Author: Joshua
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Thinking with screenshots
Recently I shared my method for capturing screenshots. I haven’t yet seen anyone else who incorporates this into their normal workflow. Consider this my attempt to spread the great news of screenshots. If you spend your day working on a computer, and often have the need to capture visual information, then using a screenshot program…
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Pixels and iPhones
Everyone knows me as the Apple guy, someone who has always used an iPhone. But for years I have been dual-wielding two phones, yes, whatever the current generation iPhone is, but also an Android device of some kind. … I love the design of this phone. It feels very similar to the iPhone 15 family.…
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Unfinished VFX
“During the year or so spent in post-production, working on more than 1,500 VFX shots, we would frequently compare our VFX works-in-progress with the original footage, ensuring we were getting the details right,” Ball tells EW. “I often found myself completely mesmerized by the magic of WetaFX’s work and how seamlessly it translated from the…
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On Sabbaticals
Life moves pretty fast, but my sabbatical felt slow and long and relaxing. What a gift to find, after 3 months, that I am, in fact, who I might have been all along. Automattic has long championed remote work and Sabbaticals. I love reading the stories of employees and how their Sabbaticals went. Monika takes…
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Removing stuff is never obvious yet often better
From my experience, this happens all too often: Companies, projects, products, software, strategies, everything gets cluttered with stuff that isn’t adding value. That stuff also inflicts pain, if not directly then by adding complexity. And once added, the stuff tends to stay for good because almost nobody thinks to or dares to remove it. I…
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Proof of life
Yesterday Brett told me about his conversation with a long-time but out-of-touch acquaintance who said he was following him on social channels. He even referenced a post that Brett made the day before but didn’t tap an emoji and leave a reply. Even a few years ago, that would not have been the case. I…
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Contributing to WordPress
Aaron Jorbin posted an update with things he did in WordPress in July. During the month of July, I contributed to 19 tickets on trac, made 8 commits to core, received 28 props, reviewed 3 make/core posts, updated some documentation for committers, mentored 1 release of WordPress and worked approximately 31 hours on WordPress, of…
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7 Nights with Apple Vitals
Apple announced the Vitals Watch App at WWDC. Last week I finally got a chance to test it out. Since it’s still in Beta I won’t comment on it specifically (I’m guessing things will change), but it’s an interesting take to have an app take 7 nights of sleep before showing you data. In an…
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Clicks Keyboard
Look, this was never going to be a device I loved. And I suspect most won’t love it in 2024, even though many would have in 2008. But kudos to Clicks for trying something new and old in our era of black slabs of glass. This is old news at this point, but I’d been…
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Long-term unemployment
He’d been plagued with long-term unemployment for quite some time before this, and really I think he was supposed to be a comedian and not a worker bee. Megan shares her own struggles with unemployment and adds on with a story of her cousin who took their life after being let go from a job. …
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Magazine culture
As I buy and enjoy a lot of magazines throughout the year, I was curious myself. And I’m glad I did, as I found several that I did not know existed until I started looking. I love magazines. As an illustrator and graphic designer I loved pouring through pages of the printed medium and learning…
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Reading for anxiety
In the spirit of trying to be a reflective and self-aware person, I’ve recently wondered why I’ve always been a reader. Beyond the enjoyment of it, the pragmatism, the vanity of wanting to appear smart, why do I read, really? What is perhaps my deepest motivation when I pick up a book? And the answer…
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Box office woes
If you could predict exactly which movies will be hits and which will not, and as such, only release the hits, you’d get closer to the model working again, sure. I’d like to say I understand what movies will hit and which won’t. I’m an artist, a writer, and a student of the art of…
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Reddit and Search
Google is now the only search engine that can surface results from Reddit, making one of the web’s most valuable repositories of user generated content exclusive to the internet’s already dominant search engine. 404 Media via Stratechery I first noticed this change last week, after watching a movie in theaters. Everytime I watch a great…
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Magical mice
I love the magic mouse. I’ve used it almost exclusively as a mouse for over a decade. Though I love Apple’s trackpads, and also use them whenever I’m as part of the MacBook away from my desk, at my desk I can’t seem to get Apple’s Magic Trackpad (or any other mouse) to work for…
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Birthdays and friends
introducing friends is something that all of us would benefit from doing more often. If you have people you are willing to spend time around, they are probably people that others will enjoy as well. For those of us in good orbits, perhaps the most valuable thing we can do is alter gravity in such…
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Creating a focused Threads feed
I recently had a friend ask me how I’ve shaped my Threads experience. Over the last year I’ve found it quite delightful to use. Part of the reason is there are a small group of people I’ve followed from Twitter to Mastodon to Threads. These are people who are a mix of tech writers, content…
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Apple Watch for kids
Targeting the Apple Watch (or a cheaper version of it) to kids is the smartest thing Apple has done in years. Last year on ATP, Marco talked about setting up his pre-teen with an Apple Watch. It was the first time I’d heard a parent trying this, so I set on a journey to figure…
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Life’s hard, and it will bring pain, emotions, challenges, tears and scars. There’s no need to generate more pain, and bring more tears where they aren’t necessary. Love these words from Michal.
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So you want to read?
I’ve talked to a lot of people over the years who don’t enjoy reading. Some of it is personality, some of it is feeling forced to read for school. My premise is that most people can enjoy reading under the right circumstances. For me it comes down to doing it through audio. I can’t find…