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I just got into self hosting about a month ago with an old Lenovo Thinkpad I pulled out of the recycling pile at work and a couple of big external hard drives. Tonight I discovered that there is a Docker version of Obsidian that works on my server. In a couple of hours, I had an https connection to a test vault, accessible over the Internet via a URL through a CloudFlare Zero Trust tunnel (which is a free service that does secure routing for you). You can password protect the vault to keep out intruders. You should also use a cryptic subdomain and not obsidian.mydomain.com

All the people who want to use Obsidian at work but are prohibited from installing anything could surely find use in this. Additionally, folks with one of those big ass iPad Pros can now use the desktop version of Obsidian and the plugins that don't work on iOS. Any time you don't have access to your own device, you can jump on anything with a web connection to access your data.

This is probably old news to old school self hosters, but to this neophyte, it was a cool-as-hell discovery.

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Anyone who tells you that Macs don't get viruses is misinformed, and you shouldn't rely on that person for computing advice. Mac malware exists. Having said that, the average Mac user is in much better shape than the average Windows user because the bad actors of the world tend to concentrate on the platform with the largest market share. Additionally, those who have a modern Mac running an up-to-date OS have built-in behind the scenes protection that requires them to very little to be safe. If that's you, and you get all your software from the App Store, move along and have a nice day. But, if you download software from developer web sites, Github or if you are living the Pirate's life (you gangster, you), it's probably a good idea to take the extra step to protect yourself. 

The Objective-See Foundation is a non-profit 501©(3) corporation that has been around since 2015. It provides free, open-source security software for the Mac platform. 

BlockBlock 

 BlockBlock is a utility that loads at login and monitors your Mac for the installation of any persistent program, a category that includes most malware. When BlockBlock encounters a new persistent installation, it alerts you and asks for your input. Do you want to allow this or forbid it? "If the process and the persisted item is trusted, simply click 'Allow'. If not, click 'Block'. Both actions will create a rule to remember your selection (unless you selected the 'temporarily' checkbox). If you decide to block an item, BlockBlock will remove the item from the file system, blocking the persistence." 

KnockKnock 

 KnockKnock serves as an on-demand file scanning utility. "Press the 'Start Scan' button to instruct KnockKnock to scan known locations where persistent software or malware may be installed. By design, KnockKnock simply lists persistently installed software. Although by default signed-Apple binaries are filtered out, legitimate 3rd-party software will likely be displayed. 

"If the item is an executable binary, KnockKnock automatically queries VirusTotal with a hash of the binary to retrieve any information. While VirusTotal is being queried, this button displays '■ ■ ■'. Once the query is complete, the title of the button is automatically updated with either the detection ratio, or a '?' if the binary is not known to VirusTotal." 

"With the query complete, the button can be clicked to reveal a popup containing VirusTotal-specific information about the file. If the file is unknown, clicking the 'submit?' button will submit the file for analysis. Known files contain a link to the full analysis report and a 'rescan?' button that will rescan the file." 

Other Options

 Objective-See makes other security products including LuLu, an open-source free firewall and ReiKey, which detects keyboard trackers. 

If your primary security concerns center around places you go online vs. the software you install, I would also suggest running a periodic scan with the commercial product, Malwarebytes. It has a free version for manual scans and a paid version for more extensive real-time protection.

For more on security - see this post for information on my personal toolkit.

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After a nearly twenty year break from using peer-to-peer technology (torrents) to download movies and TV shows, I have decided that it's more ethically pure in 2025 to once again fly the skull and crossbones than it is to put money in the hands of the fascist billionaires who monopolize the entertainment industry. To be clear, I'm not advocating doing this to software from independent developers. It's the collaborating big tech companies that don't deserve your money any more.

Don't do this without a VPN. Just to show you how easy it is for your ISP or anyone who has your router's IP address to see what you download, you can use I Know What You Download

With minimal effort, using mostly free or freemium software. you can cobble together a secure, integrated system capable of importing my watchlist from Trakt into a an app that will search torrent web sites for the media that you want, download it and add it to a Plex media server.

The tools needed for creating this system are:

• Trakt - an online database of movies and television shows (Freemium)
• Nord VPN - a privacy protecting virtual private network to shield my Internet traffic from my ISP and others. Other VPNs using the OpenVPN or Wireguard standard with P2P capabilities can also be used. (paid)
• Prowlarr - an app that facilitates public and private torrent sites and adds them to other apps from the same developer to search for media (FOSS)
• Radarr - imports my movie watchlist from Trakt, searched the Internet for movies in English, that are at least 1080p and that do not exceed 10GB . It adds those movies to my BitTorrent client. It renames them using the Plex naming standard and adds them to the folder where my media library is located. (FOSS)
• Sonarr- imports my television watchlist from Trakt, searched the Internet for shows in English, that are at least 1080p and that do not exceed 10GB . It adds those movies to my BitTorrent client. It renames them using the Plex naming standard and adds them to the folder where my media library is located. (FOSS)
• Deluge - a BitTorrent download client with built in VPN integration and a highly configurable interface (FOSS)
• Plex - a media server that lets you watch movies and TV shows stored on your computers hard drive on your television through your Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Firestick or other streaming mechanisms

Jeff Bezos owns Amazon Prime Video, The Washington Post , and a hobby space exploration company among many other things. When the de facto head of Saudi Arabia's government ordered the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, Bezos protested loudly and had a PR photo taken at the man's grave. Yesterday, Bezos proudly announced a new business partnership with the same government that committed the murder.

