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.
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 · 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 made 1.0, back in the Netscape Navigator days, great. Blink tags, under construction logos, and multi-colour Times New Roman font. It was joyous because it was the web at human level.
The Internet is healing.
My mental health energy meter is reading at about 3% today. Can we shut it down today and reconvene tomorrow? 🪫
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 defence, guarding against the marauding ‘web apps’.
It appears that most users are more than happy to load a copy of Google Chrome and run a bunch of web apps in fullscreen mode. This is what I see in my day job, as companies use Xero, Hubspot and any other number of web apps to run their companies.
On a personal level things aren’t much better with Google Apps, YNAB, etc. sharing the platform with a growing number of Electron apps such as Discord, 1Password and Slack (and, of course, Obsidian).
So I end up feeling like one of a declining number of people who prefer an app that utilises the native architecture of the client platform. Either people don’t care or they actively prefer web apps.
I actually think it’s the former (users not caring) combined with development houses caring more about cost management and not actually putting the user first. If they were willing to invest development resources in native applications I am sure people would enjoy them. But they don’t care enough to force developers' hands.
So we end up with the best app to meet profit targets — not the best app.
As much as Apple invests in outlandishly fast and impressive hardware, what’s the point if all it means is that the platform can successfully run more Chrome tabs? Is that really what we have arrived at?
Apple is not helping by not investing in their own first platform applications, either. They are creating meh apps across macOS as they attempt to consolidate development efforts through shared Swift/Catalyst implementations. Nothing seems better or more powerful than it was a decade ago.
I hope that now Apple has its hardware house in order, that it can focus on its software.
I’d love to hold off the web app barbarians at the gate just a few years longer.
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. 🙄 This book is perhaps not ageing well.
We Need a New Approach to Social Platforms
The Elon-gate’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 can’t simply act like 21st century echoes of the robber barons. Either the tech sector must demonstrate its ability to police itself and show good corporate governance and a willingness to let bottom-up creativity and entrepreneurship flourish in the marketplace of ideas, or we must call for increased regulatory scrutiny on all fronts.
…
And for the love of all that is holy, we must rid ourselves of this absurd myth that a single person just shows up one day with a skip in their step and a spark of genius in their brain to change everything overnight. Never again should we fall for an Elizabeth Holmes. Never again should we fall for an Adam Neumann. Never again should we fall for a Sam Bankman-Fried. Never again should we fall for a Mark Zuckerberg.
Doing the same thing again, with a different company, a different founder offering a story of salvation, a different VC backer… any of that will only take us to the same place we’ve been, and has been proven to fail.
Let’s build something different. Let’s build interop.
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. 😬
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.
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. ⚽️
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 📚
Seems host nation Qatar will be out of the World Cup. If this were basketball, I’d say “ball don’t lie”. Some degree of justice delivered for the payola World Cup. ⚽️
Microblogvember 2022, Day 25: Completing a microblogvember post everyday this month has almost become ritual at this point.
I'm Out on Twitter 🫡
“The standard you walk past, is the standard you accept.”
— 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 my safe #NBL23 bubble - I believe the correct and appropriate action is to cease use of the platform.
I am available on Mastodon @canion@social.lol and micro.blog @canion 🫡