Links
Sites and other stuff I like and that you should too.
Cool Site Spotlight
The Internet Used to Be Fun
To quote Rachel's own description of her site, 'So for now, here’s a collection of articles that to some degree answer the question “Why have a personal website?” with “Because it’s fun, and the internet used to be fun.”'
Contents
- AI
- Apple
- Apple Home
- Articles
- Beer
- Blogroll
- Books
- Coffee
- Command Line, Linux, Unix
- Cool Sites Archive
- FOOD
- Japan & Japanese Language
- Keyboards
- Mac
- Newsletters
- Podcasts
- Raycast
- RSS & Reading Tools
- Web Dev
- It’s All About Me
AI
- Blog Series: #1 ChatGPT + BetterTouchTool = ❤️
- Raycast AI
- There’s An AI For That (TAAFT) - The #1 AI Aggregator
Apple
- 512 Pixels
- Basic Apple Guy
- Daring Fireball
- Hypercritical
- MacRumors: Apple News and Rumors
- MacStories
- Matthew Cassinelli
- Six Colors
Apple Home
- Eve Outdoor Cam | evehome.com
- HomeCam for HomeKit
- HomeKit.cam - Every HomeKit camera and more
- HomeKit Light Switch - Meross Smart Switch MSS510US
- Logitech Circle View Wired Video Doorbell - HomeKit Enabled
- Meross HomeKit Smart Plug, Smart Mini Wi-Fi Plug In American Standard - MSS110US MSS110JP
- Meross Smart Garage Door Opener Remote Control - MSG100
- Smart Light Bulb that Changes Color - Meross MSL120
- Smart Light Switch with Thread | Belkin US
- Yale Assure Lock® 2 | Best Smart Lock for your Home - Yale Home
Articles
- 100 things you can do on your personal website | James’ Coffee Blog
- The Ars guide to time travel in the movies | Ars Technica
- How macOS opens a file in the correct app – The Eclectic Light Company
- The internet used to be fun
- A Microcosm of the interactions in Open Source projects
- Pipe Dreams: The life and times of Yahoo Pipes
- The cult cool of Japanese lifestyle magazines
Beer
- Bochi Bochi Japanese Rice Lager - Crux Fermentation
- Blueberry Boyfriend | Prairie Artisan Ales
- Cactus Wins The Lottery | Ex Novo Brewing Company
- Folkvangr — Little Beast Brewing
- Honey Kolsch – Rogue
- Marryin Berries | Ex Novo Brewing Company
- Peanut Butter Milk Stout – Belching Beaver Landing - Beer
- Puff Puff Passion | Ex Novo Brewing Company
- Salted Caramel Porter – Beers — Cascade Lakes
Blogroll
Aleksandr Hovhannisyan
Aleksandr Hovhannisyan makes performant web software.
Álvaro Ramírez
A man of many tech topics.
Bart Busschots
Bart Busschots is a programmer, podcaster, and one of the kindest and coolest people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting virtually.
Birchtree
Matt Birchler is a UI and UX designer and YouTuber, but he’s also a man of interesting thoughts on tech topics.
The Bored Horse
The Bored Horse is by Thord D. Hedengren, writer, publisher, and web developer, and is a very cool site indeed.
BryceWray.com
Bryce Wray writes articles that help me figure out solutions to web development related problems I have, and for that reason alone, I love and recommend him.
Byte Cellar - The Vintage Computing Weblog The most interesting man in the world isn’t that old guy with the beard and the gravelly voice in the beer commercials. It’s Blake Patterson. The Byte Cellar is an internet-ional treasure of nostalgia and experimentation.
Cassidy’s blog
Cassidy Williams does great work in the web world. She’s a great web advocate.
Cassie Evans’s Blog
Cassie Evans has some amazing design sensibility, and she’s one of the people putting the fun back into the web in a delightful way.
