2026-04-14 18:16:34
"The Big Chill" by Various
What is your favorite soundtrack? - The Big Chill (1983)
01 - 0:00 - I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Marvin Gaye 02 - 05:02 - My Girl - The Temptations 03 - 08:02 - Good Lovin' - The Rascals 04 - 10:32 - The Tracks Of My Tears - Smokey Robinson and The Miracles 05 - 13:29 - Joy To The World - Three Dog Night 06 - 17:06 - Ain’t Too Proud To Beg - The Temptations 07 - 19:39 - Natural Woman - Aretha Franklin 08 - 22:48 - I Second That Emotion - Smokey Robinson And The Miracles 09 - 25:36 - A Whiter Shade Of Pale - Procol Harum 10 - 29:39 - Tell Him - The Exciters 11 - 32:11 - Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival 12 - 34:33 - When A Man Loves A Woman - Percy Sledge 13 - 37:31 - In The Midnight Hour - The Rascals 14 - 41:33 - Gimme Some Lovin’ - The Spencer Davis Group 15 - 44:32 - The Weight - The Band 16 - 49:07 - Wouldn’t It Be Nice - The Beach Boys 17 - 51:31 - Strangers In The Night - Bert Kaempfert 18 - 54:53 - You Can’t Always Get What You Want - Church Version 19 - 56:17 - J.T. Lancer Theme - Theme 20 - 57:47 - It’s the Same Old Song - Four Tops 21 - 01:00:34 - Dancing in the Street - Martha and The Vandellas 22 - 01:03:15 - What’s Going On - Marvin Gaye 23 - 01:07:09 - Too Many Fish in the Sea - The Marvelettes 24 - 01:09:40 - Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing - Marvin Gaye & Tammy Terrell 25 - 01:11:57 - What Becomes of the Brokenhearted - Jimmy Ruffin 26 - 01:14:58 - Shotgun - Jr. Walker & The All Stars 27 - 01:17:42 - Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While) - The Isley Brothers 28 - 01:20:22 - Ask Any Girl - The Supremes 29 - 01:23:09 - You Don’t Own Me - Lesley Gore 30 - 01:25:42 - Like to Get to Know You - Spanky & Our Gang 31 - 01:29:00 - Monday, Monday - The Mamas & the Papas 32 - 01:32:28 - Nights in White Satin - The Moody Blues 33 - 01:40:01 - Feelin’ Alright - Joe Cocker 34 - 01:44:15 - Game of Love - Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders 35 - 01:46:23 - I Got You (I Feel Good) - James Brown 36 - 01:49:13 - (We Ain’t Got) Nothin’ Yet - The Blues Magoos 37 - 01:51:32 - Time of the Season - The Zombies 38 - 01:55:06 - Get It While You Can - Howard Tate
2026-04-14 09:06:50
For years I assumed GitHub was only useful if you were a developer.
Turns out it's actually one of the best tools I've found for managing text-heavy Mac workflows.
I now use Git repositories to version and back up things like:
No coding required.
I recently switched from GitHub Desktop to Tower, which exposes a lot more of Git's capabilities without forcing you into the command line.
If you're a Mac power user managing large folders of Markdown, scripts, or automation configs, Git is basically Time Machine for specific folders — and Tower makes it easy to use.
If you work with text-heavy workflows on macOS — Markdown notes, scripts, automation configs, or documentation — Git gives you something Time Machine doesn’t:
• version history for individual files
• the ability to roll back one specific edit
• an off-site backup of critical working folders
• synchronization between multiple Macs
For people managing large Obsidian vaults, automation libraries, or documentation projects, that combination becomes extremely useful.
Here's a quick translation of common Git terminology:
A folder tracked by Git that contains files and their complete change history.
A saved snapshot of the repository at a specific moment, along with a message describing the change.
The chronological record of all commits.
A parallel line of development that lets you experiment without affecting the main version.
Combining changes from one branch into another.
A copy of the repository stored somewhere else; typically GitHub.
Send your local commits to the remote repository.
Fetch changes from the remote repository and integrate them into your local copy.
Download a complete copy of a repository, including its history.
A comparison showing exactly what changed between two versions of a file.
Tower provides a graphical interface for Git repositories and remote services such as GitHub. Instead of memorizing commands, you interact with commits, branches, and history visually.
For developers this manages source code. For everyone else it manages collections of important files.
Git tracks the complete history of a folder. Every time you make a commit, Git records a snapshot of the repository. Tower simply exposes that system visually. Instead of typing commands like:
git add
git commit
git push
Tower gives you:
• checkboxes to stage files
• a commit message box
• push / pull buttons
• a visual timeline of changes
The idea is so simple it's easy to miss how powerful it is.
Every commit becomes a permanent historical snapshot.
For writers, note-takers, and automation nerds, Git effectively becomes Time Machine for specific folders; but with far more precision. Instead of restoring an entire folder, you can restore a single edit inside a single file. That capability becomes extremely valuable once your knowledge base grows large.
I regularly use Tower to manage:
Using Tower with GitHub adds a few major benefits:
Tower includes a visual interface for rebasing, which allows you to reorganize commit history. The GUI makes operations that are intimidating on the command line much easier:
Suppose you're halfway through editing files but need to switch branches. You don't want to commit unfinished work. Stashing temporarily saves those changes so you can switch contexts and return later.
