iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 27/03/2025

So many great new AAA macOS games right now: Control Ultimate Edition, Palworld, Assassin's Creed Shadows, Prince of Persia: Lost Crown, Frostpunk 2, Civilization VII, Lies of P, and Wuthering Waves, to name just a few! geekculture.co/apple-beefs-... #MacGaming

geekculture.co

Apple Beefs Up 2025 Gaming Lineup With 'Assassin's Creed Shadows' And 'Cyberpunk 2077' For Mac

Apple is expanding its 2025 gaming lineup with impressive titles like Assassin's Creed Shadows, Cyberpunk 2077 and Control Ultimate Edition.

180

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 13/02/2025

OK, here's a fun prompt -- paste this prompt into ChatGPT or your AI tool of choice. What does it know about you? How close is it?

Let's play a game. You and I have been talking for a while now, but I'd like you to see your superpowers. I'd like you to tell me what you can infer about me based on stereotype, reasoning, or your knowledge, across a wide range of dimensions -- for example, what do I look like? Feel free to choose your own categories. Importantly, don't just repeat back things that I've directly told you -- that's cheating!

Format your reply as a numbered list of facts, along with a confidence level from 0.0 to 1.0, where the scale represents your confidence that your inference is accurate. Give me as many as you can, and I'll tell you what's right and what's wrong.

150

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 02/02/2025

After a conversation with my son, it turns out that he has no problem with the idea of a talking groundhog who has impressive long-range meteorological skills. It's the part where "he can see his shadow" that overloads his suspension of disbelief.

080

Reposted by Tim Sneath

Tim Condon @0xtim.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

This is how efficient Swift on the Server is - this is the smaller Fargate task size available for ECS on AWS - we're yet to break 2% utilisation!

Memory usage graph showing utilisation at 1.37%

1285

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 10/01/2025

Fun short talk surfaced by the YouTube algorithm on how the DOOM first-person game plays in a non-Euclidean geometry (π ≉ 3.14159): youtu.be/_ZSFRWJCUY4

youtu.be

2022 - Non-Euclidean Doom: what happens to a game when pi is not 3.14159…

YouTube video by WHY2025

150

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 06/01/2025

It's not too late to learn how to bring SwiftUI to your app! Check out this event next month at the Apple Developer Center in Cupertino (or online), where we'll explore how to get started with SwiftUI: developer.apple.com/events/view/...

developer.apple.com

Meet with Apple - Apple Developer

Learn and be inspired with a variety of live presentations, labs, and programs for developers and designers around the world.

2101

Reposted by Tim Sneath

Joannis Orlandos @joanniso.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

I want to take today as an opportunity to highlight @mikaelacaron.com! She's a superpower to all sorts of learners in the Swift world, and is constantly engaging in the community. Thanks Mikaela!

0144

Reposted by Tim Sneath

Taha Tesser @tahatesser.com · 04/01/2025

I didn't realize how much fun it'd be to create your own UI component and turn it into a library. #SwiftUI

0153

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 01/01/2025

My wife informs me that this is not, in fact, intended for use to help men pee without making a mess of the toilet.

A “sprinkle catcher tray” from Target. Ostensibly for something cookie related.

060

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 01/01/2025

Just watched the London fireworks on BBC -- they were completely wild! Hope they get a full replay for international viewing -- one of the best I've seen!

The London Eye is almost completely obscured by a cacophony of yellow-white fireworks and lights.

2111

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 31/12/2024

We just tried the new full self-driving update for the Tesla, and I’m in awe. Even my very skeptical wife admitted that it drove flawlessly on a challenging route, from reversing out of a space all the way home. It feels much less tentative and more predictable. Big improvement for a free update.

040

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 18/12/2024

I very much like the Google style guide for Swift, which builds on the API design guidelines with some helpful examples of good practices informed by Google's own (considerable) Swift codebase. Check it out here: google.github.io/swift/

google.github.io

Swift Style Guide

Google's Swift style guide.

0201

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 16/12/2024

Perhaps this counts as a confession: I never have more than a few browser tabs open at any one time, and I close what I’m not actively using. Am I the only one who doesn’t have hundreds of tabs? What am I missing? Are you all more efficient than me?

