Tobias T– | Notes expressing the moment

Notes expressing the moment

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.
Comment Lissabon ✈️…
Tobias Tom 30th September 2019 at 5:55

Lissabon ✈️ Frankfurt. Next stop: Siegburg.
Comment #beachlife
Tobias Tom 29th September 2019 at 13:19

#beachlife
Comment Erik Kroes writes…
Tobias Tom 18th September 2019 at 10:56

Erik Kroes writes about Web Monetization:

Web Monetization is a really simple alternative to advertising.

I never heard about this before, but I like the general idea: having a distributed standard on how websites can earn money without tracking, advertising and clickbait.

My main issue is not about the standard, but about the (current) implementations. Payment providers are heavily based on cryptocurrencies. I do not want to participate in such systems, even if I could earn real money from it.

That said: I'm really looking forward to this standard. Having alternatives to the current state of earning money on the web is a good thing. Maybe one day we might be able to combine this with payment options that do not ruin our planet.

via Holger
Comment There are two phases…
Tobias Tom 18th September 2019 at 8:25
There are two phases for this website:
1. I'm procrastinating "all" day and write stuff
2. I'm productive and do not write at all
After I managed to improve my productivity, now it is time to merge this phases.
Comment Sometimes I am…
Tobias Tom 6th September 2019 at 9:25

Sometimes I am seriously wondering how many energy was wasted by setting up continuous integrations for all our projects.
Comment For now I’m one of…
Tobias Tom 4th September 2019 at 19:04

For now I’m one of the lucky ones to not have my issues with the iOS 13 betas (knocking on wood). Craig now makes a point in iCloud Clusterfuck for everyone who had issues:

when I say lost, I mean really lost. Entire folders were either gone or corrupted.

I agree with all the things he says, including when he comes to the following conclusion:

Apple’s biggest fuck up was a bad assumption about who is testing a beta release. … there are many folks that are just looking to get the new and shiny features.

After that I tend to disagree with him. He proposes to disconnect iCloud by default and that iCloud cannot be in beta. I think a different solution would be more appropriate:

Use a sandbox. Every developer team gets a separate sandbox for their CloudKit data. This could also work for iCloud. When you use a beta, you start with a blank slate. Developers (and beta testers) would be able to test everything and we could all move on from this huge (and critical) topic.

This would also prevent a problem that is made my Apple itself: when non developers what to have the newest shiny things, but they cannot have their data, they will not upgrade.

I for myself think the public betas are the biggest problem. They are there too early, nobody can prepare for them and in the end everyone loses. I really would like to see some statistics about how many public beta testers indeed did provide feedback which helped to make the software better again.
Comment Since I’m doing…
Tobias Tom 4th September 2019 at 18:26

Since I’m doing sports, I’m more or less wearing my Apple Watch every day. Today I read Hey, Apple – The Activity App Needs Rest Days Like Right Now by Ged Maheux:

The longer my streak continues, the more pressure there is not to break it. … It can be so stressful in fact, some people have come up with clever hacks to work around breaking streaks. … this isn’t actually healthy.

I can very much relate to this. My longest streak was 85 days. Today I do not really care about this because even 85 is such a large number that I do not mind anymore if I miss a day – and with this my streak.

While you might agree that this is indeed healthy, I would slightly disagree. Moving more and doing more sport is health. If this streaks, rewards and goals motives some to do more (or just stand up one more time to archive the 12 hours) it’s a good thing.

Still, I’d really like to have some official way out of breaking my streaks. Like Ged wishes for.
Comment Home. A little late…
Tobias Tom 2nd September 2019 at 23:46

Home. A little late but happy. Nevertheless some really good holiday in the past and the future. Thanks to everyone who was part of it!
Comment Current status:…
Tobias Tom 2nd September 2019 at 18:44

Current status: Flight delayed because of a bird strike during landing. Technicians will look into it and we will get an update. Later.
Comment Flight back home…
Tobias Tom 1st September 2019 at 16:03

Flight back home cancelled. Again. Next stop a 4 star spa hotel in France. TAP is paying of course.
Comment For everyone sitting…
Tobias Tom 19th July 2019 at 21:56

For everyone sitting at home and watching Netflix: »I am Lisbon«.
Comment Turns out: Twitter…
Tobias Tom 3rd July 2019 at 13:42

Turns out: Twitter left my mind officially. These days I look into Twitter only on a randomly monthly basis. I just don't care much about all the retweets and promotional stuff. As I'm still cross posting to Twitter I enabled a setting which is supposed to send me an email for “notifications”. I thought this would cover the few cases someone writes me over there. I was wrong. There are now direct messages piling up and I had no idea about them.

