Thoughts

Because I’m lazy, and because I constantly view my own site looking for tweaks I want to make, I’ve added a scroll to top button at the lower right of the pages on the dev version of my mmml Micro.blog theme. If you use the mmml theme too, let me know if you’d want it as well.

I have this theory that a lot of enterprise system implementations go south because development and PMO teams cannot empathize with or envision what end users are trying to accomplish. I’ve experienced this with our own consultants on the LRPFH. It’s driving me nuts because I do have that skill.

By the way… It was great wearing my Casio today, but I’m too hooked on my Apple Watch Ultra and swapped it back as soon as I got home from work. All feels right with the world again.

The really big software vendor for the failed deployment on the long-running-project-from-hell (LRPFH) has developed a patch to fix our issue and scheduled it to deploy this evening. First it was 4pm. Then 5pm. And then 6pm. Now it’s 7:30pm… Any takers for 9pm or later? Sigh…

Ditching the Apple Watch Ultra for a day to break out the Casio GST-S100G. Let’s see if I can survive.

A person is wearing a Casio G-Shock watch in front of a computer keyboard.

Playing with Google’s NotebookLM this morning, I uploaded a PDF of one of my blog posts and had it create an audio overview without any input from me. The output was a 19 minute podcast-like “segment” that you’d swear was a real conversation between two people. Mind-blowing… I’ll have to post it.

An exhausting and disappointing weekend. The “long running project from hell” was set to deploy this weekend, but we ran into troubles due to vendor licensing. Two days have been lost to it. The rest of today will be about rolling back and regression testing we didn’t leave something broken. 🤬

Hey! Y’all should follow @goblingumbo if you’re not already. His photos of garden variety lizards are off the hook!

Repping Micro.blog on the west coast… Get your own t-shirt!

A person wearing a blue shirt with a yellow Micro.blog logo design stands in a room with posters and wood paneling on the walls.

So I’m giving Reeder 5 another try. It’s starting to grow on me… A little… Maybe… Sorry @canion.

It’s amazing what listening to loud music can do for the soul.

I’ve been pondering starting a punk band out of the OC in SoCal for a couple years. Given recent political results, now would be the time for it. But all the punks from the days of old who are my age and still located in the OC are likely MAGA-heads now…

There’s a great curation of photos in the Micro.blog Discover feed today. Check them out and follow someone new.

Reading my last post back, it might sound as if I’ve accepted defeat.

Far from it. Make no mistake. I will do everything necessary to stand up against tyranny.

Do not give up. Do not give in. Continue to fight for truth, justice and what is right for all peoples.

The fight has only just begun…

I really dislike daylight savings time changes. Even “gaining” an hour, I’m all sorts of wonky and will be for a week. I hope one day legislation actually passes that does away with it once and for all.

As I teased yesterday, I registered a new domain and set up a site for the resurrection journey of my Mac app Yasu. Follow along there if you’re interested.

I challenged Claude.ai and ChatGPT to create a Python script to convert my Omnivore archive from HTML to Markdown using the same prompt. Claude.ai’s script outperformed ChatGPT’s in terms of functionality and flexibility. Although ChatGPT’s script worked, Claude.ai’s script provided better options.

Well darn. My IT Security brethren (and Legal) have finally given the kibosh to my beloved Fantastical calendar app, revoking the OAuth token to connect to my work calendar. It’s not worth fighting to keep, which means it’s not worth renewing my subscription either. We had a good run, Fantastical… 💔

I have managed to come down with a very slight cold. Nothing like I would get when I was a smoker 30+ years ago, but it is the first one I’ve had in more than five years. I think stress at the day job has contributed to it.

Yay Dodgers for winning the World Series. Boo Dodger fans for behaving like destructive looting thugs, yet again. 😒

Happy to report that after one day, interest in and response to the new Micro.blog tees was pretty incredible. Seeing that totally made it worth making it happen.

My wife (of all people) turned me on to a really interesting podcast series yesterday… American Elections: Wicked Game. I’ve listened to the 2020 episode completely and half of the 2016. It’s crazy how much I’ve forgotten of the events that happened during those cycles.

Surprisingly, after upgrading to macOS Sequoia 15.1 and joining the Apple Intelligence waitlist, I received it within a minute or two. I had anticipated a wait of at least a couple of days. Now, I’m trying to figure out how it can actually benefit my computing habits.

It’s said that “good artists copy, great artists steal.” I’d hate to be labeled a thief, so I’m going to borrow the idea and run a social experiment on my site by adding an exclusive Buck a Month Club. If you like my work, this is your opportunity to join 49 others and support what I do each month.

I love the California BallotTrax system. I dropped our ballots off at the local ballot box yesterday morning, and my wife and I got email notification that our ballots have been counted today. We’ve done our small part. You should too if you haven’t yet. In many ways, life and death is at stake. 🇺🇸🗳️

I’m working on this super-cool thing that I think a lot of Micro.blog users will really like. I can’t let the cat out of the bag quite yet, but I’m so giddy with excitement over it that I just can’t keep my big mouth shut…

Living on the edge…

An iPhone software update screen shows the preparation of iOS 18.1, highlighting features related to Apple Intelligence and various enhancements.

Take that, fascist scum!

So… At the urging of Richard (aka MacPsych) through Mastodon a few days ago, I’ve cleaned up my personal site theme and released it to the Micro.blog community as “mmml” in the themes plugin directory. Use the preview button to see what your own site looks like with it. Feedback very much welcomed.

As I continue to slowly dip my toe into LLM/AI, I’m checking out Claude from Anthropic. I’ve been using ChatGPT on and off, and it’s cool, but Claude looks a little more interesting.