Via MacSparky, Packal introduces Search OmniFocus, “a workflow that performs free text searches on OmniFocus 3 data.” It looks like you can navigate through your OmniFocus database via an Alfred workflow. Very cool.

Search OmniFocus

The Manual has a nice intro about Brazilian steakhouses, or churrascaria, including the history, experience, and some of the cuts you are likely to encounter (picanha, most notably). There are two in nearby Philadelphia, Fogo de Chão and Chima, that I’ve dined at and enjoyed. It’s a fun experience, a twist on classic menu dining. Newark’s Portuguese Ironbound neighborhood has a number of them as well. There’s usually a varied and sophisticated salad bar before dinner, at which you gorge to your peril: experienced carnivores save room for the parade of meats to follow. You have to try everything (except the chicken, usually), and then go back around for your favorites.

What To Know About Brazilian Barbecue, a Delicious Meat Marathon

Via Chris Hannah, Greg Morris on how to write:

While you are worrying about everyone else’s opinions on the correct way to do things, you’re not writing. While you’re casting aspersions on other people that do not do things what you consider is the correct way, you’re not writing either. There is enough room on the internet for everyone to publish, and not feel like they don’t fit. There is no way you should be writing, no perfect blogging for you to be doing, and no advise that needs giving.

Just write and publish however you want to. Sit in the chair and do it.

This is How You Write

The end of Donald Trumps reign of (Twitter) terror ends, predicitbly, with a review of his legacy. As one Facebook friend of mine said, “He did everything he said he was going to do.” That’s certainly not true, but one thing he did do was oversee the passage of a tax cut. He ran, curiously, on a populist platform, but how populist were the cuts, and what is their legacy?

Tax cuts are like pay cuts for the government. Tax is revenue; cutting them reduces revenue. Columbia’s Joseph Stiglitz, writing for the New York Times, notes that Trump’s tax cut led, or will lead, to deficits beyond a trillion dollars.

On the populist note, what’s maddening is the degree to which it’s a ruse. Trump’s not really a populist. He’s a rich guy who cares about himself. And his tax cut contains a swipe at those he pretended to be looking out for:

By 2027, when the law’s provisions are set to be fully enacted, with the stealth tax increases complete, the country will be neatly divided into two groups: Those making over $100,000 will on average get a tax cut. Those earning under $100,000 — an income bracket encompassing three-quarters of taxpayers — will not.

At the same time, Trump has given his peers, people with annual incomes in excess of $1 million dollars, or the top 0.3 percent in the country, a huge gift: The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated the average tax rate in 2019 for this group to be 2.3 percentage points lower than before the tax cut, saving the average taxpayer in this group over $64,000 — more than the average American family makes in a year.

The party has long been about the opposite of what it purports to stand for, and Trump’s populism was only a ruse to get himself elected.

Longtime Mac OS X users surely remember when you could minimize a window to the Dock with a nice slow-motion effect, showing off the graphics capability built into the OS. At some point, Apple too it out, but you can re-enable it (as you should), in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.dock slow-motion-allowed -bool true && killall Dock

How to enable slow genie effect in macOS 10.13 High Sierra?

I don’t know when Bare Bones added the option, but you can choose to use the Text Wrangler icon in BBEdit. Whimsy at its finest.

I have an unusual setup in that, while I am left handed, I mouse right handed. I suspect this is not terribly uncommon in left-handed users, since a number of circumstances conspire, both inside and outside of the computing world, to encourage (if not require) non-dominant hand use among us southpaws.

About 12 years ago, I developed some soreness while mousing in my left forearm and hand. Seeking a short-term fix, I switched to a right-handed setup, switching back only when playing a game. Over time, I grew to prefer right-handed mousing, a happy side effect of which was an increased number of third-party mice.

And then I moved to using a laptop full time, and, consequently, a trackpad. Most recently, I tried out a Magic Trackpad at the office, since I spend considerably more time at my desk due to the pandemic and school closures.

