View of Europe in Winter
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The iOS Astronomy Wallpaper and Seasons

Byrichard
Reading Time: 2 minutes

If you’re wondering why one of the tags in my post is “Day 388” it’s because I shifted from WordPress to ClassicPress once again. In so doing I lost access to Akismet and Jetpack. By losing Akismet I lose comment spam filtering. I also lost access to the Jetpack app so I lost access to my streak info. That’s why I included it as a task.

Astronomy Wallpaper

If, like me, you’re using the Astronomy Wallpaper on your mobile phones you will have noticed that the shadow over the Northern hemisphere has shifted. It has gone from being a south to North shadow to an East to West shadow from the top of Europe. You can see how parts of Norway, Sweden England and Finland are now in the dark for longer and longer parts of the day. It’s rational that we would see it, but it’s interesting that we can see an illustration of how seasons change the pattern of daylight on earth.

With the Astronomy app on the Apple Watch you can see the same thing, but you can also see cloud cover over the part of the world where you are. In my case it’s Europe.

Gradual change

The changes are so gradual that if you look at your watch or phone every single day you wouldn’t notice unless you’re looking at the right time of day. If we went up to Kiruna now we might see that we’re in constant darkness according to our phones and watches. If we had a Garmin or Suunto device that displays sunrise and sunset we would see that the day may just be a few minutes long, at this time of year. We see this wherever we are, but to be in the arctic circle would be an extreme demonstration of the seasonal change.

And Finally

if you have an iphone play with the app and see what the pattern is like for your part of the world.

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Who Killed Twitter – My Opinion
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Who Killed Twitter – My Opinion

Byrichard

Two authors wrote books. In these books they speak about whether Jack Dorsey or Elon Musk killed twitter. The answer is neither. If Twitter was alive and healthy it would never have been sold to an individual for four times its value, because its growth potential would have made this absurd.

Twitter died by 2007, with the advent of hashtags. That’s when twitter went from being a community of friends to being a community of strangers trying to get a million followers, and using hashtags to jump into conversations that they were not devoted to. At the first tuttle meetups and tweetups everyone knew everyone else from twitter. No one was a stranger to anyone else.

It’s when I went to a tweetup and I heard someone say “i’m not really a twitter user, I just came to the tweetup because it’s being hyped up.” That’s when twitter declined even more.

If we fast forward by a little more than a decade I believe that the pandemic killed Twitter, and Social Media. I believe this because before the pandemic normal people were on Facebook, and possibly Reddit and other social networks but they were not on Twitter. To a large extent they weren’t on FB either.

During the pandemic social media became more unpleasant. Trolling became more common. Trolling is the reason I dumped facebook for two to three years. Amplified loneliness is why I dumped Instagram and never returned.

The idea that Jack Dorsey or Elon Musk killed twitter is erroneous. Marketers did. Public relations firms did. People who took a utilitarian view of social media killed Twitter.

Twitter was fantastic, when it was a network of friends chatting with friends. It stopped being that in 2007-2008. I still used it but my ROI had declined dramatically.

Is this due to moving from London to Switzerland? I don’t think so. I just think that Twitter was best, when it had value to small communities, rather than marketers, public relations people and other groups with a utilitarian agenda.

Articles like this one are never written by people who live and breath social media. They are written by outsiders looking in. We could read them, but because of my perspective they have no value. By perspective I mean my attitude towards social networks and social media.

And Finally

Twitter wasn’t killed by Dorsey or Musk. It was killed by the people who took a utilitarian approach to social media. They turned Twitter from a tool for communities to have conversations, and build projects together to a place where marketers and public relations firms could hijack conversations, and make it about following celebraties, rather than conversations.

When Twitter pivoted from being a social network to social media, it became less interesting. I deleted my first twitter account by 2008 or so, and only returned because Swiss television interviewed me about the social network.

When Musk bought Twitter it was already worthless.

The End of an Era

There was a time when Twitter was Twitter, Facebook was Facebook, Instagram was Instagram and Whatsapp was whatsapp. Over time they have all been bought or rebranded, and the things that made them so fantastic were destroyed. Society saw social media as an addiction. This attitude destroyed social networks.

