Links
- Make an account and log in
- Make a new mixtape
- You and other users add seven YouTube videos to the mixtape
A Lovely Routine - The Digital Checklist That Brings Me Joy Every Day and The Hunt for Links
I have a digital checklist I try to complete every day. It helps me do the mundane things we all have to do, stay on top of my email, organize my notes, keep important software updated. My checklist also helps me to remember to do the fun things I enjoy: uploading a photo every day to Micro.blog where it gets cross posted to all the social media sites in which I participate. I have a reminder to check in daily at Product Hunt because I enjoy seeing what’s new in the software categories I follow. The other “fun” item I try to check off seven days a week is to find a bookmark to share.
Every Saturday morning, I get up at 4am to drink coffee and work interrupted on posting to my blog. I keep a running note all week in Obsidian where I add each day’s link. I write a short blurb for each site, download/upload a few images and post the links. My uber original name for this feature is (drumroll) This Week’s Bookmarks.
I subscribe to way too many newsletters and what keeps me interested in them is looking for the link of the day. Ironically, some of what I subscribe too are other people’s weekly link posts! I’ll share anything that looks like it might catch the eye of a curious person. It could be a story about the world’s coolest streets or something funny like the Washington Post’s collection of one-star reviews of National Parks. I rarely share news stories. I aim for something with a little shelf life. I’m a techie and a blogger so there’s plenty of stuff there for like-minded folks.
Right now, I’m keeping a running list of several week’s worth of links. One day it will get too unwieldy, and I’ll have to pare it down or start a volume two or something, but for now it’s there to explore. If you check it out and find anything useful or entertaining it would mean the world to me if you let me know.
Matthias Ott, author of the wonderful newsletter Own Your Web, wrote a piece recently about all the reasons why creating a links page is an integral part of the IndieWeb. He listed different ways to share your finds (like newsletters and RSS feeds) and he gave multiple reasons for collecting links in the first place. He’s the inspiration for this reflection.
A couple of bloggers I like have weekly links posts or newsletters. Check out the HeyDingus Seven Things This Week collection and let the writer, Jarrod Blundy know that I sent you. While you’re at it, look at Ian Betteridge’s new 10 Blue Links which he’ll be happy to email you each week.
Peace! Lou, in NC
Lou Plummer | Amerpie
Email
This Week's #Bookmarks: Free PDF tools, Alexa safety, online museums, amazing photos, emoji news and an RSS family tree
Bookmarks for Week 10 of 2024
Maybe you need this I don’t know. We all have phones these days with voice assistants and may of us have one or more additional devices in our homes. They are fun to query but be careful. Take the advice in this article. 7 things you should never ask Siri, Google Assistant or Alexa (komando.com)
If you are the kind of person who doesn’t just accept the default font in your apps and documents, it would pay to learn a little bit about different typefaces. This informative page is a good place to start. Fonts and Typology Infographic | (dailyinfographic.com)
My son is a self-taught art lover who often travels just to visit museums in places like NYC and Boston. I sent him this web site so he could preview some of the places he plans to travel to. 50+ virtual museums you can visit online for free (komando.com)
An amateur photographer myself, I quite enjoyed this series. James Lucas on X: “Photographs taken in the right place at the right time, intentionally or by chance
I work in IT support and one of the chores I have that is 100% not my favorite is installing Adobe Acrobat Professional for people who I just know aren’t going to realize the full value of it. I wish I could just send them this bookmark instead. iLovePDF | Online PDF tools for PDF lovers
I confess to sending way too few emojis to fit into 21st century life. I may be a grumpy old man. Still, I’m not above learning something new. Heart Emoji Meanings | Later
My Inoreader subscription for RSS feeds is one of the best tech investments I make each year. Getting into blogging and the whole IndieWeb scene has been a real blessing. This site helps me discover new feeds to follow by making a family tree of sorts from my Mastodon account and revealing all of the RSS feeds available to me from the people I follow. RsS iS dEaD LOL (rss-is-dead.lol)
This Weeks Bookmarks: Photos from History, Infinite Mac, Amazon Secrets, YouTube Summarizer, Streaming Service Survival Guide, Old Software
List of photographs considered the most important - Wikipedia - Be prepared to stay down this rabbit hole for awhile if you have any interest in photography or history.
Infinite Mac is a collection of classic Macintosh system releases and software, all easily accessible from the comfort of a (modern) web browser.
Pick any version of System Software/Mac OS from the 1980s or 1990s and run it (and major software of that era) within a virtual machine. You can also run a custom version with your choice of machine and virtual disks. Files can be imported and exported using drag and drop, and System 7 and onward have more advanced integrations as well – refer to the welcome screen in each machine for more details.
