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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

Links

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    Giving Criticism

    Feedback Dandwich

    On my software review blog, AppAddict, I focus on apps I like and that I think will be helpful to other Mac users. The only time I write negative reviews is when I don't like a company's business practices or when my take on an app is different than that of the majority. I give apps a fair test and I'm generally willing to give a developer the benefit of the doubt. I've gotten good feedback from a number of them, including a few I've kind of idolized over the years. The day will come, though, when the author of one of the apps of which I was critical is going to hit me up with a WTF? I'll be glad to listen and if I got something wrong, I'll correct my mistake.I won't just change my take on it because someone asks me to. Lame.

    I don't think many people are good at giving constructive criticism or negative feedback. Have you ever had a boss that would email the entire department when trying to correct one person's behavior because they were just to chickenshit to talk to them one on one? I endured that for years with more than one boss. Another indicator of poor people skills is when a boss waits until your annual performance review to criticize you, instead of being a coach or a mentor. Managers get paid to manage, but too many of them don't seem ti like that part of the job.

    Giving criticism isn't being mean. Sometimes withholding it is. It's a skill that can be learned. Here are some resources.

    How To Give Constructive Criticism: 6 Helpful Tips - Personal Excellence - Includes the infamous feedback sandwich method

    Do You Know How To Write A Good Bad Review? | by Liz King | Medium - By now we all know where to look for online reviews — on Yelp, Google, or Facebook. But do we know how to write them, and do we understand how they can impact a small business?

    Are You Being Too Critical in Your Relationship? | Psychology Today - Because we aren't taught how to navigate differences in our relationships, we tend to do it badly. However, as adults, we can learn to navigate differences in a healthy way, fostering more safety and connection in our relationships.

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    Quotes for Every Occassion - Please Share Yours!

    Speakers

    I love quotes. Nothing would make me happier than for you to send me any of your favorites in an email, or post them on mastodon or Bluesky and tag me. I'll be glad to give a shout out to anyone who cares to share.

    "Everything you can imagine is real." — Pablo Picasso

    “Dreams are extremely important. You can’t do it unless you imagine it.” — George Lucas

    "Who looks outward dreams, who looks inward awakens." — Carl Jung

    I was doing some maintenance on my collection of quotes today, a relaxing, if never ending task. I had a few highlights I'd saved without also recording the author's name, so I did a full text search for them on Kagi and found out that Goodreads has a huge quotes repository. Every single quote I was looking for had a Goodreads page. I found pages for Albert Camus, Maya Angelo, Joseph Campbell and several other notables.

    More Quote Websites

    Quote Topics - BrainyQuote

    A-Z Quotes | Quotes for All Occasions

    Best and famous collection of quotes at QuotesLyfe

    Wikiquote

    My Collection of 500+ Authors and Quotes

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    Underrated Awesome Stuff

    Vivaldi - 2025-03-11 at 17

    One of my favorite parts of living in the information age is the ease of discovery of entertainment options. I remember when we had to wait for the TV Guide to show up in the mailbox, listen to FM radio and read the siges outside the cinema for information. Now, thanks to huge databases and fan communities, you can get in depth suggestions from your digital alter ego at a moment's notice. It's also fun tio find out what your friends like. You can ask questions and give feedback. Here are a few under the radar picks from yours truly.

    Books

    1. Lexicon by Max Barry - a science fiction novel about an organization that teaches it's candidates how to use language as a way to control the minds of others
    2. Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover - the author practices immersice journalism by placing himself in situations where he experiences life first hand in order to write about it. In this case he takes a job as a guard at Sing Sing prison in NY to explore modern American prisons.
    3. A Rising Man (Sam Wyndham, #1) by Abir Mukherjee - Set in India during the British Raj, this is a novel featuring a detective who is an opium addicted veteran of The Great War. It has a great sense of time and place.
    4. Never a Dull Moment: 1971 The Year That Rock Exploded by David Hepworth - I love books about music and this one thoroughly explores the greatest year in rock hostory when classic albums by Led Zepplin, The Who, Carole King, James Taylor, Rod Stewart, Joanie Mitchell and more were released.
    5. The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan - Michael Pollan may be the best popular science writer alive. In this book he explores four plants: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato in a way that us informative and entertaining.

