Amerpie by Lou Plummer Profile Photo

Amerpie by Lou Plummer

Working in educational IT since the 90s. Dedicated Mac user trapped in a PC world. Obsidian fanboy. Blogger. Friendly 😊
Obsidian Posts | AppAddict | Living Out Loud | /Now Page | Find Me

Apps

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    Facescreen - Useful Add-on for Screencasting and Presentations

    Facescreen
    Facescreen


    I often have to create screen recordings on my job to distribute to the people I support for tutorials. Occasionally I do screen sharing through Microsoft Teams when conducting training. Facescreen, a utility from developer Ram Patra, provides a useful complement to these use cases. It adds a feed from my webcam with a small configurable view of my face to personalize the video. In addition to the image, Facescreen also lets me add text, such as my email or a website related to the subject of the tutorial or training. It's a nice professional touch.

    Facescreen, like other apps from this developer, lets you customize almost every element of what is displayed.

    Image Adjustments

    • Shape
    • Aspect
    • Orientation
    • Size
    • Zoom
    • Color
    • Mirror option

    Text Adjustments

    • Font
    • Size
    • Color
    • Background color
    • Radius
    • Padding

    You have the option to run Facescreen as a login item and to customize keyboard shortcuts to show and hide the webcam image, toggle the text and adjust the size of the image.

    More information on Facescreen is available at its website. Facescreen costs $4.99. It's a one-time purchase which includes all updates. It will soon be available on Setapp. Although there is not a free trial, the developer has a no questions asked money-back guarantee. For more presentation help from the developer, check out Presentify.

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    Disk Drill Revisited - Recovering 87K Files from a Drive That Finder Could Not Read

    Disk Drill
    Disk Drill

    I first wrote about Disk Drill several months ago. The review is below. I recently had a chance to put the paid version of the data recovery tools to work in a real-world situation. I was presented with a 2TB NTFS formatted drive that would mount on my Mac, but displayed the message "Drive not available" and showed no files structure in the Finder. The drive belonged to a relative who lost access to her cloud account when switching jobs and ended up with only one copy of her files from a 20-year career - on a bad drive.

    Disk Drill scanned the drive, and it was able to see files on it. It wanted me to make a byte for byte copy, but I didn't have another 2TB drive on hand. I had two 1TB hard drives and a dual drive bay, though. I used the Mac disk utility to combine the two physical drives into one logical drive and tried to initiate the copy again, but still got a message that the drive was too small. Since I knew that there was less than 100 GB of actual data on the drive, I was able to adjust the size of the number of bytes to be copied and the backup started. Although data seemed to be moving quickly, the progress indicator said the backup would take 28 hours. Ain't nobody got time for that.

    Rather than doing a byte for byte copy, which also includes unused space, I elected to Disk Drill's recovery option instead. I initiated it and began to copy files, sometimes quickly and at other times seeming to stop. I got messages about the disk having physical damage, but the program never quit. After about 90 minutes, I had 86K files recovered.

    I did not have to pay the full retail price to use the recovery tools because the app is available as part of Setapp, a $10 a month subscription that gives you unlimited access to hundreds of software titles.

    Original Review 

    Disk Drill 5 by Cleverfiles is marketed as data recovery software to retrieve lost files from internal and external drive media as well as iPhone, iPad and Android storage. Its website goes into considerable detail on its ease of use, its power and its ability to recover files. The free product allows you to preview what data is recoverable, but it takes the $89 paid product to actually recover your data using its full suite of tools. There are some free recovery options too, but they require you to implement some (included) tools before use.   

    Free Tools


    Even if you aren't in need of data recovery, however, Disk Drill is a worthy download because of the bundle of free tools it includes:

    Disk Health
    Free S.M.A.R.T. Disk Monitoring Stays Alert for Any Potential Disk Issues. It works on both internal and external drives.

    Mac Cleanup
    Analyze Disk Space, Locate Unused Files and Space Hogs, Free Up Your Storage Effortlessly.

    Duplicate Finder
    Easily Find and Remove Duplicate File Locations on Your Drive.

    Recovery Drive
    Create Your own Bootable USB Drive for Free Mac OS X Data Recovery.

    Data Protection
    Protect Your Data with Recovery Vault or Guaranteed Recovery. Recover it for Free.

    Data Backup
    Create Byte-to-byte Disk & Partition Backups for Future Mac OS X Recovery. In my testing of this feature on the internal hard drive of an M3 iMac, Disk Drill said "This drive is encrypted with the Apple M1/2 Security Chip. You can still back it up into a byte-to-byte disk image, but it probably won't be recoverable." This leads me to believe that a product like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! is better suited for the task. Disk Drill did fine, however, making a copy of a 500GB external disk.

    You can download all of these tools for free from Cleverfiles.

