Good Stuff
- … you write a lot in Markdown – especially in short to medium lengths,
- … you don't mind (or even prefer) working with files instead of libraries,
- … you value the quality and feel of software, like $1.000 Japanese garden shears.
- Many of the apps are one-time purchases (but often not with unlimited updates), so it’s difficult to compare with a single subscription.
- Many of the apps I use, I wouldn’t pay for if it weren’t included in Setapp. I’d either use a free/cheaper alternative, or just not use something like that at all.
- The left one is a specific one for working with subtitles. It splits the selected line into two, down the middle.
- This wraps text in
<figcaption>, and is used for blog posts. - This wraps the text in a “callout div”, that I use to create callouts like the one about the affiliate link up top.
- If I want to format text in image captions or callouts, I have to use HTML. This creates an HTML hyperlink,
- this is italics,
<em> - and this is bold.
<strong> - The pen is some custom stuff for my band’s website.
- The Last One Will Title Case the Selected Text.
- Farta means “out-and-about” in Norwegian, and is a tag list I use for things I can do if I’m driving around.
- If I add a time, and the task is in a daily note, I’ll get a reminder notification at that time.
- I can add a date at the end, to move it to a daily note (to give me the notification if I’m not in a daily note, or to schedule it for another day).
- You can also create time blocks, by adding an end-time.
- USB-C, 3 meters (black, braided)
- MagSafe for Mac (light gray, braided)
- Lightning, 1 meter (white)
- Micro-USB (black)
Big Milestone for Me: First One-a-Month Member
My little blog is added to the One-a-Month Club’s website. It’s “[a] collection of blogs and other web projects that make supporting them both simple and inexpensive by offering access to everything for as little as $1 per month.” The site is run by the excellent Jarrod over at Hey Dingus, and inspired by Manuel Moreale:
But I recently realised that tiers are the wrong approach. At least for me. I believe in kindness. I believe that if you decide to support something I do, you should get all the benefits, no matter how much you pay.
I also realised that 1$+/month is the best price possible when it comes to supporting online creators. The 1 part means you can set it up and forget about it because it’s a low enough amount that won’t make too much of a difference for the majority of people who are considering supporting online creators. The + part allows you to contribute more if you want to do so. And that’s just perfect.
And recently, I achieved two milestones is one, thanks to Numeric Citizen: Get a mention on a blog I follow, and my first donation.1
Greatly enjoying re-watching Naruto! (Even though I won’t claim it’s technically good.)
Top 3 ninja:
3 Rock Lee
2 Might Guy
1 Shikamaru Nara
App Review: Paper
The Expensive, but Best, Place to Write Markdown
As mentioned previously, I love writing in Markdown – and especially when it’s in normal .md files. I like the clarity of what’s formatted and not, the portability,1 and that I can use different apps on the same document. However, different Markdown editors are far from being created equal.
Paper is an app, for Mac, iPad and iPhone, that “only” opens/creates .md files and edits them. But it does what it does better than anything else.
Paper could be an app for you, if:
Mini-tier list of some editors I’ve tried
To set the stage, I’ve made a little tier list. As I prefer writing about Good Stuff, my list doesn’t include bad editors – but Good, Great and Terrific ones. Here I’m not talking about the features of the app, but the writing experience. (The lists are alphabetical, not ranked.)
There’s been plenty of memes about how long the team over at Shiny Frog spent on Bear 2.0. But holy croak, it shows – the editor is extremely polished. The app does have good export features, so your notes aren’t held hostage.2 But the main reason I, personally, don’t use it, is that the note files aren’t easily accessible to other apps. It also doesn’t have as robust publish features as Ulysses, or task/calendar system as NotePlan. However, as a general note-taker for Apple devices, I highly recommend Bear.3
Panda is the Bear editor as a stand-alone app, to simply open .md files – so it’s closer to Paper in terms of functionality. However, it’s not readily available for mobile, and isn’t technically a proper product at the moment.4
I don’t recommend my favourite pair of boots
I love my pair of Alden Indy Boots. I haven’t found a single boot I like the look of as much, and the last (being rather narrow at the back and wide in the front) fits my weird feet perfectly. However, I don’t generally recommend them – as they’re not technically “worth it”. They’re simply too expensive for what they are, as you can get better made shoes for the same price, or shoes of similar quality for less. But that doesn’t change the fact that I love them, and am happy I bought them!
