July 10, 2023
Weekender #121: Still Hanging Out
Birb watch: Beating the odds, baby myna is still hanging around, and it seems like there’s nothing that Handsome and Matey myna (parents) can do to get them to stay away. They continue to chase him away from the area, with Matey doing most of the work. Handsome tolerates baby myna for the most part and will only chase them away when they get too close to his food. I’m getting a bit worried that baby myna is spending too much time in our driveway waiting to be fed instead of wandering the neighborhood and learning about the world.
Thanks to Pyrmont for sending the Apple Support document with the information on Mac mini power consumption and thermal output (BTU). I knew that my new Mac Mini M2 Pro server was more efficient than my 2012 Mac Mini, but I didn’t have the specs. 7 W at idle vs. 11 W for the 2012 model. I still recall migrating my home server from an early 2008 Mac Pro to the 2012 Mac Mini and being shocked at how much lower my electricity bill was just by doing that.
This week’s Link List
Design
Pixabay is a searchable repository of over 4 million royalty-free stock images, videos, and music. Read their content license for more information.
Color and Contrast is a “comprehensive guide for exploring and learning about the theory, science, and perception of color and contrast.” A fantastic deep dive for anyone interested in this subject.
Fediverse
- The Lemmy Beginner’s Guide for Redditors is a good place to start if you’re interested in trying out Lemmy.
Software and hardware
Want more control of your Mac’s mouse or trackpad? Give LinearMouse a try. It offers customization for mouse and trackpad scrolling, pointer acceleration and modifier keys.
If you’re one of the folks that got an invite to Bluesky, Sky.app is a client for the service for MacOS, featuring keyboard shortcuts, Dark Mode, Sync, and notification badges.
Following up on last week’s mention of advanced macOS command-line tools, I present Mac Commands, a searchable website for exactly that.
bigWav.app is a free to use, completely private, audio transcription and annotation tool. Yet another “AI” powered annotation tool.
If you use FFmpeg for manipulating video files, you might be interested in checking out ffmprovisr. It helps users through the command generation process to make it easier to use FFmpeg.
Speaking of video files, I found yt-dlp, a youtube-dl fork with additional features and fixes. Use this formulae to install if you’re using Homebrew.
Miscellaneous
- Megan Barker answers a question on the 1Password blog I’ve had for a while: is it safe to store passwords and 2FA codes together? TL;DR: “For the majority of people, storing TOTP in 1Password is well within their risk tolerance. There will always be those of you who will trade that convenience because you want or require the added protection of true 2FA.”
Media consumption
Lüften is the latest album from ambient music person, Jogging House. It’s described as “A sonic stroll through the woods. By yourself, but not alone. Take your time!” and I agree! It was exactly the soundtrack I needed to get through this work week. Listen on Bandcamp and Apple Music.