Essays

Interview on Plutopia podcast

Speaking of tonight’s Homebrew Website Club, Tom Brown and I were guests on the Plutopia podcast that just posted this week, talking about the IndieWeb, posting to your own blog, and Micro.blog. I misspoke at the beginning about the founding of the IndieWeb, incorrectly saying “Distributed Web Summit” when I meant “Federated Social Web Summit”. I actually interviewed Tantek and Aaron about those early days of the IndieWeb when I was in Portland this year, for my upcoming book Indie Microblogging.

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Good morning, Austin!

Good morning, Austin! Tonight is Homebrew Website Club, 6:30pm at Mozart’s Coffee. We’ll meet at a table outside to talk about the IndieWeb, plan for the upcoming IndieWebCamp Austin, or work on your own web site.

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Micro.blog 1.4

We released a new version of Micro.blog for iOS today with several new features and improvements: Added full-screen viewer for photos in the timeline. Added auto-complete of usernames when composing a new post. Added tapping on your blog hostname in the post screen to switch to a different blog if you have multiple Micro.blog-hosted blogs. Added option to set description on uploaded photos for better accessibility. Tap an attached photo thumbnail before posting to edit the text.

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Some of y’all noticed that Micro.blog

Some of y’all noticed that Micro.blog was slow or not responding this morning. Sorry! I explain why on today’s episode of Timetable.

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Thanks everyone for the congrats and feedback about the last year of Micro.blog!

Thanks everyone for the congrats and feedback about the last year of Micro.blog! Coming up today, another post in our 12 days of microblogging series. Also a chance that the new iOS version is approved.

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Having fun wrapping up the next iOS version of Micro.blog

Having fun wrapping up the next iOS version of Micro.blog with @cheesemaker 3–4 new features that add up to a very nice release. I’d love to ship it Monday for the official 1-year anniversary of the public launch of Micro.blog.

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Great to see Apple Music coming to the Echo (noticed via MacStories).

Great to see Apple Music coming to the Echo (noticed via MacStories). This is kind of an “iTunes on Windows” moment. Makes business sense, but still surprising.

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With the midterms and now the near-daily Mueller investigation news, I’ve fallen back into…

With the midterms and now the near-daily Mueller investigation news, I’ve fallen back into reloading The New York Times home page throughout the day for no reason. Gotta stop this. I already see everything in my RSS reader or Micro.blog timeline.

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Sunlit 2.3.1

Sunlit 2.3.1 is now available in the App Store. If you’re interested in posting more photos to your own blog, check it out. It’s a free app and works well with Micro.blog.

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There’s a nice feature on RSS apps (best viewed on iOS) in the App Store today.

There’s a nice feature on RSS apps (best viewed on iOS) in the App Store today.

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Posted a new Timetable with a few updates on Sunlit, the updated help.micro.blog

Posted a new Timetable with a few updates on Sunlit, the updated help.micro.blog home page, and when to upgrade servers.

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Haven’t actively used EC2 in a while, but wanted to check out the pricing after this week’s…

Haven’t actively used EC2 in a while, but wanted to check out the pricing after this week’s announcement that Amazon is making their own CPUs. On first glance, the “a1” instances don’t look cheaper. Maybe it’s not right to compare them directly to comparable “t3” instances?

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Hi Austin!

Hi Austin! NSDrinking is tonight, 8pm at Radio. Join us for a chat about Apple development over a coffee or beer. ☕🍻

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Sent the latest Sunlit 2.3.1 build to beta testers. Anyone can now join the beta with this link.

Sent the latest Sunlit 2.3.1 build to beta testers. Anyone can now join the beta with this link.

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There’s a really good follow-up about the App Store monopoly in today’s Stratechery daily update.

There’s a really good follow-up about the App Store monopoly in today’s Stratechery daily update. Focusing on in-app purchase (digital goods) paints a very clear picture of why Apple’s rules need to change.

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Good news for Sunlit users: @cheesemaker tracked down that crash that had been eluding us and we…

Good news for Sunlit users: @cheesemaker tracked down that crash that had been eluding us and we have a fix ready to go this week. Waiting for Apple to approve it.

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Beto has a new blog

I wish it wasn’t hosted on Medium, where you can’t even use your own domain name, but I’m glad to see some long-form posts from Beto O’Rourke after the election. It shouldn’t surprise anyone who has heard Beto speak that he is also a great blogger: I walked over to the north wall and read Lincoln’s second inaugural address. My body warm, blood flowing through me, moving my legs as I read, the words so present in a way that I can’t describe or explain except that I’m so much more alive in the middle of a run, and so are the words I was reading.

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Portland Trip

2018-06-25 Walking through the park. 2018-06-26 Morning keynote at IndieWeb Summit and then meetup after the first day. 2018-06-28 My Airbnb was perfect. One block away was a great coffee shop. Also a shot here over the bridge.

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Preview of Sunlit 2.2

As I get ready to fly to Portland this morning for IndieWeb Summit, I wanted to give a quick preview video of the upcoming Sunlit 2.2 release. We are very excited about the new Timeline tab, which brings an Instagram-like experience to the app for the first time. There is so much potential for photo blogging. As you watch the video, remember that all these posts are coming from someone’s blog, usually at their own domain name.

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From the loop around Lake Charles, Louisiana on the drive home.

From the loop around Lake Charles, Louisiana on the drive home.

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Road trip today. Crossing over some train tracks out in the country.

Road trip today. Crossing over some train tracks out in the country.

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IndieWeb Summit next week

I’ll be in Portland next week for IndieWeb Summit. Marty McGuire has a nice overview and invitation for anyone to attend: IWS kicks off with a pre-party on Monday evening at the Pine Street Market where you can enjoy some great handmade food and drinks. More importantly, you can meet and befriend some of the most earnest and clever folks I know when it comes to having fun being yourself on the web.

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On campus this morning. Texas Memorial Museum poking up through the trees.

On campus this morning. Texas Memorial Museum poking up through the trees.

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WWDC 2018 wrap-up

I realized after flying back home that this was likely my 20th trip out to San Jose and San Francisco for WWDC. I certainly loved the early years, as well as the height of WWDC in San Francisco as the community was growing, but I’ve found the no-stress compromise of the last few years without a conference ticket to be some of the most enjoyable and productive. This year I arrived Saturday before lunch.

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Back online after taking some time off to camp at Colorado Bend State Park last night.

Back online after taking some time off to camp at Colorado Bend State Park last night. Great hike down to the waterfall this morning.

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There are a few more Micro.blog

There are a few more Micro.blog apps currently in development that I’m really excited about. Here’s the latest dev build video from Kiwi for macOS. Looks great.

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I usually queue up Micro Monday when it goes live, but today has been a blur, and I just finished…

I usually queue up Micro Monday when it goes live, but today has been a blur, and I just finished listening to the latest episode in the car while running an errand. This week, Jean talks to Jim Withington about early blogging, XOXO, and more. Enjoy!

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Finally tracked down and fixed a couple issues with photo upload in Micro.blog

Finally tracked down and fixed a couple issues with photo upload in Micro.blog after recent server improvements. Everything should be working much better now.

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Server upgrade went pretty smoothly.

Server upgrade went pretty smoothly. Photo uploads were disabled for about 10 minutes, but everything else stayed up. Improved profile photos to be a little more resilient as well.

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Going to take photo upload offline for a quick update tonight, midnight CST.

Going to take photo upload offline for a quick update tonight, midnight CST. The rest of Micro.blog will stay up including all hosted blogs.

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