< Notes...

My currently open L3 support case with Canonical just passed the 20 days mark. I have asked to raise its priority to L2. Let’s see now. 🙄

The iPhone 15 Pro Max camera is getting amazing reviews at DXOMARK. Too bad that I will not be getting a new phone this year.

My first web browser was Mosaic, then Netscape, then Mozilla which became Firefox. Firefox became my default go-to web browser for many years. If Microsoft Windows was my OS platform of choice it would probably still be. Ever since I completely, and absolutely, moved to macOS/iOS/iPadOS, the choice has been Safari. I had had no reason to look elsewhere.

This blog post is everlasting. Since 2018, when it was written, things have gotten worse. I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel anytime soon.

We put virtual machines inside Linux, and then we put Docker inside virtual machines, simply because nobody was able to clean up the mess that most programs, languages and their environment produce. We cover shit with blankets just not to deal with it. “Single binary” is still a HUGE selling point for Go, for example. No mess == success.

“Android works to keep you safe and protect your privacy when you use apps.” That, from Google’s Android Help made me chuckle. When I think of Android many things come to mind, but “keep you safe”, and “protect your privacy”. Ha!

Apple new devices (iPhones 15, and Watches 9) worldwide arrival news announcement makes me happy. Beautiful people from around the world, smiles, and feelings of overall happiness make me happy.

As a sign that I wasn’t kidding when I said I would move from 1Password to iOS Passwords, I have now done so. This weekend I will dedicate some time, and clean my list, making sure all important stuff works and, once that’s achived, I will get rid of 1Password, and cancel my subscription.

“Your NFT are actually—finally—totally worthless”, RollingStone. Don’t you say! Just one more to add to the Human Stupidity museum, right?

“What’s going on with the WiFi? I can’t connect the iPad to it.” — “Nothing that I know off. Do you think the boy would be so happy playing a video game with friends, if there was a problem?” — “It isn’t working!” A minute later, “never mind”.

If at first you don’t succeed, you mustn’t quit! LOL.

I might be getting old and, as such, be “old school” now, but a company like Unity shouldn’t be apologising on X. They have a company’s website, they should put their apology there.

Ah, crap, as soon as I hit send I found their blog with an “Editor’s note (Sept. 17, 2023)”, that is a verbatim of what they posted on X.

We have heard you. We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of days. Thank you for your honest and critical feedback.

I don’t know why news outlets did not link there instead of referring to the X “xeet” (how do they call those things these days?).

Another update, this time from Marc Whitten, lead of Unity Create:

I want to start with this: I am sorry.

And he goes on, yet, it seems to me it’s too little, too late. I think this was a costly mistake for Unity. Talk about a backfire!

The mishaps of X triggered the spawn of new services like Threads, Bluesky. It also exacerbated the adoption of the Fediverse (often simply called Mastodon). Now there is Pebble, but this one has a problem of it’s own. To sign up you need to connect with X/Twitter, “to confirm you’re a good fit for Pebble”. Oh dear god!

So many iOS apps debuting their iOS 17 versions today! I find it amazing how rich, and responsive, the iOS community is—not sure community is the right term, but I hope you get the idea. Need I to point out that, at the time I am writing this, iOS 17 is not out yet.

Today’s News Minimalist email reads, and I am not paraphrasing:

Today ChatGPT read 1003 top news stories. After removing previously covered events, there are 2 articles with a significance score over 7.

That is, according to ChatGPT, there are only two significant news today. We are beating yesterday, thought. Yesterday there were none.

While in the topic of disliking things, but this time technology themed, I can’t stand PHP. That is an acquired dislike, as I used to use it until 2011 (WordPress). That year I moved to Jekyll and later on, in 2017, to Hugo which I still use today.

Last week I spent 11h 21m screen time on all my devices (a Mac, and an iPhone). The tally goes: 6h 57m on iPhone, 6h 38m on Mac. That’s just macOS and iOS “vanilla” apps almost exclusively. Most macOS apps do not get recorded—perhaps because my Mac runs macOS Monterey. For example, I spend a lot of time on Teams, Chrome, and iTerm2 under macOS during work days, but none of it gets recorded.

I have added a subtle way to provide feedback here, using the very easy to setup, simple, and awesome Tinylytics. Now that I have done it, I am having second thoughts. Do I really want it? I sure don’t know, so they (blue hearts) are here now, but they might not be tomorrow. Yeah, true ambivalence.

Update: 20 Feb 2026 @ 18:22:26

Feedback is anonymous. I see the same as you see: a number next to the emoji, nothing else. If you have JavaScript disabled you see nothing, and so do I.

Does Safari has an offline mode (like Firefox, for example)? No.

If you are running iOS 17 (beta, or final, when it comes out next week), and you don’t see “Live Voicemail” under “Settings → Phone”, change your language to “English US”. “Live Voicemail” is only available on that one, for now.

I truly don’t like Outlook, the program that runs on your computer, which started as a mail client, and now wants to do everything, and does it badly. I use it in a Windows VDI for work purposes, because there is no other practical choice. One of the things—amongst the many—that irks me about it is the “Remove extra line breaks in plain text messages” option enabled by default. That’s because—yes, you guessed it—I compose my emails in plain text.

“Their (Beijing’s) policy has been to reunite Taiwan with China. From their standpoint, maybe it is analogous to Hawaii or something like that, like an integral part of China that is arbitrarily not part of China mostly because … the U.S. Pacific Fleet has stopped any sort of reunification effort by force,” he said.