I could say the same thing about my Filson Journeyman backpack: Is it too expensive? Yes. Do I still love it? Also yes.
Paper is in the same category: I won’t claim that it’s worth it – because it’s very expensive. But if you end up splurging for the app, you’ll get something terrific. Let me try to explain why.
The price for Paper varies from region to region, and the dev keeps experimenting. But it can be as much as €200! Personally I bought it after getting paid extra for a job I did – and at least the money went to a small indie dev. How much money people have to "waste" on nice stuff like this varies. So I'll focus on the good, and the bad, of the app – and then it's up to you to figure out if it could be worth it to you. It also has a 50% educational discount.
How I use Paper
As mentioned when talking about my default apps, I currently store my notes, blog posts, tasks, etc. in NotePlan. The app’s database is stored with CloudKit, but is still accessible by other apps. As I prefer writing in Paper, I will do that as much as possible, while jumping into NotePlan and Ulysses for stuff that those apps do better.5
For instance, I’ve made different shortcuts for creating a new general note or a new blog post. This creates a .md file that gets saved into the NotePlan database, and then opened in Paper.
What makes it great
The Apps I Use From Setapp
And Why I Think It’s Great Value
Setapp — which apps do you use? Many, us pay for SetApp yet don’t get all the value because we don’t know the full extent of all the shiny toys. This was last asked 4 yrs ago, so it feels relevant againWhat the hidden gems have I missed?
A while ago, someone, on the MPU Forums, asked the question above. And here’s my answer to this question.
I also got around to writing this, as many of My App Defaults are from Setapp, and because I recently read about the Setapp iOS store in the EU (which Norway, sadly, isn’t a part of).
I hope this post can be useful if you’re considering the service, and wonder if it’s worth it, or if you’re new to the service and would like some tips to get started. If you want to give it a try, I’d appreciate you doing so through my affiliate link to Setapp 🖇️. 🫶🏻
I’ve sorted them into the following categories:
I also have a couple of honorable mentions, that are (or seem like) good apps, but that I, personally, don’t use that much.
I’ve added the price outside Setapp as well.1 Setapp is €10-15/month, or €100-150/year. However, some things to keep in mind:
I still find it to be great value – and I like that I can use nice, paid apps like explained in the second point.
Always-running utilities
These are apps I have running in the background all the time.
Bartender (€21)
The grandad of menu bar organisation. Ice is an interesting free alternative, but I’m still pleased with Bartender – especially as I can have it automatically change layout when I connect my Studio Display.
BetterTouchTool (€22)
I mostly use this to set up trackpad shortcuts – which it does amazingly. But it can do much more as well.
Cleanshot X (€26)
Terrific tool for screenshots, annotations, and screen recordings. An alternative for the latter, called IShowU (€80 or €22/year) also just dropped on Setapp.
Default Folder X (€47)
This app powers up the open and save dialogues on your Mac – with things like recent folders and the ability to click on folders you have open in the background to save there.
Hookmark (€63)
This is an app for creating deep links between different documents and parts of apps (like specific emails).
iStat Menus (€13)
Recently updated, with a beautiful coat of paint, this highly customisable app lets you place what you want in the menu bar. I have RAM and CPU usage, and a weather widget.
Mission Control Plus (€10)
I only use this to allow me to close windows from Exposé. Worth it!
Paste (€27/year)
My favourite clipboard manager. Both pretty and powerful.
PixelSnap (€35)
Used for measuring things or your screen. I think xScope might be a more powerful version of this.
PopClip (€23)
App that mimics the menu you get when you select text on iOS – but you fill it with what you want. I’ve turned off mine coming up automatically, but I get this with a hotkey:
From the left:
New defaults
These are tools that do the same thing as built-in tools, but a bit nicer/and more in a more powerful way.
Archiver (€20)
Just a nice zip/unzip tool. The Unarchiver (free) is more or less just as nice!