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    Disk Drill Revisited - Recovering 87K Files from a Drive That Finder Could Not Read

    Disk Drill
    Disk Drill

    I first wrote about Disk Drill several months ago. The review is below. I recently had a chance to put the paid version of the data recovery tools to work in a real-world situation. I was presented with a 2TB NTFS formatted drive that would mount on my Mac, but displayed the message "Drive not available" and showed no files structure in the Finder. The drive belonged to a relative who lost access to her cloud account when switching jobs and ended up with only one copy of her files from a 20-year career - on a bad drive.

    Disk Drill scanned the drive, and it was able to see files on it. It wanted me to make a byte for byte copy, but I didn't have another 2TB drive on hand. I had two 1TB hard drives and a dual drive bay, though. I used the Mac disk utility to combine the two physical drives into one logical drive and tried to initiate the copy again, but still got a message that the drive was too small. Since I knew that there was less than 100 GB of actual data on the drive, I was able to adjust the size of the number of bytes to be copied and the backup started. Although data seemed to be moving quickly, the progress indicator said the backup would take 28 hours. Ain't nobody got time for that.

    Rather than doing a byte for byte copy, which also includes unused space, I elected to Disk Drill's recovery option instead. I initiated it and began to copy files, sometimes quickly and at other times seeming to stop. I got messages about the disk having physical damage, but the program never quit. After about 90 minutes, I had 86K files recovered.

    I did not have to pay the full retail price to use the recovery tools because the app is available as part of Setapp, a $10 a month subscription that gives you unlimited access to hundreds of software titles.

    Original Review 

    Disk Drill 5 by Cleverfiles is marketed as data recovery software to retrieve lost files from internal and external drive media as well as iPhone, iPad and Android storage. Its website goes into considerable detail on its ease of use, its power and its ability to recover files. The free product allows you to preview what data is recoverable, but it takes the $89 paid product to actually recover your data using its full suite of tools. There are some free recovery options too, but they require you to implement some (included) tools before use.   

    Free Tools


    Even if you aren't in need of data recovery, however, Disk Drill is a worthy download because of the bundle of free tools it includes:

    Disk Health
    Free S.M.A.R.T. Disk Monitoring Stays Alert for Any Potential Disk Issues. It works on both internal and external drives.

    Mac Cleanup
    Analyze Disk Space, Locate Unused Files and Space Hogs, Free Up Your Storage Effortlessly.

    Duplicate Finder
    Easily Find and Remove Duplicate File Locations on Your Drive.

    Recovery Drive
    Create Your own Bootable USB Drive for Free Mac OS X Data Recovery.

    Data Protection
    Protect Your Data with Recovery Vault or Guaranteed Recovery. Recover it for Free.

    Data Backup
    Create Byte-to-byte Disk & Partition Backups for Future Mac OS X Recovery. In my testing of this feature on the internal hard drive of an M3 iMac, Disk Drill said "This drive is encrypted with the Apple M1/2 Security Chip. You can still back it up into a byte-to-byte disk image, but it probably won't be recoverable." This leads me to believe that a product like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! is better suited for the task. Disk Drill did fine, however, making a copy of a 500GB external disk.

    You can download all of these tools for free from Cleverfiles.

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    What I'm Using on Reddit in 2025

    Reddit This repost from my Obsidian blog got a lot of play on Reddit

    You can absolutely waste some of your wild and precious life if you start doomscrolling in the wrong places on Reddit. Used wisely, however, Reddit can provide you with information on just about anything you are interested in. If you use it wisely and in accordance with the peculiar culture of the site, you can also make people curious enough about what you are up to in your other web endeavors, if you write about topics that Redditors are interested in.

    I tend to frequent subreddits that mostly pertain to technology and the federated social media these days. Here are my current favorites.

    r/MacApps

    This is where I spend the most time. The mods of this sub were cool enough to add a link to AppAddict in the sidebar after I made an effort to cross post my reviews in their entirety every day for a few months. I only link back to my blog in posts I make if I am answering questions about an app or making recommendations.

    r/ObsidianMD

    Aside from all the meaningless pictures of people's graphs, this sub is an excellent place to find out about new plugins, new workflows and new use cases for what I think is the best app since the invention of the browser

    r/macOS

    This sub is huge with over 400K members. I am a mod here, but don't post much. It's not the friendliest community. There is a lot of one-upping going on and you can see the neck-beards doing their neck-beard things, but if you overlook all that, you can learn a lot.

    r/BlueskySocial

    One of the coolest things about Bluesky, is the public APIs it has lend themselves to a lot of neat websites and small software tools being developed. This is the place where you can find out about them. It's also a place where you can get your fill of Twitter hatred whenever you need to re-up, because the folks who post here never tire of putting down the bird site.

    Enjoyed it? Please upvote 👇

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    Using Google Photos on iOS Makes Leaving Meta Easier

    Google Photos
    Google Photos


    If you've had enough of corporate owned social media, specifically Facebook and Instagram, and are investigating how to preserve your photographic memories, the quickest and easiest way, if you have space available, is to transfer them to Google Photos. You can do it from your iPhone.

