Here's a graphic that I whipped up today, which I thought would be fun to occasionally post on social media sites, to appear in folks' feeds as they scroll though posts:
I was amused by the contrast between Nintendo including the original version of this image in a couple of their games -- most notably Wii Sports -- and the hypothetical likelihood of any of the big social media companies inserting some content like this into their users' feeds.
(Anecdotally, I've heard that Facebook, at least, tends to favor implementation of new features that increase the amount of time that their users spend scrolling through their feeds -- of which something like this, encouraging their users to stop scrolling and take a healthy break, would be the opposite!)
It was pointed out by my wife that modern phones -- including the one that I photoshopped into the image in place of the original Wii Remote -- do not actually have home buttons. As the proud carrier of an iPhone 6S, this admittedly didn't even cross my mind. I'll just leave it there as an intentional anachronism, hearkening back to the time of the Wii's popularity. 🤷♂️
In any event, feel free to share this image onto your own social media feeds, should you be so inclined!
Hey developers! If you're fortunate enough to be doing greenfield development on a new text editing app or component, I have a quick feature request for you!
In all existing text editors and text fields that I'm aware of, if you do the following:
Key in some text.
Append another piece of text via a press of Cmd+V (Ctrl+V on Windows) to paste from the clipboard.
Press Cmd+Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows) to undo.
What happens is that both the pasted text, and some or all of the keyed-in text, get removed.
What I'd like to have happen is for only the pasted text to be removed. The keyed-in text can be removed upon additional Cmd+Z press(es).
I bump into this problem quite frequently when I Cmd+V to append something to some text I'm in the middle of composing. I see that the wrong thing was on the clipboard and got added to the text, reflexively hit Cmd+Z to try and undo that mistake -- and now I have two problems, because some of the text that I had keyed in got removed along with the incorrect pasted-in value.
It would be super fun to have this no longer be an issue in the text editors of the future. Thanks in advance! 👍
This is a "just for fun" post on the pros and cons of traditional wired earbuds vs Apple AirPods for everyday use.
Hat tip to my brother Jeremy for inspiring me to finally put this post together. He was recently seen on Instagram rocking some sweet wired earbuds, even though he's retired, and has sufficient discretionary funds to buy himself AirPods, if he so chose!
Wired Earbuds
Apple AirPods
Price tag 💸
✅ From around US $10-15 💰
US $159+ 💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰
Ease of switching between multiple devices (e.g. iPhone 📱 and MacBook 💻)
✅ Yes (on devices with a 3.5mm jack, like my iPhone 6S)
✅ Yes
Risk of inadvertently getting yanked or knocked out of ears 👂
Wires can get caught when doing chores
✅ Minimal
Works with newer iPhones
Dongle needed 🙄
✅ Yes 🍎💰
Looks like AirPods win in a landslide! Let's all throw away our inexpensive, never-needs-charging, high-fidelity earbuds, and buy AirPods! 😜
For clarity, I am indeed perfectly aware that the ship has (for the most part)
sailed on this debate. Apple, at least, doesn't seem likely to release a
new phone ever again with 3.5mm headphone jack technology, when they could sell
the folks buying that phone $160 AirPods instead. I stand by my entitlement to my
(unpopular) opinion on this topic regardless. 😁
Developers, have you ever embarrassingly pushed a commit that inadvertently included temporary debug log/print statements, or other code that you intended to remove before committing? I have!
I wondered if it was possible to add some keyword to a code file -- for example, DONOTCOMMIT -- which, if present, would cause git to automatically reject the commit. This could be added as a comment alongside any temporary debug code, to make it impossible to forget to remove that code before committing.
It turns out that it is possible to do this -- and have it apply automatically to all of your local git repositories -- using a git pre-commit hook.
Quick instructions
(The specifics in these instructions apply to Unix-like filesystems, including Mac OS.)
1. If it doesn't already exist, create the directory: ~/.git_templates/hooks/
2. If it doesn't already exist, in that hooks directory, create a text file named: pre-commit (no extension).
3. Add the following content to the pre-commit file:
I've just released a new, free app for iPhone: Desktop Journey!
Desktop Journey is a single-page
dashboard app for iPhone, with an attractive display of time, current and
next calendar appointments, reminders, weather, and micro-break
prompts. It gives your phone a purpose while it's in its charging cradle on
your desk while you work.
With the exception of an optional weather add-in, Desktop Journey is completely free and ad-free.
Why did I make Desktop Journey?
For a while now, when I'm at work at my desk, I've had my iPhone sitting in a charging cradle on the desk. I wanted to put the iPhone's screen to good use, so it wasn't just sitting there doing nothing.
