🆕📝 52 Things I Learned in 2023

I like to practice ABL: Always Be Learnin’

I know I shouldn’t have enjoyed that hour+ Reels dive I just subjected myself to, but I sure did smile and laugh a lot. No regrets.

I didn’t realize doing a New Year’s Day polar plunge was a thing.

That you can scroll away from the search field in the Mac’s Music app is profoundly weird. The whole thing needs a major rethinking and probably a modern rewrite.

I was today years old when I finally saw the “U” in the @upgrade@relayfm.social logo.

I think I’m done with selling on Facebook Marketplace except for free stuff I want to get rid of locally. 90% of the messages I get about stuff listed there are people trying to run Zelle scams. Back to eBay and OfferUp, I guess.

🔗 Out of my Comfort Zone | Canion dot Blog

Lisa’s presence in my life makes me a better person. She makes my life better. This past year has been a doozy in so many ways, but upon reflection, I am not sure where I’d be if I hadn’t benefited from the steadfast care, attention, and honest love that Lisa has bestowed upon me.

There’s been enough of me prevaricating about how to express my relationship situation. It is thus. I am in a relationship. I am in love. I love Lisa.

I love love. 🥰

🔗 Greg Morris - A Living Rss // Greg Morris

It is only when services like Threads, and previously Twitter, make a mess of their algorithm they use and show you terrible content that you realise the true beauty of a bare-bones service.

It’s certainly a safe harbor to return to.

🆕📝 A Breakout Year for HeyDingus

Thanks for reading. 🥰

🆕📝 7 Things (Which Are Seven of My Favorite Numbers Because It’s New Year’s Eve and I Have Company Over and No Time) This Week [#125]

🆕📝 My Desk as We Round Out 2023

Presented without sanitization or explanation.

🆕📝 Letters with Austin #3, December 2023

Thanks so much, Austin, for being my pen pal this month! This project has been one of my favorites of the years, so it feels right that it’s one of the last things that will go on my site for 2023.

🔗 Daring Fireball: Apple’s Next Magic Trackpad Should Have a Touch ID Sensor (But Probably Won’t)

So I wish that either (a) Apple would add a Touch ID sensor to the Magic Trackpad; or (b) someone would start selling pre-assembled Touch ID sensors in a nice case, repurposed from Magic Keyboards. It’s a bit of a waste to destroy a Magic Keyboard just to repurpose the Touch ID button, but I’d happily pay for it.

Same here; I so want a standalone button. Then I could stop waiting for this guy. I’m on the verge of tackling this snazzy project.

🎙️ Very much enjoyed this episode of Scriptnotes with Christopher Nolan. I’ve never read a movie script and know very little about film-making. Still, his thoughts on how a script should come together and translate onto the screen are fascinating. Great interview by @johnaugust@mastodon.art!

I’m incredibly proud of my sister, brother-in-law, nephew, and niece as they work to get better access for people of all needs and abilities. One small step that you can take? Use person-first language. (Here’s a good starter guide, and a great illustrative graphic) 🙂

My post gushing about my love for the iPad’s T-Mobile data plan has sprung up to the top of my hit list lately, according to @tinylytics. I wondered if I was getting linked to by some listicle. Maybe, but this could also be it (in my admittedly non-scientific test of a search term in private mode).

I got a really nice email from a reader who found my post about making sure your PlayStation is actually using that ethernet cord you plugged into it. So I figure it’s probably a good time to remind you to make sure your PlayStation is actually using that ethernet cord you plugged into it.

Help! Between @snazzyq@mas.to’s video and @viticci@mastodon.social’s gushing, I’m growing ever more interested in Nreal glasses. 😎

🆕📝 I Made a Bookmarklet That Runs a Shortcut on a URL

Ever been frustrated by trying to run a shortcut on a URL in Safari? Here’s an old-school bookmarklet to the rescue! Plus some companion shortcuts and my awe of ChatGPT’s helpfulness.

I just released version 1.0 of my ‘Save for Later’ shortcut — one that I use all the time to direct the traffic of links into different apps:

This shortcut processes URLs shared to it from the share sheet or clipboard and saves them to separate apps depending on their content.

It can process a bunch of different URLs at once and send them off to a media-saver like Play or MusicBox, a task manager like Things, or a catch-all/read-later app like GoodLinks.

Get it here from the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library.

And let me know if you adapt it!

😆 Turns out I not only already had this idea, but I implemented it and promptly forgot about it too.

🆕📝 The Secrets App Makes a Good iCloud Passwords Companion and Is Free Today Thanks to Indie App Santa

I wanted to be thorough in this post, but that means you might have less than an hour to go get this massive discount for what seems to be an ideal app for those who are iCloud Passwords-curious.

🆕📝 Current writing progress…

A simple project never is.

I just updated my ‘Get URL to Run Shortcut’ shortcut to version 1.2:

• Added option to create a bookmarklet that runs the selected shortcut with the current webpage URL as its input
• Fixed the Rich Text option on macOS
• Added it to the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library

Get it here from the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library.

This was a stunning way of telling me that I wasn’t using Raycast’s power features nearly as much as I thought. I’m satisfied with my decision to cancel my Pro subscription. But its lightning speed and AI contextual awareness are probably the best we’ll see until Apple builds in its own AI thing.