Writing

Mar 26, 2024 ∞

A Dozen Reasons to Try SetApp - #Mac Apps I Use Every Day and How Much I Save

The Setapp Logo

SetApp is a monthly subscription service that offers access to 240 different Mac apps starting at $9.99 a month. I currently have 37 different applications from Setapp installed on my MacBook Air. Some of them are startup items that run all the time when my Mac is on. Others I use an a regular basis for maintenance and routine tasks. They have quite a few apps that I’ve purchased in the past but no longer have to pay for upgrades because they are now included in my plan. I’ve listed a dozen of my favorite programs from Setapp, along with their cost if purchased or subscribed to separately to give you an idea of what you can save with a subscription. If you use my affiliate link, you can get a 30-day trial instead of the seven-day trial they normally offer.

BetterTouchTool

BetterTouchTool allows you to customize various input devices like trackpads, mice, and keyboards. It offers a wide range of gesture definitions for the Magic Mouse, Macbook Trackpad and Magic Trackpad, and allows users to trigger keyboard shortcuts, system actions or custom scripts. Additionally, the app also features window management and a clipboard manager. My favorite actions include one click trackpad action to launch a Google search and launching the Raycast emoji picker and clipboard manager. ($22 for a lifetime license when purchased without SetApp)

CleanMyMacX

CleanMyMac X is a versatile maintenance utility designed to keep your Mac running smoothly. It includes features for junk file deletion, system optimization, application updating and uninstalling, plus malware protection. I have a reminder to run the optimizer once a week. (Yearly subscription price is $34.95 when purchased without SetApp)

MindNode

MindNode is a powerful tool designed for creating mind maps and visualizing ideas on your Mac. It has customizable layouts, themes, and easy-to-use drawing tools. I’ve been using it for over 10 years and took advantage of the SetApp version to avoid having to pay an upgrade fee. (Yearly subscription $19.99 when purchased without SetApp)

24 Hour Wallpaper

The 24 Hour Wallpaper app for Mac provides high-quality, time-synchronized wallpapers that adapt to match local daylight conditions. The wallpapers change throughout the day, mirroring natural or city scenes suited to the time. I like it more than the Bing wallpaper app I previously used. (One-time purchase price is $9.99 without Setapp)

CloudMounter

CloudMounter connects your Mac to cloud storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive. It mounts these services as local drives, allowing you to manage your online files directly from Finder. I like it because it let’s me avoid having to run the native app for each application. (annual license is $39.99 when purchased without SetApp)

AlDente Pro

AlDente Pro protects your MacBook battery by intelligently managing its charging behavior. It lets you set a maximum charge percentage to prolong battery lifespan and offers various customizable settings for optimal battery health. I keep my maximum charge set to 70% on my MacBook Air, although I can easily top it off to 100% if I need to be on battery for a prolonged time. (One time purchase of $25 without SetApp)

HoudahSpot

HoudahSpot transforms your Mac’s search capabilities. It builds upon Spotlight, offering complex search criteria including file attributes, content, and metadata. I use the saved search functions to find all the Markdown files created in the last seven days (run as a weekly task) to import my Obsidian files into EagleFiler. (One-time purchase price of $39.00 without SetApp)

PathFinder

PathFinder is a powerful file management alternative to macOS Finder. It offers advanced features like dual-pane browsing, batch renaming, deep folder comparisons, and customizable interface modules. This is another app I’ve used for more than a decade. (Annual subscription $29.99 without SetApp)

Default Folder X

Default Folder X enhances your Mac’s Open and Save dialog boxes. It offers quick access to recent folders, favorites, powerful keyboard shortcuts, and default folder management. I’m a long-time user and no longer have to pay any upgrade fees. (One-time license costs $34,95 without Setapp)

Dropzone

Dropzone supercharges your Mac’s productivity with its drag-and-drop interface. It lets you send files to apps, shorten URLs, execute custom scripts, and much more – all by simply dragging files or text snippets onto its icon. I use a script to automatically install apps from DMG files and a shortcut that uploads media files to Micro.blog (License is $35 without Setapp)

CleanShot X

CleanShot X elevates screen capturing on your Mac. It offers far more than basic screenshots with tools for annotations, blurring, screen recording, and a scrolling capture mode. CleanShot X delivers professional-looking visuals and clear communication effortlessly. I’ve used other apps like Shottr and SnagIt) and I find that CleanShot X offers more. (Subscription is $10 a month for the cloud service plan without SetApp)

Mar 25, 2024 ∞

App Update Workflow for Macs Using HomeBrew and the CLI version of the Mac App Store. It Finds Updates Other Apps Miss. #macOS

I’m one of the lucky people whose hobby and work coincide. I’ve been working in IT support since the 90’s, yet i still enjoy tinkering on my own machine with new software and workflows. As a result, I have more than 300 apps installed on my M2 MacBook Air and I am fanatical about keeping them up to date. I run two updaters every night as part of my routine:

Mac Updater from Core Code - a buy once (no subscription) app with lots of features including release notes, links to the title’s home page, automatic updates for most programs, app store links and more.
Latest from Max Codes - a free app that catches app updates that Mac Updater sometimes misses.