Apple has been in active collaboration with MAGA since the CEO, Tom Cook, donated $1 million to the president's inauguration. The company was just found to have committed perjury and ignoring a court order to end abusive business practices that unfairly rob developers of revenue and inflate the price of software and services.

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Today was the day that I finally went through a comprehensive checklist to cut down my dependency on Apple web services to the fullest extent possible. I'm still a fan of their software and hardware, but despite their PR campaign to pose as a privacy first company, they cooperate with law enforcement a higher percentage of the time than Facebook does. Let that sink in. In a time when our right to due process in America is under question, I'm not letting any US big tech companies have any more access to my life than is absolutely needed. 

All of you who are big fans of using Apple default apps with their default settings, take note. 

The "GAFAM" (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft) are the 5 dominant Internet companies that own many popular services, often operating under a different name, e.g., WhatsApp and Instagram for Facebook. Collectively, about 40% of the average computer and smartphone traffic goes to just these five companies. All of them have been fined by governments around the world for illegal invasion of privacy and other infractions. 

Apple makes headlines occasionally for refusing to cooperate with government demands for access to customer data. According to their own transparency reports, though, the company gives the government what it wants in 90% of cases. 

“iCloud content, as it exists in the customer’s account” can be handed over to law enforcement in response to a search warrant, Apple’s law enforcement guidelines read. That includes everything from detailed logs of the time, date and recipient of emails sent in the previous 25 days, to “stored photos, documents, contacts, calendars, bookmarks, Safari browsing history, maps search history, messages and iOS device backups.” The device backup on its own may include “photos and videos in the camera roll, device settings, app data, iMessage, business chat, SMS, and MMS [multimedia messaging service] messages and voicemail”, according to Apple.

I only recently arrived at the conclusion that I no longer wanted to store things like my calendars, contacts, and reminders with Apple. For one thing, it's always a bad idea to have too much data tied into a single account. People lose access to the iCloud and Google accounts all the time. Spend some time on Reddit or do a quick Internet search for examples. Many people don't fully understand that you do not have to store your contacts, calendars, and reminders in iCloud to be able to use those apps on your Mac and Phone. I've blocked all three services at the DNS level and am happily accessing my data from third-party providers that aren't in GAFAM.
 

Reducing Your Apple Connections

You can take the following steps to cut down on the traffic between your computer and Apple.

• Go through your security and privacy settings with a fine tooth comb and remove access from everything you are not using regularly.
   
  • Location services
  • Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Photos, etc
  • Analytics & Improvements: (turn them all off
  • Screen recording camera and microphone access
  • Full disk access

• Go through everything with iCloud access
   
  • I had over with 100 apps with access to iCloud Drive. Not anymore.
  • Consider an alternative to iCloud photos
  • Turn off Passwords/Keychain syncing if you use 1Password or another password manager

• Turn off automatic services
   
  • You don't need your computer to ask Apple every day if updates are available. Set that to manual.
  • You don't need the app store to install all those iPhone apps on your Mac. Turn off automatic updates.
  • Go through the apps that are listed beneath your login items and turn off access to anything you don't use regularly or that you don't recognize. Use Lingon or StartupManager to do an even more thorough job.

•  

Since January 20, 2025, I've taken the following steps to leave GOFAM:

• Changed email providers from Gmail to a company located outside the US. I use my own domain for email and have unlimited email addresses. My primary address doesn't get handed out repeatedly to people I would rather not have it.
• Moved the majority of my cloud storage to European providers and removed everything from Google Drive and Google Photos
• Stoped using Google search entirely in favor of Kagi
• Canceled Amazon Prime and stopped backing up photos to Amazon servers
• Uninstalled all Microsoft products and removed all files from OneDrive
• Canceled all Meta accounts and blocked Facebook at the DNS level

Other Privacy Related Practices

• I use NextDNS which allows granular control over Internet traffic. With the right settings, you can stop ads and trackers from passing through your router, speeding up your connection and increasing your privacy. It also provides encrypted DNS to block third parties from having a record of your Internet habits.
• I rotate between five browsers to cut down on fingerprinting. On browsers that support it, I use uBlock Origin, still the Mack Daddy of ad and tracker blockers.
• I use a VPN almost all the time, especially away from home
• I use a third-party firewall to block certain outgoing traffic, since the Mac firewall is only for inbound traffic. You should still turn it on, though.

