jesse_the_k | Entries tagged with apple

The MacMost site offers bite-sized tech help for Apple users. Even though I’ve been using Apples since 1984, I always learn something there. Recently, Gary offered 36 ways to type more easily on the iPhone keyboard. Transcript and video at https://macmost.com/36-iphone-keyboard-tips.html

I learned three things that made me happy. Writing them down helps me remember, so here are the summaries:

( Specific advice for iOS, general approach may also apply to Android )

Do you have any tricks to make mobile Dreamwidth posting easier?

MyGuy is feeling "no symptoms" from COVID, but he's still testing positive. Masking inside is tedious. I sleep much better when we're sharing a bed. Grr, arrrgh.

My Mac is twitchy and cranky. None of my smart mailboxes in Mail are showing what worked two months ago. Mail Activity shows "Moving messages ..." with a value that doubles every day (Friday it was 12, today it's 115).

My Safari extensions are failing randomly.

I've got several backups and I'm planning to wipe and reinstall and start fresh, which I haven't done since Mountain Lion!

If there's pitfalls to avoid, please let me know.

When I’m using my computer devices (Mac, iPad, iPhone) I tend to sit in one spot too long.

For macOS, I use Dejal Software’s Time Out utility: every 48 minutes it blanks the screen and locks out the keyboard. Even if I reboot, it ensures I take that 12-minute break (that's just an example: you can define any break schedule you like). I want the same solution for my iPhone and iPad.

The App Store offers scores of Pomodoro timers, but they just send a notification. As far as I can tell, the system tools — Focus and ScreenTime — aren’t restrictive enough. I’m not a programmer, so advising me to "write a shortcut" won’t help. Does what I want exist? Or do you know someone who could create it?

I'm here to kvell about a nifty browser extension, StopTheMadness

(Everything except the name, which I could do without. More accurately, it's GiveMeBackControl).

StopTheMadness wrests control back from websites, so I can always right-click, copy text/images, prevent opening in new pages, prevent media autoplay, and much more. Visit site for full marketing info:

https://underpassapp.com/StopTheMadness/

It's currently available for Chrome (and Chromium browsers) on Windows, Mac, Linux.

For Mac/Safari it's a full-fledged app (as now is required for Safari extensions) with even more benefits.

I can assign browsers to domains and apps to URL schemes.

The social media giants seem to optimize function for Chromium-based browsers. So in my case, I always use Brave (with its robust privacy features) for FB, IG, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Gmail and YouTube. Any cookies left by those sites are isolated to those sites, with my principal work remaining in Safari.

URL schemes means I control which apps open feed://, mailto: etc.

It also offers domain-specific implementation of styles if I use the Safari style sheet option -- it's not a full replacement for Tampermonkey yet, but who knows? The dev, Jeff Johnson, has been steadily adding features.

Sadly, it's not available for iOS (yet?)

…with support for macOS and iOS.

I’m paying for Dropbox now but they no longer support rendering images in HTML.

It’s possible to publish photos on iCloud as "public websites," but I don’t see where to get the photo’s link. I know that dealing with the macOS and iOS insistence on managing iCloud files in its own way confuses me a lot.

I’m willing to pay for a straightforward system.

I'm reluctant to use Google because Big Google scares me and they have form on dropping support for nifty services.

I’m really good at dropping my iThings, and that’s why I buy Speck cases. I have dropped both these devices on tile floors uncountable times. No damage. Worth every penny. (I went cheap for my iPod Touch case a long time ago, and shattered the glass within two weeks.)

( details )

This post brought to you with no affiliate links, but having just sailed my iPad out of my fingers and eight feet across the dining room face down on the floor.

I like having a written record of what happened, to supplement my memory.

I switched form Eudora to Mac Mail in the last millennium. I've had at least a dozen email addresses. I've faithfully downloaded everything to my local Mac (IMAP, not POP--I may be old fashioned but I'm not a masochist). I'm more cavalier with my iOS Mail since I know the master version will be on my Mac.

I have 7 gigabytes of *.mbox and sipped *.mboxes.

I know that Mail will be happier if I have fewer "active" messages. Can I somehow export and then delete emails from Mail without losing them?

My search has found no massively helpful article. I want "Take Control of Archiving Your Email" to exist. Can you point me to a step-by-step, handholding resource that will slim down current Mail while still permitting me to read that email I sent to my doctor in 1999?

When I began computing, everything was dark mode: green pixels on a gray-green screen. ( (just like this one, resting on two mighty 158k floppy disk drives on an Apple IIe) )

I was thrilled when the Mac showed up with black on white! So much easier on the eyes! I was mystified and repelled when Adobe products began showing a dark UI. Now it’s the hot new thing--the next version of iOS will offer it.

