Links
- Top Stories - This is a collection of good, thought-provoking writing from the blogs and podcasts we have in our index. Discovered and carefully curated by our in-house AI tools. Whether a new take on a classic topic or a fresh voice on a trending issue, you will find something interesting to read here.
- Digital Crossroads- Digital Crossroads is a mishmash of the coolest updates, deep dives, and quirky insights from across the digital realm. We cover topics like RSS, the Fediverse, and the latest and greatest in the world of social media. Crossroads is for anyone who's ever been curious about the behind-the-scenes of the Internet, the future of online privacy, or just loves a good tech tale.
- Good News - Good News is our dedicated feed championing solutions-oriented journalism. Committed to countering the negativity prevalent in mainstream media, we spotlight innovative solutions, technical advancements, and human rights successes. By curating news with positive global impacts, we aim to foster informed optimism among readers, emphasizing real-world solutions and achievements rather than mere feel-good stories.
- Hacker News Front Page - Hacker News is the golden standard when it comes to sharing interesting links on the Internet. However, not all of those are read-worthy. We decided to do something about it. This page contains a selection of articles that hit the front page of Hacker News and are worth your reading time and attention.
- Wrote a Python script today that edited 500+ markdown files (my imported Raindrop.io bookmarks) from my Obsidian vault. It moved text in the form of an inline properties field for URLs from the body of the note into the YAML front matter. I knew next to nothing about Python.
- Wrote a Python script tp convert a 300-line CSV file of quotes I exported from a program into 300 markdown files with the quote, the author and the associated tags.
- Took a list of Mastodon user names and converted them to Markdown link back to the user's home instance and profile.
- Best TV Shows 2024: 'Lioness,' 'Shrinking' and More
- The 25 best TV shows of 2024
- Best TV Shows This Year - Metacritic
- The 50 Best Movies of 2024, According to IndieWire Critics Poll
- Best Movies to Stream at Home (2024) | Rotten Tomatoes
- The 40 Best Movies of 2024
- The Very Best Podcasts of 2024
- The Best Podcasts of 2024 | The New Yorker
- Top Best Individual Episode: Podcasts | The Webby Awards
- The Best Books of 2024 | Best Books of the Year | Barnes & Noble®
- The Best Books of 2024 | The New Yorker
- Best of 2024 | Kirkus Reviews
- Catch up reading my favorite newsletters, like Morning Brew,The Installer,10 Blue Links
- Play with the latest Raycast extensions to see if there is anything I can use.
- Check out the latest Obsidian extensions to see what looks useful
- Evaluate what's been added to Setapp to see what I can test and review.
- Clean out my Raindrop.io bookmarks
- Clean up and evaluate my RSS feeds at Inoreader
- Watch a bunch of YouTube videos that I've saved in Play.
- Read through my journal entries for 2024 in Day One
- Go through the photos I took in 2024, probably with Musebox
- Gather up all the "Best of 2024" articles on TV, podcasts, books, movies and TV shows and add them to Goodreads, Overcast, and Sequel.
Enjoyed it? Please upvote 👇 - Ads and Trackers - currently blocking 119,372 addresses
- Block domains known to distribute malware, launch phishing attacks and host command-and-control servers using a blend of the most reputable threat intelligence feeds -- all updated in real-time.
- Block malware and phishing domains using Google Safe Browsing -- a technology that examines billions of URLs per day looking for unsafe websites. Unlike the version embedded in some browsers, this does not associate your public IP address to threats and does not allow bypassing the block.
- Prevent the unauthorized use of your devices to mine cryptocurrency.
- Block domains that impersonate other domains by abusing the large character set made available with the arrival of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) -- e.g. replacing the Latin letter "e" with the Cyrillic letter "е".
- Block domains registered by malicious actors that target users who incorrectly type a website address into their browser -- e.g. gooogle.com instead of google.com.
- Block Parked Domains
- Block any Top Level Domain
- Block Newly Registered Websites
- Block CSAM
- Optional Parental controls for YouTube, Safe Search, Time-based rules, specific apps, websites and games
- Coca-Cola History
- The History of Pepsi
- The Unknown History of Mountain Dew
- History of Dr. Pepper
- The History of 7UP and Charles Leiper Grigg
- A Brief History of Sprite - It's German! Who knew?
