#i hate having to use separate software to get files on a device

[endbrain]

IDEAL shuffle:

.mp3 files have soo many attributes attached to them (year released, genre, album, etc) and ive not encountered any mp3 player that can shuffle within those attributes. why?

should be able to pick a couple attributes to shuffle within or exclude. life could be a dream

[mentalisttraceur-software]

histdir

So I've started a stupid-simple shell/REPL history mechanism that's more friendly to Syncthing-style cloud sync than a history file (like basically every shell and REPL do now) or a SQLite database (which is probably appropriate, and it's what Atuin does while almost single-handedly dragging CLI history UX into the 21st century):

You have a history directory.

Every history entry gets its own file.

The file name of a history entry is a hash of that history entry.

The contents of a history entry file is the history entry itself.

So that's the simple core concept around which I'm building the rest. If you just want a searchable, syncable record of everything you ever executed, well there you go. This was the smallest MVP, and I implemented that last night - a little shell script to actually create the histdir entries (entry either passed as an argument or read on stdin if there's no entry argument), and some Elisp code in my Emacs to replace Eshell's built-in history file save and load. Naturally my loaded history stopped remembering order of commands reliably, as expected, which would've been a deal-breaker problem in the long term. But the fact that it instantly plugged into Syncthing with no issues was downright blissful.

(I hate to throw shade on Atuin... Atuin is the best project in the space, I recommend checking it out, and it significantly inspired the featureset and UX of my current setup. But it's important for understanding the design choices of histdir: Atuin has multiple issues related to syncing - histdir will never have any sync issues. And that's part of what made it so blissful. I added the folder to Syncthing - no separate account, no separate keys, nothing I must never lose. In most ways, Atuin's design choice of a SQLite database is just better. That's real, proper engineering. Serious software developers all know that this is exactly the kind of thing where a database is better than a bunch of files. But one benefit you get from this file-oriented granularity is that if you just design the naming scheme right, history entries never collide/conflict in the same file. So we get robust sync, even with concurrent use, on multiple devices - basically for free, or at least amortized with the setup effort for whatever solution you're using to sync your other files (none of which could handle updates from two different devices to a single SQLite database). Deleting a history entry in histdir is an "rm"/"unlink" - in Atuin it's a whole clever engineering puzzle.)

So onto preserving order. In principle, the modification time of these files is enough for ordering: the OS already records when they were last written to, so if you sort on that, you preserve history order. I was initially going to go with this, but: it's moderately inconvenient in some programming languages, it can only handle a 1-to-1 mapping (one last-modified timestamp) even though many uses of history might prefer an n-to-1 (an entry for every time the command was called), and it requires worrying about questions like "does {sync,copy,restore-from-backup,this-programmatic-manipulation-I-quickly-scripted} preserve the timestamp correctly?"

So tonight I did what any self-respecting drank-too-much-UNIX-philosophy-coolaid developer would do: more files. In particular:

Each call of a history entry gets its own file.

The file name of a call is a timestamp.

The contents of a call file is the hash of the history entry file.

The hash is mainly serving the purpose of being a deterministic, realistically-will-never-collide-with-another-history-entry (literally other causes of collision like hackers getting into your box and overwriting your memory are certain and inevitable by comparison) identifier - in a proper database, this would just be the primary key of a table, or some internal pointer.

The timestamp files allow a simple lexical sort, which is a default provided by most languages, most libraries, and built in by default in almost everything that lists/iterates a directory. That's what I do in my latest Elisp code in my Emacs: directory-files does a lexical sort by default - it's not pretty from an algorithmic efficiency standpoint, but it makes the simplest implementation super simple. Of course, you could get reasonably more efficient if you really wanted to.

I went with the hash as contents, rather than using hardlinks or symlinks, because of programmatic introspection simplicity and portability. I'm not entirely sure if the programmatic introspection benefits are actually worth anything in practice. The biggest portability case against symlinks/hardlinks/etc is Windows (technically can do symlinks, but it's a privileged operation unless you go fiddle with OS settings), Android (can't do hardlinks at all, and symlinks can't exist in shared storage), and if you ever want to have your histdir on something like a USB stick or whatever.

Depending on the size of the hash, given that the typical lengths of history entries might be rather short, it might be better for deduplication and storage to just drop the hash files entirely, and leave only the timestamp files. But it's not necessarily so clear-cut.

Sure, the average shell command is probably shorter by a wide margin than a good hash. The stuff I type into something like a Node or Python REPL will trend a little longer than the shell commands. But now what about, say, URLs? That's also history, it's not even that different conceptually from shell/REPL history, and I haven't yet ruled out it making sense for me to reuse histdir for that.

And moreover, conceptually they achieve different goals. The entry files are things that have been in your history (and that you've decided to keep). They're more of a toolbox or repertoire - when you do a fuzzy search on history to re-run a command, duplicates just get in the way. Meanwhile, call files are a "here's what I did", more of a log than a toolbox.

And obviously this whole histdir thing is very expandable - you could have other files containing metadata. Some metadata might be the kind of thing we'd want to associate with a command run (exit status, error output, relevant state like working directory or environment variables, and so on), but other stuff might make more sense for commands themselves (for example: this command is only useful/valid on [list of hosts], so don't use it in auto-complete and fuzzy search anywhere else).

So... I think it makes sense to have history entries and calls to those entries "normalized" into their own separate files like that. But it might be overkill in practice, and the value might not materialize in practice, so that's more in the TBD I guess.

So that's where I'm at now. A very expandable template, but for now I've just replicated basic shell/REPL history, in an a very high-overhead way. A big win is great history sync almost for free, without a lot of the technical downsides or complexity (and with a little effort to set up inotify/etc watches on a histdir, I can have newly sync'ed entries go directly into my running shells/REPLs... I mean, within Emacs at least, where that kind of across-the-board malleability is accessible with a reasonably low amount of effort). Another big win is that in principle, it should be really easy to build on existing stuff in almost any language to do anything I might want to do. And the biggest win is that I can now compose those other wins with every REPL I use, so long as I can either wrap that REPL a little bit (that's how I'll start, with Emacs' comint mode), or patch the common libraries like readline to do histdir, or just write some code to translate between a traditional history file and my histdir approach.

At every step of the way, I've optimized first and foremost for easiest-to-implement and most-accessible-to-work-with decision. So far I don't regret it, and I think it'll help a lot with iteratively trying different things, and with all sorts of integration and composition that I haven't even thought of yet. But I'll undoubtedly start seeing problems as my histdirs grow - it's just a question of how soon and how bad, and if it'll be tractable to fix without totally abandoning the approach. But it's also possible that we're just at the point where personal computers and phones are powerful enough, and OS and FS optimizations are advanced enough, that the overhead will never be perceptible to me for as long as I live - after all, its history for an interface with a live human.

So... happy so far. It seems promising. Tentatively speaking, I have a better daily-driver shell history UX than I've ever had, because I now have great reliable and fast history sync across my devices, without regressions to my shell history UX (and that's saying something, since I was already very happy with zsh's vi mode, and then I was even more happy with Eshell+Eat+Consult+Evil), but I've only just implemented it and given it basic testing. And I remain very optimistic that I could trivially layer this onto basically any other REPL with minimal effort thanks to Emacs' comint mode.

[hungwy]

Is it hard/annoying to load pdfs onto e-readers? I mostly read paper books so I'm hesitant on getting one but if reading pdfs off then isn't a pain with DRM or whatever it might be worth it

Loading files is basically the same for any filetype (if the e-reader supports it) if you're using Calibre. You put them in the Calibre library, hook up your eReader, and click "send to device". But DRM does indeed make pdfs a pain; Calibre has a DRM removal add on but Ive never gotten it to work. I never handle drm'd pdfs so it's not a big deal for me... But if it is for you then some e-readers like Kobo (and I'm guessing Kindle) have separate apps you can install on them for reading DRM content. They won't make the reading experience that much visually different.

Reading pdfs on them is a different story. I hate it. Pdf is a terrible format for portable reading. The pre-formatted text, the unchangeable margins and font size, and the large file sizes make it terrible for the typical smaller e-reader like the cheaper Kobo or Kindle models. Especially terrible if they're e-ink displays: at least on my Kobo it takes a few seconds to load each page . If the model has a larger lcd display it probably has a better processor so the visual and temporal experience is much better for pdfs, but at that point you're using a feature-neutered iPad.

If you get an e-reader you want to be reading epubs. They have set formatting but only for things like headers and page breaks, so they're incredibly versatile for different screen shapes. The problem is ereading isn't actually that popular and not all books might have an epub version, especially lesser known books. You'd be surprised how many actually DO have epub versions, especially ones uploaded to libgen (which lets you sort results by filetype) , but pdf is the dominant file format.

Depending on what books you want to read, you might be better off getting an iPad and installing epub reader software onto it. I have no idea how you load files onto an iPad so I'm no help there. But frankly an e-ink display e-reader is simply the best way to go if you're into physical books and is the superior reading experience. Pretty much every classic book will have an epub version out there and tons of modern (well known) ones will too.

Do your own research and weigh the pros and cons!

[lifesuite]

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[douchebagbrainwaves]

HOW TO INVESTORS

He wanted to do everything. For example, Ben Silbermann noticed that a lot of altitude. For example, suppose Y Combinator offers to fund you in return for 6% of your company. There's inevitably a difference in how things feel within the company. That turned out to be valuable for hardware startups. So if you need to do two things, especially, it usually works best to get something in front of users as soon as it has a quantum of utility, and then sit around offering crits of one another's creations under the vague supervision of the teacher. It's oddly nondeterministic. Most startups that use the contained fire strategy do it unconsciously.1 And if you want to do good work, what you need to do: find a question that makes the product good. And so, by word of mouth online than our first PR firm got through the print media.

So our rule is just to get you talking. Kids who went to MIT or Harvard or Stanford and sometimes find ourselves thinking: they must be smarter than they seem. The four causes: open source, which makes you unattractive to investors. The initial idea is that, financially at least, that high level languages are often all treated as equivalent. The problem with spam is that in order to hack Unix, and Perl for system administration and cgi scripts. Being good is a particularly useful strategy for making decisions in complex situations because it's stateless. But this mistake is less excusable than most. I didn't think of that as your task? They all knew their work like a piano player knows the keys. By looking at their actions rather than their words. Almost everyone hates their dissertation by the time you face the horror of writing a dissertation. But because the product is not appealing enough.

Understand your users. It's not just that it makes you unhappy, but that it's obvious. If you use this method, you'll get roughly the same answer I just gave. But invariably they're larger in your imagination than in real life. Try making your customer service not merely good, but surprisingly good. If 98% of the time you're doing product development on spec, it will be easy to get more to. In the so-called real world this need is a great curiosity about a promising question to explore. The default euphemism for algorithm is system and method. Rejection is almost always a function of its founders. Since we would do anything to get users, we did. You can't answer that; if you could count on investors saving you. It's more efficient for us, and better for the company with the addition of some new person, then they're worth n such that i 1/1-n.

One thing I can say is that 99. The world changes fast, and the people you'd meet there would be wrong too. Do you have to publish novel results to advance their careers, but there was a triple pressure toward the center. And I agree you shouldn't underestimate your potential. Fixed-size series A rounds.2 But if you get a lot of time on sales and marketing. But it wasn't just TV. They win by locking competitors out of business. Understanding your users is part of half the principles in this list. I could give an example of what I mean by getting something done is learning how to write well, or how to draw the human face from life.

Offers from the very best hackers tend to be idealistic. Perhaps dramatically so, if automation had decreased the need for some kind of connection. It's just not reasonable to expect startups to pick an optimal round size in advance, because that means I hadn't been thinking about them. I need to be a good thing. And the best way not to seem desperate is not to lose your cool. Don't worry if a project doesn't seem to be overkill. That's one advantage of being small: you can use in this situation. If you have additional expenses, like manufacturing, add in those at the end. In this case, the device is the world's economy, which fortunately happens to be closest. Are some kinds of work better sources of habits of mind as well, and that you should expect to take heroic measures at first. That's the key.

The big danger is that you'll dismiss your startup. If we think 20th century cohesion was something that happened at least in a sense naturally. Though quite successful, it did not crush Apple. The one example I've found is, embarrassingly enough, Yahoo, which filed a patent suit against a gaming startup called Xfire in 2005. The summer founders were as a rule very idealistic. Even people who hate you for it believe it. For PhD programs, the professors do. Convertible notes let startups beat such deadlocks by rewarding investors willing to move first with lower effective valuations.3 Many investors will ask how much you learn in college and those you'll use in a job, except perhaps as a classics professor, but it was surprising to realize there were purely benevolent projects that had to be pretty convincing to overcome this.4 Only a few companies have been smart enough to realize this so far. I thought: how much does that investment have to improve your average outcome for you to break even?

I'm sure there are game companies out there working on products with more intellectual content than the research at the bottom of the file; don't feel obliged to cover any of them; write for a reader who won't read the essay as carefully as you do, talk to them all in parallel, because some are more promising prospects than others. So I want to invest in startups when it's still unclear how they'll do. It won't get you a job, it may not just be because they're academics, detached from the real world, programs are bigger, tend to involve existing code, for example have been granted large numbers of preposterously over-broad patents, but not to be Henry Ford. Often to make something people want? Which means if letting the founders sell some stock directly to them, they had the confidence to notice it. You can't trust the opinions of the others, because of the Blub paradox to your advantage: you can provide a level of service no big company can. More powerful programming languages make programs shorter. These turn out to be more true in software than other businesses. That's too uncertain. I do with most of the startups we've funded have, and Jessica does too, mostly, because she's gotten into sync with us. These guys want to get market price, work on something you're good at.

Notes

Our secret is to fork off separate processes to deal with them. In the early years of training, and a company tuned to exploit it. The best way for a startup. Many people feel confused and depressed in their early twenties compressed into the work goes instead into the heads of would-be-evil end.

They won't like you raising other money and disputes. As far as I know of any that died from releasing something stable but minimal very early, then used a technicality to get going, and Smartleaf co-founders Mark Nitzberg and Olin Shivers at the mercy of circumstances: court decisions striking down state anti-recommendation. Incidentally, I'm just going to be extra skeptical about Viaweb too.

Emmett Shear, and philosophy the imprecise half.

To help clarify the matter. Whereas there is some kind of kludge you need a higher growth rate as evolutionary pressure is such a valuable technique that any given person might have.

[chicloading447]

Full Mac Apps

Powerful Mac apps that won't break the bank. There’s something of a misconception when it.

Jan 21, 2019.

Full Mac Software

Mac Apps Download

Best Apps For Mac

On this website, I have covered a ton of paid apps, and that’s because in general, paid apps tend to offer more when compared to free apps. However, that does not mean that there are no good free apps out there. In fact, there are a ton of them. That’s why it is going to be a long article as I am bringing a list of 35 best free apps you can get for your Mac right now. Some of the apps on this list are evergreen and you most probably already have them installed on your device. But some of them are entirely new. Well, at least they are new to me and that’s the beauty of it. No matter, how old an app is, it is new for somebody out there. That said, no matter how avid a Mac user you are, I can bet that you will find new Mac apps in this article that you have never heard of before. So, open your Macs and get ready to download these awesome free Mac apps.

Mac Torrents - Torrents for Mac. Free Apps, Games & Plugins. Apple Final Cut Pro & Logic Pro X, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office, Pixel Film Studios,‎Graphics & Design ‎Microsoft Office.

Note: Be sure to read our must-have iPhone apps article to get the best apps for your iPhone in 2020.

Best Free Mac Apps You Should Install in 2020

While most of the apps in this list are free, some of them offer a paid option. That being said, when it comes to paid apps, I have only included those options that offer a generous free tier. I am using free versions of all the apps (that offer paid options) and find them suitable for most users. No app with a free trial or heavily restricted free tier has been included.