The Mac App Store is supposed to update apps you purchase there automatically but most find that it sometimes runs days and days behind. Both Mac updater and Latest check Mac App Store Apps so I was really surprised recently when I discovered even they miss some releases.

I found this out after installing the command line version of the Mac App Store via HomeBrew. After installation, you can run the following command to see what’s out of date on your machine:

$ mas outdated

If anything shows up, you can then run the following command to update your apps:

$ mas upgrade

I now have a weekly reminder in Things 3 to fire up iTerm to run both commands.

Mar 23, 2024 ∞

This Week's Bookmarks - Coolest Street in the World, Funniest Novels, Movies That Couldn't Be Made Today, Greatest All-Time Albums, Photo Award Winners, Scientific Mysteries, and More!

A city street in Autumn with red-leaved trees

If you are working on your bucket list or maybe you just have the travel bug, here are some ideas for you - 30 Coolest Streets in the World Right Now (timeout.com)

Do you and your co-workers play that morbid death game? If so, here is the definitive score-keeping site! - Deaths in 2024 - Wikipedia

This list dates from the publication of Catch 22 to the present, because we could all use a laugh! - 22 of the Funniest Novels - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

I think there’s pretty much a consensus that classic TV shows like All In The Family couldn’t be made today but what about movies? - 30 Movies That Could Never Be Made Today | Lifehacker

Back in the days when downloading and owning music was a thing, I collected the Rolling Stone list of the top 500 albums of all time, something about which I was extraordinarily proud. That was 20+ years ago and the list has changed since then, and here’s why. - What Makes an Album the Greatest of All Time? (pudding.cool)

Who doesn’t like looking at great photography? - 2024 Open competition Winners & Shortlist | World Photography Organisation

Ask any entertainment question and instantly get personalized picks for TV shows, movies, books and podcasts! - Let AI Make Recommendations

What is the universe made out of? How should we define death? Where did dogs come from? And more! - 17 of the most astounding scientific mysteries - Vox

A letter to the editor that will restore your faith in book reviews (and maybe humanity).

Mar 22, 2024 ∞

My #Obsidian Journey and the Resources That Helped Me - Sample Vaults, Videos, Web Sites, Newsletters and Communities

After retiring from my IT career in public education in 2020, I found myself less engaged with technology news and updates. My previous habit of upgrading my phone yearly faded, and I continued using the software already on my MacBook. An Evernote user since 2009, I relied on it for everything from technical specs to recipes. My subscription auto-renewed annually without much thought.

Within a few years, it became clear that staying at home full-time wasn’t for me. Through connections, I landed a relaxed role in the IT department at a small, private university in my hometown. It’s the perfect post-retirement job: I enjoy helping faculty, staff, and students with their tech problems without the headaches of being on-call, budgeting, or strategic planning.

Around that time, I noticed an unfamiliar program, Obsidian, gaining popularity among the tech circles I used to follow. David Sparks (MacSparky) wrote an entire field guide about itand The Sweet Setup offered a sample starter vault. Since the guide was expensive and the sample vault was free, I naturally started there. I downloaded Obsidian and figured out how to access my new files.

A Starter Vault

The Sweet Setup’s Starter Vault includes articles about common Obsidian use cases like journaling. It provides instructions on how to download, install, and configure community plugins, and how to integrate them with the core plugins that come built-in, like the daily note plugin. My journaling habit and my use of the Quick Add plugin began on day one thanks to this resource.

While other demo vaults are available, I recommend waiting a bit before exploring them. This gives you time to familiarize yourself with your own setup before adopting someone else’s system. Some notable ones include:

The Ellane W. Obsidian Demo Vault Ellane is a strong advocate for plain text within the Obsidian community. I’ve interacted with her on Mastodon: @ellane@pkm.social
The Lean Productivity Starter Vault This vault by Sascha Kasper is comprehensive, covering organization, metadata, templates, core and community plugins, and even CSS snippets.