Chamline
Habib Cham is one of the nicest people you’ll meet on the socials, and he’s always got thoughts about tech, sports, and life. The world needs more people like him.
CodeMacLife
I don’t really know much about Mark except that I stumbled across his blog and found it interesting. The title should tell you he’s into the Apple ecosphere.
Colin Devroe - Photographer. Blogger. Reverse Engineer.
Colin Devroe is a photographer and blogger with some fun ideas about what a blog can be.
Cory Dransfeldt
Software developer and personal blogger.
Craig Mod — Writer + Photographer
Craig Mod is a writer and photographer and really thoughtful guy. The fact that he lives in and walks all over Japan, where I lived as a boy, makes him even more interesting to me.
David Amador
Lots of gaming stuff here which is pretty cool.
davidnelson.net
David Nelson. What a nice man. I enjoy his thoughts on life in general. He’s in the Apple world, but he’s also a nice, level-headed adult who I greatly enjoy talking with.
The Dent ·
Did I ever tell you that Andy Nicolaides was a co-host of mine on Pocket Sized Podcast for a time? He was, but don’t hold that against him - go read what he says about tech!
The Eclectic Light Company – Macs, painting, and more
I don’t know about the paintings because I haven’t looked that far yet, but the Mac stuff is stupendously great. Howard Oakley should be proud (but not too proud, because no one likes arrogance).
ericportis.com
I came for the colorspace article, I stayed for the photography. Wow!
EuroVan Camper Stuff
I don’t think I know David H’s last name, but he’s the same guy from Notes and Ramblings below. He’s also a Hemispheric Views adjacent person, and I like him.
Flashing Palely in the Margins
Sameer’s design is so clean and so fresh, you’ll have to read this blog.
Gordon’s Tech
Gordon’s Tech is tech related, and it’s by John Gordon! Didn’t see that coming, did ya?!
Harshil Shah
I like Harshil Shah. I think everyone likes Harshil Shah. He created the excellent Peak and Pause apps, and more importantly, he brings light to the world.
Hello! from Rick Cogley
Rick’s microblog on tech and Japan! Hey, I like both of those things!
Home | James’ Coffee Blog
Is it a blog? Is it a coffee blog? I guess it’s both, because James says so. Either way, it’s also about the indieweb, and I’m here for it!
Jascha’s blog | This blog is intended to be a place to share ideas and results that are too weird, incomplete, or off-topic to turn into an academic paper, but that I think may be important. Let me know what you think! Contact links to the left.
This is some crazy brain food that I probably won’t understand most of.
Hey, it’s Jason! // Welcome!
Jason is a Hemispheric Views guy, a Portlander, and he’s got a really, really nice looking website.
Hugo’s Blog
Hugo is apparently a Meta Quest guy and he just wrote an encyclopedia-sized article on the Apple Vision Pro. I hope not every blog post he does is that long, but it’s a fascinating read anyway.
Hypercritical
I mean, it’s John Siracusa.
I Build Things — Chris McLeod
I love the design of this site. Wow!
kottke.org - home of fine hypertext products
I don’t need to tell you about kottke.org. NO ONE needs to tell you about kottke.org!!!
The Liner Project
Ronnie Lutes – friend, blogger, former podcaster, and fan of history. Also I think he knows all the best restaurants in Vegas, so you should probably ask him questions if you’re headed there.
Blog | LMNT
Louie Mantia’s blog. Lots of interesting ideas here, and the rest of the sight is great too. It’s even a Cool Site Spotlight entry.
Marco.org
You all know who Marco Arment is. I put this in blogrolls because he doesn’t write often, and it’s not always about Apple stuff. 🤷♂️
Blog – Mark writes
Retro computing and a lot more.
Matt Stein
I just found Matt’s blog today when he answered Molly White’s call for blogs. Looks interesting.
mb bischoff
Designer, developer, blogger, Lickability. It’s all good stuff.
