One feller's views on the state of everyday computer science & its application (and now, OTHER STUFF) who isn't rich enough to shell out for www.myfreakinfirst-andlast-name.com
Using 89% of the same design the blog had in 2001.
FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!!!
Back-up your data and, when you bike,
always wear white.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Affiliate links in green.
I know, I know, TextWrangler isnโt supported any more and Iโll have to swap to BBEdit in 10.15. This is still cool, though. Itโs a built-in diff tool! I use WinMerge when I need to compare two files kinda ad hoc on Windows (kdiff3 for โrealโ diffs on macOS and Windows), but didnโt have a similar tool for macOS.
Except I did.
1. Open two documents (in my case, style.css in both the original and modified parent theme) that youโd like to compare
2. Click View > Show Files or type CMD + 0. This will open a sidebar with all opened documents.
3. Highlight the 2 files you want to compare in the Documents drawer, right click on them and select the option โCompareโ.
There’s one thing I don’t get about the complaints that the new Mac mini isn’t expandable: Have you already forgotten Apple’s strategy with the Pro [before we knew it was a thermal disaster]? Thanks to Thunderbolt 3, the expansion is on the outside, okay?
Get a new mini. Upgrade the processor to the “3.2GHz 6โcore 8thโgeneration Intel Core i7”. Click “Add to Bag”. Pay $1100 and enjoy.
You have plenty of SSD to run the OS. Buy a fast Thunderbolt 3 external SSD if you need more space. Heck, buy a fast TB3 drive if your internal SSD ever dies and put the OS there.
I’d be surprised if the external hard drive ever noticeably slows you down. You can put your video card outside of the mini, for heaven’s sake, and I don’t hear anybody complaining about that – other than the price for the enclosure. But they don’t complain [much] about the speed.
Seriously. This is the mini you said you wanted. Enjoy it. ;^)
Finally updated to Mojave on my MacBook Air (2017). It’s nice that the login screen no longer has fuzzy text. I’ll admit I never really understood why Apple let the first thing you saw on the box be as craptastic as that text was. I understand that Apple can do a great job polishing things, but I don’t know that I believe they always do.
Other than that, so far I haven’t seen much exciting from Mojave.
I will say I’m pretty happy having purchased this MacBook Air now. I was worried they’d upgrade the MacBook line immediately after I purchased – and they did – but they didn’t touch the consumer laptops, and won’t until next week. $750 for a decent MacBook in June (during a great sale at Best Buy) doesn’t look as bad as it did originally.
Another unexciting thing: I did preorder the XR. Idk, that’s extravagant, and I don’t understand all the reviews calling the XR “affordable”. It’s not. It’s an insanely indulgent item. Unlike my Nokia 6 that I’ve been using for the last two weeks (long story), the iPhone SE and 6S I used previously both remain nice, fast phones. I don’t need an XR. You can spend much less and still have a great smartphone experience.
But even though I filled out the official form that says “leave the phone here” with my number and order number on it, UPS decided they’d rather not be bothered with leaving my phone at my home. Thanks for nothing, UPS! I can pick it up at their office, saving them a trip, if I want… between 7 and 8pm tonight. That’s it. That’s the window.
So great thing I preordered that phone. /sigh If I’m lucky, I’ll play with it Monday, maybe Tuesday, night.
It will be interesting to see if I change my tune on if it’s worth purchasing later, once I’ve used it. Coming from a 6S, I imagine it’ll run rings around it and take much nicer pictures. But do I need something that expensive, even if I use it an hour or two a day? Um… goodness, no.
I was kind of staying away from the Brent Simmons Love post. But let's do a quote, and add two comments.
Yes, there are strategies for making a living, and nobodyโs entitled to anything. But itโs also true that the economics of a thing may be generally favorable or generally unfavorable โ and the iOS App Store is, to understate the case, generally unfavorable. Indies donโt have a fighting chance.
...
You the indie developer could become the next Flexibits. Could. But almost certainly not. Okay โ not.
1. Bugs me that a guy who's actually allowed to make mad cash on apps, due, in part, to what folks were controversially calling The Marco Effect for a while (that is, you're so connected to Mac media and the free* advertising it provides that you really can't help but be more successful than Ground Zero Joe) is raining on the parade so fiercely. I know he tries to pull a Pandora and ends up with hope, but Simmon's post is shamefully pessimistic.
Show me the field where independents are so much more successful with so much less absolute failure, and I'll accept your pessimism. I bet software dev is about as successful as restauranteurs, if you factor in the barriers to entry. (That is, you have to save $100k before you can fail at a restaurant. You just need a laptop to fail at programming. So there are many more doers than absolute dreamers in development...)
2. Simmons did a much better job properly framing the same sentiment when he compared indies to the village toymaker. You don't have to build Vesper (and, on some level, I don't think he believes so either) to be a toymaker.
* Let me make clear that "free advertising" isn't quite the right word. These two guys, Arment and Simmons, have built up huge following, and that's their work paying off. You don't begrudge LeBron for selling shoes. It'd be idiotic to feel leveraging an asset -- popularity -- was underhanded or unfair. Vesper and Overcast are good apps. It's tough to know that there are similarly good apps out there that most of us will never hear about, and that if you build a good app without building Mac clique cred that you won't have the same success they have, but it's not wrong for them to take advantage of their face time.
The postings on this site are [usually] my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of any employer, past or present, or other entity. About Our Author