    TV Shows

    1. Scott & Bailey - D.C. Rachel Bailey and D.C. Janet Scott have a robust and engaging friendship which enables them to draw upon each other’s strengths and investigate murders for the Manchester Metropolitan Police. I love the strong female leads.
    2. Broadchurch - The murder of a young boy in a small coastal town brings a media frenzy, which threatens to tear the community apart. I've been a David Tennant and an Olivia Coleman fave ever since I watched this.
    3. The Fall - When the Police Service of Northern Ireland are unable to close a case after 28 days, Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson of the Metropolitan Police Service is called in to review the case. Under her new leadership, the local detectives must track down and stop a serial killer who is terrorising the city of Belfast. Not one to watch alone. It is intense.
    4. Inspector George Gently - A British crime drama adapted from the George Gently novels by Alan Hunt and set in the 1960s. Inspector George Gently is an old-school detective trying to come to terms with a time when the lines between the police and criminals have become blurred. British cop shows are so much better than American ones. They think more, shoot less.
    5. Foyle's War - As WW2 rages around the world, DCS Foyle fights his own war on the home-front as he investigates crimes on the south coast of England. Foyle's War opens in southern England in the year 1940. A great job of recreating Britain during its greatest hour.

    Movies

    1. The Station Agent (2003) - When his only friend dies, a man born with dwarfism moves to rural New Jersey to live a life of solitude, only to meet a chatty hot dog vendor and a woman dealing with her own personal loss. Peter Dinklage before GOT.
    2. Yesterday (2019) - A struggling musician realizes he's the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate reality where the group was forgotten. Lot's of Beatles music and a few surprises.
    3. The Dig (2021) - As WWII looms, a wealthy widow hires an amateur archaeologist to excavate the burial mounds on her estate. When they make a historic discovery, the echoes of Britain's past resonate in the face of its uncertain future‎. One of those movies that will have you reading Wikipedia articles as soon as it is over.
    4. Chef (2014) - When Chef Carl Casper suddenly quits his job at a prominent Los Angeles restaurant after refusing to compromise his creative integrity for its controlling owner, he is left to figure out what's next. Finding himself in Miami, he teams up with his ex-wife, his friend and his son to launch a food truck. Taking to the road, Chef Carl goes back to his roots to reignite his passion for the kitchen -- and zest for life and love. Even though Jon Favreau is responsible for a bunch of MCU schlock, he redeems himself in this story about self discovery and parenthood.
    5. The Bookshop (2017) - Set in a small English town in 1959, a woman decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition, to open a bookshop, a decision which becomes a political minefield. Another story with a strong, indomitable female character.

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    Can We Agree That Recipe Blogs Are the Worst?

    Vivaldi - 2025-03-10 at 15

    I like a great many elements of the Internet, even in 2025, when cookie banners, privacy warnings, newsletter subscription popups and the like rob us all of some joy while we browser. I get hives when I have to search for a simple recipe. Every person who's ever read an article on how to monetize a blog seems to have decided that the blog they need to create should have recipes and a metric ton of search engine optimization crap on it. Not only that, instead of just saying "This is good. You should cook it." Recipe bloggers need to talk about how their Aunt Nancy made the recipe on ger organic Vermont rabbit farm when they were kids. I don't like it. Not a fan.

    Here are some recipe websites where you don't have to deal with that anxiety inducing clutter. If you want to make some cornbread, they will tell you how to do it without commenting on how you should feel about doing it.

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    Newsletter Management

    Vivaldi - 2025-03-08 at 19

    Modern email clients typically have robust filtering options. If you get email you don't want, and you can't be bothered to unsubscribe, you can filter it right into your trash, spam or into a folder that you never look at.
    Gmail - How to filter email
    Fastmail - How to set up rules
    Apple - Filter emails on a Mac

    Many other services let you create aliases so that you can easily determine if any spam you get is coming from an address you used at a certain website. Because management is easy and because I like having useful information come to me instead of searching for it, I subscribe to a lot of newsletters. I even pay for a couple of them.

    There are some easy to use tools out there for dealing with newsletters. Inoreader, my RSS provider, gives subscribers 20 different email addresses to use to subscribe to newsletters with. You can use the same address for different newsletters, so you aren't limited to just 20 subscriptions. Instead of reading the newsletters in your email app, you can read them in an RSS app or the Inoreader website.

    It's common for people with established email accounts to feel overwhelmed by the amount of email they receive. The Unroll.me app can analyze your inbox and help unsubscribe you from newsletters you no longer want. It can also consolidate what you do want to receive into regular digest, combining many emails into just one. It's a free service to boot.

