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51/365

Arrivederci!

Sandkorn - Comprehensive Information on Your Apps

Sandkorn, from developer Peter Borgas, is a free app that provides you comprehensive information on the apps installed on a computer, particularly sandboxed apps and what those apps are entitled to access. Every app you obtain from the Mac App Store today is sandboxed, isolated from other apps and information sources, however, the apps have certain entitlements to different resources on your computers, some of which, but not all, you can see in System Settings > Security and Privacy. On a Mac, what you see in your applications folder are actually bundles you can right-click on an app and select...

Sharing art with artificial intelligence

Every time I sit down to write music these days, I’m visited by an unwelcome thought. Somewhere, right now, my art—music and writing—is being ground into semantic sausage to feed businesses that see replicating artwork as among the simplest possible tasks for artificial intelligence. Should I be terrified? Or angry? Same thing, I suppose. Anger is just fear set on fire. I know many of my fellow artists are navigating these turbulent waters. But I find myself wrestling with a different emotion, too: curiosity. Because if I look past my own discomfort, the implications here are profound. What lesson should...

Unread

“Rediscover the joy of reading your favorite writers and publications with Unread.” Unread is a (not exactly cheap, subscription based) classic RSS client for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS with a strong focus on design and typography and a perfectly harmonised feature set. I am thrilled. www.goldenhillsoftware.com

I have a thousand Kindle books in my Kindle Library. With Amazon's recent announcement to remove the download option for users who purchased Kindle books by Feb 26th, I'm planning to download them all and stop purchasing ebooks from Amazon altogether. Recently, I moved to Kobo Libra Colour and couldn't be happier. 

50/365

Just a dusting so far.

Free Downloads from AppAddict

I have a couple of downloads for you in this edition of AppAddict. AutomationAlthough I am in no way a developer, I have created a couple of repositories on GitHub and placed some files there you may find useful. I am a big fan of Mac automation apps. There are plenty of tools that are inexpensive and relatively powerful for making the work you do easier and more streamlined. With the help of timed triggers, you can get your Mac to do things for you while you are asleep or away from the keyboard. Take a minute to look over...

My Personal App Stack 2025 (updated February)

I've had a review of all my apps and deleted a lot of the surplus applications and services I had. Many have been unsubscribed to, deleted and accounts deactivated/deleted. This is what I plan to stick with for the rest of 2025.  Apple ecosystem • Apple Calendar - View events, birthdays and anniversaries. • Apple Notes - Record projects, collections, quick notes and sketches. • Apple Reminders - Daily tasks, routines and shopping (shared). • Apple Mail - Email with iCloud mail accounts. • Apple Safari - Browsing the web and access to limited social media sites. • Apple Numbers -...

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I rarely share pics of the cats in the house because the dogs usually chase them off. But here’s the son’s cat, Meatball.

Battery Monitor: Health, Info

In the modern era, a time when most people us laptop computers as opposed to desktops, keeping up with your battery's remaining charge is something we've trained ourselves to do. There are apps that let you make extremely detailed plans to carefully manage how your battery charges. These apps provide a wealth of information about your battery's lifespan and electrical data. In normal operation, they keep your battery from charging past 80% to help prolong its lifespan. They will also run a calibration cycle to allow your battery to come close to fully discharging and the fully charging. These practices...

Sleep can improve your productivity

We probably all know this, but let me remind you—and mostly myself—that getting a good night's sleep is one of the simplest ways to boost productivity. Add a 30-minute walk in the morning, and you'll likely see a 3.14x or even 7.5x increase, at least.  You decide!

🥾Hiking at Wadi Degla Protected Reserve 📍Well since the movement from Kuala Lumpur to Cairo, we have been looking for hiking spots here. And except for the Wadi Degla the city has no other place to offer. Wadi Degla is a limestone valley which seems to have formed from water flowing — whether river or sea is unclear, as people have different stories. As you can see from the photos below the landscape is the exact opposite of what we had in Malaysia. But it has its own charm. You are exposed to the elements — wind and sun. On...

48/365

Somebody on Duke is making updates!

FlexiBackup Solves Real World Problems

I faced a concerning issue last year when it was time to replace my iPhone. For some reason, neither Apple nor I could solve. For over two years, my phone had failed to back up to iCloud. Over the 16 years I've been using Apple's flagship product, I've had to perform restores on multiple occasions. I'm not comfortable going without a backup of any technology device I rely on. The old school solution when iCloud doesn't work is to connect your phone to a Mac and back everything up to the computer's hard drive. The location where the backup is...

Mid February 2025 Updates

This is a more unusual change log entry because there have been a lot of changes, and not enough blogging about it, so I thought I'll do a longer form update like this. • ✨ I've been working on a UI refresh across Tinylytics, which includes a new homepage, new site list and also a tweaked header area for the site overview. This is an ongoing redesign to make things a little bit more modern, without loosing what Tinylytics is. Saying that, there will be more tweak here and if you ever notice anything that doesn't look right, just let...

Week in Review (February 16th, 2025)

👽 Personal • Shortly before I left social media, I had created a new way to do my posts. I set up a blog here on Scribbles, and created an Apple Shortcut. I'd make my posts and then have Echofeed post them on Mastodon and Bluesky for me. I liked this method because it allowed me to keep a clean page of all my posts. Well, I've still been using that page and making posts. No one had the link to it because I just assumed people wouldn't be interested in reading my micro thoughts without an easy way to...

