Astronomy Picture of the Day website turns thirty

19 June 2025

Administered by NASA, the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) website started posting images in June 1995. This is a time, that in 2025, feels positively prehistoric, when it comes to the web.

I’ve been looking at APOD on and off for maybe twenty years, and as far as I recall, the website has barely changed during that time. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect APOD has sported the same “Web 1.0” design since debuting thirty years ago. While the interface may not be much to look at, that’s not what we go there for: we’re there for the stunningly awesome images.

You can’t follow APOD on any socials channel, but you can subscribe to their RSS feed.

The infinite workday: more work hours and less employee privacy

19 June 2025

Microsoft is calling it the infinite workday.

Based on telemetry data, gleaned from apps including Microsoft 365, the American tech company has found the workday has been gradually becoming longer, and work-related activities are increasingly seeping into the weekend. This for people supposedly working Monday to Friday, between nine o’clock in the morning, until five o’clock in the afternoon.

According to some of Microsoft’s findings, workers are reading emails as early as six in the morning during the week. The same workers may still be on deck well into the evening, attending online meetings, called to cater for colleagues spread across multiple timezones. In addition, workers are more frequently checking email messages during the weekend.

So much for work-life balance, which I’ve always seen as a theoretical construct. Not for real. Bullshit. My workday looks tame by comparison. But the accumulation of the telemetry data used to compile Microsoft’s report is also concerning. Not only are people working longer hours, they are also being surveilled. Some degree — who knows how much precisely — of information about their use of various Microsoft software, is being gathered.

The case for adopting something like LibreOffice, an open source variation of Microsoft products such as Word and Excel, becomes all the stronger. This won’t rectify the problem of working extended hours and weekends, but at least workers won’t have large tech companies keeping tabs on them.

Upcoming Threads feature allows users to hide spoilers in their posts

18 June 2025

Meta’s Adam Mosseri, writing on his Threads page:

We’re testing a way for you to hide spoilers in Threads posts. When creating a post, highlight text or images and tap “mark spoiler” to blur it. People can reveal the hidden text or image by tapping it in their feed.

Mosseri claims no other micro-blogging service offers such a feature, and maybe he’s right.

If I weren’t doing the whole Indie Web/Small Web thing of maintaining my own web presence, I’d find the feature useful if I was using my Threads page to, say, write about film. I could safely include possible spoilers when writing my thoughts on a movie, knowing a reader would consciously need to click on the blanked out line of text, to reveal what was there.

This feature update reminds me it has been almost two years since Threads launched. I’m still using my account, sparingly, but it looks like some people have taken to using Threads like it was the website they never had.

RELATED CONTENT

social media, social networks, Threads

Nine minutes no more: iPhone users soon able to vary snooze alarm intervals

18 June 2025

It should be six-thirty in the morning, on the east coast of Australia, when this post is published, but all things being equal, I’ll be slumbering for another ninety-minutes.

And when the alarm on my iPhone starts chiming, I’ll likely press the snooze button a number of times. I’ll be productive though. Reading and replying to email, and looking at news headlines. Every nine minutes I’ll be reminded I need to start the day in the not too distant future.

But some people’s morning routines might be about to change, following the announcement at WWDC 2025 last week, that the upcoming iOS 26 update, will allow people to set snooze intervals from anywhere between one to fifteen minutes.

I’ve been thinking about the potential of being able to change the length of the snooze interval, but am not sure if it’s for me. Anything less would be too often, and anything longer might be a little too spread out. But I think being able to change the interval period, even if only to a maximum of fifteen minutes, will be welcomed by more than a few people.

RELATED CONTENT

smartphones, technology, trends

Linux, LibreOffice, offer an escape from Windows 11 and Microsoft

18 June 2025

KDE, developers of free and open source software, have launched a campaign encouraging Windows 10 (Win10) users to migrate to a Linux Operating System (this article is a good starting point), rather than moving to the Windows 11 (Win11) Operating System (OS).

Win11 stands to render many older, but still perfectly functional computers useless, after Microsoft recently changed the operating specifications for the OS. This means some older devices may no longer have sufficient capacity to operate Win11. The message from Microsoft seems clear: buy a new computer, or go without one all together. That could be a confronting choice for some people.