- The haunting history of Fanta - Too weird not to include
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AI For Better or Worse
The jury is definitely still out on artificial intelligence. Is it a helpful tool or something the billionaire tech bros are going to use to extract more wealth from the working class? It's no secret that the hardware behind the technology consumes electricity and water for cooling like nothing that's ever come before it. One of the most popular AI companies, Perplexity, is not only ignoring long established Internet protocols to mine personal websites for data, its CEO offered to scab the jobs of striking tech workers from the New York Times.
On the other hand, regular people can now perform tasks they once would have had to outsource. That is what happens when technology arrives. Ask the carriage makes and buggy whip folks what happened when cars got here.
If I had a third hand, I'd point out that when an AI scapes my web page to answer a person's question without giving that person a link to wrote I wrote giving me any kind of credit, then the AI company is using me as unpaid labor and that won't stand.
Here is some information about the state of AI at the end of 2024.
Open Source Models are Improving When Compared to Proprietary Models
AI Generated Audio and Video is Here
Chatbot Arena: Free AI Chat to Compare & Test Best AI Chatbots
Products to Check Out
Lindy.ai — Meet Your AI Assistant
Suno - Make a Song About Anything
Google NotebookLM | Note Taking & Research Assistant Powered by AI
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Reasons to Hate Space Karen
Even before Elon Musk appointed himself President of the United States, there were a great many reasons to dislike him from the way he treats women and workers, to the time he called a hero a "pedo guy" and more. If you need some facts and links, I'm happy to oblige.
'How Many Women Were Abused to Make That Tesla?'
Billionaire "Space Race" Is Doing Irreparable Harm to the Planet
In one tweet, Elon Musk captures the everyday sexism faced by women in STEM
Tesla’s construction workers at Texas gigafactory allege labor violations
The One Big Problem With Elon Musk’s Autism Announcement
Elon Musk Really Doesn't Like Mass Transit Systems He's Trying to Build
Kanye West: The World’s 100 Most Influential People by Elon Musk
Elon Musk Compares Justin Trudeau To Hitler In Bizarre Response To Canadian Trucker Protests
Tesla ordered to have Elon Musk delete anti-union tweet
Musk In Trouble After Fremont Factory Employees Test Positive For COVID-19
Elon Musk wins defamation case over 'pedo guy' tweet about caver
U.S. Department of Agriculture to Look Into Monkey Experiments Funded by Elon Musk's Neuralink
16 Valid Reasons Why People Love To Hate Elon Musk
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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - 30 Years Later
Thirty years ago, writer John Berendt published a surprise non-fiction book that ended up spending a near record 216 weeks on The New York Times best seller list. The book was Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, an account of the multiple trials of Jim Williams, a Savannah, Georgia antique dealer and a member of the local high society. Williams killed a local male prostitute in the study of Mercer House. The book's main character isn't really Williams. It is the Georgia city along with a variety of eccentric individuals.
My personal favorite was The Lady Chablis, a local transgender woman and well known club entertainer. She went on to play herself in Clint Eastwood's 1997 film version of the story.
Also featured in the book and the movie is Emma Kelly, a musician known as the Lady of 6,000 songs, so named by famous composer, Jonny Mercer. He couldn't name a song she couldn't play. He estimated that she knew 6K.
Minerva, a Gullah woman and renowned root doctor was the name given in the book and movie for a character based on Valerie Boles. She served as a conduit of local knowledge for Jim Williams during his trials.
The book was a delight to plow through . At times it reads like a novel but Berendt swears it is 99% true and 1% exaggeration. The film was not a hit, but I enjoyed it as well. John Cusack played one of his best roles in it. This weekend (December 28-29, 2024) I'm making my first trip Savannah with plans to see many of the locations described in the book.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) ⭐ 6.6 | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story
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This Week's Bookmarks - 3D Street Art, Marsala Recipe, Travel Photography, Real Credit Repair, Potato Salad, Life Hacks, Scientific Mysteries
Step Into the Illusion: Mind-Blowing 3D Street Art by Joe and Max | STREET ART UTOPIA
Alex’s chicken and mushroom marsala – smitten kitchen
Scott Kelby: Using Your iPhone As Your Second Camera for Travel Photography | #BHOPTIC - YouTube
Repair Your Credit Report with a Goodwill Letter | Lifehacker
A Potato Salad Trick | Cup of Jo
What’s your “I can’t believe other people don’t do this” hack? : r/AskReddit
Unexplainable podcast: 17 of the most astounding scientific mysteries | Vox
I Will Always Be an Unabashed Bob Dylan Fan
When I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, I loaded my iPhone 5 with music from my two favorite artists, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, but only their songs recorded before 1970. They are the only two musicians I listened to for five months. I've heard all of those songs hundreds of times. I took a break from them for a while when I finished the trail, but not a long one.
