Rob Fahrni

Good morning! I hope your coffee is strong and you’re ready to read some random links? ☕️

The Iconfactory

While this chapter may have ended, our story is not over. We’ll continue improving our other apps, creating new apps, doing amazing design work for our clients, and posting awesome wallpapers to Wallaroo and Patreon.

Tapbots

We have taken everything great about Tweetbot and used it as the starting point for the future of Ivory.

I’ve been posting on this topic for a while now. Musk is a big caca-doodoo-head and shutting down third-party Twitter clients isn’t a good idea. Why? They’re much better than Twitter’s own client.

Twitter should’ve reached out to these tiny app creators and offered to work with them to include advertising in their timeline streams or offered to buy a few of them and turn each app into a unique client for various Twitter endeavors. Like one that specializes in video and one that specializes in news. Something like that. Give folks more options, not fewer. 🫡🐦

By contrast Mastodon, being a completely open platform, is flourishing thanks to third-party clients! There are so many new iOS Apps for Mastodon it’ll make your head spin. Some have been around for years and have seen a resurgence, others are brand new. They give folks options. Variety, the spice of life!

One other very important point to make. Hitching your wagon to a company that can shut off access at any time was a dangerous move. These indie devs knew what they were doing, but it doesn’t hurt them any less.

I’ve been switching between three very good clients; Toot!, Ivory (beta), and Ice Cubes. Each have something about them I really enjoy, but there are so many more just waiting in the wings.

Also, Musk is failing in many ways. Twitter is a mess and Tesla stock is plummeting. I’m surprised Tesla Board hasn’t fired him. 🔥

Salon

So maybe it’s surprising that any defense attorneys for the Proud Boys have said anything coherent, let alone incisive. Yet right there in the opening arguments, Sabino Jauregui, who is defending Tarrio, went straight at the prosecution’s weak spot: The government is putting the insurrection’s foot soldiers on trial, while leaving the man who led and directed them, Donald Trump, not just untouched by the law but running for president again. (Supposedly.)

To this I say “Duh!” Yes, that slimeball TFG should be in jail.

Here’s hoping Justice is served.

Daring Fireball

The best interfaces to Twitter, on any platforms, were all native apps on the iPhone and Mac. We’re now on the cusp of a new frontier with Mastodon, and it’s Apple’s utterly clueless bureaucratic App Store reviewers who are doing their best to lock the new playground’s gates before they even open.

John is talking about a beautiful, highly functional, Mastodon client called Ice Cubes. The Apple App Store review process can throw some really weird reasons at folks why they won’t approve an app. Stream was rejected three times because I use the word subscribe in it and they thought I was collecting money and wanted their cut. They insisted I use in app purchase for subscriptions. 😵‍💫

Short story long, Ice Cubes was finally approved and I honestly believe someone at Apple read John’s piece and fixed the situation. 💪🏼

stitcher.io

From its humble beginnings as a personal project in the mid-90s, PHP has grown to become one of the most popular languages for web development, powering everything from small blogs to large enterprise applications.

I know what you’re gonna say, PHP is garbage. I don’t think so. It’s been used for years and years and while some folks may find it strange I think it’s a much better language than JavaScript and it continues to improve.

Ars Technica

Legislators of the nation’s least-populous state are taking a brave stand against modernity and climate action. They’re sponsoring SJ0004, “Phasing out new electric vehicle sales by 2035,” an uncomplicated bill that expresses the state’s goal to phase out sales of new EVs by 2035 and asks Wyoming’s industries and citizens to do their civic duty in resisting the EV.

These folks are just ridiculous. When the world becomes so difficult to live in they’ll all ask “What caused this.” We all know what’s causing it. Us, continuing to do things we know are destroying the planet.

Dave Rogers

But I’m conscious of the fact that what I’m doing involves writing; and I have two fears when I’m doing this, neither of which has had the good effect of compelling me to stop. I’m afraid that I’m writing badly, and I’m afraid that it’s boring.

I love reading Dave’s stuff, always have. Like Dave I started my weblog to become a better writer. It hasn’t worked but I still enjoy doing it. Keep up the good work Dave!

Support Indie Developers. That’s it, that’s the commentary.

Sam Soffes

This year was a unique year. I started the year without a job or a place to live. My house in San Francisco just sold, so I had house money in my checking account. Now what?

Great read from Sam. I’d love to become a nomad, traveling the country with Kim and our animal family in a big RV. Yes, id like to make it our full time home!

