mstolpm

Thank you. Have seen this after I posted.

Seems to be a warning for Macs without a built-in keyboard only. Getting it on my Mac mini but not my Air. Seems to be a good idea for that situation. Bet there are more casual users using bluetooth for keyboard/mouse/trackpad than usb.

Terrible onboarding: Why do I need to create an external account even before seeing what the app has to offer for me? Immediately uninstalled the app.

There is already the opposite situation: "available on iOS AppStore (except in EU)". And that might pop up more often in the future.

You can already "autofill" Firefox (and other) input fields with keychain data in Sonoma. Its a bit cumbersome, but right click into the field, select "autofill" from the context menu, then either "passwords" or "contacts", search/select/confirm the data to be inserted.

But I would only know about the result for my sales in some weeks or months. I have to trust the LLM in the meantime - and your example implies that the LLM answer could be proven wrong. How is that different from asking a complete stranger about better sales strategies for my business? Or even throw a dice?

EU regulations are very messy and DMA doesn't seem to be different. There are so many loop holes in the regulation that the "intention" and the effect are in part disjunct.

See the GDPR and cookie laws: End users should have been protected, but big companies (not only Meta et al, but e.g. German media corporations) are finding ways to "comply" and screw the users at the same time. Cookie consent is a mess. On the other hand, small businesses are struggling to comply and fear getting fined or getting an "Abmahnung" from a competitor.

The new rule that requests electronic invoicing (ZUGFeRD) is a welcome step towards more digitalization, but requests a human readable PDF with an embedded XML containing the structured invoice. The regulations require a human (!) to ensure that the PDF and XML match. Anyone who has ever worked with XML knows that a freelancer or small business outside of IT services doesn't have the knowledge and ability to do so. Again, they have to rely on external tools and services that not only imply costs, but themselves don't guarantee compliance.

Now the DMA. Regulations are welcome and needed for big players, but again, the rules seem to be arbitrary and full of loop holes. This is the EU and it already shows that the DMA leads to more fragmentation, both geographically (inside EU vs outside) as well as in the device space (iOS regulated, iPadOS not?). The relevant parts for AppStores ("Marketplaces") don't even mention the end user, but other competing market actors. Apple, Google, Meta all are interpreting the regulations different and of course "comply" in a way that favors their bottom line - of course, because the EU market is just a small portion of the revenue and the share holders would be angry if management would act different. And the end user already sees a growing enshitification in the EU: No more click through from Google search mini maps to Google Maps (no disadvantage for other maps providers). Browser choice menus with browsers nobody ever heard of. Requirements to accept new TOS without understanding what changed. Requests for "combining data" across services for "better experience"... But there is no mention of, for example, free side loading in the DMA, and no clear definition how to interpret the regulation.

We had all this in the EU with "Windows N" editions: special editions of Windows for European countries with unbundled components and more "free choice". Nobody wanted them: neither customers nor OEMs. And they had more bugs that the regular versions and were hated by Microsoft as well. And we have seen the flaws of GDPR and cookie law in recent years. Oh, and we have seen huge fines for large corporations as well ... and years and years of fighting them in courts, often reducing the fines significantly.

Moreover, the DMA mostly targets American "gate keepers" and this language already shows that the regulation is protective in its nature. It's interesting that even many US HN users hope for a strong reaction of the EU against Apple in particular, despite nobody has ever clearly shown the Apple has a monopoly in the EU or that customers were harmed. But what would the reaction if the EU would truly ban Apple from business in the EU or demand a split up? What would be the retaliations if the EU really tries to have the upper hand on how US corps can operate? And what would be the reaction of EU citizens if e.g. Apple, Meta oder Google would face a ban?

Try creating a new user profile (keeping the old untouched). I had the same problems on my M1 MBA and assumed complex hardware or OS issues. But all problems are gone on the new profile (still existent on the old one when used). Strange.

On the topic of Hackintoshes: They are becoming more and more obsolet with Apples focus on Apple Silicon, Neural Engines and so on. Not spec or price wise, but regarding feature parity and Apples OS support for the Intel architecture. Lots of old „Hackintoshers“ abandoning the hobby.

Why is it that LLMs are so often compared to employees and their responsibilities? In my opinion, it is an employee that actively USES the LLM as a tool and this employee (or his/her employer) is responsible for the results.

Thanks. I'm still a bit confused about how many tokens for example your example video uses up. You draw the body and it generates a first iteration, then you draw the eyes and it seems there are two new generations, then some more for the background. As mentioned elsewhere, the token system (and potential subscription model) is a bit of a showstopper for me, but the concept is great.

Another input: Perhaps I have missed it, but you should mention export options and sizes of generated results on your website. Another question that pops up is the usage rights of the generated images.

Great project, congrats.

Can you detail how tokens are used? Is that per generated version, per final (?) image, per time, export, size?

Another feedback: I initially had the wrong impression that the left side was the "input" and the right side the "output" and wondered it the app gave initial renderings the user could "uglify". The video of course cleared that confusion. But perhaps more people are like me "reading" the screenshots from left to right as in input -> output? From a UX standpoint, drawing on the side side of the screen for input of course makes a lot of sense. Perhaps the website could label an example with "our input" and "generated result"?

Much depends on the topics you cover and the target readers you want to reach. As others have noted, ePub is the standard for ebook publishing. But if you want to publish a printed edition as well in the future, your toolchain would have to support pdf as well.

Pandoc can convert almost everything in everything and is great for terminal nerds. However, be aware that formatting pdfs for common self publishing distributors like KDP (Amazon) has some strict requirements.

For someone without the nerd dns, Vellum is a great software on the Mac that formats ePub and pdf as required for different vendors and print formats. The best feature is that you have one manuscript and export to ePub and pdf. Including graphics works quite well, but sometimes clever positioning for pdf is a bit tricky. Be aware that Vellum is a paid software and it is not suited for equations and docs that require very formal formatting (on the other hand, ePub ebooks are generally not a very good choice here).

But before you choose your toolchain, be aware that writing and formatting the manuscript is only a small part of self publishing. You need distribution and marketing, proof-reading and a business model.

Amazon can help with distribution, but you could publish via your own website, Gumroad and numerous other platforms. Do you want to only sell the ePub? Or sell add-ons, courses, bundles etc.? Amazon is okay for mass market topics, however there is a large competition and you have to have a marketing strategy. Selling via Gumroad allows for bundles and greater flexibility, but is better suited for niche topics. Again: You have to do the marketing.

Does your target group prefer printed books? Amazon/KDP can help here with print on demand. Beware anything where you print (and buy) hundreds or thousands of books in advance: You will have your garage filled with them and never sell them all because of logistics.

So, please don't only focus on the toolchain and the doc to ebook step. That is one of the easier parts in the equation.

Apple wants their users to use iCloud storage. Transferring photos and video by cable is not the suggested way of usage for most iPhone users. Using iCloud sync, your photos and videos are already waiting for you on your Mac. At least, if everything works and you aren't a heavy "Pro" user. Of course, that is not only a "pro-consumer" tactic, but a "pro-service-revenue" one. And if you are a "Pro" user with lots of data to transfer, you can either but the USB 3.0 cable or subscribe to the new 6 TB and 12 TB iCloud storage options. Or just do both. Of course, you need a Pro model ... but aren't you a Pro user in that case?