April 2021 – Page 4 – Macinations

April 5, 2021

Monitoring the Downloads folder with Keyboard Maestro

When you search for folder organization, you can’t help but find Hazel. It’s a great program to help organize your files and put them where they belong. Only problem is, at $42, it’s expensive. That’s more than Keyboard Maestro, Scrivener, and a few other tools. Since I have Keyboard Maestro, I can emulate a lot of that functionality. Enter the Monitor Download Folder macro. With a combination of Keyboard Maestro and some Shell Scripting, I can move downloaded files around to keep things tidy. The first thing to do is set up a “Folder Trigger.” For this example, it’s on the Downloads folder. We also want to choose, “Ignore partial or changing files.” For most applications this works fine. But, not always for a browser. The macro may trigger before the file is done. To compensate, we can add some scripting. Borrowing a very cool solution from Jeff Hester on the Keyboard Maestro forums, we can use LSOF (List of […]

April 3, 2021

VirtualBox, VMWare, CrossOver or Parallels? Playing Games on Mac

Unlike a few years ago, there’s not much need to run Windows on a Mac. With tools like Remote Desktop and compatible IDEs for Microsoft SQL, there’s much more compatibility. The main reason comes down to playing games that don’t have a Mac equivalent. For example, Dorfromantik. What can you do if you want to play Dorfromantik, Banished, Carcassonne, or something similar? Actually, it’s not that hard using either a Virtual Machine or Wine. Keep in mind, a virtual machine requires a copy of Windows. You also need a fair bit of ram to pull this off. I’ve got the older Mac Pro on Mojave, so I’ve got plenty of ram and processors, but no more OS updates. It’s not the end of the road for this machine, but it’s on the horizon. If I can do my main work and play some casual games that’s a win. I do have a full Windows machine for games, but if I […]

April 2, 2021

58Keys for writers who use Macs, iPhones and iPads

Since William did me a good turn, I shall return the favor. As I mentioned in a previous post, Some fun YouTube content creators I’ve been watching, I’m a fan of William Gallagher. He’s a writer that uses Mac, iPhones, and iPads to get his work done. Not only that, he writes technology articles for AppleInsider. If that wasn’t enough, you can even check out his personal site where he offer writing classes. Shh, don’t tell him I haven’t signed up for one yet. I discovered his channel through Devon Technologies post, and have been following along. His videos focus on tools and apps to get work done. Some tools like OmniFocus and OmniOutliner you might be familiar with. Some processes like using Vellum to make an e-Book you might not be familiar with. William also discusses the writing process, outlining, scheduling, showcases devices and has put together interviews with other writers and content creators. It’s quite a bit of […]

April 2, 2021

Securing my Internet connection with SurfShark

Spring is the time to set new projects in motion. One thing I’ve been meaning to do is secure all my Internet traffic with a VPN. I have AdGuard VPN on my iPad and I like the results. I had planned to get AdGuard VPN for Mac, but it’s not available yet. Not a problem, there are dozens of VPN solutions out there. You can’t watch a YouTube video without seeing some sponsorship message from NordVPN, so that was my initial thought process. Their advertising works. However, before making a multi-year commitment I looked over dozens of reviews. Turns out SurfShark is ranked just as highly, but costs less. SurfShark has the same feature set including geo-location so you could watch Netflix, Hulu in other countries. They both offer Kill Switch, so if the VPN drops, so does all your Internet traffic so you don’t leak data.. SurfShark has unlimited device usage. The speeds are comparable. They are both affordable […]

April 1, 2021

For the love of iPad. Fun things I’m doing with the iPad Pro.

I have to say, I enjoy the iPad Pro quite a bit. I enjoy the large screen and improved camera, not to mention the huge amount of storage. With that, what have I been doing with it? Even though it has no practical use for me, I’ve been scanning things like a madman with the LiDAR camera. Even though the App Store software is lackluster at best, it’s still incredibly fun. A 3D model of my desk amuses me to no end. I can’t do anything with it, but I like it. From a practical standpoint, I’ve installed a few productivity apps. Notion so I can work on article projects.GoodNotes for taking notes with the Pencil.Notability for taking notes with the Pencil.MarginNote for reading and annotating .PDF and .EPUB files.Mindomo to create Mindmaps.AdGuard Pro to kick ads to the curb. I’ve added a couple new games:Pascal’s WagerLowlanderRush Rally For photo editing:Affinity PhotoAffinity DesignerI haven’t done much with these yet, but […]

Monitoring the Downloads folder with Keyboard Maestro

VirtualBox, VMWare, CrossOver or Parallels? Playing Games on Mac

58Keys for writers who use Macs, iPhones and iPads

Securing my Internet connection with SurfShark

For the love of iPad. Fun things I’m doing with the iPad Pro.

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