Week Note Nine - Pinch and a punch for the first of March.
Hello March
Spring is on the way and it is good to see daylight in the early mornings. I’m an early riser, I prefer to be up at this time to gather my thoughts, writing, and reading. It is a good mental hack for the mind to go to bed earlier which is often around 10 to 10:30pm without having to deal with night anxiety. If you want to try being an early riser, there are many tips online. [Mental note: write about this!]
iOS 13, iPadOS, TvOS and macOS Catalina
These four releases from Apple are dreadful and convoluted releases. The temptation to move on from Apple is a difficult one because of their ecosystem and the alternatives are appealing. It is going to be a long while till I have faith in Apple’s software and hardware again. My 15” MacBook Pro (mid 2014) with solid hardware specs that will keep me happy for a long while until Apple decided to add this range to the hardware dump.
Microsoft is looking particularly favourable thanks to Windows 10 and their Surface Pro range looks delicious and forward thinking. With WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux) at the ready, the Redmond company are not stopping. One do have to wonder how did Microsoft dramatically changed things in the past decade? Hint: it’s the leadership.
Hobbies
It is good to have an outside interest instead of being a front end developer 24/7.
My current hobbies are:
- Writing - After nearly a decade out, getting back into it feels utterly alienating.
- Designing and Drawing - I used to design websites! Also had a little online comic where I randomly put images together and zany off the wall stories.
- Cooking and baking - All this changed when starting a family after having daily routines!
What is missing from this list? Photography.
I was a complete nut about it, and then I ran into anxiety and depression where I sold off all my cameras since I felt it was pointless. I went back to my photography folders that I have stored away and was amazed at my work. My wife has been encouraging ideas to put my photos back online, write stories to accompany them, and not to give up. Only time will tell when it will be all back up again.
And finally...
Spotted this gem of a site - Free for Dev. A huge list of free tiers (some for a year) services available to developers to get started.