Well, well, well. Here we are. Another platform, and not for lack of trying to stick one out for a long time. I started with PHPsomething-or-other, migrated to WordPress for years, latched onto PostHaven, then Medium, and now back to PostHaven. Now I’m here because PostHaven feels stagnant. Whee.
- PostHaven - As I said above, it's a blogging service that costs $5 a month and allows for ten blogs, each of which can …
- First, breathe. In through the nose, out through the mouth so you focus on doing that instead of thinking. Slow …
- I don’t think a lot of users flag their emails unless they are using the desktop version.
- Flagging is a visual cue that has only recently started to become a component …
satire
A list of things that pair well with McDonald's Szechuan Sauce
Whilst having a conversation with a friend he wanted to give me a list of foods that would probably taste good with Szechuan sauce. Considering the list itself, I have a feeling that it's not as tasty as he might recall. These are compiled from our talk on the matter over one of the popular (but not too popular) messaging apps:
• Giraffe
• Mitochondrial DNA
• Rejected chicken nuggets
• Some species of bat
• Wallet chains
• Cowboys, either the …
editorial
I'm done with Microsoft Windows
As of May 31st, 2024 when Microsoft announced Windows Recall, I have a single physical machine, and no virtual machines, with any version of Windows installed and that will not be changing as long as Microsoft remains on the path they're forged for themselves. The one machine which has Windows 10 is a Dell Venue 8 Pro which needs a dongle to install another operating system, and I need to find the dongle. Once I find the dongle, Windows is gone, gone, gone. Why would I go through so much …
Apple
howto
Mastering the macOS Menu Bar
I came across the following article on Apple Insider a few days ago and was initially enthused. I'd recently written a quick guide to a freeware tool for the Mac called Spaced and was hoping to find some more gems to get my menu bar under even more control. It turned out to be little more than an advertisement for Bartender, a paid app.
So, I've decided to write my own guide instead and this post has no paid anything. It's all freeware.
Using the basic menu bar
The macOS menu bar already has …
Apple
freeware
Spaced | macOS Freeware
I was a Bartender user for a few years. It was quite nice to get a handle on my Mac’s menubar. But I was paying $10 a month for SetApp and access to their library of around 240 applications and utilities. I could have purchased Bartender for $16 instead, but I didn’t. I paid SetApp $240 for two years to end up using about six apps.
That's not a value in my book.
So, I cancelled my subscription and started looking for an alternative, and I found it in the form of Spaced, an entirely …
capitalism
Dollarnomics
Save The Web: Advanced Dollarnomics
In the first part of this series I started last year, I spoke about the idea of Dollarnomics, describing it in some detail. If you want to get the basics of the concept, then you should go read that first. It’s not a long piece and I’ve linked it below. I do outline a few ideas there, but there needs to be some additional context so that you might fully understand the power that I believe resides both in the $1 bill and in the people who are tired of always being on the bottom of the economy, …
A writer's prayer
They always do the same thing, words. They hide away under the folds of my mind, deep in the shadows, keeping as silent as death. My ability to search for them is limited, so I try my best to shine light into those darkened box canyons of brain tissue, but words are not bound by the laws of physics and my feeble light is obscured by a thick fog. The multi-verse is popular these days, so I imagine that words exist in their own pocket universe and they can control when and where the two realities …
Work arounds because Twitter sucks
Since Felon Musk has destroyed Twitter, I'm just going to blog a bit like it's Twitter. I blog on PostHaven, which is a wonderful blogging service you should definitely check out if you hate the Technogarchy, would like to adhere to a reasonable budget, and appreciate actual ethics. Here's a short list of the tools I'm using to achieve something of a social media presence:
Apple
editorial
Apple's Notes cannot be exported, and that's wrong...
Ok, this is annoying. Apple Notes is a wonderfully capable notes app that allows you to bulk import all manner of rich text file formats, even entire Evernote exports, and organize them the way you like... with one exception. If you want to stop using Notes, you have to leave everything you created in Notes behind, or export them one by one.
