The Ephemeral Scrapbook — Edition 2025-15

👤 Personal

1️⃣ Now that my home improvement project is (mostly) behind me, I’m turning my attention to my creative hobbies. I'd like returning to DJing, just for fun. I’d like to spend more time doing photography. In both cases, I have the required geared, I'm only lacking some motivation.

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ I discovered this blog, Brilliantcrank, after reading a link post. I couldn’t help but share my feelings. 2️⃣ According to this report from WIRED, large language models are out, and small language models are in, thanks to their many advantages and use cases. They take fewer resources to run, hence their capability to run on a small device like an iPhone, and they help bring more focused responses in niche domains. Part of their training uses synthetic data from large language models. 3️⃣ As this blog post explains, Manuel Moreale is taking over blogroll.org, a giant curated blogroll: "manually curated list of 643 fine personal & independent blogs and sites that are updated regularly.” I didn't know the existence of blogroll.org until I read a post from Manton Reece on my Micro.blog timeline. I feel that human curation is needed more than ever in today's internet. Otherwise, everything would fall behind an algorithm. You can find me as a supporter on the list of blogs.

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ From January 2025 to mid-April, I lived in an apartment while my home was undergoing a significant renovation. I took advantage of the occasion to test cutting the cord and relied entirely on Apple TV to watch TV and other video content. I shared my experience in this article. The experience wasn't quite what I expected. 2️⃣ Medium shared how they approach AI for writing content. I find their take reasonable, but I wonder how hard they are applying it because I feel that a lot of content is written with LLM. Maybe it's being delegated to the publication’s owners and surfaced articles by the editorial team. Who knows. Scott Lamb reacted to the article by sharing his usual declaration that goes with the work he shares, which I decided to keep for myself: “I ideate and draft content in a text editor, refine it with the aid of artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT and Grammarly and revise it to reflect my intended message.”

"I don’t delete my blog posts… even when it would be easier for me if I did. For longer posts I might add a note at the end to correct something, but most of the time I let it stand, or hope that replies on the post are enough clarification. The blog as a whole is the work." — Manton Reece

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ AI-generated imagery is eating into the photo licensing revenue turf, and rather quickly. Services like Unsplash, which offer a vast amount of free-of-charge photos, also provide a subscription, which could be affected in the long run. I considerably reduced my use of Unsplash stock imagery for my blog posts, preferring to use either my own photos or AI-generated ones. 2️⃣ Pixelfed now supports filters to customize your experience better. I added two filters to filter out birds and macro photography shots. 3️⃣ Going out for a photowalk with your son in London seems like a good plan. That's exactly what Greg Morris did recently; he shared a video about this. They made some really great shots together! 4️⃣ This week's photographer discovery: Carl Greenwood on Glass: essentially monochromatic photos, but many little gems. Then, I discovered Giles Thurston, another great photographer followed by Carl Greenwood. Glass is such a great place for photography lovers.

Carl Greenwood on Glass Photography Community

Carl Greenwood. Monochrome Photographer who is new to this platform and I also have a Vero account. No website, yet.

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ Is the iPhone 16 Pro immune to tariffs? Nope. Sorry, yes. Thanks to a clever strategy by Apple, iPhones were imported from India in massive numbers before the tariffs went into effect. Then Trump changed his mind. But still, Apple will not increase the price. Oh, and by the time this edition went out, Trump again decided to exempt Apple's devices from import tariffs. For now. 2️⃣ Apple Search Ads is now called Apple Ads. According to M. G. Siegler, this could point to a significant expansion of their ad business into other areas like Apple Maps and Apple TV. I'm not too fond of this predicted trend. Apple is a premium brand, and ads are the opposite of being premium. I don't want to see ads in Apple Maps, Apple TV or, who knows, macOS Settings app. Because of ads, I no longer visit Apple News; they ruin the reading experience. It just looks and feels cheap. 3️⃣ If recent reports are believed, Apple's Siri development seems to suffer from constant chaos. Was it under pressure for cost-cutting from Apple's past CFO? Maybe. The net effect is that Siri and Apple Intelligence are far behind what is currently possible from stand-alone services. 4️⃣ Rumours of iPadOS 19 call for Apple to fix some long-standing issues which prevent the iPad from acting and feeling like a modern computing device. It is not close enough to what we've got on desktop computers like the Mac. Fifth time a charm?

