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
2024-08-15 19:31: Slightly rephrased some paragraphs and eliminated a few typos.
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.
In continuation of week 31, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the thirty-second week of 2024:
🖥️ If you’re tired of always having to find a tiny free spot on an macOS app window to move or resize it, then this app might help: Swift Shift - Manage your macOS windows like a pro.
🖥️ BetterDisplay - Unlock your displays on your Mac - was updated to version 3.
📝 Quick Note Taking - Type made the rounds. Lout has (of course) already written about it. I like the idea, but the app does not support ISO formats for date and time and it1 does not fit into my personal Obsidian workflow, as I would have to configure a new note daily. However, I can imagine that the app could be great for many people. I will stick with Drafts in combination with Actions for Obsidian, though.
📷 The image uploader for micro.blog Mimi Uploader was updated.
🚴♂️ I really like my Lumos Ultra Fly Pro bike helmet and the matching Firefly are used in a variety of ways within my family. I also really like their announced new, smaller Firefly Mini.2
🌡️ For many months now I bake bread (yeast and sourdough) several times a week. I distrusted the temperature display of our oven and was therefore looking for a reasonable thermometer I can place inside my oven. I came to the conclusion, that this is one of those categories of items for which there is only trash available to purchase. Ultimately, I bought the meat thermometer Meater 2 plus. I suspect that my Meater will never see the inside of a raw piece of meat and I dislike their target group marketing and even more dislike their advertising campaign (woman lets food burn and star chef, of course a man, rushes to help 🤦♂️) BUT I still found the product very interesting. My Meater now measures the dough temperature, supposedly to the decimal point. (The reading of the ambient temperature seems to be completely off as well but the internal readings seem to be awesome.) It does leave an ugly hole in the bread, but the endpoint (96-98 °C, depending on the dough) can be determined pretty well. (For the first loaves, it was 5 - 10 minutes longer than the maximum duration stated in the recipe; so I have already learned something about our oven.)3
👋 After actively ignoring Gruber in my podcast and RSS feed as well as social media for a while, I have now deleted all sources.
🕹️ DOOM + DOOM II was released - The legendary action FPS is enhanced, combined, and now available on modern platforms! Nice move: Existing owners of DOOM (1993) and/or DOOM II on any of the above platforms receive a free upgrade to the new combined game, and can still access their previously owned versions. So, I could download the new version for my Steam Deck, Switch, and PS5 for free. (Of course, I own a legal copy of Doom and Doom II for all these platforms.)
Have a sunny week ahead! ☀️
Update
2024-08-14: corrected paragraph about Type
Lou was kind enough to point out that it is possible to define ISO formats as custom formats. ↩︎
You can never have enough (pocket) knives, flashlights, bike lights, retro consoles, and gamepads 🤦♂️. ↩︎
Of course, a few days after my purchase, the successor was announced 🤷♂️. ↩︎
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.
Sometimes I give them a second chance by switching the language to English, which is thankfully possible on iOS and macOS. ↩︎
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.
In continuation of week 30, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the thirty-first week of 2024:
🖼️ I’ve mentioned the image viewers Lyn and PicArrange before, but this week Musebox made the rounds. I will take a closer look at it when I get a chance.
🔄 Speaking of alternatives: Diffraction might be a (currently free) alternative to Acorn.
🔍 And if you only want to find (even the smallest) differences between two images, you can check out ImageDiff.
🖥️ Somehow, mini apps for the Dynamic Island of various MacBooks were making the rounds this week. I came across NotchDrop (FOSS), MediaMate ($7), Notchnook ($25), and DynamicLake Pro1 ($14). Since I mostly use my MacBooks with larger monitors, I currently don’t need these apps. But maybe in the future.
🌐 There is a public beta for Söka 2.0 available if you’re interested.
📑 GoodLinks also received an update and now supports highlighting text on web pages after subscribing via IAP. Since I am very happy with Readwise Reader, which admittedly is very expensive, I don’t need it. If I weren’t, I would definitely take a closer look at this feature.
📱 Many people were excited about Unread for Mac. I don’t want another subscription and will stick with Reeder for now.
📰 Speaking of RSS, Tapestry is slowly taking shape and looks promising. However, the concept only works for me with a very limited selection of resources, and I find it very difficult to choose the right ones.
📁 Nimble Commander - Free dual-pane mac file manager with classic design, charged for power users. A possible alternative for those who don’t have a license for Forklift2, Path Finder2, or Commander One2.
