The Ephemeral Scrapbook — Edition 2024-43

The following is a summary of my contribution activities since the previous newsletter edition
👨🏻‍💻 18 posts 😃
🏞️ 10 photos shared 😃
🎙️ No podcast episode published 😔
📺 One YouTube video published 😃

Did you know The Numeric Citizen Blog Posts Monthly Digest came out on November 1st? Check it out!

👤 Personal

1️⃣ I got a new supporter on my Ko-fi page this week, and I'm happy about it. It's not only about the money but the feeling that I'm not writing in a void. Some people are not only reading my stories but want to show their support. I'm grateful for that. But money is often not far behind, too. As a creator, I depend on many services and tools that cost money. I never wanted to make money by writing, but I had this wish this week: having enough supporters to cover all my subscription costs. That would be cool. I have a long way to go before reaching this goal.

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ This week, I (re)discovered the fragility of software. I left behind 1Password because Apple Passwords offers simplicity without being simplistic. Pixelfed is another example of its development tied to a few developers, with one guy being much more active than others. Pixelfed suffers from its leading developer lacking focus and being spread across many open-source projects. There are things I want to see on Pixelfed but aren't coming, like an iPhone app that has been in beta for maybe a year! I'm considering reducing my activity level on Pixelfed to focus on Glass instead. The third example is Omnivore, which will close because its developers are working on something else. So, I'm focusing on Inoreader instead to support my reading needs. Do you know what is common between Glass and Inoreade? Both are paid services. Next up on the list of fragile software? Continue reading below, and you'll find out.

📖 Reading

1️⃣ I should revisit my reading workflow because of the demise of Omnivore. For the time being, I'll be focusing my usage on Inoreader and letting the dust settle before making a decision. The closure of Omnivore is sad because I lost my reading highlights library. There is no easy way to reconstruct this. I did export my data, but it is sitting in many files on my computer. I do have those in Bear, though, as shown below.

“I hate that today if you want a great browsing experience, you need to install all kinds of ad-blockers.” — Riccardo Mori

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ I’ve been writing an article this week for the office using an unusual workflow. I wrote down fifteen phrases representing individual thoughts around the automation of IT operations. Then, I went to ChatGPT and asked GPT 4o Canvas to use these fifteen thoughts to write an article. Upon my first read, I asked ChatGPT for many changes and added my personal touch. The result is somewhat positive, considering the time I took to write this. I then imported the article into NotebookLM to create a podcast episode, and the results blew me away. I sent the results to some of my colleagues, who were impressed too. 2️⃣ Apple Intelligence Writing Tools are out for those with capable devices. Information Architect recently published an article about how Apple Intelligence’s approach to text editing might be wrong. This article is echoed by Kirk McElhearn, who thinks the writing tools are not good. I must say that I tend to agree to some degree. When I ask to proofread my text, I need to take the time to compare both to see if my writing was contaminated or not. It takes time, and the user experience might not be optimal. On the other hand, this solution might be good enough for most people. Time will tell, I guess.

Why the M4 Mac mini Will Be My Best Mac Ever!

A plethora of Mac announcements this week pushes the Mac to new performance levels.

Numeric Citizen SpaceJF Martin

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ One of the best creators recently discovered via Glass, Mad Heiress, offers a rich set of images, poems, stories, etc. Some photos are mildly NSFW but very tasteful and respectful. I wish I had a fraction of his talent. Simply put, wow. Another newly discovered photographer on Glass is Yano Kova. She does stunning black-and-white street photography. There are so many great photos like this one. 2️⃣ I’ve been sharing many discoveries recently in photography, most of them made through Glass. I wonder why? I fail to see comparable quality photos on Pixelfed. The latter is more general public, while Glass, a paid service, attracts more accomplished photographers. That's simply a guess, an observation. I don't want to offend anyone who shares photos on Pixelfed. I'm on both platforms. 3️⃣ Speaking of Glass, the photo-sharing service, officially set a date for launching the Series on November 12th. I can't wait to try it out! The Series feature will allow photographers to publish related photos as bundles if you didn't know.

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ The rumoured home device that Apple might be working on resembles the iconic iMac G4 but with a more squarish and smaller display. I have always liked this Mac because it wasn't only a utility device but an object of art. I'm not looking to buy this type of device, and I don't see the roles it would play in my household. 2️⃣ This was Mac Week, and it had many meaningful announcements. The iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro received a tech refresh, with the Mac mini having the only notable external redesign. I have a lot more to say in a separate article. 3️⃣ Apple is buying Pixelmator! I repeat: Apple is buying Pixelmator, the maker of Pixelmator Pro, and Photomator, my beloved photo-editing apps that took over Adobe’s! I don’t know if I should be happy or worried about this sudden turn of events! You can read the official announcement right here on Pixelmator Blog.

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ After weeks of hard and tedious work inspired by this documented process, I finally completed my migration off 1Password. Not only will I save some money, but my security posture will also improve because of this migration to Apple Passwords. I have been a 1Password user since at least 2014, but with Apple's introduction of a solid password management app, I prefer to use first-party and integrated solutions. The next thing to do is migrate off Authy, the 2-factor authenticator app. That part is not fun because I need to turn off the 2-factor configuration for each service and reconfigure it using Passwords. 2️⃣ Following the news about Omnivore’s slow demise, I'm going to work on using Inoreader as a replacement for reading later articles, exporting my data and building something different for my reading workflow needs. IFTTT, Notion, and Readwise might be involved to some degree.

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ The big news of the week on the applications side is undoubtedly this announcement by one of the main contributors of Omnivore, an open-source read-later service. According to the news, the developer accepted a job to work on ElevenLabs’ audio reader instead. I understand the decision; everyone needs to put bread on the table. But I'm not switching to ElevenLabs’ app anytime soon; I don't need an audio reader to read my content out loud. So, what am I going to do from now? I won’t wait for someone else to take over the development of Omnivore. The first option is to maximize what I already have: Inoreader. It's a paid subscription, their business model is clear, and they have been around for quite a while. In the coming days, I will explore Inoreader to store articles for reading later and text highlighting. I already know that Inoreader doesn't work with Readwise. So, I'm done with one-man-shop open-source projects. I decided to export all my Omnivore data and move on with it. 2️⃣ I'm also now questioning my usage of Readwise. I’ve been using Readwise since 2021. I don't use Readwise to browse my past highlights, but I use it for archival purposes. Even for that, I don't refer to my past readings often. Omnivore was configured to save my text highlights into Readwise. From time to time, I export the highlights to Bear. Without Omnivore, Readwise makes no sense; I don't use other means to store data in Readwise. Readwise offers a lower subscription tier for that purpose, and I could consider downgrading to it. I don't use the Readwise Reader because it felt too overwhelming the last time I tried it. 3️⃣ Scribbles.page is out with a few updates like adding a website menu, something that I was hoping to come.

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ This week YouTube content is heavily flooded with Apple news and commentary about about Mac-related news. But, to start, I chose a short clip showing Steve Jobs explaining what Apple is going to do for the computer world. I felt it was to the point and relevant to this week's announcements.

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ I’m going on a one-week vacation, so the next edition will be published around November 23rd. I'll be mostly offline during that week because I have no internet. It’s a good thing to disconnect, right? 😱

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ Of course, I'm looking forward to two things: reviews of the new M4 Mac mini and, for the long term, how Apple is going to deal with their recently acquired Pixelmator company. I'm holding my breath, and my fingers are crossed.

I wish you a great week! ✌️👋🏻