It's difficult to write about Bob Dylan without repeating what a thousand other people have written. He is a uniquely talented individual whose lifetime of work is meaningful to a great many people. He's been able to do exactly what he wants to do for many decades because, well, he's Bob Fucking Dylan. Who is going to stop him?
Here are some links to explore for my fellow Friends of Bob.
Finally, A Good Bob Dylan Interview | Linkage
The Night Bob Dylan Went Electric | TIME
Chronicles, Volume One by Bob Dylan | Goodreads
Welcome Bob Dylan Fans! | The Bob Dylan Fan Club
Bob Dylan Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More |... | AllMusic
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Things I Don't Understand
I recently gave a big shoutout to my Internet friend, Annie on my links blog. The tag line for her Mastodon account is one of my favorite series of consecutive words on the Internet. "Wtf’ing every day, I’m basically a professional now." Every time I read that, I'm like, me too sister, me too. There is just so much about the world and about people's motivations that I just do not get. Here are a few examples.
Very Expensive Restaurants
I like to eat. You can take one look at me and figure that out without trying too hard. I also like to go out to eat because cooking is one of my chores and having someone else do it is a real treat. Furthermore, we are relatively debt free and have a comfortable income. Having established all that, I have no desire to frequent the most expensive places, either in town or on vacation. I feel absolutely pampered with a meal that costs between 30 dollars. Anything over that makes me feel like I'm throwing money away. Nothing, absolutely nothing, tastes that good. I don't care how fancy the inside of the establishment happens to be or where it is located. I like good service. Tipping well is a sign of good morals, and wait staff deserve to make a living wage. I just don't want to cough up 40 or 50 dollars to a server for a party of two (which I will do if the bill calls for it) because they work at a fancy joint when the waitress at Golden Corral busts her butt for a fraction of that. It doesn't make sense.
Mechanical Keyboards
My first computer was an IBM PC with a loud, heavy mechanical keyboard. It was in the days when we were all trained to die of thirst rather than risk spilling a Coke on our precious computer peripherals. These days I type a lot. I'm on a computer many, many hours a day. I have a definite preference for all my tech needs, but I've never once considered going back to the 80s or 90s experience for my keyboard needs. I don't like loud. I don't like heavy. I don't like expensive. I don't like dumb.
Voting Against One's Own Interest
When I see working-class people with Trump stickers on their cars, I wonder what their motivation is. Republican policies are undoubtedly hostile to average Americans. Huge cuts are made to social programs, education, health care and public services to cut taxes for corporations and the 1%. There is no demonstrable benefit to middle and lower income voters from GOP policies. The incoming administration wants to cut veterans benefits for all the working-class men and women who served in the costly Republican wars of the early 21st century. GOP senators are publishing op/ed pieces on how badly they would like to cut social security and medicare. Literally WTF is anyone with a mortgage and a car payment doing supporting these predatory plutocrats?
Refusing to Learn 21st Century Skills
I am continuing my recent campaign against technological illiteracy in the 21st century. I stepped on plenty of toes recently by mocking people who type GOOGLE into Google when they want to search for something. People told me it was none of my business and that it didn't hurt anything, and I came back at them with both barrels. Billions of dollars are lost every year in lost productivity because people with a proven educational track record of having the ability to learn are not held accountable for pretending to be stupid when it comes to using a computer. When automobiles adopt new technology, people learn how to use it. When you have to use a touch screen at Bojangles to get a sausage biscuit, people figure it out. Why can't they remember to restart their computer when they have a problem? What can't they learn how to find a file on their PC? No one makes them, that's why. Institutions would rather pay an IT department to hold the hands of otherwise competent adults than they would enforce basic tech competency on the workforce.
