Writing — 22 posts

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Self-written, for good or for worse

all 22 Programming 47 Technology-Review 33 Tutorial 22 Productivity 16 Technology 14 MacOS 12 Python 11 Automation 10 LLM 9 Ai 8

Get Rid of Bartender and Other Menu Bar Apps

Since having a notch on my MacBook, I cannot fit all the icons in my menu bar. I’ve tried heaps of apps to make it …

mactechnologytutorial
Apr 2026
1 min

Using ty with the helix editor

The folks at Astral have released ty, which they define as: An extremely fast Python type checker and language server, …

helixpythontytutorial
Jan 2026
2 min

Flash the Firmware of the Preonic from Keyboardio

I recently bought the Preonic keyboard, as my two Model 01 were not really portable. The Preonic is a superb keyboard …

chrysaliscustomizationfirmwarekeyboardiopreonicprogramming
Aug 2025
2 min

Customizing the Binepad BNK9 firmware

Last year, I blogged about the Binepad BNK8, a macropad by Binepad. This week, I received the larger brother, the …

binepad bnk9firmware customizationmacropadprogrammingqmktutorial
Feb 2025
2 min

Markdown List Continuation in Helix

One of the gripes I have with Helix is not having automatic list continuation when writing Markdown. Until last week, …

helixmarkdownproductivityprogrammingtechnology reviewtoml
Feb 2025
1 min

Linking Directly to Web Page Content with Typinator

Recently, the major browsers introduced the capability to go to a webpage highlighting and scrolling to a particular …

automationbrowser featuresjavascriptmacostutorialtypinator
Nov 2024
2 min

Trust local caddy certificates on macOS

Up to today, I’ve been bothered by having local https websites served by Caddy, whose certificates were not …

caddycertificatesdockermacosprogrammingtechnology
Jun 2024
1 min

Use the Grammarly language server with helix

Lately, I’ve been playing around with helix, a relatively new modal editor. One of the things I was missing was an …

configurationgrammarlyhelixlanguage servermarkdownprogramming
Nov 2023
1 min

Change macOS computer name

I recently upgraded to a new M1 Pro Macbook Pro and the computer is managed by the company. It means that — for one …

computer namem1 promacosterminaltutorial
Aug 2022
1 min

Disable Bluetooth on Mac before Sleep

The recent Monterey update (12.2), introduced a bug that drains the battery of my laptop while sleeping. A fix is to …

bluetoothhomebrewlaunchbarmacosmontereytech tips
Feb 2022
2 min

Install tkinter on macOS

If you work with Python on macOS and are trying to let your kids play with things like turtle you will encounter errors …

brewmacospyenvpythontkinterturtle
May 2020
1 min

Git patch workflow

This is totally a note for my future self. Sometimes when working with git I find myself having to create a patch, …

gitpatchprogrammingtechnologytutorialversion control
Jun 2018
1 min

Use tab to cycle through Visual Studio Code completion

Sometimes, instead of using NeoVim, I do like to use Visual Studio Code (with Vim keybindings). Visual Studio Code is a …

keybindingsneovimproductivityprogrammingpythontutorial
Oct 2016
1 min

A functional count in Python

Today I was sifting through the documentation for itertools.count Return a count object whose .next() method returns …

functional programmingitertoolsprogrammingpythontutorial
Jul 2015
1 min

The basis of all Haskell love-hate relationships

Depends on what you think about this snippet of code:1 let square y = y * y; limit = 100 in [(x, y, z) | y <- …

code snippethaskellmathematicsprogrammingtutorial
Apr 2014
1 min

Export to BibTeX from Papers (2)

If you always wanted to automate the tedious process of exporting your collection of papers in Papers to BibTeX …

applescriptautomationbibtexpapers appprogrammingtechnology
May 2012
1 min

Encrypted backups with Time Machine

If you wish to keep an offsite Time Machine backup in a place which you don’t consider safe (for me it’s my …

encrypted backupsproductivityprogrammingtechnology reviewtime machinetutorial
Mar 2011
1 min

Illustrator and psfrag

If you have problems with Illustrator and PSfrag, that’s probably because you can’t have psfrag replace tags …

cs5epsillustratorprogrammingpsfragtechnology
Nov 2010
1 min

Convert a searchable pdf in djvu

Well, why would I wanto to do that? Because in general djvu’s take up less space. Anyway, if you have a Mac with …

bashdjvumacportspdf conversionprogrammingtutorial
Oct 2010
1 min

Add Copy as PDF Shortcut in Mathematica

To add a shortcut for the Menu Item Copy as PDF you have to do the following (with a Mac) go to …

macmathematicapdfprogrammingshortcuttutorial
Aug 2009
1 min

Web of Science, Papers and Leiden University

To use Leiden ezproxy with Leiden university you have to do the following. Open with Textedit.app the file …

ezproxyleiden universitypapers appprogrammingtechnologytutorial
Jul 2009
1 min

Adding dynamic syntax highlighting based on the system theme

One of the issues I still had with this blog was that the syntax highlighting for code blocks was static and generated …

programmingsyntax highlightingsystem themetutorialweb development
Jan 0001
1 min