Anywho, Sam talks about his year of Van Life and it sounds so exciting.

Maybe someday.🤞🏼

Dave Rupert

So you want to make a new JS framework

Web development is still way too difficult. In 2011 I realized most of it boils down to DevOps, not the code so much. We could write, debug, and test code locally but were at the mercy of how the network was configured to make it scale. Yes, we found and fixed bottlenecks in code as we went along, but the DevOps folks were the real heroes.

Go read what Mr. Rupert outlines in his post. It’s ridiculous it takes that much to publish a new JavaScript framework.

Also, why are folks still making new JavaScript frameworks? 🤔

Variety

Regal Cinemas, the second-largest chain of movie theaters in the U.S., will close 39 locations after its parent company Cineworld filed for bankruptcy in September, according to legal filings obtained by Variety.

I love seeing movies on the big screen, always have, but the new realities of COVID-19 have made me a very cautious person. I’ve seen two movies in theaters since the pandemic hit, both at very quiet times for a theatre.

It is sad to see our Charlottesville Regal hit by the closures. It is a really nice theatre.

I think of Home Alone as a Christmas movie. Not a only watch in December movie, but a Christmas movie nonetheless. I like watching it on Thanksgiving night. 🦃

Anywho, all that to say, it on now and I’m watching it.

Oh, and I want that house. 😃

I started watching The Sandman last night and it was amazing. I only watched two episodes because I’ve been watching on my iPhone. After episode two I decided I wouldn’t be watching any more episodes there and I’d be starting over on our TV.

The worlds and characters Neil Gaiman creates are absolutely beautiful. I’m obviously not a writer or critic but I know what I like and The Sandman has it all.

My lovely wife made me a mocha to go with composing this weeks post. That combined with oxycodone, ice, and elevation are doing their job. I can focus well enough to get this done. 🤞🏼

Shelly Rosen: ”The way Google’s two-factor authentication system is designed, sets up poor and elderly people to be locked out of their accounts again and again, and without access to their email, they lose their welfare benefits, their housing, and struggle to find work.”

I’m not sure what Google can do to fix this extremely important problem. Take some time to read Ms. Rosen’s letter it lays everything out for Google. As a developer this is the kind of feedback you hope to get from folks using your software.

TechCrunch: ”Amazon this morning announced plans to acquire Roomba maker iRobot for an all-cash deal valued at $1.7 billion.”

Alexa, don’t vacuum the cat. This seems like a really sweet deal for Amazon. I can’t believe iRobot couldn’t fetch a higher price.

Los Angeles Times: “The California Department of Motor Vehicles has accused Tesla of false advertising in its promotion of the company’s signature Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technologies.”

This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Tesla has been touring Full Self Drive for years and they’re no where near the desired functionality. Is it novel? Yes. Do I trust it? No way.

I can’t wrap my brain around the challenges the developers must be facing. And the icing on the cake would be Musk breathing down your neck to get it done. No thanks.

My idea of a better challenge would be tackling mass transit with electric motors and making it easier to travel long distances on electric trains and busses.

Heck, the eBikes business is really taking off.

Cartoon Brew: ”Dreamworks Animation has unveiled plans to release its proprietary production renderer Moonray as open-source software later this year.”

I’ve had a fascination with rendering pipelines for years and years. As far as I know Pixar’s RenderMan is still the Cadillac of rendering software but having an open source choice from a heavy hitter like Dreamworks is worthy of consideration, and it’ll be open so folks can contribute to it. Amazing!

When the git repo is made public you know I’ll be there poking around. 😃

Makes you wonder if Pixar will follow with RenderMan?

TechCrunch: ”Infowars founder Alex Jones took the stand today in a trial that will determine what he owes to the parents of a child killed in the Sandy Hook mass shooting. Last year, Jones was found liable in a series of defamation cases brought by the parents of Sandy Hook victims.”

Alex Jones is a grifter. He has an unwitting audience of people willing to believe anything because they hate everything and everyone. Jones feeds their animosity with wild stories of the deep state and blood drinking Democrats to drain them of their hard earned cash. Who’s the vampire?

Vulture: ”It’s pretty well known and even darkly joked about across all the visual-effects houses that working on Marvel shows is really hard. When I worked on one movie, it was almost six months of overtime every day. I was working seven days a week, averaging 64 hours a week on a good week. Marvel genuinely works you really hard. I’ve had co-workers sit next to me, break down, and start crying. I’ve had people having anxiety attacks on the phone.”

