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  • # articleJul 20, 2020· 8 min

    DIY Video Hosting

    <p>I've been a paying customer of Vimeo since 2014 – specifically, their Pro plan. But when my renewal email arrived in April, myself and other small developers were seeing sales slow down as the pandemic worsened. Another $240/year was a tough sell for the small amount of video content I was hosting with them, and I wondered if there might be a cheaper alternative – either another service or by hosting videos myself.</p> <p>So this is how I moved off Vimeo and started hosting my own video content.</p> <p>On average, my bandwidth bill has dropped to $11/month – and that includes videos, static assets, and ALSO binary downloads for all of my Mac apps. Previously, I was paying $20/month <em>just</em> for video hosting on top of the rest of my bandwidth.</p> <p>It's definitely a geekier solution that requires more work up front to setup, and I'm not sure I would recommend it for a "real" business, but for my needs it was a fun project and I'm happy to save $200 a year.</p>

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  • # articleJul 15, 2020· 8 min

    Process

    <p>To keep myself sane while dealing with my work deadlines, I've found myself tinkering around with an idea I've wanted to try building for years now. Oddly enough, it's not yet-another-app, but a website (web service, maybe?). And it's actually something that's designed to be self-hosted. I haven't yet decided if it will (eventually) be open source, or if I might solicit feedback from friends (real and online) just in case it's more useful than I think.</p> <p>Sometimes the idea for something new comes in a flash of inspiration. And other times (as in the current case) it meanders around in the back of my head for years – just waiting for the right moment or combination of external factors.</p> <p>For this project, it's the result of the rebirth of the indie web movement, my long time interest in self-hosting and owning the tools and data I run my business with, and Apple's WWDC announcements about Safari and their OS's upcoming privacy improvements.</p>

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  • # articleJun 29, 2020· 3 min

    BespokeApp

    <p>I really don't know if anyone has a need for this other than me. But I've built this app a few times for myself in the past, so last night I finally took the initiative to make it generic and reusable – both for my future self and anyone else who might find it useful.</p> <p>It's called <a href="https://github.com/tylerhall/BespokeApp">BespokeApp</a>. It's a simple iOS app that gives you a tabbed web browser with the pre-defined websites of your choosing.</p>

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  • # articleJun 21, 2020· 10 min

    A Pirate Looks (Nearly) at Forty

    <p>One night last June we managed to get the kids to bed early and decided to rent a movie from iTunes. About forty-five minutes in, our youngest throws up, the oldest starts screaming because of the smell, and all hell breaks loose. Movie night over.</p> <p>For us, that's when the spell broke. For seven years we played by the rules. So I walked from the couch to my office iMac, visited an old favorite website of ill repute, and ten minutes later streamed the move in 4K to our TV.</p> <p>That one evening re-opened the piracy floodgates for us, and we haven't bought or rented another TV show or movie since.</p>

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  • # articleJun 16, 2020· 1 min

    Very Simple

    <p>I'll keep this post short because there's really nothing more of substance I can add to this argument that many developers and pundits way smarter than myself haven't already said.</p> <p>But I suppose it's flaring up again in the community because of the <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2020/06/16/hey-iap-app-store-dispute">hey.com</a> controversy, the recent <a href="https://twitter.com/wilshipley/status/1271185023744397312">developer survey</a> Apple sent out (<a href="https://new.tyler.io/apple-asked-for-feedback/">my less polite response from last year</a>), and <a href="https://twitter.com/DaveWoodX/status/1272594491833298952">WWDC</a> looming next week.</p> <p>From my point of view this is all very simple:</p> <p>The App Store opened eleven years, eleven months, and seven days ago. It is not a game. It is literally the livelihood of millions of people.</p> <p>The 30% shakedown has never been justified other than "we can".</p> <p>The capricious and inconsistent review process has never been explained other than "no comment".</p> <p>With all the awfulness and urgency in the world right now; and with all the <a href="https://www.apple.com/environment/">good</a> Apple <a href="https://www.apple.com/speaking-up-on-racism/">truly</a> is <a href="https://twitter.com/tim_cook/status/1271113929754685441">doing</a>, it feels like a waste of precious attention and resources to complain about the App Store. But, <a href="https://hey.com/">hey</a>, that's business.</p> <p>Antitrust.</p> <p>Now.</p>

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