E110. Now Robb has built a replica-iTunes to catalogue responses from listeners. It’s incredible.

April 2024

I’ve been in Epic Games account v Microsoft Xbox account hell for the past hour.

I’ve completed the first Chapter of the Johnny Decimal Workshop. This is a pre-recorded video training course that has excellent production values. If you want to get organised, I highly recommend it.

In my happy place commentating NBL1 basketball. ๐Ÿ€

A brick wall.

All of Us Strangers, 2023 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Poignant, sad, confusing. In equal measures.

Mornings of Reading are a Blessed Treasure: A good reading session will take me on a journey. Often the start will come as a surprise, and will take me on a voyage to an unknown destination. Along the way, my mind will be engaged, interested, and challenged. Today, Iโ€™ve had one of those mornings. Here is some of what I found, and some of the โ€ฆ

Late-Stage Capitalism & Housing Supply in Australia: Late-stage capitalism is destroying a basic human right - being able to live in a house - as housing affordability for renting and buying across Australia has been smashed in recent years. A report produced by Anglicare Australia highlights with cold hard facts something that is already clear in the โ€ฆ

I swear my Roomba stalks me. Whichever room I move to, sure enough, Roomba soon turns up.

Domain transfers from Hover to Porkbun are in progress.

Reviewing my Backups: I identified that my formerly robust system of data backups, particularly for photos, was no longer great. A combination of frugality and simplification had gone too far. Some time ago I deleted my Backblaze account. Recently I deleted my Flickr account. That left me only with iCloud Photos, which โ€ฆ

Tonight I was lucky enough to commentate a triple-overtime game of NBL1 basketball between Perth Redbacks and Eastern Suns. ๐Ÿ€

Rocking a new pair of shoes.

I finished Season 1 of 3 Body Problem and donโ€™t want to have to wait for Season 2. Bring it on! ๐Ÿ“บ

Should I subscribe to Castro podcast player? I like the direction the new ownership seems to be going in.

Fun to be back behind the microphone calling NBL1 West basketball games for Perth Redbacks. ๐Ÿ€ ๐ŸŽ™๏ธ

Those who listen to @HemisphericViews will know that Iโ€™m a beach guy! Here I am repping the show and a wetsuit!

Spotify is so much better at surfacing interesting, not necessarily mainstream music. Apple Music works really hard to keep me near the Top Charts. ๐ŸŽต

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay โ€“ Part 1, 2014 - โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: This feels closer to Star Wars than The Hunger Games. The plot to kill Catniss is possibly over convoluted?

March 2024

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, 2013 - โ˜…: Just get to the good bit already. Oh, there is no good bit.

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret., 2023 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: More evidence that the 70s were the best. I remember reading this Judy Blume book (and others). Wholesomeness delivered to the sad 20s.

Run Rabbit Run, 2023 - โ˜…โ˜…: The audio mix was terrible, but the film at least made me think. But can somebody tell me what the deal was with the face appearing in the memorial?

Buying something with coins feels as good as getting it for free.

Sideways, 2004 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Such a fun movie but it feels like a movie from the mid 90s. A lot has changed in 20 years - more than I realised.

Boti Nagy giving NBL Pocket Podcast a good shoutout!

NBL Pocket Podcast with Boti Nagy: How fortunate am I that I could do a podcast with journalistic legend, Boti Nagy. This man has a huge history reporting the National Basketball League, is a published author, and thanks to my friend Joseph Corr is now a co-podcaster with me! I was reading Botiโ€™s articles when I was 12 years old. โ€ฆ

Currently reading: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin ๐Ÿ“š

I dated a handwritten document as 21/3/14. Crikey, I’m a decade out of date!

Taking photos of signs @maique style. This one is a relic! Look at those seniors!

The boy and I started playing It Takes Two on Xbox. So much two-player raging. Lots of fun. He pulled out the nail while I was swinging on it! ๐ŸŽฎ

The Family Plan, 2023 - โ˜…โ˜…: Not great but good family fare.

Finished reading: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami ๐Ÿ“š Probably one of the weirder books I’ve read. Entirely compelling, but I’m not sure I comprehend what I read.

Last night amongst my many vivid dreams, I met Linus Torvalds. I thanked him for his work and the contribution to society that Linux has been. Then I went and rode an elevator that went sideways instead of up and down.

Surely now I own all the Notes apps.

I listened to E70 of @hemisphericviews tonight. So cute to hear my own son from an earlier time. โ€œBe more negative!โ€

We are aware that enshittification is a big deal in the tech industry. With the latest apparently vindictive moves by Apple against Epic, is the great fruit company now on the fast track to its own enshittification? Hubris is at an all-time high.

Good grief, parenting a kid with autism can be hard. ๐Ÿชซ๐Ÿงฉ

Iโ€™m trying Alfred instead of Launchbar. I keep getting stuck. Today, I couldnโ€™t get an equivalent of Launchbarโ€™s โ€œInstant Sendโ€ up and running. Why am I doing this to myself?

I’m not built for humidity. The last few days in Perth have featured this weather condition, and I’m not coping well. I have finishing mopping my floors, and now I’m the one who is mopping wet. ๐Ÿ˜ฐ

My Day One journal consists of 2,597 entries. Of those, 418 are Instagram imports, leaving 2,179 โ€œproperโ€ entries. The oldest entry is an Instagram import from 5 November 2011. My first genuine entry was on 4 August 2012. Iโ€™ve journaled on 1,808 days since then.

Finished the show One Day and feel sad. Itโ€™s an impactful series. ๐Ÿ“บ

I’m watching the 46th season of Survivor. That is crazy! ๐Ÿ“บ

Refreshed my site’s Bookshelf page and simplified my navigation bar.

February 2024

One of those days where I wake up at 4:15am. An hour later now and I feel tired but know Iโ€™m not going back to sleep. Here we go then. Bring it on, Monday.

The Lost Daughter, 2021 - โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: Children really can be that annoying.

The Sad State of Fibre Internet in Australia: A couple of days ago I got fibre to the home installed (finally). Australia’s broadband rollout is a decades-long case study in political fuckery. Previously I was on “Fibre to the Node” which used fibre to the end of the street, then copper from that street node to my home. Now I โ€ฆ

Proud of my Podcast Productions: Several years ago I became interested in creating podcasts. As an early adopter, I’d listened to them for years. I decided I finally wanted to try the creation side of the equation. I’m proud of what I’ve achieved since that decision. Yesterday, two podcasts of mine were released โ€ฆ

Zoolander, 2001 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: I watch this film now and struggle to identify the cameos. Not all careers kick on, I suppose.

Bob Marley: One Love, 2024 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: I was unaware of the Bob Marley story and this clued me in well. Actors of course were more attractive than the actual people.

Windfall, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: A well-acted kooky thriller.

Iโ€™m binge watching S4 of For All Mankind. I didnโ€™t have โ€œlabour dispute and unionisation on my bingo card of topics. Was this show written around the time of the Hollywood Writersโ€™ Strike? ๐Ÿ“บ

A GP appointment time is more of a general indicator that they will see you sometime in the hour following that prescribed slot.

It’s great to see Jon Stewart back home on The Daily Show. Old Presidential candidates. What could go wrong?

Autism Parent Night: Making checklists to assist kids with morning, afternoon and evening routines, and pack lists. Made it all look pretty with OmniOutliner. โ˜‘๏ธ

If the United States population somehow finds it in themselves to re-elect deadbeat, shyster, and Russian-compromised Trump, we are all fucked. Gift link to a relevant New York Times article.

Wonka, 2023 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: I wanted to like it more, but it was trying too hard.

After resisting all the Bluesky invitation codes; I’ve signed up with the masses.

Lean Can Be Applied Anywhere: Deploying small, incremental improvements. Prototyping an improved workflow using lean, visual control and 5S principles. Observation will determine what improvements and changes to next make.

I need a side hustle that generates a reasonable amount of cash. Why are my skills so esoteric?!

I spent the money. This is a much more pleasant reading experience. ๐Ÿ“š

Should I spend $16 to buy a Kindle version of the book Iโ€™m reading so I donโ€™t have to deal with small print? The pink highlight shows the Kindle viewport. ๐Ÿ“š

My Replacement Xbox Controller Dead on Arrival: What’s the deal with garbage Xbox controller hardware? I had to return a controller because a button wasn’t responding. My replacement controller arrived. Straight out of the box, it reports LB as being permanently activated, and I can’t even navigate the menu system with it, as โ€ฆ

I’ve decided not to renew my Flickr Pro account. I’ve had it for years and years. I don’t use the service enough to justify the cost. Sorry for any link breakage that may occur!

January 2024

Vesper, 2022 - โ˜…ยฝ: Wow, that was really boring.

The Big Lebowski, 1998 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: This movie makes me want to go bowling.

The Breakfast Club, 1985 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: I think Iโ€™m older than the teacher now. Heโ€™s the guy I now relate to.

Currently reading: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami ๐Ÿ“š

I just used Make Me A Cocktail. I don’t have a large bar at the moment, but it suggested a Black Russian and I’m enjoying it!

I feel in the flow. Normally this feeling is linked to a particular task, job or project. Yet I’m feeling it broadly across life management and my mental state. I like it. ๐ŸŒˆ

Finished reading: From Strength to Strength by Arthur C. Brooks ๐Ÿ“šMy takeaway is that I am in a spiral career transition. Plus I now have an excuse as to why my energy levels for work are lower than they used to be.

I simply don’t care about Apple Vision Pro. I have no desire or motivation to watch the 10 minute demo videos. I don’t care about listening to hours of podcast thought pieces. I’m not interested.

I started watching Loudermilk tonight. I like it. Not sure if only because Ron Livingstone basically plays a recovering Peter Gibbon from Office Space, ๐Ÿ“บ

Finished reading: Thirst by Scott Harrison ๐Ÿ“šon Headway app (๐Ÿชœ). Glad I only committed 13 minutes to the book, rather than actually reading it, because it was terrible.

Once a Nerdโ€ฆ: I can draw a fairly straight line from my personality as a young fella to who I am today. I mean, look at this nerd. He’s got a Commodore computer running Workbench 2.04. Dot matrix printer. Stephen Lawhead books on the shelf. A thermometer that read the outside temperature. Basketball โ€ฆ

Douchebags Galore!: Steven Hackett is being ripped off by douchebaggery from 37signals, as they try to get their HEY! Calendar app approved by the App Store Review Team. 37signals Resubmits Its Calendar App, Includes Dates in Apple History to Get Past App Review โ€“ 512 Pixels: Itโ€™s a real bummer to feel like Iโ€™ve been โ€ฆ

So many big life decisions to be made. Being an adult can be hard.

I just did an internet quiz like itโ€™s 1999. What Anime Hair Color Best Suits Your Personality? Hosted By theOtaku.com: Anime via Thomas Rigby

In between watching basketball and packing Lego into boxes, I recorded E102 of @HemisphericViews with @Burk and @martinfeld.

Our friend @rknightuk has built a word cloud based on the 320 default blog posts arising from @HemisphericViews Episode 097. His talents are amazing to me.

Year in books for 2023: Here are the books I finished reading in 2023. This is a terribly short list.

Iโ€™m at the beach! Itโ€™s a bit cold today.

December 2023

Out of my Comfort Zone: This year has been one of significant change. A big positive change Iโ€™ve experienced, but havenโ€™t talkedโ€”or bloggedโ€”about is my new relationship. Lisa, my partner, is an impressive woman who has made her way in life with strength and conviction. Her life has had challenges and events that have โ€ฆ

Remember that time I live-streamed going to Officeworks to buy an SD card as part of the @HemisphericViews live event? ๐Ÿ˜‚

Amazon - and Prime Video Ads - in Australia: Jason Snell writes about the consideration given to Amazon Prime: Shockedโ€”shocked!โ€”to find that Amazon is putting ads in Prime Video โ€“ Six Colors: when my wife and I were auditing our streaming subscriptions the other week, Prime was one of the ones that will basically never get cut, because free โ€ฆ

Currently reading: From Strength to Strength by Arthur C. Brooks ๐Ÿ“šTime to start thinking about Act II (or is it III?) ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ

I did an end of year review today. Interesting to look back on all that has happened over the course of 12 months. (tldr, a lot!)

In my on-going Pokemon-style quest to catch all the note-taking apps, I’ve bought Notebooks by Alfons Schmid.

For Christmas this year I got everybody in my family their own AI-generated Funko Pop likeness. ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

It was @Ddanielson that made me do it! A throwback to my younger years.

Perth can be alright. Merry Christmas.

I’ve jumped aboard the Ai-generated Funko Box bandwagon!

Hello, this is Andrew talking into MurmurType, the recording app that records and then transcribes whatever I have to say. I could use this to write a blog post, I could use this to write an essay. The only problem is, I don’t think as well speaking extemporaneously as I do when I write.

Subscriptions 2023: th:nth-child(3) { width: 50%; } A few people are blogging about their current subscription software. Here I am, jumping on the train. I have a subscriptions grouping in YNAB so I’m referencing that to assist here. In writing this, I’m discovering that there are a few subscriptions โ€ฆ

Boosted! ๐Ÿฉผ๐Ÿฆ 

My long national nightmare of not being able to swipe to change Apple Watch faces is over. The setting can be changed in Settings > Clock > Swipe to Switch Watch Face. Now can we revert the button functionality, Apple?

I can hardly believe our little Hemispheric Views podcast has inspired 267 blog posts!

I’ve designed a TypeForm survey. So much nicer to use than SurveyMonkey.

Candy Cane Lane, 2023 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: A good old fashioned comedy that actually made me laugh out loud.

My 2023 Mac Apps of the Year: Once again, I’m here to blog about my favourite Mac Apps for the year. See previously: 2022 2017 The Standard Criteria For my purposes, to be considered an App of the Year, the software needs to be something I used extensively, value and enjoy. I also must feel I would miss them if they โ€ฆ

November 2023

Who can resist a Blu-Tak snowman guy?: I can’t.

๐Ÿ”— Connected #478: Not So Bankrupt Anymore - Relay FM Amazing to see our podcast, Hemispheric Views, and its Duel of the Defaults! mentioned on Connected!

In today’s “I’m an idiot” news, I almost feel victim to a phishing scam. I wasn’t on my A-game and almost got found out. Frightening!

I did it! Wordle 892 1/6* ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ

I reintroduced my old Raspberry Pi 3B+ to the home network today, and with it, Pi-Hole! I may elect not to renew my NextDNS subscription as a result.

I’ve been building class timetables. Hyper Plan has been a life-saver. I love this app. Timetables have multiple variables (time, day, teacher, skill level) and Hyper Plan has wrangled it all for me in a way that is so much easier and better than Excel Pivot Tables. โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ

The Mop Will Always Be Your Friend: A career is an interesting thing. I’ve never been a “career at all costs” kind of person. Probably why I’ve never made millions of dollars or been a CEO. At uni, I worked at a pizza shop and a liquor shop. The mop was my friend. Things always needed to be cleaned. I spent the โ€ฆ

Time for Some Fiscal Policy in Australia: Talking with a friend today. The topic of interest rates came up, as they do in any recent conversation within the Australian context. My friend asked a poignant and sensible question, “why doesn’t the Government adjust the rate of the Goods & Services Tax (GST)?” It is a โ€ฆ

๐Ÿ”— So Many Default Apps โ€ข Robb Knight The latest feature was added today when I was inspired by something said on episode 098 but as of this moment I cannot remember what it was that was said. Regardless, I wanted to visualise the links between all the blog posts to get a sense of how the โ€ฆ

๐Ÿ”— Bridges | Devon Dundee But what sets Bridges apart from the rest of the pack is its focus on making it really easy to get links back out once youโ€™ve saved them. It isnโ€™t a vault for locking links away forever; itโ€™s a funnel for storing links and then putting them to good use. Iโ€™m looking forward โ€ฆ

My 2022 Mac Apps of the Year: This article was originally written for the December 2022 edition of Hemispheric News, delivered as part of the Hemispheric Views podcast member bonus program, One Prime Plus. In December of 2017, I put together a list of my Mac Apps of the Year. For this issue of Hemispheric News, I thought it โ€ฆ

This iPhone 15 Pronis my first one with an OLED screen and I love it.

I keep getting older. Not even an iPhone 15 camera can change that.

Finished Loki Season 2 and loved it. I wish it had a longer season but then it might have overstayed its welcome? ๐Ÿ“บ

Look what arrived in Perth, Western Australia @rknightuk @prami@social.lol

๐Ÿ”— Publish Quote - HeyDingus This shortcut provides a quick and easy way to publish a quote from a Safari webpage (or in-app Safari web view), with or without a comment, to Micro.blog. Just select the text you want to quote, hit the share button in the toolbar, and run this shortcut. Youโ€™re given โ€ฆ

The RBA slugs the economy with another 0.25% interest rate rise. What a terrible decision. Monetary policy is a blunt instrument that smashes those who can least afford it, and benefits those who already have it.

Duel of the Defaults from @HemisphericViews is building community momentum. Thanks to @rknightuk for creating a collections site.

Duel of the Defaults: My List: On Episode 097 of my podcast Hemispheric Views we held a Duel of the Defaults! competition. Jason and Martin fought head-to-head to see who used the most default apps on macOS. As I was the compere and judge of the competition, it wasnโ€™t for me to speak of my choices during the show. For the sake of โ€ฆ

October 2023

I’m having fun editing @HemisphericViews this week for E097. It’s a different and fun episode coming up!

Four months ago I took an opportunity for a career change. A move from consulting to managing two Centres of not-for-profit WA Police & Community Youth Centres. It’s been an opportunity to learn, grow and improve. What I love most is working for my staff. The people at Rockingham and โ€ฆ

Tim Cook chasing more of that sweet services revenue. A 16% increase! Even though I donโ€™t use Arcade & Fitness they still have me over a barrel.

I can hardly believe I’ve installed Obsidian again. It didn’t gel with me last time; let’s give it another go.

Totally Killer, 2023 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: A fun movie that doesnโ€™t take itself seriously and works as a result.

Champions, 2023 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: A fun, heartwarming movie that is a good reminder that sport should be fun.

Fair Play, 2023 - โ˜…: Molasses moves faster than the plot of this movie. Bad in so, so many ways.

Jarrod Blundy on Really Specific Stories: My friend Martin is a great interviewer on his podcast, Really Specific Stories. And thanks to Jarrod for mentioning Hemispheric Views! My Appearance on โ€˜Really Specific Storiesโ€™ - HeyDingus: That, along with this being my very first time on the speaking side of a podcast rather than the listening โ€ฆ

Object Linking & Embedding: This article was originally written for the November 2022 edition of Hemispheric News, delivered as part of the Hemispheric Views podcast member bonus program, One Prime Plus. Martin has set me a challenge as to what to write about this month. He told me I have to write something about old office โ€ฆ

September 2023

Not sure if this is a compliment or a brickbat, but I think I prefer micro.blog as a Sonoma Safari app ahead of the native Mac app. Sorry @manton and @vincent

End of month YNAB life. ๐Ÿ˜…

Cannonball, 1976 - โ˜…โ˜…: I really wanted to watch Cannonball Run! but I got this instead. The 1970s were a simpler time.

Reading Ross Gittins on Economics: I enjoy reading Ross Gittins' articles on economics. He is doing a great job of highlighting the many failures of the neoliberal dogma in Australia. ROSS GITTINS: What's kept us from full employment is a bad idea that won't die: Wages have risen in response to the higher cost of living, but have โ€ฆ

NextDNS or Pi-Hole?: Iโ€™ve been using NextDNS for a few years to block ads. Previous to it I used Pi-Hole on a Raspberry Pi. With the terrible AUD-USD exchange rate, Iโ€™m contemplating a return to Pi-Hole, but this time via Docker running on a Mac mini. Does anybody have any experience with this setup? I donโ€™t want to โ€ฆ

Climate Change Stripes for Perth, Western Australia: Depressing; alarming. This is an emergency.

Todayโ€™s Advice: Donโ€™t Get Old: I know, the advice is meaningless because age is undefeated. The world turns, time moves ever forward, and we get old. If you can manage to avoid the process, though, I recommend you do. My latest ageing problem is a pulled back muscle that has entirely incapacitated me for one day, and three days โ€ฆ

Case Study: The Weekly Cost of an iPhone: Hemispheric Views - Blog - Case Study: The Weekly Cost of an iPhone: During the episode recording I referenced the spreadsheet as I was describing my decision to buy an iPhone 15 Pro. I rattled off some statistics, but Martin (appropriately) suggested I write a blog post that provides the necessary โ€ฆ

Iโ€™m going to give Stage Manager another honest try on iPadOS 17, with โ€œMore Spaceโ€ set as the display resolution.

Currently reading: Transforming the Difficult Child by Howard Glasser ๐Ÿ“š

Really Specific Stories: John Gruber: My friend and Hemispheric Views co-host Martin Feld was able to interview John Gruber of Daring Fireball fame for his podcast project, Really Specific Stories. It’s incredible the line-up of guests Martin has been able to assemble for this podcast series. Let’s fireball the feed!

Dr Drang's Shell Script for Blank Calendars: A shell script for blank calendars - All this: I wanted a script to help me print out blank monthly calendars. Oh Dr. Drang, where have you and this script been my whole life? The steps I have gone to to get blank calendars in the past. Now I can simply run your script. Thank you!

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, 2004 - โ˜…โ˜…: Some nice moments but this film felt like it ran for 4 hours.

Love this end frame quote from Young Sheldon. If this doesnโ€™t describe Trump Iโ€™m not sure what does.

My Dad joke for today: Q: What do you call an extra vegetable? A: A-spare-agus. ๐Ÿฅ Iโ€™m here all week, folks!

I preordered an IPhone! This will be the first time Iโ€™ve had a Pro designation. My history as best I can remember it is: 3G, 5, 5S, 8, XR, SE, SE2, 13 mini. Soon to be 15 Pro.

Today at work I casually sketched out a swimlane diagram as I listened to a colleague describe a process. Can’t decide if I was a good management consultant for so many years, or I’m just a nerd now.

The Apple event was most underwhelming, even with low expectations. Evidence perhaps the iPhone in current form has reached its zenith. While Iโ€™m tired of having a too small for me 13 mini, itโ€™s hard to justify the expense (and the environmental impact) of an upgrade.

Heading into another Apple event, and I’m not that jazzed about this one. It’s hard to be too excited when the most impactful development is likely to be USB-C. However, I am still looking forward to moving beyond my too small for my big hands iPhone 13 mini. Great in my pocket; not โ€ฆ

I’ve cancelled my Backblaze account. Photos continue to be backed up across iCloud and Flickr. Everything else? ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Iโ€™m enjoying Kagi a lot. Am I seriously going to pay for a search engine? Iโ€™m not a normal internet user.

The Challenge of Podcast Discovery: This article was originally written for the October 2022 edition of Hemispheric News, delivered as part of the Hemispheric Views podcast member bonus program, One Prime Plus. A couple of weeks ago I inserted a thread into the Mac Power Users Forum. Part honest question, part hopeful Trojan Horse โ€ฆ

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, 2023 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Just love the animation style. So impressive.

August 2023

I love international basketball. I like that every couple of years I see the Head Coaches of each nation, and I remember them only from the previous tournament. Somw coaches I love, others I hate. All based on tournament impressions. ๐Ÿ€

โ€œFrugality, quite simply, is about choosing the things you love enough to spend extravagantly onโ€”and then cutting costs mercilessly on the things you donโ€™t love.โ€ โ€” Ramit Sethi

Iโ€™ve deactivated my LinkedIn profile and deleted all my social media apps (except Mona and Micro.blog). Iโ€™m done with big social media.

RIP Warnock and the Hollowing of the Tech Industry: The passing of John Warnock brings to mind how few current tech โ€œleadersโ€ have technical prowess. Zuckerberg might be closest but he stole stuff to get ahead, Gates is retired, Musk is a snake oil salesman, Cook is a business guy. I wish the tech industry would get back to making useful things โ€ฆ

I know this is not a new insight, but the older I get the quicker life goes. Enjoy each moment because none of it lasts long.

I am so not ready to start my day.

This is a test post using Scribe, a web-based text editor for micro.blog, developed by @amit. He is continually making new and interesting projects. The pop-over bubbles when text is selected is a nice touch.

Three Years of Hemispheric Views Feedback: Three Years of Hemispheric Views Feedback: 040 I am furious Andrew doesnโ€™t use โ€œGrand Canionโ€ as a username everywhere because that is so fucking good Let’s face it, I probably should use that username everywhere. This is just one of the many things I’ve rediscovered about myself and โ€ฆ

The Value of Rest: This article was originally written for the September 2022 edition of Hemispheric News, delivered as part of the Hemispheric Views podcast member bonus program, One Prime Plus. Beck Tench is a person whom I follow online. Beck has produced a range of content pertinent to her areas of interest as an โ€ฆ

July 2023

The best podcast youโ€™ve never listened to is 3 years old! Happy birthday @HemisphericViews

The Bear is great television. ๐Ÿ“บ

No Meta apps (Instagram, Threads) load when IPv6 is enabled. Vanguard website doesnโ€™t load when IPv6 is disabled. Argh.

Even when Iโ€™m not on Hemispheric Views, Iโ€™m on it. Episode 089

Week One Done & Finished With a Flourish: Today I completed my first week at my new job. It’s been a whirlwind, but every day has been better than the previous one. It’s been so many years since I started a new job that I wasn’t match fit in the process. I’d forgotten how to ‘start over’, so that in โ€ฆ

Browser-based Apps Just Aren't as Nice: I can’t believe that 40 years of computer software design has led us to a world where we are all reliant on a range of entirely bespoke browser-based apps. The tech world has really ended up in a basket-case of UI design. I don’t mind server-based stuff, but I love a native front-end. โ€ฆ

Half-way through the first day of a new job. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to go through the rigamarole of induction. ๐Ÿ’ผ

June 2023

Wordle 739 2/6 ๐ŸŸจ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉโฌœ๐ŸŸฉ ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ Itโ€™s going to be a good day!

That feeling when youโ€™re enjoying the job of being a basketball commentator. ๐Ÿ€

When the struggle is real, a walk can be the remedy. ๐Ÿšถ๐Ÿผโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Iโ€™m liking Tinylytics - a new project from @vincent. Giving me what I want to know, and nothing more, about site stats for my micro.blog site.

Binance ordered out of Nigeria: This could be a headline from The Onion. You know things are bad when Nigeria decides your business is too scammy to be allowed to operate in its country. Binance ordered out of Nigeria: Nigeria…has ordered Binance to “immediately stop soliciting Nigerian investors in any form โ€ฆ

Thinking about Slack’s fall from grace. Acquired by Salesforce. ๐Ÿคฎ Squeezed on the business side by Teams with typical Microsoft embrace, extend, extinguish. Squeezed by Discord from the casual side. Slack will probably keep limping on as a sad brand, Yahoo!-style, for years.

Friendships make my heart sing.

Reddit is Enshittified: Social Media Deathwatch II - Mark writes: When a site tells you they donโ€™t want you using it, except by their captured clients, you should stop using it. All they want is to control you and put ads in your eyeballs, until you explode. … Reddit came out of Digg being fed into a woodchipper โ€ฆ

Keane on the RBA's Approach to Inflation: I’m happy to see pressure mounting on the RBA. Not so much even for the decision to lift rates, but on it’s myopic approach to analysis. The economy has changed; it has become more integrated, and duopolies and oligopolies rule the Australian markets. A fundamental lack of competition is โ€ฆ

Monetising Latent Skills: Most people have a set of skills that aren’t monetised. These skills are often linked with hobbies or interests. Why don’t people make money from them? Perhaps there is no discernible market for the particular skill. Maybe the joy is removed when a transactional element is added. For โ€ฆ

Oh no, now I’m going down a Safari versus Arc versus Vivaldi browser showdown rabbit hole. ๐Ÿ•ณ๏ธ๐Ÿ‡

Oh, is that all we have to do? More gold from the guy earning in excess of $900,000 per year from his one job. โ€œPeople can cut back spending, and in some cases find additional hours of work that will put them back into a positive cash flow position.โ€ โ€“ RBA Governor Philip Lowe

Creating rice outline islands with my boys.

Neoliberalism Gives Again: The “party” that is neoliberalism has been giving our society gift after gift. We’ve had corruption and self-interest at the highest levels, as PwC executives had their snouts in the trough on both sides of the consulting equation, giving legislative design advice to government โ€ฆ

So we are at the point where the feature update for macOS is… screensavers. Better for energy efficiency, and thus climate change, to simply have the screen turn off.

Sick day. Watching episodes of Seinfeld.

Iโ€™ve discovered the music artist Jelly Roll. Really digging his sound. ๐ŸŽต

Itโ€™s storming outside. Iโ€™m sick and donโ€™t have a voice. Todayโ€™s Public Holiday is wasted on me. My boy wanted me to feel better so brought me breakfast in bed. ๐Ÿฅฐ

Life admin takes up an inordinate amount of time, effort and resources. Problem with having a task manager is nothing ever gets lost in the mix. Full personal accountability can be a real bear.

The Whale, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Incredible acting supported by great lighting and the 4:3 aspect ratio.

The Redeem Team, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: Turns out I like Carmelo Anthony, even though he carved up Australia when playing for USA.

May 2023

Arcadia June, the annual @HemisphericViews gaming event, is getting underway. Check out our launch video!

How the heck was this opening sequence from Apple 10 years ago? Feels like last week. via @jarrod

Where Have I Been?: I think this list is complete, and compiled in no particular order. Thanks @manton for the inspiration. ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น Italy ๐Ÿ‡ป๐Ÿ‡ฆ Vatican City ๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท France ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ญ Switzerland ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฉ Indonesia ๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Hong Kong ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China ๐Ÿ‡ป๐Ÿ‡ณ Vietnam ๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฌ Singapore ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japan ๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡ท Croatia ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ United States of America New York Washington D.C. Virginia โ€ฆ

Post-soccer hangs with The Booj.

Looking forward to commentating #NBL1 West action between Perth Redbacks and East Perth Eagles, streaming on Kayo Freebies tonight. ๐Ÿ€ ๐ŸŽ™๏ธ

My Favourite App โ€” Not Spoiled in the Title: This article was originally written for the August 2022 edition of Hemispheric News, delivered as part of the Hemispheric Views podcast member bonus program, One Prime Plus. I’ve written about my favourite apps before, namely OmniFocus and DEVONthink. I starting to learn and enjoy anther app โ€ฆ

What happened to Roam Research? For a while it was the talk of the internet. Has Obsidian entirely cut its lunch?

So it seems I will once again be addicted to a Zelda game. ๐Ÿ•น๏ธ

I watched Seinfeld S1E1. It holds up relatively well, apart from some of the stand-up bits that don’t factor in modern phone technology and riff on normative gender stereotypes. The episode itself was still a lot of fun. ๐Ÿ“บ

Currently reading: Atomic Habits by James Clear ๐Ÿ“š

Finished reading: The Tools by Phil Stutz ๐Ÿ“š As with any โ€œself-helpโ€ book, application is the key. Interesting how in alignment with stoicism many of the concepts are. There is nothing new in the world.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, 2023 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: I like that I donโ€™t need to be an MCU nerd to enjoy this film. I didnโ€™t like the music in this as much as the first two, but playing from a brown Zune makes up for it. The corridor scene is epic.

Hemispheric Views 084: Discord voice messages are like a podcast in a podcast! Voyager crushed Eurovision, and you know it! Operation Employ Andrew is full steam ahead, and @martinfeld is leading the campaign. Wait, you can play games on a Mac!? Have you tried text-only toolbars? You should! Finally, why are all these โ€ฆ

andrewcanion.com/cv

Everything is Going to Be Alright: I was a young teenager in the early 1990s. My brother, 11 years my senior, had children early in his life. He would often come back to the family home and bring his young son and daughter with him. As the older Uncle Andy, I had responsibility for entertaining the boy. What a pain he was! Entirely โ€ฆ

Voyager just slayed at Eurovision! ๐ŸŽถ

andrewcanion.com/cv

Today it was confirmed that my current employment will end as of 30 June 2023. If anybody is looking for a person with broad knowledge and skills, get in touch! andrewcanion.com/cv

Currently reading: Top Five Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware ๐Ÿ“š

In Hemispheric Views E083 I ask whether to mustache, or not to mustache. @Burk thinks Migration Assistant is fantastic. Do you have a series of items you carry around every day? We learn @martinfeld is actually in Europe and loves clubs with pokie machines. Plus depreciation is great!

Hey @amit I have noticed my stats page seems a little broken - under-reporting my post volume. Just wondering if there might be a bug with the plugin?

Currently reading: The Tools by Phil Stutz ๐Ÿ“š

April 2023

This week in NBL1 West basketball I am commentating Perth Redbacks v Willetton Tigers (women and men). These games will be broadcast on Kayo Sports Freebies. Watch the stream and enjoy my commentary!

Once Again, I'm Asking You to Suggest a Note-taking App: This article was originally written for the July 2022 edition of Hemispheric News, delivered as part of the Hemispheric Views podcast member bonus program, One Prime Plus. It’s happening again. I’m feeling a degree of dissatisfaction with my note-taking app of choice. I thought Craft โ€ฆ

I’ve had doubts about this season of Ted Lasso but the Amsterdam episode is a welcome return to form. ๐Ÿ“บ

“There’s always been this myth that really neat, fun people at home all of [a] sudden get very dull and boring and serious when they come to work, and it’s simply not true. So if we can again inject that liberal-arts spirit into this very serious realm of business, I think it would โ€ฆ

This special guest episode of Hemispheric Views features the wonderful Scot Hacker, author of The BeOS Bible. We talk about the past, present and future in this great extended episode covering BeOS, photography and writing books.

Djeran is definitely my favourite season in Perth. Perfect amount of warmth, Iโ€™m not getting sunburnt, and relatively little wind. I love it.

I just became moustachioed!

I’ve liberated the archive of tweets from my @andrewcanion account, and set them free. Unfortunately the larger @canion archive remains on my local storage only. Thanks @manton for building this feature into micro.blog.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie, 2023 - โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: Hits all the Mario tropes, and I got a few chuckles along the way. Mainly one for the kids, though.

Tomorrow I am flying to Karratha to commentate the NBL1 basketball game between Geraldton Buccaneers and Perth Redbacks. It will be streamed live at 7pm (+8GMT) if you want to watch. ๐Ÿ€

Air, 2023 - โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: A basketball movie about business - my kind of film! Would have benefited from some tighter editing, but itโ€™s always a pleasure to watch Damon act.

I’ve been watching this video of hit songs via kottke. My two takeaways: the 1980s was the era of epic bangers, and strong sexual innuendo in music video clips arrived around 2005.

Finished reading: The Dry by Jane Harper ๐Ÿ“š I ruined this excellent whodunnit mystery by taking far too long to read it. Shame on me.

Thank You for Smoking, 2005 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: I was excited to rewatch this movie, until I saw the opening credits where both Elon Musk and Peter Thiel were listed as Executive Producers. Urgh.

Using an iPad in Centre Stage with a Studio Display is kind of compelling. Iโ€™ve just been bouncing between apps, servers, local servers, etc. With Spotlight to jump between it doesnโ€™t feel terrible.

March 2023

On the Hemispheric Views Discord I diagrammed my cable connections after my recent setup change. I thought it would be fun to post it here, as well.

New Mac Setups: Today I restructured my computing setup. For about 2 years I’ve been running a MacBook Air M1 as a satellite device, keeping my 2019 Intel iMac as my centralised ‘home base’. The iMac had a nice screen, 40GB RAM and apart from at boot, never felt slow. To the iMac were connected a โ€ฆ

My Intel iMac annoyed me one too many times. The closet/server M1 mac mini has been promoted to the production environment. Biggest loss? Going from 40GB RAM to 8GB. โ˜น๏ธ

Why do all modern washing machines have such obnoxious beepers?

The Love Punch, 2013 - โ˜…: This was bad. What were the contract terms that got Emma Thompson and Pierce Brosnan on board?

Living, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: A great reflection on what is truly important in life. Supported by great cinematography and the audio treatment of the dialogue is lovely.

Software Before Hardware: This article was originally written for the June 2022 edition of Hemispheric News, delivered as part of the Hemispheric Views podcast member bonus program, One Prime Plus. Another WWDC has come and gone, and Apple have released the M2 and a new MacBook Air to go with it. Appleโ€™s hardware continues โ€ฆ

I have the Brother HL-3170CDW laser printer. It prints. I like it. Nilay is right ๐Ÿ–จ๏ธ

A Relationship Well-lived: “So it goes” โ€” Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five I met Hannah Beazley in 1999. We married on 19 March 2005. Innumerable highlights (and lowlights), some of which include: Establishment of a business, which together we ran for 5 years, then sold. Multiple overseas trips. Vietnam, Hong โ€ฆ

Did some window shopping at the Apple Store yesterday.

Listening to In Rainbows by Radiohead while drinking expensive whisky. What a life. ๐ŸŽต๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿฅƒ

canion dot blog slash save @HemisphericViews

Iโ€™ve had a music evening. I love these nights. Ranged across Jรณnsi, R.E.M., Sloan, Dolly Parton, and Toby Martin, to name a few. ๐ŸŽถ

I am enjoying reading The Daily Stoic each morning as a devotional. Today, this resonated.

My nephew Alex Canion doing media on ABC News. His band Voyager are going to be playing Eurovision in a couple of months!

Perth today feels as though it’s the end of summer and perhaps an early end to Bunuru season. It wasn’t warm enough to swim today. It’s 7:25pm and it’s dark outside. Perth moves closer towards Djeran.

Photoblogging Challenge Day 5: tile

Bohemian Rhapsody, 2018 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Watched on Friday March 3, 2023.

Currently reading: The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday ๐Ÿ“š

Parenting a son with autism is hard. The thunderstorms of rage pass, but lightning is fired from the maelstrom in the moment.

February 2023

My reward for mowing the lawn.

Bed Update ๐Ÿ›๏ธ: I appreciate all the thoughts and suggestions. I went with the expensive, local-manufactured option. Supporting Western Australian small business! Also hopefully getting a better product as a result.

The Edit of Hemispheric Views 078: Here is a screenshot of the edit for Hemispheric Views episode 078. Six audio tracks in play. Lots of edits and adjustments. Ferrite by WoojiJuice makes this possible, combined with a couple of years of editing experience and know-how I have built up. I’m proud that I have the skills to do โ€ฆ

In Andrewโ€™s exciting world today, he does online shopping for bed frames. Does he buy the cheap one? Does he take the risk of entering the second-hand market? Or does he say, โ€œstuff itโ€, and buy the expensive locally-manufactured option? Opinions welcomed. ๐Ÿ›๏ธ

The @hemisphericviews Discord server is my happy place. I love the wonderful community that has formed there.

The choreography of this entire NFL Half-time show was incredible.

January 2023

I’m enjoying the app Structured as a corollary of OmniFocus and a calendar. It is allowing me to fine-tune my day.

This is why I make podcasts. Quote is from Kurt Vonnegut, via Do the Work by @rishabh

My Mom sent me this quote. Much appreciated right now.

Paddington 2, 2017 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Absolute heart warmer of a movie. I love it.

Finished reading: Relationship Reset by Lissy Abrahams ๐Ÿ“š

Finished reading: Belong by Radha Agrawal ๐Ÿ“š

Finished reading: Disentangle by Nancy L. Johnston ๐Ÿ“š. This book has taught me things I didnโ€™t realise were a thing.

Finished reading: The Anxiety Handbook by Calistoga Press ๐Ÿ“š

Currently reading: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday ๐Ÿ“š. I am hoping I will be able to read this each day this year. I need to escape the mental health dangers and associated anxiety of ruminating upon things I canโ€™t control.

Stutz, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Me bring me, I wanted more technical details of application.

The Menu, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: A gastronomical delight, with acting to die for.

Depression is a right bastard. โ˜น๏ธ

Hustle, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: Iโ€™m old so I liked cameos by old guys. But this is a movie for the next gen, with a solid development montage.

I’m contemplating a career change - or at least a new job. Is there anybody out there that might be interested in having a conversation?

Today I learned that Siri can identify buffalo grass with its machine learning.

Uncle Buck, 1989 - โ˜…โ˜…: Itโ€™s pretty bad, but it still an iconic 80s movie.

It was wonderful to have a conversation with @heyscottyj today. Another cool friendship in the making.

I’m trialling Raycast (again ๐Ÿ™„) as a possible replacement for Launchbar.

Harry Froling has nothing on Nick Tan!

My App Toolkit 2023: At the beginning of 2023, an update to my 2020 post about my App Toolkit. It is still overflowing with tools, although I think it’s in better shape than at my last review. Purpose iOS Primary iOS Secondary macOS Primary macOS Secondary Best Cross Platform Blogging Gluon Micro.blog โ€ฆ

Does anybody know what has become of @smokey - no activity for a couple of years on any of his sites.

My favourite tree.

Iโ€™m going through a tough time. Day One has been a blessing to capture thoughts, feelings and emotions. The subscription is worth every cent.

December 2022

Finished reading: A Guide for Grown-ups by Antoine de Saint-Exupรฉry ๐Ÿ“š

Microsoft Authenticator will no longer work on Apple Watch. I use this feature every single day. ๐Ÿ˜–

Strange World, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: A story of climate change wrapped up in some impressive animation and characters that I didnโ€™t warm to.

Die Hard, 1988 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: Now I have a 64-bit computer. Ho Ho Ho.

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, 1992 - โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: 1992 really seems a different era, back when you could board a plane because you assumed your parents were on it. Slapstick cruelty is still fun, though.

Books of 2022: I’ve not done so great on book reading this year. The list looks a little thin!

Oiling the Deck: There are some household jobs that I procrastinate over. Oiling the deck is a new one I can add to the list. Our deck was installed a couple of years ago as part of a backyard renovation. I knew at the time this would be a necessary maintenance job that I would despise. I dutifully entered it into โ€ฆ

You Always Own Your Blog: My Blog, My Home - Geoff Graham: Thatโ€™s why I love my website. Itโ€™s apolitical. It canโ€™t be bought by a billionaire (maybe). It doesnโ€™t care when I last logged in. It doesnโ€™t push me to gain an audience and could care less if I have a one or not. And the feed is spot-free of algorithms and โ€ฆ

Swearing in of Hannah Beazley MLA as Parliamentary Secretary: Earlier I posted how happy I was that my wife, Hannah Beazley MLA had been made Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Emergency Services; Innovation and the Digital Economy; Medical Research; Volunteering, within the WA State Government. On 14 December, 2022, Hannah was officially sworn in by โ€ฆ

Stephen Hackett on "Really Specific Stories": My friend and Hemispheric Views co-host Martin Feld continues to bring incredible guests to his interview show, Really Specific Stories. This week he welcomes Stephen Hackett, founder of Relay.fm. Martin Feld: This time on Really Specific Stories, Iโ€™m joined by @ismh, who delves into the history of โ€ฆ

Another average day in Perth.

On Episode 073 of @hemisphericviews I talk about shoutouts.lol by @vincent

Hemispheric Views 073: Hemispheric Views 073: I Can Delete You from this Note!: In the second to last episode for 2022: I have a big shoutout for Monster Cables. @martinfeld solves my audio (or is it video?) problem. @Burk does some inefficient shopping for Kangaroos. Rate, review, subscribe!

My 11 year old kid woke me up to watch the World Cup (3am). Itโ€™s half time and I might go back to bed. โšฝ๏ธ

Congratulations to my Wife, Hannah Beazley MLA: New McGowan Cabinet Ministers elected: Wanneroo MLA Sabine Winton and South West MLC Jackie Jarvis will be sworn in as Cabinet Ministers tomorrow, along with new Parliamentary Secretaries Jodie Hanns, Dr Jagadish (Jags) Krishnan, Meredith Hammat, Pierre Yang and Hannah Beazley. The Premier will โ€ฆ

Quality Tech Support from Indie Mac Developers: How good is the Mac indie developer community? Caddyshack Good GIFfrom Caddyshack GIFs I have been a long-time user of the SearchLink service developed by Brett Terpstra. I use it so regularly that I have it tied to a button on my Stream Deck, as well as keyboard shortcut, โŒƒ + โŒ˜ + L. Last night I โ€ฆ

I got a new pair of glasses a couple of days ago. They’re playing havoc with the muscles of my left eye. It’s early so I guess I wait a few more days to see if I become accustomed. This is the worst part of getting new glasses.