Related Posts

• A Privacy and Security Toolkit AppAddict
• Privacy Badger Extension from the Electronic Freedom Foundation AppAddict
• Pareto Security - Quick and Easy AppAddict
• Opting for Mac Apps That Are Immune to Changes in US Privacy Laws | AppAddict
• Librewolf for Security and Privacy | AppAddict

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I've recently been using Safari much more regularly than I have in years. I found quite a few helpful extensions that improve the experience. One that I didn't find on my own, but that I am grateful to have discovered through a tip from a reader, is Redirect Web for Safari, which allows you to define how your computer handles links from certain sources. You can use predefined rules or build your own.

Predefined Rules

• Make Reddit links open in Old Reddit
• Open Twitter links in Xcancel to avoid adding any traffic to the official site
• Open Wikipedia links in Wikiwand for a more pleasant reading experience
• Open Google Map links in Apple Maps if you're trying to de-Google as much as possible
• Since Safari doesn't offer Kagi as a default search engines, you can use this extension to redirect all your searches to Kagi, skipping a trip to Google completely. There are other ways to do this, so if you have something that is already working, stick with it.
• You can also redirect any searched from Google to Brave Search or Startpage
• There are other rules to improve the user experience for Figma, Notion, Facebook, Google Search and multiple tweaks for YouTube

I have long supported ethical journalism sources financially. For years, the New York Times was the most expensive of my subscriptions, including TV, software. I was also a Washington Post subscriber for more than a decade. Last year, after the owners of the publications introduced changes to their editorial policies, I elected to quit supporting them financially. On the occasion that I want to read a story from either of them, I created simple rules that take their URLs and redirects them to the Internet Archive. The same rule works for other paywalled sites owned by billionaires, such as The Wall Street Journal and Bloomburg. You can do the same thing manually and with various other extensions, but this method has less friction than any that I've found. For that reason, it is the one I recommend using.

The extension costs $3.99 for a lifetime use or $1.99 for one year with a seven-day free trial. It has no ads and no tracking. It just makes the Internet better.

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I make extensive use of shortcuts all day long on my Mac.  I use them to import data into Obsidian, generate alt-text for images I post on my blog or social media, query Open.AI, dismiss notifications, quit all apps, launch multiple apps at once, perform backups and so much more. In the past, I've made extensive use of the option to add shortcuts to a native menu running from the Mac menu bar, but over time the list grew long and more difficult to mage. 

Just in the nick of time, one of the friendliest and most helpful developers on the planet, Germany's own Carlo Zottman, released a small app called BarCuts. It also runs from the menu bar, but only shows shortcuts that work in the currently active app, plus ones that you decided you always want to have available. 

This means that when I am in Obsidian, I see shortcuts to import a weather report and copy the day's appointments into my daily note. When I use any other app, I don't see those shortcuts. When I am in Safari, I see the shortcut I use to open paywalled site at the Internet Archive. 

I always see the shortcuts for emptying my trash and dismissing all the notifications from the Notification Center. All you have to do to configure your options is to add a single Shortcuts action at the end of your existing shortcuts. 

Because Carlo is good at what he does, "the menu can also be opened by a global keyboard shortcut, you can put your workflows in sub menus, and there's a separate section for all those important always-available workflows. 

Naturally, BarCuts comes with scripting support, and you can also hook it up to Alfred or plug it into Raycast." 

BarCuts has a two-week fully functional free trial. Licenses are €12 personal/€24 business and include updates for one year. You retain ownership and use of the app as long as it is compatible with macOS. There is no subscription. 

For more shortcuts add-ons, see this review. Enhance Apple Shortcuts with These Apps | AppAddict

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Before 2025, my self-hosting experience had been limited to running the media server software, Plex, on a 2009 iMac. When I retired that machine, I didn't resurrect Plex on my new Mac, although I did hang on to all the media files. I retired myself this year and resolved to start self-hosting some services as a learning experience. My home network consists of three Mac laptops, a Lenovo ThinkPad, that 2009 iMac I mentioned, plus five iOS devices and an Amazon Kindle Fire (Android). 

I elected to use the ThinkPad as a server, although the platform I chose, Unraid, will also run on a Mac. Many of the services it hosts are fully accessible on Mac and iOS devices. I picked Unraid because I have contacts who use it. It is not FOSS. A license that allows you to connect six hard drives in a RAID array is $49. 

Unraid Benefits

• 1 year of free OS updates 
• All Unraid OS features 
• Perpetual Starter license 
• Access to Community Apps 
• VM and Docker Management 
• Integrated Tailscale + VPN Support 
• Network-Attached Storage Dual Parity Protected Array, ZFS, BTRFS, XFS Pools 

In the two weeks I've been using it, I have installed a media server (Plex), a photo management server (Digikam), file sharing (Syncthing), and the Mac compatible VPN, Tailscale that allows geographically distant devices to interact as if they were on a LAN. 

