Almost five years have passed since I decided to build this small digital world, this website. When I started creating my online space, I chose .im for its brevity and availability. From a purely practical standpoint, it was "convenient" and allowed me to have my full name without needing to add numbers, dashes, or other compromises.

Moreover, the idea of seeing a .im domain gave me the impression of “I am”, a way to stand out and have a web address that wasn’t the usual .com, .it, or .net.

Now, however, the time has come for a change. For those who follow this site, nothing really changes, but for me, it’s a way to rewrite what I started.

The personal website has officially migrated from simonemargio.im to simonemargio.dev.

This weekly log serves as a simple reminder of this change.

A domain that tells who I am

Over time, I realized that .im, while elegant, did not convey anything about my professional identity. The .im domain is the national extension of the Isle of Man. Very few people know this, and the vast majority of users feel confused when faced with an unfamiliar TLD. Even worse, in some cases, it might seem unprofessional or misleading.

With .dev, however, the domain name alone tells a story. The .dev domain is designed, built, and promoted specifically for people like developers, technologists, digital creatives, and many others. In a network where communication is immediate and the first few seconds are crucial for a visitor, having a .dev domain is like showing up in formal attire to an important meeting.

What does the .dev TLD offer?

One of the most relevant technical features of .dev is that it enforces HTTPS connections. It’s not optional; .dev domains are automatically included in the HSTS preload list, a security mechanism managed directly by browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and others.

In practical terms:

• Any attempt to connect via plain HTTP will be blocked at the browser level.
• Users are protected from attacks like man-in-the-middle or downgrade attacks.
• Visitors always see the famous “lock” icon next to the URL, increasing trust.

From an SEO perspective, Google clearly favors secure sites in search results. HTTPS has been a ranking factor for years, and the mandatory use on .dev improves future positioning in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

Consistency and long-term vision

The domain is not just a web address; it’s a piece of my digital identity.

If today I present myself as a developer, I want my site to reflect this choice not only in its content but also in its form.

Building consistency between the domain name, published content, and professional activities is essential. The .dev will be my reference point even if I expand my projects in the future to include open-source libraries, technical documentation, or vertical blogs on programming.

Migration

Migrating from one domain to another requires attention and precision. It’s not just about changing a name; you have to think about DNS, hosting, SSL, redirects, indexing, and much more.

I decided to change the provider and register the new domain through Cloudflare. There’s no particular reason, but in many conversations, I’ve heard good things about this service, so I wanted to try it.

Since .dev requires mandatory HTTPS, I:

• Activated the SSL certificate on Cloudflare (Flexible SSL/TLS)
• Verified that the origin server supported secure connections
• Updated all internal URLs to point directly to https://
  

One of the most delicate steps is ensuring no loss of traffic or SEO.

Although the site doesn’t have high traffic and I don’t care how popular it might be, I still wanted to avoid losing the SEO positioning and ranking acquired over the years.

So I decided to set up 301 permanent redirects from the old .im domain to the new .dev one. This way, each URL corresponds exactly to the same page, the meta tag link rel=“canonical” is updated to point to the new domain, and webmaster tools have been notified of the migration.

Additionally, to avoid losing SEO positioning:

• I added simonemargio.dev as the new domain.
• I submitted a change of address request from the old site to the new one.
• I uploaded a new updated XML sitemap.
  

The final step is maintaining the consistency of the digital identity by updating all references with the new domain.

Migrating from .im to .dev was a technical, strategic, and personal choice.

The domain is just one part of the evolution. But it’s a decisive step toward building a solid, credible, and continuously improving online identity.

Welcome to simonemargio.dev!

Greek - Robin Rundkvist - Greek - Robin Rundkvist

A beautiful return of the Tiling window system.
Before moving on to macOS, I was a big fan of the tiling management with i3. Approaching me for the first time on macOS I decided to maintain a configuration as simple as possible, so the only software for the management of the windows was Magnet, just to be able to use shortcuts and have easy and useful management.

But, after several years, I am happy to return to a tiling system thanks to yabai. Open source project that allows a partial system of Tiling windows.

Partial because some features such as:

• Focus/move/swap/create/destroy space.
• Remove window shadows.
• Enable window transparency.
• Enable window animations.
• Control window layers (make windows sagar topmont or on the desktop).
• Sticky windows (make windows signore all spaces on the display that contains the window).
• Toggle picture in picture for any given window.

are available only if you disable the SIP (System Integrity Protection) on macOS. Despite the additional features, I always prefer to have the “maximum security” and don’t disable any security system configured by Apple.

So the question arises spontaneously, what more has tiling management?

The answer may depend on the user, in my thing it allows me to reach what is the maximum aspiration of each programmer, completely eliminate the use of the mouse. A tiling system facilitates this transition as the management of all windows takes place through keyboard shortcuts.

Furthermore, the ideology behind the Tiling is based on correct argument.

Let me explain with an example.

You have your desktop in front of you without any open application and therefore decide to open your favorite browser.

How should the browser window be?

If there are no other open applications, the tiling system automatically puts the application completely full screen (in my case you can see how the windows have a side dish and are not completely attached on the screen). If you decide to open your email client on the same screen where the browser is open, the applications will automatically occupy half of the screen. And so on.

In this way the user eliminates all the management of the windows, click here, move this, move that.

You can establish the size of each application (always through shortcuts) to expand or decrease an application, you can create specific layouts according to your preferences, and many other features that allow the user to build his workflow as best believes.

In the end, the only problem remains the management of the mouse, as far as you can rely only on the keyboard there are still elements that require the use of the pointer, an example trivial the choice of the drop-down menu of software or the simple search and openness of links from a search engine.

Is there a solution?