I taught Benji how sports brackets work. Now he is building his own World Cup version. ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿฅฐ๐Ÿคฉโšฝ๏ธ

Elvis, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: A wonderful telling of the bastardry of Colonel Parker.

I’ve disabled cross-posting from micro.blog to mastodon. Going to try letting each be its own thing.

Ferrite 3: Ferrite 3: Ferrite 3 offers an enhanced, modernised UI all across the app. I couldnโ€™t edit Hemispheric Views without Ferrite. Believe me, I tried. If Ferrite wasnโ€™t available, Iโ€™m not sure our podcast would be either. Version 3 is an insta-upgrade for me. While it has a list of new features, the โ€ฆ

On one of Jack Baty’s blogs, I saw a reference to neofetch. It doesn’t do a lot, but it looks pretty. I’ve run it on my three machines: iMac MacBook Air Mac mini

Casey Liss on Really Specific Stories: My friend and Hemispheric Views co-host Martin Feld continues to build his other excellent podcast, Really Specific Stories. The latest episode features a guest famous to many of us in Mac-nerd circles: Casey Liss, one of the hosts of the hugely successful Accidental Tech Podcast. Casey references โ€ฆ

This is a post mentioning @vincent to help him test @gluon

Excuse me @rosemaryorchard - are you still developing When.Works? Does it work?

I’ve cancelled my Fantastical subscription that expires in March 2023. My need for the bookings service may be declining. That, plus their price increase, means I will go back to BusyCal through Setapp. If it turns out I really need bookings, then I will reassess at the time.

Poor USA. The goalie has been poorly treated by his defenders. โšฝ๏ธ

The Fantastical price increase is a bummer, because itโ€™s a double whammy for me as an Australian user. Our weakened exchange rate multiplies the scale of the increase.

Spirited, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: I donโ€™t like musicals but I liked this movie.

Oh no, I’m going down a TaskPaper rabbit hole.

Thanks, Medibank data breach. I really appreciate you holding onto my details as an ex-customer, allowing it to be shared on the dark web following its theft. Great stuff.

Is This Thing On?: A mini-revival of an old favourite.

Human-sized Services: My friend Adam at omg.lol is building another special surprise for his customers. I have taken the pre-alpha version for a spin: A Weblog ยท Human-sized Services: There are now three blogging services that I admire, all of which are run by humans - not corporations. Humans making websites was what โ€ฆ

My mental health energy meter is reading at about 3% today. Can we shut it down today and reconvene tomorrow? ๐Ÿชซ

November 2022

Web App Barbarians: This article was originally written for the April 2022 edition of Hemispheric News, delivered as part of the Hemispheric Views podcast member bonus program, One Prime Plus. I love to use native software but it feels like I’m the last of the troops that has been put on the final line of โ€ฆ

Microblogvember 2022, Day 30: I am having to watch online cybersecurity safety training videos. They suck, and the questions at the end are poorly worded.

Embedding Toots in a Blog Post: Sometimes I ask dumb questions: Sometimes, kind people humour me: Thank you, @jameskoole@indieweb.social

I can’t sleep so I’m reading my book, Principles. I’m at the section where there are glowing references to amazing “shapers”, such as Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk. Yeah, those latter two are so amazing. ๐Ÿ™„ This book is perhaps not ageing well.

We Need a New Approach to Social Platforms: The Elon-gateโ€™d Man | Jared White: Jared White mounts a solid argument as to where we have gone wrong with big tech celebrity, and talks about how me might be able to do better in the future. with this maturity has to come broader awareness that Big Tech canโ€™t simply act like 21st century echoes of โ€ฆ

Microblogvember 2022, Day 29: Is it wrong that I’m waiting for our fish to die? I don’t want to kill them, but if they were to not make it much longer, I’d probably be okay with that. ๐Ÿ˜ฌ

A reminder that now is a great time to sign up to @hemisphericviews at One Prime Plus Dot Com to take advantage of our version of Black Friday/Cyber Monday!

When considering investing time and effort into a service, check to see whether it is VC funded. If it is, keep in mind that they are more interested in their financial return than you receiving a return on the investment you make in that service.

I may need a note taking/writing app intervention.

Microblogvember 2022, Day 28: I loathe the current trend towards the mullet haircut. Wasn’t good in the 80’s, isn’t good now.

I’d forgotten how enjoyable World Cup Soccer (Football) can be. Morocco beat Belgium, 2-0. Amazing. โšฝ๏ธ

We set the Christmas tree up today and in doing so crossed some sort of kid threshold. This year, our boys actually helped setup and decorate the tree. They enjoyed unpacking decorations and reminiscing about their associated memories. It was really sweet.

Microblogvember 2022, Day 27: I had to work hard to find the motivation to put up the Christmas tree. Didn’t I just take it down a couple of weeks ago?

Microblogvember 2022, Day 26: I have made a commitment to not use Twitter while it is owned by Elon Musk.

I’ve figured out why Australia doesn’t have Thanksgiving. It’s celebrated on a Thursday, which would mean our entire country would then of course chuck a sickie on Friday. The productivity decline would be far too deleterious.

Currently reading: Principles by Ray Dalio ๐Ÿ“š

Seems host nation Qatar will be out of the World Cup. If this were basketball, Iโ€™d say โ€œball donโ€™t lieโ€. Some degree of justice delivered for the payola World Cup. โšฝ๏ธ

Microblogvember 2022, Day 25: Completing a microblogvember post everyday this month has almost become ritual at this point.

I'm Out on Twitter ๐Ÿซก: “The standard you walk past, is the standard you accept.” โ€” Lieutenant General David Lindsay Morrison AO Upon reflection, I have determined that my values are inconsistent with those of Twitter’s post-acquisition by Elon Musk. Rather than continue to use the service - even within โ€ฆ

Microblogvember 2022, Day 24: As I get older the challenge to retain my hair becomes greater.

Lunch date at Parliament House, with Hannah and, uh, Benji’s lion.

Microblogvember 2022, Day 23: With the doom of Twitter, I have enjoyed being able to focus on a daily update of my micro.blog site โ€” this content I own.

Microblogvember 2022, Day 22: When I was a kid I would constantly have a graze somewhere on my body. Fortunately, I survived.

Should I Mix Up My Approach to RSS?: I’ve always been an RSS completionist. Since the days of Bloglines, which was before Google Reader. I have a few hundred feeds and I work through them โ€” usually on a daily basis โ€” to ensure they are read and down to ‘inbox zero’. I achieve this with Inoreader and a combination of โ€ฆ

Microblogvember 2022, Day 21: It is late November and our swimming pool is still as cold as ice. I don’t like it.

Tipped 100% for this round of #NBL23. Thanks Shaun Bruce of Sydney Kings for knocking down the end game triple to steal that one.

Microblogvember 2022, Day 20: As a parent, I find I have to repeat myself quite often.

Recent events have almost โ€” but not quite โ€” destroyed musk sticks for me.

Welcome New Micro Bloggers: Itโ€™s good to see new accounts and activity on micro.blog. I hope a reasonable proportion stick around. The best thing to remember about micro.blog is that it is a personal blog host as much as it is a social network. Blogs are a permanent place for your writing, and in my opinion, this makes them โ€ฆ

Microblogvember 2022, Day 19: I used to read a novel quite regularly. Nowadays, I still read a lot, but it’s mostly short-form articles and news. I should re-focus attention on books.

Musk Has Destroyed His Own Mythos: Ed Zitron has published “The Fraudulent King”, a marvellous explainer on the latest happenings at Twitter, but at the same time, outlined what a petulant, unimpressive person Elon Musk is โ€” and how the world now knows it. There were so many great lines in this article, it was hard to โ€ฆ

With all the Twitter stuff, can we please get one more season of Silicon Valley?

Why have I woken at 5am? Itโ€™s Saturday! ๐Ÿ˜ฉ

It is amazing how quickly @neatnik can roll out a new feature. His opt-in address directory at omg.lol was an idea I threw out during @HemisphericViews E071. Listen to the podcast and check out the directory!

If anybody finds Instagram isn’t loading on wifi, try disabling IPv6. That worked for me with my Eero 6. This will please my wife.

This sounds frightfully Trumpian: In a tweet Thursday evening, Musk said: โ€œThe best people are staying, so Iโ€™m not super worried.โ€ Source: Hundreds of Twitter employees resign after Elon Muskโ€™s โ€˜hardcoreโ€™ ultimatum - The Verge

Microblogvember 2022, Day 18: I’ve knocked off 18 consecutive microblogvember posts. I will not tire before I reach 30.

Twitter Circling the Bowl as Employees Leave: Elon Musk walked into Twitter HQ carrying a sink; in hindsight it should have been a toilet, because Twitter is now circling the bowl. Elon Musk eases return-to-office order - The Washington Post One Twitter staff member said the numbers of employees seeking to leave had alarmed Twitterโ€™s managers, โ€ฆ

Adam Newbold of omg.lol returns to Hemispheric Views E071 to discuss recent developments. I roll up my sleeves to offer some top-tier business advice while Jason and Martin back away slowly into a hedge.

Microblogvember 2022, Day 17: What exactly is a barrel of laughs, anyway? Were laughs once packaged in a barrel for easy transportation? I don’t get it.

Watching the Artemis I launch - T-7 minutes. ๐Ÿš€

Twitter News: Don't Criticise the Owner (But the Owner can Criticise You): Musk fires Twitter engineers after critical posts on Twitter and Slack: Musk had already tweeted Monday that he hadย fired at least one engineer who publicly criticized him on Twitter. The latest terminations come in the wake of Muskโ€™s decisionย to let go of about half of all Twitter employeesย in a โ€ฆ

Microblogvember 2022, Day 16: Every sports team needs a franchise player to be truly successful. At the moment, for the Perth Wildcats, that guy is Bryce Cotton.

Microblogvember 2022, Day 15: Barenaked Ladies have a song entitled Aluminium on their album Everything to Everyone. It address the pronunciation elephant in the room. Track on Songwhip

Summer is gradually returning.

I’ve been comparing two Read-it-Later services, Omnivore and Matter. Omnivore had the head start with earlier integration with Logseq but now Matter also has that feature. Matter is more attractive. Omnivore is open source. If there is one thing that the recent Twitter/Mastodon comparison has โ€ฆ

Microblogvember 2022, Day 14: It will be fascinating to see how Twitter evolves and if all the people and organisations who decided to leave, stay away.

Own Your Content (A Reprise): Precisely two years ago today, I wrote this, in the context of Instagram.Blog of Drew - Own Your Content: A personal website and domain name remains the most reliable way to avoid your content serving as feed stock for a commercial enterprise. Today, it holds up in the context of Twitter. The more โ€ฆ

Microblogvember 2022, Day 13: My first experience with the game Deathloop left me unimpressed but after playing some more I may have to adjust my initial impression.

Shooting Hoops: Recently we have installed a cool basketball hoop in our front yard, ostensibly for our kids to play as they grow into their teenage and teenage years. An unexpected benefit has been for me โ€“ Dad. I used to play basketball. You may be aware that I now host NBL Pocket Podcast, have media โ€ฆ

Micro.blog has changed my life trajectory. It has given me connections with a range of people across the Internet. Without micro.blog, I would not have @HemisphericViews and the group of friends that are part of that community. M.b has changed my life. @manton @jean

One thing the whole Twitter saga has done is re-energised my use of my own blog, as well as getting into Mastodon. Happy with the changes and improvements I’m making to my own web sites.

Microblogvember 2022, Day 12: I have a suspicion that things at Twitter are going to get worse before they get better. If they get better.

Sorry, Crypto Bros: Molly White, reporting on her brilliant site tracking all the happenings in the crypto/NFT world. FTX files for bankruptcy, Sam Bankman-Fried resigns: Aaaand there it goes. FTX announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States. Sam Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO. I wonder โ€ฆ

So uh, is Twitter Blue no longer available for purchase? Just when I thought things couldnโ€™t get crazier over there.

Microblogvember 2022, Day 11: I am happy about having shoutouts to display on my blog’s homepage.

More news from the front. Grey โ€œofficialโ€ check marks are back. Yes, Elon killed them yesterday. Now he has revived them. This isnโ€™t hard to follow at all, is it? I donโ€™t know why you canโ€™t keep up.

Twitter Loses Executives: So the Twitter executives responsible for selling ads and ensuring trust and safety have both left the company. You would think they’d be kind of important to the business? In a normal company, two executives leaving would be bad, but maybe it would be an opportunity to promote others. โ€ฆ

The Twitter News Cycle Moves Fast: Not even a day, and there’s a new item of craziness I can add to my earlier list. Elon Musk's First Email to Twitter Staff Ends Work from Home - Bloomberg: The new rules, which kick in immediately, will expect employees to be in the office for at least 40 hours per weekโ€ฆ At least 40 hours per โ€ฆ

With a massive thanks to @vincent I’ve got his new shoutouts.lol platform running on the homepage of my blog. I’m still tweaking the look but I’m loving the opportunity to promote things I likeโ„ข.

Fun and Games at Twitter: Update 10 November: Now Elon is requiring employees to work at least 40 hours per week in the office. Twitter is a clown show. But I have an irrational fear of clowns, and not Twitter, so maybe it’s better described as a dumpster fire. Anyway, let’s see if I can get this straight. In a โ€ฆ

Microblogvember 2022, Day 10: My father-in-law was once Australia’s Minister for Defence. My father was an Anglican minister. Separation of Church and State!

The Great Correction?: Are we now experiencing “the great correction” in the tech world? Meta has announced layoffs of 11,000, we just had now privately-owned Twitter reduce headcount by 7,500. Stripe let go of 14% of its people, and Sketch had to let a bunch of it’s employees go recently as well. These โ€ฆ

Microblogvember 2022, Day 9: After virtually no sleep last night, I am certain to sleep well this evening.

You Get a Checkmark, and You Get a Checkmark!: Update, 10 November: Now the official checkmark has been unrolled out. You couldn’t make this stuff up. Twitterโ€™s solution for ruining verification is another check mark - The Verge: Twitter is rolling out another type of check mark to help distinguish accounts that users actually need to โ€ฆ

This past night I slept for about 90 minutes. Today is going to be so much funโ€ฆ

Microblogvember 2022, Day 8: I truly hope that Australia reaches consensus regarding the need for โ€” and value of โ€” an indigenous voice to Parliament.

This submarine cable map is really cool!

I’ve set up shoutouts.lol by @vincent. For now it is running as the opening entry at canion.me or specifically at canion.me/shout-out… I’ve tried it on andrewcanion.com but the styling doesn’t look so nice and I don’t know how to fix that.

Microblogvember 2022, Day 7: With the amount of time spent in Microsoft Teams, surely I have gained enough insight for a single work day.

Microblogvember 2022, Day 6: I went on a roller coaster today. I’m too old for it. But I heard the echo of screams while riding.

Microblogvember 2022, Day 5: Today I am exempt from making lunch.

Microblogvember 2022, Day 4: After two weeks of solo parenting, I look with admiration upon all those who do it alone full-time.

Microblogvember 2022, Day 3: I’m so old. I’ve had a license to drive a car for 28 years. I still remember driving myself to school for the first time; I felt like a bad-ass.

I got myself a new avatar! Thank you nanayudhistira2.

I see that @dave has created Feedland. I’m having trouble grokking it - or maybe I’m over-thinking. It grabs RSS feeds and presents a river - but I don’t understand why I’d use it ahead of a feed reader. I’m missing something, right?

Microblogvember 2022, Day 2: My coffee shop sandwich was de-contented. It was definitely not a feast. Guess that’s one way to defy rising cost of materials.

Business Basics and Twitter Acquisitions: Can Elon Musk Make the Math Work on Owning Twitter? Itโ€™s Dicey. - The New York Times: Last year, Twitterโ€™s interest expense was about $50 million. With the new debt taken on in the deal, that will now balloon to about $1 billion a year. Yet the companyโ€™s operations last year generated about $630 โ€ฆ

I have added rel="me" links on my various websites so they each vouch for one another that they’re all related to me.

I am grateful not to be working in an office, where I have to pretend to care about the Melbourne Cup. That stupid horse race has ruined so many of my Tuesdays - I even remember having to watch it in Primary School! (obviously the teachers were betting on it)

Microblogvember 2022, Day 1. I need to figure out how to rediscover my motivation for work. Been feeling meh these past few days.

Trick or Treat! Happy Halloween.

October 2022

Having a night where I canโ€™t fall asleep. Then I start thinking about not getting enough sleep, and start calculating how little sleep I am going to get before having to wake up, which causes sleep anxietyโ€ฆ you know the drill.

I’m having a lot of fun with Mastodon tonight. I’ve joined the server hosted by @neatnik. My username is @andrew@social.lol

Okay @maique I’m at the point where I feel I need a cute avatar like all the cool kids. What was the name of the guy who did yours, how much did it cost, and what source material did you have to supply to provide inspiration?

What kind of bizarre inception moment is it when you follow your own micro.blog account via Mastodon? I have done it. ๐Ÿ˜ตโ€๐Ÿ’ซ

The Book Thief, 2013 - โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: Watched on Saturday October 29, 2022.

Itโ€™s macOS and iPadOS release day and Iโ€™ve updated nothing. That is a first for me!

At @HemisphericViews we finished our One Prime Plus member re-watch of Severance Season 1. It’s been a fun opportunity for @martinfeld, @Burk and I to get to know a group of our listeners better. We are blessed with a wonderful audience. Start listening today!

Planning on Paper?: Finished reading: The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran ๐Ÿ“š After reading this I’ve pulled out a hard copy Best Self journal my wife bought me a while ago and have been giving it a go. I am enjoying the paper lifestyle in support of my typical Fantastical/OmniFocus/Agenda/Logseq combination. I am โ€ฆ

Lactose free coffee is a bit gross. Not sure itโ€™s worth it.

It’s terrible when you order a takeaway coffee and it’s still almost too hot to drink 25 minutes later.

Perth RAC Arena at 7:33pm. Perth Wildcats lost to Melbourne United, 81-84. I was invited to attend and sit court side by a Patreon supporter of my podcast NBL Pocket Podcast. What an opportunity! #adayinthelife

I have two podcasts, both of which I think are pretty great. As always with podcasts, however, achieving discovery by a wider audience is the greatest challenge. I’m all ears for good ways to grow the listenership.

If you’re looking for 5 minutes of fun, have a listen to the Cappuccino Corner chapter in Episode 68 of Hemispheric Views. I promise you will be entertained. ๐ŸŽ™ โ˜•๏ธ

I took one last BeReal photo, and deleted the app.

With my employer making it harder to login from multiple devices, I’ve had to go searching for a web-based cross-platform text sync program. It’s back to the future with… Simplenote!

Secret Headquarters, 2022 - โ˜…ยฝ: I watched it with kids. Even they got bored.

Guest Appearance: Throwback Hoops Episode 46: I was welcomed as a guest on the podcast/YouTube show “Throwback Hoops” Episode 46 to talk Australian basketball. We covered women’s world, cup, NBL Round 1, and gave our predictions for the league’s awards. ๐Ÿ€ ๐ŸŽ™ Podcast link

Fall, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: A nice amount of nervous tension in this one.

I remember as a kid sitting in the backseat of our car. I can place exactly which road I was on. I was calculating how old I would be when the year became 2000 (13 years old). Now I’m well into 2022. I’m both impressed with my memory and saddened by my age.

Fun with DALL-E: โ€œA painting of a middle-aged white man creating a podcast about basketball.โ€

September 2022

Ferris Bueller's Day Off, 1986 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Watching this with my kids for the first time. It's such an awesome movie. But Rooney is not the old man I remember him being! John Hughes was a genius.

I Hate Entropy: This article was originally written for the March 2022 edition of Hemispheric News, delivered as part of the Hemispheric Views podcast member bonus program, One Prime Plus Things break down and that causes me stress. I know that everything in the world is gradually corroding, eroding and โ€ฆ

Jurassic World Dominion, 2022 - โ˜…: This was so boring, derivative, and I didnโ€™t appreciate the Indiana Jones rip-off moments.

Semi-Pro, 2008 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Itโ€™s fun, but itโ€™s not the best basketball movie.

The Jurassic Park Lego exhibition put on by Brickman is epic.

8 days of basketball, 15 games, 8 podcasts, 2 silly videos, many conversations with basketball people, countless Twitter updates. The NBL Blitz in Darwin has finished, and I had a blast engaging with it as an accredited member of the media. I live a fortunate life. ๐Ÿ€

Making this parody video was hilarious.

I would consider this grammar a bug in iOS 16. Anybody else agree?

While at the NBL Blitz, Nick and I made a parody video of this South East Melbourne Phoenix inside look video. We had fun with it. ๐Ÿ“น

Just a metre away from a crocodile. No big deal. ๐Ÿ˜ฌ๐ŸŠ

Today at the NBL Blitz Iโ€™m cross-promoting @hemisphericviews ๐Ÿ€ ๐ŸŽ™๏ธ

Suburban Darwin needs to lift its coffee game.

That Thing You Do!, 1996 - โ˜…โ˜…: Iโ€™m watching this movie 30 years from when it was made, which is the same amount of time between when it was made and the time it was portraying.

NBL Blitz Day 1: I am in Darwin this week as the National Basketball League is holding its pre-season Blitz tournament. All 10 teams competing to win the Loggins-Bruton Cup. I am attending all the games as accredited media, representing the NBL Pocket Podcast. These are my brief notes from Day 1. A venue where the โ€ฆ

Our clothes dryer died today. Repair guy isnโ€™t available to the end of the month. Of course, now itโ€™s raining.

Hotham Valley Steam Train. ๐Ÿš‚

Professional Realism - I'm Not Who I Was: Tonight I have been noodling around on LinkedIn. It’s the curse of working in our current world, that I must maintain a LinkedIn account. The whole site feels incredibly superficial โ€” a ‘social network’ devoid of true humanity, but full of humblebrag posts and small talk comments โ€ฆ

This is the first day of my life in which Queen Elizabeth is not with us. As an Australian I’m a firm believer that our country should become a Republic in its own right; but that is not to dismiss the magnificent servant of the Monarchy that Elizabeth II was. Rest in Peace.

Is this the last night that Australia has Elizabeth II as its Monarch? She’s had an amazing run.

Things got a bit crazy for E066 of Hemispheric Views. We struggled to keep to the script, and it was mainly my fault. @HemisphericViews @Burk @martinfeld

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 2005 - โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: Watched on Wednesday September 7, 2022.

Once again I’ve decommissioned the Logitech MX Master 3 mouse and Logi Options+ in favour of the Razer mouse supported by razer-macos drivers and button management by Steermouse.

Like You โ€“ A Mindfulness Podcast for Kids: If you have kids, you and they might enjoy the wonderful Like You โ€“ A Mindfulness Podcast for Kids. I’ve been a Patreon supporter for almost as long as Noah Glenn has been producing it. My kids fall asleep listening to Noah almost every night. Like You is a mindfulness podcast for kids. We โ€ฆ

3D Impression of Tokyo's Subway System: This 3D Version of Tokyo's Subway System Looks Like a Labyrinth of Roller Coasters: …by creating a 3D model of Tokyoโ€™s tangled subway system, one which has brightly colored tubes swooping up and down, running over and around each other like the tracks of one of the craziest roller coasters โ€ฆ

Ali, 2001 - โ˜…โ˜…: The movie needed a more forceful editor.

August 2022

The latest episode of Hemispheric Views One Prime Plus is something else. Ostensibly we discuss our experience with the new browser, Arc, but we meander into a bunch of other unrelated - but funny - side topics as well. Sign up at OnePrimePlus.com. It’s in the long game!

I’ve never been able to achieve blue-tick status on the bird site, but @neatnik at omg.lol has blessed me with his blue tick. Also, you should definitely buy an account. It’s an awesome service offered at a crazy-low price.

macOS Content Caching Fails to Propogate Security Updates: Last Week on My Mac: Security updates are down again โ€“ The Eclectic Light Company: Howard Oakley is doing an amazing job at diagnosing and bringing to light (pardon the pun) issues involving macOS Content Caching Server: Over the last three months, of the nine security updates to XProtect pushed by โ€ฆ

Email is not a messaging platform. Load the email app a couple of times a day, write and respond, and shut it down.

I’ve been monkeying around with websites. Of course I managed to break something. Does anybody know how to configure DNS such that it will redirect a URL to an omg.lol profile page? @maique

Top Gun: Maverick, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Watched on Friday August 26, 2022.

My young fella performed at school assembly today. They rocked out to a song about adjectives!

Thanks to Howard Oakley’s article Has Apple fixed recent Software Update problems? โ€“ The Eclectic Light Company I can confirm that no, Apple’s Content Caching service is not fixed. All Macs on my local network had out-of-date versions of XProtect. Content caching now disabled.

Great episode of Really Specific Stories podcast with @manton hosted by @martinfeld

Choosing a Twitter Client: This article was originally written for the February 2022 edition of Hemispheric News, delivered as part of the Hemispheric Views podcast member bonus program, One Prime Plus Update as of August 2022: I have basically settled on Twitterrific on iOS/iPadOS and Twitter on macOS. I donโ€™t love โ€ฆ

Adventures in SoftRAID: I’ve had an adventure with my OWC Thunderbay 4-disk drive array this week. I’ve emerged the other side, ultimately unscathed, but the journey certainly could have been easier. Let’s take a look. It all started when I reached the capacity of my RAID-5 formatted array of 4 x 2TB โ€ฆ

A photo from Yardie Creek during our recent break in Exmouth, Western Australia.

Lightyear, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: Incredible animation and a non-stop action adventure, with just enough Pixar feels added.

It is wonderful to be attending the Basketball WA Awards with my wife Hannah Beazley MLA.

I am loving Arc Browser, and I’m not even using the fancy “new” stuff it contains. Just it as a browser is a great experience.

The Rescue, 2021 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: An incredible story well told.

Iโ€™m not an academic but that is not stopping me from futzing around with Zotero.

Enjoying a holiday read. A View to Die For by @cheri

Finished reading: The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande ๐Ÿ“š I didn’t want a story justifying the use of checklists; I wanted a book providing a guide to the development of best practice checklists.

Still Loving Logseq: My love affair with Logseq continues unabated. I enjoy using the software - even through the weird and buggy bits. There is an immediacy to it that I like, which Craft has been unable to match. Craft was always too fussy, and I found myself becoming distracted by fonts and styles. The best โ€ฆ

July 2022

In E063 of @hemisphericviews we talk to @ericmwalk to find out how he is so good at Arcadia. Plus we pontificate profusely pertaining to Podcasting 2.0.

I made a caraway seed cake. When I was a schoolboy, my Mom would sometimes make one of these during the day. When I got home we would eat it alongside a cup of tea using our fancy tea cups. This cake today has provided me with both deliciousness and nostalgia.

Scotty Jackson has been working hard and putting up with my bug reports regarding his Shortcut to create a daily note in Agenda with links to calendar events and OmniFocus tasks. The Shortcut is now flawless - and amazing!

Today I had a conversation with a magpie. ๐Ÿง

Why’s everybody talking about Obsidian? Loqseq is where it’s at! I’m digging it.

Minions: The Rise of Gru, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…: A few light-hearted moments scattered amongst a sea of meh.

Top Gun: Maverick, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Massive fan service and Iโ€™m here for it.

Logging into Agenda.app with Shortcuts: I’ve been getting back into Agenda as a work diary and daily tracker. The app is brought to a new level of usefulness thanks to the ingenuity of Shortcuts developer Scotty Jackson. Scotty Jackson: This is all about my Rapid Log Shortcut, for use with the Agenda app โ€ฆ and my Agenda Daily Log โ€ฆ

I’ve discovered another Read-it-Later service, Omnivore. Hard to find out much more about it though - has anybody else heard of it?

Big, 1988 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Watched on Sunday July 10, 2022.

Console Games are Fun; Mobile Ones Aren't: Matt Birchler writing on his blog makes a succinct point. Mobile games are a shit industry with shit companies making shit games that donโ€™t exist to entertain, they exist to extract as much money as possible from a few whales who will spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. Fun is not the โ€ฆ

I hate knee bursitis or whatever worse thing is going on with my ageing joints. One small jump today led to immediate chronic pain after suffering underlying soreness for months prior.

Me in 1 Chart: After listening to myself interviewed by Martin Feld on Really Specific Stories I started thinking about the strange mixture of interests I have. For fun, I thought I’d grab the main categories and represent them in graphical form. Basketball is predominantly represented by NBL and NBL1 - not โ€ฆ

I’ve built my own Hello page riffing on Alastair Johnson’s idea.

Finished reading: The Profit Paradox by Jan Eeckhout ๐Ÿ“š It took me a long time to finish because I put it down halfway through and left it for a while. Great insights, but did tend to get a little bogged down in the last third. Very US-centric, of course.

I’m seriously addicted to Halo Infinite on Xbox. I love the open world approach to the game.

June 2022

Look at that - a new episode has dropped! Hemispheric Views 061: Bullet Point Out Of Context!

This is a quick post using Quill which I vaguely remember seeing before, but which I was reminded about by @gabz at What is my process or workflow?. Quill is an online form for entering new blog posts.

I bought a discounted year of Agenda.app. I owned it a couple of years ago, but moved onto Craft. I still think Craft is better, but I canโ€™t resist a note-taking app!

Stopped to make sure old mate wasn’t about to crash into my car in the parking lot as he was having a rough time steering into a bay. He missed my car, then we had a nice old chat about the weather and footy walking in to the shops together.

For all the things my country gets wrong - and we get a lot wrong - today I’m even more appreciative of being an Australian. Our governance systems remain robust and to date have corrected against efforts made by extremist political advances.

I canโ€™t believe Roe v Wade has been overturned. What is going on in the USA? I donโ€™t understand extremist conservative thinking.

Finished Obi Wan Kenobi. It does a really great job bringing insight to the characters we know and love, while maintaining the feeling of something at stake.

Palmer, 2021 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: A tender and touching story of parenting and caring.

Great Writing About a Not Great President: Maureen Dowd: Donald Trump, American Monster Shelleyโ€™s monster, unlike ours, has self-awareness and a reason to wreak havoc. He knows how to feel guilty and when to leave the stage. Our monsterโ€™s malignity stems from pure narcissistic psychopathy โ€” and he refuses to leave the stage or cease his โ€ฆ

COVID Day 4: Day 4 of COVID has seen me sleep for 14 hours and wake with a sore throat, aches and a pounding head. During the night I had the experience that I sometimes feel with bad flus. It is as if the electrical wiring in my body has been incorrectly rerouted and partly disconnected. So I will get a โ€ฆ

If I were to describe how COVID feels, I would say: “Imagine if your body - inside and out - were made up of jigsaw puzzle pieces. Then take away about 35% of those pieces and imagine how unstructurally sound you would feel. That’s COVID.”

I Care a Lot, 2020 - โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: Started off great. I would have preferred a different ending.

COVID has finally found me. Now letโ€™s see what sort of defence this triple-vax has delivered me.

I’ve been having all sorts of problems with my DNS and NextDNS. After many rabbitholes, I found it stemmed back to my originating DNS provider, which I had inadvertently set to my ISP. Switched it to Quad9 and all seems to be working well again.

Meeting Australiaโ€™s New Prime Minister: Yesterday we attended an event in South Perth with Australiaโ€™s new Prime Minister, The Hon Anthony Albanese MP. It was an opportunity for him to introduce the newly elected Labor Members of Parliament from WA, and thank the volunteers that worked as part of the campaign. My wife is a State Member of โ€ฆ

Battleship, 2012 - โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: Based on the game Battleship? Seriously? The first third of the movie was good, the rest not so much.

I’ve decided to make my various referral codes and affiliate links more accessible, and have added it to the navigation bar of my micro.blog homepage.

May 2022

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 31: endurance (@uncertainquark)

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 30: fish (@thedimpause)

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 29: stripes (@CTD)

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 28: fair (@odd)

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 27: written (@sylvia)

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 26: schedule (@canion)

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 25: mountain (@Miraz)

A replica of the classic iTunes MiniPlayer to control Apple Music on modern macOS.Source: Music MiniPlayer for macOS This looks fun!

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 24: intricate (@uncertainquark)

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 23: plain (@CTD)

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 22: textile (@stevelloyd)

A great day for Australian politics.

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 21: symmetry (@amit)

1917, 2019 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: A powerful movie showing the futility of war and the ability of people to push on.

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 20: beverage (@bobwertz)

In Hemispheric Views 58, I wrestle with the true nature of my business, Martin bids farewell to iPods (but keeps buying them) and Jason reviews a highly-anticipated yellow deviceโ€”thatโ€™s right, itโ€™s the Playdate!

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 19: indulgence (@sylvia)

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 18: random (@JohnPhilpin)

A dark and stormy night. Lightning everywhere.

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 17: hold (@dwalbert)

I love full moon nights where I can look outside and still see everything clearly. It’s an underrated benefit of having a life on Earth.

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 16: time (@rknightuk)

Rebuilding Drafts: I’ve been a long-time user of Drafts, but my subscription is due to expire next month and I have been thinking that I’d let it go. I’ve been using Tot more these days, and Drafts had become an intimidating mess that I didn’t enjoy using. However, after listening to a Mac โ€ฆ

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 15: clouds (@klandwehr)

After talking with @Burk I’ve been re-inspired with Drafts. I’ve streamlined my Actions to make the app more approachable. Actual use beats good intentions.

This Redbacks v Cougars game was a fun one to call. The game featured a bit of everything. I am loving doing NBL1 commentary this season!

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 14: fence (@val)

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 13: community (@crossingthethreshold)

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 12: tranquility (@vincent)

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 11: maroon (@rom)

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 10: pot (@warner)

We aim to keep Hemispheric Views podcast to around 45 minutes in length. We’re nailing it! Check out all the stats of the show ๐ŸŽ™

Homebrew: This article was originally written for the December 2021 edition of Hemispheric News, delivered as part of the Hemispheric Views podcast member bonus program, One Prime Plus Are you a Terminal wizard? A command line guru? A shell superstar? No, neither am I. From time to time I attempt to teach โ€ฆ

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 9: bloom (@thedimpause)

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท Day 8: union (@odd)

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท day 7: park @dejus

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท day 6: silhouette @otaviocc

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท day 5: Earth @dfj

Knowledge Management: A Foolโ€™s Errand?: CJ Eller โ€“ @cjeller on micro.blog โ€“ had a take on Personal Knowledge Management that resonated with me, in his articleGarbage Heap: I’ve bounced off of personal knowledge management tools like crazy. Wikis? Digital gardens? Zettelkasten systems? Nothing sticks. Iโ€™m a nerd, and I love the โ€ฆ

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท day 4: thorny @ronguest

Finished the first three episodes of Shining Girls on AppleTV+. That service is really delivering quality content; firing on all cylinders. Netflix could learn a thing or two. ๐Ÿ“บ

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท day 3: experimental (my prompt!)

Knotwords is a fun game. It has that classic Zach Gage vibe to it.

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท day 2: photo @agilelisa

Micro.blog photo challenge ๐Ÿ“ท day 1: switch @ridwan

Hello @Burk - your username is capital. That’s odd.

April 2022

Our One Prime Plus members have received their bonus episode! @hemisphericviews @martinfeld @burk

Is Discord the New Online Meeting Place?: With the probable demise of Twitter, it will join other social networks that have already met their demise (MySpace, Facebook, Instagram) with me, I am not that worried. Micro.blog will remain my generalised blogging location, allowing me to post whatever I like (and optionally cross-post to Twitter โ€ฆ

Itโ€™s great to see so many new (and returning) people posting to micro.blog following the Musk Twitter news. I hope they stay and build this great community.

Commentating NBL1 Perth Redbacks Games: This season I have taken the job as a commentator for the NBL1 West’s Perth Redbacks. The NBL1 is the league directly beneath the national NBL competition and is broken into State-based divisions. I had to miss the first couple of games due to COVID protocols, so last night was my first behind โ€ฆ

Thanks @jean and @manton and @burk - I love being a part of micro.blog!

Despite owning the PowerPack, I’ve switched away from Alfred and back to Launchbar.

I had to buy a subscription for Microsoft 365 today. That was an unexpected event. I appreciate the Home Use Program discount though.

A day of IT disaster. Firstly corporate IT decided to lock down all access from machines other than their own, then by the end of the day my iMac reached a point where a ‘nuke and pave’ installation was the only choice.

The Profit Paradox at play with the iPhone mini 14: The Looming Demise of the iPhone mini - MacSparky: The part that gets me is that they really shouldnโ€™t be forced to make a decision. Isnโ€™t Apple selling enough iPhones that they could afford to sell small, medium, and large versions of the pro and non-pro phones? Youโ€™d think they could make that โ€ฆ

I finished the game Disco Elysium tonight. More akin to reading a book than playing a game, it tackled interesting concepts from politics to economics and the meaning of life.

If, like me, you’ve been searching for the ultimate OmniFocus “Complete and Await Reply” automation script, we may have finally hit gold with Autocar.

High School Musical, 2006 - โ˜…โ˜…: Lip sync is bad, fade to black transitions and an incredibly well-resourced High School. Whatโ€™s not to love?

Finished reading: My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout ๐Ÿ“š. A short story that initiated self-reflection of how my own childhood experience resulted in the life I have today.

Well thatโ€™s just great. COVID-19 has entered our household. ๐Ÿฆ 

Severance Unboxing: It was a lot of fun to host another Hemispheric Views live event this morning. This time, Jason was unboxing an official AppleTV+ Severance gift box he had acquired. The event featured Severance talk, Severance sound clips and music from the show - even some Defiant Jazz. There were many amazing โ€ฆ

What Am I Nostalgic For?: This article was originally written for the November 2021 edition of Hemispheric News, delivered as part of the Hemispheric Views podcast member bonus program, One Prime Plus Since it’s Nostalgic November, I figured I should write something that fits the theme for the November issue of โ€ฆ

Can we Have Some Modern Software as Well?: Riccardo Mori really nailed it with his latest post, Raw power alone is not enough where he talks about how Apple has left its software to wither, while it has been busy beefing up its hardware offering. The article is full of juicy content, but I’ve pulled out the parts that resonated with โ€ฆ

Sonic the Hedgehog 2, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…: Jim Carrey is fun for the adults and the characters are fun for the kids. I was disappointed with the soundtrack after really enjoying that of the first movie.

March 2022

Autism & Adults: Hannah Gadsby on her autism diagnosis: โ€˜Iโ€™ve always been plagued by a sense that I was a little out of whackโ€™ | The Guardian I leave crowded spaces. I switch off discordant music. I wear headphones at restaurants. I openly express my hatred of the saxophone and electric guitar solos. I donโ€™t allow โ€ฆ

I’ve bought Disco Elysium - The Final Cut because it was on sale on the Steam Store. Friends tell me it’s good. ๐Ÿ•น

The Adam Project, 2022 - โ˜…ยฝ: Wow, this was boring. An hour in felt like 2 hours. Not even the Ryan Reynolds charm could save this script.

I’ve got a new domain: canion.au

I’ve re-upped my subscription to TextExpander. While my self-built Keyboard Maestro system was okay, it was rickety enough to create annoyances. @burk will approve.

Kings Park calm.

I canโ€™t figure out why Flickr has two different types of Pro badge. One is black with a square surrounding the word Pro, and the other is blue with a pink underline.

Iโ€™ve been exploring Flickr again. Iโ€™m still a Pro, so I should try to get my moneyโ€™s worth.

Finished reading: Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz ๐Ÿ“š An enjoyable read that is let down by its extreme US-centricity.

Today @burk, @martinfeld and I hosted a @hemisphericviews Members Trivia Event. Hosted on Zoom with a quiz platform provided by Crowdpurr, it was a great way to spend an hour with people who dedicate time to listen and support our podcast.

Turning Red, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…: Watched on Friday March 18, 2022.

As fun as getting back onto a basketball court is, at what point do I accept itโ€™s no longer something I should do? Especially after possibly breaking a toe earlier in the day. Now my knee joins the injury party, not to mention the generalised leg soreness. ๐Ÿ€

If one smashes oneโ€™s toe into a door frame, one might worry theyโ€™ve broken said toe.

It was fantastic to finally meet my NBL Pocket Podcast co-host in real life. Joe does exist! And so does Nick Tan!

Hi micro.blog gang! I wasnโ€™t able to join the Town Hall live, but Iโ€™m watching the replay.

Uncharted, 2022 - โ˜…โ˜…: An absolutely ridiculous movie that made me laugh because of just how preposterous it was.

CODA, 2021 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: It for me right in the feels. Amazing singing and acting. The treatment given to the school duet was incredible.

In Episode 51 of @hemisphericviews we talk Severance. Thanks @neatnik for making a Lumon Industries business card generator.

Australian Consumer Law: This article was originally written for the October 2021 edition of Hemispheric News, delivered as part of the Hemispheric Views podcast member bonus program, One Prime Plus The Australian Consumer Law (ACL) is an unsung hero for the everyday Australian citizen. In 2011 it was introduced and โ€ฆ

Thank you to Robert for pointing out issues with my RSS feeds, and for reading my stuff!

February 2022

Iโ€™m still waiting for all my Facebook friends to reach out and check that Iโ€™m okay, since my account has been deleted for about a year. Iโ€™m sure theyโ€™ll get in touch soon.

Itโ€™s not much, but itโ€™s something. ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ

OneDrive Files-on-Demand for macOS: Nick Heer at Pixel Envy: For example, placeholder files are not automatically created for the entire OneDrive directory, only for files and folders I have opened. This means Spotlight cannot index those files and folders, which means I cannot fully search OneDrive on my Mac. It does not matter to โ€ฆ

Can we eject Putin from our world? Who is in favour of this madness? Why is annexation of land such a strongly-held desire. Iโ€™m sorry for Ukraine. I wish the people of the country all the best for what is about to transpire. ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ

I donโ€™t know what Putin sees as his end-game, but his actions against Ukraine are beyond the pale and must be globally condemned. ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ

Zootopia, 2016 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Watched on Friday February 18, 2022.

Volume 2 of my Day One journal has arrived. // @patrickrhone

My 6-year old man broke his leg last night! The bone broke right through, but thank goodness for a great hospital system than got his leg set and in a cast right away. ๐Ÿ˜ข

I’ve adopted the Paper theme, by @amit for my blog. Which also meant upgrading the version of Hugo. I don’t think it broke anything.

Random appreciation tweet for Wayne Simmons. He made playing basketball fun, and was a friend to me when I did work experience at 882 6PR and he was a sales rep. Anybody who played ๐Ÿ€ in Perth probably knows Wayne and I donโ€™t think anybody dislikes the guy. I hope he is well.

Encanto, 2021 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: My favourite character was... a house? I was surprised by the ease with which the fractured relationship with Grandma was resolved.

Another day of being sick. Urgh. Tested negative for COVID too, so itโ€™s just a garden-variety flu making my life miserable.

A Second Try With Zavala: Last Timeโ€ฆ When I tried this the first time I used each line of the outline as a paragraph. Maurice Parker, the developer of Zavala, answered my call for help. He advised: when you craft your blog post in Zavala, the Topics are headings and the Notes are the paragraph text. Make sure that when you โ€ฆ

Using Zavala to post to Micro.blog: One of the fun things about micro.blog is its inherent openness. It will accept the creation of new blog posts from a host of applications. I already have apps including Drafts, Ulysses, iA Writer and MarsEdit configured to send posts to my micro.blog site, so why not add another? In this instance, โ€ฆ

Thanks @podiboq for suggesting a great improvement to @hemisphericviews.

It’s that time again. Hemispheric Views 049 covers third-party keyboards, the new iPad mini, the weird world of video gaming, and coffee sizes. ๐ŸŽ™

The new Fantastical Openings service may be enough to save me from needing a third-party bookings service. Unfortunately I recently bought a 12-month subscription to one.

It’s nice to put a voice to Phil Nunnally @twelvety who is one of the Internet nice guys. He was a guest on the Thinking About Tools for Thinking show with @andysylvester

Browser Wars This article was originally written for the September 2021 edition of Hemispheric News, delivered as part of the Hemispheric Views podcast member bonus program, One Prime Plus No, this is not an article about the failings of Safari 15. I am sure Apple will get that sorted out, because โ€ฆ

I can confirm that getting a Day One journal printed is totally worth it. This first test only gets me until 2015. I am definitely ordering Volume 2.

