2024 is at and end and I thought I would sit and write, stream of consciousness-style, about things that I remember. Some of this is going to be pretty raw emotion and if you’re not up for that, please tap out now.
Overall it’s been a pretty good year. I’ve been at peace on a great many things and struggling with others. Technology-wise I am still rolling with four main devices: An M1 Max MacBook Pro with 32gb of RAM (Devika), an iPhone 16 Pro 1TB (downsized from a 15 Pro Max and don’t miss the size one bit), an Apple Watch S10 (gave my Ultra 1 to my middle daughter who frustratingly doesn’t use it… I should have just traded it in), and an M4 iPad Pro that I absolutely adore and am forcing myself to use more often. I’m trying to understand the decisions and trade offs that were made with iPadOS and lean into them rather than letting my old age muscle memory take over. I find myself asking questions like… “do I really NEED a professional file manager or should I just let the apps take over their space and manage files on the apps themselves?” That seems like the way Apple wanted it. I’m trying to adapt. I very much love the focus afforded by the device and opportunities for creativity.
I’m predicting this to be a real shitshow.
https://developersalliance.org/open-source-liability-is-coming/
Link to external blog entry
I did a lot of time in the US federal government space. In the latter part of my career there, there was a big push to stop using open source software as much as possible due to supply chain concerns. I didn’t like it. I didn’t want to exclude open source software from our toolset. But the US government wanted a single person to smack around with a trout if things went wonky.
I was one of the lucky few to snag an iPhone 14 Pro Max on launch day. Never mind the fact that I wasn’t around to take the delivery — we were on the road to my cousin’s wedding when UPS tried to deliver it. I rerouted the UPS shipment to a UPS store near our house.
Monday about 12:10pm… I received a notification from UPS that they had dropped my phone off at the UPS Store. The planets had aligned, as I had just finished a meeting and was ready to eat lunch. I bounded off to the UPS Store to pick up the phone. I walked in and the lady seemed confused.
I just got a note that Amazon API Gateway is now available in AWS GovCloud. This makes things more interesting for GovCloud for sure, but it’s just a minor stepping stone. Remember, just because it’s in GovCloud doesn’t mean it’s FedRAMP’d (even though it probably is).
If you hired a cloud consultant that heartily recommends a “lift and shift” migration and they assure you that everything will be fine…
Fire them.
It won’t be fine.
I must really be out of the loop. I had no idea Microsoft bought SwiftKey. Anyway, they are killing the Windows Phone keyboard for IOS and focusing exclusively on SwiftKey.
When Microsoft does things that makes sense, I’m always surprised. When they do things that do not make sense (like beefing Skype for the iPhone) I am rarely surprised.
Microsoft’s Windows Phone keyboard for the iPhone is dead - The Verge
It looks like Satya Nadella’s strategies are paying off. Microsoft reported some gains in Windows 10 and its cloud business.
That’s good news for overall competition. I’ve also witnessed Microsoft become more and more “Internet friendly,” by way of embracing multi-platform applications and developers. This is what needed to happen.
Just think if Ballmer was still around… maybe Microsoft would be folding by now.
They do need to do something about the Windows handset business, but I’m betting that Satya has a plan for that.
I was talking to a friend earlier today about video chats and why they don’t work. She said she really didn’t like to do video chats. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t really know many people that like to video chat.
I am a refugee of Generation X. I don’t know anyone in GenX that actually enjoys video chatting. Face time is irreplaceable. I mean time that is spent face-to-face, not Apple’s FaceTime. I’ve often thought about why I don’t like to video chat and I think it comes down to one simple thing. You can’t properly make eye contact.
Last week, Hell froze over in one of the deepest freezes in the history of the United States.
This week, Paul Thurrott finally speaks the truth about Windows 8/8.1. It’s not pretty.
It’s going to be a very interesting 2014 in the tech world.
Speaking of which, I hope you’re having a fantastic start to this new year. I need to get back to blogging and updating my websites.
Here’s a little productivity tip for those of you who may need it. In OS X, one of the features that I find is vastly underused is Spotlight comments. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a way to tag your files quickly and easily with say… a “TODO” tag or something so you could easily find them and remember to work on something?
Using Automator, you can do this very quickly. Open up Automator and build out a Service that looks like this:
