Numeric Citizen Blog

Too hot for photography?

Thu, 25 Jun 2026 03:46:10 -0400

You might think that, by looking at the trail here, I’m taking a lot of photos in visiting Paris, but that’s not the case. One reason is it’s my second time in Paris, but the second reason is the heat. Sadly, It’s not fun to stop on the street for a few minutes, under the sun, for shooting a few photos. And lastly, my iPhone is overheating quickly while taking pictures! Running a beta version of iOS 27 probably doesn’t help either. 🤦🏻‍♂️ I’m probably snapping a third of what I would shoot normally.

28C at 9 o’clock!

Thu, 25 Jun 2026 03:23:26 -0400

Starting day #6 in Paris. After a nearly sleepless night with high temperatures in our apartment, no breeze at all, we are facing another record breaking heatwave day. Heading to Notre Dame this morning while outside temperatures are still ok for waiting inline in a queue. Beyond that, we still don’t know. Max temperature is expected to be 38C at 5PM. 🥵🫤😒

Those open space offices suck

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 12:40:01 -0400

Open-plan offices have many drawbacks, and I was reminded of another one today. Instead of a generic, rotating desk, I much prefer having a dedicated, private office. I want a space of my own, and I enjoy seeing how others personalize their workspaces. You can learn so much about people’s interests and personalities just by seeing how they occupy the space where they spend a third of their lives.

Peak heatwave

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 03:37:28 -0400

Good morning from heated Paris! Today might be the worst of all as we enter peak heatwave. Expected temperatures are around 38C. 😳🥵😩 Photowalk is not a possibility today, this heat removes any glimpses of inspiration. Looking for more museums to visit.

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 08:08:19 -0400

Beta 2 on iPhone seems a regression. I do remember that we get a few steps back before jumping back to acceptable stability: visual bugs, weird animations in iMessage, etc.

Still hot in Paris

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 03:46:40 -0400

Well, at the beginning our third day in Paris and options for visiting air conditioned museums are limited because of high demand. Apparently, we should plan in advance which we rarely do in vacation. 🫤 Probably going to visit around Le Louvre then see La Seine river nearby where I expect somewhat colder air. Temperatures are expected to be around 35C this afternoon. 🥵

Paris is hot!

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 03:30:14 -0400

First full day in Paris completed. Now starting second day. In case you didn’t know: there is a heat wave affecting most of France. It’s hot 🥵 here in Paris with a temperature of around 26C early morning. Now planning museum visits where temperatures are colder inside.

More of Siri AI

Fri, 19 Jun 2026 07:31:13 -0400

Since the Siri AI beta is out, I have started using it more and more for simple prompts like the following. It’s not fancy, but it works. Unlike ChatGPT or Claude, Siri AI doesn’t seem to have a memory beyond the data on my device. I’m not quite sure yet, but that’s my current understanding.

Not Addicted Yet

Fri, 19 Jun 2026 07:21:02 -0400

This morning, I realized that my Discord notifications were delayed; the last one was over 24 hours old. After a brief investigation, I found that I couldn’t connect to my n8n instance; it seemed to require a restart. I didn’t have time to investigate further, so I rebooted everything. Everything is back to normal.

What’s funny is that I only realized this morning that my Discord instance wasn’t receiving any notifications, which shows I’m not yet addicted to these notifications; no n8n workflows are essential yet, and I can do without them. It’s just a mild annoyance.

High Temperatures Expected

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 20:52:33 -0400

The weather in Montreal, Canada, has not been very good this Spring (lots of rain, too few sunny days, colder than usual). If weather forecasts for the next ten days materialize, improvements aren’t expected soon. Paris, France, is quite another story. They have had plenty of sun, and temperatures are abnormally high and expected to remain so in the near future, as they are still going through a heat wave. The expected high in Paris this coming Saturday is 36C! As a reminder: AC in Paris, or Europe in general, is not common. 😅🥵

Anxieties of a Creator

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 12:21:40 -0400

Now that I have everything I need for a public travel journaling experience, I’m starting to think about the anxiety this might trigger while travelling. I want to take and share great images of places that are significant in my travelling experience. But, blogging shouldn’t be a burden, journaling neither, especially while travelling. But as a creator, creating and sharing goes hand in hand. I hope I’ll keep my anxiety at bay!

Apple Can't Hold the Line on Prices Anymore

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 21:17:01 -0400

Tim Cook Says Apple Price Increases Are ‘Unavoidable’ Due to Memory Costs — MacRumors

“Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,” said Cook. “We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable.”

This is not looking good, and Apple is getting us ready for it.

Can Siri AI Taking Over?

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 21:00:01 -0400

Since I now run OS 27 on most of my Apple devices, I should remember to use Siri AI instead for simple questions I’d usually ask ChatGPT. Habits are hard to break, I suppose. I find it strange that Writing Tools are no longer available—am I missing something?

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 07:19:10 -0400

These are my custom-built apps. Icons aren’t the best and my goal is to refresh them to create a visually coherent set. Eventually.

Describe Extension

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:36:01 -0400

Just finished creating my second Safari Extension using Safari 27’s Describe Extension feature. And it just works on the first try. ¹😳 This one will save the selected text of the webpage to my bookmarking web app, including the page title, page URL and author. I wonder how much more complex an extension can be.