Itโ€™s so much fun recording NBL Pocket Podcast. ๐Ÿ€๐ŸŽ™

Hemispheric Views Interviews His Excellency The Honourable Kim Beazley AC: Episode 48 of Hemispheric Views features an interview with the Governor of Western Australia, Kim Beazley. Previously a Federal Minister, Leader of the Opposition, Australian Ambassador to the USA, among other distinguished roles, Kim has now really hit the big time as a guest on the best tech and โ€ฆ

My son came home from his first day of Year 1 yesterday complaining that it was โ€˜too babyishโ€™. This reminds me of myself. I came home after day one of Year 1 angry because they hadnโ€™t taught me how to read and write, and instead made us do silly things such as colouring in.

12 hours after I unsubscribe from my discount-rate NYTimes games subscription they announce they’ve bought Wordle. To resubscribe at the normal rate will double my cost. ๐Ÿคฆ๐Ÿผโ€โ™‚๏ธ

January 2022

I’m proud to share that @HemisphericViews podcast is no longer on Spotify because we can’t condone the willing spread of misinformation.

Iโ€™m enjoying playing Chess.com with @mjdescy - a tough opponent! โ™Ÿ

Boosted! ๐Ÿ’‰

Hemispheric Views Episode 047 appeared like clockwork. One might say, too much like clockwork… as if we were all living in The Matrix?

If you have kids, a great podcast for them is Like You. I’ve been a Patreon supporter since they launched, and Noah Glenn does a wonderful job as host.

I did the โ€œthumbs upโ€ ride today. ๐Ÿšด๐Ÿป

Benjamin Canion in Conversation with Jason Burk: This wide ranging discussion between my son, Benjamin and Jason Burk ranges across a diversity of topics. The conversation touches on the Loch Ness Monster, Scooby Doo, questions as to the intelligence of Hemispheric Views co-host Martin Feld, and ends with a great joke.

Is there anything better than an ice-cream truck on a hot summer day?

The Hemispheric Views logo on the Core Intution website. I love it. Proud to be the sponsor of Episode 498.

Spent 4 hours in the pool this evening. Loved it, and kids had a blast. ๐ŸŠ๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

I was in one of the old buildings of University of WA today, and came across this beauty of a machine. Dymo Lyfe, @martinfeld

Crypto Consumes Ridiculous Amounts of Energy: Crypto Uses Lots of Energy: As of this writing, a single transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain eats up the same amount of energy as the average US household in a 77.8-day, or roughly two and a half month, period. Ethereum, though nowhere near as large, still eats up the same amount of energy that a โ€ฆ

I had to move furniture today. The temperature was hovering somewhere between 42ยฐC and 47ยฐC. It was not ideal.

Things are Fun!: Sometimes as a Dad you’ve got to forget everything else, and just enjoy some quality time with your kid. They’re only young once. Firstly we went to get a cup of coffee, then travelled a long time looking for a car wash. Car washes are fun! Then onto Fremantle where we saw some container โ€ฆ

Apparently the #10YearChallenge is a thing. Hereโ€™s mine. 10 years ago I was already an Apple nerd - but a skinnier one with less grey hair.

Season 4 of Cobra Kai done. Itโ€™s so bad, itโ€™s good. ๐Ÿ“บ

Rodman: For Better or Worse, 2019 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Is the story and life of Dennis Rodman a tragedy or a comedy? Watching this film gives me the impression that Dennis himself doesnโ€™t know. I tend towards the former.

The Matrix Resurrections, 2021 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: Everything is a loop and we are all sheeple. Rebooted in a way that reminded me of Star Wars VII, but probably better? So why do I feel empty at the end, and feel the fan service were the best bits?

The Matrix Revolutions, 2003 - โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: Why didnโ€™t they call this โ€œThe Matrix Battlebotsโ€? I might have watched it sooner. A limp ending to the trilogy that should have stopped at the first movie.

Hemispheric Views on Discord: Hemispheric Views - Blog - Expanding the Hemispheric Views Discord in 2022!: In 2022, weโ€™re pleased to introduce another new channel: #One-Prime-Plus! This space is intended exclusively for our Patreon subscribers as a member benefit, in addition to bonus podcast episodes and our monthly newsletter โ€ฆ

The Matrix Reloaded, 2003 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Donโ€™t ask questions, just go along for the ride. The albino dreadlock dudes were criminally under-utilised.

Matter offers Kindle support now. Seems my Instapaper subscription may not be renewed…

It’s an honour to have a media pass for the Australian NBL on behalf of NBL Pocket Podcast. Tonight I joined the press conference to ask some questions of Hawks Head Coach Brian Goorjian ๐Ÿ€

New home screen. ๐Ÿ“ฑ

Wordle 207 5/6 โฌœโฌœโฌœโฌœโฌœ โฌœ๐ŸŸจโฌœโฌœโฌœ โฌœโฌœโฌœโฌœโฌœ ๐ŸŸจโฌœโฌœโฌœโฌœ ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ This wasn’t going well, until I solved it. I have a complaint about this word, however…

Iโ€™ve been doing strength workouts again, after giving them away mid-way through last year. I actually really enjoy lifting weights. Way better than cardio! ๐Ÿ‹๐Ÿปโ€โ™€๏ธ

I was continuously getting “signal is weak” messages from Find My with regard to AirTags. I reset the Network Settings in iPhone and now it is working perfectly - tracks, points and finds AirTags.

The Matrix, 1999 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Itโ€™s kinda perfect. Except for maybe the Oracle who is just a bit annoying.

I’ve bought a discounted annual subscription to Bike Citizens. This stuff usually has limited appeal in an isolated city such as Perth. It would be way better in dense Europe, but I figured I’d give it a try anyway. ๐Ÿšฒ

Wordle 204 3/6 โฌ›๐ŸŸจ๐ŸŸจโฌ›๐ŸŸฉ ๐ŸŸจ๐ŸŸฉโฌ›๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ I really nailed this one!

Played King of Tokyo. So much fun! Our 6 year old loves to SMASH.

Wordle 203 3/6 โฌ›โฌ›๐ŸŸฉโฌ›โฌ› โฌ›๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸจ๐ŸŸฉ ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ๐ŸŸฉ I got lucky.

Finished reading: The Highly Sensitive Person by E. Aron ๐Ÿ“š An insight into a personality type that might generally be labelled as shy. I see many links between HSP and Autism. The book’s best work is done early; the final third lost me. The interminable fixation on a review of one’s โ€ฆ

On another day that saw us over 40ยฐC, this iced tea was a refreshing beverage.

Iโ€™m a Blogger? Iโ€™m a Blogger.: I donโ€™t consider myself to be a โ€˜bloggerโ€™. Yet if I think about it, Iโ€™ve had some kind of blog actively running for large portions of my life. Just off the top of my head, Iโ€™ve had Blogger, Movable Type, Wordpress, Blot and Micro.blog. On the private side of the equation Iโ€™ve also got years worth of โ€ฆ

Can we have a Blog-only Search Engine?: Search Engines and SEO Spam - Initial Charge: What I think I want is a search engine that only gave me results from small, independent weblogs. More often than not I just want to find information from a normal person thatโ€™s writing about something because they care deeply about it. And thatโ€™s โ€ฆ

Subscription Services: It’s that time of year when many are making lists and undertaking audits of their subscription services. I had an old list in Dynalist that was almost complete. I’ve updated it and moved it into Craft, where I will attempt to maintain it over time.

Facebookโ€™s Role in Capitol Attacks: Om Malik: Instead of using technology and starting to flag downright criminal behavior, the company hums, and haws. They donโ€™t need an oversight committee โ€” they need a moral compass. Am I being silly to suggest that Facebook and Purdue Pharma have much in common?

Deleting Social Media: Colin Devroe is quitting social media: I also spend an inordinate amount of time scrolling tweets, clicking links, reading threads, and darting between subjects like a kitten chasing a laser. I love this analogy. I think the cumulative effect on my brain since 2006 has been that my ability to โ€ฆ

It’s been cool to see a whole bunch of development happening on and around the micro.blog platform over the past few weeks. May the momentum continue!

Cribbage night @tinyroofnail

I created a castle lady with wombo.art.

I’m on a The Wallflowers music kick tonight. Listened to the new album. Now back on the classic Bringing Down the Horse - released in 1996. I remember buying the CD and this album is embedded deep in my memories. ๐ŸŽถ

Go home ants, youโ€™re drunk.

Self-Reflection: Today has been one of thought and self-reflection. There are many parts of my self that Iโ€™m not entirely happy with. Are we ever happy with ourselves? Probably not. Nevertheless, making an effort to do better must be a form of self-improvement in its own right. My effort ties in neatly with a new โ€ฆ

I’m well out of practice in dealing with people in a group social setting. An opportunity for improvement.

Fantastic Mr. Fox, 2009 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: It's only been on my watch list for a decade, and finally I've seen a typically enjoyable Wes Anderson movie with its delightful art direction and distinctive stable of actors. A lovely movie.

The most epic Jenga game Iโ€™ve played. Considering Benji, who just turned 6, was one of the three players โ€” and he didnโ€™t lose โ€” makes it that much more impressive.

December 2021

Return & Recycle Apple Gear: I tried to return a bunch of old iPads and MacBooks to Apple today. I got $50 for one old iPad. Potentially could have gotten more but the others I’d forgotten to charge and couldn’t be bothered about it, so I returned them for $0. They wouldn’t take the Macs in-store but coming โ€ฆ

Climbing through the Roof: I’ve been climbing and crawling around my roof space today running ethernet and installing security cameras. It was hot in the roof - after a few minutes I would emerge drenched in sweat. I would estimate it was around 60ยบ up there. A few hours after finishing I’ve realised that โ€ฆ

I keep playing around with themes on micro.blog, but I ultimately always seem to return to Marfa. The only problem with it is the way that comments/replies are rendered. Will that element of the template ever be improved? @help

Configuring my Stream Deck: This post was originally written in August 2021 for Hemispheric News; subscribe at the Patreon site One Prime Plus to receive this monthly newsletter and other benefits that are linked to the Hemispheric Views podcast. Sitting in my OmniFocus task list, and my SkedPal task list, both for two long, โ€ฆ

A bookmarklet to post a link to micro.blog: Micro.blog Posting Bookmarklet โ€“ Colin Devroe. This link has been posted with said bookmark. @cdevroe

Iโ€™m decommissioning our Apple MacBook Pro (Late 2013). Its had a good life, albeit the last two have been hard as my kid doesnโ€™t show the same care and respect for it as I do. I thank it for its service.

The irony of it being super hot and wanting to jump in the pool, but knowing the UV is extreme and I will burn in 10 minutes. Consideringโ€ฆ How does this compare with your situation @gaby?

Another day of heat in Perth. Currently 38.5ยบC. To truly experience it I’m sitting outside, under a patio with a fan. This is the fourth consecutive day over 100ยบF. I feel sorry for our plants; by yesterday evening a number of them had burnt and dried out leaves. ๐Ÿฅต

Could somebody explain to me why the local council doesn’t offer an extra bin run after Christmas? We have an alternating weekly cycle for recycling and general rubbish. I think they should both be collected following Christmas. As it is I’m going to be backlogged for a month.

I tried to use the micro.blog markdown importer. I got a success message, but after about 10 minutes there is still no evidence of any of the posts on my micro.blog posts page. Is there something I missed? @help

Hottest Christmas Ever: These last two days in Perth have broken records for heat. Both Christmas Day and Boxing Day were several degrees over 40ยบC. I am immensely thankful that this year, for the first time in my home ownership history, we have a swimming pool. With weather like this, itโ€™s a complete game changer. A โ€ฆ

Added another 2 years of subscription for canion.omg.lol. Best value profile provider on the internet.

I’m contemplating migrating my Blot site to micro.blog - and having a single site to rule them all. Should I do it?

8-Bit Christmas, 2021 - โ˜…ยฝ: What a waste of an opportunity.

Spider-Man: No Way Home, 2021 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: Watched on Friday December 24, 2021.

Merry Christmas! ๐ŸŽ„

Finished reading: Ball Boy by Paul Shirley ๐Ÿ“šIโ€™m afraid I didnโ€™t love it.

Dealing with a kid that has autism can be trying. ๐Ÿ˜ž

For Benjiโ€™s birthday we went to the cinema to see Spider-Man: No Way Home. The boy has been obsessed with Spidey for about the past four years so he was beyond excited. ๐ŸŽฅ๐Ÿฟ๐Ÿ•ธ๐ŸŽ‚

Benji was really feeling the Christmas spirit in this one. ๐Ÿ˜‚

It was great to get out of the house today. I read some of my book, and had a FaceTime call with @burk.

My bike has been professionally serviced. Once again, I have no excuse not to ride.

While @maique is looking forward to a wet and windy Christmas, Iโ€™m looking at this:

A year ago today I received my MacBook Air M1. It doesnโ€™t feel Iโ€™ve owned it for a year; it still seems brand new in my mind.

2021 Retrospective: For the end of 2020 I wrote a retrospective looking at the main events and happenings of the year, broken down by month. I figured it would fun to do the same thing again for 2021. I didn’t take copious notes over the course of the year, so I’m piecing this list together from calendar โ€ฆ

The King is Dead; Long Live the King: Update: 14 December 2021: John, a kind reader of this blog emailed me to correct the record regarding the age of these apps. I imply below that Quicksilver predated Launchbar when in fact Launchbar is the oldest of the crop. In my usage, Quicksilver was the first King - it was my gateway drug to โ€ฆ

Family Entertainment: This post was originally written in July 2021 for Hemispheric News; subscribe at the Patreon site One Prime Plus to receive this monthly newsletter and other benefits that are linked to the Hemispheric Views podcast. I am a father of two boys. One is 9 (almost 10!) and the other is 5 ยฝ. I work in a โ€ฆ

It’s cool to see your own feature request that you’ve been beta testing forked into the main build. Thanks BusyCal team! When dragging tasks from OmniFocus to create events, BusyCal now applies the duration (if any) to the event too. โ€” BusyCal 2021.4.3

Crypto - I Don't Buy the Hype: Either I’m an old man who is shaking his fist at the clouds, or I’m a rational person that isn’t easily bedazzled and deluded by the madness of crowds. I prefer to think I’m the latter. Crypto has captivated the masses, and delivered opportunity to the financial grifters who โ€ฆ

So, yeah. I can’t sleep. What are others doing at 1:30am?

Subscribers (or Hemisphereans) to @hemisphericviews podcast now know about the PhD that @martinfeld is working on. One Prime Plus

Finished reading: The Process Is the Product by Paul Shirley ๐Ÿ“šI had read most of the source material and I love basketball so this was up my alley. A quick read which would be a nice primer for people who have never dug into the world of productive work habits.

Chess Kids: I taught Benji chess today, and he began to understand it immediately We played a couple of games, which led to David becoming interested, so I taught him too. The boys had a good game between each other, with me coaching both of them. Tonight, Benji is sleeping with the chess set.

I have bought the Alfred Powerpack. I am sick of the glacial development pace of Launchbar, and the fact it seemed to be consuming excessive CPU cycles. I wonder if my muscle memory can be retrained?

I’m a subscriber of Drafts.app although my usage barely scratches the surface. I could probably be using it almost as a Textexpander replacement. I still find it’s UI virtually inscrutable though.

November 2021

EPW Reawakening XX: Last night our family and and some friends attended Explosive Pro Wrestlingโ€™s Reawakening XX show. This is EPWโ€™s showcase annual event. Their Wrestlemania, if you are searching for a comparator. At a sold-out theatre the company put on an amazing show. Iโ€™ve always enjoyed wrestling and nothing beats โ€ฆ

A follow-up article to Hemispheric Views One Prime Plus 016, with additional information from my brother.

I nuked and reinstalled my iMac successfully. Although the problem that motivated the reset remains. Clearly a bug in the software (Marked.app).

I’m about to erase my iMac and reinstall Monterey. @Burk made me do it.

Iโ€™ve watched the first two episodes of Dopesick and Iโ€™m into it. Looking forward to the chance to watch more.

I am so bored.

Gallipoli, 1981 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Classic Australian movie that makes me sad for the events that occurred.

Flat white alone at the ice skating rink. Parenting is getting easier.

Last chance to enter the omg.lol giveaway supported by @HemisphericViews @neatnik @Burk @martinfeld www.craft.do/s/iArBaUJ…

Super proud of the latest episode of @HemisphericViews. Rob from Fastmail was kind enough to join us to discuss ins and outs of the business of email. I also spend some time talking about the YNAB disaster. ๐ŸŽ™

Angel-A, 2005 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: An interesting approach to a redemption story. It kept me engaged but I didnโ€™t enjoy the conclusion.

Anxiety has kicked my arse over the past 24 hours.

I love a business that has a tidy balance sheet.

A happy Sunday evening.

Home Sweet Home Alone, 2021 - โ˜…: It is justโ€ฆ soโ€ฆ bad.

Lest we forget.

Okay, real talk Windows people. How do I create a second Explorer window? How do I stop Explorer save dialogues being so tiny and defaulting to some weird location? And how the hell do you do anything without Quick Look? How do you Windows people live?

Corridor of Doom. Inspired to take a photo as a result of the @hemisphericviews newsletter article written by @burk

Isolated the source of the fridge noise. A wearing fan. Iโ€™ve unleashed a vacuum cleaner and compressed air. Still noisy. I bet they charge a fortune for a new $5 fan.

We have an expensive fridge that is only a few years old. It has become really noisy and is driving me crazy. Iโ€™ve already had a tech come and check it, and changed a fan. That sort of worked for a while. Now I want to throw the stupid thing on the street.

Too cold to swim. Not too cold to dip the feet.

Nostalgic November: This post originally appeared on the Hemispheric Views blog for the month of Nostalgic November. You can also read the accompanying posts by Martin Feld and Jason Burk. I was in Year 5 at a new school. I didnโ€™t know anybody. My previous school didnโ€™t have a formal uniform and Iโ€™d worn velcro shoes โ€ฆ

The Sad State of Mousing on macOS: This post was originally written in June 2021 for Hemispheric News; subscribe at the Patreon site One Prime Plus to receive this monthly newsletter and other benefits that are linked to the Hemispheric Views podcast. On 28 May, I posted to my micro.blog: My kingdom for a good mouse that works with โ€ฆ

Sorry kid, I donโ€™t have Instagram. Iโ€™ve got micro.blog though!

File this one under โ€œironyโ€ from the YNAB change log. November 5th, 2021 - You Need A Budget: We released a fix to ensure all users are seeing the correct price in their account settings.

Given the number of sites you maintain @jack your omg.lol could be your most useful property on the web. ๐Ÿ˜‚

A new episode of NBL Pocket Podcast has been recorded and released. Iโ€™ve been into Australian basketball since 1987. This passion is entirely different to my other more nerdy pursuits. ๐Ÿ€

Nostalgic November: This month Hemispheric Views podcast is celebrating Nostalgic November. We are inviting listeners to share something from their history that makes them happy, be it a memory, a thing, an experienceโ€ฆ whatever they like! As hosts, we each contributed our own piece of nostalgia. This is how mine starts โ€ฆ

What’s that noise? Oh, it’s a new episode of @HemisphericViews podcast hitting the Internet. OMG! @neatnik @maique

Solid workflow, Andrew. Solid. Can somebody please send help?

Keyboard Maestro making it even easier to meet my needs as a Textexpander replacement. Now with menubar icons for specific groups!

YNAB Jumping the Shark: On YNAB, and the pricing outrage that I and other users are feeling: I can afford the increase. Itโ€™s ridiculous that itโ€™s more expensive than Microsoft 365 or Adobe, but okay. But really itโ€™s the poor communication, the tin ear they are showing (a budgeting app that promotes forward planning pushing โ€ฆ

Undertaking an edit of @HemisphericViews is no mean feat. But like any hobby, it’s a labour of love in which the time invested is not about generating a return, but instead about trying to make something as good as it can be.

Crocodile Dundee, 1986 - โ˜…ยฝ: If you ever think society hasn't progressed in 35 years, watch this movie. You will realise that many social norms have improved.

October 2021

Trick or Treat! Our family comprises a witch, The Grim Reaper, Joker, and American Psycho, Patrick Bateman. ๐ŸŽƒ

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 30: home ๐Ÿ“ท

Static IP locked and loaded. When I realised my ISP had switched to Carrier Grade NAT, I was left with no choice. Also @dsh1705 and @neatnik made me do it.

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 30: red ๐Ÿ“ท

This memoji login avatar is the fun and whimsy I love to see from Apple.

If you’re an Australian YNAB user, beware their new loans feature. It’s a blunt instrument and can’t cope with a typical Australian mortgage situation, such as fortnightly payments, offset accounts, interest-only loans, and daily interest calculations.

Iโ€™ve got an itch to setup my iMac from scratch. Itโ€™s been migrated a few times, and itโ€™s deeply customised. Trying to do the cost:benefit calculus.

A question for @amit, @jack @twelvety @AndySylvester or any other micro blogger trialing Drummer: can you simply explain the difference between a node that starts with a page icon, and one that has a disclosure triangle? Should the page icon type be reserved for headlines?

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 29: cycle ๐Ÿ“ท

The logo for Meta (nee Facebook) looks like a pair of kidneys. Are they coming for my kidneys now in some sort of mafia hit job? I wouldnโ€™t put it past them. Do not trust this company.

Micro.blog isn’t in danger of losing my business but I am enjoying Drummer. It feels like I’m writing, not blogging, with no pressure about creating “a blog post”. I also love that its in the form of an outline which is the purest form of thinking and writing in one.

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 28: underneath ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 27: chaos ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 26: bliss ๐Ÿ“ท

A $30 price increase for Disney+. ๐Ÿคจ

โ€˜Whose day isnโ€™t gonna be better after watching a pink and yellow rosy maple moth fly in super-slow motion?โ€™

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 25: gravity ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 24: connection ๐Ÿ“ท

The @HemisphericViews live event was a blast! Thanks to everyone for joining in on the fun - and the awkward 1980s social norms.

Iโ€™m excited for our @hemisphericviews Crocodile Dundee live watch event thatโ€™s a bonus for our Patreon members. Kicks off in 3 hours. If you want to join in head over to oneprimeplus.com to pledge support and we will send you the link to the live watch! @burk @martinfeld

I love this kid. He never stops talking, though.

What is with Safari 15 and overly-aggressive caching? I can’t trust that I’m seeing the canonical website at the moment. As if the tabs weren’t enough of a problem!

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 23: meaning ๐Ÿ“ท

Thanks to @amit reminding me of his micro.threads app, I’ve followed some additional people on micro.blog - some of which I thought I already was following. Got you now!

Free Guy, 2021 - โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: A fun romp with plenty of fan service for gamers and YouTubers. Would have benefited from a shorter runtime through tighter editing.

Hello world from Drummer.

I’m getting @maique in my Porkbun emails.

I see the usual suspects getting the Drummer vibe… ๐Ÿ˜บ @jack @twelvety @amit @pratik

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 22: rest ๐Ÿ“ท

Sometime in the last 6 hours Drummer lost a bunch of my edits and customisations. A friendly reminder that this is still beta software that is actively under development!

Oh no, what on earth am I doing to myself? Do I have to maintain three blogs now? Micro.Blog, Blot and Drummer

I have followed the instructions but I can’t get the Drummer glossary to work. Included terms are not being converted. I must be missing something obvious. Can I ping @jack and @amit again?

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 21: space ๐Ÿ“ท

Once again I find the solution when Corporate IT Helpdesk couldnโ€™t.

Itโ€™s been a minute since I last posted to my blog from Ulysses. Itโ€™s awesome to be able to pick and choose from a variety of tools to create and share content. Interoperability is great. The open web is great.

My playground Drummer instance is at oldschool.scripting.com/andrewcan…

This micro blog may hitherto be referred to as canion.blog. But the old address will probably work as well.

I just registered a domain at Porkbun. They have pigs.

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 20: sports ๐Ÿ“ท

At @HemisphericViews we’ve launched our latest brand extension, Hemispheric Views Tourist Centre/Center. As part of our huge launch, we’d like to share with you the beauty of Perth.

The micro.blog theme Tufte by @pimoore is incredible. Absolutely gorgeous and befitting of the Tufte design ethos.

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 19: mirror ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 18: finished ๐Ÿ“ท

I bought @maique a coffee.

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 17: compass ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 16: rotation ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 15: ethereal ๐Ÿ“ท

Thanks @maique for introducing me to the fine folk at omg.lol. Now I’ve bought my own account!

A Great Day!: Today has been a great day. It started with an outdoor walk on a beautiful Perth day. I could walk all day with Stephen Fry talking to me. This was the most enjoyable “Time to Walk” episode I’ve listened to. Then I made some new connections with people, which might have some โ€ฆ

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 14: wheels ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 13: animals ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 12: legend ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 11: hygge ๐Ÿ“ท

This is my drummer effort.

I had a quick play with Dave Winer’s new blogging tool, Drummer. I should like it because I love outlines and blogging by way of an outline makes sense. But I don’t love the implementation. Winer’s UX for outlining is not for me. Also, is there no support for Markdown?

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 10: bridges ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 9: safe ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 8: twilight ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 7: spice ๐Ÿ“ท

Hocus Pocus, 1993 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Watched on Wednesday October 6, 2021.

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 6: street ๐Ÿ“ท

I like Heavyweight podcast but Iโ€™m not going to install Spotify to listen to it. Au revoir.

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 5: toy ๐Ÿ“ท

Facebook Is Weaker Than We Knew - The New York Times: Facebook Is Weaker Than We Knew - The New York Times: But Facebookโ€™s research tells a clear story, and itโ€™s not a happy one. Its younger users are flocking to Snapchat and TikTok, and its older users are posting anti-vaccine memes and arguing about politics. Some Facebook products are actively โ€ฆ

One of my ASUS ZenWifi units has crapped out after only 4 months. A flashing blue light that won’t go away even with a reset. I’ve eaten the cost and ordered Eeros.

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 4: sharp ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 3: majority ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 2: dark ๐Ÿ“ท

And this article is why, sadly, Iโ€™ve been using Edge on my Mac in recent times. Daring Fireball: The Tragedy of Safari 15 for Macโ€™s โ€˜Tabsโ€™

Micro.blog October photo challenge Day 1: touch ๐Ÿ“ท

September 2021

The Bluff Knoll climb was easier some 15 years ago.

This was the most perfect (double) rainbow Iโ€™ve ever seen in my life. ๐ŸŒˆ

Enjoyed tasting some whisky at Limeburners.

Dog Rock, Albany.

The Gap, Albany.

iOS 15 and the Find My energy drain hit my new iPhone 13 mini last night. From 80% to 10% battery charge overnight. I hope Apple sort this out because battery drain is the worst kind of bug.

This kid gets it. @hemisphericviews

Keep Practising 20: Two Mic Audio Experiment: In which David and I experiment with a two mic, two headphone studio production. With a guest appearance from Benji.

The internet can be small. I got random help from a stranger via the MailMate mailing list. Turns out said stranger is @PaulGit on micro.blog. Thanks Paul!

Dude, Where's My Car?, 2000 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: I used to know every line of this movie. Shibby!

I Hate Facebook, and You Should Too: Facebook is a terrible company and I’ve felt much better about myself since deleting their products: notably Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. When ditching use of the apps, there is a withdrawal period of 5-8 days, then after that, it’s fine. Life goes on. Time is returned to your life. โ€ฆ

Book Tracking Services: It seems there are an explosion of book tracking platforms all of a sudden, after years of it being a Goodreads monoculture. This is good, because competition. This is bad, because now I’m having to update my reading stats on a bunch of sites as I try to figure out which is the โ€ฆ

Currently reading: Thinking In Systems by Donella Meadows. This has been on my list for ages; time to get into it. ๐Ÿ“š

I’ve decided I’m going to upgrade my iPhone XR to an iPhone 13 mini. I like the idea of a small, pocketable phone. I am nervous about typing on it because I have larger than average thumbs.

YNAB LaunchBar Actions: I’m a huge YNAB fan and a LaunchBar user. I often get jealous of Alfred users because the system of “workflows” in Alfred seems to have caught on better than LaunchBar’s “Actions”. Righting that wrong has appeared @ptujec on Github. He has a number of LaunchBar โ€ฆ

CPLAY2air Wireless CarPlay Adaptor Review: Some weeks ago I bought a wireless CarPlay adaptor for my new 2021 Toyota Camry. The Camry support CarPlay but only when connected with a lightning cable. My experience with it to date has been mostly positive, with some caveats. The largest issue I have is its “Chinese knock-off” โ€ฆ

Ready for his first Eucharist.

Micro.camp joins the sticker party!

Itโ€™s that time - a new episode of @HemisphericViews has dropped. I practise my singing skills, @Burk enjoys a crunchy roll and @martinfeld kinda praises Microsoftโ€ฆ E037: Teamsception! listen.hemisphericviews.com/037

Trying out the Ink theme on micro.blog. Always good to change the look from time to time.

The future’s so bright, I’ve gotta wear shades.

Finished reading: Honeybee by Craig Silvey. An incredible coming-of-age story of a boy with all the odds stacked against him. Wonderful to read a book set in my home town, too. ๐Ÿ“š

OneDrive now has a “personal vault”. A shot across the bows of 1Password. Do Microsoft do more Sherlocking than Apple these days?

Iโ€™ve bought my ticket to โ€œA Voyage Through Timeโ€ couch concert by Voyager featuring my guy Alex Canion on bass. $20 - bargain! ๐Ÿค˜๐Ÿป voyager.veeps.com

Nacho Libre, 2006 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Itโ€™s silly but itโ€™s fun. Perfect Friday night movie with the kids.

This is very cool - @HemisphericViews getting a shout-out from DEVONtechnologies

Great to have @HemisphericViews listener @dsh1705 join @Microblog.

Bo Burnham: Inside, 2021 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: This provides a stark reminder of how incredibly uncreative I (and probably most people) am. Through imagination, technology and the support of the Bezos delivery system, Burnham creates something quite amazing within a single room.

Promising Young Woman, 2020 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Watched on Wednesday September 1, 2021.

For the first time in 2 years I have a cold complete with aches, pains and a sore throat. Can we go back to isolation and social distancing so I don’t have to deal with these?

August 2021

I highly recommend Like You podcast for anybody that has youngish children. My kids listen every night as part of their bedtime routine.

Things are getting serious now. @hemisphericviews

DevonJimbo: Episode 36 of Hemispheric Views saw us establish a brand extension - a YouTube channel. I want to call it Hemispheric Toobs, but I think I’ve been voted down. In any case, here are two videos in support of Episode 36. DevonJimbo FinderJimbo

Can confirm that my Intel iMac can launch 205 applications and keep on trucking.

Enjoyed watching a game of NBL1 tonight. My team didnโ€™t win but a good outing nonetheless.

I’m at a pub listening to The Unmade Podcast, playing chess online against my brother, and solving a New York Times crossword. I’m a total rager.

Is this the greatest store/office in Perth?

Speeding up Google Calendar .ics Subscription Refreshes: My project of the moment preventing me from going to bed: configuring a Google Calendar script to work, such that it will force GCal to refresh its .ics subscriptions from Fastmail every 15 minutes, rather than the default 12-24 hours. All so then SkedPal can read GCal and have accurate and timely โ€ฆ

Only Hemispheric Views offers One Prime Plus: I see that Macstories is introducing new levels of membership: TL;DR: Today, weโ€™re announcing the all-new Club MacStories featuring two additional tiers: Club MacStories+ and Club Premier. That’s all well and good, but always remember that only Hemispheric Views offers One Prime Plus โ€ฆ

Glamorous work travel in regional Western Australia.

I’m two episodes into Mr. Corman on AppleTV+ and already it’s one of the most impactful, enjoyable shows I’ve seen.

It’s been an expensive weekend. I bought a new TV - LG OLED C1 - then discovered my current Yamaha 375 receiver was too old to drive it, so had to upgrade to a new Denon AVR-X550BT receiver. Fortunately, I’d been saving money for a long time in a YNAB category!

Camera Comparison: Today I pulled my old cameras out from storage. This was prompted by my trial of Glass, and the reminder that my Flickr account still exists. I haven’t had much time to do anything with them, except charge the battery and try to reset them back to a state where they were taking jpegs and โ€ฆ

I am proud to announce that NBL Pocket Podcast finally has its own home on the web. ๐ŸŽ™ ๐ŸŒ ๐Ÿ€

I’ve pulled out my old cameras to have a play. Going to pare things right back: shoot jpg not RAW, use P mode instead of A/S, and see how things turn out. Back to basics. ๐Ÿ“ท

My wife will be jumping off a building in November! The WA Minister for Mines & Petroleum; Energy; Corrective Services was kind enough to draw attention to this fact in Parliament today: It’s all for a good cause though. Hannah is participating in the Central Park Plunge 2021 in support โ€ฆ

Gloomy and rainy.

Exploring Glass encouraged me to revisit Flickr. The latter is technically better (despite the bugs and UC mishmash) but people are active on Glass. If I could have only one, it would still be Flickr. Why canโ€™t that site be more successful? ๐Ÿ“ท

Isnโ€™t this the most Microsoft-y thing? Jargon, complexity, and obfuscation. Classic.

I finished watching Physical on AppleTV+. The first half of the series had me engaged and interested, the second half left me feeling undernourished and somewhat confused.

Tot, redux: iOS Edition: By way of follow-up to yesterday’s review of Tot, I can confirm I’ve bought the iOS version.

2005 doesnโ€™t seem all that long ago. (A shared post from Glass.)

With thanks to @keithpound Iโ€™m in at Glass. My username is canion over there, too.

I have succumbed.

Tot: Update: The day after writing this, I bought the iOS version of Tot. My friend and Hemispheric Views podcast co-host Martin Feld is Mr. Default. He likes Reminders. He like Mail.app. He likes Calendar. Not for him the world of OmniFocus, MailMate or Fantastical. No sirree. Keep it simple, keep โ€ฆ

This Twitter thread (which should be a blog, but anyway) from Rich Siegel regarding Electron on macOS should be required reading for anybody who takes even a vague interest in this stuff.

The situation in Afghanistan is deeply saddening. I think of all the women and children, in particular, who are now going to face extremely difficult lives, with no genuine prospect of relief. ๐Ÿ˜”

My sketchnote selfie done after watching the great Sketchnoting session at Micro Camp. @ChrisJWilson @cm

Beer in hand.

That time my son David got rocked in his pram by Luc Longley. A bunch of Perth people having a chat in Los Angeles.

Loverโ€™s Lament. โค๏ธ๐Ÿ’”

Micro Camp is coming! โ›บ๏ธ

Weekend plans.

In the process of cancelling my renewal for 1Password I noticed they were charging me more than their standard advertised rate. I was paying $5.49 per month, as opposed to their standard $4.99.

The March of Electron: 1Password Edition: I despise Electron apps. What is the point of having a superior operating system (macOS) if every app that resides on it is nobbled by not supporting basic elements of the underpinning system? I see the short-term reason that developers must use: standardised code, cheaper for development, most โ€ฆ

Pfizer jab #2 has definitely knocked me around, but totally worth it. Iโ€™m getting awesome 5G coverage, I missed a phone call from Bill Gates and the deep State have sent me a manilla folder with mission details inside! What a day! ๐Ÿ’‰

I’m maxinated! Starting to perhaps feel the affects of the second dose of Pfizer, but it’s a price worth paying! ๐Ÿ’‰

Standard signage at the Perth COVID vaccination clinic. ๐Ÿ’‰

My new R.M. Williams boots getting their inaugural wear.

For the heck of it I’ve installed the demo of Bare Bones' Yojimbo. I bought v2.1 on 26 November 2009 and upgraded to v3.0 on 20 October 2010. Version 4.6 doesn’t look to have changed much. The introductory document still refers to iPhoto.

Great to do some planning with @martinfeld and @Burk for the special live episode of @HemisphericViews podcast as part of the upcoming Micro.Camp. Get around the event! โ›บ๏ธ

Iโ€™m elated. Our Australian Boomers got the monkey off the back and won a bronze medal. ๐Ÿ€ ๐Ÿฅ‰

Iโ€™m having one of those โ€œfeels like a Fridayโ€ nights. Shame itโ€™s Thursday.

That Olympics basketball game was disappointing. Yet still a chance for Australia’s best ever result - bronze up for grabs!

Extension apps in the macOS menubar may as well be called Tribbles.

OmniFocus vs. Things: I’m thinking about a transition from OmniFocus to Things. I’ve used OF since launch, so this is no trivial matter. This line from a post by micro.blog user @40Tech resonates: OmniFocus almost begs you to add projects and contexts. I never seem to gain value from contexts/tags, but I โ€ฆ

I donโ€™t love the direction OmniFocus is moving in. SkedPal is full-on and challenging. Iโ€™ve never tried Things. Should I?

Great job Boomers, taking out Argentina. Now on to meet USA. ๐Ÿ€

July 2021

The FaceTime Centre Stage thing on the M1 iPad is amazing. Used it for the first time today and it was like having an on-site camera man. Mind blowing.

Time Machine just saved my butt. @HemisphericViews

USA Lose Another Basketball Game: This is what Damian Lillard said after the USA lost to France in their first ๐Ÿ€ game of the Tokyo Olympics: “I think that’s why a lot of people will make it seem like the end of the world, but our job as professionals and this team and representing our country at the Olympics, โ€ฆ

I like this quote. Richard Feynman via the brilliant weekly letter from @rishabh

I’ve bought Acorn from Flying Meat Software. It’s 50% off at the moment. Another tool to hang on the software shadow board.

๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต: Watching the Olympics is making me want to travel to Japan again. Not that it is remotely possible, of course, given our close companion, COVID. I love the cleanliness, the order, the food, the hot springs, and the structured culture of the place. The little bit more than one week of my life that โ€ฆ

BBEdit 14: I want to use and love BBEdit. I bought version 13 with a similar thought and feeling. That purchase seems like it was only a few months ago - in fact, I checked to see if I was eligible for the free upgrade. According to my receipt stored in 1Password, however, my v13 license was acquired on 21 โ€ฆ

I’m ‘meh’ about Brisbane winning the Olympics. They’re expensive, a security challenge, and the Olympics are in my view an event that has become too large. Is there the same sense of exhilaration about Brisbane winning as there was for Sydney 2000. I don’t think so.

I did the Today at Apple tutorial and drew myself as a Peanuts character.

BBEdit 14.0: I barely scratch the surface with my use of BBEdit. I’m not a coder. I use it for a bit of Markdown text editing (when I’m not using one of the other myriad Markdown apps I own) and for doing other small pieces of text manipulation. So when I saw that v14 was released, I figured I could โ€ฆ

๐Ÿ”— Link Post: “Why Are Young People Pretending to Love Work?” SF Gate: “From this vantage, โ€œOffice Space,โ€ the Gen-X slacker paean that came out 20 years ago next month, feels like science fiction from a distant realm. Itโ€™s almost impossible to imagine a startup worker bee of today โ€ฆ

I like being outside when itโ€™s raining but not cold.

With this much sleep, how is it that I still feel tired and run-down?

In the latest episode of @hemisphericviews we learn that Iโ€™m an expert in cooling your home, @burk discovers an app that no one has ever heard of and @martinfeld gets hung up on spelling and grammar for a moment (surprise!). Pocket Casts episode link

Coffee time. Today itโ€™s that weird Western Australian coffee, โ€œskinny long mac topped upโ€. Fortunately Iโ€™m friendly with the barista else Iโ€™d have felt like a complete dick ordering that.

The newest recording of @hemisphericviews is in the can. Or on the SSD. In the iCloud data centre. Look, itโ€™s done, okay?

Vaccination jab 1 of 2. โœ…

Boomers beat USA again! ๐Ÿ€

Another Crack at Git: Not long ago on this site I stated that I was fed up with git and that I was switching back to Dropbox. I did. It was still infuriating because I refuse to install the Dropbox client for this one measly application. So I’m back to git. Instead of using Atlassian’s Sourcetree for โ€ฆ

DAD | A film about autism and fatherhood: 

Today I’ve experienced Lebanese dessert delights from Youssef Sweets. Amazingly delicious. I could become a regular customer.

So what youโ€™re telling me is, patrons of @HemisphericViews also get a monthly โ€œHemispheric Newsโ€ newsletter? And if I want to get that, plus all the other perks, I simply go to oneprimeplus.com? Amazing!

Why do dishwashers take so long?

It was fun to watch Ash Barty win Wimbledon tonight. What a great player. The level of skill needed to play tennis well is crazy.

I was given the most hilarious product tour of Big Mail today by @Burk. Highlight of my day! He needs to do a video recording of it for all to see.

Doing the Switch SD shuffle getting data off two small SD cards in favour of one big one. My attempts to transfer via computer failed, so now Iโ€™m switching cards like Iโ€™m playing Wings on an Amiga 500 with one floppy drive.

The Tomorrow War, 2021 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: A fun romp with some requirement on behalf of the viewer to be โ€œhand waveyโ€ about time continuity. Perhaps ran a bit long. I enjoyed it though.

Sunset on a drizzly evening.

Business is picking up!

June 2021

Three Things Today | tyler.io: Three Things Today | tyler.io: So what is Three Things? Well, it’s a calendar that lets you schedule tasks on each day. It’s meant to be excruciatingly pragmatic and realistic about how life works. (At least my life.) It literally will not allow you to schedule more than three tasks per โ€ฆ

Seeing as @Burk and @martinfeld have shared their desktops, here’s mine.

Played Skip-Bo tonight after buying it on a whim today. Hadnโ€™t played it for about 25 years. Backed it up with some Uno. Wholesome family fun.

I’ve unsubscribed from the Dithering podcast. The reduction to two episodes a week, plus the lack of interesting topics over the past couple of months, led to me the decision to save my money.

Finished reading: So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Cal Newport ๐Ÿ“š. A more realistic approach to finding enjoyment from a working life. I still feel stuck in my career, though.

Introducing Windows 11 | Windows Experience Blog At a time when the PC is playing a more central role in our livesโ€ฆ This article starts boldly - the PC is more central in our lives? Really? iOS and Android say hi.

I dived into a pool that is 13.6ยฐC. ๐Ÿฅถ

Big Mail. Not good. This release looks to be a giant fail. Only have one chance to make a first impression, and theyโ€™ve not done well with me.

I hate migraine days.

Excited to have @netnewswire available on iOS with Inoreader syncing. Now I can use it everywhere. Thanks @brentsimmons. Reeder has been good to me, but NNW has my โค๏ธ.

I’ve been trying to use Firefox and while there are elements I like, it’s so much slower to load pages than Safari. I have no idea why.

Have received news that a former colleague of mine passed away a couple of days ago. Rest in Peace, Geoff. He was a great bloke.

Perth Wildcats ๐Ÿ€ have made their 9th Grand Final series in 12 years. That is a ridiculous record of success.

I have purged my iPad and am setting it up as new.

Iโ€™m thrilled to have recorded an NBL basketball podcast with a sports journalist hero of mine, Boti Nagy. So much fun. overcast.fm/+P5TsxZpx…

I already have a Drafts subscription. Do I need Tot?

I woke up in the middle of the night to watch the WWDC live stream with my @HemisphericViews co-hosts and a group of Hemispheric Viewers(?). It was the first time I’ve co-watched an Apple Event with friends. Discord made a great platform for it. So much fun.

I’m booked in for my Pfizer vaccination! Thank you science. ๐Ÿ’‰

Without a doubt, the best drawing Iโ€™ve ever done. ๐Ÿ–ผ

Wardrobe Management: This article originally appeared in the May 2021 Hemispheric News as part of One Prime Plus for the Hemispheric Views podcast. Become a member today! What is there to manage about a wardrobe, I hear you say. โ€œA lotโ€, I respond. Youโ€™ve got your hanging section, drawers and maybe some open shelving. โ€ฆ

Legislation Bill 2021: Do you want to hear my wife talk about a legislation bill to better manage legislation? Then I’ve got the video for you!

I’m giving Firefox another chance as my default browser. My major concerns issues are: battery impact and lack of Touch ID/Apple Pay support.

The most depressing food court in the world.

Parasite, 2019 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: Watched on Tuesday June 1, 2021.

May 2021

Hemispheric Views Mentioned in the Wild: What an honour for the podcast Hemispheric Views I create together with Jason and Martin to be included in Michael Camilleri’s podcast queue. Podcasts Iโ€™m Listening To: Spring 2021: Hemispheric Views: Did we need another three-white-guys-talk-about-Apple podcast? Probably not but the โ€ฆ

Following the example set by @Burk, I too have expunged TextExpander from my macOS life. The shortcuts I need now live in Keyboard Maestro. Jason put his in Alfred.

My kingdom for a good mouse that works with macOS. Logitech MX Master 3 - garbage drivers cause lag all over the place. Razer Viper Ultimate - doesn’t work with macOS. Apple Magic Mouse - ergonomic hell. Why is this so hard?

