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 ourย 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 & Nobleยฎ
- 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 ๐ - 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 "ะต".
- 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
Enjoyed it? Please upvote ๐ - Ergonomic Mouse Pad - $9.99 - This has a wrist rest and can be used with a mouse of an Apple magic Track Pad.
- Logitech MX Master 3S $99.99 - Even though I am a big old Apple fanboy, this is a better mouse than the ergonomically unfriendly Magic Mouse
- Logitech MX Keys S for Mac $89.99 - The Apple Magic keyboard with fingerprint ID is expensive and arguably not as good as this option.
- Anker USB C Charger $39.99 - This charger is what I travel with and it takes care of my MacBook, my iPhone and my Apple Watch. It's the best charger I have ever used.
- SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable SSD $97.95 - This rugged, small, portable drive is good for the computer bag or for use as a Time Machine backup on your Mac. It's fast and dependable.
- Smartish iPhone Wallet Case - $24.99 - This family of cases is why I have not carried a wallet in years. It holds enough cards to get me by, plus it provides outstanding protection to my phone, which I drop on the regular.
- Screen Cleaner Wipes $14.99 - This is another good item for the computer bag. I don't know how may computer gets a dirty as it does, but it needs regular cleaning. These wipes re my go to for that.
Enjoyed it? Please upvote ๐ - Research and development costs are huge
- They sell printers at a loss. HP claims that a printer it sells for 120 to manufacture, so it needs to recoup costs and make a profit from the ink.
- Consumers are accused of wasting ink by doing unnecessary maintenance (like cleaning print heads)
- Causing printer maintenance cycles to use half of every cartridge
- Disabling your ability to use the scanning features of your all-in-one device if you let your ink get low
- Premature low ink warnings
- Blocking access to third-party cartridges
- Preventing the refilling of cartridges
- Say yes to less stuff. I am a people pleaser by nature and take pride in being helpful, but that can get you put in the middle of the 20% of people in any group who do 80% of the work. That's cool if you enjoy the work, not so much if it is a burden.
- Knock out the hard stuff first. More often than not, the pain for procrastinators is in the dread of having to do things they don't want to do rather than in actually doing them.
- Have hard hobbies - whether it's riding a bike for 100 miles at a stretch, dead lifting and squatting 400 lbs. or hiking the Appalachian Trail, I've done enough hard things that I can't lie to myself when faced with lesser tasks.
- If you fear doing something, if that is the hard bit, having someone to talk it through with is a life saver. I'd rather relax my ego some and confess trepidation than pretend to be stoic when I'm scared.
- Chicken and rice
- Chili
- Spaghetti
- Homemade tacos
- Vegetable soup
- Tuna casserole
- Meatloaf
- Hot dogs and beans
- Pinto beans and cornbread
- ๐จ Mail Client:โญ Kiwi for Gmail/ Work Outlook via Office365
- ๐ฎ Mail Server: Gmail
- ๐ Notes: Obsidian and โญScratchpad
- โ To-do: Things3
- ๐ท iPhone Photo Shooting: ProCamera
- ๐ฆ Photo Management: Photos.app
- ๐ Calendar: Fantastical legacy features, not paid
- ๐ Cloud File Storage: Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox
- ๐ RSS: Inoreader
- ๐๐ปโโ๏ธ Contacts: Cardhop
- ๐ Browser: Vivaldi on macOS and iOS
- ๐ฌ Chat: Messages.app, โญ Discord, โญ Caprine for Facebook Messenger
- ๐ Bookmarks: Raindrop.io
- ๐ Read It Later: โญ Pocket
- ๐ Word Processing: Obsidian and Drafts
- ๐ Spreadsheets: Microsoft Excel at work, Google Sheets at home
- ๐ Presentations: nope
- ๐ Shopping Lists: Anylist, a great app!
- ๐ฐ Budgeting and Personal Finance: Monarch on Mac and iOS
- ๐ฐ News: Google News, โญProPublica, โญDemocracyNow!
