Tobias T– | Notes expressing the moment

Notes expressing the moment

Comment Things I did not…
Tobias Tom 23rd April 2020 at 19:10

Things I did not expect to happen some weeks ago: we ordered some face masks. Handmade from two local producers, one in Lisbon and one in Almada (close to our beaches).

It is somehow a depressing feeling that it is necessary but also a good one to support small businesses that adapted quickly to this strange times.
Comment What is the best…
Tobias Tom 17th April 2020 at 10:39

What is the best service to run swift on a server? Asking for… myself.
Comment On days like this I…
Tobias Tom 28th March 2020 at 23:40

On days like this I can believe again that all the technology we create can be used for good. I just ended the best video call I had.

Nothing fancy, just six faces talking to each other about all kind of topics for hours. Even if the distances between all of us varied between 1cm, three times about 20km and one time more then 6500km to the other side of the world, it kind of felt like we where sitting next to each other inside all our favorites beach bar. Like we did weeks ago.

These are hard times. Use the technology we have to connect to friends that give you strength. Connect to the friends that need your strength. Laugh. Talk. Discuss.

Use the technology we have available.
Comment Ordering the best…
Tobias Tom 28th March 2020 at 20:24

Ordering the best burger of the city through a delivery company for the first time feels very weird. It’s not the same as if you go to the restaurant, but the taste is almost the same. It reminds you of the good times before all this crazy stuff. It makes you happy. Thank you for everyone involved to let us enjoy this delicious dinner.

I cannot wait to go to the real restaurant again, see the people who work there and order the same stuff I had today. On my couch.
Comment Listening to scooter…
Tobias Tom 27th March 2020 at 20:38

Listening to scooter in a strange #stayhome environment. I don’t care about your judgement.
Comment Now: waiting in line…
Tobias Tom 15th March 2020 at 14:23

Now: waiting in line to enter the supermarket. Only 40 clients allowed only at the same time.
Comment Strange times we…
Tobias Tom 15th March 2020 at 13:24

Strange times we live in. Yesterday everyone stood on the balcony at 22 o’clock and applauded the portuguese health professionals.

A older lady past the balcony. She asked what happened. »Did they find a cure?«. Sadly we had to disappoint her, for now.

#somostodosSNS
Comment #somostodosSNS
Tobias Tom 14th March 2020 at 22:19

#somostodosSNS
Comment The longer you use…
Tobias Tom 12th March 2020 at 16:14

The longer you use SwiftUI, the more you understand it, get used to it and find ways to make something more elegant, the more you want to rewrite the things that you did not write that long ago.

Oh wait, this is not only the case with SwiftUI but with every (computer)-language.
Comment The longer I am on…
Tobias Tom 24th February 2020 at 16:43

The longer I am on this productivity train to actually get more free time to do non work stuff, the more this resonates with me:

If we wasted money the way we waste time, we’d all be bankrupt.
Comment I'm not publishing…
Tobias Tom 14th February 2020 at 11:43

I'm not publishing open source software myself, but if I would start, this would be a nice license model:

Treeware is a style of software distribution similar to Postcardware, distributed by the author on the condition that users buy the author a tree.

I especially like the »conditions of use«:

You're free to use this package, but if it makes it to your production environment you are required to buy the world a tree.

You can play with things as long as you want to, but if things get serious, you have to give back.
Comment Bus and Apartment…
Tobias Tom 10th February 2020 at 13:55

Bus and Apartment booked. Tomorrow I’ll wake up in Nazaré and hopefully see some bigger waves…
Comment There is something…
Tobias Tom 23rd January 2020 at 10:11

There is something I'm trying to say for some time. Unfortunately it does not get easier with time, so here it is:

Due to my plan to have a tighter budget I'll not make it to the awesome Beyond Tellerrand in Düsseldorf this year.

Don't be sad for me, be happy for the new person that can buy a ticket and have an awesome time there.
Comment Our landlord has to…
Tobias Tom 10th December 2019 at 10:03

Our landlord has to put new windows into the winter garden on the backside of our apartment. Not that the ones aren’t good anymore. Actually they are more modern then all the ones from our neighbors, but that seems to be the problem. They look different. After three years living here they get exchanged. With what I expect will be less quality ones. We will see.

Portugal is a sunny country. During the winter, with no heating and some consecutive rainy days it still gets cold. Especially as the backside of our apartment does not get any sun at all during any day.

So what would be the worst time to replace windows? Exactly. They are doing it now, after the summer is over. We also got good news delivered: that manufacturing of the new ones will take about two or four days. After they got the measurements of them today. Which they did before. Two times.

Now, sitting here with freezing toes, I still cannot see any better place to live at. Sometimes it’s just… 🤷‍♂️.
Comment A little update to…
Tobias Tom 28th November 2019 at 15:35

A little update to myself on THE experiment: it's kind of working. I'm writing more (not yet publishing more). Some plans slowly emerge to remove the technical dept from this site. Programming that is a whole other story, but that's for another day. Continue, one day at a time.
Comment I think trackers in…
Tobias Tom 28th November 2019 at 14:26

I think trackers in genreal are bad. Third party trackers are even worse. We thought we are on a good way to protect us. Until now: CNAME Cloaking

Criteo is requesting the website to add a CNAME […] and it is used to disguise a third-party tracker as first-party tracker.

It seems they are sending emails to website owners and argue that they will possible loose money. What happens on the CNAME is only limited by the creativity of the one controlling the IP behind it.

Creativity can also be used for bad intentions.
Comment Due to current…
Tobias Tom 26th November 2019 at 13:39

Due to current circumstances, can anyone recommend any waterproof messenger bag for a 15" notebook? ☔️
Comment I do not own a car,…
Tobias Tom 25th November 2019 at 15:52
I do not own a car, but »Triage Your Email in the Car with Siri« sounds like a fun weekend project. Tyler writes:

what I’m really after during my morning commute is the ability to triage my inbox and prepare for my daily standup call that happens as soon as I arrive at work.

It seems to get slight out of hand but he finished the following:
There are two components.
1. A 49-step Siri Shortcut that you install on your iPhone.
2. A small PHP script that you can throw onto most any web server that the Shortcut communicates with.
Impressive work, especially if you realize how easy it is to actually talk to Siri and process this on your own server.
Comment I am still thinking…
Tobias Tom 25th November 2019 at 15:17

I am still thinking about the two states of my website. Today I will start a little experiment.

These days I'm working solely with Pomodoros. There are no rules except the following: If I'm working, a timer is running down. If no timer is running, I'm not working. Simple.

While this website is my personal playground I never considered it work. It's the same with writing. I do not earn money from either of them, so they are both considered fun projects.

Now I realized that I have another fun project: Colloq. It is not (yet) paying any bills, but I considered it to be work from the start. That's why I send much more time on Colloq than on this website.

Long story short: I'll reserve some Pomodoros each week for this website and also consider it serious work. It can be writing, programming, designing, anything. I am curious to see how this will change this space over time.
Comment As much as I would…
Tobias Tom 8th November 2019 at 8:31

As much as I would like to tweak my website here and there, I just do not want to take the effort to update it.

This is pure fear of the dependency hell.

Time is too precious to waste it with tedious tasks.

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