"The iPhone is in many ways the ultimate symbol of the age of globalized supply chains."

"When Apple says ‘this is something only Apple can do’ it often means that they just won't allow third parties to do it." — Gui Rambo on Mastodon

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ Many of my projects are related to managing changes in apps and services because my needs change. I went from HEY Mail to Fastmail. I went from WordPress to Ghost. I when from Blot to Craft and Micro.blog. Like Matt Birchler said: “Everything will change one day."

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ Parker Ortolani argues that the Microsoft Edge browser is now good enough to replace the Arc Browser from the Browser Company. I use Microsoft Edge at the office, but I didn't spend much time trying to customize it to my liking. The only extension that I use is the iCloud Keychain. Maybe I should give it a more serious look because the Arc Browser is on the verge of becoming another abandonware. 2️⃣ If you want to tweak the menubar on your Mac and bring visual memories of macOS Maverick, Catalina or Tiger, now you can with this nifty utility: Lickable Menu Bar. I chose the Maverick version because of the nice gradient when in dark mode. 3️⃣ In a recent update, Craft introduced support for syncing Readwise highlights into a Craft collection. I tested the feature to import my Readwise content, and it works as advertised. My collection size is just under a thousand items, and I feel Craft lags while working with such an extensive collection. This Craft addition came when I decided to drop Readwise because of my lack of use cases, preferring to focus on Inoreader for my reading workflow.

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ Notion Mail is finally out! This video from Notion shows that Microsoft, with Microsoft 365, is sleeping on the job. I'm not a fan of Notion Mail being a client to Gmail, but I applaud the courage they have for trying something in this crowded and mature space. As a recent switcher to Fastmail, should I consider Notion Mail? Nope. I don't see the big thing in Notion Mail for me to switch, nothing compared to what I had when I switched from HEY Mail. 2️⃣ The Steve Jobs Archive is on YouTube. Just found out recently, thanks to a post by Michael Steeber.

Steve Jobs Archive

The Steve Jobs Archive is the authoritative home for Steve’s story and a resource for new generations eager to make their own mark. Our publications, programs, and collections provide people with the inspiration to think different, the tools to make something wonderful, and the confidence to put it out there.

YouTube

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ I tried ChatGPT image generation to create a pixel art version of my business profile photo. Not bad. The first iteration was the best; subsequent iterations were not as good. I don't have a great face for a computer-generated image of me. Apple's Image Playground proves it, but ChatGPT too. 2️⃣ Synology makes it harder for clients to decide which drive to put in their Synology NAS. In recently introduced models, Synology will be restricting HDD models that can be used in these units for maximum performance, compatibility and durability, at least so they say. Is this a marketing trick to maximize revenues? Is Synology following Apple's vertical integration models? It certainly looks like it, and people aren't happy at all. I own a DS720+ model and don't plan to upgrade anytime soon, but when I do, this will impact my choices. 3️⃣ Do you close all apps on your iPhone? While LJPUK still do it, I never did that because, first it's a waste of my time, second, by the time you close them all, you are wasting battery power and, third, you fight against the logic of leaving apps active and returning to them in a snap instead of the iPhone having to relaunch the app when you return to it which takes longer. 4️⃣ ChatGPT now keeps past conversations to build a profile or memory of its user and learn from it. It might sound bad but this helps make ChatGPT more personal in its way of interacting with the user. You can prompt ChatGPT to describe yourself. I asked “Describe me based on past conversations". Results are troubling.

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ Neptune, a TikTok alternative, is on the verge of launching. I'm not really into this digital medium because they are a time waster for me. The fact that Neptune isn't associated with Meta or Google is a win right there. Curious to see where it goes. 2️⃣ Realmac Software continues working on Elements, and they recently gave an early look at a feature that I'm really looking forward to: blogging support! From the video below, you can see the feature in action. It's a bit rough on the edges and convoluted, but the idea of using a native website builder app for blogging is exciting. This could potentially partially replace Craft for some use cases.

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