1. Audiobook Binder

While you can listen to books in MP3 format, I like the M4B format more as it supports chapters. M4B is also the native format that Apple Books support. If you want to keep your music library separate from the book library, this is the format to use. Audiobook Binder is an app that lets you convert MP3 files into M4B files. It also lets you bind multiple MP3 files into a single M4B file and converts those MP3 files into chapters. You can also add custom book cover and edit book’s metadata including name, author, and narrator. I have been using this app for the past year and a half to listen to public domain audiobooks and lectures and it has never failed me.

Install:Free

2. LastPass

Password management is something people ignore. Since passwords are hard to remember and most third-party password managers charge a hefty monthly subscription fee, not everyone is aboard the strong and different password train. To those users, I suggest LastPass. LastPass offers a very generous free tier that allows you to use the software on two different machines. And if you want to use it on more, you can always use its web app that works everywhere. I have been using LastPass for the past two years to manage my passwords and I never had any problem.

Its apps are installed on my primary MacBook Pro (learn MacBook Pro tips and tricks) and my iPhone. Since it supports browser plugins and iPhone’s automatic password fill feature, I never have to type my password or remember them. All my passwords are secure, long, and use an alpha-numeric combination. If you are still using the same password everywhere or setting weak passwords, try out LastPass. It’s free for personal use and you have no excuses not to use it. Its one of the best free Mac apps that you can get.

Install:Free, $3/user/month

3. Brave

While I love Safari and use it for most of my tasks, it’s not perfect and I have to turn to other browsers from time to time. My biggest problem with Safari is its nescient extension library. Safari is also slow to adopt the latest web technologies. I know Apple does this to keep browsing private and secure, but sometimes it causes hindrance in my work. For a long time, I was using Chrome for this work but I hated two things about it. First, Google Chrome is a resource hog and decreases battery life, causes overheating, and several other problems. Second and more importantly, I don’t like sharing my data with Google more than I already do. It was one of the reasons why I switch from Android to iOS several years back.

The solution is the Brave browser. It’s a browser that is built on the same Chromium engine that Google Chrome uses, so you are getting all the features and extension support. But, since the creators focus on privacy, your data is always secure. It brings an automatic tracking blocker and even blocks most of the annoying ads. Since it blocks the most harmful scripts, you get to enjoy a faster internet. Also, in my testing, it’s far better than Google Chrome at handling resources. While it’s not as good as Safari, that’s a trade-off that I am ready to make. If you are also looking for a good Chrome alternative, you should try using the Brave browser.

Install:Free

4. CopyClip

CopyClip is a Mac utility that stores everything you copy in a clipboard. Copy-and-paste is so integral to our work that we cannot even imagine a time when this feature was not available. Still, Mac’s clipboard is probably the most neglected feature in the macOS. Even after so decades, you still cannot hold more than one entry in your clipboard. Enter, CopyClip. It’s a clipboard manager that saves entries into the clipboard. You can use a simple keyboard shortcut to easily copy any item and paste them anywhere you want. CopyClip not only saves text input but also preserves images and documents. While I use “Paste” for my clipboard management as it offers more features, for a free app, CopyClip works exceptionally well.

Install:Free

5. BBEdit

For a long time, it was hard to recommend a good free text editor on Mac. All the good ones were paid, and the free ones were just not up to the mark. Well, after a long hiatus, BBEdit, one of the most exemplary text editors, is back on the Mac App Store. For the past 20 years, BBEdit has been the text editor to beat and now that it’s back on the App Store with a freemium model, you can use it for free. Only the advanced features of BBEdit are hidden behind a paywall and 90% of regular users will not need those features.

Whether you want to write a long blog post, edit snippets of code, design website or web apps, BBEdit is the text editor to use. The best thing about BBEdit is how fast it works. It opens text files with hundreds of thousands of words in seconds and never falters. In my years of using this app, I have not lost even a single line of text. It has a powerful search that lets you locate and find keywords across files. There’s no free text editor out there that can match its prowess.

Install:Free, $49.99

6. NetNewsWire

The death of Google Reader placed a dark cloud over the future of RSS readers. But, if anything, RSS is showing a sign of resurgence in the past year or so. From the launch of acclaimed RSS reader app Reeder 4 to the rebirth of NetNewsWire, RSS readers are becoming popular again. And if you are looking to create a personal news feed, there’s no better app to do it with than NetNewsWire. Built on-top of free and open source reader named Evergreen, NetNewsWire is an excellent feed reader for Mac.

The app makes it easy to subscribe to RSS feeds and brings excellent search capabilities. It also brings a beautiful design and I adore its dark mode. It also supports online feed syncing services such as Feedbin. I still prefer Reeder 4 as it brings more features, but seeing how NetNewsWire is still young and free to use, I cannot fault it. If you are looking for a free RSS reader, you should try NetNewsWire.

Install:Free

7. DaVinci Resolve

While Macs come with a basic video editor for free (iMovie), anyone who is serious about video editing will have to go for the pro video editing apps. The problem with apps like Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro is that they cost a lot. If you don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars, and still want to use a full-fledged video editor, DaVinci Resolve is the best option for you. Even when I am writing this, I cannot believe that such a capable video editor is free to use.

The latest version of the software, DaVinci Resolve 16 combines professional 8K editing, color correction, visual effects, and audio post-production all in one software tool. Color correction tools of DaVinci Resolve are better than most paid video editors including FCP and Premiere Pro. From custom timeline settings to facial recognition to keyframe editing, it brings all features that you require from a professional video editor. It is one of the best free Mac software that you can install. Free Mac apps don’t get better than this.

Install:Free

8. Folx

Folx is a powerful native download manager for Mac that not only works great but also looks cool. It features a true Mac-style interface and supports both direct and torrent downloads. The app also offers extensions for Safari, Chrome, Opera, and Firefox. The extensions help Folx in catching downloads and thus ensure that you are not using the crappy download manager of your browser. Folx can split downloads into multiple threads resulting in faster downloads and also support download pause and restart. The free version of the app is enough for most users. I was using it for years without any complaints. I only bought the paid version to support the developers. The extra features are nice to have but they have not drastically affected by usage.

Install:Free, $19.99

9. NightOwl

macOS Mojave introduced dark mode to our favorite desktop operating system. The dark mode on macOS Mojave is not half-cooked as it is on windows. When you turn on the dark mode on your Mac, not only it turns the system UI but also the stock apps. Not only that, apps that support automatic dark mode also adhere to the same guideline. Once you turn it on, they automatically default to dark mode.

While that's great in most situation, I wish Apple included a way to create a whitelist for apps that are not functional in dark mode. The default Mail app and the Evernote app are a few examples of an app that still work best in light mode. That's where NightOwl comes in. It's a menu bar app that allows you to create a whitelist of apps that you don't want to use in dark mode. Not only that, but it also allows you to quickly switch between dark and light mode with a simple click at its icon. You can read more about the app in our article here. The app is completely free to download and use with a voluntary donation.

Install:NightOwl

10. Unsplash Wallpapers

I want to start this article with an app which I have discovered just a couple of months back and have fallen in love. As its name suggests, Unsplash Wallpapers is a wallpaper app for Mac which gives you access to unlimited ultra-high resolution wallpapers for your Macs. One of the things that I love most about MacBooks is its display. Apple packs phenomenal displays on the Macs. Stop me if it’s just me, but I enjoy changing the wallpapers on a regular basis just because they look so damn beautiful on my Mac’s display.

Before I discovered Unsplash Wallpapers, it used to be a chore to change wallpapers. First, I had to find good wallpapers, then I had to download them, and only then I could use them. With Unsplash Wallpapers app, you can change the wallpaper just with one click. If you like a wallpaper, you can even download it. If you love wallpapers, you are going to love this free Mac app.

Install:Unsplash Wallpapers

11. The Unarchiver

This is one of the first free Mac apps that I download whenever I move on to a new Mac. The app is basically the best unarchiving app you can get for your Mac, free or otherwise. The Unarchiver cannot only unarchive common formats such as Zip, RAR (including v5), 7-zip, Tar, Gzip, and Bzip2, but it can also open formats such as StuffIt, DiskDoubler, LZH, ARJ, ARC, ISO and BIN disc images, Windows.EXE installers and more. Basically, it’s a one-stop solution for all your unarchiving needs.

Install:The Unarchiver

12. Amphetamine

We all know that Macs bring a long battery life and while some of it has to do with Apple’s excellent hardware, most of it is because of how macOS efficiently manages battery. One of the things that macOS does to preserve the battery life on your computer is to put it to sleep whenever you don’t interact with your Mac for a set period of time. While this is really good, sometimes you need to keep your Mac running even if you are not interacting with it. One of the examples that come to mind is when you are downloading a large file. If your Mac falls asleep during the download, it will stop it, and depending on the software that you are using to download the file, you might have to restart the download from the beginning.

Amphetamine solves this problem by allowing users to keep their Macs awake even when they are not doing anything. The app is powerful and allows users to keep their Macs awake for how much ever long they want. Not only that, users can also set triggers to keep their Macs awake. For example, you can tell Amphetamine to not put your Mac to sleep whenever a certain app is running. Lastly, it allows you to easily access all these features as it lives right there in your Mac’s menu bar. It’s one of the most useful apps for Macs and I love it.

Install:Amphetamine

Full Mac Software

13. GIPHY Capture

Gifs are all the rage today. More and more users are creating and sharing their own gifs. And if you want to be one of them then this is the tool you need. GIPHY Capture is an app that lets you capture and create gifs. Once you launch the app it will create a translucent green window with a capture button at the bottom. All you need to do is to drop the window on top of the video you want to capture and click on the capture button. Once you are done with the recording, click on the record button again to stop the recording. It is probably the easiest way to create gifs on your Mac.

Install:GIPHY Capture

14. Spectacle

Spectacle is one of the apps that I install instantly on a new Mac. Macs are good at many things but one thing that still eludes it is a good window management feature. Apple has not solved the window management problem in the latest macOS Catalina so I guess, we have to wait for one more year. In fact, the window management problem has become even worse in macOS Catalina in my opinion. If you are also fed up of Apple's native approach towards window management, you should Install Spectacle.

This is a simple menu bar app that allows you to easily resize and place windows with keyboard commands. I can easily set a window to either half of the display both vertically and horizontally, make it go full screen, snap it to the center, and more. Once you install this app, your window management workflow will become ten times faster.

Install:Spectacle

15. ImageOptim

ImageOptim is one of the most used free Mac apps on my MacBook Pro. In my line of work, I have to attach a ton of screenshots (like in this article). And before I upload any picture on my website, I pass it through ImageOptim. The app deletes all the unnecessary metadata such as GPS position and camera's serial number and compresses the image. This allows me to upload the image on the web without any privacy hazards and ensures that the file sizes are low.

The app is pretty easy to use. You just drag and drop images into its window and then click on the button at the bottom-right corner. If you share a ton of images on the web (whether on your blog or social media websites like Twitter and Facebook), it will be good for you to pass it through ImageOptim first. I have used paid image compression apps but nothing has been as good and as easy to use as ImageOptim.

Install:ImageOptim

16. Alfred 4

Alfred is an all-purpose tool for your Mac which can boost your productivity ten folds if you learn how to use it. Of course, there’s a learning curve to this app, but if you invest in it, it will pay you back. Alfred allows you to quickly launch apps, use text expansion snippets, search on the Mac and web, use hotkeys and keywords, and much more. Alfred used to be a paid app, but the developers were kind enough to release the app for free. There are add-on power packs that you can buy, to use cool features like Alfred workflows. But, for most normal users, the free app itself is enough to boost their productivity.

Install:Alfred 4

17. Pocket

Pocket is a popular read it later service which allows you to save articles offline so that you can read them later. I mostly browse for articles on my Mac and whenever I find something that I would want to read, I just save it in Pocket. Pocket has an excellent Safari extension that allows me to save articles and read them later. Since Pocket syncs across devices, all my saved articles are automatically synced to my iPhone where I can read them at my will. Recently, I have also started using Pocket as a research tool. Since Pocket allows me to organize saved articles using tags, I just tag the items I am using for research so that I can find them easily later.

Install:Pocket

18. Spark

Spark is my most favorite free app on Mac. For those who don’t know, Spark is an email client for Mac. I love spark because it intelligently categorizes all the emails that I receive into different categories, giving me access to the most important emails first. It also has a very robust set of features. I can easily snooze, archive, delete, and tag emails. I also love the fact that it allows me easily search for emails using natural language search. I can also search for emails based on attachments, and more. Lastly, Spark also has apps for both iOS and watchOS so no matter which device I am on, I can user Sparks to get through all my emails.

Install:Spark

19. GIMP

GIMP or GNU Image Manipulation Program is an open source photo editor for Mac which packs so many features that you won’t be able to discover all of them in your lifetime. It is basically Photoshop but free. You can use GIMP to perform any kind of image manipulation that you can think of. That said, since it packs so many features, GIMP also has a pretty steep learning curve. Also, being a free an open-source project, its user interface is not very intuitive and feels archaic. That’s why I recommend GIMP only to those users who need a robust photo editing software but cannot afford to buy one.

Install:GIMP

20. DarkTable

As per the description of the app on its website, 'DarkTable is an open source photography workflow application and raw developer. A virtual light-table and darkroom for photographers. It manages your digital negatives in a database, lets you view them through a zoomable light-table, and enables you to develop raw images and enhance them'.

Basically, it is super powerful photo editing app for Mac that allows you to use pro-level photo editing features for free. You are required to learn the app as it has a steep learning curve but once you get used to it, you won't go back to even the best-paid photo editing apps on the market. This one is definitely one of the free Mac apps that you can download in 2019.

Install:DarkTable

21. Simplenote

Simplenote is one of the best designed free Mac apps you can find. As its name suggests, Simplenote is an easy note taking app which allows you to easily jot down notes. What I love about this app is that even though it is completely free, your notes are synced across devices. Apart from its online sync features, I am also a fan of its clean user interface. Simplenote is also a really good app for someone who is looking for a clean app to write long-form content. You can use tags to organize notes easily and search for them using either their title, content, or tags. I have been using this app for quite a few years and I still don’t understand how it’s free. If you love writing, you will love Simplenote.

Install:Simplenote

22. Itsycal

Itsycal is an open source small menu bar calendar application for Mac. If you like Fantastical 2 for Mac, but hate that it’s priced so high, Itsycal is for you. Although Itsycal is nowhere as powerful as Fantastical 2, it brings all the basic features that you would want from a menu bar based calendar app. It shows you month view of your calendar, your upcoming events, and also allows you to create or delete events. I also love the fact that I can configure Itsycal to show not only the date but also the month and the day in the menu bar icon itself. It’s a good menu bar application and a must have for anyone who schedules everything on their calendar.

Install:Itsycal Programs for macbook.

23. Audacity

Audacity is one of those free Mac apps that is even better than most of the paid apps out there. For those who don’t know, Audacity is an audio editor app for your Mac (available for Windows PC too). If you are someone who deals with a ton of audio, you must have already heard about this software. If you have not, you probably don’t need it. Still, it’s such a good app that I couldn’t keep it away from the list. Just remember that if you ever need to edit an audio file to make it better, Audacity is the tool to do it.

Install:Audacity

24. Lightworks

Lightworks is a full-fledged video editing app which gives you access to all the tools that you will need to get your video editing on. To be fair, Lightworks also sell a Pro version of the app, however, the free version is powerful enough to handle most of the tasks. Whether you are a budding YouTuber or someone who just want to give an edge to their homemade videos, Lightworks is the right tool for you. What I love most about this app is that the website gives you ample tutorial videos to get you started. If by any chance you were looking for a free video editing software, look no further and download Lightworks.

Install:Lightworks

25. HiddenMe

HiddenMe is a small menu bar app which comes in very handy at times when you want to show a clean desktop without having to organize your stuff. The app lives in your menu bar and allows you to do one thing and one thing only, and that’s hiding everything on your desktop. With a click of the button, everything that’s on your desktop is hidden, giving you access to a clean desktop. I constantly use this app whenever I am giving a presentation or taking screenshots of my desktop for an article. This small application has saved me from embarrassing myself a number of times and it can do that for you too.

