Category: Computers

Hyper key via Karabiner-Elements

I installed Karabiner-Elements to use Caps Lock as a Hyper key (Shift-Control-Option-Command) on my Mac, and figured I’d share my setup here.

My hotkeys

With Caps Lock mapped to Hyper key (Caps Lock if used by itself), I can do some stuff more easily, with less keypresses.

I created an Alfred workflow (Powerpack required) to open the following apps:

Hotkeys set within their apps

To open Alfred’s Clipboard History Viewer, the hotkey is Hyper-C. Before, it was Option-Command-C.

My hotkey to activate Moom is Hyper-M. Before, it was Control-Option-Command-M.

I’ve had PopClip installed for years, and a friend/colleague (Clicky Steve) made an Alfred workflow to trigger the menu as needed. I set the hotkey in the Alfred workflow to Hyper-P. Before, it was Control-Option-Command-P.

I use Itsycal — “a tiny menu bar calendar” — to glance at the next few days in my selected calendars with Hyper-I. Before, it was Shift-Option-Command-I.

I use Hidden Bar, an open source Mac app to hide/show menu bar icons with Hyper-B. Before, it was Option-Command-B.

Within Vivaldi Settings → Keyboard:

  • Hyper-←: Close Tabs to the Left (or above, if the tab bar position is to the left)
  • Hyper-→: Close Tabs to the Right (or above, if the tab bar position is to the left)
  • Hyper-↑: Move Active Tab Backward
  • Hyper-↓: Move Active Tab Forward
  • Hyper-G: Filter Grayscale (helpful for content review)
  • Hyper-O: Open Saved Session

I probably don’t need the “Move Active Tab” ones, but those can help if I want to temporarily reorder tabs without using the trackpad.

Quirks

I made three adjustments for Karabiner-Elements to work with the following devices:

My current work setup is a 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro (2020) connected to the LG display and very old Apple Wireless Keyboard.

On the Apple Wireless Keyboard, the brightness_down and brightness_up keys would adjust the built-in display, not the LG display (desired). The Launchpad key didn’t do anything.

In Karabiner-Elements → Function keys, with the Apple keyboard selected (not internal), I made changes to these physical keys:

  • f1: apple_display_brightness_decrement
  • f2: apple_display_brightness
  • f4: launchpad

Ending thoughts

I’ve been using the Hyper key for one week, and dig it. The adjustment period felt small. If you use a lot of keyboard shortcuts and want to reduce the number of keypresses, I recommend it.

Found my shared Google Calendars

Google Calendar helps my teammates at work with planning 1:1s, conferences, meetups, and reviewing AFK dates. The account is through my employer (Automattic), and I mainly use it on a desktop browser. On my iPhone, Fantastical 2 and Calendars 5.

For several months, I couldn’t view shared calendars on my Automattic account. On my personal Google account, I remembered an obscure Google page that had to be viewed on my iPhone in order to toggle visibility of the calendars.

After searching Google Help pages without success, the “Fantastical 2 for iPhone FAQ” by Flexbits had the correct page for me! 🥳

https://m.google.com/sync/settings/

Years ago, I assume I set up my Google account with Exchange and Google Sync.

This post will be handy if I decide to add another calendar, and I need to see it on my phone. 😄

P.S. I wrote this post from the new WordPress block-based editor! 🤩

Netflix – Download profile-specific viewing activity

Today I learned:

You can download the viewing activity for any profile as a CSV file to easily see which titles were watched and when.

The oldest on my list (Remember The Titans) was from January 5th, 2009, which is 3,596 days ago. Almost ten years!

On a related note, if you want to wipe out all viewing activity on a profile, I think you can create a new profile, then delete the old one. Figured I’d throw it out there. 😄

Source: Netflix Help Center

Round Health – Medicine reminders and tracking

I’ve been using the free Round Health app for awhile. It’s useful for prescriptions, supplements, or medicine that’s taken as needed (like Ibuprofen, cold, or flu medicine). I don’t need a dedicated pill container, and appreciate the refill reminder.

Replaced my iPhone 6 battery, part two

UPS (via Next Day Air) delivered the two sets of adhesive strips from iFixit. I’m glad it arrived in the morning. ☀️🛬

Before I started my second attempt, I read the instructions and watched the videos again. 🍿

Read: Part one

iFixit included three words on their box: “You got this.”

