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Software I’m thankful for (2021)

crawshaw.io

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Re: Software I’m thankful for (2021)

#361

Post by NateEag »

alanbernstein wrote: post #260
dividedbyzero wrote: post #126

The fish shell, makes using the shell feel almost painless. Hammerspoon, I use it to automatically switch audio devices based on context, so every call uses the best microphone currently available, window management via keystrokes, limiting media keys to Spotify, tons of other things. Indispensable. Arduino, I don't think I would be able to tinker with microcontrollers as much if I had to write C and use obscure tool…

Got any Hammerspoon config to share? I've used it for simple stuff for years, but recently noticed that people use it for window management, and macos' handling of windows on my second monitor is driving me nuts...

I spent years furious with OS X's flaky handling of windows on disconnect/reconnect of windows.

A few hours with Hammerspoon have made that a non-issue, and I've hardly had to think about window positioning or size since hammering this logic out:

https://github.com/NateEag/dotfiles/blob/5d47773e0e7cacb9139...

Re: Software I’m thankful for (2021)

#362

Post by causality0 »

If this thread has prompted you to go through your personal archive and update it, please remember that it's very possible that one or more obscure projects have taken over by bad actors and now contain malware. Be careful downloading an installer for that ten year old program.

Re: Software I’m thankful for (2021)

#365

Post by nl »

aljgz wrote: post #81
Dalewyn wrote: post #20

Strangely enough: Windows. Yes, I fucking hate Windows 10/11 for several laundry lists' worth of reasons, but you know what? At the end of the day, Windows is the only desktop OS that enables me to use my computer to do the shit I need or want to do. So long as that fundamental principle as a tool is not violated, I will forever be thankful for Windows regardless what criticism I might have for it.

I use Linux as my main OS for some years now, but use Mac and Windows, mostly because I need to test my software on them, but I have to say: I totally agree. Windows is the only practical desktop OS for most people. Mac is not an OS you can use unless you buy the entire package, and then you have to live with many of its limitations. It absolutely sucks at multitasking (not that most average users care about this one…

> MacOS ... absolutely sucks at multitasking

Can you expand on this please?

I'm a heavy Mac/Linux user and I've never found a multitasking problem.

Re: Software I’m thankful for (2021)

#366

Post by nl »

musicale wrote: post #341
smoldesu wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MacOS uses a considerably different window metaphor than Windows does. This isn't bad , but I think it's fair to call it inherently more complicated than the stacking-windows model that Windows uses or the dead-simple "one app fills your screen" model of iOS/iPadOS. At least, that's the immediate problem I've seen family members point out with MacOS.

It may depend on what you're used to. Whenever I use Windows 10 I feel like I'm fighting a window manager which is constantly trying to eat up the whole screen, even for simple things like settings. I don't get that feeling on macOS or any of the Linux desktop environments that I use.

I do get that the fact you can't Cmd-Tab between windows of an app as well as apps is annoying.

Re: Software I’m thankful for (2021)

#367

Post by falcor84 »

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: post #245
falcor84 wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is probably the most elaborate humblebrag I've ever seen.

I guess because it ends with "Sent from my iPad"? Still seems like an uncharitable interpretation considering that a "humblebrag" is a pretty deliberate thing. Maybe he just wanted to remind himself of these things.

Steve Jobs was a complex person, yet he was nothing if not deliberate. It is indeed "uncharitable" of me, but I cannot read that "Sent from my iPad" as anything but the punchline that the rest was built around.

Re: Software I’m thankful for (2021)

#368

Post by wnolens »

Dalewyn wrote: post #20

Strangely enough: Windows. Yes, I fucking hate Windows 10/11 for several laundry lists' worth of reasons, but you know what? At the end of the day, Windows is the only desktop OS that enables me to use my computer to do the shit I need or want to do. So long as that fundamental principle as a tool is not violated, I will forever be thankful for Windows regardless what criticism I might have for it.

The sysinternals tools make it for me. procexp and procmon are insanely powerful and you can solve really obscure issues really quickly.

I'm on mac right now for my current job, and quite often a few of my cores go nuts due to a kernel_task process which I find it impossible to track down the reason why. Pretty sure I could root cause this in 10 minutes with procexp.

Re: Software I’m thankful for (2021)

#369

Post by fsckboy »

scop wrote: post #180

Outside of OS & text editor (vim), there is one tool that I use countless times every, single, day: fzf ( https://github.com/junegunn/fzf ) I can only wonder how much time fzf has saved me in the long term. In terms of "software that I don't use for writing software", iA Writer is probably what I am most grateful for.

I don't know if the blame is fzf's or cygwin's, but when i used to use cygwin I would just install everything in Setup, and that meant that i at a certain point i got fzf with (what?) default config.

It was a hot mess and took over several bash/emacs control keys. It did a nice job of searching history, but I hated that it paralyzed my keyboard usage

Re: Software I’m thankful for (2021)

#370

Post by grosswait »

Icathian wrote: post #85
foobarian wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have advice how to replace the default Internet provider router? I have Xfinity's now and it terminates the coax, does switching, wifi, and does various firewall functions. I assume you have to buy a XXXX, disable everything on the Xfinity box and turn it into a passthrough switch. What is a good XXXX here?

You don't, really. You can (usually) change the DNS resolver your provided router uses to an internal IP, then statically assign that IP to your pi-hole. It's about 5 minutes in a GUI web panel, give or take the googling to find and navigate that GUI for your specific ISP-provided router. That said a better router is usually worth it, I like my Netgear Nighthawk because I'm a bit lazy, someone else probably has a bet…

Firewalla has been a good experience for me so far.
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