IndieWeb
Really strong opening night at the DNC. Joe was good. So much love from the crowd. Special guests on abortion were compelling. There were some echos from 2008 in Hillary’s speech, and this after 2016:
…we refused to give up on America. Millions marched. Many ran for office. We kept our eyes on the future. Well, my friends, the future is here.
Looking forward to Obama tonight. 🇺🇸
Happy Tuesday, everyone. Fixing bugs. 🐞
Signed in to Facebook. It’s sort of a weird app if you haven’t used it in years. Wonder how long until the app is only Reels and Marketplaces.
For the Democratic convention this week, I’m looking forward to Hillary’s speech tonight. Her campaign in 2016 didn’t pan out, but it did matter. Totally normal now to have a woman as the nominee. This year we take the next step. 🇺🇸
Mayoral candidate in Cheyenne, Wyoming running with an AI bot that will make decisions for the city:
Standing behind a lectern with a sign that read “AI FOR MAYOR,” he gave a brief PowerPoint presentation on the history of AI. Then he stepped aside to give the floor to his Mac mini and iPad — which were propped on a table and connected to a hanging speaker at the front of the room — and told attendees to direct questions toward the screen.
No doubt AI can be a helpful tool for local government, but not like this.
Rolling out the new web-based Micro.blog editor now… Let us know if you have any feedback or run into bugs. There was a brief issue with the reply text box not loading, now fixed. (Caching the wrong minimized JS, argh!)
This line from Leon Mika’s post about naming computers rings true. It’s pragmatic but also a little sad:
…when AWS came onto the scene, the prevailing train of thought was to treat your servers like cattle rather than pets.
His blog post also uses the audio narration feature in Micro.blog so you can listen to it in his own voice. Love it.
Still some selection quirks in the new editor, but overall it’s so much better, don’t see a reason to hold on the release tomorrow. For longer blog posts with HTML, sometimes the cursor can jump annoyingly, but it’s easy enough to work around.
Just registered for FediForum, a 3-day event for the fediverse coming up in September. I’ve attended the last two events and got a lot out of it. Good for both developers and anyone interested in learning more beyond Mastodon.
Cool walls at Spokesman Coffee. ☕️
Pretty happy with how the new editor for Micro.blog is coming along. I’m going to ship it Monday. It’ll be enabled when starting a new post, editing a post, and for replies. Not yet for CSS or theme editing. Screenshot here for a quick reply… Notice better highlighting, preview toggle, toolbar.
Posted a new Core Intuition, this week covering the latest App Store news with new linking entitlement rules and in-app purchase in Patreon. We also talk about my upcoming Markdown text editor change in Micro.blog.
Nice blog post on Writing Slowly about using notes in Micro.blog and getting set up with Strata for iOS.
Annoyed by yesterday’s server problem. Essentially one of our servers was accepting incoming connections, but it couldn’t connect to another server to verify domain names for SSL certs. The whole point of having Hugo-based static blogs is to minimize dependencies, but there’s always something.
It was four years ago this week that Epic Games launched so-called Project Liberty, their attempt to force Apple’s hand on external purchases. Lawsuits, DMA… And now we have third-party marketplaces and Fortnite back in the EU. It’s no longer crazy to imagine we’ll get this worldwide in 2-3 years.
Having one of those mornings where I sort of can’t believe how well this coding is going. Sometimes everything just works.
There are a lot of misses in the current Amtrak map. Las Vegas, which Brightline is making progress on. But one of the biggest has gotta be the station in Maricopa instead of Phoenix. Ridiculous that this route has been broken for decades. (Biden’s infrastructure deal will eventually fix it.)
For the first joint event with Joe and Kamala together, really smart to focus on healthcare and prescription drug costs. There has been real progress on this that Joe can talk about. It lets the crowd show their appreciation for the president, the press will cover it, and it highlights policy. 🇺🇸
Now that I’ve cancelled my NYT subscription, going to wind down my daily use of Wordle too. So many ads now, and the fun has run its course. Planning to stop playing after puzzle 1200.
This new Rivian travel kitchen looks so good. I’d be tempted to get it if I hadn’t already spent a small fortune on my Snow Peak camping things.
Happy NBA schedule release day! It drops this afternoon and I’m excited enough that I will probably watch it live on ESPN2. @cheesemaker and I are still trying to visit all the arenas in the country and it’s taking forever, need to hit a couple more this season.
Wow, this post diving into Micro.blog bookmarks and highlights is amazing. Thanks Loura! I’ve bookmarked it in Micro.blog (of course) so I can sift through it later to see what we can improve in Micro.blog’s API.
Must-read blog post by Cory Doctorow, connecting enshittification to Apple and the legal agreements that give corporations power:
Apple doesn’t oppose regulation; Apple loves regulation, so long as they’re the ones doing the regulating. They want to be able to shape and define the digital market, backed by the power of the state, but without any input from the state. In modern corporate orthodoxy, the state is an enforcer for corporate will.
Sounds like we may be in for a substantial remedy in Epic vs. Google, potentially going even further than the EU’s DMA. From The Verge:
Judge Donato made it clear he plans to ban any nondiscriminatory behavior when it comes to how Google treats rival app stores, up to and including human review.
Random rail crossing in Denton. 🚂
Ben Thompson’s daily update reviews the App Store vs. Patreon mess:
In short, Apple is taking a percentage of individual creator subscriptions, but it is treating every individual creator as if they are a subsidiary of Patreon. It’s as if Apple can’t even conceive of the possibility of there being any sort of platform other than themselves; they may still market themselves as the company for creators, but their actions suggest they truly don’t care.
He also suggests a solution: Apple could charge 30% of Patreon’s own 8% fee, because Patreon is passing almost all of the money on to creators.
“I’m learning, and I’m worried for the opponents in a couple of years.” — Victor Wembanyama, after winning silver at the Olympics 🏀
My son is tinkering with Raspberry Pi and Arduino and it’s incredible what is possible now. So many little widgets you can buy and program. Servers that fit in the palm of your hand.
Steve Troughton-Smith on Mastodon:
If Apple isn’t stopped, there will come a point where Apple slaps a 30% tax on all VISA transactions made on iOS (unless you use Apple Pay, of course!)
It could happen. Related, I’d love the option to use Apple Pay in iOS apps instead of in-app purchase. Apple would still skim off their small fee as part of the card transaction, but it wouldn’t hit developer revenue.
