Added a new blogging page to the Micro.blog website when you’re not signed in. This is the start of bringing back some more text and screenshots. Just a Mac screenshot for now. Also might reuse some of this for Micro.one.
It took me a long time to figure out that when people respond to you on twitter-like systems they aren't actually speaking to you, they're talking over your shoulder to the masses they imagine are reading what you posted. Three comments. 1. There are no masses. You can see this by looking at the stats for each tweet, available on most platforms. 2. Most users on the social web are trying to get attention for themselves, the only reason they read the posts is to see if there's a place for them to attach their message. 3. A simple tweak to the software would make it so that only the author of the post being responded to could see the replies. Then they could RT a reply if they thought everyone should see it. This would make the social web a lot more useful imho.
Reading Earth Abides by George R. Stewart.
Reading Earth Abides by George R. Stewart.
Idea: Pipe new posts from feeds in my blogroll list to Bluesky.
Chris Aldrich
• Chris Aldrich
Texas French Bread, still boarded up after the fire a couple years ago.
Several people have already correctly guessed that Micro.one will be a ridiculously low $1/month. I hope this helps it reach more people. It will also be a perfect gift subscription to give to friends and family.
Using Claude to write software
I just had a fairly incredible experience using Claude.ai. Rather than write up the work we did, I asked Claude to do it.
Dave started by sharing a text outline of computing platforms (Mac, iOS, Windows, Unix and their variants) and asked if I could visualize it. I began wi...
Nice video review on YouTube of many of the improvements in Micro.blog recently, including photo collections and replies from Mastodon and Bluesky.
Pet peeve: A podcast uses sound effects like sirens. It causes panic when driving, esp at high speed. The sound systems in cars these days are fairly realistic, and the ambulance or cop car sounds very close. This has happened a few times, this time I remembered to say something.
At the coffee shop this morning I asked the barista to make my latte before I paid for it so I could try it first. Wait, no. Because demos and trials are an important complement to things that need thought and time and money, like a $40 app. But does $5 software need a trial? What about if it’s $1?
Rail lights from Manor. 🚂
To know what a product is means knowing what it is not.
Some thoughts on comments
I’ve suggested a couple times this year that I want to rethink the Micro.blog trial period. It feels like the time for a change. Next week I’m going to remove the 10-day trial. You can pay, or not! And new users can start with a Micro.one subscription and then upgrade to Micro.blog if they want to.
Some interesting stats in Mastodon’s 2023 report. Patron donors have dropped over the last couple of years, but total donations are up because of larger, single donations. Makes me wonder if the future of financing Mastodon might be more commercial offerings, like paid hosting or subscriptions.
Christmas tree with green books at Half Price Books. 📚
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Creating a framework for living well
As part of a coaching exercise, I’ve been trying to describe what I want my life to look like. The idea is that if I’m armed a better understanding of what I’m aiming for, I’ll be able to make more informed decisions that more intentionally lead me towards my goals for my l...
BTW, as a longtime speaker of English and programmer, I think the term refactoring is re-dundant. The term comes from mathematics where you simplify a statement without altering its truth. Factoring is a repetitive process. You factor, and then factor some more if you can.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
I’m Tired of Pretending Physical Media Isn’t Still Better Than Streaming Digital
[Sabrina Graves at Gizmodo]
I agree with every word Sabrina Graves writes here. Streaming services are far worse. Physical media is better quality, comes with unrestricted access - and may actually work out to be cheaper.
This is eye-opening:
"At the start ...