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back of the napkin scribbles vol 3

Friday nightPhiladelphiaI was in Philadelphia this week, a quick family trip for a few days. While there I got a few photos of the next Strathmere Leather product, The Franklin. It seemed appropriate to do so. In general I've started to gather up all of the photos I've taken since making the bag, including the making process, in an effort to start working on that portion of the upcoming product launch.  New Things I've launched quite a few new products this year and I feel pretty good about it. All really good products, if I may say so, high quality,...

Moving to Beehiiv

First thing, I put the newsletter on private on Substack: --- Second, I need to manually unsubscribe people who unsubscribed from Substack between the first import (20 September) and now. I seem not to have found a way to delete all subscribers in Beehiiv and start from scratch. I could have deleted everything and started from scratch, but I also have some imports running so I don't want to force my newsletter into a state where it has some errors (like I delete some subscribers and the imports are still running). Maybe it is just my developer brain that thinks...

Surfed - Fell Off, Drowned

I recently saw an announcement for the release of version 3.0 of the Internet history and bookmarking tool Surfed. Previous app store reviews of the app stated that it had a lot of potential but that it wasn't a mature product. I had hopes that a new version would correct that. I downloaded the app and purchased the pro version. I was disappointed to find out that the iOS version only works with Safari as I am an Edge user. After downloading the browser extensions needed for the app to work I opened a new tab in my browser to...

🕖 Now — Full Circle

1. Yesterday, I upgraded my M1 Mac mini to macOS Sequoia. Now everything that I own is running the latest OS release or the next iteration, like iOS 18.1 on my iPhone. My Mac mini is used mainly for the job and I wanted to wait a bit for all my main apps to receive compatibility-related updates before proceeding with that one. Today, I'll see if it was a good idea. I'm rather optimistic. 🤞🏻 2. Enough of those videos about the RODECaster Video switching and production device. I must be reasonable here and wait for Apple to announce the...

Find Usernames from 400 Different Social Networks

The username I employ here on Reddit is one that I first used on my AOL account back in the 90s before you could even get a real Internet account in my area. Until recently, I had no idea how many times I'd employed it over the years, at least on services that are still in business. Well, thanks to a simple Homebrew app called Sherlock, I can search for my own or a friend's username across 400+ social media networks. I tried it with a couple. To install Sherlock, use the following Homebrew command from the command line in...

Preparing to import subscribers

Continuing my updates about the migration of shortrubynews to Beehiiv, at the end of the day today or tomorrow morning (Saturday morning), I will put the newsletter on Substack on private. This means any new subscription needs to be approved and the purpose is to ensure there are no new subscriptions to the newsletter during the migration.  Next on my list is to add a visible notice in the next edition with a clear Unsubscribe button just in case someone unsubscribed during the export/import but is still imported as active.  The new newsletter layout will take a couple of iterations...

The Journaling Paradox (or something like that)

Open up any browser on your computer and type the word “Journaling” and you’re going to get a plethora of different links. Links that tell you how to journal, the best type of journals to buy, the different methods of journaling and a host of others. Go to YouTube, type the same prompt and you’ll get the same type of videos all over your screen. I know this because I just got done watching several videos on journaling. This was by accident too. I didn’t even type it in my YouTube search bar. They just showed up in the algorithm...

Obsidian Rabbit Hole

I've used Notion for years now. It's a great tool with lots of options. I like the looks, the ease of use, and the power. I've used it over the years to store all sorts of stuff. But, on more than one occasion, their lack of offline storage has showed its ugly face. Attempting to access something and either their site is down or my internet connection is down can be very frustrating.  I did a little review of things I wanted in a "second brain" system. Turns out many of the Notion features were "nice-to-haves". My only real "must...

🕖 Now — Exploration Spree

1. I'm curious about Google Chromebooks. I'm late to the party but I'm willing to invest some of my money to test one from Lenovo when with comes outsoon. The newest edition comes with full Gemini AI support.  2. I'm dying to get my hands on RealMac software Elements to build a website. I'm still waiting for the beta invite, though. I already started the work on content and structure design. To be hosted on CloudFlare Pages and GitHub.  3. I'm also dying to get may hands on the RODECaster Video device to upgrade my YouTube video production game. That...

Notenik - A Well Designed Plain Text Notes Plus App

Anyone looking for a well-designed notes app that's free and open source, native to the Mac platform and based on plain text files would be well served by checking out Notenik by independent developer Herb Bowie.. Within Notenik you can create numerous types of collections of notes including but not limited to: • Basic Notes • Links • To-dos • Sequenced list • Zettlekasten • Blog • Commonplace Book (with or w/out lookups) • Outline • Web Book • Website • Contacts • Travel Planner • Code snippets Each collection of notes lives in a separate folder. The default location...

Moving the newsletter to Beehiiv

I am currently migrating Short Ruby Newsletter to Beehiiv.  I hope to finalize the move by Sunday, 6 October, so the next edition can be sent via Beehiiv.  What is keeping me busy with this migration?Roadblock: The imported content does not have image captions The current roadblock is that the migration of old content did not import the image captions, where I was writing the citation ("Source: @name") with a link to the post in the screenshot. I wrote to their support, and it seems like this is not supported so far. So it seems my only decision is to...

