2025-03-04 13:08:00
A weekly list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.
1️⃣ @tinyblocks_ on Threads put together a clever iPhone setup that uses Shortcuts in the Dock to swap focus modes tied to specific Home Screens. Rather than launching actions, they bring you to a dedicated dashboard of sorts. [🧵 threads.net]
2️⃣ @robexplosm imagines a truly evil use of the Severance technology. [🧵 threads.net]
3️⃣ Merlin Mann encourages us to notice the good stuff. [🔗 merlin.ghost.io]
4️⃣ Google’s insistence on a privacy policy for an app that collects no user data, unlike Google itself, led to this gem of a webpage. [🔗 jwz.org] (Via Matt Fantinel)
5️⃣ Gina Trapani’s ‘My Life in Weeks’ is so cool and very similar to a Timeline project I’ve had in mind. [🔗 weeks.ginatrapani.org] (Also via Matt Fantinel)
6️⃣ Birchtree, one of my favorite blogs, by Matt Birchler has a fresh redesign. It’s much more web-app-y, which I’m not sold on, but certainly provides more utility. I generally read everything via RSS anyway, and clicking through to the post on the site is still a good, clean reading experience. It’s a good site, check it out! [🔗 birchtree.me]
7️⃣ Vsauce on YouTube built a nifty machine that helps show off words that are palindromes (same word when spelled backwards and forwards) and emordnilaps (different words when spelled forwards and backwards). [▶️ youtube.com]
Thanks for reading 7 Things. If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know. And remember that you can get more links to internet nuggets that I’m finding every day by following me @jarrod on the social web.
HeyDingus is a blog by Jarrod Blundy about technology, the great outdoors, and other musings. If you like what you see — the blog posts, shortcuts, wallpapers, scripts, or anything — please consider leaving a tip, checking out my store, or just sharing my work. Your support is much appreciated!
I’m always happy to hear from you on social, or by good ol' email.
2025-02-26 09:04:00
It’s a Studio Neat product, so it’s no wonder that this little auto-retract utility blade is so svelte, so handy, so handsome, and so unassuming. I tried cheap, similar solutions while waiting for my Kickstarter’ed Keen to ship and they’re clumsy and bad. Keen rocks and is very good!
I leave it magnetically attached to my fridge, ready for opening boxes, bags, and envelopes. Now I’m never digging around to find a box opener.
Do I love the price ($95)? No, of course not. But I do smile every time I use it, and I don’t regret making the purchase!
HeyDingus is a blog by Jarrod Blundy about technology, the great outdoors, and other musings. If you like what you see — the blog posts, shortcuts, wallpapers, scripts, or anything — please consider leaving a tip, checking out my store, or just sharing my work. Your support is much appreciated!
I’m always happy to hear from you on social, or by good ol' email.
2025-02-25 09:37:00
A weekly list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.
1️⃣ This retro M4 Mac Mini design from ColorWare looks hella good. [🔗 9to5mac.com]
2️⃣ Here’s a Steve Jobs interview that I hadn’t seen before in which he predicts modern streaming services, reiterates Apple’s commitment to building the best products and making a profit only to serve that key goal, and proposes a fascinating idea of everyone donating their extra WiFi bandwidth to create a faster/stronger nationwide wireless service. What a visionary and compelling communicator he was. [▶️ youtube.com] (Via Numeric Citizen)
3️⃣ Matt Birchler’s not the only one who gets satisfaction from seeing computers work through complex tasks. 🙋♂️ [🔗 birchtree.me]
4️⃣ This trailer for Friendship with Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd looks like an SNL sketch, but no, it’ll be an A24 film! Wild! [▶️ youtube.com] (Via Matt Birchler)
5️⃣ Jason Kottke linked to an 8-hour remix of the Severance theme that I’m totally gonna save. There’s also a link to a Macrodata Refinement “game”. Scary numbers, indeed. [🔗 kottke.org]
6️⃣ Lou Plummer shared some thoughts on his cycling days of participating in races and exploring new places. [🔗 amerpie.lol]
7️⃣ This app will encourage you to use your phone less… by having you use your phone to verify an image of your hand literally touching grass. I love the whimsical idea, but it’s still a bit…hypocritical? Also, gonna be tricky to use for about a third of the year here in upstate New York. ❄️ [🔗 apps.apple.com] (Via Brendan Bigley)
Thanks for reading 7 Things. If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know. And remember that you can get more links to internet nuggets that I’m finding every day by following me @jarrod on the social web.
HeyDingus is a blog by Jarrod Blundy about technology, the great outdoors, and other musings. If you like what you see — the blog posts, shortcuts, wallpapers, scripts, or anything — please consider leaving a tip, checking out my store, or just sharing my work. Your support is much appreciated!
I’m always happy to hear from you on social, or by good ol' email.