    1. Click the plus button at the top of the screen
    2. Then click "Import from other places"
    3. Select Facebook and when you authenticate, you will be offered the opportunity to import from your Instagram account(s) as well.

    Other Reasons to use Google Photos for iOS

    1. Cross-platform support - if you use both iOS and Android devices, perhaps two different phones or a phone and tablet, Google photos is much easier to access on an iPhone than trying to access iCloud Photos from a browser on Android.
    2. Automatic Backups - Google photos can upload your iPhone photographs automatically and delete the originals to free up space
    3. More Free Storage - Apple only provides 5GB of free storage with iCloud, while Google provides 15GB
    4. Google Lens is baked in - In my experience, Google machine learning does a better job of searching through my photo collection than Apple's tools
    5. Create Movies and Collages - Google photos also has decent editing tools in the stock app. You get even more if you have a Google One subscription.
    6. Manage Everything in iOS - With Google Photos, you can do complete management of your library right from your phone: share photos, create albums, editing etc.

    There's nothing stopping you from using Google Photos and iCloud for a redundancy. Just remember, both of these services are syncing services. That's different from a backup. If you delete photos from either app, using the wrong procedure, they will stay in your trash for a period of time, but then they will be gone forever.

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    Recent Additions at MacMenuBar

    MacMenuBar Website
    MacMenuBar Website


    One of the websites that stay open in my browser at all times is MacMenubar.com. It's a deep resource for new Mac apps in multiple categories. It currently features links and short descriptions to over 1,000 applications. Here's a list of the latest additions and links to all the different types of apps on the site.

    • Kleanly - Clean your Mac's keyboard, trackpad and display - With just a tap, Kleanly lets you completely disable your keyboard and trackpad, allowing you to clean them without turning your Mac off.
    • Trace - This menu bar app tracks the active apps and websites you visit without requiring any extra plugins or extensions (works with Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, Arc, Brave, Chromium, and more).
    • Onliner on the Mac App Store - Onliner keeps you “online” effortlessly by simulating undetectable mouse activity in the background. Ideal for remote workers and professionals, Onliner ensures uninterrupted focus and avoids idle status notifications. Simple, efficient, and smarter than any mouse jiggler.
    • fayazarahawa A simple white noise app which sits in the menubar - Hawa means air/breeze in Hindi. This menubar plays ambient sounds to help you focus on your work or relax. You can choose from a variety of sounds, adjust the volume of each sound individually, or create your own mix.
    • Deskeen - Capture your insight! - This menu bar app is designed to efficiently capture your screen. Every feature is accessible through quick keyboard shortcuts. Deskeen can read everything, from symbols to languages.
    • RSS Ticker News Feed on the Mac App Store - This menu bar app is an RSS reader designed to mimic the ticker display seen on forex stock exchange boards. News feeds update automatically when their respective RSS feeds are refreshed. The free version is limited to a single RSS feed.
    • Sudoku Anyway on the Mac App Store - This menubar app features unlimited puzzles, five difficulty levels, customizable board colors, and helpful hints.
    • Learn Flags - Menu Edition on the Mac App Store - Learn world flags and boost your memory with this quick-access menubar game.
    • Captain for Mac - Manage Docker containers instantly from your menu bar. See which containers are running and which have stopped.
    • RightMenu Master 1.11.0 - This menu bar app is a Finder extension that adds powerful functionality to the right-click menu and toolbar in Finder.
    • Overkill-for-mac Stop iTunes from opening when you connect your iPhone - This menu bar app makes sure iTunes never interrupts your work. If you have other apps you don’t want to launch automatically (e.g. Photos app), you can add those apps to the Overkill list as well.
    • Let It Snow - A touch of winter with snowflakes that gracefully drift across your screen.
    • MenuBarGrid on the Mac App Store - Turn Google Sheets into powerful menu bar apps. Customize layouts, automate updates, and manage projects effortlessly.
    • Ping MenuBar - This menu bar app displays ongoing ping (ICMP) results as a compact visualization. The design is similar to Pingr.
    • NeverNap in the Mac App Store - NeverNap keeps your Mac awake, preventing sleep or screensaver activation for 5 minutes or indefinitely. It ensures smooth operation without manual system adjustments.

    Categories at MacMenuBar

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    FSNotes - A Free and Open-Source Successor to NValt

    FSNotes Interface
    FSNotes Interface


    FSNotes is a plain text note editor with a two-pane interface of Brett Terpstra's classic Nvalt, which ceased development in 2017. FSNotes has an extensive feature set for run-of-the-mill notes and for developers. If you have an existing folder of plain text or Markdown notes, you can access them from FSNotes by moving or copying the files to the default folder or by changing the path to the folder you are already using.

    There are built-in keyboard shortcuts for searching your notes database, creating a new note from the clipboard contents and for creating new notes. You can choose a default external editor if you want to use something like Bbedit or Cot. The two pane layout can be used side by side or over/under. You can change the appearance and color of the app, as well as light/dark themes and the fonts used for notes and code. Line spacing and margins are also adjustable. Aside from encryption, you can also lock the app with a master password.

