I preordered an IPhone! This will be the first time I’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 I’m tired of having a too small for me 13 mini, it’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 great in my hand.
I’ve cancelled my Backblaze account. Photos continue to be backed up across iCloud and Flickr. Everything else? 🤷♂️
I’m enjoying Kagi a lot. Am I seriously going to pay for a search engine? I’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 that might lead people to discover Hemispheric Views.
The topic of the thread was around how people discover new, independent podcasts. This is a problem that I don’t believe has been solved. In fact, I’m not sure the problem has even been considered in any meaningful way. The economics of podcast exploration don’t stack up. Closed ecosystems want to put their money behind their own properties. Independent podcast apps are so often not that independent, because they are “friends” with existing networks.
Overcast is the great example here. Developer Marco Arment has his own successful podcast, and they are tight with Relay.fm. It is a clique and despite their power in the market, they don’t seem to be using it to lift others up.
So how do people discover podcasts? While machine learning might be helpful (other people who subscribe to your shows also subscribe to ‘x’), this could prove to be an amplifier of already successful shows, as well as being a potential negative privacy vector.
I want to find new shows, new voices, but that have high production values. Basically, I want to find other versions of Hemispheric Views. At the same time, I want people to discover Hemispheric Views for themselves. The challenge is the old rule of Dunbar - 90% of everything is crap. How do you get people to wade through the crap to find the good stuff. It’s not exactly an enticing task. How do you convince people that the show you want to promote is not part of the 90%? How do you know it’s not part of the 90%?
It’s a dilemma and I don’t know how to solve it, and I don’t see much appetite from others to do so.
Do our readers know of any great independent podcasts that deserve more listeners?
And can our readers share the good news of Hemispheric Views? I want more people to enjoy our show.
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. 🏀
“Frugality, quite simply, is about choosing the things you love enough to spend extravagantly on—and then cutting costs mercilessly on the things you don’t love.”
— Ramit Sethi
I’ve deactivated my LinkedIn profile and deleted all my social media apps (except Mona and Micro.blog). I’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 “leaders” 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 instead trying to get rich.
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.
Three Years of Hemispheric Views Feedback
Three Years of Hemispheric Views Feedback:
040 I am furious Andrew doesn’t use “Grand Canion” 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 Hemispheric Views after reading this epic blog recap by @rknightuk. I am incredibly appreciative of the work Robb invested through his committed listening project of reviewing the entire back catalogue of our podcast.
I think Hemispheric Views is a special podcast and I’m glad others think that too.
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 academic. One of the topics Beck has written about includes the power of rest and what makes a restorative environment. I’ve always found this interesting. I’m not an academic but I do have a brain that grabs onto new and interesting thoughts, philosophies and approaches.
Rest by definition is restorative. If the body and soul are not being restored in a period of rest - then what is the point? But in this modern world, what is rest?
I think mental rest is almost more important than physical rest for many of us. That is not to diminish physical rest - especially hours of sleep - but many of us as modern knowledge workers are not destroying our bides daily in the way the majority of the workforce once did.
We are, however, pressing our minds so much more, whether that be through higher-level thinking or information absorption. How many RSS feeds, podcasts, news articles, and social networks do you imbibe daily?
The point is, we need to give our brains a break. We need a chance to restore.
Recently I enjoyed a week away in Exmouth - a remote town of Western Australia. Exmouth has bad internet. You may have surmised this when I called into Episode 064: Nested Jackets. On this holiday I was able to step away from the daily hosepipe of information. I allowed my mind a rest from the the thoughts of others and gave it a chance to focus on the here and now, and my own thoughts.
In addition, I gave my body more activity and motion than it usually gets - but an amount that is more healthy than what I typically achieve. This may seem opposed to my thoughts about rest. But what it meant was that I went to bed hours earlier than usual and got more sleep each night.
This additional rest was restorative.
Another element of Beck Tench’s thesis (as best I can tell) is that water is restorative. I experienced this to be true on my holiday. Between pool swims, ocean splashing and reef snorkelling seeing coral fish and turtles, being in and around water was restorative.
What am I trying to say through this essay? Apart from corroborating what I’ve noticed Tench write about, it is an exhortation to myself to not lose touch of the value of stepping away; and to you, to encourage you to take a rest yourself.
The best podcast you’ve never listened to is 3 years old! Happy birthday @HemisphericViews
No Meta apps (Instagram, Threads) load when IPv6 is enabled. Vanguard website doesn’t load when IPv6 is disabled. Argh.
Even when I’m not on Hemispheric Views, I’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 itself has been an experience.
Learning what is expected of me, and figuring out how to implement that without getting lost in the minutiae becomes the next challenge. I need to keep my head elevated and focus on the strategic objectives, without getting too deep into the weeds of daily tasks. An interesting juggling act to think about over the coming weeks.
Today, however, as part of NAIDOC Week, a bunch of the team got together to work on an indigenous-style artwork. We were provided with the starting template and then as a team we “completed the dots”. It was a great way to get to know everybody and bond while doing an activity that was quite meditative.
The team is a wonderful group. I haven’t done a team activity for such a long time, and this was a perfect way to end a first week at a new job.
I am also proud of the painting. I think it looks fantastic!
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. It’s such a shame that market economics has resulted in us running complex apps in an app that was never designed for that purpose. It’s such a massive kludge, retrofitting entire platforms into a web browser.
Native code kits are sitting right there, and simply not being used.
It saddens me.
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. 💼