The Magic Trackpad is one part computer trackpad, one part iPad screen. The multitouch gestures that power iOS’s interface are largely available on the Mac, thanks to the Magic Trackpad. The standalone is larger than that on a MacBook of any size, and brings an almost iPad-like experience to using a desktop Mac.

I immediately placed the trackpad to the right of my keyboard, as it is a mouse replacement. Having used it for a couple of days, I realized it felt strange to me, more than I would have expected considering that I now mouse comfortably with my right hand.

I took to the iPad to see which hand I used to swipe and poke the screen. It’s mixed, but I largely use the right hand. With iPhone, it’s more 50/50. So the Magic Trackpad should feel at home with right-hand use… but it didn’t.

I then tried a trackpad on the iPad’s Magic Keyboard. And there it was: turns out I trackpad with my left hand. Somehow I had moved over from my left hand to my right hand in almost all of my interactions, but continued to use the trackpad with my left hand.

I’m still going to try getting used to the Magic Trackpad with my right hand. I like the challenge of making simple, rote tasks more challenging, like switching my clocks to military time.

In addition to today’s release of DEVONthink To Go 3.0, DEVONthink for macOS has been updated to version 3.6.2, which brings CloudKit sync. According to the developer, this means sync is twice as fast as legacy iCloud syncing, and faster than Dropbox, too.

Additionally: how to migrate your sync from legacy iCloud to CloudKit.

DEVONthink to Go version 3.0 for iPhone and iPad came out this morning.

DTG3 found my installed databases (un-creatively, “Home” and “Work”) and pulled in the data immediately. After some indexing, DTG3 was ready to go.

At first blush, there’s not much to see with DTG 3; the interface is broadly the same as DTG2. Long-pressing (and right-clicking on iPad) reveals a contextual or popover menu with move, replicate, duplicate, and other organization commands. Notable is the ability to convert to another format in the mobile app. Oh, and dark mode, too.

Other new goodies:

• on-device OCR
• star ratings
• plain-text annotations
• improved sync
• Support for Shortcuts

Purchase options include outright purchases (upgrade and new user single purchases) and subscriptions in monthly and annual modes if you are looking to try it out.

DEVONthink To Go 3.0

If you collect data into database inboxes and then file things later, DEVONthink’s Move To… keyboard shortcut saves you time:

1. Select the file (or files) you want to move
2. Press ontrol+command+m
3. Navigate (or better yet search) for the DEVONthink group destination for your data
4. Press Enter

Deck ‘Em is an iOS game that brings card-based strategy to boxing. It’s just a blast to play.

What’s more, you can play it on M1 machines.

Deck ‘Em

Game designer Reed Berkowitz compares QAnon to game design:

There is no reality here. No actual solution in the real world. Instead, this is a breadcrumb trail AWAY from reality. Away from actual solutions and towards a dangerous psychological rush. It works very well because when you “figure it out yourself” you own it. You experience the thrill of discovery, the excitement of the rabbit hole, the acceptance of a community that loves and respects you. Because you were convinced to “connect the dots yourself” you can see the absolute logic of it. This is the conclusion you arrived at.

Berkowitz notes that QAnon is propaganda that harnesses the power of super-ordinate goal completion through the use of clues. In well-designed games, players know they’re playing one. Anons, however, don’t. To them, it’s real.

A Game Designer’s Analysis Of QAnon

Connor Sheppard at The Manual lists his top 10 comedy films of all time:

Comedy is, after all, perhaps the most controversial category in film. Don’t believe me? Next time you’re at a party, let it be known throughout the gathering what you consider a good comedy movie or even just your favorite movie on Netflix. Then position your back against the wall (for safety) and prepare to endure an onslaught of aggressive protestation of your choice. People are protective of their brand of humor, man.

I can easily get behind National Lampoon’s Vacation. There are some exclusions that I would cite, notably:

• MASH
• Airplane!
• Young Frankenstein (or maybe Blazing Saddles)

The 10 Undisputed Best Comedy Movies of All Time