Links
- ctrl+Shift+t - Reopens the last browser tab that was closed. Really handy when you accidentally close the wrong tab. (on a Mac it's command+shift+t)
- Get a great music recommendation each day and don't rely on your streaming services algorithm loop: https://1001albumsgenerator.com
- Don't support Google -> Stop using Chrome. Try Firefox with the uBlock (ad-blocker) extension, it's awesome!
- Don't support Google -> Use https://duckduckgo.com/ or try another one, they're in general pretty good these days.
- Temp emails, great for throw away accounts on various services: https://10minutemail.com/
- Get past paywalls: https://archive.ph/
- I always complete my emails and look over them before I put the destination email addresses in. Prevents me from accidentally sending something I don’t want to send.
- I pay for an email and domain service with the catchall redirected to my own email address - when I sign up for a service I set my email for that service to be [servicename]@mydomain.com, this way when I see spam coming in I know which bastard service sold my details, I then never use them again.
- Use https://cooked.wiki/ to view just recipes -- skip the long, meandering essay that leads up to what you really want. It's like a super-power.
- If you put swear words in your search, you won't get the AI generated answer.
- Learn to paste stuff using ctrl+shift+v It strips away any bold, italics, or colors and some other formatting options. Besides being useful removing crap from the clipboard and making your life easier when pasting for example data to excel it might be helpful when pasting data that came from an a.i. that could be detected and get you in trouble.
Enjoyed it? Please upvote 👇 - The cult of tradition. This is the belief that the truth is already known once and for all. Fascists believe there is no need to advance in learning.
- The rejection of modernism. Fascists reject the Enlightenment and its evidence-based rationality.
- The cult of action for action’s sake. Fascist leaders act impulsively, without thinking or planning ahead.
- No analytical criticism. Fascists ignore nuance and see any disagreement as treasonous.
- Fear of difference. Fascists fear diversity. Thus they are racist by definition.
- Appeal to a frustrated middle class. An economically frustrated and/or politically marginalized middle class is easy to stir to anger.
- Obsession with a plot. Because the followers must be made to feel besieged, an internal “enemy” is provided: Immigrants, Muslims, Hispanics, Blacks. (Historically the Jews were often made to be “the enemy.”)
- Anti-elitism. The followers are made to feel humiliated by the wealth and strength of the educated “elite.” This is used to create resentment.
- Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. Fascists believe that life is permanent warfare. Therefore a desire for peace is treasonous.
- Contempt for the weak. A fascist leader despises his underlings, who in turn despise those under them. They all either mock or ignore the poor, the sick, and the disabled.
- The cult of heroism. The Fascist is eager to die a hero’s death. In his impatience, he frequently sends other people to their deaths.
- Machismo. Fascists show disdain for women, disregard for chastity, and condemnation of homosexuality.
- Selective populism. Under fascism, the “voice of the people” is not the democratic majority, but only the voices of those who support the leader.
- Ur-fascism speaks Newspeak. Just as in Orwell’s 1984, Fascists use an impoverished vocabulary and an elementary syntax to limit complex and critical reasoning.
- Google One - Saved $10 a month (technically, I still have access to Google Drive through my cell phone plan, I'm just not storing anything there any more. I do use Gemini, Google's AI to help me with scripts)
- Hulu - Saved $18.99 a month
- Overcast - Saved $14.99 a year. I just don't listen to podcasts any more.
- Setapp - Saved $12 a month. I still use Setapp, but I no longer have to pay for it since accepting their offer to be ab affiliate.
- Amazon Prime - Saved $139 a year - because screw Jeff Bezos, that's why. I also canceled the Washington Post and Audible.
- Fastmail - Cost $96 a year for Two users. Since I no longer give the world's largest data extraction company access to my email, I had to find a place to host it, I'm happy with Fastmail so far.
- kDrive - Coast $7.24 a month. Since I no longer have access to Google Photos or Amazon Photos, I need a cloud solution and this Swiss company's 3 TB plan is the best bargain I could find that had good reviews and satisfied customers.
- Medium -Cost $4.99 a month I have a friend who started a Medium blog, and I wanted him to be able to see that I subscribed, so no more paywall avoidance for me.