Elmedia Player (€25)
And this is just a nice video player. But here Iina (free) is also just as nice.
BusyCal (€45)
It lacks some of the most powerful Fantastical features – but I also prefer some things about BusyCal. And seeing as it’s so much cheaper, this is a great alternative if you want something more powerful than Calendar.app, but don’t want to pay €60/year. It also has a nice menu bar widget (as seen in the screenshot above).
Nitro PDF Pro (€200 or €17/month)
I’ve no idea why this is so expensive! I guess it offers features some businesses just got to have. 🤷🏻♂️ But for me, it’s just a nice PDF reader/editor.
Useful tools
The Story of My 1962 Bass Guitar
My Most Treasured Possession
In 2010, I went on a school trip from Norway to Los Angeles. I wanted a new bass, so I took a chance, and sold both basses I had at the time, to have funds to spend in L.A.
I was looking for a P-bass
But after not finding anything interesting in Guitar Center and other “regular” music stores, I searched online. There I found a store called Norman’s Rare Guitars. I didn’t know it at the time, but it’s one of the world’s most highly rated vintage shops – and they had a real bargain. You see, Fender instruments from the early 60s are expensive – especially the “Pre-CBS” ones.1 To put things into perspective: Norman’s have one currently, in great condition, which they want $10,900 for!
The one I ended up buying was even older, from 1962, but “only” $3,000. Not only that, the currency rate was much more favourable, from Norwegian Kroner, at the time. I paid what today would be $1,700.
Why it was so much cheaper
The guys as Norman’s said that the bass spent most of its life in the possession of a man they know who was. However, he wasn’t a stranger to experimenting with chemistry and his own blood – and the bass bears witness to this.
Here’s what I know about originality
I know that the volume pot is new (as I’ve swapped it myself) – and I don’t think the knobs are original.2 The rear strap button has been moved (to accommodate the heavy tuners). The headstock strap button is missing, alongside the pickup and bridge covers. However, as far as I know, the rest is original: Neck (more on this later), thumb rest, bridge tuners, pickup, and electronics.
As mentioned, my bass used to look like the one in the image above here – same finish and all.3 But now, and when I bought it, it looks like this:
🌱 My App Defaults
Extremely late to the party, I finally got around to write about my app defaults. A bunch of these are paid apps I probably wouldn’t prioritise if I didn’t already subscribe to Setapp 🖇️ – so keep that in mind. I’ll also give alternatives places where I remember some.
Click here to see the hardware I use this software on!
Lastly, I know that these posts are “supposed” to be simple lists – but I thought I’d add a bit more info.
Systems and productivity
📓 Notes, tasks, and writing
I want to get this one out-of-the-way first, as it’s the most complicated one. (The other entries are much shorter!)
All my notes, tasks, and writing is in a bunch of Markdown files held within NotePlan. But these are also local files I can access with other apps, write to with automation, etc.1
I prefer to do as much as possible with Paper, which is a super slick Markdown editor. So I use this for writing of blog posts, note-taking, sticky notes, as the default app for random .md files, etc.
I use Ulysses to edit and publish blog posts to Micro.blog.
And occasionally, I’ll use TaskPaper to manage more complicated projects – but as mentioned, all of these apps points at the same NotePlan files!
This is from NotePlan, and I’ve added one extra feature to every task down the list – and as everything is plain-text, I can add it from wherever.
I also really, really like Bike Outliner – but I struggle getting it to fit into my workflow. I also dabble in Tot, when I need stickies that stay on-top.
📖 Journaling
I absolutely fall into this cliché: I wish I journal more than I do. But when I do, I do it in Everlog. I like that it’s Markdown and linkable.
📅 Calendar
I use BusyCal. It’s way cheaper than Fantastical (and included in Setapp), while being almost as good. (There are some things I prefer in BusyCal, as well, actually.) I think this is a nice sweet point if you want something a bit more powerful than Calendar.app, but don’t want to pay Fantastical money.
🌦️ Weather app
Here’s a great tip (that probably mostly Norwegians know about): Here in Norway, we have a publicly funded weather service, called Yr (which means drizzle). It’s good, completely free (and without ads), and has good apps for both Android and iOS. And guess what: It’s available in English as well!
