This post started as an email to Riccardo – a quick response to his iPod memoriam post. But I’ll share it here instead. Many people have written tributes (laments?) about iPod since Apple formally announced they’d discontinued the product line. No need for me to add to that chorus. Instead… Today, a coworker came into… Continue reading
Author Archives → thall
The First Version of the Final Thing
Hello. I’m still here – but have gone quiet (and will probably remain that way a while longer) as I focus on wrapping up two years of work on a project that means a great deal to me. Honestly, I hope it will be the first version of the last thing I ever build. Time… Continue reading
Half-assed Followup
I never know when it’s better blogging etiquette to update a published post with new information or to publish a followup post instead. But given the chance to use "Half-assed" in two consecutive article titles, I think the prudent choice is to seize that opportunity. After I posted "Half-assed Mac Apps" a few days ago… Continue reading
Half-assed Mac Apps
This week, Riccardo Mori published a piece about the recent perceived decline in Mac software titled “A brief reflection on Mac software stagnation”.
I was going to reply with a quick tweet-sized comment. But those 280 characters turned into a few tweets, then a full-on Twitter thread, and then – ah, shit – I really should write about this properly.
So here we are this evening. I want to present my short thesis answering Riccardo’s question of why so many Mac Catalyst apps are, at best, Half-assed Mac Apps.
Continue readingRoar Notifications
As much as it is a job and source of income, for me, building software is also a way to relax, a form of self-expression, play, and in the best moments – joy.
Today, I want to show off a project so far along the joy side of that spectrum that it blows past being silly and borders on pure ridiculousness.
Let’s reskin Notification Center on macOS.
And make it look like Winamp.
Continue readingA Better Way to Copy Two-Factor Codes on macOS
Back in June, I posted a completely un-serious post that described a ridiculous Rube Goldberg approach to grabbing two-factor authentication codes from your text messages on macOS using Keyboard Maestro (for those of use who don’t use Safari).
How dumb was it? Let’s just say that it relied on taking a screenshot of Notifcation Center and parsing the code out of the image.
A joke, yes, but also a fun distraction one evening.
To my surprise, very nice reader azorpheunt provided a real solution in the comment section earlier today.
Continue readingRetina Studio
When I tell people, “I started my app business in 2007”, that’s not true. I never meant to start a business – it just happened. Because if I had sat down one afternoon and thought, “I’m going to begin selling software online today,” I sure as hell wouldn’t have intentionally named my company Click On Tyler.
For fourteen years, I’ve hated that name.
Continue readingTriple Tap to Capture
I wish I could remember who on Twitter pointed out this Accessibility feature, but I wanted to highlight it here and how I use this gesture because it’s such a fun shortcut for automation nerds.
Watch this.
Continue readingCapture Thing
I’ve been big into journaling for close to a decade now – at least in my personal life. But I’ve never been able to build up the same habit in my work / professional life – even though I know I would reap benefits there, too.
I’ve tried all sorts of workflows to make journaling my workday a regular and frictionless routine — everything from a Day One hotkey to some convoluted Keyboard Meastro macros and Drafts.app actions.
None of them stuck.
But what finally did work for me (at least for the last six months or so) is a tiny little Mac app called Capture Thing.
Continue readingThat Person Exists
Situations like these are never easy on the person’s family – no matter the medical condition. But Alzheimer’s is particularly vile because at some point, the person living with this disease…disappears. And other than the occasional fleeting glimpse of their old selves, the person that family loved and now has to take care of, is gone. It’s fucking cruel to witness the story play out over the remaining years. In my grandmother’s case, it took eleven.
My grandmother passed away in August of 2019 at ninety-five years young. Why am I writing this post now? Two years later? Before I get to that, let me tell you about her.
Continue reading