But as Sayan Sen, writing at Neowin, points out, there is another option, one that is also being backed by The Document Foundation, maker of LibreOffice, a suite of productivity applications similar to Word and Excel:

“You don’t have to follow Microsoft’s upgrade path. There is a better option that puts control back in the hands of users, institutions, and public bodies: Linux and LibreOffice. Together, these two programmes offer a powerful, privacy-friendly and future-proof alternative to the Windows + Microsoft 365 ecosystem.”

The Document Foundation also suggests Win11 is not quite as cost-free as is believed:

“The move to Windows 11 isn’t just about security updates. It increases dependence on Microsoft through aggressive cloud integration, forcing users to adopt Microsoft accounts and services. It also leads to higher costs due to subscription and licensing models, and reduces control over how your computer works and how your data is managed. Furthermore, new hardware requirements will render millions of perfectly good PCs obsolete.

They leave the best for last:

The end of Windows 10 does not mark the end of choice, but the beginning of a new era. If you are tired of mandatory updates, invasive changes, and being bound by the commercial choices of a single supplier, it is time for a change. Linux and LibreOffice are ready — 2025 is the right year to choose digital freedom!”

Regular readers of disassociated will know I migrated to Linux Mint about a year ago, and have been using Writer and Calc, the LibreOffice versions of Word and Excel, since. I won’t sugarcoat it: the move had its bumps, and I needed to make several tweaks to my laptop before the system stability I’d enjoyed on Win10 returned.

I also needed to start using some new apps, and had to give up on one or two I couldn’t find Linux compatible versions of (despite trying to use various Windows emulators), but was able to figure out workarounds. Today, I barely notice the difference. I open my laptop every morning and get working pretty much as usual.

If you’re having a problem getting started on — as it was in my case — Linux Mint, the Linux Mint Forums were a great help in the migration process. Chances are someone’s already run into whatever problem you’re having, and found a solution, which you can try. Otherwise, you can post a question asking for help.

Touch Grass by Mary Colussi wins Penguin Literary Prize 2025

17 June 2025

Sydney based Australian writer Mary Colussi has been named winner of the 2025 Penguin Literary Prize, with her manuscript Touch Grass. Going by this brief outline of the story, Touch Grass sounds like a work of speculative fiction:

Touch Grass tells the story of a depressed deletion specialist as she starts to leave her body at unexpected moments and finds herself at the surreal centre of a global panic.

Awarded annually, the Penguin Literary Prize was established in 2017 “to discover, nurture and develop literary fiction writers, providing a platform for new and diverse voices to emerge.”

Melbourne journalist and writer Chloe Adams (Instagram page) won the 2024 award, with the manuscript for her novel The Occupation, which will be published next month.

We’ll probably have to wait on a little while before learning more about the synopsis of Touch Grass.

Joanna Stern, Nilay Patel, light up the Talk Show WWDC 2025 edition

16 June 2025

Joanna Stern, technology writer at The Wall Street Journal, and Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief of The Verge, were this year’s guests on the live edition of John Gruber’s Talk Show podcast at WWDC last week. It’s the first time in ten years senior Apple executives have not appeared on the WWDC edition of the show, having “declined” to participate this year.

Some speculated their absence was on account of an article Gruber wrote in March, critical of Apple’s delays in rolling out enhancements to Siri, the iPhone’s digital assistant, and Apple Intelligence, an array of AI features the company suggested — at WWDC 2024 — were close to release.

Gruber addressed the nonattendance of Apple executives, typically Craig Federighi (SVP of software engineering), and Greg Joswiak (SVP of worldwide marketing), saying there had been some degree of discussion between him and the company on the matter, but didn’t go into detail.

Some people, including Stern, believe their non-participation is temporary. Others, however, see things differently, with one pointing to a preview screening, at WWDC, of Brad Pitt’s high profile new movie, F1, co-produced by Apple Studios, which was scheduled to coincide with the Talk Show.

I’m not sure Apple’s no show was entirely a bad thing though, and the presence of new faces, and perspectives, was refreshing. While it’s WWDC, and attendees want to hear senior Apple executives speak informally, the format can be a little predictable. All the way down to Joswiak sitting vigilantly on stage throughout, making sure no one speaks out of turn, though this is also somewhat amusing.

Gruber is sometimes chastised for being soft on the Apple people, and shying away from asking hard questions. But I doubt a “tough” approach would be productive. Apple will only ever the answer the questions they want to. Gleaning insights by way the fireside chat format is probably going to be more informative. That said, Stern put Federighi and Joswiak through the wringer, in an interview she recorded with the pair, prior to her appearance on the Talk Show.

