Excursions

I have been using a MacBook with Touch Bar for the past couple of weeks. I used this panel regularly for the first time. I can see why Apple wanted this to stick – when it works, it works well. For example, Zoom puts the buttons for full screen, mute, and video on/off front and centre. It, no doubt, speeds up the flow. But searching for the escape button is an absolute pain!

Apple screwed up the execution. Instead of replacing the row of function keys, this should have been an additional panel above the keyboard. It was ok even if this was available on the larger MacBooks only. But, alas. Apple knows better.

Don’t ever try to retell famous comedians’ jokes. They have a whole process, a build-up before they hit their audience with the joke. You can’t do it all in the 2 minutes you borrow from someone. And they have the skill you don’t, hence famous. Duh!

I switched to the yearly plan for Micro.blog today. Knowing my love for this service, no idea why I didn’t do this earlier. Sure, it’s not perfect. But it’s the one that has allowed me the most freedom with the way I write.

A few audiobook narrators mar the book for the listeners, making me return a book immediately. Worst are those who sound sensual irrespective of the scene they are reading. Bloody I ain’t getting aroused as you tell me the character is staring at someone getting murdered 🤦🏽‍♂️

I write many forms of posts & enjoy them all. But as my friends would know, my love for them is not equal. So then, why do I continue to publish them? An apt metaphor from Robin Sloan made me ponder on the same today. I published a few thoughts, a healthy reminder on the same.

Can we recover a physical literature? Can we recover a literature that is not merely read but felt? The library museum gestures at just such a possibility.

Source: Ode to the Library Museum →

At a time, visiting Techmeme homepage was a respite from the typical downer news on the front page of mainstream news portals. They debated the political & legal mess we are in and advertised false promises. Instead, I would be excited by all the updates from the tech space – new hardware devices, new software updates.

Sigh! That time is no more. When I visited the Techmeme homepage, it was full of just what I was running from earlier – legal and political mess. And advertisements for stuff that isn’t available yet, something we call rumours.

While I was writing the post yesterday about my dependence on smartphones, I realized how misunderstood the term “dependence” has become in the context of this device. Most articles I read about this assume it is the indulgence or addiction one talks about. I was talking about neither of these – I depend on this device to carry out many of the tasks I regularly do. Unfortunately, this factor gets lost in all the hullabaloo about the addictive nature of smartphones.

With new lights, this spot that I have walked across so many times looked different. I liked the shades of yellow amidst the shadows. I wish I could capture it better.

I wonder if no one on Micro.blog creates any type of long-form posts using the web editor. I can’t be the only one who finds this interface too limiting. It is suitable only for short updates. The goal of keeping things simple shouldn’t hamper the experience of writing posts. Whenever I attempt to write a long post with this interface, I instantly look for other options. Sure, I don’t switch. But I would love to avoid having this feeling.

Saving and building on a draft is unnecessarily complicated. Keyboard shortcuts do not work consistently – undo/redo often messes up the post. This is exasperated by the already small editor window. In addition, the experience is not consistent between writing a new post and editing a draft.

This isn’t the first time I have complained about the writing interface. I wrote this almost a year ago (and that wasn’t the first either).

The editing experience remains poor for long-form posts – both from a desktop and a mobile device. It’s a great system with a promising base, but still has a long way to go before I can use it for the longer form content.

Neither am I the only one with the request. The editor is the most essential part of any blogging system. I hope Manton gets time to work on fixing it, an ask that’s pending for too long now. Without this, the platform isn’t fit for the blogging needs of full-length posts.