Skip to content
// terminals & ink
  • # articleAug 2, 2020· 4 min

    Visually Syncing Your Mac’s Desktop

    <p>For me, my Mac's Desktop is my staging ground, my active workspace, the digital representation of my mental RAM. I'll typically have all of the files related to the task I'm currently working on stored on my Desktop. Once it's complete, I'll either file them away or delete them and move on to the next thing.</p> <p>Having the Desktop on my iMac at home stay in-sync with my work laptop eases the transition and context switching as I move between locations. Dropbox has been doing this for years, but actually getting <em>into</em> the correct folder in Dropbox always has <em>just enough</em> friction to keep me from using it with active files the way I do my Desktop. When Apple added the option to sync your Documents and Desktop folders into iCloud Drive a number of years ago, it was a perfect fit for me…</p> <p>…almost.</p>

    read the full post →
  • # articleJul 20, 2020· 8 min

    DIY Video Hosting

    <p>I've been a paying customer of Vimeo since 2014 – specifically, their Pro plan. But when my renewal email arrived in April, myself and other small developers were seeing sales slow down as the pandemic worsened. Another $240/year was a tough sell for the small amount of video content I was hosting with them, and I wondered if there might be a cheaper alternative – either another service or by hosting videos myself.</p> <p>So this is how I moved off Vimeo and started hosting my own video content.</p> <p>On average, my bandwidth bill has dropped to $11/month – and that includes videos, static assets, and ALSO binary downloads for all of my Mac apps. Previously, I was paying $20/month <em>just</em> for video hosting on top of the rest of my bandwidth.</p> <p>It's definitely a geekier solution that requires more work up front to setup, and I'm not sure I would recommend it for a "real" business, but for my needs it was a fun project and I'm happy to save $200 a year.</p>

    read the full post →
  • # articleJul 15, 2020· 8 min

    Process

    <p>To keep myself sane while dealing with my work deadlines, I've found myself tinkering around with an idea I've wanted to try building for years now. Oddly enough, it's not yet-another-app, but a website (web service, maybe?). And it's actually something that's designed to be self-hosted. I haven't yet decided if it will (eventually) be open source, or if I might solicit feedback from friends (real and online) just in case it's more useful than I think.</p> <p>Sometimes the idea for something new comes in a flash of inspiration. And other times (as in the current case) it meanders around in the back of my head for years – just waiting for the right moment or combination of external factors.</p> <p>For this project, it's the result of the rebirth of the indie web movement, my long time interest in self-hosting and owning the tools and data I run my business with, and Apple's WWDC announcements about Safari and their OS's upcoming privacy improvements.</p>

    read the full post →
  • # articleJun 29, 2020· 3 min

    BespokeApp

    <p>I really don't know if anyone has a need for this other than me. But I've built this app a few times for myself in the past, so last night I finally took the initiative to make it generic and reusable – both for my future self and anyone else who might find it useful.</p> <p>It's called <a href="https://github.com/tylerhall/BespokeApp">BespokeApp</a>. It's a simple iOS app that gives you a tabbed web browser with the pre-defined websites of your choosing.</p>

    read the full post →
  • # articleJun 21, 2020· 10 min

    A Pirate Looks (Nearly) at Forty

    <p>One night last June we managed to get the kids to bed early and decided to rent a movie from iTunes. About forty-five minutes in, our youngest throws up, the oldest starts screaming because of the smell, and all hell breaks loose. Movie night over.</p> <p>For us, that's when the spell broke. For seven years we played by the rules. So I walked from the couch to my office iMac, visited an old favorite website of ill repute, and ten minutes later streamed the move in 4K to our TV.</p> <p>That one evening re-opened the piracy floodgates for us, and we haven't bought or rented another TV show or movie since.</p>

    read the full post →