Yes, but it is much more complex than it seems. The complexity is not so much to find a way to be able to move the mouse via keyboard but manage the mouse itself via the keyboard. How to manage the possible speeds that the pointer must have? How can you move the pointer to click on a precise element that occupies a few pixels?

I have not yet thought about it, but I found a person who manages all his workflow through his keyboard (in addition his keyboard does not have the arrow keys). His name is Dean Herbert and uses his firmware for the keyboard to be able to manage the mouse via keyboard.

I watched one of his live shows on Twitch for a few minutes and he manages to move the mouse cursor with such mastery that at first I thought he was using a hidden mouse. It’s impressive!

Seen a video on Youtube about Terry A. Davis, a developer who gave birth to a project named Templeos.

Unfortunately, he suffered from schizophrenia but managed to demonstrate everything as the passion is stronger than anything else. During his life, he managed to develop his operating system, which today requires hundreds of developers.

In 15 years he created his programming language, his compiler, interfaces for 2D and 3D modeling, and many other features that also represent a difficulty for most developers.

The video analyzes every part of his life and his dream. The TempleOS is still kept online.

This story brings with it what for many may seem like trivial and foolish advice:

Love what you do, put all your passion into what you love, and never let yourself be discouraged by adversity.

The road is always full of difficulties but it is precisely at that moment that the determination must be shown to deal with anything.

Let's start with an open source extension that may be useful for your browser, Return YouTube Dislike. I can't accept the fact that YouTube has removed the display of dislikes, they're an essential element that allows the user to immediately understand whether the content is consistent with search or it's something that does not bring any benefit.

Why this YouTube?

Among the answers, there is certainly the **social** part. Every social network is developed to make the user feel "happy" in publishing ideas or thoughts. Introducing a dislike, thumbs down, yuk, or any negative element will lead the user to spend less time on the social network or even abandon it.

People don't like knowing that there are users who don't like their posts, which is why they should be deleted or hidden.

Examples include the Telegram channel of its founder Pavel Valer'evič Durov. The channel has almost a million people and Durov allowed the use of emojis to express an opinion on the latest Telegram news that he published. After a post about the introduction of subscriptions and the continued development of the cryptocurrency part, Durov deleted the reactions to his posts because the majority of users were against these decisions.

This is proof that social networks represent the most distorted and wrong vision. The idea behind it was perfect, building a community of people and friends who share their passions, but now it is just a mirror of a false life behind smiles and sponsorships.

For a couple of days I've decided to try various alternative clients for Mastodon, especially for mobile. For desktop I haven't found any valid client that replaces Mastodon's _advanced web interface_. On mobile instead, there is an open source project called Ice Cubes.

Why not use the official application?

Mainly for one problem. It has happened many times where the application decreases in performance, I don't know how to explain it correctly but basically, the more the application is used the more it starts having problems loading feeds, viewing media, sending toots, and more.

I checked if this issue was related to my instance, but the _status_ page reported that the services were working fine. Instead with Ice Cubes these problems don't arise, the application is reactive and loads the contents without problems.

Talking about Ice cubes, I'm happy that the author Thomas Ricouard has approved the two new icons that I created inspired by a simple and minimalist design.

I'm a big lover of Alfred, I bought version 4 and 5, but this weekend I decided to try Raycast. In the past I wanted to try this software but the biggest problem was its RAM consumption.

@richaesthetic I tried Raycast, I only used the default extensions (indeed I even deactivated many of them) but it consumes more ram and uses more threads than Alfred despite having more than fifteen active workflows.

Raycast: 140.9MB
Alfred: 25.3MB

I'm not saying that Raycast is worse than Alfred but it's just a matter of getting used to, once you've used one or the other you can't do without it.

Mastodon - Apr 05, 2023, 10:10

We are talking about Raycast just installed while Alfred has been running for days with several active workflows.

The store dedicated to extensions is much more complete than Alfred and many of them allow you to manage even more complex operations more simply. In particular, the strong point is the integration of information with Raycast itself.

For example, suppose you want to search for an item on Wikipedia. About Alfred I can write something like:

wiki [item]

And I will be shown the Wikipedia page relating to the searched element. On Raycast, however, the Wikipedia pages are shown directly within Raycast itself, without possibly having to open the browser. Furthermore, it is possible to select the Wikipedia language to use.Returning to resource consumption, at the moment I should have around twenty extensions and consumption is around 123MB, which is still a lot compared to Alfred but not as much as I expected.

So for now I will continue to test this software to see if it integrates better with my current workflow.

One problem is eliminated and another one appears. This time it's the VTDecoderXPCService process on macOS. For a couple of days, I've found the process at the top of the list of processes consuming the most RAM. Trying to run a spindump reveals that:

Responsable: WallpaperAgent

WallpaperAgent apparently has the task of managing the wallpapers used by macOS desktops. I tried to remove the dynamic wallpapers and those that change based on the time of day; I only set a static wallpaper but despite everything, I sometimes find the process at the top of the list.

The biggest problem is that there seems to be no pattern behind this behavior, sometimes it happens to find it at the top, other times at the bottom of the processes that consume very little RAM.

Failure is often seen as a negative experience, something to avoid at all costs. But it's important to remember that failure is a natural part of life and can be an opportunity for growth and learning.

In fact, failure can teach us many things. It can help us understand our weaknesses and strengths, develop our resilience, and learn to handle specific situations. Failure can help us better define our goals and develop a more effective action plan.

Of course, failure is not a guarantee of success. However, it is one of the ways to achieve success.

This week I failed at something I had dedicated a lot of time to. I’m sorry, very much, but I don’t want to leave everything behind, I will continue to work to improve.

These few lines are a reminder for all those who have failed at something. Never get discouraged, try and try again until you reach your goal. It’s not easy, but if it’s important to you, then it’s worth it.

Where he belongs - Eugen Rochko - Mastodon