I'll admit I tend to use more computers than I should. That occasionally creates conflicts. When multiple versions of a file diverge, Git produces a merge conflict. Tower provides a visual interface for resolving these conflicts instead of forcing you to edit raw conflict markers. For non-developers, this feature alone removes a lot of confusion.
You can realistically start using Tower on macOS in about five minutes.
Pick a folder; your Obsidian vault is a good candidate. Initialize it as a Git repository in Tower.
Tower will show all files in the folder. Select them and create the first commit.
Create a repository on GitHub and link it to your local repository. Push the files.
Open Tower; review the files that changed; write a short commit message; push to GitHub.
That's really all most non-developers need.
Tower Website
Privacy Policy
https://www.git-tower.com/legal/privacy-policy
Price
$5.75/month billed annually
2026-04-13 17:12:20
"Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake
Which artist did you discover thanks to a music video? - Here I Go Again by Whitesnake
I was just a mild fan of hair metal bands, but being male and alive in the 80s meant I was definitely a Tawny Kitaen fan. This, I think, is the most iconic of all the videos she appeared in.
2026-04-12 18:42:25
"Burning Down the House" by Talking Heads
**What would you put on for a long brisk walk? - Burning Down the House by Talking Heads"
I'm not usually grossly judgmental, but, if you don't like this one, there is something the matter with you. Seriously. It's an instant mood lifting anthem for me and is has been for decades. Energizing.
2026-04-11 16:37:49
"Love At the Five and Dime" by Nanci Griffith
Which song makes you emotional? Why? - Love at the Five and Dime by Nanci Griffith
I miss Nanci Griffith so much. I think she was one of the best song writers of the last half century. Her soft Texas twang, her wit, her intuitive choice of songs to perform are all things that endeared her to me. The first time I played Love at the Five and Dime for my wife, it brought me to tears. The song is a love story, so well written, so believable. Playing it for the love of my own life was an unforgettable moment.
2026-04-11 09:25:20
Developers keep finding interesting ways to make our existing tech more useful. Sometimes that means refining how we interact with tools we already rely on. Other times it means applying software to problems that don’t obviously look like “tech problems.”
Here are three apps that take a slightly unconventional approach.
What problem this solves - Contributing effectively in meetings when conversations move faster than your ability to respond.
Xspeak is not a generic Whisper front end. It supports multiple on-device speech recognition models, and the entire design emphasizes privacy. If you prefer, you can also connect it to OpenAI-compatible cloud models.
The interesting part is what happens after transcription. XSpeak produces diarized transcripts and identifies questions that may require a response. With some setup and training, its on-device AI can suggest responses and strategies in real time during a meeting.
The system improves over time. Once you identify a speaker, XSpeak can recognize that voice in future meetings and remember their role in the conversation.
By default, it stores past meetings locally so you can reference them later. The app can generate summaries, insights, and suggested follow-ups. During a live meeting it also allows custom queries to the AI for additional context or analysis.
Highlights
Developer Website
https://xspeak.app
Privacy Policy
No data collection; processing and storage can remain fully on-device.
Pricing
$3.99/mo · $19.99/year · $49 lifetime
What problem this solves: Quickly comparing how different news outlets frame the same story.
I’ve followed news closely since I was a kid. Over the last decade, the media landscape has shifted in ways that make it harder to quickly evaluate what’s reliable and what’s not.
Drooid tries to address that problem by presenting the same story through multiple outlets and highlighting differences in framing and bias.
I initially assumed it would take a simplistic “both sides are the same” approach. That’s not what it does. Instead, it analyzes historical editorial patterns and presents coverage alongside contextual explanations of each source’s tendencies.
It’s also a capable news reader. You can follow topics, read summaries, jump to original reporting, and save stories for later.
How Drooid Works
What You Can Do
Drooid runs on Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
Instead of relying on a social media algorithm to decide what you see, Drooid gives you a structured way to compare coverage directly.
Developer Website
https://drooid.social
Privacy Policy
Collects some data but does not link it to your identity.
Pricing
$3.99/mo · $29.99/year
What problem this solves: Running multiple independent instances of the same app without separate macOS accounts.
For years I used separate macOS accounts when I needed to run the same app with different configurations. Parall removes that requirement.
It creates configurable shortcuts that launch separate instances of supported apps, each with its own configuration and data environment.
Parall already supports many common third-party apps and can download compatibility profiles for apps it hasn’t explicitly tested yet. That approach lets the ecosystem expand without waiting for a full app update.
The original application isn’t modified. Parall simply launches isolated instances with different parameters. If you stop using the shortcuts, the original app behaves exactly as it always did.
Key Features
There are limits. Some apps cannot be isolated this way. Also, macOS security prompts appear frequently during setup, so expect to click through quite a few dialogs.
This is not a beginner utility. If you are comfortable with launch arguments and environment variables, it makes immediate sense. If not, you can still use it; the learning curve is just a bit steeper.
Parall is one of those niche utilities that becomes surprisingly useful once you start using it. Separate Dock icons for different contexts; clean separation between work and personal accounts; isolated project environments; all without duplicate installs or brittle automation.
Developer Website
https://parall.app
Privacy Policy
Fully sandboxed macOS app. Operates locally by default and does not send network requests or collect personal data.
Price
$9.99 on the Mac App Store
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/parall/id6754065114?mt=12
These are not generic productivity apps. Each one targets a specific workflow:
None of these tools will appeal to everyone. But if the specific problem they solve matches your workflow, they are unusually thoughtful implementations.