Other services I plan to investigate are: 

• Nextcloud - a personal alternative to Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive etc.
• Self-hosted Calibre ebook server
• Paperlessngx - a document management system

In seeking advice from experienced self-hosting folks, I received this detailed answer from a friend on Mastodon, @phillip@omg.lol
 

Unraid

"Unraid is probably the easiest turnkey solution if you have the cash to throw at it. Easy App Store, Docker, VMs, NAS, etc. It stays easy while leaving you tons of headroom to grow. There’s also a huge community with tons of resources and docs behind it. The main con here imo is money. Some have complained about performance issues, but afaik that’s only in larger NAS setups."
 

yunohost

yunohost.org is pretty slick and even has its own App Store to make downloading new apps dead simple. However, it doesn’t use Docker containers (harder to switch to another platform later like Unraid) and seems to prefer opening ports publicly. That not may be a con if you were already planning on doing that anyways.
 

Yacht

For free + docker, I’d recommend a dashboard app like Yacht (or Dockge for even simpler). You’ll need to manually configure your apps, but it’s generally pretty straightforward and a “set it and forget it” kind of thing.

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iDrive Cloud Backup

From Assaf at Labnotes - IDrive Cloud Backup I started looking into Backblaze alternatives, and so far iDrive is a strong contender. I chose the mini plan, 500GB of backup for $9.95 a year (it’s somewhere in the UI, look it up). It does have continuous backup, but so far I’m happy just running on a schedule. Can’t figure out how to get it to ignore repeat directories like every node_modules, or limit by file type/size (eg don’t backup large videos). And the UI is not pleasant, but neither is Backblaze (their restore is overly complicated), so just trading one deficiency for another. Oh, but they do give you 100GB of space to sync files between your devices.  

Command Keeper

Command Keeper by Ari Feldman - Use Command Keeper (Free) to easily organize and access your command line snippets, shell scripts, and even SQL queries. It's ideal for app developers, web developers, or just anyone who needs to spend time working with command line interfaces. 

• Build a Big Collection: Add or edit up to 999 command snippets (each can be up to 4K in size)
• Save Time: Automatically insert the selected command or query directly into your Terminal. Command Keeper works with your choice of the macOS Terminal or iTerm, Warp, and Ghostty (if installed)
• Always Ready: Runs in the background, so its always available and you can even pin your favorite snippets to always appear first
• Powerful Filtering and Search: Filter your snippets by category and search your snippets by command, description, and even notes contents
• Keyboard Friendly: Use keyboard shortcuts to create snippets and browse through snippets efficiently
• Preserve Your Data: Export your snippets to a CSV or JSON file and backup your snippet database
• Fast and Lightweight: Its simple and minimalist design ensures it’s light on resources
• Wide Compatibility: Works on macOS Ventura, Sonoma, and Sequoia; optimized for Intel and Apple Silicon CPUs

Readeck

Readeck - (Free)a web app that runs as PWA on a Mac with self hosting available this year. It's an open source read it later application

Curate Your World
 

• Archive, mark as favorite, add labels to your content so you can find it later.
• Search anything in your growing content and create dynamic collections. Highlight What Matters
• Highlight the key parts of any text content and come back to it later.
• Browse and find the highlights from all your content. Save Video Transcripts
• Save a video link and Readeck will retrieve the transcript when available.
• Read, export, highlight and search the save transcript as if it were an article. Export to E-Books
• Take an article with you on the ride home or a full collection for a weekend.
• Readeck lets you export articles and collections as a single ebook. It provides a standard catalog on supported e-readers. Adjust to Your Needs
• Read your way; set a different font, text size and line height.
• Readeck lets you do all that and remembers your preferred settings for your next read. Browser Extension
• Save while browsing with the browser extension.
• This includes the content on websites you can access but Readeck can't.

Czkawka

Czkawka - (Free) - An open source app with multiple tools to cut down on accumulated cruft on your Mac.

Multiple tools to use:
 

• Duplicates - Finds duplicates based on file name, size or hash
• Empty Folders - Finds empty folders with the help of an advanced algorithm
• Big Files - Finds the provided number of the biggest files in given location
• Empty Files - Looks for empty files across the drive
• Temporary Files - Finds temporary files
• Similar Images - Finds images which are not exactly the same (different resolution, watermarks)
• Similar Videos - Looks for visually similar videos
• Same Music - Searches for similar music by tags or by reading content and comparing it
• Invalid Symbolic Links - Shows symbolic links which point to non-existent files/directories
• Broken Files - Finds files that are invalid or corrupted
• Bad Extensions - Lists files whose content not match with their extension

Legcord

Legcord - is here to help you hate Discord less. It's a lightweight, free and open-source Discord client.

Highlights

• Uses a new lightweight electron framework
• Built-in game detection tools
• Very hackable for you developer types
• Made for privacy - Legcord automatically blocks all of Discord's trackers; even without any client mods, you can feel safe and secure! They also don't collect any data from you.
• Designed for Mac - Legcord is optimized for macOS, with a native screen sharing and a more Mac-like experience. It's optimized for both Apple Silicon and Intel macs! No more spinning fan when opening Discord.

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I don't think there is any question on how useful the free Mac package manager, Homebrew, can be. You can download and install an app with just one simple terminal command, something like:

brew install bbedit

After it's installed, there is no ZIP archive or DMG file to clean up or manage. To update you apps installed with Homebrew, you don't need a special app or a subscription to anything. You just open a terminal windows and run:

brew upgrade

Your apps will be upgraded in place with nothing for you to clean up. To back up your configuration, you just run

brew bundle dump

and a custom brewfile will be created at the root of your home directory. If you get a new Mac od do a fresh install on your current machine, you can use that brewfile to download all your apps and packages with one command.

