Category: Software

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.

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.

Bookcision

Rad browser bookmarklet by Norbauer Applications:

When highlights are created on any Kindle device, they are synced up to Amazon’s cloud. These are then visible at kindle.amazon.com, but there is no reason to believe that Amazon will continue to provide this service forever, and our ability to work with text in that hosted browser-based environment is limited.

We wanted a way cleanly to download our highlights onto our local computers, so we created a bookmarklet that permits one to excise highlights from the book’s kindle.amazon.com page.

(Hat tip: Jeremey DuVall.)

Noizio

Noizio is a slick, flexible, and free(!) app that plays ambient sounds. I just installed it on my Mac and iPhone to use when listening to music isn’t proper for the task at hand.1

The current version offers fifteen ambient sounds. I dig the simplicity and ability to mix the various sounds at different volumes. Saving different “Mixtures” will be fun to try.

If you’re a fan of Coffitivity, Noizio is worth checking out. 🙂

Just turn on the sound and allow yourself to become engulfed in the tranquil sounds of nature. Whether you wish to feel as if you’re sitting near a fireplace under a cozy blanket, or that you’re meditating on a desolate sea shore as gusts of wind ruffle your hair, Noizio will be there to set the mood. With this ambient sound equalizer, not only will you be able to relax, but you will also increase your productivity, as you’re trying to concentrate on your work!

  1.  Playing in the background while I write this post: Campfire, Winter Wind, and Deep Space. ↩

Rdio Enhancer

While there isn’t a way to automatically import my favorites from Rdio, I finally installed Rdio Enhancer — a Google Chrome extension — which adds features like Export (Favorites) to CSV1, and several playlist additions, including Remove Duplicates2 and seven sorting options.

I’ll post an Apple Music playlist of my previously posted Ticket-smashing (catchy) playlist on Rdio as soon as I can. It has 155 songs now. 🙂

  1.  I have 7,325 items in my Favorites. I say “items” because it includes stand-up comedy by Mitch Hedberg. ↩
  2. Remove Duplicates removed nine songs from my Ticket-smashing (catchy) playlist. Since the list wasn’t in any order, sifting through 164 songs to manually find duplicates would’ve been tedious. Sweet. ↩

GIFs, Cloudup, and Simplenote

I have a handy bookmark of a Cloudup stream with a bunch of GIFs ready to go. In Simplenote, a pinned note contains descriptions and URLs of those GIFs for quick searching.

With several of my colleagues as inspirations1, I’m fairly quick to have a relevant GIF for a Slack channel or P2 thread at work.

Priorities. Don’t hate! 😎

In all seriousness, GIFs are fun, and the visual element might be helpful for subconsciously improving recall detail of certain facts.

Consider the NBC TV series, Chuck. Flashing images, then Chuck knows Kung Fu.

Perhaps the connection of a GIF with a lengthy conversation can be recalled in greater detail when thinking about the GIF.

I said “perhaps”.

  1. Thanks in alphabetical order: James, Cat, Kevin, Watkis, and many other Automatticians I missed. ↩

Alfred 2.7.2, snippets, and Quick Entry for Things

When using Alfred’s clipboard and snippet viewer with the Quick Entry window for Things, the item would paste into the previously active window, not the Quick Entry window.

I use Alfred snippets1 or several items of text in clipboard history when entering new to-dos into Things, and have been annoyed for awhile because I couldn’t do the same with the Quick Entry window.

Today, I’m stoked to see that Andrew and Vero fixed it. Thank you! ⭐

I think one—or both—of the first two items from the Alfred Change Log for 2.7.2 addressed this issue:

  • Significantly improve Alfred’s focusing behaviour, not taking active from the currently focused app. This improves a number of things including clipboard history paste behaviour with a multi screen setup.
  • Bring the Alfred window forward in the window hierarchy
  1. Specifically, timestamps. It’s a worthwhile habit to note when you added a to-do, or track how long it took you to complete a to-do. See also: Using Dynamic Placeholders in Clipboard Snippets. ↩

Simplenote revisions, you SAVED us!

Last week, I created a new item to document notes, ideas, and tasks for the move to our new place. I’ve shared it with Amy so she can refer and add to it.1

Yesterday, she got distracted, selected all the text by accident, and typed some gibberish — wiping out all the text about our new place.

(I estimate the damage was worth writing and brainstorming for a couple of hours.)

Fortunately, Simplenote — like most excellent products and services — includes revision history.

Yay! 🙂

  1. I think it’s time to split things up into separate notes. ↩

Mac menu bar minimalism with Bartender

I bought a copy of Bartender for these features:

  • “Show an app in the menu bar when it updates.”
  • “Menu bar apps still work the same.”
  • Minimalism.

It’s also easy to adjust its settings.

I hope Apple acquires them for direct integration with OS X. (Yes, Windows XP had some of these features.)

Fifteen dollars to help me focus? You got it. I should’ve tried it sooner.

Disclaimer: This is an unsolicited post, and I purchased the app with my money.