    Features Included

    • Markdown-first. Also supports any plaintext files.
    • Fast and lightweight. Works smoothly with 10k+ files.
    • Access anywhere. Sync with iCloud Drive or Dropbox. (iCloud required for iOS syncing)
    • Multi-folder storage.
    • Keyboard-centric. nvalt-inspired controls and shortcuts.
    • Syntax highlighting within code blocks. Supports over 170 programming languages.
    • In-line image support.
    • Organize with tags.
    • Cross-note links using [[double brackets]].
    • Elastic two-pane view. Choose a vertical or horizontal layout.
    • External editor support (changes seamless live sync with UI).
    • Pin important notes.
    • Quickly copy notes to the clipboard.
    • Dark mode.
    • AES-256 encryption.
    • Mermaid and MathJax support.
    • Optional Git versioning and backups.

    You can examine the code and download the current version for free on GitHub. If you wish to support development and receive automatic updates, you can get FSNotes on the Mac App Store for $8.99. There is also an iOS version which can sync with iCloud.

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    Automations Make Macs Fun - Try These

    Magic Hat

    I use all kinds of apps and services on my Mac and iPhone to make things happen in the background to make my life easier. I like to reserve my headspace for things I enjoy contemplating, like where I'm going to get my next order of tacos. I don't like having to remember to do things, mostly because I'm not that good at it. Here are a few of my favorite "set it and forget it" workflows.

    Journaling with Day One

    My first Day One entry was in January 2014. Since then, I have over 20,000 separate posts that are backed up online and synced to my iPhone, iPad and Mac. Here are the entry types that get automatically created:

    • Liked YouTube videos
    • Posts from all three of my blogs
    • Articles I save to Pocket
    • Mastodon posts
    • Every TV show and movie I watch
    • Daily weather reports
    • Books I add to Goodreads

    All of these automations are done with IFTTT, may of them with RSS feeds. - Day One Integrations - Connect Your Apps with IFTTT

    Time of Day and other Triggers with Keyboard Maestro

    Keyboard Maestrohas a long list of triggering events that cause automations to run in the background. Here are a few of my favorites.

    • Time of Day Trigger - an hour before I get up, Keyboard Maestro ejects my backup drive from my laptop so all I have to do is unplug it when I start the day - no more error messages because I was bleary-eyed and forgot to go through the procedure.
    • Time of Day Trigger - at 2AM,Keyboard Maestro launches a file synchronization appthat backs up my Obsidian vault to Google Drive and then quits.
    • Login Trigger - At work, whenever I log into my computer, all of my open apps are hidden so that if people are standing around my desk, they don't get to see what web pages I had opened when I left to go get a cup of coffee. It's none of their business.

    File Magic With Hazel

    Hazel is a Mac app that watches specified folders on your computer for certain conditions. When those conditions are met, it performs any of a long list of actions on the files.

    • When I left Evernote, I missed being able to send emails to my my new notes app,Obsidian, so I created a workflow that gives me that non-native capability.
    • Add images I download from the Internet to the Mac photos app - without even opening Photos
    • With the help off a 99-cent app from the app store, Hazel automatically mounts downloaded DMG archives, extracts the program contained within, moves it to my Applications folder and dismounts the archive.

    Obsidian Tricks

    At it's core, Obsidian is just a plain text markdown editor. The power comes from it's massive 2000-plus and counting available plug-ins. Here are a few automations they allow me to set up.

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    Unsplash Wallpaper App - Free Unlimited Wallpapers at Your Fingertips

    Unsplash Wallpapers
    Unsplash Wallpapers

    Unsplash is one of the largest providers of royalty-free images in the world. Without an account, you can search for, download and use any one of the millions of photographs on the site. For photography fans or anyone who enjoys aesthetically pleasing wallpapers, Unsplash provides a free app to cycle the wallpaper on your displays at regular intervals: hourly, daily, weekly. You can also manually cycle in a new image. When using the manual settings, the app has a built-in viewer so you can see a reasonably sized thumbnail preview of the available images. The selected image is downloaded to your computer, helping you to create a permanent collection if you want one. It provides wallpapers for all attached displays and virtual desktops.

    You can select one or more categories of images, from which the app will select new wallpapers. The default categories included with the app include:

    • Black and White
    • Nature
    • Beach
    • Animals
    • Space
    • Textures
    • Abstract
    • Editorial

    You can also browse the thousands of collections on the Unsplash website and choose collections to add to the wallpaper app. One drawback is that you can only add one wallpaper collection at a time. To add a new collection, you have to remove your previous custom selection.

    The app is available in the App store for free. It does not collect any information connected to your identity.

