Weekly Post #15

Arguments I read and advocated when I was using Android

Last week I mentioned how I wasted a lot of my time trying to break away from the Apple eco-system. A failed quest! But I have however been facinated by foldable phones atleast the idea of it but would hold out till Apple decides to release one[^1]. [^1]: If at all they do

While I abandoned the thought of moving away from iphone. Google app picked up on my searches and started recommending articles around Android. One article that caught my attention was “Why Android is better than iphone”.

Most of the things pointed in such articles are for “power users”, for an average consumer they are pretty much irrelevant. Predominantly the arguments for these kind of articles including is about customization, choice, freedom. This sounds really good for arguments sake but when it comes to reality, even for a person like myself who I consider somewhat of a poweruser is moot.

Customization: Yes you can change your icons, themes, fonts to your hearts content. But really beyond just showing off on the internet or a sub-reddit how often do you really change the theme? I excitedly tried Samsung’s Galaxy theme maker when it was launched to create a matching theme for my wallpaer only to find out that not all apps worked well. There were apps that didn’t respect the theme to apps on which it outright looked ugly. Which made come back to using the default theme.

Freedom: Android is open source I can modify it to my wish. Yes but how often do you actually do it? It isn’t as simple as putting that statement out. Most rely on community for custom ROMs the lifetime of which is similar to most open source software developed by community which doesn’t come with any guarantees. As soon as the developer gets busy with his work/life things start to go down south.

Greater access to apps: Most prominent and popular apps for services get developed for both platforms. So this is kind of a weak argument. On that note, ability to install from any source, as convenient as it sounds is also dangerous from a security point of view. Not everyone would verify the source from where they get their apps from. This makes it easy to send someone an apk file and steal sensitive information.

Power user’s heaven: 3 years into using iphone I can tell from personal experience I can’t pinpoint a single thing/feature that I miss since leaving Android or wish iphone had. I had for a long time been in denial that I can do “whatever”¹ I want in Android and that might not be the case in iphone.

Readwise/Reader

A subscription that I wish I had opted for monthly instead or yearly. I have quickly come to regret the decision. I haven’t used it at all, despite trying to force myself to use it don’t find it useful. I find anybox² a much better app for read later than reader.

இனிய தமிழ் புத்தாண்டு நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்

Happy Tamil New Year!

Shortcut to convert images to jpeg

Right after I created the script to convert the images from heic to jpeg. I figured out that there was an even easier way, create a shortcut in iphone to convert images to jpeg. This came about as a need because when I send edited photos from iphone to the laptop, only the unedited version of the photo got sent.

I created a shortcut to convert the images to jpeg and puts it into a specified folder. After which I use KDE connect to transfer them over to my laptop avoiding the need to run my script to convert the heic files to jpeg.

Back to qwerty

-There is nothing to add here that I haven’t already said in my post here or here

I am getting rid or atleast trying to get rid of my plancks. Getting back to Apple Pheriperals.

Amphetamine

A free app that prevents the mac from going to sleep. The reason I like this is I can turn it on when I want to or when I have specific apps running. It doesn’t seem like much but helps improve QOL.

Command to see the current (git)branch you are on

For a long time I have been relying on a hack I put together to find the git branch I am working on.

$ git branch | grep "*" | cut -d ' ' -f2
> master

completely oblivious that there exists an option to do that using the git branch command > --show-current

$ git branch --show-curent
> master

TWIL

When you create a Date object will null argument in javascript it defaults to showing the Epoch time.

var null_date = new Date(null);
> "1970-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"

Tesla FSD @ $99/month

Tesla reduced the cost of subscription for their FSD service from $199 to $99. Which at this price point is well worth it.

Also seeing a lot of Tesla Cyber trucks on the road these days and every time I see one I get reminded of this scene from Gone in sixty seconds:

Through the lens

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