Canva catches the AI coding assistant vibe

13 June 2025

Simon Newton writing on the Canva Engineering Blog:

Yet until recently, our interview process asked candidates to solve coding problems without the very tools they’d use on the job. Our interview approach included a Computer Science Fundamentals interview which focused on algorithms and data structures. This interview format pre-dated the rise of AI tools, and candidates were asked to write the code themselves. This dismissal of AI tools during the interview process meant we weren’t truly evaluating how candidates would perform in their actual role.

The Australian founded online graphic design platform is now mandating candidates for coding roles be proficient with AI tools, and will be expected to demonstrate as much during coding interviews. Given many Canva employees (to say nothing of the industry as a whole) are using AI assistants in their coding work, the move is hardly surprising.

Canva is an app I’ve to tried to pickup, but to date with little success. Several years ago I went along to the Canva offices in Sydney — I’m pretty sure they were located in the suburb of Surry Hills at that point — to give the then iteration of the app a try.

With again, er, limited success. I was kindly told long-term users of Photoshop tend to struggle more than others with Canva, so that was some consolation.

Proficiency with Canva is still on my to-do list, but at the moment getting my head around GIMP is the priority. I’ve not been able to sandbox Photoshop on Linux Mint, so when it comes to image creation and manipulation, GIMP it is.

Still talking of Canva, I learned in quickly looking up the company, that Cameron Adams is a co-founder. Yes: have I been living under a rock or what?

Adams might be better known to some earlier (I’m talking prior to 2010) web creative people as the Man in Blue, being his website/blog, which is still online. In 2011, Adams created a data visualisation of the music of Daft Punk, which is likewise still online, and something I linked to back in the day.

There’s some oldies, but goodies, in the mix, including Da Funk, Television Rules the Nation, Alive, Face to Face, and One More Time. And how good is the pre-loading popup, this using Firefox 139:

If you are going to view this site in Firefox, it is recommended that you use the latest version (Firefox 4).

That’s quite the trip back in time. Firefox 4 came out in March 2011. A good year before Canva was founded, and what seems like a lifetime before AI as we know it emerged in spectacular fashion.

UFOs, flying saucers, at Area 51, nothing but a military cover up?

12 June 2025

This sounds like the news that no one wanted you to hear:

The congressionally ordered probe took investigators back to the 1980s, when an Air Force colonel visited a bar near Area 51, a top-secret site in the Nevada desert. He gave the owner photos of what might be flying saucers. The photos went up on the walls, and into the local lore went the idea that the U.S. military was secretly testing recovered alien technology. But the colonel was on a mission — of disinformation. The photos were doctored, the now-retired officer confessed to the Pentagon investigators in 2023. The whole exercise was a ruse to protect what was really going on at Area 51: The Air Force was using the site to develop top-secret stealth fighters, viewed as a critical edge against the Soviet Union.

Hands up those who believe any of that, hey?

Otherwise, if someone could explain how extraterrestrials can travel vast distances through the galaxy to reach Earth, in vessels the size of a bus, apparently capable of travelling at the speed of light (or supposedly faster) without saying “oh, but they can bend the laws of physics”, I’m all ears. No warp powered motherships capable of cloaked flight either, please.

RELATED CONTENT

physics, science

LibreOffice replaces Microsoft 365 at Denmark’s Ministry of Digitisation

12 June 2025

The ministry will swap the likes of Microsoft Word and Excel for LibreOffice applications instead, says Caroline Stage, Denmark’s Digitisation Minister. It is anticipated all Ministry staff will be using LibreOffice by the end of the year.

The switch to open source software is part of a move by the Danish Government to reduce their dependency on applications made in the United States. Comments by US President Donald Trump, expressing interest in buying Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, have also concerned and angered the Danish Government.

I’ve been using LibreOffice word processor and spreadsheet apps since migrating to Linux Mint last year. I’m hardly a power user of either, maybe tapping into, what, ten percent of the available functionality of each app, but they do exactly what Word and Excel did before. As I type the draft of this post in Writer, the LibreOffice word processor, I can barely discern any difference.

I dare say my computer is better off for the change though, by way of the absence of all manner of needless extraneous bits and pieces that come with non open source software.

RELATED CONTENT

current affairs, technology, trends

1 2 … 190 NEXT