As a person in recovery for the last 15 years, I don’t have to come up with euphemisms to describe my state of existence any more, but if I did, this list would come in handy. Can any English word be turned into a synonym for “drunk”? Not all, but many can. | Ars Technica
Gone are the days when you could just subscribe willy nilly to every channel. There’s a bewildering number of choices when cord-cutting and building your own package. NPR made this easy guide to doing ot right. It will help you see what you want to see at the cheapest price. Streaming services guide: Here’s how to choose what’s right for you : NPR
This is a labor of love by a bunch of software geeks. If you have an old system you’re trying to put back into use, this is an invaluable site for finding compatible software. Old versions of Windows, Mac and Linux Software, Apps & Abandonware Games - Download at OldVersion.com
So just how does Jeff Bezos make eight million dollars an hour (or whatever the obscene number actually is)? This article reveals a few facts about Amazon that most of us have no idea about. Amazon’s Big Secret - The Atlantic
The ultimate YouTube companion for transcripts, summaries and outlines. It’s free for videos under an hour, up to 20 per day with cheap plans if you want longer videos or need to process more than 20. Summarize.ing - Instant YouTube Video Summaries | AI-Powered Content Digests
A quick glance through this list shows us all how much we don’t know (and will never know). 16 Historical Mysteries People Say Will Never Be Solved (didyouknowfacts.com)
Jon Stewart says goodbye to his dog. See if you can get through this without crying. I could not. Goodbye Dipper
This Week's Bookmarks: Disk shopping, Industry secrets, No more rice, Things unexpectedly named after people, NOT the world's oldest dog, AI tips
Disk Prices is a bare-bones, text-only website lists the prices of hard drives, solid-state drives, and USB drives available on Amazon. It’s a superior way to search for storage compared to searching directly on Amazon.
Reddit thread on industry secrets - Get the inside scoop on the dirty inside knowledge froma range of industries – if you dare. Sometimes ignorance is bliss!
Apple said in a new post - If your phone gets wet, don’t put it in rice. Instead, tap your iPhone against your hand with the connector facing down to let the liquid drip out, then leave it in a dry area, The company warned that small particles of rice can damage your phone.
Things Unexpectedly Named After People - German Chocolate Cake has nothing to do with a certain European country…and more.
The world’s oldest dog was posthumously stripped of his title after the Guinness World Records could not prove he was 30 years old at the time of his death.
17 tips to improve your ChatGPT prompts from Lifehacker. a better than average guide to getting the most from AI.
This Week's Bookmarks: Mixtapes, A History Game, Internet Museum, a Recipe, Article of the Week, Mastodon Hacking and a Newsletter
Mixtape Garden
[Mixtape Garden](mixtape garden
Mixtape Garden is a site for making mixtapes together! Here’s how to use it:
Once it’s full, your mixtape will be automatically converted into a single, crossfaded mp3 that can be streamed or downloaded!
Milestone Archive - The History of the Web
Milestones Archive - The History of the Web,
An interactive timeline dating back to the late 80’s of all the milestones that make the Internet what it is today. If you are of a certain age, depending on when you started paying attention, you may remember everything.
Comeback Sauce
Comeback Sauce Recipe - Budget Bytes,
A delicious sauce you can make at home using a few common ingredients. It was good on Superbowl Sunday, it’ll be good at your house.
Time Guesser - A Photo Game
This game shows you a photo from history, and you have to guess where and when it was taken. <timeguessr.com>
The Text File That Runs the Internet
David Pierce, the excellent and oft quoted writer from The Verge wrote the story of the week about the robots.txt file and how AI companies are ignoring it, breaking a strong tradition that search companies have long followed..
RSS Parrot
A link from Cory Doctorow, the King of the Internet, RSS Parrot (rss-parrot.net)
Weeklypedia Newsletter
A fascinating look at what peoiple around the world are learning about this week. Weeklypedia (hatnote.com)
The never-ending war against paywalls continues with a new resource, Archive Buttons with links to proven sites like archive.is and 12ft.io. I subscribe to several paywalled sites, like the NYT and WaPo but screw Medium. I ain’t paying for that.
Just in case you need some, the only remaining seller of floppy disks in the world is US based Floppydisk.com who says their business isn’t threatened by the Japanese government’s recent decision to halt the use of the removeable media…yes in 2024.
The Iconfactory just released a video about the API they’re building for Project Tapestry.
It’s a bold claim to say you can make a universal timeline for the Internet. But you can. And we have.
If you’ve been wondering if you should watch Mr. and Mrs. Smith…yeah, you should. Donald Glover and Maya Erskine have some of the best chemistry I’ve even seen on screen!
The Installer from the Verge
We all get too much email. It’s tough finding a worthwhile newsletter because most are filled with links to buy crap we aren’t looking for. Occasionally, we find something decent and one I’ve found is The Installer from David Pierce at the Verge. It’s a weekly collection of worthy recommendations for apps, tech and entertainment. I read every edition all the way through.
I’m tired of worrying about Apple and the EU. It’s time for some effin cuteness Reader Chosen:100 Cutest Photos
Yet another “Link in Bio” service - but this one was just announced as Product of the Year on Product Hunt. Check it out - Amerpie on Bento
I have just discovered feedle - a search engine for RSS feeds. Look for what’s interesting to you. My search for #Obsidian information led me here. feedle.world
Getting Help on Mastodon
I had a good Mastodon experience yesterday. I posted about my frustration with the #Obsidian dataview plugin and by the end of the day @techlifeweb@indieweb.social sent me a web page that builds queries for you Dataview Query Builder Plus a couple of others posted their learning experiences. It was so positive.
Open.AI opened up the GPT store today but only to plus subscribers. Those of us with pay as you go API keys are left out in the cold with the rest of the huddled masses. tinyurl.com/aicostmon…