Hotham Valley Steam Train. 🚂

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 — a ‘social network’ devoid of true humanity, but full of humblebrag posts and small talk comments in something which amounts to little more than a business-suited circle jerk.

Yet there I must be. Truth be told, for the last few years I’ve mostly used it as an avenue for promoting Hemispheric Views because if there is a podcast that deserves more listeners, it is that.1

So as I was on LinkedIn tonight, removing connections to ancient Groups that I’d not interacted with for years, updating my profile with current URLs, etc. I took a look at my profile picture used on the site.

The photo was nice. It was taken by a professional photographer at a time when I was more intensely involved in “corporate” work. I was wearing a nice tailored suit. I was 20 kilograms lighter than I am now - and 10 years younger. It was the kind of photo that you keep on a site like LinkedIn in some odd attempt to demonstrate a youthful verve that never fades.

Looking at that photo tonight I realised that it was no longer me. That it was a photo of a different Andrew. It was an Andrew who was still trying to climb a ladder, impress those above him, and show capability.

I’m not that Andrew anymore. I’m at a point in my life where I’m interested in doing work that interests me. I don’t want to climb a ladder. I don’t feel a need to try to exude competence.

I am competent. More importantly though, now I’m confident. I know who I am. I’m relaxed and more aware of the need to build human connection ahead of corporate achievement. To that end, I knew that the Andrew in that LinkedIn photo was not the truth. It was the truth, but not anymore.

So I changed my photo. Now I’ve got a mug shot that shows me with a slight smile, my hair longer, stubble on my face, and a few more wrinkles and signs of ageing. This is who I am now. It’s the photo I’m already using on my personal sites, because it’s how I identify with myself.

As for LinkedIn, if you want to do business with me that is fantastic and I’m excited to explore opportunities. If you don’t, that’s fine. I’m walking my own path now.

  1. Please, tell your friends. Let’s boost those listener numbers! ↩︎

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 - ★★½

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 – A Mindfulness Podcast for Kids

If you have kids, you and they might enjoy the wonderful Like You – 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 use breathing, affirmations, music, and imagination to explore feelings, relieve anxiety, encourage self-esteem, and grow empathy, all while having fun!

Noah is basically another member of our family at this point.

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 Tokyo’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 ever.

I’ve appreciated the scheduling efficiency of the Tokyo subway system in the past, but this 3D impression of how all the lines interact is something else.

Ali, 2001 - ★★

The movie needed a more forceful editor.

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 – 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 Apple, only one has been delivered and installed correctly through my Monterey Content Caching server, that on 4 August. The other eight security updates to XProtect and its new companion XProtect ‘Remediator’ all downloaded correctly from my local server, but then failed to install.

After reviewing Howard’s articles on the topic, and using his impressive apps to identify whether I had an issue, I discovered that all three of my Macs behind a Mac mini server running content caching had failed to receive critical security updates. I’ve now disabled the caching server. If it can’t be trusted to deliver security updates it doesn’t matter how much internet bandwidth I can save, nor how much faster I can update machines. Security is more important than that.

Apple needs to do better. Maybe they need to rewrite the Content Caching Server in Swift? 🥁

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 - ★★★★

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? – 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 don’t love Twitter, but I use the heck out of it for one reason only: following the Australian National Basketball League (@NBL) and the community of passionate fans around it.

For a normal person with this use case, they would use the company-issued Twitter app and be done with it. But you know that I’m not normal (and not Martin Feld) so default apps are not generally in my wheelhouse. So it is with Twitter.

The best thing about a third-party app is the lack of in-line ads, and the chronological timeline. They bring other benefits (and some deficiencies) but these are the two reasons why I don’t accept usage of the Twitter app.

For the past year I’ve been using Tweetbot, but as is my wont, I elected not to auto-renew my subscription. They got a year of income from me, but the implied agreement with a subscription app is that I can (and should?) walk away at the end of the term to consider my options and assess the broader market.

A couple of months ago I purchased Spring. I like that this app is a one-time purchase, and it unlocks the app on all platforms (iOS, iPadOS, macOS). I’ve been using it in tandem with Tweetbot to see how it works. It’s… fine? I don’t like the way it shows the thread of a retweet within the context of the main timeline. I end up seeing the same tweets over and over, and it bloats the timeline. This is probably because I’m a timeline completionist. I can imagine that if one was dipping in and out, the additional context might be welcomed. I also struggle with the UX flow of the app. I think I understand its logic, but I find myself having to think about it. I don’t want to think that hard about Twitter.

My next option is Twitterrific. I used this many, many years ago. I’ve once again downloaded it for iOS but have yet to buy the subscription. I don’t like that the subscription doesn’t unlock the macOS version. That seems less than ideal. I have a memory of developers Iconfactory saying this was going to change, but I can’t confirm that, and as at the time of this article, it isn’t the case. So I will judge based on what is in front of me.

I like the airy, spacious feel of Twitterrific. Its big thing is the unified timeline where it puts replies and mentions inline with everything else. This seems less revolutionary these days.

I honestly don’t know what to do. Are there other options out there that I’m neglecting?

Which app do you use? Which one should I use?

Help!

And if you want to see lots of random comments about NBL basketball, follow @andrewcanion.