Solve-A-Mystery Games by Society of Curiosities looks like it could be fun. Thanks @Burk for the recommendation.

Contributing members of Hemispheric Views received their special One Prime Plus bonus podcast content today. If youโ€™re curious what youโ€™re missing out on, check out oneprimeplus.com.

Iโ€™ve also enabled Tap to Click on the iPad Magic Keyboard. The civilised way to click on all Apple trackpad devices.

Iโ€™ve remapped the Caps Lock key to be Escape on my new iPad Magic Keyboard. That seems much more useful.

Finished reading: Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. ๐Ÿ“š Some good ideas that fortunately I’ve already implemented but the book has encouraged me to take it further.

Stickers! @hemisphericviews @manton @burk @martinfeld

Finished reading: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb ๐Ÿ“š An interesting book that draws heavily on Thinking, Fast and Slow: Kahneman, Daniel which I also recommend you read. We humans need to apply back-stories to stochastic events in an effort to make sense โ€ฆ

Installing macOS apps from the Terminal with brew install appname is so much quicker and easier than browsing to a website, finding the download, messing with the .dmg, deleting the .dmgโ€ฆ I love it.

This looks to be an interesting podcast @jean @Burk overcast.fm

A fresh cut for the little guy. All ready for school photos this week.

The @hemisphericviews empire has grown to include an Apple Music playlist featuring favourite songs from your three hosts, @martinfeld @Burk. Sorry Spotify listeners - we can’t help you.

How good does this look? @vincent @hemisphericviews

Oh no. Iโ€™ve got a bung eye. ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ’ฅ

Give People Space: The Neuroscience of Busyness - Study Hacks - Cal Newport: You want more out of your employees? Radically reduce their responsibilities, then leave them alone to execute. You want your small business to grow? Focus your attention on a single target, and give yourself the space to do it better. This โ€ฆ

What happened to all the Milton Friedman acolytes? The business lobby has fretted for years about national indebtedness. Now it’s not an issue. I’ve always been a Keynesian so it makes sense to me, but where’s the backbone of those that argued tooth and nail for austerity for such โ€ฆ

Itโ€™s cool when you see your podcastโ€™s colour scheme specifically made available in an app. Thanks @vincent - Gluon is the best!

Changing the Mac HD Icon: Does anyone know where I can get a decent icon file of a MacBook Air (Space Grey)? I want to replace the hard disk icon of Macintosh HD. I’ve finally been able to get rid of the stupid mechanical disk icon. My Macs don’t even have those sort of hard drives. Now I have nice icons that โ€ฆ

The new Gluon app icons are amazing @vincent ๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿ”ฅ

This weekend’s obsession has been SkedPal - notably the beta 3 version. It takes over from the previous weekend’s router analysis and before that, Craft. Special interests and links with autism. ๐Ÿค”

SkedPal: SkedPal - the smart calendar app that schedules your to-do’s: Do you thrive on schedules and action plans? Tell SkedPal the things you want to do and advanced algorithms will build a smart schedule for you. I’m digging into this planning software, despite the ๐Ÿšจ around some elements. โ€ฆ

A simple bookmarklet to post links to Micro.blog based on the current page in your desktop browser. Supports text selections.Source: Micro.blog Posting Bookmarklet โ€“ Colin Devroe Seems to work a treat. Thanks @cdevroe.

Announcing Hemispheric Views โ€œOne Prime Plusโ€ on Patreon!: Donโ€™t worryโ€ฆ the regular @hemisphericviews podcast isn’t changing, moving or going away! Our new One Prime Plus membership option is simply a sweetener for those who wish to gain extra content and show support for their favourite podcast and its hosts @martinfeld, @Burk and I. Pledge your โ€ฆ

Maiden Speech of Hannah Beazley MLA, Member for Victoria Park: My wife has presented her maiden speech to the Parliament of Western Australia, as the Member for Victoria Park. It was an honour to be in the public gallery to watch her deliver this speech. It’s been a long journey, but the reward makes it all worthwhile!

I have such a blast recording @HemisphericViews with @martinfeld and @Burk. A consistent highlight of my fortnight.

April 2021

Resistance was futile… iPad Pro.

Iโ€™m loving my new Asus ZenWifi mesh devices. Way faster than my old Google Wifi. It took an entire weekend of research and a lengthy Craft document with input from @Burk but Iโ€™m sure it has paid off. My internet is now the best it can be.

As an update to my last post Iโ€™ve stress tested my wifi signal and I feel relieved. My crappy router is still crappy and a mesh network is necessary. Money not wasted.

A New Internet Stack: My entire internet stack is being rebuilt. I changed ISP. The new ISPs connection uses a different protocol which wasnโ€™t working with my Google Wifi, so Iโ€™ve temporarily reverted to my modem/router which has been in bridge-only mode for the past 3 years. Now my wifi is faster than it has been in โ€ฆ

So with all my wifi research, I haven’t bought any new hardware, but I have signed up to a new ISP. ๐Ÿคท๐Ÿผโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Wifi Options…

Iโ€™m losing confidence in my Google wifi mesh setup. Is Eero any better? If I spend on a network upgrade Iโ€™d like for it to be appreciably better.

Iโ€™ve got new glasses. I hate getting new glasses. Everything looks wonky through them and there’s always that feeling the prescription is wrong. New glasses are an anxiety creation machine.

Thanks for your post about Daily Notes in Craft, @toddgrotenhuis. Iโ€™ve switched to Craft after trying Obsidian, and also being a Dynalist user.

I hate slide decks.

Soul, 2020 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: A beautiful surrealist movie that was pitch perfect. Elements of Mr Hollandโ€™s Opus in the story.

Fixing the Big Sur proxy icon delay globally: Brett Terpstra: I had previously bemoaned the fact that the proxy icon is now hidden behind a hover delay in Big Sur. Listeners of Hemispheric Views will be aware of my love for the macOS proxy icon. I am overjoyed to learn that macOS-magic-man Brett Terpstra has found a way to have the proxy icon โ€ฆ

Look at this wally, repping the @hemisphericviews merch.

Crap. I think I’m getting into Obsidian. Just when I thought I’d settled on Dynalist and DEVONthink.

Donnelly River in the south-west of Western Australia features kangaroos and emus that are not at all fussed with people.

I had my first drive of a Tesla. It was the Model 3. I want one now.

I’ve discovered the ability to install GUI-based apps via Homebrew Casks. Saves mucking around with .dmg files, dragging and dropping to the Applications folder. Still fun to learn new things about computing!

Discovered my internet was slow. After factory restores and firmware updates for all my networking devices, Iโ€™m back to full speed. I wonder for how long my network had been non-optimal?

My Version of the MacSparky Status Board: Recently David Sparks has posted a number of blog entries about his status board creation1. This takes the form of a kanban board of significant projects that he manually updates, providing a graphical overview of his work and life. I’m a big fan of tools based around the lean methodologies, โ€ฆ

Alice, 2019 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Brilliant performances from the cast. An emotionally impactful film.

Cooked perfect steaks on the barbecue tonight. Delicious!

Frenzic: Frenzic: Overtime โ€“ Coming Soon to Apple Arcade โ€ข The Breakroom All of us here at the Iconfactory have dreamt of creating a sequel to the original Frenzic, which first debuted on the App Store thirteen years ago. Thanks to Apple Arcade, that dream is about to become a reality. Has it really been โ€ฆ

Back to the Future Part II, 1989 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: Not as tightly managed as the original but still fun. The Almanac is a classic MacGuffin.

World Autism Awareness Day: Today is World Autism Awareness Day. Our eldest son, now 9, was diagnosed with autism at age 5. This was young enough for him to benefit from early intervention support which has made a huge difference to his life. It was not, and cannot be, a cure. There is no such thing, nor would I want there to โ€ฆ

My second trial of HEY is ending and Iโ€™m happily retreating to my Fastmail/Sanebox combo.

๐ŸŽ™Coming in at less than 7 minutes, a show thatโ€™s highly relevant to our situation today. I would go so far as to call it a must-listen. Hemispheric Views 024: The Truth about Big Avocado!

I like the idea of imputation - too many businesses miss this vital component.

Dealing with my 9-year oldโ€™s autistic meltdowns is hard. ๐Ÿ˜“

March 2021

๐Ÿ”— Link Post: "{macro}Dungeon": Game Crafter Deal of the Day: “Up to 4 players take turns drawing cards and making movements through one of four caves in an attempt to outpace their competitors on the way to the treasure room.” This board game has been designed by my friend Jason Burk. It’s on sale today; grab โ€ฆ

Hannah Beazley MLA: I am immensely proud of my wife, Hannah Beazley, who has been duly elected as a Member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, representing the District of Victoria Park. As the WA Labor Party won the State Election, she is now a member of our State Government. While the result was known on โ€ฆ

The Archive: The Archive owes its heritage to nvAlt, which owes its heritage to Notational Velocity — a unique piece of software that broke new ground by integrating new note creation with search in an Omnibar. I’m old enough to remember using the original Notational Velocity. The Archive is true โ€ฆ

I hit the basketball court for the first time in a long time yesterday. My free throw percentage was better than ever, but three point range was a struggle! ๐Ÿ˜ฉ๐Ÿ€

Fastmail: My mate Jason is digging into Fastmail, and liking what he sees. Fastmail. Who Knew? - //Jason Burk: Recently after a discussion about email on Episode 023 of Hemispheric Views, I dug into the settings and configuration of Fastmail and I was pleasantly surprised by how much more than a simple host โ€ฆ

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Canal: Jamie Thingelstad - Container Ship Queue: They normally pass 50 ships a day through the canal. With so many backed up, it will be a few days before things get back to normal. The linked article includes some cool graphical imagery of the shipping impact of the Panama Suez Canal1 being blocked. It โ€ฆ

Thereโ€™ll be a new episode of Hemispheric Views podcast dropping soon. Best catch up on the last episode then. The episode is named Perthonalities! as we reference people from my home town of Perth, Australia. 49 minutes of top-quality audio enjoyment!

Iโ€™m enjoying getting to know @mandaris who sounds like one of the happiest people on Earth. A great episode! pca.st

I want an email app that works with standard IMAP, but is well-designed and something different, like Hey. Is that too much to ask?

A quick test post straight from Ulysses 22 to micro.blog. Awesome to see Ulysses supporting the best blog host on the internet!

Artemis Fowl, 2020 - โ˜…โ˜…: Watched on Sunday March 21, 2021.

My HEY experiment is not going well. For some reason, forwarding from Fastmail to HEY isn’t working. But I canโ€™t be bothered figuring out why.

The battery of my iPad Pro 2017 has reached that point where it drains rapidly, even in standby. It does everything I need of it, so I could probably get a battery replacement. Or, I could buy the upcoming new iPad Pro or the current iPad Air. Prudent decision versus fun one. ๐Ÿค”

Me and my boys. Benji refuses to smile for any photo.

Dammit Microbloggers, now Iโ€™m trialling HEY again.

Do you listen to @hemisphericviews podcast? Are you a member of our Discord chat room? You should do both, because at the moment Iโ€™m giving away a free license of The Archive for macOS.

My wife has a Wikipedia entry. Iโ€™m only a tiny bit jealous.

This is very clever and helpful - @Hemisphericviews Media Corner reference page. Thanks @Burk. micro.burk.io

Downside of no Covid-19 lockdowns: stuffed nose/cold.

An Interview with Nick Elam (of Elam Ending Fame) ๐Ÿ€: My friend Joe and I had the opportunity to interview Nick Elam, who is the creator of basketball’s Elam Ending, for the NBL Pocket Podcast. We are on a mission to bring the Elam Ending to the Australian NBL. Having the opportunity to speak with Nick was a genuine honour. If you like โ€ฆ

Johnnyโ€ขDecimal: Johnnyโ€ขDecimal: A system to organise projects: There are a couple of core concepts, and theyโ€™re so simple youโ€™ll wonder why you havenโ€™t thought of them before. Itโ€™s worth mentioning at this point that all of this is free, and itโ€™s possible to implement it without any additional tools. I was โ€ฆ

Iโ€™m in todayโ€™s paper, smooching my wife! โค๏ธ๐Ÿ˜˜

My wife is the incoming Member for Victoria Park in the Western Australian State Parliament!

I love, love, love creating the @Hemisphericviews podcast with @Burk and @martinfeld. If you havenโ€™t given it a chance, this is a fun one to start with. Performance reviews to pickles,episode 22 has it all.

Not often that Iโ€™m awake early enough to hear the kookaburras doing their morning laughs. Such a great sound.

That feeling when you wake up at 3:15am to record a podcast interview, then figure it’s not worth trying to go back to sleep after it’s done. I appreciate what @Burk deals with when we record @HemisphericViews now.

Calendar Hero: Calendar Hero ยป tyler.io: It sits on your Desktop, below all of your other windows, and…shows your weekly calendar. It highlights the current day, the current hour of that day, and shows a countdown until your next event. Thatโ€™s it. Thatโ€™s all I want. This is terrific for somebody like me โ€ฆ

Giraffe at Perth Zoo: Giraffe It was amazing to be able to see the giraffes at Perth Zoo close-up yesterday. They have big heads!

Egg Face.

Audio-Technica ATH-M50x: I bought a set of Audio-Technica ATH-M50x to replace my ageing Bose QuietComfort 15s. I’d already replaced the earmuffs on the Bose’s a couple of times. Now the headphones have the exterior coating of the foam flaking off. I was also getting sick of having to replace the AAA battery on โ€ฆ

Back to the Future, 1985 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Itโ€™s been years since Iโ€™ve seen this movie. The editing is great; no scene is wasted. Christopher Lloyd is slapstick gold. Why donโ€™t they make films like this anymore?

I love this album. It makes my wife contemplate an early death. music.apple.com

I’ve settled into a great โ€™daily notes and other documentationโ€™ system using Dynalist. I’ve never had this much consistent success with any app, except for perhaps Day One, which I also still use.

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 31: โ€˜defianceโ€™ ๐Ÿ“ท

This app, TextBuddy makes me giddy.

How good is this offer? An opportunity to win free stickers from the worldโ€™s leading podcast! Hemispheric Views - Blog - Hey everyone! Who’s up for a sticker giveaway!?

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 30: โ€˜privacyโ€™ ๐Ÿ“ท

Wall: Take two at publishing via wall.blot.im. When did this become a thing? Fascinating.

I Forgot About 1Writer: I also own 1Writer, which also plugs directly into Dropbox, and is, arguably, a better editor. It’s certainly a more fully-featured one. Yes, I own many text editors. It’s the curse of the tinkerer. I also forgot that you can pretend a file name with _ in Blot and it won’t โ€ฆ

Posting here using Byword: Iโ€™ve owned Byword for many years. I think it was the first Markdown editor I bought, for both iOS and macOS. I abandoned it a long time ago as well, as it seemed to pale in comparison with other Markdown editors. In looking for an easier way to post to Blot via Dropbox, however, Greg Moore suggested โ€ฆ

Micro.blog has been on fire the last few days. Iโ€™ve really enjoyed the interactions. Thanks everybody! ๐Ÿ”ฅ ๐Ÿ’ฏ ๐Ÿคš๐Ÿป

I do a weekly Australian National Basketball League (NBL) podcast, NBL Pocket Podcast. Todayโ€™s episode is out and I think itโ€™s a particularly fun one. ๐Ÿ€ ๐ŸŽ™

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 29: โ€˜lightโ€™ ๐Ÿ“ท

Alfred on macOS seems to be much more dynamically developed than Launchbar. As a long-time Launchbar user I’m wondering if it’s time to invest in the Alfred PowerPack and retrain my fingers?

February 2021

A question for the micro.bloggers: What is the website you most often visit, and why? Mine is probably ABC News - Australia because I’m old.

Unexpected events today: Credit card details stolen and $1,500 of fraudulent transactions incurred. Our 5-year old boy decided to wander off to fight criminals by himself. Eventually found, thanks to neighbourhood community and police.

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 28: I cleaned โ€˜upโ€™ the front porch. ๐Ÿ“ท

Iโ€™m feeling the urge to add a bookmarks manager to my workflow. I already use Instapaper, but now Iโ€™m thinking about adding either Pinboard.in or Raindrop.io to the mix.

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 27: โ€˜pompasettingโ€™. Hemispheric Views is the best podcast in the world. ๐Ÿ“ท

MailTrackerBlocker for Mail on macOS: Block tracking pixels in macOS Mail.app with MailTrackerBlocker for Mail on macOS: I generally use MailMate which has pixel blocking built-in, or Fastmail apps which also block tracking. But it’s good to have an option for Apple Mail as well.

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 26: My โ€˜favouriteโ€™ sight of today. ๐Ÿ“ท

Always a great day when a new episode of @HemisphericViews podcasts drops. In Hemispheric Views 021: Ad Lib! we work without notes. And end up talking about restaurants, neck ties and Mars. It’s compelling!

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 25: โ€˜codeโ€™ ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 24: โ€˜babyโ€™ ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 23: โ€˜Bananaโ€™ ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 22: โ€˜Spellโ€™ ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 21: โ€˜Colo(u)rsโ€™ ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 20: โ€˜Weatherโ€™ ๐Ÿ“ท

Give the tradie who’s been doing hard yakka in your yard all day a beer at the end of it. ๐Ÿบ

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 19: โ€˜Aliveโ€™ ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 18: โ€˜At Homeโ€™ ๐Ÿ“ท

I had settled on Dynalist. Now NotePlan 3 has arrived on Setapp. Just when I thought I would be able to settle on a single solution!

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 17: ‘Still’ ๐Ÿ“ท

Iโ€™ve got Bernie, @HemisphericViews plaque and a Sofa Shop pin from The Unmade Podcast. What a collection!

I watched the first 3 episodes of WandaVision. Iโ€™m not a Marvel guy by any means, but I enjoyed this show. To be honest I would have been good with it as a simple old fashioned sit-com and nothing more. ๐Ÿ“บ

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 16: ‘Erudite’ ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 15: ‘Reflection’ ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 14: โ€˜Compassionโ€™. Donating our money from bottle recycling to the Perth Bushfire Relief Fund. ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 13: โ€˜Makeโ€™. I was able to make these acoustic walls today. ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 12: โ€˜Sporgโ€™. ๐Ÿ“ท

New episode! Hemispheric Views 020: A Jumper Is a Sloppy Joe! Rate, review, subscribe, tell two friends about it!

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 11: โ€˜Machineโ€™. ๐Ÿ“ท

Thanks @vincent for making me aware of the Micro.blog photo challenge ical subscription, and thanks @Burk for making it! cc: @jean @manton

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 10: โ€˜Energyโ€™. ๐Ÿ“ท

As part of a backyard renovation, we are having a large tree lopped and removed today. Our whole family feels terrible and guilty about it. ๐Ÿ˜”

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 9: โ€˜Muddyโ€™. When you go tadpoling with the kids. ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 8: โ€˜Hopeโ€™. I hope he doesn’t crash. ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 7: โ€˜Cravingโ€™ ๐Ÿ“ท

The Social Dilemma, 2020 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…: Own your content! Pay for services to flip the script.

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 6: โ€˜Sportโ€™. Basketball has always been a huge part of my life. Iโ€™ve moved into a new phase recently, working on an NBL podcast, co-streaming games and participating in post-game press conferences. Life is full of amazing twists and turns. ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 5: โ€˜Petsโ€™. Fish are as close as we have at the moment. ๐Ÿ“ท

“Walk with Apple”: It’s difficult to take life advice from 22-year old Shawn Mendes.

Went for a walk around the block. Didn’t buy coffee from the local organics shop because they had an anti-5G poster in the window.

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 4: โ€˜Layersโ€™ of pants. ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 3: โ€˜Comfortโ€™. Bur-de-Bur, the teddy I received at my birth. He knows all my deepest secrets. ๐Ÿ“ท

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 2: โ€˜Morning Beverageโ€™. Iโ€™ve already had two morning beverages, but didnโ€™t see the challenge in time. Hence, empty cup. ๐Ÿ“ท

Who does Flickr? I use it as a storage location, but I admit I don’t have a community over there. Now I’ve ditched Instagram, I wish it had more people and everyday photos in addition to the โ€˜high art' that tends to be its focus.

Micro.blog Photo Challenge: Day 1: โ€˜close upโ€™. Apologies for the visage; no face-tuning here. ๐Ÿ“ท

January 2021

๐Ÿ”— Link Post: “A New Board Game: {macro}Dungeon - //Jason Burk” Jason Burk writing for Burk.io: “Players can advance in boring one increment moves or strategically build macro sets that can contain up to 5 moves allowing you to jump ahead of the competition.” My friend Jason โ€ฆ

Here in Western Australia weโ€™ve had a person out in the community who had the UK strain of COVID-19. So weโ€™re all getting a week of lockdown. School was going back tomorrow! ๐Ÿ˜ญ

Good deed for the day: I approached the automated grocery store check-out machine as lady ahead moves on. At least $200 cash had been dispensed and was sitting there. I quickly called her back to get her money: the relief on her face was palpable.

I’ve checked in with OmniFocus. I have been yak shaving for the past three hours. I think I can now do what I originally intended to do.

I created a Linktree account, because, well, I don’t really have a because.

ShortcutDetective by Irradiated Software is a great app for finding out which app is eating a keyboard shortcut in macOS. Stupid Logitech Daemon was taking away an important DEVONthink shortcut - and not even using it for anything. Stupid Logitech.

Out, 2020 - โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ: Watched on Tuesday January 26, 2021.

On Australia Day Iโ€™m listening to German @ohbananajoe talk to American @jean while drinking Japanese Asahi.

It was fun to do another commentary of an NBL game on Twitch tonight. Cairns Taipans hosted Melbourne United. ๐Ÿ€

Does self-promotion have no bounds? @hemisphericviews

My brother challenged me to a game of chess. Now Iโ€™m challenging you. Start the game here! play.chess.com/N6ivZ

Thanks to @Burk for providing a method to automate NextDNS updating my non-static IP address. He’s a smart cookie.

The macOS Finder can be controversial! Where do you stand on it? Listen to @HemisphericViews HVmini and see who you (dis)agree with.

I’ve disabled my Raspberry Pi & Pi-Hole combo as I try out NextDNS for a while. Early impressions are that it’s technically good, but documentation needs work!

This morning I took an Uber into the city, and it was a Tesla. Wow! This afternoon I came home on a bus.

Turns out Karabiner Elements isnโ€™t so compatible with an M1 Mac. It caused a weird purple flash at shutdown and an OS error message upon boot. This article explains the problem and solution.

This water spill looks like Australia and some islands of Indonesia.

Listening to Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon. This album never gets old. ๐ŸŽถ

I had a heap of fun doing commentary on tonightโ€™s NBL game on Twitch. Provides a reminder as to how well professionals can avoid dead air. Not easy to maintain constant dialogue! ๐Ÿ€ ๐ŸŽ™

Iโ€™m doing a Twitch commentary live stream of the first NBL game of the season today. Partnering with my podcast friend, Joe Corr, this is the first attempt at live-streaming by the NBL Pocket Podcast empire. ๐Ÿ€

Whatโ€™s that? I have to go back to work today? Noooooo!!!!

kieranhealy.org/blog/arch… I think this is a great explanation.

I’ve reactivated Resilio Sync to share content between my iMac and MacBook Air (and possibly my iOS devices). Figured I owned a license, so may as well use it.

Facebook: deleted. WhatsApp: deleted. You’re on borrowed time, Instagram.

Iโ€™ve proceeded with a full Facebook account deletion. I previously archived it, but Iโ€™m so done with them now. Happy for the account to be trashed.

I want to say something stupid like, โ€œgo home, America, youโ€™re drunkโ€, but this is more serious than that. How about,โ€œimpeach Trump immediatelyโ€?

I got to 87 daily reviews in Readwise before I broke the chain.

My purchased licenses for BusyCal and BusyContacts ran out. My Setapp subscription to the rescue, with both of those apps included in the bundle!

I had the opportunity to use a Remarkable 2 yesterday. I donโ€™t want one, I donโ€™t want oneโ€ฆ Help!!!

Is there a blogging/publishing platform that allows writing in the form of an outline, besides Little Outliner?

Currently reading: Beartown: A Novel by Backman, Fredrik ๐Ÿ“š

Okay, this is smart. Using a Discourse forum as a blog of sorts. Keeping topics tied together. This eliminates the stupid date-based approach of a blog, without the hassle of a wiki.

Kyle, from Apple Fitness+, is no joke. I tried hard, Kyle, I promise!

Back to Dropbox with Blot: About 18 months ago I transitioned the publishing of this site to use Git. It was cool, but overly cumbersome for my needs. I avoided posting here because of the overhead that Git created with respect to the publishing process. At the same time, I didn’t want to install Dropbox on my โ€ฆ

2020 Retrospective: What are the rules about linking to my own post on another website I own? Andrew Canion - 2020 Retrospective: For me, the narrative that 2020 was a complete write-off is not fair. A lot happened in 2020 and much of it has been positive and transformational.

2020 Retrospective: The general world-view of 2020 is that it was shit. In many ways, I agree. However, living in Perth, Western Australia in 2020 had to have been one to the best outcomes. We have been largely unaffected by COVID-19 in terms of community transmission. We had a period of lockdown as a precautionary โ€ฆ

This kid is a little ripper.

2021 is go. No expectation that it will be a salve for 2020 but still taking the optimistic approach.

December 2020

Did a 20 minute Apple Fitness+ workout. I need heavier dumb-bells. ๐Ÿ‹๐Ÿป

Dynalist as a Tool for Daily Notes: I’ve been consciously taking more and better daily notes. Part of this is to build a greater awareness of what I do and how I spend my time. Part of it is to be able to capture and later resurface information. I’ve tried a number of various solutions to this. I experimented with Bullet โ€ฆ

For any micro.bloggers that play games - even rarely and recreationally like me - there is a Discord server you might like. I think this invite link dies in 1 day, but the channel is Micro.Blog Game Days. discord.gg/7agXe9fG

Rosรฉ Day. 38ยฐC.

In the last few days I’ve been more successful writing daily notes with Dynalist than I have been with any number of previous software options. I think outliners are simply my jam.

The obituary of Gary Yates Canion.

Started playing Animal Crossing. Itโ€™s a game of nothing that somehow consumes your time like a ravenous time phantom.

I need to tidy my study. Make things more accessible, particularly my dSLR which has languished. It used to be a core hobby, now I never touch it. Actually, the whole idea of photography sort of seems like work. The rise of camera phones has devalued photography as its own thing.

I don’t have the energy to truly investigate Obsidian. It’s software that is raved about, but I can’t muster the care to try it. Between The Archive, DEVONthink, Dynalist, etc. I already have too many places to take notes. Even if Obsidian could be the one I can’t find the โ€ฆ

Thanks to @joshsullivan, @jack, @twelvety who maintain wikis that I enjoy visiting and reading. Consider me your wiki-lurker. Merry Christmas!

Summer evening on the porch.

More Evidence Against Trickle-Down Economic Theory: Keeping tax low for rich does not boost economy: From the Department of the Blinding Obvious, which has been consistently challenged by the Department of Vested Interests, comes a new paper demonstrating that Trickle-Down Economics… wait for it… doesn’t work! Major reforms โ€ฆ

I’m impressed with Apple Fitness+. The quality of the entire thing - presenters, set design, technology stack. All brilliant.

Waking up a sleeping M1 MacBook Air really is fast. Now I understand what Craig Federighi was talking about. Open the lid - bam, ready to go. Guess what, @Burk - my Intel iMac really is trash now.

My moment of fame on The Unmade Podcast Supporter Role Call

Co-host of @HemisphericViews @martinfeld has taken the Milo discussion from our latest podcast episode to a new level. He has released Flavours of Feld, a video demonstrating correct Milo technique. Watch the video, subscribe to the podcast!

The screen on my new MacBook Air is never going to be this clean again.

Iโ€™ve got a problem where calendars shared from Fastmail via .ics link to Google Calendar arenโ€™t showing any events in Google. Is Fastmail providing a malformed URL or is GooCal borked?

๐Ÿ”— Link Post: “Daring Fireball: Ecosia Is Now a Default Search Engine Option for Safari” John Gruber writing for Daring Fireball: “I actually hadnโ€™t heard of Ecosia before, but their story is interesting enough that Iโ€™m giving them a shot.” If Gruber listened to Hemispheric โ€ฆ

The latest mini-episode from @HemisphericViews talks spiders, Nissan Bluebirds and Gobbledoks. Have a listen. ๐ŸŽ™

I express my gratitude to the community of micro.blog, so many of whom gave their best wishes to me when I shared the news of my Dad dying. This really is a great neighbourhood of the internet - thank you all. ๐Ÿ’•๐Ÿ™Œ

Chrome is Bad: Chrome is Bad: Short story: Google Chrome installs something called Keystone on your computer, which nefariously hides itself from Activity Monitor and makes your whole computer slow even when Chrome isn’t running. Deleting Chrome and Keystone makes your computer way, way faster, all the โ€ฆ

I didnโ€™t have the best nor closest relationship with my Dad. Today, however, he passed away to be with God and I appreciate the part he played in my life.

I’ve cloned logseq to my Github repo. An interesting clone of Roam Research โ€“ A note taking tool for networked thought..

Micro.blog compatriot @Gaby submitted his desk to @HemisphericViews for review. What do we have to say? @Burk @martinfeld Best listen and find out! ๐ŸŽ™

The latest episode of The NBL Pocket Podcast is live. If you want an update on the past week of Australian basketball, this is the podcast to listen you want. ๐Ÿ€๐ŸŽ™

Never change, Amazon.

Kids are occupied, wind isnโ€™t too bad, and heat has died down. Itโ€™s nice to be sitting on the front porch now.

HVmini // Craig's Desk: Are you curious to see how otherโ€™s set their desks up? We were @HemisphericViews so we asked listeners to shareโ€ฆ and they did! First up is Craig. Follow along with the podcast with best-in-class show notes, including photos. You also get to see how the sausage was made as we share a screenshot of โ€ฆ

I’ve installed Big Sur on my iMac. So far, all seems well. I went to enable reduce transparency, only to discover I must have had it enabled in Catalina as the setting had transferred over.

Family night at the Victoria Park Family Christmas fair. Great to be out and about.

As usual, things get a bit crazy on @Hemisphericviews: @Burk drinks multiple beverages at once; I go overboard on ‘Media Corner’, selecting multiple items; and @martinfeld is shocked to discover that he is actually from the future. Is there an almanac for that? pca.st

There was the faint sound of an ice cream truck in the distance. Our kids have convinced Mum to take them in the car to track it down!๐Ÿฆ๐Ÿš‘

I’ve stayed up too late playing XCOM2. I can never get enough of that game. ๐Ÿ•น

November 2020

Let’s Fix OmniFocus โ€” Paul Sahner. This is a great article. I hope Omni are reading.

This final microblogvember post shall reinforce and remind me how difficult it is to post in accordance with a pre-determined word every day for a month! But I did it! #mbnov

I’ve had quite the pedestrian weekend, to date. #mbnov

I feel I live in one of the few places in the world where a mask has not been required at any point (yet) through the entire coronavirus pandemic. #mbnov

What am I going to write for today’s microblogvember post? Itโ€™s a dilemma #mbnov

TheBrain is on sale at the moment. Itโ€™s still expensive though. Yet Iโ€™m tempted. Even though I feel like DevonThink has me covered. ๐Ÿค”๐Ÿคฏ

Nothing is so perfect that one can’t adjust it to make it a little better. #mbnov

I took a call from a lady in Adelaide today. Wrong number. #mbnov

“No-one gets rich just by working hard.” โ€” (Royce Kurmelovs, Just Money) Resurfaced with readwise.io

I love NBL Pocket Podcast day! pca.st

I canโ€™t wait to provision a new MacBook Air. I may set it up without Migration Assistant; a completely fresh start for new chip architecture. #mbnov

When I took photographer more seriously and used a dSLR I would work hard to capture the perfect frame. Now, with iPhone photography I don’t invest nearly as much effort, and the results demonstrate that. My photography has regressed. #mbnov

I wrote a TextExpander snippet with my pen. It didn’t work.

By our State Government closing Western Australia’s border we have been spared the worst of the coronavirus. #mbnov

By using @LaunchBar 37 ร— per day, Iโ€™ve saved 27h 37m and became The Abbreviator! (since 17 June 2014)

As we head towards December, winter is becoming a distant memory. Next phase of our local weather should be ridiculous heat. #mbnov

Keep Practising 19: Podcast Player Roundup: I’ve trialled a few different podcast player apps over the past few days. This is a short summary of my findings, after trialling Apple Podcasts, Castro, Overcast and Pocket Casts.

Iโ€™m enjoying Pocket Casts as a podcast player. Iโ€™ve always been aware of it, but never tried it. Now I have, and I think it could be the best of the bunch.

How cool is this? Thank you @Burk

Imagine if Trump decided to quietly fade into obscurity. What a blessing that would be. #mbnov

Send us your desk photos! Does Jason like his iPhone mini? We talk ‘one more thing’. Is TestFlight a cover for iOS demos? Andrew shares one of his weird documents. Surely you begin your week on Monday? And Media Corner! Hemispheric Views 009: You’ve Buggered Up Your Quadrants!

My son and I found it possible to fill our scavenger hunt egg carton on our afternoon walk. #mbnov

My Apple Podcasts experiment lasted about a day. The device sync is good. Nothing else is. Seems like Overcast is the only show in town for multi-device sync and a sane interface.

Iโ€™m taking a look at the default Apple Podcasts app. The library interface is inscrutable. Does this app make sense to others?

We all have a dependence upon our Earth. How about we stop screwing it up? #mbnov

My son has given me a bunch of reasons why a train is a cool vehicle. Theyโ€™re comfortable, they let you travel around, theyโ€™re quiet… #mbnov

I’ve been a computer nerd virtually my entire life. I remember when a computer had 8 kilobytes of memory. Those were the days. #mbnov

Don’t forget about micro.blog game days. Details, plus a downloadable .ics file can be found at microgaming.space Come and play! ๐Ÿ•น

Check out the desk of @Burk in the latest episode of Hemispheric Views mini. You could even listen to it on a new HomePod mini, if you wish!

When I was young I loved The Far Side by Gary Larson. Unfortunately his recent reboot hasnโ€™t grabbed me in the same way. #mbnov

This was our beautiful girl, Indi. @gabz

I’m contemplating the worth of getting a second HomePod (maxi), putting it into a stereo pair with my existing one. Then removing the receiver, giant speakers, etc. Just simplifying (perhaps?) it all.

I would be happy to watch a spooky movie tonight but I can’t think of one. #mbnov

This probably explains why I couldnโ€™t get MarsEdit to launch yesterday. Sorry @danielpunkass mjtsai.com Apple Server Outage Makes Mac Apps Hang on Launch

Own Your Content: Om Malik on Instagramโ€™s Updates: I feel sad for photographers who think their future is on Instagram and the social network it brings. They donโ€™t realize that they are there to help sell tchotchkes.ย  The latest โ€œfeaturesโ€ added to Instagram provide a timely reminder that the only safe haven is โ€ฆ

Challenge for the audience: How old would you guess I am? #mbnov

Whatโ€™s this? My desk setup is being investigated by @martinfeld and @burk? Thatโ€™s the topic driving this HVmini - your bite-sized snack of Hemispheric Views podcast goodness.Hemispheric Views 007: HVmini // Battlestations โ€” Andrew’s Desk

Pro … Air … Pro … Air … Pro … Air … Send help!!!

I bought some new Brooks shoes on the weekend. Now I’m trying to wear them in. #mbnov

Hey. HEY. HEY! - //Jason Burk In terms of quality of apps and experience using them I would currently rank them: #1) iPadOS #2) iOS #3) Web #8,968) Mac I like the ranking as a result of some kind of Electron/web-wrapper Mac app that HEY is using. Mac-assed Mac apps required.

I have to say that I am mightily excited about the new Apple Silicon Macs. For geeks around the world, this is a great day. #mbnov

I got home from work today and passed out sleeping for the next 3 hours. Didnโ€™t plan on that. On the bright side, it might help in terms of waking up at 2am to watch the Apple event live.

An elderly man driving a car almost crashed into my car today. I had to take immediate and drastic evasive action. #mbnov

Hey, look, science works: Pfizerโ€™s coronavirus vaccine is more than 90 percent effective in first analysis, company reports - The Washington Post Vaccine development typically takes many years, even decades. But the coronavirus vaccines have been a rare success story in the response to the virus, able to move forward โ€ฆ

A thing that is a staple of sci-fi movies, but which I donโ€™t think will ever exist, much to my disappointment, is the force field. #mbnov

My Subscription Services: Steven Garrity at Acts of Volition writes of the online services he pays for. This prompted me to make my own quick list. Some of these links include referral codes, but that’s not the motivation driving this post. They do, however, help me out. Internet Infrastructure Micro.blog Where I โ€ฆ

“Spend your free time the way you like, not the way you think youโ€™re supposed to.” โ€” Susan Cain, Quiet Resurfaced with readwise.io

Playing XCOM2, my soldiers constantly put in a bind by those dastardly aliens. #mbnov

Iโ€™ve been waiting 4 years for this podcast from @gruber and @merlinmann castro.fm

Congratulations USA! You removed the stain on your country. Iโ€™m so happy for you all. Unite around this to build a stronger union. Repair starts now. ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ ๐Ÿ—ณ

A word a day for microblogvember. Why is it so hard to think of something interesting to say for the word inflate? #mbnov

Attic stash but somehow missing the OG Apple TV that got so hot it could fry an egg.

My two go-to options for brain-exercise through puzzling are Good Sudoku and New York Times Crossword. #mbnov

Trumpโ€™s attacks on vote counts seem to follow an authoritarian playbook - The Washington Post โ€œThe Russian mentality is, โ€˜Whatever truth works for you in that moment is the truth you embrace in that moment,โ€™โ€‰โ€ Farkas said. โ€œEven if you say something different two minutes later, it doesnโ€™t matter. โ€ฆ

If you tried one of our earlier episodes of Hemispheric Views but didn’t persist, try the latest one. We’re really hitting our stride. I think it’s the best yet. Doorbells, reverse sponsorships, Ted Lasso. All that and more in only 45 minutes. @Burk @martinfeld

My letter to Amiga Format: In the most recent episode of my podcast Hemispheric Views I mentioned the time I was featured in the Workbench section of Amiga Format magazine. I loved the Amiga, and I subscribed to Amiga Format in addition to a few other British and Australian Amiga magazines. The highlight of my month was โ€ฆ

As I age, I reckon Iโ€™ll develop a stoop. That’s the price for being tall. #mbnov

Iโ€™ve added a TritonAudio Fethead to my audio chain. Without it I had to set my EVO4 audio interface to about 95% gain to support my Rode Procaster. With the Fethead gain is now set at around 45% and the audio sounds much warmer and richer. Iโ€™m a fan!

Looking for a distraction from the US Election? At #HemisphericViews weโ€™ve got you covered. โ€œI Used the Corporate Card!โ€, our latest podcast episode available for streaming or download now. With @martinfeld and @Burk.

The Electoral College system makes for dramatic counting but I donโ€™t see how itโ€™s fair and supportive of a one vote, one value philosophy.

Oh America, what have you done? ๐Ÿ˜ข

Microblogvember posts are probably better to be written near the end of the day, when I have some events to reflect upon as I try to fit the word in the post. #mbnov

Iraq Sends Independent Observers To Monitor US Election | The Shovel: Iraq has sent thousands of independent observers to the US to help build public confidence in the struggling nationโ€™s upcoming election. It almost reads as believable.

I have remembered that the ‘race that stops a nationโ€™, the Melbourne Cup Horse Race ๐ŸŽ, was on today. It didn’t stop me. I forgot about it entirely and have no interest whatsoever.

Lunchtime workout of mowing the lawn is now complete. ๐Ÿšœ

People who buy into conspiracy theories never fail to astonish me. What happened to critical thinking? #mbnov

Keep Practising 18: US Election: I voice my anxiety about the forthcoming US election. I worry about the place the United States of America holds in the world, and what might happen to this in the future. I also have concerns about what might happen within the country, irrespective of the result.

I have anxiety about the US election, and itโ€™s not even my country. Iโ€™m fearful that Trump will win. Iโ€™m fearful that he will lose and all hell will break loose with the crazy gun totinโ€™ Trump supporters.

Itโ€™s extremely hard to concentrate on things with two kids in the house. #mbnov

Today is a rainy, dreary day. Perhaps the last rain before the full brunt of summer arrives. #mbnov

October 2020

I’ve spent a little time updating my homepage on the web

The water was beautifully warm.

Can anybody recommend a reasonable monitor to be connected to a MacBook Air for business use? i.e. gaming performance not required.

Of course my kidโ€™s ancient hand-me-down iPad Air dies 2 months before Christmas and his birthday. The family hand-me-down process is complicated by the A14X iPad Pro not yet existing.

Hey look! Itโ€™s summertime Drew!

Punching above my weight on Cable Beach, Broome.

Just another day in sunburn paradise. The Booj about to go on a ๐Ÿช ride.

Vote Biden. The world doesnโ€™t need 4 more years of this bollocks.

TheBrain v12 beta is looking quite amazing. This might be the answer to all my recent explorations for a capture/note-taking application.

Again, again, again!

Oh no. I have the hiccups.

A Day in the Life #adayinthelife Willagee, Western Australia, 7:22am. Me making school lunches while wearing my Christmas Grinch pyjamas. I’ve made genuine friends through blogging. This has had a positive influence on my life.

Currently reading: Just Money by Royce Kurmelovs ๐Ÿ“š

Family Getaway - Four Elements Farm Stay: We spent a few days at Four Elements Farm Stay in the South-West of Western Australia. I relaxed into it quite quickly. The owner of the Farmstay, Pete, offered daily activities for the kids in the morning and the evening. While the ride in the ATV would have been enough, catching marron in the dam โ€ฆ

The micro.blog community is the best! Both @jack and @twelvety have provided me with with thoughtful, genuine feedback about Roam.

Kids and their phones these days. What happened to a good old fashioned conversation?

Iโ€™m being drawn towards Roam. Iโ€™ve emailed @twelvety for his thoughts, and I imagine @jack must have some too. Itโ€™s expensive, but Iโ€™m also searching for a really great daily note system and knowledge database combined.

Buying an iMac late last year must go down as one of my best ever computer purchasing decisions. I freakin' love this thing, and timing it for the year of working from home has been perfect.

Outliners & Daily Notes: I’ve been considering whether my current DEVONthink daily note is the best system for rapid note taking. Of course there’s nothing wrong with it, other than it being super-basic. DEVONthink Pros Wikilinking (automatic and manual) to other notes. Integrated into broader DEVONthink โ€ฆ

The Hemispheric Views podcast has hit the big time, scoring a guest appearance by the one and only @macgenie. @Burk, @martinfeld and I were honoured to chat with her about micro.blog’s upcoming Day in the Life of… photoshoot, old things in our house and streaming media.

Containers for Change: Over the past two years my wife has been working at Containers for Change. This is a not-for-profit organisation enabled by the Western Australian Government and funded by the private sector. When she started it was a start-up organisation working out of a tiny shared office with big plans to get a โ€ฆ

An important breaking news update coming in from Cardboard TV Network. Headlines include Deadpool v Coronavirus. Tune in to find put more.

My brother casually mentioned to me that he had been building up a second brain using the PARA methodology in Notion, supported by Readwise and Instapaper. Does he not realise that Iโ€™m the geek of the family? He’s getting close to stepping on my turf.

I think Iโ€™m falling down the Dyanalist rabbit hole. I like outliners, and this is so much better than OmniOutliner, which has regressed continuously since version 3.

Kakistocratic Nepotism: Biden’s next move after Trump’s COVID-19 hospitalization - Axios: But with Trump in quarantine for the foreseeable future, the campaign is now relying on members of the first family โ€” Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka, and Eric and Lara Trump โ€” to carry the torch as part of a new โ€ฆ

A quick thank you to @sarcassem from the youngest of this homeโ€™s podcast listeners.

Trump Jokes Coming Thick and Fast at The Shovel: Australia’s answer to The Onion is The Shovel. They’re having a fun time with the news of Trump contracting COVID-19. Frantic Donald Trump Unable To Open Childproof Cap On Bottle Of Hydroxychloroquine: Shouting at White House aides to bring him a hammer or an axe, US President Donald โ€ฆ

I love a good fire.