Pronunciation guide: The y is a monophthong, that sounds like the ui sound in “build”.
🛒 Shopping list
My wife and I use Bring, which is a great little uni-tasker!
📮 Mail server
I host through Fastmail 🖇️. I go into why here.
📨 Mail client
I Love My Little Charging Bundle
I recently wrote about not needing USB-A, and mentioned the USB-C Lifestyle™️. That reminded me of a little bundle of cables I always keep in my backpack. So here are some …
Advice for frustration-free charging
1) Buy extra
Here’s my bundle:
The trick is that I don’t need any of these elsewhere – they are extra. I have other chargers in my office, next to my bed, etc. I get that this is a bit more wasteful than just having one charger that you move around everywhere. But I think this is resource spending that’s worth it – and hopefully the devices you buy don’t come with (sub-par) chargers you don’t need. Furthermore, try to keep chargers for a long time.
2) Think about colour and texture of the cables
These are the cables in the bundle:
As you can see, all of them have a different combination of colour and texture. This makes it easier to pick out the correct one!
3) Don’t buy “original” chargers
In general, buying “original” accessories will give you something that might be pricier, but at least is among the best. But when it comes to chargers, and especially compared to Apple, the third-party chargers are objectively better. The reason being that Apple doesn’t use GaN, a relatively new technology that allows for significantly smaller size to power ratio.
Mine’s a 65 watt Anker charger 🖇️, that I really like. Because while I don’t necessarily recommend getting chargers from Apple/Samsung/etc., I do recommend getting a “name-brand” one. Anker is a brand I’ve always been pleased with, so I haven’t tried many others. But I think Ugreen and Belkin might be decent as well. Would love to hear about it if you have other recommendations I can add here!
4) Get enough wattage, but not more
The Beauty of Third-Party Services
and Open Protocols and Standards
I’m very much what you’d might call a software snob. Not only do I care about unnecessary things like how an app looks – I also care about how it feels. I’d also say that apps are an interest/hobby of mine, and I love testing new things. So I love open and portable stuff, so that I’m always able to use the software I prefer. Allow me to explain, with four examples: RSS, Email, Browsers, and Markdown.
RSS
My current RSS reader of choice, is Lire. It doesn’t look and feel quite as nice as Reeder and Unread, but it is still good in this regard. However, I love that I can customise the look, that it caches truncated RSS feeds, and that I can (on a feed-by-feed basis) load an inline web browser. This makes it possible to read blogs with their original design, which I think is neat.
However, my feeds don’t live in one client. They’re synced with Feedbin. This makes it trivial to move between clients, and I can even use several in parallell, as things like sorting and read status instantly sync between them. Maybe I prefer Lire on mobile and Unread on Mac, for instance?
Portability is an important principle here. And if I want to move from Feedbin to Inoreader, for instance, I can easily export my feed subscriptions as an OPML file, which I can then import into Inoreader.
So I’m not locked in anywhere, and I can use the client I prefer everywhere. This reality is what I wish I could have for music streaming as well, as I’ve touched on here. It also shows why I want less bundling and integration.
Notes on cross-platform-ness
My best friend, and fellow nerd, has always been adamant in using cross-platform tools – the reason being that he can be flexible in terms of which hardware he uses. He can easily switch between Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android, etc. However, this doesn't gel well with my software snobbery, as most of the best apps (in my opinion) simply aren't cross-platform. I have the same issue with web apps – I love their flexibility and portability, but I don't love using them. So the approach laid out in this post, is my approach to the same idea. But yes, it would be even more robust if I only used web based and cross-platform tools.Now, as opposed to with RSS, there’s not many good email clients… But the same principles apply!
I host my email with Fastmail 🖇️, and I’m very pleased with it.1 But if I still want to switch later, I don’t use an @fastmail.com address. Instead, I use my own domain, hosted on Hover 🖇️ – so I don’t have to change address if I change hosting. I can also change where I have my domain without having to change anything regarding my email.
Now, I don’t like the default Fastmail client – but email being email, I can use a client I dislike less instead!
