matdevdug

matdevdug, 3 months ago to random

Me an atheist cursing god as I watch my hot dog fly out of my bike basket into the darkness when I hit a pothole.

Later my wife is telling me how sick the hot dog made her. Me: “maybe god protected me from evil hot dog?”

matdevdug, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to random

New post on my blog. You can read it here: https://matduggan.com/everyone-is-wrong-but-you/

matdevdug, 3 months ago to news

Boy the speed by which we went from "vice is the future of news media" to "vice isn't even worth keeping a website up for anymore" is pretty shocking.

https://writing.exchange/@ernie/111977450241144169

#vice #news

matdevdug, 3 months ago to random

Man so I guess the US State Department redesigned their passports since the last time I renewed and the new ones are beautiful. They feel so premium and expensive. Nice work US government.

matdevdug, 3 months ago to apple

Looks like iMessage won't be forced to integrate with third-parties in the EU but they'll still need to bring #RCS. Frankly I think its a great compromise.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/13/23990679/apple-imessage-european-union-digital-markets-act-core-platform-service

#apple #ios #imessage

matdevdug, 3 months ago to apple

Is it possible that in the year 2024 #Apple still doesn't have a metrics API endpoint for developers to track things like "number of views your app got on the App Stores" and number of downloads? Am I missing something in the documentation or does Apple actually expect someone to log in and pull these reports manually like its 2004?

#iosdev #macdev #appstore

matdevdug, 4 months ago to random

It's crazy governments still let people pay ransomware payments. Seems like an obvious law to pass to make it a crime to pay the criminals, killing it as an industry.

matdevdug, 4 months ago to diy

So I have a mechanical keyboard, a cherry brown one I've been using for like 5+ years every day. For a long time I've been annoyed at the sound it makes, but convinced myself that it didn't make sense to fix because in order to lubricate the switches, I would need to de-solder the switches from the board.

Well as it turns out, that isn't true. If you have a cherry red, brown or blue that is nice but you really want that super smooth feeling of a more premium switch, you can absolutely lubricate it. All I did was depress the switch, put the smallest amount of Super Lube Synthetic Oil on a size 0 brush and then brush the sides of the cherry browns. I repeated this for all the switches.

After a week, it's like a new, much more expensive keyboard. It sounds totally different, more similar to the far more expensive keyboards that my coworkers have. I haven't had any reliability issues and the cost to do it was less than $10. Strongly recommend.

#diy #MechBoardCult #MechanicalkKeyboard #keyboard

matdevdug, 4 months ago to random

@gruber Loved the Vision Pro review. As someone who travels a lot on trains, is it too noisy to rely on the speakers to watch a movie?

matdevdug, 4 months ago to random

I know people don't like #atlassian but honestly without #trello I don't know how I would organize either my personal or work life. It's my favorite "track work" tool I've ever used.

matdevdug, 4 months ago to Bulgaria

I feel like a lot of the conversation about the #EU #DMA misses the point of the act. It isn't designed to unlock devices, or promote libre software. It might do that (sorta) but that is a side effect.

The point of the DMA is that 2 US corporations have established a complete monopoly on the entire mobile sector. They effectively extract huge sums of money from the EU with minimal taxes (due to usage of the Double Irish tax system) and block domestic players from even getting involved.

The US government has effectively stopped regulating business. It sometimes makes them show up to hearings in front of Congress, but ultimately with minimal consequences. The EU has no obligation to empower US companies to maintain a monopoly worth hundreds of billions of euros.

So stop thinking of it as "the EU is making tech companies do what we want them to do" because that ends with disappointment. This is the EU attempting to break open the mobile monopoly to give domestic brands a chance of competing. Since smartphones are a mature market with consumers having sunk thousands of euros into their ecosystem, it's the only way to break it open.

#apple #google #android

matdevdug, 4 months ago to tech

The thing about #tech #layoffs that people who haven’t been through it often don’t understand is that morale never recovers. The employees who remain will never have the same relationship with that company, bosses or peers.

Watching people you respect pack their stuff and crying on the phone with their spouses is something that never goes away. When I survived a layoff in my 20s I became a “do exactly what the ticket says” person. I stopped suggesting ideas, providing feedback, believing anything a manager told me.

If you are a company considering layoffs, especially a profitable company, you should approach it as “this department will have 100% turnover”. The second I got another job offer I left that company and six months later nobody who had been there at the time of layoffs remained.

I’ve seen that pattern play out multiple times.

matdevdug, 4 months ago to TikTok

It’s crazy how fast #tiktok has filled my feed with obvious Russian propaganda. From videos about how well stocked Russian grocery stores are to “fake news broadcasts” where someone is reporting Kiev is about to fall.

matdevdug, 4 months ago to Parenting

I have a sick two year old and a corgi recovering from a tumor the size of a lemon getting removed from his leg. I’m sure I’ve been in worse situations but I’m struggling to remember when those could have been. #pet #parenting #corgi

matdevdug, 4 months ago to apple

There is something hilariously bold about #apple both telling developers to go fuck themselves with this out of app purchase scarescreen and also effectively betting the future of #visionos on the idea that third party developers will put in a lot of time and money to make apps for a platform that currently has no users.

I’ve never seen a company bet the future of a platform on a community while in an active fight with that community. It’s a unique strategy.

matdevdug, 4 months ago to Europe

A lot of #americans are nervous when traveling to #europe. They’re worried about being judged or whatever. As someone who just waited in line with a ton of American tourists, here’s the number 1 thing you can do to stand out less in Europe.