If I didnโ€™t have OmniFocus to help manage my work; Iโ€™d be screwed. I have no idea how people get through work and life without one. I have so many juggling balls that OmniFocus is the only way.

Hey @ohbananajoe is this effort close enough to โ€œThe Walking Deadโ€? ๐Ÿคฃ

My little farmer.

September 2020

The Sizzle: I have a paid subscription to an Australian daily technology newsletter called The Sizzle. While I’ve sometimes already heard the news of the day from other sources, it’s the irreverent writing of publisher Anthony ‘@decryption’ Agius that I really enjoy. Case in point, from โ€ฆ

YouTube-dl: My youtube-dl Setup - //Jason Burk: There is a utility called youtube-dl that you may or may not have seen mentioned online. Here is a rundown of how I am now using it to manage all my YouTube videos I want to watch Thanks to Jason @Burk for the write-up on how to create an offline YouTube โ€ฆ

Had a full range of emotions today. Started bad; ended good. Anxiety can be a pain in the you-know-what.

๐Ÿ”— Link Post: “How Work Became an Inescapable Hellhole” Anne Helen Petersen writing for Wired: The first part of this story describes a day of vacuous hell to me. I donโ€™t know how people function that way, but I know many do. Reading the first part of this article makes me happy Iโ€™m โ€ฆ

Keep Practising 17: Exercise: As I’m no longer playing basketball, I’ve gotten fat and sore. Exercise seems to be my only option. In Nerd Corner, I talk about new audio configurations and a trial of Hindenburg Journalist.

After a dalliance with Firefox as my core browser, I’m finding myself drifting back to Safari 14. I might maintain Firefox as my work browser, though. It’s support for containers helps with having to manage two Microsoft 365 accounts.

I bought more audio hardware. And I donโ€™t think this is the end. Hobbies can get expensive.

The latest episode of Hemispheric Views is live. We talk Portland fires, the latest Apple event, search engines and commemorative coins. Listen and share! ๐ŸŽ™

My 9 year old told me about the Shortcut he has built to run on his iPad. Proud Dad moment.

Cortex Animated is Great: What’s better than Cortex Podcast? Animated highlights from Cortex Podcast!

Another Hemispheric Views with @burk and @martinfeld is in the can. Releasing in a couple of days. ๐ŸŽ™

After hearing the latest Mac Power Users on Read-it Later apps I dusted off my old Instapaper account. Now, though, @manton is soon launching Micro.blog premium which may scratch that itch? Exciting times.

Played some Sea of Thieves with @burk. Any other micro.bloggers play?

My Kia Sorrento decided that my Emergency Parking Brake needs to stay on all the time. A call to their Roadside Assist service and now my car will be put on a flat-bed and taken for repairs tomorrow. Iโ€™d almost forgotten I had that assistance service!

Microsoft finds underwater datacenters are reliable, practical and use energy sustainably: Microsoft finds underwater datacenters are reliable, practical and use energy sustainably: Microsoft put a server farm at the bottom of the sea and let it run for a few years. The team hypothesizes that the atmosphere of nitrogen, which is less corrosive than oxygen, and the absence of people to โ€ฆ

So apparently to my kid I appear as a giant angry potato with arms growing out of my ears.

Keep Practising 16: Hemispheric Views: A quick update on another podcast project I’ve been working on with two other friends. Hemispheric Views has launched and we are quite proud of it.

I donโ€™t want to brag, but I just had a Tim Tam Slam. @martinfeld @burk

Hemispheric Views is Go!: I’m excited to have worked with two other great people to put something new out into the world. Working with Jason Burk and Martin Feld, we have released the first episode of a new podcast, Hemispheric Views. Our topics for this first episode range across condiments, technology and the price โ€ฆ

Get on board with the micro.blog gaming sessions that @burk has organised. Iโ€™m rubbish at games but still had a blast. Definitely no need to be a hard-core gamer.

Just a few hours until the Micro.blog gaming session. I look forward to losing badly @burk

I’ve upgraded to a Noctua NF-A9x14 PWM fan in my OWC Thunderbay RAID array. I should have done this a long time ago. The noise has always bothered me. Itโ€™s so much more quiet now. Best $32 I’ve spent in a while.

Launchbar has been updated. In the release notes it mentions search engine Ecosia. I’d never heard of it. Seems a laudable idea.

International Beard Day, you say?

I’ve been reassessing my note-taking apps again - that’s something that happens on a too-regular basis. NotePlan had been good, but Iโ€™m not keen on the v3 upgrade pricing. DEVONthink has shown it can work like NotePlan too. The answer is always DEVONthink. @jack @twelvety

Am I correct in thinking that each President of the USA leaves a letter in the Oval Office’s desk drawer, addressed to the incoming President? If so, I wonder what Trump would write to Biden? And I wonder how that would compare to the one that Obama left Trumpโ€ฆ

Great to have the Micro Monday podcast back in the mix. Thanks @macgenie and @agilelisa

One of the greatest things I discovered in Japan. Put soy sauce on vanilla ice cream.

August 2020

My iPad battery has seen better days and Iโ€™ve been contemplating an upgrade. But if the new Apple Silicon laptop is going to be a 12โ€ MacBook Adorable, that might be a better investment. Tricky decisions approaching.

Photoblogging Challenge Day 31: A photo of a photo depicting love on our wedding day in 2005. ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

No, I haven't found a fix for Logitech Mouse Judder: I recently wondered if I had found the solution to fixing the judder I get from the Logitech MX Master 3 mouse on a Mac. Turns out, no, I had not. Today the judder has returned. Incidentally this is with the Logitech dongle. So frustrating.

Photoblogging Challenge Day 30: It’s generally possible to make a discovery of something weird in the garden. ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Photoblogging Challenge Day 29: grated carrot flake(s) ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Have I Found a Fix for Logitech Mouse Judder?: 2020-08-31 Update: No, I have not found the fix. I mentioned in Episode 15 of Keep Practising that my Logitech mouse was giving me the #$%@s with respect to the amount of judder and unresponsiveness on macOS. This problem exhibited irrespective of whether it was connected to Bluetooth or the โ€ฆ

I think I’m a full-time Firefox user now.

Aw man. Now I have to wait another whole week for a new Ted Lasso. ๐Ÿ“บ

Photoblogging Challenge Day 28: emotions ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

The United States is a shitshow right now. I feel for the many good people I know in the country who are having to cope with it all. A pandemic, murderous police, climate change, crumbling social infrastructure… All being enabled by a crooked kakistocracy. ๐Ÿ˜ข ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ

Photoblogging Challenge Day 27: This white Australian is overcome with sadness for black Americans. ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Photoblogging Challenge Day 26: relentless: “a patient but relentless taskmaster” ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Keep Practising 15: The Value of Friendships: If thereโ€™s one thing Iโ€™ve learnt in 2020, itโ€™s that friendships are important. Iโ€™m getting better at making and maintaining them, but thereโ€™s always work to be done. In Nerd Corner I vent about the poor connectivity of my Logitech MX Master 3 mouse. Like the show? Youโ€™re welcome to buy me a coffee โ€ฆ

Photoblogging Challenge Day 25: hope Jeremiah 29:11 ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Mondo Electronics: Mondo Electronics is a company I’ve helped as part of my job as an Entrepreneurs’ Programme Growth Facilitator. They were kind enough to say some nice words about the value of the service to their business and me personally. Working with companies like Mondo is what makes my job โ€ฆ

3 Cheers for Tech Support: Recently I came across an annoying calendaring problem. I have a number of domain names, with associated email aliases. These all reconcile via my Fastmail account. I noticed the other day that calendar invitations created in my calendar app of choice, BusyCal, were defaulting to being sent from one โ€ฆ

Photoblogging Challenge Day 24: frosty ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Photoblogging Challenge Day 23: graceful ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Ted Lasso is brilliant. Most enjoyable show I’ve watched in a long time.

Photoblogging Challenge Day 22: home ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

The other day I was complaing about the lack of extensions in Safari. After hearing about Brett Terpstra @ttscoff talk about Workona I’m trialling it in Firefox. This thing is a game-changer. I’m loving it.

Photoblogging Challenge Day 21: This bag makes a crunch when I squeeze it. It did hold a breakfast sandwich which also crunched in my mouth. ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

A reminder to my future self: Create email (and other) templates in Textexpander but embrace writing them in Markdown. Then use Brett Terpstra’s Markdown Services Tool to convert the template text into rich text prior to sending. This will solve the problem of Textexpander’s rich text โ€ฆ

I deleted the YouTube app from my iPhone because I was sick of saying โ€œNoโ€ whenever it tried to gain background access to my microphone. Own goal, YouTube.

I enjoyed hearing @miraz talk to @martinfeld on his Lounge Ruminator podcast. I like crosswords but I never seem to be able to settle for simple things. ๐Ÿค”

Photoblogging Challenge Day 20: change ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Very little happening in the NBL this week, but we still managed to talk for an hour about it. Thatโ€™s true passion! The NBL Pocket Podcast / Brett Brown, John Mooney nicknames and Draymond Green’s tweets ๐Ÿ€ ๐ŸŽ™

Photoblogging Challenge Day 19: Many a ribbon won by my gym trainer in international Ironman Events. ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

My third visit back to the gym after a lay-off of about 18 months(!). Really happy with the weight training I did today. Improving quicker than I had anticipated! ๐Ÿ‹๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ

This Apple Music radio show with Billie Eilish and her Dad is surprisingly good. music.apple.com

I hope Safari 14 on Big Sur brings better extensions. Iโ€™ve been a Safari loyalist but itโ€™s becoming increasingly difficult to justify compared with Firefox/Edge/Chrome.

Photoblogging Challenge Day 18: grid with thanks to Black Ink by @danielpunkass ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Photoblogging Challenge Day 17: cuddly ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

International Mac Nerds: Martin Feld, Jason Burk and I recorded a ‘pilot episode’ of a podcast idea we had been germinating. Martin has been kind enough to host the episode on his site.

I have not listened to this album for a long time… but itโ€™s still great. ๐ŸŽถ music.apple.com

Setapp Audit: I’ve been a subscriber to Setapp since it launched. In fact, I participated in a pre-launch user interview to help the MacPaw team develop the offering. I’ve been a happy customer, and I believe I may be grandfathered into an older plan because I am permitted two seats. This has โ€ฆ

14: Promoting my Other Podcast Projects: A quick audio interlude to let you know about my other current podcast projects: NBL Pocket Podcast A pilot episode with a working title of International Mac Nerds

Photoblogging Challenge Day 16: stationary ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Currently reading: Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout ๐Ÿ“š

I had a blast recording an International Mac Nerds podcast with @martinfeld and @burk. We all met one another through micro.blog, so a big thanks to @manton and @macgenie for creating the rendezvous point.

Photoblogging Challenge Day 15: silhouette ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Photoblogging Challenge Day 14: the boy among the play equipment. ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Photoblogging Challenge Day 13: I think it’s time to clean the filter of our heater. ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Keep Practising 13: Interview with Patrick Canion: Andrew is joined by his brother, Patrick Canion to discuss his work and life, most notably how he has made the transition to living in Switzerland after spending his entire working life in Perth, Western Australia.

Photoblogging Challenge Day 12: sound ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Photoblogging Challenge Day 11: the best way to transport your turtles. ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Photoblogging Challenge Day 10: Nothing fancy today, just the windows at the front of my home. ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

It might be my imagination but this Microblog Photo a Day challenge seems the best yet. Lots of interesting and high quality photos being shared. Thanks @macgenie for coordinating it all.

Photoblogging Challenge Day 9: black-and-white ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Have I only now discovered that when typing URLs in Markdown - I donโ€™t need the //. I can type https:url.com. For how long has this been a thing?

Photoblogging Challenge Day 8: As a parent this makes for a nice view ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Iโ€™m no fan of WhatsApp but my goodness the group chat I have on it with my mates is brilliant.

Photoblogging Challenge Day 7: daytripping ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

How can the input levels of two USB microphones be so different? The Rode Podcaster barely registers a waveform while the Audio Technica ATR-2100x is ready to blow past the point of clipping. Both USB mics. Itโ€™s doing my head in trying to level them against one another. ๐ŸŽ™ ๐ŸŽค

I am so terrible at sticking with a single note taking system. I really tried to consolidate on OneNote… Then I remember the cool features that NotePlan has that would fit perfectly with what Iโ€™m trying to do here…

Photoblogging Challenge Day 6: I decided to bisect this PB&J sandwich. ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Photoblogging Challenge Day 5: The pattern on my jumper has a bit of flow to it. ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Finished reading: Chosen People by Robert Whitlow ๐Ÿ“š

Down the Podcasting Microphone Rabbit-hole: Oh boy, it’s happening to me. Some months ago when I made the decision to start doing some podcasting, I did my research and selected the Rode Podcaster microphone as my weapon of choice. It’s been working fine for me, but at the same time, I’ve never been totally certain that โ€ฆ

Photoblogging Challenge Day 4: Peace walking to my new office looking at Perth CBD. ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Photoblogging Challenge Day 3: Bug ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

Judging by this video my FetchTV DVR is going to have better universal search than AppleTV.

Photoblogging Challenge Day 2: Floating ๐Ÿ“ท. This boat once floated around the entire globe. #mbaug

Photoblogging Challenge Day 1: Up ๐Ÿ“ท #mbaug

How on earth is it August already? Weirdest year on record within my life span.

July 2020

If youโ€™d like to hear me and a mate talk about NBL basketball ๐Ÿ€ and team composition leading into the new season, then listen to NBL Pocket Podcast ๐ŸŽ™

Work life.

End of the month and I’m “YNAB Poor”.

Want to read: Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout ๐Ÿ“š

Iโ€™ve linked IndieBookClub to my micro.blog account. Not as many bells and whistles as GoodReads but simple and straightforward to use.

Currently reading: Chosen People by Robert Whitlow ๐Ÿ“š

Fastmail promotes its own Hey-style methods: Rethink what email can do for you We also let you focus on your workflow by taking care of your privacy, which we protect with features like asking before showing remote images or proxying tracking pixels to keep senders from tracking what you do with your email. I canโ€™t help but think this entire โ€ฆ

Keep Practising 12: Wrestling: Iโ€™ve always noticed a distinct intersection between those who like basketball and those who like wrestling. In this episode I discuss my history of watching wrestling. It used to be WWF/WWE, but these days I am more excited by EPW (Explosive Pro Wrestling) - an indie show that operates out of Perth, โ€ฆ

It was exciting to see an article of mine linked to my Brett Terpstra. Never had that experience before!

Does anybody have direct experience with Autex Peel โ€˜n Stick acoustic treatment tiles? Iโ€™m contemplating some for my study.

For the heck of it I set up a ko-fi account. Iโ€™m sure the revenue will start rolling in any minute now… ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ’ฐโ˜•๏ธ

Keep Practising: 12 - Tipping the TBT2020 Winner: I was bereft not being able to record an NBL Pocket Podcast today. So to assuage my sadness I have brought in my son, David, to provide the hot tip. Who does he think will win the tournament? Tune in and find out! Be sure also to check out the daily podcast we’ve been recording at the NBL โ€ฆ

Recapping the best day yet of the TBT. ๐Ÿ€ NBL Pocket Podcast

Iโ€™m having so much fun recording a daily TBT basketball ๐Ÿ€ wrap on The NBL Pocket Podcast. Iโ€™ve missed hoops, so watching games daily then talking about them is a salve for the soul. Give it a listen!

Subscribe To NBL Pocket Podcast: A quick public service announcement to point you towards the NBL Pocket Podcast. Joe has been kind enough to have me on each day as we discuss the events of the TBT from an Australian perspective. If you like basketball be sure to listen and subscribe!

So great to talk TBT basketball ๐Ÿ€ from an Australian perspective. Listen to the NBL Pocket Podcast for the full rundown.๐ŸŽ™

My new employer has provided me with the new iPhone SE. This thing is tiny. Too small in fact. My fingers are too big for this screen and keyboard. So for the first time in my life, Iโ€™m running with two phones.

Iโ€™m thinking about going all-in with Microsoft Office as a trial, especially focusing on Teams and OneNote. Iโ€™ve a tendency to have stuff strewn across apps. Plus itโ€™s a cross-platform solution.

I’ve been trialling krisp.ai for video conference noise reduction. I’ve only used it in my home office where the prevailing noise is a spinning drive array, but I think it’s been good? I need to remember to toggle it to test its efficacy.

June 2020

My Last Day with CCI: Today marks the end of a personal era for me; it is the last day of my employment with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia. I’ve worked at CCI for 3 months short of 13 years. When I arrived, my plan was to stay for no more than 2. This speaks to the opportunities I have โ€ฆ

The birthday present I bought myself arrived today: a Keychron K2 keyboard with Cherry Brown switches. It’s delightfully chunky and immediately I’ve found myself typing with my wrists up, as my typing teacher taught me on an old typewriter at school.

Keep Practising: 11 - Graeme Speak, CEO & Founder of BankVault: I welcome a special guest to the show, Graeme Speak of BankVault. BankVault has developed a cybersecurity product that can circumvent security risks such as key logging and man-in-the-middle attacks, by offering passwordless logins. As well as discussing the BankVault product, Graeme discusses his โ€ฆ

Configuring Preside on iPadOS: In an earlier post I wrote about how I replicated a HEY-style workflow with other email applications. I thought some detail about how Iโ€™ve configured my preferred iPadOS email client, Preside to work in a similar way might be in order. Preside is an amazing power-user email application for iOS. The โ€ฆ

Well, Iโ€™ve set up my Hey.com email address on a 14 day trial. โ€˜canionโ€™ at hey dot com it is.

My friends are enablers, encouraging me to buy Steam games. Shame on them.

Govt urged to ditch COVIDSafe for GApple: Govt urged to ditch COVIDSafe for GApple - InnovationAus: recently released testing data revealing that upon launch, COVIDSafe logged encounters 25 per cent or less between locked iPhones. After a series of updates and improvements, this figure is now between 25 to 50 per cent. A switch to using โ€ฆ

My Random Thoughts from the WWDC Keynote: These are my thoughts on the 2020 Apple WWDC keynote, presented in the order they occurred as I watched the show. I’ve not yet read any other feedback so these thoughts are non-affected by groupthink: General The stagecraft and direction that Apple puts into these shows is amazing. iOS โ€ฆ

Iโ€™ve fully Rogue Amoebafied my Mac with Audio Hijack, Fission, Farrago, Loopback, SoundSource. Send help! // @rogueamoeba

I tried out Otter.ai today which does voice to text transcription, recognising the different speakers. Itโ€™s kind of amazing, but Iโ€™m not confident of the privacy policy.

Keep Practising: 10 - Why Am I Doing This?: I consider why I am doing this podcast, and why I gave it the name Keep Practising. In Nerd Corner, I note my disappointment with how Apple has handled the HEY App Store situation, but note my pride in how my article about replicating the Hey workflow in regular apps has been received. Brenรฉ Brown, โ€ฆ

I wonder if @Fastmail have any idea of the love for them on micro.blog. They should drop in and say hi. In the words of @cheri, we would probably all throw our tech panties at them.

I edited my forthcoming podcast with a trial version of Hindenburg Journalist. It took some getting used to coming from Ferrite and itโ€™s direct manipulation with the Apple Pencil. The main missing feature I noticed was ripple delete. Iโ€™m tempted to buy a license, though.

Ecamm Live Trial: 

My home page on the web needs to be redone. But that needs motivation and an idea. Iโ€™m devoid of both.

I’ve been playing around with Ecamm Live this afternoon. I have no reason to do a live stream, but it’s fun to experiment.

Promos: 

Addendum: Replicating Hey.com Features in MailMate: It has been pointed out by Martin McCallion that I failed to explain how I generated the “People Pages” view that is inherent within Hey into my own MailMate reconstruction. To do this I created a new Smart Mailbox with the following mailbox filtering criteria: Furthermore, in the same โ€ฆ

It was fun and surprising to be listening to the latest episode of Mac Power Users (540) and hear my older review of MailMate mentioned and linked in the show notes.

Iโ€™m contemplating shutting down my ad hoc blot.im blog over at canion.me and bringing it all over to micro.blog. Any reason not to do so? Then what do I do with the canion.me domain? Decisions, decisions…

Replicating Hey.com Features in Regular Email Systems: 2021-11-28: I’ve updated this post in an effort to correct what were missing images. With thanks to @chrisl_at for letting me know of the problem. Basecamp has released their much-anticipated1 take on email, Hey. As a long-time fan of Basecamp and a light user of their Basecamp Personal2 โ€ฆ

This is a test of the new prototype embedding system on micro.blog. Embedding microblog posts with Quotebacks manton.orgManton Reecehttps://www.manton.org/2020/06/15/embedding-microblog-posts.html It’s great to have new features to play with.

I’ve got a week that features 3-hour Zoom meetings each day. This article by @rogueamoeba is saving my ears.

I watched the first two episodes of Dear… on AppleTV+ tonight. The room got very dusty at times. ๐Ÿ’ฆ

I’ve been using Microsoft Edge for Mac today, and I’m not hating it. I’ve gone so far as to download it for iOS as well.

Happy Birthday: 2020 wasn’t meant to be this way. I have distinct memories of working in government when up-beat policy visions with ambitious names like Towards 2020 and 2020: A Forecast of our Future were being pumped out1. These reports all had a commonality in that 2020 was guaranteed to be great! As long โ€ฆ

Does micro.blog support footnotes? Iโ€™ve drafted a post and they don’t seem to work? cc: @help

A public thank you to @manton for creating micro.blog. This service allows me to easily activate my creativity whether it be written word, photography, video or audio. All wrapped up around a social fabric. I love it.

Keep Practising: 09 - Racism is not cool, featuring David Canion: Today I welcome my son to the show. He wanted to address the issue of racism, which has been on his mind of recent times.

I’ve trawled the internet searching my own past, collecting the more noteworthy bits. I leave quite the digital exhaust.

Marked 2 as teleprompter: Marked 2 as teleprompter, revisited - BrettTerpstra.com: Once you have the theme, you can start prompting just by hitting the โ€˜sโ€™ key in a Marked preview. That will start autoscroll at the slowest speed. Use left and right arrows to speed up/slow down the scroll speed. (You can also click and drag โ€ฆ

I donโ€™t need Hindenburg Journalist PRO but I want it. For my hobbyist needs though, price puts me right off.

Some great insight into social media models on this episode from @martinfeld overcast.fm

Keep Practising: 08 - Joe from NBL Pocket Podcast: I am joined by special guest Joe, host of the NBL Pocket Podcast. We talk about Joeโ€™s experience making the podcast that is focused on the Australian National Basketball League. We discuss favourite players and coaches, his best interviews, the NBL product today, and how the league engages with its โ€ฆ

This is me.

I signed on as a Patreon of The Unmade Podcast. As I disassociate from big social media I recognise that direct financial relationships between creators and their audience is the best model.

Racing cars.

I had to visit the dentist today because of a sore gum. Anaesthetic injection and some digging around saw the job done. Now it hurts more than when I went in!

It was brilliant to be welcomed as a guest by @martinfeld on his Lounge Ruminator podcast. We dived into our respective histories of computing. So much fun. feldnotes.com

May 2020

I feel sad for my American friends, who are experiencing so many civic challenges. Change the leader; change the country.

The latest Lounge Ruminator podcast by @martinfeld is a good one. I agree that being still does result in strange looks from others.

My son David’s eyes lit up when he heard his own voice introduce this podcast. I’m proud to be a patr(e)on of the Like You: Mindfulness for Kids podcast.

Keep Practising: S01, E07 - The Last Dance: Keep Practising: S01, E07 - The Last Dance. I give my thoughts on โ€œThe Last Danceโ€, and remember the time that I met Phil Jackson and Luc Longley. I celebrate the big news from the NBL, and specifically the Perth Wildcats. In Nerd Corner this week, Iโ€™ve been improving my webcam setup and installing โ€ฆ

Given all the lockdown protocols how the heck have I caught a cold? I feel terrible.

My Story of Installing Windows with Boot Camp on an External SSD: The developers of Civilization 6 - and specifically Aspyr who are responsible for the Mac port - have cost me time and money, but have provided me with a sense of satisfaction from being able to complete a new IT project. The latest update to the Civ franchise was deployed to the PC version of the โ€ฆ

In order to play online Civilization 6 with my mates today Iโ€™ve had to install BootCamp, install Windows 10, then install Steam and the game. All because the Civ developers have updated the PC version and not the Mac so they are out of sync and wonโ€™t talk to each other.

Our evening view as we relax on the front driveway.

Book Recommendation ๐Ÿ“š: Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout

Book Recommendation ๐Ÿ“š: The Mote in Godโ€™s Eye, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

Book Recommendation ๐Ÿ“š: Educated, Tara Westover

Book Recommendation ๐Ÿ“š: The Golem and the Jinni, Helene Wecker

Book Recommendation ๐Ÿ“š: Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

๐Ÿ”— Link Post: “Inside Trumpโ€™s coronavirus meltdown | Free to read | Financial Times” Edward Luce writing for The Financial Times: “Other scientists have taken note of Brightโ€™s fate. During the Ebola outbreak in 2014, when Obamaโ€™s administration sent 3,000 US military personnel to โ€ฆ

Colour-a-Day Challenge: (Indigo ๐Ÿ“ท๐ŸŒˆ (Not exactly indigo)

๐Ÿ”— Link Post: “Daring Fireball: Financial Times Reports the Obvious: Trump Resisted Testing โ€˜Too Many Peopleโ€™ Lest the Results Spook the Stock Market” John Gruber writing for Daring Fireball: “The problem isnโ€™t testing, the problem is sick people, and testing is a way to get a โ€ฆ

Thanks to this video I have discovered how to use my old Nikon D7000 with 50mm lens as a webcam. Which led me to buying an adaptor to convert a mic boom arm into a dSLR mount. High quality video conferencing coming up.

Colour-a-Day Challenge: Blue ๐Ÿ“ท๐ŸŒˆ

COVID-19 has been a boon for improving my friendships. Since the outbreak my closest knit guys have held a weekly group Zoom meeting plus chatting in WhatsApp. The bonds of friendship have been strengthened. I love it.

Battleย ofย the iOSย emailย heavyweights - BryceWray.com Bryce Wray assesses power-user mobile email apps in an enjoyable review (and references one of my articles ๐Ÿ™‚). Iโ€™ve been trialling Preside and can vouch for the responsiveness of the developer.

Colour-a-Day Challenge: Green ๐Ÿ“ท๐ŸŒˆ

The number of apps able to post to micro.blog are growing. The native app, Gluon, Drafts, MarsEdit and now the one Iโ€™m using here: iA Writer. No excuse not to post.

Colour-a-Day Challenge: Yellow ๐Ÿ“ท๐ŸŒˆ

Keep Practising: S01, E06 - Life in Isolation: Keep Practising: S01, E06: I reflect on how COVID-19 has impacted life at home and on Perth more broadly. In “Nerd Corner” this week, I talk about using Stream Deck in combination with Keyboard Maestro.

Colour-a-Day Challenge: Orange ๐Ÿ“ท๐ŸŒˆ

My wife and our kids were featured in a newspaper article over the weekend as part of Mother’s Day.

Colour-a-Day Challenge: Red ๐Ÿ“ท

Happy Motherโ€™s Day!

The details are not the details; they make the product. โ€’ Charles Eames ๐Ÿ’ฌ

We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action. โ€’ Frank Tibolt ๐Ÿ’ฌ

As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind - every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder. โ€’ John Glenn ๐Ÿ’ฌ

I got a Stream Deck today. Will be fun to see what interesting shortcuts and automations I can concoct with it and Keyboard Maestro.

Life is not about finding yourself. It’s about creating yourself. โ€’ George Bernard Shaw ๐Ÿ’ฌ

A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children.โ€จโ€” John James Audubon ๐Ÿ’ฌ

Big storm here tonight. Weโ€™ve had a backyard fence blow down. โ›ˆ

The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum, while all the time the presuppositions [โ€ฆ] are being reinforced by the limits put on [โ€ฆ] the debate. โ€” Noam Chomsky ๐Ÿ’ฌ

Keep Practising: S01, E05 - Meditation: Keep Practising: S01, E05: I take on the hippy-dippy topic of meditation, have some follow-up with regards to Australian basketball and introduce a new segment, “Nerd Corner”.

I’ve had fun using Ferrite Podcast Studio to edit an upcoming podcast episode. At this stage, I’m not sure if it’s faster than using a Mac, but it’s definitely more fun.

Why do we need mounted police in 2020? - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) This guy is a classic Aussie. Him saying โ€œcrooksโ€ and โ€œcoppersโ€ sounds perfect. Love it.

Garage door adjustment is going to be the death of me. Whatever combination of screws I turn, I can’t get it right.

April 2020

New nerd achievement unlocked: I created a Digital Ocean droplet and spun up an instance of a Discourse Forum today.

Episodes of The Last Dance fly by so quickly. Iโ€™m just settling in and then - bam - theyโ€™re finished. Such good TV.

Podcast From The Field: Andrew checks in during a mental state refreshing bushwalk.

I’ve been investigating best value podcast editing software for my Mac. Then the penny dropped; the best software isn’t on the Mac - it’s on iOS, and it’s called Ferrite.

Keep Practising: S01, E04 - Basketball: Keep Practising: S01, E04: Basketball. Andrew reminisces about his basketball playing days, and provides us with a scouting report on his own game. ๐ŸŽ™

Todayโ€™s view from the porch could be worse.

Bedraggled Bear.

My kid has the best giggles.

Our work had an online Zoom-based quiz game today using Kahoot.it. It was fun and I got bragging rights - came second in the first game, and won the second game. In your face, team! ๐Ÿ˜‚

I got out and shot some basketball hoops today; first time in months. I loved it. Playing basketball is the physical activity that feels perfectly natural to me. My body knows exactly what to do. Thereโ€™s nothing else like it. ๐Ÿ€

I watched Episode 1 of The Last Dance and was reminded of why I fell in love with basketball. 90s-era NBA offered genuine competition in what was a small commercial enterprise. Also fashion!

I have no idea as to what represents a ‘good’ number of downloads for a podcast, but I’m excited to have seen 767 for my latest effort. Thanks to everyone who did listen!

Keep Practising: S01, E03: Keep Practising: S01, E03. A potted history of computer gaming.

Iโ€™m falling deep into the audio production rabbit hole. Iโ€™ve bought Loopback and Audio Hijack Pro from @rogueamoeba. Anybody want to do a podcast with me?

Writing for the Web: Why Word documents are not great for the web, and why plain text files written in ‘Markdown’ syntax are the way to go when writing anything destined for online delivery. Microsoft Word was designed for writing in an era when the finished result would be a printed page. There is still โ€ฆ

Coffee shop visit with my baby boy.

Iโ€™m happy I bought a license for Black Ink. It’s been great using it in combination with my subscription to the NYTimes crossword. Thanks for making great software, @danielpunkass

With all the Zoom meetings in our house now, I’ve created a Siri Shortcut, โ€œOn Air" that turns one of our smart lamps red. No more accidental interruptions!

Will Coronavirus Change Society Forever?: Will our giant monuments to mass transportation soon appear as white elephants dedicated to the god of hubris? Gigantic airports, ocean ports for cruise liners, and all the planes, trains, ships and automobiles that use them - will they all become stranded assets slowly losing the war against โ€ฆ

Today Iโ€™m partaking in another great Easter tradition: the giant yard cleanup and other assorted handyman jobs.

Good morning. Third morning of backyard tenting, our Easter holiday experience in a time of COVID-19. I can report the birds in our neighbourhood are loud.

Keep Practising: S01, E02: Keep Practising: S01, E02. In this time of COVID-19 quarantines, I consider the value of social media platforms to my life.

Itโ€™s not Easter without camping. Our COVID-19 response has been to set up in the backyard. David cooks the best marshmallows even though he doesnโ€™t like eating them. So sit near him!

We played Cards Against Humanity - Family Edition today. 8 year-old loved it, 4 year-old playing with random selection won the game.

My plan to upgrade my webcam from the iMac camera to a digital camera was foiled by both my cameras being too old to support a clean signal sent via HDMI. Seems I’m stuck with the rubbish webcam.

I had to pay $138 for 454g of ant killer today - and that’s not even COVID-19 pricing! Research indicated that it was the only stuff likely to work for this particular type of critter. Early signs are positive.

Iโ€™ve cancelled my web host. Now Iโ€™ve got my web page hosted on Fastmail. Nice way to save some money.

It was fun to listen to my friend Emily Dickinson speak on the just Steve podcast. ๐ŸŽ™

My 8-year old son is obsessed with US politics, even though he is Australian. I think he has inherited his Poppyโ€™s genes.

Itโ€™s nice to look at my calendar for tomorrow and see that while I have three client calls, all of them are people I know well enough at this point to consider them friends. Turns a business call into an opportunity to catch up.

Keep Practising: S01, E01: Keep Practising: S01, E01. Andrew starts a podcast. As is the cultural norm, this first podcast episode is dominated with talk about podcasting.

๐Ÿ”— Link Post: “Introducing 1.1.1.1 for Families” Cloudflare Blog: “Introducing 1.1.1.1 for Families โ€” the easiest way to add a layer of protection to your home network and protect it from malware and adult content. " I used Cloudflare DNS in the past, but more recently have โ€ฆ

I recognise all the dodgy security and behavioural issues at Zoom. At the same time, their service has been rock solid helping me get work done during the day, and in touch with family and friends at night.

March 2020

PSA: If your home network goes down, donโ€™t assume itโ€™s the fault of a device. It might just be a dodgy Ethernet cable. Of course, I would realise that straight away and not waste 2 hours diagnosing various other possible causes.

Iโ€™ve rebuilt my Raspberry Pi and am once again avoiding ads, thanks to Pi-hole.

Furniture rearranging day. We converted a bedroom to a kids activity room, reorganised the layout in the study, and created a second home office desk. Iโ€™ve surely had my exercise for today.

My Raspberry Pi died. Already missing Pi-hole ad blocking.

I’ve spent the morning rearranging furniture in my study. After a week of Zoom meetings I discovered the lighting was terrible, making my head look like a tomato. Hopefully this change improves things!

I never anticipated that I would experience (and hopefully live through) a pandemic in my lifetime. Our lives - and our dominion over the planet - are fragile. We need to come out of this much more aware as a global society.

๐Ÿ”— Link Post: “Donald Trump Is a Menace to Public Health” The entire article is certainly worth reading. It was hard to pick out excerpts because itโ€™s all so well written. Adam Serwer writing for The Atlantic: Authoritarian leaders prize loyalty over expertise, and part of the way such โ€ฆ

๐Ÿ”— Link Post: “Why outbreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to โ€œflatten the curveโ€ - Washington Post” Harry Stevens writing for Washington Post: If the number of cases were to continue to double every three days, there would be about a hundred million cases in the United โ€ฆ

I took my kid to the park and we met a lovely family who is new to the neighbourhood. We had a great conversation while our kids played together. We maintained appropriate social distance for a coronavirus world, and the social interaction has improved my mood.

If we are all going into quarantine - and potentially seeing reduced personal income - budgeting becomes even more important. I recommend YNAB - I’ve been a happy paying customer for years. ๐Ÿ’ต

If we arranged a global agreement whereby the entire world entered isolation for two weeks, essentially pausing everything, would that eliminate the virus and minimise the economic impact?

I’ve draped nine towels around my study. It sounds so much nicer in here now. Iโ€™m sure the appearance will not gain approval from my wife, however.

Like You: Like You is a mindfulness podcast for kids, exploring feelings & encouraging self-esteem through imagination-based exercises. I’m supporting this podcast on Patreon. Both my boys enjoy the show.

Given societal concerns about COVID-19, Iโ€™ve turned to offering people I had scheduled face-to-face meetings with the option to meet via video conference instead.

Should I be more worried about COVID-19 than I am? I canโ€™t help but think about statistically likelihoods and the probability still seems low compared with more mundane disasters. Also, I lived through a bout of swine flu which might be giving me false confidence in my immune system.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 30: Vision.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 29: Leap.

February 2020

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 28: Below.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 27: Together.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 26: Escape.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 25: Hurdle.

Now that’s more like it.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 24: Double. Two WD Red drives ready to join the array.

Productivity rating has been at ๐Ÿ’ฏ today. I’ll probably crash tomorrow.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 23: Station. Going back in time for this one. A younger me excited to be riding the trains of Paris.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 22: Spectacle.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 21: Progress.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 20: Scale.

I’ve achieved the impossible. I have migrated my wife from Gmail to Fastmail.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 18: Space. The storage space I had on my NAS is not looking good.

One drive in my NAS reported SMART errors. I replace it. While rebuilding the RAID array with the new disk in place I’m notified of major errors on another disk. What are the odds? Will the RAID array be able to rebuild successfully? It’s currently at 41%. ๐Ÿ˜ฅ

๐Ÿ”— Link Post: "Boeing 737 Max: debris found in fuel tanks of grounded planes": The Guardian: “Boeing has ordered inspections of its entire fleet of grounded 737 Max planes after it found debris in the fuel tanks of some of the aircraft, in the latest setback for the US plane-maker” Boeing seems to have forgotten the key tenets of lean manufacturing, especially โ€ฆ

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 18: Oppose.

Mark Ritson is a very impressive presenter. The audience is totally engaged with it.

I’ve added a /reading page to my website to display articles I’ve starred in Inoreader, and the books Iโ€™ve logged as reading in Goodreads.

I met a guy who used to work for Nashua. Immediately I recalled the days where if you wanted to secure your quality Amiga 500 warez you would buy Nashua floppyโ€™s.

One of the drives in my ancient NAS is dying. Iโ€™m going to have to replace it. What I want now though is a ThunderBay RAID enclosure to directly connect. Iโ€™m sick of network drives.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 17: Cool.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 16: (Spoon) Rest.

HyperPlan: Have you ever used a pivot table in Excel, and thought that there must be a better way? Have you ever built a Kanban board in Trello but realised you need a second axis? Have you ever designed a table in OmniGraffle or PowerPoint and thought there must a more straightforward way? I have. So I โ€ฆ

A new Blossom Dearie album is on Apple Music. It’s lovely.

๐Ÿ”— Link Post: "Donald Trump, the view across the pond": Paul J. Miller: “Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesnโ€™t just talk in crude, witless insults โ€“ he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk โ€ฆ

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 15: Balance.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 14: Warmth.

There are some cracking photos on Micro.blog - thanks @macgenie for surfacing them in the Discover tab.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 13: Rise.

I was a user of Overcast from launch until last year. I switched to Castro and it’s inbox feature to help with podcast overwhelm. Now I’m trying Overcast again mainly because of boredom.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 12: Attachment.

Watched the first episode of Mythic Quest on Apple TV+. Not sold, but not ready to give up, either. ๐Ÿ“บ

I was able to go lap swimming in my lunch break today. I am so aerobically unfit.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 11: Plain.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 10: Sign.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 9: Lull.

I am excited to be hosting Mark Ritson at an event next week. Anybody who is mentioned by @gruber is okay with me. I probably won’t raise Johnโ€™s critique with him though.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 8: Contrast.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 7: Above.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 5: Plant. (I see @martinfeld and his fire extinguisher and raise him a fire hose reel.)

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 5: Hide.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day 4: Spot.

iOS 13 is a dumpster fire. My iPhone crashes, hangs and generally craps out on an extremely regular basis. Not having the same issues with iPadOS, interestingly enough.

CARROT Weather’s forecast for today Itโ€™s a nice temperature now the heat of the day has subsided. ๐Ÿฅต

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day Three: Reflect.

I previously had an account with meditation app Headspace. Is that still considered the best? Iโ€™m seeing some buzz around 10% Happier but itโ€™s considerably more expensive. ๐Ÿง˜๐Ÿผโ€โ™‚๏ธ

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day Two: Sight.

February Photoblogging Challenge, Day One: Open.

Iโ€™ve just finished an 8-hour Lego building shift. My son better appreciate this in later years.

January 2020

Our second boy is entering his Lego play phase. I’m thankful my wife colour-coded our massive stockpile of Lego to simplify reconstruction efforts.

I am constantly adjusting my app usage for work meetings and facilitation sessions. Today I went back to beautiful basics: iThoughts on 3/4 of the screen, OmniOutliner in 1/4. Capture where possible straight into iThoughts, but use OmniOutliner for parking lot/unrelated notes.

Great to have Miles Plumlee in a Perth Wildcats uniform. Itโ€™s a pipe dream, but it would be great to get him back for a full season next year. ๐Ÿ€

๐Ÿ”— Link Post: “Clayton Christensen dies at 67 after lifetime of business, spiritual influence - Deseret News” Tad Walsh writing for Deseret News: “A true disruptive innovation, he taught, first appealed only to a niche market and appeared less attractive than the powerful incumbent โ€ฆ

Little America is one of the funniest, heart-warming, enjoyable series I’ve seen in a long while. Brilliant stuff. ๐Ÿ“บ

My pre-order of NoteBooks 10 for iOS arrived this morning. This has led me to re-install Dropbox on my Macs so I can experiment effectively. WebDAV syncing sucked too much. DEVONthink remains more powerful, and I have so many other note-taking apps I don’t know why I’m bothering trialing โ€ฆ

๐Ÿ”— Link Post: “Middle Age Is Actually Good - The Atlantic” James Parker writing for The Atlantic: “Youโ€™re not an apprentice adult anymore. Youโ€™re through the disorientation period” โ€” via Things to Click

In this 4-way dogfight, who ya got?

We are enjoying the quintessential Australian summer caravan park holiday.

๐Ÿ”— Link Post: “Playdate December Update” Panic writing for Playdate newsletter: “Weโ€™re a smedium-sized crew โ€” 25 people, 5 on Playdate.” The Playdate gaming device is coming along nicely. Amazing what a small team has achieved, with this device and across other projects. I โ€ฆ

Staycation hotel life. We spent most of the day in the pool but this was a moment of TV time.

Downlink is a great free app for putting satellite images on your Mac Desktop. Now I can look at my country from above.

๐Ÿ”— Link Post: “Girls on Tour in Beirut โ€” Long Distance Call” Eliza Harvey & Geraldine Doogue: Long Distance Call Podcast E88: “Geraldine and one of her oldest friends (and Eliza’s godmother) Mary Ciccarelli are in Beirut for new years celebrations.” My โ€ฆ

The processing of creating a zettelkasten is gelling with me. I’m finding itโ€™s clarifying my thinking and helping to capture knowledge in a way that other methods haven’t. I’m primarily using The Archive, additionally indexed in DEVONthink.

It has been kind of so many people of micro.blog to reach out after reading about my dog, Jeff. It’s a great community to be a part of; thanks everybody!

We had to say goodbye to our dog, Jeff, today. As much as I know it was the right thing to do itโ€™s still a sad time. He had a good 12-year run. Iโ€™ll never forget Jeffenhausensteinenberg.

Agenda & NotePlan: Agenda and NotePlan: two apps that ostensibly do the same thing. They provide a method by which to take notes with regard to meetings, projects and daily happenings. Design Decisions Both apps have been carefully designed but have ended up operating quite differently to one another. Agenda feels โ€ฆ

My 2019 Goodreads Year in Books

My App Toolkit: At the beginning of 2020, an update on my current app toolbox. Of course, it is overflowing with too many tools. My ideal state would be to have one centralised repository for everything. Yet each app offers a different set of features and benefits, and scratch particular itches. So I think the โ€ฆ

I’ve got bloggers' block. I’ve got a few ideas for posts but can’t summon the motivation to write anything. They continue to sit as drafts, waiting…

December 2019

I had migrated away from WhenWorks due to its shutdown. Now I receive an email saying that itโ€™s been acquired by @rosemaryorchard. Wonderful news but now I’m financially invested in an alternative scheduling platform. Timing not so good for me, but great news for @macgenie

Merry Christmas Eve, especially to all my micro.blog friends. ๐Ÿป

Testing the @johnjohnston Flickr linkr bookmarklet. Many years ago, this happened to my office cubicle.

I’ve gone on a software spending spree. Through Winterfest I bought SpamSieve & BBEdit. On Steam I bought TABS and X-COM 2.

I wasnโ€™t going to renew my Flickr Pro subscription but now theyโ€™re struggling for cash. It doesnโ€™t fit my workflow these days but I donโ€™t want to see it go away.

Emerging from the gastro bug. This has been a long 36 hours. Both me and my wife, down for the count.

Kid Jr claims success. He has passed on his gastro to the rest of the family. What a lad.

Introducing MusicBot: The All-in-One Apple Music Assistant, Powered by Shortcuts I poured hundreds of hours of work into MusicBot, which has gained a permanent spot on my Home screen. Best of all, MusicBot is available to everyone for free. This Siri Shortcut is amazeballs.

