Episode 542: A Fire In The Castle

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.

Episode 541: No Whammies, Big Money

Daniel and Manton talk about Micro.blog trying to get more serious about marketing. How do we actually measure the success of advertising campaigns, and should we aim to attract more “influencers” to our products? Manton tries to be conscious of wrapping up high-pressure work in time to take it easy for the holidays. Finally, Daniel gives an update on his continuing efforts to get MarsEdit 5 approved in the Mac App Store.

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  • RevenueCat: In-app subscriptions made easy. Also check out the Sub Club Podcast!

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December 16, 2022 at 2:59 am.

Episode 540: Moderately Blown Away

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.

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  • 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.

Episode 539: Frustrated On Your Behalf

Manton and Daniel talk about payments from the Small App Developer settlement against Apple. Why does Manton refuse to accept free money, and are there valid reasons to opt out of the settlement? Then they reflect on the wave of opportunity from Twitter’s drastic downfall, and whether Manton and Daniel can “catch it”. Finally, Manton remembers the IndieWeb principles about plurality and monoculture, and they discuss how that might relate to Mastodon.

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Links:

  • Small App Developer settlement — Web site for class action lawsuit against Apple.
  • Mastodon — Open source social network that has gotten very popular.
  • Micro.blog — Manton’s smaller social network that is also getting new attention.
  • IndieWeb principles — Key principles of the IndieWeb such as software plurality.
  • Ivory for Mastodon — Announcement from Tapbots about their new app.
  • ATP 511 — Recent podcast discussion about federation and Mastodon instances.
  • ActivityPub — Web protocol used by Mastodon and Micro.blog.
  • Bluesky — Another upcoming distributed social protocol.
  • MarsEdit 5 beta — Daniel’s blog post announcing the public beta.

December 2, 2022 at 9:14 pm.

Episode 538: The Last Employee At Twitter

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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  • 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.

Episode 537: With Public Squares Like These

Manton returns from the road while Twitter continues going off the rails. What is the company’s viability as they bewilder users and advertisers, and how much should Manton react to the opportunities that might exist? Daniel and Manton discuss Twitter, whether Jack Dorsey stands to gain even if Twitter fails, and the nihilistic tendencies of certain leaders. Finally, Manton checks in with Daniel on progress toward MarsEdit 5.

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November 17, 2022 at 10:22 pm.

Episode 536: Worse Than I Thought It Would Be

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.

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  • 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.

Episode 535: A Modest Hellscape

Daniel and Manton talk about everything Twitter. Elon Musk officially taking over the company, Manton’s 10-year anniversary of not posting to twitter.com/manton, Twitter’s open source Bluesky initiate and the AT Protocol, social media network effects, and how Twitter may or may not change in the coming months.

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October 28, 2022 at 1:50 pm.

Episode 534: A Really Good Mac App

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.

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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.

Episode 533: A Moment Of Insight

Daniel and Manton review Manton’s latest progress with the Indie Microblogging book. They talk about the need to get into a groove when working on a long-running project, and not to promise too much when setting goals for yourself or others. Finally, Daniel shares plans for a new “micro posting” UI for MarsEdit.

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October 13, 2022 at 9:40 pm.