    Here are some worthy newsletters to subscribe to:

    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 a daily app review, in case you don't have enough software in your life - Subscribe | AppAddict Newsletter

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    This Week's Bookmarks - Best TV Performances, Best Musicals, Putinization of US, Horse Racing, Opting Out of Tech, COVID Makeover, US Descent, Movies from Books

    Michael Kenneth Williams as Omar Little, “The Wire

    The 100 Greatest TV Performances of the Century - When one thinks of the defining TV performances of the past 25 or so years, what comes to mind?

    The 25 best musical movies of this century - The Washington Post - From "Les Mis" to "La La Land," from "Walk Hard" to "Wicked," these films show that the musical genre isn't just standing – it's got new moves, too.

    The Putinization of America - The Atlantic - Trump's deference to the Russian dictator has become full-blown imitation.

    Dead Athletes. Empty Stands. Billions to Keep Horse Racing Alive - The obvious solution here is also the simplest: Just stop. Let the sport stand on its own and dwindle to whatever size its fan base supports. Instead, state legislatures keep funneling money to it. "The biggest fear that our industry has is that the states are going to stop subsidizing, using slot machines to subsidize the sport," said Jeff Gural, who owns three harness racing tracks. "Without that, there is no sport

    The Opt Out Project - Yes, you can live without Big Tech. If data is the new oil, then I'm here to help you go electric. Join the resistance.

    How Covid Remade Our America, Five Years Later - t's impossible to imagine that humanity would suffer a global pandemic and come out unchanged. And we certainly didn't. "America is a harsher place, more self-interested and nakedly transactional. We barely trust one another and are less sure that we owe our fellow Americans anything — let alone the rest of the world."

    America is Going Just Great - A timeline of America's descent into a fascist hellscape

    New and Upcoming Movies Based on Books 2025 - From 'The Housemaid' to 'The Women in Cabin 10': Upcoming Book Adaptations in 2025. From beloved classics to recent releases, a myriad of books are set to be reimagined for the small and big screens.

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    The Great Eastern Pine Forest

    Pine_Forest

    Although I live in town, the region where we are located is still largely rural. The military reservation for Ft. Bragg, covering 161,000 acres is close enough that artillery fire routinely rattles our windows. During World War 1, the government bought hundreds of farms and timber tracts to create the installation. Except for a few historical churches and cemeteries, all the civilian homes and buildings were removed. The land was allowed to return to its natural state as part of the great eastern pine forest. Carefully managed through the same type of controlled burning that the Native Americans once practiced, the landscape resembles what the Highland Scots who settled the area saw when they traveled up the Cape Fear River to settle here. Today, the land on Ft. Bragg is wild enough to support the endangered Red Cockaded Woodpecker, which lives and nests only in the cavities of mature long-leafed pine trees.

    When I travel, I enjoy observing the signature characteristics of what region I am in. If you've ever flown into Ireland, you know why they call it The Emerald Isle. Seeing Pike's Peak towering over Colorado Springs is breathtaking. Send some time in New Hampshire and you will see why they call it The Granite State.

    In North Carolina, especially In the coastal plain area where I am from, pine forests are our trademark. The nickname of our state's flagship university, The Tarheels comes from the industry we once had using pine resin to make the tar that sealed the hulls of wooden sailing ships.

    1920s Fort Bragg, NC: A Visual Trip | by Matthew Peek | NC Stories of Service | Medium

    Longleaf Pine Forests: Protecting and Restoring Habitat | TNC

    Long Journey of the Highland Scots | NCpedia

    Red-cockaded woodpecker - Wikipedia

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    Time Travel

    Time Travel

    I've enjoyed all types of science fiction since I was in junior high school, but the one type of sci-fi novel that has always been my favorite are time travel books. I think because I also enjoy historical fiction and have spent many an hour imagining myself back in the past, the notion of time travel is particularly appealing. For some reason, I have never had a desire to go to the future. Even before climate change started ruining that for everyone, I just wanted to see all the different historical eras about which I've read so much.

    Here are a few of my favorite time travel books.

    Blackout

    Blackout (All Clear, #1) by Connie Willis | Goodreads and All Clear: A Novel (Oxford Time Travel) by Connie Willis | Goodreads - two novels that take place in London during The Blitz, they give a convincing look at what life was like in the tube shelters as the residents of the city underwent Nazi bombardment. The evacuation of children to the countryside is also covered as is the Dunkirk evacuation. The time travelers are historians from Oxford University in 2060.

