Matisyahu's Blog

I’m back to work on Friday and Saturday (they couldn’t find someone to cover for me on those days) however I’ll have a three day weekend (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday). Tonight I went for a walk because there was a break in the rain so I wanted to take advantage of a dry spell to get some exercise in along with getting out of the house to enjoy some fresh air. Tonight wasn’t too cold as I was able to go on the walk wearing a zip up hoodie and some tracksuit pants however on the last 1km of the walk it started drizzling then increased to raining resulting in getting a little wet but I’m happy I got out of the house because I feel a lot better afterwards.

I’ve been watching more YouTube videos about the UI change Apple introduced and I don’t feel as though I’m the only person who has a problem with it. Yes, I didn’t like it with the glassy effet being introduced when Microsoft introduced Aero as part of Windows Vista nor did I like it with macOS when Apple introduced it (although I opted out of it by enabling reduced transparency in Accessibility in the Settings app). I’ve never been a fan of it because I much preferred the flat minimalism that was launched with WP7 (I had a WP7 from LG, WP8 and WM10 devices from Nokia) where the content was the focus, where communicating information was the focus of the interface rather than the interface being distracting or difficult to get information from because developers chose apperance over usability.

Although there have been improvements noted in Safari (I’m testing ublock Origin lite with the Safari Technology Preview 221) the problem is that I can’t help but get the feeling that Apple is doing the bare minimum – just looking at the number of open bug reports within the Webkit bug database where the issue has been reported relating to content blocking and the next to non-existent activity from Apple engineers acknowledging the issue and indicating to those that report the issue that they’re looking into it and that it will get addressed. This is the reason why I keep using Chrome because of all it’s faults you can’t help but feel as though the platform is being pushed forward in a timely manner so even if Safari developers do fix more of the problem it always appears to be an after thought when compared to the next big shiny distraction such as AI or an impractical user interface whose usability has gone down hill.

I also didn’t see iCloud being developed further – it’s almost as though it is a tick box where they reluctantly providing it because “it’s what is expected” rather than Apple being passionate about the iCloud platform by developing it further. For example the introduction of custom domains was great but here we are many years later and still limited to 3 aliases – no, using ‘hide my email address’ isn’t always a valid option given that providing someone a randomly generated email address that doesn’t look very professional isn’t exactly setting a good impression.

I’ve done some number crunching and if I sign up for 2 Degrees for my internet for 12 months I end up paying the same amount I do today so I am tempted to make the switch but I’m looking at doing as a larger migration. Although I have sworn off Samsung Galaxy mobile phones I did go into the store and tried it out and the work that Samsung has done with One UI has really made big improvements over the last time I used it not to mention the fact that with carriers in New Zealand switching off their 3G network if I go with the Pixel which isn’t officially supported in New Zealand there is no assurance that it’ll keep working without a problem where as buying a phone from the carrier you’re at least got the assurance that the carrier have tested in with their network and any compaibility issues have been addressed.

I’ll keep working for as long a I can but when I do retire I’ll want to keep myself physically, mentally and socially active – maybe join up to my local lawn bowls club, check out the clubs/groups I can join, maybe spend more time getting involved with politics by going along to more meetings etc. I’ll stay in the same place where I am today because the neighbourhood is good along with access to public transport being within a short walk so even if I get older and find I have mobility issues I’ll still be able to travel. I want to have enough savings so that I can travel and experience as much of the world as I can because I don’t want to be in a situation where I get to an age but have a list of regrets because I left it too late to do the things I wanted to do.