Amerpie by Lou Plummer

Automation I’ve become quite fond of Consul, a relatively new file conversion utility that’s both simple to use and easy to automate. The concept is almost absurdly straightforward: change the file extension to the format you want and the conversion just happens. You might think you’ll never really need to convert files from one format to another. In practice, that assumption tends to collapse sooner or later. A few situations I’ve run into over the years: Switching ...

"Street Survivors" by Lynyrd Skynyrd Post a cover that's done in a different style than the original version. The original cover of Street Survivors by Lynyrd Skynyrd showed the band standing in a street surrounded by flames. It was released October 17, 1977. Three days later, the band's chartered plane crashed in Mississippi, killing Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and Cassie Gaines, along with crew members. Because the artwork showed the band engulfed in fire, the image suddenly felt disturb...

"People Get Ready" by Eva Cassidy Share a track that has one of your favorite vocal performances of all-time. If I had a time machine, I would ride it straight to this bar on this night to watch the late, great Eva Cassidy perform her signature song. Gone much, much too soon. Rest In Power, Eva. View Lou Plummer's Crucial Tracks profile

Some small utilities become so embedded in my workflow that they start to feel like part of macOS itself. When I sit down at someone else’s Mac or a freshly set-up machine and they aren’t there, it genuinely throws me off. I’m curious what apps fall into that category for you. Shareful One of those apps for me is Shareful by Sindre Sorhus. The Mac share menu has always felt like an afterthought compared to iOS. Many developers don’t bother implementing it, and Apple keeps it oddly li...

"Bad" by Michael Jackson Listen on Apple Music Your browser does not support the audio element. What song makes you feel braggadocious As it turns out, MJ may have been a bit weird, but he wasn't a predator, so it's once again OK to listen to his music. I'm not usually a pop fan, but 80's era stuff brings back the feels from my high school years and early 20s. View Lou Plummer's Crucial Tracks profile

Resurf Resurf is a clever new app, currently in beta, with a lot of potential. This is one of those “I needed an app to do X, so I built one” projects; the difference is that it was built by a design engineer who clearly understands macOS conventions. The result feels native and thoughtfully put together. Using it brought back a few workflow habits I haven’t used since the days when Evernote was king. The entry point into Resurf is a floating capture widget that you t...

Octarine I’ve been hearing about Octarine for a while. It’s one of those apps that people whose opinions I respect talk about with a certain level of admiration. After testing it as thoroughly as I’ve tested any app in a long time, I understand why. Octarine is a tool for creating, editing, and organizing text-based information using connected but independent documents: Markdown files. Without relying on plugins, it supports images, video, PDFs, and files created by o...

"Hungry Heart" by Bruce Springsteen Share the first song you ever heard from your favorite artist. I'd been peripherally aware of Springsteen as pre-teen. My parents subscribed to Time Magazine and I remember when he was on the cover in '75, but it wasn't until I was 14 when Hungry Heart was being played on the radio constantly that I became a fan. My old man HATED the song because of the whole leaving the wife and kids in Baltimore thing. I loved it. I had a hungry heart then and I have one...