Install:HiddenMe

26. AppCleaner

Do you know that whenever you delete an app on your Mac, it leaves behind a ton of residual files which does nothing but eating up storage on your Mac? Well, it’s true and if you install and uninstall a ton of apps, you might have lost gigabytes of storage already. While there’s another app on this list which (Onyx) which can help you recover that storage, AppCleaner is an app which makes sure that the apps you delete don’t leave any residual files. Just launch the app and drag and drop the apps that you want to uninstall and it will take care of the rest. It is a must-have utility tool for any Mac user who wants to keep their Mac clean.

Mac Apps Download

Install:AppCleaner

27. LiteIcon

LiteIcon is the app from the same developers who made the AppCleaner. It is a simple app which allows you to change your system icons quickly and easily. Simply drag an icon onto the one you want to change, and click the Apply Changes button. That's all you need to do. If you want your older icon back, just drag out the new icon. If you like to customize how your icons look on Mac, try out LiteIcon.

Toast titanium 12 mac free download. Install:LiteIcon

28. GrandPerspective

I have written about GrandPerspective a couple of times on this website and you might be familiar with it by now. For those who are new to our website, it’s an app which allows you to visualize storage on your Mac. Using GrandPerspective you can easily find out which files are using how much storage and find and delete the files which are not necessary. GrandPerspective is a very nice app for anyone who doesn’t have any idea as to where all his/her Mac’s storage went.

Install:GrandPerspective

Best Apps For Mac

29. Manuscript

Manuscript is a free Mac writing app for students which makes writing school assignments including dissertation easier. Manuscript is a powerful writing app which allows students to complete their assignments right from the planning stage to completing it. It lets students easily insert citations, figures, tables, mathematical equations, and more. The app also allows for importation of citations from various tools including Mendeley, Zotero, Papers 3, Bookends, and EndNote. If you are a student who is looking for a good writing app, you don’t have to look any farther than Manuscript.

Install:Manuscript

30. IINA

IINA is an open-source video player for your Mac which offers one of the best amalgamations of features and user interface. The app looks extremely beautiful and supports all the modern features including force touch, picture-in-picture, and even offers Touch-bar controls for the latest MacBook Pros. IINA also supports almost all the video formats that you can think of, including the ability to play even GIFs. The app also comes with theming capabilities allowing you to use either light or dark themes. I have discovered this app just a few weeks back and I am already in love with it. If you consume a ton of media on your MacBook Pro, this is the right app for you.

Install:IINA

31. OnyX

OnyX is your one-stop solution for all your Mac’s maintenance needs. In fact, I cannot describe the app better and more succinctly than what’s written on its website. OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the structure of the system files, to run miscellaneous maintenance and cleaning tasks, to configure parameters in the Finder, Dock, Safari, and some of Apple's applications, to delete caches, to remove certain problematic folders and files, to rebuild various databases and indexes, and more. However, do remember that it is an advanced tool and hence before you do anything, make sure that you get familiar with the app as you don’t want to delete files which can corrupt your entire system.

Install:Onyx

32. SpotMenu

The last app on our list the SpotMenu app which is a nifty little menu bar application. The app basically allows you to control your iTunes and Spotify music player from the menu bar giving you access to controls such as play, pause, forward, and rewind. It’s a pretty basic application, however, it does come in handy. One thing that I like about the app is that it shows the name of the song that is currently playing right on your Mac’s menu bar. When you click on the icon, the drop-down window which harbors all the features also showcase the album art of the song that you are playing.

Install:SpotMenu

33. White Noise Lite

White Noise Lite is an app that helps you sleep better. If you are a light sleeper who wakes up multiple times in the night without any apparent reason then this app can help you sleep better. It brings fifty different HD quality ambient environment noises to help you sleep. The app brings a beautiful cover flow design which lets you easily swipe between cards to select different tasks. Although the app markets itself as a sleep enhancer, I mostly use to provide background music when I am working as it helps me concentrate. You should download this app right now and see if it helps you sleep better or work better. Whatever the result, you will be better off with this one in your arsenal.

Install:White Noise Lite

34. Shazam

Shazam is an app that needs no introduction. The app helps you discover songs by identifying whatever song is playing in the background. I personally use Shazam more as a tool to keep the list of songs that I have discovered. Suppose I am listening to a song and YouTube and want to save it. I just click on the menu bar icon of Shazam and it identifies the song and saves it on the list. I don't have to write it down anywhere. Later I can see the list and add to my Apple Music Playlist at my convenience. Shazam is a great app for discovering and keeping track of music that you like.

Install:Shazam

35. Muzzy

You know how when you accidentally yank headphones out of your iPhone, the music suddenly stops, well, Muzzy brings that functionality to your Mac. The app also does a lot of other things like allowing users to play, pause, and change the music from its menu bar app, integrates with Last.fm, shows songs lyrics, and more. However, I don’t care for any other features and I just use this app to stop music whenever I accidentally yank my headphones out. Sadly, the app only works if you are playing music through iTunes.

Install:Muzzy

Best Free macOS Apps: Final Thoughts

I hope that you found some apps which are useful to you. Do let me know which of these were your favorite and which ones you discovered. Also, if you know free apps that deserve to be on the list but aren’t, drop their names in the comments section. That’s all I have for this article. If you liked this article, share this on your social media profiles because we need your help to get the word out. As always, drop your opinions and suggestions in the comments section down below. We love to hear from our readers and your comments are always welcome.

[zombiepineapple]

Comparing Acceptable Use Policies

An Acceptable Use Policy is an agreement between a company and a customer. It's what someone agrees to in order to use a service or product. Most customers and stakeholders are prompted to read and accept these terms before initially using a company’s product, as well as when there are updates or new releases. Reading a company’s AUP can give insight to a company’s concerns, values, and security frameworks. People rarely read these, but they can tell us a lot about a company and how it treats its customers, not just what the company expects from people interacting with their property.

To show these differences, I read through the AUPs for Brown University, Facebook, and the U.S. Army. I ranked them on their efficacy and detail. Items given special attention will include how long ago an AUP was updated, concepts the AUPs define, mentions of cybersecurity policies, and repercussions for users who do not follow the AUPs.

Ranking Three Acceptable Use Policies

Brown University

Brown University is ranked third in the comparison of the first three AUPs. The university last reviewed their policy on August 3rd, 2016, but initially enacted the document August 1st, 2003 (Acceptable Use Policy | Computing & Information Services, n.d.). They have five separate help links from the policy page, making it the most accessible for users that need assistance. Another strength is that they have an extensive list of real-world examples to help clarify different situations a user may find themselves experiencing. They are most concerned with users cheating, hacking, and breaking the law. Toting respect above all else, Brown University is clear that if there are any breaches of their policy, they will respond with legal action. Their policy is short and doesn’t go out of its way to define concepts. Instead, it gives lists and examples of misconduct. Most notably, they are concerned with copyright abuses and “activities that would jeopardize the University’s tax-exempt status.” (Acceptable Use Policy | Computing & Information Services, n.d.)

Interestingly, they are specific on a few cybersecurity points. Students are allocated a certain amount of bandwidth which they cannot exceed. Users may not use university devices for libel, slander, harassment, or political purposes, nor economic gain. Users may not access or copy others’ personal identification or account information, like someone’s phone number or password. The use of security assessment or cyber-attack tools is prohibited unless under direction of and through educational means in their cybersecurity classes. Most notably, students are responsible for their device’s “network address or port, software and hardware. … (and) may not enable unauthorized users to access the network”. This means that if a student is hacked, it is effectively their fault, not the university’s, if they did not make a “reasonable effort” to protect their systems. Lastly, the AUP mentions that by agreeing to the policy, users also agree to all third-party license agreements, but there are no mentions or links to what those may be (Acceptable Use Policy | Computing & Information Services, n.d.).

Facebook

Facebook’s AUP is ranked second best out of the first three policy reviews. It consists of two documents: their Terms of Service and Community Standards. These documents were last revised October 2nd, 2020 (Terms of Service, 2019). At the start, Facebook is intent on explaining that everything they do is for others’ benefits. They clearly state that they don’t sell user data, but they get revenue from semi-anonymous user activity data (Terms of Service, 2019). For example, an advertising company may be told that a person who works in the culinary arts and likes skydiving clicked on their ad. This didn’t name the person or give away anything that may identify them, but it should be noted that the user is being given the Facebook platform service in exchange for this type of surveillance and reporting, and not any type of financial reparation. Facebook spends several pages explaining how this process makes the world a better place (Terms of Service, 2019).

From there, Facebook defines who is allowed to use their platform. As long as a user is over 13, not a convicted sex offender, hasn’t been kicked from the platform before, or doesn’t live in a country that bans Facebook, a person may create a profile. The profile must have the users real name, give accurate personal information, and be their only account (Terms of Service, 2019). This raises some questions, as many people regularly use fake names, have many accounts, and state they went to Hogwarts for college. Copyright is an interesting topic for Facebook. Anything a person uploads remains theirs and Facebook owns the “license” to it, unless it’s deleted. Interestingly, this section specifies that Facebook can use user content in their advertising campaigns without any special permissions (Terms of Service, 2019). So, don’t be surprised if Joe Lunchbox’s vacation video ends up on television.

In terms of cybersecurity, no one may upload malicious code nor attempt to spider, or scan for data, using software. Trying to view Facebook’s source code is also prohibited. If any of these policies are broken, Facebook will issue warnings, disable accounts, and may even contact and give personal information to law enforcement (Terms of Service, 2019). For example, if a person starts a live stream and begins threatening suicide, the stream will be cut the moment “threat becomes attempt” and police will be contacted and given that person's geological location, name, and number. There is also a very large section dedicated to mentioning that Facebook is not perfect and not responsible for content people post. This states that no lawsuit against Facebook may exceed $100 compensation from them and that all court cases take place “exclusively in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California or a state court located in San Mateo County.” (Terms of Service, 2019)

Facebook works with several partners to eliminate any form of human abuses, like trafficking, exploitation, assault, and sexual violence. There’s even a special branch covering all this in relation to minors and children (Facebook, 2019). In fact, most photos with any type of child nudity, even uploaded by loving parents, is usually removed because those images can be perverted by others. There’s also a dedicated anti-bullying hub that targets “content that’s meant to degrade or shame.” Facebook abhors hate speech, glorifying violence, “deep fakes”, and victim mocking. A “deep fake” is an altered video that appears to be real but intends to mislead and manipulate (Facebook, 2019).

Facebook’s Community Standards are mostly large and extensive definitions for the following: violence, criminal behavior, safety, objectionable content, integrity, authenticity, respecting intellectual property, and content-related requests and decisions (Facebook, 2019). There are only a few interesting points in these. Facebook prohibits drug and gun transactions on their platform, but does allow these types of advertisements, especially ammunition retailers. If a person dies, their account may be memorialized. A family member or even a person’s official executor can request this. A parent can have their child’s Facebook profile deleted. Lastly, Facebook decides policy change by stakeholder group discussions (Facebook, 2019).

The U.S. Army

Ranked number one is the Acceptable Use Policy for the United States Army. In stark contrast to Facebook’s AUP, the Army keeps as much as possible private and secured. Their AUP was last updated November 7th, 2018, and has short, concise definitions, leading into lists of rules (ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY (AUP), n.d.). They start off by specifying that there are two networks: The SIPRNET and the NIPRNET, or the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network and the Non-secure Internet Protocol Router Network. Everything on the SIPRNET is classified and everything on NIPRNET is unclassified (ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY (AUP), n.d.).

The Army’s AUP is mostly cybersecurity best practices. Users need authorization to do most things, including the ability to read/write to something, change any settings, or install any programs. They use Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for every single communication on the SIPRNET, while the NIPRNET acts as a kind of duplicate internet. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is used and security training takes place annually (ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY (AUP), n.d.). If a user misses their security training deadline, their accounts are locked until they’ve done the training and turned their completion in to their superior. The program covers “threat identification, physical security, acceptable use policies, malicious content and logic identification, and non-standard threats such as social engineering.” Passwords are changed every 90 to 150 days and all items must be virus checked before they can be opened on a device. Malicious code and executables, like .exe, .com, .vbs, and .bat files, are prohibited (ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY (AUP), n.d.). Only System Administrators are allowed to do system maintenance. Wireless devices must be off in most parts of the network and Bluetooth is outright barred. Users may not use so much bandwidth as to disrupt service but are allowed a small and reasonable number of personal communications at certain moments of the day, in certain locations, with personal devices. All of this is routinely monitored, traffic is intercepted, and devices may be seized at any time. The Army has the right to take any data a user has on its devices unless it is protected under duty of confidentiality, like communications with a lawyer or therapist (ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY (AUP), n.d.).

The only course of repercussion described is “disciplinary action”, with no further explanation (ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY (AUP), n.d.). This was chosen as the best out of the three AUPs because of its cybersecurity focus and curt specificity.

Conclusion

Acceptable Use Policies range widely in length, structure, specificity, and accountability. Most companies seem to care about copyright violations, but there are stark contrasts in the length certain companies go to communicate their expectations to users. Stakeholders deserve to have AUPs that are definitive, clear-cut, and comprehensive. These AUPs indicate not only how a company wishes to be treated, but how they will treat their users. Whether it’s a San Mateo County lawsuit guaranteed to award no more than a hundred bucks, a picture of a child in the tub being redacted, or an impromptu visit from a mental health professional, users must accept the effects of misconduct. That obligation starts by agreeing to Terms of Service, even if a user doesn’t read them.

References

ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY (AUP). (n.d.). https://home.army.mil/gordon/application/files/2915/4938/7446/FG_AUP-07NOV18.pdf

Acceptable Use Policy | Computing & Information Services. (n.d.). It.brown.edu. Retrieved April 25, 2021, from https://it.brown.edu/computing-policies/acceptable-use-policy#31

Facebook. (2019). Community Standards | Facebook. Facebook.com. https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/

Terms of Service. (2019). Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms

[orbemnews]

