Yesterday, I discovered I could dictate text notes to my iPhone, even offline. It works with Obsidian, WhatsApp, and any other app where I need to enter text, like the Safari search box. I suck at entering text on the phone. I also hate WhatsApp audio messages, but I often recur to them as, again, I suck at typing text on the phone. I can instead dictate those messages, and they will render as text as if I typed them; what a revelation!

It’s not entirely a discovery; I knew I could do that and did it occasionally, primarily for quick lookups. However, I underestimated how good and valuable the feature is.

This morning, I discovered the obvious: I can do the same on the Mac. The MacBook keyboard has a microphone function key, and guess what? It’s for voice dictation, and it works seamlessly. I can even start typing on the keyboard, switch to dictation on the fly, and then go back to typing without interruption. It works offline and has built-in multi-language support, just like iOS. Voice dictation will likely change how I take notes, send messages, and perform other tasks. Take notes, for example; until today, I rarely write them down when away from the keyboard.

“Why are so many developers so very emotional when it comes to their favourite programming language? Considering that no language can (yet) magically translate the perfect idea in your head into machine code, all of them exist on a scale of badness – they all limit you more than your own thoughts or the hardware does.”

“Clean, simple web designs have become a popular trend. This article will cover the subject through a two-part discussion. First, we’ll talk about a few traits that clean designs tend to have in common. Secondly, I’ll share some tricks and techniques that can be helpful when trying to achieve a clean design.”

Database of HTTP status codes with their IETF and Wikipedia descriptions

“What happens when you click on a weblink? Here’s one answer: a request goes from your computer to a server identified by the URL of the desired link. The server then locates the webpage in its files and sends it back to your browser, which then displays it on your screen. Simple.”

“We occasionally try commercial software. Mostly, we don’t end up buying it. A big reason why is the incredibly time-consuming, aggravating sales process that most commercial enterprise (that is, non-consumer) software vendors insist on.”

“My experience of learning how to write iOS software, after having spent many years exclusively in the world of .NET development. It provides warnings, suggestions, and tips for others who are interested in learning iOS development.”

“If you write any code in JavaScript then you’ve probably used closures, but do you actually understand what they are and how they work? Taking the time to understand closures and how they’re implemented can add a deeper dimension to your understanding of the JavaScript language.”

“In desktop applications, the user interface dominated the screen. The buttons to click, the bars to drag, the windows. That isn’t the case with mobile devices. What’s powerful about mobile devices is that they exist to complement what we are already doing, rather than be our primary focus.”

“At Stack Overflow (…) we feel that it’s part of our mission to help lead fellow .NET developers — and the most effective way to do that is by contributing some of the code that we use to build Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange back to the greater .NET developer community as reusable open source packages.”

“We’ve made a selection of indispensable resources like layout frameworks, tutorials, books, templates and useful tools that can help you understand and implement grid based design in your projects.”