The Ephemeral Scrapbook — Edition 2024-48

The following is a summary of my contribution activities since the previous newsletter edition
👨🏻‍💻 9 posts 😃
🏞️ 7 photos shared 🙂
🎙️ No podcast episode published 😔
📺 Two YouTube videos published 😃
Did you know that I made a 2025 calendar using a Craft template? It’s available here on Gumroad.

👤 Personal

1️⃣ As 2024 is coming to an end, I decided to spend some time updating my About Page to mark some of my goals as completed. It was a great year overall. Now is the right to think about my goals for next year (already). 🤔 2️⃣ In entirely unrelated news, the regime in Syria has fallen. To my knowledge, this regime was heavily supported by the Russian government. With the war in Ukraine, Putin's regime apparently couldn't keep up with Syria’s internal affairs and demands. This is a positive development: Russians can (and should) be kicked out. We shouldn't fear them and seize this opportunity to increase our military support for Kyiv. The sooner, the better. Now, I am returning to regular programming.

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ This week, I discovered this guy on YouTube who built a method called “Forever Notes” for organizing notes based on Apple Notes. It is the best use case for Apple Notes so far, and I'm really impressed. First, I'm impressed by the quality of the content this guy put together. Second, it shows how powerful and flexible Apple Notes is. It looks so well done that I wonder if I should move my notes out of Bear and migrate to Apple Notes. Both apps are comparable, but I would save some money by doing so. This is something to consider, and it could become a project for 2025. I encourage you to watch this video if you are a note-taker looking to organize your content better. Don't miss his website, too. 2️⃣ I want the Flexbar! I’m still using a 2017 MacBook Pro with a TouchBar at work, and I like it. This little external USB-C TouchBar is clever and could challenge the well-known Stream Deck in some use cases. The plugin SDK will play a significant role in making this a reality.

Forever ✱ Notes - A free framework for Apple Notes

Discover Forever ✱ Notes, a unique digital note-taking framework designed for Apple Notes users. Organize your thoughts, streamline your workflow, and enhance your productivity with our simple, intuitive system. Explore Hubs, Collections, and Tags today!

Beta

“Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction. Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.” Andry Grove, ex-CEO of Intel.

“Once a tool is a part of my workflow, any change to that tool generates friction” — Matt Birchler

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ Since 2023, I have published three write-ups: one about my personal life, one about Craft, and one about Apple. For 2024, the former two are doing great, but not with the third. I'll try to write something about Apple because I think 2024 was an important year for both Apple and me regarding adopting and using Apple technologies in my personal and professional life. I invested a lot of my money in Apple products this year, which is something to write about.

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ One of my photos has been selected in this month’s highlights on Glass. This is the second or third time one of my photos has received this treatment. That photo was shared under my Decay series, which seems to be highly appreciated within the Glass community more than anything I've experienced back when I was on Flickr, 500px and Smugmug. I'll keep sharing my best urban exploration shots in the coming weeks. 2️⃣ Another great Glass discovery: Linda Alida, a young female photographer who seems to be blogging through her photos (great example here and here). I love this.

Linda Alida on Glass Photography Community

Linda Alida. Processing Through Art

Monthly Category Favorites — Decay — Glass

Eventually everything falls apart.

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ Apple is having challenges in making Apple Intelligence available in China. Baidu wants it all, while Apple says, no, you can't have it. Training LLM models is central to the problem: which data do you train on? I would say this: why bother with China, just leave it behind, just like EU. 2️⃣ Microsoft discontinues the Surface Studio Windows PC. I like Microsoft “courage” to try different takes on modern PC. It was an intriguing product. We can read different things with this discontinuation. One way is that Microsoft doesn’t sell enough of these to warrant keeping the product. But how much is “not enough”: a few hundreds units per month or a few thousands? Maybe Microsoft couldn’t bring enough ISV support for this device to keep it around. Apple tolerance to support a low-volume product like the Apple Vision Pro might be higher than Microsoft’s. It will be interesting if Apple keeps it around for a long time.