🔍 There are countless different apps that help you find files on your Mac in addition to Spotlight. There is now another free app that promises to do just that: File Find by Pixel-Master - Search and find files fast and easily.
🎨 This looks cool: Pixelorama - a powerful and accessible open-source pixel art multitool. Unfortunately, I am not talented enough to use such an app.
☔ Carlo discovered Merry Sky. Looks cool, too and like a free, supercharged web version of Looks Like Rain. Well, probably the other way round - but what the heck 😇.
🤦 I first thought it was a joke because it’s so cringe: Friend. Maybe they just want to get the addresses of people who urgently need psychological support? (They already have their own addresses, though.)
🎧 I was about to throw away our Beats Solo3 because the ear pads were starting to disintegrate. Luckily, I learned that you can buy replacements very cheaply and mount them yourself. And If I had studied the instructions more carefully, I wouldn’t have almost destroyed them during the process 🤦♂️.
💍 There were increasing rumours this week about The Apple Ring and Health Tracking, presumably in response to Samsung’s Ring. I would also find such a device very attractive. After my first COVID-19 infection at the end of last year and the resulting break in my streak of closing my rings every day for several years, I’m no longer as keen on achieving this, but I still pay attention to them. On the other hand, I’m getting bored with the design of my Apple Watch(es), which I’ve been wearing on my wrist for almost 18 years now. Therefore, some variety in the form of other watches or none at all would certainly be welcome. Samsung will surely not integrate its Ring into the Apple Health universe (although this would probably be possible even without DMA). So, I just have to wait for Apple or just ignore my rings.
🚴 Due to my wife’s shoulder surgery, we unfortunately had to cancel our vacation. We will now have to go hiking in the French Alps another time. However, I still took three days off from work and did what I would have done on vacation: ate very well, read a book3, finished a game on my Switch, but spent only little time on the computer overall. Oh yes, I finally went for a bike ride again, which I hadn’t had time or motivation for lately.
Have a wonderful week ahead! 🙋♂️
Lou took a closer look at the app and also provided a discount code. ↩︎
In continuation of week 29, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the thirtieth week of 2024:
📝 Might be handy, but not sure if I will actually use it: WeExpire - Create emergency notes that can be read by your trusted contacts only after your death.
🖥️ Apparency for macOS - The App That Opens Apps - received a nice update at the beginning of the month.
🖼️ PicArrange for macOS as well; although I have not yet found whether the text-based image search happens on-device or sends anything to the cloud.
🤖 Meta released Llama 3.1 and it does indeed produce much better results with e.g. Ollama.
🎮 Along with a few new applications, Fortnite is now even coming to the AltStore PAL. Let’s see if Apple will “coincidentally” allow it back in the regular App Store. It’s also a shame that Apple has managed to make the update and installation process so broken on my system that it barely works without restarting or reinstalling the AltStore or the apps.
🎁 The German computer magazine c’t had a review of the WOWCUBE ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM - a very cool idea. Maybe a possible Christmas gift? I’m curious whether their software platform will flop or survive.
🗳️ My Mastodon timeline has become much more interested in American politics since certain events. I follow this with some interest. However, I couldn’t initially understand the sudden memes about a certain person’s couch. Thanks to JD Vance couch memes, explained: Why AP pulled its story, now I know.
🚑 My wife had shoulder surgery again. It’s no fun; now six weeks of complete rest are prescribed, and we really hope that the collarbone, or rather the implanted metal plate, holds this time. We had to cancel our vacation because of this. It’s a shame, but her health definitely comes first.
🧱 I have quite a huge LEGO collection (> 700 sets and > 2200 minifigs) but stopped collecting a while ago, mainly due to space constraints and of course because it was becoming increasingly expensive. But I might be tempted by this set: LEGO 71438 Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi.
🎮 Of course, I am enjoying Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition on my Switch quite a bit and found this guide helpful. You can download a free PDF copy if you have a myNintendo account. Additionally, I am currently playing the remake of Dead Space on the PS5.
In continuation of week 28, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the twenty-ninth week of 2024:
📱 Just in time for its tenth anniversary the rewrite of Overcast was released. I had canceled my subscription months ago, but since it hasn’t expired yet, I downloaded the new version and used it over the past week. It seems significantly more performant than before, but its UI is still confusing. I think I’ll switch back to Apple’s Podcast App, which I am also not really satisfied with.
