A Thought on RSS
Like a few other million (billion?) users of the iPhone, I have come to rely on it for a great many things. One of the things I find I have improved from pre iPhone, is keeping up with news. I have worked for three different newspapers in my life and have subscribed to more than a few different magazines as well. Today however, the digital convenience of being able to read thousands of news sources from the palm of my hand is simply amazing.
I do not however like having to launch an app for this news source, then a another for that source, than another for something else. It’s tedious and takes up way too much hard drive space to have all those apps installed. I currently have one app, I launch and it provides me with news posts and article links from twenty different sources and at any time I can add or take away from that number as I need. The app is NetNewsWire (iOS App Store link) and it’s just one of many iOS apps that take advantage of a fairly old bit of technology called RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication. If you are also a podcast listener, RSS is the backbone technology behind that as well.
This web technology has been around since the late 1990’s but didnt really get widespread adoption till aroud 2005. Wikipedia actually has a very well written summary you can check out here RSS. A great feature of a dedicated RSS feed reader, in addition to it’s customization, is the ability to read articles without all of the web fluff of ads, popups and auto playing distractions. The artices are formatted for easy reading and the font can be modified and sized to your liking. The sources can vary widely from blogs like this one, to mainstream news organizations like NPR, or the Associated Press.
A have tried a few other feed reader apps, check these out in addtion to NetNewsWire and see if any might work for you. Pocket, Inoreader, and Reeder.
Happy reading!
I Am a Runner
To be clear, it is a recent activity for me, I played some soccer and baseball in high school and mostly kept in shape over the years with various other activities like racquetball and tennis. But I was never a long distance runner.
A few years ago there were a few friends who were doing some fitness group runs and invited me to come along. These were just a mile or two nothing too crazy. I enjoyed it and decided to try and do an actual organized race. I did some training runs with this group as well as some runs on my own then ran in my first 10k. I had a great time and decided to try another race a few months later. Eventually I set a goal to run my first Marathon.
Running was never something I did that occupied a lot of my time. I went for short 3-5 mile runs once maybe twice a week. Not really a very regimented training routine. I entered more fundraising 5k and 10k races throughout the year and enjoy the community of them. Eventually I built up enough endurance and I entered and ran my first half marathon. I remember barely being able to finish and if you had asked me at the finish line if I would do one again I would have answered hell no.
However… recovery does amazing things and I found the experience so enjoyable I set my mind and body to actually train and do my original goal of running a full marathon. When I say train, I don’t mean with an actual trainer or even a structured running scheduled. I just tried to gradually build up my weekly miles till I was able to run closer to the full 26.2 miles.
The big day came and Mother Nature decided that the long distance wasn’t challenging enough for me, she decided to add a very cold windy downpour to the equation. I ran on and managed to complete the distance just under the 6 hour cut off but, I did finish. It was miserable and I can’t believe how sore I was. It was however a goal that I set for myself and that I completed it.
I run now for physical and mental health and still run many fundraising 5k and 10k through the year. I also run that same marathon but only the half now. My life, health and calendar has limited even my regular runs lately. Yesterday, I still showed up and ran that same half marathon. I had it in my head that I could complete it but that my time would be very slow. I was pleasantly surprised by my result and it genuinely brought such a smile to my face. It wasn’t close to my personal best but it was so much faster than what I thought I would do.
It is funny sometimes what our brains will tell us about expectations that sometimes our bodies will exceed. And yes, I know it can happen the opposite way as well. Yesterday however, my body thumbed it’s virtual nose at my brain and had a great day.
It’s The Little Things
It’s The Little Things
As of iOS 17, Apple introduced Animated Cover Art for album art in the Apple Music app. So now when viewing the album art while playing a song from the album, the artwork will animate creatively. Artists can design their own animations and submit them to Apple for use in listeners libraries.
I have only now noticed it since for the most part I will begin a playlist and then put the phone away in my pocket or set it down on the desk.
Here is a snippet of the Album animation for Van Halen’s album 1984. Check the cigarette smoke and the angel wings.
Very Clever.
To Sideload or Not to Sideload
There are a lot of articles and opinions out there right now about the new App Store policies they are implementing due to the new EU ruling going into effect. John Gruber of Daring Fireball has a really nice take on a Wall Street Journal report, you can read it here. The Wall Street Journal On Apple’s Plans For iOS Sideloading In The E.U.
As a long time user of both the MacOS on Mac computers and iOS on iPhones and iPads, my opinion is this. Keep the current policy for the MacOS where you can use the App Store to obtain software both free and paid but if the use really needs software that is not available on the App Store, allow the installation but with a warning dialog about the security risk that entails. On iOS I prefer to only use software that has been vetted by the App Store. I really appreciate the iOS sandboxing that apps have to be installed in with iOS that insures that an application has no access to other applications unless explicit permission is granted by me. I can see the argument for “unlocking” the iPhone or iPad and allowing for installations from any source but the vast majority of user of those devices do not need this kind of access.
Will be interesting to see how this all works out.
The Macintosh at 40 Years
This January marks 40 years since Steve Jobs unveiled what he believed to be the future of the personal computer. It was expensive and underpowered but the paradigm shift it introduced is unmistakeable. Instead of command line interface with directories you had pictures of folders that contained pictures of documents and all you had to do was move this mouse thing and click on them. Crazy.
Recently the Upgrade podcast had a few guests and they went through an informal ranking of various Macintosh models, including their first models, their favorite models and also models that were duds. If you are of a certain age, ahem, then a good bit of their conversation will resonate with you, it did with me.
For the record, the Apple Performa 6116CD was my first personal Macintosh that I owned. I was exposed to Macintosh computers in my last year at the Art Institute and I knew I would want one for myself. Thinking back on that computer, it was nothing really special in comparison to what was available at the time but it started me down a path that continues today of an Apple evangelical. I definately drank the kool-aid as they say.
I am currently writing this post on an Apple Mac Mini that contains an Apple M2 processor that roughly clocks at aproximately 3.49 GHz and contains 16 GB of RAM and storage on an incrediably fast 500 GB SSD internal drive. That Performa… had a PowerPC chip that clocked at 60 MHz, contained 8 MB of RAM and files stored on an internal 700 MB SCSI hard drive.
Happy Anniversary Macintosh and I look forward to see what your next 40 years have in store.
Apple Vision Pro First Steps
Apple Taking More First Steps
I am very curious to see how well received/reviewed the new Apple Vision Pro being released by pre-order from Apple starting today. It looks amazing and yes, there have been VR glasses out for a while now but Apple as usual takes what is out there and usually makes a new version that does things the others just don’t. I am particularily intereted in the productivity aspects and features.
Let also all remember, this is the first version and whatever shortcomings it may have, remember the first iPhone didnt even have cut and paste.
Workflow Testing
Still working out a work flow for making posts, especially from any device. Would like to be able to make short spur of the moment thoughts as well as longer form ideas.
I am trying out MarsEdit from Red Sweater Software, have always heard good things from bloggers and developers I read and listen to.
Give it a try and see if its something that can work for you.
Hello - Bonjour
This may be a site only for me, this may be a site for a few friends and family, or it may be a site for anyone. I haven’t decided yet. For a little while now I have been wondering what it would be like to write a personal blog. I follow a few different blogs and there is something appealing about haveing a space that I control (with hosting by micro.blog) that is personal and uncluttered for the few musings and occasional deep insights.