Browser
✉️ Advice for Cheap Watches
This post is an answer to a part of the latest Comfort Zone podcast episode, where they talked about considering a non-smart watch. In the episode, Matt Birchler said he had considered going back to using a non-smart watch – but that when he asked for advice, people usually said he had to spend around €1.000 to get something good. He ended up saying why he probably didn’t want one anyway, but I wanted to give some advice “just in case”! And also to others who might come by this.
I do love more expensive watches1 – but I also have a soft spot for cheap ones. And my watch collection consists of only sub-€100 watches! So here are my tips: (Click here for the TL;DR.)
1) Look past the strap
Second Sunrise: a World-Class Clothing Store in Stockholm
Truly High-Quality Garments
My wife and I recently had a couple of days in Stockholm.1 And as someone who loves well-made stuff (especially clothes), I searched for good stores for that. I didn’t find many, but the only one I found beforehand, was well worth it.
Other recommendations:
L'usine Bleue was a really cool little store, with only French workwear.
6/5/4 was also pretty cool.
World-Class
To put it into perspective, I went looking for stores at this level in Now York a couple of years ago — and that city only had two stores on this level: Self Edge and Blue in Green.2 Other stores I know about, are Standard & Strange, Göteborg Manufaktur, Blue Caviar (DK), Brund (DK), Redcast Heritage and Tate & Yoko. But they are really rare — so if you’re close to one, and get to try stuff in-store, you should really go for it.
What’s so special about stores like Second Sunrise?
🌱 My Watch Collection (Of Only Sub $100 Watches)
And my wife’s way nicer collection
Even though I like tech, and Apple gear, I don’t have smart watch. And the main reason I that I like (mostly mechanical) watches too much. But even though my dream watch is an old Explorer with faded Tritium, I only own very cheap, oddball watches. And I’ve greatly enjoyed finding bargains that still looks good and works well - several of them from Russia/USSR.1
Casio A500WGA-9DF
Every watch collection, no matter the budget, needs a digital Casio. And to me, this (and its silver sister) is, by far, the coolest.
Raketa Copernicus (35 mm)
This hand-wound beauty has some really unique hands, and a pleasing dial. And it comes in several (more or less original) dial and colour variations. As will become apparent, I really like smaller watches like this!
Similar Apps to Bear and Things 3
I saw a simple question on Reddit today, and it sparked an answer.
Any other apps similar to Bear and Things 3?
Looking for similar apps to these two that perfectly balances minimalism, functionality, and UI/aesthetics.
I interpreted this as not being about the specific functionalities, and the types of apps (note-taker and task-manager), but the way those apps feel. Because, if you haven’t used them, you really should. They are truly special pieces of software. I will write more about some of these apps later, but …
Here’s my answer:
Oooh, I like this question!
I’m the kind of person who really values how a piece of software feels (in addition to looks and works.). But I 100% get that I might seem like an idiot for using pricier, and maybe less powerful, software, just because I think it’s nice, heh.
I really like both Bear and Things, but I’ve gone for a workflow where I mostly use plaintext/.md files, which I then access from different apps. The files are located in the folder for NotePlan, which I use it because it has good task and calendar support, so it fills the function of both Bear and Things. And compared to Obsidian and Logseq, it’s closer to Bear in terms of nice-ness — though not quite at that level.
Here are som apps I’d say are on that level, though:
These are apps that (mostly) adhere to principles of Fast Software, the Best Software, and are filled with details you might not appreciate at first glance.
My shoes broke, so I did something radical
… but it shouldn’t be!
Sometimes, the best units of clothing are those you’ve had for a while. It’s been worn in, and seems to have moulded to your body. However, that makes it even sadder when it gets a hole or something — and I assume many of you have kept using an item way longer than you should. It’s just so damn comfortable, so you don’t care that your nipple is poking out of your sweatshirt, The People Eater style.
Recently, I had this happen to a pair of shoes — and that’s when I did something that shouldn’t be as radical as it is.
Two (Ultra-Cheap) DI Boxes From China
One good, one terrible
Recently, I bought a couple of very cheap guitar pedals from China (through AliExpress). I’m working on making some pedalboards for some young family members, and I want to see how cheap I can get it without it being terrible.