• 🐛 Fixed an error when selecting a blog with no posts and the empty (get started) view was trying to figure out if you have previously set up your blog or not.

• 🐛 Fixed a bug where setting up an uptime monitor would throw a page error straight after creation.

47/365

Wolfe St between St. Asaph and Pitt.

Improve your Google Searches

I am in the process of moving all my Internet research to Kagi, but I wrote this for someone who needed these instructions today. Google, the advertising company that also has a search engine, is more interested in having you click on things it gets paid for than it is showing you the information you are looking for. Of course, it is also tracking every breath you take in case it figures out how to extract money from the very air you breathe. There are a couple of steps you can take to generate more useful information from the company's...

📡✨ Enough of DHH

Thinking that JD Vance speech in Munich was remarkable, is a lack of perspective and judgment. If he is not capable to read between the lines, that is sad for him, and I don't need this type of content in my daily flow. Bye bye. 

• 🐛 Fixed an issue where in rare cases a 404 page would throw an error when no associated blog was found. • 🧹 Gave the domains page a bit of a refresh to make it more informative.

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Empty streets and street cleaners means the city is prepping for the George Washington Birthday Parade.

File List Export for Mac

One of the apps I recently picked up from the new Bundlehunt sale is File List Export by developer  Georgios Trigonakis. This simple but surprisingly powerful utility is available for just a dollar right now. The normal price in the App Store is $7.99. You can get a trial version at the developer's website. I tested the app by having it create a spreadsheet of my Obsidian vault containing 9722 files and 1843 folders. You can choose an output file in either csv or xlsx format. By default the app does not calculate folder sizes to speed up the analysis,...

Saint Valentine's lunch

Puccia, pulled pork, bacon, fried egg, potatoes, Smoked buffalo mozzarella. Lovely

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The wife and I had a wonderful Valentine’s dinner at Vermilion on King St. I was so in the moment I didn’t take any photos. So here’s an older one of King St all lit up to invoke the same mood as tonight.

Currently Inked: Feb 14, 2025

I started a "Use All The Pens" project this year. I realized I had over 50 fountain pens in my collection and was favoring just a handful of them. So rather than buy any more for a minute, I wanted to appreciate the ones I have; or at least realize which ones I should just sell. I'm using Notion to track everything, including a table to show which pen used which ink, rate the pen, rate the combination of pen and ink, and then some comments about the pen and/or ink.Another upside to this project is that I’m using more...

My Raycast Extensions

A Mastodon friend asked me to list the Raycast extensions I have installed. Raycast is a replacement for Spotlight that has considerable superpowers in its vast extension library. I use Raycast as my clipboard manager, emoji picker, window manager and I do quite a lot of image modification with it. As you can see, there are many more features available. 90% of the feature set is free. The $10 a month pro subscriptions buys the ability to sync your settings between computers, interact with AI advanced features and some more options with Raycast notes. You also get regular backups of...

The blog articles are moving

Will be here for the time being: https://coinstare.omg.lol/supporters

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The wife was home sick today and worked on her puzzle. She moved it to the floor while she picked out another one and the puppy decided it was a bed now.

Use Calibre to Back Up Your Kindle Books Before February 26

Amazon just announced that you have until February 26, 2025, to download your Kindle content. After that date, you will no longer be able to access the books you've paid for if you have a legacy device or a Kindle that has experienced wireless issues. The only way to load what you've paid for onto a device will be through wireless sync. Thankfully, using the free ebook manager, Calibre, you can convert your Kindle content into formats readable on other ebook readers or into PDFs. You will be protected if Amazon ever removes books you've paid for. You do not...

• 🐛🧹 Fixed an issue with the documentation page where it would overflow on smaller screens on Step 2... so I just created a new style design whilst I was at it.

Obsidian and the draw of durable technology

These days, I’m inclined to invest less of my time, my trust, and myself in the enormous tech companies looming over us like a gathering storm. Their wares are glossy, but fleeting. And the cost is high—especially when it’s free. My rebellion is simple: choose technology that respects me. Durable technology is built on foundations that align the developer’s incentives with the user’s. Where both sides benefit and want to contribute to the relationship long-term. To me, that means things like: • Embracing interoperability. If you have to trap people to keep them, you’re not offering enough value. • Transparency...

horizontal life pauses

Found on a recent post by Luca.

Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme

I backed the Kickstarter project for a Monty Python RPG a couple years ago. It finally arrived the other day! I doubt I'll ever actually play it, but it sure is fun to look through the artwork, read about the game, etc. One of the stretch goals also scored me a dice set and the coconut dice roller.

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Somebody made a bunch of snowmen at the school playground. But they’re all spaced apart and oddly creepy…

Metadata Lab - Exif Editor

Modern DSLR cameras and cell phones add extensive data to every photo they take. The information recorded includes camera settings like ISO speed, shutter speed, focal length, and other details. Including GPS location. After a photo is taken, and you've downloaded it to your computer, it's possible to add other information to its metadata, including a description, keywords and licensing/copyright information. Some of this information is more important to professional photographers than it is to regular people, but there are reasons why anyone might want to edit the details of a photo. Some higher end photo management applications have metadata...