If you are late to the party and already have an /Applications folder full of your favorite apps, don't worry, you can use a simple shell script to compare what you have installed with what is available for the Homebrew catalog. It won't take long to replace your manually installed apps with their Homebrew counterparts.

How To Check Your Applications Folder

Here is the script. It isn't 100% foolproof, so read the explanation and don't empty your trash until you've verified that the app you got from Homebrew is the same as the app you replaced.

\# List all applications in /Applications and ~/Applications
find /Applications -maxdepth 1 -type d -name "*.app" -print0 | while IFS= read -r -d $'\0' app_path; do
  app_name=$(basename "$app_path" .app)
  echo "Checking: $app_name"

  \# Sanitize the app name for Homebrew search (replace spaces with hyphens, etc.)
  search_term=$(echo "$app_name" | sed -e 's/ /-/g' -e 's/\./-/g' -e 's/@.*//') \# Basic sanitization, might need more

  \# Search Homebrew formulae
  brew search "$search_term" | grep -i "^$search_term$" && echo "  Found in Homebrew formulae"

  \# Search Homebrew casks
  brew search --cask "$search_term" | grep -i "^$search_term$" && echo "  Found in Homebrew casks"
done

Explanation:

• The script finds all .app directories in /Applications and ~/Applications.
• It extracts the application name.
• It performs basic sanitization of the name to make it more suitable for a Homebrew search.
• It uses brew search and brew search --cask to look for matches in both Homebrew formulae (command-line tools and libraries) and casks (GUI applications).
• The grep -i "^$search_term$" part tries to find exact matches (case-insensitive).

How to use:

1. Save the script to a file (e.g., check_brew_availability.sh).
2. Make it executable: chmod +x check_brew_availability.sh.
3. Run it from your terminal: ./check_brew_availability.sh.

Limitations of this script:

• Naming variations: Homebrew package names might be significantly different from the application bundle names.
• False positives/negatives: The simple name sanitization might lead to incorrect matches or miss potential ones.
• Manual review needed: You'll likely need to manually inspect the output to confirm if the Homebrew package is indeed the same application you have installed.

In case you are wondering, this script and the instructions were written with the help of an LLM coding GPT. I've tested it on several different Intel and Apple Silicon Macs with solid results.

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Luckily, I don't have a diagnosis of ADHD or dyslexia, although anyone who spends much time online quickly becomes aware that those challenges are common among people of all walks of life, including tech. I'm old, so I lived a good thirty years before widespread Internet access arrived in the 90s. In the olden times, I was a voracious reader of books. Gradually through the years, my ability to concentrate eroded bit by bit until, like most people these days, I rarely even read all the way to the end of news articles unless I really force myself. 

The developer from Applorium LTD contacted me and asked me to take a look at Glide, an app made especially for people with ADHD and dyslexia. The app has five different tools to isolate text on a page. You can choose one of six different colors to partially color the part of the screen that you are not reading. You control the opacity, and you decide how much of the page you want to highlight. You can narrow it down to just a thin line that moves down the page as you read of you can hide everything but what you are reading. It's harder to describe than it is to use. I got the hang of it in less than a minute. 

Everything can be controlled from a menu bar icon or from user-defined hotkeys. There is a well-written guide to get you started, should you need it. It's not long or difficult to understand. 

I've got to say, that using the app to read a detailed article on some complicated Linux related material really helped me concentrate in a way that I didn't expect. It has practically no impact on my computers' performance, so I will have no problem toggling it on whenever I have the need to make the extra effort to retain important info. 

The app is currently $5.99 in the App Store.It appears that the developer is responsive to user input, as he has made numerous updates since first releasing the app. Almost every element in the interface, from color, to opacity to line height can be adjusted. 

Even if you don't feel that you require this app, please suggest it to anyone in your circle with concentration or perception challenges.

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No matter how consistent you are, your computer is more consistent. One of my hobbies requires me to do frequent file exports, and I've just never come up with a consistent naming scheme to provide me the information I want at a glance. I always have to get info or switch Finder to show details to differentiate between different versions of the files I use. NameQuick, an Ai-driven file naming utility by indy developer Josef Moucachen, is a full-featured app with numerous automation options. 

There isn't a free trial, but there is a three-day period to get a refund, so you can still safely see if the app works for you. You have to enter a registration key to use the app. There are currently two licensing options, $19 for one Mac and $29 for three Macs, and priority tech support. Those are one-time payments and not subscriptions.Both of these options require you to use your API keys from Open AI or Gemini, or you can use Ollama, a local LLM. If you don't have an API key, the link to get one is in the app. 

NameQuick requires accessibility access and asks that you enable notifications. You have the option to turn on full-disk access if you would rather not bother approving various folders one at the time. 