YouTube

I realized early on that Obsidian has a steeper learning curve than most software, but there seemed to be ample resources to help. True to the 21st century, I turned to YouTube and stumbled upon the perfect beginner’s video: Nick Milo’s Linking Your Thinking. He has an entire beginner’s series, but that first video truly explains the philosophy behind Obsidian. Two other YouTubers whose content I found particularly helpful were:

Nicole van der Hoeven: A Senior Developer Advocate at Grafana Labs, Nicole shares about learning in public, note-taking, and other interesting topics. Her videos are conversational, mostly stay under 20 minutes, and demonstrate concepts clearly. You can follow her on Mastodon: @nicole@pkm.social
FromSergio Though he no longer produces Obsidian videos, Portuguese YouTuber Sergio’s past content is excellent. Like Nicole, his videos are short, to the point, and easy to understand.

Other YouTubers I enjoy include Danny Hatcher, No BoilerPlate,, and Dann Berg, who also has a blog linked from his YouTube page.

Communities

Obsidian users gather in three main online spaces:

Reddit With over 126,000 members, r/ObsidianMD is a massive subreddit. Be ready for the deluge of graph screenshots, but it’s also a helpful place to ask questions, stay updated on plugins, and interact with the community. Obsidian’s CEO, u/kepano, even moderates and interacts with users there.
Official Obsidian Forum This is the best place to go when you’re stumped by a problem. I’ve always received an answer to my questions here. Superuser holroy even wrote me a working DataView query on the first try!
Obsidian Members Group on Discord A huge and somewhat chaotic space. Many plugin developers hang out here.

Websites

Obsidian Rocks is the product of Tim Miller (@WebInspectInc on Twitter). I finally got the courage to use the complicated and powerful Linter plugin after reading Tim’s article on it - Automate Your Notes With Obsidian Linter. Another helpful article was Obsidian Mobile: Five Tips for Success, which helped me configure my iPhone settings so that I had many fewer problems. There are plenty of other articles on Obsidian Rocks on all facets of the apps use and I encourage you to check them out.

Prakash Joshi Pax on Medium - One of the most helpful articles on Obsidian that I’ve ever read came from this site, Obsidian Templater Snippets I Wish I Knew Sooner.(Note: I link to Medium articles through archive.ph to avoid the paywall). There is new material being added regularly and it’s worth bookmarking and checking back. Pax also has a newsletter worth reading and he occasionally makes videos.

I guess I would be remiss if I didn’t plug my Obsidian “how to” articles. I’ve written about plugins, backup, vault structure and more. I also answer questions as best I can. My whole career has been helping people with technology issues and I still enjoy it.

Newsletters

Aidan Helfant has a website, YouTube channel and a podcast about Obsidian, geared towards students but helpful for all Obsidian beginners. I subscribe to his newsletter and find value in it.

Mike Schmitz has a website, Obsidian University where you can subscribe to his newsletter, download a starter vault or sign up for his (paid) Obsidian class. I got a lot out of his material, especially his video on configuring Obsidian’s settings.

Mar 21, 2024 ∞

I have to SMDH at how personally offended some of the usual suspects in the Apple Pundit World are acting over the DOJ lawsuit. I’m like ,“Dude, it’s a trillion dollar corporation, not your Mom. Calm TF down.”

Mar 20, 2024 ∞

Inoreader - Absolutely Worth It or Why I Love My RSS Provider

Like most of us these days, I spend a fair amount of money on app and service subscriptions. Some of it is pretty painful (Evernote!) but the cash I spend on my RSS service, Inoreader is worth it and more. I get so much value from the myriad of ways Inoreader helps me consolidate, curate and collect information from around the Internet. It does so much more than just provide a list of articles from my specified sources.

a list of monitoring feeds from Inoreader

Custom Monitoring Feeds

My favorite feature, hands down, are the custom monitoring feeds Inoreader allows me to create. It scours the web every hour to search for articles using my keywords. I have monitoring feeds to help me track my favorite software titles for news and tips/tricks. The wizard that creates these feeds lets me decide whether I want to search entire articles or just titles. I can search the entire Internet or just sources from sites whose main RSS feed I follow. As with all feeds on Inoreader, I can set up a highlighter for my search terms (Obsidian, Raycast, Keyboard Maestro, Micro.blog). I can filter out terms I definitely do not find interesting (Android, Apple Vision Pro, Trump). Finally, I can filter out duplicates and near duplicates so my feed doesn’t get inundated on dates when one of my keywords makes the news, for example when updates to a certain title get released. It is possible to place all these keyword monitoring feeds into a folder and to view the output combined. I can even generate an OPML file with the output to share with others!

