Transgender Day of Remembrance is marked every Nov. 20and began in 1999 to honor Rita Hester, a trans woman who was killed in Massachusetts. The day marks the end of Transgender Awareness Week, which is used to raise public knowledge about the transgender community and the issues … | Continue reading
Inspired by a post from Annie Mueller, I thought I'd write about humor today. Making wisecracks is one of my primary forms of communication. Just about anything can be funny if you frame it the right way. It sometimes shocks people who don't know me that well, but anyone who has … | Continue reading
I am not one of those priggish tee-totalers who thinks drinking is a sin and that no one should indulge in demon rum, not at all. In fact, coming from a 12-Step recovery tradition, I have no real opinion on drinking as an institution, but I've never looked down my nose at anyone … | Continue reading
AMA - What's one of the hardest things you have ever done? My Dad woke up this morning and didn't know what day it was. Panicked, he sent a text message to almost everyone in the family asking for help. At this point, that means my siblings and his. We are a close family and seve … | Continue reading
Deck Blue The social media platform, Bluesky, has been getting a lot of press lately as a mass migration from X has taken place over the past two weeks. Bluesky has added nearly five million new users. For any Mac users wanting more than the default web interface, there are a few … | Continue reading
I started working in IT support right after Windows 95 was released. I’ve worked in manufacturing health care, banking and insurance, but primarily in K-12 and higher education. In some way or another, I’ve always been involved in end-user support. Currently I have a relatively l … | Continue reading
Shareful There are certain apps that really should be incorporated into the operating system. One of those is Shareful by Sindre Sorhus. The share menu on the Mac seems like an afterthought when compared to the comparable menu in iOS. Many developers fail to implement the feature … | Continue reading
Life is full of little moments we love to recount later. Here's a small collection of some of my favorites. Encouraged To Leave I have been “encouraged to leave” both a library and a used book store — and I was totally innocent both times. I impishly asked a reference librarian i … | Continue reading
The Shipwreck Detective | The New Yorker She’s One of Florida’s Most Lethal Python Hunters—but the Invasive Creatures Still Have a Hold on Her – Garden & Gun The 200 Best Inventions of 2024 TIME For Teens Online, Conspiracy Theories Are Commonplace. Media Literacy Is Not. | EdSur … | Continue reading
I have things pretty good at home. My favorite person is almost always there. My Internet is fast and my beloved MacBook Air is positioned right where I like to sit to surveil my little kingdom. Whatever I like to eat and drink is nearby and if I nod off, which I am prone to do, … | Continue reading
Free Apps Here's a list of free software that I've tried and liked since the last time I posted a similar collection ClipGrab, a free alternative to Downie Air Battery - A Free App to Monitor Battery Levels Keyboard Cowboy - Free and Open-Source Automation Software Try PDF Gear, … | Continue reading
In the 1999 movie adaption of Steven King's The Green Mile, the guards go into the condemned man's cell to ask about the arrangements for his execution. They want to know his last meal request and if he wants a preacher to be with him. Ultimately, they even ask if he wants a chan … | Continue reading
I didn't camp much while growing up other than an occasional trip with the church youth group. In high school, some buddies and I would sometimes sleep under the stars on the hillside beside the pond on my family's farm. Later, my military occupational specialty was in combat arm … | Continue reading
AMA - What things do you find difficult? The book, The Road Less Traveled, opens with the memorable sentence, "Life is difficult." Truer words have never been written. Even for people who make everything seem effortless, life still has difficulties. In my more tender moments, as … | Continue reading
Fedica There's been a great deal of buzz recently about an iOS only app called Croissant that can post to X, Mastodon and Bluesky all at once. From all reports, it's a pretty nice app, but it costs $60. There is a free app, Openvibe, that also works on macOS and adds posting to T … | Continue reading
To get ready for the morass of corruption and ineptitude we are going to witness over the next four years, I thought it would be a good idea to brush up on a little history of political criminals associated with the guy the Republicans just elected. The last time Trump was presid … | Continue reading
A certain type of person cares very much about their constitutional right to own a gun so that they can defend themselves and their family from any perceived threat. They obviously believe in the need for a violent solution to a potential problem and are willing to take on all th … | Continue reading
Subscriptions Detail For many, the consumer landscape today includes subscriptions in lots of areas, for news. TV channels, music services and software. Was life better when we all just paid a single cable bill instead of cord cutting? Was it better when you had to pay an upfront … | Continue reading
It's hard to believe there was once a time when browsers didn't have tabs. Prior to 2002, opening more than one website at the times required opening multiple instances of a browser. Memory management wasn't as robust as it is now and computers had much less power. These days you … | Continue reading
Ask me anything - Do you consider blogging to be an art form? One thing I absolutely despise is elitism is any form, followed closely by gatekeeping. Sure, people have varying degrees of talent, but I prefer an open society that encourages folks to try their hand at things. It is … | Continue reading
Some of the Services Redact Can Cleanse If you've been online for a long time, you very well may have accounts on dozens of services, including social media platforms. Despite your best attempts at privacy, there may well be old posts floating around that you wouldn't want associ … | Continue reading
When Elon Musk purchased Twitter and his toxic nature became clearly evident, lot's of people left the platform, with the socially aware tech crowd leading the way. After last week's election and Musk's role in it, there is another mass migration under way. Part of me thinks "bet … | Continue reading
Today's Ask me anything is - Are you a morning person or an evening person? I love to sleep as much as anyone I know. My ability to lapse into unconsciousness is my superpower and one for which I enjoy a certain bit of notoriety among my friends and family. But, when I am done wi … | Continue reading