They were right. I worked in silence for less than an hour, all went well, and the battery now feels secure. 🔋

I also swapped the Pentalobe screws with Phillips screws from the included Liberation Kit (available with their iPhone 6 Replacement Battery Fix Kit).

I’m sort of ignoring the amount spent for a few reasons. 💸

  • Privacy. I didn’t want to leave my device with a third party for several hours/days.
  • I didn’t have a working backup iPhone to hold me over.
  • I’m saving money by not upgrading to a newer iPhone, especially since my current one is fine.
  • I can be confident to do the same for Amy’s iPhone 6…when she’s ready. 💪🏾
  • Maybe I can do this — and replace the cracked screen (Amy did it) — on my previous iPhone 5s.
  • Fun. I haven’t tinkered like this since I built PCs years ago. See image of Grandpa Simpson yelling at cloud. I’m…not going to link to it. I think you know it. 😉

Questions? 🤓

Replaced my iPhone 6 battery, part one

The good

I disassembled, replaced the battery, and reassembled my iPhone. The instructions from iFixit were solid.

My phone powered up, I don’t see display issues, and Touch ID still works. Feels quicker, too. 💥

CPU benchmarks

These two benchmarks — from Geekbench 4 — correspond to the old and new batteries, respectively. Higher is better.

  • Single-core went from 816 to 1547. Increase (↑) of 89.583%.
  • Multi-core went from 1329 to 2643. Increase (↑) of 98.871%.

With my iPhone not in Low Power Mode when I ran the test, is the large discrepancy due to:

  • The old battery level being at 4%, and
  • The new battery level at around 40%?

I’m…not sure. The battery charge needed to be very low1 before I dug into my iPhone.

With the new battery level at 7%, I ran another CPU benchmark.

The result? Single- and multi-core benchmarks were 1548 and 2674, respectively, which means it wasn’t a fluke. 🙌🏽

Have you seen a comparison posted elsewhere? Let me know in the comments!

The bad

With the new battery, I applied the adhesive on the wrong side, and I initially didn’t order an extra set. 🤦🏾‍♂️

The ugly

To be safe, I ordered two sets of iPhone 6/6s/7 battery adhesive strips with the most expensive shipping. The estimated arrival date is Friday.

Until then, I need to handle my phone with extra care. I definitely won’t carry my phone in my pocket. 😱

Reason: With the bit of extra space not yet taken by adhesive, I need to prevent damage to the internal bits.

The silver lining

I work from home, and don’t need to venture out over the next couple of days. I can still use Authenticator for two-factor authentication.2

Ultimately, Friday isn’t that far off. I’ll do my best to keep that in mind. 😬

Update — Read part two!

 

 

  1. For safety, the instructions state the battery level needs to discharged below 25%. “A charged lithium-ion battery can catch fire and/or explode if accidentally punctured.” 😱 ↩
  2. Yes, I have backup codes. ↩

Apple Music and Last.fm scrobbling update

Last November, I wrote:

Switching from Rdio to Apple Music might mean scrobbling to my Last.fm account will be inconsistent, which makes me sad because I’ve been tracking since 2007.

Since then, I add songs, albums, or playlists in Apple Music to my library before I start listening.

With iTunes 12.5.1.21 and Last.fm Scrobbler 2.1.371, I now see songs played from Apple Music are scrobbled, even if they aren’t in my library (including playlists).2 Yay!

Context: Apple Music and Last.fm: Does it Scrobble? — Florian Eckerstorfer

  1. On OS X El Capitan 10.11.6. ↩
  2.  Radio…no joy. I don’t use it at the moment. ↩

Legacy Skype accounts and Two Step Verification

When Microsoft bought Skype, then added two-step verification to Microsoft accounts, I promptly enabled it. But wait. My original Skype login still works—without prompting for two-step verification. 😐

I just found the following reply (dated 2014-10-11) from a Skype Community forum thread:

You can union your Skype account from your Microsoft account but that won’t disable your Skype account. Not having an account joined or TV/Phone account enabled is the only way to eliminate the single authentication of a Skype account from a Microsoft account. You can abandon your old account and clear out personal info from a severed account but you can’t add a second form of authentication to a legacy Skype account.

