I usually get AppleCare on my stuff since I’ve had great experiences with it. They cover accidental damage and replace the device for a small fee.

Last time I needed it was 2021 when I messed up my iPad Pro during lockdown. Apple chat me online, ran a diagnostic, charged me only $100 and a new replacement was on my doorstep in 36 hours. A+ experience

Dang I thought I had. Thanks for the reminder - fixed!

This might be kinda long, not sure if it’s what you’re looking for. But here goes.

For the last 20 years I have been largely in the Apple ecosystem and enjoy paying for good software whether closed or OSS. Started the career I have today thanks to the indie Apple software scene and the iPhone’s launch. I probably have more app licenses and subscriptions than your average person, I suspect largely for closed source apps (Things 3, Ivory for Mastodon, Affinity Photo/Designer suite, Procreate, Pixaki, etc.). I despise ads, so I also pay for things like Apple Music, YouTube Premium, and even Twitch Turbo because I use the hell out of YouTube (and Twitch to a lesser extent).

I’m also a gamer and I’ve moved from Xbox, to PlayStation, and now 100% on PC, Steam, and Steam Deck. Have bought plenty of games, DLCs, and IAPs for stuff like cosmetics. I know, I’m the worst.

Since I got serious on Mastodon in 2019, I have started seeking out OSS for certain things. I donate small amounts monthly to both the main Mastodon project and to the two instances I use (toot.cafe and mstdn.games). I just started donating a couple bucks monthly to the Lemmy.world Ko-Fi, which I believe supports their other projects (which I haven’t started using).

Edit: I pay Masto $20/year and I think $1/month to each of the instances.

While I have gotten angrier about the state of where tech and even Apple have started going, I’m not sure if a Linux PC and home-brewing my own kernels and writing all my own apps is anywhere in my future (yes, I know Steam Deck is Linux). I might be open to exploring a Linux PC eventually, but I’m also at a tricky point in my life where I need to find a new career path sooner than later, and tossing a full platform shift into the mix would, pragmatically, do more harm than good. But I have definitely started leaning more socialist in my politics and personal preferences for supporting communities and software. I’m donating where I can.

Zip, then button

Gilbert Gottfried

For a little while I kinda split the difference. Early in my tech news writing career, I started pronouncing my last name as the French version.

I fenced in high school and we did well enough to go to a national competition, so they brought in fancy refs from France. For the first time in my suburban upbringing I heard an actual French person pronounce my last name over the auditorium speakers and it was the coolest frigign thing I’d ever heard.

So once I started doing interviews and getting on podcasts in the early days of my writing career, I pronounced my last name that way to try and distance myself from my family without going through a legal hullabaloo.

I eventually I realized it was a bit disingenuous since I hadn’t spent the time to learn anything about my French heritage, which I was already quite removed from anyway. I dropped it and went back to what was surely the Ellis Island pronunciation I grew up with.

Totally. Whole businesses have sprung up for running and monetizing them. Check into Ghost, WordPress and WooCommerce, Memberful. Lots of other options.

People saying “blog” when they mean post. You did not write a new blog on your blog, you wrote a new post on your blog.

You do not drive your car on the car. You drive your car on the road.