2025-02-17 06:59:00
One of my most-used shortcuts, and the one that gets mentioned the most online, is my Generate Alt Text with OpenAI Vision shortcut. Earlier today I received a request to build in support for generating alt text for multiple images at once. It was already on my feature roadmap, and I knew it wouldn’t be hard to do, so I set to work and made it happen. Now if you share multiple images into the shortcut, it’ll generate them all as a block of text, each one separated by a blank line. Check!
But then as I readied the new version to update in the Shortcuts Library, I remembered that there was something else I’d been meaning to try. See, I’ve written a custom prompt for the LLM to follow to generate the alt text. It asks the AI to follow an object-action-context framework, keep the word count reasonable, be judicious about punctuation, and more. But someone (Matt Birchler? Chris Lawley?) mentioned recently that LLMs already have a good understanding of quality Alt Text and do a pretty fine even if you simply ask it to “generate alt text.” So duplicated the shortcut, simplified the prompt in one of them, and ran some tests.
I was impressed!
Here are the two prompts I used.
Simple prompt: Please create alt text for this image.
Complex prompt:
Please provide a functional, objective description of the provided image in no more than around 30 words so that someone who could not see it would be able to imagine it. If possible, follow an “object-action-context” framework. The object is the main focus. The action describes what’s happening, usually what the object is doing. The context describes the surrounding environment.
If there is text found in the image, do your best to transcribe the important bits, even if it extends the word count beyond 30 words. It should not contain quotation marks, as those tend to cause issues when rendered on the web.
If there is no text found in the image, then there is no need to mention it.
You should not begin the description with any variation of “The image”.
Simple: Three people are standing in deep snow at night in front of the Adirondack Mountain Club Cascade Welcome Center sign. They are dressed in winter gear and appear to be engaging in a winter activity. Two people are standing with ski poles, and one is sitting with ski equipment. The scene is illuminated by artificial light, with snow falling around them.
Complex: Three people smile, posing with ski gear amidst deep snow. Behind them, a sign reads Adirondack Mountain Club, Cascade Welcome Center, Cross Country Ski Trails & Shop. It’s nighttime, with snow falling.
Simple: A golden retriever lying in deep snow on a wooden deck. The dog is playfully chewing on a piece of wood, and snowflakes are gently falling around it. The deck is partially covered in snow, and there is a wooden railing and post visible in the background.
Complex: Dog chewing a stick, lying on thick snow, surrounded by a wooden porch and snowflakes falling gently.
Simple: Smartphone screen showing a reply message being composed with the text: “@Annie @Miraz Smart replies are so great!” The interface includes buttons for formatting text and sending the message. The top bar shows a clock icon indicating 2:53 and a snowflake symbol.
Complex: Phone screen displays a messaging app interface, typing a reply mentioning Annie and Miraz. Message says Smart replies are so great. Keyboard and send button at the bottom.
Simple: The image shows a sign titled “Ski the Face: A Whiteface Lake Placid Snowsports School” mounted on a wooden wall. The sign helps skiers identify their ability level, ranging from “1. I have never skied” to “9. I ski all terrain with confidence,” categorized as Easy, Intermediate, and Advanced. It also includes “Park Smart” guidelines such as “Start Small,” “Make a Plan,” “Always Look,” “Respect,” and “Take it Easy.” The sign features various icons related to skiing.
Complex: Signboard displays ski levels, safety tips at a snowsports school on a wooden wall. Text reads: Ski the Face, Whiteface Lake Placid, What is your ski ability level, and Park Smart guidelines.
Simple: Cover image and review of the movie “The Wild Robot” directed by Chris Sanders, set to release in 2024. The cover features a large, round robot with glowing blue eyes peeking through the branches of a tree. Below the image is the title “The Wild Robot.” The review describes the movie as “cute” and “enjoyable,” mentioning that it explores the predator/prey dynamic of wild animals without sugarcoating. The reviewer notes some effective emotional moments, though finds them predictable, and gives a moderate thumbs-up rating.
Complex: Robot with glowing eyes sits surrounded by trees. Text: The Wild Robot, 2024, Chris Sanders. Review mentions the predator/prey dynamic, heartwarming moments, and mixed expectations. Rating options include thumbs up and down.
Personally, I’m pretty happy with the results of the simplified prompt. It’s certainly more wordy — probably because it includes no word limit — but not overly so. It also seems to do a better job of pulling text out of images with a good mix of relevant quotes and summaries.
One thing that gives me pause is that uses more quotation marks within the description. I’ve sometimes had issues with that, particularly when inserting the alt text into raw HTML (not Markdown syntax). But I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt for now, and can always add specific instructions around punctuation back in if needed.
While I was rather proud of the custom prompt that I wrote and how it referenced a framework that I read from Alex Chen about writing good alt text, the idea of not having to maintain it is certainly appealing. I’m also optimistic that by being more generic with the prompt but specifically telling it that it’s for alt text, the results will improve over time as it better understands what “good” alt text should look like. And as those trends and methods change over time, my shortcut will adapt alongside them.
