Numeric Citizen Blog

OMFG! Not going to the US until after this clown is out! Fuck him!

Or, Instead of All This—

No one will ever control our own identities on third-party platforms. You relinquish control over your identity when you choose to present yourself on one of these platforms. You can be rate-limited for posting too much. You can be suspended by a bot that determines your behavior is bot-like. The platform can pivot at any time from one thing to another. The entire platform could shut down. You have no control, and jumping from one to another will only mean that you have to do it all again later.

Or, instead of all this, you could learn how to make a damn website.

But, asking for my wife here¹, once you’ve got your little HTML island right in the middle of the digital ocean, how do you get noticed? How do you build a business, even the smallest one, from this island?

Eighteen months ago, in July 2023, I wrote an article about migrating from Instagram to Pixelfed. It was well received, but something is happening right now for sure, if this graph from Plausible Analytics is any indication. People are massively looking at Pixelfed as an alternative, and I think it’s a good sign.

I initially thought Micro.one would be a suitable platform for my new French blog, but after spending the entire weekend experimenting with it, I’ve already realized that I miss two essential features from the full Micro.blog experience: personal notes and support for newsletters. 🤦🏻‍♂️

So, Trump restored TikTok? What an achievement, and he is still not in the Office. I can’t wait for the next four years. #not

Here is a funny one: the Get Info box for an exported image from Apple Photos. The image was indeed touched up with Apple Intelligence’s Cleanup tool. 🤫

It’s winter here and getting really cold outside, so let’s go back in time, and travel to Morocco. Circa June 2023.

The first thing to do when visiting a new coffee shop after ordering and sitting at your place? Connecting to Wi-Fi and testing its speed. Only after you can taste the coffee. That is my way of living. ☕👨🏻‍💻

Ghost 6 to include ActivityPub, later this year. I can’t wait for that, and I’m even happier of having left WordPress last year for Ghost. There is still a lot of work to be done, for sure, but I’m patient for that one.

Idea of the day for @manton : what if people could submit a blog post for inclusion in the Discovery section? Users could be allowed to submit one per week or per month. The “moderator” could then decide to release it or not. If not, it could provide a reason to the original poster. Just an idea.

“Blogging or not? A game caught my attention. A personal letter to Zuck. I like poems. Pixelfed, Pixelfed, Pixelfed! Apple is clever about Severance. I bought a keyboard. And so much more.” - The Ephemeral Scrapbook — Edition 2025-02 is out! The email version coming later today.

I was standing on an upper level deck on a cruise boat in Rio de Janeiro, on December 31, 2022. This is what I could see on port side. Again, I love contrasts. #blackandwhite #blackandwhitephotography #architecture #graffiti

TikTok is a modern digital plague. Good riddance. To those who were depending solely on it, it’s a lesson: diversity is the key.

Me: “My new French blog is nearly ready to go live. Will you read it?"

Her: “Well, yeah, sure, but how will I know there is something new to read?"

Me: “Well, you just have to go to the website, just like you read the news."

Her: “Mmm, but it’s not the same. I have to remember the website’s address. Can you send notifications instead?"

Me: “Well, I’m not sure this would fit the idea of a blog, but you just need to save it as a bookmark. Also, I can show you a great RSS reader?"

Her: “🤔”

Me: “It’s an app where you can read blog posts. There are many great ones for your iPhone or iPad."

Her: “Well, yeah, but I must remember to open it just to see if something is new?"

Me: “Yes, exactly, just like when you open up your favourite news website or when you just tap on the Facebook icon on your iPad…"

Her: “🤨”

Me: “If there was a weekly newsletter, would it be ok for you to read it?"

Her: “That would be better, for sure, but… you know… I already get so many emails!"

Me: “M’ok, but my hosting service doesn’t provide a newsletter feature. Maybe I could just tell you: there is something new on my blog that you might find interesting because I wrote a story about you."

Her: “👩🏻‍💻”

The challenges a blogger may face can be unpredictable.

In a taxi to the airport, on a rainy day, somewhere in São Paulo. I love the mood of that one. #blackandwhite #blackandwhitephotography #graffiti

Raycast Focus is nice until you realize that it doesn’t integrate with macOS Focus modes and can’t start an automation like a shortcut to turn off other things so that we can really be focusing. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I couldn’t resist.

Posting photos on Pixelfed from Micro.blog is cool in principle, but in practice, it’s still an unpredictable experience. My photo posted here earlier this morning wasn’t cross-posted to Pixelfed and I don’t know why. It’s a bit frustrating if you ask me. And there is no provided way of retrying a cross-post to Pixelfed, for some reason. @manton as you seem to be focusing on photos for Micro.blog, consider adding / fixing this issue, if this is something under your control, of course.

I don’t support any peace plan projects for Ukraine until Russia is defeated or on their knees. Here is why (Bluesky post).

A famous building in São Paulo, circa December 2022. Taking a photo of someone else’s artwork makes me pause and question my own contribution as a photographer. By adding a specific angle or using a unique perspective, I believe I add a layer of meaning and interpretation to the artwork. This helps me rationalize my internal debate and justify my actions.

I’m at the office today, first time in 2025. I’m one of those who is fortunate enough to work for a company that doesn’t care too much about who’s in and out of the downtown office, they care about the results and how efficient we are to get those. I find it rather sad that the discussions around people returning to the office or not never or seldomly revolve around the idea that working from home might be one of the ways to combat climate change by limiting those in and out and commute time to go to the office. We don’t learn or we’re afraid of accepting that we need to change, for real this time.

Pixelfed finally gets the attention from the public. The release of their mobile app and the general negative sentiment toward Meta’s offerings are two key factors here. I hope they can keep up with the load.

Somewhere in New York, circa November 2024. Ephemeral whispers of the sky meet mankind’s steadfast monuments. #blackandwhite #blackandwhitephotography #architecture

Using ChatGPT latest feature: scheduled tasks, you can schedule a daily summarization of an RSS feed content each morning. That’s cool and actually useful.

Today, I think I finally found a real use case for Micro.one. I bought my domain and set up my account. It was rather quick and easy. If I had let Micro.one set up my domain name for me, it would have been even easier.

I think the ingredients of Micro.one are all there for an accessible solution for those who want to get out of Meta or other silos and start owning their little space on the web, free of tracking, free of ads, and built on open software technologies. Of course, Micro.one isn’t the only service of its kind. But it does offer the right feature set to be an open and federated web citizen.

I feel an overwhelming desire to explore and savor this type of web content even further. I believe that sharing my passion for this subject matter could potentially ignite a similar level of enthusiasm in those around me. Even if it doesn’t, if people are genuinely curious enough to inquire about the reasons behind my enthusiasm, it’s a positive development, potentially marking the beginning of something more substantial. After all, who knows what the future holds?

I’ll share more in the near future.