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ I'm still considering developing an online course on Craft. I asked the community about their thoughts on paying for such content this week. The initial feedback is not very encouraging. People either lack interest in it or are hesitant to spend much on it. How can I trust this type of poll? Of course, people won't say they want to pay the highest price possible. Nonetheless, this causes me to hesitate. 2️⃣ I finally completed my migration off GoDaddy for my domain names this week. I have a few domains, and I wanted them all on CloudFlare. Now, it's done.

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ Tapestry seems to be close to a release. I'm still undecided about this app. I want to like it, but I am not fazed by its visual design. 2️⃣ The second phase of Apple Intelligence is here with the release of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, etc. It's a packed release that is not only about Apple Intelligence; the Photos app received some improvements, too: Improvements to Collections views, including swiping right to go back. Recently Viewed and Shared album history can be cleared, among other things.

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ I created the second video of a three-part series about Craft 3.0. I’m not very satisfied with it. I was tired when I recorded. I wanted to get it out the door to keep my publishing momentum regarding this significant Craft release. Judging by user reactions, I did a good job. 👀😳☺️ Nonetheless, it’s not a good idea to rush things out to meet an artificial deadline. I should know better. The third one was release on Sunday, right before this newsletter and I must say that I'm rather proud of that one. 2️⃣ What will Apple do with the just acquired Pixelmator and Photomator? The question has no official answers, but Joseph Slinker has a compelling discussion about this subject, on YouTube. 3️⃣ The Browser Company is working on something new, something different. It's not another browser... oh wait, yes, it is: The Dia Browser. They are hiring people to finish the job. I'm curious, but at the same time, I don't want them to drop the Arc Browser because I really like it. The signs are pointing to an abandoned project: the Arc Browser updates are becoming less and less frequent and significant. 4️⃣ As I'm writing this newsletter edition, I produced and published 20 videos this year. I'll push another one before the end of the year, reaching 21 videos, which is much less than last year. It's hard to find a clear explanation for this. I hope to fare better in 2025, but it will be challenging because of many-months home improvement project about to start right at the beginning of January. In any case, I'll see where it goes. Life of a hobbyist creator is full of challenges.

Apple’s planned acquisition of Pixelmator for over $119 million has raised questions about its strategy and impact on users. The move is seen as a potential effort to attract creatives frustrated with Adobe, leveraging Pixelmator and Photomator to boost Mac sales or services revenue. Drawing comparisons to Apple’s acquisition of Dark Sky, concerns arise about integration into Apple’s Photos app, though the video suggests a more likely scenario where these apps remain standalone premium tools, akin to iMovie-to-Final Cut or GarageBand-to-Logic. With Apple’s renewed focus on the creative market, the creator anticipates continued development and relevance for Pixelmator and Photomator, bolstering optimism among users.

Creating a compelling recruiting video is challenging because it requires inspiring people to trust your company with their careers. To achieve this, it’s crucial to articulate a clear and visionary purpose rather than focusing on perks. The browser company is tackling this by introducing Dia, a new AI-driven web browser designed to transform the computing environment. Unlike traditional AI integrations, Dia leverages personalized intelligence to enhance workflows and automate tasks through its innovative architecture, built on a unique foundation called ADK. By reimagining the browser as an integrated, proactive assistant, Dia aims to make computing deeply personal and context-aware, embodying the potential of AI in a way that transcends isolated features. Drawing parallels to transformative historical innovations, the company highlights its commitment to building a future-ready platform and invites passionate individuals to help bring this vision to life.

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ Anything that helps reduce the search engine monopoly of Google is good news to me. This link post by Gruber gives a hint (I’m not referring to The New York Times article because of their paywall). With the emergence of the fediverse (Mastodon, Bluesky), maybe we can start hoping for a more distributed power on the Internet. 2️⃣ It seems that encryption is the new friend of American authorities (FBI) against potential China intrusions. It's the same FBI that was asking for backdoors in operating systems. What a bunch of clowns. Personnally, I'm using iMessage with other Apple user peers (fully encrypted) and WhatsApp (also fully encrypted).

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ iOS 18.2 is just around the corner, so I'm looking forward to the next iteration, iOS 18.3, which should bring the most interesting and promising part of Apple Intelligence. Siri is about to get a considerable boost if Apple's claims are believed. I can't wait to try it out.

I wish you a great week! ✌️ 🇺🇦 🇨🇦