My first try was successful, right away, too. ↩︎

Microsoft 365 Needs Better Meeting Preparation Intelligence

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 19:57:31 -0400

At my job, I spend most of my time on Microsoft 365 office products, especially Teams and Outlook. I spend a lot of time preparing meetings, sometimes with 15 or 20 participants. I don’t understand why Microsoft hasn’t invested in tools to help plan these meetings.

For example: I need to prepare a meeting with 15 participants; if the 4 or 5 must-have participants are available, those time slots should be clearly highlighted to make it easier to spot the best time to schedule the meeting. But that’s not what happens. Although some participants are mandatory, they don’t all carry the same weight.

I wish Microsoft would improve this aspect of their products; in fact, I wish they would show more empathy in their functional design. I feel like today’s Outlook is very similar to the one from ten years ago.

Glurp!

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 20:36:39 -0400

Cool animation effect on the iPad when sliding down from the top to invoke Siri AI.

Why I'm (Almost) Buying a MacBook Neo Before Paris

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 17:53:10 -0400

What if I don’t plan to use any AI tools? What if I don’t plan to multitask like crazy and focus, instead, for once? What if I don’t need the mightiness of my MacBook Air, yet a trustworthy ally? What if I don’t want to lose my Apple Pencil for a third time during this upcoming vacation? What if I want a small yet powerful Mac while on the plane?

After reading Matt Birchler’s blog post about the MacBook Neo being a great second computer five days before leaving for Paris, I’m considering getting one. It’s so cheap. I have 4 days to decide. My wife wouldn’t understand if I got one. 🤫🫣

Come On

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 15:36:21 -0400

Rewatching WWDC keynote and boy these constantly moving sequences of people talking are very annoying. And, how ironic is it when we know it was filmed with iPhone which comes with sophisticated image stabilization. 🤷🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

Apple First, Devs Later

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 14:43:25 -0400

Apple’s Private Cloud Compute Is Severely Limited for Third-Party Developers:

The bottom line is that — for the OS 27 cycle at least — PCC is primarily a feature for Apple itself to use in Siri AI. Granting access to PCC to any third-party developers at all is better than nothing, but this 2-million-download cap cuts off many developers who are in the Small Business Program. Apple should reconsider that. And I know there are a lot of developers who exceed the eligibility for the Small Business Program who would love to have access to the PCC APIs, even if access was paid. The lack of paid tiers says to me that Apple is worried enough about meeting demand from Siri AI users alone.

Expect this to change sooner rather than later once Apple introduces API consumption tiers for developers. Currently, Apple appears to be managing demand for its PCC infrastructure.

A Few Random Notes and Observations on Apple's Latest OS Updates

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 14:39:03 -0400

1️⃣ macOS 27 Golden Gate is probably the most enjoyable macOS iteration to use in a long time. While Liquid Glass improvements are making a big difference for me, I feel Liquid Glass on the Mac makes the least sense, but it’s best on the Apple Watch, then the iPhone.

2️⃣ Stability and performance on these first betas are really impressive. This could have been so much worse. All my devices, except my M4 Mac mini and Apple TVs, are on beta 1. I just don’t have the time to upgrade my mini. 😅

3️⃣ I fail to see any issues with my apps. Everything just works. Very speedy betas! 😳

4️⃣ I still need to experiment more with Siri AI. I don’t like the dark theme and the big bubble that appears on the Dynamic Island.

5️⃣ The Image Playground redesign is so much better, but the possible use cases are still a mystery to me.

6️⃣ It will be interesting to see how much of an improvement a faster device will make for Apple Intelligence in general. So far, the execution speed is a bit slow, but how much of this depends on being on a beta cycle, network latency or running on an older device like an M2 MacBook Air?

Introducing Numeric Citizen Trails

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 13:53:20 -0400

I have finished my latest web app: a Path-like site for posting check-ins. It focuses on sharing images with a short accompanying note and does not resolve venue names beyond what an open-source map service can provide. The app organizes check-ins into trails, with each trail supporting multiple view types, including the default timeline, a grid view, a compact calendar, and a map view. It’s rather simple, but I like the end results very much. It’s the first publicly available web app (and will probably be the only one). I’ll have to check bandwidth consumption so that I don’t hit the free-tier limits on Vercel. 😅 Use cases are mainly about travel journaling and photo walks.

SwiftUI or Catalyst for Notion?

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 10:02:22 -0400

When reading about SwiftUI and how it leads to less than optimal Mac apps, I’m not convinced that rewriting Notion in SwiftUI is a good idea. Why not use Catalyst instead? Craft is a great example of a Catalyst-based app.

A Different Type of Project

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 08:14:44 -0400

I chose to postpone purchasing the $1,500 Nikon 24-120 F4 lens to prioritize upgrading my home networking setup. This change is driven by my plan to turn the unused fireplace in the living room into a home theater space with related equipment. As shown in the photo, the items on and inside this small piece of furniture will be moved into a new structure to be built on the left, where the fireplace now is. Additionally, my Ubiquiti Wi-Fi router will be replaced with a ceiling antenna connected to a hub housed inside the new installation. More details about this coming later this summer.

A New Foursquare Is Born

Thu, 11 Jun 2026 07:20:16 -0400

I’m making great progress with my new web app. It’s already 90% feature complete and ready for my next trip to Paris, starting next week. When I started this project, I had a fairly clear idea of what I wanted, but as I made progress, it became easy to experiment with new features I didn’t think would even be possible. One such feature is the ability to securely share my check-ins publicly so you can follow me! It’s my only custom-built web app with a public-facing view.