The Commission 00009-Knowledge Flow Consulting by Pratik

Pratik reached out to discuss creating a logo for his new business, Knowledge Flow Consulting, which focuses on research consulting services for educational sectors and non-profits. This project presents a series of intriguing challenges for me. Given that it's a research consulting business and operates on a Business-to-Business (B2B) model, I needed to set aside my playful approach to lettering, tapping instead into my branding and typography skills.  (In case you were wondering, I hold degrees in Marketing, Branding, and Communication Arts.) Additionally, the name "Knowledge Flow Consulting" is quite long, so just doing a cool wordmark isn’t gonna cut...

🕖 Now — Excited for Many Things

1. I'm currently testing and exploring the new Inoreader beta and god I'm liking what I'm seeing! It's probably the biggest update in years to this venerable RSS reader. I'm so glad to be a subscriber to this service. 😮 2. I'm excited and looking forward to getting a RODECaster Video when it comes out. It's not cheap, but this thing got nearly unanimous rave reviews on YouTube. It will be a game changer for my YouTube video recording. Can't wait for that one. 👀 3. I'm also excited for RealMac Software's Elements, a brand-new website editor for the Mac,...

A Folder Plugin for Quicklook

I've previously covered Quicklook plugins that let you use your spacebar in Finder to view things like package contents, videos, source code, compressed files and more. Recently the developer of the popular bookmarking app, Anybox, released a free Quicklook plugin for folders, which seems like a feature Apple should have included from the very beginning. When you have a folder highlighted in the Finder, pressing the spacebar opens a window showing the folders contents. Pressing the spacebar a second time closes the window. When the window is open, you don't have full Finder access to the contents, but you...

How do you know if a git commit message is good?

How do you know if a git commit message is good? If you can browse your git history and understand why those changes were made and why/how that technical decision happened without needing to refer to tickets, issues, or requirements, then you likely have an excellent git history. If your git history looks like:  commit 04796b39d364b6c580bbe17ecf3f0160b5c8877d Author: John Snow Date: Sun Jul 7 12:03:51 2024 +0300 Fix PRJ-5623 commit 828394c2864ea98003491e17b2562ad24bada653 Author: John Snow Date: Sun Jul 7 12:03:51 2024 +0300 Implement PRJ-6523 commit f64299c822a7cd38557eb935f074f18eed5719a2 Author: Jane Dane Date: Mon Aug 15 17:41:23 2022 +0300 Refactor User authentication commit abbd91854acce973ec662b0f2b75e89a4ceb3261 Author:...

What is going on?

Shameless updates got a bit quiet over the last few weeks. We were suppose to re-launch the service in September but unfortunately that didn't happen due to my commitments.  I had big plans to re-launch Shameless Plug and thanks to Vincent, we do have a workable and fine-tuned service that needs some last bits before it can be considered 100% usable. That last part is on me and I'm planning to complete it shortly. Hopefully over the next two weeks.   Fingers crossed and we will bring it to the finish line. Im 100% confident in us :-)

The Commission 00008-The Galileo Passport Case by Strathmere Leather

It’s incredible how quickly Aaron is launching new product lines for Strathmere Leather! Enter The Galileo—the premium passport case. What’s great about The Galileo is that it can hold not only a passport but also a pocket notebook and an international driving license, all in one case! Conceptualizing  Now, back to our logo commission. Initially, Aaron provided direction for the design, referencing the classic looks of Trans World Airlines, Pan Am, and Frank Sinatra album covers. However, the Jet Age style he mentioned involves bold typography and colors that evoke a sense of futurism, which I felt wouldn’t align...

Can't Keep Up

I was out sick yesterday.  Today, back in the office, I have to catch up on emails on two different networks.  I started my day with 25 emails to actively work (after triaging the inboxes and archiving/deleting what didn't need my direct input). I've been working for three hours on just emails and now have 40 emails to actively work. I read an email, research/respond, and then two or three more emails come in while I'm responding to the one. What. Is. Going. On?!

On Metal

Before deciding I was a punk guy in high school, I was a jazz guy. I was rescued from staying that way by the guy who sat in front of me in American History and sensed some hope for me. He made a tape with the Repo Man soundtrack on one side, and Dead Boys' Young, Loud, and Snotty on the other. On the other hand, there were all the kids on the school bus. There were a lot of metal people on that route. Ozzy Osbourne was sort of the baseline. I suppose Motley Crue was big. Also Scorpions...

MacUpdater is Multifeatured

One thing I know about apps designed to identify and download updates for the applications on your Mac, none of them are 100% effective. I use a combination of MacUpdater, Latest, CleanMyMac and Topgrade to come as close as possible to updating my Macs. Of those four, MacUpdate has the most features. MacUpdater maintains a database of over 100,000 Mac apps. The information you can get from within the app includes: • File size • Version number • Release notes • Developer website • Price • User rating • OS requirements - and much more. MacUpdater does not require an...

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