Crud. If I want my Skype login to be more secure, I’ll need to:

  1. Go to Account Settings in Skype.
  2. Unlink my Microsoft account.
  3. Close my legacy Skype account.

Warning: the linked support page says a lot! 😓

If you have a legacy Skype account, did you change anything? Feel okay using a strong password?

P.S. I rarely use Skype.

PFRs for TaskMator

I feel like sharing some public feedback requests for TaskMator 3.0. 😁

In TaskMator, turning on the Show Badge Number option will display the number of tasks that are not done within the open—or most recently opened—document.

Since saved searches work across the app1, I’d love an additional option in Settings → Advanced, right below the Show Badge Number option.

(1) Apply saved search for badge number

At its current iteration, it’s an unrealistic indicator of my workload for the day to display a super high number (like 299).

Coming from Things, here are their Badge Count settings:

  • None
  • Due Items
  • Due + Today
  • Due + Today + Inbox

In TaskMator, adding the option to select a saved search for your app badge means you have the power to make a more complex saved search!

With the help of a Mac, the current alternative that is “easier” would be to:

  • Duplicate the existing TaskPaper file.
  • Run your desired saved search manually in TaskPaper for each document.
  • Expand everything, copy to clipboard, Go to Home (Shift-CMD-H), Select All (CMD-A), and Paste (CMD-V)
  • Rename the document.
  • On your iOS device, open TaskMator to refresh everything.

Gosh.

Now that I describe that workflow, it sounds ridiculous. I can press a few keyboard shortcuts in rapid, furious succession. After I learn the groove, it’s not a big deal to me.

Short of trying to configure a script to generate/update a daily file, which you’d then sync with your Dropbox folder, this is okay with me.

(2) In the main documents folder, add a right-to-left swipe option to designate a file for the app badge.

This would save time going to Settings → Advanced.

(3) Support latest date-based queries.

I tried some searches in TaskMator that work in TaskPaper 3. No joy. It definitely isn’t the end of the world, so I moved on.

This one is lowest on this list because I have no idea how long the other two requests will take, and I really should keep this simple.

Should. 😉

  1. That is, not document-specific. ↩

TaskPaper and my iPhone

I wrote a comment in a previous post (Considering TaskPaper 3) to describe how I could add information to my TaskPaper files with Siri using Reminders and Drafts. Check that out. Now, I’ll briefly explain how I’ve worked with my TaskPaper files on my iPhone so far.

My decision to get TaskMator was based on Gabe Weatherhead’s reviews on Macdrifter. I recommend reading them first. 🙂

This morning, I also listened to Episode 026 — Old Stock Ale and Task Management from Nerds on Draft (an episode from a year ago), which includes some discussion about TaskPaper and TaskMator. (See show notes.)

Anyway. I haven’t used the alarm feature yet. Filtering by project or tag works well. Same with search from the home screen, which seems fast. I’m also fiddling with saved searches:

Due
(@due or @today or @flag) and not @done

Not @done
not (type = note or @done)

Quick tasks <= 15m
@time <= 15 and not (type = note or @done)

At the moment, I omit the notes in some saved searches because I use often include notes. (In the TaskPaper app, I collapse these quickly. All from my keyboard, loving it.) With the above syntax, that means done tasks aren’t displayed even though the notes under those tasks are technically not marked as done.

Anyway, the goal is to narrow the scope of my tasks. I might create two dupes that include notes for more detail.

For adding stuff to my TaskPaper files, I have several actions in Drafts that prepends the chosen draft.

  • TP (Personal)
  • TP (Personal, done)
  • TP (Personal, added)

For the second and third, those are for instances where I only have a single-line draft.1

When ready to clear my “inbox” at the top of the file, and on my iPhone, I can tap each task, and move it to my desired “project”.2 Or, using two fingers—tap and hold the bottom menubar, then proceed tapping the other tasks you’d like to manage—I can add the relevant tags, then move it to the correct project.

I’m not certain if the purpose of Taskmator is to use a one or two huge TaskPaper files. If you enable the badge number, and the most recent file you opened had over 250 tasks, your mind would go numb. I’d like the ability to designate a project for each TaskPaper file, but I imagine using a different setting for separate files would be tough to implement.

Even though I’ve gotten comfortable with Things, I’m pleased with TaskMator!

 

  1.  See also: My Habit of Noting Timestamps ↩
  2. Remember: I use “projects”—as labeled with TaskPaper files and apps—as “Areas” to combine a broad group of related items. ↩