Inoreader allows me to generate email addresses to use in subscribing to newsletters. That way I get the benefit of their content without having my mailbox clogged up. Like every other feed, these newsletters can be saved to OneDrive, Dropbox or Google Drive. I can export them to Pocket or ReadWise, Instapaper, Blogger, Telegram, Twitter, Facebook, Mastodon or a custom location.

Automation

If you highlight text in any RSS article or newsletter, you can use the highlight to trigger an IFTTT applet. You can do the same with any article you mark to read later. In fact IFTTT has a dozen different triggers for Inoreader and over 2000 services you can connect it to.

To add feeds to Inoreader you can use any of a variety of browser extensions, although I find that a simple bookmarklet works best for me. You can read your feeds in a web browser or in your choice of RSS readers like Reeder or NetNewsWire. I like their web interface so much that on a desktop, I choose to use a stand-alone web app of their site to read my feeds since it has easy access to most of the extra features offered. On my iPhone and iPad, I use their app as opposed to a separate RSS reader. Their iOS and Android apps have an offline mode allowing you to download content to read later, useful for flights and helping you avoid a separate subscription to a read it late service.

Organization and Backup

You can use folders or tags (or both) to organize your feeds. You can set up notifications for different keywords or material from certain sources. In the settings section of the Inoreader you can look at the health of all of your feeds and easily determine if one is down, allowing you to contact the blogger or publisher of the site in question. If you currently have an RSS provider or reader, Inoreader can easily import your feeds and conversely, it can export feeds for you if you want to use them elsewhere. Your feeds get backed up everyday and you can set them to be saved to a cloud folder synced with your computer so you can have ready access to them. I use Dropbbox for this.

Other Features

Built in podcast player
Turn Google News searches into feeds
Customize the look with your own CSS if desired
Get accelerated updates on certain feeds
Annotate and save articles
Multi-lingual content
Sync your YouTube subscriptions
Filtered Reddit feeds (see Obsidian posts without having to look at pictures of other people's graphs)

Pricing for all the features I mentioned is $7.50 a month paid annually

Mar 17, 2024 ∞

My Bookmark Workflow in 2024 using #Raindrop.io and #Obsidian

I recently found a backup of my browser bookmarks from 2009. It was a trip down memory lane looking at what i was most interested in 15 years ago (lots of cycling) and seeing what web resources are sadly no longer with us (Google+, Stumble Upon). Before browsers started syncing bookmarks I used (and paid for) Foxmarks a browser extension that synced bookmarks between different browsers. My Chrome (work) and Safari (home) bookmarks were identical. It was great. Foxmarks died when its functions were supplanted by native browser capabilities. For the next few years I relied on Chrome’s native capabilities to sync, ditching Safari. In 2022, I switched to Microsoft Edge and I’ve remained there since (on Mac, iOS and PC).

Microsoft Edge Really Doesn’t Suck | Lou Plummer (amerpie.lol)

Raindrop.io

Last year I heard about Raindrop.io for the first time in an article from Mac Automation Tips. Raindrop.io is a multi-featured bookmark manager with a web interface and native apps for Mac and PC. It allows you to add sites to your collection via a browser extension. When you add a new bookmark you can assign it to a folder, add a note, tags and set a reminder to revisit the site later (paid feature)

The free version of Raindrop.io offers enough features for may users.

Unlimited bookmarks
Unlimited collections
Unlimited highlights
Unlimited devices
More than 2,600 integrations (via IFTTT)
Apps for Mac, iOS, Android, Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge.

The pro version offers even more benefits. If you rely on PDFs for reference, you can upload your library to Raindrop.io’s servers and take advantage of full text search and universal availability. For regular web sites, Raindrop.io saves an archive of the page when you add it to your collection so you never have to worry about losing access to an article if it gets pulled from the Internet or disappears behind a paywall. You get daily backups. I have mine saved to Dropbox so I get a local copy of them downloaded to my computer.

Integrations I use include YouTube where every time I give a video a thumbs up it gets added to Raindrop.io. My RSS service, Inoreader, allows me to add pages directly to my bookmarks and it automates it even further by also adding starred (read later) articles as well. I also imported all my articles from Pocket and for awhile synced my bookmarks with an Evernote notebook.

