Numeric Citizen Blog

I don’t care who is managing Apple’s robotic team, but I do have one question: why does Apple need a robotic team in the first place?

It’s now possible to change the default username provided by Ghost’s Fediverse support. Currently, it is @index@numericcitizen.me, but I’m unsure what to replace @index with. 👀

I had plenty of time this weekend, but I must admit that I didn’t accomplish much of what I intended to work on. Sigh. 😒

I finally found the subject and inspiration for my next YouTube video: how people can interact with Micro.blog users. In it, I’ll explain how posts can be cross-posted to other platforms and how people can reply to them, keeping the discussion ongoing even from seemingly different platforms.

While revisiting my writing projects pipeline, I found this unfinished blog post. It’s a bucket list. It was inspired by Manton Reece’s Revisiting 43 Things blog post. Recent comments in italic.

1. Rent a country house for the whole summer, outside Canada — I would have been in the US, but this plan is on hold, because of Trump’s America.
2. Get my house renovated — Completed!
3. Do another trip with my two sons — TBD.
4. Return to California to see the new Apple headquarters — This plan is on hold, because of Trump’s America.
5. Visit Chicago — This plan is on hold, because of Trump’s America.
6. See the launch of a rocket from Space X — Fuck Elon Musk.
7. Return to Iceland — Most probable.

Given the current political environment, I must carefully reconsider each item on this list and remove the ones that will not happen.

“👋 I’m a tech veteran by trade, creative by heart. With 30+ years in IT — from data centers to cloud, storage, and security — I help businesses build smarter, more resilient infrastructures. But when the day job ends, my creative side kicks in.

I’m a lifelong Apple fan, blogger, photographer, and content creator who loves blending tech with design. Whether I’m exploring the latest in cybersecurity, testing new apps, or writing about digital privacy, I bring a thoughtful eye and a creative edge.

I believe staying curious — and staying creative — is the best way to thrive in a tech-driven world.”

Not bad.

One thing that I really appreciate about ChatGPT is their native macOS app. It would be too easy for them to do like so many developers these days and offer the “good enough” solution.

Shared something really personal today on my Ko-fi page. Available to my dear supporters (yes, I have a few!)

Yesterday, while waiting for the bus on Sherbrooke Street, downtown Montreal. It’s the first time I notice this street art piece. It is so contemporary.

Apple was blindsided by GenAI and way too busy on Apple Vision Pro. It will take a major shift to regain momentum on AI-related initiatives.

Today I’m getting a brand new 15" M4 MacBook Air at work to replace my aging 2017 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. I won’t miss the Intel world, but I’ll somewhat miss the Touch Bar. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Connection isn’t just personal. It’s political.

A healthy democracy requires relationships, trust, physical presence, and shared stakes. If we don’t have anyone in our lives who voted differently than we did, if the only time we talk to our neighbors is when we have something to complain about (if we even bother), if we haven’t been in a room with strangers in months trying to solve a real problem without a mute button or a string of emojis—then we are actively making it easier to divide. Easier to manipulate. Easier to radicalize. Easier to rule.

We collectively dropped the ball. I honestly don’t know what to do and where to start to undo things. I feel alone on my island crying and shouting how wrong and off everything is right now.

I wish Ghost would expand their support for what are called “social accounts.” Given our current situation, I find this approach short-sighted. I wish Mastodon and Bluesky received more attention for this type of configuration.

Still about the iOS 19 mockup, the redesigned Tabbar is so much better. 😍

There is a lot to like about some of the iOS 19 redesign mockups, but the “rounder” app icons is certainly not one of them. 🤢

Gumroad is going open source!? Are they ok is it a last-resort move? They have a detailed roadmap, though.

That’s a useful website for Markdown lovers: Online Markdown.

Read later service for me should have these features and attributes.

1. Be cloud-based to enable access and syncing across different devices and platforms.
2. Support metadata (tags, folders & description).
3. Offer a well-designed share sheet implementation on iOS and iPadOS.
4. Offer a great browser extension.
5. Offer a native mobile application.
6. It should work well with my go-to RSS reader, Inoreader.
7. Be good at data mobility. In other words, it offers a data export option.
8. Support article summarization with generative AI.
9. Should be free if possible.
10. It must support all Apple platforms.

Inoreader check them all.

Intriguing new product coming from the makers of Craft: Chaps. It seems to be a conversational service where users can build their own AI-based agents. Not integrated with Craft in any way, at least for now. The demonstrated UI seems polished as we can expect from them, but sadly we don’t get to see how those agents are built. I think “Ch_apps_” would have been a better name than “Chaps”, though. I hope they don’t get too much distracted from Craft because it still needs a lot of work and long-lasting issues are yet to be addressed.

Each time I select a few emails in Outlook at the office and then move them into a folder I think of Severance’s employees working on their computer to gather numbers and drop them in a bucket. Every. Single. Time. And now you’ll probably do, too. You’re welcome.

Looking at iOS 18.5 and I find that Apple is slow at iterating on AI. Nothing really new in AI. No mention of model improvements. Only a few things like turning off Mail automatic classification. I would have expected a much faster pace.

What do Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WordPress, Tumblr, Flickr, 500px, and Smugmug share in common? They represent my former digital homes. Can you see the trend from this mind map?

When are we going to stop referring to Musk as the richest man in the world. First, we don’t care as much as it sounds. Second, he’s probably the poorest man in the world if anything.

I’m again tempted by an Oura ring. One big showstopper: the mandatory annual subscription. 😒

It’s the time of the year when iOS feels the most stable. I’m liking iOS 18.4.