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Getting the Most from Wikipedia
Wikipedia is under attack from alt-right inhabitants Libs of Tik-Tok and Elon Musk among others, who are discouraging people from contributing financially. Wikipedia has invested in ways to encourage women and people of color to become contributing editors and this has raised conservative ire. Personally, I increased my annual contribution and publicized the attack on this great resource in every way I could. It goes without saying that Wikipedia is great. Here are a few ways to get even more out of it.
How to Download Wikipedia for Offline, At-Your-Fingertips Reading
Weeklypedia - a newsletter featuring the most ediited articles of the week
17 Tips To Get the Most From Wikipedia
How to Teach Students to Use Wikipedia | Edutopia
Wikipedia:Unusual articles - Wikipedia
Video: Become a Wikipedian in 30 minutes
Jimmy Wales on Why Wikipedia Is Still So Good
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Who Was Born on Christmas Day?
Ok, we all know the Big Guy was born on Christmas Day. Actually, Jesus was likely born in the spring based on the dates for the Roman census, astronomical records and the time for lambs to be born in the field in Palestine. The celebration of his birth close to the winter solstice started hundreds of years after his death to pacify recently converted pagans. in any case, 1/365th of humanity was born on December 25. Here are a few of them.
Jimmy Buffett - 1946 “Margaritaville” Singer and Entrepreneur Jimmy Buffett
Annie Lennox - 1954 Annie Lennox in People Magazine
Sissy Spacek - 1949 Sissy Spacek bio
Justin Trudeau - 1971 Right Honourable Justin Trudeau
Dido - 1971 Dido on Instagram
Barbara Mandrell - 1948 Barbara Mandrell Official Web Site
Humphrey Bogart - 1899
Bogie: A Celebration of the Life and Films of Humphrey Bogart
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Read annie's blog If You Want to Feel Good
When you spend time reading personal blogs, you start to get a real sense of some people's lives. You can follow along with their very human struggles to find a job, survive a death in the family, travel around the world, be happy with their partner and more. After a while, you really start to care. When your friends feel bad, you feel bad along with them. I love that part of the Internet.
Sometimes you just need a pep talk. You need some encouragement and advice from a wise friend, who, despite everything that's wrong with life in the modern era, always seems to be there to lift you up. You need that in your life. Well, you can have that in a single click by heading over to annie's blog, the frequently updated font of wisdom and joy freely given to the world at large by the inimitable Annie Mueller. Annie is funny, wise, very real and does a great job of lifting people up and being supportive. Her Mastodon bio states "Wtf’ing every day, I’m basically a professional now." I mean, come on, who can't relate to that?
Sample Posts
Joy is in the doing - annie's blog
Is it funny if I’m the only one laughing? - annie's blog
How to be confident - annie's blog
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My Reaction To Your Reaction
As the calendar year winds down, so does the end of my first year of regular blogging since the 90s. I started off sporadically, mostly writing about tech. I eventually began reviewing apps, something I still do - every single day for the last 265 days. In March I branched out into more personal, autobiographical stuff. Because that still wasn't enough to keep me busy, and because I got a free domain name, I started a links blog in June to share the interesting things I find online, hoping to find other people who are interested in similar things. I didn't have any idea if what I had to say would click with anyone. Lot's of people I follow on Mastodon are comp sci majors involved in advanced development and I'm just a guy who hangs out in the server room. I also started blogging immediately after discovering the current iteration of the indyweb, without spending any time learning the culture or the unwritten rules. In the end, everything worked out. The developer folks with the giant brains appreciate hearing about cool apps. The indyweb at large seems to have one over arching rule, try to be a good person.
Based on Mastodon comments, emails and some rudimentary analytics, these are the posts that resonated the most with people this year..
Non-Toxic Masculinity - My most widely read post was about my journey as an adult to redefine was masculinity means.
When I was younger, I was attracted to traditional masculine roles and activities. I played high school football. I enlisted in the infantry. My first civilian job after that was working in a men's prison. It's not that I now feel like any of those are bad things, necessarily, but I don't need all that testosterone fueled chest thumping and the intimidation and violence that go with them in order to feel like I'm a real man, whatever that means.
