The Ephemeral Scrapbook — Edition 2025-11

👤 Personal

1️⃣ This week, I’ve been working on a case study for a job interview. It requires quite a bit of analysis and synthesis. I didn't know which presentation software that I would use. I didn’t want to use my Microsoft 365 license just so that some admin could see the documents I was working on. Apple Keynote could have been used for that, but since they might require a copy of my presentation, Keynote is probably not a good idea either (even if I can export the presentation content quickly). I decided to do my presentation using Google Slides for the first time. It's not as bad as I initially thought. 2️⃣ Someone sent me 15$ over my PayPal account and said, “Thank you.” The problem is that I don't know for what! My PayPal link is all over the place, and I can’t say for sure where this comes from. Anyway, if you are the one who sent me this and read this newsletter, well, thank you, too! 3️⃣ Got an email from a reader telling me he was subscribing to my blog and put it on a list called “pay attention.” It made me smile. 😃

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ Scott Knaster is starting a newsletter. This is my re-discovery this week. He wrote a lot about Mac programming in the mid-eighties and later worked for 4th Dimension, founded by Guy Kawasaki, a database and programming software. I remember having one of his books to program the Mac. He was (and still is) a renowned technical writer; his books were must-haves then. I said hi to him! 2️⃣ Another fantastic and mesmerizing wallpaper collection from BasicAppleGuy: waterways.

Waterways Wallpaper Collection — Basic Apple Guy

Introducing Waterways, a fluid wallpaper collection for your Mac, iPad, and iPhone inspired by water.

Basic Apple GuyBasicAppleGuy

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ I shared a long article about my HEY Mail to Fastmail migration project last week. I mainly spent a week executing this project, and writing the article took me a weekend. It's one of my favourite things to do because it involves more technical writing than usual, which I do professionally. I'm not a technical writer per se, but I do love to write about technical stuff. 2️⃣ This article from Manuel Moreale explores the balance between sharing personal experiences and maintaining a curated online presence, raising the question of whether it's important also to reveal struggles and vulnerabilities to foster connection and understanding among readers. I noticed that when I shared more personal stuff on my websites, I often got more feedback than usual. 3️⃣ Om Malik announces the launch of his new "Daily Blog" on his website, which serves as a curated website section for sharing interesting links, graphics, and quotes reminiscent of his previous blogging style while aiming to provide a more organized and frequent way to share content separate from his main articles.

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ Found this great photographer from Dubai named "Florian.” Many impressive photos of the Dubai city center and the surroundings. 2️⃣ Another discovery in photography is this superb website from Jon Dayton, acting like a showcase of his best work. Must see. Discovered through this Bluesky starter pack. 3️⃣ I probably wrote in the past that I'm not on Instagram or any Meta platforms, but I find Bluesky to be a great place for photographers. More and more photographers are joining. Bluesky offers a great way to quickly discover new artists by searching for starter packs or custom feeds like this one. 4️⃣ Andy Ferguson on DPRewview shares his thoughts about using the Nikon Zf camera. He likes the camera’s retro feel, which reminds him of film cameras. I own that camera myself, and I must say that it is the best camera I have ever owned and used.

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ Conversations around Apple's upcoming redesign of all their OSes are heating up. The redesign of iOS 7 is still fresh in my memory because I was traumatized. I’m also questioning the real motivations behind this. What about those Catalyst-based apps like Craft? Will they adapt quickly, or is this a dead end for them? How many more developers will choose to go with webapps instead and don't bother redesigning their apps? 2️⃣ John Gruber, a long-time Apple observer, took a rare path recently, sharing a critical view about Apple's handling of Apple Intelligence. The article critiques Apple's recent announcement to delay the rollout of ambitious "more personalized Siri" features within their Apple Intelligence initiative, highlighting a troubling trend of overpromising and underdelivering that threatens the company's hard-earned credibility. 3️⃣ The Shape of Everything blog has an article that suggests that Apple could enhance its AI initiatives by creating a semantic index that allows developers to access user data through fine-grained permissions, fostering innovation and personalized applications on its platforms. I love this idea, and it's a great way for Apple to delegate some of the burden. 4️⃣ Parker Ortolani argues that Apple should return to live keynotes for WWDC 2025 to rebuild customer trust and demonstrate confidence in its new offerings, emphasizing the importance of human connection over high production values. The pre-recorded format symbolizes Apple's lack of human touch and confidence. 5️⃣ How do you make sure that iOS becomes like Windows? Ask the EU. 🙄

