Mar 7I (almost) updated my gaming PCAfter a week spent nursing a cold, I caught up on some half-finished games on my Playstation 4 Pro, and enjoyed the experience enough that I pondered updating my ageing gaming PC. Yes, even though I’m a Mac user, I still keep a PC around to play a large collection…Gaming3 min read
Feb 15Using SOX on macOSApple’s GarageBand is a terrific app for recording podcasts and audiobooks on a Mac. It’s free, easy to use, very stable and leverages a lot of the underlying technologies in Apple’s premium digital audio workstation, Logic. You can even hack it to do punch and roll editing with a little…Sox5 min read
Jan 4Switching from Fastmail to iCloudThis time last year, I decided to ditch self-hosted email and migrated to Fastmail. Doing was a massive improvement on mail deliverability and my quality of life, since hosting your email server really does suck. In all, I was pleased with Fastmail’s service, except for one key metric — price…Email4 min read
Dec 29, 2021Could I go iPad only?About three months ago, I bought a 12.9 inch iPad Pro refurbished from Apple. It’s the 2020 model, so not the newest, and I bought it mostly for drawing since I had outgrown the size of my iPad Mini 5. Hitherto, I’d always treated iPads as an accessory — something…I Pad7 min read
Dec 3, 2021Review: Josh Stolarz’s City Map Maker for Procreate and PhotoshopEarlier this year, I reviewed a map-making bundle by artist and cartographer, Josh Stolarz. The first pack helped authors and game-masters create beautiful overland maps effortlessly using Procreate and Photoshop, thanks to a collection of very high-quality terrain stamps and brushes drawn with Josh’s signature line-art style. Last week, Josh…Procreate7 min read
Oct 21, 2021FrameworkI work in the tech industry as a writer and developer. My preferred form factor for the last 20+ years has been a laptop, a necessity because I’ve needed mobility over the raw power and expandability of a desktop. My current machine is Apple’s MacBook Pro, the very last Intel…Technology4 min read
Oct 14, 2021Automating Ulysses on macOSI’ve started a new blog about my journey to get fit and healthy in my 40s. So far, I’ve mostly posted my daily workouts as logged on my Apple Watch and processed on Today’s Plan. …Macos2 min read
Aug 11, 2021How to host multiple local websites with macOS Big SurRunning websites on your Mac is a useful feature, even for non-developers. There are tonnes of web-based open source tools and apps you can run locally for convenience, avoid connectivity issues or negate your privacy concerns. For example, if you run D&D games you can run local copies of apps…Tutorial4 min read
Published in CodeX·Aug 8, 2021Goodbye Google Analytics, hello UmamiWhen I outlined my reasons for leaving Google Adsense, number 4 on my list of grievances was the invasive nature of its tracking cookies and the privacy concerns that raises as adverts follow readers around the web. …Blogging4 min read
Aug 7, 2021Why I left Google AdsenseAt the start of this month, I launched a new theme for my website. The one feature I left behind was Google Adsense integration, and after a lot of thought, I’ve decided not to use it again. The decision comes after using Adsense for almost three years. In that time…Blogging5 min read
