Thord D. Hedengren

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  • The 2017 Pulitzer winners

    Looking for something to read the next couple of days? Longreads has made a list of all the Pulitzer Prize winners this year. Enjoy.

  • "People don't have hours anymore"

    Jason Fried, founder and CEO of Basecamp, said this in the HBR Ideacast podcast, which I didn't listen to but luckily there's a transcript:

    You know, people don’t have hours anymore. Like, you don’t have hours at work. You know, people say they work 8 hours a day or 10 hours a day or 12 hours a day. They don’t. They work 15 minutes and 20 minutes and 25 minutes and 6 minutes and maybe 45 minutes if they’re lucky. And that just seems broken to me. So I’m trying to push hard against that.

  • Hey, give us your passwords

    The Guardian reporting on the possibility of US requiring social media account access and more from visitors:

    (Security secretary John) Kelly told a House homeland security committee hearing in February: “We want to say for instance, ‘What sites do you visit? And give us your passwords,’ so that we can see what they do on the internet. If they don’t want to give us that information then they don’t come.”

    Yeah, I’m not visiting the US anytime soon. This is just horrible.

  • Is the iPad turnaround coming?

    Is the iPad turnaround coming?

    Jean-Louis Gassée believes that the iPad turnaround, where the naysayers are predicting doom and gloom due to the huge dip in sales. This, after writing about the relaunched iPad product line, sans pro, in the Monday Note piece:

    This leads us to an easy guess for future iPad Pros. We’re likely to see linear hardware and software improvements (keyboard, screen, stylus, more independent windows…), plus others we can’t think of immersed, as we often are, in derivative thought. All will make the Pros more pro: Powerful enough of take business away from the Mac (and Windows PCs). I like my MacBook, but can see an iPad Pro on my lap and desk in a not-too-distant future.

    I believe this is possible, I know the vast majority of people would enjoy their computing tasks more if they used an iPad Pro instead, with the suitable accessories of course. However that’s a big step, and for some a change in mindset. It’s a tough battle to win.

    I write columns for Di Digital, a Swedish business tech site, and whenever I mention a computing solution that’s far from the laptop, I get emails about “not being able to work without the Thinkpad nub” and the like. People, professionals especially, are creatures of habit.

    That said, putting iPad Pros in the workflow of the younger generation, which are clearly the target of the new iPad Pro ads (one embedded below), might be the longterm route to success. Some industries you disrupt over night, others take more time. Professional computing work isn’t as easily defined as a smart mobile phone segment.

    Oh, and before you click play, make sure you read the whole Jean-Louis Gassée piece and the tiny little note about perspectives at the end. The iPad is a big deal, the only reason Apple pundits and analysts are chirping about its doom is because of the declining sales. That’s only really a truly worrying factor if people never upgrades their iPads. Looking at my immediate surroundings, that’s something people are interested in doing.

    https://youtu.be/Z-9tvx0aO1U

  • It’s World Backup Day, are you backing up?

    It’s World Backup Day, are you backing up?

    It’s World Backup Day today, and every March 31st. The idea is to remind people to back up their stuff, because it’s horrible to loose your precious data.

    People don’t backup their data because it’s hard. Companies like Apple are trying to solve that with automatic backups to their respective cloud services, and that’s great. It’s gotten a lot easier to backup photos in particular over the years.

    I have several layers of backups.

    • All iOS devices backup to iCloud.
    • I have a Time Capsule in the office that backups up my Macs whenever they’re there.
    • I also have a Time Capsule at home, doing the same thing. Redundancy!
    • Most workfiles live in Dropbox and/or iCloud Drive. That means that they sync and that I get version control over them. It’s not a backup per se, but it’s an extra layer of protection.
    • My Macs all backup off-site using BackBlaze (use my referral link if you want to give it a go, that’ll get me free months).
    • I have a FTP server where I upload all my photos on a monthly basis, just in case.

    Despite all this, I still feel I should be doing more about backup. My mobile devices in particular feel vulnerable, because although iCloud restores (and synchronisation) have yet to fail me, it’s often the only layer of backup safety I have there. I’m looking to get a wifi disk and a couple of those Lightning USB sticks to do sanity backups.

    Also, it’s worth repeating that synchronisation is not a backup. If you have all your files in Dropbox and someone gets access to them, deletes them, then they’re gone. The 30 day versioning feature makes it possible to restore lost files within Dropbox, but that only helps if you know that you’ve lost a file. Synchronisation services such as Dropbox are great, but they are not backups.

    Backup. Even Ray Spass does it.

  • Your online activities are for sale

    US citizens lost a little bit more of their privacy the other day, when Congress made sure that internet service providers will be able to sell customer information, such as web browsing history, in the future too. Yes, too, because this isn't new, just cemented now (barring president Trump's signature). The Verge:

    It’s hard to see this as anything but a major loss for consumers. While reversing the FCC’s privacy rules will technically just maintain the status quo — internet providers have actually been able to sell your web browsing data forever (it’s just not a thing we think about all that much) — they were about to lose permission to keep doing it, unless they got explicit consent or anonymized the info.

