91 Posts under Mango Paper
`xcrun simctl status_bar` Is Not Working Since Xcode 14.1
xcrun simctl status_bar is a great tool to control what you want to display on the status bar in simulators. It's often used to set the time to 9:41 AM for screenshots.
Since Xcode 14.1 in Oct 2022 though, it's no longer working if the simulator runs iOS 16.1+. Neither Xcode 14.2 and 14.3 fixed this, and it has been a mysterious since.
However, today @saagar just posted the reason and a workaround:
If you’ve been trying to use xcrun simctl status_bar recently to take pretty screenshots and found that it doesn’t work past simulators running iOS 16.1, you can use
SIMCTL_CHILD_SIMULATOR_RUNTIME_VERSION=16.0 xcrun simctl bootas a temporary workaround to get this back.
Great, problem solvedmitigated!
In addition, if you use @twostraws's awesome ControlRoom app, I sent out a PR (to be reviewed and merged) to add this workaround.
Remembering Alex Hay
I'm very sad to hear Alex Hay, the maker of Toolbox Pro and many other apps, has passed aways after years of battling with cancer.
MacStories is dedicating Automation April 2023 in memory of Alex Hay:
So, with his family’s blessing, we’re dedicating Automation April 2023 in memory of Alex Hay, a brilliant and beloved member of the automation community who was taken from us far too early at the age of 36. MacStories is also making donations to the American Cancer Society and Cancer Research UK in Alex’s name, and we’d love it if you would join us in making a donation using the links above too.
The Apple automation community is a close-knit group of talented, creative people, and no one exemplified that more than Alex Hay. We’re grateful for the chance we had to get to know Alex and the apps he built that opened up so many new possibilities for Shortcuts users around the world. Our hearts go out to his family and friends, and we hope you’ll join us in thinking of him and his loved ones throughout Automation April.
Alex's work has inspired so many people and has advanced automation tooling on Apple platforms. He was also such a friendly person, helping other developers in the community. I have closely followed his research on the new iOS 16 AppIntent framework. Without that and a few brief exchanges on Twitter, I couldn't have launched Mango Baby's iOS 16 update with great AppIntent support.
We'll miss you.
Happy the Year of Rabbit
I started my career at Google more than 10 years ago in New York. My then manager asked us to set personal OKRs. I wrote “visit the Chicago office" so I could spend more time with my wife in Chicago. They were very supportive. The entire org cared us, and sincerely put our career in priority. Every Friday 7:30PM we ate pizza and watched founders' TGIFs hosted in California. It was an unconventional company.
The day before this Luna New Year's Eve, I was waken up by my wife around 2:30AM telling me to check my email. We are still not sure how she woke up exactly minutes after the email. It was difficult to process when sleep deprived. Heck it would probably take a really long time to digest everything. We are still celebrating the New Year and the Spring Festival. I don't know how I would feel going back to work on Monday. One thing became obvious, it is now just a conventional company. After the founders left, you can feel it stronger every year.
I can still enjoy working on my team and enjoy the work I do. But I start to question the long term purpose of it. I guess I set my 2023’s theme to be the Year of Purpose for a reason. I hope I can figure it out.
I'm upset. Happy the Year of Rabbit.
2023: Year of Purpose
I was tidying up my home office area the other day, and found a bunch of things I haven't touched for years. The first thing came to my mind was of course Marie Kondo's Spark Joy principle. But a lot of things in the past 3 years no long spark joy, yet they are still used often. This no longer works.
Then I changed the question to, does this thing have a purpose in my life? It worked surprisingly well. I got rid of many things and kept others. I came up future projects that can make some of them more useful. Promising.
2022 is also coming to an end. It means it's time for my 3rd attempt to a yearly theme. As you have already read the title, 2023 is going to be my Year of Purpose. The past 3 years have also worn down our life's purpose. It's time to bring it back. Let's move past this and look forward to a more purposeful year.
What's your yearly theme?
Community Building
- There are now 40+ folks in my Mango Baby discord community. It's mostly people asking support questions and me answering them. Occasionally, users also help with each other, and I love see more of that.
- Increasingly, I don't feel Mastodon is for me. I'll keep checking and posting since there are a lot of activities moved from the bird site I'm interested in. But for now, I won't bother finding a better host.
- My Micro.blog site continues to function, and I'm also back on Tumblr. Maybe t2 can succeed, or it's best to end social media.
Should I Branch Out?
I randomly posted a Reel of a squirrel eating a pine cone and got 431 likes. I don't know maybe I should branch out.
I'm terrible at language arts, maybe text isn't really for me after all.
Today is really a sad day.
Google Maps Ditched the Hamburger Menu
Everyone else focused on the icon update, but I’d really like to zoom in with the removal of hamburger menu in Google Maps for iOS:
Screenshot of Google Maps for iOS
The hamburger menu now is just a placer holder with no functions, and I expect it to be removed in a future update. And they also moved more features to the bottom tab bar. What a welcome change. It certainly feels more homey on iOS. Therefore, I forgive the new icon 😜
Hanabira工房 Makes Crazy Detailed Miniature Houses
Check out Hanabira工房's YouTube Channel, every single one of their videos is a treasure.
Doraemon and Costumes of Tang Dynasty
Zi De Guqin Studio presents the Doraemon theme song in costumes of Tang Dynasty. It can’t get any better.
ABC Song Variants
Jason Kottke's post on the alternate ABC song got my attention:
An alternate version of the ABC song that slows down the LMNOP part is currently going viral because of a tweet by Noah Garfinkel: “They changed the ABC song to clarify the LMNOP part, and it is life ruining.”
My first reaction was: thank you! I always find the ABC song I'm hearing from my daughter's toys are strange and hard to follow. So I completely agree with them:
About the slow l,m,n,o,p: I teach young learners of English as a foreign language, and have found this way the most effective for teaching the letters.
Here is the original video by Matt Richelson:
However, this is not the one I learned either. The version I learned slowed down the same LMN part, but it also has a different grouping: OPQ, RST, UVW, XYZ, plus a different ending. I find it even easier for non native speakers. Here is a video of this version:
I couldn't find out where this version original comes from. The subtitle of the above videos says it's French music. But searched the French version of ABC song, it's the same as the one in the U.S. It's not U.K. either.