- Cheatsheet - I wanted this app forever. I love having short notes on my watch ($5.99/yr)
- Quick Reviews - How could I not support Matt Birchler? ($9.99/yr)
- Quotify - Ongoing search for a good quotes app ($.99a month)
- Quotz - see above ($2.99/yr)
- Reeder - I'm testing out all the timeline apps ($1/month)
- Skeetz for Bluesky- So much better than the standard app ($1.99/mo)
- Tapestry - another timeline app ($1.99/mo)
- Real time traffic conditions
- Tolls
- Alternate routes
- Gas prices
- Hotel booking
- Restaurant recommendations
- Construction
- Weather
- Shopping (outlet mallls)
- You can keep a digital and a handwritten journal at the same time. There are proven benefits from writing things out by hand to reinforce them in your brain. Get a box of nice pens and a stack of composition books and put them somewhere easy to find. Make some goals and write about them each morning while you have your coffee. I did this daily during the most productive year I ever had
- Use Day One - a journaling app available on many platforms. It is one of the most well designed and useful apps I have ever encountered. Since January 2014, I've used it lmost every day. Day One Is Popular for a Reason | AppAddict
- Use Obsidian - Obsidian is an extensible app with over 2000 available plugins. If you are a data junkie like me, You can automate all kinds of data into it's daily note feature. My Daily Note in Obsidian - Byte Sized Chunks for Customizing Every Element, Plugin Recommendations and Links
- Discover 8 Journaling Techniques for Better Mental Health | Psychology Today - Ever wondered how you should journal? Learn eight ways that you can use journaling to reduce stress, increase self-reflection, and create a better sense of wellbeing.
- 10 Types of Journaling for Peace of Mind | Skillshare Blog - Journaling can be a powerful tool for self-care, but it also can be tough to sit down and write about your thoughts. The good news? There are so many ways you can put pen to paper. So, if you’ve ever thought that it just isn’t your thing, read on to learn about the different types of journaling to see if one speaks to you. (Or, if you’re already an avid journaler, see if there’s a new tool you can add to your practice!)
- How to Journal: 5 Pro Tips and 40 Prompts to Get You Started - Remember, journaling is supposed to benefit you. Don’t stick with a method because others you know enjoy that approach or because you feel like you “should.”
Enjoyed it? Please upvote 👇 - Cook Out - home cooked, hand patted burgers. Get it Cook Out style with slaw, chili, mustard and onions
- Smithfield's Chicken and Barbecue - Pork barbecue served with vinegar based sauce, southern fried chicken, banana pudding and copious amounts of sweet iced tea
- Whataburger - a solid choice for a burger
- Buc-ees - You need to experience a Buc-ees to understand it. They are gigantic interstate rest emporiums that not only sell food, they also have over a 100 gas pumps and a whole crew of people just to sell beef jerky
- Backup
- Moving documents to a computer connected to a local printer
- Information shared between your and your partner or spouse
- Installation files for programs you want on more than one computer
- Consolidating a family photos album
- Moving downloaded movies or music to your home media server
- FactCheck.org - A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center
- Fact Check: Political & News Fact Check | AP News
- Fact Check | Reuters
- .Full Fact
- BBC Verify
- FactCheck – Channel 4 News
- Lead Stories
- Truth or Fiction? – Seeking truth, exposing fiction
- International Fact-Checking Network - Poynter
- Do not be violent.
- Don't talk to the police
- Don't run
- Don't submit to warrantless searches
- Avoid asking for medical help
- Do not admit guilt
Internet Life Hacks
Every once in a while, there is a post on Reddit that gets enough high quality responses to warrant being bookmarked and referred to time and again. Such is the case with this recent classic.
# What’s a personal internet hack you use that makes life easier but isn’t widely known ?
Some of the suggestions:
This Week’s Bookmarks - Nachos, Seth Rogen, Satellite Pollution, Radical universities, Internet history, Photo Awards, Book bans
Subway's Doritos Footlong Nachos Are Here -- and Honestly, We're Into It - It all begins with a tray of Nacho Cheese Doritos, topped with shredded and liquid nacho cheese after a quick stint in the oven. When ordering at the counter, your local sandwich artist will chop red onions and tomatoes to incorporate into the mix before adding jalapeños and a drizzle of Baja Chipotle sauce. You can request steak or chicken for no extra charge
Seth Rogen's criticism of Trump's cuts to science edited out of science awards show coverage - A pointed criticism of President Trump's policies on science by Seth Rogenwas edited out of the filmed coverage of an annual science awards show, it has emerged.
"This is my radical proposal for universities: Act like universities, not like businesses. Spend your endowments. Accept more, not fewer students. Open up your campuses and [bring] education to communities. Create a base. Become a movement."
An Ars Technica history of the Internet, part 1 - Ars Technica - In a very real sense, the Internet, this marvelous worldwide digital communications network that you're using right now, was created because one man was annoyed at having too many computer terminals in his office.