    11/22/63

    11/22/63 by Stephen King | Goodreads - I think Steven King is as entertaining as any writer who has ever lived. I'm not a literary critic, I just like a good page turner and this book certainly qualifies. It has the usual King touches of life in Maine and many, many unexpected twists. You can tell King did a lot of research for the book, so even if your more knowledgable than most about the Kennedy assassination, you won't be put off by incorrect details.

    Outlander

    Outlander (Outlander, #1) by Diana Gabaldon | Goodreads - My daughter looked at me dubiously when I asked to borrow her copy of the first Outlander book. I didn't know that it was considered a romance novel. Even after finishing the book, I wasn't convinced that it wasn't for men too. There are plenty of details about the rebellious Scots and the dastardly British Army. I enjoyed it.

    The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

    The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North | Goodreads - Unlike most time travel books I enjoy, this one didn't take place in a historical era. It covers the same years of the 20th century, over and over and over again, as Harry August dies and is reborn with total recall of the lives he's led in the past. Calire North does a good job of keeping it interesting.

    The Door Into Summer

    The Door Into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein | Goodreads- Some of the later works of Robert A Heinlein were problematic, a little too right wing and way too sexist for modern sensibilities, but his novels from the Golden Age of science fiction are delightfully imaginative. Heinlein has a fertile imagination and a deft touch with dialog. This is the story of a man who was tricked into going into suspended animation only to awaken to a world where time travel is possible. He goes back to deal with the people who tricked him.

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    Country Music but not THAT Country Music

    When my brother and sister watched TV on weekday afternoons in the 70s, usually syndicated episodes of the Andy Griffith Show and Gomer Pyle, one of the primary advertisers was a company that specialized in greatest hits albums of country music stars. I must have watched 1,000 commercials trying to get me to order 8-tracks of Conway Twitty's classics. The three of us were found the music, distasteful, shall we say. Our parents were more into The Beatles and James Taylor. Country music was for our grandparent's generation and the member's of the family who still farmed.

    While, I never did become a Conway Twitty fan, my attitude towards the music softened over the years as I opened my mind up and explored some of the classic albums. The capstone was my discovery of Uncle Tupelo and the whole alt-country movement, none of which would have been possible without the talented stars I disdained as a kid.

    I still don't like the majority of what comes out of Nashville today. I don't like the way the industry as a while treated Little Nas X and Beyoncé. I don't like the fake country nostalgia and I certainly don't like the right-wing, flag waving of people like Lee Greenwood and Toby Keith.

    What I do like are some classic albums, by talented people.

    Red Headed Stranger by Willie Nelson

    Live at Folsom Prison by Johnny Cash

    Nothing Ever Hurt Me Half as Bad (as Losing You) by George Jones

    Mama Tried by Merle Haggard

    Buck Owens by Buck Owens

    Hank Williams 40 Greatest Hits by Hank Williams

    Van Lear Rose by Loretta Lynn and Jack White

    Van Lear Rose Check it out at AllMusic.com

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    Photo Sharing Websites

    North of Santa Fe

    I enjoy looking at my photos. I take some time every day to look back at this day in history on one of the websites where I am still storing my archive. I also have an Aura Frame and an Amazon Echo Show that display photos all day long. I never got into Instagram as a means of sharing photos socially, but I've experimented with a few other sites, some that put the emphasis on the social aspect and others that are more for "serious photographers" Whatever that means. These days, I am primarily posting a couple of photos a day on Micro.blog and Mastodon, I even have a gallery for my 100 Strangers Project.

    Here are a few other places where I and others I know post photos.

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    Having Fun with Wikipedia

    Wikipedia

    Not long ago, an Internet friend and I discovered a way to find out what the apps were that we installed on our first iPhones. For both of us, it was an app to access Wikipedia. One of the world's most popular websites, it's come a long way since it's inception. While there was a time when teachers discouraged students from using it, today Wikipedia is seen as a valuable resource full of links to its sources. It's such an excellent source of unvarnished truth in a world increasinglu controlled by maniacal oligarchs, that it's under attack by them. They seek to destroy what they cannot control.

    There are several tools and websites that make Wikipedia rabbit holes fun to go down.

    Weeklypedia- join a list to receive a weekly email with the top twenty Wikipedia articles and top five Wikipedia discussions from this weekk, available in English and more languages.

    WikiTok - This website combines Wikipedia and TikTok to fight doomscrolling. WikiTok users can swipe through an endless stream of Wikipedia article stubs, discovering random facts and interesting information along the way.