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    How to Internet - 2025 Edition

    Facebook_Is_Evil

    Even after it became obvious that Facebook was an invasive cancer on not just the Internet, but all society, I kept my account. There were too many ways it was ingrained into my life. It was the way my cycling club announced rides and planned events. Friends who moved away years ago kept in touch with me through Facebook. So many people on the job where I worked for 20 years had accounts and I could up with them. I had 16 years of photos from family birthday parties, Christmas get-togethers and I could see my grandchildren's first days of school and their graduations. That's what kept me there. It wasn't for the opportunity to look at and post memes or to preach to the choir or lecture people on how to feel about this or that, although I did do some of all of that too. I'd use it occasionally when I got bored to see clips of the Beatles, old boxing matches and baseball games from my youth. It was good for that.

    I had a Twitter account too, but it was never that important to me. I didn't have many real relationships there. I mainly followed hard new journalists and tech people. I liked to follow it during presidential debates, which make my stomach hurt if i try to watch them. I'd much rather read the astonished takes from journos about whatever put-downs the politicians were using on each other. When I started blogging, I used Twitter as just another place to put links to my app reviews and Obsidian how-to articles. I talked to a few people, but all my real interacting was happening on Mastodon. Finally, I decided I just couldn't be someone who hung out at that particular Nazi bar just to get a few more eyeballs on my little personal, n on-monetized blog. I closed my account and didn't have a single emotion as a result. It was just checking something off a to-do list.

    When Mark Zuckerberg while wearing a $900,000 watch, announced last week that Meta was going to stop fact checking, I knew the end was near. Then that asshole went on Joe Rogan and lied. He claimed he was bullied by the meanies in the Biden administration who yelled at him for letting Republicans tell people not to wear masks or get vaccinated during the deadliest pandemic in a century. That was followed by an announcement that Meta was going to end its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. As if that weren't enough, Facebook deleted content it had bragged about creating for trans and non-binary people. I couldn't take it.

    I sat down and marked my Threads and Instagram accounts for deletion. I requested an archive of the thousands of pictures and posts I had on Facebook, dating all the way back to the George W. Bush administration. When that comes through, Facebook is gone. Down here in the south we still have plenty of all white organizations ranging from private swimming pools, to country clubs to churches and ceremonial military units. Those are just the organized all white organizations. Lots of ad hoc groups are intensely exclusionary, too. I made a point a long, long time ago to avoid all of that and never, ever willingly participate or endorse all white spaces. I'm not going to participate in fact free or gay free or trans free spaces either. I'm not going to be responsible for a single set of eyes looking at a damn thing Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk profit from. I am embarrassed that it took me so long.

    It's been a decade since Facebook ran an experiment on the accounts of a whopping 600,000 people to see if it could make them sad by what it exposed them to. Yeah, they really did that and it worked. People found about it. It made the news. Nothing ever came of it because in America, billionaires are like Ricky Bobby's sons. They get to do whatever they want.

    You do you. I'm not here to tell you that using Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Threads makes you a bad person. If you stay, I'll assume that you have a good reason. I just can't think of one that would let me use something that will be a prime means if spreading disinformation to millions of people, disinformation that will hurt and possibly even kill them. Too dramatic? I think not. That's what it comes down to. The people running that company and the politicians they are now supporting don't give a shit if you live or die. They just want to extract as much wealth from you as they can.

    Get a Mastodon account. Get a Bluesky account. Just stay away from billionaire owned manipulation machines.

    Enjoyed it? Please upvote 👇

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    Background Music - Per App Volume Control and More

    Background Music
    Background Music


    When I am at work, I like to leave my system volume setting in the midrange. I want to be able to hear incoming mail alerts and calls on Microsoft Teams. What I expressly do not want is have anything from YouTube, or any other website suddenly playing through my iMac speakers. At home, I like to have music playing and I appreciate the convenience of having it stop and restart automatically if I decide to watch a video. The free app, Background Music can handle both of these tasks. You can set the volume for any app to a custom level (including muted).

    The auto-pause feature currently supports the following music players:

    You can also record system audio with Background Music. With Background Music running, launch QuickTime Player and select File > New Audio Recording (or New Screen Recording, New Movie Recording). Then click the dropdown menu (⌄) next to the record button and select Background Music as the input device.

    You can download Background Music on GitHub.

    Homebrew users can install it by running this command in Terminal

    brew install --cask background-music

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    Cheatsheet - Mac, iOS, WatchOS

    CheatSheet Mac
    CheatSheet Mac


    I have hundreds of contacts and I know almost no phone numbers. My job requires me to gain entrance to numerous rooms secured with keypad combinations. Remembering hotel room numbers is always a challenge. Don't put a gun to my head and ask me the license plated of my wife's car. My solution for quickly referencing these little pieces of information regardless of whether my phone or computer is in reach or not is Cheatsheet, a synchronized notes app I that allows me to enter information on my computer or phone that I can easily get to from any device, including my watch, which is a huge help.