Stop scream talking. The volume Americans talk at is frightening. Try whispering, then go like one step above that. That’s normal talking. If I can hear your entire conversation from 10 feet away, that’s too loud.

Need to make a phone call? Put the phone up to your ear and talk into it at that one step above whisper volume. Never ever ever put the person on speaker and then scream into the bottom of your phone. My jaw dropped as not one but two people coming to Denmark from California started doing this inside of a coffee shop. Not old people, people in their 20s.

Never fucking do this anywhere. For any reason. Unless your hands are like trapped by a car wreck and it is the only way to talk to emergency services. It’s not just rude it’s downright offensive. I cannot have a normal volume conversation with an employee because you are screaming about what bar you are going to.

#travel #tips #vacation

matdevdug, 4 months ago to Europe

One of my favorite little touches that I think is genius in #Europe. Home bathrooms sometimes have these little locks that if your kid locks themselves in the bathroom you can quickly undo with a screwdriver. No stress, takes one second and looks nice.

matdevdug, 4 months ago to random

As someone who spent a few cold Michigan winters in a house without running the electricity to save money, let me share some quick tips to folks experiencing -17 C weather.

• set up a tent in a room connected to a bathroom and try to stay in it as much as possible. I bought a cheap 4 season tent used off Craigslist but it looks like Amazon has a ton for under $200.
• wool socks and hats are your best friends
• plastic wrap on the windows is a godsend but also hang blankets over the windows
• seal off the house as much as possible.
• get cheap tights, cut the legs off, fill them full of socks and use them to block the drafts under doors
• if you have a second floor and it’s well insulated that’s gonna be your best bet
• be very careful of any propane heater and always have a tested carbon monoxide detector in that room with you.
• get a digital thermometer. You are shooting for as close to 18 C as you can get. Below 13 and you need to run a heater for a bit
• contact the power company. I got a $300 credit for the winter that helped a lot.
• if you are having trouble hitting 18 C during daylight then older folks, kids, pets etc shouldn’t be there. Younger adults in good physical condition should be fine but consider it a warning sign.

#winter #cold #tips

matdevdug, 5 months ago to ai

Finally finished Country of the Blind. Great #book, funny and well written. It’s an interesting take on disability which is neither depressing nor uplifting. Out of curiosity I tried to do some work with the NVDA screen reader just to see “how bad would it be if I lost my sight”.

Boy it’s a damning indictment of my own work. Some of the pages on services like #gcp either don’t work or leave out pretty important information. Even sites and services I’ve written don’t work correctly.

It’s a surprising sales pitch for #ai since it basically returns a block of text without formatting that worked great. Even if you hate AI it’s so much better than trying to navigate normal websites.

matdevdug, 5 months ago to Copenhagen

I really like living without a car in #copenhagen but my cargo bike brakes are frozen solid. Just a block of ice. So now I have to ride the bus everywhere until it finally gets above freezing and I can defrost this thing.

matdevdug, 5 months ago to apple

I wrote about my time as an #Apple dispatch repair tech going door to door in Chicago fixing #Macs https://matduggan.com/fixing-macs-door-to-door/

matdevdug, 5 months ago to ghost

In the light of the #substack leadership deciding to host and finance Nazis, if anyone needs any help moving off their platform please let me know.

I host my site on #ghost on a $5 a month instance and it’s very easy to set up. I would be glad to do it for someone else as well if you are interested but are less technically inclined.

matdevdug, 5 months ago to random

@gruber I am surprised your take on the Masimo import ban ended on a note insinuating that the issue here is that “the Left” has an issue with Big Tech.

Everything we know from internal Apple communication about Project Everest and indeed many of their partnerships suggests a strong pattern of meeting with smaller companies, proposing working together and then effectively gutting them on the assumption they’re too small to stop Apple. https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-watch-patents-5b52cda0

“After one executive floated the idea of acquiring Masimo outright, the decision was shot down. “Acquisitions of this size aren’t our style,” Adrian Perica, Apple’s vice president of corporate development, said in court. Instead, Apple opted to take the “smart recruiting” approach.” https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2023-10-05/column-joe-kiani-masimo-apple-watch-pulse-oximeter-lawsuit

Apple knowingly and intentionally stole this technology by poaching key employees, attempted to solidify their hold by having that employee file patents for that technology, then released that technology only for it to be decried by experts as “inaccurate” and worse than the technology they attempted to copy.

Not only is the import ban justified (and Biden would be a fool for stepping in) but you would be scolding Google or Microsoft for similar tactics. This is a story of a large company whose inability to produce the technology required to sell their product led them to abusing their size and legal budget to steal whatever they wanted.

matdevdug, 5 months ago to meta

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. #Meta benefits from federating with #Activitypub even if nobody uses it and they don’t get any data from it. The primary organizational value is regulatory.

If users can choose to leave Threads and take their followers with them to an open-source platform, any complaints of antitrust or user lock in doesn’t apply to Threads or any platform associated with threads. Meta will be able to (accurately) tell regulators users choose to use their platform and have ads served rather than use the ad-free alternative.

It creates a totally new much easier to work in framework for Meta to move forward with.

matdevdug, 5 months ago to ipv6

With #hetzner and #ipv6 is there some trick to get any of the IPv6 addresses other than the first one to work? Nothing else seems to route to my box and I can’t ping any other addresses.