2025 Winners and Shortlist Galleries | World Photography Organisation - The Sony World Photography Awards is World Photography Organisation's principal programme. Established in 2007, it is one of the world's biggest and most prestigious photography competitions; celebrating the work of leading and emerging practitioners and attracting tens of thousands of visitors annually to its exhibitions worldwide.
Library Study Shows It’s Just Politicians And Activist Groups Trying To Get Books Banned | Techdirt - What's been noted before has been confirmed yet again: there is no widespread concern about the books kids have access to in public libraries. Instead, there's just the concerted, but effective, efforts of a small group of people who feel everyone else's rights end where their morality begins.
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Infinite Mac Lets You Run Vintage Mac Operating Systems in Your Browser
It's hard to believe that Apple was once a scrappy little company, just fighting to stay alive and true to its roots, instead of the largest company in the history of capitalism. The fondness that many people have Apple products is tied into the myth and memory of the old Apple. People who long ago chose Macs, usually did so out of a genuine fondness for the company and the products they made. The alternative was Microsoft Windows at its most ruthless and domineering.
I's been a long time, probably more than 20 years since I last used Mac's classic operating system, meaning OS 9.2.2 and below. I spent many, many hours of my life on those machines, installing KidPix and Apple Works for public school kids and their teachers. I could image one of the original bondi blue iMacs in about 90 seconds using a FireWire 400 drive. I also imaged many older Macs by booting from a CD and imaging from a SCSI drive. Good times.
If you ever get sentimental for those days, or, if you aren't an old like me, and you just want to investigate what the experience was like, just hear on over to InfiniteMac where you can run one of many virtual Macs right in your web browser.
The site describes itself like this:
Infinite Mac is a collection of classic Macintosh and NeXT system releases and software, all easily accessible from the comfort of a web browser.
Pick any version of System Software, Mac OS, Mac OS X or NeXTStep from the 1980s, 1990s or early 2000s and run it within a virtual machine. An “Infinite HD” disk with representative software from that era is also available. You can also run a custom version with your choice of machine and disks. On some operating systems files and disk images can be imported and exported using drag and drop and virtual CD-ROMs can be mounted – refer to the welcome screen in each machine for more details.
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The Walter Miller Homepage - The Funniest Website That Ever Existed
Warning: This Goes Way Back
Back in the days of accessing the Internet over a 56,6K modem, someone, probably on AOL told me about "The Walter Miller" homepage, the terribly mis-spelled and grammatically incorrect plain text website of the finniest stuff I have ever read. I'm serious. Con't click the link at the bottom of this post and start reading if you ae trying to drinnk something. You might choke to death or spray expensive red wine across the display of your MacBook.
A snippet from the landing page
ABOUT ME
Im orignally from California but now I live in rural Texas-a lonly area 2 hours from the nearest big city. Ive been here since last December. I moved here because Iam only 20 years old and divvorced and I owe the whole world money. So my family takes over my bills and debits in exhange for me to look after and take care of my granfather. Lets just say I have to haul him up on the crapper whenever he has to go-which isnt often and contributs to him bein cranky most of the time.
Our home consists of a trailor, some outbuildings, a toolshed, asorted shacks, and 2 halfs of a moduler home that were never put together and sit 50 yards apart with plastic sheets drapped over the open parts. We live in the trailor-the other buildings house the varied colections of My granfather. He has 170,000 hupcaps which maybe the bigest colection in Texas. He also colects apliances, spark plugs, books, plumming fixures, beercans, Indian blankets, cooky tins, furnoture, glasware, old typwriters, bottles and car parts, plastic bags, coffe cans, antiques, trashcan lids of pre-World War 2 era, manhole covers, rusty tools, stufed animals, basebal cards, 55 galon drums and steyrofoam. These are just a small sample of his colectibles
Theyre stroon across the whole area like a junkyard. The county has come after him many times. He also has 14 dogs and dog crap is eveywhere. Also the stuffed animals and indian blankets are outside-when it rains they get rancid.
The page is long dead, but it is preserved by the people doing the Lord's Work at The Wayback machine. When you click on this and other links within the site, you might think nothing has loaded. It has. Just scroll down a few dozen lines and pure vintahe Internet comedy genius will overwhelm you.
A vicious rumor - THE WEB'S ANONYMOUS | TIME
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The Most Important Tech Skill for Every Single One of Us
What's the most important computer information you've ever lost? Was it pictures, something you'd written, your contacts or your entire phone or hard drive? It's a rare (or dishonest) person who can claim to have never suffered some kind of data loss. I have been asked to help recover wedding videos, a master’s thesis, decades of lesson plans and the accumulated files from an entire ministerial career.