Miriam Eric Suzanne
Miriam Eric Suzanne writes about the web and CSS. I can’t remember where I first saw Miriam speaking, but it was either in the context of the W3C CSS working group or SASS.
Blog – Nathan Knowler
I just started reading this blog, but anything about web development is always of interest and use to me.
Posts | Nathan’s Site
Mac, web, and probably some FOSS stuff.
net.wars - computers, freedom, and privacy
Wendy Grossman writes about computers, freedom, and privacy.
nico’s blog · Why store your 2FA in your password manager
I knew this was an omg.lol guy as soon as I saw the site. 😄 I really like the design and readability here.
Notes · Matthias Ott – User Experience Designer
Web, Mac, and more.
Notes and Ramblings
See the notes for EuroVan Camper Stuff above - it’s David H!
Philip Zastrow
I love all the different websites from designers. This is super cool too.
Pixel Envy
Nick Heer’s blog. I just stumbled across this tonight myself. Very much tech related, like most of the blogs I list here.
Home | Rach Smith’s digital garden
The modern web is beautiful. Rach Smith’s site is part of why.
Rebecca Owen
I don’t know Rebecca Owen, but I really like her site, and she’s got a now page, so she must be ok. 😄
Robb Knight
Robb Knight does beautiful web work. AND he’s a nice human being! But what really makes him stand out is his amazing App Defaults page.
Rosemary Orchard
If you’re into Apple platforms and automation, you’ve definitely heard of Rosemary Orchard. A tech wizard and creator of good ideas.
samwho What an amazing programming explainer blog! Sam has all kinds of interactive visualizations for clarifying programming concepts, and it’s delightful.
Sarah Rainsberger 🐦
Sarah Rainsberger is lead for the Astro docs project, and she’s also a super nice, super helpful, and super capable and organized human being. I sure hope the Astro people know how valuable she is to their mission.
Shankar UX
Shankar designs Gmail interactions. He’s also recently discovered the modern personal web, which I think is bigger than he realizes. I hope he makes the most of it.
SIRACUSA SAYS
A fun collection of things John Siracusa has said on podcasts.
Silvia Maggi - Designer
I only just found Silvia Maggi’s site, but as anyone can see by my site, I need all the help I can get with accessibility and usability, so her site looks like a great resource.
Stephanie Eckles – Front-End SWE, Author, Speaker
Stephanie Eckles is kind of amazing. She does a ton for CSS, web development, and positive encouragement and inclusivity through her writing and her videos. I think she’s pretty well known and respected in the CSS world.
Taggart Tech
A tech blog with a delightfully retro design.
TechDistortion
John Chidgey is an engineer first and foremost, and a podcaster and writer additionally. That’s not to downplay those works – they’re excellent. It’s just to emphasize how based in analysis his work is.
…tiff is typing
Tiffany White writes, does web development, has a cat, and is clearly a good person, but more than that, she’s someone I can become a better person by listening to and learning from.
unixsheikh.com
Unix, linux, open source.
Vic Hudson
I’m really just putting this here to put pressure on Vic to modernize his site and start blogging about his gourmet adventures. Update – it’s never happening
Waxy.org - Andy Baio lives here
I think a lot of people know of Andy Baio, but I’ll admit I wasn’t reading his blog until recently.
Wild Thoughts
This is another one where the design immediately hooked me. Sara’s site has it in spades. Beautiful!
Books
- Coders by Clive Thompson | PenguinRandomHouse.com
- Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government, Saving Privacy in the Digital Age — Steven Levy
- Five Books - The Best Books Recommended by Experts
- Hacks, Leaks, and Revelations: The Art of Analyzing Hacked and Leaked Data by Micah Lee
- Image Performance, A Book Apart
- Personal Days – Ed Park
- Powell’s Books | The World’s Largest Independent Bookstore
- Reamde – Neal Stephenson | Atlantic Books
- Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson | PenguinRandomHouse.com
Coffee
- Backporch Coffee Roasters
- Caffe Vita Roasting Co. – Caffe Vita Coffee Roasting Co.