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ Not specifically about a project but I wanted to work on an update to my content creator ecosystem. I’ve been using Apple Keynote for many years to maintain a diagram showing all the pieces that are part of my digital world that I depend on. You can see the diagram below and read this short description here. 2️⃣ A quick update on my journey to migrate all my passwords to Apple Passwords: a few account using two-factor authentication were still sitting in Authy but I finally moved them out to Apple Passwords. The process is simple but tedious: on each account, the 2FA feature must first be disabled, then re-enabled using Apple Passwords. A new set of recovery codes are also generated to go with this and is stored in the note fields inside Apple Passwords. I deleted Authy from all my devices and closed my account using their website. I’m 100% on Apple Passwords now and couldn’t be happier. 3️⃣ Speaking of passwords, I’ve been working on a special article on how to protect your data and privacy in the Apple world. I’m mostly done with this and it should be out this coming week.

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ Here's an intriguing app: HS People that I discovered recently (but didn't test myself). According to the HS People website, this app, still in beta, will help you keep track of people-related information tidbits like when you met them, what did you discuss, where were you when you met them, etc. I can see app to be valuable for sales people who wants to establish a more personal relationship with their prospects or clients. I wonder if the app can take advantage of Apple Photos’ People albums, where it could gather people-related photos to be referrenced or imported into HS People. 2️⃣ Ghost is now officially available in the fediverse by making their fediverse support available in beta. My fediverse handle over there is: @index@numericcitizen.me if you want to interact with me through Mastodon or other fediverse-compatible platforms. I just find my fediverse handle naming scheme a little bit weird with this “index” prefix.

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ Bluesky CEO Jay Graber was on the SXSW recent edition for an interview. She talks about many things like Bluesky’s future, foundations, monetization, and ecosystem in this wide-ranging subject interview. If you are intrigued by Bluesky, it’s certainly interesting to watch. 2️⃣ Was there ever a television show in which graphic design or branding played a significant role? If you are a fan of Severance, don't miss this video explaining how the TV show uses typography and how it depends on fundamental design principles. The television show Severance masterfully uses graphic design and typography as tools of control and psychological manipulation, with its dual logos and carefully chosen fonts reinforcing the eerie corporate dystopia and cult-like authority that define its world. 3️⃣ The video explores how Severance uses color to enhance storytelling, with blue representing Lumen’s control and conformity, green reinforcing its branding, red symbolizing rebellion and the outside world, and purple hinting at the blending of innie and outie realities, showcasing the meticulous visual design and color grading that deepen the show’s narrative and themes. I learned quite a few things watching this: not only about Severance but about color theory.

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ Apple TV+ Severance TV series is hugely popular. We can find many YouTube videos explaining all kinds of things to understand the series better (see above!). I'm watching many of them because the storytelling is quite complex. Maybe I'm too old, but I like the vice in this series. It's so... Apple-like. If you are a big fan of Severance, you can even buy some unofficial merch on Gumroad. 2️⃣ Someone reached out to me this past week about my apparent use of an AI-generated header image for this article on my main website. When I wrote this article, I aimed to include an illustration that depicts the convergence of emails into a focal point, a mailbox. I chose to try ChatGPT DALL-E and got that image. Back to my reader, who mentioned that many could perceive this negatively, I wasn’t sure how to respond to this feedback. I often use my images or those from Unsplash. Which is worse: stock photography or DALL-E? I always try to strike a balance. If one of my images does the job, like for this newsletter edition or this edition, I'm super happy because It's a way to showcase my work as an amateur photographer. Here's an example where I select a stock image from Unsplash. In the end, here is how I responded.

“Can you be deported for what you say?” — CNN Title on their main page recently.

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ Is generative AI transforming the web search business to the point where Google search is no longer a destination but a feature embedded in something else? According to Om Malik, yes. With services like Perplexity, searching the web is becoming more conversational and personally, I really think that's the future of the web, at least for search use cases. I use this often at work (I'm a fan of Perplexity). 2️⃣ Severance season 2 is complete, and it was quite a ride. It is such a strange show. I should probably rewatch the whole thing from scratch. Thankfully, there is a season 3 coming up... eventually. I can't wait.

I wish you a great week! ✌️ 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇪🇺 💪🏻