Replaceable Batteries and Wearable Tech

Replaceable Batteries and Wearable Tech

Byrichard

With a user like me it takes a year or two for a mobile phone to become depleted. After this period of time I am stuck with the weight of an external battery that I have to plug in half way through the day to recharge the device. This is, in part, due to how many apps are installed and running, on my phone, but also due to how I use my phone for audio books, and news reading. Back in the day I would have said social media, but social media is dead.


Wearable Tech Can’t Charge While Worn


With wearable tech the situation is different. With wearable tech when the battery degrades you’re stuck. With a Casio watch, or plenty of other brands, you simply go to a jeweler or watch shop and get them to swap the battery and you’re good for another 2-10 years. With an Apple watch, when the battery is at 67 percent health you’re stuck with a dilemma.


To Upgrade?


Do I spend 90 CHF to get the battery replaced despite knowing that my device is five years old and near the software update end of life or do I buy a new device and if I get a new device do I get it with, or without 4g?


With a mobile phone, if the battery degrades you can plug it in, as you walk around and use it. With wearable tech you have to take it off to charge it. If you’re in the middle of a walk and the battery dies you’re stuck. Either you carry the charger and leave some of the activity untracked, or you wait until you get to your destination and charge it then.


The Old Urge to Get the Latest


A few years ago whenever a new iphone, or a new mac book air or mac book pro would come out I would fight the urge to upgrade on a yearly basis, and when I did people were always happy to get my old iPhones. Since the 4S that urge vanished because new products were iterative, rather than revolutionary. Even the Ultra is iterative, offering nothing that proper fitness watches or dive computers did not offer. My only reason for thinking about upgrading the Apple watch is a dying battery.


An Adapted Charging Habit


The other option is to charge the watch before you sleep, to track sleep, and to charge it as you work, eat, or do something static, so that the battery is at one hundred percent for when you’re doing something sporty. When you know that a battery has degraded after five years of daily use you adapt to the new battery capacity. In my case I’m working with 67 percent of normal capacity.


The Paradox


The paradox is that I love to hate the Apple Watch. I hate that it tracks standing, and counts a day as failed if you don’t stand enough, despite beating the activity goal. I dislike that if I track something with one device or two it will get confused and count my activity as zero, when it was up to the goal, at the very least.


Health Screen


What I do like, and criticise is the Apple Health screen. I like that I can see my walking instability, my step length, the number of floors I run up and more. I like that I can see how my average running speed is changing over time and that my vo2max is going up. Plenty of watches track this.


Since the 20th of September the Health app added MET measurements to measure physical activity.


The main difference between MET and PAI is that MET is a measure of the intensity of an activity, while PAI is a measure of the overall physical activity level. MET is useful for comparing the intensity of different activities, while PAI is more useful for tracking your overall progress over time.

Bard Explanation of MET and PAI Differences


And Finally


I have spent months thinking about whether to upgrade to a newer Apple watch and I have tried various lower cost option and I like each, but I really like how complete the health data set is with the Apple watch. They also added the cycling computer option when using an iphone and an Apple Watch. It’s still buggy as shell but it has potential.


I am not upgrading because I want the latest tech. I am upgrading because to replace the battery would cost 90 CHF for a device that will be obsolete within a few months. According to research I did an apple watch is considered end of life after four years and this watch is at five years and counting, so over a year beyond the usual life expectancy.

E-mail security

Byrichard

Many people have e-mail accounts and enjoy writing to their friends every day, but little do they know about the dangers of hackers or people who have too much time on their hands. A few weeks ago while I was on the computers it struck me how simple it might be to enter someone’s account. I therefore wondered what methods there were of finding passwords.


Chain letters:


We all receive many forwards, chain letters and so on. Sometimes there are some which are like a form asking many harmless questions about your hobbies, favourite foods etc. and you fill these in without thinking very hard. Some of them even include questions such as “What is your dream vacation spot?” or “What would you buy if you won the lottery?” Notice anything? That’s right! They are the same questions as the ones that e-mail providers suggest for the password hint. By sending out this information, you invite people to attempt a break-in..


Watching people and getting to know them:


Getting to know people is another good way of getting passwords. For example one person’s hint was “Who do I like” and if you know the person, it won’t take too long to figure out the password.


Keeping the browser window open and letting someone else use the computer:


Since I have my own laptop, I am safe from this threat. But many times in the computer room I have seen some people leave the browser window open. This may seem fairly harmles but you’re encouraging someone to use your account to send messages under your name. If it happens to be someone honest using the computer after you, then nothing bad should happen. But if it is someone who is bored, angry or just has a twisted or cruel sense of humour,   then they may insult a person to whom you were writing.  These sorts of pranks can destroy an e-mail friendship without your even knowing why.


