TIL that you can open the current macOS Finder window in Terminal by right clicking in the Path Bar in the bottom of the Finder window. So far I only used to drag the proxy icon on the Terminal icon in the dock.

Latest Tech Temptations

In recent days, a lot of new hardware has been introduced, and for all these great new devices and gadgets, I consider myself part of the potential target audience. Apple has presented new iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods. Thanks to Apple’s decision to slowly and gradually roll out the promised AI features and not at all in Germany in the long run, the innovations of the iPhone 16 are limited for me. Therefore, I have decided to use my iPhone 14 Pro for another year, especially since I was recently able to replace the battery thanks to Apple Care. So far, I always had the Pro model, but this year, for the first time, I had the impression that it is actually aimed at professional photographers/videographers, and I no longer belong to the target audience. If I were to order a new device today, I would choose the regular iPhone, and who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky, and next year the iPhone 17 will even have Always On. That would probably be the only feature I would really miss. (120 Hz is guaranteed to be great, but I actually don’t see the difference in daily use; which in my case is an advantage.) It’s similar with my Apple Watch. Although I could justify a new one, since my Series 7 is now almost three years old, I recently got to replace the battery and see no urgent need for an upgrade. I’m already eyeing the Ultra anyway, and this time it hasn’t received any technical improvements. And since I already own AirPods Pro Gen 2, I followed the announcement of the AirPods 4 with interest, but there is no risk of FOMO 🥳.

Apart from Apple, the new Retroid Pocket 5 and Retroid Pocket Mini have been announced. Despite my interest in a dedicated retro handheld with an OLED display, my Steam Deck OLED and the other devices I already own are enough for now. The constant new hardware releases in this area are increasingly annoying me. When ordering, you already know that you’ll be presented with a slightly improved device in a couple of weeks. The manufacturers don’t allow you to have the feeling of truly owning the perfect device for even a minute, and it gives the impression that they are deliberately putting imperfect handhelds on the market 😡.

Speaking of retro and must-have: Analog Pocket has announced a new special edition. This time, there are beautiful GBC colors at the usual prices and not totally overpriced aluminium models. Although it tempts me, I try to curb my collector’s instinct 😅.

The announcement of the PlayStation 5 Pro initially triggered me as well, but I came to the conclusion that my current PS5 in combination with my 4K OLED gaming monitor is completely sufficient. Spending €800 for slightly better graphics is something I actually can’t justify to myself.

It’s different with the Switch 2. I’m curious and will probably buy it, provided Nintendo doesn’t make any major mistakes 🤞.

Finished reading: Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King 📚

What's Up With My Username?

I think we now live in a time where people don’t really wonder about things like usernames anymore. But maybe some of you have wondered about mine?

I’ve only been using esamecar for two or three years. Before that, I had a series of others, but for most services, I usually used the same one at the same time. I still somehow remember two of them. As a child or teenager, I naturally wanted a username that mainly sounded cool. Any appended numbers, like year of birth, were an absolute no-go for me. I’ve also never really been a fan of l33t speech. So the options were a little more limited. But, initially, it wasn’t necessary for my username to be globally unique. It was enough if it wasn’t used in the BBS network or in the Usenet groups where you were active. I believe, but I’m not 100% sure anymore, that I came up with Zodiac at the beginning of my BBS days and then years later realized that there were other people on Usenet who were much more well-known than me and had the same name. So I needed a new one.

After that, I had the username paxton for what feels like decades. I was a big fan of Bill Paxton from a specific, quite well-known sci-fi movie. But there were already others who had made a name for themselves earlier in the world wide web, and I don’t mean the actor, who probably wasn’t really hanging around in the interwebs at those times.

Therefore, I was looking for the next username and, because I became a scientist, decided on “Racemase”. Racemase sounds like an artificial term, many Americans pronounce it like “Race Maze”. But it’s actually the German term for an enzyme from the group of isomerases that enables the conversion between the two enantiomers of a substance. Anyway.

I don’t know exactly when and why, but I probably messed up and registered one or two accounts with this username and then forgot that I did and couldn’t remember the email address I was using for password recovery. Suddenly, I wasn’t able (re)register for those online communities with my chosen username when my interest returned. So I needed something new again, as I don’t wanted to be racemase68 on PSN.

And since I was very uncreative, I simply started writing racemase backwards, and now I often use this completely artificial word esamecar as an username for English-speaking communities and continue to use racemase for German-speaking ones. Let’s see how long that lasts.

Now, you know 🤷‍♂️🤣.

Update

The biggest problem with owning multiple gaming platforms is choosing the right one for a particular game. Those are the really tough decisions in life, I guess.

