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.
This Weeks Bookmarks: Photos from History, Infinite Mac, Amazon Secrets, YouTube Summarizer, Streaming Service Survival Guide, Old Software
List of photographs considered the most important - Wikipedia - Be prepared to stay down this rabbit hole for awhile if you have any interest in photography or history.
Infinite Mac is a collection of classic Macintosh system releases and software, all easily accessible from the comfort of a (modern) web browser.
Pick any version of System Software/Mac OS from the 1980s or 1990s and run it (and major software of that era) within a virtual machine. You can also run a custom version with your choice of machine and virtual disks. Files can be imported and exported using drag and drop, and System 7 and onward have more advanced integrations as well – refer to the welcome screen in each machine for more details.
As a person in recovery for the last 15 years, I don’t have to come up with euphemisms to describe my state of existence any more, but if I did, this list would come in handy. Can any English word be turned into a synonym for “drunk”? Not all, but many can. | Ars Technica
Gone are the days when you could just subscribe willy nilly to every channel. There’s a bewildering number of choices when cord-cutting and building your own package. NPR made this easy guide to doing ot right. It will help you see what you want to see at the cheapest price. Streaming services guide: Here’s how to choose what’s right for you : NPR
This is a labor of love by a bunch of software geeks. If you have an old system you’re trying to put back into use, this is an invaluable site for finding compatible software. Old versions of Windows, Mac and Linux Software, Apps & Abandonware Games - Download at OldVersion.com
So just how does Jeff Bezos make eight million dollars an hour (or whatever the obscene number actually is)? This article reveals a few facts about Amazon that most of us have no idea about. Amazon’s Big Secret - The Atlantic
The ultimate YouTube companion for transcripts, summaries and outlines. It’s free for videos under an hour, up to 20 per day with cheap plans if you want longer videos or need to process more than 20. Summarize.ing - Instant YouTube Video Summaries | AI-Powered Content Digests
A quick glance through this list shows us all how much we don’t know (and will never know). 16 Historical Mysteries People Say Will Never Be Solved (didyouknowfacts.com)
#Manhattan, taken from Brooklyn (Brooklyn Bridge on left, Manhattan Bridge on right)
Friday nights are for relaxed research so I can get up early on Saturday morning, make coffee and write. I love being on the Indieweb where creating things is something we do together. Looking forward to what y’all come up with this weekend.
Life & Beth 2x06 "The Work"
Beth accompanies her true-crime-lover sister, Ann, to the Dupree Murder House. During the reenactment, the sisters reveal too much about themselves to one another and the other guests. Beth lets down Maya in an possibly unforgivable way.
Life & Beth 2x05 "Claire"
Matt leans on Beth when something from his past catches up with him and makes him reevaluate his life.
#Charleston, SC Fire Department under streetlights
I was today years old when I found out you can install fonts on an iPhone. Now I can use my beloved Atkinson Hyperlegible and JetBrains Mono in #Obsidian on mobile just like I do on my MacBook and Windows box. I use a free app called Fontcase I heard about from Mac Power Users.
Life & Beth 2x04 "This Soup Is Gonna Be Good"
Beth and John look for a therapist that can help them with the communication problems that are cropping up in their relationship. We visit younger John and put some missing pieces together.
Life & Beth 2x03 "Nothing Can Get Me Down"
Beth, John, and their friends wake up from a raucous night in NOLA and spend the day trying to recover. After meeting LaVar and Denisha’s son, Beth has a realization about John that will forever change them.
Jon Stewart says goodbye to his dog. See if you can get through this without crying. I could not. Goodbye Dipper
A picture of the wonderful melting pot that still is America from the walkway of the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC #StreetPhotography
I’m still getting value here, even though I’m all in on #Obsidian, but damn, that’s a lot of dough for a note taking app. If it weren’t for the IFTTT integration and the mailto:Evernote functionality for HTML messages I’d be gone.
Life & Beth 2x02 "Who Dat?"
Beth, John, and friends visit New Orleans. Beth meets an old friend of John’s who deepens their appreciation for the city and one another. Her friends start down some dark paths they didn’t foresee.
Life & Beth 2x01 "Trust Me"
Beth begs off work and meets her friends at Maya’s new fancy spa gig in Manhattan. She revisits her first love. Later that night, Beth and John meet for a highly anticipated date that takes a surprise turn.
I’m in love with the Image Modification plugin for #Raycast. Apply filters and transformations to various image formats and convert between them. Create new images by specifying their dimensions, colors, and patterns. Operate on selected files or on images on the clipboard. I use it every day.
Me and my 18-year old Reddit account just got invited to the Reddit IPO at the preferred price so y’all look at the landed gentry over here. LOL
Attachment Management Made Easy in #Obsidian; A Workflow
Downloading Web Content
A question I see frequently on Reddit and other Obsidian community hubs regards importing web pages and managing the images they contain. There are many different ways of importing web pages into Obsidian, ranging from iOS shortcuts, theOmnivore read it later service, and plugins such as Extract URL Content. For the purpose of this workflow, I suggest using the ReadItLater plugin which imports markdown versions of webpages using different templates depending on the content: YouTube, Mastodon posts etc. This plugin scrapes the URL from your clipboard and creates a new note in your default location.
Downloading Images
The second step in this workflow is importing the images and this is accomplished with the plugin Local Images Plus. It’s features include:
- Downloading media files from copied/pasted content of web pages
- Localizing media files from copied/pasted content of word / Open Office documents
- Downloading files embedded in markdown tags from web to vault
- Saving base64 embedded images to vault
- Converting PNG images to JPEG images with various quality
- Attachments de-duplication by using MD5 hashing algorithm
- Removing orphaned attachments from vault
Managing Images
The final step in the workflow is accomplished with the Attachment Management plugin. This plugin will consolidate your attachments in a file structure you choose. I use a separate folder for all attachments and this plugin creates subfolders using the local file path and note title. It renames the image using configurable variables. I use a date and time stamp followed by the note name. You can exclude folders from being organized if you don’t want to manage the included notes. I use this to exclude the folder where I compose blog posts so that it doesn’t interfere with the images I’ve uploaded to my CMS.
Final Tips
I use the excellent Commander plugin to add buttons to my ribbon bar for the image management part of the workflow. Since this workflow can manage your existing notes as well as new notes, you’ll want to clean up all your empty resource folders if you choose to consolidate your images into a central folder. As always, before you run any command that affects your entire vault, make sure you have a good backup in case something goes haywire. (Backup Tips)
See all my Obsidian Tips
There is something poetic about a picture of Obama in B&W if you know what I mean. Anyway, street vendor, NYC, 2015.
I want my main Mastodon feed to be composed of the real people I follow. I’m unfollowing media accounts, preferring to get my news via RSS. I might open a second Mastodon account just for breaking news but I want to emphasize the SOCIAL part of social media. How do you do it?