Three new haircuts.

How can a daily The Far Side website finally be launched but not have an RSS feed?

Iโ€™ve been enjoying the content of Apple TV+ more than anything recently shown on Netflix. Critics seemed to pan the Apple shows, but Iโ€™ve liked For All Mankind, See, and Morning Wars.

So great to have swimming weather again. This summer I want to get into swimming for fitness. Pumped that my boy can do it with me. He managed 300 metres yesterday.

With a ๐Ÿคฎing kid in the house itโ€™s time to step away for a quick afternoon Nespresso.

Since I gave up my Lightroom subscription Iโ€™m looking for an iOS based photo editor with good presets. VSCO is good but it doesnโ€™t interact directly with the photo library. Darkroom lets me edit in place but itโ€™s editing doesnโ€™t seem as impactful.

The Economist: Boeingโ€™s misplaced strategy on the 737 MAX The number of idle, new MAXes piling up has grown to 400. What a disaster of an idea this plane has turned out to be.

With recent talk on micro.blog about trying to find international voices, Iโ€™ve added the Australian flag ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ to my profile blurb. Maybe that will help.

Finished Firewatch last night. Iโ€™m besotted with Delilah. ๐Ÿ•น

Aussie micro bloggers make yourself known to @prologic ro be added to his dedicated page

Hi @davewoodx - awesome to find you on micro.blog. Thanks for your support via Twitter with TV Tune Up. I endorse your app for effective TV calibration.

After a couple of years of using Fiery Feeds, I bought the latest version of Reeder, which used to be my go to for RSS. Itโ€™s not nearly as full-featured but itโ€™s nice.

Daring Fireball: Time’s 2019 Person of the Year: Greta Thunberg Thunberg really riles up conservatives. I was doorknocked by JWs yesterday. They slammed Thunberg, arguing Psalm 37 says we have been given Earth for all time. So apparently we can fuck it up without concern.

My employer has reduced password age to 45 days - due to cybersecurity insurances policies. I contest that short password durations are worse for security. Better to have a long passphrase and be done with it.

Daring Fireball: The Information: ‘Appleโ€™s Ad-Targeting Crackdown Shakes Up Ad Market’ โ€œThereโ€™s no easy ability to ID a user.โ€ Iโ€™m a happy Safari user, falling back to Firefox if required. I avoid Chrome.

I connected my HomePod to my Apple TV. The audio quality for television shows is impressive.

Float, the Pixar short film on Disney+, tugs all the heartstrings.

It was a blast participating in the Micro Monday podcast. @macgenie was a great host who kept the conversation flowing.

Bluey is the greatest kids television show ever made. This article explores the production side of making an animated show.

The Mental Office: I’ve been trawling through some old text files of mine. I came across a note from 2012 that I initially thought was my own, but now recognise it as the work of Shawn Blanc. Shawn’s post highlights issues relating to working from home. He references a podcast that I used to enjoy โ€ฆ

November 2019

Politics: Day 30 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. You thought religion was a dangerous topic? No, I’ve left the really dangerous one until last. Today, let’s talk politics. My origin story I’ve been interested in politics since I was 12 or 13 years old. โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: Over the past 30 days I have been able to integrate the Microblogvember prompts from @macgenie into my daily blogging routine. These micro posts run in parallel with my longer Blogvember posts.

Religion: Day 29 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. My life has always been connected to religion and it has played a formative role in my upbringing. Baptised Anglican, and the son of an Anglican minister, I remember sitting through interminably boring sermons and church โ€ฆ

Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2019 SaaS Deals Harmonizely is 50% off your first payment. Itโ€™s a good WhenWorks alternative. @macgenie

I took advantage of Appleโ€™s Black Friday deals to buy a new Apple TV 4K. Then discovered I was only on the Netflix โ€œHDโ€ plan - not the โ€œUHDโ€ plan so had to give them more money. Meanwhile, Apple TV+ and Disney+ offer UHD by default for less than the basic Netflix plan! ๐Ÿ“บ

Microblogvember: 29 days into the challenge; 1 day to go. Fantastic!

Hope: Day 28 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. I hope my children have a good future. Challenges confront them large and small. Some of my immediate hopes include: they don’t fall in with the wrong crowd. they develop deep friendships - the type where you can trust โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: Prices of property in Perth went through the roof a few years ago as we experienced a ‘mining boomโ€™. They’ve settled down again now but houses are still way more expensive relative to income than they were a few decades prior.

I’m falling down the rabbit hole of encrypted internet services. First Keybase for messaging, then Standard Notes for notes and now Tresorit for file storage and secure sharing.

Loss: Day 27 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. I get frustrated when I lose something basic, like keys, glasses or my wallet. I have a designated โ€˜home locationโ€™ for these items. Despite that, they still seem to have a tendency to disappear from time to time. It is the most โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: I may not be rich but at least I have my health. (Glass half full, glass half fullโ€ฆ!)

Shoes: Day 26 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. Iโ€™m not a sneaker head by any means. Though there was a period when I was a teenager that I did pay a little more attention to the shoe world, and basketball shoes in particular. Basketball Shoes This was the era of Reebok โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: I enjoy reading my micro.blog feed because of the interesting mix of people I get to interact with.

A fresh look for your Microblogs, Twitter and Facebook Feeds โ€“ Inoreader added a custom parser for Micro.blog JSON feeds extensions. Awesome that Inoreader is specifically adding support for micro.blog. @manton

I watched the first episode of See and liked it. Not sure why it was so heavily criticised? ๐Ÿ“บ

I bought a UPS for my iMac today. The hardware seems fine but the software is some janky Java thing. I’m pretty sure I have to have it running to enable auto-shutdown though - there’s nothing standard built in to macOS, right?

Money: Day 25 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. I’m all right Jack keep your hands off of my stack Money, it’s a hit Don’t give me that do goody good bullshit I’m in the high-fidelity first class traveling set And I think I need a Lear jet Pink โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: I am glad our kids feel safe and secure in their home. It’s sad that many kids must not.

Infrastructure: Day 24 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. Many years ago I was employed as an Advisor to our State Governmentโ€™s Minister for Planning and Infrastructure. This followed previous work in the State Department of Transport and for a large grains cooperative which built, โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: I used Uber Pool yesterday. It was an enjoyable experience because I was paired up with great people. It’s not always bad to be in the company of strangers.

Toast: Day 23 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. John Siracusa built an empire talking about toasters, but what about the toast? I like a slice of toast that is crispy on the outer but remains soft under that toasted exoskeleton. The bread should be a golden brown. I โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: A word I never use, but like the sound of, is woebegone.

I’m exploring Receipts that comes as part of my Setapp subscription. I think it could replace my current DEVONthink usage for receipt management. Its OCR smarts are great.

Observations on Android, five years later | Riccardo Mori On iOS, what you see on the screen are essentially the contents of an Application folder. On Android, the screenโ€™s real estate is like a Desktop where you put shortcuts (in the Windows sense) Iโ€™ve never been an Android user but this โ€ฆ

Sport: Day 22 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. I’ve always watching and playing sport. As a kid, I tried most sports that entered my world view. I can remember playing: volleyball cricket basketball tennis football (Australian Rules) soccer baseball swimming โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: My wife likes to fall asleep to the hum of some white noise like a fan. I’ve had to get used to it.

Unrequited: Day 21 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. adjective (of a feeling, especially love) not returned: he’s been pining with unrequited love. Who set these prompts anyway? That guy should be put to the sword for this one. I canโ€™t think of anything to write about โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: I have no qualms about accepting a hollow victory! A win is a win. Nobody ever talks about hollow losses.

Fight: Day 20 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. You gotta fight for your right to party! My thanks to The Beastie Boys for their guest introduction. Iโ€™m not a fighter; never have been. I recall Jason Bulpitt (may he Rest In Peace) squaring up to me in the school playground โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: I’ve got a bit less than an hour, then I’m off to my second meeting of the day.

My kind of beer. ๐Ÿบ

Which gaming system is better for kids and sometimes adults: Xbox or PlayStation? โ“

Love: Day 19 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. Love is a super-complicated topic. I know I love my wife, I love my kids. But truth be told, I donโ€™t know how I know that I love them. I know that I love, in a technical sense. Yet I only feel it rarely. To be fair, I do โ€ฆ

Dolly Partonโ€™s America podcast is awesome. Iโ€™ve suffered the Tennessee Mountain Trance myself. castro.fm

Microblogvember: We have seen our intense hot weather in Perth abate but since itโ€™s not even summer yet, I know it will be back. I look forward to summer through winter, and then it arrives… it doesnโ€™t live up to the hype!

Microblogvember: It blows me away the things that humans have been able to build. For all our failings, we make some amazing things.

Game: Day 18 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. I’m not a gamer; this month I unsubscribed from Apple Arcade because I wasn’t playing any of the games on offer despite a number of them being good. It’s an opportunity cost issue. There are only so many hours โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: Bryce Cotton is a superb basketball player for the Perth Wildcats.

Cool, I’ve set up a Keybase.io account. As is typical with this stuff, I know nobody else who uses it.

Party: Day 17 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. Iโ€™m not one for parties; my introversion means Iโ€™m diametrically opposed to them. Having said that, Iโ€™m actually attending a party this afternoon/evening. It is a 60th birthday celebration though and should be a nice one. It is โ€ฆ

Animal: Day 16 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. Our family might be about to lose our second animal of the year to old age. Our Standard Poodle, Jeff, is not holding up so well. He has developed large cysts under his skin, his teeth are wearing out and now he seems to have โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: The old proverb is that it pays to be selective. Don’t just settle. You can do better than that.

Renovation: Day 15 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. About three years ago we did a house renovation. We had our kitchen gutted and rebuilt, our bathrooms reconfigured, wood floors sanded and interior walls painted, and a new front deck. A huge job already was made bigger because โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: I donโ€™t enjoy swimming in bodies of water where I cannot see below my feet, into the murky depths.

I want to remove the www from my andrewcanion.com domain but I somehow have a weird mishmash of redirects to `http(s)://www' that I can’t figure out what to change, where. Anything I’ve tried to do has broken all access.

Recycling: Day 14 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. Recycling is kind of a big deal in our house. Our council runs a three bin system for rubbish management: one bin for food and organics, one for rubbish, and a third for recyclables. My wife Hannah works in the recycling โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: Our poor old dog Jeff has a big lump at the top of his neck.

Beverage: Day 13 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. My favourite beverage is coffee. There is no contest. There is not much better than an Australian flat white. Italian coffee is great but it’s a transitory drink. You get it at the bar, drink it and leave. Don’t sit โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: I write this microblog from an event that I have been able to organise. We have a room of people undertaking strategy development and financial forecasting.

Smells: Day 12 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. A smell can be a most evocative sense. It can stimulate memory, facilitate calm or revulsion, or provide us with timely information. If I smell new carpet, I am transported back to my Year 1 classroom which had been renovated โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: This morning I wanted to stayin bed. Unfortunately, a want was insufficient reason to do so.

Iโ€™ve watched the first episode of The Spy on Netflix. Highly recommend! ๐Ÿ“บ

Apple Arcade games drain battery way too fast. Iโ€™m guessing it might be the DRM? Anyway, Iโ€™m canceling for a while since Iโ€™m not much of a gamer. Maybe Apple will sort it out over time. Apple Arcade games drain battery way too โ€ฆ - Apple Community

Childhood: Day 11 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. I miss my childhood. It was such a different era; it’s hard to recognise my childhood as an experience compared with those of my kids. The memories of my childhood seem like something that should be written off as me โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: I used to touch a basketball every single day. It’s now been months since I held one.

Book: Day 10 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. I’ve made a concerted effort this year to increase my volume of book reading. In recent years my reading has been dominated by web pages, articles and RSS feeds. This resulted in a decline in my book reading - something I โ€ฆ

Catalina and wifidiagnostics files multiplying like Tribbles: I’ve got problems with my Catalina install. I have wifidiagnostics files multiplying like tribbles in my private/var/tmp/ folder. With each of these files weighing in between 200Mb and 400Mb, my entire SSD is being swamped with these files, to the point of the operating system being crippled โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: My son is building a Lego craft at the moment that is designed to go into space.

Television: Day 9 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. There is so much high-quality television programming available now. We have Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Free to Air, etc. There was a time when it was necessary to find things off the back of a truck. I think those days โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: Today’s temperature is forecast to hit 38 degrees Celsius. That is the opposite of cold.

Technology: Day 8 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. This week I’ve had a massive technology upgrade. I’ve moved from a 2013 MacBook Pro (the generation of MacBooks which had great keyboards), to a 2019 27" iMac. I had been deferring this computer upgrade for โ€ฆ

Kids cricket is winding down as the sun sets. Yay summer! ๐Ÿ

Microblogvember: A pet peeve of mine is when people describe an asterisk as either an asterix or a star.

Watched Episode 1 of For All Mankind and enjoyed it. It brings to mind how fragile the success of the Apollo missions were, despite how much we take it for granted now. ๐Ÿ“บ

Over the last 24 hours I’ve been running on a brand new 27" iMac 3.1GHz 6-core i5. Compared with my old 2013 MacBook Pro this thing screams. I know itโ€™s not an iMac Pro but this is plenty enough for my needs. Also glad that I swapped out the default Fusion drive for SSD only.

Work: Day 7 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. All in all I have a pretty great job. I’ve been doing it for long enough that I feel I have well and truly mastered the fundamentals. With my interest in personal productivity I have constructed a range of efficiencies โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: We tend to think that we always have complete agency over our lives. If you stop and think how much is actually left to random chance, it can be a bit frightening.

Adobe Technical Support chat was so slow in linking me with somebody, that I was able to trawl forums and test random solutions. Just when somebody got to me, I had solved the problem. Great work, Adobe. ๐Ÿค”

Microblogvember: I take my kids to the park and inevitably they find a stick to play with. Trees make the most versatile toys ever known to man. A stick can be a proxy for any number of imaginary things.

Family: Day 6 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. I am most comfortable within a nuclear family. I grew up in a family with my Mom and 3 siblings. We had a few extended family members, but most lived in different parts of the country or overseas. As an adult the nuclear family โ€ฆ

At the checkout of the IGA grocery store three employees and I each claimed our childhood James Bond. We had Brosnan, Moore and Connery. Plus one, “no idea”. Friendly staff for the win!

I’ve escaped from Migration Assistant hell!

Iโ€™m in the midst of Migration Assistant hell.

Nature: Day 5 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. Right now in Perth we are in the perfect time of the year to enjoy nature. We are moving into nice spring sunshine with temperatures in the mid-twenties. This is a time to enjoy, before the Perth furnace gets cranking for โ€ฆ

I’ve bought an annual subscription to Harmonizely as my replacement for WhenWorks, which is shutting down at the end of 2019.

Microblogvember: When I was a kid my friends and I would typically play sport on the street. Cricket and tennis were the two typical games. I don’t see kids doing that anymore.

Food: Day 4 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. Over the past year I’ve been enjoying food a bit too much. Concurrently I’ve stopped playing sport. This has led to an imbalance in the food in/energy out equation. In turn, I’ve seen the growth of a generous โ€ฆ

Catalina has filled my drive with hundreds of wifi diagnostic files for no apparent reason. Cool.

Microblogvember: If you want to be arithmetically precise, don’t say average; instead say mean.

Niagara Scow - Wikipedia A shipwreck from 100 years ago is still stuck at the top of Niagara Falls. Wow!

Failing: Day 3 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. It seems that part of the human condition is to view failure as an end in and of itself. I think itโ€™s better to consider it part of the process towards success. A life well-lived encompasses a procession of trade-offs. We โ€ฆ

Microblogvember: I haven’t been invited to a fancy dress party in years… which is good, because I don’t really like them.

Microblogvember: When does a mark become a blemish? Is it simply in the eyes of the beholder?

Trying: Day 2 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. Iโ€™m not a handyman. Never have been. When I was young, I would be roped into helping my stepdad do work around the house or on the car. I dutifully participated despite the boredom. I couldnโ€™t find joy in repairs and โ€ฆ

In addition to Blogvember we also have Microblogvember. Prompts can be the key to success, so get the daily prompt for this project from @macgenie

Back to the Blog โ€“ Dan Cohen In this older article, Dan outlines the benefits of blogging, but also the challenge of getting people to see beyond big social media. It is psychological gravity, not technical inertia, however, that is the greater force against the open web. Human beings are social โ€ฆ

Recollection: Day 1 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available. I must rely on vague and fading recollections to remember anything of my life that happened more than a decade ago. Any key events forward from around 2003, I start to have digital records to draw upon as a memory trigger. For โ€ฆ

Trick or treat. (But preferably treat, thanks very much.)

October 2019

Inktober Day 31: Ripe.

Inktober Day 30: Catch.

Mobile phones to be banned in WA public schools from 2020 under McGowan Government move - ABC News The WA Government will ban students from using mobile phones in public schools in a major push to reduce distraction and focus on learning. Bravo! I reckon this is a great move.

Inktober Day 29: Injured.

Iโ€™m on the verge of splurging for a new 27โ€ iMac. Iโ€™ve been saving for ages but am still nervous. An expensive purchase. But the 2013 MacBook Pro is showing its age.

I spend so much time farting around with various information capture and management apps, when really, DEVONthink can essentially do it all.

Inktober Day 28: Ride.

Inktober Day 27: Coat.

Inktober Day 26: Dark.

Great weather for a play at the park.

Inktober Day 25: Tasty.

Inktober Day 24: Dizzy.

Blogvember Prompt List: I’ve mentioned previously an idea to make November my own Blogvember. From that idea, @galexa asked if I would have a list of prompts. I hadn’t even considered that, but he makes a fair point. If I’m using Inktober as my guide, it has prompts, so why not offer them for Blogvember โ€ฆ

Inktober Day 23: Ancient.

My iPhone has been acting really weird the last couple of days. Losing network, apps failing to load, hanging apps and loss of screen responsiveness. Iโ€™ve taken the nuclear option: Erase and Reset. I blame iOS 13.

Incense in a coffee shop. I like it.

Being Busy Is Eliminating the Joys of Shared Free Time To make the most efficient use of their scant time at home, some parents have resorted to using the same enterprise software that organizes their office lives Weโ€™ve been using Basecamp at home and itโ€™s been a game-changer.

I saw a lady wearing a taped-up cardboard box on her head. In the library. Using a computer. Life is interesting.

Inktober Day 22: Ghost.

In the blogging world, this month is Inktober. I am thinking I might challenge myself to make November, Blogvember. August as Blogust would sound better, but I don’t wait to wait another 9 months.

My mind keeps circling back to Dave Winerโ€™s blog. I like how he maintains a pithy flow of commentary through the day. I like that he blogs using an Outliner. No wonder itโ€™s the oldest blog in the world.

Inktober Day 21: Treasure

WhenWorks, the calendar scheduling service that has been brilliant for me and my clients over the past two years, is closing down. It seems Harmonizely is the next best option as it supports CalDAV and Fastmail.

My kid is getting in to Pokemon. This has led to my wife and I watching YouTube videos explaining how to play Pokemon: Trading Card Game. Life takes interesting turns.

Inktober Day 20: Tread.

I appreciate @beck and @tjluoma bringing my attention to a Keyboard Maestro script to allow “Edit Text in an Alternative Appโ€ functionality to the Mac.

Inktober Day 19: Sling.

Inktober Day 18: Misfit.

Inktober Day 17: Ornament.

Inktober Day 16: Wild.

Iโ€™ve been entirely swamped with work. ๐Ÿ™‡๐Ÿผโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Inktober Day 15m Legend.

Inktober Day 14: Overgrown.

Inktober Day 13: Ash.

Inktober Day 12: Dragon.

Inktober Day 11: Snow.

Inktober Day 10: Pattern.

Inktober Day 9: Swing.

I bought some NFC stickers to use with HomeKit devices. Now I need tot honk of some clever applications.

Fastmail does Snooze Not all emails arrive when youโ€™re ready. Hit snooze in Fastmail to bring it back at a better time for you. With iOS 13โ€™s Mail being terrible and Fastmail introducing snoozing, Iโ€™m using their native client as my primary mail interface.

Inktober Day 8: Frail.

Over the last couple of days I’ve gone geocaching with the kids and by myself. It’s fun; it makes me feel like I’m on Survivor hunting down the hidden immunity idol!

Inktober Day 7: Enchanted.

Inktober Day 6: Husky.

Inktober Day 5: Build.

Inktober Day 4: Freeze.

Inktober Day 3: Bait

I’ve re-engaged with Curio for some work projects, and I like it so much. Itโ€™s incredibly versatile software.

Inktober Day 2: Mindless.

Iโ€™m not an artist, but Iโ€™ve had a crack at the Inktober day one challenge: ring.

My Cortex merch arrived - will it replace my existing mind map system? The Theme System

September 2019

I’m enjoying the native swipe keyboard in iOS 13. I also like the mini keyboard available for iPadOS.

I’ve not had Dropbox installed for months, and haven’t missed it at all. In an earlier time it was indispensable.

How to ‘Grease the Groove’ and Exercise Easy - The Atlantic: One way to grease the groove is to just do the exercise whenever you think of it. I’ve put on weight since giving up basketball. I hate the gym. Perhaps ‘greasing the groove’ might help me lose a few kgs.

These guys make life fun.

Is WeWork A Fraud? | Zero Hedge A lot of people could have done what Adam Nuemann & Miguel McKelvey did, they donโ€™t because theyโ€™re not prepared to engage in a fraud. Putting money into WeWork would be a bad investment.

Card of Darkness on Apple Arcade is fun and the drawing and animation is delightful. ๐Ÿ•น

It seems the stock calendar app in iOS 13 might finally be good enough for me.

Grindstone on Apple Arcade is fun. These games are killing my battery, though. ๐Ÿ•น

I’m walking through Bulding 402 at Curtin Uni for the first time in about 25 years. Where’s the window from where I used to pick up my print jobs?

With iOS 13.1 out I’ve taken the plunge. I’ve also started an Apple Arcade trial, with the micro game reviews from @manton as my guide.

I made a “Piggy’s got the conch” reference in a meeting today and nobody got it. What is the world becoming?

After months of enjoyment Iโ€™ve now completed Zelda Breath of the Wild. What an amazing game. Possibly the best game Iโ€™ve ever played. ๐Ÿ•น

My superpower: ability to get sunburn on a 22 degree day.

Iโ€™ve been experimenting with pCloud for online storage. It seems fine. Yet between iCloud and Resilio Sync to my NAS, maybe storage is a solved problem?

This TED talk does a great job of breaking down why neoliberalism is wrong, and what is needed to build a new theory of economics that benefits all.

I bought Untitled Goose Game for Switch today. I knew it was published by Panic, but didnโ€™t know it was Australian made. Good to have supported the local industry. ๐Ÿ•น

Iโ€™m showing tremendous restraint by avoiding iOS 13.0 and waiting for 13.1. Itโ€™s like Iโ€™m a different person!

Iโ€™m home again after my three-day work sojourn to Canberra which took 9 hours of flight time. Australia is big. โœˆ๏ธ

My Apple Watch Series 1 battery has suddenly become incapable of holding a dayโ€™s worth of charge. Itโ€™s like it knows the Series 5 has been released. โŒš๏ธ

Is The Far Side making a comeback? I was obsessed with these comics as a young teen growing up in the early nineties. Our science teacher would stick a new comic up in his classroom every day. Reading it each morning was the highlight of the day.

Great spring weather for a street walk.

First time at the beach for this season. First sunburn too. ๐Ÿฅต Itโ€™s no fun being a complete whitey. ๐Ÿ„๐Ÿผโ€โ™‚๏ธ ๐Ÿ–

The Australia v Spain ๐Ÿ€ game was epic. Double overtime. Aussies with one day less rest combined with some interesting refereeing did them in. So no gold or silver medal on this journey, but they can still make history by winning a bronze.

How Elon Musk Gambled Tesla to Save SolarCity | Vanity Fair …many skeptics have come to see Muskโ€™s stuntsโ€”from smoking pot during an interview to calling a diver who helped rescue kids trapped in a Thailand cave a โ€œpedo guyโ€โ€”as more unhinged than iconoclastic. Agreed.

I forgot there was an Apple event today. Thatโ€™s a new experience for me. Now having caught up, I wouldnโ€™t mind upgrading from my Series 1 Watch. Arcade and TV+ are well-priced. iPhone 11? Meh.

I’m going crazy adding emoji as the first character in my calendar events. Send help!โ€ผ๏ธ

Heading into wildflower season. The canola fields were a vibrant yellow but didnโ€™t get a photo of those.

The boy and I took a weekend road trip to Hyden, Western Australia to see Wave Rock.

Police hunt for gang of six men rob Perth’s two Apple stores Police are on the hunt for a gang of six men wanted over daring smash and grab robberies on Perth’s two Apple stores. My hometown hitting the news in not such a great way.

The USA v Turkey ๐Ÿ€ was bonkers. Turkey missed their opportunities and the US can breathe a sign of relief. Previously, the Brazil v Greece game was almost as good. My Boomers won ugly, with thanks to Joe Ingles.

A fun night at EPW wrestling my 8 year old son. Compared with a year ago, he gets into it so much more now! He even started a chant. But he still feels sad for the wrestlers who lose. ๐Ÿฅฐ

What does America have against vacation? - The Washington Post The United States, on the other hand [โ€ฆ] mandates no paid vacation or paid holidays. Zero days. This seems crazy to me. Australia mandates 20 days of annual leave plus 10 public holidays. Work life balance is vital.

August 2019

Living my best life. ๐Ÿ€๐Ÿ“บ๐Ÿ€๐Ÿ“บ๐Ÿ€๐Ÿ“บ

The corrupting of democracy - The Economist Politics used to behave like a pendulum. When the right made mistakes the left won its turn, before power swung back rightward again. Now it looks more like a helter-skelter. Cynicism drags democracy down. Will democracy self-correct?

Just one day until the basketball ๐Ÿ€ World Cup commences. I’m excited! Two weeks of my favourite sport. I want the Aussies to do well, but I’ll happily watch any two nations play at any time.

Basecamp now offers a free plan, but itโ€™s restricted to 3 projects. Iโ€™m excited, but how to ration my projects? And since itโ€™s team-focused, how do I get anybody else (likely my wife!) excited about this?

TV manufacturers unite to tackle the scourge of motion smoothing - The Verge: Vizioโ€™s Director of Product Marketing said that 85 percent of customers donโ€™t bother adjusting their TVs from their out of the box settings. This statement. How can people live like that?

Tokyo’s Famous Capsule Tower May Not Be Doomed - CityLab In the densely packed Tokyo neighborhood of Shinbashi, one building stands out from all the others: the 13-story Nakagin Capsule Tower, completed in 1972. Its two stacks of small metal capsules, each with a signature round window, look โ€ฆ

My current home screen. I donโ€™t love it, but itโ€™s serving the purpose.

Oh my! The Australian Boomers beat the USA! ๐Ÿ€

The more I see of fintech product offerings, the more convinced I am the gap they are exploiting is a lack of basic financial education together with an unwillingness to forego immediate consumer gratification. Thatโ€™s not technological advantage, itโ€™s social manipulation.

Fun game of ๐Ÿ€ between Australia and USA tonight. Good sportsmanship all around. But where has Joe Ingles' jump shot gone?

MailMate Review: I have bought a license for MailMate - a mail application for the Mac. This cost me AU$84. Why pay that kind of money for a mail app, when Apple provide Mail for free, and I have access to a good web app for Fastmail and Outlook for work email? I was happy to pay the money because MailMate is โ€ฆ

Inhaling the beautiful aroma of this giant lemon-scented eucalyptus before it is cut down in the name of โ€œdevelopmentโ€.

WeWork's IPO: The Triumph Of Hype Over Fundamentals: WeWork’s IPO: The Triumph Of Hype Over Fundamentals: โ€œWe Dedicate This To The Energy Of We โ€“ Greater Than Any One Of Us But Inside Each Of Us,โ€ says the banner page of WeWorkโ€™s IPO document. I mentally added another โ€œeโ€ to We, and hastily moved on before I cracked up. Sometimes it is โ€ฆ

Work just provided me with an iPhone XR. Which means Iโ€™m on the Animoji bandwagon now. Watch out!

Thereโ€™s a sense of spring in the air. Birds are chirping and we have a blue sky and a gentle breeze.

My wifeโ€™s iPhone XR was lost/stolen. Somehow Find My iPhone was disabled. How was this done with FaceID and passcode required for access? Carrier has blocked IMEI so it’s essentially a brick at this point, as best I can tell.

The Economist: Americaโ€™s social-media addiction is getting worse: FACEBOOK users in America spend about 42 minutes a day on the social-media platform. I’m so happy not to be an active user of the Facebook platform anymore. Ditching it and Twitter has salvaged much time.

The Boys on Prime Video is worth watching. Funny, gruesome and thought-provoking all in one.

Stoicism: It seems I can’t spend any time on the Internet at the moment without coming across insights, thoughts and video on the philosophy of stoicism. While this could be a product of frequency bias, I claim some modicum of defence because I learned about stoicism in detail in 2011 during my time โ€ฆ

My thanks to the flu which has enabled me to sleep night and day for the past three days. ๐Ÿ˜ท

July 2019

OmniGroup Adopting Appleโ€™s Standard iOS Document Browser And the people rejoiced!

I’ve just bought and installed Better on macOS and iOS. I’ve used 1BlockerX until now, but Iโ€™m interested to see if this other app is, indeed, Better.

I’m nearing the end of my MailMate trial, and I think it’s going to be a case of “take my money”. Itโ€™s really good.

I’m experimenting with disabling Fastmail spam filtering, and instead using SpamSieve on my Mac.

This game was a lot of fun.

There are a few things I donโ€™t like about MailMate but there are many things I do. I imagine I will end up buying a license at the end of my trial period.

Day One has embedded itself into my life. I’ve been writing in it since November 2011 and have over 1,500 entries. That must be the longest contiguous piece of work I’ve created.

Into the Personal-Website-Verse ยท Matthias Ott: Whenever you stumble upon an interesting thought on another site, write about it and link to it. I stumbled across this article, and I liked it. It outlines why the IndieWeb should really just be the web. As a result of finding this article on this โ€ฆ

Achieve a state of flow. Nek minnit, have to stop to go to a meeting.

My iPad has been hit by that weird bug where Spotlight search slows to a crawl. After attempting random voodoo solutions, Iโ€™ve now gone for the nuclear erase and restore option.

Iโ€™m experimenting with the iOS app, Secure Shellfish, for SSH/SFTP. It works great, but I donโ€™t really have a need for it.

Early morning park play.

I have upgraded my micro.blog account from monthly to annual payments. A no brainer deal!

I’ve bought Calendar Paste for iOS to see if it will help with time blocking. First downside - no iCloud sync, which feels like table stakes these days.

A Guide to Using YNAB to Support NDIS Self-Managed Budgeting: As a self-managed user of Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) it is necessary to budget, account for, and forecast expenditure over the 12-month period of the funding agreement. The typical way to do this budgeting would be with a spreadsheet, laid out in the typical โ€ฆ

I bought Working Copy for iOS tonight. I only use git for Blot publishing but the app is so good it deserves all the support it can get.

I watched the first two episodes of Black Mirror season 5 tonight. I enjoyed them both. They seem more focused on people and relationships than some of the earlier episodes that get highly involved in โ€˜future techโ€™.

Hello gastro, my old friend. ๐Ÿคฎ

The Economist: The global crisis in conservatism At its best conservatism can be a steadying influence. It is reasonable and wise; it values competence; it is not in a hurry. Those days are over. Todayโ€™s right is on fire and it is dangerous. Iโ€™m not a conservative but I understand why some are. โ€ฆ

Rainy Day Escapades: 

Lunchbox motivation.

Not a bad place to stop for a coffee meeting. Good weather for mid-winter, too.

Kerry Oโ€™Brienโ€™s powerful Logies speech 2019 - YouTube: Kerry O’Brien’s powerful Logies speech 2019 - YouTube

June 2019

NetNewsWire is such a great app. Fast, responsive and nice to look at. Syncing with Inoreader can’t come fast enough. @brentsimmons

This is the first time I have ever put a sticker on one of my devices. @burk

James Shelley on Busyness: I have both written about and noted upon the false value of busyness within our societal norms. One of my favourite independent writers, James Shelley has published an interesting take on the same topic. He cites many references, including one of my favourites, Thorstein Veblen, he of the famous โ€ฆ

Big thanks to Jason @burk for sending micro.blog shwag all the way to Australia.

Thanks to David’s help at @blot I now have a cool tags view of my posts on that site.

A new look, logo, and website for Fastmail Today, we launched a refreshed look for Fastmail, with a new logo, app icon, colors, and website. I like the new typeface. The envelope keeps reminding me of a crown though, which is weird.

Micro.blog successfully imported my Instagram archive. This site is fast becoming my life stream. Iโ€™m owning my content.

Nobody Wants to Buy Vocus: Vocus’ share performance over 3 years Poor Vocus, it must be in bad shape. From Bill Bennett: Last week Australian energy company AGL withdrew its A$3 billion takeover offer for Vocus. This came only two weeks after Swedish private equity firm EQT halted its $3.3 billion transaction. Bill โ€ฆ

I’m experiencing the existential crisis that is all too familiar to many a blogger… what goes on this blog of mine and what goes on the other blog of mine? ๐Ÿค”

Atlassian declares 'The M&A process is broken': Atlassian is an interesting company that possibly doesn’t get the kudos it might deserve. As an Australian, I have admiration for seeing one of ours hit it big internationally. Atlassian and Canva are probably the only two Australian companies that immediately spring to mind as having won big โ€ฆ

Thanks for your kind words, micro.bloggers. On a day when our dear pet left us, itโ€™s nice to have positive responses. So different - and so much better - than the snark I might expect on other networks. I love this place.

Today we said goodbye to our gorgeous Airedale Terrier, Indi. Loyal friend for 14 years. She will be missed.

I’ve decided that I’m not going to renew my Lightroom subscription when it comes due. I’ve just gone through and brought all the photos that were on the Adobe Cloud back to my local NAS. I just don’t do enough photography anymore to justify the expense.

Heโ€™s almost over the flu now.

OpenDNS & Dynamic IPs: I have changed my DNS provider to OpenDNS. I have been using CloudFlare DNS and have nothing but praise for its speed and stability. However, with kids in the house, I need the additional network filtering and site-blocking that OpenDNS can deliver. For OpenDNS to work it needs to be kept abreast of โ€ฆ

Well, this is a good reason to completely leave Google. It’s not sending me 2FA codes to my devices, and my attempt at recovery failed. So, I guess no more access to my Google account?

Thanks @cleverdevil for your โ€œOn This Dayโ€ extension for micro.blog.

Slaughterhouse-Five: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut My rating: 4 of 5 stars I read this because it seems one of those books that should be read before one dies. So it goes. The worldview (universe view?) of the Tralfamadorian’s resonated with the reading I have done recently on stoicism. Perhaps that was โ€ฆ

Yes! I got my Hugo/Netlify site up and running. I’ll go run my victory lap now.

I was defeated by the combination of Hugo, git and Netlify. Cโ€™est la vie.

I’ve discovered this site by Bryce Wray. I have no idea if it’s already widely known, but it’s new to me. I like the writing.

I succumbed and bought iA Writer for macOS.

So Many Markdown Editor Options: The search for the right Mac Markdown editor is like a quest for the Holy Grail. There are many options, but finding the ideal fit is a challenge. It got to the point where I had to do an audit of the options that exist on my computer, and consider which one might be best for my needs. The list I โ€ฆ

Hey micro.blog friends, youโ€™re a coercive bunch! I think Iโ€™m going to have to run with iA Writer! Is there a way to get x-callback URLs to render as tapable links though?

I’m getting the hang of using git from the terminal now.

I’m really in the mood for shaking up my apps. Now I’m looking at Mailmate for email. It’s an app I’ve known about for years, but now I’m genuinely interested.

42: The Meaning of Life: “The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42.” – Douglas Adams In that case, I’m looking forward to true enlightenment because today is my 42nd birthday. I was fortunate to be born in Australia. We didn’t have much growing up. Raised โ€ฆ

1Writer & Working Copy: This is a post written in 1Writer and to be published via Working Copy on iOS. Files Integration Is Great! Now I’m editing this file in iA Writer as it is linked with Working Copy’s instance of my file through iCloud and Files app. I wish iA Writer supported TextExpander.

Will I End up Buying BBEdit?: I’ve always had a version of BBEdit on my Mac. For a while it was TextWrangler, but now it’s back to BBEdit (unregistered). It’s one of those apps I don’t use very often, but when I want a pure Mac text editing experience, I know I can rely on it. BBEdit can do a whole โ€ฆ

Cloned to GitHub: So now I have cloned my Blot repository into Github and am using Github desktop on the Mac. As this is editing via Github I have no idea how or if my edits here will make it to my site. The nice thing about Github Desktop is it allowed me to easily open this whole project/site into BBEdit. Update At โ€ฆ

Git Test 2: I’m going to try to share it over to Working Copy for publishing via Git. Wish me luck. iOS Integration I’ve opened this file in iA Writer from the Working Copy files provider for the version stored on Blot. What happens now?

Dropbox Is Bloating, So Move to Git: This is literally a test post using Git instead of Dropbox. I have no idea what I’m doing with Git, but what could go wrong?

Some time ago I purchased a license for Resilio Sync. I use it only occasionally but it also could make a fine replacement for Dropbox.

I ainโ€™t got no time for this new bloated Dropbox garbage. I don’t use Dropbox for that much already - might be time to let it go. The one thing I will need to figure out though is how to publish to @blot with Github.

I feel emotionally drained after watching Bob Hawke’s memorial service. What a magnificent Prime Minister he was for our nation. I’m honoured to at least say that I met him a number of times.

I’ve borrowed a book from the public library, this copy of which has not been borrowed by anybody before me. It feels wonderfully decadent to have access to a brand new book for free. ๐Ÿ“š

Hanging out with the kid.

Iโ€™m trialling DevonThink 3 beta, and the side bar workflow is weird. I know what they were trying to do in terms of making it more like Mail, but the new structure has made me much less efficient.

Getting SSL encryption on micro.blog was a heck of lot easier than with my previous hosting provider. I’m feeling pretty good about this transition.

It seems like my reconfigured web services are working. Homepage at andrewcanion.com and blog with micro.blog. Micro.blog for the win!

I’ve just signed up for a paid micro.blog account and this is my first post to it. I think this could be the way out of my Wordpress quagmire.

DNS reconfiguration tasks are the purgatory of the Internet.

@brentsimmons NetNewsWire is great, thanks for bringing it back to life. I understand why Feedly is next on the sync list, but can I request Inoreader support after that?

Iโ€™m proud of myself - I just debugged somebody elseโ€™s Javascript code, and Iโ€™m not even a programmer. Now it works as intended.

@jamesshelley I am checking in with you as I have enjoyed your writing in the past. Your website now seems in some bit of disrepair. I hope you are still out there and doing well.

@joejenett I think I fixed it with the help of this resource - so this post is a test!

Uberโ€™s Path of Destruction - American Affairs Journal: Uberโ€™s Path of Destruction - American Affairs Journal: Since it began operations in 2010, Uber has grown to the point where it now collects over $45 billion in gross passenger revenue, and it has seized a major share of the urban car service market. But the widespread belief that it is a highly โ€ฆ

I think I might try ditching Fantastical in favour of the stock calendar app on iOS. Iโ€™m fed up with Fantastical not supporting travel time, and by using Drafts I should still be able to add events using natural language.

Iโ€™m having to upgrade to the 2Tb iCloud tier for our family. My wife takes too many photos!

Read-it-Later with...: I’ve used Instapaper relatively consistently since Marco Arment introduced it. Was that a decade ago now? Occasionally I’ve stopped using it, or toyed with other services like Pocket, or Safari’s Reading List feature. In the end, however, I’ve always gone back to โ€ฆ

Ctrl-Cmd-G has to be about the best feature in the new version 3 of DEVONthink. It’s the equivalent of Cmd-O in OmniFocus.

I updated the details of my technology stack.

I was just able to successfully extract over 2000 articles from Instapaper into DevonThink using an AppleScript. Now I can search and leverage my reading history. Iโ€™m going to cease using Instapaper now, and consolidate around DevonThink.

Microsoft says mandatory password changing is โ€œancient and obsoleteโ€: Via Ars Technica: Microsoft said it was removing periodic password changes from the security baseline settings it recommends for customers and auditors. After decades of Microsoft recommending passwords be changed regularly, Microsoft employee Aaron Margosis said the requirement is an โ€œancient and โ€ฆ

I have ploughed hours of time into Zelda and I still feel that I’m only just scratching the surface.

Getting Back in the Swing: It’s not particularly easy getting into the swing of work after an extended absence. Today is my first day with my legs back under the desk after enjoying an extended break. This is a time of reacquainting myself with things. Picking up projects and tasks that have laid idle for some time, โ€ฆ

I dislike my current home screen.

Beautiful weather for my first time at Perthโ€™s new stadium. This place is magnificent.

Discovering the thrill of books.

How Differential Gears Work: Watching things like this remind how little I know.

Drafts for Link Posts: canion.me I’ve been noodling around trying to figure out the most effective way to write and publish onto this Blot-powered page, especially from iOS, but also recognising that I do also use macOS. The answer is always Drafts, isn’t it? That app that I keep trying to incorporate into โ€ฆ

Link Posts and Blot: I’ve been noodling around trying to figure out the most effective way to write and publish onto this Blot-powered page, especially from iOS, but also recognising that I do also use macOS. This is theoretically easy, since Blot just needs a file to exist in a Dropbox folder. Where I’ve โ€ฆ

May 2019

The Steep Drop in Britainโ€™s Coal Usage: The Steep Drop in Britainโ€™s Coal Usage: In Britain, the birthplace of the industrial revolution, no coal has been used to produce power for the last 11 days. Coal is on the decline. This is market forces at work, not simply ideology.

Seven West Media Buys Remaining Stake in Community Newspaper Group in Wa โžœ: Print and television giant Seven West Media has taken control of Community Newspaper Group in a deal that gives the company increased control over the West Australian media landscape, but has brought fears more jobs could be lost. The deal brings several of Perth’s major suburban newspapers โ€ฆ

I’ve spent the last few days in Albany, in the southwest of Western Australia. I haven’t been here for years. I had a memory of loving it, and I can confirm I do love it.

Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction: Horizontal reading rules the day. What I do when I look at Twitter is less akin to reading a book than to the encounter I have with a recipe’s instructions or the fine print of a receipt: I’m taking in information, not enlightenment. โ€ฆ

Misanthropic Me: How can so many watch and enjoy inane, superficial television shows? Why does the population focus more on sporting events than geopolitical disasters? Why is consumerism celebrated and the rise of social media ‘influencers’ followed with such passion? I feel as though our civilisation โ€ฆ

I’m enjoying having MarsEdit available on Setapp.

Keyboard Maestro Field Guide: Keyboard Maestro Field Guide | MacSparky Field Guides: With Keyboard Maestro, you can automate just about anything. In addition to teaching you all of the mechanics of Keyboard Maestro, this course includes a number of walkthroughs of automation workflows you can use, download, or alter to automate โ€ฆ

MarsEdit on Setapp: I have previously written about trialling MarsEdit but ultimately the app didn’t stick. Now MarsEdit has been made available as part of my Setapp subscription, so I’m able to give it another go, this time as a paying customer. This post is being written and published using MarsEdit. It โ€ฆ

Monthly Review April 2019: What Went Well at Home? Not having to go to work each day has allowed me to really find a rhythm in terms of household management. I could really get used to being a house-husband. What Went Well at Work? Another month of not being there — thanks Long Service Leave! โ€ฆ

Zelda Breath of the Wild is addictive!

April 2019

I met some new people today who were just brilliant folk. Hit it off with them immediately. Itโ€™s not often that you get to make โ€˜new friends' through random chance.

My Easter bunny related news: I finished Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. What a great game.

Easter treats.

My Apple Store visit was a huge success today. My capable Genius confirmed my iPad discolouration patch, and replaced the iPad with a new one on the spot. Best part about that is I get a new battery!

Adobe Rush for iOS is good. Some bugs in places, but itโ€™s helping me to edit together video successfully.

@martinfeld Youโ€™ve been fireballed!

