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There’s plenty of reasons why I prefer Alexa to Siri and Google Assistant as far as digital voice things go.

Looking around for a markdown editer, because sometimes even I like something snazzier than vi^1, I came across an interesting blog post: On Apps and Coffee – iA.

iA Writer is an application that I had glossed over when I first got my iPad and filed away as a “Remember for later”. Imagine my surprise, that it actually supports other platforms. But anyhow, moving on.

I think the author makes an interesting point that apps are not coffee but coffee machines. Much the way that to the old world, computers are office tools not just a way to warm up a cold candy bar out of the office vending machine.

In general, as a consumer: I tend to avoid subscriptionware as a rule of thumb. I’m spending enough money on things like video streaming services that I don’t often accept this for software. Or should we say, if your quaint (or even truly awesome sauce) app costs $30/month (or even 40¢ a month) then I’m probably going to keep on scrolling. You’ve got to be something I use excessively or offer some major value, not just fill a personal niche.

Unlike most consumers however, I tend to be quite willing to pay for good software. As a programmer, I understand the effort that goes into making great software more than most users. Further when I encounter good software that solves my problems, I can see the value metric—how much time is this saving me versus developing my own solution? Yeah. That’s a thing. In my experience, people are either willing to pay for a good product or they weren’t going to give you jack shit no matter how much effort it takes to pirate it.

People often forget that the one who produced the product also has to eat, not just slurp a coffee. One of the reasons why I’ve never opted to sell my software, is the profitability is keyed to unit sales. How many apps do you need to sell to buy a coffee? Yeah. Subscriptions are an easier sell when you’re renting access to something. Cloud storage and media libraries make easier sells than say, an address book or a mail client. I’ve seen a few modern models, based on progressive unlock: a few dollars for features here, a few dollars for features there, if you actually want the nice to haves or support the developer. The one I think that makes the most sense to me, as a consumer, is a model like Working Copy. Full cost of the app to unlock the pro features, and future features for up to a year. After which an upgrade cost is pertinent.

I kind of love iA’s analogy hat apps aren’t like coffee but like coffee makers. Whether you buy the $25 coffee maker at Walmart or the $25,000 imported espresso machine, you’re going to periodically have to deal with the costs of service. For a coffee maker this is an expense like coffee beans and k-cups. For software, this is the cost of someone maintaining the software and periodically developing new features. You know what? Never underestimate the cost of maintainence unless you’re willing to coax a 20-year old computer into powering up just so you can run some piece of software that hasn’t been updated in forever. Whether you’re acquiring software from an indy developer, helping maintain it yourself as a open source contributor, or you’re licensing it from an enterprise with more money than your entire family combined, it’s not free to deal with maintaining software over a long term.

Be it our mental models or our monetary worlds, I’m not really sure a good solution exists. But apps definitely aren’t coffee: apps are the coffee makers. Also remember, coffee makers eventually need replacement and that may look like a trip to Amazon or Walmart some bleary eyed morning😂

Footnotes:

1. Actually, the ease of previewing is one of the reasons I’ve enjoyed using VS Code the past couple years. But I still need the vim plugin 😃

I’ve always been a collection of oxymorons. Or, as a fan of Oscar, I prefer to say “I am an ox AND a moron!”; although sometimes I find it intriguing how that works out in practice.

Viewing plans for the weekend include both Eraser and Emily In Paris, which is probably a wide apart as you can get for genres.

On the flip side while Eraser is as technologically silly as it gets, and the CGI and compositing shots haven’t held up that great, it’s still as entertaining a collection of bullets and explosions as I remember.

It’s been an unusually full weekend. A couple friends were in Atlanta making for a nice chance to hang out. As someone that already passes for a potato during my time off, this was probably the most time out I’ve spent since the pre-COVID age. Between work and medicine schedules it’s been difficult to get very far on the weekends, even after being vaccinated.

Thus far, getting the 2300c up and running has proven to be a bit of a longer running side project than expected.

Part of the juggle:

1. Most of my software base targets M68K and system 7: about the time PowerPC support began.
2. Most of my media for installing MacOS 9 either can’t boot on older than a G3 or is media that can neither be booted nor readily connected to the older hardware.
3. Which parts will end up in which machine.

I think I can now say it is universally known that I love coffee.

That, or the only way to make it better known would be having coffee paraphernalia tattooed on my face….. lol

For the most part, lately I tend to find myself in an often-tired state. Part of this, I reckon is simply how life is right now. Between work and home, I’m usually kept busy at both ends. I’m used to it being a busy season by now. Another part, I think is that spring just doesn’t tend to be a great time of year for me in practice. Most years, actually I’ve been kind of glad this time of year leans towards busy much stronger than idle.

Recently, I marked 6 years since ma passed away. Events like that seem to make up the lion share of events on my calendar for the early parts of the year, that don’t involve meetings and appointments. It kind of bugs me that that trend has only grown since I was a kid. In many cases, it’s the death of someone I care about or the birthday of someone I care about whose no longer alive. That sums up the key highlights of my personal calendar for early months of the year. But I also guess that comes with getting older.

My grandfather used to say, “Adapt!” My mother was fond of pointing out that most of the things her dad said were utter non-sense, but she also had a talent for re-iterating the ones that were wise. For me, adaption has usually equated to get things done whatever needs doing.

In the course of my life, I’ve learned that I probably adapt a bit quicker than most folks I know. For things that I can file under doing, that’s kind of easier. It’s a more mechanical type of processing that leaves you something to focus on, whether or not it pisses you off in the process. It’s the things that aren’t as focused that I find harder.

For life in general, well, I’m pretty sure if I pointed out the times that my family had to adapt growing up, my momma would have both slapped me in the head for implying that she hated change that strongly and have listened to my two cents that she did well at making the most of it. That’s just how life is. You adapt or you stagnate.

Over the past few years, I’ve felt that my life has been headed towards a different chapter.

Oddly, this reminds me I’ve got about 30 more years until my age hits the next power of two…. 🤣

Passing thought: if personal cybernetics or portable nuclear power cells are ever a thing, I so need an integrated espresso machine.

For some reason this makes me remember Killing Floor’s Fleshpound. A type of zombie that effectively turns into a meat grinding berserker when the squad’s gunfire causes its chemical injectors to respond to its rage.

You know, having an espresso machine built into you would probably be a case of be careful what you wish for.

Great plan: saving leftover chili, macraroni, that could be smothered in cheese and tossed in the oven.

Bad plan: eating the entire pan for chilimac. Then polishing off a bunch of cheesecake.

Or was that a perfect plan….

Sometimes random things make you frown.

1. Paper weight falls off the tea bag.
2. String falls in the cup.
3. Can’t reach the teabag or the string.
4. Flip over cup and it still won’t come out.
5. Tie the string to the handle and it flies off when adding water.

When they all in a neat streak of events: I call this an incremental frown.

On the upside sitting down with a spot of tea and not going ass over tea kettle in the process 😅