    With Cheatsheet, I can format notes with rich text if I want and assign one of 200 icons to them for easy visual recognition. I can search my notes within the app or in Spotlight. I can even create new notes with Siri, including type to Siri. Cheatsheet notes can be organized into folders. For security, the app can be protected by a passcode. Both the Mac and the iOS apps can be accessed via the share sheet or in widgets. The Mac also has menu bar access. There is shortcut support for creating, appending to moving and finding cheats. The iOS app featured a custom keyboard for inserting up to 50 different cheats into other applications.

    Cheatsheet has been around for over a decade but is frequently updates. The Mac version costs $7.99 in the AppStore. The iOS version comes in a free and a pro version, which is $5.99 a year but it is what provides the ability to:

    • Remove limits on the widget, keyboard, and Watch app.
    • Protect your cheats with Passcode Lock.
    • Organize your cheats with folders.
    • Sync your cheats between your devices with iCloud.

    If you love the app but hate subscriptions, you can purchase a lifetime license, albeit for the steep price of $69.99

    Cheatsheet iOS
    Cheatsheet iOS

    .

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    Datacever - Simple Data Control When You Have to Tether Your Mac

    Datacever
    Datacever

    I don't know about you, but whenever I have to tether my laptop to my iPhone, I get nervous about the possibility of some unknown process running in the background and chewing up my data. Even though my mobile provider calls my plan unlimited, I know that there are always gotchas. I tried TripMode a while back, but it was overly complex for my needs, with more settings and options than I wanted to mess with.

    I recently found a much simpler menu bar app that I prefer for its simplicity and ease of use. Datacever by developer sameh sayed is an inexpensive app available from the App Store for $6.99. You can allow or deny any app access to the Internet. For the apps you permit access to, you can set data caps. If you don't want to set a cap, you can still monitor your traffic on a per-app basis. It does exactly what I need and nothing more. The privacy policy states that no data of any type is collected. Your browsing remains private.

    If you have ever looked at the DNS logs of your Mac with the browser not running, you know that there are still plenty of apps trying to call home constantly. Control all of that with Datacever and don't let your data be wasted by needless telemetry,

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    Lossless Cut - Save Time When Editing Videos

    Lossless Cut
    Lossless Cut


    The command like application, FFmpeg is remarkably powerful but it is also overly complicated for people who don't use the terminal much or who don't have the headspace to memorize a bunch of esoteric commands. Thankfully, there are some good front ends. Lossless Cut is one whose main feature is specifically lossless trimming and cutting of video and audio files, which is great for saving space by rough-cutting your large video files taken from a video camera. It is extremely fast, allowing you to trim the video without having a loss of quality caused by having to do (slow) any encoding.

    Some Example Lossless Use Cases

    • Remove commercials from recorded TV shows
    • Remove audio tracks from a file
    • Combine audio and video tracks from separate recordings
    • Split video into segments to meet social media length limits
    • Rotating phone videos that come out the wrong way without actually re-encoding the video

    Features

    • Extract all tracks from a file (extract video, audio, subtitle, attachments and other tracks from one file into separate files)
    • Losslessly rearrange the order of video/audio segments
    • Take full-resolution snapshots from videos in JPEG/PNG format (low or high quality)
    • Import/export segments: MP4/MKV chapter marks, Text file, YouTube, CSV, CUE, XML (DaVinci, Final Cut Pro) and more
    • View FFmpeg last command log so you can modify and re-run recent commands on the command line

    Many thanks to Scott Kingery from TechLifeWeb blog for pointing out this gem of a product. It's a good blog to add to your RSS reader for tech tips and leads to new software.

    You can download Lossless Cut and get additional information on GitHub.

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    Open Source Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means When It Comes To Safety

    Open Source Security
    Open Source Security
    What about open-source software?" I hear you say. "I'll just review the source code and determine whether it's malicious".


    "I would make several points in response to this. The first is: "LOL". Any nontrivial program consists of hundreds of thousands to millions of lines of code, and reviewing any fraction of that in a reasonable period of time is simply impractical. The way you can tell this is that people are constantly finding vulnerabilities in programs, and if it were straightforward to find those vulnerabilities, then we would have found them all"

    From - Why it's hard to trust software, but you mostly have to anyway

    I'd say more than 90% of the people who choose FOSS over everything else, don't have the chops to go to GitHub and look at code to really determine how safe a program is. I use a lot of FOSS and I have nothing but appreciation for the people who develop it, but I don't think for one minute that it is all somehow safer than any commercial software.

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    Radarr - Movie collection manager for Legal Usenet and BitTorrent users

    Radarr
    Radarr


    When I was a younger man, I'll admit to living the pirate life for music and movies. I was around for the original Napster and the birth of BitTorrent. That all came to a screeching halt one weekend when I sat down at my computer and couldn't connect to the internet. I called tech support, and the stern-sounding lady on the phone told me to go to my computer and read what was on the screen. It basically said, "If I ever download something illegally again, my Internet will be turned off forever." There was one checkbox, and it just said "OK." I had to check it to get my Internet back. That was the sudden and dramatic end to my life on the high seas. Since then, I have resisted using a VPN or other methods of accessing content illegally. For one thing it adds a lot of friction and for another, in the streaming age you can get just about anything you want without breaking the bank.

