Keep Practising: S01, E03
Sunday, April 19, 2020
Keep Practising: S01, E03. A potted history of computer gaming.
I’m falling deep into the audio production rabbit hole. I’ve bought Loopback and Audio Hijack Pro from @rogueamoeba. Anybody want to do a podcast with me?
Writing for the Web
Friday, April 17, 2020
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 a place for that - and often the printed page is now a generated PDF. The web, however, is of different origins.
Coffee shop visit with my baby boy.
I’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, “On Air" that turns one of our smart lamps red. No more accidental interruptions!
Will Coronavirus Change Society Forever?
Monday, April 13, 2020
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 entropy? Will our stadiums and shopping centres, designed to pack people into shared experiences, point to an irrelevant way of life? Will our next generation of people wonder what it was like to have global experiences be the norm, and consider the way we would gather en masse to watch sport and entertainment a strange and incomprehensible way of life?
Today I’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
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Keep Practising: S01, E02. In this time of COVID-19 quarantines, I consider the value of social media platforms to my life.
It’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 doesn’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.
I’ve cancelled my web host. Now I’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. 🎙
My 8-year old son is obsessed with US politics, even though he is Australian. I think he has inherited his Poppy’s genes.
It’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
Sunday, April 5, 2020
Keep Practising: S01, E01. Andrew starts a podcast. As is the cultural norm, this first podcast episode is dominated with talk about podcasting.
🔗 Link Post: “Introducing 1.1.1.1 for Families”
“Introducing 1.1.1.1 for Families — 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 been using OpenDNS to block non-kid-safe content but its relatively slow. Now I’m moving back to Cloudflare.