David Blue


*The Onion*'s new fate is a rare glimmer in the media industry landscape

And how do you do all of that on top of migrating the entire Onion website to WordPress?

If you, too, immediately thought “well what the hell was it, then, if not The ‘Press???,” the answer is… fucking Kinja.

The Editorial Process

Ben Collins: …I just want to walk through their daily process for writing headlines. They come in every day. There’s either one or two meetings depending on the day, and then they write — usually, it’s around 190 headlines. They are put into a Google form and completely anonymized. Then, from there, it’s trimmed down a little bit by one of the editors per day. Then, they go in the room, and they read them out loud, all of them, and if it gets a laugh or if it’s like that’s something that’s a character we’re going to bring back or they got to talk through it, they check it off, and then they whittle those down over and over and over again. And by the end of the meeting, there’s usually — what, Danielle? — like 10 max, 5 to 10?

Danielle Strle: Yeah, tops.

BC: Around there. And then, those get written out, and if the copy’s not good or if it’s just a nib or something, that gets whittled down to three or four per day. And that comes from that contributor network that has legit famous people in it, or it comes from the people in the room. And then only after all that did they go back, and they’re like, “That guy wrote that thing.” That’s how meritocratic this is.

iPadOS 18 Audio Capture Anecdotes

Aiko Transcript

All right folks, it’s your favorite thing, favorite time.

It’s time to play around with the changes to audio capture specifically, an iPadOS 18.1 beta 2.

I don’t actually, I don’t know if this is as a beta 2.

Two things I noticed, the thing that they introduced in 16 I believe, which is called mic modes, where you could switch between standard wide spectrum and voice isolation.

I say you could switch.

This was in control center, it’s still in control center, they redesigned where it is, and the interface is very pretty, but they didn’t fucking fix it, and by fix that I just mean have it, I don’t know, it’s an API thing I guess.

I really just need to put on a list of things that I go down and make a mock-up fucking app so that I can see what the actual control is, the actual fucking backend code.

Not that I’m capable of this, or at least it doesn’t come easily, because um, in order to switch mic modes, and I don’t know if I’m recording in voice isolation or standard or wide spectrum right now, this is in voice memos, which is a native app which has transcription now, which is very cool, except even as I’m recording right now I don’t have access to that mic modes menu.

I had to start a live stream on Telegram.

Telegram, of course, is the one app that semi-reliably gives me access to the mic modes thing, but it still sticks as in you make a selection.

There was no selection at first.

Anyway, this is voice memos recording in lossless.

I don’t know if stereo voice memos is a new capability, but if you go to the app specific menu for voice memos in iPadOS 18, there was a toggle that was default off, just called stereo, and it’s on now.

Good morning.

All right, same device, same setting, but this is ferrite.

Ferrite being, well, the closest that we’ve ever come, really, to a professional audio capture app on this device.

Um, let’s see, do I have access to mic modes?

Nope, that’s okay.

Um, but uh, yeah, I, notably, one thing that ferrite recently added, and I know it’s silly, but uh, when I was in high school growing up around musicians and audio stuff, uh, FLAC files were basically a fucking meme because, um, you know, I explored all the drywall stuff in FLAC, which is, which is, if you know what I’m talking about, kind of funny.

Anyway, you can export it to FLAC now in ferrite.

And finally, recording in 96 kilohertz directly into Logic Pro for iPad.

Same microphone array, I think.

Um, yeah.

Oh, I guess it’d be very weird if I had access to mic modes here.

But I, so I listened back to, um, at least the voice memos recording, uh, and I’m almost positive that that was indeed in voice isolation.

Um, I guess the last subject would be, uh, I’m gonna see if I can, I’ll have a go at putting this together in fucking Logic Pro. Oh wait, actually, no, I’ll put it in, I’ll put it in ferrite and export it to WIP because WIP does 320 playback.

Uh, transcription.

I, um, think that on-device transcription is really cool, you know, native.

Uh, I would just like to mention that Cinder’s sword, his sword, who’s, wow, I actually know how to pronounce his name, but I’m not going to continue to fail.

Uh, his app, ICO, which is free, A-I-K-O, um, at least for my recordings so far, it’s just fucking better.

And you can import anything, video files.

Uh, I try to, the weirdest fucking file format, I think I did a WebM and it was fine and allows you to immediately copy, uh, and also export into all, uh, a bunch of different text formats and it’s free.

And it is also on-device and it’s bizarrely fast, but, uh, you know, I’ve got the newest chips.

Yeah.

Just buy a Shure SM57 and a Sema and a used, buy a used Shure SM57, uh, and a USB audio interface, a relatively good quality one.

Um, just do that.

Don’t buy an iPad.

Burn in Hell, Fruit Company

The End of an Era: A Message From the Founder as We Announce the Closure of AppleVis | AppleVis applevis.com

Transcript

ChatGPT Responds to My Old Apple Dev Forums Question

Back in July, 2021, I posted a thread on the Apple Developer forums asking for clarification on the differences between hardware keyboard support on iPad and iPhone.

The response… blew my mind, suffice it to say, but I would like to take a moment to champion ChatGPT, of all fucking things, for its reply when given the same request and asked to respond:


Hi David,

Thank you for your detailed question and the context provided. Your observations about the state of Bluetooth keyboard support and documentation for iPhones are insightful and highlight a gap in current resources.