8220

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 16/12/2024

As folk start to wind down for the break, sending you all seasonal wishes. Wear your ugly Christmas sweaters proudly! #MerrySwiftmas

Tim wearing an ugly Christmas sweater with three dimensional moose.

2300

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 10/12/2024

Safari tip of the day: grab a screenshot of a scrolling page from Developer Tools by right-clicking the HTML node and choosing "Capture Screenshot". Great for sharing a proposed website change without deploying somewhere!

Use the Web Inspector to capture a screenshot of a long webpage from top to bottom for easy sharing.

An example screenshot for a scrolling page, captured with Safari's Web Inspector.

1234

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 10/12/2024

“That’s not just a rack, it’s a [cloud] region”: I’m delighted to report that the fire still burns strong in @charlesfitz.bsky.social

042

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 09/12/2024

I do not need another Raspberry Pi. I do not need another Raspberry Pi. I do not need another Raspberry Pi. I do not need another Raspberry Pi. I do not need another Raspberry Pi. I do not need another Raspberry Pi. Ooooooooh! Another Raspberry Pi! 🥧 www.raspberrypi.com/products/ras...

raspberrypi.com

Buy a Raspberry Pi 500 – Raspberry Pi

A fast, powerful computer built into a high-quality keyboard, for the ultimate compact PC experience.

1160

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 09/12/2024

I’m amazed how many of these apps are new to me. Exciting to see how much innovation there is in the app ecosystem. Apple platform developers are incredible.

071

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 08/12/2024

Fun night last night! The legendary Branford Marsalis in Seattle, then the decorated gingerbread houses at the Sheraton. Guess which city this one is?!

160

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 07/12/2024

Can’t think of a better crowd to mingle with. Come and join the fun and talk #SwiftUI!

090

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 06/12/2024

I don’t know if it’s that I’m becoming a better programmer or that it’s easier to solve the #AdventOfCode challenges with #Swift, but it sure feels like I’m making fewer mistakes and getting things right from the first attempt. How are you all doing with it?

050

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 04/12/2024

I'm going to share a few macOS Terminal tips I learned recently that others might find helpful. 1/ Ever find yourself with a long command and you just want to change one thing? Don't just hold down the left arrow button, instead Option+Click and the cursor will move to that location.

3226

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 03/12/2024

For those of you following along with #AdventOfCode, you're probably groaning as you refresh your memory of regular expressions! Unless you're using #Swift, which has this lovely mini-DSL for expressing them. The two expressions below are equivalent, and Xcode can help you convert from the former.

0244

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 03/12/2024

How can you not love these wallpapers? And with color variants to match every ugly Christmas sweater you own...!

050

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 02/12/2024

#Swift is full of helper methods that are really helpful for solving the kinds of problems you'll find in Advent of Code. Here are a few that might help you solve day 2 with a readable and efficient approach... #AdventOfCode

The ~= operator means "contains", and is used to test if a value is within a range. The .adjacentPairs() method lets you iterate through a sequence in pairs of current + next. And the .combinations(of:) method returns a collection of combinations from a sequence of specified count length.

4201

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 02/12/2024

That’s… an unfortunate headline.

Text of CNN caption reads: “Catherine, Princess of Wales, rides in the Glass State Coach. Stunning shot of a beluga whale.”

000

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 02/12/2024

OK, off we go with #AdventOfCode! Day 1 was a gentle start, as is usually the case. I like that #Swift has: distances.sort(by: >) // sorts an array in descending order versus the approach of #Java: Array.Sort(first, (a, b) => b.CompareTo(a)); Good chance to practice use of zip(a, b) too!

2201

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 01/12/2024

I'm surprised how many people see screenshots of my terminal settings and want something similar. I have five simple steps for anyone who wants to upgrade their default macOS terminal settings. In just a couple of minutes, you can have a clean setup with a useful git prompt and pleasant colors.

1296

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 01/12/2024

It's happening! ☃️☃️☃️ Advent of Code starts in just a few hours, and you can sign up to join our Swift leaderboard here: forums.swift.org/t/advent-of-.... Thanks as always to @was.tl for bringing the coding joy to the season -- if you participate, consider supporting him with a tip...