The Perfect Blogger I like to wite about the experience of being a part of this community and y'all seem to like to read about it. This post got a lot of reaction.
It's not that I want to see myself in every blogger, quite the contrary. I want to read women bloggers, trans bloggers, POC, millennials, Gen Z, international writers. I want to make my world bigger.
My Partner - It really made me happy that people liked this appreciation piece I wrote about Wonder Woman, my wife, Carol. I frequently mention her and I wanted folks to know why. I think I succeeded.
She has good genes does my wife. She is a careful eater and a devout exerciser. In her late 50s with 13 grandchildren, she doesn't appear to have aged a day from when I met her at a hundred-mile bicycle ride in 2011
The most popular posts from my links blog were ones I compiled of topics that the blogging community appreciates.
For Linkblog Fans - a collection of places where folks share the best of the Interent with each other
OMG.LOL is the Best Thing on the Internet - the home of my Mastodon instance, /now page and about page is awesome and if you don't have an omg.lol account, you should.
Some Advice on Not Drinking - This was a no-judgment zone with some practical advice for anyone who wants to avoid alcohol for a night or for a lifetime, written from the heart.
For my fellow App Addicts, these were the most widely read reviews from 2024. People were really curious about these programs. This blog by far is the one people read the most with 280,000 hits since March. I'm happy to have the experience of writing for a wide audience and to share my hobby and experience with the world. I hope I have helped people.
FreeTube - Maybe the Most Underrated App | AppAddict
Applite - An App Store for Homebrew | AppAddict
ToyViewer - A Preview Replacment | AppAddict
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Rock and Roll Picture Show
Rock and Roll will never die, but it is it aging gracefully? That's an individual call. There are a lot of rock stars forever frozen in time, including the various members of the 27 club: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kim Morrison and Kurt Cobain among them. YouTube is full of vintage rock videos long predating the MTV eraof my youth.
We can always listen to the music of whatever defines rock and roll for us. In my case, that energy is best defined by one iconic album, Back in Black by Australian rockers AC/DC,. But rock is a visual spectacle as well as an aural one. Many of us had photos of our favorite rock stars adorning our walls at some point in our lives. In my case, the four color 8x10 photosof John, Paul, George and Ringo that were included with the White Album stared down at me all through my high school years.
Whenever I want to lose myself in nostalgia, I put on a classic album from one of my favorite bands and spend some time looking through collections of photos from the best best entertainment photographers of all time, who had dream jobs following bands around, going to concerts and getting paid for it!
Before They Were Famous - Over 150 Rock Star Yearbook Photos
900+ Best ROCK STARS ideas | rock and roll, musician, rock music
The Most Iconic Moments in Rock and Roll Photography
Clapton, Zappa, Elton John: Photos of Rock Stars With Their Parents
Home | Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
23 Iconic Pictures Of Rock 'N' Roll's Greatest Performers
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Feedle - IndyWeb Information that Comes to You
I couldn't find an estimate of how many personal, independent bloggers there are who are active right now across all the many available platforms: Micro.blog, Bear, Scribbles, Pika, Tumblr, Blogger, Write.as and many, many WordPress sites. There are directories that list various blogs, like Blogroll.club, a project I work on with JCProbably. You are welcome to submit your blog there if you'd like to be listed.
You should also submit your blog to Feedle, a search engine just for independent blogs and podcasts. Even if you aren't a blogger, Feedle is a great resource to find information from experts in many fields who aren't trying to sell you anything. If you have an interest, chances are someone is blogging about it. Every search at Feedle also generates an RSS feed you can subscribe to in your reader of choice, so that the articles come to you instead of you having to look for them. Every time someone posts about whatever you are interested in, the post will be added to your reader.
Feedle also has a few ready made pages and feeds you might want to bookmark. Here is how they describe them:
Use AI When It Can Help You - On the Cheap
I'm not a heavy user of AI. I only occasionally have ways to make use of it in my job and hobbies. I have better things to fpo than to sit around thinking of things for LLMs to do more for me. There are some times, however, when I have had an occasion to use it. I use the advanced models of ChatGPT, but I don't pay 15, billed in three separate payments of $5 each.