    It was the Republican party who voted this one through, so while there are lists of the traitors to the internet and whatnot, you should probably call your representatives no matter what.

    Want to know what the ISPs can actually sell? Motherboard has you covered, and it's pretty scary reading. You might want to consider getting yourself a VPN (Zenmate, Tunnelbear, and NordVPN are easy to use), use secure messaging apps such as Signal or iMessage, and live in incognito mode until the Big Brother Corp nastiness passes. If it ever will.

  • The Deck closes

    The Deck, one of those minimalistic and overly nice ad networks, is throwing in the towel. Founder Jim Coudal writes about the journey, which is interesting for those of us who’s been in the so-called blogosphere since way back when.

    In 2014, display advertisers started concentrating on large, walled, social networks. The indie “blogosphere” was disappearing. Mobile impressions, which produce significantly fewer clicks and engagements, began to really dominate the market. Invasive user tracking (which we refused to do) and all that came with that became pervasive, and once again The Deck was back to being a pretty good business. By 2015, it was an OK business and, by the second half of 2016, the network was beginning to struggle again.

    John Gruber and his popular blog Daring Fireball was number four in the exclusive network. He has a lot of good things to say about The Deck, but this snippet from his post underlines why The Deck stood out:

    I was chatting with Jim earlier this evening. Someone wrote to him to ask, “Why didn’t you sell the network instead of shutting it down?” Jim’s answer: “The Deck was built exclusively on close, personal relationships. I don’t think those are mine to sell.”

    Things do change, advertising isn’t what it used to be, and The Deck really shouldn’t have lasted this long. That’s a compliment, by the way.

  • Publishers Weekly gives Haunted Futures a starred review

    Haunted Futures, cover by Gábor Csigas

    This is good news: Publishers Weekly has awarded Haunted Futures, a science fiction anthology featuring the likes of Warren Ellis, S.L. Huang, Jeff Noon, and, well, me, with not only a review but a starred one.

    There is an entry for every speculative genre, including space exploration (Gethin A. Lynes’s “Remember the Sky”), Lovecraftian horror (Lynnea Glasser’s “Guardian of the Gate”), and postapocalyptic feminism (Pete Rawlik’s “Retirement Plan”), and each story lives up to or exceeds its genre’s expectations.

    Read more about Haunted Futures here, or preferably over at the publisher’s site. Hat’s off to all the writers in this one, but most importantly to Ghostwoods Books’ very own Salomé Jones and Tim Dedopulos. Job well done, guys.

  • Medium publishers are worried

    And rightly so, I might add. First Medium made the big push to get online publications to sign up for their publishing program, and then they change the whole thing. This is just one of several quotes from this Poynter piece that I think every small online publisher should read. It's a great reminder that there are no surefire solutions at the moment.

    "Right now, we're very concerned about the future of our site's partnership with Medium," said Neil Miller, the founder of pop culture site Film School Rejects. "What we were sold when we joined their platform is very different from what they're offering as a way forward."

    Tread carefully with Medium, and any other platform you don't fully own, if possible. This piece still resonates true to me on the matter.

  • Let's talk about the AirPods

    Let's talk about the AirPods

    I’m interested in sound and abhor bad headphones. The fact that great music is consumed through crappy cheap in-ear headphones is a travesty. And yet, here I am sitting at an airport, tapping away on my iPad Pro, and listening to an audio book using Apple’s wireless option, the AirPods.

    Let’s get one thing straight right away: The AirPods doesn’t offer great, even good, sound quality. The talk time is about 90 minutes, then you need to charge them. They’re expensive, the fit isn’t perfect, and white is so 90s.

    And yet, despite all this, the AirPods might be the best thing to come out of Apple in a long time. They’re magical.

    Because you see, where other wireless options feature a wire between the headphones, and are generally bulky, the AirPods are anything but. Truly wireless headphones isn’t anything new, but ones that doesn’t suck, doesn’t skip or loose connection, that’s rare. So rare that I haven’t found a serious contender in the same price range, or even ones above. That’s the other thing, because while the AiPods cost a pretty penny, they’re actually not even expensive compared to the competition. Rumor has it Apple is selling them at lower margins than they usually do, and I find that easy to believe.

    None of this is the magical part.

    Pairing is instant and obvious with an iOS device (all others are stuck in Bluetooth hell). It just works has never been more true, the experience is so seamless that I jump between devices without a second thought.

    Take out an AirPod and it pauses the playback. Put it back and it resumes. In fact, if the AirPod isn’t in your ear, it isn’t on. Not the first to feature this, but I daresay these things have never worked so well.

