Notable

Posted 22nd Dec 2020 @ 16:58

This is a good point:

If only anyone could remember a time when advertising wasn't based on privacy-invasive tracking, we could know whether there were any successful small businesses back then.

Pre-internet, would I have bothered advertising as a small business? Probably not, but my location and product would have had to have been right for it to work at all. Pre targeted ads, it was probably a bit more of a hit and hope approach. I've said it before, Google had advertising working really well with AdSense all those years ago when it created adverts related to the content is was being displayed alongside.

You definitely get more bang for your buck with targeted ads, but it's not something anyone should be comfortable with.

Posted 22nd Dec 2020 @ 15:00

A nice iteration, and the finish looks like it might be a bit better. Sometimes the buttons don't all line up perfectly with the current one. I don't think this changes the state of switches in Apple's Home app though, which can only register one click per button while the Philips Hue app lets you assign multiple so you can cycle through scenes and the dimmer switches actually dim. You can change that using Shortcuts, but who has the time to figure out all of the logic for that?

Posted 22nd Dec 2020 @ 12:16

Does the Sun always rise in the same direction? No. As the months change, the direction toward the rising Sun changes, too. The featured image shows the direction of sunrise every month during 2019 as seen from near the city of Amman, Jordan

Posted 22nd Dec 2020 @ 09:25

I had to resort to using Chrome's developer tools to take this screenshot. I had to set the viewport to 8,000px (three zeros) in height to fit it in. In comparison, Twitter required 4,000px and WhatsApp only needed 2,500px.

If you have the time, read through it and then remember that Facebook are going to war with Apple over privacy. Apple's changes cannot come soon enough and the EFF are being very critical of Facebook's stance.

(Given its dimensions and the fact it weighs 1.5mb, I've linked to it rather than display it here.

Posted 21st Dec 2020 @ 12:11

Posted 21st Dec 2020 @ 10:30

Posted 19th Dec 2020 @ 23:26

It'S jUsT tHe Flu

Posted 19th Dec 2020 @ 21:55

This is bullshit from Facebook's side. Claiming that they're speaking up for small businesses is a great way to try and change the conversation about targeted advertising. I'm sure there's some truth to the fact that small businesses will loose out if target advertising fades away but how many small business owners actually understand that they are also a victim in this? They are not immune from being tracked just because they use the data to target their adverts.

I'll be phasing out Google Analytics on any site I own/run between Christmas and the New Year and refuse to implement sharing tools built by anyone now.

Apple's anti-tracking feature cannot come soon enough.

Read more on the topic from John Gruber over at Daring Fireball.

Posted 17th Dec 2020 @ 15:32

I loved Ted Lasso, the actual sport aspect of it all was the least interesting bit. This update from Jason Kottke hits the nail on the head:

another aspect I appreciate about the show is it demonstrates how you can be competitive without being toxic. Lasso is a very competitive guy who cares about winning, but he goes about it in a constructive way, not a destructive way. It's the kind of energy their mom and I are always trying to impart to our kids, who are both competitive (albeit in pretty different ways).

The show was renewed for two more seasons, which is great news and it's been getting praise from two of the podcasts I've been listening to: Fake Doctors, Real Friends and John Gruber's The Talk Show.

Posted 17th Dec 2020 @ 08:48