Can Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, still see the future? What’s happening: At Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting over the weekend, Buffett defended the company’s decision not to release reports on how it’s addressing the risks of climate change. He claimed that Berkshire (BRKA) has a good track record for investing in renewable energy through its utility businesses, and said it would be “asinine” to make all of the group’s numerous companies become more transparent. But pressure is growing. At the meeting, one investor asked him about Berkshire’s decision to own a big stake in oil giant Chevron (CVX) given concerns about the climate crisis. Buffett said he has “no compunction” about owning Chevron, and that he would hate to have all hydrocarbons banned quickly — though he noted that the world is quickly moving away from them. “If we owned the entire business, I would not feel uncomfortable about being in that business,” Buffett said. Step back: The company’s shareholders are siding with the 90-year-old CEO. A proposal asking Berkshire Hathaway to address climate change more directly — as well as a measure calling for more disclosure on diversity and inclusion — failed to pass. Yet it’s not difficult to see which way the winds are blowing. Countries such as the United States and United Kingdom are announcing increasingly ambitious targets for reducing emissions, while hundreds of major corporations have issued net zero commitments and are pouring money into sustainable businesses. The wider investment community is also rushing in, as clients push fund managers to create sustainability-focused portfolios, while spectacular growth for companies like Tesla is stoking enthusiasm among everyday investors. Global assets in sustainable funds hit a record high of nearly $2 trillion in the first three months of 2021, up 18% from the previous quarter, according to new data from Morningstar. Berkshire’s Vice Chairman Greg Abel, who has been tapped as Buffett’s likely successor, said during the meeting that “there’s been a clear commitment to decarbonizing our businesses.” He added that the company will retire all of its coal units by 2050. Still, that may not be enough to convince skeptics that Buffett, who earned the nickname “Oracle of Omaha,” is properly assessing the risks at the play. While Chevron has indicated it could rethink parts of its business model in light of climate fears, it remains a $200 billion fossil fuels empire synonymous with the oil-and-gas industry. As efforts to increase reliance on cleaner energy accelerate, its business will face major headwinds. That could be a threat to Berkshire Hathaway, and Buffett’s reputation, too. Epic v. Apple: Legal fight could remake the digital economy Ever since it launched in 2008, the Apple App Store has been the sole gatekeeper between apps and iPhones and iPads. Other platforms, such as Google’s Android, allow apps to be downloaded through third-party stores. But for any developers who want to be on Apple’s mobile devices, the choice is simple — it’s the App Store or nothing. This gives Apple (AAPL) huge power over the terms it can dictate to app makers, my CNN Business colleague Brian Fung reports. Most notably, any time you buy a digital product or service on many iOS apps, it’s processed on an Apple-run payment system, and Apple collects a 30% fee. Now, a federal judge is slated to decide: Is Apple’s policy just part of a hugely successful business model, or is it a violation of US antitrust law? In a trial starting Monday, the judge will consider whether Apple is justified in requiring many app makers — and by extension, consumers — to use the company’s payments technology. The potentially landmark trial stems from a lawsuit filed by the maker of the hit video game Fortnite. Apple booted Epic from its platform last summer for not complying with its rule. The high-profile case will involve witnesses including Apple CEO Tim Cook and his top lieutenants. Representatives for Facebook (FB) and Microsoft (MSFT) are also expected to testify. Corporate emails and presentations could fuel a fierce courtroom battle over App Store policies, which are increasingly under scrutiny from regulators in Europe, lawmakers in the United States and many others. Remember: Last Friday, European regulators accused Apple of violating EU antitrust law, saying the company’s rules unfairly restrict rival music services. Taken together with the Epic case, it’s clear the company is playing defense. Debate grows over banning political discussions at work Late last month, Basecamp, a project management software company, made an unusual move: It banned political discussions at work. Given the company’s relatively small size, the decision — announced in a sweeping blog post from CEO Jason Fried — might have gone by with little notice, my CNN Business colleague Sara Ashley O’Brien writes. But it swiftly generated a backlash. Roughly 20 of Basecamp’s fewer than 60 employees have posted on Twitter that they are leaving the company, with some explicitly pointing to the new policies. The company is offering severance packages for those who opt to depart given the “new direction.” Not the first: Last fall, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase made waves when CEO Brian Armstrong said there was no place for engaging in “broader societal issues” or “political causes” outside the company’s core mission. The decision was criticized by some as deeply misguided and lauded by others. Paul Graham, the venture capitalist and cofounder of the elite Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator, tweeted at the time: “I predict most successful companies will follow Coinbase’s lead.” But diversity and inclusion experts say such moves aren’t courageous, and instead seem motivated by fear of change. Banning politics at work comes across as an attempt to “bottle the genie on woke politics so people can just get away with what they’ve gotten away with before,” according to Y-Vonne Hutchinson, the founder of inclusion consultancy firm ReadySet. Hutchinson told CNN Business that what the people who are making these decisions are “not realizing — or maybe what they don’t want to realize — is that in an environment where there is literally no separation between your work and your home, and your very existence is political, you can’t really separate the two.” Up next Estee Lauder (EL) reports results before US markets open. XPO Logistics (XPO) follows after the close. Also today: The ISM Manufacturing Index for April posts at 10 a.m. ET. Coming tomorrow: CVS (CVS), Pfizer (PFE), Hyatt Hotels (H), Lyft (LYFT) and Zillow (Z) post earnings. Source link Orbem News #Buffett #Future #investing #Omaha #oracle #Premarketstocks:CanWarrenBuffett #stillseethefuture?-CNN #theOracleofOmaha #Warren

[douchebagbrainwaves]

EVERY FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT PEOPLE

I can tell, the first is mistaken, the second outdated, and the content was irrelevant. I've written just for myself are no good. And even in those fields they depend heavily on startups for components and ideas. A round, before the VCs invest they make the company set aside a block of stock for future hires—usually between 10 and 30% of the company. Now even the poorest Americans drive cars, and it surfaces in situations like this. For example, I write essays the same way a textile manufacturer treats the patterns printed on its fabrics. The worst variant of this behavior is the tranched deal, where the investor makes a small initial investment, with more to follow if the startup tanks, so long as you keep morphing your idea.

Universities with x departments will subscribe to the journals. This may not be the best source of advice, because I have to read all the applications. Existing needs would probably get satisfied more efficiently by a network of startups than by a few giant, hierarchical organizations, but I haven't seen it. The experience of the SFP suggests that if you let motivated people do real work, they work hard, whatever their age. History suggests that, all other things often are not equal: the able person may not care about money, or may prefer the stability of a large public company makes about 100 times as much as submission. Retailers are less of a bottleneck as customers increasingly buy online. One of the most important factor in the success of any company. Whoever controls the device sets the terms. Students be forewarned: if you start a startup. Leave the people you'd spent your whole life with, to live in a giant city of three or four thousand complete strangers? What would you think of a time when employers would regard that as a mark against you, but you probably don't.

I know. Closer to fraudulent. Will Filters Kill Spam? If the company is their performance. I'm a writer, but most can upload a file. Another of our hypotheses was that you can get. Until you have some users to measure, the more wealth you generate. Whereas top management, like salespeople, have to actually come up with answers. We can find office space, thanks; just give us the money. The point of programming languages, is that there are huge variations in the rate at which wealth is created.

What's going on? He has ridden them both to downtown Mountain View to get coffee. And that's what you do or what I do is somewhere between a river and a roman road-builder. Thousands of people must have known about this problem. Are you crazy? Startups happened because technology started to change so fast that big companies do is boring, you're going to have to pay for the servers that the software runs on, and the number of people retain from childhood the idea that we ought to be the case in individuals. The groups then proceeded to give fabulously slick presentations.

If a round takes 2 months to close, and once founders realize that, it's going to stop. I'm not claiming the multiplier is precisely 36, but it was designed for its authors to use, and a significant percentage get rich, how would you do it by fixing the things in the language that required so much explanation. All you need is strong convictions. Don't realize what you're avoiding One reason people who've been out in the end, and now he's a professor at MIT. And how do you design a language that actually seems better than others that are available, there will be a proliferation of devices that have some kind of anomaly make this summer's applicants especially good? Northern Italy in 1100, off still feudal. We decide based on about 10 minutes of reading an application plus 10 minutes of in person interview, and we invest so early that investors sometimes need a lot of work, like acting or writing books, you can't start a startup like this than a recipe site? Which means things must have been to till the same fields your whole life with no hope of anything better, under the thumb of lords and priests you had to give all your surplus to and acknowledge as your masters.

If there had been one person with a brain on IBM's side, Microsoft's future would have been before English evolved enough to make it. Ignorance can't solve everything though. The essential task in a startup depends on the kind you want. And people with that attitude are the ones who are good at it, and that's why we even hear about new, indy languages like Perl and Python. She can't do it half-heartedly. Take away the incentive of wealth, because the company would go out of business, even if it's easy and you get paid a lot. Nearly all wanted advice about dealing with future investors: how much smarter are you than your job description expects you to be a nice way of saying what all founders hate to hear: I'll invest if other people will. Whereas designing programming languages is to prevent our poor frail human brains from being overwhelmed by a mass of detail. As you might expect, it winds all over the face of the earth. A viable startup might only have ten employees, which puts you within a factor of ten of measuring individual effort. Beeton's Book of Household Management 1880, it may not just be because they're academics, detached from the real world.

It was English. Some of the smartest people around you are out of their element. And the books we did these disgusting things to, like those we mishandled in high school, I find still have black marks against them in my mind. A McDonald's franchise is controlled by rules so precise that it is practically a piece of software, could write a whole new piece of software, could write a whole new piece of software, could write a whole new piece of software, could write a whole new piece of software, and none selling corn oil or laundry detergent? Three months' funding is enough to get into second gear. Indirectly, but they want to win. Talking to reporters makes her nervous. Ideas can morph.

If I were in college now I'd probably work on graphics: a network game, for example, grew big by designing a system, the McDonald's franchise, that could then be reproduced at will all over the country, students are writing not about how a baseball team with a small group. So I think efficiency will matter, at least in our tradition lawyers are advocates: they are trained to be able to enjoy them in peace. I think they fail because they select for the wrong people. But while you don't literally need math for most kinds of hacking, in the sense of knowing 1001 tricks for differentiating formulas, math is very much worth studying for its own sake. They seemed a little surprised at having total freedom. Someone who's not yet an adult will tend to respond to a challenge from an adult in a way that was entirely for the better. Why? And she wrote three separate essays about the question of female founders. And in desktop software there is a significant correlation. For most people, the most powerful tools you can find a good teacher. This is my excuse for not starting a startup molds you into someone to whom starting a startup and failed over someone who'd spent the same time working at a low intensity for forty years, you work as hard as you can. What a company does, and the only lasting benefits were a weird ability to identify semitic roots and some insights into how people recognize words.

Thanks to Paul Buchheit, and Jessica Livingston for putting up with me.

[mortallyshadypatrol]

Full Mac Apps

On this website, I have covered a ton of paid apps, and that’s because in general, paid apps tend to offer more when compared to free apps. However, that does not mean that there are no good free apps out there. In fact, there are a ton of them. That’s why it is going to be a long article as I am bringing a list of 35 best free apps you can get for your Mac right now. Some of the apps on this list are evergreen and you most probably already have them installed on your device. But some of them are entirely new. Well, at least they are new to me and that’s the beauty of it. No matter, how old an app is, it is new for somebody out there. That said, no matter how avid a Mac user you are, I can bet that you will find new Mac apps in this article that you have never heard of before. So, open your Macs and get ready to download these awesome free Mac apps.

Facebook App For Mac

Video Download App For Mac

Mac Full Screen 2 Apps

Full Version Mac Apps

Best Free Mac App

Note: Be sure to read our must-have iPhone apps article to get the best apps for your iPhone in 2020.

Best Free Mac Apps You Should Install in 2020

While most of the apps in this list are free, some of them offer a paid option. That being said, when it comes to paid apps, I have only included those options that offer a generous free tier. I am using free versions of all the apps (that offer paid options) and find them suitable for most users. No app with a free trial or heavily restricted free tier has been included.

1. Audiobook Binder

The power of Mac. Taken further. Dedicated apps for music, TV, and podcasts. Smart new features like Sidecar, powerful technologies for developers, and your favorite iPad apps, now on Mac. Apr 06, 2020.

While you can listen to books in MP3 format, I like the M4B format more as it supports chapters. M4B is also the native format that Apple Books support. If you want to keep your music library separate from the book library, this is the format to use. Audiobook Binder is an app that lets you convert MP3 files into M4B files. It also lets you bind multiple MP3 files into a single M4B file and converts those MP3 files into chapters. You can also add custom book cover and edit book’s metadata including name, author, and narrator. I have been using this app for the past year and a half to listen to public domain audiobooks and lectures and it has never failed me.

Install:Free

2. LastPass

Password management is something people ignore. Since passwords are hard to remember and most third-party password managers charge a hefty monthly subscription fee, not everyone is aboard the strong and different password train. To those users, I suggest LastPass. LastPass offers a very generous free tier that allows you to use the software on two different machines. And if you want to use it on more, you can always use its web app that works everywhere. I have been using LastPass for the past two years to manage my passwords and I never had any problem.

Its apps are installed on my primary MacBook Pro (learn MacBook Pro tips and tricks) and my iPhone. Since it supports browser plugins and iPhone’s automatic password fill feature, I never have to type my password or remember them. All my passwords are secure, long, and use an alpha-numeric combination. If you are still using the same password everywhere or setting weak passwords, try out LastPass. It’s free for personal use and you have no excuses not to use it. Its one of the best free Mac apps that you can get.

Facebook App For Mac

Install:Free, $3/user/month

3. Brave

While I love Safari and use it for most of my tasks, it’s not perfect and I have to turn to other browsers from time to time. My biggest problem with Safari is its nescient extension library. Safari is also slow to adopt the latest web technologies. I know Apple does this to keep browsing private and secure, but sometimes it causes hindrance in my work. For a long time, I was using Chrome for this work but I hated two things about it. First, Google Chrome is a resource hog and decreases battery life, causes overheating, and several other problems. Second and more importantly, I don’t like sharing my data with Google more than I already do. It was one of the reasons why I switch from Android to iOS several years back.

The solution is the Brave browser. It’s a browser that is built on the same Chromium engine that Google Chrome uses, so you are getting all the features and extension support. But, since the creators focus on privacy, your data is always secure. It brings an automatic tracking blocker and even blocks most of the annoying ads. Since it blocks the most harmful scripts, you get to enjoy a faster internet. Also, in my testing, it’s far better than Google Chrome at handling resources. While it’s not as good as Safari, that’s a trade-off that I am ready to make. If you are also looking for a good Chrome alternative, you should try using the Brave browser.

Install:Free

4. CopyClip

CopyClip is a Mac utility that stores everything you copy in a clipboard. Copy-and-paste is so integral to our work that we cannot even imagine a time when this feature was not available. Still, Mac’s clipboard is probably the most neglected feature in the macOS. Even after so decades, you still cannot hold more than one entry in your clipboard. Enter, CopyClip. It’s a clipboard manager that saves entries into the clipboard. You can use a simple keyboard shortcut to easily copy any item and paste them anywhere you want. CopyClip not only saves text input but also preserves images and documents. While I use “Paste” for my clipboard management as it offers more features, for a free app, CopyClip works exceptionally well.

Install:Free

5. BBEdit

For a long time, it was hard to recommend a good free text editor on Mac. All the good ones were paid, and the free ones were just not up to the mark. Well, after a long hiatus, BBEdit, one of the most exemplary text editors, is back on the Mac App Store. For the past 20 years, BBEdit has been the text editor to beat and now that it’s back on the App Store with a freemium model, you can use it for free. Only the advanced features of BBEdit are hidden behind a paywall and 90% of regular users will not need those features.

Whether you want to write a long blog post, edit snippets of code, design website or web apps, BBEdit is the text editor to use. The best thing about BBEdit is how fast it works. It opens text files with hundreds of thousands of words in seconds and never falters. In my years of using this app, I have not lost even a single line of text. It has a powerful search that lets you locate and find keywords across files. There’s no free text editor out there that can match its prowess.

Install:Free, $49.99

6. NetNewsWire

The death of Google Reader placed a dark cloud over the future of RSS readers. But, if anything, RSS is showing a sign of resurgence in the past year or so. From the launch of acclaimed RSS reader app Reeder 4 to the rebirth of NetNewsWire, RSS readers are becoming popular again. And if you are looking to create a personal news feed, there’s no better app to do it with than NetNewsWire. Built on-top of free and open source reader named Evergreen, NetNewsWire is an excellent feed reader for Mac.

The app makes it easy to subscribe to RSS feeds and brings excellent search capabilities. It also brings a beautiful design and I adore its dark mode. It also supports online feed syncing services such as Feedbin. I still prefer Reeder 4 as it brings more features, but seeing how NetNewsWire is still young and free to use, I cannot fault it. If you are looking for a free RSS reader, you should try NetNewsWire.

Install:Free

7. DaVinci Resolve

While Macs come with a basic video editor for free (iMovie), anyone who is serious about video editing will have to go for the pro video editing apps. The problem with apps like Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro is that they cost a lot. If you don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars, and still want to use a full-fledged video editor, DaVinci Resolve is the best option for you. Even when I am writing this, I cannot believe that such a capable video editor is free to use.

The latest version of the software, DaVinci Resolve 16 combines professional 8K editing, color correction, visual effects, and audio post-production all in one software tool. Color correction tools of DaVinci Resolve are better than most paid video editors including FCP and Premiere Pro. From custom timeline settings to facial recognition to keyframe editing, it brings all features that you require from a professional video editor. It is one of the best free Mac software that you can install. Free Mac apps don’t get better than this.