    I Made a Graph of Wikipedia... This Is What I Found - YouTube - A deep dive into the network of Wikipedia and some of the the most interesting, bizarre, and unique articles on the website.

    Obsidian Web Clipper Templates - For any obsidian fans, this collection of templates for the web clipper includes on that allows you to import complete articles with media straight into your vault.

    Use KIWIX to Access Wikipedia and Other Resources Offline AppAddict - You can download Wikipedia, along with all of the pictures and videos!

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    Using Kagi Search Engine on a Mac - Software and Tips

    Kago Logo
    Kago Logo


    For those not familiar with it, Kagi is a subscription based, no-ads, privacy-focused search engine that provides an extreme level of customization. Unlike DuckDuckGo, which relies on Bing for most of its results, Kagi has its own scraper and while it does make API calls to other search engines, it is not totally reliant on them. Understandably, not everyone needs or wants to pay for privacy, but for people in vulnerable communities or who are politically active in ways that aren't supporting their nation's current government, it is a valuable resource.

    Privacy Pass

    Kagi recently released Privacy Pass, " a privacy feature that allows you to use Kagi Search without revealing your identity. When enabled, it lets you perform searches anonymously while still verifying that you're a valid Kagi subscriber. Think of it as a digital token system - similar to getting tokens at an arcade, where once you have them, you can use the services without showing your ID each time." To use Privacy Pass, you need to install a browser extension that enables it.

    Kagi Search Extension

    Kagi also has a search extension that automates setting it as your default browser and also provides for continuing a search session is a private browsing window.

    Using Kagi with Safari

    Since Apple limits the selection of custom search engines in Safari, due no doubt to the $18 billion that Google pays them for the right to be Safari's default search engine. There is a good work around though, Xsearch for Safari lets you instantly switch between multiple custom search engines from the Safari address bat. It works in macOS, iOS and iPadOS.

    Kagi Features

    Kagi has zero ads and zero trackers. It's so secure that what you search for can be totally separated from your identity. You can customize your results easily. If, like any sane and rational person, you don't want to see any stories from the popular news channel that was fines $700 million for lying on the air last year in your search results, you can block the site from ever appearing. If you realize just how many answers to life's questions can be found on Reddit, you can tell Kagi to prioritize the site. In fact, you can customize up to 1,000 sites, either by blocking them or by promoting results from them.

    I created a list of sites that are over-represented in search results because of search engine optimization,. It's not that their content is good. It's that the sites are engineered through content farming and keyword usage to appear high in search results. You can copy and paste the list right into Kagi's settings and never have the sites pollute your searches again. Because of problems with the mainstream media in the US, I also created a list of alternative news sources that I told Kagi to prioritize.

    You can make your own custom search environment. Kagi calls that a Lens. Kagi Lenses allow you to customize your searches by specifying which websites (and other parameters) you see in your results. They provide a few Lenses to get you started, such as one to search only online discussions and forums.

    Have more questions about Kagi? Get all the answers here.

    ✉️ Reply by email

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    Big Woody Harrelson Fan

    Woody Harrelson

    I've enjoyed watching Woody Harrelson since I first saw him in Cheers in the 80s. His ability to play a wide variety of roles is evident from the nominations he's received for the Oscars, the Emmy's and the Golden Globes. I went to see his latest release, Last Breath today just because he was in it. I didn't know a thing about it. It's the true story about a crew of saturation divers working on the floor of the North Sea off the coast of Scotland and the fight to rescue one of them when he gets trapped in an accident during a repair operation.

    Some of my other favorites from his career include:

    My favorite, but unfortunate fact about Woody Harrelson is that he is the son of a hit man. His father was convicted in the contract killing of a judge. Really.

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    Survival Skills

    Maya Angelou

    Dr. Maya Angelou, the poet, professor, and activist said, "When people show you who they are, believe them the first time." I don't think she was advocating for harsh, unforgiving judgment as much as she was advocating for the opposite of blind faith. The opposite of blind faith is the observant form. Making judgments is a vital survival skill. It is not a character flaw to evaluate the character of others. We are unable to surround ourselves with good and kind people unless we first determine whether they meet that criteria.

    In the world of 2025, adults have had almost a decade to show what their beliefs are in the most treacherous political atmosphere in the US since the Civil War. The people who continue to support a man whose actions and words repeatedly demonstrate his contempt for important values, have shown us that they too have contempt for those values. The time for dialog and trying to understand them has long been over.