That guy sure is an arsehole.

About iOS 17 relase on 18 September, make sure to turn off the betas (thanks George!) if you participated. Simply go to “Settings → General → Software Update → Beta Updates”. and turn it off.

I found Webgbcam while browsing Javier’s posts, and I am in love with it! The good thing about pixels is they stretch nicely, and they conceal. A lot! LOL.

As Javier says it (translating it from Spanish), “a website to take selfies in the traditional way: with a Game Boy Camera”.

➝ Via Javier.computer.

Sometime in the very near future I am going to move my Mastodon instance to a new hardware. When that happens, there are two possible outcomes: it is successful, or it isn’t. If it isn’t I am going to be in whole lot of pain. Will keep a “glass half full” mentality for now.

Such pity to read hateful people’s comments making fun, poking jokes at the new iPhone—I have found them on Reddit, and Mastodon, so far—when they live their sad, pathetic days, with that aberration of an OS that is Android on theirs. Interesting thing is, I have never gone bashing at “the other phones”; it’s always “them” coming to bash iPhones. For me that’s telling.

iOS 17 is releasing 18 September 2023. That is, merely less than a week from today. I have been using it for a few betas now, and it works great! Now, I just want that Journal, but it still reads “Coming later this year”.

My take aways from the Apple Event:

• Apple works on positively impacting the enviroment. Apple truly is extremely environmentally concious.
• Apple Watch is amazing: from looks, to usability, to saving lives. It has it all!
• iPhone hardware (with A16) keeps getting better (now with USB-C). Together with the best phone OS, iOS, it is a pleasure to use.
• iPhones Pro/Pro Max are build with even more premium materials and hardware (including the A17Pro processor, and much more), and much better cameras (3 vs 2, but this it too simplistic, you must see the video for all the details).
• There wasn’t a “one more thing”. I miss it.

It’s happening! Apple’s event is today at 13:00 EDT and, in preparation, I have snacks ready and handy, and have moved my lunch hour from 12:00-13:00 to 13:00-14:00. I will be able to happily snack while I watch it! Are you ready?

At which point a seemingly neverending web page will take too long to load—or it will stutter? I am currently paginating at 80 notes per page, but the original (which entised me to start “Notes”) sets no limit. I figure it will be limited by the operating system, or web browser, or by processor and memory constrains. Or all of the above.

It’s that time of the year again, and I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned Apple’s event. It’s coming! Like, day after tomorrow coming. I will watch it, like I do each year, for sure! If you like Apple, and their products, I recommend you watch it too!

Trying not to succumb to the temptation of buying yet more domains. Because I don’t need them. Because I will buy them, and a year later let them go. It is better tossing the coins in a fountain, right?

Maybe it is the fanatic in me, but Apple doesn’t need to run advertisements. This was prompted by this, which I found on Mastodon.

➝ Via Dan Gillmor.

Our engagement with Canonical to deploy and manage Ubuntu with MAAS and Landscape is over, and now the “fun” begins. So much to customise, and tune! I have spent the entire day tunning and rebuilding images, back and forth. I am hoping to work on post-install scripting tomorrow.

You can tell I am feeling nostalgic. Maybe it is the rain, that falls constantly, and gently. Maybe it is the feeling that time is steadily slipping through my fingers.

My very first access to the Internet was via Prodigy. Then CompuServe, eWorld, and Holonet. Finally The Microsoft Network, AOL, and broadband providers (wich I use till today).

On iOS 17 Public Beta 5 right now. Each beta has been getting better, so I don’t expect this one to be any different. I am all for surprises, though! 😂

Chetan Kunte updated his page! Chetan’s site is one of the few I, almost religiously, check each day for new content.

This is the second, or third time I receive this email. It shows how to make it to my blocklist in one single step.

I’m afraid this is my last email to you about my suggestions for Data Flow (gasp!). I haven’t heard back from you yet and this must mean one of three things:

• You are happy with your current lead volume, CPL, and conversion rates.
• You’ve been too busy with deadlines/meetings/tap-dance classes but you’re interested (It’s not too late!)
• You’ve fallen and you can’t get up. Let me know if that’s the case, I’ll send help!

Please let me know - I’m worried!

Conduit is the easiest, fastest, leanest way to run a Matrix server. A single binary, and a small configuration file. Can’t beat that!

Update: 21 Feb 2026 @ 16:15:26

Or, as George pointed out, docker compose up.

My Personal Identifiable Information (PII) leaked (unauthorized third parties were likely able to access and download full names, Social Security numbers, policy/account numbers, dates of birth, and addresses, among other), again, compliments of SaaS. This time it was “MOVEit Transfer”, which Corebridge (one of my retirement accounts financial institutions) uses.

This CVE provides details of the vulnerability that was exploited. Links within that page explains it further.

Duuuuuuuck! 🤬 Initial fraud alert—1 year—placed on the three major credit bureaus.

Partner is also receiving the same notification I got, today. The impact of the breach goes beyond Corebridge. Maybe you are affected too!

The sentimental in me found this blog entry, and was touched. So many times I have thought about Netscape, and what will it be if it was still around. Right after Mosaic, Netscape Navigator was the web browser I used for a very long time.

I don’t need, nor want, thinner bezels on an iPhone. I want to be able to comfortable hold it. What I want is an edge-to-edge screen which, sadly, will not come anytime soon. I am sure many are with me on this.

Oh, and keeping its pricing sensible. If it comes at $1,500, I would rather buy a laptop.