Just remember that every time you hear about a company paying ransomware demands, it probably means they have outdated/nonexistent backups. I know it’s more complex on a large scale IT network, but you really should back up (ooh, check out this week’s sponsor, Backblaze :)).
I’m still pretty deep in Jekyll as my blogging platform right now, but I’m reaching some limits. Assuming I stick with a flat-file CMS (as opposed to WordPress), this one that Rosemary Orchard turned me on to is a top contender.
This tmux plugin is awesome: continuous save of your tmux environment for automatic restore whenever tmux is started, even after a reboot. Load up the tpm plugin manager so you can install this and the requisite tmux-resurrect plugin to get going.
I’ve been seeing these terminal recordings in GitHub readmes and they’re pretty awesome. Text-based session recordings from your terminal, optionally hosted for playback. Recordings can be paused so you can copy text right out of it.
Mercury Parser is the API that services like Feedbin and Reeder use to give you full content articles in your feed. It’s shutting down, but Postlight has open sourced the parser and the API. I’ve been playing with a local install and it makes a great markdownifier. (I’ll probably be updating Marky with it soon so I can switch over to https…)
Thanks to Backblaze for sponsoring BrettTerpstra.com this week. I’ve been a user of both the Backblaze cloud backup and their B2 storage service for years, and it’s the best solution I’ve found for complementing my local Time Machine and drive clone backups. I’ve even been through the restore process, which is the true test of a backup service, and they passed with flying colors. Great to have them this week!
Don’t lose your work. Back up all your data with Backblaze Cloud Backup. It’s unlimited, unthrottled, uncomplicated, and at $6/month per computer, it’s a no-brainer.
What Backblaze Does
Backblaze natively backs up your music, movies, photos, and whatever you’re working on or editing for just $6/month. Backblaze continuously and securely backs up all the data on your computer and external hard drives. We keep things simple.
The Must Haves
The backup is automatic, so you don’t have to worry about remembering where your files are or picking and choosing which locations to back up. Backblaze does the work for you. Don’t want to back up a certain folder? Simply exclude it from your backup. Easy.
Accessing files is easy. Get your files back via any web browser. Log in to your account, preview the files you want to download, and download them one at a time, or group them together to download a ZIP. Mobile access is easy with iOS and Android apps that let you browse your files and download them directly to your phone.
The Nice to Haves
Have a lot of data? Backblaze can FedEx you a flash key or USB hard drive with all your data on it. Don’t need the drive that they ship to you? Return it to Backblaze within 30 days for a refund.
Want to archive some of your files off to B2 Cloud Storage? Backblaze recently launched a Save Files to B2 feature which allows you to copy your files your backup into B2 Cloud Storage ($0.005/GB). It’s a great way to save off chunks of data or create snapshots of your entire backup.
Start Now
For $6/month, Backblaze will give you peace of mind in knowing your files are backed up safely and securely. Stop putting it off. Start your free trial, and get your backup started today. Already backing up? Tell a friend or family member who might be in need. It’s so simple, they’ll thank you later!
Just to be clear, this post is about a hair clipper called the Shortcut Pro. This is not about Shortcuts for iOS or any kind of automation. It’s about a hair clipper. You have permission to feel whatever you need to about that.
I mentioned the Remington Shortcut Pro in my “Favorites of 2018” post. I had only had it for a short while at that point. I knew I liked it, but didn’t realize it was going to be a continuing love story.
This review is about a product for keeping hair short coming from a person who keeps his hair very short. It’s not for everyone. It’s just for people who keep their hair short, and who like doing so for themselves.
The clipper is a little puck, really, that fits into the palm of your hand. This makes it almost like using a comb: it’s easy to use with either hand, and even easy to use on the back of your head while looking in a mirror-on-mirror situation and trying to convince your muscles to do the opposite of what you’re seeing. Holding something in the palm of your hand versus gripping a stick seems like a small difference, but it’s been a huge speed increase in my weekly shavings.
