More on this Zettelkasten concept. One of the developers of The Archive passed along a link to an absolutely incredible Sublime Text package, Sublime ZK. The package is impressive in what it can do, but also in how it’s documented. The Github page for the project is extensive and includes animated examples of it in action. This is a powerhouse for taking notes. It’s probably not for the casual user but if you want to build a encyclopedia of your own ideas and facts then this is a great starting point.

One of my favorite leisure activities is doodling. I often hear people say “I can’t draw” or “I’m a terrible artist.” I tend to think it’s like most things. It just takes practice and learning the ways an “artist” thinks. I try to share this with my own kid because there’s nothing better than making a little kid laugh and feel proud. Drawing My Neighbour Totoro - Copic markers speen paint - YouTube

It feels good to help people that need it. Even $5 can make huge ripples. Share your charity beyond the scope of your own world and see what comes back. Maybe it’ll even make you hopeful for the future. Crazy, right?

There’s a lot of low-down, no good, crap in the world. It’s easy to forget that humans also have the unique ability to do good. I’m a victim and an instigator of our tendency to focus on the bad over the good. I want to be better. I’m not going to stop posting about the daily trash fire, but I will force myself to pass the good things on too. You’ll see those in your feed with a [Good] prefix.

I’ve been reading a bit about the Zettelkasten system and there are some interesting opinions about meta data and how best to think about information. This old blog post by Christian Tietze about categories is thought provoking. Creating categories is a top-down process. You start with the structure and then file the material away. Notes will have to fit the structure. If they don’t, there’ll have to be a compromise.

The Archive is a new plain-text writing and reference application for the Mac.1 It’s made by people that are super-nerds about plain text and has a lot that looks familiar and a lot that is new and clever. This is not a review. It’s a highlight of what’s neat and innovative. The Archive is designed around what Notational Velocity and later nvALT brought to the Mac: Fast, reliable search with ease of creation.

Let’s not call these life hacks. They’re just ways to make some parts of my life less annoying or less time consuming. I’m a big believer in creating frameworks that allow me to be lazy or forgetful. When I find myself dealing with the same problem or friction point more than a few times, it’s time to fix it. Often that involves crap from Amazon. Light the Way The problem: There are lots of little places in my house that are useless unless I turn on some lights.

This might not be a trend, but if it’s a glimpse at the future of apps, count me out. From Dan Goodin at Ars: The app is Calendar 2, a scheduling app that aims to include more features than the Calendar app that Apple bundles with macOS. In recent days, Calendar 2 developer Qbix endowed it with code that mines the digital coin known as Monero. The xmr-stack miner isn’t supposed to run unless users specifically approve it in a dialog that says the mining will be in exchange for turning on a set of premium features.

I purchased a nice external drive to use for TimeMachine on my Mac.1 After formatting the drive and configuring encrypted TimeMachine backups I noticed it was taking a very long time to complete. I waited a day for it to complete and discovered I had a new problem. Every backup took an hour to complete and several more hours to encrypt. That definitely didn’t seem right. I stumbled across this MacRumors thread about properly creating an encypted TimeMachine volume so I thought it was worth summarizing what worked for me.

The value proposition of the Matias Laptop Pro Keyboard: Bluetooth It has “Alps-inspired” keys Ten key-less format Supports Apple system controls N-key rollover support USB Charging with pass-thru 13.26” x 6.5” x 1.38” $170 If you’re still interested, here’s my review of using the keyboard as a replacement for the Apple wireless keyboard. The Matias keyboards are more like Apple Extended Keyboards than the Cherry or Brown switch keyboards that are all the rage these days.