This isn't adding value. We can do better!
I tried a few different alternatives to just a blank screen, such as a simple analog clock app, but I couldn't find any "dashboard" apps that took advantage of the phone's screen to display a variety of useful information.
So, as with Vigil RPG,
I decided to build it myself!
What does Desktop Journey do?
Here's an overview:
Read on for more details!
Current Time
The top portion of the screen is devoted to a simple analog clock.
Before creating Desktop Journey, I was using a simple iOS analog clock app
as a workaround, and I wanted to keep that core experience (while also
adding more to it).
A little "desktop calendar page" icon, styled to look like the native
iOS Calendar app icon, shows the current weekday, and day of the month.
"Now" and "Next"
These two panels, shown in the middle portion of the app, display calendar
events, reminders, and -- with an optional subscription -- weather and
temperature.
🗓Calendar events are taken from the device's calendar (after
permission has been granted to read the calendar). Thus, if you've already
set up your iPhone's calendar to sync with another source, such as a Google
or Microsoft Outlook account, events from that calendar will appear.
The "Now" panel shows the meeting or appointment that is happening
currently, if there is one. The "Next" panel shows just the upcoming
appointment (not all of the day's remaining appointments) -- plus the
single next appointment after that, if there is one immediately
following -- which makes for a nice at-a-glance answer to the question
"What do I have coming up next?".
Tapping on an event opens up the view of the current day's events in the
native iOS Calendar app.
🎗Reminders likewise are sourced from the native iOS (again,
only after you've granted permission).
The "Now" panel shows a reminder that was due earlier today that you haven't
completed yet, if there is one. The "Next" panel shows today's next upcoming
reminder that has a date and time set, if any.
Tapping a reminder opens it in the iOS Reminders app, so you can
mark it as complete, or edit it.
Temperature and weather for the current locale,
and today's upcoming high or low temperature, are optionally shown,
with the purchase of a subscription. (These cost me money
to subscribe to an API that provides worldwide weather information,
and while I'm happy to provide Desktop Journey for free, and with
no ads, I'd like to not lose money on it!) ☀
Celsius and Fahrenheit are both supported. Which is displayed can be
toggled on the Settings page.
The Hero's Journey
A hero character -- who may look familiar if you've played Vigil RPG!
-- walks along at the bottom of the screen, on a long journey.
The biome changes each day, providing some visual variety. In other words, if you run the app again
tomorrow, the hero will be somewhere else! There are several biomes, including
taiga (pictured up above), desert (pictured here), grassland, caves, forest, dungeon, and more.
The sky also changes, based on the real time of day: Night (as shown here), sunrise, daytime, and dusk.
Encounters - Tasks and Exercises
Several times per day -- at semi-random intervals; typically a little bit less frequently than once per hour --
an enemy encounter will take place!
Each encounter prompts you with an action
that you can perform yourself, "in real life," to defeat the enemy.
Each of these
are quick-to-perform actions that are good opportunities
to take a very brief break from whatever task you're working on
as the app is running. In this pictured example, you'd
stand up from your chair and stretch; then, you'd tap the ✅ button.
There's no time pressure; encounters will last
indefinitely (as long as the app is running), so you can delay if
needed,
and complete them at a convenient time. Alternatively, you
can always just hit the Skip button to bypass the
encounter instead.
There are two types of encounters: Tasks and exercises.
Tasks are like this one: A simple action that you can perform from your desk as a micro-break. Other tasks
include "tidy your workspace" and "message a loved one".
Exercises can help you get moving a bit during your work day. An example is "Do 5 push-ups!".
Exercise quantities can be adjusted with + and - buttons that appear during the
encounter; so you could tell the app you did less or more than 5 push-ups, for example.
The encounters feature can be turned on or off in the
Settings ⚙️ menu. Individual tasks and exercises can also be enabled or
disabled,
if (for example) your circumstances don't permit
standing up, or if you don't feel like being prompted to do push-ups. 🙂
When you complete an encounter, you'll get a stats display of how many of that task or exercise you've completed -- both today, and all-time.
Settings
Settings can be accessed by tapping the Settings ⚙️ icon at the
top of the app's page. In addition to customizing exercises, you can
disable
screen lock while the app is in the foreground; toggle
temperature units between Fahrenheit and Celsius; and view the in-app
"About" and
"Credits" pages.
Give it a try!
As mentioned above, Desktop Journey has no ads, and is a free download, so give it a try, and let me know if you like it! Download Desktop Journey on the App Store.
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