It all started with a ZX81, and look where it’s got me!
I joined Medium in April 2019. I had heard about it on a podcast, and I liked the longer form format of its content. I hadn’t originally planned to contribute, but in July 2019, I wrote my first piece, Money, The Great Confidence Trick, and to my delight, people read it.
I had attempted to get into blogging on several occasions, but my blogs were solitary places. It was a catch-22 situation. Few noticed my early posts, which meant that I lost motivation, and I wrote less. The blogs were rarely updated, so there was little incentive to visit them.
…
I don’t know who he is, and I’ve never done him any harm. Despite that, he tried to bully me into thinking that I had broken the law.
Note: I’ve changed details, but this letter represents a real event.
Hello stranger,
You tried to convince me that I had done something wrong when you knew I hadn’t, and that I risked being arrested if I made the wrong choice. I’ve never had so much as a parking ticket.
I was working on an article when you called. It was a mobile number that I didn’t recognise, but I answered it anyway. My mind was on what I was writing.
“Hello, I work for the court, and I have to advise you that a review of your tax filings…
Ulysses is great for writing long-form text. This Shortcut + TK mark-up simplifies editing long articles
Ulysses is my go-to word processor, and the more I use it, the more I appreciate its power. That power was tested by my latest article about negotiating contracts (free link), which is over 3,700 words long, and much longer before it was revised.
It’s long because there is a lot to contracts, even if you’re just writing a high level, plain English, introduction. Most of what I wanted to say was in my head, based on experience, so I did a brain dump. This created one of those infamous first drafts.
Free writing a first draft is a great…
You’re nearly there with your big idea, but you need contracts. It’s heavy going but crucial. Understand the why and it’s easier to engage.
You’ve just started out in business, eager to get your innovative idea to market. You’ve surrounded yourself with smart people, and they’re excited. You can tell because they arrive early and leave late. Everyone has a swagger.
The testing is complete, and the prototype knocks it out of the park. You’re elated, walking on air even, and then… then … people start talking about contracts. Suddenly, the oxygen is being sucked from the room.
This is getting in the way. What’s the minimum amount of effort you can spend on this? …
A fraudster’s false accusations resonated with popular fears and people died. It doesn’t have to be true to matter.
I didn’t think anything would dismay me more than Britain narrowly voting to leave the EU on what I saw as a toxic mix of hubris and nationalism. Then Trump got elected, and I knew better. I was even more dismayed.
Never mind, I thought, that was 2016, and soon the truth will out. People will realise that they were misled, and those who deceived them had better look out!
The first big test was in December 2019 when Boris Johnson, Brexit’s great champion, went to the country with a “Get Brexit Done!” mantra. …
Eliminate duplicates and deleted contacts that keep coming back. Find out why groups are useful
I decided to treat myself to a new iPhone when I changed jobs. I was going to set up the new phone from an iCloud back-up, but no dice. Both phones needed to use the same version of iOS, and my previous phone was on a beta.
Okay, I mumbled, I’ll do it the old-fashioned way. It’s time for a clean install and some spring-cleaning. I needed to get rid of work contacts anyway.
What a mess! There were duplicates, lots of them, and somehow some work contacts remained after I deleted my work account. …
Apple Notes fans, here’s a shortcut that lists the last ten notes you’ve modified, and lets you open any by tapping on the name. Put the shortcut on your homescreen to make it easy to launch.
It can get confusing if you message a non-Apple using friend. I take a closer look to understand why
I’m a big fan of Apple Messages, which “just works” most of the time. What rains on my parade? SMS does. When a person, website or organisation sends me a SMS message, the usually streamlined and well behaved Messages app starts to act oddly.
For a start, the SMS message doesn’t seem to be replicated to my other devices, and Messages taunts me with a green bubble. If I send a message to a friend with a non-Apple device, I lose most of Messages’ features. That doesn’t surprise me, but it would be nice to know exactly why. …
CODEX
5G at the Apple event was amazing, but is it worth the extra battery drain? Yes! A new world is opening-up
October 2020 was when “5G just got real” according to Hans Vestberg at the iPhone 12 launch event. What did that mean?
- Peak download speeds of 4Gbps, and that was just the start!.
- Peak upload speeds of 200Mbps, so that was great too.
- Latency was so low that communications were effectively real-time.
- Post-pandemic, thousands of people could use their phones at busy airports or a packed stadium, and it wouldn’t be a problem.
Something called, Ultra-Wideband would bring real 5G to 60 cities by the end of 2020. It used something called millimeter wave spectrum.
Less was said about a…
Apple Numbers can now do pivot tables, so I road-tested it by working out my chances of surviving the Titanic
Apple Numbers, free with any of its phones, tablets and computers, is often sniggered at, but Apple is continually adding features to what is a friendly and capable spreadsheet.
The company has now added pivot table functionality, which helps make sense of data. Apple (for reasons that escape me) call pivot tables categories.
I decided to give the feature a whirl by analysing the passenger list of the Titanic. If by some chance of fate, I were flung back in time on to the doomed ship, what would my chances be of surviving?
Was Numbers up to forecasting my fate…
Will J Murphy
I write about tech, photography and economics. I’ve a degree in Computing Science and a MBA. I’m a hobby stock photog. See https://www.justonewordfromme.com/
