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.
Manton checks in with Daniel from his west coast road trip. They talk about Elon Musk’s first, chaotic week at Twitter. Daniel talks about his commitment to shipping MarsEdit 5 on Dec 5, and how sometimes we have to ship software for own sake first, and for our customers’ sake second.
Many thanks to our sponsor this week:
Links:
- Multnomah Falls – One of Manton’s pictures of the Oregon wilderness.
- Dear Elon Musk – Manton’s blog post reacting to Elon Musk’s letter to Twitter advertisers.
- MarsEdit 5 is Coming – Daniel’s Micro.blog post about his committment to shipping MarsEdit 5 by December 4.
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November 5, 2022 at 8:47 pm.
Manton and Daniel talk about recent layoffs at Sketch, and what it means for the app’s future. They consider the difficulty for native apps when it comes to competing specifically in the realm of collaboration features. Finally, they take an optimistic view of Sketch’s future as an underdog in the design industry.
No sponsor this week! Please sponsor us. Thanks!
Links:
- Sketch – Popular Mac app for graphic design.
- With Heavy Hearts – Sketch’s announcement on LinkedIn that they are laying off a substantial number of employees.
- Figma – Web-based design software that has become a big competitor to Sketch.
- Adobe to Acquire Figma – Press release from Adobe about it’s plans.
- Pieter Omvlee – Co-founder and original developer of Sketch.
- Apple Design Awards 2009 – Macworld article including a mention of Pieter Omvlee’s Fontcase app.
- Moving Goalposts – Pieter Omvlee’s 2015 talk about the development of Sketch.
- Nova – Panic’s Mac-based code editor.
- BBEdit – Bare Bones’s Mac-based code editor.
- Adobe XD – Adobe’s answer to Figma, prior to the acquisition.
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October 21, 2022 at 1:59 pm.
Manton and Daniel talk about Daniel’s progress on MarsEdit 5. They weigh the pros and cons of releasing major upgrades vs. a steady stream of “regular updates.” They talk about the changing landscape of PR and marketing for Mac software, and icky feelings associated with trying to “reach influencers.” Finally, they talk about the value of sticking to one’s own ideals an indie developer, and powering through feelings of hopelessness when you run into challenges.
Many thanks to our sponsor this week:
Links:
- The Winter Slowdown – Manton’s post about his “most productive time” of the year.
- Nova – Panic’s native Mac code editing app.
- Chime – Matt Massicotte’s native Mac code editor, primarily for Go developers.
- Neon – Open source framework for syntax highlighting.
- TreeSitter – Open source framework for parsing text from programming languages.
- Gutenberg – WordPress’s block-based editor.
- Ulysses – Popular Mac app for writers.
- Visual Studio Code – Microsoft’s Electron-based code editor.
- Code Mirror – Javascript/HTML code editing framework.
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October 7, 2022 at 9:01 pm.
Manton and Daniel talk about Daniel’s latest detour into working on new features for FastScripts, at the expense of other, possibly more pressing work. They discuss the merit of seeking out “quick wins”, while acknowledging the difficulty of predicting whether a goal will turn out to be a quick win or a huge time sink.
No sponsor this week! Please sponsor us. Thanks!
Links:
- FastScripts – Daniel’s scripting utility for macOS.
- Quick Wins – Episode of the Rework podcast talking about the value of small accomplishments.
- Late Night Software – Developer of Script Debugger for Mac.
- Mark Aldritt – Founder and main developer at Late Night Software.
- Keyboard Maestro – A substantially more capable competitor to FastScripts.
- Peter Lewis – Founder and main developer of Keyboard Maestro.
- Micro.blog – Manton’s micro-blogging service.
- Vincent Ritter – Micro.blog employee who contributed greatly to the latest Micro.blog for iOS.
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September 23, 2022 at 10:59 pm.
Manton and Daniel react to Apple’s latest event and compare notes about the potential impact on their wallets. They marvel at the production value of Apple’s many long videos, but wonder how much value they have, and whether they go too far in dramatizing customer catastrophes. They talk about their shared appreciation of the Apple Watch, and shared belief that Apple’s events are getting too long and boring.
Many thanks to our sponsor this week:
Links:
- Far Out – Apple’s September 2022 event.
- ATP 499 – Marco, Casey, and John react to the Apple Event.
- Emergency SOS via Satellite – Apple documentation on the new iPhone 14 feature.
- iPhone 14 – Apple’s forthcoming phone, featuring a new “dynamic island” UI metaphor.
- Fantasy Island – Late ’70s-Early ’80s television show.
- Survivor – Popular American reality show since the year 2000.
- Dithering – Podcast on which John Gruber and Ben Thompson recently recapped the Apple event.
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September 11, 2022 at 9:29 pm.
Manton and Daniel catch up on their respectively busy vacation plans over recent weeks, and start looking forward to a more structured September schedule. Daniel shares his early progress on MarsEdit 5 development, while Manton talks about his experience converting a private blog from WordPress to Micro.blog, after first going all-in on the WordPress Block Editor, to understand how it works.
Many thanks to our sponsor this week:
Links:
- Chime – Matt Massicotte’s Go-focused native Mac code editor.
- Neon – Massicotte’s open source library for syntax highlighting.
- Tree Sitter – Open source language parsing framework originating at GitHub.
- Prompt – Panic’s SSH client for iOS.
- Gutenberg – WordPress’s block-based editor.
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August 25, 2022 at 2:16 am.
Daniel and Manton talk about Manton’s decision to cancel his Blinksale account, after 16 years of service. They weigh the relative value of the thousands of dollars paid as a fraction of the overall business conducted. They talk about Stripe’s increasing dominance in the world of financial services, and how they even offer a comparable invoicing product as a built-in feature.
Many thanks to our sponsor this week:
Links:
- Blinksale – Invoicing SaaS that Manton used for 16 years.
- Micro.blog – Manton’s microblogging service.
- Write.as – A service that offered a 5-year subscription plan.
- Stripe Invoicing – Comparable service to Blinksale from the popular payment processor.
- Braintree – A payment processing service owned by PayPal.
- Shopify – Payment processing that focuses on full-service hosted intefaces.
- wooCommerce – Automattic’s WordPress-based eCommerce service.
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August 12, 2022 at 7:53 pm.
Manton tells Daniel more about his experience with Blinksale, how they raised his monthly fee to account for features that he didn’t receive. They talk about our collective tendency as customers to lose track of the amount we are paying for subscription services that raise their prices regularly over time. Daniel explains that he shipped MarsEdit 4.6 but that it doesn’t include all the updates he hoped for, and they elaborate on the challenge of continuing to ship updates while perpetually having to put off certain changes.
Many thanks to our sponsor this week:
Links:
- Blinksale – A super simple invoicing company that was even simpler for Manton than it was for new users.
- Netflix – Video streaming service that Daniel and Manton both like enough to not really know how much they pay.
- Our First Price Change – Slack announces oddly precise pricing increases, and a change of its terms for free accounts.
- MarsEdit 4.6 – Daniel’s blog post about the latest release of his Mac blogging app.
- Out-Heart the Competition – Video of Daniel’s 2015 talk about embracing competitors.
- React Native – Popular framework from Facebook that Manton is adopting for Micro.blog.
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August 3, 2022 at 3:32 pm.