    There are legal torrent sites, most notably Archive.org. You can find others with a simple search.

    A useful automated too to aid in downloading torrents via an RSS feed is Radarr. It also works on Usenet. Radarr's features include:

    • Adding new movies with a variety of information, such as trailers, ratings, etc.
    • Support for major platforms: Windows, Linux, macOS, Raspberry Pi, etc.
    • Can watch for better quality of the movies you have and do an automatic upgrade. eg. from DVD to Blu-Ray
    • Automatic failed download handling will try another release if one fails
    • Manual search so you can pick any release or to see why a release was not downloaded automatically
    • Automatically searching for releases as well as RSS Sync
    • Automatically importing downloaded movies
    • Recognizing Special Editions, Director's Cut, etc.
    • Identifying releases with hardcoded subs
    • Identifying releases with AKA movie names
    • SABnzbd, NZBGet, QBittorrent, Deluge, rTorrent, Transmission, uTorrent, and other download clients are supported and integrated
    • Full integration with Kodi and Plex (notifications, library updates)
    • Adding metadata such as posters and information for Kodi and others to use
    • Advanced customization for profiles, such that Radarr will always download the copy you want

    It takes some time and some skill to get Radarr set up correctly, but there are good instructions provided.. There is also extensive documentation..

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    Resilio Sync - Secure, Private Peer-to-Peer File Sharing

    Sync
    Sync

    The easiest way to share files between computers or with other users is through a commercial cloud service like iCloud, Dropbox or Google Drive. The problem with using those services is that your data passes through someone else's computer. If you are sharing apple pie recipes with your Aunt Sue, that's not a problem, but if your data is ultra-private documents like financial records, proprietary business information or the like, you should consider a product like Resilio Sync, formerly a commercial product, now free for personal use.

    Resilio Sync allows you to sync data between computers and to selectively share files with others. There are clients for Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android and several NAS configurations. You can "easily send one or more files to multiple recipients without sharing the whole folder or creating a permanent sync connection. Send photos, videos, movies, or any other large file directly to friends. Cloud free.

    You can make sure sensitive data stays in your control. Change access permissions at any time using the ‘Advanced Folders’ feature. You can assign ownership to another user, revoke access, or modify read and write permissions on the fly. Sync has built in encryption.

    Automatically sync folders to all your devices. Sync photos, videos, music, PDFs, docs or any other file types to/from your mobile phone, laptop, or other storage devices.

    Using ‘Selective Sync’ feature, Sync will create placeholder files in your file-system that can be searched locally. Click to download only the files that you need, when you need them, without having to replicate entire folders on every device.

    If you have bandwidth issues, you can set limits on download and upload speeds

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    Making App Wishlists

    Wishlist
    Wishlist


    Because I like checking out new to me software and writing about it, I usually install something new just about every day. Reading r/MacApps and lots of other software discovery sites is how I find new apps. I've experimented with several different ways to keep lists of apps I want to check out and here are a few of my favorites.

    • Listy - A Private List Manager - this is good for both iOS apps and macOS apps. It tracks whether you've downloaded the app or not and gives you info on the app rating, category and developer as well as a link back to the app store.
    • App Wish List & Price Tracker - this free iOS only app hasn't been updated since 2018 but it still works well via the share sheet. It has widgets and notifications for price changes and updates.
    • AppRaven - Apps Gone Free (and more) - AppRaven lets you watch apps and developers and gives you notifications based on all kinds of criteria. There is a whole community of app fans using this app, writing reviews and giving folks a heads-up when apps have limited free offers. It has every app in the App Store for all Apple Platforms.
    • Things 3 - This popular task management app also has features that serve list making well, including share sheet access, deep links, space for notes and more. If you use it for other things, it makes a good place for an apps wishlist. Works on Mac and iOS.
    • App Wishlist Pro - An Apple shortcut that works on iOS and macOS
    • Various Notes Apps - The benefit to using a notes app is that it keeps your data centralized, has plenty of space to post multiple links regarding one app (e.g., reviews) and doesn't limit you to just the App Store like some other choices.

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    Putting Mac Apps to Work - Image Management Workflow for Writers

    Icons
    Icons


    In blogging and in creating instructional documents at work, I go through plenty of screenshots, stock photography and open-source images from the web. In the course of crafting a single blog post, I might use four or five apps.

    For screenshots, I use CleanShotX which I call from a keyboard shortcut or the menu bar. It also does annotation. The files are saved to my default screenshot folder that lives on a cloud drive so that I can readily access it from all my computers and devices.

    When the file is saved, it activates Clop which optimizes the file size automatically. The optimized file is handed off to Dropover and then an Apple Shortcut (download link) runs that moves the file to another cloud folder, called "Optimized" and which also opens a Dropover shelf so that I can drag the file into place if my current working situation calls for it. Dropover also lets me rename the file, convert to another format and resize the file. I can even open the file in ImageOptim right from the shelf if I want to reduce the file size to a greater extent than Clop performed.

