I completed the pre-December trifecta by getting in my first Nordic ski of the year today. All the way up and down Whiteface Mountain Memorial Highway with my best furry buddy. 🐶⛷️🏔️📷
🆕📝 Letters with Kev, November 2023 [#3]
For our final letter this month, @kev@fosstodon.org and I got into blog backends, crises versus low-stakes details, the News, and listening to audiobooks and podcasts. I had so much fun getting to know Kev over the past few weeks.
🆕📝 Personal Voice: A triumph (and a request)
I felt so compelled to write this blog post this morning, that I’ve yet to leave my bed and have been hammering it out on my iPhone for the past couple of hours. I can’t tell you why I feel so strongly about it, but I do.
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The really cool thing about OPML files, that some feed readers and clients support, is that you can subscribe to the OPML file itself. This means that you’ll not only get the posts of anyone included when you subscribed, you’ll also get the posts of anyone who is added to the file at a later date. As the list of of feeds grows, so does the number of blogs and posts you’ll see.
I was not aware of this. 👀🤔
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Teddy has taken matters into his own hands and designed a new emoji that he refers to as the “genius emoji.” The design shows a smiling emoji wearing glasses and without the “horrible rabbit teeth.”
You know what? I think Teddy is right. The nerd emoji is a caricature, and I agree it could be better. Good on Teddy for speaking up!
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In a world where venture capital money is drying up […], it’s a feat to raise that much before you even have a product, though the trio’s past success certainly helps. “I met Ari on the platform formerly known as Twitter when we were both in high school,” Field tells me. “He is one of the most talented people I know, and I would back anything he does.”
Their exit has sadly coincided with more bugginess in Shortcuts. But I’m surely looking forward to whatever they come up with next.
🔗 In a sign of the times, podcast app Castro may be dying – Six Colors
Which is to say, if Castro really is not long for this world, I fully expect that most of its users won’t go to Overcast or Pocket Casts, but will retreat to Apple or Spotify, companies that are unlikely to fail them, even if the cost is a little less customization or functionality. And a little more of the unique, open podcast ecosystem will be lost forever.
Got in my first ice climb of the year, and before December 1st! Felt great to swing some tools again — it’s gonna be a great season. ⛏️❄️📷
🔗 I Made a Podcast 100% in Shortcuts // Stephen Robles
Discover how you can integrate both ChatGPT and ElevenLabs voice generator to create an entire podcast directly in the Shortcuts app!
Whoa! @stephenrobles@mastodon.social made a shortcut that uses ChatGPT and ElevenLabs to automatically create an entire podcast episode, soup to nuts, in his voice without having to record a single word. 🤯 As a proof of concept, this is super impressive. It’s got my wheels turning, considering a podcast version of my blog for people who’d prefer to listen to articles as a podcast, Stratechery-style.
Enjoying the new Play 2.0 but need a way to move over your channel subs? I just released my ‘Follow List of Channels in Play’ shortcut version 1.0 to do just that!
The shortcut helps you follow a channel in the Play app by allowing you to send a YouTube channel’s URL, or list of URLs, to it.
But its best use is to copy all your YouTube subscriptions over at once. Just selext the whole list of your channel subs in YouTube, copy the text, and then run this shortcut. It will extract the channel URLs and follow them one-by-one in Play.
Get it here from the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library.
🆕📝 Apple is Accused of Censorship Again in the TV+ Department
I sure hope this is all a misunderstanding, but two points of data form a trend.
I just released my ‘YouTube Launcher’ shortcut version 1.0:
Use Apple Shortcuts to launch directly into specific parts of the YouTube app without distraction.
(Thanks to @matthewcassinelli@mastodon.social, whom I’m pretty sure I got the original idea from. I’ve been using a version of this for years!)
Get it here from the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library, which is now up to 20 shortcuts!
If you make it through Trying S02E08 without a happy cry, or at least a few solid happy tears, you’ve got tougher emotional walls than me, my friend. 🥹📺
Don’t mind me, I’m just testing a thing and hoping I’ll get a notification over at @HeyDingus@mas.to.
@mactanaka@mastodon.social continues to knock it out of the park with Play.
It was Christmas tree hunting day, one of my favorite days of the year. We got a real honker to fill up our new tall ceilings, and the house has never smelled better! David Sparks’ ‘Yule’ playlist served as background for the festivities. 🎄📷
Today I was reminded that I’ve found the right life partner. I’d been sheepishly dreading broaching my desire to spend that ridiculous sum of money on a Vision Pro. I’d buy it with “extra” income (tips & side projects), still—it’s huge. Her only question: “Would it make you happy?” She’s the best. 🥰
I just updated my ‘How Much Do I Have to Save for Vision Pro?’ shortcut to version 1.2:
- Added a congratulatory message when you reach your savings goal, and the math and checks necessary to know when you’ve done so.
- Removed the dashes from the list of need-to-save amounts so they don’t look like negative numbers.
- Added import setup questions for the cost of the Vision Pro you want, the local tax rate, and the launch date.
Get it here from the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library.
Holy shit. Stripe’s real-time Black Friday weekend stats: bfcm.stripe.dev 🤑
🆕📝 Two-Sentence Reviews of Some Gizmos I Got
None of these were Black Friday deals, but I still wanted to get in on the fun. (Is it fun?) Instead of long-winded, extensive reviews that I’ve put off writing of all these gadgets, you get just a couple of (sometimes run-on) sentences for each.
I just discovered Blogit from Yuexun’s App Defaults blog post. It looks like a super simple way to make a blog out of your Notion database. I don’t use Notion, but I imagine it’d be appealing to people who entrust their life to that app. And I’m all for more folks blogging!
Since the Vision Pro was announced in June, I’ve been dutifully stashing away any tips I’ve made from guiding, plus proceeds from selling off stuff and Shortcuts commissions. Today, my savings tracker shortcut returned negative numbers, so I had to update it to account for that surprise. 😁
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I’ve already shared this on Mastodon earlier today, but thought it would be worth sharing here also.
The theme is avaialble as dark mode theme only, for now, but should you want to use it yourself, open THIS which should open Mona on your device and apply the theme.
I don’t even use Mastodon very often (occasionally for the @HeyDingus@mas.to account) and I’m still probably going to pay to unlock Mona’s pro features just so I can use @andyn@social.lol’s gorgeous theme.