    While it is indeed a gray world because not everything is black and white, there are some key performance indicators to demonstrate where people stand on racism, sexism and class differences. The biggest of those is the obvious one. I was pleased beyond measure to spend time with two of the most significant people from my formative years yesterday, Both of them are Republicans but neither of them voted for Trump. That kind of country over party regard for right and wrong is what we need and what we have so little of.

    When People Show You Who They Are Maya Angelou - Poetry & Poets

    When Someone Shows You Who They Are, Believe Them. | by Becky Whetstone, Ph.D. Marriage & Family Therapist

    When Someone Shows You Who They Are Believe Them

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    This Week's Bookmarks - Self-Segregation, HP Sux, Amber Alerts, Recipes, IMDB, Avoiding Fees, Better Searches

    Social Media Logos

    Are We Self-Segregating on Social Media? - Dame Magazine - Many of the journalists criticizing social media platforms like Bluesky and Mastodon for being Liberal echo chambers are actually just upset because they worked hard to build a following on Twitter and now that it's a toxic hellstew, they are loathe to admit that their effort has gone to waste

    Pluralistic: We bullied HP into a minor act of disenshittification - The Internet erupted in anger when it was revealed that HP was forcing consumers to be remain on telephone hold for a minimum of 15 minutes listening to recordings urging them to use web self service even if operators were available to speak to them

    How to Turn Off AMBER Alerts on Apple Watch & iPhone - It's not that missing kids don't deserve help, it's just that your phone noisily going off in the middle of a funeral or a business meeting shouldn't be unavoidable

    Off The Menu : Recipes and Cooking Food Network | Food Network - Use these recipes to make restaurant-style favorites at home.

    He created one of the world’s first websites. It was IMDb. - Still, no one really knows who Needham is in these parts. The only sign that he founded one of the 50 most visited websites in the world — and one of the first 100 to 200 websites ever created — is the black car that takes him and his wife Karen, a former schoolteacher, around to movie theaters.

    10 of the Most Ridiculous Fees (and How to Avoid Paying Them) | Lifehacker - Why am I being charged in the first place? What can I do to circumvent these fees and save my hard-earned money? Here are some of the most common fees that have been infuriating me lately, and what you can do to avoid paying them.

    How 16 Companies are Dominating the World's Google Search Results (2024 Edition) - Detailed.com - They aren't dominating because they have the best content, they are dominating because they are designed to do well in Google Searches. They clog up your attempts to find good content. Learn how you can block them.

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    Password Paradise

    Don't do this

    The security measures we have to take in the modern era are generally a gigantic pain in the ass. At some point we had to stop using the same password everywhere. Then we had to add in uppercase letters, then numbers, then special symbols. Our passwords had to be longer than before. Every smart person who thought that 12E456 was a good password got schooled. After all the password drama, we had to start using two forms of authentication: getting a text, getting an email or using a special app like Microsoft Authenticator. It gets even more confusing wjhen computers start to want your fingerprint or to scan your face like the iPhone does.

    We have a good idea of what the most common passwords are because of files recovered from giant security leaks, and there have been many, many of those.Common passwords are so well know that they have their own Wikipedia page. Every black hat hacker in the world has the database of common passwords ready to use to crack accounts whenever they have a chance.

    Top 10 Most Used Passwords

    1. 123456
    2. password
    3. 12345678
    4. qwerty
    5. 123456789
    6. 12345
    7. 1234
    8. 111111
    9. 1234567
    10. dragon

    Making a Good Password

    You have no idea how many times over the years that I have seen people panic when I've asked them to change their password when working with them on support issues. Some people, when put on the spot, simply can not come up with one, and if they do, the chances of them immediately forgetting it are a sure bet. Here are some tips on creating strong passwords.

    1. Make it long - longer is stronger, at least 16 characters
    2. Make it random. The best option is to create a memorable phrase of 4 – 7 unrelated words. This is called a “passphrase.” For example: purplecoffeebusboy
    3. Make it unique. You need a different password for every single site. If you reuse the same one, it will be used against you the first time there is a breach at one of the sites where you have an account.

    Have You Been Pwned?

    Go to this website right now to see how many times your email address has been found in a security breach. My Gmail account is 20 years old. It's been compromised many, many times.

    • Adobe
    • Tumblr
    • MySpace
    • Dropbox
    • last.fm
    • Bitly
    • Edmodo
    • Diet.com
    • My Fitness Pal
    • Cafe Press
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Advanced Auto Parts

    Password Manager

    Lastly, you need to get a program known as a password manager and I';m not talking about the one in your browser. If you aren;t tech savvy, get someone who is to help you set this up. You've heard this before, but it is now time to act. Here are a few suggestions of programs you can use on your computer and your phone.

