The Monday Brief (MacSparky Labs)

I hope everyone had an excellent weekend. The weather is really nice here in the Southern California right now so I spent a lot of my weekend split between working in the garden and spending time with my kids. It was a great way to recharge, which is good because this week I’m digging in on Field Guides and really putting Endor Studios to use…

This is a post for MacSparky Labs Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?

Mac Power Users 664: macOS Ventura & iPadOS 16

Apple has shipped significant updates to its operating systems, so this week on Mac Power Users, Stephen and I explore the features each brings to the table, getting deep into macOS Ventura and iPadOS 16.1.

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Make an Impression with Hoban Cards (Sponsor)

Do you want to make an impression on every colleague you meet? You can do that with a thoughtful calling card. I’m not talking about the junk that gets “printed” at the office supply store or the things that come off your printer. I’m talking about classy, tastefully designed, letterpress cards from Hoban.

Your calling card represents you. Why not bring some intentionality to your game? This week, MacSparky is sponsored by Hoban Cards, where they use a 1902 letterpress machine to make cards that your colleagues, clients, and customers will never forget. I sure love mine.

Evan and the gang at Hoban Cards are masters at the craft of designing and making letterpress calling cards. They have some beautiful templates to choose from, or you can roll your own.

I love handing out letterpress cards. It is always a conversation starter. Hoban Cards is where I go to buy them, and it is where you should too. Throw out those ugly, conventional, mass-produced, soulless business cards and reach out to Hoban Cards. Best of all, use ‘MacSparky’ to get $10 off any order. Get yours today.

BBEdit 14.6

BBEdit 14.6 is now out. This update introduces quick Dock access to its Notes feature and additional controls for text display, usability enhancements to its built-in file transfer client, and completely reworked text rendering in its legendary editing engine. Font ligatures have returned. They’ve improved other performance features and Unicode compatibility. Other additions include:

  • “Add Bookmark” and “Manage Bookmarks” commands in the new FTP/SFTP connection panel, which will allow you to perform those operations before connecting if you want.
  • “Show Notes” to the Dock menu, which will open the Notes window.
  • Settings to the “Editing” preferences to specify alternative characters for Show Invisibles, for tabs and for line breaks when “Show Invisibles” is in use.

There’s a lot to like in BBEdit. Most impressive though is how they continue to add innovative features even after all these years.

I Didn’t Know We Couldn’t Do It, So We Did It

I was watching one of my favorite YouTube woodworkers, Paul Sellers, recently and he explained how his son wanted a cello, so the two of them built one together. Later, after he had finished it, he was told it was one of the hardest instruments to build. He laughed and explained: “I didn’t know we couldn’t do it, so we did it.” (~23 minute mark of the below video.)

What if someone told Paul and his son at the beginning of the process that they couldn’t build a cello?
All this got me thinking of all the times people told me I couldn’t do something and the sad number of times I took them for their word. How many great works of art don’t exist because one human told another human that she “couldn’t do it.”

Sometimes ignorance is not only bliss, it’s enabling.

The Steve Jobs Archive

Last month Bob Iger (the former Disney CEO) wrote a heartfelt tweet about Steve Jobs and The Steve Jobs Archive.

There isn’t much to the Steve Jobs Archive at this point, but what is there is inspiring.

It is too easy to deify people like Steve Jobs. In doing so, you are doing them a disservice. Steve, like the rest of us, was a flawed human and yet did some amazing things. Indeed, his flaws are much more well-cataloged and known because of his success than they are for the rest of us.

The public narrative of Steve Jobs is that he was a self-obsessed jerk. And yet … I’ve got several friends that worked with him at Apple, and they only talk about him with love and respect. 

No matter what you think, there is some practical wisdom at the Steve Jobs Archive. I’m curious to see what they do next. Bob Iger implied there is more to come.