Daniel and Manton talk about the Micro.camp conference happening next week. They summarize some of the planned talks, and weight the pros and cons of deciding to have it be an all-online event. They react to the iPad Pro versions of Logic and Final Cut, and imagine what the news might mean for WWDC announcements.
Links:
- Micro.camp Presenters – An early peek at what to expect from the conference.
- IndieWebCamp – Similar event to Micro.camp but for the larger world of open web interests.
- MarsEdit – Daniel’s Mac-based blog editing app.
- Miraz Jordan – Long-time MarsEdit user who will be presenting on the subject at Micro.camp.
- Ulysses – Mac and iOS editing app with Micro.blog integration.
- iA Writer – Another Mac and iOS app with Micro.blog integration.
- WWDC23 – Apple’s official page for the upcoming event.
- Drupe on Wikipedia – More than you ever wanted to know about stone fruits.
- ChatGPT – The preeminent interactive AI product.
- Logic and FinalCut for iPad – Press release from Apple.
- Chockablock – Gruber’s reaction to Final Cut and Logic for iPad: expect a lot from WWDC.
- Micro.camp Registration – Sign up for the all-virtual conference – it’s free!
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Manton asks Daniel about MarsEdit 5.1’s progress, particular about the forthcoming ability to post to Mastodon. They talk about some shortcomings of Mastodon’s API, and Daniel’s effort to submit a pull request that remedies one such shortcoming. Finally, they talk about Manton’s resistance to considering Mastodon a “real blogging platform”, itemize the features that prevent it from being one, and wonder about how it might evolve in the future.
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April 21, 2023 at 3:59 pm.
Daniel and Manton check in about the status of their WWDC 2023 applications, and talk about the virtue of attending WWDC, even if it’s different than it used to be. Manton shares a new Twitter import feature for Micro.blog, which Daniel particularly enjoys.
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April 14, 2023 at 6:46 pm.
Manton hears Daniel’s excuses, or perhaps explanations, for continuing to struggle with shipping Black Ink for iOS. They talk about the sometimes nonsensical rationale for postponing a release, and productivity hacks that might counter it. Manton describes his recent adventures with AI, including a practical effort to harness OpenAI’s voice recognition for transcription purposes. Finally, they discuss their shared awe about the current state of AI, and how they are struggling to imagine how to take advantage of it, both as users and as developers.
Many thanks to our sponsor this week:
Links:
- OpenAI Whisper – Speech recognition framework from the makers of GPT.
- Aiko – Free Mac app that uses Whisper to transcribe audio.
- Speeding Up Development – David Smith shares an example of using GPT to automate generation of tedious Swift code.
- Poe – Multi-technology AI chatbot interface from Quora.
- Dithering – Subscription podcast from Ben Thompson and John Gruber.
- The Age of AI – Post from Bill Gates about his impressions of the advances in AI technology.
- Still Feels Like Magic – Manton’s post about being barely able to comprehend AI technologies.
- Three Laws of Robotics – Isaac Asimov’s guidelines for how robot technologies might be kept in check.
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March 25, 2023 at 1:41 am.
Daniel updates Manton on his progress with Black Ink for iOS, and his decision to take the March 1 deadline to ship less seriously. They talk about the difficulty of tackling huge new features and how it can be dispiriting and disruptive to schedules. They catch up on Twitter’s latest hi-jinx, remark on the Elon Musk’s remarkable ability to perform worse than even the most pessimistic of expectations, and struggle to understand Twitter as it is both enormously influential and transparently broken.
Many thanks to our sponsor this week:
Links:
- Next Week – Manton quips on a Platformer article about Elon Musk’s perpetual inability to follow through.
- Twitter Dev – Twitter’s official account for making vague announcements that may or may not come to pass.
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February 25, 2023 at 4:29 pm.
Daniel gives Manton an impromptu review of the new Micro.blog home page. They talk about striking a balance between coming across like a charming one-person company vs. a faceless corporation. Manton talks about open-sourcing the React-based version of Micro.blog, they talk about the benefits of doing so, and briefly discuss the GPL and MIT licenses.
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January 28, 2023 at 3:15 am.
Manton talks to Daniel about the forthcoming re-design of Micro.blog’s home page. They discuss the marketing importance of home pages, comparing them to the “storefront” of an online business. Are claims that an app “doesn’t have a lot of features” ever accurate, and if they are, is such an assessment valid criticism? Daniel asserts that he and Manton have lost some of their “hustle” compared to earlier years, and looks forward to plans to ship a public release of Black Ink for iOS.
Many thanks to our sponsor this week:
Links:
- Many Features – Manton’s post about people underestimating the number of features in Micro.blog.
- Keynote – Apple’s presentation app, an example of a simple interface hiding many advanced features.
- Smart Software Bloat – Manton writes in 2006 about software bloat and hiding complexity.
- Black Ink for iOS – Daniel’s TestFlight page for his iOS crossword app.
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January 13, 2023 at 7:54 pm.
Manton and Daniel celebrate the apparent revitalization of blogging, a possible silver lining on cloud surrounding Twitter’s downfall. They talk about Matt Mullenweg’s recent podcast and public speaking appearances, and his general positivity about the future of blogging. They compare the virtue of owning your own domain name to owning your own home, and wonder whether awareness of this virtue will grow among the general public.
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December 23, 2022 at 8:52 pm.
Manton talks to Daniel about releasing MarsEdit 5, his excitement about the positive reactions, and his frustration about it not being approved by Mac App Store Review. They grapple with the uncertainty that app review opaqueness creates, and Daniel wonders if he could have done anything differently to make things go more smoothly. They talk about the mind-blowing impact of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and about the implications of machine learning on human creativity. Finally, they weigh the pluses of minuses of AI in general, and Daniel wonders whether he could fake virtually any job with the help of the technology.
Many thanks to our sponsor this week:
Links:
- MarsEdit 5 – Daniel’s blog post announcing the major upgrade.
- ChatGPT – The machine-learning based conversational text AI.
- When the Robots Come for Me – Manton’s short post explaining that he is avoiding ChatGPT for fear of being distracted.
- Where I Roam – Daniel’s Micro.blog post featuring a screenshot of the ChatGPT-generated rock song about Micro.blog.
- Dithering podcast – A subscription-based podcast from John Gruber and Ben Thompson.
- DALL·E – The machine-learning based image generation tool, also from OpenAI.
- Midjourney – Another image-generating tool based on machine learning.
- John Henry – Wikipedia page about the American folk hero.
- Cut-ups – A history and description of the literary technique pioneered by William S. Burroughs.
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December 9, 2022 at 8:48 pm.
Manton and Daniel catch up on the latest news from Twitter, including the fact that Twitter is allegedly hiring. They talk about whether Manton would accept the far-fetched opportunity to be CEO of Twitter, and what he would do in that scenario. They acknowledge the mass exodus from Twitter and the potentially golden opportunity for both Daniel and Manton with respect to Micro.blog and MarsEdit. Finally, Daniel stares down the last two week of MarsEdit 5 development before his promised ship date.
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Links:
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- No Results – Twitter’s careers page in the wake of Elon Musk’s assertion that they are hiring again.
- Don’t Stress – Matt Mullenweg assures Laurie Voss that Tumblr will support ActivityPub.
- Tumblr – An increasingly relevant blogging platform.
- ActivityPub – Home page for the open standard behind Mastodon.
- Micro.blog – Manton’s social blogging service.
- MarsEdit – Daniel’s Mac blogging app.
November 23, 2022 at 8:38 pm.