Text Count interface As a person who writes a lot for my job and for fun, I have a need to make sure I'm not being to verbose and to make sure that what I'm composing is appropriate for the audience it's aimed at. I found a simple tool by indy developer Arthur Smith, Text Count, … | Continue reading
Broadchurch This British crime drama, filmed in scenic Dorset, tells the tale of a child murder and its aftermath. Starring Olivia Coleman, David Tenant and Jody Whitaker. Any of the three of them makes any show worth watching but the fireworks and raw emotion of Broadchurch are … | Continue reading
I don't actually have a cold, but if I'd titled this post "A Sick Man" then everyone would have thought it was about Trump and avoided it because we are all so tired of him and the attention he gets. To further obfuscate things, I don't believe I am actually sick either, just fee … | Continue reading
Snapsrch Snapsrch is a utility that lets you conduct searches on selected text in a convenient popup. Out of the box, it is preconfigured to search Google, Bing, Wiktionary, Google Translate and Wikipedia. Adding other search options is a breeze. I included AllMusic, YouTube, Ama … | Continue reading
Rarely does a day go by without me downloading, installing and testing a new app or two. I'm currently dealing with an installed app count of 559. Part of the reason I have so many is because I'm always on the lookout for new apps to review over at AppAddict, my software blog wit … | Continue reading
Today's question comes from hiro It has been answered by gabz, Tyler and Helen. What is the best musical experience of your life? Rather than describe a concert to you—and I have seen some wonderful acts—I'd rather talk about a quest I went on. This is a story about a particular … | Continue reading
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we … | Continue reading
Deeper Deeper In the spirit of old standbys like Onyx and TinkerTool, Deeper provides a GUI to tweak multiple system settings, including a few I haven't seen before, including: Make TextEdit open with a new document instead of the file dialog box Turn off the verification of disk … | Continue reading
Mastodon I don't know that their is a universally accepted definition of online communities. I would think that a community is definitely different than a platform. There may be communities within platforms, like my beloved OMG.LOL community that resides on Mastodon at social.lol … | Continue reading
I updated my /now page - What I’m reading and watching, plus links to this week’s blog posts, the week’s best purchase, and the links I added to my personal bookmarks. | Continue reading
Shady Things About The McDonaldland Characters Bridges & The Last Network Effect - Connecting Social Networks Influencer Brothers Are Selling More Baseball Bats Than Pro Athletes - Bloomberg Shetland man’s bond with otter becomes subject of award-winning film | Scotland | The Gua … | Continue reading
This question was asked by Curious Magpie. It has also been answered by Anniegreens. Do you experience Hiraeth (a deep longing for something)? What is it you long for - a time, a place, a feeling? The greatest adventure of my life was my honeymoon, a blissful 156 day long-distanc … | Continue reading
IFTTT As a Mac automation fan, I make use of apps most people are familiar with, like Keyboard Maestro, Hazel and Better Touch Tool. Since 2010, however, I have also used a web service to connect a wide variety of websites (including Reddit) and Mac apps in a number of ways. That … | Continue reading
I don't know about you, but I'm tired of reading mortems on why the Democrats did so poorly on November 5th. The very same people who told us the race was too close to call or that Harris/Walz were going to win nor purport to know why Trump did so well, and I'm just not putting m … | Continue reading
Denis asked - Here is a wand. With it, you can bring back anyone from the dead from any era, at any point of their life and for only one day. Who do you resuscitate for 24h, at what point in their life and to do what? This is the kind of question meant for me. I love history and … | Continue reading
Vivaldi Browser I decided to be open-minded and spend some time with a new browser for a few days after using Microsoft Edge for the last two years for reasons related to my job. The browser I decided to test is Vivaldi and after a day of using it just like I use my normal daily … | Continue reading
The scourge of Austin,TX the Great Tailed Grackle. Taken at Zilker Park. | Continue reading
Thanks to @jimmitchell@mastodon.social for doing the legwork @manton for giving him the go ahead, I am now representing MB in NC! | Continue reading
The browsers people use to access the Internet have varied widely over the past 30 years. The scumbag billionaire. Marc Andreessen, was once a brilliant software engineer who led the way in introducing Netscape (previously known as Mosaic) to the world. The market share it garner … | Continue reading
Ask Me Anything - Where (and when) would you go if time travel were real? Should time travel ever be invented, I think those of us living in 2024 are going to be pretty safe from being visited from the future. No one is ever going to look at this era and think, "Man, I'll bet tha … | Continue reading
Raycast Notes One of the most popular features in Raycast, the extensible keyboard launcher, has been its floating notes feature. Using a quick keyboard shortcut, users have been able to summon a window into which they could type or paste information. Hiding the note and bringing … | Continue reading
A quick search for advice on how to post on social media will turn up plenty of listicles. Each one has a few good tips on being yourself and keeping your profile updated, but they also tend to veer into subjects like "building your personal brand," using AI to "help" you and usi … | Continue reading
As coporate media continues to abdicate its responsibility to call the sky blue, it would serve us well to seek out and support news sources with a track record of speaking truth to power. Here are some suggestions Daily Kos Media Matters for America OptOut News The Nation Raw St … | Continue reading
Today's question comes from the November Indy Web Carnival - "Has someone had a profound impact on you?" My transition from a person who viewed the world as something that just happens around us to a person who sees the world as a place that is ours to change came about under the … | Continue reading
Scheduler for Mac If you are into Mac automation, you have probably invested in tools like Keyboard Maestro or Shortery which let you launch apps, run scripts, display messages and open documents using certain triggers. If you are new to the platform or don't want to make the inv … | Continue reading