    #1 Password Manager & Vault App with Single-Sign On & MFA Solutions - LastPass

    Password Manager & Extended Access Management | 1Password | 1Password

    Best Password Manager for Business, Enterprise & Personal | Bitwarden

    Use the Passwords app to create, manage, and share passwords and passkeys across Apple devices - Apple Support

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    Better Internet Searches

    Internet Search

    I am in the midst of a project I'll probably never finish. I'm doing what I can to protect myself from the rapacious appetite of the big tech companies, who are finding more and more ways to ruin the experience of what many refer to as "life". Don't think for a minute that these companies won't sell you out to whoever wants to buy information about your life that you thought were private. Insurance companies are already increasing rates, denying claims and canceling policies based on information they purchase from data brokers.

    Using Kagi

    The best solution is to use Kagi as your search engine. It has zero ads. It's so secure that what you search for can be totally separated from your identity. You can customize your results easily. If, like any sane and rational person, you don't want to see any stories from Fox News in your search results, you can block the site from ever appearing. If you realize just how many answers to life's questions can be found on Reddit, you can tell Kagi to prioritize the site.

    You can make your own custom search environment. Kagi calls that a Lens. Kagi Lenses allow you to customize your searches by specifying which websites (and other parameters) you see in your results. We provide a few Lenses to get you started, such as one to search only online discussions and forums.

    Have more questions about Kagi? Get all the answers here.

    Improving Google

    Google used to be miraculous. Before it came on the scene, there were sites like AltaVista and AskJeeves and none of them could give you information they way Google could. But, when Google became the monopoly it is is today, the suits there decided to make its search results worse so that people would spend more time looking for what they are after, thus giving Google an opportunity to expose them to more advertising.

    Read about it here - The Man Who Killed Google Search

    Like every big tech company these days, Google is injecting AI into every search you do to prove to shareholders that they are on the cutting edge. Well, the shareholders don't know jack about what people want. We don't want AI crap. You can search Google using an easy to implement work wround to avoid having AI injected into your results.

    Here's how - Don't Want AI Overviews? How to Get 10 Plain Google Search Results - CNET

    Did you know that only 16 companies own the 500 websites that show up most often in search results? They don't show up because they have the best content. They show up because they have the best search engine optimization (SEO.) Their articles are written to do well in Google searches, not to provide you with information. Well, you can block all of them with one browser extension and one web page where you can subscribe to a list (for free) to keep that SEO garbage from ruining your life.

    Ublacklist blocks sites you specify from appaearing in your Google search results

    bbbhltz/16CompaniesFilters: uBlacklist lists for the 16 Companies that dominate search results - Codeberg.org

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    DeGoogling My Photos and Setting Up Local Management

    Unplug from Google

    My recent goal has been to get a copy of all my photos onto a local drive and use an app that respects the file system and doesn't hide the files in a mysterious, impenetrable database like Apple Photos does. I am also trying to get Google out of my business, a slow and difficult process.

    For years, I've backed up my iPhone photos to three different platforms: iCloud because it's built into iOS and easy, Google Photos, because it's easy to do it automatically using the iOS app and to Amazon because photo storage is included in Prime and my wife and I can use our joint account so all the family photos end up here, including the ones we take with our "real" cameras.

    Each platform has disadvantages. None of them mirror your file system. iCloud requires you to use the Apple Photos app. Google and Amazon both require you to use a web browser. I experimented with ways of downloading my photo archives from Apple and was not satisfied with the result. The only alternative is to set up the Photos app to download full-sized images and hope that actually happens.

    Downloading content from Amazon involves using the Mac app and choosing folders and albums, a process that is cumbersome and has too much friction to be a practical solution. The simplest way for me to get all of my photos, as files, downloaded to my hard drive in a way that I could name them and organize them as I see fit was through Google Takeout An hour after placing a request to download my photos in 10GB ZIP files, I had an email with the links to 15 archives - the totality of my still photos and videos.

    Here's my workflow to turn that massive collection of files into a usable archive.