Wherever you have information that is important to you, on your iPhone, Android, Mac or PC or even in a cloud service like Google Drive or Dropbox, do you know if you have taken the right steps to back up your data? A backup means at least two copies, three is better, with one of those stored offsite. Saving your files to a thumb drive or an external drive is not a backup if that is the only copy of them. Even keeping your files in iCloud or Google Drive is not a backup, if losing access to that account would cut you off from your data. People lose access to their online accounts seven days a week for all kinds of reasons. Do all those Google Docs that only live on Google Drive mean anything to you? If they do, then learn how to back them up today.
Back up iPhone - Apple Support
How to Back Up Your Android Phone WIRED
How to back up your Mac - Apple Support
Fascism is Here, Evidence Included
The Italian philosopher and novelist, who came of age in Mussolini's Italy, penned a list of the 14 characteristics of fascism, all of which are currently present in the United States.
Smart People Say We're There
The rise of end times fascism Far right (US) The Guardian - The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them
American Fascism Then (1939) and Now (2025) Columnists insightnews.com - Historian Heather Cox Richardson reminds in a recent article that there was a time in American history when the Nazi Party, while still somewhat on the fringe, enjoyed a level of "normalization" in the run up to the start of World War II in 1939 that bears eery resemblance to the modern push for fascist extremism in the United States.
How the US Went Fascist Mass Media Make Excuses for Trump Voters – BillMoyers.com - Trump's racism and xenophobia violates America's core beliefs — yet the media and many Americans are okay with it.
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This Week's Bookmarks - Anti-Fascist Films, Ancient Graffiti, White House Rumors, 1995 and The Web, Best Browsers, Middle-Class Income Needs, Apple and Developers
The 40 Best Anti-Fascist Films of All Time - In light of recent events, it might be a good time to remember a very simple truth: Nazis are ALWAYS the bad guys.
A Tour of Ancient Rome's Best Graffiti: "We Have Urinated in Our Beds ... There Was No Chamber Pot & More| Open Culture - Apart from the likes of bravo and pizza, graffiti must be one of the first Italian words that English-speakers learn in everyday life. As for why the English word comes directly from the Italian, perhaps it has something to do with the history of writing on the walls — a history that, in Western civilization, stretches at least as far back as the time of the Roman Empire.
10 rumors involving Trump's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt So, the question is, does she spread more rumors from the White House podium than are spread about her because of her wackadoodle behavior and inexperience.
1995 Was the Most Important Year for the Web - The History of the Web - 1995 is a fascinating year. It's one of the most turbulent in modern history. 1995 was the web's single most important inflection point. A fact that becomes most apparent by simply looking at the numbers. At the end of 1994, there were around 2,500 web servers. 12 months later, there were almost 75,000. By the end of 1995, over 700 new servers were being added to the web every single day.
These Are the 7 Best Browsers That Aren't Google Chrome - STOP USING CHROME!! Chrome was once a great browser, but it's known to be slower, battery-draining, a memory hog, and collects massive amounts of user data. If you want something better than Chrome, you don't have to pick one. Each option excels in certain situations; you should try them to find what best suits your needs without much compromise.
The Income Needed to be Middle Class in Every U.S. State (2025) - Middle class is defined as earning between two-thirds and twice the median household income.
The Dark Side of Apple Development: Why Developers Are Struggling On Apple’s Increasingly Hostile Platforms – Magic Lasso Adblock = "They would rather have a ChatGPT or TikTok than an OmniFocus or Magic Lasso. Apple is too big to fail, which means it's too big to care." - Ian Betterridge
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The Roth Memory Course
Have you ever seen or read about the people who can memorize the exact order of multiple decks of cards? Those people are freaks and they scare me, so I'm not advocating those kinds of skills, but who wouldn't like to be able to retain information more easily? Several years ago I came upon a free PDF version of The Roth Memory Course by David M. Roth, first published in 1918. Written in the stilted and formal British English of the era, Roth presents seven lessons and techniques to memorize more information than you ever though possible, using methods you could teach to a child. I read the book and learned the techniques and, while I kept my skill sharp, could easily recite lists of 100 random words in order. That's a neat party trick, but not very useful otherwise. The practical use was learning dozens of technical acronyms and terms while studying for IT exams.
It's an easy read and a fun self study exercise. If you look around, you can find the PDF version, although hardcover and kindle versions also exist.
Roth Memory Course A Simple And Scientific Method Of Improving The Memory And Increasing Mental Power by David M. Roth
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Subscriptions Update With Some Savings
For some reason, those of us who live on the Internet have a fascination with the subscriptions other people are paying for. I'm happy to share mine with the world. Maybe you can find some interesting services or apps in my collection. My total costs are down about $40 a month since I last updated in October.
