@news one thing to check with the iOS app: the Books page in the Discover tab has been hanging up for me. It shows a progress bar that never finishes. Other parts of Discover seem fine.
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@josh_____d I enjoyed this one too. I haven’t seen the movie, but based on your review, I will check it out!
@jquinby Ah, what a journey you’ve begun. I read all of In Search of Lost Time with a reading group on Twitter during COVID. My memory of those books now feels like a long fever dream. Prepare to be frustrated and dazzled in equal measure.
@cliff538 What a cool collection of links! There are some gems here. Thanks for sharing!
@mroutley I somehow missed your earlier blog post on this. Good feedback on actually using this stuff (I’m too chicken!). It does make me wonder, though. On the one hand, Day One says they’re not training the AI with journal entries. Yet, on the other hand, the AI gets to know you better over time. Which is it?
@MitchWagner Right?? I guess Day One is targeting the 99% of the population that doesn’t keep a journal. Maybe having a text chat with an AI is better than nothing? But sheesh, it does feel like it’s missing the very point of journaling: sitting down alone with your thoughts.
@philbowell Oh, wow! That’s a huge leap of an upgrade! You’re going to love it. I’m using an M4 MacBook Air for everything. Half the time it’s connected to a Studio Display; the other half on my lap, like right now. The Mac Mini has been demoted to an automation server, and the iPad Pro is collecting dust. These really are remarkable machines. Enjoy!
@numericcitizen Last year, I upgraded from the 13” M1 MBA to the 15” M4 MBA. I had no idea how much bigger the 15” screen could feel. I don’t think I would ever go back to the 13” model. Won’t you miss the screen?
@annahavron I love this so much. Thank you for sharing!
@gregmoore I somehow missed that Neuromancer is the first book of a trilogy. I’ve got some catching up to do!
@gregmoore I loved that book, but I haven’t read it in decades. It’s nice to hear it still holds up. Sadly, Gibson didn’t need a crystal ball to predict that wealth could be such a corrupting force. It’s been so for thousands of years, though technology sure makes things worse. Time for a reread!
@annahavron Oh, oh, oh! This feels very much like a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Future. There are so many “smart” integrations in our house. Speakers, lights, the vacuum, thermostats, pool, door locks, hubs, and more hubs. Even the oven. One missed software update, and all hell could break loose for my wife. I’m a pretty good planner when it comes to financial and estate stuff, but I never once considered all the geeky automation stuff.
Actually, now that I think about it, I could engineer some pretty convincing haunts from the other side. Our special song playing on Valentine’s Day, say? Or the lights flashing on my birthday? Hmmm.
@philbowell I will check Wipr out. I thought ad blockers were expensive and difficult to install. But what a difference! I feel like a frog who was unwittingly boiling in a pot of water. Glad I jumped out!
@johnbrayton What a great idea! With a little help from Claude, I created a nifty Apple Shortcut that transforms any text I select in an Unread article to a perfectly formatted markdown link with the selected text shown as a blockquote. All with a single keyboard command. Here’s a sample from Westenberg:
A soft-landing manual for the second gilded age:
> I don’t entirely believe AI will produce the civilizational wipeout the doomers are predicting. I think there’s reasonably good odds the economy will find equilibrium, the way it always does after major technological shifts. New industries will emerge. New forms of work will appear. People will adapt, because people always adapt.
Kudos for building in this capability!
@frankm I’ve been testing Inkwell as well, but I’m scratching my head on how it could work for me. I prefer to read articles on an iPad in a full-page, distraction-free mode. I use Unread as my RSS reader and have been hopping around with various read-later apps (Readwise, Matter, Goodlinks) for longer reads and articles I want to highlight. The best workflow I’ve found is with Instapaper. Any highlights can be copied or exported, with a properly formatted Markdown link to the original article, in a couple of taps.
I’m sure Readwise Reader can do this, but I couldn’t figure it out, which is one of my gripes with that overly complicated tool.
I’m hoping that @johnbrayton someday adds highlight capture to Unread with a share feature that copies the highlight and link for blogging.
@cliff538 You have an amazing eye! I love every single image you post. So creative! Your photography is a gift to all of us. Thank you for sharing it.
@cliff538 Ah, what a view and what a book! Enjoy!
@johnbrayton Thank you for all your amazing work on Unread. I recently tested the web page transformation capabilities of various read-it-later apps (Readwise Reader, Instapaper, Matter, Goodlinks, etc.). Most do fine for basic web pages, but none are as good as Unread with more complicated elements. You’ve figured out how to render footnotes, tables, and block quotes better than anyone. Well done, sir!
@philbowell Nice work! I do wish Micro.blog would let you click a book cover on your shelf to take you to your review instead of the generic book information page. I do this on my Wordpress book blog, but I could never figure out how to get this to work on Micro.blog.
@jthingelstad Ah, good luck! I was one of the unlucky ones. Two days of flu like symptoms. Still worth it!
@MereCivilian What a great set up! Love it!
@danielpunkass Nope. After entering my credentials, it opens the NYT app, but never gets past the login screen in Black Ink. I suspect having the NYT app installed on my iPad is the problem.
@danielpunkass Love a daily crossword! When I link my NYT account on the iPad app, it hangs on the log-in screen. I’d love to check this out!
@isaacgreene I loved this one too!
@rscottjones Whoa! Not a fun experience! But I’m so glad to hear the outcome.
“Take it that you have died today, and your life’s story is ended; and henceforward regard what further time may be given you as an uncovenanted surplus, and live it out in harmony with nature.” — Marcus Aurelius
Go travel, my friend!
@davoh I love these shelfies you share. I can only imagine the range of conversations you must be having. Your students are very lucky to have such an engaged, well-read professor!
@cliff538 I loved this one so much! Claire Keegan is an amazing writer.
@cheesemaker Right?! Claire Keegan is amazing!
@terrygrier.bsky.social Love this! I wish I were closer to join!
@GabrielCornish Ah, this is so hard. We lost our 12-year-old Boston Terrier this past week. Such a big hole they leave.
@joshuapsteele I went down the notebook rabbit hole last year after hearing a podcaster describe how he loved his Plotter notebook. I tried the Plotter (too fussy), the Traveler’s Notebook (too lumpy and wouldn’t lay flat), the Lochby FIeld Folio (the metal clasp kept thunking every time I opened it), Field Notes (too small), only to return to the notebook I’ve used consistently for the past five years (the Scribbles That Matter B5). The wide variety of notebooks available makes this a personal choice. One of the fundamental choices you have to make between your Leuchtturm and the Lochby is whether you’re a Lumper or Splitter. @annahavron writes a wonderful Analog Office blog that helped me navigate what worked best for me. I’m a proud lumper!
@Eyebeemania I’ve definitely enjoyed the first two volumes of Manchester’s biography of Churchill. I haven’t read the Roy Jenkins one though, so I can’t compare. Might be a Churchill overload to read both (if that’s possible!).
@cliff538 Ah, you have a wonderful journey ahead of you!
@bradleyandroos Ah, thank you. I love that quote too. I heard it on the How I Write podcast, which is also an excellent source of ideas for creative writing and blogging.