Install:Free

8. Folx

Folx is a powerful native download manager for Mac that not only works great but also looks cool. It features a true Mac-style interface and supports both direct and torrent downloads. The app also offers extensions for Safari, Chrome, Opera, and Firefox. The extensions help Folx in catching downloads and thus ensure that you are not using the crappy download manager of your browser. Folx can split downloads into multiple threads resulting in faster downloads and also support download pause and restart. The free version of the app is enough for most users. I was using it for years without any complaints. I only bought the paid version to support the developers. The extra features are nice to have but they have not drastically affected by usage.

Install:Free, $19.99

9. NightOwl

macOS Mojave introduced dark mode to our favorite desktop operating system. The dark mode on macOS Mojave is not half-cooked as it is on windows. When you turn on the dark mode on your Mac, not only it turns the system UI but also the stock apps. Not only that, apps that support automatic dark mode also adhere to the same guideline. Once you turn it on, they automatically default to dark mode.

While that's great in most situation, I wish Apple included a way to create a whitelist for apps that are not functional in dark mode. The default Mail app and the Evernote app are a few examples of an app that still work best in light mode. That's where NightOwl comes in. It's a menu bar app that allows you to create a whitelist of apps that you don't want to use in dark mode. Not only that, but it also allows you to quickly switch between dark and light mode with a simple click at its icon. You can read more about the app in our article here. The app is completely free to download and use with a voluntary donation.

Install:NightOwl

10. Unsplash Wallpapers

I want to start this article with an app which I have discovered just a couple of months back and have fallen in love. As its name suggests, Unsplash Wallpapers is a wallpaper app for Mac which gives you access to unlimited ultra-high resolution wallpapers for your Macs. One of the things that I love most about MacBooks is its display. Apple packs phenomenal displays on the Macs. Stop me if it’s just me, but I enjoy changing the wallpapers on a regular basis just because they look so damn beautiful on my Mac’s display.

Before I discovered Unsplash Wallpapers, it used to be a chore to change wallpapers. First, I had to find good wallpapers, then I had to download them, and only then I could use them. With Unsplash Wallpapers app, you can change the wallpaper just with one click. If you like a wallpaper, you can even download it. If you love wallpapers, you are going to love this free Mac app.

Install:Unsplash Wallpapers

11. The Unarchiver

This is one of the first free Mac apps that I download whenever I move on to a new Mac. The app is basically the best unarchiving app you can get for your Mac, free or otherwise. The Unarchiver cannot only unarchive common formats such as Zip, RAR (including v5), 7-zip, Tar, Gzip, and Bzip2, but it can also open formats such as StuffIt, DiskDoubler, LZH, ARJ, ARC, ISO and BIN disc images, Windows.EXE installers and more. Basically, it’s a one-stop solution for all your unarchiving needs.

Install:The Unarchiver

12. Amphetamine

We all know that Macs bring a long battery life and while some of it has to do with Apple’s excellent hardware, most of it is because of how macOS efficiently manages battery. One of the things that macOS does to preserve the battery life on your computer is to put it to sleep whenever you don’t interact with your Mac for a set period of time. While this is really good, sometimes you need to keep your Mac running even if you are not interacting with it. One of the examples that come to mind is when you are downloading a large file. If your Mac falls asleep during the download, it will stop it, and depending on the software that you are using to download the file, you might have to restart the download from the beginning.

Amphetamine solves this problem by allowing users to keep their Macs awake even when they are not doing anything. The app is powerful and allows users to keep their Macs awake for how much ever long they want. Not only that, users can also set triggers to keep their Macs awake. For example, you can tell Amphetamine to not put your Mac to sleep whenever a certain app is running. Lastly, it allows you to easily access all these features as it lives right there in your Mac’s menu bar. It’s one of the most useful apps for Macs and I love it.

Install:Amphetamine

13. GIPHY Capture

Gifs are all the rage today. More and more users are creating and sharing their own gifs. And if you want to be one of them then this is the tool you need. GIPHY Capture is an app that lets you capture and create gifs. Once you launch the app it will create a translucent green window with a capture button at the bottom. All you need to do is to drop the window on top of the video you want to capture and click on the capture button. Once you are done with the recording, click on the record button again to stop the recording. It is probably the easiest way to create gifs on your Mac.

Install:GIPHY Capture

14. Spectacle

Spectacle is one of the apps that I install instantly on a new Mac. Macs are good at many things but one thing that still eludes it is a good window management feature. Apple has not solved the window management problem in the latest macOS Catalina so I guess, we have to wait for one more year. In fact, the window management problem has become even worse in macOS Catalina in my opinion. If you are also fed up of Apple's native approach towards window management, you should Install Spectacle.

This is a simple menu bar app that allows you to easily resize and place windows with keyboard commands. I can easily set a window to either half of the display both vertically and horizontally, make it go full screen, snap it to the center, and more. Once you install this app, your window management workflow will become ten times faster.

Install:Spectacle

15. ImageOptim

ImageOptim is one of the most used free Mac apps on my MacBook Pro. In my line of work, I have to attach a ton of screenshots (like in this article). And before I upload any picture on my website, I pass it through ImageOptim. The app deletes all the unnecessary metadata such as GPS position and camera's serial number and compresses the image. This allows me to upload the image on the web without any privacy hazards and ensures that the file sizes are low.

The app is pretty easy to use. You just drag and drop images into its window and then click on the button at the bottom-right corner. If you share a ton of images on the web (whether on your blog or social media websites like Twitter and Facebook), it will be good for you to pass it through ImageOptim first. I have used paid image compression apps but nothing has been as good and as easy to use as ImageOptim.

Install:ImageOptim

16. Alfred 4

Alfred is an all-purpose tool for your Mac which can boost your productivity ten folds if you learn how to use it. Of course, there’s a learning curve to this app, but if you invest in it, it will pay you back. Alfred allows you to quickly launch apps, use text expansion snippets, search on the Mac and web, use hotkeys and keywords, and much more. Alfred used to be a paid app, but the developers were kind enough to release the app for free. There are add-on power packs that you can buy, to use cool features like Alfred workflows. But, for most normal users, the free app itself is enough to boost their productivity.

Install:Alfred 4

17. Pocket

Pocket is a popular read it later service which allows you to save articles offline so that you can read them later. I mostly browse for articles on my Mac and whenever I find something that I would want to read, I just save it in Pocket. Pocket has an excellent Safari extension that allows me to save articles and read them later. Since Pocket syncs across devices, all my saved articles are automatically synced to my iPhone where I can read them at my will. Recently, I have also started using Pocket as a research tool. Since Pocket allows me to organize saved articles using tags, I just tag the items I am using for research so that I can find them easily later.

Install:Pocket

18. Spark

Spark is my most favorite free app on Mac. For those who don’t know, Spark is an email client for Mac. I love spark because it intelligently categorizes all the emails that I receive into different categories, giving me access to the most important emails first. It also has a very robust set of features. I can easily snooze, archive, delete, and tag emails. I also love the fact that it allows me easily search for emails using natural language search. I can also search for emails based on attachments, and more. Lastly, Spark also has apps for both iOS and watchOS so no matter which device I am on, I can user Sparks to get through all my emails.

Install:Spark

19. GIMP

GIMP or GNU Image Manipulation Program is an open source photo editor for Mac which packs so many features that you won’t be able to discover all of them in your lifetime. It is basically Photoshop but free. You can use GIMP to perform any kind of image manipulation that you can think of. That said, since it packs so many features, GIMP also has a pretty steep learning curve. Also, being a free an open-source project, its user interface is not very intuitive and feels archaic. That’s why I recommend GIMP only to those users who need a robust photo editing software but cannot afford to buy one.

Install:GIMP

20. DarkTable

As per the description of the app on its website, 'DarkTable is an open source photography workflow application and raw developer. A virtual light-table and darkroom for photographers. It manages your digital negatives in a database, lets you view them through a zoomable light-table, and enables you to develop raw images and enhance them'.

Basically, it is super powerful photo editing app for Mac that allows you to use pro-level photo editing features for free. You are required to learn the app as it has a steep learning curve but once you get used to it, you won't go back to even the best-paid photo editing apps on the market. This one is definitely one of the free Mac apps that you can download in 2019.

Install:DarkTable

21. Simplenote

Simplenote is one of the best designed free Mac apps you can find. As its name suggests, Simplenote is an easy note taking app which allows you to easily jot down notes. What I love about this app is that even though it is completely free, your notes are synced across devices. Apart from its online sync features, I am also a fan of its clean user interface. Simplenote is also a really good app for someone who is looking for a clean app to write long-form content. You can use tags to organize notes easily and search for them using either their title, content, or tags. I have been using this app for quite a few years and I still don’t understand how it’s free. If you love writing, you will love Simplenote.

Install:Simplenote

22. Itsycal

Itsycal is an open source small menu bar calendar application for Mac. If you like Fantastical 2 for Mac, but hate that it’s priced so high, Itsycal is for you. Although Itsycal is nowhere as powerful as Fantastical 2, it brings all the basic features that you would want from a menu bar based calendar app. It shows you month view of your calendar, your upcoming events, and also allows you to create or delete events. I also love the fact that I can configure Itsycal to show not only the date but also the month and the day in the menu bar icon itself. It’s a good menu bar application and a must have for anyone who schedules everything on their calendar.

Install:Itsycal

23. Audacity

Audacity is one of those free Mac apps that is even better than most of the paid apps out there. For those who don’t know, Audacity is an audio editor app for your Mac (available for Windows PC too). If you are someone who deals with a ton of audio, you must have already heard about this software. If you have not, you probably don’t need it. Still, it’s such a good app that I couldn’t keep it away from the list. Just remember that if you ever need to edit an audio file to make it better, Audacity is the tool to do it.

Install:Audacity

24. Lightworks

Lightworks is a full-fledged video editing app which gives you access to all the tools that you will need to get your video editing on. To be fair, Lightworks also sell a Pro version of the app, however, the free version is powerful enough to handle most of the tasks. Whether you are a budding YouTuber or someone who just want to give an edge to their homemade videos, Lightworks is the right tool for you. What I love most about this app is that the website gives you ample tutorial videos to get you started. If by any chance you were looking for a free video editing software, look no further and download Lightworks.

Install:Lightworks

25. HiddenMe

HiddenMe is a small menu bar app which comes in very handy at times when you want to show a clean desktop without having to organize your stuff. The app lives in your menu bar and allows you to do one thing and one thing only, and that’s hiding everything on your desktop. With a click of the button, everything that’s on your desktop is hidden, giving you access to a clean desktop. I constantly use this app whenever I am giving a presentation or taking screenshots of my desktop for an article. This small application has saved me from embarrassing myself a number of times and it can do that for you too.

Install:HiddenMe

26. AppCleaner

Do you know that whenever you delete an app on your Mac, it leaves behind a ton of residual files which does nothing but eating up storage on your Mac? Well, it’s true and if you install and uninstall a ton of apps, you might have lost gigabytes of storage already. While there’s another app on this list which (Onyx) which can help you recover that storage, AppCleaner is an app which makes sure that the apps you delete don’t leave any residual files. Just launch the app and drag and drop the apps that you want to uninstall and it will take care of the rest. It is a must-have utility tool for any Mac user who wants to keep their Mac clean.

Install:AppCleaner

27. LiteIcon

LiteIcon is the app from the same developers who made the AppCleaner. It is a simple app which allows you to change your system icons quickly and easily. Simply drag an icon onto the one you want to change, and click the Apply Changes button. That's all you need to do. If you want your older icon back, just drag out the new icon. If you like to customize how your icons look on Mac, try out LiteIcon.

Install:LiteIcon

28. GrandPerspective

I have written about GrandPerspective a couple of times on this website and you might be familiar with it by now. For those who are new to our website, it’s an app which allows you to visualize storage on your Mac. Using GrandPerspective you can easily find out which files are using how much storage and find and delete the files which are not necessary. GrandPerspective is a very nice app for anyone who doesn’t have any idea as to where all his/her Mac’s storage went.

Install:GrandPerspective

29. Manuscript

Manuscript is a free Mac writing app for students which makes writing school assignments including dissertation easier. Manuscript is a powerful writing app which allows students to complete their assignments right from the planning stage to completing it. It lets students easily insert citations, figures, tables, mathematical equations, and more. The app also allows for importation of citations from various tools including Mendeley, Zotero, Papers 3, Bookends, and EndNote. If you are a student who is looking for a good writing app, you don’t have to look any farther than Manuscript.

Install:Manuscript

30. IINA

IINA is an open-source video player for your Mac which offers one of the best amalgamations of features and user interface. The app looks extremely beautiful and supports all the modern features including force touch, picture-in-picture, and even offers Touch-bar controls for the latest MacBook Pros. IINA also supports almost all the video formats that you can think of, including the ability to play even GIFs. The app also comes with theming capabilities allowing you to use either light or dark themes. I have discovered this app just a few weeks back and I am already in love with it. If you consume a ton of media on your MacBook Pro, this is the right app for you.

Install:IINA

31. OnyX

OnyX is your one-stop solution for all your Mac’s maintenance needs. In fact, I cannot describe the app better and more succinctly than what’s written on its website. OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the structure of the system files, to run miscellaneous maintenance and cleaning tasks, to configure parameters in the Finder, Dock, Safari, and some of Apple's applications, to delete caches, to remove certain problematic folders and files, to rebuild various databases and indexes, and more. However, do remember that it is an advanced tool and hence before you do anything, make sure that you get familiar with the app as you don’t want to delete files which can corrupt your entire system.

Install:Onyx

32. SpotMenu

The last app on our list the SpotMenu app which is a nifty little menu bar application. The app basically allows you to control your iTunes and Spotify music player from the menu bar giving you access to controls such as play, pause, forward, and rewind. It’s a pretty basic application, however, it does come in handy. One thing that I like about the app is that it shows the name of the song that is currently playing right on your Mac’s menu bar. When you click on the icon, the drop-down window which harbors all the features also showcase the album art of the song that you are playing.

Install:SpotMenu

33. White Noise Lite

White Noise Lite is an app that helps you sleep better. If you are a light sleeper who wakes up multiple times in the night without any apparent reason then this app can help you sleep better. It brings fifty different HD quality ambient environment noises to help you sleep. The app brings a beautiful cover flow design which lets you easily swipe between cards to select different tasks. Although the app markets itself as a sleep enhancer, I mostly use to provide background music when I am working as it helps me concentrate. You should download this app right now and see if it helps you sleep better or work better. Whatever the result, you will be better off with this one in your arsenal.

Install:White Noise Lite

34. Shazam

Shazam is an app that needs no introduction. The app helps you discover songs by identifying whatever song is playing in the background. I personally use Shazam more as a tool to keep the list of songs that I have discovered. Suppose I am listening to a song and YouTube and want to save it. I just click on the menu bar icon of Shazam and it identifies the song and saves it on the list. I don't have to write it down anywhere. Later I can see the list and add to my Apple Music Playlist at my convenience. Shazam is a great app for discovering and keeping track of music that you like.

Install:Shazam

35. Muzzy

You know how when you accidentally yank headphones out of your iPhone, the music suddenly stops, well, Muzzy brings that functionality to your Mac. The app also does a lot of other things like allowing users to play, pause, and change the music from its menu bar app, integrates with Last.fm, shows songs lyrics, and more. However, I don’t care for any other features and I just use this app to stop music whenever I accidentally yank my headphones out. Sadly, the app only works if you are playing music through iTunes.

Install:Muzzy

Best Free macOS Apps: Final Thoughts

I hope that you found some apps which are useful to you. Do let me know which of these were your favorite and which ones you discovered. Also, if you know free apps that deserve to be on the list but aren’t, drop their names in the comments section. That’s all I have for this article. If you liked this article, share this on your social media profiles because we need your help to get the word out. As always, drop your opinions and suggestions in the comments section down below. We love to hear from our readers and your comments are always welcome.

You can browse and buy apps in the App Store on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, on your Apple Watch, on your Mac, or on your Apple TV.

Browse and buy

To download and buy apps from the App Store, you need an Apple ID. Your Apple ID is the account that you use to access Apple services. If you use other Apple services like iCloud, sign in to the App Store with the same Apple ID. If you don't have an Apple ID, you can create one.