I learned a lot from TidBITS’s deep dive into why dark mode isn’t actually that much easier on the eyes.

https://tidbits.com/2019/05/31/the-dark-side-of-dark-mode/

The full article discusses the science of visual perception, and acknowledges its conclusions are relevant to typical eyesight. Some people’s vision requirements are different, and I’m very glad that modern computer systems let us change displays to optimize for what we can see.

Last week when I was kvelling about my new glasses, killing_rose explained how rose-colored glasses minimized migraine

( My Apple devices let me create helpful tints with software )

ETA Feb 2021:

I've delayed tidying my Address Book/Contacts info way too long. I sync my Contacts between macOS High Sierra and an iPhone and iPad running iOS 11 using iCloud. Somehow I also have almost all these contacts "On My Mac" as well, but I don't want them there. Because my contacts are very private info, I don't want to use an online service like Scrubly.

Either a Mac or iPad app would fit the bill. While many inexpensive utilities appear on both App Stores, ease-of-use is much more important than low price. I seek recommendations from folks with direct experience of the task and the software.

My ideal software would prune complete duplicates, offer partial matches for my merge decisions (highlighting the more-recent data) and create a clean dataset. Then I could delete all my Contacts, import this clean dataset and be more careful in the future

Ricky Buchanan is one of my long-time heroes. I had the good fortune to meet her on the CFS-L listserv back in the 1990s. She’s been basically bed-bound for decades, and she’s contributed so much to our community, where “we” are people with chronic pain and chronic illness.

Energy Saving Self-Care Cards are just one of those great contributions.

( Sample card in the cut )

You can preview the deck (complete with image descriptions) at Tumblr https://energysavingselfcare.tumblr.com or buy a pack for less than US$20: http://energysavingselfcare.com

Ricky is also the genius behind http://atmac.org, a great resource on “Using Assistive Technology to Empower Apple Users With Disabilities.”

Back in the mid-90s, a lovely tool called After Dark came to the Mac. No screensaver was built in to Mac OS. MThe diligent programmers at Berkeley Systems needed to do a lot of low-level work to paint the screen with pretty images -- most famously, flying toasters.

If you're curious, a dozen of the original After Dark screen savers are available, simulated in CSS, here
https://www.bryanbraun.com/after-dark-css/

The reason those programmers were so good at directly addressing the Mac screen is they'd written a utility called inLarge, a screen enlarging system hack which permitted magnifcation of the (then tiny) Mac screen. Yet again, assistive technology users were the alpha testers.

Berkeley Systems made big money on After Dark, and reinvested some into further assistive tools for the Mac, including its first screen reader, outSpoken. But users and developer both saw the writing in the wall: the best Mac screen access software needed to be baked in at a very low level, which Apple has finally done with VoiceOver and the other AT that ships with all Mac products now.

...after I spend a couple days reorganizing all the music files on my Mac.

iDAMN iHATE iTunes

(I'd somehow created dup music folders. Good thing I only have ~2000 songs or my poor drive would have keeled. If you use a Mac and ever have to delete more than 50 iTunes duplicates, do yourself a favor and spend $8 for Dupin Lite 2 from this Apple store link.)

It's like Apple's software division has no overall UX chief. Almost every bit of software is uniquely annoying. If you use an Apple device, what's the software you hate most right now?

(Can I have Eudora back?) Speaking of which, recognize my icon?

Thanks to

JadAbumrad, a detailed article about the impressive, yet well hidden, ventilation towers all over New York City (and the terminii of tunnels elsewhere): Imagine an entire city district dedicated to nothing but ventilating the underworld!

I think the new Airport is working, but the cable modem is so damn intermittent I don't have enough data to be sure. All this technomagic is great when it's working, but massively frustrating when it falls apart in your lap like a house of cards.

Dialup never gave me this tsurris!

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Inside the Little Plastic Castle

adventures with Jesse the K

Entries tagged with apple

How-to: iPhone Keyboard Tips

Two Annoyances

Uncheat-able iOS Break Timer

Great Browser Tool: StopTheMadness

help: 1 service to provide both cloud file storage and image hosting

I love Speck cases

help: Locally Archiving 30 years of Mac Email

Optimizing Display for My Wonky Eyes & Brain

Seeking Apple App to Merge Deduplicate Manage Too Many Contacts

Great Present for Chronically Ill Folks

Requiem for a screensaver

That Squeaky Clean, Harmonic Feeling

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