- ๐ต Music: Apple Music
- ๐ค Podcasts: Overcast
- ๐ Password Management: โญApple Passwords
- ๐ Mastodon:Ivory, social.lol, 500.social
- ๐ฆ Bluesky: โญ Skeets, โญDeck.blue
- ๐ Launcher: Raycast
- ๐๏ธ Media Tracking: Trakt via Watcht, Sequel
- ๐ป Screenshot Tool: Cleanshot X
- โ๐ป Blogging: Micro.blog, OMG.LOL, Scribbles, BearBlog
- ๐ Websites: Amerpie, Living Out Loud, AppAddict, Linkage
- โ๏ธ Automation: Keyboard Maestro, Hazel, Popclip, Better Touch Tool
Enjoyed it? Please upvote ๐ - View RSS feeds as Mastodon links using RSS Parrot
- Find Accounts popular with your friends follow that you aren't following with Followgraph
- Use the Mastodon web client, Phanpy
- Get all your Fediverse questions answered at Fedi.tips
- Get stats on your account at Mastometrics
- Get stats on the entire fediverse at Fedi.db
- Learn how to bridge you mastodon account with Bluesky
- Learn to use Mastodon search
- See other collections of mastodon tools
- See meta posts on the Fediverse from the Fediverse
- Find cool accounts and topics to follow on Fedi.directory
- Find tending topics
- Explore your Fediverse connection by servers, follows and followers
- Use the web Mastodon client, Elk
- Use the wen Mastodon client, Statuzer
- Schedule your Mastodon posts with Fedica
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
Techโs benevolent-dictator-for-life to authoritarian pipeline
The Pitchforks Are Comingโฆ 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 Donโt 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 everythingโincluding 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.
Enjoyed it? Please upvote ๐
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 ?
Enjoyed it? Please upvote ๐
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 โ 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."
Enjoyed it? Please upvote ๐
This Week's Bookmarks - Appealing Claim Denials, Post-Truth World, Using Any Emoji, Comedy Wildlife Photography, Facts and Time's MOY, Chronic Back Pain and the CEO's Death, Racing's Deadliest Day
2024 Brought Big Changes to My Workflow
This year, my time online skyrocketed. I started blogging and I became active on social media, primarily Mastodon and Bluesky. At my day job, I moved from a creaky old Dell to a maxed out iMac. As a result, I had to reevaluate some of the tools I'd used for many years.
I dumped Evernote, which I'd used since 2009 in favor of Obsidian.
My 10 Favorite Things About #Obsidian
I switched from Pathfinder, an app I used for 18 years, to Qspace for file management.
After 17 years with Launchbar, I started using Raycast Pro and never looked back.
My 10 Favorite #Raycast Use Cases (and all the apps it replaced)
I deleted my Twitter account and started using Ivory for Mastodon on my iPhone and Mac.
After being all in on Microsoft Edge for my browsing needs, I switched to Vivaldi for the customization options.
What to Get Geeks
I don't have any beef with personal bloggers who use affiliate links. Everyone has a right to have a hustle. Besides, I've found some helpful items on the web pages of people i follow. I don't particularly like commercial newsletters that continually post lists because I begin to doubt the work that went into them. I don't do affiliate links because I 1) can't be arsed 2) I am terrified of blogging ever seeming like a job. What I'm listing here are just some ideas you can use to get gifts for the geeks on your shopping list.
Why Does Printer Ink Cost More than Cocaine?
Top reasons given by those that sell ink:
Actual Reason
Because they can - using various unethical tactics:
Why Is Printer Ink So Expensive? - Consumer Reports
Why Printer Ink Can Be More Expensive Than the Printer Itself - Business Insider
How printers keep us hooked on expensive ink
Enjoyed it? Please upvote ๐
Race and Music
I'm not a music historian, nor have I taken any classes on theory or appreciation. I'm just a reasonably well-read layman who knows that for over a century, white people have had some wacky ideas about race and music. I's been going on since the Jazz age. If you play hip-hop around most white boomers, they freak out on a pretty regular basis. If it's not the language, it's some other criticism, usually centered around rap, and it's fellow travelers not being โregularโ or โAmericanโ music. These are the same boomers who all listened to Motown when they were in school and came of age watching Elvis Presley get away with movements only a white boy could get away with.
Today there are regular controversies over institutionalized racism in country music, with the CMA ignoring the immense popularity of Beyonce's country album, Cowboy Carter. Then there was the ridiculous and unnecessary inclusion of Billy Ray Cyrus on Old Town Road by Lil Nas X, who being both black and gay was as big an affront to Nashville as there could be for someone who made a damn fine song.
Fortunately for me, I was born 52 day into 1965. Thus, I am firmly in Generation X and I feel no irony in my appreciation of Public Enemy and NWA from the heady days of the late nineties. In fact, I am just the right age to have enjoyed Rapper's Delight by the Sugar Hill Gang when it was being played on the radio.
If you are a hip hop loving boomer, don't be offended. I am happy there are outliers like you.
Debates Around Rap Musicโs Validity Rooted in Racism โ The Oberlin Review
The Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight (Official Video) - YouTube
Black artistry is woven into the fabric of country music. It belongs to everyone | Music | The Guardian
Enjoyed it? Please upvote ๐
How to Do the Hard Stuff
My favorite time to do most almost anything is "not right now." I am a world class procrastinator by nature. In case you are wondering, yes, that can be a serious impediment to personal and professional goals, so I've learned a few tricks over the years. None of them are really surprising, but they can and do make life easier when i use them.