I have over 300 notes.
This is not only annoying but terribly wrong of Apple. I shouldn't have to explain why. I didn't spend a few thousand dollars …
television
movies
editorial
How J.J. Abrams broke Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation 30th Anniversary Print by Dusty Abell, Copyright © 2017, Roddenberry Entertainment Inc. Reprinted with permission. All Rights Reserved. Dusty Abell is a comic artist who has pencilled countless comic books, is an illustrator, and has been involved in the animation industry as a character designer since 2000. He has worked on productions such as Batman: Return of the Caped Crusader, Batman vs. Two-Face, Young Justice, Mike Tyson Mysteries, King of the Hill, The …
editorial
Medium's stats are broken, so I left...
This is my stats page. This is not helpful.Much like today’s other causes of cultural constipation such as race relations, government, cold medications, etc., etc., ad nauseam, the page you see above appears functional, but is not.
Sure, you can click on things and you can see numbers and charts, but none of it is functional to the point where you can derive real, usable data regarding any of the indicated data points.
Take the chart above for example. The Views chart only shows you how …
Apple
editorial
Apple's Butterfly keyboard tragedy & potential e-waste disaster
Without official unit sales numbers from Apple, we have no idea how many hundreds of thousands of these machines are in the wild.
I am a life-long fan of Apple. Born in ‘68, I grew up in the thick of the consumer electronics and personal computer boom of the late 70's. Keeping to myself at times, loudly evangelistic at others, a shame-free Mac Ex-pat, reluctant Windows user for a decade, and always the staunch critic, my fandom runs deep. From my early experiences with Apple ][e machines, to …
capitalism
Advertising is dead. Please flush on your way out…
Ads are almost literally everywhere.It is rare, but every once in a while I presume to speak for everyone. It’s not like this is breaking news or a controversial hot-take, either. No need to sit down or get a stiff drink:
Nobody, but NOBODY likes advertisements… except ad people.
When I was working IT at Saatchi & Saatchi LA back in the mid-2000’s, Toyota was paying them tens of millions a year to make a handful of splashy national ads. Sure, they were epic, for ads, but all that money …
editorial
I don't like my mechanical keyboard
The Keychron K5 SE Low-Profile Mechanical Keyboard is anything but low profile. It’s also a clicky, sloppy, error-prone mess for a writer who taught himself to touch type using his own system.CLACK CLACK CLACK… TIKTIKTIKTIKTIK… CLACK CLACK… TIKTIKTIK… AUUUUUUGGGHHHH!!!
Tap tap, goes my Keychron K5 SE. It takes nigh on nothing to press a key, an advantage I’m sure is prized by gamers more rabid and entrenched than myself, but when I’m writing I’m forced to BACKSPACE to repair something that …
Apple
open source
It’s time to open source MacOS 9: An Open Letter to Tim Cook
The now legendary Mac OS 9 desktop, a refinement of what came before and the influence for today’s macOS releases. Even to this day, untold thousands, likely tens of thousands, classic Mac OS machines are being used & loved, traded & developed for. [SOURCE: Wikimedia Commons]
Dear Tim,
How’ve you been? Good, I hope. I’ve been watching Apple’s events and your production quality is just top notch. Serious kudos to your production team. Gotta love those drone shots and slick transitions :) I’ve …
Accelerationism is stupid
If you think Musk is going to get you to Mars, just check out how he’s been managing Twitter… er, X. This guy’s no genius. Don’t be fooled. Yes, this was made with some dumb AI thing I found.A conversation I had with a friend of mine. In addition, the term "Longtermism" has been replaced with Accelerationism. I've updated this piece with some more context at the end.
> Bryan:
Late night realizations and insights. I’m afraid that, on my deathbed, I’m going to realize that nobody ever helped me …
capitalism
Dollarnomics
Saving the Internet for Humanity: Dollarnomics 101
Or not…The Internet of 2023 sucks.