To see the entire list, go here.
What I eliminated
What I added
New App Subscriptions
Interstate 95
If you do much traveling along the East Coast of the United States, it is hard to escape doing some driving on Interstate 95. It runs from the Canadian border with Maine to Miami, a distance of 1924 miles, passing through 15 states and the District of Columbia, more than any other Interstate. The final leg of I-95 wasn't connected until 2018 in New Jersey. 110 million people live in proximity to the highway and it facilitates 40% of the US gross domestic product.
I live about five miles from the closest exit. I'm most familiar with the stretch between central Florida and Washington, DC, although I have traveled as far north as New Jersey on it on a single trip in the 80s. I've also been on short stretches in Maine and the Miami metro area.
If you plan to make your way down it at any point, I suggest getting the excellent iOS app, iExit, which tracks your location and gives you information on all the amenities you need while traveling.
For planning purposes, there is an entire website dedicated to traveling the highway.
I-95 Exit Guide | #1 Road Trip & Planning Guide - This comprehensive website offers information on:
As always, you can take a deep dive on Wikipedia.
Exploring Journaling Techniques
I've been keeping a journal of some sort consistently for many years. My motivations aren't that complex. I like journaling because it gives me something to do. To me, the act of organizing and recording my thoughts is just an enjoyable activity in its own right. I also enjoy looking back at past entries quite a bit. It's fun to see what I did on trips with Wonder Woman in years past or to see photos from family get togethers. Since I started blogging, much of what I once wrote just for myself now gets shared with the Internet.
Here are a few tips based on my experience and some links from others to help you get started:
This Weeks's Bookmarks - Monetized Spirituality, Victims of AI, No Brave Browser, iPhone Settings, Bad Accessories, Trump Tariff Formula, Goodbye to Democracy in NC
Celebrities are monetizing spirituality with the most popular app on the iPhone - Hallow - The thing about meditation is that it's totally pointless unless you can somehow monetize it. /s
As AI Takes His Readers, A Leading History Publisher Wonders What’s Next - His World History Encyclopedia — the world's second most visited history website — showed up in Google's AI Overviews, synthesized and presented alongside other history sites. Then, its traffic cratered, dropping 25% in November.
Why I recommend against Brave - Haha, did you think the Brave browser's only problem was the bad politics of the CEO? Think again. There's a long, historical list of sins and missteps.
20 Key iPhone Settings to Change | WIRED - Apple's software design strives to be intuitive, but each iteration of iOS contains so many additions and tweaks that it's easy to miss some useful iPhone settings
These iPhone Accessories Are a Total Waste of Money - Your iPhone is a premium device, but not every accessory marketed for it is worth the price. Some, as you'll soon see, are pure gimmicks that prey on fears and misinformation.
Posts online correctly cracked the formula for Trump's tariffs | Snopes.com MAGAts lie about almost everything, including easily disproven economics fallacies
Allison Riggs: This Is a Fight for the Very Soul of Democracy - Democracy Docket - In my home state of NC, a Republican who lost by 65,000 votes in November 2024 is coming close to succeeding in reversing his defeat by appealing to Republican dominated courts full of his donors and supporters.
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Iconic Restaurants and Chains
I've written before about my enjoyment of regional dishes. . Close behind that is my enjoyment of iconic regional chains. I'll grant you that they rarely serve haute cuisine but I don't care. Fast food is popular because it's usually reasonably palatable and consistent. Often, I just want some food, not a dining experience.
If you're ever in my neck of the woods (North Carolina), two places you definitely need to check out are:
When visiting Texas, a couple of can't miss chains are:
California
Midwest
Miami
I'd love to know what's iconic where you live. You never know where I could go.
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File Sharing Roundup - The Best Ways to Move Data Between Devices
There are many reasons sharing files between computers for even the most basic of home users:
I got an email from a friend today who explained to me that he's used a particular method to create a folder on his parent's computer into which they can drop their various tax documents as they receive them so that he can access them all when it comes time to fill out the forms. For them. I just set up a method of file sharing to copy nothing but downloaded video files from my laptop to my iPad in preparation for traveling when I need something to watch.
Here are a variety of ways to share files, both temporarily and continuously connected.
Blip - this app transfers individual files between two devices no matter where they are located using end to end encryption. Files can be as larger as 2 GB. It works on Macs, iOS and Windows devices. Free. Blip - Free Cross Platform File Transfers | AppAddict
Local Send - this works like Blip but is limited to devices that are on the same network, like your home Wi-Fi, or between you and your partner in a hotel. It works on Mac and iOS. https://appaddict.app/post/local-send-easy-to-set-up-and-easy-to-use
Native File Sharing - File sharing has been baked into Macs since the first version of OS X. Most experienced users can set it up easily enough. Set up file sharing on Mac - Apple Support
Cloud Services - If you use iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or a similar service, sharing is built in, whether the recipient has the service or not. You can generate links. In a case where you want to share between two computers that you own, you can install the client or sign into the same account in the case of iCloud on each of your computers. There are Windows and iOS clients for most services.
