Written & Curated by Patrick Rhone
This is the final post on Minimal Mac. This project contains what I believe in when it comes to a mindful and intentional approach to technology. After nearly 2,500 posts, I have nothing more to add to what has already been said. As I wrote in my book enough , saying no is actually saying yes to other things . It’s time to say “no” to this project so that I can say “yes” to others (or, in some…
“ We are all many things. We all do many things. We will do many more things throughout our lives. Yet, when we are gone, most will primarily remember only one of them. They will pick from the lot and remember you as that. What they pick will, in their mind at least, be all that you are. Therefore, it is our job to ask ourselves with all the things we allow ourselves to do, with each and every…
In praise of the Utilities folder's unsung heroes : From staples like Disk Utility and Activity Monitor to once-in-a-while lifesavers like Grab and Migration Assistant, OS X’s Utilities folder is a goldmine. I agree. Jason highlights many good ones here. My personal pick would be DigitalColor Meter. I find I use it several times a month.
In Defense of Good-Enough Gadgets : Resist the urge to buy the latest, shiniest smartphone, writes Christopher Mims. Like cars, the functional difference between this year’s model and last year’s has never been smaller. One result is a growing marketplace for used electronics of every kind. Interesting perspective. Well worth the read. It is behind the WSJ paywall though. Adding it to Instapaper…
Mine Is Better Than Yours - Sanspoint. - Essays on Technology and Culture by Richard J. Anderson : There’s nothing wrong with liking the crazy, fancy stuff us geeks like. We can’t control our obsessions, but we can control how we communicate them to others. Smug superiority gets us nowhere.
Mike Dicken's iOS world travel setup - The Sweet Setup : I loved this interview with Mike Dickens who is traveling the world with his main setup being the one you see above. But the part that stuck out to me was his answer to what he would do differently if he could: I would bring a laptop. I spent a few months weighing the options, literally, between an iPad Mini and an 11″ MacBook Air. I ended…
Plugging a 1986 Mac Plus into the modern Web : Reviving an old computer is like restoring a classic car: There’s a thrill from bringing the ancient into the modern world. So it was with my first “real” computer, my Mac Plus, when I decided to bring it forward three decades and introduce it to the modern Web. I love projects like this. They prove that even the technology we consider “old” is still…
AdwareMedic : Removes all known adware from your Mac. It is very simple to use, and should clean up your system in less than a minute, from start to finish. Just open the app, click the Scan for Adware button, and remove anything that is detected. I have been using this in client situations with increasing regularity. Works great. But, this also should point out the fact that such things that we…
OutlineEdit : I’m a pretty big fan of outliners and have been for a very long time. I personally use and love OmniOutliner Pro but not everyone needs that kind of firepower. This looks like a nice simpler alternative.
Access Hidden Options and Information With Your Mac’s Option Key : Getting to know your Mac better is what we believe in around here. This is a pretty good round-up of the hidden power that lays in wait behind your Option key. (via The Loop
What if the $10,000 Apple Watch Edition could be quite easily updated? What if it was as simple as swapping out the S1 chip and changing the band? What if the $10,000 Apple Watch Edition came with free upgrades for life? Now I just removed a barrier a typical $10,000 watch buyer might have to buying this $10,000 watch. (A reminder: This is not primarily tech product. It is primarily a $10,000…
“I’m shy. I’m always focussed on the actual work, and I think that’s a much more succinct way to describe what you care about than any speech I could ever make.” - Jony Ive, explaining why he never appears on stage at Apple events — from the insanely detailed profile by Ian Parker. (via parislemon ) Yep. So much this.
The Inevitability of Failure - Sanspoint. - Essays on Technology and Culture by Richard J. Anderson : So many of the tools we rely on every day are more fragile than we think. Hard drives fail, batteries swell, connections break under stress, software updates have bugs that only manifest under edge cases. When things go wrong, it’s a huge, and sometimes expensive, pain in the butt, and we’re…
Simple Needs — Hack / Make : This. So much this.
Freedom from Notifications - Sanspoint. - Essays on Technology and Culture by Richard J. Anderson : Look at the apps that you have given explicit permission to bother you. Do it now. How many pages is it? I have twelve apps that are allowed to interrupt what I’m doing, though when I started this, I had closer to twenty. Look at each of them and decide if each app is allowed to pull you away from…
What 'MacKeeper' is and why you should avoid it | iMore : This is very important and I’ve increasingly seen it on some of the Macs of my clients. When they call me in with inevitable problems and weirdness with their systems, I immediately remove it and explain to them why it is to be avoided. As Macs get more popular they are increasingly a target for this kind of stuff that we in the Mac…
A farewell to files - Matt Gemmell : These days, I expect the machine to accept my query, and throw the relevant set of my stuff back at me. Browsing through directory windows seems anachronistic now, and - interestingly - it also feels artificial. Yep, to me too. Spotlight search in Yosemite makes this especially true.
You Don’t Have to Ride the Tech Upgrade Treadmill | Re/code : Yes, the tech industry employs a massive marketing machine to get you on the upgrade treadmill and keep you there, but you don’t have to do so. Resistance isn’t futile. Sensible advice and what we believe in .
A final laptop - Matt Gemmell : Will there be new laptops, tablets, phones, wearables, and even exotic new categories of machines in the future? Of course. Will I buy them? Some, at least - unquestionably. New is novel, and nothing lasts forever. I have no idea what’s to come. I do know that I’ll no longer need a new laptop. Matt hits another one out of the park. Wonderful as always.
Though this is not my desk, it is a good approximation of what’s on mine when I’m on my MacBook Air. A glass of water on my left and a notebook on my right.