The clipper blade is curved. I have a cowlick that actually grows in every direction. A swirl. Maybe all cowlicks are like that, but when I used to have enough hair to go to the barber, he was always amused by it. So anyway, this curved blade is the first tool I’ve found that makes cutting that part a 2-pass job, rather than the 7-or-8-pass job that it took me with straight clippers. The curve wraps around all the contours of my skull. It’s so fast.
It’s also fully waterproof. Not that I’m shaving my head in the shower, but it makes it really easy to clean. Just run it under water and wipe it off with my finger, dry it, drop a bead of oil on it (I’m going to make this thing last forever) and stick it in the drawer.
The battery life on the thing is pretty incredible, too. Just to see how long it would take to wear out, I put off charging it after I got it. At the risk of eventually leaving my head half shaved while it recharged at some point, I went 3 months without plugging it in. It never died, I just eventually figured I should charge it up to be safe. So I’ve charged it once in 6 months now. Granted, 15 minutes of use once a week shouldn’t kill a battery too fast, but I’m still impressed. Beats my last pair of cordless clippers ten-fold.
The Shortcut comes with 9 attachable combs for setting the length. My beard trimmer slides out to vary the length, and more than once I’ve pushed the guard too hard and shortened the length, leading to having to trim my whole beard shorter to match. Never a problem with separate, attachable combs. I’m pretty sure the Shortcut would make a good beard trimmer, too, but I’ve been growing mine out since I got it, so I haven’t tested yet.
Anyway, I like this clipper enough that I felt compelled to record my feelings on the internet. If you happen to also sport a “not bald yet but might as well be” haircut, the Shortcut Pro is worth the $55 price tag.
By the way, I found a service called The Review Index that takes an Amazon product url and shows you an AI-curated summary of all of the reviews for that product. Check it out.
BrettTerpstra.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees when linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Hey, guess what? I’m speaking at Macstock 2019 (and yes, see the end of the post for my special discount code!). It’s coming up on July 27th and 28th this year, once again in Woodstock, IL. Which you obviously know is the town where Groundhog Day was filmed.
Last year I spoke on tagging, which you know I love, but it’s a hard sell and a tough talk to do (I discovered too late). This year, the theme of the conference is “Create,” and I pitched one I’ll really love doing. I haven’t finalized all the subtopics of this year’s talk yet, but the subject is going to be automating and improving all kinds of writing on the Mac (and iOS). It’s going to be fun.
I even happen to know that — among the many folks I’m looking forward to seeing — my friends David Sparks and Rosemary Orchard (of MPU/Automators fame) are going to be in town, with some live podcasting and a presentation from Rosemary that I’m truly looking forward to.
The Early Bird Sale for tickets is on now, with weekend passes going for $179US (regular price $249). Macstock grows every year, and I’d love to see you there. I see this as the most viable replacement for the best parts of the Macworld expos of yore, so the more the merrier.
A look at the reasons why developers choose to open source their projects. Unlike design, this isn’t spec work. My favorite argument here is that creating open source software is a way of paying for all the open source software that got you to where you are. Seems legit to me…
I somehow missed that Espresso was back. This used to be my favorite editor for HTML/CSS, and the new features are downright amazing. If you’re looking for a dedicated editor for web development, check this out. It’s not cheap ($79US right now), but worth it, in my opinion after trying it out for a few days. And for those on Setapp, you already have it!
Mentioning Espresso makes me want to also mention CodeKit. CodeKit, as its tagline states, is “THE Mac App for Web Developers”. Basically a GUI for everything from minification and optimization to JavaScript linting and transpiling, as well as a fully-fledged “LiveReload” style server for seeing changes live in your web browser as you work in your preferred editor.
Thanks to MeisterTask for sponsoring BrettTerpstra.com this week. I’ve been using MeisterTask extensively—including integration with Slack and GitHub—for collaborative projects for quite a while now. I’m happy to offer my endorsement!
