I’ve been having a weird sort of craving for reading more, so I did.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing – Matthew Perry

My cousin borrowed me his copy of this book, and what can I say, it hits hard – even harder, now that he’s passed on. Yet, Keanu Reeves… no, no, I’m not going to go there.
But speaking of which, what was Matthew Perry’s gripe with Keanu Reeves? He appears to be a decent guy?

Slow Productivity – Cal Newport

My productivity is already pretty slow, but I wanted to see if I could go even slower. Turns out: no, I’m already at the slowest pace possible.

But all joking aside, this book is about how progress in knowledge work cannot really be quantified, which resulted in managers adding all sorts of busywork to be able to quantify someone’s productivity: meetings, slack presence, emails, filing reports, etc.

Cal Newport proposes to take a step back and get back to the core work, with 3 simple steps:

  • Do fewer things
  • Work at a natural pace
  • Obsess over quality

Can’t argue with that.
Although most of the advice is targeted towards or more easily implemented by freelancers and indies who really have a say in their schedule, if nothing else, it does give a few good pointers and things to think about regarding your daily routine and how you schedule and go about your work.
My fiancée read it too – I’ve never seen her tab so many pages before.

Ask Iwata – Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun

Assorted reflections from Satoru Iwata. A quick read, driving home the point that good things will come if you worry more about the people in your company, than the company itself.
“Personally, I’m far more interested in what makes people happy than doing things the right way” sums up this book pretty well.

Creative Selection – Ken Kocienda

Written by the person who developed the original software keyboard for iPhone and iPad, this book gives possibly unique insight into how Apple develops their products.
What a thrill it must have been to give a demo to Steve Jobs and have him saying: “This animation… this is Apple”.
I really enjoyed it.

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ScreenFloat v2.2.2 is now available and fixes a couple of irritating bugs.

What is ScreenFloat?

ScreenFloat is your Screenshot All-Rounder.
Capture screenshots and recordings that float above other windows, allowing you to reference anything on your screen, anywhere. It’s like Picture-in-Picture, only for screen captures.
It keeps your Desktop clutter-free, as every capture you make is stored in its Shots Browser, where you can manage, organize and find your shots. They’re also synced across your Macs.
Easily copy the non-copyable, as ScreenFloat recognizes text, barcode and faces in your shots, which also allows you to effortlessly redact sensitive parts of your screenshots.
Add non-destructive annotations, redactions and markup, crop, “fold“, resize, or de-retinize your shots, or trim, cut or mute your recordings. Quickly pick colors.
Create shareable and embeddable links for your captures using iCloud, ImageKit.io or Cloudinary.com.
And so much more.

A screenshot is just a screenshot. Until you use ScreenFloat.

Tip: Check out the Get to Know ScreenFloat 2 Blog Post series for a deep-dive into its functionality and what it can do for you.

What’s New in ScreenFloat v2.2.2

  • Fixes a bug where sometimes recording the screen would fail
  • Fixes a bug that would cause all screenshots to be copied instead of displayed if the keyboard shortcut to trigger the screenshot contained the control modifier key
  • Fixes a bug where the video recording settings panel would not come up when re-capturing an area

Links and Availability

ScreenFloat is a one-time purchase, exclusively available on the Mac App Store for USD 15.99 / EUR 14,99 / GBP 15.99 , and a free update for existing customers.
A free, 28-day trial is available for download from the website.
It requires macOS 12 Monterey (macOS 14 Sonoma recommended for full functionality)
A (free) iCloud account is required if you want to sync your ScreenFloat library across your Macs.
ScreenFloat is currently localized in English, German, Chinese (Simplified), and Dutch.

ScreenFloat Website + Free Trial
ScreenFloat on the Mac App Store
Eternal Storms Software Productivity Bundle on the Mac App Store (includes ScreenFloat, Yoink for Mac and Transloader at ~25% off)

Get to Know ScreenFloat 2 Blog Post Series
ScreenFloat 2 Usage Tips

Contact & Connect

I hope you enjoy ScreenFloat (and my other apps) : )

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Something a little off topic from what I normally post here:
Every now and then, I stream gameplay on Twitch (link).

A couple of months ago, I played Jurassic Park (1993, MS-DOS), and got stuck on level 2. It stuck with me, so I covered a popular song and made a no-expenses-spared, highest-production-quality music video out of it. It first aired on my stream, and it’s now finally up on my YouTube channel as well, so here goes:

I hope you like it 🙂

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With Tameno, you set auto-repeating, “tapping” timers – the perfect companion for repetitive tasks.
It’s available for your Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV as a universal binary – always ready, wherever you might need it.

Set up an interval between 2 seconds and 20 minutes, and Tameno lets you know each time it elapses (by tapping you, by sound, or by screen flashing), and then re-sets itself to alert you again.

Posts in this Series

Part IHello, Tameno
Part IITameno on Your Apple Watch
Part IIITameno on Your iPhone and iPad
Part IVTameno on Your Mac
Part VTameno on Your Apple TV

Part V – Tameno on Your Apple TV

Tameno on your Apple TV can help you doing stretches, mediate, practice yoga, and more.
Let’s take a look at how it works.

Table of Contents
Starting Your First Interval

Starting your first interval is as easy as launching the app and selecting Start Tapping.

Note: You can also use the play/pause button on your Apple TV’s remote to start and stop Tameno.

Changing the Interval

Use the + and – buttons at the sides to increase and decrease your interval.
Use single clicks on your remote to change it by seconds, click-and-hold to change it by minutes.

Accessing Recently Used Intervals

At the top left, select the back-in-time button to access your recently used intervals.

Settings

At the top right, select the gear button to access Tameno’s settings.

Count to Zero

When enabled, instead of counting a 5 second interval down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (etc), Tameno counts it down as 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 (etc).

Recycling the Watch video here, but it demonstrates the purpose nicely, and looks just as nice on your Mac.
Audio Feedback

If selected, Tameno plays a “Tick” sound every time your interval elapses.

Visual Feedback

Flashes your screen in the color of your choice with every elapsing interval.
For a video of this, please see “Starting Your First Interval“.

That’s a Wrap

That’s all there is to Tameno. It’s a simple app that lets you use auto-repeating timers so you don’t have to count down in your head anymore, freeing your mind for more important things. I hope you like it!

Links and Availability

Tameno is a universal one-time purchase on the App Stores, so a single purchase allows you to use the app on your Apple Watches, iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple TVs.
It costs USD 3.99 / EUR 3,99 / GBP 3.99 and is available in English and German. It requires watchOS 9.4, iOS 16.6, iPadOS 16.6, macOS 13.5, and tvOS 16.6.
Complications and Widgets on Apple Watch require watchOS 10. The interactive widget requires macOS 14 and iOS 17.

If you have any feedback, questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me – I’d love to hear from you.

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