- Café Mam – Organic Fair Trade Shade-Grown Coffee
- Coava Coffee Roasters - Coffee Roaster, Subscriptions, Shop
- Dapper & Wise Coffee Roasters
- Middle Fork Roasters
- Space Cadet – Atomic Coffee Roasters
- Tony’s Coffee - Roast Magazine’s 2021 Coffee Roaster of the Year
- Trade Coffee
- TRAILHEAD COFFEE ROASTERS
- Trailhead Esmeralda
- Water Avenue Coffee
Command Line, Linux, Unix
- Awk - A Tutorial and Introduction - by Bruce Barnett
- 11 Ways to Check Linux/Unix Operating System Uptime - Adamsdesk
- An Awk Primer - Wikibooks, open books for an open world
- An Introduction to Uncomplicated Firewall (UFW) - Linux.com
- Bash printf syntax examples - Linux Tutorials - Learn Linux Configuration
- GREP
- Minimal Debian Install on a Headless pi | Notes and Ramblings
- linux - How to find out who/what caused a reboot/shutdown? - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange
- Regular-Expressions.info - Regex Tutorial, Examples and Reference - Regexp Patterns
- sed & awk
- sed
- The Complete Guide to Cron and Launchd on macOS/Linux | by Shinichi Okada | Towards Data Science
- theunixschool.com/p/awk-sed.html
- tildeverse
- Understanding PAM - Linux.com
Cool Sites Archive
- Accessibility Developer Guide
- Byte Cellar - The Vintage Computing Weblog
- CSS Zen Garden
- Lene Saile, developer and designer living in Madrid
- Okay, Color Spaces
- OPML to Blogroll
- LMNT
- Mac problem-solving – The Eclectic Light Company
- omg.lol - A lovable web page and email address, just for you
- PDX Food Weeks
- RsS iS dEaD LOL
- samwho
- VKC.sh | Veronica Explains – Veronica explains even more
- The Yesterweb - Reclaiming the Internet
FOOD
- BroderPDX | Valkommen
- BUBBLE N TEA | Best Bubble Tea Cafe in Beaverton Portland | Beaverton, OR, USA
- LOVELY’S FIFTY FIFTY
- Salt & Straw | Craft Made, Curiously Delicious Ice Cream
- Syun Izakaya
- Toki Restaurant
- Tanaka
Japan & Japanese Language
- GaijinPot - Work, Study, Travel in Japan
- Japanese Talk Don’t just study Japanese, use it!
- News On Japan
- Nippon.com | Your Doorway to Japan
- Savvy Tokyo - The Essential Guide for International Women and Families in Tokyo
- Spoon & Tamago | japanese art, design and culture
- Tokyo Cheapo | The Ultimate Guide To Tokyo
- WaniKani / Dashboard
Keyboards
- Customizing the Keychron Q1 with QMK Configurator and Toolbox - YouTube
- Keychron | Wireless Mechanical Keyboards for Mac, Windows and Android
- Keychron Q1 User Manual – Keychron | Mechanical Keyboards for Mac, Windows and Android
- QMK Configurator
- So you’ve decided to get into mechanical keyboards - localghost
- qmk/qmk_configurator: The QMK Configurator
- qmk/qmk_toolbox: A Toolbox companion for QMK Firmware
Mac
- Acorn 7 | Full Featured Photo Editor for the Mac
- Adrian Nier - Color Doggy – Your loyal color helper
- Announcing Callsheet — Liss is More
- Anybox – Bookmarking App for Mac & iPhone
- Apple Mac Upgrades - RAM, SSD Flash, External Drives and More
- Bear
- Blog Series: #1 ChatGPT + BetterTouchTool = ❤️
- Color Schemes | BBEdit Extras
- Drafts | Where Text Starts
- Eternal Storms Software - ScreenFloat. Power up your Screenshots
- Fastmarks for macOS – retina studio
- FoodNoms Nutrition Tracker | Simple, Privacy-Friendly MyFitnessPal Alternative
- Git Diff and Merge Tool and Text Comparison | Kaleidoscope
- GoodLinks — Save. Read. Anywhere.
