Like any craftsman, I use many tools. Here are some that I use regularly.
Google Chrome
I’ve used these browsers in roughly this order. I definitely bounced around while trying different browsers on.
- Lynx
- Netscape Navigator
- Internet Explorer
- Firefox
- Opera
- Links
- Vivaldi
- Google Chrome
I use Google Chrome primarily because it’s stable. I can count on two hands how many times Google Chrome has crashed while using it. In every scenario, I recall it was caused by catastrophic events like disk failures.
I use a lot of extensions that make my life easier in Google Chrome.
Here they are.
- Joplin Web Clipper – Clipping articles I don’t want to lose if a website goes down.
- RSS Reader Extension (by Inoreader) – I ♥️ RSS. We need more Aaron Swartz and less Jeff Bezos.
- Bitwarden – Free Password Manager – I use Bitwarden for password management.
- Blank New Tab Page – I like seeing nothing before I start working. I know what I want to do, don’t try to tell me, Google.
- Adblock Plus – free ad blocker – Nobody owns my eyeballs.
- uBlock Origin – What’s better than one ad blocker? Two ad blockers.
- Anti Adblock Detector – I like wack-a-mole.
- Disable HTML5 Autoplay (Reloaded) – Auto playing videos were a bane of my existence.
- EditThisCookie – Cookie abuse.
- Disable Extensions Temporarily – I used this once, I recommend it if your extensions have gone haywire.
- Download table as CSV – Comes in handy from time to time.
- Don’t Fuck With Paste – Self explanatory.
- F.B.(FluffBusting)Purity – I hate Facebook, but I love friends.
- Enhanced Image Viewer – I wish people would stop putting garbage images on the Internet. ( Disabled )
- GoFullPage – Full Page Screen Capture – A picture is worth a thousand words.
- Honey – I wish everyone would stop trying to rip me off.
- Keepa – Amazon Price Tracker – No, I won’t pay three times more for fancy pool accessories during a pandemic.
- Make Medium Readable Again – I hate medium. It sometimes has valuable content locked up behind garbage, detritus, and self loathing.
- React Developer Tools – I see dead code.
- Incognito This Tab for Google Chrome™ – I like shortcuts.
- Personal Blocklist(not by Google) – I hate medium.
- Open Tabs Next to Current – Why isn’t this the default?
- Requestly: Redirect Url, Modify Headers etc – I like redirects & stuff.
- SEO Minion – I like clicks. Not the pointing device kind.
- Text Transform – More than meets the eye.
- Tab Modifier – I like sanity.
- Tab Suspender – I like CPU cycles.
- Copy as Markdown – I don’t like pointing device clicks & I like Markdown.
- Timestamper – I use dates often enough to warrant a time savings.
- Switchmarks – I like bookmark bars, but not ones filled with too many icons.
- DomListener – A lot of stuff happens to the DOM. This helps me solve DOM mysteries.
- Calm Twitter – I access Twitter for trends, and other purposes, but I don’t like AnXiEty.
- LinkOff – Ditto for LinkedIn
- ICS to GCal – Too many clicks for calendar tricks
Experimenting
- Bridgy – I’m working on joining the indy web.
macOS
I use macOS for my primary computing platform.
I use it for the following reasons.
- It works more often than Windows or Linux based computers.
- It is built to last, and it does.
- It’s basically unix under the hood.
- The user interface is consistent and looks pleasing to the eye.
- It’s simple and makes me productive.
Alfred
I use Alfred and shell scripts to automate repetitive tasks.
I used Automator for a while, but Alfred is superior.
I use it for the following reasons.
- It’s user friendly
- It’s incredibly flexible.
- It works like Spotlight, but with a lot more options.
- I don’t like like clicking a lot to get things done.
I hope you’ve found some of my tools useful and you have a great day. 🤙