My cousin plays the bass (like myself), so I would like to incorporate a DI box in his setup — so I ordered two different ones.
This Rowin DI (€20),
and this Dolamo DI (£16).
And the difference was huge!
🌱 What Makes Telegram Great
Chat apps: Part 2
People, myself included, will endlessly discuss the features and details of their favourite apps for email, calendar, task management and note-taking. But “no one” talks about chat apps — even though many people probably use this type of app even more. I recently wrote about this here, and that I think it’s a bummer that chat apps mostly rely on one of two things: Military-grade security, and lazy lock-in.
I, of course, get why it is like this: Network effects, and switching costs, are of course much higher with chat apps than other apps. A less reported on part of the EU’s Digital Market’s Act (DMA) is actually trying to do something about this, with the demand for chat interoperability! Matrix is also working on this.
However, as someone who’s used plenty of chat apps, one really stands out, in terms of quality and features — and that’s Telegram. I also regularly use iMessage and Messenger (in addition to a bit of Signal and WhatsApp) — and those feel like such a let-down by comparison. This post is me giving concrete examples of why. 1
This is not an endorsement of Telegram, nor the people behind it, though.
(By the way, click here to skip the preamble.)
Things I've Enjoyed Recently #2
Here are some of the things I enjoyed this week. (I hope this can be a recurring thing!)
I’m in the fortunate position of having watched very few films. So now I’m trying to go back and view a bunch of stuff I haven’t watched, but really should watch. My wife has seen way fewer films than even me, though — and she will join me for some of it!
This week I’ve really liked Django Unchained, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (the best Indiana Jones movie in my opinion), Kong: Skull Island (the best I’ve seen in the Monsterverse) and Good Will Hunting.
I also can’t recommend Caravan of Garbage on YouTube enough. Top-tier Australian movie banter! Like I mentioned in my Mad Max post, I like to watch the Caravan of Garbage episode after I’ve watched a movie (any movie).
How It Feels to Get an AI Email From a Friend, is a beautifully written post, and a great read. By Neven Mrgan who works for the excellent Panic.
I also really liked the post Consumption-to-Creation Ratio by Manuel Moreale! Made me want to keep up. 💪🏻 (But in a good and chill way.)
🌱 My Search Engine Is Perhaps My Favourite Tech Service
There’s a lot of talk about Google Search these days — and how AI is affecting the search quality. Parts of the algorithm even leaked recently, showing that they’ve actively lied to the public. And the general discussions surrounding whether Google is getting worse, has been going on for way longer. But I’ve sidestepped this whole thing…
A while ago, in my quest to use less stuff from the largest tech companies (and due to privacy concerns), I used DuckDuckGo for over a year. But while I liked the design, I found myself having to type !g, and go to Google, to find what I was looking for.
Then I tried Neeva (RIP). And I liked that I didn’t have to scroll past ads, but the Norwegian results were terrible.
However, for the last two years, I’ve used Kagi Search — and ever since, it’s been one of my absolute favourite tech products. And yesterday they published a blog post called What is next for Kagi?, which I liked, and that spurred this post.**
I like being the customer
An Introduction to Mad Max
I recently saw a film poster to Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - so I thought I’d might watch Mad Max: Fury Road again. I think I remembered it being pretty good - but after rewatching it, I thought: “Uhm, I think this is the best film I’ve ever seen??"
So I’ve spent some time the last two weeks getting into the Mad Max Franchise. I’ve always known about it, but never really had a relationship to it. But now I’m a fan!
I’m not going into why Fury Road is so amazing here. Instead I’m going to give some pointers on how to get into the series.
Worth your time
There are many famous franchises out there - but most of them take a little lifetime to get into. There’s so much Star Wars/Trek, Game of Thrones or Marvel stuff out there. But Mad Max is much more manageable, and the high notes are so great, that it’s absolutely worth your time.
You can absolutely just watch Fury Road, without doing anything else before it. If you’re going that route, you can read this little footnote for a tiny bit of background. 👉🏻 1
I watched Fury Road blind, and then went back to the three old ones - but it could also be fun to simply watch them in chronological order!
