Vincent Ritter

Thoughts

My thoughts, micro blog style.

I've been trying to go to bed early instead of staying up until late at night and working... sometimes till 04:30 AM. Turns out that going to bed early and waking up early doesn't go too well... Probably just my body trying to adjust. I do hear the alarm and feel awake, but... that duvet sure is nice and warm.

I was banging my head on why some of my initial data check didn't work in React when setting a state on my component. Turns out that setting states is asynchronous, so there is no guarantee that state is updated straight away (when I was running the first check to then return a list of items).

The following code didn't work - only after a second state change did it begin to work:

this.setState({   
    selectedHamburger: selected
});
this.updateHamburgerDisplay();

(Don't ask - I made up that state and method)

However, when first loading the page, there was no "Hamburger Display" showing. It was empty.

Doing a bit of research I found out that `setState` actually has a callback function for when it has updated. So, simply calling my method on the callback worked a treat.

this.setState({
    selectedHamburger: selected
}, this.updateHamburgerDisplay);

I know... basic stuff. But good to find out. A small "aha" moment. Maybe someone will find it interesting.

Trying out Netlify with some of my static sites that I host. Want to see how well it does. Hoping to convert my site to static again so a good test to see how I like it.

I've been using Calcbot for iOS for many years. It has an awesome calculator and most importantly a conversion tool for many things, especially currencies. However, I'm looking for something different. Anyone have any recommendations?

The sun is out, it's warm, the windows are open. And they are cutting the grass across the whole estate of flats... slightly annoying.

I moved, after many years, from Jekyll to Craft CMS last year. But now, I want to go back to a static site... just because. Full on JAMstack style. I think I'll write a blog post about why I want to and what I'm planning on using.

I'm seeing loads of websites these days with a lot of motion when loading content, paragraphs, icons or whatever really (some tasteful... mostly really awful though. - with no taste). I was thinking there should be a reduce motion API or something for websites. Obviously something WebKit has already. Glad that it's there and hope to introduce this on some of my next projects (not that I tend to use much animation in the first place).

Is it me or are "mailto:" links broken in the latest macOS release (in Safari)? It opens a new tab in Safari and that is it... hmmm.

'iCloud for Business' - that would be nice to have available right about now. Perhaps one day...

Have moved my email from long time Gandi account to FastMail. Quite happy with the way it has gone. Plus they have profiles that you can install straight to your devices (iOS/Mac). Mind blown!

Deleting 50,000 images on Google Photos has been a pain... glad it's now done. Next step, delete my Google account and consolidate.

WWDC short wish list - better family sharing built in across the board. Picking two random ones:

  1. Shared iCloud Photos Library (done properly).
  2. Shared Movies and TV Shows etc on the "TV" app.

Perhaps just consolidate Family purchases into one (make it an option). Apple could do so well with this stuff.

Last night I sat down and started sketching out my next idea for a new web service, including web app and iOS app. I already picked out a name. I'm not sure if I'm going to manage full on blog posts this time around though. Let's see.

My home screen, now that the sun is coming out... thought I'll tweak it a little and scale back. The other screen has a few folders with essentials... but nothing I touch on a daily basis.


I don't mind too much... but why do organisations not generally include UTC time for events or other time related things? It's a universal constant... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Every time I tap the home button on my phone, when working on my computer, my mouse just refuses to work and jerks everywhere for a few seconds. Then it's back to normal. It never did that... wonder what it is.

Today, Apple Music is deciding to skip most tracks about 50% through playback... even though the track is loaded 100%.

Have been doing some C# dev with Visual Studio on my Windows 10 VM this past week. Oh the memories...

Balancing 3 projects has taken a toll on my ability to get out blog posts and thoughts. But I'm happy I have found a few clients.