    AirPods aren’t for listening to music, however they’re certainly good enough to play some in the background

    I’m not a fan of Apple’s headphones (also known as EarPods), they fit me poorly and if the cable gets slightly caught in my clothes they’ll almost fall out. AirPods are wireless, no cables, and while the fit could be better I can exercise without worrying that they’ll dislocate. In fact, I can see how some people forget that they’re wearing them in the first place.

    Fucking magical, that’s what it is. The AirPods are the first pair of headphones where I don’t mind the sound quality. Battery life isn’t an issue, not only do they charge in mere minutes within the sleek battery case, it’s more than adequate for listening to music on the commute. I don’t want to turn off the world when I’m in traffic, I want to hear my surroundings should something happen.

    AirPods aren’t for listening to music, however they’re certainly good enough to play some in the background. I’d say you’d have to reach professional DJ level in-ear headphones if you want to really listen to music as it was meant to be heard, and even then you’re still worse off than over-ears.

    As far as phone headphones go, the AirPods are as good as it gets. Full of compromise, sure, but also so completely superior to everything else in terms of life fit. The competition has a lot to live up to, and I can’t wait for what’s yet to come.

  • You might be breast-feeding a vampire merperson soon

    Yeah, that headline isn’t even remotely true, but it’s the kind of absurdity that strikes me when I’m looking at the list of proposed emojis for the 5.0 release. Surely some of these, like breast-feeding and hipster beard as well as vomiting and the steamy room (aka sauna) lady, make sense, but when was the last time you felt the need to express your monocle-ness? Not so sure about that last one.

    Mages, fairies, genies, super happy zombies, elves that looks like hobbits with pointy ears, vampires, and of course the merperson all makes sense in today’s Game of Thrones-infested popular culture. Very on point, just like the somewhat sad T-Rex looking at his pitiful arms.

    The full list of Emoji 5.0 can be found here, if you’re interested.

  • Royal Jordanian Airlines turns laptop ban into advertising

    Royal Jordanian Airlines are using Trump’s laptop ban on airplanes for marketing, and it’s brilliant. There are several tweets going viral, this one stands out to me though:

    Pop over to The Atlantic for the whole story.

  • Stuff I fit in my headphone case

    Stuff I fit in my headphone case

    My over-ear headphones of choice currently is the Bowers & Wilkins P5 Wireless. They’re tight over the ears, more so than a lot of people like, and feature neither phone features nor noise-cancellation. I like them for the raw sound quality, especially when listening to classic rock, as well as how they block out most of the world without ruining the sound with white noise.

    The P5 Wireless come in a little case or bag, containing a micro USB charging cable and a headphone cable if you’re out of battery or just want to go analog. What they probably didn’t know when they designed said bag was that it would be perfect to store some other everyday items I need when I travel.

    Stuff currently in my headphone case when traveling

    The actual bag is to the left, black and soft with an even softer inside to protect the headphones. It has a magnet lock that is just right in terms of strength.

    Other than the P5 Wireless headphones, pictured on the upper right, I fit a Kindle Oasis (center), an Apple Pencil (between the Kindle and the headphones), as well as a cleaning cloth (lower right). The two black cables are micro-USB for charging and the aforementioned headphone cable for analog listening, with a Lightning adapter should I need one. Finally, I have a spare Lightning to USB cable in there, because why not?

    All that in a headphone bag. It could fit more, I’ve been known to carry extra cash, passport, and travel documents in it too. It’s a spacious bag, without being too big for its primary purpose. I want to protect my headphones when I’m traveling, the headphone bag lives in whatever primary bag I have, but being able to stick these other little things in there is very useful. When I get on the plane, for example, I’ll just bring the headphone bag to my seat – it contains everything I’ll need.

    Small things like this makes travel easier. Maybe you have something similar that you’d like to share? Let @tdh know on Twitter, I love to hear about stuff like this.

  • Workflow and Sucuri acquired

    Apple has acquired Workflow, and immediately updated the app to remove integrations with services such as Uber. There’s going to be some noise about this acquisition because of that particular update, but overall it might mean that so called power uses (sic!) might get more out of iOS out of the box. Workflow lets you create workflows (obviously), which are basically scripted actions, much like Automator for macOS. The user interface is a lot more user friendly than its macOS counterpart, so it’s probably not a far stretch to imagine Workflow crossing the border, one way or the other.

    In other news, the hosting company GoDaddy, who’re so desperately trying to fix its reputation, has acquired Sucuri. That means that they now have one of the premier WordPress hosts (WPEngine), and the best security scanner, for the platform.

  • Medium's paywall

    Medium is launching a paywall paid accounts, asking you to be a founding member. This means some of the content on the free publishing platform will be hidden from non-premium users. From the announcement:

    You’ll have access to exclusive stories from leading experts, including your favorite Medium writers, on topics that matter not just today, but tomorrow too.

    As always, own your content online, if you can. By all means, publish to Medium if you like (I’m playing with that), but make sure your online home is your own.