If you're in the App Store on any of your devices and see the download button near an app, you already bought or downloaded that app. When you tap or click the download button , the app downloads to your device again, but you are not charged again. You can also see a list of apps that you purchased and redownload them.

Learn what payment methods you can use to buy apps and other content. You can also create an Apple ID without a payment method when you download a free app.

How to buy apps on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Tap the App Store app on your Home screen.

Browse or search for the app that you want to download, then tap the app.

Tap the price or tap Get. You might need to sign in with your Apple ID. If you find a game that says Arcade, subscribe to Apple Arcade to play the game.

After your app finishes downloading, you can move it to a different spot on your Home screen. Apps stay up-to-date by default, but you can learn more about updating apps.

You can make additional purchases within some apps. If you set up Family Sharing, you can use Ask to Buy so that kids must get permission before they make in-app purchases. Learn more about in-app purchases.

If an app is sold with an iMessage app or sticker pack, you can open it in Messages.

How to buy apps on your Apple Watch

With watchOS 6, you can download apps directly from the App Store on your Apple Watch. You can also add apps to your Apple Watch from your iPhone.

Open the App Store app.

Browse or search for the app that you want to download, then tap the app.

Tap the price or tap Get. You might need to sign in with your Apple ID.

Apps stay up-to-date by default, but you can learn more about updating apps.

If you set up Family Sharing, you can use Ask to Buy so that kids must get permission before they download an app or make an in-app purchase. Learn more about in-app purchases.

Video Download App For Mac

How to buy apps on your Mac

Open the App Store.

Browse or search for the app that you want to download. Apps for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch don't always have a version for Mac.

Click the app.

Click the price, then click Buy App. If you don't see a price, click Get, then click Install App. You might need to sign in with your Apple ID. If you find a game that says Arcade, subscribe to Apple Arcade to play the game.

Mac Full Screen 2 Apps

After your app finishes downloading, you can find it and keep it organized in Launchpad. Apps stay up-to-date by default, but you can learn more about updating apps.

You can make additional purchases within some apps. If you set up Family Sharing, you can use Ask to Buy so that kids must get permission before they make in-app purchases. Learn more about in-app purchases.

How to buy apps on your Apple TV

Open the App Store on your Apple TV.

Browse or search for the app that you want to download, then select the app.

Select the price or select Get. You might need to sign in with your Apple ID. If you find a game that says Arcade, subscribe to Apple Arcade to play the game.

After your app finishes downloading, you can move it around on your Home screen. Your apps will update automatically.

You can make additional purchases within some apps. You can use Restrictions to restrict, block, or allow in-app purchases. Learn more about in-app purchases.

The App Store isn’t available on Apple TV (3rd generation or earlier).

Get information about an app

If you want to know specific information about an app, like what languages the app is available in, the app’s file size, or its compatibility with other Apple devices, scroll to the bottom of an app’s page. You might be able to tap some sections to learn more.

You can also contact the app developer for help with an app's functionality.

Get help with billing

Full Version Mac Apps

Learn what to do if you see a charge from an app that you don't recognize.

Learn how to cancel an in-app subscription.

If you can’t update your apps because your payment method is declined, update or change your payment method.

If you have another issue with an app, report a problem or contact Apple Support.

Learn more

Best Free Mac App

If your App Store is missing or you can't find it on your device, you might have parental controls turned on. Adjust your iTunes & App Store Purchases settings and make sure that you choose 'Allow' for the Installing Apps setting.

Learn what to do if an app unexpectedly quits, stops responding while installing, or won't open.

Learn what to do if you can't download apps, or if apps get stuck.

If you want to download apps that are larger than 200 MB over cellular, go to Settings > [your name] > iTunes & App Store, then tap App Downloads and choose the option that you want.

If you bought part of an apps bundle, the price of the full apps bundle is reduced by the amount you already spent.

[tech-battery]

The Asus RT-AX86U Is a Wi-Fi 6 Router That Doesn't Sacrifice Looks for Power

Wi-Fi 6 has accelerated its creep into mainstream wireless networking, urged along by the similarly accelerating spread of gigabit internet. Until the last few months or so, purchasing a Wi-Fi 6 device has largely been a decision more about future-proofing and less about immediate gain. That’s quickly changing, however, with all manner of wireless device manufacturers releasing products boasting about blazing this and blistering that, and it’s finally time to take a serious look at 802.11ax routers.

The Asus RT-AX88U was an early entrant in the field, and the company now has several follow-ups, including our best gaming router runner-up: the RT-AX86U. There, I gave it credit for being extremely fast and for its restrained physical design. However, I took issue with Asus’s UI decisions. In the end, I concluded that I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good gaming experience. Now I’m taking an even deeper dive to find out: Is this router worth it for just any old person and not just gamers presumably reading this in a hoodie with some kind of RGB lighting and heat vents? I think so, and you should, too.

As far as the design of the Asus RT-AX86U goes, there isn’t much to say, and frankly, that’s a good thing. It’s neither a slab nor a monolith, neither an ancient alien artifact nor an air freshener chic pod (though it can be a Gundam, apparently). It’s black, it stands upright, and it has three stabby, removable, adjustable antennas jutting from the top. It has four outgoing gigabit ethernet ports—one of which is an auto-prioritizing gaming port—in the back, a gigabit WAN, and a 2.5-gigabit LAN/WAN port for those lucky enough to be able to make use of it. Two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports give you a fast NAS if you’ve got a hard drive lying around.

Getting it set up is a quick process, refreshingly letting me choose up front whether to separate the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. Knowing that I would need to reconfigure some real dumb smart devices, I opted for separation, and my network was up and running in about five minutes.

But it should be noted there are two ways to handle setup and management. One is via a lovely mobile app, and the other is via the browser, and I hate the browser-based UI of Asus routers. It’s just a weird, unfocused, confusing mess. If you’re the type of person who wants deep, granular control of your home network, but don’t want to shell out for expensive enterprise-grade hardware, you could do a lot worse than Asus, but prepare to hunt for the settings you need to adjust. Trudging through the settings reveals menus and submenus that stretch out seemingly to infinity, with an intimidating depth that would have most people regarding it with narrowed eyes and a feigned understanding, muttering, “Yes, I see,” as they slowly mouse up to click the X button on that tab.

The intro screen has a basic network topology map which gives you a diagram of what all is connected, and a section where you can split out your 2.4 and 5 GHz bands or update your network SSID and password. After that, you get the shiny feature-y stuff, the majority of which, like the specific data-type prioritizing Adaptive QoS, Traffic Analysis, and various media modes and security, is powered by Trend Micro.

Together they offer a host of security features in the AiProtection section, promising to block malicious sites, protect you from Distributed Denial of Service attacks, and network vulnerability attacks like Heartbleed, while also monitoring outgoing traffic for suspicious packets from virus-infected devices. Each tab under this section gives you reports of suspicious network behavior, with downloadable logs for your review. In testing at wicar.org, the router blocked all but two of 10 sites, with Safari catching the last two. It seemed to work well, though the experience is barebones, and unlike the rest of the settings for the router, there are no opportunities for customization, just toggles for each of the three categories of protection. But using this, or a few other key features powered by Trend Micro, will bring you eventually to this EULA notice:

It seems that in order to have access to Trend Micro’s features, you must agree to give them access to all kinds of data, which may include your e-mails or your web browsing history. It’s spooky stuff, as usual, but thankfully all fairly easy to opt in or out of, as well—so long as you can bear the ensuing message about the valuable capabilities you’ll lose out on. So, it’s not quite the deal with Ursula the Sea Witch I initially worried it was, and, in the end, the details in the EULA are perhaps not unexpected for security software like this. I reached out to both Asus and Trend Micro for their input on what sort of data they collect and how exactly it’s used, and we’ll update here when we get a response.

Deeper in the menus, you will find a surprisingly pleasant Open NAT section with pre-configured port reservations for specific games and consoles, and NAS options that include support for Apple’s Time Machine backup software. Most people will go wall-eyed looking at options past these, but it’s worth noting that if you want to use features like OFDMA and MU-MIMO, beamforming, and, I don’t know, the actual Wi-Fi 6 standard, you’ll want to push on into the advanced settings—just don’t expect to understand much of what you are presented with here, unless you have studied networking down to a very specific level. That said, if you have time and sufficient grit, you can sift through it and find some truly powerful options.

Now, for all the shade I throw at the browser interface, Asus actually does a pretty decent job with their mobile app. Appearance-wise, it’s far from the tidy design of most of Asus’s competitors; the app looks the way we might have imagined the UI of the future would in the early aughts or late ‘90s—all sci-fi space controls floating against a star field, complete with animations that are just there to look neat. While very silly, it’s a breath of fresh air after using the web interface, with more of the stuff you would want quick access to right there on the home screen, like Adaptive QoS mode switching, letting you quickly switch priority to games, video conferencing software, media streaming, and more.

While not quite as robust as the browser UI, the mobile app is far more user-friendly, even if it isn’t perfect. I greatly appreciated seeing signal noise shown for individual devices—also an option in the browser—which helps a lot when placing them for the best signal, which is especially important for things like smart speakers, which can be made or broken by your choices regarding network topology.

Looking at the feature list, it’s not unusual to wonder why in the hell you would want to command your router with Alexa. But, in the interest of being thorough, I grabbed my long-banished Echo Dot to test, and I did find some genuinely useful bits here—temporarily activating your guest network, for example, or pausing wifi. Perhaps the most useful of the bunch is the ability to change Adaptive QoS modes without going into the app.

The main shortcoming of Alexa Skills remains: Every command must be prefaced with “Alexa, ask my router…”, followed by a prescribed set of phrases you must memorize (or look up every time, defeating the purpose). The pricier RT-AX88U gives you a small selection of more natural-sounding phrases like, “Alexa, pause my wifi.” I tried anyway; not only did it not work, but Alexa pretended not to know who I was.

The rest of my smart home experience on this router, initial difficulties aside, was a good one—lightbulbs flicked on and off, routines ran, and my chosen smart assistant didn’t hesitate to respond to my requests.

The RT-AX86U is powered by a 1.8 GHz quad-core CPU with 1 GB of RAM and 256 MB Flash memory. Theoretically, it can transmit up to 4804 Mbps on the 5 GHz band, or up to 861 Mbps on the 2.4, but you’ll never see those speeds, nor should you expect them. It has four antennas—one of which is an internal, printed circuit board antenna, and works all the way up to the 160 MHz band, which is a key component of Wi-Fi 6, and necessary to reach the fastest speeds the router is capable of. It has a long list of other terms that describe how powerful it is.

As I’ve noted previously, the RT-AX86U is great for gaming. I wanted to take it further, so I decided to stress test the router, streaming music at the highest quality available on multiple devices, watching a 4K nature documentary on Apple TV, which is known for its high-bitrate streaming, conducting a video call with a friend, and playing CS:GO on official servers. This is a realistic scenario in my home, and the RT-AX86U aced it—I saw no sign of buffering or stuttering anywhere, my friend reported clear audio and smooth video, and in-game ping seemed unaffected. In raw numbers, I had to move into my back yard to get anything slower than the max I’m getting from my ISP, finding that I had good, usable internet even at the farthest reaches of my yard, which is about a fifth of an acre.

I tested file transfers with a 734 MB copy of Ernest Saves Christmas—a typical use case for network storage—and found the transfers to be very fast, with the limiting factor seemingly the actual read/write capability of the router. Transfer speeds reached as high as 465.79 Mbps, but averaged between 310 and 350 Mbps, and hardly budged at any distance. Write speeds were about half that.

After determining that the RT-AX86U was gross overkill for my needs, I thought I would look at Asus’s AiMesh, which lets you use multiple Asus routers to create a mesh network. Self-healing and pretty straightforward to set up, an AiMesh network can definitely get you that kind of blanketed internet plants crave.

I tested the mesh capabilities with the addition of an RT-AX82U, and for some reason, setting this up ended up actually being the only way I could finally get my “smart” bathroom light switch to join my new network. I came to this experience with the breezy setup of Eero already in mind and found it similarly easy with Asus. Network performance was as expected, with devices generally connecting to the node closest to them or, at least, with the lowest amount of signal noise, and no real noticeable changeover time. Basically, mesh networking is a revelation to anyone who hasn’t used it, and that much is true here, as well.

In the end, the Asus RT-AX86U is a great router, with speedy performance and easy setup, despite an annoying menu system. Actually getting down and dirty in the settings is a pain, thanks to confusing, incompletely explained technicals and messy organization, but basic and intermediate settings can be easily changed in the mobile app. Security and device prioritization for the router is decent, though I recommend you review the EULA before proceeding to make sure you’re comfortable with the exchange you must make to take advantage. The mesh setup was fairly painless. The RT-AX86U met and, in some cases exceeded, my expectations, at least where it counts. Of course, you’re going to pay for it, at MSRP $250—though you can find decent discounts at the usual online retailers.

Whether you just want lag-free gaming or you need something that can handle a heavy overall load, this router does it with aplomb. We are rapidly approaching the day when recommendations like this one isn’t just about future-proofing, but you will find in the RT-AX86U a router more than capable of meeting the unexpected demands put upon all of us this year. If you’ve got a smaller home that needs a lot of power and would prefer to check out mesh networking at a later date, this is absolutely the router for you.

[cvptaindanvers]

An Straightforward Information: Steps To Master Autocad Software

Lots of men and women believe that learning AutoCAD is not hard. It's not. Indeed, you will find numerous points. But using AutoCAD isn't challenging. The trick would be you want to learn one particular measure at a moment. Learn how to walk before you learn to perform. You want to know the idea of each and every thing; subsequently you definitely might end up a AutoCAD pro.

Autocad User Interface

Autocad PC application user interface today could be less difficult for new users. I know many AutoCAD veterans hate ribbon and other interface enhancements. But new and intermittent users state they enjoy the interface. Discover how you can gain and trigger drawing programs, alter some other additional tools, and also programs. Then that won't just take too long, In the event that you already familiar with Windows program term. AutoCAD is just a Windows compliant software, therefore should taste the exact same. You can buy cheap autocad via online.

Implements the drawing

Now decide to make an effort to open some other drawing. Start with a sample file In the event you really don't own it. I always teach this original: navigation tools. Try to navigate through your drawingon. Pan, zoom , zoom out, and zoom extend. Get knowledgeable about navigation gear. Once you begin to understand to draw, Afterward it's going to soon be more easy for you later.

Designing Tools

After you become familiar with AutoCAD port and its navigation programs, now it's time to learn about to use drawing applications. I am aware some educators train college students how to utilize just about every gear. The next moment, but in the event that you actually don't possess the notion, then you should overlook it. Next week at best.

Just how AutoCAD tools Do the Job

Drawing equipment are quite user-friendly. Gears name that is most basic describe the things that they are doing. A line will be drawn by line device; rectangle tool will draw on a rectangle. Correct? Exactly what you need to realize is, every tool may have an alternative means to be used. It's hard to try to remember all of the ways in each and every tool.

Object Assortment

After you playing the change resources, now you have to know about thing selection. You need to select things once you change or manipulate them. Selecting one thing is serenity of cake. But if you might have additionally should modify drawing you definitely need to learn further suggestions.

Annotating and Variations

Ok, now you may draw, you'll be able to modify your drawings. Next step: with fashions and know making annotations. What is annotation? Everything in your drawing that's not categorized as geometry. It may be text, hatches, measurements , tables, etc.. After that which you are through from step 15 using annotation tools should be easy.

Drawing Administration

Soon after studying AutoCAD from measure 16, you need to be able to attract AutoCAD. Drawing with AutoCAD is not only about how fast you're able to complete the drawing. But your drawing has to be simple to be changed. From youpersonally, but additionally from the loved ones. You want to supervise objects on and your drawing in .