My iPad Pro has developed a โ€˜lighterโ€™ splotch on the screen, just a bit above the home button. I keep thinking itโ€™s a smudge, but itโ€™s definitely the screen. Now I canโ€™t unsee it. Must be upgrade time. ๐Ÿ˜…

I think @martinfeld really knocked it out of the park with this post. Apple and the Craftsmen โ€“ Lounge Ruminator

RSS reader update: Reeder is too ancient, its panels donโ€™t look nice on a portrait iPad and it has slow sync. Unread is pretty but there is so much swiping and long-tapping needed to do anything. I might be slinking back to Fiery Feeds.

@martinfeld i just saw that John Siracusa has faved your rumination in Instapaper. A brush with nerd fame!

After using Fiery Feeds for some time, Iโ€™m doing an audit and testing other RSS apps again. Fiery Feeds seemed to be using a lot of battery. So far, Unread is winning.

That was fun, spending $672 on car maintenance, with news of more expenses to come soon.

It was great to be out in the bush with our old girl Indi.

Monthly Review March 2019: The third entry in this series, reviewing my month that was. What Went Well at Home? I started Long Service Leave, which is a benefit that becomes available after working for a single employer for 10 years. This time off has been wonderful so far. I have not at all missed work. I’ve โ€ฆ

Further investigations into my missing wedding ring are leading to the unfortunate conclusion that my 3-year old boy flushed it down the toilet. He will be hearing about this when heโ€™s older.

I seem to have lost my wedding ring. Oh no.

World Autism Awareness Day: Today, 2 April, is World Autism Awareness Day. Wear light blue to show your support and understanding.

March 2019

@martinfeld Your latest rumination on travel as work resonated with me. Not that I do it, but that I also think itโ€™s a trap. Wage growth is already anaemic, why provide additional labour at no charge?

As of today Iโ€™ve been off Twitter for one year. My life is better for it!

I shaved off the beard I had been growing for months and now have regrets.

OmniOutliner as a Daybook: I’ve recently taken to using OmniOutliner as a daybook/Bullet Journal. I don’t actively follow the bullet journal methodology, although the more I think about it, the more useful it seems.1 Traditionally, I’ve not been one to record daily events as they occur and make notes โ€ฆ

On iOS, iA Writer may look better, Ulysses may seem better, but 1Writer actually is better!

Somebody needs to tell the tightly-wound petrol station guy that if I reverse into the spot, I am not entering the station from the wrong direction. Iโ€™m just a good driver.

This is a post purely to test whether my Inoreader rule matching is working. If it is, certain others will receive this post by email.

You are not supposed to get locked out of your own car with a keyless entry fob…

democratic capitalismโ€™s futureย : democracy journal: democratic capitalism’s future : democracy journal

Thanks to @joshsullivan for reminding me about CloudMounter on Setapp I had given up on OneDrive for sync because of its poor performance on Mac, but this might be a good solution!

Carrot on the pulse with Appleโ€™s strategy. CARROT Weather's forecast for today ๐Ÿ˜

I hit a roadblock with my v7 of Keyboard Maestro. I needed a feature from v8 so pulled the trigger on an upgrade. I live just a couple of minutes away from the developer in Australia but still had to pay in US $! Thatโ€™s the global economy for you!

Today is our 14th wedding anniversary! Time flies! ๐Ÿ’๐Ÿ’๐ŸŽŠ

I love annual leave. Second day in a row at the beach with no guilt.

I spent the morning at the beach with only myself for company. It was glorious. Floating in flat water, looking up at an azure sky.

I continue to watch and hope that Voodoopad will rise from the dead. Development seems glacial and communication to users is not great on their forum, though.

I previously bought Postbox v3 and have been offered a discount to upgrade. They’re now on version 6 and offering a โ€˜lifetime license' upgrade. Any users of Postbox out there? Any recent feedback on the software?

Boeing 737 MAX: I’ve been brought up on the phrase, ‘If it’s not Boeing, I’m not going’. The 737 MAX situation puts a real dent in that theory. This article by The Air Current, via John Gruber, provides a well-written view of what has happened. Given my interest in lean โ€ฆ

It seems I might be drifting back to Ulysses for my writing, despite its Markdown foibles. The ability to publish to Wordpress and have an External folder linked to Blot, with great cross-platform syncing, is very nice.

@twelvety Is there a way I can get your email address? I would like to reach out to you about something.

โ€˜Iโ€™m Busyโ€™ Isnโ€™t a Badge of Honour: Itโ€™s common within Australian business culture for people, when asked the question of โ€˜How are you going?โ€™, to respond with something along the lines of, โ€˜Iโ€™m really busyโ€™, or โ€˜flat outโ€™. This might be a reflexive response to avoid having to provide a more substantive answer, or it may be bluster to โ€ฆ

I put my name down to volunteer at the school canteen this morning. Iโ€™m breaking down the gender norms - I was the only guy on the list.

When reconstructing a soup your wife has previously made, don’t get the ratios wrong. Using too much broth, thereby not leaving enough for future servings, will get you in trouble.

I cannot sleep. So frustrating.

The more I use Notebooks app, the more impressed I am. It destroyed Agenda in my head-to-head test. Itโ€™s much nicer on iOS than DEVONthink is. Very impressive software.

The Modern Trap of Feeling Obligated to Turn Hobbies Into Hustles The cult of busyness is one of the most toxic aspects of our culture, but itโ€™s also a defense mechanism. I hate that in working society the default response to a question of how one is, is so often, โ€œbusyโ€.

@martinfeld I enjoyed your latest rumination on hyphens. I donโ€™t always get it right, but I try.

My holiday plan sounds like a Tinder profile: long walks on the beach, exercise, reading…

โ€œTim Appleโ€. Carrot is up with the latest Trump news! CARROT Weather's forecast ๐Ÿคฃ

Dice Roll: The Phantom Gambler And just like that, the man won over $1.5 million. He calmly filled the empty suitcase with his winnings, exited Binionโ€™s into the desert afternoon, and drove off. It was the largest amount ever bet on a dice roll in America.

Park Within the Lines: Park within the lines.

Knowing Mark, this doesnโ€™t surprise me, but it does impress me! Off-duty Premier Mark McGowan becomes unexpected hero in stingray accident

That moment when you show up to the event you are hosting… only to realise itโ€™s on tomorrow.

Gingerbread House Cubicle: Roaming through my Flickr history, I came across this gem. We really smashed the Christmas decorating out of the park this year, as my cubicle was transformed into a gingerbread house. Gingerbread House Cubicle

Just found this photo of my desk from 2008! I am still using the keyboard today. Apple used to have the ability to make long-lived keyboards.

One last visit to Wikitown, then off to bed. It’s past midnight!

I’ve been typing away on the keyboard form my 2013 MacBook Pro tonight. I love this keyboard. No failing keys to be found on this workhorse.

Bluey: One of the joys of parenting is being exposed to children’s television. Much of it is as you would expect, which is to say, execrable. A new Australian Show, Bluey, bucks the trend. It successfully encapsulates typical family life within modern Australia. This article with the show’s โ€ฆ

Testing Flickr: Just trialing an embed from Flickr, as I determine whether to re-activate my Pro account. _DSC0038.jpg

This video shows a dramatic difference in rainfall coverage in Broome, WA. www.abc.net.au/news/2019…

Jason Kottke runs about the best and most popular link blog on the web. This one featuring Freddy Mercury’s vocal doppelgänger, however, is one I have to share.

Many years ago I was right into photography. I shot RAW, edited carefully, and posted to Flickr as a Pro member. Now Iโ€™m trying to decide if I should get a Pro subscription to Flickr once more, and try to rediscover that past hobby.

Monthly Review โ€” February 2019: The second entry in a series, reviewing my month that was. What Went Well at Home? I am still aware of my Year of Fun and applying the philosophy to my thinking. My son started a new year at a new school. He has settled in well, and we are very happy with our decision to move him to a different โ€ฆ

February 2019

In Western Australia, our swans come in black.

@joshsullivan What did the iA Writer folk say that sent you looking at alternatives?

โ€œWe had some options, but at this time we decided not to do any of the options,โ€ Trump said. I love it when the US President talks proper. apple.news/AZE20WkTm…

If you wanted to keep generalised daily work notes, would you choose OmniOutliner, Day One, or something else entirely? #askmicroblog

Itโ€™s a building!

Our Studio Neat Mark One pens arrived today. The knock mechanism is rougher than I hoped but the ink flow is superb and it feels nice in the hand.

Point Walter sandbar.

๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿป evening.

Spending Annual Leave Wisely: I’ve got some annual leave time from work coming up. I’m not going away on a holiday. It’s going to be time spent at home supporting the family. Despite there being a lack of travel and adventure tied to this leave, I still need to make sure I construct a plan for the time. I โ€ฆ

I mean, come on!

Selfie time!

Imposter Syndrome: I have a tendency to suffer Imposter Syndrome. At times when it strikes, it’s important to remember that while your own knowledge seems obvious, other people don’t share your brain. As such, sharing your information can deliver genuine insight and help. This is why, in TheBrain, I keep โ€ฆ

@joshsullivan @jack Do you guys cut and paste your wttr weather updates into TiddlyWiki, or does it run within the page itself?

This episode of Reply All - The Founder - about Paul Le Roux is incredible. overcast.fm

Kids Grow Fast: I’ve been cleaning up my hard drive, and came across this meme I generated a couple of years ago. This was my boy then. Now he’s 3 years old, looks different, and I wonder where the time went. I still think this is funny, though.

Nice day to shoot some hoops. ๐Ÿ€

I hit the basketball court today, after about 6 months of not even touching a ball. I actually had good shooting touch, but man, my back is sore! ๐Ÿ€

Digging into Notebooks app and discovering that it might be an excellent replacement for read it later services like Instapaper and Pocket. Being able to create a task list based on document counts is really interesting.

@joshsullivan I bought Notebooks for iOS today which you recommended earlier. Now I need to figure out a workflow/use case between it, Devonthink and TheBrain. Noting you use a similar stack of software it would be great to hear how you tie them all together.

I discovered this podcast from 2016 featuring macdrifter talking DevonThink and a bit of Tinderbox.

I’m enjoying Travelers on Netflix. ๐Ÿฟ๐Ÿ“บ

Welcome @beck (Beck Tench) to micro.blog! It’s awesome to see you here. cc: @twelvety

This has been a great evening of futzing around with my computer and, of course, updating my wiki.

Further to my question about app options for taking quick jots, I’ve compiled a summary of findings to date. Thanks to @cm @kaa @teisam @twelvety. Iโ€™m almost surprised I didn’t end up discovering Evernote (c.f Cortex podcast)

What’s the best method to simulate โ€œgrab a scrap of paper and start writingโ€ (such as jotting a number on a phone call, etc.) using a Mac? I have a million apps, and none seem right for this. DEVONthink has a jotter with kb shortcut, but the interface doesn’t feel right. Ideas?

Iโ€™m in my happy place.

Zettelkasten: Putting this here as a method of recording the fact that the concept of zettelkasten and leveraging software to create an effective collection of zettels is taking up an unreasonable portion of my brain space. The parallel problem is that there are too many intriguing options that offer possible โ€ฆ

A winning situation: the family down the street have a kid the same age as ours. The kids now go to the same school and are becoming friends. The Dad visits today, and we have a conversation about Star Wars v Star Trek. My kind of neighbours!

@twelvety Can you convince me that I don’t need to start investigating Tinderbox?

I’m in a quandry about the beard I have grown. I’m getting slightly annoyed by it, but it represents months of investment that I will probably never undertake again, should I shave it off.

It was an interesting thing to be doing some research, and then think, โ€œHmm, I’m sure @twelvety has written on that. Let me check his wiki.โ€ And bang, there it is.

Working from my second public library in one day. I love community resources.

Office Space 20th anniversary: Behind the scenes of the cult classic The oral history ofย Office Space: Behind the scenes of the cult classic I have watched this movie more than any other in my life. โ˜•๏ธ

Adam Tinworth savages Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook anniversary post. And what's important to us? Your data. Which we can monetize. Dumb fucks. Many, many truthbombs.

A pathetic zero content post because I canโ€™t think of anything to say but want to keep my streak alive. ๐Ÿค”

@jack I’ve had pi-hole running on my network for about 6 months. I love it!

Let Year 2 begin. #firstdayofschool

Roald Dahl's Work Environment: Roald Dahlโ€™s books brought me hours of enjoyment when I was a child. There was little that could top the excitement of reading one of his books that would, of course, be illustrated by Quentin Blake. He created a world into which I could immerse myself, no matter how fantastical the setting might โ€ฆ

When you go to the wrestling, itโ€™s important to embrace the experience.

I bought Castro, but I think I’m going to be heading back to Overcast.

@twelvety If itโ€™s a hobby that you enjoy, don’t beat yourself up about it.

Iโ€™m about two-thirds through the audiobook of Educated by Tara Westover. It is such an amazing, but heart-wrenching story. Incredible to think it is a memoir from our modern era.

Writing on a wiki seems easier than publishing a blog post. I feel a latent pressure for a blog post to be of a certain quality and style. A wiki is just continuous editing and improvement.

January 2019

Owning Your Content: Social media is a vacuum, sucking up content by others and monetising it for themselves. We don’t have to play that game. This is what the IndieWeb is about — having our content remain ours, not making money for poorly behaved mega-corps. Phil Nunnally on Ben Norris on owning your โ€ฆ

For the millions (and millions!) of fans tracking development of my wikiโ€ฆ I present to you… an RSS feed! ๐Ÿ™

Monthly Review โ€” January 2019: In the first of what may — or may not — be a regular series, this is a review of my past month. What Went Well at Home? The first month of my self-anointed Year of Fun went well. I remembered the theme as I went about my days and it helped create a better attitude and a happier daily โ€ฆ

I keep checking my friendsโ€™ Wikis to look for the latest updates. I think Iโ€™m addicted.

Iโ€™m a sucker for some visible infrastructure.: I’m a sucker for some visible infrastructure.

@twelvety I love your most recent wiki journal. Some cracking one-liners within!

After enjoying Vegemite for 40 years, the new ownership group have destroyed it by changing the texture. Today I bought the ripoff OzEmite and it’s more like Vegemite than Vegemite. Sad times for an Australian.

Journaling: Derek Sivers has published a post about journaling. This is a timely insight as I have been on a bent exploring tools for capturing my own thoughts, including the use of a personal wiki, DEVONthink and TheBrain. Derek says: For each subject that you might have ongoing thoughts about, start a โ€ฆ

Now weโ€™re talking!

@twelvety You bought Tinderbox? Man, you are in deep. I look forward to hearing more about it. That is one app Iโ€™ve never quite understood.

This season of Star Trek: Discovery is already better than the last.

Iโ€™ve spent a little time delving into a bit of economic theory today. Itโ€™s been so long since Iโ€™ve involved myself in that, itโ€™s hard to believe that I hold a Bachelors degree in Economics. The achievement of that qualification was a long time ago.

I am grateful for micro.blog. It’s hard to find people that share with me a similar Venn Diagram of interests, but through micro.blog I’ve surfaced a number of them. Thanks to @manton and @macgenie.

I love this quote from @twelvety about the benefits of using a wiki: [โ€ฆ]itโ€™s like swirling hot chocolate around in a mug: By keeping everything visible and mixed in and active, the good stuff doesnโ€™t settle to the bottom where it canโ€™t be enjoyed.

Reassurances: She looks out of the window, into the evening grey, and wonders where he went. The wind was blowing. It added to her sense of foreboding, as she wondered when he would come back. Would he come back? Of course he would. Before he left, he had mumbled something under his breath, something about there โ€ฆ

It appears that Fastmail have fixed my problem with Google Calendar invitations. It would be nice if they would reply to/close my support ticket. ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ

I had the opportunity to visit Perth Observatory last night and look at stars, nebulae, the moon and other celestial bodies. I was taken by this control panel for a telescope that used to take images with glass plates.

I had no idea about this aspect of Nepalese culture: She became a goddess at three years old, but when puberty hit, it was back to an anonymous life in the suburbs. via ABC News

Scouts Australia have rebranded. I like the story driving the brand redesign but Iโ€™m not completely convinced about the standalone logo.

The Productivity Nerdโ€™s Dilemma: This is the problem with being slightly obsessive about productivity and writing apps. Which one of the many similar apps is the best? Never mind that the definition of best is likely to change depending on need. Not even in this screenshot are Bear which I have a subscription for, and Agenda which โ€ฆ

Summer: It feels like summer has finally arrived. This morning was spent at Point Walter on the banks of the Swan River. We met with some old friends and ate sausages in a bun; a classic picnic favourite. Meanwhile, our two kids with their two kids paddled and played in the river. As the day warmed up to โ€ฆ

Yuzool Themes updated their Feed Stack for Rapidweaver. Now the RSS feed on my home page that shows my recent posts works once more. Goodo!

Just another day in Perth.

Loving the work of @fhlostonparadiseduo with @hannahbeazley4swan at @the_belmont_tavern

To all those who told me to just suck it up and buy iA Writer on the Mac, I think you are right. Iโ€™ve used the demo for a couple of hours and it has made me forget about MultiMarkdown Composer.

Australian Politics Is the Best: A fish kill of this scale from algal bloom is a serious issue. I give full credit to Jeremy Buckingham for bringing it to our attention in this way.

2009 v 2019: Italy v Staycation. #10yearchallenge #2009vs2019

My Fastmail Account is not receiving calendar invitations sent to my custom domain from Google or iCloud. Office 365 invitations work. So far, Iโ€™ve been unimpressed with their support, which has gone downhill since my last experience. Am I going to have to change providers? ๐Ÿ˜ซ

I convinced my wife to use DEVONthink. ๐Ÿ˜ณ

Pi-Hole Really Is Fantastic: I’ve had Pi-Hole running on our home network for several months. It has been so reliable over this time that I have reached a point where I almost forget that it’s there. Taking a belt and suspenders approach, I also use 1Blocker on Mac and iOS.

Phil Nunnallyโ€™s โ€œHotbrainโ€ โžœ: Sometimes, in meetings, I have to scribble down a non-work-related thought or question to hunt down later just to get it out of my head so I can pay attention to what’s going on in person. Phil nails the exact problem I have right now, as I trial using The Brain, consider how it fits into my โ€ฆ

Ask Micro.blog: Does anybody know of text editors that support the Dokuwiki syntax? I’ve found Textastic and nothing else - not even BBEdit or Atom.

Pursuant to my theme of fun I am having a great time mucking about with my wiki!

@twelvety Regarding your Plex server on Raspberry Pi, does yours connect to a NAS for the media? Iโ€™ve got a 3B+, but all my media is on an old QNAP NAS. I canโ€™t figure out how to connect the Pi to the media drive over the network, so I have to keep Plex running on my MacBook.

2019 - Looking Ahead: I enjoy listening to the podcast, Cortex. CGP Grey approaches topics in a thoughtful way and Myke Hurley is a wonderful conversationalist. One of their tropes I enjoy is listening to them talk about their yearly ‘themes’. The two eschew New Year’s resolutions in favour of โ€ฆ

It has been interesting to experiment with a constructing a personal wiki but I am sure that as a single user I am better served putting this information into DEVONthink. It is less fiddly and better able to bubble-up related information - but I canโ€™t share the information. ๐Ÿค”

After earlier discussion here on micro.blog I can report that I have paid for and switched to Castro for podcasts. I like its queue, but I donโ€™t think its EQ is quite as good and I miss iPad support and multi-device sync. It looks great and operates well though.

Listening to @jack talk on the Micro Monday podcast about avoiding snow to date, while I sit by the resort pool. ๐Ÿ˜

I got a couple of levels into Mario & Rabbids on the switch, before my son decided he needed to play.

Jack Baty's Wiki: Jack Baty is a great member of the Indieweb community. He continually tinkers with online tools and services. His latest experiment is in publishing a wiki - specifically a TiddlyWiki instance he has set up at Rudimentary Lathe. Jack’s enthusiasm has inspired me to throw up my own wiki to โ€ฆ

Federated Wiki Is a Strange Beast โžœ: After seeing a micro.blog post by Frank McPherson about the Federated Wiki, I took a look at it. Created by Ward Cunningham, who happens to be the inventor of the original wiki, the Federated Wiki system appears designed with a more fluid, attractive front-end, supported by the concept that each โ€ฆ

Summer sunshine. Out with @hannahbeazley4swan. Thanks for the hat, @yasmin_ivie

A quick test to ensure that in-line micro.blog names are working, thanks to @smokey.

Iโ€™m on a bit of a spirit quest to find my ideal Markdown editor on Mac. I’ve tried BBEdit, Typora, Multimarkdown Composer and Atom with plugins. What do others use?

I had a WordPress plugin or some other customisation that parsed micro.blog usernames. It now appears not to be working, but I canโ€™t remember what it was in order to fix it!

My thanks to @amit for helping me get @blot webmentions sorted.

December 2018

I keep forgetting to appropriately time stamp my Blot posts so they play nice in the micro.blog timeline. My 2018 Review - canion.me

My 2018 Review: In recognition of the end of another year — 2018 being my 41st on our good planet Earth — this is a short retrospective on the major events that have impacted my life this year. The year seemed to go by quickly. Off the top of my head, it’s hard to think of anything monumental โ€ฆ

I just overheard my 7 year old boy explaining how a payday loan company that is advertising on TV is a bad thing. He said they give you money but then you have to give them thousands more back later. Parenting win!

The boy received a Nintendo Switch for Christmas. Dad approves of Super Mario Odyssey.

Boxing Day in Western Australia and itโ€™s overcast and not hot. What an outrage. I want my money back.

Merry Christmas micro.blog friends!

10:30am. Already tuckered out.

This is frightening. Even should the tower be declared safe (and I donโ€™t think it will be) who would live in it now? Sydney Opal Tower apartment building evacuated after reports of cracking noises - ABC News

Iโ€™ve been an Overcast user since it launched, but feeling a little bored by it. Wondering if Castro might be worth a try. Do people have thoughts?

Living the holiday dream.

Onward!

Not a bad place to be.

I miss playing basketball ๐Ÿ€. I was good at it and now Iโ€™m just old and decrepit.

I’m getting itchy to restructure my web properties. Trying to sort out how best to use my website, Wordpress blog, Blot blog and Micro.blog in a way that makes sense and plays to each of their strengths.

V8 Day: V8day It’s difficult to be a fast driver when it’s been a decade since the last time you’ve driven a manual transmission car. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it.

In Customer Service, Genuine Interactions Matter: Our family recently travelled to Bali for a holiday break. It was a week of relaxation at the tail end of a year that has been pretty crazy, and a 2019 that we expect will be even more hectic. When you travel with kids, conversations can move in varied and interesting directions. Our 7-year old boy โ€ฆ

With the help of Be Focused I cranked out the Pomodoro sessions today. Achieved everything I wanted to, and more. Itโ€™s satisfying to end the day with a high productivity quotient.

Best Santa ever.

I’m experimenting to see if I can eliminate my use of Bear, moving its notes into DEVONthink Pro. This would save me a subscription charge and lessen the โ€œwithin which app did I save that information?โ€ problem.

I would love for one of my micro.blog followers to take advantage of my Backblaze coupon. You get a month free. I’ve been a happy customer for a couple of years now.

Trevor Noah is one funny man. His โ€œSon of Patriciaโ€ show on Netflix is great.

Iโ€™ve done my bit for quality journalism: I bought an annual subscription to Crikey plus their bonus offering at the moment: 3-month subscriptions to The Monthly and The Saturday Paper.

November 2018

Work has generously provided me with a Linkedin Learning (formerly Lynda) account. So now, on what should I educate myself?

When your kid gets hold of your phone.

Workout complete. #fatfit

Durhamโ€™s $1 Million Plan to โ€˜Nudgeโ€™ Drivers Out of Cars โ€œThis is simply giving you the opportunity to make a different choice,โ€ he said. โ€œFeel free to make any choice you want.โ€ Behavioural Economics in action.

I had the opportunity to tour Googleโ€™s Sydney HQ today. An interesting environment, but not one Iโ€™d enjoy working in day in, day out.

A nice place to have a beer today.

I ran the thought experiment as to which new Apple computer I would buy to replace my 2013 MacBook Pro. End result: wait for the next release of the iMac which will feature a T2 chip amongst its upgrades, and use my current iPad Pro as my laptop.

EPW Wrestling! Letโ€™s go!

Using my iPhone 8+ with a Microsoft foldable keyboard at a coffee shop, writing in Ulysses, is an extremely pleasant way of working.

Pi-Hole is doing good work blocking ads on my home network.

October 2018

Zombie!

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton was outstanding. I listened on Audible and both the story and the performance were brilliant. A must read.

My first Raspberry Pi project has been successful. Iโ€™ve got Pi-Hole running as a network-level ad blocker benefiting every device on my network while also having my Google WiFi pucks apply their โ€˜adult siteโ€™ blocking.

One of the joys of having a good olโ€™ southern boy with us - he makes a mean sweet tea!

Itโ€™s Raspberry Pi night. Mine arrived today. Soon as the kids are in bed, I get to have a play.

I’ve finally got my CV on my website displayed in a timeline format that I have long wanted.

Today I simplified my home page on the Internet. These changes always take more time to complete than anticipated.

Seeya Bali. Benji out!

Just managing to cope.

I took the boy jet skiing today. I thought we would be driven around, right up until the driver got off and told me how to start it. 15 minutes later Iโ€™m a jet ski pro! Got to love Bali.

This Bali holiday is just what I needed. Relaxation, swimming, massage, sleep. All things Iโ€™ve been short on in my real life.

The face of a champion.

Another day, another pizza.

Yesterday we met a lovely family who also had two boys of similar ages to ours. The four kids played for hours. They were nice enough to take a photo so all four us could be in it.

Apple Juice is โ€œdeliciousโ€.

Not bad at all.

Travelling in Indonesia so Iโ€™ve got the TunnelBear VPN cranking. Itโ€™s a solid product.

Travelling companion.

Springtime has arrived.

I’ve just got my Indieweb on and got OwnYourGram set up, so Instagram posts now get cross-posted to my website.

This is a post being made through Quill, after signing in via an Indieweb authorisation.

Investorsโ€™ cash drained for big Bux lifestyles | The West Australian Withdrawal after withdrawal of other peopleโ€™s investments channelled from a pool of up to $100 million raised in the name of a money transfer phone application that went nowhere. It amazes me how consistently people fall for โ€ฆ

Klaus has done it again at his new Productivity Tips site - this one is an amazing Workflow to help fling files into DEVONthink.

I have successfully guided myself into 2 weeks of holiday time with nothing appearing in my OmniFocus forecast for the entire period of my break. Planning victory!

Itโ€™s great to have NBL basketball back. ๐Ÿ€

Lunch. #straya

Iโ€™m Qi-charge enabled now.

The Blot/Microblog Community: This website is powered by Blot.im. I also have an account at micro.blog. Those posts originate from my Wordpress instance running on my “main” site, andrewcanion.com. I like having this blot site, with my thinking being that it’s for random ephemera and other bits and bobs that โ€ฆ

Ask Micro.blog: Is there an effective way to find sites running on blot.im infrastructure?

getting paperless in sales part one An interesting combination of Siri Shortcuts with DEVONthink and Airmail.

I watched Baby Driver. I didnโ€™t love it.

In macOS Mojave I’ve built a macro using Keyboard Maestro to automatically switch between Light and Dark modes for day and night, respectively, since Apple failed to incorporate that obvious feature themselves.

September 2018

Matt Langford - Shortcut for micro.blog link posts here is a shortcut that will help in sharing link posts to micro.blog Running this Shortcut script as a test.

Iโ€™m looking forward to the NBL v NBA games coming up this week. Such a shame my Perth Wildcats will be without their starting centre, Angus Brandt. We needed that unit, who has a build like Aaron Baynes. ๐Ÿ€

Royal Show!

A Successful Day at the Office: It was great to be able to provide business advice and support to an iconic Perth business - Scott Print, as part of my work as a Business Adviser with the Entrepreneurs' Programme. \ An article detailing the work we did together, and their experience as a customer, is also available.

Success at the Day Job: It was great to be able to provide business advice and support to an iconic Perth business - Scott Print, as part of my day job. An article about the work we did together as part of the Government’s Entrepreneurs’ Programme is also available.

I love operating system update day. Beforehand, Iโ€™m all like, โ€œIโ€™ll wait a few days to avoid any zero-day risksโ€. Then on release morning I rush around in a giddy haze updating all the things.

Beer at Petition, Perth.

Ben Thompson really smashes it out of the park with this analysis at stratechery.com. So well written, and so accurate. Itโ€™s always more profitable to be a shareholder than a customer.

My iPhone 8 Plus Product(Red) is still nice and new to me. I have no desire or need to upgrade to an iPhone X variant. My wife, on the other hand, who is still rocking the iPhone 6S might be interested!

I’m addicted to Hearthstone. Are there any players in the micro.blog community?

I have bought a licence for BusyContacts, so I expect it will now be made available on Setapp any moment nowโ€ฆ

I played a few levels of Starcraft tonight. Been about 20 years since my last game and I still remembered it perfectly. Took me back to the days of LAN parties.

August 2018

I have to give credit to @manton and @macgenie - I think micro.blog is the nicest, most value-additive internet community Iโ€™ve ever been a part of. They have established a great culture.

I’ve hardly used Lightroom this year, but after trialling the photo apps in Setapp, I think I’m going to stick with it Creative Cloud for another year.

Design is everywhere. www.washingtonpost.com The Washington Post: Why your favorite bench might be there to thwart a terrorist attack

I canโ€™t get a good Dropbox workflow for writing in iA Writer. I keep going back to Byword because of its simple integration with Dropbox. The iA Writer approach of using the Files interface is just too clunky.

Donโ€™t Be an Ugly Parent: I am impressed with Mark Dickel’s take on how parents should behave when engaging with their children’s sport. “I love watching you play.” This is what I now say to my kids after every game I watch them play. I do not critique their play or discuss the game with โ€ฆ

Allowance for Ynab โžœ: This iOS app, Allowance, is the first application I have seen using the new YNAB API. It’s quite a helpful little app, just bringing front and centre a small selection of budget categories.

Mission Impossible: Fallout โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ boxd.it

Mission Impossible: Fallout is a great movie. So much fun.

library guy: library guy Props to this guy who showed up at the library this morning and ripped out a thermos, coffee mug, an old laptop and - best of all - a huge external clacky keyboard.

Mission Impossible: Fallout was awesome. Now enjoying a post movie ๐Ÿบ

The other day I signed up for Audible. 25 years ago while delivering pizza for a job, books on cassette tape were my sanity. Now Iโ€™m going to rebalance my listening: reduce podcasts and increase books.

Iโ€™m having some fun on Mastodon. Interacting with people I would never have come across on any other social network.

This dude has brought a thermos, an old laptop and a giant external clacky keyboard to the library. He is ready to rock and roll.

Two peas in a pod.

Hi @potatowire! Great to see you here.

I’ve just set up an account on a Mastodon instance. It feels much more like Twitter than micro.blog. That’s not a knock on micro.blog which I see more as being a social RSS reader.

I just finished the book Changer by @mattgemmell. A really fun read!

Personal Finance Should be Part of Core Education: I believe personal finance should be a core subject taught to our children at school. We should teach how to manage and budget money, the concepts of savings and compound interest, and the risks of credit and deferred payment. Finance and money management education should be threaded through each โ€ฆ

Iโ€™ve added a page detailing some of my most important software tools. Tools - canion.me

Much gnashing of teeth about Twitter knobbling 3rd party apps. While I think Twitter is nuts to do that, I donโ€™t care since I quit the service months ago and donโ€™t miss it a jot.

I had to stop the car to let these guys cross the road today.

I went to bed earlier and had a solid nightโ€™s sleep. My mother will be pleased to hear this. ๐Ÿคฃ

Why Iโ€™m Giving up on Ulysses โžœ: Seems I’m not the only one having similar thoughts about Markdown editing, and the place that Ulysses does or does not have in the workflow. Chuq von Rospach reflects on his own experience. I also had no idea that Jason Snell had also raised this Markdown obfuscation issue, but now it makes โ€ฆ

Finding the Right Markdown Editor Is Hard: I thought Ulysses would be the best. It has a beautiful appearance, is full-featured, gets many positive reviews, and I already have ownership (or at least subscription access) of it thanks to being a subscriber to Setapp. I’ve been using Ulysses to draft the text of work reports that I โ€ฆ

Value Curve of Service Delivery: It was recently reported and brought to my attention that Elon Musk had issued a memo to the staff of Tesla. Iโ€™m no Musk acolyte, but within his commentary there can be found some good stuff. Within this particular memo Musk highlighted a number of productivity boosting tips. One tip jumped out at โ€ฆ

@vasta Not sure if you have been otherwise notified, but I reflected on your blogging experience.

@danielpunkass Does Black Ink support crosswords from the Washington Post? I can’t figure out a valid subscription URL.

This morning required a coffee pick-me-up.

Blogging As an Exercise in Thought: Micro.blog has introduced me to a number of new bloggers I would never have otherwise discovered. These are smart, intelligent people going about their lives in another part of the world, completely unrelated to me. Yet the way they think, communicate and share ideas online is very familiar. A โ€ฆ

Use of Mental Models in Parenting โžœ: This is where mental models can help. As in any other area of your life, developing some principles or models that help you see how the world works will give you options for relevant and useful solutions. Mental models are amazing tools that can be applied across our lives. Here are five โ€ฆ

franklin day: franklin day

I know Ulysses is the markdown darling but the way it handles markdown links is a pain in the butt. I just want a simple inline view that is compatible with Terpstraโ€™s SearchLink service. Iโ€™ve had to fall back to Byword to make it work.

@jack Quick question if I may: how do you get YouTube video embeds to work on Blot.im? I see youโ€™ve done it - I must be missing something obvious…

Iโ€™ve just had a cortisone injection into my hip. After suffering a labral tear and having pain for a few months I really hope this will help. After the doctor finished the injection he told me โ€œit was one of the more difficult onesโ€. He was also using an iPad for MRI - amazing!

This is such a handy use for TextExpander.: This is such a handy use for TextExpander. It’s these simple but delightful elements related to using a Mac that make it so much fun, and productive. Thanks to David Sparks and the new Automators podcast for this video guide.

kids: kids

What’s better than one website? Two websites! So now I can be found at andrewcanion.com and at canion.me. I’ve doubled my nerd.

I couldnโ€™t resist the lure of a new domain name; canion.me is mine. Now what to do with it?

Teens Racking up Thousands in Debt While Parents Unaware: Thirteen per cent of families even had to delay paying a bill or cut back spending on necessities to compensate for children’s purchases. โ€” ABC News I am incredibly grateful that my Mum ensured I had financial literacy at a young age. We were poor but that didn’t stop me from learning โ€ฆ

Hello World: I created a new domain, canion.me and now I’ve scratched another curiosity itch by setting up a Blot instance. Blogging by putting stuff into a Dropbox folder? Sounds like fun.

Iโ€™m not a gamer by any means but I just got hooked playing Marvel Strike Force on iOS for far too long.

After listening to the latest episode of The Omni Show, Iโ€™m now researching every tiki bar in Perth. Iโ€™ve only ever been to one and that was about 9 years ago.

Calendar Management for Productivity & Sanity: I lean heavily on my diary to plan ahead, guide me through my days, and establish a rhythm to my life. The type of work I do has a tendency to drift towards haphazard if not controlled, so a calendar helps me establish and maintain order. The problem Iโ€™ve faced in more recent times is having an โ€ฆ

Just found this archived screenshot from my Google Reader account before it shut down.

@amit Your work on Micro.threads is amazing!

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Searching for hobbies

Searching for Hobbies: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Itโ€™s very easy to spend time focusing on work. It has a tangible reward - income! It provides an emotional response - we might love it or hate it (or even just feel meh about it). And, for many, it defines who we are.1 Iโ€™ve been taking stock, and have โ€ฆ

A great quote from a post about web bloat: You know how building wider roads doesnโ€™t improve commute times, as it simply encourages people to drive more? Itโ€™s that, but with bytes and bandwidth instead of cars and lanes. The Bullshit Web

Boojamin.

I’ve bought an annual subscription for WhenWorks. Already today my meeting scheduling has been so much easier. They just need to support UTC dates on their website.

I’ve just updated my /now page.

@smokey I just added your script to my functions.php file. Let’s see if this message reaches youโ€ฆ

@manton Do micro.blog hosted blogs offer ‘pages’ as well, that aren’t specifically a blog? It seems like your page has them - is that standard?

July 2018

My next adventure in workflow optimisation: Iโ€™ve installed SaneBox. I donโ€™t get copious email so not sure I need it, but thatโ€™s what trials are for, right?

After hearing from my micro.blog friends, I’ve decided to go ahead and upgrade to the TextExpander subscription service.

Back on board with TextExpander. Iโ€™m still running the non-subscription version, and I see no compelling reason to โ€œupgradeโ€.

โœˆ๏ธ time. From Perth to Canberra. From mild to freezing cold. Here we go!

I have a hip labral injury. Physio and strength conditioning underway; and I’m back at the standing desk.

Itโ€™s go time.

This is insightful, and again Jobs was well ahead of the curve. daringfireball.net

Iโ€™ve been trialing WhenWorks for scheduling meetings and have been quite impressed. I think I prefer it over Calendly. Now I just need to convince my employer to pay for my subscription.

I’m falling into the trap of spending more time figuring out how best to automate OmniFocus - using Workflow, Drafts, Taskpaper, scripting, etc - than I am spending actually doing the work specified by the OmniFocus tasks.

Iโ€™m impressed with my wifeโ€™s ability to make this โ€œzombieโ€ birthday cake for our boyโ€™s 7th. It was a hit with all the kids.

I just got my first Internet connected LIFX lightbulbs. Iโ€™m addicted. ๐Ÿ’ก

I had my first CarPlay experience today, driving a hire car. I definitely want it in the next car I own. Although Apple Maps in regional areas ๐Ÿ‘Ž๐Ÿป. Good that Google Maps will be supported in the next version!

Western Australian desert from the air.

The Burrup Peninsula is really quite beautiful.

Rest In Peace, Bill. You were a top bloke and I will always remember our Jacobs Ladder climbs together. You set a cracking pace! ๐Ÿป Police find body believed to be missing 76-year-old William Wayne - ABC News)

That moment when you read an old forum post, think that the question is interesting, and then realise it was yours from years earlier. User Forum โ€” DEVONtechnologies โ€ข View topic - Link documents together?

Iโ€™ve been digging into DevonThink tonight. Thereโ€™s so much that piece of software can do, itโ€™s easy to forget how it can be used. Itโ€™s been a nice solid session of nerding out.

Credit to Tim Nahumckโ€™s iOS Home Screens post for motivating me to rethink my setup.

Itโ€™s an interesting combination of art and science, thinking about how to layout a new iPad home screen. Iโ€™m still not leveraging the iOS 11 dock and multitasking abilities as well as I would like to.

I just watched the most insane ๐Ÿ€ brawl. Australian Boomers @ Philippines. Had been getting chippy, then a hard foul suddenly escalated to the Philippines bench clearing and smashing Aussies all over the place. Disgusting display. Canโ€™t believe theyโ€™ll be hosting the World Cup.

June 2018

In Flow: Some days the work just flows. Tasks feels easy, decisions are made, words transfer from the brain to the keyboard with nary a pause; and engaging with people makes you realise the world is full of interesting characters. These days of flow are generally few and far between. We structure our days โ€ฆ

I just received some quality support from Fastmail. Makes me happy to be a paying customer.

I seem to be perpetually organising.

Loafy.

Very cool that my brother has written a book, More Than Money. Iโ€™m enjoying the read.

Flaked out.

We decided the cat was named Steven.

Earaches all throughout the house. Isnโ€™t the combination of winter and kid germs fun?

Drink time. Sure itโ€™s weird and green, but she seems happy!

When your birthday dinner finishes with cups of tea all round, you know youโ€™re getting old.

Last night we were out for dinner and ended up at the casino playing roulette. For the heck of it my wife and friend put chips on the date of my birth - 15. That spin, it turned up 15! 100 to 1 odds! We should have placed more chips on the turn!

For my birthday my wife upgraded me from my work-issued iPhone SE to an iPhone 8 Plus Product (Red). What an upgrade; finally Iโ€™m using iPhone apps as they are intended. And my hands which can palm a basketball are much happier with the bigger keyboard.

Happy birthday me. I made it through another year. 41 years young.

Iโ€™d typed a huge note into Agenda for iOS, when the app crashed and lost everything. Iโ€™m likely heading back to Bear sooner than anticipated with that kind of performance.

It was fun to put the kids to bed tonight with a couple of โ€œtelling storiesโ€. Of course, they were the main characters in the stories and accomplished a number of heroic deeds, besting both Rory the Dinosaur and an Evil King!

It’s easy to go down the rabbit hole following guidance documents on the Australian Tax Office website. What starts as a simple administrative tax task leads to high-level introspection and doubt about one’s correctness.

My next software experiment is Agenda. Might it find a place somewhere between DevonThink, Bear, OmniFocus and BusyCal - or will it wither on the vine?

My kid is best friends with my best friendโ€™s kid. That makes for good times!

Had a great basketball fitness session today. Really got the blood pumping!

That mode where you are doing every other bit of work except for that one thing you really should be doing.

Trying out the app uBar which was just added to Setapp. I’m conflicted as it seems useful, but makes my Mac feel a bit too much like Windows for my liking.

Has Overcast been Sherlocked? Appleโ€™s Podcasts app continues to demonstrate integration benefits, but until they enhance their app and can compete with Smart Speed and other niceties, Iโ€™ll just have to live without the benefit of those deep platform hooks.

I played basketball today. I couldnโ€™t makes midrange shot to save myself, but I was about 45% from 3 metres beyond the three-point line. Go figure.

May 2018

What winter?

Driving through Bassendean where we owned our first home and being reminded how pretty this area is. Our kids, who never knew this area, would probably love living here.

The kid doesnโ€™t mind a lollipop.

My 6 year old is into Roblox. Should I be concerned?

Iโ€™m loving Cobra Kai. Hannah is not convinced.

I just suggested to the owner of this Mercedes who parked on Hackett Drive that it might be an idea to pull forward and allow room for another whole car.

I notice that VoodooPad has recently been updated. This was such a great app many years ago, and then was left to wither on the vine when Plausible Labs owned it.

On my flight home, I watched The Shape of Water.

I watched Lady Bird and liked it.

Airports. Where alternative economies exist.

Iโ€™m off to Brisbane today. Thereโ€™s nothing quite like a 5-hour cross-continent flight in economy class to make you question your life choices.

Our front room is really starting to transition into a great adult space. Tonight I discovered we had a decanter, which is perfect for scotch. A glass of scotch with chill music playing on HomePod makes for a nice environment as we head into the winter months.

The Challenge of Social Engagement on the Indie Web: An Independent Web that is More Social than โ€˜Social Mediaโ€™ James Shelley: "When Riley posts something on Facebook, there is almost always feedback. Rileyโ€™s friends often click an innocuous-looking โ€˜likeโ€™ button that serves as a low-cost, high-value social signal that reinforces Rileyโ€™s use of the โ€ฆ

Exercise fail. I pulled a hamstring.

Fruit smoothie time.

The fortnightly YNAB is done. Dollars have been given their jobs.

Congratulations Governor Kim Beazley: The Honourable Kim Beazley AC sworn-in as 33rd Governor of Western Australia It was an absolute honour to attend the official swearing in ceremony of my father-in-law, The Hon Kim Beazley AC, as the 33rd Governor of Western Australia. The night featured great speeches, a military parade and a โ€ฆ

Not something you get to experience every day - your Poppy being sworn in as Governor of Western Australia. Although David was more interested in watching the soldiers prepare to march than look at the camera!

April 2018

Now being the proud owner of a HomePod, Iโ€™ve been giving the native Podcasts app another try. Its UI/UX is a mess and I miss Smart Speed and gradual speed controls from Overcast, but itโ€™s nice to have a native, synced experience across all Apple hardware.

At the local bush forever site.

The HomePod has received a bad rap based on Siri/smart home stuff. But if you want a voice controlled speaker that sounds great, it’s hard to criticise. I’m not into smart home stuff, and Iโ€™m stoked with the HomePod. Although I wish I could use Overcast for podcasts natively.

The boys made some new friends at the park this evening, and did not want to come home!

Okay, so I succumbed and bought an Apple HomePod. So far, I’m loving it. Sound is awesome and Siri has been fine for what I need. Its ability to hear me say “Hey Siri” from anywhere and over whatever it is playing is crazy.

