Minecraft has been a staple childhood game for me, and it’s something I play every now and then. I came across a video for starting a “forever world”, and I set up a quick Minecraft server for myself. Since then, I’ve played more frequently… and I made a companion app to go with it.
Setting tangible goals in 2024 helped with making them more achievable, compared to a vague theme left to interpretation. Likewise, treating these goals as “nice to achieve” rather than a “requirement of the year” helped ensure I somehow met these goals without the fear of not meeting strict deadlines. With
This year has been an incredibly awkward one. I can’t say that I’m particularly fond of this year, but there’s much to be learned from.
For the past year or so, I had serious doubts and questions about myself as a software developer for Apple’s platforms. Now, I think I have found the answers.
I'm taking a break from the Fediverse, as I can't quite get myself up to start fresh and harshly curate my social media feeds.
When I started streaming this year, I got relatively positive reception. Over time, however, reception has been on the decline, and developing the project wasn't as fun as it used to be.
It's been quite some time since I realized I had a problem as an Apple developer. Perhaps the answer I seek is diversifying my tech. It's an opportunity to grow and expand, to explore and rediscover, to reflect and re-enjoy computing as a whole.
It’s been over a month since I went on my hiatus from developing for Apple’s platforms, personally. Yet as I see copious amounts of posts about the Vision Pro and all the fun things indie devs are doing for it, I have to ask: what am I looking for?
In short, I am extremely disappointed in Automattic’s recent behavior and have moved my content to a self-hosted solution. I have yet to figure out what the best approach will be for Indexing Your Heart’s website, since it is the only other major site being hosted on Tumblr.
There; I’ve said it. For some friends and colleagues of mine, this comes as no surprise to them. But for those that have stuck with me for Fedigardens or took a peek into Indexing Your Heart, this will likely be the first time that you’ve heard this.
When things are left to interpretation, goals and ideas get muddied, and it’s difficult to determine whether I’ve made any real progress outside the concrete ideas I had. This year, I want to return to my core and set some tangible goals I’d like to attain.
2023 has been an interesting year for me. I wanted to focus on maintaining the various gardens of my life, such as app development, physical health, and mental/social/emotional health. I feel that I’ve done a decent job overall, though some areas could’ve better improved.
opinion
Nick from The Linux Experiment recently published a video titled "I used a MAC for 30 days, and I'm glad it's over". I'd like to provide my perspective on this video and constructively criticize the points that Nick has mentioned.
goals
When I established my goals for last year, I had taken a different direction and declared it my “Snow Leopard” year. I won’t echo my reflections on this from yesterday’s post, but I did appreciate how open-ended I made that particular goal. So, this year, I’m making a broader set of goals again.
devlog
The app space for the fediverse was sparse when I started working on the Hyperspace project back in 2019. Although there were a good handful of clients on mobile and a couple decent web interfaces, I felt none of them were fully suitable for college students to use.
goals
When I started writing my goals out for 2022, I had thought it would’ve been my “Snow Leopard” year, where I focus more on refinement and general improvement rather than big, ambitious (but realistic) goals.
devlog
For the past four to five years, I’ve been using YouTrack as my personal issue tracker for all of my various projects. Despite this, I’ve been slowly migrating my project tracking to the more widely used Jira.
ios
I love playing with machine learning, especially with the Core ML framework; I use it in Give Me a Sniglet to determine the validity of possible words, for example. On the Mac, Apple makes it easy to create or convert ML models for use in apps with Xcode.
reflection
The notion of an iPad being able to replace a Mac, pixel for pixel, has always been strange to me. While the proposition is tempting, and I could realistically see myself doing that in the future, the iPad won’t be able to completely replace a Mac for me. And I’m totally okay with that.
opinion
In preparation for this seemingly inevitable event, I’m going to discuss my current thoughts about sideloading as both a consumer and a developer.
reflection
After spending about two weeks playing The Witness, I realized that the game is a great metaphor for the journey I’ve been on for the past four years at Goucher College.
opinion
Federico Viticci from MacStories recently published an article about his realizations throughout his journey. I agree with a lot of the points he addresses and some of his conclusions, though there are some areas where I disagree.
opinion
Apple published a response yesterday about the App Improvements process. I’m glad that the criteria have been clarified, though I still believe this should have been clearer from the start. Nonetheless, it’s a welcome change.
opinion
I’m well invested in the Apple ecosystem. I thoroughly enjoy using Apple’s product and how seamless they work with each other. However, Apple’s latest behaviors in defending one of its strong suits, the App Store, has been leaving a sour taste in my mouth.