    1. Download the ZIP files using a browser on to an external had drive.
    2. Copy one archive at the time to a folder in my Mac home directory. I called mine local,
    3. Use Better Zip to unarchive the just the subfolder containing the images and video. Better Zip is great because you don't have to unzip the whole archive to get just the files you want, plus, when you install it, you gain the ability to use Quicklook to inspect the contents of archives without opening them.
    4. Use A Better Finder Attributes to change the creation date of the photos to match the creation date contained in the EXIF information.
    5. Use Hazel to sort the photos into folders based on the year and month they were taken. Hazel can also name the photos using the same type of convention. My DSLR photos are names my Lightoom, but my iPhone photos have the default names given to them by iOS.You may find it easier to create the Hazel rule if you use Finder's Smart Folders feature to consolidate all the images into a temporary folder before sorting them.
    6. After the photos are sorted, you can trash the local copy of the ZIP file and empty your trash.
    7. Use a photo management program that respects the files system to inspect, edit and view your photos. Some decent choices are XnViewMP (free), Adobe Bridge (free), FlowVision (free), Musebox (15),[Picview](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/picview−image−viewer/id6452016140?mt=12)(12.99), Pixea ($9.99)

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    The Coffee Shop as Office

    Tips for working in a cafe

    I drove the same two-lane country road to my office for twenty years. Most of the time, I'd roll up to the front door totally unable to recall a single thing I'd seen on my drive. It wasn't an unpleasant commute unless I was running behind and trapped behind a school bus. It's very difficult to form new memories when you are continually in the same surroundings. That's why travel has such an appeal top so many people. We are able to recall and savor the new things we see and experience when we travel in a way we just can't do staring at the same four walls or the same commute.

    Because of this, I've resolved to take the opportunity to work from local coffee shops a few days each month. The ones I have in mind have Wi-Fi, aren't too busy and are open to people like me nursing a cup of java while we GSD.

    The benefits of working this way include:

    • Breaking bad habits
    • Increased productivity
    • Meeting people

    Benefits of Working from a Coffee Shop

    Why People Love Working From Coffee Shops and 10 Tips to Do It Effectively

    The Benefits of Working in a Café | Limepack

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    ∞

    Little Projects

    Vivaldi - 2025-02-24 at 20

    My wife is exceptionally handy and seldom asks me to do much. We aren't big gardeners. Our yard is well established, and it's easy to maintain. We pay to have big home improvements done, and the smaller projects we either do together or she just knocks them out. I will never forget when we first got together. We lived in a house with a pool. One day the pump just died, She went online, found the right pump, ordered it overnight. The next day she came home from her CPA firm, took off her business suit, unboxed the pool pump and installed it herself. In an hour, it was done. I was amazed then and I am amazed now.

    Since I am newly retired, I am working on making myself a routine and coming up with a few projects. Things I want to do daily include:

    • Going for a walk
    • A half-hour to an hour of housework
    • Cooking dinner

    Writing can now take up a sizable chunk of my day. I have a list of software to download and test before reviewing it for AppAddict. I plan to spend more time coming up with ideas to create link bundles about for Linkage. As far as this blog goes, my goal is just get better. I don't know what that looks like, exactly. I can take my time now, polish things a bit, quit using the word "awesome" so much, get better at commas - that kind of stuff.

    I have several tech projects underway. I used the process Jason Snell wrote about to download my entire Kindle collection instead of just select books like I did previously. It took just a few minutes to get all 555 of them from Amazon's servers to my hard drive. Now I have to set up Calibre and import them to remove the DRM and get them ready for use wherever I want them.

    Now that Amazon is keeping people from actually owning the things they've purchased, i found a way to get all my Audible books converted. Using the free and open-source tool, Libation, I am downloading another 500-plus books, but this process is much lengthier. Thankfully, the new Mac workstation I just set up can work on this job around the clock.

    I also want to get a local copy of all my photos for various reasons, mostly to use local search tools and for quicker access to them. I requested a Google takeout today and within hours I had 15 zip files of 10 GB each ready to download. I recently exported all my iCloud photos to Google, so hopefully the files I'm downloading will have all of them complete with metadata. I will let you know.

    I'm also going to pull my music collection out of the cloud so that I can set up a music server that not dependent on my Internet connection. I have about 30K songs from the olden days when we were still buying our own music, including some difficult to find bootlegs from Dylan, as well as many do it yourself albums from bars and coffee shops that aren't to be found on Apple Music or Spotify.

    To hold all this data, I've rounded up a pile of various hard drives I've accumulated through the years and looked at possible reusing the housing from some small external drives with upgrades. I found a supremely useful website for locating the lowest priced drives on Amazon, and I'll be keeping my eyes on that for bargains while I assemble this homemade NAS of mine.

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