Nord VPN Meshnet - If you use Nord as your VPN, you can use Meshnet. Meshnet is a way to safely access other devices, no matter where in the world they are. Once set up, Meshnet functions just like a secure local area network (LAN) — it connects devices directly. This makes Meshnet a great fit for activities that require high speed, low latency, and advanced security — activities like file sharing, active work collaborations, and intense multiplayer gaming. - Meshnet explained | Meshnet docs
Syncthing - You can set this up between any two devices and automatically and securely keep an entire directory of files securely shared. Syncthing - Free and Open-Source Cross Platform File Sharing | AppAddict
Email - You can just about always use the modern equivalent of Sneaker Net, like a caveman and just email files in a pinch. it's the the fastest or the most secure or the most efficient method, but it will do in a pinch.
To tie these different methods together, a good file manager comes in handy. If you want to upgrade Finder on your Mac, my recommendation is Qspace. Qspace
For file management on an iOS device, you can't go wrong with FileBrowser Pro. - FileBrowser Pro - For File Intensive Network Connected Workflows | AppAddict
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Advice for Grandparents
I'm lucky. All four of my grandparents lived into my adulthood. They were each wonderful people in their own way and each had a tremendous influence and helped me become the person I am today. I loved them all obviously and rarely does a day go by when I don't think of them in some way. My parents were teenagers when I was born, as was I when my kids came along. Mom and Dad were only 36 when they got into the grandparent game. Thankfully, my kids gave me a little more breathing room, but I've still been at it for twenty years now.
My personal advice to grandparents is to have as many adventures with your grandkids as you can. If circumstances permit it, give them the gift of your time. Take them camping, to fall carnivals and Polar Express Train Rides. Take them to see new Disney Movies. Remember their birthdays. Create some rituals. My kids know that every car trip with Wonder Woman and I involves a stop at the store for a snack and a drink. They know when they come to our house that we will have their favorite treats. We have always had a toybox in our house too.
Here are some more suggestions from around the internet.
10 Tips for How to Rock as a Brand-New Grandparent
Grandparenting Tips: How to be a Better Grandparent
How Can I Be A Fun Grandparent? 16 Tips For Grandparents – Retirement Tips and Tricks
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This Week's Bookmarks - Privacy Guides, 21-Day Cyber Cleanse, Famous Resaurants, True Crime, Wild West Food, Ad Blocker Testing, Liberation Library
Privacy Guides: Independent Privacy & Security Resources - Privacy Guides is a not-for-profit, volunteer-run project that hosts online communities and publishes news and recommendations surrounding privacy and security tools, services, and knowledge.
Cleanse - The 21-day Cyber-Cleanse: designed to remove toxic tech from your life
Most Famous Restaurant in Every State - Business Insider - From fine dining restaurants to local barbecue joints, every state has at least one legendary restaurant that everyone knows about.
True Crime - Masters treasures went missing, then the FBI showed up | GolfDigest.com -
The first item the young man stole from Augusta National was a green and white golf towel. This was just after the 2007 Masters, when he had come to understand it was customary for warehouse employees to take one or two small things
What Food was Served at Wild West Saloons? - YouTube - It starts with cowboy bacon and beans and goes from there - From A Taste of History
AdBlock Tester: test your AdBlock extensions - How good is your ad blocking setup? Just go to the page to receive a grade. If you want to get a score of 99 or 100 out of 100, shoot me an email and I'll send you my setup.
Liberating Library - Liberating Library is a book distribution program and online collection of relevant radical resources run by a Pan-African socialist.
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It Must Be True, I Read It on the Internet
One of the reasons that the United States is in the middle of an existential crisis is that too many damned people believe everything they read on the Internet. For these people, the Internet is not the information super highway. It is a cesspool of lies, misinformation, manipulation by foreign adversaries and scammers out to make a buck. It is beholden to MAGA and the right wing, who grow angry and vengeful when they are fact checked. To keep from being attacked by the government, Meta, the parent company of Facebook fired its fact checkers when Donald Trump was reelected. Elon Musk fired Twitter's fact checkers when he paid 44 billion dollars for the company.
No information source is infallible. Still, intelligent people should be able to separate fact from fiction. In the immortal words of way too may people Do your research.