First of all, sorry for everyone who had to wait for ages to get a reply.

Second: I'll change my behaviour now. I'll look into Twitter once a week to see mentions and direct messages. If you have something that feels more important, please send me an email or a webmention.

Thank you.
Comment I’m seriously…
Tobias Tom 31st May 2019 at 12:43

I’m seriously thinking about switching jobs away from software development. Any ideas, recommendations or job offers?
Comment Inspired by Manuel…
Tobias Tom 30th May 2019 at 11:26

Inspired by Manuel Matuzovic I did start a new section on this website today: Today I learned.
Comment Exhausting week on…
Tobias Tom 29th May 2019 at 18:32

Exhausting week on the gym is… exhausting. With temperatures about the 30° it’s really hard to motivate yourself. Also, having to go three days in a row does not really help the body to relax. Tomorrow is the third day, finally.
Comment Found this comic…
Tobias Tom 24th May 2019 at 8:07

Found this comic with a quote from Stephen King today:

Life isn’t a support system for art. It is the other way around.

I think for a long time I though the opposite. Now slowly I come to the conclusion that developing software is my kind of art. But that all it is. Art. Software should not be the center of my life. I think for me the turning point was indeed when I began surfing. Maybe for some it takes longer to find the things that should be in the center of the room.
Comment I don’t know much…
Tobias Tom 24th May 2019 at 8:28

I don’t know much about CrossFit, Inc., what they are doing and if they are worth supporting, but I think we need more prominent examples of companies realizing that you are not the owner of the game when you are using Facebook or Instagram:

Facebook and its properties host and oversee a significant share of the marketplace of public thought.

That is a sad but true statement in its own. They continue:

CrossFit, Inc., as a voluntary user of and contributor to this marketplace, can and must remove itself from this particular manifestation of the public square when it becomes clear that such responsibilities are betrayed or reneged upon to the detriment of our community.

then they conclude with:

For these reasons, CrossFit, Inc. has placed Facebook and its associated properties under review and will no longer support or use Facebook’s services until further notice.

Again, I’m not sure who the bad guy is in this picture. Still, if one player owns all the data and can do whatever they want with it, one must realize that it is a bad thing. Some seem to do so. Slowly.
Comment I think I need a…
Tobias Tom 23rd May 2019 at 13:54

I think I need a different way to earn money. While I cannot complain by far about my job, I’m not sure if creating software for clients can make me happy in the future.

I really enjoy writing software. I also really enjoy helping clients to get to their dreams. Both combining both seem to drag me down recently.

Writing seems to be fun for me these days. Still, writing for money would most likely not reflect what I want to write about. Surfing is fun, but… yeah.

Here I am. Not knowing what I want. I better get back to work. Writing software, for a client.

Any ideas? 🐲
Comment Today I downloaded…
Tobias Tom 22nd May 2019 at 11:13

Today I downloaded the macOS version of Microsoft Edge. Every time I download an application for macOS, and it is bundle inside an installer I get a strange feeling. Looking into the installer is luckily as easy as unarchiving it:

Whatever Office16_all_autoupdate.pkg is, it is not what I intended to try. I wanted to see their version of the Chromium browser. Not a, what I guess, constantly running service checking for software updates throughout the Microsoft universe. Wherever I am, whatever I am doing and even then when I might not have opened their browser for ages (hello Opera).

For me, the slightly paranoid person, this feels like another trojan horse to get permanent running software on my computer. I guess Edge was just not made for me.

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