TIL that when Safari on macOS suggests a username for a login and you have a Touch ID enabled Mac you can just directly use the sensor. In the past I always clicked on the popup with the mouse to select it first, and then used my finger on the sensor.

What caught my attention in week thirty-two, 2024

In continuation of week 31, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the thirty-second week of 2024:

Have a sunny week ahead! ☀️

Update

  1. Lou was kind enough to point out that it is possible to define ISO formats as custom formats. ↩︎

  2. You can never have enough (pocket) knives, flashlights, bike lights, retro consoles, and gamepads 🤦‍♂️. ↩︎

  3. Of course, a few days after my purchase, the successor was announced 🤷‍♂️. ↩︎

Automated Translations in Apps: A Threat to Quality and Credibility

Apps that clearly contain automatically generated translations that no native speaker has reviewed are so disturbing to me that I can’t use them1. I don’t think the developers realize the damage they are doing to their software. Such apps come across as incredibly unprofessional to me, and I find it very difficult to spend money on them because I judge the quality of the entire project based on this sloppy usage of automated (AI) translation, which is now so easily accessible. Two examples that come to mind: Appraven and Twos. Unfortunately, there are so many more.

  1. Sometimes I give them a second chance by switching the language to English, which is thankfully possible on iOS and macOS. ↩︎

macOS Sequoia Permission Madness

9TO5Mac reports that Apple is apparently planning to present its Mac operating system users with a copy of Microsoft’s Vista disaster:

With macOS Sequoia this fall, using apps that need access to screen recording permissions will become a little bit more tedious. Apple is rolling out a change that will require you to give explicit permission on a weekly basis to these types of apps, and every time you reboot your Mac.

I really hope this gets sorted out during the beta phase; otherwise, I will try to stay on Sonoma as long as possible. For years now, I’ve been waiting to upgrade until at least the first .1 release because Apple’s software quality hasn’t exactly inspired confidence. Additionally, Sequoia only has one new feature that genuinely interests me: iPhone Mirroring. And this won’t be available for EU users initially anyway. (The integrated AI stuff doesn’t interest me on the Mac at all, so I’m not sad about not having it in my operating system for the foreseeable future. I think it will be several years before it’s useful for anything until then I just use third party app for ChatGPT.)

But I currently use 15 apps that are allowed to record my screen:

The idea of approving these weekly or after every restart is not very appealing to me. Additionally, Apple apparently plans to make running apps installed from outside the App Store more difficult. Thanks a lot for nothing.

Well, let’s wait and see 🤞.

What caught my attention in week thirty-one, 2024

In continuation of week 30, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the thirty-first week of 2024:

Have a wonderful week ahead! 🙋‍♂️

  1. Lou took a closer look at the app and also provided a discount code. ↩︎

  2. also available on Setapp ↩︎

  3. many thanks to Hiro for the tip! ↩︎

Finished reading: Der Astronaut by Andy Weir 📚

There are a number of household product categories where it feels like you can only buy junk, even if you were prepared to spend more money.

Off the top of my head:

Which ones can you think of?

Finished reading: Brüssel sehen und sterben by Nico Semsrott 📚

What caught my attention in week thirty, 2024

In continuation of week 29, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the thirtieth week of 2024:

I wish you lovely summer days! 🌞

What caught my attention in week twenty-nine, 2024

In continuation of week 28, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the twenty-ninth week of 2024:

I wish you all a wonderful week and perhaps even relaxing holidays! 🌴

  1. I had to delete Altstore and both apps, restart my phone and reinstall the store and its apps and of course all my roms, settings and save files are gone … ↩︎

What caught my attention in week twenty-eight, 2024

In continuation of week 27, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the twenty-eighth week of 2024:

Have a nice week! 🌞

IndieAppSales Summer 2024

Indie App Sales! is running again, this time from July 9th to 10th.

The last sale wasn’t that long ago, so the list of apps I checked out or bought this time is significantly shorter than my last one. However, this still means that those who didn’t make a purchase last time might find something they like this time.

What did you buy this year? Are there any other gems that I have overlooked so far?

What caught my attention in week twenty-seven, 2024

In continuation of week 25, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh week of 2024:

At the end of the 26th week, I suddenly became ill. It started with a sore throat, followed by headaches, cough, runny nose, and total exhaustion. I am still not completely fit. Covid tests were negative, but I suspect that I caught the summer wave 🤒. Since I spent a lot of time sleeping in bed, I could only evaluate a few things, but I bookmarked a few programs that might be helpful later on.

Stay healthy and have a great week! 🙌

TIL that you can scroll the list of Shortcuts in Apple’s Shortcut menu item.

Screenshot of a list of shortcuts in the menu bar icon