A Geek Goes Flying

macOS text file icon Markdown . More and more tools are using, and defaulting, to it. Microsoft Office doesn’t import or grok it natively of course (though, it should; it took me all of about 10 minutes to write  a basic parser ). It’s ubiquitous. Reddit has used  it for at least a decade. The  Things  GTD app family  added it a few years ago . Etc. But it’s not always the most convenient format to work with, especially if you’re under deadline pressure. So I made my life a little easier, and learned about Pandoc in the process. 1. Install pandoc Either from a .pkg file downloaded from  GitHub , or via Homebrew . I went Homebrew, ofc: % brew install pandoc -y 2. Create a new Quick Action in Shortcuts Open the Shortcuts program under Applications on the Mac. Click + to create a new shortcut. In the editor that pops up, in the right pane click the ⓘ at the top to show Shortcut Details, and: ☑ Use as Quick Action      ☑ Finder. Me, I also made...

Walled garden as an illustrative concept We have a practice management system we rely on to manage our cases. It’s pretty good. It could be a lot better. There’s an API, which should enable integration with other tools that can help it be amazing. But. They locked it down. Annoying. They’re pumping money into their own home-grown AI tools. They’re trying to upsell me on their solutions. They boast they’ve put / are putting “tens of millions of dollars” into their home-grown AI tech. Cool. But, uh: “OpenAI and Anthropic expect to spend nearly $65 billion combined this year just on the costs to train and operate their AI models.”¹ Our vendor was showing off their agentic offering, and how it could calculate litigation deadlines based on, e.g., C.D. Cal. local rules . “Great, what about a judge's individual procedures?” E.g., Judge Walter  issues a standing order with a requirement not found in the local rules (which, annoyingly, is only in his Standing Order filed early in the c...

Multitasking What Constant Multitasking Does to Your Brain , from December 2025: “When we multitask, our attentional resources are being stretched to their limit and we are more prone to errors ... multitasking actually makes us less efficient, more stressed, and eventually, mentally drained. If you try to take on too much or multitask all day, your brain eventually runs out of bandwidth to focus clearly.” The entire article is worth a read; including: Here’s how it affects your brain When you’re constantly switching between tasks, your brain enters a state of cognitive overload. You might notice: Brain fog Irritability Forgetfulness Trouble focusing Mental exhaustion by the end of the day And: Try this easy fix You don’t have to eliminate multitasking completely, but being intentional about when and how you focus can make a big difference. Here’s how to help your brain recover: Batch similar tasks. Group emails, calls, or errands so your brain stays in one mode longer. Use timers ...

Prior: “You’re not lazy. Your brain just needs a different system.” I keep encountering these ads on Facebook, for, whatever, ADHD planners or Xennial home organization apps or ... They state they're based on research from Stanford or MIT or Harvard or ... [], and that they’ll build a solution tailored for whatever it is that makes you unique. The sales pitch always starts with some sort of shame-type thing but then moves quickly to “it’s not your fault - you didn’t fail the system, the system failed you! It wasn’t built for a brain that grew up analog and transitioned to digital.” If you take the bait you’re funneled to a set of “diagnostic questions” and then the processing theater (“Analyzing your responses … 37% … creating your individualized plan … 72% …”). Then email capture and the dark patterns - the free trial but high monthly cost - slashed in half if you buy before the fake counter reaches zero ... or the relatively low “monthly” cost paid every six months or ...  I capt...

A happy place Reading Linked To Lower Stress, Better Brain Health . Good thing I have the jail broken Kindle and the Kobo and ... I’m awash in eReaders . Now to actually use them reliably. (I just picked up a Tom Bihn Side Kick  (Nebulous Grey over Cobalt), a 3 L crossbody / shoulder bag that also tucks into my Nomad 16 perfectly - no more cheap felt or vinyl inserts. And it perfectly fits the 6.8" Kindle or an iPad mini 8 or ... 

Bonjour logo I somewhat regularly have to log in to a WiFi connected machine (they vary, so DHCP assigned addresses would be a PITA to juggle and remember). I have a static IP macOS box I can ssh or Screen Share into, and from there I’ve usually danced a jig of  arp -a  or  last  to try to find the IP address of that box, so I can connect to it directly. Apple’s Bonjour [née Rendezvous, an implementation of zeroconf ] shows the machines, since they’re Macs, but the command line tools for that aren’t part of my muscle memory.  dns-sd -Gv4v6  doesn’t really roll off the tongue... I was today years old when I realized if I just append  .local  to the machine name, good ol’  ping  will give me the address: % ping -c1 BigMac.local      PING BigMac.local (172.16.345.99): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 172.16.345.99: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.785 ms I’m a maroon .

The jaunty sing-songy voice and music, the overly cute animation, the crass insertion into your nightmarescape of this dog water fountain ad ... I can’t even. (There’s one I just saw for GetQuietLab that’s in the same vein.) This is not the AI future we were promised. Or maybe it is. I don’t know anymore.