When setting up the app, you can set up watched folders and any new files that are placed in them will be renamed based on their content and any rules you set up. You can specify that only files that begin a certain way get renamed, or that only files with a certain extension. You can have AI extract patterns from your files to include in the name, such as the name of a client or project, the location of a photo shoot or the date. 

You can invoke NameQuick by a user definable hot key or by selecting files in the finder and using the menu bar icon. 

I tested the app on some random photos I recently used in a blog post. I had it rename some PNG files of screenshotted text quotes, and I threw some complicated CSV files at it. I also had it parse out files names from a folder of PDF invoices. Out of 25 files, I only had to manually rename one that, I felt, wasn't adequate. I used both OpenAI and Gemini in my testing. 

I would like to see the developer add integration into the services' menu, since I use that often in my workflows. I am also an automation junkie, so having shortcut support would also be nice. I would like to be able to click on a file or group of files and have "Rename with NameQuick" as an option. The other feature request I have is the ability to include file attributes as variables in the name, such as the file creation date or camera info from EXIF data. 

"NameQuick supports a comprehensive range of file types including • Images: PNG, JPG, JPEG, HEIC, WEBP • Documents: PDF, TXT, MD • Spreadsheets: CSV • Video: MP4, MOV, AVI, MPG, MPEG, WMV, 3GP, WEBM, FLV • Audio: MP3, WAV, AAC, FLAC, M4A, OGG, OPUS"

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Backblaze offers two products to Mac users. The first and oldest is an always on backup service that backs up your entire hard drive to the cloud. In the event of a hard drive crash, theft or disaster, they will mail you a USB drive with the entire contents of your drive so that you can restore to a new device. For incremental restorations, you can recover files online after making a request for what you want. Their other product is online storage similar to Amazon's AWS or Microsoft Azure.

The personal backup plan is $9 a month or $99 a year. I've used the service in the past and was impressed by how easy it was to use. I never had an issue
.

There seem to be numerous problems with the business end of the company that do not bode well for its future, however. Morpheus Research, a business analyst, recently released a pretty scathing report on Backblaze.

Backblaze, in our view, is the archetype of a failed growth business and its latest "restructuring" will do little to resurrect the company's woeful capital market performance or transform its undifferentiated storage offering. Its capital markets story has been kept alive by allegedly inflated cash flow forecasts, hidden internal investigations and accounting tricks, which appear to fuel exit liquidity for insiders.

What that means is the company has been using voodoo accounting tricks to hide its massive losses, and the stock and the company are headed for a big crash that could leave any Mac user who depends on Backblaze in a bad place. I would suggest moving to another service as quickly as possible. Wasabi has  plans starting at $6.99 per TB per month that allow you to use your own backup software, like Arq to back up to their cloud servers.

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As a non-developer, I appreciate how difficult writing good software must be. There are a few tasks that it seems are nearly impossible to prefect. Finding duplicate images is one of them. Apps that use machine logic to identify images with different file names, different creation dates, file sizes and even image dimensions seem to have an almost impossible task. One of my ongoing projects is curating a lifetime of photos that include scanned paper photos, images from various digital cameras and every smartphone my wife and I have ever owned. The images have been in iCloud, in Google Photos, Amazon photos and one various Macs and backup drives through the years. 

I am fine with using multiple tools. I realize after working on this for a while that no single application is going to find all the duplicates. 

I found a great many dupes using Gemini by Macpaw. 

I also used the freeware duplicate finder, ZeroDuplicates. 

I'm now scanning the same directories with another free app and still finding files to remove. The app I am using is a free and open-source offering available on GitHub for macOS, Windows and Linux. It's called dupeGuru and it is pretty powerful in its own right. It has three modes: regular files, music, and images. "dupeGuru is customizable. You can tweak its matching engine to find exactly the kind of duplicates you want to find. The Preference page of the help file lists all the scanning engine settings you can change.

dupeGuru is safe. Its engine has been especially designed with safety in mind. Its reference directory system as well as its grouping system prevent you from deleting files you didn’t mean to delete. 

Do whatever you want with your duplicates. Not only can you delete duplicates files dupeGuru finds, but you can also move or copy them elsewhere. There are also multiple ways to filter and sort your results to easily weed out false duplicates (for low threshold scans)."

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When I travel, my phone ceases to be an entertainment and diversion device and turns into a real tool. Whether I'm staying in town or on an outdoor adventure, I rely on my phone for directions and information about things to do and places to go. Here are a few of the apps I find helpful.

History Pointer

History Pointer uses your current location to show you locations on the National Historic Register. I was amazed to see how many places in my own hometown were listed. You get maps, Wikipedia excerpts and an augmented reality tour. ($4.99)

Gas Buddy

Last weekend, my gas light came on while I was way out in the country carrying my granddaughter to work at the horse farm that employs her. Luckily, I have Gas Buddy installed. I use it without signing in and only letting it use my location when I'm actively searching for gas.

Organic Maps: Offline Maps

There are some excellent offline map apps that are very expensive. Then there is Organic Maps, an excellent offline map that's free. You just need to plan ahead and download the maps for the area where you plan to travel. It does directions for walkers, cyclists and drivers. It uses Open Street Maps data and was just updated this month.

