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.

1. Lynx
2. Netscape Navigator
3. Internet Explorer
4. Firefox
5. Opera
6. Links
7. Vivaldi
8. 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.

1. It works more often than Windows or Linux based computers.
2. It is built to last, and it does.
3. It’s basically unix under the hood.
4. The user interface is consistent and looks pleasing to the eye.
5. 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.

1. It’s user friendly
2. It’s incredibly flexible.
3. It works like Spotlight, but with a lot more options.
4. 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. 🤙