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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • Apple didn’t invent the concept of podcasts, but they sure popularized them. They used to be called syndicated audio, and were pretty niche. Then Apple added it as a feature of iTunes. The idea was that because your iPod didn’t have any wifi or data connection, you couldn’t listen to new content while out and about. So you would plug your iPod into your computer with iTunes to sync down all the latest content before you leave for the day. Then they needed feeds of new content to provide to the users, so lots of new episodicals were started, and Apple grouped them under the umbrella of “podcasts”.


  • Apple never made a product called iTouch. You’re thinking of a product called “iPod Touch”. It was the touchscreen version of the iPod (without the iconic clickwheel). The first one was essentially a slimmer iPhone 3G without a cellular modem.

    I worked in an electronics repair store just after they came out. We replaced hundreds of broken screens on them. The sheer number of people who called them “iTouch” was surprising, considering Apple never called it that.









  • +1 for Signal. It’s already on my phone, and already on my PC and laptop. It is a simple Flatpak install on Linux. It’s end-to-end encrypted. I use that for one-off notes and files between my phone and my PC or between my laptop and PC.

    For notes and small files that I know I’ll want to save to reference at another time, I put them in my KeePassXC database because that’s already set to sync between devices.


  • That’s so true. I studied Ba. Information Technology for two years in 2004-2005 and dropped out due to family reasons, then I went back 10 years later and did Ba. Software Engineering in 2013-2016.

    In both instances, it was clear about half those enrolled in the programme were only in it for the money, you could tell that some people were just not excited about software. They were the ones who had dropped out by the end of first year.

    The other lot were those who did find it exciting, but severely underestimated the difficulty of the discipline. These were the kind of people who have can edit game config files to add a bunch of mods to Skyrim, they consider themselves a tech wiz want to study to be a game developer. But they barely pass intro to Web programming with html and JS in the first year and fail the first oracle database course in second year. I had some good friends who failed out hard in second year of software engineering for that reason.







  • I’m also a landmark graduate, and I can confirm it is a life changing experience.

    Doing the forum allowed me to realise I have so much wasted potential, I didn’t have to be working minimum wage repairing laptops at the local computer store, I enrolled at University in a IT degree with the goal to be a software engineer. Doing the forum gave me the confidence to tell my boss I’m quitting and going to be a full time student and how that’s a good thing for him. The forum gave me the confidence to talk honestly with my wife about what I want from our marriage, instead of me constantly trying to appease her wants. It caused me to have a real, meaningful, deep conversation with my mother, for the first time in 20 years. I was able to tell her frankly that her narcissistic tendencies in my formative years caused me to suffer from debilitating chronic anxiety in my 20s (my sister too), but it’s okay because she did the best she could, and I’m getting it treated.

    I went on to do the Self-Expression and Leadership course, and later the Advanced course. My wife did the same. I eventually stopped because of the endless and relentless hard-sell routines to get all your friends and family to come and sign up. They have to realise that’s off-putting to most people, but it’s their only marketing avenue so it must work reasonably well.