📑 With Showdown, a free presentation app based on Markdown has been released. I’ve been using Deckset for a while, and then there’s Hyperdeck or, of course, iA Presenter, all of which can do similar things.
📱 The first beta of Tapestry for iOS by the Iconfactory was distributed to Kickstarter backers; it is still just a concept; I am curious to see how it develops.
🤖 Sindre’s AI Actions for the Shortcuts app now supports GPT-4o mini.
🔋 The battery capacity of my iPhone 14 Pro was down to 79% after just 1.5 years, so I used Apple’s Express Replacement Service through Apple Care+. You have to hand it to Apple, I had the replacement device in my hands the next day. The migration went quite well. My second prepaid eSIM was not as easy to transfer, but it was eventually reactivated. But guess what didn’t work afterward? Altstore PAL along with Delta and Clip1. A knave who thinks ill of it.
🚑 My wife had a collarbone fracture a few weeks ago, had to undergo surgery, and now has a plate inside her. About a week ago, she suddenly experienced severe pain again. It turned out that two screws had come loose. Now she has to be operated on again. I feel very sorry for her.
I wish you all a wonderful week and perhaps even relaxing holidays! 🌴
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 … ↩︎
🛠️ Another new app from Sindre: Menu Bar Spacing - Customize the gap between menu bar items.
📄 BeyondPDF - BeyondPDF is your intelligent document companion, here to change the way you search for content in your PDF files. It works locally, without sending data to any AI startup, but so far, only for English texts. I am still waiting for a real use case and therefore cannot comment on its quality yet.
🎥 Telestream - Use Continuity Camera from your menu bar!
💸 There was another series of discounts for software from indie developers as part of the IndieAppSales. This time I didn’t go overboard like at the beginning of the year, but there were still a few very nice new apps to discover.
💰 Speaking of discounts, Skoro 3.0 is still available at a reduced price.
📱 Many people in my Apple bubble are impressed by this really cheap and very stylish Android mobile phone. Instead of a used iPhone, I might also buy a CMF Phone 1 for one of my sons if the need suddenly arose. A few years ago, this would have been unthinkable for me. BTW, since the end of last week, the Vision Pro is now available in Germany, and I haven’t even thought about checking out the device in person. That would have been unthinkable a few years ago, too. Due to what I believe to be very poor software quality lately, their behavior towards developers, and childish actions against the EU’s demands, Apple has actually managed to kill any interest I had in new devices from Cupertino. What a shame 😢.
🏳️🌈 Niléane from MacStories published an article about her impression that LGBT and Marginalized Voices Are Not Welcome on Threads. She and Federico received the unfortunately expected feedback directly. I don’t understand why people have such a problem with others just being different from them. What are they afraid of? It’s great to see that Niléane received a lot of support from within the Mastodon community and many people took this as an opportunity to donate to various organizations.
🤧 My cold is getting better. I hope that I can finally get back on my bike in the course of next week.
🎮 Analogue announced an Aluminum Edition of the Pocket. Unfortunately, it’s unaffordable for me. Additionally, the Odin 2 Mini looks extremely tempting, and the Ayaneo Pocket EVO with an OLED screen has also been announced 🤷♂️.
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.
Authenticator App Widget - thinking about buying it; I should delete my Twilio account and I can still not decide if I should keep my 2FA in iCloud Keychain, hardware token, 1PW or an independent third party app
Find Any File (FAF) - Lou recommended it before and now was a good opportunity to purchase it; did not try yet myself
GamingBuddy: Games Discovery - looks interesting, but it’s regular price is not worth it for me and therefore I won’t go with the discount for the first year either
Plinky - looked briefly into the free version; even 50% off $45 for the yearly subscription is way too much money for me, esp. considering the fact that Anybox only costs $18 / a or $45 for Lifetime
PowerPhotos - I actually use several photo libraries at work, but I think I can probably continue to get by without this app; if I do need it, I just have to pay the full price, which is not that much more expensive than its sale price
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.
🖼️ Upscayl - Free and Open Source AI Image Upscaler.
🚶♂️ Strolly - Generated daily walks: The app generates short (or longer) walking routes based on your location. I imagine the app to be quite helpful, especially if you are somewhere else and want to plan a dog walk.
🗑️ BananaBin - Lets you know when to empty the MacOS Bin. This is definitely the app I was waiting for! (And 100% worth giving it full disk access 😇.) And be sure to install Ball as well.
