Numeric Citizen Introspection Newsletter #23

HIGHLIGHTS

A new YouTube Channel is born

In June, I started publishing YouTube videos about Craft. You can join the YouTube Channel if you’re curious. Read all the details here.

There is no such thing as time elasticity

Learning to proceed with high-quality YouTube videos takes time. The consequence is that I’ve had less time for writing. Time elasticity isn’t possible yet, sadly. In this article, discover how much time did I spend producing my videos.

Before WWDC 2022, I had some wishes…

Each June, Apple WWDC conference took place and a plethora of announcements are common. Before the conference, I had a few wishes.

…and a Twitter thread about new hardware announcements

Oh, and I had this to say on Twitter about the possibility of new hardware announcements. I thought it was to be the Mac Pro. I was wrong.

WWDC 2022 came, then I had some observations

Following the WWDC conference, I took the time to write down my observations. Here they are, as a wall of text. There is a reason why I chose this format this year.

APPLE TIDBITS

1️⃣ Following the publication of this article on Apple Insider, here’s something cool I discovered. If you’re old enough, you’ll probably remember experiencing Mac OS 8. If you’re a bit nostalgic about it, do yourself a favour and run Mac OS 7 or 8 within the browser of your choice. Enjoy. I’ve played with it for a little while and I’m just mind-blown about this: how do this even works? How is it possible, within a browser, to run on an ARM M1 chip, at that speed? I tried to record an AppleScript with the Scripts editor. Works just fine. Mind blown.

2️⃣ With Apple’s current headquarters, it’s easy to forget about the past, what it was like in Apple’s office in 1990 or in 2000. It’s fascinating to see the interior's evolution in style and breath and Apple’s personality settling in in this photo series.

3️⃣ Fascinating tidbits about the birth of the iPhone software, iOS, then called iPhone OS. I cannot get enough of those stories.

MUST SEE PHOTOGRAPHY STUFF

Something cool and really useful is coming to Photo editing in the upcoming iOS 16 release this fall.

Speaking of editing photos, do you know you can use a browser to do very basic but useful stuff, no software required? Try “edit.photo”. Surprisingly powerful. Saved to my bookmarks.

I always like those before & after photo edits (see below). It’s a great way to learn. It’s like the Adobe Lightroom Discover feature, which I happen to browse from time to time. Really nice, really educative.

CLIMATE CHANGE & CRISIS

A study conducted in Great Britain points to a drastic diminution of insect population. The method used to detect insects was the number of insects who smash a car registration plate while going out for a ride. Duh.

Reduce energy consumption and transfer energy sources to cleaner ones. That’s the goal. According to the IPCC, we not only need to use cleaner energy sources, but we also need to cut down on energy consumption, period. We need more sustainable life patterns. Yet, many countries are starting to look for old coal plants to circumvent Russia’s intention to cut gas.

What happens around an airport when storm cells are crossing the path of landing plains. Fascinating. Not related to climate change, but to intense weather events, nonetheless.

Speaking of reducing our energy consumption. We need to stop Bitcoins. Fast.

PRIVACY PROTECTION

Why so much attention to the use of hard-locking your iPhone? Why is it important? Can we really refuse to hand over your device to a police officer? Can you refuse to unlock your device? Is this the same answer if you’re in the US, in Canada, in France or anywhere else on earth (except in Russia, they will probably be jailed you or even worst, kill you for refusing, who knows..)

Facebook isn’t in control of its data it has been accumulating like forever. How are they supposed to comply with regulations?

As reported by MacRumors, according to this study, people are trusting Google and Amazon to handle personal data. I’m surprised by these results. Amazon? Is Apple at fault for its CSAM debacle?

Abortion laws versus privacy, what do they have in common? This post on Reddit is very telling.

NOTABLE QUOTES

SOME LEFTOVERS

1️⃣ A boat in Rotterdam. Quite fascinating to see the maze the boat is going through. It looks like boats are winning over cars in Rotterdam.

2️⃣ Watch the whole thing. Fascinating to see the process of layering the different landscapes, at the same pace, in four different seasons. A lot of planning needs to go into this.

3️⃣ Must-see video featuring an interview with Tony Fadell, one of the principal architects behind the iPhone creation.

4️⃣ Are you missing iTunes on macOS? Here’s something to test on your Mac: a music mini player built on top of Apple Music. I tried it and it is pretty cool and useful. The Apple Music app needs to be open for the mini player to work.

5️⃣ Elon Musk: Or you’re in, literally, or you’re out, literally. No work from home for Mr. Musk’s employees.

One last thing, John Roach, Pioneer of the Personal Computer, dies at 83. He’s the guy behind the famous TRS-80 personal computer, which I remember so well. We had a RadioShack in my home town where they used to sell them. More details here.

WHAT’S NEXT

You know when an operating system is mature when the only innovative feature introduced is a redesign of the Settings. Get used to the new Settings.app on macOS. It’s the future of system preferences on the Mac.

Speaking of the future… here’s some pretty cool stuff from Apple… we can see where they are going with this: AR glasses.

Misinformation is part of our daily life since the invention of newspapers. Today’s medium makes things far worst because of information density, velocity and general availability. More than ever, a friend of mine told me recently, that critical thinking is needed. Cyberspace, and eventually metaspaces are going to be the next frontiers of the battlefield in my opinion.

Interesting blog post by Matt Birchler commenting on an article about the lack of web rendering engines besides Apple’s on the iPhone and the iPad. I’m perplexed when I consider that, as stated in Birchler’s post, most browsers on Windows are built using the same engine: Chromium. Is this all about the veneer, then? Just remember that design is not only how it looks but also how it works. Does this apply to browsers too? I would argue that yes.

Oh, one last thing…

This concludes the Numeric Citizen Introspection Newsletter #23 for June of 2022. See you next month for the next edition!

Building this edition of the newsletter took approximately seven hours of work, spread during the month of February. If you enjoy my newsletter, show me your support through PayPal or by becoming a paid member here. Thanks a lot for your support. Sign up here 🙏🏻