I don’t think this is a new reality of the VFX business. Rather, a horrible expectation set by major studios.

Deadline: ”Even though Batgirl is in the final stages of post-production, Deadline has confirmed that Warner Bros. and DC Films will not be releasing the movie on any platform, including theatrically.”

This is a real bummer. I was totally ready for it.

As far as release platforms go, I was fully expecting it to appear on HBO Max. It’s the streaming platform I use more than any other. More than Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and Apple TV. Each of those services has a place in my streaming lineup, but HBO’s ability to release new movies to streaming early is it’s real superpower.

The Washington Post: ”SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk’s countersuit to Twitter contains aggressive new claims about the social media site’s methods for tallying bot and spam accounts — as well as which accounts generate ad revenue — cementing the strategy the billionaire is using to attempt to back out of the deal.”

I suspect Musk will be forced to show up and pay $54.20 per share.

The big question is, once he owns it can he make it something better or will he lose an uphill battle?

How do you deal with bot problems and nihilistic American politicians hell bent on turning our democracy into a self serving dictatorship.

I’m sure Mr. Musk has some really great ideas. It’s the bad ideas I’m worried about.

That’s all for today. I hope you enjoyed your coffee or tea with your read. ☕️

Robert Reich: “Decades ago, America’s wealthy backed a Republican establishment that believed in fiscal conservatism, anti-communism, and constitutional democracy. But today’s billionaire class is pushing a radically anti-democratic agenda for America — backing Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen, calling for restrictions on voting, and even questioning the value of democracy.”

Our slide toward the destruction of American Democracy is real and it sucks.

Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of usershttps://t.co/Y2t0QMuuyn

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022

I’m shocked! Said no one ever. Musk is just another billionaire bro who gets off manipulating people and systems.

Real piece of work.

Lickability: “While there have always been many third-party iOS apps for Mastodon on the App Store, Eugen wanted us to create a native first-party application that showcased what’s unique about Mastodon while also focusing on bringing in entirely new users.”

This piece is a bit older but it’s worth mentioning if you’d like to move off Twitter to Mastodon. The Lickability built, native, iOS app is really nice.

Rolling Stone - Adam Rawnsley: “As of Tuesday, Truth Social hasn’t even submitted an Android app to Google to review for Play Store approval, an individual familiar with the matter and two Trumpworld sources with knowledge of the situation tell Rolling Stone.”

Trumps paranoia is real and his band of grifters and politicians aren’t serious people trying to do things the right way, like us regular people.

Bloomberg - Mark Gurman: “Apple Inc. delayed a plan to require workers to come back to the office three days a week, citing a resurgence in Covid-19 cases, marking the latest setback in its efforts to return to normal.”

Apple has lost some folks and others really don’t want to come back to the office.

It’s gonna be a challenge.

CNN - Marianne Garvey: “Ward, known for his work in “The Right Stuff,” “Short Cuts,” and numerous other films, died on May 8 at age 79.”

This death was a gut punch to me for some reason. I liked watching Fred Ward movies. My favorites are Tremors and Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. Of course those weren’t mentioned in the article.

The Sun Gazette - John Lindt: “On May 12, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its 2022 almond forecast estimating the California almond crop will be 4% lower than 2021, meaning there will be about 100 million fewer pounds produced in the Golden State.”

I don’t think folks realize how much of the worlds fruits and vegetables come out of California’s San Joaquin Valley. It’s not L.A. it’s not San Francisco or any other well know California destination. It’s the poor part of California nobody pays attention to. It’s hot and dusty and full of hardworking migrants to deliver us the food we need to survive. Crops like Almonds are very popular, they also use a ton of water. The only other nut crop I know of that uses more water than Almonds is Walnuts.

Growing up in California’s San Joaquin Valley water was always an issue. But now? Now is way more extreme than those days and is only going to get worse due to climate change.

Harvard Business Review - Thomas Stackpole: “White created the website Web3 Is Going Just Great, a time line that tracks scams, hacks, rug pulls, collapses, shady dealings, and other examples of problems with Web3. HBR.org spoke to White over email about what people aren’t hearing about Web3, how blockchain could make internet harassment much worse, and why the whole project might be ‘an enormous grift that’s pouring lighter fluid on our already-smoldering planet.’”

Crypto coin values fell off a cliff shortly after this article appeared.

Check out Web3 Is Going Just Great it’s full of interesting reads.

I watched Dune for the third time and the abrupt ending still drives me nuts.

I hope the second part is as good as the first.

The sleeper must awaken.