A screenshot listing the paid features of Raindrop.io

Obsidian Integration

I try to make Obsidian the center of my digital life. After hacking together a workflow that involved exporting my bookmarks to Dropbox via IFTTT and then moving them to my vault with Hazel, I found a community plugin that accomplished all that for me, The Raindrop Highlights Plugin can be set to only import bookmarks where you’ve made highlights or it can import every page you add to Raindrop.io (my choice). The plugin allows you to customize your import template for the body of the note and the metadata. If you choose (recommended), it will duplicate the folder structure you’ve created for your collection. Vitally, you can import the tags you assign as you add bookmarks so that if, like me, you use tag-based MOCs (maps of content) in Obsidian, your imported bookmarks will get automatically added.

If you’d occasionally like to add the full content of a page, you can use the community plugin ReadItLater which will import a website from a URL on your clipboard. Even if you don’t import the content of the page, the clean interface of an imported bookmark note invites you to add your own commentary and to add internal links to other notes on the same topic, Obsidian’s super power.

The Raindrop.io web interface

Mar 14, 2024 ∞

A Lovely Routine - The Digital Checklist That Brings Me Joy Every Day and The Hunt for Links

A dimly lit library

I have a digital checklist I try to complete every day. It helps me do the mundane things we all have to do, stay on top of my email, organize my notes, keep important software updated. My checklist also helps me to remember to do the fun things I enjoy: uploading a photo every day to Micro.blog where it gets cross posted to all the social media sites in which I participate. I have a reminder to check in daily at Product Hunt because I enjoy seeing what’s new in the software categories I follow. The other “fun” item I try to check off seven days a week is to find a bookmark to share.

Every Saturday morning, I get up at 4am to drink coffee and work interrupted on posting to my blog. I keep a running note all week in Obsidian where I add each day’s link. I write a short blurb for each site, download/upload a few images and post the links. My uber original name for this feature is (drumroll) This Week’s Bookmarks.

I subscribe to way too many newsletters and what keeps me interested in them is looking for the link of the day. Ironically, some of what I subscribe too are other people’s weekly link posts! I’ll share anything that looks like it might catch the eye of a curious person. It could be a story about the world’s coolest streets or something funny like the Washington Post’s collection of one-star reviews of National Parks. I rarely share news stories. I aim for something with a little shelf life. I’m a techie and a blogger so there’s plenty of stuff there for like-minded folks.

Right now, I’m keeping a running list of several week’s worth of links. One day it will get too unwieldy, and I’ll have to pare it down or start a volume two or something, but for now it’s there to explore. If you check it out and find anything useful or entertaining it would mean the world to me if you let me know.

Matthias Ott, author of the wonderful newsletter Own Your Web, wrote a piece recently about all the reasons why creating a links page is an integral part of the IndieWeb. He listed different ways to share your finds (like newsletters and RSS feeds) and he gave multiple reasons for collecting links in the first place. He’s the inspiration for this reflection.

A couple of bloggers I like have weekly links posts or newsletters. Check out the HeyDingus Seven Things This Week collection and let the writer, Jarrod Blundy know that I sent you. While you’re at it, look at Ian Betteridge’s new 10 Blue Links which he’ll be happy to email you each week.

Peace! Lou, in NC
Lou Plummer | Amerpie
Email

Mar 12, 2024 ∞

List 10 albums that have stayed with you over the years in some way. Don't take too long on the list - just a few minutes. These don't have to be great records, or critical darlings, just ones that mean something to you personally.

The River - Bruce Springsteen
Who Are You - The Who
Graceland - Paul Simon
Stop Making Sense - Talking Heads
Automatic for the People - REM
Other Voices, Other Rooms - Nanci Griffith
Anodyne - Uncle Tupelo
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles
Sweet Baby James - James Taylor
Back in Black - AC/DC

Mar 10, 2024 ∞

How to Ruin Your Web Page (My advice circa 1997 to other GeoCities Webmasters) - A Blast From the Past