My suggestion to you is that you set up a pre-paid account with OpenAI. All it takes is $10 . You can set limits on your consumption if it makes you feel better, but it isn't needed. Once you set up an account, you can generate API keys to use with all kinds of software and services to use the advanced and any new models. Many apps are essentially free when you use your own key.
How can I set up prepaid billing? | OpenAI Help Center
Once you have your account set up, here is how can you get an API key to use elsewhere
How To Get Your API Key For OpenAI
Some problems OpenAI has solved for me:
Some apps you can use your key with include:
This Week's Bookmarks - Reading Skills, Holiday Recipe, Tech CEOs, Pitchforks and the Plutocracy, Photos of the Year, News Without Clickbait, See How Your Potential Neighbors Vote
Good at Reading? Your Brain May Be Structured Differently | WIRED
Crock Pot Cranberry Chicken Curry - Destination Delish
Tech’s benevolent-dictator-for-life to authoritarian pipeline
The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats - POLITICO Magazine
Associated Press 100 Photos of 2024: An epic catalog of humanity | AP News
Brevity | News Without Anxiety
See your neighbors' political leanings on the new real estate platform Oyssey - Axios Miami
Meta Collection of The Best of 2024 Lists
One of the best parts of December is the variety of "Best of" lists. Here are collections for TV shows, movies, podcasts, books and albums. Enjoy!
Television
Movies
Podcasts
Books
Albums
Some Fun Tech Chores to Catch Up on During the Holidays
This is what I'm planning to do. Hopefully, it gives you a few ideas.
The Cost of Not Going to College
There is a recent trend among certain prominent individuals to discourage young people from attending college. Politicians with Ivy League Educations who have children attending Ivy League schools via legacy admissions shamelessly stand in front of the cameras and tell the rest of us to send our kids to trade school or have them go join the military. And, if we absolutely have to send them to school, whatever we do, we should not let them study the humanities. It's STEM only for today's boys and girls.
First the facts - attending college is good for you in very measurable ways.
College graduates live an average of eight years longer than people who only graduated high school
Life expectancy gap in America widens depending on college education
Lifetime earnings are dramatically higher for college graduates. The gap starts in your 20s and increases exponentially over your lifetime.
Is college worth it? Yes, according to this Fed data
Why do politicians discourage people from going to college?
Why do so many Republicans hate college? - The Washington Post
Why Politicians Don’t Want Students to Think
Is it working? Are fewer people attending
OK, we've established why it's good for people, but why has the cost of education increased at a greater rate than inflation in general?
Inflation affects the price of everything—including a college education
I'm a high school student who wants to ignore all that stuff and skip college. Help me convince my parents.
51 Successful People Who Didn't Go to or Finish College
Full disclosure - I did not attend college, but even I know what that's cost me since 1983.
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My Online Security Setup
In the modern age, it takes a real strategy to protect yourself from invasive mega-corporations who want to track you, bad actors on the malware front and in your face non-stop advertising. Whatever tools you choose have to balance with usability because we all have work we have to get done.
Next DNS
The classic uBlock Origin ad blocker was deprecated by Google Chrome in favor of a less powerful Light version. With the ever-increasing need for security ,Mac users have the option of downloading the NextDNS configuration app from the Mac App Store and setting up a free account with the enhanced DNS server. If you aren't into acronyms, DNS stands for dynamic name service and it is what translates IP addresses into the URLs we use to name websites. You can use a special DNS service to block malware, ads, trackers and other unwanted traffic from ever reaching your computer by using one.
NextDNS is free for up to 300,000 queries a month, and you can use the same account on multiple computers, mobile devices and your router. It works on Macs and PCs, iPhones and Android devices - on anything that allows you to enter your network settings. If you have a large household and require a paid account, it is just $1.99 a month.
Technically speaking, you don't even have to use the app. NextDNS can automatically generate a profile for you to use on your Mac and mobile devices and if you have the right kind of router, you can set it up without having to make ANY modifications to your computer.
NextDNS Features
Nord VPN
My next level of protection starts with my VPN choice, Nord. I run Nord on all my devices, Macs, iPhones, iPads and Apple TV. I don't have a compatible router, but it can be installed on ones that are. Nord has many security features including a malicious URL blocker, web tracker blocker, ad blocker, URL trimmer and a DNS filter to block ads and malicious domains before they reach my device.