How to Convince Yourself to Do Hard Things
10 Ways To Train Your Brain To Do Hard Things
How to Do Hard Things โ JOHN MASHNI
Enjoyed it? Please upvote ๐
Cheap Recipes for Hard Times (or Nostalgia)
I grew up in a family of five. I've never been hungry a day in my life but as a kid, we weren't eating much steak and shrimp, if you catch my drift. My mom employed tricks like using bread to stretch hamburger and making her own waffles instead of buying the ready-made kind. It was the 70s and grocery stores were not the multi-choice bonanzas they are today. It was also a time before refrigerated cargo-containers, so we didn't have the year round access to all the fresh produce you could ever want.
The biggest luxury of having a good income to me isn't the opportunity to travel or to buy whatever i want in the technology arena, it's being able to go to the grocery store and put whatever I want into my cart. When I was finally able to do that, I felt like I'd arrived. Plenty of the meals I enjoyed in my poorer days are still among my favorites.
These include:
I enjoy fancy meals too, but these staple dishes have gotten me through some hard times. Here are a few websites with low cost recipes for anyone, not just the budget conscious.
Cheap Family Meals Under $10 - Julia Pacheco
Recipes under $10 | Budget Bytes
Ten buck dinners! โ Well balanced and delicious meals for 2. $10 or less!
Enjoyed it? Please upvote ๐
Where to Find Discounted Software
I've shared plenty of places to get free software over the past few months. I use plenty of it. Many people say that when software is free, you are paying with your data. That isn't always true. There are plenty of independent developers making FOSS tools that aren't data collectors, but there are also popular programs that collect as much as they can get away with. Take the time to read the privacy policy from Threads, the Meta microblogging platform. Sometimes, you just can't find certain features in free software, and you have to rely on a paid product. No one likes to pay full price, so here are a few places to get name - brand software titles at a discount.
Student App Centre
Student App Centre is a paid, but cheap service that provides discounts on more than 200 well-known software titles to anyone with an education affiliation who can verify it via email or providing documentation. I'm nether a student, nor a member of the faculty, but I am employed by a university and that qualifies me. Some of their popular titles are Downie, Better Display, Little Snitch, Al Dente, Cleanshot X and Parallels. A membership is $21.40.
Bundle Hunt
Bundle Hunt is a website that periodically offers 40โ50 titles at the time for very steep discounts. I have purchased dozens of programs from them over the years. They email you download links and serial numbers for your purchases, but they also have an online database for you to reference. I recently re-downloaded an app I bought nine years ago. Some of the current titles they have on sale are Mountain Duck, MacPilot, MonsterWriter and Smultron.
App Sumo
App Sumo specializes in business software, although they sometimes have consumer titles and training discounts available. Their titles include apps for SEO, static website creation, CRMs, email marketing and lead generation among many others.
Setapp
Setapp is a $9.99 service that lets you download, install and use over 250 quality Mac apps. I currently have over 40 of their apps downloaded. They offer some of the most highly rated programs in the Mac ecosystem, including Bartender, Default Folder X, CleanShot X, CleanMyMac, Dropzone, Downie, Permute, Houdah Spot, Mind Node, Pathfinder, Soulver, Ulysses and MarsEdit. I can't recommend them highly enough.
Enjoyed it? Please upvote ๐
This Week's Bookmarks - Maximize PTO, Best in Show, Public Domain 2025, History of Playing Cards, Best Soccer Goals, French Resistance Fighter, Get off Twitter
Request These Days Off to Maximize Your PTO in 2025 | Lifehacker
Meet Vito the Pug, Winner of the 2024 National Dog Show | TIME
What Will Enter the Public Domain in 2025? โ The Public Domain Review
The History of Playing Cards: The Evolution of the Modern Deck
Best Soccer Goals of 2024 - A Playlist
Madeleine Riffaud, resistance fighter, internationalist 1924-2024 โ Workers World
Default Apps for 2024
A year ago, I was just getting back into the tech scene after not paying close attention for a couple of years. As I was updating and cleaning up my RSS feeds, I saw many people talking about their default apps as a result of an episode of the podcast Hemispheric Views.. I learned about a lot of great software that I'd missed out on during my hiatus. I wanted to get in on the fun as well, so I started a blog for that express purpose, and the rest is history.
A full 12 months have passed, and some apps have been replaced or discarded over time. Here is my current list. Apps with a โญ are new choices since last year.
A Collection of Mastodon Tools
I'm maintaining a growing collection of links to various Mastodon resources. You can bookmark this page or subscribe to the collection via RSS.
With these tools, you can do things like: