It’s so much easier to be a good iOS developer now than it was 10 years ago. I love tackling new features/requirements like pull-to-refresh and learning “Oh, it’s easy now.”

I’ve often looked back at old writing and wished I could “write like that again.” Here’s the blog post from when I first moved to Boston from California, 15+ years ago: blog.punkitup.com/2005/07/ Well, I’m gonna try to write like that again.

I don’t do Wordle every day but this is one for the archives. No cheating! Just bad luck turned very good. Wordle 214 2/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I am doing Dry January but … things happened … and I invented a new loophole called “The Ides of Dry January,” where you get to drink if the 15th lands on a weekend. In any case it’s VERY fun to say “Ides of Dry January.”

I grew up in Santa Cruz but often feel only a light connection to the city. After visiting my family over the holidays, I bought myself a Santa Cruz Skateboards hoodie, and have been wearing it most days. It makes me feel young, and reminds me of home. Charms are powerful.✌🏻

The only time I ever cold-auditioned for a band, was as a vocalist for a punk/indie band in SF. I listened to Quasi the whole way there and then did my best Sam Coomes. Didn’t get the gig, but one member wanted to start another band with me. I dropped the ball because anxiety.

If software was attributed the same way that classical music is, we’d have works like Utility 14 in Swift by Jalkut.

Apple’s CEO and every member of its Board of Directors is over 60. I think age diversity is something to strive for in governance, as well.

Seems like Apple took a pass at culling the most obvious ripoffs of Wordle from the App Store. There are still some inappropriate uses of the name, but the blatant color scheme ripoffs are not showing up in search.

To head off any critics who might ask, “OK, smartass, what would YOU do to improve the Mac as a platform?” I say: I don’t know, I look to historic innovators like Apple for that. I would probably start by picking three intrinsic advantages of web apps and strategize against them.

12 years ago, I wrote “Can’t Catch Me”, wherein I proclaimed with confidence that the Mac would continue to outpace web platforms. That cockiness presupposed a much greater level of commitment from Apple than we’ve seen. redsweater.com/blog/1110…

Apple fixed the hardware problems with the Mac, now they must address software. We need M1-level software platform differentiation, and three competing app frameworks won’t create it. Are they even aware how tentative their footing in consumer software is? They’re not showing it.

Worth noting that Mercury is only available to businesses, and even then only businesses that have an EIN (non sole-proprietor).

I took a leap of faith on Mercury and so far I am pretty delighted. The UI is very Stripe-like, in the best possible way. Fast, modern, and they even offer an API! If they had let me preview this interface, I wouldn’t have hesitated. mercury.com/r/redswea…

I don’t understand why so many banks, particularly online-first/only banks, don’t provide a full demo of their software interface. That’s the most important aspect of the product to me.

What do you call a woman whose husband is obsessed with iOS development at the expense of his family? UIWidow.

“Enjoying” a non-alcoholic “IPA” and if this is what beer tastes like to people who don’t like beer, then I totally get it.