Every site, every service, every entree and every destination on the modern Web of today is controlled by corporations. Blood and treasure is expended, our personal data and real money is hoovered up to feed bottomless C-suite salaries…
While the World Wide Web may be comprised of an endless cavalcade of corporate entities vying for ultimate control, there remains a much, much larger contingent that has yet to stand up and take it’s own power: we average …
A short horse tale | Short Fiction
MERRY FREAKIN’ CHRISTMAS, that’s craaaaaaaazy lookin’! Photo by Mikael Kristenson on Unsplash
One day long ago, a horse I was fond of came to me and bit my arm, breaking the skin.
As blood seeped from the wound I asked, “Why did you bite me.”
The stallion shook its proud head, stamped its powerful hooves, and whinnied, “Because I can, small human.”
“That is sad,” I replied.
The horse said incredulously, “For you maybe, but not for me. Now you ride when I choose. If I choose.”
“It is sad …
“Picking yourself up by your own bootstraps” is stupid.
If this were even remotely possible, people would be flying off into space willy nilly. I think, I’m not a scientist. Photo by Nik on UnsplashWhat even are bootstraps? I’ll keep this brief. I’m particularly fond of this tidy explainer from Etymonline, a language etymology website:
bootstrap (n.)also boot-strap, tab or loop at the back of the top of a men’s boot, which the wearer hooked a finger through to pull the boots on, 1870, from boot (n.1) + strap (n.).To pull (oneself) up by …
How to use an elevator
" “>
A bank of elevators in the lobby of a skyscraper. Photo by Edwin Chen on UnsplashIt happens all the time. You’re walking along, getting stuff done, and an elevator comes into the equation. Now what?
One kind of elevator call button. Any single call button means that you are either at the top or bottom floor. Photo by Ashwini Chaudhary(Monty) on Unsplash
editorial
I desperately want a lightweight OLED Switch
" “>
Just make a bigger one, Nintendo.It was a mistake that when I finally bought a Switch, I got a Switch Lite. Sure, it’s a gorgeous indigo blue, but I’m old and the screen is too small. So, I bought an OLED Switch. It was also likely a mistake when instead of returning the Lite, I put it on a shelf and forgot about it. I’d made my new OLED Switch my main, so I’d just forgotten about its little brother.
A few months back, I was sorting through some stuff and found it. I …
Where the hell is the American Bidet Revolution!?
" “>
I’m going to guess that at least 12% of you will be reading this on a toilet.
Nothing makes people feel at ease more than a very public discussion about pooping… Right?
Fortunately for you, I’m not making this a video or podcast, so you can read it anywhere. Even on a public toilet.
Let’s talk about conservation of energy. Now, I know that’s a scientific principle of something, but I’m no scientist so I’m not sure how accurate I’ll be, but this whole thing seems rather …
animation
An Open Letter to Blue Sky's Chris Wedge
" “>
Hey look! It’s you!! Chris Wedge!!! Nice pic. Great movie.
Dear Chris,
I heard the news. I’m sorry I didn’t write sooner. Things have been a tad crazy of late, what with the pandemic and gun violence and political division and illegal wars and whatnot. I started writing this before the war and Uvalde, but I felt it was important to acknowledge these facts of life and death we are facing before I launch into this escapist fever dream. Anyway…
Disney can be quite the pain in the …
politics
The Preamble of The U.S. Constitution | Shallow Thoughts
" “>
How do we define the United States of America? We call it a country, but that just means a plot of land with established borders. Land certainly tells stories, but those tales are woven over millennia, and definitions within that context just don’t scale down for the convenience of our human time-frame.
The first quote I think of in regards to the makeup of our government is that it is formed…
…of the people, by the people, and for the people…
Sounds familiar, right? Well, …
Outlook Junkmail Arrives Flagged ... By Spammers
" “>
I’ve been having a problem lately. It’s not an enormous issue, but it bothers me. As you have likely already gleaned, I am receiving junk mail in my Outlook.com account which is already flagged, like so:
An example of a pre-flagged spam message.I don’t think most people have noticed it for a couple reasons:
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