Derek Peden

Target display mode is the naughty little girl which lives in your iMac:

When she was good,

She was very good indeed,

But when she was bad she was horrid.

It’s been rock solid reliable for the last 3 hours, then failed and now won’t reconnect.

Filling out a Word document template from a government agency. Technically there’s no subcontractors in this project but I’m tempted to bring in my niece to teach the agency staff how to use Word. She’s 9.

Histerical to watch BBC News still pursuing a Vox Populi when it’s actually Expert Opinon which is needed and not that of an self-admittedly confused electorate.

Not very presidential, but this is what we’ve come to expect.

Spot the Westie

Still in love with Apple Watch Series 4. 10x the utility of my previous Series 0.

I’m happier with my re-worked Wordpress site, and their place relative to my Micro.blog activity.

My challenge was that I had multiple conflicting requirements.

1. Micro blogging to both Micro.blog and my hosted blog.
2. Micro blogging to only Micro.blog, using the platform as a social network.
3. Longer form titled posts to Micro.blog.
4. Longer form titled posts to Micro.blog, with a link posted on my hosted blog.
5. Longer form titled posts to my hosted blog.
6. Longer form titled posts to my hosted blog, and shared on Micro.blog.
7. Media content posted to my hosted blog.
8. Media content posted to my hosted blog, and shared on Micro.blog.
9. And so on…

This was leading to friction in my workflow, leading me to postpone posting until I could parse how and where I wanted the content to go. My brain was directed to the structure, rather than the content.

My re-work has focussed on revised my mental model of where content is published. I’d had the intention of switching off my Micro.blog hosted blog, directing Micro.blog traffic to my Wordpress. But of course I should be thinking of Micro.blog site as another of my blogs, not as a competitor or distraction to my Wordpress blog. When I think about it in that way, and remove the complexity of sometimes wanting traffic to flow in either direction then this makes a huge difference.

I’m so much more content, thinking of it in this way.

Looking out the Christmas decorations from the attic and found my old Sony PCG-FX701 from circa 2000. It’s really rocking that 20Gb hard disk and a whole 256Mb of RAM. I really don’t remember the removal floppy drive or that the network port was behind a flap on the back. And yes, for a sense of scale that’s my iPad on top of the closed lid.

My bank still asks me to talk to a human to setup Apple Pay. So I phone them, enter my account number, sort code, security code and then wait on hold…. then I give them my name, my card number, date of birth. They confirm it’s setup, but proceed to send me a physical letter to confirm. Every subsequent transaction will be backed up by an SMS and email, in addition to the notification on the device and transaction tracking in the Apple Pay app.

I appreciate the need for the security, but lets face this remains a niche payment method which is both tied to a device with PIN and biometric security which I can track and remotely disable, and is capped at £30.

The cost to me and to the bank of this added security doesn’t warrant this elongated and cumbersome process. I really hope they can catch-up to this century, and soon.

Minnie loves a tennis ball. I’m tempted to setup her own microblog but I fear she would post than I do…

Minnie really, really loves a ball. micro.derekpeden.com

Hang glider forced to cling on for his life after launching unattached. That’s horrifying.

My eyes roll at,

Well, we are where we are…

There must be a better way to articulate yourself.

As someone who’s dipped their toes into indieweb, and doesn’t yet feel that the water has reached my ankles let-alone my knees, I’m open to trying alternative ideas. I’ve spent a bit of time this week looking into Blot, and comparing this to Wordpress, and I have to say I’m unconvinced that it’s worth the transition.

That being said, if I stepped back 12 months and was looking at this a fresh, before setting up Wordpress and purchasing MarsEdit to create and manage the bulk my posts (including this one) then I’d be less sceptical. Blot’s growth is from it’s simplicity, and frictionless posting. But arguably users of MarsEdit already experience such ease, and the power which comes from a seemly direct relationship between the installed app and the blog. There is no dependency on middle-man like Dropbox. The equivalent intermediary in my Wordpress workflow is a local App, not an additional service.

Of course, the downside of Wordpress is its complexity. Comparing Wordpress and Blot is like comparing Microsoft Word and Apple’s TextEdit. Both can be used to create a well formatted rich text document, but Word wants to overload you with additional content, menus, options, and formatting tricks. In the spirit of being all things to all men Wordpress attempts to do the same.

Random selection of pens. Probably utterly offensive to a good portion of this corner of the internet, for which I apologise.

Woof…

Despite the cosmetic benefits running Micro Blog from my own sub domain, I’ve lately been strongly considering switching this off.

The differences are just that. Cosmetic. They are not significant enough to put up with the friction which comes from cross-posting ¹, particularly with images.

What started as (another) justification for my own externally domain (in addition to my main site) now doesn’t seem to suit my use of this blogging & social platform.

Update

Lucy Woodcock writing on Brexit

Nobody voted for a deal that would make people poorer, curtail our rights, and limit opportunities. Nobody voted for a deal that would see our public services worse off and further damage the NHS. Nobody voted for a deal that would see us paying a £50 billion divorce bill and get nothing in return. Simply put, the deal is disastrous, and we’re not buying it.

The madness continues and shows no signs of stopping, despite the obvious political roadblocks and anticipate impact.

Siri really fails when you have no voice, just a croak.

Odd that the first thing I notice on this menu is the rendering of the fonts. Not just the Pork which has been added or changed inserting scanned text, but font rendering across the file.

Still feeling the effects of what was almost an all-nighter. Up working till 3am, then backup at 6am to walk the dog and finish off before the 12pm deadline. But made it. Just.

Politics can be, and often is, downright ugly. And this is just dirty politics of the worst kind.

Wow. Sophia Floersch is very, very lucky to be alive.

BBC reporting Australia’s leading wedding magazines is shutting down after it refused to feature same-sex couples. No great loss then.