Rego

Rego bookmarks geographic locations. Whenever we travel, it's easy to find places where we've enjoyed eating in the past. The same with coffee shops and hotels and rental properties. Adding a new location can be done onsite, from an address or pulled from the metadata from a photograph. Bookmarks contain GPS coordinates, street address where applicable, notes, date added and a stock photo or one or more of your own. You can also use custom pin colors and designate any location as a favorite. ($9.99 yr. / $24.99 lifetime)

iExit

If you do any traveling on the Interstate highway system, iExit, helps you find gas, food and bathroom access. I use it on every trip. The information is plentiful and up to date. (IAP $1.99 to remove ads)

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People who work with text a lot are familiar with the Mac shortcut to paste the clipboard as plain text -  Command + Shift + Option + V. This shortcut works in many native Mac applications like Pages, Mail, and Safari. When you copy content from a source and use this shortcut to paste, it automatically strips away any formatting. While the shortcut is highly versatile, it only works sometimes. Applications like Microsoft Word or third-party software may not support it natively. You can learn application-specific methods of pasting as plain text. Word has a way to do it. So does Google Docs. It is easier, however, to find and use an application that will just take care of this for you.

A good choice is an app that has been round for over a decade, Get Plain Text, available for free (with an IAP to tip the developer if you'd like to.) "It instantly removes everything unneeded: colors, typeface size, style (for example, boldface/italics), hyperlinks, images, etc. In other words, everything that isn’t plain text! Now you can put plain text in your letters and documents using the copy/paste functions, without having to clean it up manually. Get Plain Text will convert any bit of text into plain text, no matter where you copied it from (a website, PDF document or elsewhere). You can activate the feature manually, or check “Automatically remove formatting” to make the app take care of it every time you copy something."

There are other apps that offer similar functionality if you are sketched out by the length of time since this app has been updated (9 years, LOL). The handling of text formatting is long-established, programmatically, so IMHO, there's nothing to fear.

• TextSoap - $50, multifunctional, also available through Setapp
• PurePaste (free) from Sindre Sorhus - always a good choice. This app can exclude certain apps, preserve links, normalize (quotes, newlines, lists, etc.) and also remove tracking parameters from URLs.
• Some clipboard managers offer this feature as an option in their settings, including PasteBot($12) and ClipMenu (free).

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There are various ways to launch apps on a Mac. The most obvious and the one used most by new Mac users is clicking icons in the dock. Apple also has Launchpad another built-in launcher. More advanced users sometimes move on to keyboard-driven methods, starting with Spotlight and advanced launchers like Raycast or Alfred, although some don't want the added system overhead or extra features. Some like the convenience of a menubar launcher like Xmenu or Folder Peek. Lately, there has also been a growing popularity among so-called pie menu launchers like Pieoneer.

Another choice now available from developer Baser Kandehir, is a well-thought-out pop-up palette of applications through which you can sort in various ways. The app is called Quick App Launcher - Pro. You summon the application window with a user-defined keyboard shortcut or by clicking its icon in the menu bar. You can choose one of three window sizes to display your installed list of applications, which, without filtering, are displayed in alphabetical order. As you begin to type, the apps filter based on what you've entered. If it works for you, you can scroll through the list and click on what you are trying to launch. There are several methods of launching from the menu, including entering the numbers 1-9 to correspond with the grid pattern, typing a partial match, and clicking one of the choices or typing until nothing else matches, at which time the app will launch.

If you only want to use Quick App Launcher - Pro on a subset of your apps, that's no problem. In the settings, you can toggle off anything you don't want to launch with the app. Everything is turned on by default. You can also choose whether it launches Safari Web Apps or not. Other options in the settings include choices for the background of the application window, toot tip visibility, and whether numbers appear beside the apps while you search. Currently, the numbers are a little difficult to see, so hopefully that feature will be improved. The tool tip and window background features still need some refinement, as the changes I toggled were not apparent. The app does have dark mode compatibility.

The developer told me he is working on additional features and refinements. I would like to see the following:

• The ability to open folders in the finder
• The ability to open files
• The ability to open URLs
• Being able to specify what folders to search for applications, since some people offload big apps to external drives or keep them in non-standard locations.

Quick App Launcher - Pro is $5.00 
as a one-time payment. It collects no data and can be used in Family Sharing.

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This is the fourth collection of free apps reviewed on AppAddict. Links to the first three collections are posted below. I've downloaded and installed each of these on my Mac. I've added many of these apps to my workflows for getting stuff done.