I wrote this 27 years ago in the midst of the first blogging boom on the brand new Internet. Since then the skill of the average blogger has long since passed me by. I've only been back in the game for a couple of months, but back then I thought I new something. If you're old like me and have been around awhile, maybe this will spark a few memories.
```<br>
I am certainly no expert when it comes to designing web pages. I created my very first one In August of 1997, less than a month ago as of this writing. Still, I  am an old timer when it comes to the online world. I've been surfing in some form or fashion for nearly f-o-u-r years. Read'em and weep, you neophyte  newbie wannabes! Actually I don't mean that at all. I encourage all sorts of people to take part in the online world. I even want my own sacred mother to hook up her modem. I couldn't bear to think of anyone calling her names, so I take it back. I shall reserve my venom for those experienced web creators who insist on committing the following sins. 
  

 1. Having a nice piece of HTML displayed on your page BECAUSE you typed the code wrong and then didn't proofread it before you uploaded it on your server. 
  
 2. Displaying the message "Please be patient, this page is graphics intensive, BUT, I've been told that it's worth it!" Oh yeah, told by who…your Mom and Grandma? No one wants to wait for Carter to get re-elected while waiting for your page to load, even if you are giving directions to the fountain of youth!. 

   3. Hogging MY bandwidth because your vanity makes you display all of your awards on you opening page. If I ever win any awards (HA!) I promise to create a separate page to display them. That way I can give Grandma and Mom the address…and tell them how to get their browser to open to that very page.

   4. Let's see a show of hands. Who really likes those embedded midi files?

   5. Please look up spell checker in the dictionary!

   6. Why is your page too wide for my screen and why do you think I'm going to adjust my monitor just to look at it? I like the way my monitor is set, NOW. That's why I have it that way. Do you really think Mom and Grandma know how to change their resolution and colors?

   7. If you make a cheesy site, at least add your cheesy address so we can flame you for your efforts.

Mar 9, 2024 ∞

This Week's #Bookmarks: Free PDF tools, Alexa safety, online museums, amazing photos, emoji news and an RSS family tree

logs burning in a brick fireplace

Bookmarks for Week 10 of 2024

Maybe you need this I don’t know. We all have phones these days with voice assistants and may of us have one or more additional devices in our homes. They are fun to query but be careful. Take the advice in this article. 7 things you should never ask Siri, Google Assistant or Alexa (komando.com)

If you are the kind of person who doesn’t just accept the default font in your apps and documents, it would pay to learn a little bit about different typefaces. This informative page is a good place to start. Fonts and Typology Infographic | (dailyinfographic.com)

My son is a self-taught art lover who often travels just to visit museums in places like NYC and Boston. I sent him this web site so he could preview some of the places he plans to travel to. 50+ virtual museums you can visit online for free (komando.com)

An amateur photographer myself, I quite enjoyed this series. James Lucas on X: “Photographs taken in the right place at the right time, intentionally or by chance

I work in IT support and one of the chores I have that is 100% not my favorite is installing Adobe Acrobat Professional for people who I just know aren’t going to realize the full value of it. I wish I could just send them this bookmark instead. iLovePDF | Online PDF tools for PDF lovers

I confess to sending way too few emojis to fit into 21st century life. I may be a grumpy old man. Still, I’m not above learning something new. Heart Emoji Meanings | Later

My Inoreader subscription for RSS feeds is one of the best tech investments I make each year. Getting into blogging and the whole IndieWeb scene has been a real blessing. This site helps me discover new feeds to follow by making a family tree of sorts from my Mastodon account and revealing all of the RSS feeds available to me from the people I follow. RsS iS dEaD LOL (rss-is-dead.lol)

Mar 9, 2024 ∞

It’s Saturday and my /now page is updated with American and British journalists, a tale from 17th century Japan, iOS and #Obsidian news and a tasty sandwich. What’s up now

Mar 8, 2024 ∞

The #iOS Apps I Use Every Day - Broken Down by Time of Day and Purpose

An iPhone floating in the air above someone’s open hand

Early AM

Things 3 (Task management)
Ivory for Mastodon (social media)
Product Hunt (Because I’m a software junkie)
Obsidian (Inbox app, used for daily journal and logging)
Day One (journal app)
Yahoo Mail (newsletter subscriptions only)
Facebook (mostly for family stuff)
Carrot Weather

Work

Outlook (work email and calendar)
Paycom (payroll program)
Duo Mobile (two-factor authentication)
Microsoft Authenticator (more two-factor authentication)
Microsoft Edge (browser of choice and search app)
Clipboard Fusion (shared clipboard with PC)
Jira (IT ticket system my dept. uses)

Utilities

Drafts (rapid text capture and processing)
Launch Center Pro (launches actions through URL workflows)
Messages
Launcher (widgets on my home page)
Shortcuts (some automated)
PastePal (shared clipboard with personal Mac)
Camera++ (taking and editing photos)
Lastpass (password manager)

Threads (social media)
Blue Sky (social media)
Vernissage (for PixelFed)
Reddit (social media)
Inoreader (for RSS)
Google News
Micro.blog (social media)
Watcht (Trakkt app for TV)

Mar 6, 2024 ∞

My Dataview Use Cases in #Obsidian

One of the most downloaded community plugins in the Obsidian universe is Dataview. It allows you to treat you vault as a searchable, queryable database. Using the file properties and inline fields you can use Dataview Query Language (DQL) to ask questions of your vault. I use Things 3 for task management, so I don’t use Dataview to manage my todo list as many people do, but I do use it in for a number of other purposes.

Help Building Queries

There is a free tool you can use to help with the learning curve with Dataview. “The Basic Dataview Query Builder will guide you through some questions and put together a Dataview query based on your answers. You can use this query as-is in your vault or as a starting point to refine a more advanced query.

The goal is to help you on your first Dataview queries and to give you a better understanding of the syntax and needed information to build Dataview queries from scratch.”

Daily Note Template

I have two Dataview queries in my Daily Note template. I have them formatted as callouts so that I can fold them up when I don’t need to see the information and therefore don’t have to do a lot of scrolling around.

The first callout shows me the notes created on the same date the daily note was created.

  [!abstract]Today's New Notes
  ```dataview
  LIST WHERE creation-date = this.creation-date
  ```

The second callout shows me the notes modified on the date the daily note was created.

  [!abstract]Today's Modified Notes
  ```dataview
  LIST WHERE modification-date = this.modification-date
  ```

They appear like this in the note.
Two callouts in the Obsidian app

Maps of Content Based on Tags

I have a folder of notes in my vault I call Meta. These are notes about other notes. Several of these contain a map of content (MOC) for my areas of interest. One of these contains my notes an a Mac automation program I use and that I study to improve my scripting skills, Keyboard Maestro. The Dataview query for a tag-based note looks like this:

  ```dataview

	LIST
	FROM #KeyboardMaestro
	SORT file.name ASC
	```

Speaking of Tags

I use tags extensively in my vault. One of my meta notes is a clickable list of all the tags I have. It’s like the tags pane in the Obsidian interface except it’s in note form. I can edit it easily enough so that It only shows me the notes from a certain folder if I want. The Dataview query for that notes looks like this.

  ```dataview

	LIST length(rows)
	WHERE tags
	FLATTEN file.tags as tags
	GROUP BY tags
	SORT key asc
	```

The result is a list with the number of notes with that tag and a clickable link that will open a list of notes in the left pane.
List of tags used in an Obsidian vault

A Table with URLs

Dataview lets you create tables with multiple columns as well as lists. I user URL as a field in my properties for several categories of notes. Since I’m relatively new to Obsidian, I have a lot of notes on different workflows and plugins. Once again, I have a meta note that contains not only links to my notes, but also links to the web pages where the information came from. The query is formulated like this :

  ```dataview

	TABLE url  
	FROM Obsidian  
	SORT file.name ASC
	```

The result is:
A list of Obsidian notes with internet url from whence they came

A Little More Complex

I work at a small private university. My role there causes me to interact with everyone on staff as well as the faculty and administration. I have a note for each person with details of out meetings and interactions. I also have notes in my vault for plenty of other people to include writers, vendors, my family and more. I need a MOC just for work though and the following query returns the information for people (criteria 1) who work at my university (criteria 2) and their role (criteria 3).

  ```dataview

	LIST role
	FROM #people
	WHERE org = "MU"
	SORT file.name ASC
	```

The result is
A list of people who work at Methodist University and their titles

Special Cases

Not all my meta notes contain links to other notes. I have an collection of over 500 quotes in my vault. Some of them are from an app on my phone. others have been imported from other people’s vaults and some have been added one at the time since i started using Obsidian. One of the fields in the metadata is Topics: which I use instead of tags so as not to clutter up my tags database. Because I have notes from so many different sources, the topics field was a mess with different capitalization rules, punctuation etc. I needed a way to list all of the topics so that I could use a text editor to do a search and replace across my vault to standardize things. The user holroy on the Obsidian.md forum wrote the following query for me.

