Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

Improving the Usability of C Libraries in Swift

Doug Gregor: The Swift code above has a very “C” feel to it. It has global function calls with prefixed names like wgpuInstanceCreateSurface and global integer constants like WGPUStatus_Error. It pervasively uses unsafe pointers, some of which are managed with explicit reference counting, where the user provides calls to wpuXYZAddRef and wgpuXYZRelease functions. It works, […]

TikTok US Joint Venture

David McCabe and Emmett Lindner (MacRumors, The Verge): TikTok said on Thursday that its Chinese owner, ByteDance, had struck a deal with a group of non-Chinese investors to create a new U.S. TikTok, concluding a six-year legal saga that saw the app banned by Congress and ensnared in politicking between two global superpowers. Investors including […]

A Lament for Aperture

Daniel Kennett (BasicAppleGuy): An exception to that, however, is Apple’s Aperture. I’m still grumpy that Apple discontinued it back in 2015, and I’m not alone. Start spending time in the online photography sphere and you’ll start to notice a small but undeniable undercurrent of lament of its loss to this day. Find an article about […]

Bugs Apple Loves

Nick Hodulik (via Hacker News): You need to find an email. You type in the sender’s name. Nothing. You try the subject line. Nothing. You try a unique word you know was in the email. Nothing. […] You type a word. Autocorrect changes it. You delete it and type what you meant. Autocorrect changes it […]

Lolgato 1.7

Free Mac utility by Zendit Oy:

A macOS app that enhances control over Elgato lights, offering features beyond the standard Elgato Control Center software.

Features:

  • Automatically turn lights on and off based on camera activity
  • Turn lights off when locking your Mac
  • Sync light temperature with macOS Night Shift

Lolgato also lets you set global hotkeys for toggling the lights and changing their brightness.

I’ve had a pair of Elgato Key Lights down at my podcast recording desk for years now. Elgato’s shitty software drove me nuts. Nothing seemed to work so I gave up on controlling my lights from software. I set the color temperature and brightness the way I wanted it (which you have to do via software) and then after that, I just turned them off and on using the physical switches on the lights.

I forget how I discovered Lolgato, but I installed back on November 10. I connected Lolgato to my lights, and set it to turn them on whenever the Mac wakes up, and off whenever the Mac goes to sleep. It has worked perfectly for over two months. Perfect little utility.