- Hazel – Noodlesoft – Noodlesoft – Simply Useful Software
- Hookmark – Links beat searching
- Hush | AI-powered tools for dialogue repair
- Hypercritical: Front and Center
- Ivory for Mac
- The low-tech guys
- Lunar - The defacto app for controlling monitor brightness
- Mac Open Web, by Brian Warren
- 🎙️ MacWhisper
- Marcos Tanaka, Apple Developer
- MindMac — Elegant and Fullfil ChatGPT Client for macOS
- NetNewsWire: Free and Open Source RSS Reader for Mac and iOS
- Objective-See Foundation
- Password Manager for Families, Enterprise & Business | 1Password
- Retrobatch 2, from Flying Meat
- Rogue Amoeba | Audio Hijack: Record Any Audio on MacOS
- Rogue Amoeba | Farrago: Robust, rapid-fire soundboards
- Rogue Amoeba | Fission: Fast & Lossless Audio Editing
- Rogue Amoeba | Loopback: Cable-Free Audio Routing
- Rogue Amoeba | Quality Audio Software for MacOS
- Rogue Amoeba | SoundSource: A Superior Sound Control
- Secure ShellFish – SSH Client for iOS and Mac
- Shottr – Screenshot Annotation App For Mac
- TextBuddy – retina studio
- Transmit 5
- Warp: Your terminal, reimagined
- Welcome to Bunch - Bunch.app
- Whisky - Run Modern Windows Games on macOS
- xScope • Measure. Inspect. Test.
Newsletters
- Ad Astra – Swapna Krishna
- AI Snake Oil
- Brilliantcrank
- Citation Needed by Molly White
- Once Upon A Time — Stories — Matt Gemmell
- Plura-list by Cory Doctorow – Info Page
- Roden Mailing List Signup – Craig Mod
- SwiftLee Weekly (read by 17k+ Swift & SwiftUI Developers)
- SwiftUI Weekly
- this week in security
- Today in Librarian Tabs by Jessamyn West
Podcasts
- Accidental Tech Podcast
- Blurring the Lines Podcast
- Causality
- Friends with Brews
- Hemispheric Views Podcast
- How to Fix the Internet: Podcast | Electronic Frontier Foundation
- The Incomparable - Smart, funny pop culture podcasts
- Judge John Hodgman | Podcasts | Maximum Fun
- Longform Podcast
- Pragmatic
- Really Specific Stories
- Rebuild - Podcast by Tatsuhiko Miyagawa
- Tofugu Podcast
- Upgrade - Relay FM
- The Weekly Planet
Raycast
RSS & Reading Tools
Web Dev
- Be the browser’s mentor, not its micromanager. - Build Excellent Websites
- Ben Evans - UX/UI Designer - Front-end Developer - Illustrator - CSS Artist
- CSS { In Real Life }
- CSS Generators — Smashing Magazine
- CSS-Tricks - Tips, Tricks, and Techniques on using Cascading Style Sheets.
- CSS Zen Garden: The Beauty of CSS Design
- Fluid Responsive Design | Utopia
- Frontend Horse | Creative Web Development
- Home | hidde.blog
- IndieWeb
- JSON Crack | More Than a JSON Editor
- Kevin Powell | CSS Evangelist
- Modern CSS Solutions
- Modern Font Stacks
- Okay, Color Spaces — ericportis.com
- porkbun.com | An oddly satisfying experience.
- Responsively App - A web developer’s browser
- Responsive Images on the Apple Watch — ericportis.com
- SmolCSS
- Syntax - CSS: Cascading Style Sheets | MDN
- Textpattern CMS | Open source content management system
- tiny-helpers.dev