  ```dataview

	LIST length(rows)
	FROM "Quotes"
	WHERE topics
	FLATTEN topics as topic
	GROUP BY topic
	SORT key asc
	```

The results:

A list of topics from a collection of quotes

See all my Obsidian Tips

Mar 2, 2024 ∞

It’s Saturday morning and that means it’s time for an updated /now page. This week I share a couple of articles on BlueSky and Amazon. I comment on Life & Beth, the Hulu show. I post links to a couple of my recent blog posts and I share two newsletters I’ve found to be worth the space in my inbox.

Mar 2, 2024 ∞

This Weeks Bookmarks: Photos from History, Infinite Mac, Amazon Secrets, YouTube Summarizer, Streaming Service Survival Guide, Old Software

A pair of hands typing on a macbook

List of photographs considered the most important - Wikipedia - Be prepared to stay down this rabbit hole for awhile if you have any interest in photography or history.

Infinite Mac is a collection of classic Macintosh system releases and software, all easily accessible from the comfort of a (modern) web browser.

Pick any version of System Software/Mac OS from the 1980s or 1990s and run it (and major software of that era) within a virtual machine. You can also run a custom version with your choice of machine and virtual disks. Files can be imported and exported using drag and drop, and System 7 and onward have more advanced integrations as well – refer to the welcome screen in each machine for more details.

As a person in recovery for the last 15 years, I don’t have to come up with euphemisms to describe my state of existence any more, but if I did, this list would come in handy. Can any English word be turned into a synonym for “drunk”? Not all, but many can. | Ars Technica

Gone are the days when you could just subscribe willy nilly to every channel. There’s a bewildering number of choices when cord-cutting and building your own package. NPR made this easy guide to doing ot right. It will help you see what you want to see at the cheapest price. Streaming services guide: Here’s how to choose what’s right for you : NPR

This is a labor of love by a bunch of software geeks. If you have an old system you’re trying to put back into use, this is an invaluable site for finding compatible software. Old versions of Windows, Mac and Linux Software, Apps & Abandonware Games - Download at OldVersion.com

So just how does Jeff Bezos make eight million dollars an hour (or whatever the obscene number actually is)? This article reveals a few facts about Amazon that most of us have no idea about. Amazon’s Big Secret - The Atlantic

The ultimate YouTube companion for transcripts, summaries and outlines. It’s free for videos under an hour, up to 20 per day with cheap plans if you want longer videos or need to process more than 20. Summarize.ing - Instant YouTube Video Summaries | AI-Powered Content Digests

A quick glance through this list shows us all how much we don’t know (and will never know). 16 Historical Mysteries People Say Will Never Be Solved (didyouknowfacts.com)

Feb 27, 2024 ∞

If you search for Microsoft Authenticator in the #iOS app store, the top hit is a $40 paid app. The second hit is the actual Microsoft (free) product. This causes IT departments problems every week of every year and is a total dick move on the part of #Apple.

Feb 26, 2024 ∞

He was playing with Lego during Y2K, ruminations of an old timer

We hired a new network engineer at the university where I work. This is my semi-retired job. I had an IT career in public education and retired in 2020 but found that I wasn’t ready to stay home all the time. I found this gig doing stuff I did 20 years ago - handing out laptops, solving printer issues, answering the phone. I didn’t want any pressure and the job suits me fine. I don’t need or want to be in charge of anything. The money is really good for what is asked of me plus I have my pension. I was talking to the new engineer, who to be truthful has a wee bit of a superiority complex and I mentioned what I was doing in IT during the Y2K period - working for a bank. He told me he was playing with Legos during that time. I don’t know if he intended to make me feel old (I’m almost 60) but he did. I wasn’t trying to make him feel callow, just telling a story. Anyway, I gotta get my head wrapped around aggressive go-getters with something to prove. I just want to stay out of his way and do my thing. Why do men have to make every goddamn thing a competition? I still love computers after spending all these years with them. I enjoy technology and the last thing I want to do is compete with someone younger than my children over who can write the best powershell script or configure a Cisco switch in the least amount of time. I’d rather talk about how much I enjoy using Obsidian or how insanely long my MacBook battery lasts. Something fun. Don’t suck the joy out anyone’s work life, y’all. Just don’t do it.

Feb 24, 2024 ∞

This Week's Bookmarks: Disk shopping, Industry secrets, No more rice, Things unexpectedly named after people, NOT the world's oldest dog, AI tips

Disk Prices is a bare-bones, text-only website lists the prices of hard drives, solid-state drives, and USB drives available on Amazon. It’s a superior way to search for storage compared to searching directly on Amazon.

Reddit thread on industry secrets - Get the inside scoop on the dirty inside knowledge froma range of industries – if you dare. Sometimes ignorance is bliss!

An iPhone with a warning message that charging is not possible due to the presence of liquid.

Apple said in a new post - If your phone gets wet, don’t put it in rice. Instead, tap your iPhone against your hand with the connector facing down to let the liquid drip out, then leave it in a dry area, The company warned that small particles of rice can damage your phone.

Things Unexpectedly Named After People - German Chocolate Cake has nothing to do with a certain European country…and more.

The world’s oldest dog was posthumously stripped of his title after the Guinness World Records could not prove he was 30 years old at the time of his death.

17 tips to improve your ChatGPT prompts from Lifehacker. a better than average guide to getting the most from AI.

Feb 10, 2024 ∞

Is there a person in the world that doesn’t hate their cell phone company? Trying to buy a new phone today only to be told my current plan won’t support it. WTF? I’m not going to call out my provider, but it starts with #Verizon.