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The Terminal – For Noobs (Like Me), Part One

The Basic Concepts

If you’re like me, from time-to-time you’ll come across tasks that should be done in the terminal. But as you’re not very familiar with it, you wince a bit, and then just paste whatever they say, and hope for the best. The guide might also assume you know a bunch of concepts, that you don’t really understand. Like, why do some commands start with $?

An empty terminal window.

Hopefully, this guide can answer some of the questions you’re too afraid to ask, and make you less afraid of the terminal. I’ll never be a person who lives in the terminal (especially as I’m not a programmer) – but I’ve managed to get to where I like it, and will be happy if a task can be done there.

Sorry that this will be a bit Mac-focused. But hopefully, it can be useful for more than Mac users!

I want to make this part of a series called something like "For Noobs (Like Me)". And when I do that, I'm always very interested in feedback: both from people who know much more about the subject matter than I do (as I don't want to misinform), and from beginners (about whether or not the explanation is understandable). Contact me here, or comment below!

Basic concepts

To me, things get much less daunting if I understand some basic concepts. And here are some of the basic things you won’t necessarily see explained on guides that include some terminal stuff.

CLI vs. GUI

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More on Using a Mac Mini as a Secondary Computer

Remote Access, RSS, and Storage and Backups

Last November, I started using an M4 Mac Mini as a secondary computer. I’m still pleased with it! And I wanted to provide a little update with some more things I’ve learned.

The Mac Mini below an Apple TV. Also an Anbernic game console, Switch, and 8BitDo controller.

Remote access

Using the Mini, has been pretty simple. I’ll usually use Continuity, via my MacBook or iPad, if the TV the Mini is connected to is on. And I’ll use Screen Sharing if not.1 (I can recommend keeping something like an integrated keyboard and trackpad nearby, if you have the space – which I don’t.)

But I’ve also figured out something else! And I get that this is very basic for many of you, but probably not for all.

System Settings screenshot explained below.

On the Mini, I’ve gone into System Settings → General → Sharing → Advanced → Remote Login, and turnet it on. Now I can paste in something like this, in my Macbook’s terminal: ssh erlend@192.168.12.34

The terminal instance, on the MacBook, will now be like if I was running it locally on the Mini. This allows me to reduce the number of times I have to control the Mini directly – as it’s nicer to just use the MacBook.

I also think this is an important setting – even though it’s not as secure:

Automatically log in as my user.

This means you can’t have FileVault turned on – but it makes it so the Mac will log in (and start all login items) on a restart. This is important to keep services running – but if there’s another (more secure) way of doing this, I’m interested in hearing about it.

RSS

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Sharing an Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg

From Pixelfed – an Open Alternative to Instagram

Link to the post.

Dear Mark,

I hope this finds you well. I noticed something interesting today - it seems Instagram is blocking links to my little open-source project. You know, the one that lets people share photos without harvesting their personal data or forcing algorithmic feeds on them.

I have to admit, I’m flattered. Who would’ve thought a small team of volunteers could build something that would catch your attention? We’re just trying to give people a choice in how they share their memories online. No VCs, no surveillance capitalism, just code and community.

Remember when Facebook started? It was about connecting people, not maximizing engagement metrics. Our project might be tiny compared to Instagram, but we’re staying true to that original spirit of social media - giving people control over their online presence without turning them into products.

You could’ve ignored us. Instead, by blocking our links, you’ve given us the best endorsement we could ask for. You’ve confirmed what we’ve been saying all along - that big tech is more interested in protecting their walled gardens than fostering genuine innovation.

Every time you block a link to our platform, you remind people why we built it in the first place. Your action tells them there are alternatives worth exploring, ones that respect their privacy and agency. So thank you, Mark. You’ve turned our little project into a symbol of resistance against digital monopolies.

Perhaps one day you’ll remember what it felt like to be the underdog, building something because you believed in its potential to make the internet better. Our doors are always open if you want to remember what that feels like.

Best regards,

Daniel Supernault

P.S. Keep blocking those links. Every error message is just free advertising for the social web.

My Adaptive Smart Light Setup

A Guide, and a Glimpse Into the Mind of a Madman (Me)

I’ve previously written about why I think Smart Bulbs > Smart Switches.1 And one of the reasons I think that, is that I (for some reason) really love having the colour temperature of my lights change throughout the day.