Little Snitch Firewall
Little Snitch from Objective Development is truly the most configurable consumer oriented firewall for the Mac platform. The Little Snitch Network Monitor shows you where your Mac connects to on the Internet. You decide what you want to allow or deny. If an app has no need to access the Internet, you can cut off its access. It's easy to use and configure and as a bonus, you can download and install preconfigured block lists from several sources to make your computer safe.
Other firewall options are Lulu from Objective-See and Lockdown Privacy Desktop, which is what I install on my Mom's Mac because it is set it and for get it.
Block-Block for Realtime Protection
BlockBlock monitors common persistence locations and alerts whenever a persistent component is added. It alerts you whenever something is installed and you can decide whether to allow that or block it. It's a free product. You can get more features in the paid version of MalwareBytes or use their free scanner that must be run manually.
uBlock Origin Lite for Browser-Based Protection
There are many factors that go into making a selection of what browser to use. I use Vivaldi's built-in ad and tracker blocking along with uBlock Origin Lite multi-spectrum content blocker plugin to block ads, trackers, malicious URLs and more. Among the most security conscious Mac users who don't need to use a Chromium browser, it is generally accepted that Firefox with uBlock Origin provides the best experience.
These products all work together to provide as safe an environment as I feel I can craft on my Mac. If you have ideas for improvement, please contact me.
Testing
You can use these three sites to check the effectiveness of your security setup.
AdBlock Tester: test your AdBlock extensions
eXtreme Test - Can You Block It ?
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The Origin of Your Favorite Soda, Pop, Drink, Coke, Dope or Whatever You Call It
Where I'm from in NC, we generally call soft drinks - drinks, occasionally sodas, but never pop or any of the other names people use around the country. One of the most unusual references of beverage is the one my brother uses. He grew up in LA, Lower Alabama that is, and down there people ask you in total seriousness, "What kind of coke do you want"
It is perfectly OK to reply to that question by saying "I'll have a Pepsi." Weird, huh?
Another thing I like about soda culture is the prevalence of regional drinks. In North Carolina, we have two, Cheerwine and Sundrop. When I hiked up north, i was delighted to find out the folks in Maine have a popular drink called Moxie Soda
What's On Your Watch List?
One thing I plan to do during my holiday break from work is to spend some time catching up on shows that I've been wanting to watch but haven't had the time to see. Here is what Wonder Woman and I plan to watch as much of as we can.
Silo - AppleTV+
We both read the book this series is based on and we have seen season one. Not every episode of season two has been released yet, but we plan to catch up. "In a ruined and toxic future, thousands live in a giant silo deep underground. After its sheriff breaks a cardinal rule and residents die mysteriously, engineer Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) starts to uncover shocking secrets and the truth about the silo."
Shetland - BritBox via Amazon Prime Video
We've watched all eight previous seasons and are primed for another one. Shetland is the story of the detectives on the Shetland Islands, a beautiful location of the north coast of Scotland. Although the wonderful Douglas Henshall is no longer playing Jimmy Perez, the lead detective, the cast is still solid and the show well-made. This season's description - When a woman goes missing with her nine-year-old son, Calder and Tosh set out on a case that blurs the line between the personal and professional."
Black Doves - Netflix
We've just heard about this Netflix show, but we are partial to British actors and this one has the lovely Keira Knightley along with Ben Whishaw and Sarah Lancashire. It's a six episode run that tells an interesting tale - "When a spy posing as a politician's wife learns her lover has been murdered, an old assassin friend joins her on a quest for truth — and vengeance."
Man on the Inside - Netflix
Wen enjoyed Ted Danson in the Good Place and look forward to seeing him in this crime comedy that has gotten good reviews. It's an eight-episode run described as "A retired professor gets a new lease on life when a private investigator hires him to go undercover inside a San Francisco retirement home."
Time - Brit Box On Amazon Prime Video
We watched season one of this British prison drama with Sean Bean and Stephan Graham. Season two features Jodie Whiitaker and Siobhan Finneran and centers on the story of incarcerated women. Season two is described as "Orla, a single mother serving her first sentence, Abi, who is incarcerated for life, and Kelsey, a pregnant heroin addict and repeat offender, begin their sentences at a women's prison."
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