By golly, I never thought I'd get back to having a Blogroll … except these aren't necessarily blogs. Still, these are things I really value and I think other folks should explore.

  • TidBITS - Thoughtful, detailed coverage of everything Apple for 28 years. I haven't followed them for all that time, but definitely for more than 20 years. It's a site you can trust for reliable and accurate info.
  • Podcast: Quirks & Quarks: Every week, the program presents the people behind the latest discoveries in the physical and natural sciences, from the smallest sub-atomic particle to the largest objects in the sky and everything in between. The program also examines the political, social, environmental and ethical implications of new developments in science and technology
  • Author: Kristine Kathryn Rusch. She writes excellent novels, short stories and other stuff in various genres, sometimes under pen names. I even read her writing in genres I don't really care for. I especially enjoy her (intelligent) sci-fi series like The Retrieval Artist and The Diving Universe. Her ongoing blog posts about the business of writing should be a must-read for any author — she really knows her stuff.
  • Photography: I have a Fujifilm X-T5 camera and am constantly trying to improve my photos. Dan Bailey's books and courses have been enormously helpful. First I read his X Series Unlimited eBook and refer back to it quite often. I'm part way through his video course, Mastering the Fujifilm Autofocus System, and making lots of notes as there's a lot to learn.
  • Author: My online pal Cheri Baker writes cozy mystery books I really enjoy.
  • Short videos: MinuteFood - YouTube: MinuteFood serves up the science of what we cook, eat, and drink - all with the goal of unlocking ultimate deliciousness.

Software I can't do without on my Mac

There's a lot but these are the top of the top of the list.

  • BBEdit text editor. I do all my words stuff here and have done for a couple of decades. Grep search and replaces are one of my favourite things.
  • ClipTools — Clipboard manager. Paste something you copied several 'copies' ago.
  • TextExpander: type an abbreviation and it expands to a full-length text. For example, on my Waikawa News blog I often link to pages on NZ Birds Online for birds I see. I may type: bnzbbd and it expands to the Markdown link [Korimako | Bellbird](https://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/bellbird).
  • Keyboard Maestro: helps automate stuff that's tedious, annoying or just plain slow. Again, I've used this for a couple of decades. For example, one Macro I use automatically runs at 0830 every Thursday and opens some web pages and a Numbers file for me.
  • MarsEdit: I do all my blog things here and have done for a couple of decades. It makes it so easy to post to and edit the several blogs I run.
  • NetNewsWire a free and open source RSS reader for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Again, I've used this for a couple of decades. Why visit News websites when the news can come to you? Or blogs, Council announcement pages …

Updated, 09 January 2024.