alexwlchan’s notes
Look for the toggle in Settings > Animations > Messages.A recent WhatsApp update has introduced animations for messages – when you receive a message, it expands into place rather than just appearing on the screen. (It reminds me of the “Scale” effect for window minimisation on macOS.) I find...
alexwlchan’s notes
I looked at log files in bzreports_lastfilestransmitted to work out which folders were generating new content.I just got back to my personal computer after a day of work. My Mac has been switched on all day, doing very little. After a few minutes of idle web browsing, I noticed that bztransmit was...
alexwlchan
I was on the Lego website recently, and I enjoyed their animation on their age picker – rather than a plain text field, the numbers are made of Lego bricks that animate into view, accompanied by the sound of bricks snapping together: Recorded from identity.lego.com/en-GB/age, 6 June...
alexwlchan’s notes
Short objects and arrays are compressed onto a single line; larger objects are displayed as a table. Available in a variety of languages.Here’s an interesting project that balances compact and human-readable JSON, automatically applying certain sensibilities that somebody might add if they were...
alexwlchan
In my previous post, I explained how I use the FSEvents API to detect changed files on macOS. It’s part of my livereload mechanism for working on this site. I make a change to a source file, that triggers a rebuild of the site, and then the development site automatically refreshes in my web...
alexwlchan’s notes
In Settings > Bluetooth, I can stop my iPhone telling me that my AirPods have charged overnight.Every morning, I wake up to a notification on my iPhone: Alex’s AirPods Pro 2 are fully charged. This is not a surprise. This is not news. This is something iOS could have worked out will always be...
alexwlchan’s notes
It’s a Citymapper action that gives directions to my home, which can be triggered using the Shortcuts app.The other day, I pulled up Spotlight on my iPhone, and I saw a Siri Suggestion I didn’t recognise – it suggested HOME_GET_ME_HOME with Citymapper, which looks like a programmer’s variable...
alexwlchan
I want my current computer to last for a decade. That’s an eternity in the tech world, far longer than most people keep their hardware, but I don’t think it’s an unreasonable goal. Personal computers keep getting faster, but my needs aren’t changing. I use my computer for the same fundamental...
alexwlchan
During the COVID lockdowns, I spent long evenings at home on my own, and I amused myself by dressing up in extravagant and glamorous clothing. One dark night, I realised I could use my home working setup to have some fun, with just a webcam and a monitor. I turned off every light in my office,...