MeisterTask is a Kanban-based task manager that’s all about working smarter instead of harder. While the interface is deliberately simple and sleek, a number of handy automation features hide below the surface, ready to bring your productivity to the next level:
Automations: In MeisterTask, you can set up automatic actions that are triggered whenever a task is created in or moved to a specific section in your project. Want to notify a Slack channel about all new tasks? Or stop the time tracking when a task is completed? Everything can be automated with a few quick clicks to ensure that you work more consistently and efficiently.
Integrations: To help you create the perfect workflow, MeisterTask comes readily integrated with dozens of popular tools such as Slack, Zendesk, Spark, MindMeister and Github. Thanks to Zapier and IFTTT, you can even connect projects with your smart kitchen appliances, if that’s what you want.
Predefined checklists: When you save a checklist, you can quickly load it into any new task you create. This simple trick is perfect for tasks that come up on a recurring basis and require the same steps, such as sending a weekly newsletter for instance.
Custom fields: Sometimes, you want all tasks within a project to contain certain pieces of information. If you set up a project to track support tickets, you probably want each task to include things like the ticket number, the user’s operating system, and the app version they’re using. With MeisterTask, all these things can be defined as custom fields, which are automatically added to the task’s description.
Being web-based, MeisterTask is location and platform independent, making it a great choice for remote teams and all those who want to collaborate with external stakeholders. If you’re looking for a simple yet powerful team task manager, head on over to MeisterTask and give it a try. You can use the code BRETT15 to get 15% off your first year with the annual pricing plan!
I posted an update on iTextEditors yesterday, and got a great response from people adding to and updating the list. This inspired me to finally add a couple of new criteria (that didn’t even exist when the original chart was created): Document Provider support and Split Screen support.
I had previously started to compile a list of apps supporting these features with the help of a few field testers, but the list of apps has changed significantly since then and I need some help with updating. If you look at the list, you’ll see most of the apps listed with a question mark in those columns. If you browse it and happen to know that an app does or does not support either feature, please let me know. And I’ll tell you what, you don’t even have to use the submission form in this case (though you’re still welcome to, and absolutely should if you’re submitting a new app). You can just let me know (via Twitter or the contact form) the name of the app and yes or no for one or both of those criteria.
Over the weekend I weeded out the dead apps on my iTextEditors comparison chart and was surprised to find that over 30 of the 90 editors on the list were no longer available. I figured a few would be gone, but a third of them had gone the way of the dinosaur1.
Perhaps the cream has risen to the top and most people are settling on the leaders of the pack. Maybe there just isn’t that much money to go around in the iOS text editor market. I was definitely sad to see apps like Writing Kit and Trunk Notes call it quits, while some of the others I knew had morphed into different applications (e.g. Daedalus->Ulysses).
So I’d like to ask for the crowd to help me make sure iTextEditors is up to date with your current favorite apps. Check the chart, and if you don’t see yours (or any that you have on your mind at the time), please submit new forms for them. It will help keep this resource going even though Apple has ensured that I don’t personally make any money off it…
Thanks in advance, and I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ve got!
P.S. please do use the submission form and don’t just name apps in the comments or on Twitter2. I don’t have the bandwidth to track down the details on every editor myself.
Thanks to TextExpander for sponsoring BrettTerpstra.com this week!
TextExpander 6.5 is out with a great new visual editor for snippets! The new editor gives you visual access to fill-ins, dates and date math, nested snippets, and more. Snippets that used to look like %@+1D%B %e, %Y now shows up as a tidy set of token fields that you can double click to edit.
For those who get into scripting their snippets, automation is even easier with the new editor’s JavaScript syntax highlighting.
As always, the TextExpander snippets you use on your desktop or laptop work on your iPhone and iPad, too. And TextExpander Windows users now get offline editing support, and improved expansion.
BrettTerpstra.com readers get 20% off their first year. Visit textexpander.com/podcast to learn more about TextExpander!
I’ve put together a new screencast demonstrating some of the document statistics capabilities of Marked 2. In addition to being a great way to preview your Markdown documents as you work, Marked can go further to provide character and word counts, sentence and paragraph counts, various readability indexes, reading time, and even show progress toward your word target for the piece. Check it out!