The new version (1.3) with the simplified prompt and bulk image support is live in the Shortcuts Library. Please let me know what you think about the output of the new prompt, if you experience any issues with it, or have suggestions about how I could improve it.
HeyDingus is a blog by Jarrod Blundy about technology, the great outdoors, and other musings. If you like what you see — the blog posts, shortcuts, wallpapers, scripts, or anything — please consider leaving a tip, checking out my store, or just sharing my work. Your support is much appreciated!
I’m always happy to hear from you on social, or by good ol' email.
2025-02-04 05:25:00
A weekly list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.
1️⃣ I might have found my next backpacking stove system in the MSR Switch! [▶️ youtube.com]
2️⃣ I really enjoyed this thread where prominent creators pass the “blame” of discovering and recommending a cool tech product which led to it getting back ordered. 🤣 [🦣 mastodon.social]
3️⃣ Sara Bareilles continues to impress with this powerful performance of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”. [▶️ youtube.com]
4️⃣ I can’t decide which is more impressive in this Wicked performance for NPR Tiny Desk: the absolute vocal control of the singers, or the effortlessly dancing fingers of the pianist. Both are astounding and captivating! [▶️ youtube.com]
5️⃣ @rafa showed off some really cool stuff he’s made with his 3D printer in this thread. I particularly like the custom magnetic weekly calendar for his kid. [🦣 mastodon.design]
6️⃣ Vidit Bhargava is doing some astounding work on ambient computers for his thesis. Check out these threads for jaw-dropping examples. [🦣 mastodon.social]
7️⃣ Tim Hardwick shared a handy tip about using Siri with ChatGPT to generate images with DALL•E. You can even refine them in the Siri interface. It’s like Image Playground with better results! [🔗 macrumors.com]
Thanks for reading 7 Things. If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know. And remember that you can get more links to internet nuggets that I’m finding every day by following me @jarrod on the social web.
HeyDingus is a blog by Jarrod Blundy about technology, the great outdoors, and other musings. If you like what you see — the blog posts, shortcuts, wallpapers, scripts, or anything — please consider leaving a tip, checking out my store, or just sharing my work. Your support is much appreciated!
I’m always happy to hear from you on social, or by good ol' email.
2025-01-31 04:19:00
I wanted to check out a mobile video editor to cut up some videos to share. So I searched the App Store, found one called Splice that looked pretty good, downloaded it, and got to work. Adding music was a Pro plan feature, so I needed to subscribe in order to finish the export. Pretty standard stuff so far.
The cheapest plan the app presented was $9.99 per week, or I could do $119.99 per year. Both options are too steep for my budget and benign use case, but luckily it had a weeklong free trial. I subscribed, and then before even exporting the video, I headed to the App Store’s subscriptions managment page to cancel the free trial. I do this for almost every subscription I sign up for because it allows you to continue to run out the current plan — including free trials! — but then it won’t auto-renew. I don’t want to forget to cancel if I don’t like an app. And if I do like it, I’ll just resubscribe.
That might be a handy tip on its own, but here’s the game changer: Make sure you hit the ‘See All Plans’ button on the subscription page.
In it, you’ll find every pricing option that the app offers. Sometimes it’s just the usual suspects like singular monthly, yearly, and lifetime prices. But sometimes there are way more choices there. In Splice’s case, there were dozens of weekly, monthly, and yearly options at price levels ranging from $3.99 per week to $199.99 per year! And guess what. You can choose to subscribe to any of the choices on that screen.
Why are all of plans here but not in the app? Because app developers have the ability to run different pricing schemes to A/B test them amongst their users. Thankfully, Apple recognizes that it’s inherently unfair that you might just get randomly placed into a group that’s only offered the higher prices. So, outside the app, in that subscription management page, you get to choose from any plan that’s currently being offered to any customers.
I exported my edited video to make sure that the app indeed worked as advertised, and when I was happy with the result, I went looking for a more affordable plan. About halfway down the screen, I found the cheapest yearly option, coming in at $10.99 per year. Just $1 more than the weekly option that I would have been relegated to had I not gone looking for something less expensive. Or, put another way, I just saved $508.49 (if paid weekly) or $109 (if paid yearly) off the in-app subscription plans.
And guess what, I’m still probably going to cancel that plan once it kicks in following the free trial so that I can reevaluate next February if I want to continue paying for a second year.
HeyDingus is a blog by Jarrod Blundy about technology, the great outdoors, and other musings. If you like what you see — the blog posts, shortcuts, wallpapers, scripts, or anything — please consider leaving a tip, checking out my store, or just sharing my work. Your support is much appreciated!
I’m always happy to hear from you on social, or by good ol' email.