    For images other than screenshots, they go straight to my downloads folder, where they get optimized by Clop and then moved to the "Optimized" folder by a shortcut ready for use.

    Since I go through numerous images, I don't want my "Optimized" folder to get bloated, so I use Hazel to move files that are more than one day old. It sorts the files in two ways. Screenshots (which have a special string in the file name)are moved to a "Screenshots-Old" folder. The rest of the image files, which can be jpg, png, svg or webp get sorted by file extension and moved to an archive folder. Hazel does all this based on pre-configured rules, and it all happens automatically.

    For images other than screenshots, they go straight to my downloads folder, where they get optimized by Clop and then moved to the "Optimized" folder by a shortcut ready for use.

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    My Computer Had Nice Things to Say About Me Today

    Reddit

    You present as highly open to experience, continuously seeking out new technologies and workflows to optimize your productivity. You exhibit strong conscientiousness, meticulously documenting and sharing your findings with others. You are likely introverted, preferring to engage with the community through informative and educational style posts. There is no indication of emotional volatility or negativity, suggesting low neuroticism. You are extremely agreeable, as you are consistently helpful, polite and considerate in all your communications. This combination of traits drives you to discover and share the best tools and techniques for Mac and iOS users. You are likely very organized and detail oriented in all areas of your life. You might benefit from exploring your emotions more and being more tolerant of work flows that are not perfect..

    Scanning my email for links to share is a daily habit. I post "This Week's Bookmarks" every weekend. That's a collection of random, but hopefully interesting, web pages I've collected over the preceding seven days. I'll post anything from recipes, to photo exhibits to anything that might someone say "whoa!" Today I found a site that will do a personality analysis of any Reddit user. I couldn't get my name typed in there fast enough. I've been on Reddit since 2006. Since I started blogging I post something there every day.

    Your frequent posts and comments across multiple online platforms related to Mac apps, iOS apps, and Obsidian reveal a high level of online activity. The depth and detail of your posts further suggest a dedication to these topics and a proactive approach to sharing information.

    As illustrated by the general summary above, my Reddit personality is the non-political, non-autobiographical side of me. That side comes through, I hope, in most places I go. Since the beginning of my interest in technology, dating back to the early 90s, I've enjoyed not just using a computer but finding ways to make computers do what i want them to do. The average person I encounter might be open to hearing an app recommendation or two, but I have seen too many people develop glazed eyes when I get wound up about my current list of cool things to share. That's what makes the Internet the best audience. People can opt in or out at their leisure.

    You demonstrate resilience in your responses to dissenting opinions, offering logical explanations and defending your positions. This suggests a good ability to handle pressure and stress.

    If you've ever spent much time on Reddit, you know it can be an extremely toxic environment if you feed the trolls. I've weathered my share of nasty comments from weirdos who are upset about software of all things. Examples include being called unethical because I use a VPN that advertises on YouTube (Nord). Anything that interferes with video watching gets vitriol. I regularly get accused of being paid to write positive reviews, as if all these poor indy developers out, there have the money from their 1.99 apps to hire writers. Some trolls call me a racist because I point out the unreasonable hatred faced by a certain Ukrainian software company from Russian provocateurs.

    I'm going to disagree with the AI assessment that I am an introvert due to the "informative and educational" style of my posts. My real life personality can be a little outsized at times. I seldom like the things I like just a bit. If I'm into something, I'm really into it. I'd much rather share concrete information than make small talk, perform amateur psychological assessments of people I know or, God forbid, prattle on about the weather or lawn care. If nearby conversations devolve into chit-chat, i usually don't have much to say. When I met Wonder Woman, we spent months asking each other 'What's your favorite X". I think sharing your passions with another person is the best way to spend time with them.

    I suppose I am organized and detail oriented in some ways. That doesn't translate into being neat and orderly in general, though. I manage to be a prolific blogger. I try to learn something new every day. Making those things a priority means I don't set aside time for things like washing my 20-year-old car or decluttering my full to bursting closet. Priorities, right?

    You share your expertise without overt self-promotion, focusing on providing helpful information rather than boasting or comparing yourself to others.

    I try not to use lines like "In my 30 years of experience" or "on the log I write that gets thousands of hits a day" because only an arrogant asshat would play that card on the first hand. I will sneak in humblebrag on a blog post, however. LOL

    That last line in the overall summary — "You might benefit from exploring your emotions more and being more tolerant of work flows that are not perfect" stems from my ongoing exasperation at seemingly knowledgeable people who buy high-end computers but refuse to use helpful applications because they might "make my computer run slow." Everyone is entitled to a pet peeve and that's mine. Of course I have a whole rant about that.

    This is quite possible the most self-centered blog post I have ever written. I'm just relieved that my computer thinks so highly of me.

    Enjoyed it? Please upvote 👇

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