Credible Information Sources
PolitiFact - Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
Snopes.com | The definitive fact-checking site and reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation. - Snopes (/ ˈ s n oʊ p s/), formerly known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, is a fact-checking website. It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet. The site has also been seen as a source for both validating and debunking urban legends and similar stories in American popular culture.
Some other fact-checking resources similar to Politifact and Snopes include:
I have a couple of newsletters now. One is a weekly collection from my personal and links blogs that goes out on Mondays. - ✏️ Subscribe | Amerpie by Lou Plummer
The other newsletter is myapp review blog, delivered daily in case you don't have enough software in your life - Subscribe | AppAddict Newsletter
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Browser Extensions Are a Secret Weapon
This is a special edition of AppAddict. Tonight, I'm covering one
of the best sources of computing functionality that often goes
overlooked in the hunt for productivity enhancements and better work
flows. There are many browser extensions that replace or enhance apps
you use every day. This is my personal aresenal that I use in my daily
workflow.
A modern Mac is a miraculous machine. My decidedly middle of the road laptop is an M2 with 16GB od RAM. I bought it in December of 2023 and hope to continue using it for years. The number of programs I have running at login (~40) would give Y2K Lou nightmares. The sheer number of installed applications would freak (628) that guy out. Finally, there are my browser extensions, and I'm only talking about the ones for my daily driver, Vivaldi, not the ones in the other five browsers I have installed. Where once I would have been concerned with somehow slowing down the Internet, today I just want to get the maximum amount of functionality out of my interface with it. I use A LOT of extensions. Let's get to them, shall we?
Aboard
Aboard does a a great many things but the way I use it is simple. It what I click when there is a webpage I want to share with my wife. She gets a notification on her phone when I share something and she can view it in the Aboard app or in a browser at the website. It's how I share shows I want to watch, restaurants I want to check out or news items that are blowing my mind.
Activity Watch
Activity Watch is a free time tracker that tells me how long I've been using my computer, which apps I use and for how long and what websites I visited and for how long. I can assign apps and web pages to categories and make the reports it creates as granular as I want to.
Activity Watch - Free No Effort Time Tracker | AppAddict
Language Tool
I use the paid version of this grammar, paraphraser and spelling tool, but I have used the free version as well and it is definitely a step up from native tools.
Language Tool - Free is Good, Paid is Better | AppAddict
Anylist Recipe Importer
I only activate this when I'm looking for recipes. Anylist importer clears all the cruft away from recipe sites and kust imports the ingredients and directions and leaves out all the SEO crap. It works with the Mac/iOS/Web app called Anylist, which is an app I've used for over a decade for shopping and packing lists and collecting recipes.
AnyList for Recipes, Shopping and More | AppAddict
Archive Today Automator
This is the extension I couldn't live without. Whenever I want to read a paywalled article from the New York Times, The Atlantic, The Verge, Medium, The Wall Street Journal or practically any other site, I just hit this button in my toolbar to obtain immediate access to a version from the Internet Archive. I subscribe to and support several progressive news organizations so I don't feel bad for reading MSM sites for free.
Block Party
Block Party is a paid service that inspects settings on invasive websites and changes things with your consent to offer yoy the most privacy possible. It works with Reddit, Google, YouTube, Strava, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, amd Instagram.
Bluesky Sidebar
Bluesky sidebar loads on web pages from the Bluesky social media platform and gives you extra information on the people you follow, the people who follow you, trending topics and the lists you are subscribed to.
Cloudhiker
Cloudhiker is a freemium service that is the closest thing you'll find on the wen today to the old Stumble Upon website. Use Cloudhiker to suggest and discover new sites in a large number of categories.
Cloudhiker - StumbleUpon for the IndyWeb | Linkage
Fedica
Fedica is a freemium service that allows you to schedule posts on all the major social media sites, you can crosspost to several of them at once. Paid customers get analytics and research tools, pluse reports from certain sites, like Mastodon and Bluesky.
Fedica - Post to Multiple Social Networks at Once, On a Schedule - For Free | AppAddict
Kagi Privacy Pass
Thiis extension is iused to authenticate to the paid Kagi search engine if you want to block all access toy what you are searching for. With this enabled, there is no history of your search activity using Kagi.
Using Kagi Search Engine on a Mac - Software and Tips | AppAddict
Markdownload
This is another one of my favorite extensons. It copies webpage links as Markdown links for insertion into posts and documents. It cam also copy whole pages as Markdown, although now that usefulness has been supplanted by the Obsidian Web Clipper. Finally is will create a markdown list from all the open tabs in a browser windos. It's great for bloggers and researchers.
