∞ How California’s New Pedestrian Signal Law Makes Biking Safer
Alvin Holbrook writes at VELO,
Implementing an LPI at an intersection is an easy way to make streets safer for people walking. There’s no major infrastructure building that needs to happen, just a comparatively inexpensive adjustment to signal timing to prioritize the safety of people walking. And now in California, an LPI also prioritizes people biking.
How low cost is it? The U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) says that reprogramming traffic signals to accommodate an LPI can cost between $200 and $1200 per intersection, a drop in the bucket compared to how much pedestrian or bicyclist injuries cost a city.
When I'm driving, I actually also appreciate LPI as that makes me more confident that I would drive safer. So this seems like a no brainer to me.
∞ Drink Free Beer in Silence at This New San Francisco Barbershop
David Sjostedt writes,
Catering to the overworked, the introverted and the way-too-baked, a new barbershop in San Francisco offers silent haircuts so that you no longer have to talk to your barber as they line you up.
At Beyond the Pale barbershop in the Mission District, there’s no need to say a word with the shop’s “silent mode” service, which was designed especially for shy techies and stoners, according to shop owner Anthony Larrasquitu.
“Ultimately, it’s about the freedom here. You get to pick the experience you want,” Larrasquitu said.
I love this. Ever since I can remember, I have always hated going to barbershops. I don't like the idea of having to talk to people while they are cutting something off my head. Then 7 years ago, I found the perfect solution: long hair.
This San Francisco Barbershop can be another great alternative!
∞ Devon Dundee’s Apps of 2023
Devon has a great list of apps:
But one of Devon's Apps of 2023 is not like the other:
Mango Baby
The app that’s had the most impact on my life over the past year has to be Mango Baby, a newborn tracker by Yilei Yang. It’s not a new release, but since my son Noah was born, Mango Baby has been an indispensable tool for keeping track of his care.
The app is so well-designed and makes it simple for me to log feedings, diapers, and more. The information I need most is always right at hand, often not even requiring that I open the app thanks to Mango Baby’s extensive set of widgets. Shortcuts actions allow me to log diaper changes hands-free, and the iCloud-based collaboration is rock-solid, keeping everything in sync between my devices and my wife’s.
I’m a fan of anything that helps my kid and makes my life a bit easier. Mango Baby does both of those things every day.
I'm always inspired to hear how Mango Baby is helping parents. It has motivated me to keep improving the app for years.
Leaving Substack
After reading the note, I decided to leave Substack. This is an easy decision.
However, I'm also pausing Mango Newsletter for now. Even though I could move it somewhere else, I couldn't make it a priority. I need to spend more time on the actual development of Mango Baby and my next app.
If you are still interested in a relatively low volume of the updates on my indie dev work, you can find Mango Umbrella at @MangoUmbrella@indieapps.space or @mango.umbrella@threads.net.
Default Apps 2023
I saw this from Jay Wilson and took it as a template.
This is what I’m using at the point and time of publishing.
📨 Mail Client: Gmail app on iOS and gmail.com on macOS
📮 Mail Server: Google
📝 Notes: Apple Notes
✅ To-Do: Apple Notes
📷 Photo Shooting: iPhone 14 Pro, Sony A7R III, Sony FE 70-200 F4 G
🎨 Photo Editing: Lightroom on macOS, Photomator on iOS
📆 Calendar: Google Calendar
📁 Cloud File Storage: Google Drive, iCloud Drive
🙍🏻♂️ Contacts: Apple Contacts
🌐 Browser: Safari on iOS, Chrome on macOS
💬 Chat: WeChat, iMessages, Discord, Google Talk or whatever it is called today
🔖 Bookmarks: Chrome
📑 Read It Later: Apple Notes
📜 Word Processing: Google Docs
📈 Spreadsheets: Google Sheets
📊 Presentations: Google Slides
🛒 Shopping Lists: Apple Notes
🍴 Meal Planning: Google Docs, physical paper on the fridge
💰 Budgeting and Personal Finance: Google Sheets
📰 News: Mastodon
🎵 Music: YouTube Music
🎤 Podcasts: Overcast
🔐 Password Management: Chrome, Apple Keychain, KeePassXC
🧑💻 Code Editor: VS Code, Xcode
🌲 Git Client: git, GitHub Desktop
🖥️ Terminal: iTerm2
📐 Design: Figma
📝 Blog: In-house Engine and Client
✈️ VPN: Google Fi
∞ BREAKING NEWS: Myke Hurley Posted a Thread Again
Myke Hurley, the British professional podcaster, co-founder of the podcast network Relay FM, Chief Product Designer and co-founder at Cortex Brand, logged in to Threads today and is asking how to get his threads on news:
Post by @imykeView on Threads
Does this count?
∞ How To Make a 800 Square-feet Sidewalk Garden in San Francisco's Mission District
Zach Klein wrote a great article on how they made a 800 square feet garden in San Francisco's Mission District:
This garden was conceived to help expand San Francisco's urban forest and it was designed to be an example of xeriscaping. It is drought-tolerant and requires no additional water other than seasonal rain. It is also a permeable landscape that improves the city's sewage treatment capacity by reducing storm water runoff through absorption.
Look at how beautiful it is:
I would have never guessed it's in the SF Mission district:
∞ Ask vs Guess Culture
Jean Hsu's article on Ask vs Guess Culture is a great read:
If you’re more a guess-culture person, asking people for help without knowing their circumstances can feel rude or intrusive. Broadcasting publicly your need for help can feel awkward and vulnerable.
If you’re more of an ask-culture person, the guess-culture example of juggling everyone’s specific scenarios and the historical context of favors probably seems exhausting. Dropping hints in the hopes that you won’t even have to make your request can feel extra passive and manipulative.
And because I'm an Asian living in the U.S., I experience so much clash between the cultures:
I was raised deeply in guess culture, as many Asians and Asian-Americans are. The Japanese proverb that “the nail that sticks up gets nailed down” reinforces the idea of social collectivism and keeping your individual needs and wants to yourself — values that are shared by many Asian culture.
Western society is very much ask culture. A classic example can be found in proverbs. “A squeaky wheel gets the grease” is an American proverb, enforcing the ideas of individualism and that asking for what you want will benefit you.
`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.