Iโ€™ve never received mail from Ukraine ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ before! Happy birthday Setapp!

“Dad and Davidโ€™s bus adventure” from CanionCast on Anchor

Elizabeth Quay selfie.

He had to call his broker. More bad news about AMP led to an arbitrage opportunity.

Legacy Bear enjoying a day out with his owner.

I didnโ€™t make it to an ANZAC Day dawn service, but I just heard an Air Force fly-by from home. Lest we forget.

Loaded up. David doing the photography.

I finished reading Thinking, Fast and Slow. It’s clearly the benchmark book about behavioural economics and is more interesting than the Keynesian textbooks that formed the basis of my economics degree. The only downside was the final section, which dragged just a bit. ๐Ÿ“š

Still thinking about Wild Wild Country. Iโ€™d love to know what happened to some of the people who were on the ranch. Did they become Grandparents? Did they go back to living ordinary lives?

Wow, Wild Wild Country is a tour de force of documentary production. I remember Bhagwan and Sheela from TV reports as a kid, but this told the larger story in such a compelling way.

I hate that feeling of knowing there was something you wanted to say to somebody, but can’t for the life of you remember what it was. So it just nags at the back of the mind, teasing you.

Had an awesome day in the city with Mr. 6 year old. We followed our noses all day, which led to a series of great experiences. With no pressure to meet an agenda it seemed we were more open to accept experiences from the world, and the world delivered.

In Apple Store Perth and even the demo MacBook Pro has a dodgy โ€˜nโ€™ on its keyboard.

Firefox for iOS seems really fast and I like its tracking protection. But not being able to set is as a default browser is such a pain (iOS issue; not their fault). Does anybody else bother trying to use it full time?

Iโ€™m no artist, thatโ€™s for sure.

Don’t anticipate the worst; it might just work out better than that.

It was fun to volunteer to hit a free throw in a โ€˜triple or nothingโ€™ scenario at basketball fitness training today. Nothing but net; saved everybody some running. ๐Ÿ€

3 years ago today I was at the Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee. I want to go back!

Tried using the native Apple Podcast app again, mainly because of its Apple TV app. The experiment lasted less than 24 hours. Skip controls in-car pushed to new episode, not forward a few seconds, no smart speed is a huge loss, and interface is way too spartan. Back to Overcast.

I knocked my presentation out of the park! Thanks for the well-wishes from the micro.blog community!

Micro.blog is building something special, and Iโ€™m happy to be a part of the community. A Guide to Micro.blog For People Who Have A Love/Hate Relationship With Twitter

I’ve done two practice runs of a 30 minute talk I’m delivering tomorrow. Each run through has been very different, but both have finished exactly on time. Let’s hope that at the actual event I am as effective with my time management.

So happy to be back into reading, and out from social media. This afternoon I had an unexpected wait. I didnโ€™t read Twitter. I opened the Kindle app and read a book. Turned a frustration into an opportunity.

Argh, kernel panic crash.

My boy is having fun with the say command in Terminal, and learning some text editing principles at the same time.

My boy made me a bookmark. It makes me smile each time I start to read.

Finished another session of Full Court Fitness. Not as ruined as last time, but I still worked really hard. Despite the physical exertion, thereโ€™s nothing much better than being on a basketball court. ๐Ÿ€

Seems like I picked a good time to delete Twitter. I was never a fan of their native app, and now third party apps are being hobbled. The looming end for third party Twitter apps www.loopinsight.com

Replacing Social Media: I joined both Facebook and Twitter many years ago, when they were technical ideas, as opposed to advertising machines driven by algorithms. Part of the reason for joining in the first place was for me to reserve my namespace. Just like gold rushes of old, itโ€™s always important to claim your username โ€ฆ

Very proud of my father-in-law; being named Governor of WA is a tremendous honour and caps a great career. Kim Beazley named new governor of WA, capping distinguished career for ex-Labor leader - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Iโ€™ve just set up my router to use Cloudflareโ€™s new DNS service 1.1.1.1. It will be interesting to see if I notice any speed improvement over my ISPs DNS servers.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ boxd.it

Hello Internet is the best podcast. I love all the lore that has built up around it; from Tims to flags to tennis balls to postcards. So great.

So good that the latest update for Apple TV supports frequency switching. Iโ€™ve been waiting a long time for that improvement.

March 2018

Iโ€™ve never stopped loving (and using) RSS. Itโ€™s the best, and I use Inoreader. RSS Readers Are Due for a Comeback | WIRED

In exchange for quitting Facebook and Twitter, Iโ€™ve decided to put that time to more productive reading. Today Iโ€™ve started reading Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith, after hearing an episode of Cortex podcast where Grey and Myles wax lyrical about it. ๐Ÿ“š

Knocked out 18 holes of golf with my brother this morning. Not a bad way to start the Easter break.

This article presents, using mathematical principles, the role of luck in determining success. Iโ€™ve had my share of luck so Iโ€™m not complaining, but there are plenty whose ego leads them to believe itโ€™s โ€œall themโ€. The Role of Luck in Life Success Is Far Greater Than We Realized

Exercise session complete. I hate Turkish Getups.

26 degrees, no wind, and kookaburras laughing. Environmental perfection.

Iโ€™ve just disabled micro.blog cross-posting to Facebook. I donโ€™t even want them getting my second-hand content.

Iโ€™ve created mail rules that filter bulk and computer-sent email into a โ€œMachine Mailโ€ folder. My inbox is seeing a lot less action now, which is for the better.

Deprioritising Facebook: A few months ago I stopped using Facebook. I deactivated my account, deleted the Facebook apps from my iOS devices, and went cold-turkey. I have subsequently had to reactivate my account because of the need to engage with some groups that exist only on Facebook, but I continue to ignore my timeline. โ€ฆ

I enjoyed the micro.blog podcast featuring @modernlittleme overcast.fm

13 years married today. Still just as happy as the day we wed.

I like playing music through Apple TV because I can visually choose songs and playlists. For me, this is a key weakness of voice controlled speakers, like HomePod.

I enjoyed my morning gym workout! What am I becoming? I still have Kermit arms though.

Two exercise sessions today - gym and then basketball. Tomorrow morning I’m at the gym again - but it’s at 6:30am. Yikes!

I really like being a Fastmail customer, but itโ€™s frustrating to miss out on third party service integrations that are available for Office 365 and GSuite.

I fell asleep on the couch earlier tonight. Now I canโ€™t fall asleep in bed. I got the process wrong.

5:40pm, itโ€™s 32 degrees, chicken kebabs on the barbie and a beer in hand. Things could be worse. ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ

It feels good to be back on the fitness train with a combination of strength, cardio and basketball workouts. Nice to give my endorphins something to do once again. With thanks to Kate at The Endurance Movement and Adam at Full Court Fitness. 40 is the new 30!

My new Steelcase Gesture chair has arrived. Oh my, luxury seating. ๐Ÿ’บ

The one time I forget to save while playing XCOM, is exactly the time the game chooses to crash. Bah!

February 2018

Working at the local library today. Really trying to lock down into some deep work, but itโ€™s a struggle at the moment.

Micro.blog has enabled me to find (and follow and subscribe) to so many great, new (to me) voices.

Two charity organisation door knockers in one day. I have a policy of never signing up to unsolicited offers. At least the second lot were nice people.

Iโ€™m in the midst of an RSS service showdown: Feedly v Inoreader. Leaning towards Inoreader despite being able to access Feedly for free on a grandfathered plan.

Book Review: The Organised Mind, Levitan, Daniel J. ๐Ÿ“š Is it a summation of basic physiological facts, repetition of productivity methods from elsewhere, or anecdotes that donโ€™t seem authentic? Up to Chapter 6, itโ€™s all of those. Beyond that, I donโ€™t know, as I stopped reading.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown ๐Ÿ•น: I bought XCOM: Enemy Unknown last night on a recommendation from a friend. Iโ€™m not a gamer, and I know this is an old game. I also know my late 2013 MacBook Pro is not built for gaming, but it was just able to render the graphics usefully (medium settings, lower res). The game was so fun! Iโ€™m not a โ€ฆ

So I went ahead and recorded a little trial podcast. “First Podcast Friday” from CanionCast on Anchor:

Writing versus Speaking. I have a predeliction for writing, but have an urge to at least try to record a podcast. What to do?

Writing versus Speaking: If I have the option to communicate through text or voice, Iโ€™m choosing text every time. I donโ€™t love writing; itโ€™s not a passion. Iโ€™m more happy working with numbers, to be honest. What I am definitely not, though, is a talker. In writing, I feel that I can more eloquently express my views. In โ€ฆ

I really do not understand Omni Automation. This is why I’m not a programmer. I can’t even get it to work when I follow the documented steps.

Choosing an RSS Sync Service: Iโ€™m reviewing my RSS service options to make sure Iโ€™m using the right one for me. I was a customer of Feedwrangler for a couple of years, and for the past year or so Iโ€™ve used Feedly. Now Iโ€™m trialling Inoreader, but Iโ€™m not sure Iโ€™d actually use the features of their paid account. Feedbin is too โ€ฆ

This morning I had a gym session with Kate at The Endurance Movement. It’s been a long time since I have done serious exercise, and the sled almost killed me. Now, a few hours later, my body feels good. Back on Friday.

I just discovered our Google Home was running a timer with 10 weeks and 2 days remaining. Our 6 year old kid has been experimenting, clearly.

Public Service Announcement: The Wood Brothers have released a new album

Quickly listened to a HomePod at an Apple Store today. Only had about a minute of listening because my 2 year old was not as interested, but it really did sound great.

Sonos One is $299. HomePod is $499. Sonos offers multiple integrations; HomePod is Apple Music or nothing. Reports suggest there is little between the two in terms of sound quality. Which is the better deal overall?

Itโ€™s not the speed that matters, itโ€™s the energy. Brady Haranโ€™s Numberphile video explains, through easy and elegant math, why speed kills.

I went for a bike ride this morning after a long time out. Was great to just get some relaxing exercise. Must do it more often.

Iโ€™m backyard camping with the boy tonight. A beautiful still night, currently 20 degrees, and I can hear his gentle breathing as he sleeps. This is a fun part of parenting.

Saw the HomePod in the flesh today. It sounds great, and is satisfyingly heavy. But I am still aware of all the cons, notably Siriโ€™s incompetence. I still kind of want it, but AUD$499 is not cheap.

Those who fancy themselves leaders should welcome counterpoint views, as debate leads to better outcomes. Having a room of ‘yes folk’ does not a leader make.

I love Overcast but I am being tempted by Appleโ€™s basic Podcasts app because of Siri integration and its ubiquity across devices. I really hope Apple enable SiriKit etc. for third party apps soon.

This xkcd is the truth. The bag struggle is real.

Oh no! My employer is moving us to Android phones. Guess Iโ€™m buying an iPhone and will be carrying two handsets now. My entire workflow is constructed around iOS apps. Android is a non-starter for me.

I had glandular fever months ago. Even now, on some days the fatigue and my throat glands flare up and kick my butt. Today has been one of those days. ๐Ÿ’ค

The kid is leaving home.

iPad Home Screen, 3 February 2018: I always find it interesting to see what apps people have on their iPad home screens, and how they have things arranged. So in the spirit of reciprocation, this is my iPad home screen at the moment. I’m never entirely satisfied with my app layout, but this is what I’m running with now. I โ€ฆ

Just updated my /now page

I had to buy a new printer today. Thereโ€™s never any joy in buying a printer. The only good thing is that I no longer have to deal with the hassle of an inkjet as this time I chose a colour laser; the Brother HL-3170CDW. Doesnโ€™t that name just roll off the tongue?

What a wonderful post by Brent Simmons, that eloquently sums up why I like the open web, and why I miss the way it used to work. inessential: Why Micro.blog is Not Another App.net

Sisyphusโ€™ Notetaking App: I am always searching for the perfect notes app, and the best way to integrate that into my workflow. Iโ€™m not sure I have found the former and I havenโ€™t achieved the latter, but I keep trying. Itโ€™s ultimately a Sisyphean task, because thereโ€™s always another note taking app just around the corner โ€ฆ

Iโ€™m awake earlier than usual and the house is quiet. That is a rare treat.

January 2018

Currently in the midst of a blue blood super moon with an eclipse. That could double as a pretty cool sounding drink order. ๐Ÿธ

I love my kids, but the fact that there is just one more day left of summer school holidays fills me with pure, unadulterated joy.

Personal CRM Software: Iโ€™ve been experimenting with CRM software, as much to help manage my personal life and friendship groups as my work. Cloze seems the best option Iโ€™ve found so far. Unfortunately, itโ€™s a fairly expensive proposition for something that wonโ€™t actively generate me money. HubSpot CRM is free, but the โ€ฆ

Australia Day evening with family. ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Happy Australia Day. ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ

I really want to like and be excited by the Apple HomePod, but itโ€™s not doing it for me. I already have an AppleTV connected to great Energy speakers for Apple Music. I have Siri in a multitude of other places, and a Google Home mini. Donโ€™t think I have a place for the HomePod.

Despite this being the era of peak TV, Iโ€™ve never been less interested in watching TV.

Question: Herman Miller Embody or Steelcase Gesture for only 2/3rd of the price of the Embody?

LED desk backlighting installed.

I was at the library with my kid today, and serendipitously saw The Organized Mind on the shelf, so picked it up. I wonder if it will be any good? ๐Ÿ“š

I wrote the first draft of this blog post in my notebook this morning, sitting on the bank of the Swan River. I think thatโ€™s what pushed my mind in the direction of the topic I wrote about.

Take Time to Breathe: Life can get overwhelming. Work to do, dinners to cook, kids to care for, relationships to tend. Trying to do it all can be fatiguing. I have found this to be particularly true over this current long school holiday break, where the presence of children and their needs are incessant, but the other โ€ฆ

Not quite the perfect crime.

Iโ€™m being tempted by another productivity app, Agenda, despite having a pretty solid workflow at this stage. I like its premise of linking tasks, notes, calendars within a timeline.

When I was younger I used to devour ๐Ÿ“š. Now it has taken forever to work my way through this short one. I blame kids (and iPad). My library wants it back soon so I have to find time to finish reading it.

I am so over my cheap office chair that must be near its 10th birthday. Very tempted to have a massive upgrade to a Herman Miller Embody Chair

The pressure to make the first page of my new Panobook count… ๐Ÿ˜ฐ

I tried to take a standard photo of Booj but he insisted on the selfie!

I’m curious how many micro.blog users know one another in real life? Is that a thing?

When a camel thinks your hairy leg is a salt lick. Goober calf.

I recently bought a 3-pack of Google Wifi devices to upgrade improve my failing home WiFi. After installing and using for a while, I have some thoughts.

Google Wifi: For months my home WiFi has been less than satisfactory. Dropouts, slow connections, complete failures to connect, router reboots required, and so on. I have a slightly more complicated than average setup but itโ€™s nothing so extreme that I should have had such annoying problems. I donโ€™t live in an โ€ฆ

It’s been fun to find some great new (to me) voices on micro.blog. My RSS reader has a bunch of new blog subscriptions to track. It’s almost like the great days of Google Reader.

Iโ€™ve updated my /now page

A great tip in here about using Workflow to create a site specific brower for iOS apps. Now I have Instagram for iPad! Using Workflow as a Site-Specific Browser - Initial Charge

Took the kid and Sensei Wu for a coffee today. #latergram

Okay, I’m giving Drafts another chance in my workflow. Maybe it will stick this time…

December 2017

Lunch at the Lobster Shack.

Having a slow boxing day

Not a bad Christmas when you can finish the evening with views liked this.

Sudoku has become my holiday pastime of choice after it was explained to me how to play. Last summer was crosswords; now itโ€™s all about the numbers.

@cdevroe Thanks for the link reference. Does us both remembering Adam Curry and Senseo (and maybe Roger Smalls?) mean we have to go sit in the old man corner together?

My Mac Apps of the Year: With a hat tip to Gabe Weatherhead at MacDrifter who put together his list of favourite Mac applications for 2017, I am following suit. Third party apps are what make a platform great. Despite the macOS ecosystem perhaps not being as vibrant as it once was, it is still served by a wonderful cohort โ€ฆ

I’ve had a play with MarsEdit, but I donโ€™t think that it is right for me. I’ve written a quick overview of my experience.

Trialling MarsEdit: I am writing this post in MarsEdit. MarsEdit is an app that I have alwaysย wanted to use, but never really have found a place for it. Now, with the new version released I thought Iโ€™d download it and give it a spin as part of the 14-day trial developer Daniel Jakult offers. Recently I have been โ€ฆ

How did you spend your Monday night? I spent mine reorganising cables in the TV cabinet. Living large.

Back working at the library today. My crappy work-supplied Microsoft Surface lasted about an hour before the battery died. Meanwhile, my iPad and trusty 2013 MacBook Pro are still going strong. I have to use Windows for one insane VB-based Word template. Itโ€™s terrible.

Considering an upgrade to Google Wifi. Currently Iโ€™m relying on an AirPort Extreme and a second AirPort Time Capsule. I have Ethernet backbone but the wireless handoffs are unreliable. Wondering if a mesh network would make a meaningful difference.

I only gave up on Facebook last week but Iโ€™ve missed it not a bit and have recovered time that is being put to better use. www.theverge.com

Man about town.

โ€œIf they hadnโ€™t provided me with a โ˜•๏ธ stat, I was prepared to blow the joint up.โ€

Just updated my /now page.

Selfie fun in the city.

Makers vs. Managers discussed at Farnam Street Blog. Iโ€™m predominantly a maker, and those long time blocks needed to reach deep focus are critical and generally under-appreciated by others.

Iโ€™ve bought Braintoss for iOS as an adjunct to OmniFocus. I just discovered the ISBN search it offers: take a photo of an ISBN and it provides you an email with the name and synopsis of the book. Pretty cool!

I just deactivated my Facebook account. Just so sick of the combination of junk and negativity. I don’t need that.

I’ve been a FastMail customer for almost a year. Now I’m finally transferring contacts sync to them and shutting down iCloud contacts sync.

I had a sandwich for breakfast, a steak for lunch, and now I’m eating cereal for dinner. The whole world has gone topsy-turvy.

Date night so we went to see Thor Ragnarok. I had no expectations going in and knew nothing of it having not seen any Marvel movies for a while. But Iโ€™m giving it ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿป๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿป up.

Early into this book recommended by @manton but so far Iโ€™m enjoying the thought exercise.

November 2017

I think it might be time for Apple to implement something akin to Microsoftโ€™s old โ€˜trustworthy computingโ€™. This High Sierra security flaw is an abrogation of their responsibility towards secure computing.

I just got a Google Home Mini as a reward for shopping at Woolworths. The Google Assistant really kicks Siriโ€™s butt. This is where ecosystem lock-in is so frustrating. My music is with Apple Music, my calendars are with Fastmail, so I miss some of the benefits.

Australia.

Iโ€™ve discovered a number of new (to me) independent voices through micro.blog. Itโ€™s good to find and follow new blogs.

Happy Booj from above.

All Jeff, all the time.

Podcast Addiction: I listen to a lot of podcasts. Iโ€™ve been listening to podcasts for more than 10 years, way before they were mainstream. I used to load podcasts onto my work-supplied IBM ThinkPad1 and drive to work with it open on the passenger seat, playing podcasts. This was before I owned an iPod, let alone an โ€ฆ

I succumbed to one Black Friday offering, but only because Iโ€™ve had this on my wish list for about a year: the Anova Sous Vide Precision Cooker (with Australian plug).

Iโ€™ve used Scrivener for a number of years to write work reports, but as an experiment Iโ€™m going to transition to Ulysses. The weird treatment of Markdown in Scrivener for iOS was the last straw. Ultimately my reports have to go to a Word template but Markdown helps the process.

Dealing with Illness: A few months ago I was unfortunate enough to contract Glandular fever and I am still suffering the effects of it now. The virus started out as what appeared to be the flu, but after I couldnโ€™t shake the feeling of fatigue and general malaise for weeks after the flu symptoms ended I decided to go the โ€ฆ

Working from the public library today. Makes me feel like a student again. Nice to be around people but know Iโ€™m not going to be interrupted as may happen in the office.

What takes visual precedence; the jacarandas or the pile of junk?

Just pulled the pin and subscribed to Adobe Lightroom. No excuse not to start using the DSLR again now. Gotta get my money’s worth!

Glandular fever has really knocked me around today. The brain and body have out been really lethargic. Canโ€™t wait to see the back of this lingering virus.

Iโ€™m trying the new version of Firefox. I havenโ€™t used Firefox in years. It seems pretty good and perhaps might surpass Chrome as my secondary browser. It is still nowhere near as fast as Safari, though.

Busy updating my website because what else am I meant to do on a Sunday night?

hbear and @billshortenmp at Bert Hawke dinner ๐Ÿด

Iโ€™ve just set up my own โ€˜/nowโ€™ page.

Home Network Architecture: Tonight Iโ€™ve sketched out my basic IT storage system and the cloud services I use on a regular basis. Ensuring that my storage network all hangs together with everything accessible from multiple devices and platforms while also maintaining redundancy through an appropriate backup strategy is not โ€ฆ

Nothing beats an afternoon snooze. ๐Ÿ’ค

I cannot get Mac OS 10.13.1 to successfully install. Iโ€™ve tried the direct download, Iโ€™ve cleared out failed/empty APFS snapshots, and no matter what I do, the install fails to take. I get left at a black screen and the machine just hangs. I wish Iโ€™d never updated to High Sierra.

Horrorgram. #halloweencostume #latergram

October 2017

A Place for Everything: Over the past five years Iโ€™ve spent a lot of time learning the fundamental philosophies of a production system known as lean. Iโ€™ve read books and articles, Iโ€™ve taken a study tour to see lean in action in Japan. Iโ€™ve developed lean guides for business, and coached companies in the theory and โ€ฆ

According to my 6 year old son, the angels โ€˜respawnedโ€™ Jesus after he died on the cross. Too much Minecraft?

Little photographer.

Seriously contemplating buying a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud for Photographers. New products may have put most people off but it built interest for me. It would also provide an impetus for me to get back into โ€˜properโ€™ photography.

Micro Blogging: Twitter continues to descend into a morass of bad behaviour while simultaneously floundering in search of a viable business model that might deliver a return for the billions in capital it has consumed1. The future of Twitter does not look bright, either socially or financially. As a result, I am โ€ฆ

Just hanging out.

I just had to visit the Coca Cola Australia website to understand all the variants of Coke. Surely if thatโ€™s necessary, your product marketing is a fail? Their new livery is terrible too.

Part 3: My Business Philosophy: This is the final of a three-part series focused on explaining my business philosophy. Parts One and Two are also available. On my home page I call out my personal business philosophy: Andrew's business philosophy is built upon the value of mutual respect, the skill to leverage process for โ€ฆ

I just taught the Apple Store staff that you can fold an iPad Smart Keyboard such that the keyboard isnโ€™t visible. I could get a job!

Tesla is apparently struggling to get lean manufacturing working. Doesnโ€™t matter how good the product is if the company canโ€™t make it.

This is a great resource to discover the true relative size of different countries The True Size.

Part 2: My Business Philosophy: This is the second of a three-part series focused on explaining my business philosophy. Part One is also available. On my home page I call out my personal business philosophy: Andrew's business philosophy is built upon the value of mutual respect, the skill to leverage process for continuous โ€ฆ

๐Ÿค“

Front garden. #spring #bluesky #nofilter

This is a really great video about human psychology and imposter syndrome. youtu.be/ypXwioZXU…

Itโ€™s the final Bintang. #bali

September 2017

Chair chill. #booj

On a hot date with this chick. #bali #envy

Just one day left. ๐Ÿ˜ฉ

Still relaxing.

On this holiday Iโ€™ve been reading Deeprak Chopraโ€™s Life After Death. A very thought-provoking read which I recommend to all. We are all going to go through it someday.

Iโ€™m on holiday, enjoying this location all the while hoping that the volcano of Mt Agung doesnโ€™t blow…

Building maps based on time needed to get there. Mapbox Blog. The live interactive map is great.

My MacBook/iPhone/iPad setup has just been featured at The Sweet Setup. My thanks to them for allowing my setup to grace their site.

This article by Riccardo Mori provides a fantastic representation of my own thoughts on iPhones 8 and X. I like that he doesn’t take the “tech blogger” view of thinking an annual hardware refresh is appropriate user behaviour.

As somebody with super white skin, I love Spring. It’s my summer; I can enjoy the warmth of the sun without suffering 3rd degree burns.

I’m not loving the iPhone X. If I was going to buy a new iPhone, I think I would choose the iPhone 8 Plus. As it stands in reality, I’m sticking with my work-supplied iPhone SE.

Part 1: My Business Philosophy: This is the first of a three-part series focused on explaining my business philosophy. On my home page I call out my personal business philosophy: Andrew's business philosophy is built upon the value of mutual respect, the skill to leverage process for continuous improvement, and the ability to โ€ฆ

I’ve been actively avoiding the Mac rumour sites because I don’t want to spoil my own surprise for the iPhone event. I wouldn’t want to be the Apple employee who leaked the information. I wonder if he’ll ever get another job anywhere again.

I’ve been in the flow of writing. I look at the clock and realise that two hours has passed by.

Gave up on the cruddy D-Link DVA-2800 router. Demoted it to bridge status and brought my AirPort Extreme back into service.

Just added JSON feed to my blog, despite the fact that I don’t think I have any RSS subscribers. But I must be ready for the impending hordes.

Spring appears to be arriving in my front garden.

Seems like spring may have arrived.

I’m mucking around with blog template themes again. Trying to find a nice clean format that will look good for longer posts and micro blogs alike.

It’s been fun to discover some new (to me) bloggers through micro.blog and in so doing, revitalise my RSS reader.

The Business of Glengarry Glen Ross: I love the movie Glengarry Glen Ross. Iโ€™ve never seen the stage play, but the movie seems to be a faithful translation and its actors are all top shelf, so Iโ€™m willing to accept it as canonical1. Despite the dated nature of the filmโ€™s setting, much continues to ring true about the circumstances in โ€ฆ

Ice cream, check. Blanket, check. Bunny, check. Okay, we’re good to go.

Diving deep into website development minutiae now: favicon generation.

Internet Services Worth Paying For: On the Internet there is a weird user expectation that everything should be free. Over the past couple of years I’ve been bucking this trend and have determined that spending a bit of money on what is both a hobby and an integral part of my existence in our modern, connected world is something โ€ฆ

In preparation for the deluge of web traffic I will no doubt achieve, I’ve just successfully connected my site to Cloudflare and Railgun. Overkill for the win! Major kudos to my web host, VentraIP for a bit of support along the way.

It’s a hard luck life.

Starting to enjoy the concept of micro blogging. Even created a simple URL at micro.andrewcanion.com

Father’s Day; here featuring The Booj.

@manton Does a username have to be at the beginning of a post for the user to be notified, or can it be within the text of a micro.blog post?

@matthew Thanks for the MicroBlog for Mac app. I’m interested to watch as it develops.

Going to Bunnings with a 21 month old kid is a challenge. Not once did Benjamin want to go where I needed to go.

Father’s Day breakfast at school with obligatory selfie. Loved my bow tie!

Going to Bunnings with a 21 month old kid is a challenge. Not once did Benjamin want to go where I needed to go.

August 2017

Getting a pair of custom made RM Williams boots really softens the blow of turning 40.

Hello world! My first micro.blog post. I’m on the cutting edge of social networking on the open web.

DNS Drama: The internet relies on DNS servers that do the dirty work of translating human readable domain names to something that makes sense to a device on a network, which is where you see four sequences of numbers separated by a period. I have been updating my homepage at andrewcanion.com such that it โ€ฆ

Mindfulness Meditation: Iโ€™m not one for new yearโ€™s resolutions but at the beginning of this year I decided to try incorporating mindfulness meditation into my life. This was an idea brought about by a feeling that I was living life in a semi-permanent state of anxiety; feeling the pressure of the now and the next thing to โ€ฆ

Love of the Open Web: While Iโ€™ve grown up on the Internet, I also remember the pre-internet era well and spent most of my formative years there. I was a kid who was able to get a modem and connect it to the text-only world of Bulletin Board Systems and Usenet (when Usenet was a service for discussion, not just binaries). โ€ฆ

On Charlottesville, VA: I am not an American, but my father and my siblings were born and lived in the USA. I have visited the country a number of times. I have spent time in Virginia, notably Lexington, which is about 70 miles away from Charlottesville, the town that has been tragically in the news this past week. While I โ€ฆ

It’s Daddy and the Booj.

Subscription Pricing for Apps: The corner of the internet that I inhabit has been up in arms about yet another app, Ulysses, switching to a subscription-based pricing model. From the perspective of the developers trying to build a successful business this probably makes a lot of sense. The business analyst in me applauds them for โ€ฆ

Opened my Lego case for the first time in 30 years. Last thing I built still in there. #timecapsule #lego #masterbuilder

Wouldn’t eat lasagne but was happy to smash the yoghurt himself.

The Business Speedometer: Trying to run a business without useful and accurate performance information is like trying to drive a car without a speedometer. Sure, you will be able to guesstimate how fast you are going, and sometimes youโ€™ll even get it right. You might even get away with a bit of speeding! Most of the time โ€ฆ

Spotted the office plaque of my old school friend.

July 2017

Haircut, check. 18 month vaccination, check. Not one cry during the jabs. Check!

Brrrr. Canberra!

Entropy in Business: Entropy is the loss of energy in a system to the point that it is no longer available for doing mechanical work. It is the reversion to mean; natureโ€™s effort to return everything to stasis. Entropy is occurring everywhere, all around us. It is a fact of our life. Companies are fighting entropy as โ€ฆ

Comments are Enabled: So as an experiment, I have enabled comments for the site. I’m not totally convinced that it’s a good idea, and fear that managing spam may outweigh any possible benefits. Nevertheless, in true scientific fashion, let’s run the experiment. As for the real readers, play nice, okay?

Turning my Kid into a Meme: My lovely wife took a humorous photo of our son having a babyccino, a classic drink in Australian coffee shops these days, purpose designed for the little ones. The photo was super-cute and funny in its own right, but I couldnโ€™t resist turning it into an image macro meme. I like to think it makes a โ€ฆ

Now You CV Me: In a further effort to establish andrewcanion.com as a genuinely useful resource for all things pertaining to me, I have now included a page dedicated to showcasing my curriculum vitae. I was looking at my current CV a few days ago which still exists as a Word document based upon a custom design I โ€ฆ

June 2017

Day One Goes Subscription: So Day One has become the next software application to adopt a subscription pricing model. This app developer has monkeyed around with its price/product offering for some time, and Day One has always been towards the expensive end of the curve for what could harshly be described as a glorified text โ€ฆ

The Weekly Plan: I consider the two fundamental resources in work planning to be: The calendar The to-do list The calendar represents the hard landscape: events that are non-negotiable, time-based and require you to be doing a certain thing, at a certain time, at a certain place, possibly with another certain โ€ฆ

Moving to Ulysses: I’ve decided to go all-in with Ulysses for my writing. I’ve been a Scrivener user for the longest time, but writing in Markdown is now more relevant to me than rich text, and Ulysses makes writing in this format easy and enjoyable. Ulysses' iCloud sync is also much less annoying than โ€ฆ

Hardware Decisions are Hard: In the aftermath of Apple’s WWDC conference and an almost unprecedented number of new pieces of hardware have been released at what is theoretically a software development conference, I get to do some imaginary shopping. For the past 18 months, Apple’s hardware lineup has been so out of โ€ฆ

More Productive on a Mac: A good tradesman values his tools, and generally has a preference for one piece of equipment over another. In my trade, the computer I use is my primary tool. My tool of choice is a Mac. I am able to be so much more productive on a Mac because itโ€™s the tool I know inside out. Over years I have โ€ฆ

That way!

Personal Kanban: What is Kanban? Traditional Kanban boards are used in manufacturing and other production environments to help visualise the flow of work and bring to attention any potential backlogs or other issues that might impact upon efficiency or productivity. When I travelled to Japan a few years ago as part โ€ฆ

Friday afternoon in the park.

Budgeting and YNAB: Iโ€™ve always been a money tracker. I still have ledger books from when I was 14 years old, with my handwriting tracking my money in and out. I would reconcile it to my bank savings account with little ticks. I think I learned this habit watching my Mom as she would carefully manage the family โ€ฆ

A Recent Customer Story: I recently worked with Asterisk Information Security on their Entrepreneurs' Programme Business Evaluation. Asterisk provide information security advice, services and infrastructure to other companies. The owners are dedicated to their craft and are really working hard to grow and improve their โ€ฆ

May 2017

Park contemplation.

Canionโ€™s everywhere: The Canion familyโ€™s website game is strong. My brother has launched his new website at http://patrickcanion.com/. If youโ€™re looking for a Canion on the Internet, between Patrick and I, weโ€™ve got you covered.

Fastmail: I was one of the first on the Gmail bandwagon. Back when the only way to get an account on the service was to receive an invitation code from somebody else already using it. I remember desperately asking around my networks, until I finally found somebody who was able to supply me with a code - I was โ€ฆ

What happens when Dad does the washing. Sorry @hbear - honest mistake. #cashmereshrinks

Loving the latest Lego. Good things happen when you eat lots of vegetables.

OmniFocus: I have a vision of myself without the support of OmniFocus. Iโ€™d be wandering around in a semi-permanent state of confusion, wondering what the heck I should be doing with my time and trying to keep all the โ€˜to-doโ€™sโ€™ of my life active and remembered in my brain. The stress of it all would be โ€ฆ

First ever babycino was a hit. Thanks @little_olive_leaf_cafe #latergram

Hanging out.

April 2017

The challenge of choice: Following on from my thoughts about Setapp, and now having all this extra software choice in my life, is that I now have to confront the challenge of choice. For many, many, years I have been using OmniFocus to manage my life - keeping all my work and personal projects and tasks safe and sound. I โ€ฆ

Setapp: Tonight I installed Setapp on my Mac. This service provides a wide range of full version software in exchange for US$9.99 per month. There is no escape from software as a service, and I appreciate the challenge that software developers face trying to earn an income and support a living with the old โ€ฆ

Back on the website wagon?: Many years ago I started a Movable Type blog when the web was young, and doing such things was hard. Then a young upstart named Wordpress arrived, and I couldn’t resist its modern design and dynamic database structure. I transitioned, and spent hours monkeying with CSS to get things looking โ€ฆ

Jeff!

Can’t believe we are kidless. Enjoying the North-Canion wedding. #northcanion

Pumped to be collecting the car after its scheduled service.

Just your typical Friday night in the couch.

Benji and I enjoyed a bike ride yesterday, and we had time for a pit stop at @little_olive_leaf_cafe #chif #booj #latergram

Do you remember when you used to make “holiday friends”? #moopers #holiday #swimmingpool

March 2017

Having kids is really starting to pay off with the housework. #outsourcing #chif #booj

Successfully offloaded another job. #moopers #airedaleterrier

End of day chill out time.

Morning caffeine hit.

February 2017

“Hey Dad, thanks for taking me out to get a coffee and a stop at the park, but I’d really just prefer a nap right now.”

November 2016

Park time.

Sugar rush. Puffin Fresh donuts are still better, though. #krispykreme

Way to a kid’s heart. #krispykreme

Mojito o’clock.

October 2016

Lunchtime at the office.

September 2016

Half way point of today’s ride.

Burning time at the chemist. #moopers

August 2016

Two different lifestyle choices.

Brothers in arms.

All hail the ascension. David will be surprised in the morning.

Park life. I think Benji is now entering his “big head” phase of growth!

Besties throwing back to the 80’s. @fitfuelwa

Pretty sky this morning. #nofilter

I don’t always sit on a chair… But when I do, I lounge. #chif

July 2016

Just a touch chilly for those of us at the playground not running around. #chif

Celebrating the haircut with a biscuit. David won over his barber Frank Barbarich with his great behaviour in the chair.

Banana!

Where’s my Uber?

June 2016

Park life.

May 2016

Being the teacher.

Nightie night #Chif #gumnut

Playtime in the park after a haircut. #daddyday #moopers

Doin' work, complete with (pretend) security badge.

April 2016

Major cheese from Moopers.

Lamo time on a random excursion with Daddy.

Building at the Lego Brickman Experience #lego #brickman

Morning ride coffee break. #trek #coffee

March 2016

Light sabre mayhem!

Unsettled sleep tonight. ๐Ÿ˜”

Morning tea break at the local.

February 2016

Car wash.

January 2016

And… He’s out.

Took my boy to golf today.

Park treasure hunt complete with #Tennessee cowboy hat.

December 2015

Proud moment seeing my boy stay with his sick friend for about 20 minutes at a park party today. #lovemyboy

Puter the elf has decided to do a little toy dumpster diving tonight. #elfontheshelf #dadisonit @hbear

November 2015

Sunset drink at Matso’s.

Afternoon parking.

October 2015

It’s wet! #fleetwoodmac

Seen whales? Check. Driven the boat? Check.

September 2015

Summer is coming! Despite it being windy today David couldn’t resist the beach.

David still loving the hat he got from Stages West at Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. @ipaulgram @hbear

Father’s Day fun at daycare.

My special Father’s Day treat. A round of golf followed by a beer at the 19th.

August 2015

Football Head.

Dog or kid. Either way, our lounge is a mess.

Exploring.

A perfect blue sky. #nofilter

Gnomeville

July 2015

It’s Captain Hook!

Just wandering past this Melbourne icon. #lunapark

June 2015

alexcanionmusic is bringing it at Travelodge East Perth.

Watch out!

The things you find in your kid’s school bag. #precioustreasures

May 2015

Hey, I’m workin' here. #9to5 #whitecollar

I’ve gone FULL AMERICAN for my coffee this morning. My Nespresso machine is looking at me with a “what the F$&@?” look on its face. #americano

Ladder spin.

Telephone graveyard.

Bigfoot.

Sleepy travelling.

Travelling in style with a stop in the Qantas First Lounge at LAX. Unfortunately, not flying First as well!

Feet in the fountain.

There’s a boy out there. Not a bad view from the front porch.

April 2015

The battle of Buzz v Zerg.

Walking the corridors

Riding the car seat at luggage check in time.

David loves the ferry boat that provides transport between our hotel and the Downtown Disney area. #nofilter

Bowling up a storm at Splitsville. #dadwon

David rings the Surrey Bike bell as Mum and Dad do the peddling!

Just waking up. #mickeymouse

Prepping for the Disney night parade and fireworks show. #longday #secondwind #posttantrum

Dixie Stampeding in Pigeon Forge

Panera Bread and superheroes in Baltimore. On the lookout for Bunk. #thewire

The end of a long Easter Sunday sees David pass out at the dinner table. He was laughing and talking 30 seconds earlier.

Another night, another hotel on our much longer than anticipated journey to Washington DC. Tonight we are staying in luxury at the Grand Hyatt at Dallas Fort Worth. A much better outcome than had been feared. Sad part is David telling us he wants to go home! #superheroboy

Story time at the airport. Coming to the end of an unscheduled 9 hour layover in Sydney after our connecting plane was delayed. David has been super!

March 2015

Swimming in the river, lagoon style.

A boy and his dog. Both love a swim.

Giant jellyfish!

The boy still has some basic hairdressing techniques to sort out yet. #VSCOcam

“Now, here’s my point of view on the issue.”

Evening bubble time.

February 2015

Inspecting the spiders that have taken up residence in Lord Forrest’s robes, while the moon shines down.

Just a little bit excited.

Daddy and David went to the “morial” at Kings Park today.

Freshly groomed. #airedale

Evening vino. Love the trees in my suburb. #nofilter #dusk

That chair looks like an egg! #interiordesign #nanunanu

David watching the traffic. Daddy watching Parliament House and remembering the old days. #cv

David’s current favourite toy is one I think @alexcanionmusic would approve of. A “Metal Tours” bus. #rockon #futureroadie

There is nothing more fun than playing in the Poppy Car.

Pirate Captain David with his trusty parrot sailing the seven seas. #VSCOcam #kingspark

The little artiste at work.

My #bluecollar boy keeping it real and leading with his chin. #bluey

Just a boy and his stingray.

Loving the exercise ball.

January 2015

If anybody’s cooking a lamb roast, I can provide the rosemary. #australiaday #gardening

Australia Day watchdogs. #australiaday #beach #park

Desk jockey.

Evening garden work. #lovesummer

December 2014

Worn out puppies.

Passed out mid-sandwich.

Indoctrination

Rancho relaxo in Poppy’s car

David loves playing in Poppy’s car.

Chillaxing while Mum exercises. @hbear

Trying to see out into the night from a lot train carriage is a challenge.

The empty streetscape view from my Sydney dinner location. #tableforone

November 2014

Backyard Saturday.

Hey, I’m workin' here.

At the station.

Puffed out.

Just a dot on the grass.

Our boy loves Dolly Parton, and especially the song Old Friends with Kenny Rogers. Eating Vegemite on toast while watching. #countryftw @hbear

Inspecting the work.

October 2014

Post game with the championship banners. #redarmy. #needmorewilbur

Curtain of doom.

3 kids, 3 dogs. What could go wrong?

September 2014

Getting my sandgroper on. #wa #stubby

Jeffenhausensteinenberg.

Who needs an ๏ฃฟWatch when I’ve got this old favourite back on my wrist.

At the vet. Possible broken toe. :-(

Feeding the pony

David was excited to find flowers that were Mummy’s @hbear favourite colour.

August 2014

Growing up fast.

Rainy adventure.

Muddy puddles (and a few weeds)

Park time.

Bookends to my Saturday

Cheezels are just the best!

July 2014

More insomnia.

It be pirating time.

Happily wearing pyjamas and doggie slippers while visiting cousins.

Sitting on Mrs Macquarie’s Chair.

I’ve got mail.

I think I might be a little busy for a while.

Beach fun

Freedom!

#vscocam

June 2014

At least we won the basketball Grand Final.

Nutella time

Pirate magnets

Two rocky Rotto boat rides in one day!

In front of the heater.

May 2014

Meccano!

Nature play!

Guard dog.

I found some good Italian coffee in Shinegawa.

April 2014

Oh yeah. Vital camping gear has arrived! #survivor

David watching a video of himself playing, as opposed to playing. #meta

Chops

Freshly groomed with teddy bear ears.

Groomed with bows

Our 2.75 year old may have OCD. he didn’t just collect his eggs, he organised them.

We are geared up for Championship #6! #redarmy #28straight #nblfinals

Dad is cooking dinner for the boy tonight. #balanceddiet #protein

March 2014

Grown-up trampolining.

Old school dinner. Shepherd’s pie. #thermomix

Fun in Freo

Roar!

Ready for St Patrick’s Day!

30 holes of golf at Kalgoorlie in one day.

Yeah… So if you could just go ahead and print that, that would be great. #officespace

February 2014

Morning moon

Breakfast time

January 2014

I think she’s trying to tell me something…

Toy Story

Today’s drink is a Moscow Mule, served by our good friend Penguin. @hbear

Lunch at a place I’ve never been before.

David very happy about his exciting day.

The office calendar is up, complete with office style bulldog clip/paper clip hanging mechanism.

Morning coffee on the back lawn.

Carrying the weight of the world.

Free the bears, @hbear! #teddyzoo or #teddyprison

Oh no, I melted the Varoma… #thermomix #thermofail

Cleaning out the study and found this. Not too much use these days.

Summer has its benefits

Back into summer fun.

Beer and liquorice all sorts at Qantas Club Sydney. Just what is needed after 3 legs of flight with a fourth to come.

It might be a version of the Blue Oyster, but I’m enjoying the music with @hbear

Stop it Santa, you’re drunk.

About 3 inches.

Beautiful snow. @hbear and I went for an evening stroll.

Let it snow…

Chillin'

Mini Boom

July 2012

Here I come!

May 2012

Dog walk time II

Dog walk time II

Dog walk time!

April 2012

Chillin'

Andrew

David

Indi

Jeff

Media lockdown notification

Quarter past 7

March 2012

End of a big day

Happy!

My name is Andrew so I got a free Boost

Runny nose, but still happy!

February 2012

Lovely day for a swing

Dream feed

Milk Drunk

Queuing for Little Roy

Jeff by Night

January 2012

San Fran beer

December 2011

Oranges; juicy and delicious

My little man

Sleepy baby

Amtrak waiting…

The Starry Night

Preparing for bath time

November 2011

Day before David’s baptism and Dad gets a sunburnt face

David in his big boy seat

Off to watch the Wildcats