Previous Collections

• A Curated Collection of Free Apps
• Another Curated Collection of Free Software
• AppAddict Free App List Number 3

Free App List Number 4

• Permissions Reset 2 - Free Troubleshooting Tool 
• Zotero as a Free PDF Library Manager 
• UTM for Virtualization 
• rclone - An Easy to Use and Powerful CLI 
• Syncthing - Free and Open-Source Cross Platform File Sharing 
• Convert CSV Files to Markdown 
• Hop to Desk, a Free and Open-Source Encrypted Remote Access Solution 
• One For the Techies - SwiftDefaultApps 
• Digikam is Replacing Apple Photos, Google Photos and Amazon Photos For Me 
• Change the Location of Notifications With PingPlace 
• SmartBackup - Free, Fast and Foolproof 
• Pareto Security - Quick and Easy 
• Local Send - Easy to Set Up and Easy to Use 
• Using Joplin as a Reference Tool 
• Fmail2 for Fastmail 
• Stickier - Free Notes App with Power User Features 
• Cog - Free and Open-Source Local Only Music Player 
• Privileges - Operate Your Mac Safely 
• Use KIWIX to Access Wikipedia and Other Resources Offline 
• Librewolf for Security and Privacy 
• Metadata Lab - Exif Editor 
• Battery Monitor Health, Info 
• Sandkorn - Comprehensive Information on Your Apps 
• Privacy Badger Extension from the Electronic Freedom Foundation 
• Libation - Audiobook Downloader and Converter 
• Captin Solves a Major Mac Annoyance

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Opener is so integrated into the way I use my phone that I forget it's an app and not built into iOS. When you're browsing the web in your iOS browser and you come across a link you want to open, usually you have to copy and paste the address to get it into the app you want. Using Opener, you can go straight to the app from your browser or any app that allows sharing a URL. If, like me, you use an iOS browser other than Safari, Opener lets you send links to the browser of your choice. In fact it supports over 40 browsers! It's fully integrated into the share sheet and I have it at the top of mine. Out of the box it supports 240+ apps to include YouTube, Twitter, Ivory, Amazon, Spotify, Reddit and more. You can see a complete list on the developer's web site. It's $2 and well worth it in the App Store.

In the example above, I have an App Store Link on the clipboard. Opener presents all of these options for opening it.

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For the avid app collector there are a few tools available to help catalog and curate the assortment of programs that accumulate over time. You can use Apple's built in system report to get comprehensive information but it's rather dense and not illustrated. You can use an app like Apparency, but then you are limited to a single app at the time. MyApplications, available in the app store for 99 cents, serves as both a database and a launcher for your computer.

The MyApplications general interface includes a count of the number of apps you have installed, 414 in my case. It breaks the apps down into publishers, for example I have 92 apps from Apple itself and six from the wonderful developer Sindre Sorhus. Apparently, many apps don't provide publisher information because I have a lot that are not listed. It also breaks the apps into categories such as utilities, productivity, developer tools, graphics and design etc. The categories, while helpful, are a little too broad for my taste, for example I have 124 labeled as utilities and it seems that could have been further narrowed into categories like disk utilities, archive utilities, etc.

The app interface lets you choose sorting by name or last launched. It tells you how many apps you currently have running and how may you have launched in the past day. If you click on individual apps, you have the option to launch them or to get more information regarding size on disk, location, language localizations, download date and date of last update. A complete permissions report is included. The package contents are listed as is a complete description, apparently from the App store or developer's web site if provided. There are even screen shots provided. 

(This is a repost. I’m out camping with my grandkids and didn’t have a chance to test anything today.)

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I recently noticed an app on Setapp that I'd never tried, Pareto Security, so I investigated it. It's a basic application that checks the settings on your Mac and quickly shows you where you aren't following the best recommended practices from security experts. It has links to tutorials for every setting along with an explanation of why that setting is recommended. Although it is geared towards less technically advanced users, anyone can benefit from a quick scan.

Experienced Mac users are going to familiar with these best practices and will probably have legitimate reasons for any deviation from the suggested settings. Still, it convinced me to change my settings in a few areas:

• I use a third-party firewall app, but I have now also turned on Apple's firewall.
• I also turned on firewall stealth mode
• I turned off native file sharing because I use other ways of sharing files on my network
• I finally decided, for the first time ever, to try operating my Mac as a standard, rather than an admin user. I use an app called Privileges to convert to an admin account for short periods when I need to; otherwise I just enter the username and password of an inactive admin account, which every person should definitely set up.
• I'd delayed turning on File Vault, and this convinced me to finally flip the switch. I have no excuse for waiting so long.

Pareto Security checks the settings in the following areas

• Access security - makes sure all important areas of your Mac are password protected and that your SSH setting are optimized for security
• Application Updates: - Checks your browsers, security apps (e.g., firewall apps like Lulu), alternative terminal and secure messaging apps (e.g., Signal)
• Firewall and Sharing - Checks Airdrop, Airplay, Firewall and all sharing settings
• macOS Updates - It gigs you if you don't have automatic updates turned on, so take these suggestions with a grain of salt.
• System Integrity - Checks your boot settings, File Vault, Gatekeeper, Terminal secure entry, Time Machine settings, and Wi-Fi connection

If you don't have Setapp, you can download a free trial of the app from Pareto and run the checks. I don't see any reason why a personal user would want to run this app continuously but in a managed setting, it is one good way to make sure your users are following the best security settings if you are not managing them through JAM or something similar.

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