To Conclude:


I hope that I have successfully demonstrated that care should be taking in choosing a password and also that you should log out and close Internet Explorer or other browsers before letting someone else use the computer.


safe surfing/ surf’s up/ logging out for now.

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The Hubsan Nano Q4 H111 drone

Byrichard

The Hubsan Nano Q4 H111 drone is a tiny drone

The Hubsan Nano Q4 H111 drone is a tiny drone. It is not much more than a flying circuit board with four engines, a battery and a cowling. It is very light and fits easily on the screen of an iphone SE, along with it’s controller. Such a small drone requires practice to fly properly. This is because there are no flight assists. When you take off you need to apply just the right amount of thrust to hover and you need to make small adjustments to keep it from drifting. With practice you gain control of the quadcopter.

Constant adjustments

I found that when taking off it is good to get above the ground effect. This is because when it is within the ground effect zone it tends to skim in one direction or the other. Once you’re at 30 centimetres it becomes more stable. Keeping it at a specific height takes tiny thrust adjustements. As the battery depletes you need to give more thrust for it to stay at the same height or rise. Eventually it runs out of thrust and drifts to the ground.

When you turn the drone on the lights flash and when you turn the controller on the light on the controller flashes red for a few seconds. Once the controller and the drone are paired the light turns green. The thrust control does not spring back to neutral so if and when you feel that the drone is about to crash throttle to zero.

More demanding to fly than the Spark but a lot cheaper

Having a tiny drone like the Nano Qç H111 is fun to get to grips with flying a drone although it could be frustrating at first. With drones like the DJI spark you can get the drone to take off automatically and it keeps itself in place using GPS, onboard cameras, sensors and more. If you lose control with a spark you just let go of the controls. With the Q4 H111 you you have to compensate and counteract the issue.

 

At 30CHF you’re not taking a big financial risk and props are available if you break them.

 

One Hundred and One Posts with Hugo

One Hundred and One Posts with Hugo

Byrichard

I was using Day One to blog but I found the process slow and clunky. I then switched to writing blog posts with VIM and that sped me up by a lot. I then switched to Hugo and VIM. Now I use VS Code with Front Matter to generate the pages, and then wrote plenty of posts using VIM. Now I’m still using FrontMatter CMS but with VS Code without touching VIM.

I didn’t fall out of love with VIM. I ran out of writing inspiration so I spend an hour or two trying to think of something to write, and by the time I decide to start writing I have chosen not to use an app that is surplus to requirement.

I really like blogging with VS Code, FrontMatter, git, and git ftp push because I don’t need to login anywhere, I don’t need to wait for wordpress admin panels to load, or other slow and clunky things to happen.

Fast and Efficient

The Workflow

  1. Create the Front Matter with FrontMatter CMS
  2. Add the tags
  3. Write the blog post
  4. Proofread
  5. version control with git
  6. Hugo – to create the publish files
  7. cd public – add the publish files to git
  8. git ftp push

And you’re done. It might sound like a lot of things to do but it’s actually very quick and efficient. The faster you can type, and the faster the whole process goes.

Slow and Clunky

WordPress

With WordPress you need to go to the URL for the blog, load wp-admin, load the new post page, write the post, add the image, add the tags, add the category and then publish. All of this takes time. You also need to scroll and navigate to the right parts of the right pages. WordPress now feels slow and clunky, especially with all the bloat wear that has been added.

And Finally

I much prefer Hugo to WordPress now but I still use both, due to legacy. I no longer use WordPress tags. The Fediverse takes tags and turns them into hashtags and I have a deep hatred of hashtags. On web forums and well designed sites you have threads and categories.

Hashtags made sense, in the age of Twitter by SMS, but Twitter by SMS died years ago. Bandwidth is also no longer an issue so the practice of using hashtags is obsolete. I can’t control mastodon instances, to display tags as I think they should be tagged, so I don’t bother with them on WordPress. It saves me five or so seconds and it avoids frustrating me when I see my posts on the Fediverse.

If you want to get an idea of WordPress scale on the Fediverse follow the hyperlink. 46,000 authors, 2.9 million posts and 2460 wordpress instances, so far.

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