0243

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 30/11/2024

Having a blast going through the Build Your Own Text Editor tutorial again, this time using Swift. Aside from the inevitable hell of working with VT terminal sequences, it's a good warm-up for Advent of Code. viewsourcecode.org/snaptoken/ki...

viewsourcecode.org

Build Your Own Text Editor

1211

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 29/11/2024

It amazes me how @iosdevalb.bsky.social keeps coming up with so many great tips, communicated so clearly. If you’re a SwiftUI developer, you owe it to yourself to follow them. Thank you for what you do, Enid!

3142

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 28/11/2024

I’m grateful today for the opportunities I’ve had to work with some amazing people over the years: across Windows, Visual Studio, Flutter/Dart and now at Apple. And I love that so many of you are here and you continue to encourage, teach, and challenge me. Thank you! 🦃

0251

Reposted by Tim Sneath

Oliver Binns @oliverbinns.co.uk · 28/11/2024

Today we tried to dispel the myth amongst engineers at work that Swift is just for Apple Platforms 🙂

Graphs showing answers to two questions. Have you heard of Swift, 32 yes, 6 no. What is Swift good for? 75% Apple devices (iOS).

Swift supports a wide range of devices including on the server, embedded and personal devices (Apple and Windows).

4165

Reposted by Tim Sneath

paris. @parisinbmore.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

swiftlang enthusiasts: last call for the #fosdem swift devroom call for proposals. dec 1 is the deadline! we want to see you in brussels! 🏎️ swiftlang.github.io/event-fosdem

049

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 28/11/2024

Proud of myself for completing today’s 5K Turkey Trot 😅 Why do my daughters look like they didn’t even exert themselves?! 🌼

Tim wearing a Turkey Trot t-shirt, after completing a 5K in support of the Issaquah Food Bank.

0140

Reposted by Tim Sneath

Basic Apple Guy @basicappleguy.com · 28/11/2024

Apple Holiday Ad: Heartstrings Viewing tips: - There will be feels (bring tissues) 🥹 www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvnJ...

youtube.com

Heartstrings | Apple Holiday | Hearing Aid feature on AirPods Pro 2

YouTube video by Apple

3728

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 28/11/2024

My recommendation for some Thanksgiving holiday pleasure is Minute Cryptic, which offers a cryptic crossword clue every day. This provides a gentle introduction to a really fun type of puzzle. There are hints available and a YouTube explanation. Our family is hooked! www.minutecryptic.com

minutecryptic.com

Minute Cryptic

Solve a clue with a hidden meaning

041

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 27/11/2024

It's fascinating to me how much legacy code gets carried forward to modern systems. For example, want to use this 1987 AT&T terminal as the front end to your Linux box or Mac mini? The terminal software in every modern POSIX system knows how to interface with it, and thousands of others.

A AT&T 630 MTG monochrome amber terminal, with an unusual display capable of showing 80x60 characters. Image from https://terminals-wiki.org/wiki/index.php/File:AT%26T_630_MTG.jpg.

81165

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 27/11/2024

I was going through the photos I've taken of Apple Park over the last year or so, and I think this one might be my favorite. Sunset is such a beautiful time of day to be on campus.

The main building curves from the foreground, with glowing light. A paved footpath trail follows the building's curve, with a gentle sunset glow in the distant hills.

3291

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 26/11/2024

Gearing up for Advent of Code again this year -- just 100 hours until it starts! Using #Swift this year again, of course. And with Swift 6, Swift Testing, the rewritten Foundation framework, and solid support for VSCode and Windows/Linux, hoping it will be a blast. Who else is in? adventofcode.com

adventofcode.com

Advent of Code 2024

3131

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 26/11/2024

We've been experimenting with T-Mobile 5G Home Internet, since Xfinity has been down for the last 7 days (!) after a big windstorm. At its best, it's a perfect replacement, but the speed fluctuates wildly from 5Mbps to 300Mbps. Wondering if there's anything I can do to optimize it...

030

Tim Sneath @sneath.org · 25/10/2023

My first post on BlueSky. Let's hope I don't scruw it up.

070