Current State of Documentation and Support

  1. Bluetooth Keyboard Support on iPhone:

    • As you’ve noted, iPhones do support Bluetooth keyboards, and there is ongoing development in this area. However, the documentation has not kept pace with these developments, particularly since the split of iPadOS from iOS.
  2. Discrepancy in Documentation:

  3. Developer Awareness:

    • Your experience with developers unaware of their apps' Bluetooth keyboard shortcuts on iPhones indicates a need for better communication and documentation from Apple to bridge this knowledge gap.

Answer to Your Question

Where can I find complete documentation of both keyboard shortcuts support in native apps/the OS and UIKeyCommand’s uniquely-iPhone considerations?

Unfortunately, there isn’t a single comprehensive source that documents all the keyboard shortcuts supported on iPhones across native apps and the OS. However, here are some steps and resources that might help:

  1. UIKeyCommand Documentation:

    • The UIKeyCommand class is the primary resource for developers to implement and understand keyboard shortcuts in their apps. While this documentation doesn’t differentiate between iPhone and iPad, the principles apply to both.
  2. Accessibility Features:

    • Apple’s support pages on accessibility features can provide some insight into keyboard usage on iPhones, particularly for those who use keyboards for accessibility reasons. For example, Full Keyboard Access is a feature available on both iPhones and iPads.
  3. Developer Forums and WWDC Sessions:

    • Engaging in Apple Developer Forums and watching relevant WWDC sessions can provide additional insights and updates. Sessions such as this one from WWDC 2021 cover many topics related to keyboard navigation and accessibility.

Recommendations and Next Steps

  1. Feedback to Apple:

    • Given your detailed observations and the gaps in documentation, I recommend submitting feedback to Apple through the Feedback Assistant. Your input could help prioritize better documentation and resources for iPhone keyboard support.
  2. Community Collaboration:

    • Consider collaborating with other users and developers to compile a comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts for iPhones. This could be shared on platforms like GitHub or a dedicated website, providing a valuable resource for the community.
  3. Sharing Your Findings:

    • If you have already documented some keyboard shortcuts through your testing, sharing these findings on forums or community platforms could benefit other users facing similar challenges.

Thank you again for your question and your efforts in highlighting this important issue. Your initiative is greatly appreciated, and I hope these suggestions help you find the information you need.

Two YouTube Favorites of "My" Era

The Tangerine Knight

...some men just want a tangerine.

Slick’s 2009 Airventure Comp

Marquis Trill's First Twitter Space

Some time in late Summer 2021, I stumbled into another of the handful of nigh-inconceivable conversation opportunities which Twitter Spaces would offer me.

Marquis Trill - someone I’m still not 100% convinced I actually remembered from the ~2012 Twitter Epoch - decided to just fuckin go on Spaces one day for the first time. And - as per the nature of Spaces - I guess I just hopped in the mf too.

Eventually in this recording, you’ll hear me pipe in… and continue to intermittently throughout its duration. I remember being genuinely fascinated with the experience in the moment, but it’s not exactly easy listening (shame) in retrospect lol.


Here’s the metadata from the Space I retained, though I doubt it will ever be actionable again:

Diamond Bay Car Wash (Google Review)

Diamond Bay Car Wash Street View

Sorry about the narrative - I found the experience about to recount oddly significant.

Its gist:


I was visiting my sister’s lake house this past June (the 18th I believe) having just taken my first road trip in 4 years in my (new to me) Golf. I had gotten the car fairly dirty on my way there - having driven the longest route I could from Columbia, basically. I asked my brother-in-law about car washes in the area and he mentioned “the one behind Break Time,” though couldn’t tell me whether or not it was still opened.

With post-COVID hours, I was pushing it when I arrived at ~10:40PM with like 3 quarters to my name. So freakin thankful, immediately, that no music was being played (the last do-it-yourself washes in Columbia - Lighthouse Car Wash - play pop radio so loud it’s actually hard to concentrate.) I was curious about the prospect of using my debit card as soon as I saw the sign indicating that it had to be done in a singular location, where I found an (absolutely adorable, apparently locally made?) interface that appeared to be stuck on the authorization screen for a prior transaction.

Before I proceeded - and perhaps actually relevant to purpose of such a review (sorry) - I walked up to the Break Time, where the last shift was closing solo. I brought up the car wash and she immediately noted that they “hadn’t heard from them in months,” and that the store ⇨ wash payment processing hadn’t been working since she’d started there.

…so!

I decided to at least try rebooting the on-site payment terminal with the master breaker switch (which is very large and very visibly placed, I should say,) if only because I thought it’d be interesting to watch such a legacy, time-worn piece of automation come back to life.

…and it was! I got to see the terminal boot from a quite sophisticated script and the sound of everything settling into place was enchanting, pitifully.

Unfortunately, though this did clear the error, it landed on (and got stuck) the exact same error when I tried my card lol

I had enough cash to rinse my car off, which was all I really needed in the end. That evening was one I’ll never forget (for other reasons too,) and I would encourage the owners of that car wash - if they happen to see this - to contact MFA Corporate (my employers) at their main phone number. Ya never know - they’ve expanded stores a lot and they might be interested in the property.

Keychron K2

iPad Pro Keyboard Case, iPad Pro, and Keychron K2

Having broken my beloved Varmilo VA108M (which I absolutely intend to fix one day in the near future, FYI,) months ago and just last week completely totaled the period (.) key on my Absurdly Overpriced Toilet Professional iPad Keyboarding Apparatus, I decided to buy an on-sale variant of Keychron’s K2 with the loudest switches (the blue ones) available, assuming that surely no keyboard could be truly, disruptively loud.

I was very wrong.

I do love that one can connect it via USB-C (not that it makes sense in any situation I can imagine) and that there’s a dedicated screenshot key!

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