I think I need to say "Polyglot coder" in my profile. Been balancing 3 client projects, one in C# and a Jekyll (Ruby) frontend implementation, a PHP website and also for a first... a React web app (Javascript). All good fun.

iCloud Drive being funny today... It's downloading all old files... that I deleted months ago. Anyone else seeing this? Computer is crawling...

Removed my old OpenVPN server and now running a nice IKEv2 VPN server using a docker image on Linode. Love it! Not only that... built in support on the OS level throughout so no need for a third party app.

In an attack of a thought wave the other day, the site now turns dark after 19:00 (of course, you have the option to go bright). Wish macOS and iOS allows a dark mode to automatically switch when it gets dark outside (at a system level).

It's been pretty cold lately. Now, "feels like" is minus 20 degrees Celsius. Found it hard to walk from the car to the front door... Friday forecast is 'actual' minus 21...


What's better:

  1. Receive a billing email even if the balance to pay is 0.
  2. Receive no billing email unless there is something to pay.

Or, even better - change the behaviour of the billing email (when nothing to pay), and instead of saying "You need to pay X amount" you can say something like "Good news, there is nothing to pay" and something along the lines of "You are still subscribed" so the user is aware that they are actively subscribed to the service.

I'm asking, because services like Mailgun, IBM Bluemix and others send you a long unnecessary email to say nothing is due but their subjects are "Your bill is now available" or include words like "Your next monthly bill for service is due on..." etc.

Just annoying really.

I know Apple Search Ads just send you an email when you've spent something, so that is good. I'm sure others do it too.

This is new on the Apple.com website. A region picker depending on where you are (or pretend to be).


Took a bit of a break after getting the Simple Schedule beta out last week. Had to start a few client projects and change the scenery a little. Always good to have a break from something.

I'll write another blog post with an update and next steps for the project. I also have a small announcement regarding the pricing structure I decided on today.

Spent the day working on getting Simple Schedule onto Linode and away from Heroku. Only because I'd like to keep all my stuff in one place (one provider).

Some days are tough. Picking up my daughter at kindergarten always makes my day, no matter what!

I'm having this crazy thought as of late... I really want to try and treat my phone like I treat my wallet.

When I'm out, I take my wallet and thus phone. When I'm back, I put my wallet in the drawer (don't tell anyone!). I want to do the same with my phone.

I'm not sure what it is, perhaps that black empty void of a screen that is always staring at me... Or if it's the fear of checking stuff. Small distractions eating away at me inside.

I have an Apple Watch, which I love. It doesn't distract me much, except when something important happens. It tells the time and anything important I want to know, without sucking me in.

The Mac should be my primary device for seriously getting into details when I need to know them.

Sure, the phone is useful... but not really that much at home.

Watching people when we're out, being sucked into the screen... it unsettles me somewhat. Sure, they have their genuine and great uses... and great to kill time whilst you wait. But it's really unsettling. Not sure why.

I want to go back to basics. Be happy with what is around me and in the room. Knowing that if I need it, I have my phone for that occasion.

... when Apple Music stops playing the current song when you add it to your playlist/library. So annoying. It's those small things they ought to get right... right?

... when Apple Music stops playing a song when you "Show Complete Album" and then click outside of it to explore something else. So annoying.

... when Apple Music stops playing the current song when you press 'Create Station'. So annoying.

One nice side effect of using Micro.blog is that I’m finding loads of great blogs, not filled with ‘click bait’ articles. A whole side of the internet you don’t really get to see on say Twitter or others!

Had a busy few days... so today I decided to have the rest of the day off to relax and recharge my batteries. Do something else. I always enjoy travelling so perhaps a mini trip in the car is called for.

Pretty stoked to receive $0.05 credit on my AWS account because of an error calculating data transfers last year.

I'm at the stage of the day where I click around aimlessly... I think it's time for a longer break and go out a bit to get some fresh air.

Just finished the beta announcement email to everyone that signed up to the Simple Schedule mailing list. That is going out tomorrow morning. Better things to do today for most people. Also gives me a bit of time to tweak a few things.


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