Re-usable Content

If you find an AutoCAD drawing, then many items are insistent. You are able to see ordinary items components, logos and more. It's true, you can copy it a few times, but you would like to be productive. Block is equally crucial to assist you to working together with items that are insistent. It's reusable, but obstruct definition gives you the ability to upgrade all instance in your drawing.

Take Care of your Normal

Everybody have a standard within their drawing, and you also don't get it. It's a excellent custom. To keep your normal, you may use CAD normal. You are able to also provide your content to oversee your drawings regular.

Design Collaboration

You will cooperate with others to get guaranteed. You may have to get the job done in your firm with your spouses. This is really a waste of time should they must hold back until you finish, shut your document, then your own drawings are continued by them. Or they automatically copy your data files also also work together with you. It is tricky to track changes should you this. To discover update autocad pricing, you have to check out our site.

You are able to do the job together with your spouses if you divide your layout to cluttered files, then use reference or underlay. They each can be opened with a person As they're split up data files. To separate document will also keep your data documents easy, preventing you from the killing'fatal error' concept. The more complicated your file, the opportunities it will become corrupted.

Keep Training

Exercise makes best. You will receive better with a lot of training. AutoCAD masters are that they who put it to use intensively. I think nobody will probably disagree on this. Try to draw a job that is real. Do with no significance.

[5-star-songs]

Weekend Rant: My FIOO X5II

I post a blurb a day here, Monday through Friday, but from time to time I might post something music-related but not song-specific on a Saturday or Sunday. The occasion for this one: my love for my new mp3 player.

Maybe it’s odd that a guy who spent ten years helping build and evolve Rhapsody, and then the next four doing the same for Google Play, even has an mp3 player. My Android + the music streaming subscription service of my choice should serve all my needs, especially since Google Play lets me store 50,000 of my own songs on their servers, and mix and match them with everything else in their catalog.

But my phone’s battery is a precious resource I must conserve, and I spend too much time flying or driving long distances with no internet connection. And I prefer having access to my entire music collection at those times, rather than whatever subset of it I remembered to save for offline listening before the trip began.

For years, that meant carrying a 160GB iPod classic with me wherever I went. But Apple discontinued that a while back, and even before they did my collection had exceeded its capacity (roughly 31,000 songs), which meant that every new record I added to it required deleting an old one. And that caused me physical and emotional distress, every time.

So when my iPod started showing signs it was on the verge of failing for good, I began hunting around for a replacement. Which led me to my new favorite possession, the Fiio X5 2nd gen pictured above.

Fiio’s a Chinese company that makes, among other things, surprisingly affordable, audiophile-quality digital audio players. That means all the elements inside the player have been selected and engineered to appeal to people with picky tastes and expensive headphones and lossless audio files who like to fiddle endlessly with EQ settings.

While I own and appreciate well-designed amplifiers and speakers, I’m not really an audiophile. I can reliably tell the difference between a WAV file and a 192kbps mp3 of the same song, but bump that mp3 up to 320kbps and I can’t tell you which one’s which anymore. I believe there are people who can notice the difference (Neil Young is most definitely one of them), but I’m also pretty sure they’re less than 5% of the population, and I am not among them.

So the X5ii’s real appeal to me is its storage capacity: rather than the outdated hard drive of my old iPod, this Fiio holds two micro sd cards of whatever capacity you choose -- both of mine are 200GB at the moment, meaning this thing already holds more than twice what that iPod did, but as technology advances and 512GB cards become more affordable, I can expand it further, if and when I need to. So, while I don’t personally need my entire collection in any of the lossless formats Fiio supports, I do plan on upgrading all of those 120 and 192kbps mp3s I ripped or acquired in the aughts.

The X5ii has a similar form factor to an iPod, including a scroll wheel, but because Fiio is a small company the bulk of their resources are apparently focused on the hardware, not the software, leaving a few trade-offs for iPod users to get accustomed to. Most significantly, since the X5ii doesn’t come with any media management software, you have to update the device manually -- that means dragging and dropping any new songs directly onto the device via your computer, and that means taking some time, if you haven’t already, to organize your collection in a logical folder structure so what’s on your device can be compared at a glance to what’s on your computer, and swapped back and forth most easily.

Once you’ve got the music you want on the device, you’ll find that navigating within your collection takes longer compared to an iPod, and the UI feels like it was designed by nerds for other nerds, rather than by nerds for their parents. If, like me, you have thousands of artists in your collection, and feel like playing a specific album by someone in the middle of the alphabet (as pictured above), it’s going to take you a minute or more of spinning that wheel before the music’s playing. I do the bulk of my listening by putting my entire collection, or some large subset of it, on shuffle play, so I don’t really mind the lag.

(Addendum, 3/12/17: I started minding the lag, a lot. My breaking point came last month, on a flight, while trying to write up “Waterloo Sunset.” It took me so goddamn long to navigate to the track I wound up timing it: one minute and thirty-four seconds. That felt unacceptable, so I came up with a better solution: I re-arranged my filing system so that there’s a separate folder for each letter of the alphabet on simcard #1, and artists are filed in the appropriate folder like they might be in a record store (except, since it’s a digital age, Bruce Springsteen goes in B, not S, etc.). This change improved the navigation experience dramatically: I can now have “Waterloo Sunset” playing twenty-three seconds after wishing it, or more than four times faster than before.)

There’s only one thing I consider a serious degradation of my old iPod experience: my X5ii hates external playlists. Just getting one onto the device is probably too daunting for the average consumer: you have to export the playlist from your media manager, open it in Notepad, and do a universal find-and-replace operation so that all the paths to your tracks on your computer (ie: C:/Users/Tim/Music/Magnetic Fields/Love at the Bottom of the Sea) get switched over to the paths on your device (ie: TF1:/Magnetic Fields/Love at the Bottom of the Sea). (Or, as of 3/21: TF1:/M/Magnetic Fields/Love at the Bottom of the Sea.)

That I could handle easily enough. Unfortunately, it turns out that even though the X5ii can hold tens of thousands of songs, it can’t handle a playlist with more than ~3,000 tracks at a time. Attempting to play one uses up too much RAM, and the device freezes. That was a major bummer, since the playlists I rely on most are anywhere from ~5,000 songs (“4 and 5 Star Soul”) to ~24,000 songs (“4 and 5 Star Everything”).

I tried to deal with this by splitting up my massive playlists into smaller ones, and rotating through them. But that was unsatisfying, because it meant one of the eight “4 and 5 Star Everything” playlists was all songs that started with H, so I wound up hearing a bunch of songs about hearts in a row. Note to all musicians (including myself): you can stop writing songs about hearts, and how they break, and how to heal them. It’s been done.

There was one other solution, which I was hesitant to try, and even more hesitant to admit to actually going through with, because it’s kind of insane. But it’s also why I’m posting about this on 5 Star Songs, as will become clear in a moment.

For reasons I don’t quite understand, my X5ii can easily handle a playlist with tens of thousands of tracks if it’s made directly on the device. So, I could replicate my “4 and 5 Star Everything” playlist by clicking the device’s “favorite” icon 24,760 times (doing so actually required 74,280 clicks, because you have to click once to reveal the icon, click a second time to select it, and then click a third time to move on to the next song you want to flag).

This seemed nuts. But, if it’s not already obvious, I really like my music, and I’m really particular about how I listen to it. And I loved everything else about my X5ii. If I could just favorite those 24,760 songs I already knew I liked best, keeping that Favorites playlist updated as I added new music would be much simpler than constantly exporting, editing and saving Notepad files.

So, um, I did it. Took me a week -- turns out it’s something you can do each evening while binge watching Horace and Pete. And though I’m a little embarrassed about it (and my wife is completely bewildered by my compulsion), I’m quite glad I did. For one thing, I now have the perfect portable device, capable of powering the highest quality headphones while carrying the sum total of all music I’ve collected over the past forty-odd years.

For another, it made me commune with that collection in a manner that turns out to be much more immersive and satisfying than scanning the spines of LPs or CDs stored on shelves. Over the course of a week, I stared at every album cover briefly, and made note of each song title, learning things I’d never realized along the way (for instance: Mavis Staples covered one of my favorite George Soule songs; also: the list of things bands have written odes to waiting for or on (A Friend, The Guns, Superman) is pretty funny when considered in a row).

So, that’s why the header at the top of this Tumblr recently switched from saying, “My iPod has 31,302 songs…” to “My mp3 player has 36,374 songs...” The number, which had stalled for years as I had to banish songs that had commited no crime beyond earning a mere 3 stars, can now start growing again. And that makes me so happy, I don’t mind it took me clicking buttons almost 75,000 times. I will always be an obsessive idiot when it comes to music.

There are far worse ways to muddle through life.

[ionfusionpunk]

Can't live with'em, can't live without'em

Do you know what really bugs me?

Like, what really peeves me every time it comes up in the SW fandom?

Datapads.

I fricking hate them. I hate that no one seems to know or agree on how they work.

I'm a simple human. I want to understand how things work even if it will never be relevant to anything I ever do. I'm curious. And dammit if datapads aren't the most frustratingly common yet elusive topics of my internal ire every time they come up in a fic.

(I apologize for the rant below the cut. No offense intended with this, just me, well, ranting about what makes the most sense to me, ehe. Whoops. I went and got upset about something that doesn't even matter lmao. Why is this my life.)

Just for the record, I think most people write about them wrong. In fics it's always "stacks of datapads" this and "mountains of datapads" that. But guys, that's so impractical. This is Star Wars.

Datapads cannonically use datacards to transfer and store information (they probs have a limited amount of storage built in for software/updates/temporary files/etc.). Why do we make this so complicated for ourselves? The answer is the datacards.

Most everyone will have a personal-use datapad - like a irl cellphone or laptop. Each datacard should function the same as a thumbdrive or one of those ancient floppy discs. Personally, floppy disc seems a much more accurate description since those things held a more limited amount which meant that their contents were usually much more organized and specific - i.e. a floppy disc for photographs vs a floppy disc for tax documents, etc. - whereas a thumbdrive just holds everything.

Many people would also probably have a separate datapad for work, one that has more security/antivirus measures in place, one that's more secure for work documents.

So, instead of carting around a datapad per document - equaling what would be hundreds of datapads, you guys, come on - people like Commanders Cody and Fox or Obi-Wan and Mace or the Kaminoans or Palpatine or literally anyone ever would have a datacard per document.

And yanno what's even cooler? You could get datacards with more storage on them called datadiscs or even a whole separate device to store information called a data plaque (or smtg like that; that's how I'm choosing to interpret Wookieepedia).

I know it's dramatic to write about piles of datapads to indicate hoe overworked they are. I know it's a jab at the mountains of paperwork people do in life (and in fandom - I'm looking at you, Desk Chunin of the Naruto fandom). But flimsi still exists, and I bet at least Commander Fox and Mace Windu and Palpatine have to deal with flimsi on a regular basis even if not in ridiculous quantities. And I like the idea of a deceptive pile of datacards on Fox's desk, rattling around in his utility pouches, spilling out of Mace's voluminous pockets and sleeves...

Hah. They're all drowning in floppy discs.

[shirlleycoyle]

A Roundtable of Hackers Dissects ‘Mr. Robot’ Season 4 Episode 3: ‘Forbidden’

We asked for more hacks, and Episode 3 of Mr. Robot’s final season delivered. We discussed [SPOILERS, obvs] SS7, breaking and entering, social engineering, multi-factor authentication, and getting into Olivia’s machine. (The chat transcript has been edited for brevity, clarity, and chronology.) This week’s team of experts include:

Emma Best: a former hacker and current journalist and transparency advocate with a specialty in counterintelligence and national security.

Bill Budington: a long-time activist, security trainer, and a Senior Staff Technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Jen Helsby: SecureDrop lead developer at Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Jason Hernandez: Solutions Architect for Bishop Fox, an offensive security firm. He also does research into surveillance technology and has presented work on aerial surveillance.

Harlo Holmes: Director of Digital Security at Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Trammell Hudson: a security researcher who likes to take things apart.

Micah Lee: a technologist with a focus on operational security, source protection, privacy and cryptography, as well as Director of Information Security at The Intercept.

Freddy Martinez: a technologist and public records expert. He serves as a Director for the Chicago-based Lucy Parsons Labs.

Episode Titles

Micah: This season's episode titles are named after HTTP error codes. The first episode is called "401 UNAUTHORIZED", the second is "402 PAYMENT REQUIRED", etc.

Bill: Also documented in cat form.

Micah: And this episode, 403, the HTTP error is forbidden, and the episode had a specific FORBIDDEN theme in it. Mr Robot said, "Every time I talk to Eliot about it, he puts up a wall. Like he's flat out throwing me a FORBIDDEN error. Denying me the chance to even bring it up."

Bill: Are they tracking the episode numbers? is the next one 404? OMG.

Retro IBMs

Yael: Do you guys think it's worth discussing the part of the plot that's essentially about China stealing IP from IBM? This is a big thing even now.

Jason: You can steal or clone a mainframe, but running one reliably without support from IBM is pretty hard…

Yael: Yeah, and in the meeting, it sounds like they were paying them money in this partnership, so I'm not sure what the plan was.

Trammell: On the retro IBM: was there ever a mouse available with that model? Because I’m that sort of nerd, the microsoft Mouse wasn't introduced until 1983. The rounded one that I think is in the photo wasn't until ‘87 or ‘93.

Retro Mouse, Image: USA

Jason: Yeah, it might be an XT (1983) or an IBM Personal Computer from 1981. The exterior looks similar for both models.

Trammell: I'm not 100% certain, but I think that predates the XT and is a 5150, the "original IBM PC." Because that is the sort of minutiae that totally throws away any credibility… IBM PC XT has a label that says “XT.”

Image: Wikipedia

Location Tracking

Harlo: The Krysta scene—at the end, we see a dude tailing Elliot, and, unlike the Whiterose gang, he's absolutely wayfinding (tracking a nearby signal) on his device. We see that again later on.

Trammell: Didn't Elliot install a hacked version of Signal that leaks his location?

Micah: He did. Allegedly, it only leaks his location to Darlene though, but who knows what she put in that APK, really.

Harlo: Hmmmmmm. Darlene, you FINK.

Bill: I'm not sure if he installed a hacked version of Signal or he just was using the Signal API.

Harlo: Darlene did force him to install a modified version of Signal that lets her in.

Yael: Well, she took his phone and put it in. He could’ve said no or removed it, but he didn’t.

Bill: You can script signal messages using the Signal API, and he might have just been doing that to notify Darlene of his location.

Freddy: I don’t think this existed in 2016, but I’m not sure.

Harlo: Yo maybe Darlene is working with the drug cartel because she gets a good deal on blow in exchange for Elliot.

Bank Security

Yael: So they're meeting on Christmas and Elliot and Darlene are planning to hack them to…steal the money? I think?

Jason: Yeah, I think that's the plan. Hack them and wire a ton of money out of the Bank of Cyprus.

Yael: Okay, so say this hack works, which it looks like it did, and they drain the money. Does Cyprus National Bank not have fraud protection?

Jason: Usually there's an approval flow with multiple users to initiate a substantial wire.

Harlo: Should be, right???

Jason: Yeah, probably need to hack some more people/social engineer.

Micah: It might be different if you have Olivia's access, though.

Yael: I've had my bank tell me when it thought there were unauthorized transactions or freeze my account because I was traveling, though.

SS7

Yael: When Darlene and Elliot were arguing about who got to do what, Darlene said Elliot was supposed to get the SS7 license; anyone wanna talk about SS7?

Jason: SS7 is a shared network that virtually every cell carrier has access to. Karsten Nohl / srlabs.de is a good technical reference on SS7.

Freddy: SS7 is a signaling system that handles things like when you are in your car and moving but on a phone call. When you switch from one cell tower to another, you need to be able to handle that without dropping the call. That’s what SS7 does. It’s also notoriously insecure and you can use SS7 exploits to take over someone’s phone. It enables you to steal text messages to bypass two-factor authentication.

Jen: And/or track people’s locations.

Harlo: Or to intercept messages, calls, and know which tower a phone is connecting to via its IMEI [unique identifier assigned to mobile devices]. Actually, you don’t even need the IMEI, I think.