MarkDownload - The Browser Extension that Works With #Obsidian | Amerpie by Lou Plummer
Mastodon Redirector
No matter what Mastodon instance I land on while browsing and following toots from others, clicking this button opens the page in my home instance, allowing me to like, follow and comment with ease. I find that ut works better for me than Graze, another plugin with similar features.
Obsidian Web Clipper
This free tool uses templates to download web pages as markdown files. Using AI, you can get summaries of the page and automatically assign tags. It will even download the transcript from YouTube videos. I have templates for IMDB, Bluesky, Mastodon, Reddit, YouTube, Medium, Wikiepedia and general web pages.
Privacy Badger
This free extension from the Electronic Frontier Foundation is not an ad blocker. It works hand in hand with them to detect and block trackers using an algorithm and machine learning. The EFF is working on ways to prevent browser fingerprinting, the strategy used by tech companies to follow you around the web without cookies.
Privacy Badger Extension from the Electronic Freedom Foundation | AppAddict
Raindrop.io
Raindrop is a freemium bookmarking service from which I gety great value. I use it to create webpages of links I want to share, to save canonical copies of stories so that if the are removed from the Internet, I can still access them. I have never used my bookmarks more than I have with Raindrop.
Battle of the Bookmark Managers | AppAddict
Quick Pocket
I am a big believer in automation and in reading the work of smart people at depth. Aside from using Pocket as the excellent read it later service that it is, I also use it's integration with IFTTT and RSS to automate the saving of full text blog entries from Matt Birchler and Jarrod Blundy, two of my favorite tech oriented bloggers. Their articles are routed through Pocket right into Obsidian or Day One for preservation and reference. Pocket is owned by the Mozilla foundation.
Ublock Origin Light
The Original Ublock Origin is still the best as blocker ever made. It is no longer compatible with Chrome, Edge and Vivaldi, although Forefox users can still use it. Using a complete security toolkit that includes a customer DNS server, built in blockers in Vivaldi, Ublock Origin light and Freetube for YouTube, I routinely score 99 or 100 on ad blocking tests.
My Online
Security Setup | Linkage
I have a couple of newsletters now. One is a weekly collection from my personal and links blogs that goes out on Mondays. - ✏️ Subscribe | Amerpie by Lou Plummer
The other newsletter is for this blog, in case you don't have enough software in your life - Subscribe | AppAddict Newsletter
What To Do If You Get Arrested
I haven't been arrested in 39 years, I came close a couple of times during demonstrations against the war in Iraq, but some wise elders advised me to cooperate with pushy police officers to avoid it, so I did. Most of my run-ins with the law happened when I was a teenager and they all involved alcohol. The sober version oi me has been pretty good at staying away from the police. But, as Bob Dylan so aptly put it, the times, they are a changing.
I'm not sure whether it's paranoid to fear political persecution as a regular left wing American citizen or not. It's very evident that the current federal government will avoid due process whenever and however it can. Rounding up Venezuelan immigrants and flying them to EL Salvador against a judges orders should wake folks up. Then there are the legal residents who have excercised free speech in a way that pisses MAGA off. These people have not broken the law. They said words out loud in public. That's it. That's their offense. For that they've been imprisoned. That's the America that we are living in.
So, that's why I am reading up on how to handle myself if they come for me, or if I get pulled aside while traveling. I don't think I have it in me to just be quiet and go along with what's happening to my country.
Know Your Rights | Protesters’ Rights | ACLU
What Happens If You Are Arrested For Protesting? - Criminal Appeals Advocates, P.C.
Here’s What to Do If You Get Detained at a U.S. Airport
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There Ought To Be a Law
You are probably familiar with Betteridge's Law of Headlines whether you know its name or not. The law is an adage that states: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no." It's a common sense analysis of a journalistic practice where publications seek to avoid being incorrect when they aren't certain about an outcome. Were they certain, the story they published on the topic would have been presented as a certainty.
Becoming familiar with the thinking behind Betteridge's Law is a good step on the road to media literacy.
Betteridge's Law of Headlines | Tools for Thinking
YSK the fundamentals of Betteridge's Law of Headlines
The Blog and Newsletter
Ian Betteridge is still around and still saying smart things. He's one of the more experienced tech journalists still plying the trade. His crtitiques of Apple, other journalists and the Internet writ large, are generally dead on and entertaining.
Ian Betteridge - Ian's Blog
One of the best newsletters I get each week is Ian's 10 Blue Links. The stories are generally topical and tech related. Ian point's out hypocrisy and industry bullshit with deadly accuracy.
Ten Blue Links, “good news, bad news, old news” edition
Follow Ian Betteridge on Mastodon
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