💻 About-This-Hack - Discover your hardware on macOS with this simple, user-friendly hardware info app that retains the beloved design language of the classic ‘About This Mac’ interface, while gaining access to a wealth of additional features.
📝 Zavala: This promising looking outliner had flown under my radar until now.
🗺️ Avenue-GPX-Viewer - A simple and easy GPX viewer for macOS. I use myTracks, but if you are looking for a simple and open source GPX viewer, you could check out Avenue.
👀 DockDoor - Window peeking for macOS. Personally, “too much” for me but maybe great for you …
💸 Support an Indie Developer today! - Indie App Sales is back for our July ‘24 Edition for two days only - July 9-10! Lot’s of discounted apps 🥰.
📊 Datawrapper - Create charts, maps, and tables. Looks like a very promising web application.
💰 YNAB has unfortunately increased prices again. I still can’t imagine life without it, but Canion has already started looking for alternatives.
🐘 Thanks to Michael I can look up all those custom Mastodon icons (emojos) of a given instance from the web. (BTW if you’re interested in additional data, you could check out Mastowatch.)
😠 I have a strong opinion about Apple’s statement regarding alternative marketplaces during The Talk Show Live and the latest announcements about missing features in the upcoming iOS update in the fall concerning the DMA. I have long considered whether I should write it down in detail. But I’d rather save my energy for discussions with my teenage son, behave like an adult, and might simply take the advice to get an Android device as my next phone 😇.
💸 Speaking of discounts. Some long-established macOS apps are once again on SummerFest sale. For some of them, I wish they were a bit more modern 😎.
🪟 There is just another free and open-source window manager for macOS that looks promising: Loop - Window management made elegant. Bookmarked just in case I have to switch from Rectangle some day.
📝 If you don’t want to subscribe to Drafts to quickly jot down text snippets and move them to other places and also don’t really warm up to Bebop, you might want to check out Funnel: Quick Capture as recommended by Thomas.
🔌 I have completely lost track of my USB-C cables. Which ones can only charge, which ones support fast data transfer? So I recently bought two gadgets recommended in the c’t1: Treedix USB Cable Tester2 and Gianac USB Adapter3 and now I know that I only have one high-speed USB-A to C cable and only very few USB-C to C cables supporting it.
🖥️ I have been using my ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM monitor for about a week now and I am blown away by its panel. Still don’t like the gaming vibe, though but hey, I bought a gaming monitor so nothing to complain about. Was playing Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on my PS5 and enjoy it so far.
In continuation of week 23, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the 24th week of 2024.
My eldest son has a guest student from America visiting, who will be staying with us for the next three weeks. Last week was therefore very much about preparation and, after his arrival, a lot of social activities. I really hope, he enjoys his stay with us 😅.
I still watched the WWDC keynote and exceptionally listened to the Talk Show. I will leave the further reporting and commentary to others. Besides that, there was very little I watched this week or that I had a chance to try.
🔍 Somewhere I stumbled upon fastfetch-cli, which can also be installed via Homebrew; a nice tool for the CLI.
🗓️ If you would like to use an event countdown iOS app but don’t want to spend money on a subscription for Up Ahead or Pinning, you might want to take a look at Countdown Widget - The best app for your important events.
🐻 Somehow, half of my timeline seems to be discovering Bear Blog, and I had to first learn that it has nothing to do with the app Bear - Markdown Notes.
😊 I was very pleased that Lou mentioned me on his Junited List.
🎮 My wife doesn’t like video games being played in the living room, and she also doesn’t want to tolerate a bigger TV there1. On the other hand, my 24" 4K LG monitor for the Mac in my room unfortunately doesn’t have an HDMI input, so I could only use the PS5 remotely or when she was already in bed. That should change, and last week I was looking for a monitor that is at least 27" in size, provides 4K, 120 Hz, 90 W USB-C PD Upstream with DP alt., Audio out, at least one HDMI input, and could actually be purchased. The picture quality should also not be terrible. There are shockingly few options. Anyway, it ended up being the ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM and I am totally blown away 🤷♂️🤦♂️🤣.
I wonder how many people don’t know that in iOS they can access a multiple selection mode in lists with a double tap and hold, e.g. in Apple Mail, with which they can very easily mark many mails as read, for example. That’s only one of so many non-discoverable features in iOS.
