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

Hector Simpson took the classic wallpaper from Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and created dynamic wallpaper for your modern Mac.

Ultra high-resolution wallpapers, inspired by an OS X classic — available in several wide-gamut color editions, with easy installation on macOS, and a collection available for mobile devices.

iPad and iPhone Wallpapers are free, but gussying up your Mac will require a $3 purchase for 11 dynamic set (Apple Pay supported, no less).

Aqueux

James Hamblin, writing for The Atlantic:

Among people of all ages, she notes, several small studies have now found deterioration in quality of life after the switch. For children especially, imposing a gluten-free diet can be socially isolating. In the journal Pediatrics, kids with celiac disease who attended a week-long gluten-free camp, where every food was gluten free by default, “demonstrated improvement in well-being, self-perception, and emotional outlook”—which seemed to be because the environment “alleviate[d] stress and anxiety around food and social interactions.”

There’s bona fide difference between people who can’t digest gluten and those who adopt the condition to cure unspecified somatic complaints. You can entertain yourself with quackery, but you shouldn’t do that to your kids.

The Harm in Blindly ‘Going Gluten Free’

Jack Holmes, writing for Esquire:

In what possible way does watching The Fashy Benjamin Button Hour Starring Lou Dobbs prove that someone is working hard at their job as…the President of the United States? There is far too much cable-news viewing going on this country in general, but the idea that anyone is better informed after watching Fox opinion hosts blather for hours each day is absurd. When it’s the president who’s supposedly doing his job by watching, we’re all just sliding off the grid of reality. On a more basic level, though, the fact that the president’s propaganda network feels it necessary to actively make the case that he works at all is not really a great sign.

On Trump’s Last Full Day as President, Fox News Felt Compelled to Make the Case He’s Done the Job at All

Ta-Nehisi Coates, writing for The Atlantic:

One hopes that after four years of brown children in cages; of attempts to invalidate the will of Black voters in Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Detroit; of hearing Trump tell congresswomen of color to go back where they came from; of claims that Joe Biden would turn Minnesota into “a refugee camp”; of his constant invocations of “the Chinese virus,” we can now safely conclude that Trump believes in a world where white people are—or should be—on top. It is still deeply challenging for so many people to accept the reality of what has happened—that a country has been captured by the worst of its history, while millions of Americans cheered this on.

Trump’s race-baiting was odious enough–it’s that people voted for him at all that most horrifies me.

Donald Trump Is Out. Are We Ready to Talk About How He Got In?

Prescott Vanmeyer III, aka unemployedwineguy, tries Everclear:

Panic, purveyors of Mac-assed Mac apps, have dusted off their MP3-player app Audion:

Once upon a time, we made one of the earliest MP3 players for the Mac, Audion. We’ve come to appreciate that Audion captured a special moment in time, and we’ve been trying to preserve its history. Back in March, we revealed that we were working on converting Audion faces to a more modern format so they could be preserved.

Today, we’d like to give you the chance to experience these faces yourself on any Mac running 10.12 or later. We’re releasing a stripped-down version of Audion for modern macOS to view these faces.

I was a SoundJam user myself, but I remember being amazed by the skins you could apply to this app. There’s even a Newton-themed face.

• Download Audion
• Download Audion Faces

Facing Forward

Via Boing Boing, a walk of shame and summary of the charges agains the seditionists who attacked the Capitol in Washington DC on January 6th, 2021.

Sedition Tracker