Micah: I think all you need is a phone number.

Jen: You also need an SS7 license (or to somehow otherwise get access to the SS7 network) in order to do any of this as an attacker.

Jason: If you can convince carriers that you're a new cell carrier with paperwork, you can get access.

Olivia’s Machine

Yael: But then Elliot is also trying to get into Olivia Cortez's machine. Are these just two approaches for the same thing?

Micah: The SS7 hack and getting into Olivia's machine are two separate things. Elliot needs access to Olivia's machine in order to access the Cyprus National Bank account.

Harlo: So, ultimately, Elliot and Darlene are yak-shaving. Ultimately, they just need to hack the human.

Trammell: I'm a little disappointed that Elliot setup the breaking and entering as some sort of elite thing to leave Darlene at home, but in the end the target had zero special effort required. Darlene has also shown her expertise at social engineering.

Bill: The hack on Olivia's laptop is again a 2015 exploit. Basically, Elliot uses a hook that triggers the sticky key executable (sethc.exe). It is a helper process that is executed when you press the sticky keys combo at the login screen. Only, by replacing sethc.exe with cmd.exe, which is the Windows command line executable, he's able to press the sticky key combo to get shell access.

From there, he is able to reset Olivia's admin password and log in as her from the e-OS login screen. That allows him to steal the Firefox profile, which includes VPN access credentials from her laptop, which he then transfers to an instance of Kali Linux and runs.

He then runs ffpass to extract those credentials into his own Iceweasel (Firefox clone) profile, and gain VPN access. It's only then that he notices he needs the physical OTP module in order to complete authentication.

It looks like from the git history that ffpass didn't exist until 2018. This is the first time I've seen a tool which is newer than the time period, though.

Micah: First, he picks the lock in her drawer and finds her work laptop. Then he needs to reset her password, so he boots into "E Operating System Error Recovery", which is literally exactly the same thing as the "Windows Error Recovery” screen; they just replaced "Windows" with "E Operating System."

Jason: It's kind of amazing that a bank's corporate laptop wouldn't have full disk encryption.

Micah: Actually it might have full disk encryption, but it's Windows. If it uses BitLocker, then the encryption key is stored in the Trusted Platform Module [a dedicated processor used for encryption] and is passwordless, which means this hack could still work even with disk encryption.

Harlo: PSA: you can definitely enable passphrases in BitLocker. You would need to modify your group policy.

Micah: True, but it's not the default behavior, therefore, no one does it.

Jason: That’s terrible.

Harlo: It's a slog because Windows hates you, but it's possible.

Trammell: Bitlocker TPM + PIN seems like the right way to do it, although there is also the recently (end of 2018) discovered issue with self-encrypting disks and BitLocker. BitLocker will trust the SED, which in some cases turns out to not actually use any encryption.

Harlo: It's advisable to ALSO enable software-based encryption in your group policy.

Micah: I also like the rest of the password reset hack, where, from an "open file" dialog in Notepad, Elliot was able to manipulate the filesystem, to rename cmd.exe to something else, to ultimately get a [command line] shell.

Multi-factor Authentication

Yael: When Elliot gets Olivia's machine, he can't get into it because she uses MFA. So if you wear one of your factors on your wrist, do you need a special secure locker for your hookups? Though I guess Dom had a locker and that didn't work for her.

Bill: This reminds me of the scene in Season 1 where Tyrell sleeps with some guy to get access to his cellphone, in order to install some custom malware on it.

Harlo: This part made me really double-think how we normally keep our keys so accessible. How many folks do you know keep their 2FA on their literal keychain? (Raises hand.)

Emma: I may or may not keep my hardware key on a necklace rated to support up to 150 kilos along with a Kali USB key and an encrypted one for all my goodies.

Image: USA

Harlo: But can we talk about the social engineering?

Yael: My favorite part was when Elliot said people held him down and forced him to do heroin.

Trammell: It is interesting how Elliott's social engineering was a tag team with Mr. Robot—they had such different pickup artist techniques.

Harlo: Love to have my dad as wingman. Ghost dad telling me to get it. My dead dad, like "go for it, son."

Yael: Olivia got stood up (sort of) on Christmas and there was Matthew Sweet playing. She didn’t even stand a chance. I guess this hack wasn't all that complicated? Would you agree? Like the password part was more technically difficult and the social engineering was pretty easy. And then poor Cyprus Bank practices, I guess.

Bill: I would say the reverse. Especially for introverts, the social dynamics stuff can be exceedingly difficult. The technical hack just takes time and persistence. The social hack is kind of a one-shot thing.

Yael: I don’t know. I think people are sadly easy to manipulate. Even people who should know better. We are just very trusting, in general.

Trammell: It is interesting how much better his turned out than Darlene/Dom, which ended with Dom delivering possibly the worst curse on Darlene. (Although Olivia doesn't know she's been hacked yet…)

Yael: "Finding" the Oxytocin after he got what he needed was a nice touch. But like she could've caught him with her security key, and didn't. Some of this was luck. Sorry, Elliot. Literally if her date had showed up on time this wouldn't have happened.

Trammell: Yeah, serious plot-armor on the luck between the date not showing up, not getting caught with the token, etc.

Jason: Elliot could have hacked her OkCupid and cancelled the date without her noticing. And done some additional research to improve his odds. A nice shirt also helps. 😉

Harlo: By the way, I told a couple of folks, but I don't mind telling literally everyone: one time I literally burned my whole infrastructure because a handsome man was nice to me at a conference and i was so suspicious that it was an op.

Yael: Haha. I always get suspicious when people want to talk to me instead of me wanting to talk to them.

Harlo: Hack the human.

Trammell: Given the short time frame, I'm also curious why he didn't burn the bridge and make a quick exit with the keyfob (and maybe wallet, etc) to make it look like a more normal theft. As in, the meeting is tomorrow, so they need to execute on the results of the hack RIGHT NOW.

Harlo: It's worth noting that this shows how important multi-factor authentication is! The fact that Elliot had to go as far as he did to gain access to an account even when he already gained someone's password is really, really important for viewers to understand!

Yael: Yesssss all he needs is to break both factors. They had this in the first season, when Elliott had to get Gideon Goddard’s phone for his RSA SecureID pin.

Emma: Elliot sent him a bunch of junk MMS messages to drain the battery and force him to charge it, then hit him with the distraction to get him to leave his office. Both instances though highlight an important point—the biggest threat are the people close to you. Elliot was able to do it to Goddard because they worked in the same office. Elliot had to get close to Olivia to get her fob. Like Harlo said, multi-factor authentication is super important and remote hackers can have to go to extreme lengths to compromise it (although it depends…. phone based MFA is a lot less secure than the fob).

Harlo: Especially when you're dealing with a hacker with an "SS7 license." This is why we go for apps or even better, hardware tokens for 2FA wherever they’re available!

Yael: There's also Tyrell's stalkerware. So, uh, password protect your phone, I guess.

A Roundtable of Hackers Dissects ‘Mr. Robot’ Season 4 Episode 3: ‘Forbidden’ syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[tak4hir0]

CreditPeter Prato for The New York Times As told to Kate Conger Published Sept. 5, 2019Updated Sept. 6, 2019Parisa Tabriz used to be a hacker. Now she is a princess. Ms. Tabriz, 36, is a director of engineering at Google, where she oversees its Chrome web browser and a team of security investigators called Project Zero. Several years ago, when Google required her to get business cards, she picked the title “security princess” because it seemed less boring than “information security engineer,” her actual title at the time. As Ms. Tabriz climbed the ranks, the designation stuck — and reminded men in the cybersecurity field that women belonged there, too. “I want them to know that princesses can do engineering and STEM,” Ms. Tabriz said. Chrome is the world’s most widely used web browser — the window through which more than a billion people view the internet every day. Some days, Ms. Tabriz’s work at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., entails studying furniture design (rounded chairs and felt baskets, she said, helped inspire the curve of Chrome’s tabs); at other times, she studies wonky research papers. One recent challenge: trying to figure out how to keep search queries and other data private, even if multiple users are sharing a single phone for internet access, as is often the case in developing countries. Often, Ms. Tabriz has to figure out how to convey complex concepts like encryption through pictograms so that users around the world can understand them. When a user visited a website over an encrypted connection, Chrome used to show a green lock icon to indicate “secure,” while a red lock indicated the connection might not be private. But some users mistook the locks for tiny purses. On Twitter, Ms. Tabriz describes herself as Project Zero’s “den mom.” The group hunts down unknown vulnerabilities in products made by Google and its competitors and then publicly discloses its discoveries. The group’s work has unearthed widespread vulnerabilities like Meltdown and Spectre; most recently, on Aug. 29, it discovered several security flaws in Apple’s mobile operating system. We corresponded for a week in mid-June. Monday6 a.m. My superpower might be that I just wake up at 6 a.m. without an alarm. My cats, Darwin and Grace, hear me and immediately start meowing from inside their room for breakfast and freedom. My husband is a light sleeper, so we keep them separated from our bedroom by two locked doors. They’re named after Charles Darwin and the pioneering computer scientist Grace Hopper. I just built them a new house. We’re planning to build ourselves a container house, which uses prefabricated materials for a quicker and more environmentally friendly construction, but it’s a long process. In some ways I am buying and building cat houses as a way to make me feel like I’m making progress. 7:30 a.m. Every work day starts with coffee and a sparkling water. After some inbox pruning, I hold virtual office hours. My team is made up of 375 people spread across 12 Google offices around the world, and anyone can sign up for time to talk face to face. Today, I talk to an engineer in Mountain View, another in Munich and a product manager in Seattle. 11 a.m. I go on a walking one-on-one with Ben, who leads the Project Zero team. I try to do walking meetings to take advantage of mild Bay Area weather and get some movement into what can otherwise be a day of a lot of indoor sitting. We talk about his upcoming talk for the security conference Black Hat, which will cover five years of work making zero-day attacks harder and advancing the public understanding of software exploitation. 4 p.m. I meet Jenna, a software engineering intern who joined for the summer and will be working on a feature for Chrome on Android. Twelve years ago, I interned at Google. I keep getting older, but the interns stay the same age. 7 p.m. I get home and compare notes with my husband about our days over leftovers from the weekend. He’s a deputy sheriff and deals with security problems and users in the real world. I finish off the day with Netflix on the couch with cats. I’m an introvert and need the time away from people to recharge. Tuesday5:45 a.m. Wake up, do morning routine and put on a typical work uniform: black shirt, jeans and sandals. I spend some time with a lint roller before heading out; otherwise, I’d be covered in fur. 7:20 a.m. Google Calendar seems to be down. Yikes! I’m left feeling a bit helpless. A lot of my work day is driven by my calendar, despite continuous effort to remove or reduce the number of meetings I’m invited to. As much as possible, I try to solve problems over email or by delegation — pushing decision-making power down to engineers in my team who are closer to the problems and implications. Luckily, my calendar is still cached on my phone, so I can see that I’m scheduled to chat with Alex, Chrome’s lead designer, at 7:30 a.m. 7:30 a.m. Alex and I talk about a new feature our team is mulling. People complain to us all the time about how many tabs they keep open, and Alex wants to try some new ways to group and display them. We discuss whether we should build a rough prototype to show people in a focus group setting or actually build something more polished to experiment with all Chrome users. He also asks for some advice about handling interpersonal conflict in our team, and we talk through some things to try. As they say, engineering is easy — it’s the people problems that are hard. 11 a.m. Four-hour brainstorming and discussion session about Chrome’s road map for the next year. 3 p.m. I get a direct message on Twitter from @SwiftOnSecurity, a pseudonymous computer security expert and influencer who pretends to be Taylor Swift, with feedback about a new Chrome extension we launched earlier in the day that helps users report suspicious sites. I get a lot of suggestions about security for Chrome, and they come from everywhere: Twitter, work and personal email, Snap, Chrome bug reports, calls from family and friends. I sometimes even get physical mail! I also get a lot of hate mail, rants, job requests and solicitations for … weird things. I try to respond to as many of the respectful inquiries as I can, but I end up having to ignore a lot. 6 p.m. I drive to dinner, listening to a mix of NPR and Top 40 for when the news gets too depressing. I’m really digging anything by Billie Eilish right now. Dinner is with Chrome leaders from around the world, who are in town right now for a big planning session. As a geeky icebreaker, we go around the table and share our favorite guilty-pleasure website. I’ve been spending lots of time on houzz.com, swiping through modern architecture and interior design inspiration for my container house project. Wednesday7:30 a.m. Grab my iPhone and Windows laptop for the day. Neither is my primary device, but I like to use them on Wednesdays. Thursdays, I try to mostly use my Mac, and the rest of the week I’m on my Chromebook or my Pixel Android phone. I’m responsible for Chrome across every operating system, so I try to use all the different Chromes each week to catch the subtle and important differences, and give feedback or file bugs if something isn’t working right. Noon. I see they’re serving Persian food for lunch, and I’m almost tempted to try it but stick to the salad bar. Persian food at work is always a disappointment compared with my mom’s cooking. She’s Polish-American, but she learned how to cook traditional Persian food from my grandma, who would visit from Iran. They didn’t share a common language outside of cooking, but after years of kitchen time, my mom makes an amazing ghormeh sabzi and kuku sabzi. 4:30 p.m. I block off private work time for myself so no one can schedule meetings with me, then work through two design docs, skim a project pitch deck and then walk around campus, snacking and thinking. I need to make a decision on a tricky escalation that will slightly increase security, but at the cost of a phone’s battery life. Chrome runs on everything from a high-end desktop computer to low-end mobile phones, so a big part of my job is absorbing lots of technical details and input; thinking through subtle trade-offs in performance, security and usability; considering hundreds of people and billions of users that will be impacted by any decision; and then making and delivering a decision. Often under time pressure. 8 p.m. Cereal for dinner. My current favorite is Kashi’s Peanut Butter Crunch cereal. I’m not embarrassed to admit that many weekend and evening meals are cereal. I get plenty of vegetables and food diversity from Google lunches or snacks, and I don’t enjoy cooking. Thursday6:30 a.m. On the recommendation of a co-worker, I try a new color-depositing shampoo to brighten my pink highlights. My hair isn’t naturally pink, unfortunately, so it takes some ongoing work and shower cleanup; most of my towels have some pattern of tie-dye pink. 10 a.m. Meeting with an executive to talk about new security features for Chromebooks, Google’s brand of laptops. We’re considering a feature that would make changes to secure boot, which helps lock hackers out of the operating system. 4:10 p.m. Weekly meeting with Brea, my admin, to check in on all-the-things and prepare for next week. Brea is constantly on top of my schedule, defragging my calendar to make space for me to do uninterrupted thinking, booking travel and meetings, reminding me to get things done, or helping answer questions on my behalf. She helps keep me sane and efficient at work, and since she part-times as a yoga teacher, she also gives me free stretching and wellness tips. 5 p.m. Read some updated user research from a study done in India. Based on some research published last year, many women in South Asia are expected to share their phones with kids or male family members, which results in a range of privacy concerns and strategies. I don’t share my personal phone with anyone, so these user needs and behaviors were really surprising to me. 6 p.m. Lots more email triage. I’m going to work late since I’m taking Friday off to spend time with three girlfriends I’ve known for over a decade. We actually get email reminders about taking vacation time at Google, and I’ve been getting them regularly since I’ve been accruing lots of time off. Friday7:30 a.m. Go to Planet Granite, a local rock climbing gym. I’m trying to get back into climbing shape after taking a lot of time off to recover from a shoulder injury. After 90 minutes of bouldering with my husband, my forearms are pumped, I’m covered in chalk, and the skin on my finger pads is sore and swollen, so we head home. 9 a.m. Email triage. Technically, I’m off for the day, but during downtime like this, I’ll check my inbox to see if I can handle anything. I’m a terrible role model when it comes to fully disconnecting. Interviews are conducted by email, text and phone, then condensed and edited.