Something totally different today... As an AFOL, I created a simple Lego MOC, combining 70821 “Emmet and Benny’s ‘Build and Fix’ Workshop!” and 70841 “Benny’s Space Squad”.

I’m never quite satisfied with the various methods of creating keyboard shortcuts (hotkeys) on macOS... Here I go again, this time using a small open source utility called skhd - a simple hotkey daemon for macOS.

Almost a year ago, Tencent researchers released their GFPGAN Face Restoration, an AI model which is trained specifically on faces, to better upscale and restore details in low-resolution or damaged portrait photos. I thought I’d give it a whirl.

It’s been over a year (or two) since three major browsers enabled HTTP/3 using the QUIC protocol over UDP. Chrome and Edge enabled HTTP/3 by default in April 2020 and Firefox followed “shortly after” in April 2021. I am not sure - does Safari in macOS Monterey 12.5, released July 2022, enable HTTP/3 by default?

Did you know it is possible to run x86_64 Docker containers on an ARM-based M1 mac? It’s quite staightforward with Multipass and Docker (if you are new to Multipass, check out my Multipass for Docker containers on macOS post from a few months ago).

I’ve known that it is possible to create snippets in Visual Studio Code. Recently, I discovered a few tweaks to help me when taking notes. Here, I share a snippet for inserting the date and time in the format of my choosing in a Markdown note.

In my last post, “Re-mapping physical function keys on MacBook Pros” I used the hidutil tool to re-map the function keys on a Mac without a touchbar. I’ve since created a script to more easily apply changes.

One common ask from M1 (Apple Silicon / ARM) MacBook Pro users is to be able to re-define what the top row of physical function keys do, for example, to change the Dictation (F5) key to decrease the keyboard backlight brightness and DND (F6) to increase it, similar to other Macs. Here’s how to do that... and more!

I’ve not posted anything in a long time, so I thought I’d dig up something from a long time ago. Once boring day, many moons ago, I stumbled upon a simple console-based Solitaire game, tty-solitaire by Murilo Pereira.

Ever wonder how to create a custom theme for both fonts and colours (a.k.a. designs) in PowerPoint on macOS? In PowerPoint for Windows, is a GUI to do this, but this is lacking in the macOS version. However, it is still possible via custom XML configuration files.

I previously setup Lima as a replacement for Docker Desktop on macOS. A while ago I tried Multipass by Canonical, which makes it really easy to spin up a Ubuntu VM (using Hyperkit) without all the setup and installation typically required with Virtual Box or QEMU.

I accidentally added an incorrectly spelt word to the macOS spelling dictionary via an Add to Dictionary menu item. Surprisingly, there was no inverse “remove from dictionary” option to undo this! Additionally, I realized there is no System Preferences page to to edit the custom dictionary. There are two ways to fix this with macOS (but none for iOS).

I was not satisfied with my last macOS Shortcut to convert image format and paste. The simple version forced me to choose between PNG and JPEG, and the complex version was too slow - specifically, the Find All Windows action. So here we go again...

There are a couple of things I don’t like with the feeds produced by the standard Grav Syndication Feed Plugin. Fortunately, the feeds are generated via Twig templates that can easily be customized!

I recently wanted to convert an Windows Enhanced Metafile (EMF) to SVG. I used an open source conversion library called libemf2svg by Carpentier Pierre-Francois (Kakwa).

I use JavaScript bookmarklets in Mozilla Firefox to open my email, calendar, chat, etc. in pop-up child windows without a toolbar or menu bar. I do this in order to save screen real-estate, and to prevent me from using those windows for browsing and keep them visible all the time. I’ve been wondering how to have pop-up windows without the address bar....

I recently stumbled upon a collection of amazing icons “drawn” with nothing more than CSS! Visit css.gg and browse through 700+ incredible icons created (coded) by Astrit.

Happy New Year! A big welcome to 2022! I’ve finally updated the look of my blog with a new theme. Well, not really... you see, I’m not very creative, and so, my theme pretty much remains the same... just more purple.

In the macOS Monterey Shortcuts Gallery, there are Shortcuts to “Tile Last 2 Windows”, “Tile Last 3 Windows” and “Tile Last 4 Windows”. This is my single combined version for any window (not just the last x).

While waiting for macOS Universal Control, I wanted to try AirPlay Receiver. Unfortunately, it is not supported (“locked”) on my older macBook. But recently I stumbled upon Mr. Macintosh’s “Airplay BLOCKED on Monterey? How to unlock it!” video on YouTube!