Sadly, I’ve found the automatic systems for this really lacking. But here I wanted to show how I’ve created a system I like.

The goals:

  • Be effortless to use (and relatively easy to adjust)
  • Both provide a good experience with simple switches, and with dimmers.
  • Working with different brands of switches and bulbs.
  • Keep everything in HomeKit.2

I want a smart home. But, in use, I want it to be as simple as a dumb one. I want guests to be able to operate things at, at least, the same level as they would in another unfamiliar home.3 And then I want to add smart benefits on top of this, like colour temperature, automations, some hidden button features, and being able to override stuff with things like a phone.

My most used switch is the Flic 2. And when the light is off, I want one click to turn on to a setting that’s almost always the right one. But as the “right setting” changes throughout the day, I have to do some adjustments in the background…

Two Flics and an Ikea volume control. They are white with stickers on them that point to what it controls.

While you can adjust the brightness in Home.app, I also wanted to be able to do it with a dimmer switch at some places. So I’ve bought a couple of Flic Twists 🖇️ as well.4 HomeKit/Matter, sadly, hasn’t delivered support for dimmers, though – so I had to be a bit creative to get these to work as I wanted.

Flic twist, which is a round dial with a button in the middle (with a kitchen sticker), an Ikea smart blinds button, and a regular light switch with some white tape on it.
You can, of course, do something nicer than this – but the little white tape on the regular light switches is all you need for them never to be turned off.

The principle

I’ve created three “moods” (which correlates to brightness and colour temperature):

  • Glow (warmest)
  • Cream
  • Glass (coldest)

And, currently, my home moves through these moods at these times:

  • From the night before 🌙: Glow
  • 1 hour after sunrise ⛅: Cream
  • 3 hours after sunrise ☀️: Glass
  • 3 hours before sunset 🌥️: Cream
  • 1 hour after sunset 🌙: Glow

If you turn on a light during “Cream time” it will turn on to that setting, and so on. And when the mood changes (during the day), it will go through the lights that are turned on, and adapt them to the current mood.

The how

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My Wishes for NotePlan

I like and use NotePlan (via Setapp 🖇️), and feel good recommending it to people. But there are a couple of reasons why I don’t love it. So while I keep all my notes and tasks in Markdown files in the NotePlan folder, I prefer editing those in other apps – like Paper. Below are the changes and improvements I would need for me to love it.

A (random) NotePlan screenshot.

The basics needs to be improved

The NotePlan developer is very active, seems like a great guy, and is pumping out updates. Some of these are really ambitious (like more collaboration and a web editor). But the app is, at its core, a Markdown editor – and I think this core requires some improvements, and that getting this right is foundational for the rest.

I get that I can’t expect it to be as good here as the dedicated Paper, and some of the more advanced features, like the Typewriter Mode:

It feels like having an assistant who always scrolls the document to where I want it. And the dimmed text outside the window allows me to know when it's going to scroll. 👌🏻

But NotePlan should be better…

Bold and italics

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Why I Value Doing Stuff on My Mac With One Hand

And How I Do It

I get that it sounds shady1 or like a great accessibility story, when I talk about being able to use my Mac one-handed. But it’s neither. Allow me to explain!

My default mode for using my Mac …

… is with my right hand on the trackpad, and my left in the home row position – for instance like this:

Photo of me using my MacBook as described above (and below).
Here I'm on my couch, with a laptop tray in my lap. More on this later.

I totally get that both hands on the keyboard is the default for many. And I’m there quite a lot as well, and love keyboard-driven software.2 But, for some reason, the tasks I’m doing call for the above even more.

So I’ve optimised my Mac to be able to do a lot with only that left hand on the keyboard, and only that right hand on the trackpad.

My office setup, with a studio display, mechanical keyboard and Magic Trackpad.
My office setup.

I really like the Magic Trackpad, as I can have the “desktop” setup be really similar to the laptop one. I do have a gaming mouse at the ready – but if I had to use a mouse, I guess I would try to recreate as much as possible on the Magic Mouse.3

The right hand and trackpad

I’ve used BetterTouchTool (and some default options) to have the trackpad be extra useful. (I can also recommend Swish, even though it doesn’t fit what I want to do with the trackpad.)

Here are the main gestures I’ve set up, and that work in “every” program:

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